Sun Princess Sanctuary Discussion

[FLAlaska]

Has anyone considered that the entire Sanctuary might be available to suite guests? It shares the pool, so the other loungers might also be accessible, that is why the capacity isn't know every day. This means there will be plenty of loungers available. The reserved for suite might be more exclusive, but they might use the rest as overflow.

 

I still believe everyone needs to take a breath and a step back. A lot of assumptions and maybe Princess still doesn't know exactly how it will work. Its been 2 cruises... that is it. This is a completely different ship. At the end, you might like it and you may not. But lets give it a real look , real experiences before everyone jumps.

 

 

[WonderMan3]

29 minutes ago, CatMom72 said:

This is the problem. What good is having guaranteed access if I have nowhere to sit? The whole point of buying a suite is to ensure access to a lounge chair on demand, just like I always had under the traditional system.  

You are conflating two things here. Buying a suite has never "ensured access" to a lounge chair on Princess outside of booking a suite that has a lounge chair on your balcony; that is a false statement. Purchasing entry to The Sanctuary (if you were able to make it there in time on embarkation day and not get beaten out by other cruisers) did guarantee a lounge chair but had nothing to do with being in a suite; it was open as an option to every cruise passenger.

 

Sun Princess actually makes it almost guaranteed you will get one since the space is giving priority to suite guests and has enough seating space to accommodate every suite guest. That is not the case on any other Princess ship unless you are lucky enough to snag a Sanctuary spot that you have to pay for. Plus, on Sun Princess you get a pool, hot tubs and bar that are all exclusive to the area, so you are not competing for use of them with every other adult on the ship as on the other Princess ships.

[CatMom72]

1 minute ago, FLAlaska said:

Has anyone considered that the entire Sanctuary might be available to suite guests? It shares the pool, so the other loungers might also be accessible, that is why the capacity isn't know every day. This means there will be plenty of loungers available. The reserved for suite might be more exclusive, but they might use the rest as overflow.

 

I still believe everyone needs to take a breath and a step back. A lot of assumptions and maybe Princess still doesn't know exactly how it will work. Its been 2 cruises... that is it. This is a completely different ship. At the end, you might like it and you may not. But lets give it a real look , real experiences before everyone jumps.

 

 

The Sanctuary manager has already said the whole thing IS available to all suite guests.  However, outside of the Signature Sun Deck, it is not promised to be exclusive to suite passengers.  That means they can sell those chairs to non-suite passengers and if you, as a suite passenger, show up too late (e.g., in the afternoon on a port day), there might not be free space available because they’ve sold what they deem to be “extra capacity.”

[WonderMan3]

6 minutes ago, FLAlaska said:

Has anyone considered that the entire Sanctuary might be available to suite guests? It shares the pool, so the other loungers might also be accessible, that is why the capacity isn't know every day. This means there will be plenty of loungers available. The reserved for suite might be more exclusive, but they might use the rest as overflow.

 

I still believe everyone needs to take a breath and a step back. A lot of assumptions and maybe Princess still doesn't know exactly how it will work. Its been 2 cruises... that is it. This is a completely different ship. At the end, you might like it and you may not. But lets give it a real look , real experiences before everyone jumps.

 

 

This is definitely the case and has been confirmed by someone on board the ship now. Suite guests can use any area of the Sanctuary. Any paid guests into the Sanctuary can use any areas except the Signature suites section. So yes, that's why all this panicking from certain folks is preemptive. There are a enough loungers/daybeds in the entire area that can accommodate all suite guests. We all know that not every suite guest will use the space every day so finding a space there for a suite guest should not be a problem. 

Edited March 15 by WonderMan3

[CatMom72]

6 minutes ago, WonderMan3 said:

Buying a suite has never "ensured access" to a lounge chair on Princess outside of booking a suite that has a lounge chair on your balcony; that is a false statement.

Unlike on previous ships, on the Sun Princess booking a suite DOES guarantee access to “the Signature Sun Deck, a private area of the Sanctuary.”  It is a named Signature benefit.  Does it not make sense to you that access to the area would include a lounge chair? What would be the point of having access without having access to a lounge chair?

[WonderMan3]

Just now, CatMom72 said:

Unlike on previous ships, on the Sun Princess booking a suite DOES guarantee access to “the Signature Sun Deck, a private area of the Sanctuary.”  It is a named Signature benefit.  Does it not make sense to you that access to the area would include a lounge chair? What would be the point of having access without having access to a lounge chair?

You said "The whole point of buying a suite is to ensure access to a lounge chair on demand, just like I always had under the traditional system."  That is a false statement. Booking a suite prior to Sun Princess (which is what you meant by "like I always had" which is referencing your cruises from the past which were not on Sun Princess since that is a new ship) did not guarantee you access to a lounge chair unless it was an included feature on your suite's balcony. That is what I was responding to. 

[dog]

To Cat- I certainly understand your not trusting what the Sanctuary staff said.

 

Really hope you report back after your cruise.

 

your suite should have a lounge chair if you don’t get up to the SUN deck in time to pick the spot of your choice.

[CatMom72]

4 minutes ago, WonderMan3 said:

You said "The whole point of buying a suite is to ensure access to a lounge chair on demand, just like I always had under the traditional system."  That is a false statement. Booking a suite prior to Sun Princess (which is what you meant by "like I always had" which is referencing your cruises from the past which were not on Sun Princess since that is a new ship) did not guarantee you access to a lounge chair unless it was an included feature on your suite's balcony. That is what I was responding to. 

Okay, let me break it down for you:

 

1. On other Princess ships, you can book a suite but it doesn’t guarantee access to the Sanctuary.

2. On other Princess ships, you can run upstairs on embarkation day and pay, a la carte, above and beyond your already-paid cruise fare, to get access to a reserved chair in the Sanctuary…hence guaranteeing on-demand access.

3. On Sun Princess, you can buy a suite.  This guarantees access to the Signature Suite Sundeck.  This should mean you don’t have to run upstairs to reserve a chair in the Sanctuary because it’s ALREADY INCLUDED in your cruise fare.  In other words, PRE-PAID on-demand access.

4. Problem Statement: The Signature Sun Deck does not have the capacity to accommodate all suite passengers.

5. Proposed Solution: Suite passengers who don’t find space on the Signature Sun Deck, according to the Sanctuary manager, can get free access to other areas of the Sanctuary.  
6. Risk Assessment:  HOWEVER, Princess reserves the right to sell those chairs to non-suite guests.  Therefore, at peak times, suite passengers may not get on-demand access.

 

If this doesn’t distill it down well enough, I guess we’ll just have to agree to disagree.  Have a great day!

[capriccio]

21 minutes ago, CatMom72 said:

I never made a single false statement.  You simply misunderstood or misconstrued what I wrote.  But I made my meaning extremely clear in my most recent post, just to make sure there was ZERO doubt. Good luck!

You were absolutely clear to anyone who has sailed on the other Princess ships and had to rush to the Sanctuary, regardless of the cabin category, immediately upon embarking.  If you wanted lounges for the entire week in the Caribbean, you needed to be among the first to arrive.  In fact I think one of the most common questions about the Sanctuary here on Cruise Critic is how come you can't reserve lounges in advance?  My reaction to the new Signature Sun Deck amenity was, finally a way to at least know you will have a lounge at any time of the day, any day of the cruise.  That was definitely appealing to us and we are willing to pay for it included in our fare.  And since we are paying for it, we expect to receive it.

[CatMom72]

16 minutes ago, capriccio said:

You were absolutely clear to anyone who has sailed on the other Princess ships and had to rush to the Sanctuary, regardless of the cabin category, immediately upon embarking.  If you wanted lounges for the entire week in the Caribbean, you needed to be among the first to arrive.  In fact I think one of the most common questions about the Sanctuary here on Cruise Critic is how come you can't reserve lounges in advance?  My reaction to the new Signature Sun Deck amenity was, finally a way to at least know you will have a lounge at any time of the day, any day of the cruise.  That was definitely appealing to us and we are willing to pay for it included in our fare.  And since we are paying for it, we expect to receive it.

Exactly.  The mechanism is different (paying up front as part of cruise fare on Sun Princess vs. paying on date of embarkation on other ships), but the desired outcome is always the same:  guaranteed on-demand access to a lounge chair in the Sanctuary.  When you pay up front for a suite on the Sun, you expect to get the same thing you have to wait until embarkation day to buy on other ships. Let’s see if that’s what we actually get.

[TRLD]

1 hour ago, CatMom72 said:

Okay, let me break it down for you:

 

1. On other Princess ships, you can book a suite but it doesn’t guarantee access to the Sanctuary.

2. On other Princess ships, you can run upstairs on embarkation day and pay, a la carte, above and beyond your already-paid cruise fare, to get access to a reserved chair in the Sanctuary…hence guaranteeing on-demand access.

3. On Sun Princess, you can buy a suite.  This guarantees access to the Signature Suite Sundeck.  This should mean you don’t have to run upstairs to reserve a chair in the Sanctuary because it’s ALREADY INCLUDED in your cruise fare.  In other words, PRE-PAID on-demand access.

4. Problem Statement: The Signature Sun Deck does not have the capacity to accommodate all suite passengers.

5. Proposed Solution: Suite passengers who don’t find space on the Signature Sun Deck, according to the Sanctuary manager, can get free access to other areas of the Sanctuary.  
6. Risk Assessment:  HOWEVER, Princess reserves the right to sell those chairs to non-suite guests.  Therefore, at peak times, suite passengers may not get on-demand access.

 

If this doesn’t distill it down well enough, I guess we’ll just have to agree to disagree.  Have a great day!

the suite guarantees access, not a reserved chair. A lot probably depends upon if chair hogging is allowed just like it is on the rest of the ship.

 

Assumptions based upon the old system may not apply to the new. No where does it say guaranteed lounge charge on demand. They may have them, they might not. Probably not if people claim them and try to hold them all day  using them or not.

 

Since this is Princesses first foray into this system one will expect many changes over the first year or so.

Edited March 15 by TRLD

[FLAlaska]

Just saw another video of someone in the Sanctuary. Its got loads of loungers, chairs, couches in the shade,  bar, pool, places to sit and chat, play cards. Its much more than just loungers with a lot more to offer than just reserved loungers. And yes, you get access to that.

 

 . 

[CatMom72]

36 minutes ago, TRLD said:

No where does it say guaranteed lounge charge on demand.

What is the point of access without the lounge chair?

[Familycruzer11]

29 minutes ago, TRLD said:

The suite guarantees access, not a reserved chair. A lot probably depends upon if chair hogging is allowed just like it is on the rest of the ship.

This is where I think it gets even more muddy.  In the original post of this thread, OP states (from Sanctuary Manager) that Signature Suite access to loungers is first come, first served - and that  guest aquires their lounger - for the day.  As @CatMom72 is pointing out - in the traditional system - after racing upstairs to purchase guaranteed Sanctuary access, one receives their assigned lounger for the day(week as the case may be) to come and go as they please. 

 

That's the beauty of it in my opinion and a benefit of paying the premium price.  Now, for Signature class, we are basically paying the premium price up front with our cruise fare.  Yes, we have guaranteed access - and now seems we need to get up there early to get a good (or any?) lounger - and it also seems, from what OP posted - it is now yours for that day.    Therefore- that should not make me a chair hog, if I come and go as I please - as per usual - in the Sanctuary space.

[TRLD]

2 minutes ago, Familycruzer11 said:

This is where I think it gets even more muddy.  In the original post of this thread, OP states (from Sanctuary Manager) that Signature Suite access to loungers is first come, first served - and that  guest aquires their lounger - for the day.  As @CatMom72 is pointing out - in the traditional system - after racing upstairs to purchase guaranteed Sanctuary access, one receives their assigned lounger for the day(week as the case may be) to come and go as they please. 

 

That's the beauty of it in my opinion and a benefit of paying the premium price.  Now, for Signature class, we are basically paying the premium price up front with our cruise fare.  Yes, we have guaranteed access - and now seems we need to get up there early to get a good (or any?) lounger - and it also seems, from what OP posted - it is now yours for that day.    Therefore- that should not make me a chair hog, if I come and go as I please - as per usual - in the Sanctuary space.

If that is the system then it really can be a free for all with a number of disappointed suite guests with poor locations over on the Sanctuary side. I expect that the rules for one cruise might not carry over to a future cruise until they actually see what works and then they lock in the process.

[CatMom72]

1 minute ago, Familycruzer11 said:

Yes, we have guaranteed access - and now seems we need to get up there early to get a good (or any?) lounger - and it also seems, from what OP posted - it is now yours for that day.    Therefore- that should not make me a chair hog, if I come and go as I please - as per usual - in the Sanctuary space.

This is an important point, too. If the chair is yours for the whole day, that means any chair that is used by a suite passenger at any point in the day cannot be used again by anyone else that day, even another suite passenger.  If true, it’s even more concerning that the Signature Sun Deck has such low capacity relative to the number of suite passengers.  

[Familycruzer11]

Just now, TRLD said:

If that is the system then it really can be a free for all with a number of disappointed suite guests with poor locations over on the Sanctuary side. I expect that the rules for one cruise might not carry over to a future cruise until they actually see what works and then they lock in the process.

Exactly  - I am going in Jan 2025, so am eagerly awaiting more first-hand reports to see how things shake out. I do believe it will all work out and am really looking forward to our Sun Princess cruise - full steam ahead.