My romantic adventure aboard the Sun Princess
Written: May 07 '00 (Updated May 15 '00)
|
Product Rating:
|
|
|
Pros: Very beautiful ship, Lots of activities to participate in.
Cons: New staff, need more monitoring of the shore excursions.
|
|
|
| Mrsfitts's Full Review: Sun Princess |
The vacation of a lifetime started in June 1999, when we booked a cruise with Princess Cruise lines for their transition cruise that went from Acapulco, Mexico to San Francisco, CA. The Sun Princess spent the winter season in the Caribbean & Panama Canal, and will be spending the summer going from Canada to Alaska and back. The repositioning cruise happens once in the spring season & then again in the fall (reversing the order of the stops from San Francisco to Acapulco.) The long awaited April 29th 2000 date finally arrived, & we went on the vacation of a lifetime!
The Ship:
The Sun Princess, christened in 1995 by her Godmother Lady Sterling, is an absolute work of art. Beauty is seen from the aesthetic lines of the outside of the ship, to the fabulously decorated interiors. Only in a museum do you see more works of art than were part of this ship!
All mediums of flooring and counter and wall surface materials were used in a harmonious blend of quiet good taste. Glass, marble, wood, ceramic tiles, carpet, wallpaper, and chrome worked together to create the fabulous look of the ship.
The ship is 77,000 tons -which makes her among the larger class of ships at sea. The Grand Princess is even larger at 109,000 tons, while the Royal Princess is only 45,000 tons.
The Cabin:
We chose a cabin with a balcony for our trip. Unlike the older ships, the newer Princess ships boast the most amount of private balconies per ship. The other ship we went on had 10 private balconies compared to the 411 that the Sun Princess had. This enables one to enjoy a balcony at a more affordable rate. These private verandahs are not very big - just big enough for 2 people to sit at a tiny table while 2 people could stand behind the people seated. But, it was private. You could hear what people in the verandahs next door were saying, but unless you were both leaning over the balconies, you never saw them.
The interior of the room was very nicely appointed. Dark woods were used in the crown molding & wainscoting. Mirrors were used along the wall behind the bed and desk -which gave the room the appearance of being larger. Our cabin had a painting that reminded me of Avalon at Catalina Island.
The bathroom had a shower just big enough for one large person, and plenty of storage space for all your toiletries (shaving kits, curling irons, tooth brushes & tooth paste) The ship provided the shampoo, conditioner, body lotion, soaps & hair dryer. The bed in our cabin was in the queen configuration, but could be separated into twins if needed. The bed was very hard -no boxsprings, but the rocking of the ship made it easy to sleep on anyway.
The Ports of Call:
We left hot, steamy Acapulco at 11pm on Saturday, April 29th. At 7am we were docked at Zihuatanejo for a half day of shopping and sightseeing. The weather was still very warm here, but a lot less humid! There are some very nice beaches and picturesque coves to visit.
From Zihuatanejo we sailed onto Puerto Vallarta to spend a full day touring there. This city is very crowded with buildings, residents & tourists. The weather was perfect -not too hot, not too cold, & the humidity was not noticeable. But the ocean water was colder than I expected. We took a tour to a cove once inhabited by director John Houston. We had a very relaxing day swinging in hammocks, watching hermit crabs run all over, touring a hilly path of an orchid garden, finished off by an authentic Mexican lunch that was very good. The only negative part was that we signed up for this tour to go snorkeling, but it wasn't available when we got to this cove. I was introduced to Pacifico beer, which I enjoyed very much!
From Puerto Vallarta we set sail at 7pm to Mazatlan. At this stop we had booked a shopping, show & beach tour. The show consisted of the dances of Mexico, including the dance of the Papantla Flyers performing "The Dance of Those Who Fly". This is like an upside-down version of our Maypole dance, where instead of circling a pole from the ground while holding a ribbon, these flyers circled a pole while tied to a rope from the top of the pole until they landed on the ground. Once again we were served an authentic Mexican luncheon as part of the tour. The luncheon was served at a beach resort, the Los Sabalos Hotel. This hotel is very gorgeous from the outside and right on the beach where you could enjoy parasailing if you chose. I would like to go back & stay at this hotel for a 'land vacation' -I was that impressed by the hotel and amenities! On the taxi ride back, the driver -who spoke Spanish slow enough for me to pick up on most of the words, treated us to a history lesson of the city. I enjoyed this very much!
From Mazatlan we sailed at 5:30pm towards Cabo San Lucas. Cabo San Lucas was more picturesque and a lot less crowded than the previous cities. My husband & I tried to learn to SCUBA dive here. Because the group running the tour took short cuts, not following the recommended PADI course, we (& the 2 other couples on this tour) did not succeed in actually enjoying this tour. We recommended to Princess Cruise Lines that they investigate this particular tour, and Princess surprised us with a large refund -which we didn't expect, nor asked for. This gesture was greatly appreciated! I swallowed a lot of seawater during this tour. My lungs did not like this and have shown their displeasure by having bronchitis like symptoms. I think I'll stick to snorkeling from now on.
This was the end of Ports of Call until San Francisco. We had 2 'sea-days' which the ship went all out to provide constant entertainment and things to do! We did hit rough seas during our sea days, so I couldn't enjoy the 80 degree covered pool that I fell in love with. All of the many pools had large waves in them. It was also very cold & windy once we left Cabo San Lucas, so there was no lines for the few that wanted to lie out on deck chairs. Since I burn, peel & freckle, this wasn't a hardship to me at all! The very-well appointed gymnasium was available to use -which we did, as well as the Princess Links golf simulator, or the movie theater or the games & demonstrations put on by the cruise staff.
We arrived under the Golden Gate bridge shortly before 5:30am on Saturday, May 6, 2000. The beautiful city of San Francisco was just waking up to partly cloudy skies. Because there was no fog, we had great views of the Marin area, Alcatraz Island, the Oakland Bay Bridge, Angel Island, Treasure Island and the skyline of the City by the Bay.
Things we did on the ship:
Besides the ports of calls and the sea-day activities we tried to use a lot of the features of the ship. Along with the pools and the gym, there are several places to dance at night -from ballroom dancing to disco dancing to 50's sock hops to country line dancing. Every other night there was even Karaoke singing.
For your eating pleasure there were the main dining rooms, buffet counters, a Bistro and a Pizzeria. At the main dinner seating it seemed that Princess Lines worked hard at putting people that had things in common together at the tables. We sat with two great couples, one from Canada and a couple from New Jersey that were both close in age and interests. This made for wonderful dinner conversations and great times out of the dining room. The couple from New Jersey was closest in age & interest to us, and we spent many nights eating and drinking and listening to music outside of the dining room! It was very hard to ever go to bed because we didn't want to stop the great times we were having. 4 to 5 hours of sleep at night weren't uncommon! The 6 of us posed in several group photos, and I have them as reminders of the wonderful times we had together.
My daughter's boyfriend gave us ballroom dancing lessons in the month before we left on our cruise, and he did such a good job teaching us, that when it came time to do the 3 dances we had learned, we actually looked like we knew what we were doing. It was fun to get compliments on our dancing! As a couple, we hadn't danced in over 15 years before the lessons! There was a large group from Zoe's travel agency that had come on the cruise as part of a ballroom dance cruise, and we got to enjoy the other passengers dance lessons as they showed us fox trots and tangos.
The Food:
Prepare to diet when you get back! The variety of the foods offered -not only in the Main Dining Room, but in all the locations was fantastic! All types were catered to -from vegetarians to gourmet food wimps (myself -I can't bring myself to eat garden creatures). There were different country's foods featured each night. Italy, France, England, America… it was wonderful! The deserts were to die for. The list was very extensive on what was available each night at dinner. Then for a late night snack, the buffets had usually a half dozen varieties to choose from also!
One meal menu I had went like this:
Chilled fruits in liqueur
Bread rolls
Minestrone soup
Rock Cornish Hens
Potatoes covered in cheese
Vegetable medley
Ice Cream Sundae
The Highlight of the Trip:
When we first got the cruise brochure, we saw that for an extra $149 that we could have a Renewal of Vows Ceremony. We decided to add this to our vacation. We thought we'd enjoy it, but did not know that Princess Cruise lines would make it so special that it would become the highlight of the trip!
When we finally got confirmation from the Purser's office on when and where the ceremony would take place, everything else about this package exceeded our expectations! We chose Cinco De Mayo (5/5/00) as the date of the event. At 5pm a carnation boutonnière arrived for my husband, and a gorgeous orchid & carnation wedding bouquet arrived for me. At 5:30 an officer from the Purser's office arrived to escort us to the Captain's Lounge. The brochure states that the captain might not be able to perform the ceremony himself, and if there are others, that it could be mass ceremony. (On the Valentine's cruise there were over 200 couples renewing their vows!) We got lucky, as we were the only couple that day. We got very attentive, personalized service! In the Captain's Lounge, Captain Pietro Raiola performed a very touching ceremony that had tears coming from my eyes! It was so very romantic! There was also a photographer shooting the whole thing. We did not expect this, and since we had eloped 18 years ago we had no photos of that wedding, I really loved having a pictorial documentation of this ceremony! We left the ceremony and went to dinner (bringing my bouquet & certificate to show my tablemates) and then after went to our cabin to find a 750ml bottle of Moet & Chandon champagne in a bucket of ice accompanied by 2 engraved champagne glasses from Princess Cruises. The next day we picked up our mahogany framed formal portrait that was included in this package. The value for what we got was exceptional! The items if purchased separately would've easily cost 3 to 4 times as much.
This event was so wonderful, that I would recommend any married couple taking a cruise to consider adding this event to their vacation! I will have beautiful memories of this event for the rest of my life! Of course it helps to have such a wonderful husband like I have to make repledging my vows to him something that I cherished doing with him.
The few negatives about this cruise:
Princess Adventures Ashore program had a wonderful variety of things to do, but doesn't mention that itineraries could be pre-empted. Like the snorkeling that didn't happen in Puerto Vallarta. Although we had a great time, we only booked that excursion for the snorkeling. And as earlier mentioned about the one company in Cabo San Lucas, Princess didn't know about the shortcuts that the company was taking. The good thing on behalf of Princess was that there is a form in place for you to let them know about things like this, and the tour office was very adamant in telling us that they want to be informed about things like this.
A large part of the staff got on for the first time when we did. The assistant purser didn't know how to handle the renewal of vows booking. On our first dinner, the waiter took us from table to table looking for our number. We were finally taken to what was supposed to be our table and found it was already full of people. The couple from NJ (previously mentioned) was also shown this same full table. Between the 4 of us, we convinced the headwaiter to give us a much nicer table near the window -where we met the couple from Canada! At first this was a temporary fix, but we enjoyed the table's location and the company so much, the 4 of us convinced the staff to permanently assign us there for the duration of the cruise. In this case, we again made out! But the staff that served drinks at the Horizon Court were very inexperienced! The bartender there was downright rude. On our first night there, we had finished dancing and went to grab a snack (they had desserts all night at the buffet). After we finished our snack, we went over to the bar and sat down. The bartender (I believe her name tag said Hazel) had been flirting with the single male passengers and crewmen that had come by her counter, but as soon as we (a couple) came and sat down, she turned her back to us & pretended to be busy -for 10 minutes! I finally had enough of that & we decided to leave and find another bar. I very loudly said "Good Bye" and she finally turned around & looked relieved that she no longer had to pretend to be busy bent over with her back to us. This was the only negative that didn't have a positive to go with it. The inexperienced waiters were very pleasant to chat with, and were willing to be shown that they really did carry the drinks we requested.
In Conclusion:
I would recommend this cruise to any and all. Despite the negatives (what vacation doesn't have something go awry?) the positives so outweighed them that this turned out to be the best vacation we've ever had in our lives.
I did find that the smaller ship I went on before had better service -the staff was more familiar with your likes/dislikes by the first night, whereas by the 6th night, our waiter still didn't know how we took our coffee or tea.
We were spoiled rotten by the cabin stewardess and the main seating dinner waiters. We could get used to treatment like that, but reality is hard to live with afterwards! The information provided via the ships cable TV was fantastic. We always knew what to expect in each port and what was going on all over the ship. Very good communications! Also, for any of the negatives that we did mention to the staff, we were listened to attentively and immediate action (when possible) was taken. And the crowning item is that my husband and I have a very romantic memory to cherish for the rest of our lives.
Recommended:
Yes
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
Mrsfitts
|
 - Top 200 |
|
Member: Pam Fitts
Location: SF Bay Area, CA
Reviews written: 203
Trusted by: 446 members
About Me:
You Teach The Best What You Need Most To Learn
-Illusions, Richard Bach
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.