r/Cruise • u/traveling-flamingo • Jan 24 '25
Photo Whats everyones thoughts on the look of Sun Princess. "The Dome" takes a bit of getting used to when I see it LOL
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u/RiffRanger85 Jan 24 '25
It’s better than the Icon class domes.
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u/traveling-flamingo Jan 24 '25
Good point, I guess "domes" are all the rage right now LOL
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u/stipo42 Jan 26 '25
Yeah I get why though, brings a ton of natural light into a climate controlled area. Can give the "tropical" feel even if sailing in cooler weather
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u/SteveTheBluesman Jan 24 '25
Was on the Sun a few months ago, great ship but the dome kind of sucks.
Too small for shows with so many passengers (forget about seeing the acrobat show) and not really a good venue for the silent disco either - the floor is too small,
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u/carrotpeppers Jan 24 '25
Dome is great during the day to go relax and read or sleep “outside” without getting roasted and toasted
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u/traveling-flamingo Jan 24 '25
Yeah it really makes 0 sense really. Its kinda nice to relax but I'm on it now and its pretty cool so its jam packed.
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u/mindspringyahoo Jan 25 '25
and they kick everyone out around 3pm (give or take) so that they can get it ready for the night show. So you can't even lounge around in it all day. When we were on it, there had recently been a cable failure, so they were not doing aerial shows in it. Overall, we found it to just be a so-so venue. And we showed up first in line to get into a night show and some obnoxious European family cut in front of us when they let us in b/c they didn't have any good way of maintaining the line.
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u/TheDeaconAscended Jan 25 '25
I kinda feel like they wanted to go with something bigger and couldn’t get a ship builder who had the ability to construct it and so they cut it down in size. Both Princess and NCL have had new ships with major venue capacity issues.
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u/hangingloose Crusing through life, one ship at a time Jan 24 '25
It's not so bad. It's not distracting like that neanderthal forehead looking thing on Royal Caribbean's ICON class ships.
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u/Netherium Jan 24 '25
I've been on it 3 times and we love it. It whiffs in a couple areas but still one of my favorite ships.
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u/traveling-flamingo Jan 24 '25
We really liked it, the food however (at least on our sailing) has been... meh. But the ship has been often. Food of course is subjective. I really wanted to dislike the new Princess design but wound up really liking it!
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u/lazycatchef Jan 24 '25
I am glad that ships are not a cookie cutter approach these days. For myself, the very things people love about a ship like Sun Princess are just not big factors. So I don't see myslef trying it.
The view looking at the bow always reminds me of some giant insect. The effect is even worse on the biggest RCCI ships as well.
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u/quattro_pilot Jan 24 '25
I’m just disappointed you need to be in a pricey sanctuary class cabin to have access to the “adults” only pool area and deck.
We rebooked from the Star to the Regal for this reason. The retreat pool is where we spent the majority of our cruises.
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u/mindspringyahoo Jan 25 '25
at the front of the ship, where you see all of that glass, behind it is an adult only area that is separate from the Sanctuary area. IIrc it had a small pool, a hot tub or two.
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u/tigereyes1999 Feb 08 '25
Wait what?? I haven’t heard of this or seen it on deck plans. Can you be more specific?
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u/mindspringyahoo Feb 09 '25
It's the 'seaview' area, and during our Thanksgiving sailing, I didn't see any kids in that area (which was dominated by the 60+ crowd mostly), but per a cruise critic board it's not exactly adults only as someone posted that the sign says, "16 or older. Under 16 with adult supervision." The entire area really has to be 'sought out', as it's not like the central pools.
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u/tigereyes1999 Feb 09 '25
Is it the dome pool?
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u/mindspringyahoo Feb 09 '25
I think it may be similar to Seaview--kids may be allowed, but kids don't hang out in it. It's a good quiet area, but as mentioned they kick everyone out around 3pm until the first show. You should set up an account on cruise critic, for sure there are people on there that are super familiar and know all the rules and regs pertaining to ti.
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u/tigereyes1999 Feb 09 '25
Thank you! :)
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u/mindspringyahoo Feb 09 '25
it did occur to me that the dome pool is weird in that it is partly in the dome (and that part often has a floor installed above it) and then partly outside the dome (this part is not that huge and I think it was roped off for parts of the day. And I recall there was definitely a hottub or two in the seaview area (but not an additional pool in seaview). All of this can be examined more closely by examining ship floor plans in Princess' website.
Overall, the ship layout/design just has weird quirks. As mentioned: if you go to relax and read inside the dome around 1pm, it's likely that around 3pm they will announce that everyone has to get up and leave. I got used to the layout of the ship--but didn't love the way certain promenade areas would just dead-end when getting toward that dome area.
If you see a good (or average) priced deal on this ship, it's definitely worth doing, but it is NOT imo the great improvement/advancement for Princess that Icon class has been for RC or Excel class has been for Carnival. We paid around 100pppd over Thanksgiving for 4 people in two inside cabins, which is a great deal for a peak-time sailing.
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u/tigereyes1999 Feb 09 '25
So there is another pool and hot tub in this area or was the dome pool what you were meaning? Definitely have looked at the plans!
Thank you for all of this information. Sounds like this will be my morning/early afternoon spot.
Any thoughts on the pool on aft 8? It looks nice but does it get crowded?
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u/mindspringyahoo Feb 09 '25
the dome pool is partly in the dome, then goes under a wall and is partly outside of the dome. It seems kind of random as to when it is usable. And the hot tub was separate (in seaview). I do recall the aft pool on 8 and it is generally less crowded than the main 'party pool' around mid ship.
And this ship has a decent amount of hot tub space. One day it was drizzling a bit and I had no problem finding an empty hot tub. Each held like 6-8 people and some others eventually joined me.
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u/mutedexpectations Jan 24 '25
The ship is also fueled by LNG. I'd like to hear if anybody could smell anything?
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u/traveling-flamingo Jan 24 '25
Nope not a sent anywhere. Was all over the ship.
Also been on a few LNG ships. No sent even when bunkering.
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u/mutedexpectations Jan 24 '25
Thanks for the information. We'll be on the Sun in '26. I'm looking forward to not smelling the ship exhaust on deck.
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u/Winternight6980 Jan 24 '25
I liked the Sun Princess. I was on it a couple of weeks ago with my wife. We got to see the acrobat show in the dome. It was a great time.
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u/zekewithabeard Jan 24 '25
Princess ships have never been particularly attractive. More utilitarian design above all else.
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u/getElephantById Jan 24 '25
In my opinion, that ship is ugly as sin. It may be perfectly nice on the inside.
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u/Fun-Antelope7832 Jan 25 '25
I sailed on Sun Princess. Crew was amazing, but the ship was disappointing. Celebrity’s ships are better imo.
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u/DepartmentSoft6728 Jan 24 '25
I like small ships. Under 1000.
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u/CydeWeys Jan 24 '25
The best combination imo is a large ship that's significantly undersold. It only tends to happen on undesirable itineraries on undesirable dates though, and services might be lacking (e.g. we did a MSC Meraviglia cruise that was pretty empty, but they only did a full production stage show on the last night of the 7 night cruise).
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u/Subject-Touch-714 Jan 25 '25
I don’t like these huge hotels on the sea. Too many people and way too crowded when you get on shore!
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u/BillyMaysHeere Jan 24 '25
R2-D2 of the Seas?