Sun Princess Review
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Having read a number of reviews on Cruise critic and other web sites about this ship I was somewhat apprehensive about this cruise. Plus we have previously sailed on the Sea and Caribbean Princess ships and have therefore been fortunate to experience some of the recent enhancements Princess has made to their newer and refurbished ships. However as soon as we boarded those apprehensive thoughts faded away and we had a thoroughly enjoyable time on the Sun Princess. Yes she is an older ship and hasn't got some of the benefits the newer/refitted Princess ships have e.g Sabatini's, MUTS etc. but she is still wonderful and anyone considering sailing on her should bear this in mind and so long as you don't have silly expectations then I am confident you will have as good a time as we did.
Boarding: Unfortunately the ship was 3 hours late arriving in to Port Everglades because of rough seas the previous day at Princess Cays where it took 4 - 5 hours longer than expected to get all the passengers back to the ship on the tenders. Not knowing this before hand we arrived at approx. 12pm expecting to wait a little while before being able to board. However when we arrived we were told check in would not commence until 2pm. Fortunately we were near the front of the line and when things started to happen we were onboard with relative ease. I've never liked the embarkation process and there doesn't seem to be any glamour about this part of the holiday and that's not just Princess, I hold the same view for RCCL, NCL and Celebrity.
Stateroom: We had booked an outside stateroom with Balcony on Caribe Deck. The room was comfortable, at first we thought it was a bit small but once you got in and found your way around and where things were etc. it was more than comfortable. Yes when you read other reviews some say you can't "swing a cat" or you can't pass by the bed with another person but is that really the end of the world! The biggest surprise in the room was the balcony - it was small in comparison to the balconies on the Caribbean Princess. However once we had been on the ship a few days we got used to it. However the balconies are small and I would say they are fine to enjoy the evening sunset, have a nice sail away drink with canapEs but not really suitable for a room service cooked breakfast.