This cruise was fantastic! I've heard that this was one of the last circle Australia cruises, because the industry is now cutting back in Australia. We cruised out of Sydney and visited Brisbane, Cairns, Alotau, Darwin, Broome, Geraldton, and finally, we ended in Perth, Australia. The ports and shore excursions were excellent. Food was wonderful, most nights we ate in the dining room, our waiters were Tarra and Bagus. Both were excellent, the best waiters we have ever had, I think that if you cruise on Sun Princess, I would ask for them, they really go the extra mile to ensure your vacation is an amazing experience. For lunch, we mainly ate in the buffet, and with a smaller ship, you must remember that they are not that many specialty restaurants. The steak restaurant was part of the buffet that they sectioned off at night, and the only other speciality restaurant was Share, by Curtis Stone. We did not eat there, because we didn't like the thought of sharing food with other people.
We stayed in a Mini Suite, and for 2 people, it was the perfect size. I believe that the closet space was small, especially with a 17 day cruise, but it was manageable nonetheless. One of the best things about Princess are the free movies that you can watch on TV, this was a really nice feature, especially with a 17 day cruise, with a lot of sea days.
All in all, we had an amazing time on the Sun Princess, and are very happy that we took advantage of the cruise, as it is no longer offered by Princess.
We stayed in a Club Class Mini Suite. Mini suites that are not club class do not have the same privileges as regular suites. I think one of the nicest things about sun princess is, after being renovated in 2016, all of the cabins have a standing shower, and mini suites have a standing shower with a bathtub. I think it is nice, so you won't have to stand in a bathtub if you are taking a shower, I just think it is kind of gross. With a club class mini suite, we get the benefits of staying in a regular suite such as priority embarkation and debarkation, 2 bottles of wine on embarkation day, and 1 free meal in a specialty restaurant. I think that the club class mini suite is a nice balance between a mini suite and regular suite and I would recommend it to anyone who is cruising. Sun Princess has smaller cabins than other princess ships, so if you want the extra space, I recommend that you upgrade from a balcony cabin to a mini suite.
We got off the ship and took the bus into the CBD of Darwin. We walked around, but being in on a Sunday, there wasn't anything open. We went into a few stores, looked at some souvenirs, and we ate lunch and went back to the ship.
Geraldton is like the Key West to Miami. It is like a little beach town. We walked around, visited shops and ate lunch, walked around a bit more, before returning to the ship.