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Name: Louis Snitkin
Email: las@monad.net
Age: 46
Occupation: VP of Sales & Marketing
NumberOfCruises: 4
TravelAgent: No
Ship: Princess-Sun
SailingDate: February 7, 1998
Itinerary: Western Caribbean
FoodDiningRoom: 90
CruiseDirector: 80
CabinComfort: 90
FoodRoomService:
CruiseStaff: 85
CabinAmenities: 95
FoodLidoDeck: 85
DiningRoomService: 98
CabinQuietness: 95
FoodMidnightBuffets:
CabinSteward: 98
ShoreExcVariety: 90
FoodVariety: 95
DeckService: 98
ShoreExcValue: 85
GoodForHoneymoon: 90
CasinoStaff:
PrivateIsland:
GoodForFamilies: 90
LoungeService: 90
TenderService: 90
GoodForSeniors: 95
BeautySalonStaff: 90
EntertainmentLounges: 75
WheelchairAccess: 95
ExerciseFacilities: 88
EntertShowLounge: 75
OverallPortsofCall: 90
BeautySalon: 90
EntertainmentPoolside: 85
CruiseActivities: 85
Casino: 85
AirSeaProgram:
MedicalFacilities:
ShipCleanliness: 98
EmbarkDisembark: 90
DiscoNightclubs: 80
DeckSpace: 95
Stabilization: 98
ShopsOnBoard: 85
SpaceRatio: 90
OverallCruiseValue: 95
Submit: Submit Review
Date: 15 Feb 1998
Time: 19:05:42
Remote Name: 208.28.193.63
Remote User:
Comments
My wife and I are very active, and participate in a lot of water sports and other physical
activities. We work out every day,
and try to maintain our program on our cruises. We do, however, let our eating program
slide for seven days. (Doesn't
make us bad people, does it?)
The Sun Princess is an absolutely beautiful ship. She is well maintained, and is kept in
top condition. It's the first ship that
I've been on that has a teak promenade deck with teak lounge chairs. The crew is always
painting, cleaning, and
varnishing something.
Check-in was easy and painless, and you get a plastic card that serves as your room key,
on board charge card, and
boarding card. Princess is very security conscious, and you had to slip your card into a
machine that matched your photo
image with the magnetic strip on your card; then, when you reboarded, they could be sure
that your card wasn't being
used by an unauthorized person. (It seems that they make allowances for sun tan lotion,
hats, and nasty beach clothing)
Our room was on deck 11 (Aloha deck) midship (A521). The balcony did reduce the size of
the room somewhat, but it
was still very serviceable, and very well appointed. Having a balcony was fantastic! It
has now become a priority for future
cruises. You can even turn around in the shower without hitting the walls. We wanted to
take our room steward home with
us. He always had a smile on his face, and was extremely efficient without being
intrusive. During the cruise we happened
to see the inside of a mini-suite. I would recommend that you avoid seeing one at all
costs, or you will end up with suite
envy the rest of the trip.
First night: We went to dinner to face the people we would be eating with for the rest of
the cruise. We always have the
fear that we will be stuck with some "stiffs" or people we just don't like. We
were pleasantly surprised. There were two
other couples around our age, and one elderly couple who were alot of fun. We ended-up
spending a great deal of time
with them, including fun at ports of call and shows on the ship. (And a fair amount of
drinking) Dinner was very good, and
our waiter (Jose) and assistant waiter (Andrew) were excellent. They had great senses of
humor, and had a great
demeanor the entire cruise. The women all ordered cappucinos after dinner, and two of us
ordered double espressos. It
was the only time we had to order them, because they just showed up automatically every
night after that. The head
waiter was always present, and checked on us every night. All three of them knew our names
by the second night. The
entertainer was a comedian who was funny, but needs to update his act. The Princess
Theatre is very comfortable, and
there isn't a bad seat in the house.
First day: (Princess Cays) We arrived on schedule, but we had experienced 8 - 13 foot seas
the first night, and they were
still very high and choppy at the island (The Sun is the most stable ship I've been on. We
hardly noticed the movement,
let alone would have guessed the seas were so high) The captain decided that it would be
impossible to safely tender us
to the island, so we had an extra day at sea. It was very windy and cool, so sun time was
limited to the diehards. (My wife
included) We had lunch at Verdi's Pizzaria. The food was very good, both the pizza and the
calzone. (We shared) Since
the weather was not friendly, we exercised twice. The gym is reasonably well equipped, but
be aware that you have to put
your name on a sign-up sheet every day for a treadmill. The better alternative is to walk
around the promenade deck
(1/3 mile around). It is protected at the bow, so you don't have to fight the wind when
you come around. This was
dress-up night (I have my own tux, so it's easy) To keep from repeating myself, dinner was
good every night, and the
variety was good. You always had the option of vegetarian, healthy low fat, broiled
salmon, or steak and potatoes, if you
didn't like the choices available. The show tonight was the first production show
(Pirates). It was enjoyable, although it
was hokey. The costumes were good, as was the dancing, but the lead male singer should
keep his day job. There is no
food allowed in the theatre, but you can drink in the Vista lounge. Shows alternated in
the two different venues.
Second day (Jamaica): We followed the recommendation of several people on the cruise
newgroup and negotiated with a
J.U.T.A. driver to take us around the island. He took us to Dunns River Falls, and waited
for us while we made the climb up
the falls. He then took us on a tour of the rain forest, making several stops to teach us
about the local vegetation
including coffee, cocoa, limes, and other special plants (no not that stuff). Next stop
was the shopping district, where he
waited while we shopped. We picked up some Cuban cigars to smoke that night. He then took
us back to the ship. Our
driver was well informed, good humored, and very accomodating. It cost us $20 per person.
(A true bargain!) Jamaica is a
very poor country, and people are very high pressure to sell their wares (or braid your
hair). We found that a polite no
thank you worked. We had burgers, hot dogs, and fries for our afternoon snack at the
topside grill. After the show (a
decent instrumentalist) we went up to the pool deck for the Caribbean night party. One of
our new friends had picked up
Rasta hats in Jamaica; so we donned our hats, lit up our Romeo & Juliets (Cuban
cigars), ordered some drinks, and
paaartied!
Day three (Grand Cayman): Today was water day. We started out the day by taking a research
submarine that carries two
passengers and the operator to a depth of 800 feet, and then slowly resurfaces. When we
got to 800 feet, our operator
turned on the lights and we were staring at a large octopus. We startled him, and he swam
in front of the sub, gave off a
burst of ink, and then sat on top of the sub for a while. Our operator was almost giddy.
Seems that he never saw one
down so deep, nor such a large one (@ 6 feet long). We saw an incredible variety of coral
and sponges on the way up. It
was expensive ($299 per person), but well worth it. We also purchased a video of our dive,
so we can remember it
whenever we feel like it. Next was the beginners’ scuba diving excursion. Although we
have gone scuba diving before,
we're not certified, so we took the beginner's dive. The instructor was very thorough, and
took a lot of time to make sure
we were comfortable, and could handle ourselves if we lost our mask or regulator, or could
share his air if we ran out.
(just safety precautions, nothing like that happened) Today was our lucky day! We started
our dive by seeing a barracuda!
We proceeded to a maximum depth of @35 feet to a ship wreck. To top off a great dive, we
came upon a tortoise
swimming around near some coral at @30'. Wow! This was our lucky day. When we surfaced,
our instructor was jumping
around like a kid on christmas morning. He couldn't beleive we saw a tortoise. We had one
of the dive staff from the ship
with us, and he just stared at the tortoise for a few minutes in disbelief. I needed my
afternoon nap today (boy I’ll miss
them when I get home) Another great dinner (formal again), but we all skipped the show and
had some drinks and
conversation.
Day five (Cozumel): We’ve been here before, so we had the day planned out well. We
started the day by taking a
catamaran ride to go snorkeling at Columbia reef and Palancar reef. The Palancar reef is
world famous, and the dives
were easy because they were drift dives. Drift dives are when you go into the water, and
just let it take you in the
direction of the current. The boat followed, and picked us up at an appropriate place. On
the way back the margaritas and
beer flowed in abundance; we were cross-eyed when we reached the ship. A quick shower and
then lunch at the Horizon
Court (open 24 hours a day, good variety, fresh food, most things were tasty), and then
off to meet our dinner mates at
Carlos & Charlies. We hit a few stores on the way, and then met up with our friends
and a large group of people from our
ship and the Holland America ship that was in port. We started with margaritas, and then
supplemented them with
slammers and shots. The margaritas were served in their ‘yard’ glasses (really @
18 inches high) and go down really
well. The party cranked up, and we were dancing and having a good time. We staggered out
of C&C’s, made our way to a
couple of taxis, and to our rooms without any mishaps; however, we all missed dinner. My
wife is certain that we weren’t
asleep, but rather were unconscious. I’ve never slept for 13 ½ hours before, but I
was bright eyed and bushy tailed the
next day. We did miss lobster night.
Day six (at sea): A good day to lay in the sun and read. I wasn’t hung over, but I
was moving slowly. The weather was
perfect again, and we got a lot of sun. I managed to finish one book on the cruise, and
get halfway through another. The
ship has a nice library, and you can check out books to read while on the cruise. We had
Verdi’s pizza again today, and
ate entirely too much. We sat and talked with people most of the day, and tried to forget
that the trip was coming to an
end. We had our farewell dinner (the special items tonight were crab legs and prime rib,
and of course the baked Alaska
parade), and went to the final show. The undersea Odessey show was contrived and poorly
produced. The lead male
singer showed us just how bad he can be. The Chinese acrobats were the highlight of the
show. Saying good night tonight
was a little sad, as we thoroughly enjoyed our new found friends. We finished packing, put
our bags in the hallway, and
went to sleep.
Day seven (disembarkation): Princess really has things well organized, and our
disembarkation was smooth and
uneventful. Clearing customs was easy, and hassle free (They had a customs agent greeting
us along with his cute golden
lab. We didn’t pet him, he was too busy sniffing); and we found our bags and a porter
easily.
Summary: Service – excellent Food – very good Entertainment – fair to poor
Lounges – fair to good Ship – excellent
Excursions – very good
We’re already planning to sail on the Dawn next year. We’ve sailed on NCL and
RCCL, but we feel that overall Princess
does the best job. Happy cruising.
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