Princess cruise

[lucy2014]

Just wondering if anyone has done a princess cruise before ? Just a bit concerned might be mainly older people mainly and not much for teens. ( 12 and 17 year old).. Cruise was £1500 less than others ( RC/NCL/MSC ) for same type room. Never cruised before ! .

Ship is the sun princess for last week August ( Athens/ Santorini/ Montenegro/ corfu/ Sicily
hoping still some kids on hioliday and also port intensive so ship will just be to rest and relax. Any feedback welcome !

We did a sky princess cruise in May, didn't love it. Entertainment mostly bingo or line dancing, all very noisy. Speciality restaurants a bit hit and miss, steak one is great, Italian very average. Sun princess might have better chefs though. Wouldn't have thought there was much for a teenager or a 12 year old.

Did one years ago. Never again. The corridors, rooms and restaurants were dark, dingy and dirty. Toilets in state rooms in the entire row kept blocking. You had to stand and wait with your tray in the buffet restaurants for families to finish so could you try and grab their table. Buffet Restaurants were cramped and they’d tried to ram as many tables and chairs in but still weren’t enough. It’s cheaper for a reason. Don’t do it.

I did one last year, Sky Princess … loved it. I’ve done lots of cruises and this was my absolute favourite.
Took DD 17 … the teenagers had a group chat put together, before the cruise set off, so they all met up and hung out, from Day 1.
Loved the Cabins (we had adjoining cabins with DD), The Food, The Cocktails. The App / Tag system is great… order on your phone app, and they bring it to you wherever you are.
We were going to go this year, but dates didn’t work. Highly Recommend

Princess are not cheap .. they are Mid. Marella is cheap, so I know what a cheaper cruise looks like (nothing against Marella, loved my times with them)

Check out cruise mummy on instagram. She recently did sun princess with her family.

My in-laws always go on Princess and prefer it to other cruise lines.

edited to add that most cruise lines add additional activities for children during the summer holidays.

Thank you - I think the teens making friends will be the key as there is not much in the way of specific activities for kids on this ship. Just the pool, teen club and a small basketball/ court. Was it mainly older people. I get the impression end of August will have some kids as it’s mainly Americans less kids than say July. have you been on an RC cruise ? Just wondering how it compares. Thank you

The ship is 1 year old and looks beautiful so I don’t think that will be the issue. It just the lack of kids/ kids activities and the older clientele ! I’m not sure how those factors will affect our enjoyment of the cruise.

I got off Sun Princess in Rome on Tuesday. Beautiful ship but far too big for me. We only had one sea day so it was a great but very busy trip. Average age was definitely lower compared to longer itineraries - lots of big family groups. There were loads of teens on it. There is an organised kids club, tween club and teen club but some kids didn’t attend those and just made their own friends onboard.

The Princess Medallion technology means you can track each other to see locations on the ship so kids seemed to be granted a lot more freedom from parents than on other lines I’ve travelled with.

Have a wonderful time!

Not done sun princess but have done Crown and sky.
loved both. Depends what you like though as a family. RCI has all the climbing walls, water slides, ice rinks etc and that is why it is more expensive. We prefer port heavy cruises rather than sea days so we are off the ship a lot. In the evening we have dinner then I will usually watch a show with older teens, DH prefers to either sit and read on the balcony or may go to a bar. We like to do a quiz and really enjoy a very late swim. We also might watch a film. Sky has a big screen outside but not sure if Sun has this.
I have also enjoyed talks by guest speakers.
My teens are quite quiet. They enjoy lounging by the pool on sea days plus getting up very late.
Personally I have never had a bad holiday no matter where I have gone or whether it’s cruise or hotel or even camping. I think I have a mindset that a holiday is what you make of it. I always do a lot of research and planning before I go.
The itinerary you have selected looks amazing. I do know that Princess cruises that don’t sail from Southampton are more relaxed with dress code - but even those from Southampton are not as formal as they used to be by a long way.

Find the Facebook group for the cruise. Start off looking for princess cruises uk passengers. There are sub groups for different departures and ships. You will then probably find someone has set up a what’s app group for those with teens of similar ages. My dc joined a what’s app group prior to going then they met some others on board. Teen club also is good for meeting others.
Tbh - my dc didn’t really spend long with others after meeting up as they are quiet and sort of rely on each other for company.

I don’t recognise the comments above about how awful the cruise ship is - dark and crowded etc. yes some parts will be crowded at certain times but I have always been able to find a quiet spot when needed. I notice the pp who was very critical went years ago. Better to listen to those who have sailed on the new ships more recently.

Been on Sky Princess twice - thoroughly enjoyed both trips. We went in term time & was mostly adults over 50, a few youngsters, not many children, but this could be because was during term time. Mostly UK travellers.

Not dark or dingy & no issues with the plumbing. Bars & common areas do get busy on 'at sea' days, but we had a balcony that we could sit on & we never had a problem finding sunbeds, though sometimes had to hunt around a bit.

Yep done two cruises on Sky Princess with teens. Brilliant kids clubs, beautiful ship, lots to do.

We’re going again. It’s an adults ship with facilities for kids rather than a ‘family friendly’ ship which suits us as the dc are older.

Hi
Thank you . Really helpful to hear from someone who has been on it recently. You mentioned the ship was too big ? Was that because to took a long time to get to where you wanted to go ? Did you enjoy the food/ shows. Did you go with kids? Sorry for all the questions ! I think we will stick with princess. For the price difference for we could probably book some amazing excursions which we can’t do at home. We’ve got ice skating , rock climbing etc 10 minutes from us here!

I prefer smaller ships, this was fine but was travelling with family so not my choice of ship. It was crazy busy by the pools at times but food & drink venues didn’t have long queues. There were 4,700 passengers on our sailing and 1,600 crew. We didn’t have any tender ports but if you did I imagine it would take a long time to tender everyone to shore.

We really enjoyed the entertainment, plenty of things going on around the ship, always something to do and something to eat! 😂 The Arena (theatre) is quite small and did get busy so we went early to get good seats.

We had a 12yr old in our group and she had a great time. She didn’t go to the clubs but made friends.

Let me know if you have any more questions!

Remember to factor in the new Greek cruide tourist tax applied to all cruise passengers (even if you stay on the ship in a given port) - it's 5 Euros per person in all ports except Santorini and Mykonos, where it's 20 Euros. They will the amounts to your onboard account and the ship pays the port according to how many passengers onboard.

Thank you for the reply. That sounds great for us. I know cruise ships have small pools but I think on port days we might go to the beach / find a beach club as the ports are very close by. Only one possible tender port ( Santorini) if it ends up stopping there. I really like the medallion idea for giving kids that independence. If it’s easy to get food and drink and the entertainment is good then that should be enough. I’m sure will have more questions nearer the time !

Thank you will have to factor it in. But so far it’s around £3100 ocean view, including flights which is a good price i think .

We were meant to go to Santorini but it got swapped out for Mykonos a few weeks prior as the Sun is just too big. Not sure why they are still advertising it! Same for Kotor - it was swapped for Bar which was a big disappointment.

Beach clubs are a great idea

Sounds like a good price to me. We're shortly off on our 33rd cruise (did a Princess back in 2006 but too long ago to be of any use to you in terms of advice!)

It’s sounds you are went in the exact same cruise itinerary! Thinking of either taxi to to stari grad old town bar or getting excursion to kotor. Mykonos /crete would be much more kid friendly than Santorini. What did you do in corfu and Messina? the times are short there .

Thank you sounds great !

Thank you, I’m hoping with the ports, food and drink all day and entertainment that should be enough! A show, meal, movie for port days and the 2 sea days hopefully they will be happy eating ice cream and relaxing ! If we find it boring next time will consider paying the extra for all the on board activities like RC.

We were on Sun Princess last July. DC 18 & 14. Absolutely loved it. Beautiful ship. Plenty of food options, never felt too crowded and always something going on somewhere.

Thank you - that’s great to hear! I’ve booked so looking forward to it. Glad to teens enjoyed it too. Bit worried it would be mainly older people! Last week of August may have less kids but still enough I hope.

Love love princess line. Done a few with the teens, princess is far superior to the other lines you mention. Their packages of drinks wifi tips are also very good value compared with others.