SUN PRINCESS Reviews

Sun Princess – Excellent Dining and Staff, but Disappointing Entertainment, Casino and Ship Design

We have nearly completed a 15-night cruise on Sun Princess. There were some genuinely excellent aspects of the experience, but also some significant disappointments that Princess really needs to address.

The ship is impressive, but after spending 15 nights onboard, we came away feeling that several important parts of the overall cruise experience fell short of expectations.

THE HIGHLIGHTS

Premier Package and Specialty Dining

We absolutely loved the Premier Package. The unlimited specialty dining was fantastic and represented excellent value for us.

Crown Grill and Love by Britto were particular favourites. In fact, the service throughout all the restaurants was consistently good. The staff were pleasant, attentive and friendly, and this was one of the strongest aspects of our cruise.

The main dining room breakfast was also very good, although service slowed considerably on sea days, sometimes to a crawl.

The Staff

We found the staff throughout the ship to be friendly, pleasant and helpful. They deserve recognition for their efforts.

THE DISAPPOINTMENTS

Entertainment – A Major Letdown

This was probably our biggest disappointment.

On a 15-night cruise, we had only 3 proper production shows. We believe approximately 13 nights featured solo acts in the Arena rather than full-scale production shows.

The solo performers may be perfectly good in their own right, but this type of entertainment is much more suited to a nightclub or smaller lounge venue than the main theatre of a ship of this size.

One of the 3 production shows was approximately 90% in Spanish, making it difficult for English-speaking passengers to enjoy. The other shows were canned music and lip syncing. Sierra I believe name it was just awful—the stage broke down 5 minutes into the show had to stop. Then it was just very low quality attempt at a production show. The costumes were desperate to be flashy but ended up looking cheap. There was lots of lip syncing which was obvious and low quality. We feel like we got ripped off with the quality and mix of the entertainment. For us it’s a big part of a long cruise with many sea day’s look forward to good food and good entertainment. The reality was the food was good and the entertainment was totally inadequate. Even in the cabin—ok the music and show sucks try to watch a movie—the movie selection is totally inadequate and short for a 15 night cruise.

We expected considerably more from Princess, particularly on a ship of this size and standard.

The Piazza – A Huge Missed Opportunity

The Piazza should be the lively heart of Sun Princess, particularly in the evenings. Instead, we frequently found it quiet, dull and lacking atmosphere. I met with the entertainment director and the ship manager after voicing my concerns early on and they explained other passengers want quiet public space and not loud music. For us the entertainment is a deal breaker and will totally play into any future decision about princess cruises.

Much of the programming consisted of game shows and occasional solo performances. At times, a solo guitarist performing in a small upstairs bar was simply broadcast onto the large Piazza screen.

This is not what we expected from such an impressive central venue.

After dinner or leaving a theatre show, we wanted to walk into the Piazza and find a lively atmosphere, upbeat music, singers, a proper live band and perhaps people dancing.

We wanted somewhere buzzing with energy where passengers would naturally gather and enjoy the evening.

Instead, we often found subdued solo instrumental performances and very little happening.

There were plenty of individual musicians around the ship, including guitarists, pianists, violin and cello players, and a very talented female saxophonist. The saxophonist was particularly good, but even this was another laid-back solo performance without singing.

Most of these performances were around 45 minutes and were more appropriate for a small lounge or intimate bar than the main social areas.

There is certainly a place for quieter piano, guitar, saxophone and classical instrumental performances, but these should complement the entertainment programme rather than dominate it.

We found only one genuinely lively band, and encountered them on approximately two occasions throughout the cruise.

What was missing was regular live vocalists, full bands, familiar upbeat music and entertainment that creates atmosphere and gets people involved.

The Arena should offer proper theatrical productions, while the Piazza should provide the lively music and social atmosphere that guests expect from the centre of a modern cruise ship.

The Dome – Overhyped and Underused

The Dome is another major disappointment. It looks impressive in photographs and is promoted as one of the ship’s signature spaces, but the actual experience was underwhelming.

We hardly used it during the cruise because there simply wasn’t enough compelling entertainment to draw us there.

The entertainment we encountered included a relatively modest acrobatics duo on one evening, a juggler on another evening (yes, a juggler as a featured show!), and a DJ on one occasion.

For such an impressive and unusual venue, we expected considerably more ambitious entertainment and a much stronger programme.

The Dome has enormous potential, but it felt underused and lacked the quality and variety we expected from a signature entertainment space on a ship like Sun Princess.

It is a shame to have such a spectacular venue without a regular programme of exciting, high-quality performances that give passengers a reason to return.

Princess has demonstrated on other cruises that it can deliver spectacular productions with wonderful casts, beautiful costumes and outstanding singing. We know what Princess is capable of, which makes this experience particularly disappointing.

For a 15-night cruise, we expected considerably more variety, energy and quality.

Buffet and Ship Design

The buffet was average. The walking space between food stations is simply not wide enough, and it feels crowded almost constantly.

Trying to find food and move around comfortably can be frustrating. The layout and circulation space need improvement.

The overall design of the ship also feels fragmented. There isn’t one continuous deck where you can comfortably walk the length of the ship.

Even the jogging area on the upper decks is relatively small. It takes approximately seven laps to complete a mile.

For a ship of this size, this is disappointing. We would have expected better walking and jogging facilities.

Cabins was ok. Some noise from waves and you hear some small sound from mechanical machinery I believe below but not deal breaker.

The cabins themselves are fine, but the entrance hallway feels cramped when two people are trying to move around at the same time.

And, as seems to be the case in virtually every cruise ship cabin, there are never enough hooks!

We even brought our own magnetic hooks and still struggled to find enough places to hang everything.

These may sound like small details, but practical storage and space make a difference when living in a cabin for 15 nights.

Cleanliness and Smoking in the Casino

One area where cleanliness really concerned us was the casino.

I was genuinely shocked that smoking is permitted in the casino. Ashtrays were repeatedly overflowing with cigarette butts, and ashes were scattered over gaming machines.

This was not an isolated incident. We encountered it on numerous occasions.

It was unpleasant and frankly disgusting. When someone was smoking nearby, I would simply leave the gaming area.

The smoking policy and the standard of cleanliness around the machines need serious attention. Guests should not have to tolerate cigarette smoke and ash-covered machines when trying to enjoy the casino.

There was also a recurring issue with used dishes not being collected promptly from tables.

Casino – Poor Game Selection and Table Minimums

This is an area where I have considerable professional experience. I spent 38 years in the casino business in Las Vegas, dealing high-end games for major players from around the world, as well as working with $5 craps.

I was surprised by the casino’s game selection, table minimums and general offering.

The craps minimum was initially $25, and there were hardly any players. I spoke to the casino manager and suggested reducing it to $15. He made that change the following day, and suddenly many more people were playing.

It raises an obvious question: why price customers out of games when a more reasonable minimum can create a much busier table?

You are paying the staff either way, so why not offer minimums that encourage more people to play?

The mix of games and minimum bets did not seem appropriate for the customers on this cruise.

On several occasions, I found only a couple of carnival games and one blackjack table open. There was no baccarat at all, which was a particularly glaring omission. I fully expected to find baccarat available.

We have experienced much better casino offerings on Celebrity, including $10 craps, baccarat, blackjack and slot tournaments. There was considerably more variety and activity.

The casino on Sun Princess seemed to lack both the variety of games and the appropriate table minimums to attract and retain players.

A casino needs the right balance of games, sensible minimums and enough tables open to create an atmosphere. The Sun Princess casino did not get this right.

With my 38 years of experience in the industry, I found the lack or full suite of games and smoking and high crap table limit surprising.

OVERALL

There are many things we enjoyed about Sun Princess.

The Premier Package, unlimited specialty dining, Crown Grill, Love by Britto, excellent restaurant service and friendly staff were real highlights.

However, for a 15-night cruise, the entertainment offering was disappointing—we liked just 2 shows out of 15. the Piazza was underused, the Dome was underwhelming, the buffet was too crowded, the ship design felt fragmented, and the casino experience fell well short of what we expected.

The ship is impressive, but impressive architecture alone does not make an outstanding cruise experience.

Princess needs to pay more attention to the overall guest experience, particularly evening entertainment, the use of the Piazza and Dome, casino operations, cleanliness and the practical design of public spaces.

We know Princess can do better because we have experienced it on previous cruises.

There is plenty to like about Sun Princess, but there are also some important areas that need improvement.

We hope Princess takes this feedback seriously.

This was the second time that we have been on the Sun Princess. We sailed on a Caribbean cruise last February and could not give it a good review. It was so frustrating and line ups were always an issue. I would have given it a 2 at best. For this cruise, I give it a 5. The rooms are beautiful and our room attendant was very good this time. They have alleviated the long lines at bars by providing a pop up bar at the pool on sea days, and also have a beer/pop cart rolling through the area as well. The crew was very friendly and accommodating as well. The entertainment staff did an excellent job, and the headliners were mostly excellent. The food was excellent, other than the raw meatballs that were consistently offered in the buffet. Dining room service was so much better than what we experienced in February. We had a wonderful experience.

Sun Princess is a large ship with a different feeling from our experience of previous Princess ships sailing from the UK. . On this 14 day Barcelona to Athens cruise the main group of passengers were American followed by Canadian, Australian and ,4th only 300 British. The cruisecsold as 14 days is actually 2 7 day cruises and 3,000 passengers got off in Rome to be replaced by 3,000 new passengers Rome to Athens.

Popular venues were always crowded and careful planning taking in less crowded spaces is required to make the most of this cruise. It is totally informal with both formal nights largely ignored by the male passengers - female passengers made much more effort. Deck 17, pool deck was particularly noisy and robust with sadly the regular towel reservation of sun loungers ignored by Princess. Luckily there was plenty of space on other decks and we had the relative calm of the Cabana Deck to retreat to. We found the MDR menus limited in comparison tomprrvious years, although the food was good. The menu repeated in week two which was disappointing. .We felt that Princess was driving customers to Premier and the many speciality restaurants on board. Recommendation if you can afford it - go for Sanctuary Class.

Went with 4 other people in a signature suite and a sanctuary mini suite before I begin the suite is not worth the upgrade all it is is a private louge,

I'll do a bullet point for cons and pros in my eyes compared to the others

PROS

1.the size the ship is a bit bigger then the others and that makes it more stable

Cons.

1. Layout and opening times. The layout on this ship is an absolute nightmare to try and navigate it does not flow compared to the others and the opening times for some of them is so confusing

2. Attitude of the staff. I've noticed on this cruise as there is a less ratio compared to the other ships make things taking longer and the well try or we will due it has changed alot when we ordered stuff on the other ship they ended getting some off the cocktails from deck 16 down to the restaurant but not this time.

3.menu as someone that has ibs and also is lactose free the stuff we can have is very limited and also there is no longer much choice for u to have and also in the older ship yes u where in the main dinning room but u had a small section and also had an extra 1 or 2 items that made the experience better but as the benefits allow you to have a separate dinning room but it does not feel special and u can hear the guest from down stairs. Plus there is no extra stuff to make u feel like it's a perk

I chose a Sanctuary suite comped by casino, got it midship and close to elevators. The rooms looked tired,I was on the Star Princess last year which I loved.

-Casino - strong smoke smell; and also not enough machines' The payout (RTP) really bad in comparison to Star Princess..lots of hosts walking but not really helping. Just a few jackpots, I got several majors myself; less slots than Star Princess;

- Sanctuary suite slightly bigger washroom, hardly used the balcony, supplies same as regular room; the fridge was not filled with any kind of drinks as posted I the website, that it will be full( I guess they are taking things out slowly); asked for a comb, dental kit, none per room steward;

- Santuary restaurant almost thad the same menu except for the main course which was Prime rib every day; a variety of different main courses should be installed since you a paying a premium;

Sanctuary club at the tail end, hardly used; limited hours; very small menu which was available below; drink stewards made the mixed drinks better if asked, not automatically done; shows at night but single singers...sad this should be open all day;

-ate at Butcher's block, husband got sick next day from steak tartare and some other item; no menu they ask you how you want you steak done and that is how they bring it to you from, the cow picture on the table mat tells the parts and is presented as shown; conitunuosly server comes back with some side banter from the host; cake was olive oil cake with orange I think was good;

-Love by Brito a pseudo molecular but all they had was the foam; We have eaten at Noma and most molecular restos; presentation is all it is, main course steak entree too hard; pink champagne icy palate cleanser was the only I liked; partner got sick next day from this Love By Brito; and we are very careful when eating; we carry alcohol, wipes, antibacterial and all;

- Sanctuary also took out the free ice cream went to the gelato guy said 2.95 and upstairs on the deck guy said 17.- something, but that is not the issue it is still on the website that the ice cream, i.e., gelato and concoctions above were covered; maybe not now

- Pizza restaurant was good ordered thin crust; salad was the most pathetic salad we have seen ; dessert was ok;

- Catch, another dissappointment quality, portion was really pathetic, bread was not fresh;

During the trip we met several voyagers getting sick from one thing or another so we became concerned about the food and ate at one that had a high rate of turnover thereby hopefully ensuring everything was fresh.

We tried the special Butcher's block first night, presentation good unfortunately my husband got sick first night, could have been the steak tartare; ambiance nice and funny, but not ra

We are platinum cruisers on Princess Cruise.

A much worse experience than in the old princess ships!!!

We ordered a sanctuary mini suite for us and our 17 years old daughter.

We have received cabin with a bank bed. Claiming a proper sleeping for our daughter they had supported kind of an army folding bed, that non of thier stuff members would agree to sleep on, without a real mattress.

50 years ago on army training I had recieved a better bed.

Only after 5 nights they supported a proper folding sofa.

Our daughter is still sick in her back since then.

Thiers guest services is rude and awful.

A registered 4 times request to speak with the hotel manager has not been fulfilled!!!!!

They just don't give a dam.

There are no silents areas at the ship.

The main Piazza is very noisy with the same band almost every night.

No places, as at the old ships with jazz music, silent music etc.

No library room.

A very sharp deterioration of the quality of entertainment.

There are only 1300 stuff members on more than 4300 travelers.

This sharp decrease in the ratio, compared to old ships is felt everwere.

The service is bad. Sometimes it takes around half an hour for a response from room service or housekeeping!!!!!

We were on the Sun Princess for two weeks and will not be sailing with Princess again.

The service is incredibly slow with long lines to order drinks alcoholic and non alcoholic. Once you do get through the line the bartenders take forever to mix a drink despite the obvious long lines. Even in the specialty restaurants you can expect to wait upwards of 20 minutes to receive your drink order. It seems like this is a tactic to limit drinks for those on the Drinks package.

Sea days had the ship completely overrun. No sunbeds available past 8am and forget trying to get a drink. We eventually learned that the only way to get anything to drink in a reasonable amount of time was to go back to out room and order it via room service.

The ship simply isn't built to handle the amount of people they put on it. Because of that you can expect other guests to be pushy and aggressive in securing their space. It ruined the overall experience daily.

In addition this, is not a Kid Friendly ship. They do have kids clubs but they lack in offerings and after trying them the Kids just didn't have fun and so were out and about with us. Many elderly guests seemed unhappy to see kids around (they are 15 and 17). Pushing in front of them in line and complaining to staff when they didn't have an adult with them. This sentiment was echoed by the staff who often ignored them when they tried to get a drink or something to eat.

For what they charge i just don't see the value in sailing with Princess again.

Just back from a short cruise around the Med, from Barcelona to Rome. My wife and I have been on 8 or 9 Princess cruises in the past (and have cruised with other companies too). We have always enjoyed them but were looking forward to sailing on a ‘flagship’ vessel. What a disappointment. Our fellow travellers were mostly Americans and Australians. Now I’m fond of our Aussie cousins but guys, not everything is a beach party. When the dress code is smart casual or formal, please don’t turn up in swimming trunks and flip-flops! No control exercised by the crew.

Despite its size, the public spaces actually seemed quite small, with fewer venues than the Royal class ships for ordinary folk. Plenty more options if you pay extra e.g. speciality dining or Sanctuary class cabins but we tend not to use those. The ship was difficult to navigate – you spend a lot of time walking up and down featureless cabin corridors to get from A to B, like a big ferry. The theatre seemed small compared with our previous cruises, with nowhere to put a drink. The theatre show that we saw was just plain weird, but shout out to Jessie Smith and his musical tribute to 1971, which he performed brilliantly despite technical issues that plagued him all evening. A trooper.

Our cabin was clean and bright, with a bathroom and walk-in shower that set a new benchmark. Really good. Such a pity the décor was so DULL. Good Lord, grey carpet, grey walls, grey curtains. Even the wood panelling was ..grey. The food was mainly good but the restaurant service was very slow. It should not take an hour and a half to serve three courses. Twice my wife and I left without our dessert. As for breakfast, avoid the “orange juice” which is just heavily diluted orange squash – disgusting.

The pool deck was like Benidorm. Almost impossible to get away from thumping loud music. The worst thing was ‘The Dome’ – a giant glass covered area occupying the entire front of the ship surrounding a teeny-tiny swimming pool. Everywhere are sun loungers – few places to sit at a table with a drink enjoying the view in quiet surroundings. Half the time there was no-one in it. When we visited there were often bar tenders cleaning glasses but the bar itself was nearly always shut. What a colossal waste of space. It is supposed to double as a venue but the problem with that is that is has the acoustics of a municipal swimming baths.

I much preferred our experiences on Princess’s Royal class of ship but I don’t think I’ll be travelling with Princess again. Their offering has moved decidedly down market.

I have done 30 plus Princess Cruises and this ship is the worse

The highlights are the elevators cabin Stewart the guys at the international cafe and staff in Sanctuary. The rest is a waste of money the buffet is so disjointed that once you get you toast, eggs and bacon everything is cold.

Complaining get you nowhere I reported the TV twice nothing happened. They ask you to fill in feedback cards and they don’t call or do anything

We book two tours via Princess both claimed wheelchair friendly but were not. When I complained the shore excursion person who rang accused me of lying then quoted something I never even spoke about. On Deck 17 where the main pools are you can’t get a coffee or cold drink until 10am but they are happy to sell there wears before 10am

I booked a Sanctuary Mini Suite and you get a small table in front of the couch that barely holds a cup of coffee and had to beg to get a second small one. The cost is not worth it

We sailed the 14 night itinerary from Rome to Barcelona, in a Mini Suite (on deck 11). We are a family of 4, two children aged 9 and 5.

This was our 2nd time on Sun Princess, and 13th time on Princess. Overall, we really enjoyed the cruise. Here is a breakdown based on the 4 areas I think are the most important:

Cabin - Mini Suite

I really loved the Mini Suite on Sun Princess. There is a ton of room and not once did it feel cramped. Same goes for storage, we were able to stow away all of our clothes, bags, hats, toiletries etc without ever feeling like the room was getting cluttered. The balcony was a decent size with two chairs, footstools and a table. The bathroom is larger compared to the balcony with a large shower. Our room was cleaned and towels and bedding every day, as well as being turned down each evening. John was very attentive and non intrusive.

Dining

There are more options for dining on Sun Princess vs some of the older ships, with a much wider choice of Speciality restaurants. We made the most of our Premier package by dining the speciality restaurants for all but one of the evenings. Our overall favourite for Princess is Crown Grill however on this trip we found it a bit patchy. The steak was great as always, but objectively the service was patchy and they struggled a bit when they were busy. The staff were working very hard but there were gaps in drinks service etc which seemed to be due to being a head or two short. Highlights for us was Catch by Rudi - service was perfect, the food was presented beautifully and was so fresh. Teppanyaki was a blast and we enjoyed the changes to Butchers Block, which felt very disjointed last year - worth trying again if you felt the same.

As for the included options - The Eatery food quality was great for a buffet, but I think the layout causes it to feel quite chaotic. The service here however is brilliant - always being offered drinks and clearing away old plates etc. The Lido snack bars offer a great choice of options, quickly and super fresh.

I believe the room service food options may have been scaled back a bit - we liked to use room service for a quick meal for the kids and the only choices were chicken fingers, burger and PB&J sandwich which definitely was a smaller choice vs last year.

Entertainment

We enjoyed the entertainment choices onboard. It felt like you could find some sort of live music somewhere onboard at any time. The bands in the pub were great. We liked most of the acts in the Dome and there were some nice options for the children. The kids clubs are fantastic - hard to keep the children out of them!

Service

The service onboard was drawer, from the bars to the restaurants, everyone was working hard and doing there best to serve everyone as quickly as possible. Bars are busier on sea days and with such a wide range of drinks it would take slightly longer to get served, but there were pop up bars / drinks trolleys plus on demand service via the Medallion which mitigated this. Service around the polled was brilliant - I liked the little touches, like water waiters walking round the deck offering water to guests, as well as trays of cold flannels being offered. Towels were always available and the staff managed sunbeds well and removed any that were unattended for 20 or so minutes.

To offer some critique - I know my way around the ship without having to check a map to find where a venue is, however, if your cabin is located in the aft section of the ship it makes it a bit more tedious to get to the upper outside areas of the ship as the rear lifts do not serve any public area of deck 17/18 besides the Sanctuary. It’s probably a personal thing but I disliked having to walk from the aft to midships to find a usable lift to get me up to the upper areas of the ship.

Also - I can’t help but think that International Cafe being located on deck 9, almost as an extension of The Eatery, rather than maybe on Deck 7 (Swapped with Coffee Currents maybe?)