We booked this cruise 14 months ago. We had the luxury of it beginning and finishing at our home port of Fremantle, so we had the advantage of having to drive only 15 kms to and from the port, also the fact as it was our first cruise it was16 nights, which is neither too short or too long.
EMBARKATION
When we arrived at the port, there was a queue that seemed a kilometre long, although it moved very quickly. Once we had dropped off our suitcases it was into the terminal to check in. Another long queue, which also moved very quickly, then through Customs and the necessary security checks and we were on board. When we first arrived we thought we would be in for a long wait, but, the system that Princess had in place enabled processing of passengers very quickly and efficiently. All in all, the whole process took roughly an hour - less than we first thought.
CABIN INFORMATION
Our cabin was in the most perfect position, first in the corridor, near the lifts/stairs, the shops and restaurant all on the same level. The cabin itself was cosy enough for us and our 12 year old daughter. Nice big window to look out of whenever we wanted. Two single beds which were put together to make a Queen size and a bunk bed that came down electronically from the ceiling for our daughter at night, then returned in the morning to its stowage position. Mini fridge, TV. Plenty of storage space - triple wardrobe with plenty of wooden coat hangers, another cupboard with shelves and a safe. Large mirror/dressing table with 6 drawers underneath, and a bedside table with three drawers. The bathroom was compact but functional - the shower head was better and more powerful than our ones at home!!!
Our cabin steward was very friendly and efficient - our daughter bought some fluffy toys at the shop on board and each morning when he made the bed he lined them up at the window and each night lined them up on her bed - cute :-)
SHIP INFORMATION
The Sun Princess is a beautiful ship, very classy and very clean. All of the public areas were very well set out. All of the crew, without exception, were very friendly and efficient - nothing was too much trouble. Basically there was something for everyone. I especially love the musical trio that would play in the Atrium every day, Cello, Violin and Guitar - not being a classical music buff before....... I am now. I wish I had bought their CD so I could listen to them at home - very relaxing!
DINING
We chose the second sitting for dinner at the Regency dining room, apart from 4 nights out of the 16, we did not manage to make. The nights we did go the service was something else, impeccable and well orchestrated. Our waiters went out of their way to make it a lovely experience and the food was to die for. For breakfast we mainly went to the Marquis dining room - same again, it was fabulous with a varied menu each morning or you could choose the old favourites, the fresh danish pastries/croissants each day were delicious. On other occasions we went to the Horizon Court where, again, the food was magic, a different country theme each day and plenty of choices. Verdis Pizza was wonderful too, very tasty and very quick. Sterling Steakhouse - we went one night with our fellow CC forum members and it was a gastronomic delight and beautifully presented. Overall the food was nothing short of wonderful!!!!
ACTIVITIES
There was something for everyone, you could do as much (or in our case) as little as you wanted to do, the whole point of this holiday for us was to relax and we surely did :-) There was always something happening! The crossing of the Equator ceremony was a lot of fun. There was Bingo, Trivia Quizzes, Art Auctions, Shuffleboard competitions, Casino, all of which we did not participate in, but talking to others who did, said they were a lot of fun.
KIDS CLUB
Our daughter who turned 12 on the 6th day of the cruise was spoilt rotten by the crew, from balloons outside our cabin on the morning of her birthday to a cake at dinner that night. The Kids Club had different activities for them each day - the crew in this club must have the patience of saints!! All in all, our daughter loved going there and picked and chose when she went, if they had something on that did not interest her that particular day, she spent the day in the pool etc Through the Kids Club she made many new friends. Kudos to Douglas (Canada), Kenny (USA) and Angela (UK) who were the crew members in the Club - you deserve medals!!!!
ENTERTAINMENT
We did not go to any of the shows, not because we did not want to, but most nights we were too tired to go. In hindsight, we should have picked the 1st sitting for dinner to enable us to go to the earlier shows. From what other passengers told us the shows were fabulous, again, as far as the shows go, there was something for everyone.
SHORE EXCURSIONS
We had 6 days at sea from Fremantle (the best part as far as we are concerned :-) then 5 port days. Our first port was Penang Malaysia - we should have taken a taxi around the island to see the sights, but, we didn't. We just got a shuttle to the local shopping centre in Georgetown, which was great if you were 25 and size 10 :-) At least I got to taste my first ever Starbucks (we do not have one in Perth).
Next Phuket Thailand - we did the James Bond Island tour which was lovely, we went on a long boat and cruised around the island where part of the movie "The Man With The Golden Gun" was filmed, we also visited a village built entirely on stilts on the ocean which was great, at the end of the tour a lovely buffet lunch was served.
Our next port was Langkawi in Malaysia, we caught a shuttle to the town, where if you wanted, you could shop till you dropped at the duty free shopping centre, we chose to walk ten minutes further and spent a few hours on the beach, the sea was as warm as bathwater and the backdrop of scenery was stunning, watching the parasailers was magic!!!! Time well spent!!
On to Kuala Lumpur - again we got a shuttle into the city, about an hours drive from the port. KL is very impressive and very clean, almost on par with Singapore. Unfortunately we were too late to go onto the Skywalk at the Petronas Towers, but they were impressive nonetheless. The shopping centre under the towers was very impressive to say the least - it almost felt like you were in Paris - Chanel, Gucci, Versace to name a few, We could not afford to shop there but it was nice window shopping :-)
Last port Singapore - we did the Battlegrounds tour - absolutely brilliant, we had an expat Brit of 30 years as our guide and he did a wonderful job, very informative. Then we did the cable car over to Sentosa, which just happened to go right over the Sun Princess, it was lovely to see our temporary home from that perspective.
We then had 4 more sea days until our next port, a welcome rest after 5 busy port days. It got a little rough on the 3rd day but am glad to say that it was more fun than scary :-)
Day 16 - Geraldton
We were not going to get off at this port originally, but we are so glad we did, Geraldton has come along in leaps and bounds since I was last there 23 years ago.
DISEMBARKATION
We were allocated the second disembarkation at 0830. We were called at 0830 on the dot and were out of the terminal by 9.00am. after customs and picking up our suitcases - very quick :-)
SUMMARY
This was our first cruise and it definitely will not be our last (credit card willing hehehe) we has the most wonderful experience, the ship is beautiful, the crew are wonderful without exception, we also made some brilliant new friends who we are going to keep in touch with. The food was magnificent and plentiful, as I said in the beginning, any other ship we sail on is going to be compared to the Sun Princess - she is absolutely beautiful!
ON THE DOWN SIDE - There were 1 percent of the passengers who did nothing but whinge about having to wait 5 seconds for a lift, queue, tender or whatever ....also whining about the smokers, who by the way were on THEIR side of the ship in allocated smoking areas, if you don't like smoke, go on YOUR side!!!! As for those of you who were totally rude to the crew (I was a witness to a few of these incidents) - REMEMBER they are there to look after you, they are NOT subservient to you, PLEASE and THANK YOU goes a long way!!!!
