Show Us That Suite!

As was our main reason for booking this cruise, this post will start off my trip report with a pictorial review of the cabin itself. The main doors to both S309 and S310 Sky Suite cabins are accessible from inside the ship by taking the forward elevators up to Deck 18, known as the Sky Deck. The Sky Deck does continue elsewhere on the ship but to get there you have to go down, across, and back up. These forward elevators open up to an elevator lobby that only offers four places to go. Two of them are directly to your left and right as the doors to the Sky Suite cabins. It was nice to not have to guess which way to turn when we stepped off the elevator. With only one wall of elevators leading to and from this area, we always had to turn left to get to our cabin. In front of you as you step off the elevator is two doors on each side of the lobby that lead in and out of the Retreat Deck where there is extra lounge chairs, hot tubs, and eventually the upcharge area at the very front of the ship known as The Sanctuary. While it might have been nice to have a private elevator and/or a way to use our medallion to trigger the elevator to skip all other decks, that is not a Sky Suite perk. You will have the occasional passenger traffic in the elevator lobby as they head back and forth to the Retreat Deck or Sanctuary. There are stairs leading up to the Retreat Deck from the Adults Only Retreat Pool one deck below. 

Like the other elevator lobbies throughout the ship, there is two of these interactive screens. One would routinely display deck plans via a ship map where you can search for a venue by name or type such as restaurants and it would show you a list of all the dining venues and where to find them on board. You can also hold your medallion against the little circle to the right of the screen and it would load your medallion account enabling you to find your traveling party or cabin. The opposite screen would show the day's event listings so you can browse upcoming activities and find their locations and times.

The actual entrance doors to each Sky Suite is set a little bit in from the elevator lobby due to outer fire safe doors. It always reminded me of a little portico one might have outside their front door to shield them from the weather while they unlock their door. The medallion interactive screen tied to our cabin door is to the left of the door handle. You can tell if you walk by a handicap accessible cabin because the medallion screen will be lower on the wall even with the door handle. 

One set of doors leading from the elevator lobby to the Retreat Deck. Passengers walking in from outside would be walking past the tall partitions that outline where our balcony ends and the Retreat Deck begins. 

Our medallion entry screen that would recognize our approach and unlock the cabin door. Once or twice I did have to hold my medallion up to the circle at the bottom but for the most part, the system was able to sense the medallion hanging from my lanyard. To see pictures from my medallion unboxing, check out my Twitter post here or my Instagram post here. The two smaller circles on each side of the screen at the bottom are your new Do Not Disturb and Please Service Room signs that we use to hang from our doorknobs or apply to our door via magnets depending on the ship and cruise line. I found that sometimes it would take a couple taps of those spots on the screen to light up my choice. I also noticed a few times where I'd set the Do Not Disturb choice and walked out of the cabin a while later to find that the option had cancelled out and was no longer lit. Thankfully we never had any unexpected company due to the option cancelling out.

Note: The button on the screen that says Prizes is part of another fare option called Princess Premier. It costs the most of the three fare options but gives you a higher price limit for the drinks package, four device internet versus the one included with Princess Plus, crew incentive paid, digital downloads and a few prints of the professional photos taken onboard, two specialty dinners and entry into the chance to win instant prizes each time you unlock your cabin door. If you chose to book Princess Plus, the middle fare level, you have the option of tapping that button to buy into the chance to win instant prizes feature. If you tap that button, your onboard account will be charged a daily fee. Due to this sweepstakes falling under the purview of gambling rules, the game is only active while the casino itself is allowed to be open. While docked in port, you'll see a message displayed with the button that references how the game is not active right now. While it may be tempting to hit that shiny button and try your luck, don't do it unless you're okay with having extra charged to your account regardless of whether you ever win anything.

What Princess means when they show how your cabin unlocks itself once sensing your medallion, is that the little LED circle between the door and where the handle connects to the door will light up green and you'll hear a clicking sound. If it doesn't sense the right medallion or doesn't read yours correctly, that circle will light up red and you won't be able to use the lever. It isn't quite as convenient as the promotional material that shows a cruiser with their hands full having the door open for them. You still have to push down the lever and push open the door. You just don't have to drop everything, fish out an old cruise card, and contort yourself to slide it into a reader attached to the door handle. 

Once inside the cabin, the usual muster drill information is posted on the back of your door as it is in every cabin. You'll soon enjoy the new Sky Suite game of "Which light switch is which?" Those few in the picture below is one of several sets of switches and it was often trial and error when we were turning off lights to head to bed. I didn't get the chance to test but I wonder whether there are any switches in the cabin that allowed you to set the Do Not Disturb and Please Service buttons without having to step back out to touch the screen. Perhaps that's why the settings would be cancelled out! As will all newer ships, you will find a sensor that requires the pressure of a card in the slot to make the lights work in your cabin. Since we no longer have actual cruise cards, a blank white card was provided and sat in our slot the entire time. As seen in the picture, there is still a turn deadbolt lock to use for security and privacy while inside your cabin.

Turning your back to the door - there is a door to your right that leads to the second bedroom and bathroom. To your left is a full table and chairs, a skylight with its own light fixture, and a wet bar with wine style drink fridge. 

While we did have Princess Plus fare which included a full beverage package, Sky Suites get to pick two full size bottles of liquor and get a supply of their preferred individual drinks routinely refilled upon request. Any suite cabin (or Elite loyalty level passenger) gets one use of their in cabin mini bar included but once that round is used, that's all you get unless you want to pay extra. Having a drink fridge we could have refilled was great because it gave us the canned soda that isn't included in any drink package. Our requested drink choices however did not make it in the shipment of supplies on day one so our Suite Experience Manager (SEM) April substituted another brand of beer for Dad and Dr. Pepper for the root beer I requested. April also offered to make up for the delay by bringing juices. However, the orange juice was brought up in a pitcher which did not fit in this type of fridge. Mid week, Dad's brand of beer did arrive and April delivered a whole tray worth to the suite. A couple days later, we heard a bartender say that they were out of that beer brand again. Dad joked that all of the ship's supply must have ended up in our drink fridge. 

We also had the customary ice bucket refilled routinely, plenty of coffee cups and saucers in the cabinet below the mirror, and a coffee machine with coffee pods that we never used. We had so many occasions to eat/snack in suite that by week's end, all silverware normally stocked in the suite except the coffee stirring spoons had been cleared away. I'm sure if we had bothered to call or message for more, they would have quickly replenished our stock. Not something we would have normally thought about until we found ourselves trying to eat a late night snack with a small spoon.

As you continue into the cabin, it opens up into the main living space. There is a door on each side that opens up to a column of shelving. Good for regular item storage or for the belongings of anyone who is using the pull out sofa as their bed. There is plenty of seating in the living space with the sofa, a chair, and those two ottoman cubes stored under the TV. There are 4 total TVs in this cabin. One here in the main living space, one in each bedroom, and one on the balcony. They are all interactive with the ability to view menus, ship information, and on demand TV and movies. We did however have this TV stop working right after completing the muster video. Our great steward had to reach underneath and unplug it to reset it. You also get a telescope left in your cabin to stargaze or ship spot on your balcony. They stow it inside here when the weather is wet or windy as ours often was. The door on the other side of the telescope is a second door that leads to the second bedroom. 

We did not get any Princess branded thermal drink cups that seem to be hit and miss for passengers with a drink package. The Princess logo water bottle seen in this photo below was a prize for Dad winning the ring toss.

This extendable lamp that sits out over the chaise part of the couch is designed to cast a pattern through the design on the rounded shade. Took me a couple days to figure out that turning it off simply meant pushing in the button on the end of the extending arm. By the end of the cruise, our chaise lounge became the collection spot for gift and shopping bags. 

Next we'll head into the second bedroom. This bedroom is smaller but not by much. It has its own bathroom accessible from the bedroom only. Both bedrooms have their own access to the balcony. Each bedroom can be locked from the inside so there is complete privacy if you want to share this cabin with another couple or extended family/friends. The beds do both have the option to split apart into twins so you could easily have a couple staying in one bedroom and non romantically involved travelers sharing the other bedroom. This bedroom has a nightstand on each side of the bed with a independently controlled lamp, a reading light attached to the wall, and outlets for charging all devices. The nightstands each also had a drawer and an open space for stowing loose items. One of the new features in these newer ships is the placement of motion activated lighting. Each nightstand has a light that casts a soft glow on the floor directly in front of it. I know some cruisers hate this because they found it was activated for something as simple as their arm draping over the side of the bed during the night. Dad however, loved this feature even though he likes to have no light when he sleeps. He says it was just enough to help him feel comfortable heading to the bathroom. I found that his was more reactive than the ones in my bedroom. 

Each bedroom had a closet with doors that also had a motion activated light. Inside the closets were two levels of hanging rods right above each other, lifejackets on the top shelf, a few shelves that also stowed things provided by Princess like umbrellas, shoeshine kit, red and black warm blankets for balcony use, and a safe programmed by a code. That is a large suitcase that fit inside the closet sideways and reached the height of the lower hanging bar. As a woman, I would have rather seen this closet designed so that there was a slightly larger space for short hanging items above the shelving and then completely open on the other side with one hanging rod for long items like dresses. I still hung up my longer items but it made them stick out over the lower bar and its items.

Each bedroom had this desk/vanity. The mirror on the wall has light strips embedded and the top of the desk flips up to reveal a closer makeup mirror with its own lights. There is also another set of outlets on the desk so you can charge devices for working or switch to plugging in styling tools for getting camera ready each day. In this second bedroom, the standard hairdryer every cabin gets is stored in the top drawer at this desk. Another thing I missed not having in this cabin is more drawer space since a lot of my clothes don't need hanging up. Other than shelves in the closet, these small box size drawers at the desk was the only non hanging storage. Not big enough to store shirts/shorts but good enough to hold things like underclothes and socks that could be balled up. If I'd thought about it on day one, I would have used the shelves in the living space like open drawers but that wouldn't be an option if you were sharing this cabin as three separate bedroom spaces. 

This bedroom has a door that opens onto the middle of the balcony. Each balcony access door locks independently so you can keep your privacy if someone else in your group is out on the balcony. All balcony doors had a layer of sheer curtains and then thicker curtains on top of them so you can choose whether you want all the light, a little light, or no light. 

Each bedroom and the living space had their own thermostat controllers.

Standing with my back to the balcony doors. Not pictured is the door to my immediate right that leads back to the living space. The door on the right of this photo is the other door that leads back to the living space. The door between that door and the closet is the door to the second bathroom. 

Most Princess suites have what I can best describe as a split bathroom. The shower stall and tub are in one section that you can go into directly from the bedroom side of the suite. The living space side has a door that leads to the part of the bathroom that has the toilet and sink. Then there is another door in between the two halves of the bathroom so you can have someone who wants privacy while showering can get their shower done while the cabin mate can use the sink side. Here in the Sky Suite, the two bathrooms are their own distinct spaces so each is larger than even other suite bathrooms. 

This is another feature I found irritating in the cabin. I saw how useful having a drain strip in front of the shower stall (vertical strip in the photo below) helps collect water but why is there a drain strip in front of the door of each bathroom? I can see having one in front of the bathtub or even along the floor directly under the sink. Having this one in front of the door always felt weird under my bare feet and I found myself intentionally stepping wide over this section when I stepped in and out of the bathroom. 

Nice large sink and counter space but the only storage near the sink is three small shelves along the side of the mirror. I was also a little concerned at how shallow the sink was but it surprised me with how it didn't overflow or get too full. 

The light strips in the mirror was a bit trippy for me when looking straight ahead in the mirror because it would reflect in my eyes and then again in the reflection of my face in the mirror. Gave me a look like I was auditioning for a horror movie with glowing eyes. I couldn't see a way to turn off just the light strips as they came on if the bathroom light was on. 

We each had liquid hand soap, lotion, and our own set of towels and glasses in the bathrooms. Each bathroom had an elite/suite bundle of toiletries that had sleep masks, loofah scrubbing mitts, nail files, shower caps, and lip balm for two. Don't know if we had two because of the Sky Suite or because we were Elite passengers in a suite so we had one for both reasons. 

Each bathroom had a shower stall with a small bar for leg shaving, dispensers for shampoo, conditioner, and body wash, and a grab bar. They also both had a rain shower showerhead on the ceiling along with a wand showerhead that you could either leave in place and use as a normal showerhead or lift it off to rinse as needed. It took a little trial and error to figure out that the single dial had one switch at the top that directs which showerhead the water comes out of and the bottom switch flipped between hot and cold temperatures of the water. Made for some unintentional ice bath wake up calls before I figured that out. 

Guess this is the Sky Suite version of Princess' usual suite door marking off the toilet and the showering space. A translucent half wall sticking out from the same wall as the shower. 

Dad would change having a grab bar in this space as well so those who need a little extra steadiness getting up and down from the toilet, especially on a moving ship.

The under sink light is motion activated as well. Top is how the light looks when activated but the regular bathroom light is also on. Bottom picture is how much light is given off when it's the only light on in the bathroom.