Sun Princess Was NOT What We Expected. Here’s Why

Sun Princess Was NOT What We Expected. Here’s Why

I went on my very first Princess Cruise back in 2007 so I’ve seen the cruise line evolve I’ve been on quite a few new ships and I’ve always loved the product but when I boarded Sun princess princess Cruz’s newest and largest cruise ship there was so much I wasn’t

Expecting hi there I’m Elana from the website lifewall cruise.com welcome or welcome back to my channel now if you are a longtime princess Cruiser let me reassure you there is so much that you are going to love however there is a lot that is different and really has evolved

I guess this ship does feel like an evolution of the princess product and if you are new to Princess Cruises I think there is also a lot that you are going to love now we recently sailed on board Sun princess for a 5day media sailing so

It was a little bit of a whirlwind we got to see do eat a lot in the those 5 days and in this video I’m going to share with you my review of the sun princess along with some things that you’ll really want to know for your

Sailings I’ll also answer some of your questions and I’ll share with you the things that I thought were absolute hits and a couple that I thought were perhaps misses or things I might just need to get used to now as we shat I’m also going to show you around the cruise ship

From the public areas to the pool decks to The Cabins so you’ll have a little bit of a mini Sun Princess cruise ship tour as as well now before I get started I did want to mention that if you like this video if you find it helpful

Informative or enjoyable in any way then please do give this video a big thumbs up I really do appreciate it and please subscribe to the channel if you haven’t done so already let’s get started the ship Sun princess is Princess Cruz’s newest and largest ship and it is the

Sphere class which is a completely new ship design for Princess Cruises and by the way it is absolutely gorgeous I am going to share with you some particular aspect of that the ship is 177,00 guests at Double occupancy and has approximately 1,600 crew now when we entered the cruise ship on embarcation

Day we were able to see the brand new Piaza and something that we noticed right away and we really appreciated throughout the cruise is how you saw the ocean through every deck of the Piaza you really felt connected to the Sea and the sky throughout many areas of the

Ship which I found quite different than a lot of other newer cruise ships that seem to look inwards rather than out which I personally prefer now we did see some familiar faces as we boarded our cruise but more on that a little bit later just to let you know although this

Was a media sailing this was a ship that was full of regular passengers and we were actually quite a small amount of people on the ship in comparison to everybody else now the Piaza is really the heart of the sun princess and this is where you’re going to find shows both

During the day and during the evening and some different activities including Zumba line dancing and demonstrations now I’ve heard some people say that they thought the sun princess looks plain I can assure you that when you’re on board it doesn’t really look plain however

What it is is that the color scheme is a little bit different if you’re expecting those Browns and the golds and the brass I love that personally but but this is very different you’re going to find a lot of white porcelain and Grays and Marbles and it does feel very upskill I

Would say it has more of a simple Elegance with really pops of color and fun now I will be talking about the food and dining and the cabins in just a minute but let’s start off talking about the activities during the day and the evening so you have the paza WHERE a lot

Is going on but other than that you also have live music at kuners you’re going to have live music at the home you’ll also find Irish music in om ales fun audience participation games at princess live movies Under the Stars at the pool deck both during the day and during the

Evening I did notice one evening that Dirty Dancing was playing if the weather was warmer I probably would have tried to catch that in the evening you’ll find Production shows and other shows in the arena which is Sun princess’s theater concept it really is a theater in the

Round there are actually nine Le Ed screens that are movable around this Arena Theater even the seating as some of the guests had pointed out to me they said there are no bad seats anywhere in the arena now when we were on board the cast of Vora a pirates Quest was

Rehearsing they were practicing now what we were told that a little bit of a behind the-scenes tour is they have been practicing for months the show will be ready shortly but once on board they do really have to finalize everything make sure that they get all of those safety

Aspects in place and then everybody will be able to see the show the pool decks and outdoor spaces now the sun princess has five pools that are available for guests now the main pool has two pools that’s going to look very similar to other large Princess cruise ships if

You’ve been on but very nice very elevated looking I really loved the seating now even though we were on a Mediterranean Cruise during the month of March there were actually a few people swimming it was probably about 60° fhe or 16 17 18° C so not swimming weather

For me but other people did seem to enjoy that now in the main pool area you’re going to have a band that plays you’re going to have movies under the stars and that’s going to be where a lot of the happenings are going on however

You do also have the dome pool this is really interesting it’s an indoor outdoor space and we did notice that that pool was heated now we visited the sanctuary pool this was abs absolutely gorgeous now the sanctuary pool is available for sweet guests and as well

People who do book The Sanctuary now if you’ve been on other Princess cruise ships you’ll notice that this is different it does definitely feel more luxurious I absolutely loved the seating loved that pool area if you’re wondering about booking the sanctuary on sun princess it does work a little bit

Differently than the other princess ships it is $79 to book it on a p day and $99 to book it on a c day now there is one more pool that I almost didn’t see because it is in a bit of a unique spot so at the very back of the cruise

Ship you are going to have the Wake pool where you do have this gorgeous infinity pool now to get there so here’s a little bit of a tip it is on Deck 8 but the way we got there was through deck N9 where there is the eery we went to the very

Back and there were some stairs to go down to the wake pool now this area was pretty perfect because it was shielded from the wind there was a fabulous bar with some pretty fabulous frozen drinks and I probably would be hanging out here on a future Caribbean cruise now I know

Some people have asked is there an adult pool so I will answer that as well as some other questions towards the end of the video now on the upper outer decks near the pool areas you’re also going to find Park 19 now I particularly liked this area where you did have a jogging

Track that went all around and park 19 is really going to be a fabulous space not only for kids and teens but even for adults who just want to do a little bit of activity this place looks really cool it wasn’t open yet during our cruise but it should be opening shortly now

Something that I probably haven’t mentioned during this video so far is that this cruise ship because of its size I think it really does have the ability to offer something for everyone there truly is so much variety on this ship in terms of venues and activities that there’s absolutely no way that you

Could be but you could also find a lot of quiet spaces around this ship the food and the drinks now one of the things that I really liked on board Sun princess is their dining room first of all it is absolutely beautiful you have these large glass windows at the very back so

You see that wake that is my absolute favorite view but even at the sides you have a lot of Windows and this is a thre deck dining room however it is a very unique concept for cruising on the very top deck you have a more casual restaurant style that serves breakfast

Lunch and dinner at breakfast lunch and dinner so in other words at dinner time if you want to get breakfast you can do that now I wish I would have tried this but truthfully in 5 days I just didn’t have a chance however I heard some

Really good feedback the only tip that I would share is do check the hours of this restaurant because we did end up missing the breakfast we’ wanted to go but it closed just a little bit earlier than we thought now on Deck six of Horizon’s main dining room you’re going

To find the traditional dining times and basically this is going to be your early and your late seating and for those who prefer traditional dress codes this is going to be the right fit and on next s you’re going to have more flexible or anytime dining now we ate dinner in the

Main dining room and one thing that I can say is the presentation was really nice you had quite a few different menu choices from things that differed Night by night to a few princess Classics now I wasn’t super hungry but I had a meal I think it was beef pot roast forgive me

If I got the name wrong I’m going to put the menu up just in case but this was really good and of course I had the loveboat dream for dessert now there are so many casual dining options on this ship but let’s start off with international cafe now international

Cafe is in the Piaza but it is now on Deck 9 so that is a great place to pick up a sandwich to pick up something for breakfast a little doughnut a pastry you can get all of that there we did that a couple of times for breakfast when we

Were on our way out of the ship or even for a snack later on in the day now as you walk back from international cafe you’re going to have the eery now the eery is stations so you’re going to find Asian stations Italian stations salad stations sandwich stations fruit dessert

Etc and truthfully there are just no lines this way maybe you might have two three four people but that is about it and we were sailing on a soldout ship now I’m going to tell you a little bit of a secret as you walk in the buffet if

The seating is a little bit crowded especially during those busy times walk all the way to the back because you’re going to have two sides of the eery that are opened up for breakfast and for lunch and they do have both serving stations and additional seating there

Now in the evening those spaces do transform into specialty dining restaurants but more on that a little bit later oh and by the way at the eery something that they have as well is there are actually outdoor stations where you can eat and there’s some outdoor seating and something that did

Surprise me is that there were actually some heaters so you could sit Outdoors even if it was a little bit fresh now if you get hungry and you are by the pool there are tons of dining options on the Leo deck now of course you have Leo slice which is Princess’s famous pizza

Now Ethan did try that out and he gave it an 8 and 1 half out of 10 he’s very picky when it comes to Pizza so that was a very good rating personally I loved it now in addition to Leo Pizza there was also Leo tacos which by the way there

Was also schwarma there I’m not sure if that was just for the Mediterranean but that was something that was really good you also have a salad station and of course coffee and Cones which by the way does serve princess Premier dessert a lot of the passengers were loving oh and

I almost forgot of course you also have your poolside Grill now a casual dining option that we don’t talk about enough but truthfully I used quite a bit during this cruise is the room service now you do have free room service on sun princess you do have a little card that

You can put out on your door before you go to bed and you can have breakfast delivered to your room and as well you have really a pretty full menu that’s available if you have princess Plus or princess Premiere it’s actually free or included and we would order often times

Breakfast a fruit platter a breakfast sandwich before we would go out early in the morning when we had different things to do it was so convenient and very very fast and yes Ethan did order I think it was a burger and some other things as a late night snack as well now something

That we really loved on board Sun princess was The Medallion Now The Medallion is not new to Sun princess but it did seem like it just worked better on this ship than other ships when we went to our cabin our door just opened with ease and basically your medallion

By the way is a replacement for a cruise card so so convenient when you’re picking up a drink when you’re purchasing something it really does make the ease of those transactions really sort of effortless and oftentimes the crew they’ll call you by name it really is something nice but when it comes to

Room service something to remember is that you could actually order from that menu and have food delivered to you almost anywhere on the cruise ship now we tried out some of the specialty dining including a couple of new restaurants to Sun princess so firstly we went to sabatini Italian Tratoria

This was delicious as usual of course I do highly recommend it now I do think that Crown Grill remains a favorite for me I just absolutely loved my steak I think I had the New York strip Frank and Ethan had the fol absolutely delicious of course the sides it was a phenomenal

Meal and I highly recommend now a new restaurant that we tried was um Tepanyaki oh my goodness this is something of course Tepanyaki is so much fun but the food was so delicious the beef the shrimp the scallops the chicken even the rice and vegetables I can’t say

Enough it was mouthwatering and so good and something else that they have is a hot pot I have never seen this on a cruise ship before so unique now I swear I need a diet after this cruise but we also went to the catch by Rudy now this

Is one of my all-time favorite Cruise restaurants I just think if this was at home I probably would be paying $150 $200 a person easily to eat this food it is absolutely delicious we loved it and we also went to a new restaurant called butcher block by Dario now this is a

Completely different experience everything is served family style the focus is really on the quality beef this restaurant is in partnership with Dario cacini who really does have a unique history and a unique story and runs I believe it is three different restaurants but the menu is really

Inspired by that and it’s definitely a very unique concept you do have to like meat I will say but the food was absolutely delicious oh and you do have to try the Kean that is served there it was one of my favorite wines on the ship in addition to the specialty restaurants

And the included food you also have alfredos you’ll find alfredos in the Panza it’s as good as ever and you also have ales both of these do have an additional charge of approximately $15 for a meal however if you have princess Plus or princess Premiere these are

Included now so far I’ve shared a lot of things that I think are really hits on this cruise ship however I do have a couple of things that I think were maybe a little bit misses and I will share them a little bit later on in the video Spellbound by Magic Castle now

Spellbound by Magic Castle is is a princess experience now this does have an extra charge but I do think that this is absolutely well worth it now we had a chance to try this out and it was really a very special experience now you would practically not even know that this

Venue is there you do have to book it to go in but when you walk into this area it is like walking into a very cool Victorian Mansion now at Magic Castle you have some of the most amazing special drinks that I have ever seen anywhere you also have magicians that

Are going to be doing card tricks and it really is just such a fun environment to hang out in before you go into the more intimate venue where you are going to have a magician that is performing cabins now I had a balcony cabin and Ethan had an inside cabin so I’ll show

You a little bit of both we loved our balcony cabin now the balcony cabin includes a full-size sofa so really nice the color scheme is absolutely beautiful light and Airy a little bit of a silvery gray color in the couch some greens and blues for some of the other accent

Colors just beautiful now something that we really appreciated is the bathroom had glass doors and as well a little something but you’ll notice ladies in particular that there is a little foot ledge or a bar for easier leg shaving now one of the things that we noticed in

Our cabin is the fact that there were so many electric outlets and as well you have USB and USB C out outlets and yes you have both the European and the US plugs now I did bring a travel adapter with me because I was in Europe so I

Would need that for the hotels but truthfully you would be fine no matter where you are without bringing any of those extras on this cruise ship now if you have a preference you might want to check the cabin configuration you have some cabins that are going to have the

Sofa that is near the balcony and some cabins are going to have the sofa near the door and the bathroom both areas are nice it does give you a little bit of living space it really is just a matter of choice or try them both on two different sailings now Ethan had an

Inside cabin and it was simple and comfortable he really liked it you still have that bathroom with that glass shower which is amazing you also have a desk and a vanity area you do have a little seating bench and of course you have your TV and your spacious closet

Area now we did check out the Cabana deck from the outside this space looks really nice I think it’s particularly good if you want a little bit of a semi-private space and even if you do have maybe a multigenerational travel or maybe you’re traveling with a group this

Would be a really great area to get a cabin now for those people who have asked there are 51 accessible cabins on board there are four solo cabins 100 connecting cabins and 80 suits the elevators I normally don’t talk about the elevators on a cruise ship but it

Really is worth talking about them on sun princess this is a very large cruise ship and yet you will really not find that you’re waiting for the elevator and that is because you will choose your deck before you board the elevator and then you’ll be directed to one specific

Elevator it really is a much faster system and much more organized as well the drinks and bars now normally I don’t talk too much about the drinks on a cruise but every bar on this cruise ship had an amazing menu and every drink that I tried was phenomenal now first of all

On the pool deck at least on this sailing there was an appol Spritz stand oh my goodness they knew I was coming that was so much fun but beyond that the frozen drinks the drinks at good spirits what an incredible bar and bartenders kuners this is a great place to hang out

With friends right in the Piaza area often times you have a piano player or maybe some other live music it is just amazing you will see the see from there it is just perfect oh and by the way if you are not sure what to order just ask

One of the bartenders and they are going to make you up something that I’m pretty sure you’re going to love the crew one of the best parts of selling on sun princess was the incredible crew even though this was a new ship for them too they were so accommodating so helpful so

Friendly now you might see some familiar faces if you’ve sailed with Princess before we met quite a few crew that we remembered from our last cruise on Enchanted princess they were just amazing so whether it was our cabin attendant the waiters the servers the bartenders even the entertainment they

Really were amazing now I’ll share with you the things that I didn’t like as much and answer your questions but first I did want to share a little bit of information about the ports and what we did now we began our cruise in Athens so we did spend a day before our cruise

Visiting Athens now we actually walked around Athens on our own I find it a very walkable City although it is very walkable so keep that in mind you might want to do a tour if it’s going to be a little bit easier because there are a

Lot of steps involved now we walked up to the Acropolis and really visited some of the other runes we walked around the city as well had a little bit of the street foods so some of the Euros I had a lot of suaki a lot of suziki just

Phenomenal and by the way the hotel that we did stay in was the Marriot in Athens it is about 10 or 15 minutes outside of the city but a very nice hotel they do actually have a shuttle that will bring you into downtown Athens if you will so

That is very convenient and there is a local Greek restaurant that was very good around the corner now when we were in kusadasi Turkey we did a wine tasting at a Vineyard this was a 4-Hour Excursion that we booked with Princess it was a really good Excursion I

Definitely recommend it it was so easy and relaxed now that did also include a stop for a Turkish rug demonstration now it is actually very interesting and if it’s something that you’re not interested in you could just watch the demonstration and when that is finished

You could walk out to avoid any of those high pressure sales tactics we had a lovely day in Hana cre where we took the free shuttle into the City and then we were able to walk around there’s a little Old Village I think it’s called the oldport it was so beautiful there we

Stopped at a little cafe Cafe and we had some Greek yogurt and honey and then we stopped for probably what was my best Greek meal of our cruise now something that I’ve always wanted to do is visit sento so when we were in Naples we took an Excursion with shore excursions group

And that brought us over to Naples now that was a 7-hour Excursion that brought us to Positano and to sento where we had a chance to walk around it was just beautiful we had a chance to eat at a local restaurant to take some photos of

Course and to do a little bit of shopping now my overall Impressions is I love the ship and I think that you are going to love this ship honestly in fact I did not want to get off and I will be sailing in the Caribbean in a few months

On this ship so absolutely I’m looking forward to getting back on it again but there was maybe something that I wasn’t prepared for and that was the actual layout of the cruise ship it really just is so different so one of the things that I wasn’t aware of is the fact that

To go through let’s say on Deck nine which is a main Deck with the Piaza and the eery is that you do have to at some point go through cabin areas to get to the Piaza which is a little bit different than something that I’m used

To and I guess it’s a little bit of a tip as well to maybe look where your cabin is located just to ensure that you’re not in a little bit of a throughway now it really did take me a few days just to get my bearings even to

Find that wake pool but these are not bad things these are just things to get used to however when it came to a couple of the restaurants which by the way I loved the restaurants so the catch by Rudy and butcher block by Dario both very

Enjoyable but the space that is used is very functional so I absolutely understand why this space was used but I did feel that for specialty restaurants unfortunately it lacked the ambias that most of the other specialty restaurants had and while we did have tablecloths at Rudy’s and honestly the service was

Phenomenal and the serving plates everything it was incredible so I definitely would go there but I did feel like the space itself just still felt a little bit like an extension of the buffet and to the point that even while we were eating there was actually a

Couple that walked in they were coming from the Wake pool and they came right into the specialty restaurant so I’m not sure if maybe some things can be done maybe a little bit of a separator maybe closing off some doors after a certain point but that is my only a little bit

Of feedback for those areas now questions people have asked that I don’t think I’ve answered before is there an adult pool on princess now I did ask this and truthfully there were not a lot of children on board so this would not have been an issue at all on this cruise

Ship but I could see on Caribbean sailings or very busy summer sailings that this might be something that you would want so my understanding is that no at this time there is not a specifically adult pool that is open to all passengers on this cruise ship dining times is there anything to eat

After 9 or 9:30 p.m. so yes firstly the restaurants are not all closing at 9:00 for instance we went to dinner at 8:00 a little bit after 8:00 so we were often eating until about 10:00 or later so you definitely can be eating later on into the evening but for casual dining my

Understanding is that the international cafe is pretty much open all the time and you can also order just to remember from your Medallion so you can order not only in your room but you could order some casual dining to different areas of the cruise ship however I did ask one of

The crew members about this and she did mention to me that this is a new ship this is a new itinerary these are new things that they’re trying so things really can adapt so that’s something to remember so make sure if you are cruising on the ship to fill out the

Survey let them know what you prefer and something she also mentioned is they’re able to see are people eating a little bit later they need to extend any hours and all of that can still be adjusted now I’d love to hear from you please let me know what are your thoughts on sun

Princess please let me know down in the comments below and as well I know a lot of people do ask about some of the dresses that I wear in some of these videos so I am going to leave a link Down Below in the description of this

Video for some of my favorite oftentimes they are Amazon dresses I’m going to leave that link Down Below in this video but I would love to hear from you and if you did enjoy this video please do give it a big thumbs up I really do appreciate it and please subscribe to

The channel if you haven’t done so already bye for now and happy cruising by

We were on one of the first cruises onboard the new Sun Princess. Even as someone who enjoys cruising with Princess Cruises, there were some things I loved – & other things I had mixed feelings about.

In this video I share not only a Sun Princess cruise review, but we also take a look around this brand new Princess cruise ship. Consider this part Sun Princess ship tour with commentary as well. We look at the public spaces, from the Piazza to the Eatery (cruise buffet), to The Dome, Lido deck, Sanctuary & more. I also answer the questions cruisers have been asking about this new cruise ship.

If you’re planning on cruising on Sun Princess, this video is full of information & helpful cruise tips. My aim is that you know what to expect onboard Sun Princess, from embarkation day to the last day of your cruise vacation.

If you’ve been following recent cruise news about Sun Princess & it’s first sailings, this cruise vlog will give you an overview of a cruise vacation onboard the newest Princess cruise ship

Please note that we were hosted by Princess Cruises on a press trip/media sailing. All opinions & video footage are my own.

Amazon Cruise Dresses blog post: https://lifewellcruised.com/cruise-dresses-amazon-resort-wear/

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ABOUT ME
Hi! I’m Ilana! I live in Montreal, Canada with my husband Frank. We can often be found dreaming about and planning future cruises, ideally to hot and sunny destinations! I believe in having fun, being kind and that you are never too old, or too young, to live the life of your dreams!

Please note that I do not sell cruises on Life Well Cruised. This and all other videos are for entertainment purposes only. I share my own opinions, personal experiences and information with other cruise travellers, which I hope can be helpful. Please contact your travel agent or the cruise line directly for advice and any information specific to your booking.

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