Sun Princess - Tasmania

Cruise Famil Report
Melanie Doyle
8 Night Tasmanian Cruise
Sun Princess

02 – 10 February 2008




Facts and Figures:

Passengers: 2,272 Total
Total Crew: 924
Entered Service: December 1995
Size: 77,441 tons

What can I say? What a fantastic Ship! On embarkation, the line up was horrendous, but it actually ran quite smoothly and was only in line for about 30 minutes. Lots of X-ray machines and security checks but the staff were all very helpful with a smile on their faces.


This ship is considered a 4 star ship in our Australian market but 5 star on service by far. When we departed Sydney for 2 days of cruising down to Port Arthur, we passed 3 metres under the Sydney Harbour Bridge!!!! What amazing navigation.

The Captain was quite informative and would come over the loud speaker daily with a funny piece of information or two.

Cabins

My cabin mate Moniqua and I were allocated a Balcony Stateroom (category BD) which was extremely comfortable for two passengers. The beds can either be in a twin or double configuration. The beds were extremely comfortable as were the “duvets” although the pillows were somewhat soft and didn’t provide great support for your neck. They had a great cupboard which enabled all of our clothes to fit in comfortably plus a desk with chair. The bathroom was small but adequate. The controls in the shower were, at first difficult to understand, but once we knew what was going on, was better. The balcony was absolutely fantastic and it was almost a covered in balcony so never windy and perfect for some of those great Tasmanian cheeses, crackers and wine!!! The cabin beside ours would be great for families or friends traveling together as you can take out the door separating the two balconies and enjoy one large one.
HOT TIP - There was unfortunately only one Australian plug in the room and with two women sharing was quite difficult at times to plan getting ready. There were plenty of USA plugs in the room but not many Australian ones. So if there’s two women going, see if you can pick up a USA adaptor as well!!!


Food, food and more food!

There are two main restaurants on the Sun Princess the Regency and the Marquis Restaurant and where you dine depends on what your cabin is and whether you requested first or second sitting. Both restaurants are of good size and there is plenty of room between tables. The Marquis was by far absolutely amazing and I chose to eat here almost every night as the food changed daily with a different themed every night. One of my most favourite meals one night was I got to try Escargot!!!

The Marquis was only open for dinner whereas the Regency was open for breakfast as well until 9:30am as well as dinner. Because these two were more the better style of dining, the meals that were offered for breakfast was by far better than anything the ship had to offer. Horizon Court was a bad choice for breakfast as the buffet was boring and generally been sitting there for quite some time. They did cook your eggs to order but as I found out they just couldn’t manage to cook me poached eggs which weren’t white and runny. I tried several times to explain I liked them cooked well but no one managed to get it right. But in saying that, the omlettes were pretty easy to get right (until the last morning where they came out undercooked).

Horizon Court was the buffet option and they often mixed it up each day and offered different buffets, from Sushi to Indian to Mexican buffets as well as the usual hot and cold buffet with as much as you could possibly eat.

This was the place for the afternoon buffet as well as the 24 hour buffet. One from our group did test out the buffet at 3am in the morning but said the food was very sparse and not very appetizing. They commented that if they are going to advertise it as a 24 hour buffet that it should be better looking food.

The other places to eat around the ship, like Terrace Grill and Topsiders Bar were good but more the deep fried food and nothing as good as in the buffets.

There was also a Sterling Steakhouse offered on the ship near Horizon Court however this eatery incurs an extra $20 per person to eat here. Because the food was so fantastic at Marquis our group never ate here.

Verdi’s Pizzeria was absolutely to die for pizza with the most amazing Cal zones I can describe. All the pizza’s came out heart shaped because ‘that’s the Italian way’.

Next is room service, which is such great food (the cheeseburger being my favourite) and you can order at any time of the day without fail. The longest you generally wait is about 30 minutes during peak times.

As on all cruise ships now they are extra vigilant here with hygiene hand wash applied to anyone within about a metre of the food in the buffets and on entry to the main restaurants.

During the eating times your empty plate would only stay on your table for about 5 minutes, with the great wait staff keen to make everything look and feel fantastic.


Entertainment

Always something to do every night from drinks at Shooting Stars Nightclub to the Casino (open until 5am – except in dock). Almost every night they had something on with towards the end of the cruise they had more things on. The deck party was pretty great as was the Champagne Waterfall and of course then you got to dance with the crew afterwards!!!

There were shows on every night for both early and late dinner sittings however the one night I chose to take in a show, was also the night the ship was rocking quite a bit and being enclosed in the Princess Theatre was not such a great thing for someone prone to being sea sick (but I escaped it).

We played trivia (older questions asked unfortunately) and bingo (the bingo became quite competitive towards the end with the older ladies) and shuffleboard but apart from that, there was not a huge amount for someone to do who was under 50 years old. The Bingo wasn’t cheap at $20 per playing card but then again I had never played Bingo before.

I think they should try and market it to the younger generation because there were lots of pools and spas and gyms but if you weren’t into reading your book by the pool, sipping on cocktails, then there wasn’t much to do. Lucky I was into those things so I was easily entertained. Just a reminder that drinking cocktails beside a pool in the shade will still get you sun burnt so make sure you put your sunscreen on and a hat.

The last few nights on the ship the Crew really turned up the heat and the fun and fun was to be had by everyone.

There were 4 swimming pools, 5 spa’s, Lotus Spa Centre (some pretty good deals in port, as they are generally quieter on those days), Fitness Centre, Virtual Golf simulator (usually an hour wait for coaching and a $30/hr fee), shuffleboard, table tennis, sports court (to play basketball and tennis), Art on display throughout all the ship, Boutiques, 24 hour internet café (I spent 12 minutes on the internet and it cost me about $10 - $0.75/minute) and library (plenty of board games to borrow too). So basically all in all, there really is always something to do if you wish to occupy your time all day long. They show movies once a day in the theatre as well then replay the movie the next day all day long in your cabin.


General

The cabins we stayed in, I later discovered were worth about $3,825 per person which was a lovely surprise as I now understand why passengers pay the extra money for a balcony or even better the suites.

We unfortunately didn’t get to look at any other cabins as the ship was very full.

All in all I had a delightfully wonderful cruise. Everything exceeded my expectations 100%. From the crew, to the service, to the food, to how happy and friendly most of the passengers were on the ship (and how desperate they were to know what we did for a living!!!) and I will have no hesitations in recommending the Princess Cruises to my corporate clients.

Wonderful!!! I’m looking forward to my next cruise!!!

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