15-Day Mediterranean Cruise Aboard the SUN PRINCESS

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