Sun Princess - Original

[lstone19]

52 minutes ago, Pixelskaya said:

Has it happened before with other inaugurals? Honest question, I’m fairly new to cruises.

In 2002, we were supposed to be on the 6th, I mean 2nd, I mean inaugural cruise of Coral Princess. It was cancelled two weeks before departure. It was a creeping delay so they were cancelling them one or two at a time.

[dides]

19 minutes ago, lstone19 said:

In 2002, we were supposed to be on the 6th, I mean 2nd, I mean inaugural cruise of Coral Princess. It was cancelled two weeks before departure. It was a creeping delay so they were cancelling them one or two at a time.

No last minute changes for the most recent inaugurals on Princess. But then each ship after Royal Princess was almost a carbon copy. The Enchanted Princess and Discovery Princess builds was delayed by the pandemic and the inaugural dates changed but that was announced months in advance. 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited January 5 by dides

[VaTech8912]

1 hour ago, Pixelskaya said:

Has it happened before with other inaugurals? Honest question, I’m fairly new to cruises.

 

Yes, but most common with "new" class builds such as Sun.  Also, happens regularly with normal itinerary changes, such as non-weather related port changes.  This unfortunately is not unique to Princess.

[beg3yrs]

1 hour ago, VaTech8912 said:

 

Yes, but most common with "new" class builds such as Sun.  Also, happens regularly with normal itinerary changes, such as non-weather related port changes.  This unfortunately is not unique to Princess.

Not only is it not unique to Princess but most major unique construction projects of any sort (roads, one-of-a-kind buildings, new aircraft models, etc) end up behind schedule.

 

That said, everyone will be exceptionally pleased if the Sun Princess goes into service on time.

Edited January 5 by beg3yrs

[Sox Fan Cruiser]

We really can't know what is going on and whether it will be on time.  But the complete silence from Princess (and their marketing department) on rolling out this brand new ship design is utterly baffling.  And leading to all this worry.

[Nemanoxer]

37 minutes ago, Sox Fan Cruiser said:

We really can't know what is going on and whether it will be on time.  But the complete silence from Princess (and their marketing department) on rolling out this brand new ship design is utterly baffling.  And leading to all this worry.

 

Silence is or can be a marketing instrument.

 

It´s like the LMR (last moment resistance) phenomenon in dating - the longer one party says no (even though she secretly wants the same thing), the more excited the interested party becomes and loses his mind more and more to get into the other person´s panties - excuse me, to get into the other party´s stateroom. At about any price.

Edited January 5 by Nemanoxer

[cruisedoctor]

I spoke with a member of the "Partner Support Team" (They are the last resort problem solvers for travel agents.) this evening.  Asked about the status of the ability to begin making dining reservations on the Sun.  The response I received was "We are hoping to have it ready before the first sailing...but it might not be ready...and the passengers on the initial sailings may need to wait, and make them once they board the ship".

 

Those of you who are following stateroom availability on the first 3 sailings, may have noticed that for the past day or so, every category of stateroom on those sailings mysteriously went to "waitlist".  I wouldn't panic about that, as it looks like inventory management is doing "their thing".  This evening I noticed that almost everything on the 2/18/24 sailing opened up again.

 

Since I'm going to be on the 2/18 and 2/28 sailings, I was curious to see just what the available inventory looks like on that 2/18/24 sailing (since it is now reopened again).  Here is a table I made for that sailing.  At this moment there are 639 staterooms available.

 

Aaron Janis, MCC

 

[cruisedoctor]

On 1/6/2024 at 12:30 AM, cruisedoctor said:

I spoke with a member of the "Partner Support Team" (They are the last resort problem solvers for travel agents.) this evening.  Asked about the status of the ability to begin making dining reservations on the Sun.  The response I received was "We are hoping to have it ready before the first sailing...but it might not be ready...and the passengers on the initial sailings may need to wait, and make them once they board the ship".

 

Those of you who are following stateroom availability on the first 3 sailings, may have noticed that for the past day or so, every category of stateroom on those sailings mysteriously went to "waitlist".  I wouldn't panic about that, as it looks like inventory management is doing "their thing".  This evening I noticed that almost everything on the 2/18/24 sailing opened up again.

 

Since I'm going to be on the 2/18 and 2/28 sailings, I was curious to see just what the available inventory looks like on that 2/18/24 sailing (since it is now reopened again).  Here is a table I made for that sailing.  At this moment there are 639 staterooms available.

 

Aaron Janis, MCC

 

Checked again this morning, and everything has gone back to being waitlisted.  This is definitely inventory management related, probably trying to limit the number of passengers on these first 3 sailings.

[JerseyExplora]

Cruise Director Corinne is showing a countdown clock on her Instagram story. It says "Join the Sun Princess" and it currently shows around 1 day, 5 hours, and 35 minutes.

[mlmbar]

For anyone curious about the reserve cabana mini suite this video from Iona shows a very similar set up 

 

 

we moved to a reserve mini suite on deck 15 for all the reasons they dislike the cabin. 

[Oceansaway17]

I just noticed that the new Sun has a big sphere at the front of the ship much line the new ICON of the seas.  Very interesting look but closeup of the Sun make it look like a older space capsule laying on its side.  

[rob-vs]

9 hours ago, mlmbar said:

For anyone curious about the reserve cabana mini suite this video from Iona shows a very similar set up 

we moved to a reserve mini suite on deck 15 for all the reasons they dislike the cabin. 

Yes, a similar setup to Sun Princess, but unlike P&O, the deck outside the cabana suites on the Sun are limited to guests who also have that class of cabin, not the entire ship. Even so, I still wouldn't want it.

[mlmbar]

Neither would I. I had a reserve cabana mini suite on the sun deck and moved it. 

[vjmatty]

5 hours ago, mlmbar said:

Neither would I. I had a reserve cabana mini suite on the sun deck and moved it. 

I was wondering about this also…the C2 reserve cabana minis are on either side of the cabana deck instead of behind it, so there should be some privacy. However I don’t think we have any information about whether they’re covered balconies or visible from the deck above. I guess we’ll have to wait and see after the first sailing. 

[mlmbar]

Yes they are. We finally moved to reserve mini suite because once seeing the cabana, we felt it wasn;t what we thought it would be. We expected it to be more open and airy like an actual cabana.  For us, it is a room that we would not make a lot of use  If not in cabin, we would prefer being on the balcony, not another inside room/.  Also the locations are still not good. Far forward or close to piazza.

[Pixelskaya]

Me watching my guaranteed balcony turn into a Cabana because none of y’all want them

[chamima]

9 hours ago, rob-vs said:

Yes, a similar setup to Sun Princess, but unlike P&O, the deck outside the cabana suites on the Sun are limited to guests who also have that class of cabin, not the entire ship. Even so, I still wouldn't want it.

 

I also noticed what they said about the cabin being dark.

We've had some experience with that. On Celebrity some of the balconies are double and triple deep. People consider them prime locations so a long time ago we were able to book one and had that same experience of the cabin being dark because the (covered) balcony was so deep. Never again!

[mlmbar]

They also mentioned that if you leave the door open to the cabana, the AC shuts off in the cabin which I suspected

[silverridge]

8 hours ago, mlmbar said:

Neither would I. I had a reserve cabana mini suite on the sun deck and moved it. 

In case any of you are unaware, there are Cabana mini-suites located on the Sun WITHIN the sphere that have all the privacy of any other balcony room or suite.  There is no public walkway or other area in front of you.  

[Wishing on a star]

I see that the band X-cite will be onboard the SUN.

But, we will not be able to sail until October...  And it looks like they will either take some time off or change ships when she arrives at FLL....   

Wish we had not decided to cancel Europe this Spring!

[Fortunate 2 travel]

We will get to see actual photos soon 😃.  February is not that far off.  

[Hobby3333]

4 hours ago, silverridge said:

In case any of you are unaware, there are Cabana mini-suites located on the Sun WITHIN the sphere that have all the privacy of any other balcony room or suite.  There is no public walkway or other area in front of you.  

That is the reason I booked a mini suite reserve cabin on deck 9.   I didn’t like the idea of people walking by a cabin or the idea of not being able to look directly over the water.   

[mlmbar]

The wake view terrace is for all passengers. I believe that was discussed earlier here and verified by Princess 

[vjmatty]

5 hours ago, mlmbar said:

They also mentioned that if you leave the door open to the cabana, the AC shuts off in the cabin which I suspected

Even if the balcony doors are closed? So much for the idea of the cabana making the room bigger, like originally advertised in one of the videos. 

[mlmbar]

No, he said if the doors are left open just like if you leave the balcony doors open. So much for openness like a cabana. I think cabana  is a misnomer. This is not a cabana but maybe a lounge like they called in the video