Welcome to a new trip report! Follow along as Dad and I spend two weeks in back to back cruises in one of four Sky Suites on the Sun Princess, Princess Cruises' newest ship. This ship's Sky Suites are slightly different from the one we enjoyed on Enchanted Princess in that this new ship has four Sky Suites instead of two. They are all still located near each other with two on each side of the ship in the aft. Due to the increase in cabins, the famous 270 degree balconies are no longer. However, on the Sun Princess they have launched their take on Celebrity Cruises' Retreat class known on Sun Princess as the Sanctuary Collection. On this new ship, much like we experienced on Celebrity Beyond, they have devoted space onboard for a large suite lounge, suite sun deck with pool, and suite only restaurant. One unique thing about the Sanctuary Collection concept that Princess does differently than Celebrity is that they offer a variety of cabin categories that have some Sanctuary benefits. You can book a slightly more expensive Sanctuary balcony or mini-suite than the other balcony or mini-suites onboard and get use of the Sanctuary Restaurant and the Sanctuary Club sun/pool deck. If you book any of the full suites onboard, you get the previously mentioned access plus access to the Sanctuary Lounge, a new two story lounge space with a bar and concierge. Through the use of Princess' Ocean Medallion technology, these venues detect your approach and open the door for you. The easiest access to the Sanctuary Club sun/pool deck is by using the glass elevators all the way aft. The brand new smart elevator keypads will only display Deck 18 as an option if it senses your Sanctuary Collection medallion.
My usual disclaimer: We originally had booked a full suite on these cruises at the Premier rate. We decided to upgrade and changed our reservation to a Sky Suite. While the Premier rate became "included" to all those who book a Sanctuary Collection cabin after we booked, we did not get any money back for having already booked Premier. We did however get automatically upgraded from the old version of Premier at $80/day to the new one costing $90/day at no extra cost. The crew onboard will often refer to it as having Premier 80 or Premier 90. Always makes me think of a new workout plan when I hear those terms. But hey, that's definitely a workout plan I could stick to! The main difference between the two versions is that with Premier 90 you get unlimited specialty restaurants and unlimited drinks. We booked during a deal that gave us a good amount of On Board Credit (OBC) but everything we used onboard was paid for out of our own pocket unless otherwise specified as our story progresses.
Side note: The addition of the smart elevator system throughout the ship is a job well done, Princess! The keypads are all centrally located throughout the elevator lobby so you can have many options to access the buttons and they are all placed at a height that everyone can reach regardless of ability or height. These elevators are designed to have you choose your deck versus just choosing up or down outside of the elevator. Then it assigns you a specific lettered elevator to use. Inside the elevator there is no deck/floor buttons to press, it simply displays the decks it was assigned to visit on the screens. This takes some getting used to if you're not familiar with the technology. We saw several passengers trying to tap the screens repeatedly and yelling at them when it didn't show the number choices. There is a wheelchair icon on each outside panel that you can push to tell the system you need an elevator with extra room to fit a wheelchair or scooter. There is also a button that looks like a few short lines that lets the system know you have a full group needing an elevator. The only time we waited a short while for an elevator was on the typical busier embarkation and early port morning days. Most times we ended up in an empty elevator.
If you followed along with my live postings on social media during the cruise, you might recognize my new little friend that came along on this trip. If not, please allow me to introduce Prince S (for Stanley). He loved exploring the ship and trying out all the new experiences Sun Princess had to offer. He's already watching tons of vlogs and using Princess' website to plan for our next cruise. I think it might be time to hide the credit card before he learns how to "Add to Cart." Here he is showing how to use the new smart elevator system. He's only a few inches tall so he needed a little help to reach the buttons.
It also didn't take him long to find the plate of treats left in our cabin by the Princess Cruises' Sales Department.
Now on to what many of my readers come to see, besides my rapier wit and colorful commentary, - a photo walkthrough of how our Sky Suite cabin onboard the Sun Princess looked.
Our Sky Suite cabin was #16619, the last Sky Suite cabin on the starboard side. It is not however, the last cabin before the end as there is one Vista Suite before the true aft of the ship. Several days into the cruise, I finally figured out that the correct side of the ship to enter for our cabin once we got off the elevators was to head into the corridor that has the D lettered elevator on that side. A cabin number that ends in 19 and a helpful reminder to use the D elevator to pick the correct side of the ship? Was this cabin meant for me or what? In case we did end up on the wrong side though, the top floor of the Sanctuary Lounge works as a great cut through to get back across.
This cabin was a great location for doing anything Sanctuary Collection related. Standing in front of our cabin, you are steps away from the doors to the Sanctuary Lounge and to the glass elevators that take you up to the Sanctuary Club. I promise the ship was not listing when this photo was taken. Some signage still said "Signature" instead of "Sanctuary" but they mean the same thing. If you stand in front of the elevator pictured here, the door to the upper level of the Sanctuary Lounge is to your right. Just the perspective of me keeping the door to my cabin propped open with my booty while taking the photo:
Standing with my back to the elevator - this is a sliding door to the Sanctuary Lounge that opens when it recognizes your medallion on the screen on the left side of the door. Oftentimes we'd trigger the lounge door to open while waiting for the elevator. That first door panel on the right side of the picture is our cabin door. To my right is a short hallway that dead ends into the door for the Vista Suite since it has physically less space inside than a Sky Suite.
While our balcony did not have any wake views, I did discover what some might call a secret public balcony space. Shortly before the Vista Suite's front door is a door that leads to this stretch of outdoor deck. The steps lead to many of the same aft space on different decks. On the far left of this photo, you can see the outside of the glass elevators that can access the Sanctuary Club. This was a wonderful quiet space to step out and get a break from the crowds and/or watch the water. It also was a pretty space with blue/purple lowlights at night.
Inside the glass elevator:
Back to the cabin itself - each door panel always displayed your loyalty level medallion cover next to your first name whether you were in the cabin or not. When you approached, your chosen Ocean Medallion icon would appear in the center of the screen and the door handle would light up green to show it had been unlocked for you. In this picture, the Princess Prizes program message that is included in the Premier package would next show on the screen each time I opened my door while at sea. The two icons in each bottom corner are touch screen activated for requesting housekeeping service or selecting do not disturb. A handy feature I learned is that the interactive cabin TVs also have a feature at the bottom of the choices that says "Room Status." With a tap of the remote you can check whether you bothered to put the do not disturb setting on and save yourself having to get out of the cozy Princess bedding.
There is no doorbell however like Celebrity has for their suites. While I could just barely hear any door knocking by the crew when I was in the back bedrooms, Dad routinely mistook the chimes played at the start of the Captain's daily updates as someone ringing the bell at our cabin door.
Our first week onboard was for the Magic Castle Conjurer's themed cruise so everyone's door panel showed the themed cruise logo. On the second week, only those cabins in the Sanctuary Collection had this logo show on the door panel's main screen.
As is the same with every cabin, the back of our front door had a placard with instructions to follow in case of an emergency and how to reach your muster station from your cabin. We also had the standard turn lock deadbolt and a peephole. No card or magnet for do not disturb as it is all done on the door panel or your cabin TV. Also no slot for keeping a card in as an energy savings measure so the lights are only usable when inside your cabin.
To the right of the main door is the first of many banks of light switches that we played light roulette with on a daily basis never remembering what switch worked what lights. For the most part though you could hit them all off as you moved toward the bedrooms and only occasionally leave it too dark to avoid bumping into the furniture.
As you continue into the long entryway, there are two round pegs on the wall for hanging bags, coats, or the occasional supply of returned clean laundry. Our stewards were great with the suite/elite perk of free ship laundry services getting it back to us by the evening turndown if we got it bagged up by 9AM that morning.
The main space and each bedroom had its own touch button thermostat that worked simply by pressing the up button to make it warmer and the down button to make it cooler.
Looking back at the entryway from the start of the living room space. Looks just as long as it felt rushing from the interior spaces back to the door. Nice round mirror for those last minute did I remember to button my shirt glances.
Directly opposite the mirror was this closet with translucent mesh doors. Since this cabin can sleep six people, it is set up with storage for the passengers who end up with the sofa bed.
Umbrellas were provided for suite guests. Thankfully we never had reason to use them.
Looking into the living room space from the end of the entryway:
The main living room space had this sofa that folded down into a bed. We never used it as a bed unless you count my falling asleep watching a movie. The couch was very firm and wasn't easy to relax on for any length of time. Between the couch, the swivel chair in the corner, and the dining table that sat six, you could easily gather as a family or entertain new friends you've met on board. In the basket on the floor is nice pool towels and similar looking plush blankets. The first access doors to your private balcony are from the living room space. The floor to ceiling sliding but also locking doors are great for letting in natural light but are completely darkened when the curtains are drawn at evening turndown.
This table in the back definitely became a catch all space by the end of our two weeks onboard. One of the perks specific to Sky Suites is the inclusion of one each otherwise upcharge balcony breakfast and balcony dinner. While the allure is meant to be having the meal served on your balcony dining table on ships like Sky Princess and Enchanted Princess, there is no full dining table on the Sun Princess balcony so the meals are served at this dining table in the cabin. Still a wonderful private experience but given that we'd already done an
in cabin balcony dinner, we opted out for this cruise. We did notice when our Sky Suite neighbors had their dinner because the extra rolling carts and table set up outside their room waiting on each course clogged up the hallway. Much more practical experience on the earlier ships when the "hallway" outside the Sky Suites is its own elevator lobby.
Each space that could sleep someone had its own separate interactive TV. While you could do everything from watch live TV, to learn about the ship, to check your folio on each TV, you could not start watching something on the living room space TV and then decide to crawl under the covers in bed and pick up where you left off. On the plus side, there was a large selection of TV and movies to watch on demand including the movies shown on the MUTS screen as well as satellite feeds of many football games. Now that football fanatic will happily come on the cruise knowing they can still watch their favorite team play. And in the case of a Sky Suite, family sports fan rivalries can go to their separate corners and watch different games if they so choose.
The wooden panels underneath the TV here were also hidden drawers and cabinets for extra storage.
One quirky thing we had to get our Sanctuary Manager Ivan to help us with is that on Day 1 when we tried to use this living room TV to watch our safety video and complete the e-muster drill, it would not sense that our medallions were in the room. Our medallions worked to open the cabin door but no matter how close to the TV I got with the medallion, it kept displaying this message about no guest being available in the cabin. As soon as Ivan walked in and saw the white screen of frustration, he immediately recognized the issue and explained that for some reason, only the bedroom TVs will recognize the medallion to let you complete the safety drill. I can only guess it's a coding issue since for the other cabins, their main TV is the "bedroom TV." Once that's done however, the living room TV has no problem detecting your medallion and working like a regular TV. That is, a regular TV on a cruise ship that sometimes doesn't like the satellite connection so we occasionally only got sound and grey static for a picture. In those moments we usually just resorted to "gasp" reading or talking to one another instead.
Though I must say, having multi-device internet as part of the Premier package worked great on the Sun Princess. I sorted through many emails on my phone that I would have had to leave until I got back to my computer. I spent a few moments of downtime routinely taking a drink onto the balcony and using the side table to prop up my tablet and watch YouTube. Kind of cool taking a break on your balcony while watching a recent travel vlog from someone who tried out the same specialty restaurant you just visited the night before.
Standing with my back to the living room TV, you can view the entire living space. The only thing missing is a bathroom that is usable by those using the sofa bed that doesn't require entering one of the private bedrooms. With only two or four passengers, that isn't an issue. Or if you chose to make this a multigenerational trip with the kids on the couch versus friends or another couple. Another missing item that is much less critical is a third keypad safe for the sofa sleeper to secure valuables. There is a safe in each bedroom.
Lots more hidden storage in these floor to ceiling cabinets that otherwise looked like wooden pillars.
You can also get in that full length 'fit check with this mirror near the bar area.
The hidden cabinet storage framing the bar area held tons of glassware, mugs, silverware, plates, and your hot tea setup with plug in kettle.
To go along with Princess' partnership with the coffee company Lavazza, the suite comes with a personal Lavazza coffee maker.
The drawer in the middle of the bar counter held the coffee pods, spoons, and various types of sweeteners. I don't drink coffee or tea so I can't comment on the quality but I hear many others enjoy the upgrade to Lavazza's product.
The sliding door cabinets above the coffeemaker held the glassware of varying sizes.
Our ice bucket was routinely filled. I don't know how they managed it but we never came back to the cabin to a bucket of water with a couple ice cubes left. It always looked like it had just been filled! Perks of the Sky Suite are two bottles of liquor to enjoy in your cabin from a set list of both hard liquor and wines. We ended up with four bottles since we were on for back to back cruises. We also were given a bottle of champagne on embarkation day and one each time we had a Sanctuary poolside cabana. While we could have gotten whatever we wanted to drink around the ship thanks to the Premier package, we were asked to list what we preferred to keep stocked in the cabin's fridges. These were routinely refilled and there was no issue deciding one day to get more of one thing than another.
It took most of week one before I realized that there is a trash can hidden away under this bar sink.
Dad loves getting sparkling water on cruises so our fridge had plenty of both Pellegrino and Perrier. One day we came back to the cabin to find that Dad's preferred brand (Pellegrino) had been removed in favor of being all Perrier. Our only guess was that some other Sky Suite voiced a preference and they decided to take from us since Dad hadn't yet shared his preference. He mentioned it to Ivan who was just as surprised as we were and after that we had so many bottles of Pellegrino that we had to start storing it on the shelves!
Our wine fridge that held mostly sodas, sparkling, and still waters. For anyone wondering, Sun Princess has Coke products and they do have the sometimes elusive Sprite Zero, Barq's Root Beer, and Fanta Orange in addition to Diet Coke, regular Coke, and Coke Zero. I'd heard from other back to back cruisers that the week before our first cruise, Diet Coke wasn't available. I did ask for Vitamin Water Zero as it is a Coke product but despite trying their hardest and even unnecessarily apologizing promising to get more in our first port, they could only get one flavor of the full sugar variety. I tried the flavor they so kindly found for me but found it too sweet. Definitely consumed the drink package cost worth in bottled still water however!
Easy to miss is the regular standard cruise cabin mini fridge behind the door in the center underneath the coffee pods. This fridge was filled with the standard single set up any suite/elite cabin gets. And yes, I can personally attest from experience, if you are an elite loyalty level passenger with Princess and you are booked in a suite, you get two mini bar setups. Sometimes they deliver them both at once and sometimes you have to call and request the second one when you have more room. Just don't surprise the poor sweet young lady who got flustered while unpacking our second shrink-wrapped mini bar setup on embarkation day of the Regal Princess and accidentally dropped orange soda and beer bottles redecorating the carpet.
We had the new canned cocktails instead of the original airplane sized bottles of hard liquor that many have been reporting receiving on this new ship. A couple of the cans are non alcoholic but I didn't try any of the options.
Thank you to all the various restaurant managers on the Sun Princess who gifted us multiple bottles of wine on behalf of Princess. At first we thought it was the same bottle tied to our account everyone was mentioning but then several of the managers stopped to chat one evening and explained that they each were trying to gift us a bottle. We are very grateful for the gesture but we aren't really drinkers. By the end of two weeks, we hadn't opened any of the bottles so we gifted them (in addition to their well earned cash tips) to our stewards and the Sanctuary Collection crew members to share with their fellow crew members.
Looking back at the living room space from the balcony doors
Facing the TV from behind the table:
There was a phone in each bedroom and in this main space.
Looking back at the main living space - to find out what's behind me in this last photo, tune in next time for Part 2 of "When your cruise cabin is bigger than a small apartment."
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