Booked on much shorter notice than our typical sailings, we cruised Sun Princess over the 2024 Christmas/Hanukkah double-whammy holiday (the whammy was also reflected in the pricing.) I am pleased to report that we had a positive experience, with crew seeming to have hit their stride in the weeks since the ship started sailing from Florida. Sun certainly has a different style from the preceding Royal-class ships such as Enchanted and Discovery Princess, but overall the core Princess product seemed intact.

Sun Princess was not perfect, nor would I say it was the best cruise we’ve been on, but the doom and gloom attitude in videos and forum posts seems overblown compared to our positive vacation experience. We had an early technology “fail” with the Medallions, casual dining options were too popular, and an incorrect OceanNow delivery consumed my daily drink allocation and added an incorrect charge to the final bill. Highlights, though, were the included dining, friendly crew, children’s programming, and onboard events that the whole family enjoyed.

Booking and planning

Based on when we booked, the only cabin available for four people (excluding suites, which were going for $20K a person) was a mini-suite on deck 10 in the aft section of the ship. This suited us fine and was a location and cabin type I might have picked on my own anyway. On Sphere-class ships, our family of four might be able to get away with a premium Oceanview or one of the balcony cabins, since the positioning of the fourth Pullman bed is above the sofa bed rather than directly on top of the primary beds.

Princess really ramped up the promotional emails in the weeks and days leading up to the sailing, which I don’t think is a Sun Princess exclusive but an approach across the brand. I’ve seen similar trickle-in messages from an early 2025 Enchanted Princess booking too. Because we had our younger children along, who wouldn’t necessarily appreciate it, we didn’t book any specialty dining, spa offerings, shore excursions, or the other upcharge options that Carnival Corporation would really prefer you to buy ahead of sailing. CCL is upfront that the more you spend pre-cruise, it “opens up the second wallet” and turns into higher onboard spending. (I am a CCL shareholder but only own the minimum 100 shares for extra onboard credit.)

With less than 60 days until sailing and everything happening over conventional North American holiday periods, airlines and hotels also commanded a premium. We chose a WestJet flight to FLL one day before the cruise, and picked the Best Western Fort Lauderdale Airport/Cruise Port for the pre-cruise night. It’s next door to the Hampton Inn from our previous stay but was about $100US cheaper, and is still within walking distance of my favourite German restaurant in Florida.

On the return trip, it was more cost-effective and less stressful to disembark as late as possible, spend a night at the Homewood Suites Ft. Lauderdale Airport-Cruise Port, then take an 8am Air Canada flight back the next day.

While we’re getting pretty good at family travel logistics between home and Port Everglades, one pre-cruise issue was the Canada Post strike that started mid-November. Princess had previously shipped Medallions using Canada Post Xpresspost but had switched to alternate carriers (like Purolator) for December sailings. Nothing had shown up at our house the week prior to sailing – so once again I steeled myself for the Blue Lane at the port – but at 2pm the day before our flight, the Medallions (all four this time) showed up at the front door. We would find home delivery not as convenient once we got to the port.

Travel and pre-cruise

Winter travel in Canada always is stressful, and Highway 401 was a poor-visibility drive the morning we left. While flights were generally operating on time at Pearson, WestJet changed our plane from one that was already at the airport to one that was already an hour late coming from Winnipeg and had been parked in a separate domestic gate area.

Our 7:40AM flight ended up departing at 9:50 as they changed the gate twice, towed the aircraft over to the US gates, and de-iced. It was nearly delayed even further when a person one row up pushed the flight attendant call button to complain about how long the wait had been and that they weren’t getting enough information. Nobody was impressed.

The flight itself went well other than the initial departure delay. Our particular 737 MAX 8 was undergoing “cabin transformation” so there was no in-seat power, onboard entertainment or WiFi (including TV/movies over a local network.)

On arrival to FLL, we collected our bags and made our way to area E outside Terminal 2 for hotel shuttle pickup. After calling Best Western, they advised that the shuttle was on the way, but we should flag down the van with Holiday Inn Express & Suites and Candlewood Suites markings. Those two properties are across FL-84 from the Best Western, but the driver was making stops for all the hotels. Shuttle pickup was within 15 minutes of calling, which was quite acceptable.

The van we got into was in much better state than the Hampton Inn shuttle, with functional seatbelts and upholstery in good condition. Best Western was the first stop, and we exited into a cramped lobby with several groups ahead of us. There was only one desk agent, who was seriously multitasking: checking people in, conducting a phone call, and coordinating some movers lugging mattresses out of the front door. It took about 20 minutes before it was our turn to check in, and we were assigned a room at the end of the hall on the second floor.

The furniture and bedding were in much better condition than the room we’d stayed in at the Hampton Inn, but there was a distinct air-freshener smell, and the red carpet absolutely needs to go – it was not pleasant on the feet. We’re not the type of folks to wear shoes in the house, but I think I’ll make an exception for this hotel room unless they rip out the carpet.

I mentioned that there were movers with mattresses in the lobby; there were also large stacks of them in the dumpster area. This could either be a good or a bad sign depending on your perspective.

This Best Western location didn’t take a sign-up list for a shuttle to Port Everglades, and the desk agent was advising most people to use Uber instead. We preferred the shuttle, so he gave us a business card for All Stars Tours and Transportation and I was able to book online for $15US/adult, $12.50US/child under 10 years old. There were two options for pickup (10:30am and 11:30am) and I picked the 10:30 slot. This company services many hotels in the Fort Lauderdale area, so knowing about them expands the number of places we can stay.

The kids and I went down to the pool while Kayla walked over to the Dollar Tree at the nearby plaza to collect some small Christmas gifts for the kids. Since our last trip, an Amazon pickup locker had been installed there, so she didn’t need to dodge the local wildlife or walk the 40 minutes to Whole Foods. The Fort Lauderdale Airport/Cruise Port Best Western location will accept up to 5 packages for free for hotel guests within 7 days of a reservation (additional packages $5 each) but disclaims liability for loss. Kayla said the locker system was straightforward and convenient, but you are subject to the Dollar Tree hours.

It was an overcast day, and the pool was a bit chilly, so our children didn’t spend too long in the water. The shallow end was also slightly too deep for them to stand up on their own. I don’t recall that being the case at the Hampton Inn, but that probably wouldn’t have made a significant difference to their enjoyment given the low air and water temperatures.

After drying off and changing, the family made our way over to Old Heidelberg Restaurant and arrived at 5:30pm. We hadn’t made a reservation, since in August, the place hadn’t seemed very busy at that point in the evening. This time we had to wait about 15 minutes for a server to be available even though there were several booths open. It seemed like they use reservations as an indicator for staffing, so next time I’ll be sure to shoot them an email a couple weeks beforehand to secure a table.

Dinner and beer were excellent once again, although it’s hard to predict how much food to order with the kids. We all ate as much schnitzel and sausage as possible but probably could have gone with one less appetizer – the potato pancakes were good, but the sausage sampler platter was the better option.

After dinner we made a trip to the Winn-Dixie supermarket on the way back to the hotel. I got a few vodka soda beverages for the adults and the kids were allowed gelato desserts on sticks. Those melted quickly and were rather expensive considering the Canadian exchange rate, but they made the kids happy.

Embarkation

Our kids were up a little earlier than usual, so we made it down to the included breakfast by 7:15am. This was good timing since we were able to get a table for four and not feel too rushed or crowded. It was a more limited breakfast selection than the Hampton Inn, but still had waffles, cereal, yogurt cups, pastries, breakfast sandwiches and scrambled eggs available.

After breakfast we returned to our room to reconfigure suitcases and make sure we had all our belongings. That also gave us plenty of time for everyone to scroll on their glowing electronic rectangles for a while before we needed to be down in the lobby for pickup.

Out front, there was an All Stars Transportation representative, and a couple vans pulled up promptly at 10:30am. I was slightly annoyed by a group ahead of us who had not reserved seats, required space for an assistive device, and were taking up the coordinator’s time. I wanted to make sure the representative knew we were there and hadn’t missed our shuttle, since the driver was beginning to load passengers. Our driver was also displeased about the last-minute passenger and mobility device situation and wasn’t especially friendly while people boarded.

After a stop for passengers sailing on a Holland America ship, we pulled into the drop-off area at Terminal 2 for Sun Princess by 11:10am. The entrance still had a sign indicating “Door open at 10:15am”. Based on the driver’s comments, I think it had been a bit of a zoo earlier in the day and we were wise to avoid being there too early. The shuttle was in good shape, and I would likely use All Stars again considering the kids’ discount and online booking.

We made our way through security quickly and then to the Green Lane, where we encountered our first technical issue. The check-in agent tried to scan each of our Medallions, but his tablet gave an error message, indicating that they were not correctly attached to a guest profile. He tried several different options, including lookup by cabin number, and eventually was able to get past the error by searching our names. Despite this delay, it was still a quick process relative to some of our experiences on Norwegian and Carnival.

Unfortunately, the manual check-in didn’t fix the Medallion linkage, and when we arrived on the ship the security officer also received a similar error message. She looked at our passports and re-took Kayla’s photo, then let us proceed, but our first stop had to be Guest Services to try and get the Medallions working.

First onboard experiences

Standing in the Guest Services line on Sun Princess was not a great way to start the cruise, especially with kids in tow. Since all our Medallions seemed non-functional, we didn’t have much other choice. While I’m sure we could have gotten lunch and drinks with just our cabin number, we wanted to be able to get into our stateroom when available. I suspected things were likely to get worse in the afternoon as more people boarded and found trivial things to complain about.

The circular Guest Services area doesn’t have sufficient space for everyone, and people were lined up in the forward elevator lobby on Deck 6, creating a giant flow problem. People getting off the elevators had little space to exit. Sun Princess uses smart elevators, where you select the floor you want and then are assigned an elevator A through F. People using the forward elevators were often directed to a letter that was on the other side of the line and had to go around or cut through the group of people.

The line was split between Elite tier in the Captain’s Circle loyalty program on the left, and everyone else from the lower tiers stood on the right. Elite guests also had a dedicated counter inside and staff members were moving that side along quickly, but the rest of us made slow progress.

It took us 40 minutes to get to the front of the line. A staff member talked to us when we were next up, asked about our problem, and then went into the back to provision four new Medallions for us. That only took about five minutes and we never actually went into the room. The replacement Medallions had our names, loyalty colours, and sail date engraved like the originals.

We tried to report to our muster station but none of the new Medallions seemed to be activated yet; the crew there once again manually checked us in by cabin number. After that, we tried to enter our cabin to drop off backpacks. The display at our cabin door did not recognize us by proximity or when directly tapped. Room entry might have been deliberately locked down prior to cabin availability, so it might not have been a great test.

At this point we figured we’d get something to eat and drink, then see if our cabin would be ready and if “the system” would start to recognize our Medallions. From our aft location on deck 10, we went down one level to the Americana Diner. While normally this venue is set up as a restaurant with waiter/table service, for embarkation lunch it was configured as an extension of the buffet (Eatery), so you went up to the stations in the centre and ordered food directly from the staff.

Here’s where our first bright spot of the cruise occurred. We ran into Uros, one of the dining managers who had looked after our family on Discovery Princess earlier in the year! We were so pleased to see him. He tried a couple things to get our Medallions working, but most critically ensured someone was on top of our drink orders – we needed something strong for the adults and sugary for the kids as a reward for waiting in line.

Slightly after 1:30pm, the cruise director announced that cabins were ready. This time, walking down the hall towards our cabin, the door recognized Kayla and the kids’ medallions, but not mine. Once inside, we tried to view the safety video. You can watch the video on the mobile app, but it only counts the guest who is signed in as having participated, so I’ve found watching on TV to be the best option to get the kids accounted for.

The radio-frequency sensors were very particular about where in the cabin the medallions were, so it took some positioning to get the TV to recognize three out of the four people. I completed the safety video through the phone app since no matter what I did with my Medallion, I wasn’t considered present in the cabin.

Later that day I ended up going to Guest Services by myself, waiting another 30 minutes in line and performing another Medallion exchange. I’d asked if there was a way to test it before leaving, but the representative said it could still take a few minutes to synchronize. However, when I looked in the Princess phone app right after leaving the Guest Services area, my location on the ship map appeared accurately and immediately, where previously it kept indicating that it couldn’t find me. This replacement worked throughout the rest of the sailing as expected.

While it was an annoying way to start the cruise, I think this situation could have happened regardless of ship or cruise line with a defective keycard. This wasn’t necessarily a problem specific to Sun Princess and it didn’t seem like a systemic issue, since we didn’t overhear anyone else in the Guest Services line with similar problems. I also have a suspicion that the extended Canadian shipping time may have caused weak or dead internal batteries.

On Princess a non-functioning Medallion is slightly more annoying than other lines, since the full promised onboard experience relies on both close-proximity NFC (like tap-to-pay, similar to cabin access on other ships and hotel rooms) as well as the wider-area Bluetooth Low Energy radio (like AirTags, for OceanNow delivery and location-aware features.) There’s some really interesting information about the technology in this Reddit post and patent US10037642B2.

Cabin

Sun Princess did away with the deck letters/names from previous ships. We were on deck 10, cabin 10618 on the port side, which was directly above the Promenade outdoor area and Americana Diner. This MD-grade mini-suite was about equal distance between the aft elevator bank and the two glass elevators at the very far aft of the ship, which went from deck 8 to 18. The glass elevators were the most convenient way to get to the Wake View bar and pool on deck 8, and I think this makes an aft cabin even more appealing on Sun Princess – even compared to a midship location.

Besides the much better bed arrangement for a party of 4, the mini-suite offered a larger floor plan, another TV in the secondary area, and a curtain between the sofa bed and primary bed. The bathroom was also slightly larger including more shower space. It was a very long cabin, but there was plenty of storage and the ladder to the upper bunk wasn’t a trip hazard.

Motion sensor lights return on the Sun Princess, one below each nightstand by the primary bed, and one in the hallway that triggers a low-intensity LED strip under the counter in the bathroom. These were very sensitive, and we ended up putting pillows in front of the nightstands but kept the bathroom sensor activated. You could reasonably make a quick trip to the toilet at night with only the lower level of illumination.

Decor was much more like the style I’ve seen in videos and pictures of Norwegian Prima and Viva. While the quality and style of furnishings in the cabin is not quite as premium as Celebrity Edge-class, it was very close to Edge and Apex, and furniture was more comfortable and functional than the widely panned Kelly Hoppen designs on those ships.

The refrigerator kept our drinks cold and was on the primary bed side of the curtain, so I didn’t need to interrupt the kids to get a nightcap.

While we didn’t have issues with any noise from below, this cabin was not one of the quieter ones we’ve stayed in. Noise came from the hall as people walked by, as well as from the adjacent cabin doors when people entered and exited. I was never woken up by the noise, and our kids can also sleep through a ruckus, but it might be good to pack some earplugs just in case.

I haven’t stayed in a directly comparable mini-suite on Royal-class ships yet – that will come later in 2025 – but I think the changes to the staterooms on Sun Princess are very positive. We didn’t miss the walk-in closet area from previous ships at all and the trade-off for improved storage was worth it for us. The shower, sans curtain, is a big improvement too.

Service from our cabin steward was good – not quite rising to the standard that Kumar set on Enchanted Princess, but a notch above some other sailings we’ve been on in the past. Bathroom cleaning, towel replacement, and turndown/Pullman bed service was superior.

Some omissions: we didn’t get a paper copy of the Firefly Park schedule for the kids, even though each child did receive a personalized letter with holiday programming details, so this is now 1 for 3 on Princess cruises. I think I’ll just grab a physical copy of the program from the club on Day 1, in addition to taking a photo for quick reference when out and about. We also had to remind our steward about muster station wristbands for the kids; they were delivered by end of day, but we also received a third wristband labelled with a different cabin number and passenger name that we had to return.

Finally, the carpet in the cabin could have been vacuumed more thoroughly before our sailing. One of the kids lost a piece of costume jewellery, and as we looked for it on the floor by the sofa, there was some debris, fluff, and a few small plastic pieces embedded in the carpet that we didn’t recognize as ours. While I think carpet helps with noise absorption to a degree, I’ll be curious to see when the first cruise line chooses vinyl plank or another hard, easily cleanable flooring material in the cabins.

Ship

Configuration and layout

Sun Princess carries over some of the confusing dead ends and single-side hallways that we’ve experienced on Discovery and Enchanted. The lowest dining room (Soleil), used for fixed dining and overflow from flexible dining in Eclipse, is only accessible from the aft of the ship – Deck 6 does not offer a straight-through path from midship as far back as you need to go. There is a slight improvement from the previous generation ships because there are curved staircases inside the Eclipse dining room that will take you down a level.

Similarly, trying to reach Guest Services or the Firefly Park kids’ club (3 to 7-year-olds) is best accomplished from the forward staircases or elevators – but the lines at Guest Services can fill the elevator lobby. You’re almost better off taking the midship route, navigating through the passenger cabin hallways surrounding the spa. This layout creates higher than usual foot traffic outside DG-class cove balcony cabins 6324-6432 on the port side, and 6327-6435 on starboard. I don’t know that I’d book one of these knowing about the noise ingress in our stateroom and would stick with the more forward or aft options if choosing this type of cabin.

Further up on decks 7 and 8, the path from aft-to-forward is always on the starboard side, with the port side inaccessible or occupied by specialty dining venues. Again, this replicates what was on Royal-class vessels, so I didn’t find this as confusing. There were still some areas on deck 8 where it looked like you might be able to get outside, but they led directly to lifeboat zones that were crew-only.

When Sun Princess initially sailed in Europe earlier in 2024, the restaurants were configured differently, and all the signage still indicates that you can access the Wake View Terrace (bar and pool) through Deck 8. Since the aft restaurant on that level is now reserved for Sanctuary guests, the staff politely turn you around and route you one level up on Deck 9 through the back of the Americana Diner. They’ve also frosted the doors on deck 8 by the very-far-aft elevators that would take you into the Sanctuary restaurant and labelled them as “private”.

The last odd layout consideration I’ll point out is related to the Dome area at the front of the ship. The couple times we were up there, it was either in use for a yoga class (we were able to get into the area but couldn’t make it forward to the Sea View section at the front of the ship – or we’d be stepping over people and in the way of the instructor) or totally closed for show rehearsal. There was at least one dead end requiring us to backtrack and move a level up or down to proceed.

There were some good improvements to the design as well. The Princess Casino still permits smoking, but we didn’t need to go near it and the smoke didn’t seem to exit the venue as much as on Enchanted Princess – we spent some time in Crooners and weren’t bothered, but that venue on Sun is also further away from the casino. We did walk through a couple times and to my nose the ventilation seemed better, but Kayla still noted a smoky smell. If you do go for sushi at Makato Ocean (no longer a “casual” venue – a full specialty option) it might still be worth asking for a table further away from the casino entrance.

The new Piazza design is reminiscent of the atrium space on Carnival Excel-class ships, with tiered seating on decks 7 and 8. It’s a more effective and enjoyable venue in my opinion. I was also pleased with the smart elevators – they were generally quick, not too crowded when they arrived, and we only had to ragequit and take the stairs/go across the ship once when coming back from Mahogany Bay.

Pools

We tried three pools on this sailing, two “lido” ones on deck 17 and the “infinity” Wake View pool. On Day 1 the weather was overcast, and the temperature was too low for our liking in the lido pools. The pool closest to the band and screen was slightly warmer, but also busier. Both have a shallow area that, like the Best Western pool, was too deep for our kids to stand up.

The Wake View pool ended up being the much better option for us throughout the sailing, with a reasonable temperature, shallower water depth, and less traffic than the main pools. There were also two hot tubs in the area where it was very reasonable to get a spot. Because of our aft cabin with good access to the extreme-aft glass elevators, the Wake View location was also very convenient. It also had none of the suspected filter/cleaning issues we saw on Enchanted Princess in August 2024.

Space and crowds

It helps to be objective to start the discussion about how busy or crowded a ship feels. In this case, at peak capacity like on a holiday sailing, Sun Princess has a passenger space ratio of 33.8. This is actually comparable to Carnival Celebration’s ratio at typical capacity (34), but that ship goes down to a miserly 28.3 if loaded as much as lifeboat capacity allows, with lots of 3rd and 4th guests in cabins.

In comparison, Icon of the Seas sits at values of 34.4 to 44.7 for passenger space ratio, so a significantly larger ship than either Carnival or Princess vessels can actually feel less crowded. Even better at peak is another behemoth, Utopia of the Seas, with a PSR of 36.4. All this to say, Royal’s newest and largest ships carry a lot of people, but you won’t necessarily feel crammed together overall. It’s oversimplifying a bit – bad weather, typical mealtimes and popular attractions will cause people to congregate in certain areas of a ship – but fundamentally it all comes down to total passenger space and the number of people in it.

Subjectively, Sun Princess did not feel overwhelmingly crowded to me most of the time. It was a busy sailing, but even on sea days I wasn’t especially irritated or disappointed.

• Bar seating was readily available, and staffing seemed appropriate to fulfill orders from both seated and standing patrons, typically in under 5 minutes
• The main dining room was available for walk-up, without a reservation, for a table of 4 with anywhere between a 2- and 15-minute wait – however, tables of 8 and more were quoted with 60-to-90 minute wait times
• We were able to find 4 unobstructed seats together in the Princess Arena theatre for the Christmas concert at 7:30pm
• Our children were never turned away at Firefly Park, even with 114 registered kids in their program
• Inside seating for 4 was available in the Eatery within one “lap” of the buffet area, and there was always plenty of outdoor capacity

Where we did see waits and crowds, it was typically for popular events (Santa appearance and photos in the Piazza on December 25), in the Eatery for a late breakfast, or for the two casual dining venues on the last days of the cruise. Alfredo’s had a wait of 60 minutes for two or 90 minutes for four people at lunch on Day 6; O’Malley’s was a 50-minute wait for four people at a shared booth on Day 7.

Maintenance and upkeep

For a ship that launched slightly under a year ago, once again we noted unpainted rust spots on the balcony (pipes and near welds), as well as a rust stain in the cabin shower from a bolt or screw. The deck chairs, table, beds and door seams were all still unblemished, but it leads you to wonder what kind of impact more years of service will have.

Apart from these cosmetic nitpicks, a real and irritating issue was the motion-activated sink fixtures in public bathrooms. The tap on the left is a (weak) air dryer, while the one on the right either triggers the flow of water or soap depending on where you place your hand. In practice, one or more of the functionalities didn’t work, so you had to move to a different sink after your hands were already wet or soapy, and I generally use paper towels on a ship anyway.

Toilets did not have motion sensor flush mechanisms – only push buttons, which I appreciated. It’s annoying to not be able to manually trigger the flush action when you want to, and the lack of a surprise flush was helpful in terms of not scaring the kids.

And apart from our earlier Medallion issues, the screens inside the elevators that were supposed to be showing promotional pictures or other relevant information would occasionally show a Linux boot process or kernel output.

Main dining

We had bookings for the Eclipse flexible dining, at a private table for 4, each evening. Several nights we weren’t as hungry and were able to cancel the reservation earlier in the day, then stand in the walk-in line. We weren’t asked to share a table on any evening (and probably would have declined), although some people were given that option ahead of us for a quicker seating.

On the first evening we had very good service from our waiter Raymond, who brought food at a good pace, was patient with the kids, and offered drink refills several times. My personal metric for solid refill service, besides never running out of ice water, is being able to order at least three glasses of wine during a MDR dinner (even if I turn down the offer of the third.)

The experience on night 1 exceeded our expectations, knowing that embarkation day can be a less-than-ideal dinner seating for speed, accuracy, and temperature. The second night our server Kevin was also equivalently on top of things. It was later in the week, specifically the nights of December 24th and 25th, with special Christmas menus, that speed and attentiveness dropped off somewhat and then never quite recovered. Certainly, everyone continued to be friendly, but things overall never quite reached the calibre of the first couple nights.

One example: Kayla had ordered the prime rib on the last night of the sailing but then had trouble flagging someone down to ask for horseradish – even though it was at a station less than 10 metres from our table. They were somewhat miserly with the amount put on her plate, so she had to ask for a second round.

Another night we arrived around 5:40pm and were sent down one deck to Soleil, which has traditional dining seatings at 5pm and 7:30pm. As we got closer to the second seating, the waitstaff were swapping out linens and resetting tables all around us – it felt like we were being pushed out. The dining team reassured folks at a table beside us that they didn’t need to leave in a hurry, but some of the ambiance and relaxed atmosphere was gone. We probably would have been done earlier but the desserts and coffee were on somewhat of a delay. It’s just something to consider if you get asked about sitting downstairs, but like a slower-paced meal.

I had few complaints and many compliments about the quality of the food itself, and we tried many different options. The shrimp cocktail was a dependable appetizer choice for the kids and I, and the beef tenderloin topped with tiger prawns on night 2 was probably top of the entrees in my view. The Italian menu (served on night 6 due to the Christmas menus, often night 4 on other sailings) was probably the only one where the options seemed less appealing – and I generally like Italian food. That, of course, is entirely subjective.

A personal scheduling disappointment was that we didn’t make it to lunch in the main dining room – although it was only offered on sea days. The children often wanted to go swimming immediately after the morning session at Firefly Park, and we couldn’t make the 1pm cutoff.

Other complimentary dining

Instead of MDR lunch, several days we ended up at Americana Diner, which is open from 11am onward (1pm some port days) and has a fixed menu featuring some typical pub/diner options. I liked the buffalo wings, which I would argue were better than the ones I’ve had at O’Sheehans/The Local on NCL. The kids enjoyed the novelty of the Coca-Cola and root beer floats: pop and ice cream, together at last. Americana Diner also uses food delivery robots, which are somewhat of a gimmick that I’m sure won’t hold up to wear and tear over the next few years of sailing.

I was also able to fulfill my noodle quota at The Eatery, which had both a pasta station with spaghetti regularly available, as well as a stir-fry station with ramen-style noodles. The venue is a full-serve buffet (I’m a fan of fewer humans touching the utensils) and everything we had here was good. I do wish the MDR breakfast was open longer – everyone flows to the Eatery after 9:30 so it has peak traffic between then and 11am. While getting a table for 4 really wasn’t a problem, and they do open tables in Americana Diner as overflow, some of the food sections required careful navigation to get around the other passengers.

Outside of the Eatery on deck 9 there are also stations for pizza, ice cream, and some other hot foods, and seating a lot like the Waterfront area on NCL. No bar directly outside, though, so not as convenient. Similar options, plus a salad bar, shawarma, and tacos, are available on the pool deck 17. I tried both a chicken shawarma wrap and a taco, which were both messy to eat, but the flavour was very good.

I’d also be remiss if I didn’t mention the International Cafe, also on deck 9, which has bar service available until 2am (much later than surrounding bars on Discovery/Enchanted Princess) as well as a revamped selection of sandwiches and desserts. My two favourites were the schnitzel on a pretzel bun, and the Banh Mi Beef.

Casual dining

Ocean Terrace, the sushi restaurant we enjoyed on Enchanted and Discovery Princess(es), has been changed to Makoto Ocean on this ship, and “enhanced” to become a full specialty option only included in the Premier package. This leaves Alfredo’s Pizzeria (they’ve dropped the Gigi’s naming from other ships, and the free pizza places just use a Slice suffix) and O’Malley’s Irish Pub as the only choices on Sun Princess to spend the two Princess Plus casual dining credits.

We tried both Alfredo’s and O’Malley’s but made the amateur move of not going to them until the last two days of the cruise – when everyone else and us felt they needed to get their value out of Plus. Both had about an hour wait, but Alfredo’s supplied you with a buzzer that would work in the whole Piazza area. O’Malley’s required you to stand in line with very slow movement, mostly from people who ragequit the line ahead of you rather than folks finishing their meals.

Alfredo’s

For Alfredo’s, we asked for a table for two, then Kayla took the kids to Promenade Slice for the complimentary pizza and sent them back down to Firefly Park for the afternoon so we could have a lunch just as a couple. We had time to come up for a drink at Crooners on Deck 8, located just below Alfredo’s, before the buzzer went off and our table was ready.

I had the antipasto platter, Pizza Diavolo (spicy salami, chili peppers, olives) and nibbled the flourless chocolate cake dessert. The pizza is cut into 4 pieces and is a “personal” size; probably 9 or 10″ in diameter. I found it to be substantial enough that I was overly full at the end of the meal – we delayed our main dining that evening and I still only had an appetizer that night. On Enchanted Princess, we had the kids share with us, and that was a much better choice.

O’Malley’s

The next day we went to O’Malley’s after picking up the kids from their program and got there a couple minutes before noon to a line snaking down the hallway by Princess Live. The venue only has capacity for 86 people, and probably a dozen of those seats are at the bar rather than at tables or booths. We did get in after 50 minutes as we agreed to share a booth with a very accommodating couple. However, this was painful with very little visible progress – why were there no pagers like Alfredo’s? Why was there not a staff member advising of expected wait times?

Perhaps due to the high number of guests, or maybe based on lunch vs. dinner service, they were only serving a limited menu with three starter options, four mains and two desserts typically used for late-night seatings. While the place was packed, our server was prompt with drink service and was able to expedite an order of fries for our children to keep everyone in a good mood. For my entree, I had the Bushmills Blue Burger (very respectable.) Kayla and the kids split the fish and chips.

On future sailings, I’d like to try and get here earlier in the cruise and see if the full menu is available. And when Star Princess begins sailing, that ship should have another 32 seats of capacity in O’Malley’s – perhaps a nudge toward the newer vessel in the fleet if comparing the two ships.

OceanNow drink service

I wasn’t as pleased with the OceanNow drink service on Sun Princess, in terms of selection and end results. The “beer and cider” category included no actual bottles or cans of cider, which is one thing I like having in the mini fridge. There were also a few pre-mixed cocktails/ready-to-drink beverages in the beer section of the app, such as gin and tonic, dark and stormy, and a few of the Betty Booze bourbon and tequila options. We ordered one of each of the RTD options to the cabin on the evening of Day 1 and split it into two orders – one through Kayla’s phone and one on mine, to avoid hitting the 15-drink per person limit.

While I was at Guest Services getting replacement medallion #2, the OceanNow delivery people called the cabin phone (while our kids were sleeping) to let us know that some of our choices weren’t available. Kayla let them know to just skip anything that wasn’t available.

When the order showed up just under an hour later, it included several zero-alcohol mocktail cans not originally ordered and allocated all the drinks in both orders to my account. This put me at 16 total for the day and added a $9.44 bar charge on my account. My trip out to the bar for the evening was cut short as a result, and I returned to the room to read and have a drink from the set of beverages we’d already ordered.

I used the Guest Services chat in the Princess app to see if they’d reverse the charge but got no response and fell asleep. The next morning, a response had come in 2 hours, 45 minutes later advising that the charges would be adjusted – but this line item remained on my folio for the rest of the sailing. Because I had some non-refundable onboard credit and wanted to avoid more visits to the line at Guest Services, I figured I’d just eat the charge and not let it ruin a pleasant vacation.

Bar service

There are lots of places to get a drink and sit back on Sun Princess, and I tried as many as I could. I had many seating options and great service at the Wheelhouse Bar later in the evening from Veon and Josephine, after the crowd waiting for their Crown Grill reservations had dispersed. The Sea View and Wake View bars were also efficient, and Kayla and I also enjoyed a few of the Italian-themed concoctions at Bellini’s.

More of the menu items at bars are now above the $15 Plus threshold, although they were mostly what I’d consider fancier cocktails – it could be more of an upsell tactic rather than a sneaky price increase to existing offerings. Several beers have gone up from $7 to $8 since Sun Princess’ launch though.

I felt that there were still plenty of choices for name-brand liquors included in the Plus plan, and Princess has always had “generic” styles of wine rather than specifying any certain brand for the included Plus options. This will be something to watch on future sailings to see if they start taking more of a Celebrity approach, where a larger number of beverages start costing $2 or $3 above the basic plan threshold.

Mahogany Bay

While there were three ports on this sailing, we only chose to get off the ship in Honduras at Mahogany Bay. We’ve previously been to Roatan before on Norwegian, but only very briefly got off the ship as we were docked in berth 1 at the Town Center port – which is beside a strip mall with tour vendors, transportation, low-quality merchandise, and not much else.

Carnival actually controls the Mahogany Bay port, which is about 5km east of Town Center as the crow flies, and it has free beach access about a 400m walk from the dock. Food, drinks, and umbrellas are extra cost, but loungers are also free. That morning it had rained heavily but had stopped in the afternoon by the time we went out. It was an overcast day, we’d had lunch before leaving the ship, and there were plenty of chairs in shady areas, so we didn’t need to spend any extra money for the experience.

The beach was very sandy with no rocks, and we weren’t badgered by any vendors, although the water got deep very quickly before getting to the first sandbar. And with no need to tender, we were able to walk back to the Sun Princess on our own schedule, get showered and changed for dinner.

I would look at Mahogany Bay as a positive inclusion when looking at future Princess, Carnival or HAL sailings. While Princess Cays does include food and drinks, it’s also got the downside of being a tender port. Ships can dock at the comparable Amber Cove in the Dominican Republic, which has a very nice pool area with lazy river, but no beach – and still requires you to shell out for food and drinks.

Entertainment and activities

We were able to participate in a few more onboard events on this sailing as our kids have gotten more patient and interested, and Princess did really make a good effort with the Holidays at Sea program. The ship was decorated festively in most of the public areas, with the standout feature being the gigantic Christmas tree in the Piazza.

Some events we participated in on this sailing included a holiday sing-along, writing letters to Santa, story time with Stanley the Bear, pictures and presents for the kids with Santa Claus, and the Princess World Orchestra performing holiday music (including an awesome rendition of “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch”) in the Arena.

Some of the Piazza activities, such as the Santa photos and gifts for kids, could have been better organized for improved experience and efficiency as it caused a line to back up from the Christmas tree in the Piazza to the midship elevator lobby. There were a few solo or adult couples looking for pictures with Santa (adults weren’t eligible for gifts) that could have been done at a different time or in a different order, or conversely, moving the gift process to the kids’ club.

For the non-holiday themed options, both the children and Kayla enjoyed a performance from CeCe Teneal (who performed one night in the Arena and one in the Piazza). We also caught some of the unique show by aerial violinist Janice Martin, who performed in the Piazza – Princess is certainly trying to use this space to its maximum potential outside of DJs and bands.

My personal favourite was the Irish trio Pint of Plain, who performed in various places around the ship including some holiday songs. I enjoyed a couple of their sets in O’Malley’s. They were quite popular so arriving early to their bar performances was a must.

Kayla made a point of attending the 10pm Movies Under the Stars showing of Home Alone, where she was able to get a cheese pizza just for her. Popcorn, a staple of Princess’ movie offerings was not immediately available – she had to keep checking back to see when it was ready.

The surrounding bars (MIX Cocktail Bar, Lido Bar) were closed before the movie started, and the Sun bar on deck 18 shut down at 11pm. Your only option for a drink refill halfway through the film would have been to walk to the forward Cascade bar by the Dome, out of visual and hearing range of the movie. The pools did remain open so this might be a unique way to spend your evening, assuming they were heated to a reasonable temperature.

Children’s program

Sun Princess has moved away from the Discovery Channel theming for children’s programs found on other ships. 3-to-7-year-olds attend Firefly Park, kids 8-12 attend Neon Grove, and teenagers 13-17 can go to a venue called The Underground.

Our kids went to Firefly Park and while the branding has become more generic, the indoor area is larger than on Enchanted Princess. It featured age-appropriate playground equipment, smaller-sized foosball and air hockey tables, books, and arts and crafts materials. There are a few more large-screen TVs, and they are somewhat of a focal point in the room, but whatever was playing didn’t seem to bother our movie-averse kids. One of the televisions seemed to be consistently set up with a dancing video game, so I think that benefitted us.

For younger kids, they still provide a way for the youth staff to reach parents if needed. On this ship they weren’t pagers but giant-screened Motorola phones in damage-resistant cases, connected to ship WiFi and running a VOIP app. The thing barely fit in my pocket, and I’m used to carrying around an iPhone Pro Max.

Often when we went to pick the kids up, they were fully engaged in an instructor-led activity along with the rest of the children. That speaks very well to the staff’s connection with the kids and the engaging types of things planned. For the first time in our personal cruising history, the kids asked and were able to attend parts of evening sessions for 60 to 90 minutes, without being grouchy or overwhelmingly tired.

The staff did run a supervision-required Festive Family Faire in the afternoon on the last day of the cruise, like the one on Day 3 on Enchanted Princess. We couldn’t attend, but this is more to note that it does change the afternoon schedule on one day. There was also one evening with a hosted dinner (where they take the kids to the Eatery) and the occasional offer to take them to lunch, but our kids weren’t interested so we didn’t participate.

On port days, programming resumed at 1pm rather than 2pm; we never returned that early, since swimming and lunch took priority in our schedule, but it was nice to know the additional hour was available.

The only two downsides that our kids noted about Firefly Park, versus the Tree House on Enchanted Princess, were the lack of video game stations (they fixated on a Paw Patrol game on our last cruise; I’m OK with less screen time) as well as the absence of an outdoor play area. Firefly Park is in the middle of the ship on Deck 6 without any exterior windows, whereas the Tree House is on Deck 17 (Sun), with outside views and a connected, covered play area with space for trikes and a play structure. I’ll also reiterate that the general location of Firefly Park on Sun Princess is not great due to the swarm of people at Guest Services and the walk by passenger cabins.

Technology

The Princess mobile phone app was flakier than I recall on previous sailings. I was signed out of the app and sent back to the login screen once or twice a day; make sure your password manager is functional so you can get back in. With in-app messaging not delivering notifications consistently, Kayla and I fell back to iMessage as we did have Internet access through MedallionNet Max (included in Plus.) Internet service did have consistently good performance – I wouldn’t say it lives up to the lofty “highest quality, highest performance” promises, but WiFi coverage was ubiquitous throughout the ship and was not disappointing.

Other Guest Services visits

Sadly, I was unable to avoid two additional trips to Guest Services this cruise, although after Day 4 I was the first person to form a line on both occasions and only had to wait 2 to 3 minutes for the person ahead to finish up. On the first visit I needed to purchase airport transfers ($19/person to FLL) as we had received only the EZ-Check luggage form in our cabin, and not the paperwork for transfers only. This transaction was quick, friendly, and I was able to get the latest “silver 37” tags for an 8:45am departure, as our flight wasn’t until the next day.

On the second visit, one of my kids (but not the other) received a letter asking them to come to Guest Services and ensure a payment method had been attached to their account. I had done this pre-cruise through the app and allowed the credit card to apply to everyone in the cabin, but for whatever reason I guess this didn’t stick. Again, it was a very quick fix – the guest services agent took my cabin number, asked if I wanted to use the card ending in XXXX for the other people in the stateroom, and completed the change in just a few seconds. At that point the folio option in the app let me see the charges and onboard credits for everyone.

Disembarkation and return

The disembark process seemed to work smoothly. Announcements in the halls started for walk-off guests about 6:45am, about 15 minutes after originally expected. We were out of our cabin by 8am as requested and went to Americana Diner for a light breakfast (table service for drinks, counter service for food) as we waited to be called.

While each tag colour/number was not quite to the exact timing in the disembarkation information, we did get called by 8:50am and made our way down a few decks to exit the ship. On a personal level, I had done something to mess up my foot the day prior – it felt like a pulled muscle in the arch, so I was effectively limping all day and not capable of moving quickly.

Once off the ship we didn’t get held up at all, and the facial recognition at US customs worked for all of us. We were able to proceed right onto a coach bus for FLL and exited at the Terminal 1 area. Notably, this pickup area for hotel shuttles is partially covered, whereas the one to the right of Terminal 2 is not, so this may influence your decision as to where to wait for a van.

There was no early check-in available at the Homewood Suites due to a full house the night before, so we ended up in the main lobby area for a few hours on our phones/tablets while I paired some ibuprofen and acetaminophen, also trying to stretch and rest my foot. There was a Wendy’s out front where we could pick up some lunch.

While it was a nice hotel and property, there weren’t a whole lot of walkable food options other than the Wendy’s or Dunkin, so I ended up using GrubHub (promoted in the elevator as having a partnership with Homewood) to order our dinner. Warning to Canadians though: the GrubHub account creation didn’t accept Canadian-issued cell phone numbers, so I ended up using a temporary number through TextNow over the hotel WiFi to get past that step.

The next day we got down to the lobby at 5:50am for the 6am shuttle, which was somewhat oversubscribed, but we were able to get everyone in. At Terminal 2, the Air Canada check-in kiosk ran out of checked baggage sticker tape, so we had to go to the counter to get that finished up. Luckily there was no line at all at that point in the morning – I don’t think a whole lot of folks returning from cruises that day would risk an 8am flight back to Toronto, but you’d need to be staffed for the next set of disembarkations. The flight home was on time and uneventful, wrapping up what was a very successful family vacation.

Retrospective and going forward

I am pleased that we got to try Sun Princess during her first few sailings in North America. The holiday focus was a novel experience, certainly exceeding what we’ve seen on other ships during a similar time of year. There is absolutely a price premium for this week, but the New Year’s sailing the week after ours was even more expensive.

All this to say: while there have been real issues with Sun Princess that should not be ignored by Princess/CCL, and there are absolutely individuals with valid complaints like there are with any cruise ship or line, Sun Princess is still worth your consideration – in my opinion, and for whatever that’s worth. Perhaps most telling of all is that we’ve booked another late 2025 voyage on Sun Princess. While it’s a refundable deposit only at this point, it was a good enough time for us to want to return. Cabins seem to be going quickly already.

At the end of the August 2024 Enchanted Princess review I mentioned that Princess was my current favourite line – at least with the Plus plan and based on their most modern ships. After sailing on Sun Princess this opinion hasn’t changed. It will certainly be a slog to get to Elite in the loyalty program. That level would have some parity with our NCL benefits like laundry, but one additional point would be a shorter Guest Services line when we need it.

Our two closest cruises are both on Enchanted Princess this spring and summer, and it will be interesting to compare the ships once more. With a recent experience on Sun Princess, is there anything notable that Princess has done on the newer ship that now feels lacking on the older one? Or will we reaffirm the things that made Discovery and Enchanted Princess great vacations and choose to focus on ships prior to Sphere-class? Regardless, I’ll probably just be happy to be on a cruise.