Sun Princess Cruise Review by Peter Lea

Sun Princess is the oldest of their 17 ships and is in need of a major refurbishment and maintenance. In our cabin, the window was rusted out in part and rust was evident throughout the ship.

Princess Cruises seemed to want to cater "down" to the Ozzie level - typical dress in the dining room and buffet consisted of blue builders' labourers singlets(vests), shorts and rubber flip-flops or sneakers. On a dress-up night, one passengers wore his Murwillumbah (New South Wales) bus company drivers' jacket complete with bus company logo and telephone number on the back to dinner.

At one port, one very, very old Ozzy turned to his wife and asked if she had her pensioner card and Medicare (national insurance) card with her "because they will probably be needed in this new country". They honestly thought they were visiting another country rather than another port in Australia.

Princess Cruises was also up to its "rip-off" tricks - for example - charging $7 per person each way for a bus trip from Broome to Cable Beach in Western Australia, when the local bus company operated a more frequent service at $3.50 per person each way. And if you held an Australian seniors card, the fare was $1.50 per person each way and if you were a Western Australian citizen, there was no charge.

We are Ozzies, but we cringed at the behoviour of these senior Australian yobboes and at 66 years of age, were among the 10 per cent youngest on board.

Finally, we bought our cruise tickets out of the UK at 55% saving on the "price fixed" Australian rate.

What a shame Princess Cruises has fallen into the trap that P&O suffered - putting their oldest ships into Australia and lowering their standards.