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Name: David Barnes
Email: barned@neesnet.com
Age: 31
Occupation: Electrical Engineer
NumberOfCruises: 8
TravelAgent: No
Ship: Princess-Sun
SailingDate: 4/18/98
Itinerary: Western Caribbean
FoodDiningRoom: 75
CruiseDirector: 80
CabinComfort: 95
FoodRoomService: 80
CruiseStaff: 80
CabinAmenities: 98
FoodLidoDeck: 90
DiningRoomService: 98
CabinQuietness: 95
FoodMidnightBuffets: 0
CabinSteward: 100
ShoreExcVariety: 99
FoodVariety: 60
DeckService: 95
ShoreExcValue: 85
GoodForHoneymoon: 90
CasinoStaff: 90
PrivateIsland: 100
GoodForFamilies: 80
LoungeService: 98
TenderService: 95
GoodForSeniors: 85
BeautySalonStaff: 75
EntertainmentLounges: 50
WheelchairAccess:
ExerciseFacilities: 100
EntertShowLounge: 50
OverallPortsofCall: 95
BeautySalon: 90
EntertainmentPoolside: 60
CruiseActivities: 95
Casino: 90
AirSeaProgram: 1
MedicalFacilities:
ShipCleanliness: 100
EmbarkDisembark: 90
DiscoNightclubs: 85
DeckSpace: 100
Stabilization: 90
ShopsOnBoard: 85
SpaceRatio: 100
OverallCruiseValue: 90
Submit: Submit Review
Date: 27 Apr 1998
Time: 10:59:58
Remote Name: 192.146.145.220
Remote User:
Comments
This was my wife's 7th cruise and my 8th cruise - for both of us it was our third in
Princess (the others were all on NCL). The Sun Princess is a beautiful
ship (at least on the inside - she is less than photogenic from a distance, especially
from the stern). I would rate her highest of all ships for the open deck
layouts and the amount of deckspace she provides. The mid-ship pool area is excellent and
we particularly enjoyed the pool and jacuzzi area at the stern
which was shielded from the sun. The ship’s interior was equally beautiful and I
would have to say that the Wheelhouse Lounge was one of the most
unique, charactered lounges we’ve ever seen on any ship (the lounge is designed
around a seafaring theme with wooden walls and tasteful, comfortable
furnishings). The atrium (with its glass elevators) is also beautiful. The disco was a bit
small (particularly the dance floor) and the revolving doors were a
pain to use when entering or leaving (especially when following passengers who for
whatever reason felt like pushing the doors at a high speed). The
pizzeria was excellent - although it required sit-down service and the menu indicated that
tips were at the passenger’s discretion. This issue of tipping
(cash we presumed) was not very classy and we would have preferred to be able to pickup
slices without having to sit (as was done on other Princess
ships). The pizza, however, was excellent. The only problem I have with the layout of the
Sun Princess is that she lacks the observation lounge that many
ships have at the bow-end of the top deck. Unfortunately, Princess put the Horizon Court
restaurant up there. This was the biggest oversight (the next
biggest, yet easiest to remedy, was the lack of any clocks in the mid-ship pool area. It
is nice to know what time it is without having to bring a watch up on
deck). The only other caution I would give future passengers is to beware of burning your
bare feet on the Sun Princess’ upper decking. I don’t know what
type of substance her upper decks are made of (I’m talking about the approximately
40% of the open areas which are not carpeted), but they retain the
sun’s heat worse than an iron. Be particularly careful of the steps to the smaller
mid-ship pool which are teak but have metal edges which burn like you
wouldn’t believe. The best bet is to bring sandals or other beach-type footwear out
on deck with you.
As seems to be typical with Princess (after 3 cruises we definitely sense a pattern here),
the worst (relative) parts of this cruise were the food and the
entertainment. Princess indicated that they recently revised both areas and based upon
what we experienced they improved neither. The dinner menu
lacked variety (especially for those of us who don’t eat seafood) and we would easily
rate the food as the worst of our 8 cruises. The 24-hour service in
the Horizon Court restaurant provided pretty good food, but the dessert selection was
almost non-existent. Unlike previous cruises, there were at least 3
of the 7 dinners where we did not like anything on that particular night's menu and had to
settle for the always-available chicken or steak. We also missed
the fact that the Sun Princess did not offer any midnight buffets. The ice cream bar was
nice (although it was not free like on NCL) and the Terrace Grill
made pretty good hamburgers and hot dogs up on deck.
We only went to 1 show (called Pirates) and we left before it ended. The costumes were
interesting, but there was absolutely no plot (unless you call a play
about pirates which has been politically-corrected to include women’s rights and the
macarena something deserving of Broadway). The lounge acts didn’t
appeal to us (as I doubt they would anyone who had cruised before) and the other show was
a reworking of a show we had previously seen and didn’t
care for). We would have liked more dancing, but had to settle for looking out at the
ocean most nights.
Of the ports of call, we had a great time at Princess Cays (if you go, get off the ship
early and travel all the way to the left to grab a hammock below a nice
palm tree - there is nothing more relaxing). We also enjoyed Grand Cayman (stingray city!)
and Cozumel (on the Fury catamaran). We stayed on the ship
in Ocho Rios (we’ve been there before and wouldn’t bother seeing it again -
Princess would be better changing the port or just providing another day at
sea). There was a good variety of shore excursions.
Finally, we were not pleased with our air/sea arrangements which took us through Detroit
on the flight down from Boston (which doubled our total travel
time) and which got us back to Boston at 12:30 am the day after we left the ship. There is
nothing worse than flying home from a cruise after having
watched the ship you were on leave port on the next cruise (as we did waiting for our 6:55
pm flight home). We have never had this problem with NCL -
the only other travel problem we had was our air/sea arrangements for the Star Princess
back in 1996 (which involved having to drive to Detroit from
Boston - after a canceled flight - but I won’t go into that horrendous nightmare).
Needless to say, Princess is good on west coast cruises (probably since
they are based in Los Angeles) but doesn’t do well for east coast cruises. We will be
making our own flight arrangements next time.
Overall, the cruise was very good (of course 7 days of perfect weather didn’t hurt).
The ship was beautiful (although too big for my tastes) and with
Princess’ pattern of building larger and larger ships (anything over 70000 tons is
just ridiculous) I have doubts as to our future cruising plans with
Princess. Of all the ships we’ve taken, we still rate the Norwegian Crown and
Norwegian Dream (when we sailed it was the shorter-length Dreamward) as
the best overall ships.
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