Sun Princess Review Part 1

[kazzacruise]

Circumnavigation of Australia We were meant to sail on the Sun Princess at 4pm on Sunday the 9th March but due to an outbreak of norovirus on previous cruise we were informed the day before that we were not leaving till 7pm.Left home home about 2pm and had a good run down the F3 and a smooth run onto the ship.I have only been on the Pacific Sky and the Pacific Sun so to me the Sun Princess was beautiful. We spent a lot of time exploring the ship and have taken lots of photos (which I will get my daughter to show me how to put up).

Our Captain at the start was Martin Stenzel but changed a few days later.Great clear day to sail out of Sydney but would you believe it!!! one photo of the wharf then hubby says battery flat. Aaahh!! At least we have had photos of the Opera House and Bridge before.

Was impressed with the pool areas and the spectacular atrium, like something out of a movie. We were on Deck 8 dolphin in an obstructed view cabin which we were very happy with. It was between the 2 lifeboats so we had some natural light coming in, and could see what the seas and weather were like without going upstairs. There was never a problem with noise except for 3 times when we were at ports that needed a tender as the winch for the lifeboat was about 2 foot from our heads on the pillow1!!Actually it was a good alarm clock to get us up for those 3 port tender days.

Our bed was comfortable and I slept like a baby every night. Pillows very feathery sofy but our room steward Yasoo got us some firmer ones to try.Didn't see a great deal of our cabin boy, like they say he is in and out when you are not there which is great.Plenty of storage for all our clothes and belongings of which half I probably did not use. We took a travel clothes line and hung it up in front of our fridge sideboard so once the initial drips had stopped we moved things from the line in the shower to the other line to finish drying.(about 3 undies is all you need, I took about 20!!!)

We had 2nd sitting 8pm Marquis dining room which suited us well. Plenty of time for sailaways then off to a show after dinner.Horizon Buffet was good though on a long cruise we soon got over the hot breakfast, well most days anyway.

The Wheelhouse bar looked good but unfortunately you were allowed to smoke in there and it wasn't very pleasant.

Hubby bought a coke card the first day for $130 which allowed him unlimited soft drink for the whole cruise. This was good value as you only needed to drink at least 2 soft drinks a day to break even and anything more is a bonus.

Can't remember what first dinner was but almost all were lovely then we went off to our first show in the Princess Theatre. Our cruise director was Tim Donovan, and Colin our assistant cruise director.

 

Pool deck

 

View from porthole in our room.

[LouLou28]

Thanks for the review so far -- looking forward to more!

 

I would have had a similar reaction to the 'flat batteries':D :rolleyes: .

 

Photos look great!

[surfoz]

sounds like you had a great time, I look forward to your next review instalment...thanks!

[aussiedisneyfan]

Great review, so far. I have felt your pain about the flat batteries a couple of times. :(

[NSWP]

Good so far..eager for more..question: Was the ship chockas, sorry full ?

 

Cheers..Les:confused:

[kazzacruise]

Review Part 2.

Spent a relaxing day at sea going to trivia, bingo and line dancing class, walked the promenade deck a few times and ate and ate.Good show in the Princess lounge by a man named Trevor Knight, a very good country style entertainer.Had great intentions of getting up and going to 1st stetch and ab attack classes which started in the gym at 7 30am but eyes didn.t want to open till well after that. Like I said before I slept like a baby every night even when I wasn;t taking Avomine.In fact I never got to the gym once but did walk the Promenade Deck occassionly.

Day 3 we arrived in Brisbane. Lovely coming up the river, then when we got off tried to catch a catamaran in to city but big lines of people waiting so shared a cab into city with 2 other couples whick cost us $10 a couple. Did a long walk around Brisbane then caught caramaran back to the ship.

Due to the outbreak of norovirus the staff had a lot of extra work and looked pretty buggered from the prior cruise. They not only had to do a lot of extra sanitising but also had to get all food from the buffet for us

as there was no self serve and at dinner had to even salt and pepper our food as nothing was left on the table for hands to touch. We were very careful using the sanitisers around the ship all the time, not holding onto railings and going to our own cabin to use the toilet. A bit paranoid but we didn't get the virus and after about a week the ship had it under control.

At Brisbane we got a new Captain, Peter Russell, a lovely gentleman .We then had a day at sea where apart from bingo and trivia, I also went to scrapbooking class of which the first was free. It was formal night with the show Shimmy in the Princess Theatre. got friends to take photo of us dressed up as photos are too expensive to buy too many!!

Next day our port was the Whitsundays where we were on tenders to go to shore. Having been there before we just had a stroll around Airlie Beach. Unfortunately it was a bit overcast but still a pretty place. Watched a movie on the ship that afternoon called Dan in Real Life.

sunset whitsundays

airlie beach

atrium sun princess

formal night

docked at Brisbane

[arxcards]

Beautiful pics Kerrie, and nice to see Captain Russell back as the Master of Sun Princess too.

[Carlz]

thanks for the review and pics.... it's making me excited about my HUUUGE 2 nighter on her in nov :)

[Whoey]

Sounds like a great holiday, just one quick questions with your hubby buying the soft drink card, what was to stop you two sharing the card, is it photo ID linked to his cruise card or something? Could you go and get a drink with it?

 

Could he go and get 2 soft drinks at once if he wanted to, say for both of you to have one at the same time?

 

Finally, do you think a Lemon Lime and Bitters is classed a soft drink on the card or was it only coke (pre-mix no doubt), lemonade etc..?

 

thanks :)

[karmac]

Finally, do you think a Lemon Lime and Bitters is classed a soft drink on the card or was it only coke (pre-mix no doubt), lemonade etc..?

 

thanks :)

 

 

Hmmmm. This is always a tough one as it really is an alcoholic drink. On Pacific Dawn LL&B was dearer than soft drink ($3 as opposed to $2 for soft drinks).

[surfoz]

Sounds like a great holiday, just one quick questions with your hubby buying the soft drink card, what was to stop you two sharing the card, is it photo ID linked to his cruise card or something? Could you go and get a drink with it?

 

Could he go and get 2 soft drinks at once if he wanted to, say for both of you to have one at the same time?

 

Finally, do you think a Lemon Lime and Bitters is classed a soft drink on the card or was it only coke (pre-mix no doubt), lemonade etc..?

 

thanks :)

 

No not photo ID, they put a sticker on your cruise card, the bar staff just sight it and thats it, so share the cruise card and get as many as you like.

I never asked for two soft drinks at once though I did ask 1 minute after the last drink, usually a different waiter.... didn't want to seem too bold.:D

 

Also if you purchase the drink cooler, they don't even look at the sticker, they just fill the cooler, knowing you have already purchased it.

The cooler and sticker work anywhere on the ship including the restaurants.

 

I am sure LLB is not classed as soft drink.

 

Hope this helps.

[LouLou28]

 

I am sure LLB is not classed as soft drink.

 

Certainly isn't on Pacific Sun ... we go 'told off' by one of the drink waiters because we gave one to our 8 year old daughter ........ she was trying to take the drink off us - so we asked if we could speak with the Supervisor --- she went back to the bar, told someone - and they never came near us...

 

Yes, I know it's technically 'alcoholic' (well the three drops of bitters they put in it is) -- but certainly no more alcoholic than the vanilla you put in a milkshake!! We've never had an issue with it anywhere else ... needless to say, we were more careful with her drink choices on the ship after that!

[arxcards]

No not photo ID, they put a sticker on your cruise card, the bar staff just sight it and thats it, so share the cruise card and get as many as you like.

I never asked for two soft drinks at once though I did ask 1 minute after the last drink, usually a different waiter.... didn't want to seem too bold.:D

 

Also if you purchase the drink cooler, they don't even look at the sticker, they just fill the cooler, knowing you have already purchased it.

The cooler and sticker work anywhere on the ship including the restaurants.

 

I am sure LLB is not classed as soft drink.

 

Hope this helps.

Yes, that is the key. If you ask for 2 drinks, they will request two stickered cards, but you can bend their rules and get individual drinks at short intervals for each other.

From my DD's memory, the soda card range was postmix Coke, Diet Coke, Lemonade or soda water.

[Whoey]

thanks for the info, much appreciated!

 

how much is the drink cooler...?

[arxcards]

thanks for the info, much appreciated!

 

how much is the drink cooler...?

Comes with the purchase of the soda card.

[Tyche]

Gorgeous photos, what a beautiful ship. This would be a great cruise to take. Thanks for the review so far :)

[CruiseKidz]

Yes, that is the key. If you ask for 2 drinks, they will request two stickered cards, but you can bend their rules and get individual drinks at short intervals for each other.

From my DD's memory, the soda card range was postmix Coke, Diet Coke, Lemonade or soda water.

You can also get tonic water on the soda card, I did:)

[kazzacruise]

Part 3 -Day 5 Arrived at Yorkeys Knob, Cairns to another overcast day and unfortunately a lot of people were disappointed as their Great Barrier Reef tours were cancelled. We have been to Cairns before so we did our own thing. Some friends picked us up from where we were tendered in but it was quite late in the morning by then. They took us to the bottom of the Skyway(which was not built last time we were there and even though it was a bit of a dismal day we enjoyed the ride up to Kurranda.There are a couple of stations where you get off the Skyrail and have a walk through the rainforest . What got us was that it was raining and a sign on the path said " Caution This path may be wet". What have we come to!!! Our friends then drove up to Kurranda to pick us up then we drove back to Cairns to have lunch in a pub there and a walk around town. All to soon it was time to get back to the tenders as we had to sail away at 5pm.There was a free shuttle bus from Yorkeys Knob to Cairns .

That night we went to a magic and mime show by an artist named Richard Scholes. We then started 3 days at sea going up parallel to the Cape York peninsula.Filled in the 3 days with no problem, relaxing,trivia, bingo, line dancing, a movie(saw No Reservations) and afternoon tea from the Horizons buffet. (you know in 28 days I never once got to traditional afternoon tea in dining room as they feed you too well). Also went to Irish dance class, seminar "ways to a flatter Stomach"(which turned out to be a big sales pitch at the end to detoxify your body with their products). My advice to getting a flatter stomach - get off the cruise ship before 28 days!!! In just one week the next formal outfit (which fitted at home) was pulling very tight!!!

we had another show from the Sun Princess entertainers which was called Tribute, and the London pub night was funny.There was a St Pats party too.

One afternoon they had a future cruise presentation on Alaska so now we've got to go back to work to save for that. We will be picking everyones brains soon on that. next port to come Darwin.Kerrie

Skyrail Cairns

Baron Falls Cairns

[surfoz]

Beautiful pics Kerrie, and nice to see Captain Russell back as the Master of Sun Princess too.

 

So who is the lucky ship that gets capt Martin Stenzel?:eek:

[karmac]

Certainly isn't on Pacific Sun ... we go 'told off' by one of the drink waiters because we gave one to our 8 year old daughter ........ she was trying to take the drink off us - so we asked if we could speak with the Supervisor --- she went back to the bar, told someone - and they never came near us...

 

Yes, I know it's technically 'alcoholic' (well the three drops of bitters they put in it is) -- but certainly no more alcoholic than the vanilla you put in a milkshake!! We've never had an issue with it anywhere else ... needless to say, we were more careful with her drink choices on the ship after that!

 

Most pubs & clubs I've been to will not allow kids to drink it. Even though it's only a few drops, it is 45% alcohol.

[kaseyoz]

You do learn something new every day. I never realised the bitters was an alcoholic drink.

 

With regards the coke card i suppose there is no reason besides being ethical that you could use your kids card to get yourself a free drink, that is if you can find said kid to get said card off them!!!

 

At our first dinner our daughter didnt want a soft drink as she prefers water while I drink diet coke, so i ordered a coke from her card

But then every night even though we mentioned it to our waiters there was a diet coke waiting for me.

 

While i realise this is not proper behaviour it is up to the individual to decide what is proper or not

[Witchymob]

Thank you for the review and especially the pics, thinking about doing a cruse on Sun Princess next year from Fremantle, am wondering if you had any rough weather and how the ship handled that as I think the weather was pretty bad when you were in Tassie. We were on Adonia in 2004, but it was pretty much calm all the time. Just come back from Oriana Singapore to Fremantle and had lots of rough weather and although I wasn't sick wished we had a cabin a big further back, getting dressed up for formal was quite a challenge in a force 10 gale not to mention getting the mascara in the right place!

[kazzacruise]

Thank you for the review and especially the pics, thinking about doing a cruse on Sun Princess next year from Fremantle, am wondering if you had any rough weather and how the ship handled that as I think the weather was pretty bad when you were in Tassie. We were on Adonia in 2004, but it was pretty much calm all the time. Just come back from Oriana Singapore to Fremantle and had lots of rough weather and although I wasn't sick wished we had a cabin a big further back, getting dressed up for formal was quite a challenge in a force 10 gale not to mention getting the mascara in the right place!

Hi.We had about 3 days out of 28 that were rough but the Captain did a great job keeping things pretty comfortable. Burnie to Hobart was Gale Force 10 winds but ship handled it well apart from losing the canopy over the bridge somewhere at sea that night. No time now but will post pics and more review of rest of cruise soon. kerrie

[CRUISING ALONG]

Hi kazzacruise ( kerrie)

Welcome Home. Thoroughly enjoying your review so far and the photos too.

Just a few questions at the moment. Do you know how many passengers were on board? Were they mainly Australians and New Zealanders or was there also a few Americans on board? Did you do many of the shore tours offered by Princess? Can you recommend any?

Looking forward to the next instalment of your review.:D

 

regards

CRUISING ALONG:)

[AuzzieCruiser]

Enjoying the review so far!! Keep it coming. Only 318 days for me for my Australia/NZ cruise.:) :rolleyes:

On Royal Caribbean, they kept them coming. When I was about 3/4 of the way through, a full glass would magically appear.:) I ended up after the 3rd night telling them that 2 should be enough, unless I asked for more.;)