16-Day Europe and North America Cruise aboard SKY PRINCESS

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.