I am currently sailing on Princess Cruises' newest and largest ship, the Sun Princess. I came aboard as a guest of the Princess for five days to give you all that this new cruise ship has to offer.
We boarded the ship in Athens, Greece and will disembark in Rome, Italy. After spending just over 48 hours on her ship, here are my first impressions of Sun Princess. This is only her ship's second voyage, so her kinks are still being worked out.
This is my 9th cruise with Princess and this cruise ship is completely different from the others in their fleet. Over the past year, I have twice toured the shipyards of ships under construction in Monfalcone, Italy. It's a really nice feeling to finally see the finished ship and all the unique spaces it has to offer.
Because it's a new class of ship and different from the other ships in the Princess fleet, it took me a little longer than usual to get my bearings and figure out where everything was.
The ship is gorgeous both inside and out. From the main dining room to the piazza, it feels just right. I'm currently writing this from Wheelhouse Bar and I absolutely love this space.
One of the biggest changes to the ship was moving the buffet (The Eatery) from its traditional location at the top of the ship out to the atrium on deck 9. Sister cruise line Costa also recently did this. I really like the new ship. It just makes more sense.
But there's still food at the Lido Deck, which has a variety of stations selling pizza, tacos, burgers, and more.
There are many unique dining options to try throughout your cruise. I'll explain more about that after I get back.
The crew on board has been amazing so far. You would never know that this is only the ship's second cruise. And I overheard not only myself but many other passengers talking about how friendly they were and what a great job they were doing. If you book a cruise on the ship, be sure to visit Wirat at Crooners and Lido Bar. She is truly amazing!
I am staying in a balcony cabin on deck 17. Below you can watch a two minute video tour of my cabin.
One thing Princess really did get right was making sure there were plenty of power outlets around the cabin. There are 110, USB, and USB-C outlets on both sides of the bed. There are several outlets on the desk as well.
The bathroom is by far the best of any princess bathroom and has a great shower.
Another nice feature is that there is a motion-detecting light on the floor if you need to wake up in the middle of the night.
There are still a few things I need to work on before I'm 100%. The new Princess app is missing useful information that passengers need, such as meal times and bar and lounge hours. We had to wait until the new app was 100% ready before releasing it.
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Also, since the Princess had recently taken delivery of her ship, there wasn't much entertainment in store. These include Princess Arena and Spellbound.
The dome is mostly closed during performances. I'm hoping it opens tomorrow for our sea day because it looks like the perfect place to be at the sea.
I was able to get through it and take a few photos on boarding day. I think it will be really popular with guests.
My Ocean Medallion has worked perfectly so far. It's much better than having a cruise card.
Park19 is another area of the ship that remains closed and has not yet opened. Once the ship receives safety approval, Sea Breeze will finally open. It looks like a lot of fun to wander around the top of the ship.
WiFi was fine unless you were uploading large videos. I was able to make a video call with my son today, and the 10-minute call didn't drop once.
One big disappointment is that there was no place to drink on the Lido deck other than going to the bar. But Princess has addressed this issue today and added a beverage station that includes water, iced tea and lemonade. This trend should continue as problems are solved on new types of cruise ships.
Surprisingly, Sun Princess does not have a basketball court.
I will tell you more about Sun Princess after the cruise. Tonight I'll be giving you a sneak peek at Spellbound, the cruise line's second special experience that brings the magic of the Magic Castle to the seas for the first time.
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