While you can have a wonderful time in the Sanctuary Club simply lounging in a chair or cooling off in the pool for no more than the cost of booking a Sanctuary Collection cabin (and being 16 years or older), the Sun Princess offers those passengers the extra luxury of renting a cabana for $499. For that price, you get to come and go the entire day from 8AM until 5-6PM. Each cabana offers two loungers, a couch, dining table, TV (with headphones), flip flops, a bottle of champagne, a stocked mini fridge, snacks, an upgraded lunch menu, and attentive service offering to bring everything from drinks to ice to more towels. Those passengers who book Sky Suites get the use of one of these cabanas included for one day per cruise. We were able to pick the day pre-cruise and went with sea days on both weeks.
We would like to thank Sanctuary Manager Ivan and Princess Cruises for gifting us a third day to use a Sanctuary Club Cabana to make up for some issues elsewhere onboard.
When you are ready to use your cabana, you check in at the Sanctuary Club desk. They will lead you to your assigned number cabana and get it all set up with towels on the loungers and ask if you want anything special for your mini bar. Otherwise it is stocked with the same options you'd find in your suite mini fridge like water bottles, soda cans, and the new canned cocktails. The Sanctuary Club crew will readily replenish anything you want more of from the mini bar as well as bring you whatever you like from the bar itself.
I think someone is ready to get their lounge on! The cabanas are evenly split on each side of the ship with the pool in the center of the Sanctuary Club. Each cabana shares this open stacked box shaped partition with its neighbor but you can pull closed a sheer curtain behind the couch for privacy.
They do have different sized flip flops and they usually go for a his and hers one big/one smaller size to start. These are the same flip flop/sandals left in your cabin. The pool deck in this area is just as hot and as slippery when wet as it would be by the main pool so please be careful and wear sturdy footwear. The water shoes Dad is wearing in the photo here are from WateLves (purchased from Amazon) and were great for those of us with larger and wider feet. The only drawback I found was that they took a while to dry in my bathroom after I rinsed the sand out from Princess Cay. If I had left them to sit on the balcony in the sun, they probably would have dried faster. We saw a couple people slip and fall while walking past the cabana so please watch your step.
The sun's glare can make it tough to watch TV. The TV has the same interactive system as your cabin TVs so you can watch a movie or live TV while sitting on the couch. There is a half wall between main pool loungers and the path in front of the cabanas. You will have people walking back and forth in front of your cabana. However, the half wall gives some privacy from those in the pool. Each cabana had a wooden board game on the counter to enjoy. Our two cabanas had Jenga and a dice rolling game but other cabanas had chess and chinese checkers. We also had a huge fresh bowl of fruit for us to enjoy. I missed having that bowl of fruit to nibble throughout the cruise in our cabin like we have had in the past. There is a curtain that pulls across the front of your cabana if you'd rather not have passers by peeking in. Just be wary of using your cabana on a windy day or those curtains might turn into dancing queens!
The two loungers face out to the ocean and the crew will immediately cover them with towels when you arrive. This is the only side of the cabana that doesn't have a curtain to close and is also open to the sun at the top. Take precautions for being exposed to the sun if you spend a lot of time in the loungers. The glass surrounding the ocean side of these cabanas is tinted blue and is as tall as the cabana but it doesn't hinder the view.
The mini fridge is tucked away inside the wooden cabinet by the TV.
The perspective from sitting on the couch in front of the larger dining table.
The cabanas have a completely level and accessible entrance as well as a nearby accessible shower to rinse off. There are ramps as well to move down from the Sanctuary Club entrances to the cabanas and pool area.
The upgraded Cabana lunch menu - all items are included and you can order as much as you wish.
Disclaimer - all food pictured here was consumed over four different visits to the Sanctuary Club over our two weeks of cruising (with some repeated orders). We did not finish everything offered choosing instead to share and sample many items.
For comparison, here is the non cabana menu for the Sanctuary Club. Prince S is picking out his choice of the Chicken Tenders. There is also a small buffet offering of more healthier/gourmet snacks for everyone to help themselves. Our food delivery when not in the cabana did take a long time to arrive but our waiter did warn us about that in advance.
Dad ordered the Chef's Classic Burger and a plain version of The New York Hotdog. These items were another casualty of "Oh did you want to get a picture first?" while he's on his last bite. I did notice that these two items were also available from the Lido Grill.
The California Roll came in a bento box with spicy edamame and seaweed salad. The orangey/pink dipping sauce was supposed to be a sort of creamy chili sauce? The rolls stayed together well and were tasty. I noticed that while the cabana menu noted that the California Roll came as eight pieces, it did not list that on the main Sanctuary Club menu.
The Chicken Tenders with a honey mustard dipping sauce. Nothing tender about these pieces of chicken as they came out shrunken, burnt, and hard as a rock.
Everyone in the Sanctuary Club gets offered these little cups of Smize & Dream ice cream if you're there in the early afternoon. These cups are also available for purchase where you get those Premium Dessert sundaes onboard. While a sweet treat and easy way to enjoy a little taste, I found that they'd often be half melted by the time the crew walked around with the trays to offer. One thing I noticed as well is that each cup claimed to have a "prize" inside of a small bar that was a different flavor. It may be worth passing up if you have any food allergies since my bar disintegrated throughout the ice cream once I uncovered it.
Pictured next to my 12oz Diet Coke can for size comparison:
Little wooden spoon tucked into the underside of the lid. Grade school cafeteria line flashbacks.
The prize for the purple cookies & cream was a salted toffee caramel cookie
Our tray of snacks that each cabana receives was one of our favorite parts of the experience. Each of the tall martini glasses held a snack option that was to be paired with the little shot glasses of a dipping sauce. From the top left of the photo - Shrimp cocktail paired with cocktail sauce, a cup of berries and a cup of tropical fruit to be paired with a yogurt dip, and lastly a cup of raw veggies to dip into ranch.
The three square chip bowls held tortilla chips, prawn chips (amazingly good!), and classic potato chips. The four small cups in front held mixed nuts, pico de gallo, a corn salsa, and guacamole.
Prince S heard the word prawn and jumped right in to commandeer them for himself!
With a full tummy it was off to take a nap on the lounge chair for him!
That is until our lunch order arrived and somebody got their second wind or should I say second appetite?
Princess Signature Burger - gouda cheese, applewood smoked bacon, caramelized onions, chopped lettuce, tomato, brioche bun, and chef's sauce. The chef's sauce reminded me of a whipped up and pureed egg salad with relish.
By our second visit, we asked about being able to get food that was a little less fancy and heavy. These turkey sandwiches from the OceanNow delivery are great!
The Sushi Sampler could have fed all of the cabanas from one dish! Only a couple flavors tasted a little spicy but several of the roll flavors were delicious!
Double Chocolate Tart with creme anglaise - Dad's dessert. After tossing off the fruit garnish like it was trying to bite him back, he polished off nearly the whole dish. The base was made out of some hard crust that looked like a mix of nuts and granola pressed together into a wafer.
My "Trio of Cheesecakes" listed as ricotta, marble, and creme brulee flavors with fresh strawberries. I think my trio just became a solo act. Didn't like the hard sugar disc that sat on top of the cheesecake but I loved that they left the strawberry drizzle around the plate giving me the option to add as much or as little as I wanted. So often it's more like you get a plate of strawberry sauce with a side of cheesecake garnish.
Are you really relaxing on a Princess cruise if you don't watch reruns of The Love Boat?
