SKY PRINCESS Reviews

Mini Suite on Sky Princess was much debated before we moved in for a 14 night Oktoberfest cruise to Norway and Hamburg on September 26. The room itself, right at the front of the ship, is roomy, comfortable and has a huge balcony. During port days it affords a great place to sunbathe and take in the views. But when the ship sails, and hits any moderately rough seas or high winds, you get the full force against the windows, and frequent loud bangs as the bow hits the waves. Movement was greater than in our normal mid-ship mini suite, but didn't really cause us problems. The other downside of the room is that it is far from the entertainment and dining areas. We were not warned in advance that the ship would be taken over by 1700 American guests who outnumbered the 700 Brits onboard. American food, American Football, Jam packed casino with high stakes at the tables, eye watering prices for organised tours from the ship, and no decent shuttle services to towns and cities. The dollar ruled the waves on this trip. We paid the quite extorionate price for the Plus drinks package, and for those who didn't drinks prices onboard were high and then a 20 per cent service charge was added to each beverage. Princess intends to raise this even higher. As a retired travel writer I have been lucky to do over 40 cruises, but unfortunately as each progressed the standards appeared to drop. On shore they call it "shrinkology". Food in the main restaurant was OK, just too much fussing about with the basic ingredients and adding fancy names to dishes. The buffet was good and plenty of choice there, although in most cases the hot dishes could have been hotter. Staff were great as usual, the ship was immaculately clean and both embarking and disembarking made easy. We are booked again for next year and Princess is still on my list of go-to cruise companies.

Great itinerary, ship seemed crowded, a lot of wheelchairs and scooters, which made it difficult at times to walk in the long hallway on deck 7 from the Vista Lounge to the front of the ship. Princess live was always crowded hard to find a seat. Games in the game area were missing pieces. Shows were good, no problem finding a seat. Comedians late night shows were great, they were not raunchy, but funny, which was refreshing Vista lounge staff was great. The non-alcoholic sparkling wine was delicious. The Thermal Spa was a dissapointment, guests hogged the 10 or 11 chairs in there. World Fresh Market (buffet) was crowded, hard to find a seat and get a cup of tea/juice delivered to the table. Speciality restuarants did not disappoint, especially Sabatini's, my favorite. We took all Princess sponsored excursions, the only disappointing one was the one in Visby, Sweeden, "A Taste of Gotland" We didn't need to visit a sheep farm. The tasting was at a beach resort, but may have been nicer had we had it inside the walled town. The carpet in our cabin smelled, and although the steward shampooed and deodorized it still had a funky smell. Makes me wonder how often the carpets are cleaned.

Two week cruise in a mini suite with balcony. Embarkation and Disembarkation excellent. Food choice - excellent with the exception of the main dining rooms - both exactly the same offering, which was very repetitive. Staff worked hard in the dining room and all appeared efficient, happy and helpful.

For personal reasons it's been 12 years since my husband and I cruised with Princess and we will not cruise with Princess again, despite being Platinum members. Most benefits of Platinum members seem to have been removed. The most important benefit of Elite members, appears to be free laundry! It only costs 3$ to go do it in the laundromat on board.

The bed was the most uncomfortable I have ever slept in, on land or sea, they were hard and hot, giving rise to body aches and pains each morning. The duvet was so lumpy we had it removed and used a fleece blanket.

No receipt is offered for purchases on board, not for drinks or any extras (which are prolific). When errors are made these are not known until you check your account on the app. Check it daily! How many go unnoticed I wonder? This happened to us and a complaint raised, the correction was made but if a receipt is issued you have confirmation of what you purchased and on what day. Simple good accounting practice.

The buffet: constantly being asked if drinks are required in the buffet restaurant is very annoying. I don't know if the waiters are working on commission or just trying to be helpful but it's not conducive to a restful meal. They were rightly quick to clear plates from the tables which was welcome.

Cappucino's in at least 80% of the bars were not cappucino, and more like a flat white. Some of the staff were sullen, despite wishing them good morning/afternoon with a smile.

The main reasons we will not travel with Princess again are due to the upselling everywhere on the ship.

The library has been forsaken for more opportunity for selling. There is noise and activities taking place in every corner of the ship inside and out every day, every waking hour.

In my experience and opinion, Princess has turned into an upselling, party ship with non transparent pricing and we have outgrown this kind of cruising.

My wife and I cruised on the Sky Princess in August 2026 for a 14 day cruise from Southampton UK to France, Spain, and Portugal. Cruise included watching the total solar eclipse while we were at sea. It was our overall 50+ cruise, 6th on Princess - our usual cruises are on Royal Caribbean, Celebrity, and Norwegian. We really liked the Sky Princess, it’s now one of our favorite ships!

EMBARK/DEBARK. We had an issue with our Princess transfer from Gatwick airport to Southhampton – we had trouble finding the Princess folks at the airport and when we did (hint: they were in the coffee shop), they did not have us on their transfer list. They would not help us so we ended up Ubering to the port – about $230 in 2 hrs vice transfer for $140. Fortunately, Princess “made it right” - they refunded the transfer $, paid the Uber $, and gave us $ in ship credit as well. Not sure what happened as our travel agent re-confirmed she scheduled the transfer with Princess in advance. Rest of embarkation was smooth.

Debark at the other end in Southampton was amazing, no immigration lines, just get our bags and go to transfer bus for trip to Gatwick.

SHIP. The Sky was a nice large ship with a smaller passenger load than others so the ship rarely seemed crowded. Maybe because of the itinerary there were few kids on board so it was a peaceful cruise, not that we dislike kids but still… Ship is 7 years old but had been refurbed recently as it was very clean. Wifi was modern and had good connections. Plenty of common areas and food places.

CABIN. We booked a standard balcony room which seemed small at first (no couch) but had a great layout. Plenty of storage space, a closet separate from the bedroom so you weren’t having to get by the bed to use, and a decent size bathroom and shower. Plenty of electric outlets and USB connections. Our cabin steward was fantastic and we had 2 services a day whereas many ships are down to one.

FOOD. Three main restaurants (2 walk-in, 1 reservation) with same menu, a terrific buffet, also a grill and a pizza place by pool, 24 hr International Café, and six specialty restaurants. We found menu in main restaurants to be limited in selections so only ate about 1/3 of dinners there. We ate at pay Crown Grill once, good steaks.

However, we LOVED the buffet! Most ship buffets are similar, good selection, limited seating during prime times, they get old after a while. The Sky buffet was very large, half the length of the ship, plenty of seats, long hours, and many, many choices. They had 3 carving stations featuring different meat selections. Plenty of gluten-free and veggie selections if you like those. And a terrific bakery section with wonderful desserts. We ate most of our lunches & dinners here.

FITNESS. We like to work out so used the gym quite a bit, nice selection of weights and many aerobic machines. As average age was probably 70+, not much competition (although I’m 70, lol). We walked on upstairs track every day as the weather was very pleasant the entire cruise, only 1 day of rain and temps in the 70s-80s.

PORTS. This cruise was unique since the main purpose was to see the total eclipse off the west coast of Spain. As such the itinerary included many small cities in Spain plus Cherbourg and Lisbon. All were fine, very similar old European cities which were walkable. We only booked a few excursions as we normally either walked off the ship or took the free shuttle into the city. We cruised this region several times so the only stop that was unique to us was Cherbourg where we went to the famous monastery Mont St Michel, beautiful and worth visiting.

OVERALL. We loved the ship and seeing the total eclipse was amazing! We typically only pick Princess for their unique itineraries and find their ships “okay” but the Sky was a cut above.

Activities- Music is literally from the 1950s and 60s. Stop it with the nonstop ABBA

Service - as is always the case on Princess, excellent staff working with challenging guests tends to wear anyone out. But, they helped us well.

Cabin - Shower curtain was the main drag, but that's just a ship design. Get the Deluxe cabin if possible for your sanity.

Dining - Food is better than the SUn Princess in most places except for Crown Grill. Don't know why the steaks were subpar, but they were.

Entertainment- Third Time Lucky band was a monotone dead sound - terrible. Neptune was great, but they were forced to play ABBA and ancient music ad-nauseum. You like Jugglers, magicians, and elevator roulette, and flippy cup action???? Well, they have plenty of children activities for the elderly all day.... Terrible entertainment

Disembarkation - Getting off the ship was delayed, but that was not the worst part. Getting a taxi took over an hour and there was no direction or guidance anywhere - "every man/woman for him/her self". We ended up walking to our hotel and that took less time- beautiful weather helped.

SMOKE made our experience in the casino horrible. Staff never enforced the no smoking in the non-smoking section and smoke was never filtered and there was no ventilation to help ease the flow of air. The slots were set to "take mode" - no one had fun- by far the worst casino experience ever.

This is the 2nd Princess and 8th overall cruise we've taken, with most others being years ago on RCL, NCL and Celebrity. It was a terrific cruise and we would sail the Sky Princess again in a heartbeat! The balcony cabin was clean, well maintained while we were there and comfortable. The shower was a pretty good size for a cruise cabin. The television needed reset the first night in order to access all channels but that was handled promptly. The excursions, while expensive, were well run and fun. We ate at Alfredo's quite a bit which is the best food on the cruise IMHO. The two nights at Sabatini's and two at Rudi's Catch restaurants provided delicious meals. While not the most delicious food I've ever eaten in my life, they were quite enjoyable meals. Though we were only able to obtain 2 prebooked premium meals before boarding, once onboard we were able to walk up to the dining host and obtain tables. Our one meal at the buffet was hot, flavorful and provided a good variety of brunch foods. Our one breakfast in the main dining room also provided a hot flavorful meal. Wine was just ok on the premium package but not undrinkable and spouse was happy with the bourbon selections. We are not partiers. We like to sleep in unless it is a port day, then late afternoon after returning from port enjoy time listening to piano music or jazz music in a bar, dinner then back to either a piano bar or seeing a comedian. Music was great, especially Adrian on the piano. This cruise is laid back and suited us. We did attend the main show once and enjoyed it. If you are a young family looking for a lot of action, probably best to look at another cruise line but if you are middle aged to older and looking for a relaxed vibe, interesting shore excursions and nice meals this could be a good choice for you. Also, I did encounter a mild medical issue and was satisfied with the physician on the ship. We also appreciated the timely delivery of room service, especially the morning coffee, fruit and croissants ordered early so that we could have a bite before leaving for early excursions. One thing I would like to see increased is the number of educational talks about the various ports and countries visited. Those are quite enjoyable and made visits better. We have booked another Princess cruise based on our good experience with the Sky. Kudos to the staff who didn't make us wait for drinks or meals and were quite friendly.

This ship is average at best. I am a very experienced cruiser with at least 50+ cruises under my belt. This was my 3rd and last time on Princess. They are just average and it seems that is what they strive for. The food is pretty bad too, although the breakfast buffet is pretty decent. Too much to get into, but I will share one situation, so that you know how this ship operates. We went to the specialty steakhouse at $66 pp including taxes and gratuity. We each got the bone in Strip steak. When the steak came, I was SUPER shocked to see that it was a 3/4 inch steak. Certainly not what you would expect from a nice steakhouse. Even worse than that is that it was so tough neither of us could cut or eat it. I actually asked for a sharper steak knife, but that didn't make much difference, and my jaw got tired from trying to chew it. And it wasnt bc it was overcooked. It was it was a poor cut of meat. I used to work for Sysco foods and I can tell you that this was not accidentally a bad steak. Somebody had to make the decision to purchase poor quality 3/4 inch steaks to serve at this steakhouse. This wreaked of trying to rip off customers by upcharging them and then serving them the cheapest cut of meat possible and pocketing the spread. The food and menu offering in the dining rooms were worse. Since Princess obviously doesn't care about quality, I will never be back.

This was our 14th cruise on Princess and 20 total since 1994. We had high expectations for the Sky Princess and looked forward to staying in a mini suite for the first time. The cabin was very spacious, and I liked having a bath tub, but there was a huge stain on the couch as well as a smaller stain on the carpet. The nightstand area was dusty. Our robes were tattered and threadbare.

We found that with each Princess cruise (we cruise 1-2 times a year), the food quality has declined in the buffet as well as in the dining rooms. They seem to nickel and dime us. The gelatos in the ice cream parlor is not included in any package. Does Princess really need $4.50 from us when we bought a beverage package?

We had a lot of onboard credits and used them at The Catch by Rudi. That dinner was excellent. If you don't have the premium package or onboard credits, it would have cost $132. Princess also raised the gratuities. Now it's $19/day per person. Just last May when we were on the Emerald Princess, it was $17/day. The dining/beverage gratuites also went up from 18% to 20%.

Princess now charges an additional $24 for filet mignon and lobster tail in the dining rooms, when those used to be included on formal nights. They did offer filet mignon one night. My husband ordered it, but what came on his plate looked like a cheap cut of sirloin. He ate a couple of bites and asked for a different serving. The second cut was the same. Thin and tough. Mine was fine.

One night in the buffet, they had "roast beef." However, when I saw it on my husband's plate, I questioned the entree because it looked like ground beef rolled up like a roulade then sliced. I tasted it and it was inedible. The texture was gross, like beef tartare. They used to have lamb in the carving stations. This time, if you wanted lamb chops, you had to special order it from the attendant in the buffet. Again, it was tough and a thin cut.

Having always enjoyed the buffet on Princess, this time we were very disappointed. The potatoes were undercooked and tasteless. The bagels weren't toasted completely so it was doughy. I understand rising food costs, but this experience has led us to stay away from Princess cruises.

Also, the staff at every venue seemed unhappy. The service wasn't what we were used to on Princess either.

We will be cruising on Viking going forward. Because there, every meal is like dining at a 3-star Michelin restaurant. Everything is included so we get more value for our money.

We chose this cruise because of the itinerary. It was wonderful. Every port in Norway and Iceland was amazingly beautiful.