Live from Sun Princess | 9 March | 10 Day Barcelona - Rome

[niftrip]

Good morning from a wet and windy Barcelona.

I'm sitting onboard the Windstar Star Legend eagerly awaiting embarkation on the Sun Princess this afternoon. I'll share an update each day about the experience onboard, along with some photos and videos. I was glad to see the majority of venues are to be open for this sailing. I am looking forward to some of the arena shows. 

I'm in a Reserve Collection Cabana Mini Suite (C2) on deck 9, which will be interesting to experience. 

Any questions you have about the ship include below and I'll attempt to answer during the sailing. 

Edited March 9 by niftrip

[Cruz4Sun]

We are in an accessible C2 cabin in October. Am interesting in hearing how crowded the cabana deck is at various times.  Also would like to see how private (or not private) our balcony is that wraps around the end just outside the sphere.  Thanks and have a wonderful cruise.

[kabmab]

We're in a C2 on 9 next January so especially looking forward to your Live.  Thanks for doing, and have a great cruise!

[Grego]

3 hours ago, niftrip said:

Good morning from a wet and windy Barcelona.

I'm sitting onboard the Windstar Star Legend eagerly awaiting embarkation on the Sun Princess this afternoon. I'll share an update each day about the experience onboard, along with some photos and videos. I was glad to see the majority of venues are to be open for this sailing. I am looking forward to some of the arena shows. 

I'm in a Reserve Collection Cabana Mini Suite (C2) on deck 9, which will be interesting to experience. 

Any questions you have about the ship include below and I'll attempt to answer during the sailing. 

We all are interested in your reporting.  Questions remain as to how the Elite/Platinum evening lounge is handled, how marriages and other ceremonies are performed without a Wedding Chapel, no Internet Cafe for those needing a place to log in or print out airline boarding passes, etc.

[niftrip]

16 minutes ago, Grego said:

Questions remain as to how the Elite/Platinum evening lounge is handled

 

I can answer this one straight away. Here is the welcome letter for Elites. I've removed my personal info from it. 

 

[Justpackingmybags]

Following. I’m not on till June but I’m very curious to see how the ship’s settling in!

[phabric]

Following along.  Enjoy your cruise.

[RLK33853]

We will be in a Reserve Cabana Mini on deck 9 with the public cabana area beyond our balcony.  Please let us know how intrusive the outside area is to your private balcony.  Also how do they keep non cabana passengers from using this area?

 

thanks

[niftrip]

46 minutes ago, RLK33853 said:

We will be in a Reserve Cabana Mini on deck 9 with the public cabana area beyond our balcony.  Please let us know how intrusive the outside area is to your private balcony.  Also how do they keep non cabana passengers from using this area?

 

thanks

 

I'll keep an eye on privacy of those suites over the next few days. 

 

Access to the deck is controlled via your Medallion. Those not staying or accompanied by someone staying in that category can't open the doors. 

[niftrip]

Here's an very quick walkthrough of the Reserve Collection Cabana Mini-Suite (C2). 

 

 

Will post a more detailed review of the cabin after I've spent a few days in it. 

[Bettyboop66]

Thanks for doing this live from!!!

[Fliz52]

Will also be following your updates. We are also in a Collection Cabana Mini-Suite C1 in November. 
Enjoy your cruise, thank you for doing this. 
 

[nasa1974]

Thanks. Looking forward to more information.

[KLM3164]

Thanks for your Live report. Enjoy your cruise!!!

[niftrip]

So far, so good. 

 

The Piazza area has been very busy, as to be expected at the beginning of a cruise. 

 

The Reserve Collection Dinning has been busy all night. I walked by a number of times earlier with lines each time. 

 

I came down for dinner at about 8:15 not expecting it to be as busy but I was wrong. The wait wasn't bad, only 5 minutes or so. 

 

The first Arena show is at capacity. 

[Ken the cruiser]

Thanks for taking the time to post to a LiveFrom thread! I was watching your video and was a little set back with the “tinted window” on your balcony. Does this mean you can’t look out in either direction? If that’s the case, I’m not impressed.

 

[Gator83]

2 minutes ago, Ken the cruiser said:

Thanks for taking the time to post to a LiveFrom thread! I was watching your video and was a little set back with the “tinted window” on your balcony. Does this mean you can’t look out in either direction? If that’s the case, I’m not impressed.

 

 

You can look out but is tinted blue...just not clear glass.

[chamima]

4 minutes ago, Ken the cruiser said:

Thanks for taking the time to post to a LiveFrom thread! I was watching your video and was a little set back with the “tinted window” on your balcony. Does this mean you can’t look out in either direction? If that’s the case, I’m not impressed.

 

 

 

I think this cabin is in the "Sphere". Hence the tall tinted glass.

[dides]

4 minutes ago, chamima said:

 

 

I think this cabin is in the "Sphere". Hence the tall tinted glass.

Not in the Sphere, all C2 reserve cabanas are mid-fwd on Deck 9, have the tall blue glass and are completely overlooked as in the picture below

 

Edited March 9 by dides

[KLM3164]

1 hour ago, niftrip said:

The Reserve Collection Dinning has been busy all night. I walked by a number of times earlier with lines each time.

This is not good news! One of the advantages of having Reserve Collection is not having to wait for a table. We’ve had this on several cruises on Royal Class ships and the dining room has never been full. 

 

Did you eat in the Reserve Collection Dining room last night? If so, did they have the prime rib cart? Asking for DH.

[worldtraveller]

Is there an internet cafe? If not where do you print off boarding passes & other things and where to those who didn't bring a computer go or are you out of luck?

[Ken the cruiser]

1 hour ago, KLM3164 said:

This is not good news! One of the advantages of having Reserve Collection is not having to wait for a table. We’ve had this on several cruises on Royal Class ships and the dining room has never been full. 

 

Did you eat in the Reserve Collection Dining room last night? If so, did they have the prime rib cart? Asking for DH.

On the second leg of our recent Antarctica/SA B2B, there we maybe 3 couples eating in the Reserve DR until 6 pm at the earliest. However, it was packed around 8:30 pm on because there were quite a few guests onboard from Chile that were used to eating dinner after 9 pm when they were back home.

 

From what I remember, it was also the same way on our Med cruise on the Regal back in July 2022. It could be that a lot of the guests on this Med cruise are used to eating late as well. To be honest it was nice showing up at 5 pm with no competition for getting our different courses delivered and we were usually finished before 6 pm. 😁

[KLM3164]

4 minutes ago, Ken the cruiser said:

On the second leg of our recent Antarctica/SA B2B, there we maybe 3 couples eating in the Reserve DR until 6 pm at the earliest. However, it was packed around 8:30 pm on because there were quite a few guests onboard from Chile that were used to eating dinner after 9 pm when they were back home.

 

From what I remember, it was also the same way on our Med cruise on the Regal back in July 2022. It could be that a lot of the guests on this Med cruise are used to eating late as well. To be honest it was nice showing up at 5 pm with no competition for getting our different courses delivered and we were usually finished before 6 pm. 😁

We have only eaten in Reserve on Caribbean and Mexico sailings and we also eat between 5-6 when the dining room has always been slow. Our next Reserve is in the Caribbean so hoping it’s a similar pattern where it’s slow between 5 and 6. 

 

I think you are right about the eating patterns on European cruises as many people are accustomed to eating much later over the pond.

[Ellipooh]

9 hours ago, niftrip said:

 

Access to the deck is controlled via your Medallion. Those not staying or accompanied by someone staying in that category can't open the doors. 

And there’s the problem. 

Edited March 10 by Ellipooh

[CalLuvsCrusingToo]

55 minutes ago, Ellipooh said:

And there’s the problem. 

 

What do you mean?