Review – 2012 World Cruise – Sun Princess – 16th May 2012 –
29th August 2012 – 104 nights
This review represents our experience before,
during and after our cruise. It does not reflect the views of others who were
on the cruise with us. I have tried to be as objective as possible, although
there were things I was so excited about that I may have been over generous with
in my assessment. Similarly there may have been things that really irked me,
where I may have been overly harsh in my assessment. Hey that's what reviews
are about huh.The purpose of the review is not to sway the thoughts of others, but to give us an accurate assessment of the cruise, based upon our experience, to enable us to reflect upon, as we look back on the holiday at a later date.
Our over-riding ethos on this journey was that we would not
allow anyone or anything to spoil our holiday. We were on the dream holiday of
a lifetime, and so it would be, from the day we left until the day we got back.
There were some days, and some people who would challenge this ethos on
occasion, but it did hold true, and we are so pleased that our positive frame of
mind enabled us to extract the maximum enjoyment from this holiday.
Pre-Cruise
Agent
We booked through Just Cruises, and online agent based in
Queensland. We found them to be efficient, courteous and professional in every
way. At the time of booking they had second cheapest price on offer, after we
sought quotes from over 20 agents around Australia. We elected not to go with
the agent that had quoted the lowest price as we had used them before, and we
had found them wanting in both service and professionalism. We were more than
happy with Just Cruises, and we would book with them again, with confidence.
The BookingWe booked a low inside cabin 14 months ahead of the cruise. The list price for
the cabin was $21k, but nobody ever pays that. Once final payments were
completed in February 2012, we watched the price of the inside cabin drop from
$19k to $14k to $11k to $9k over the period of about 8 weeks.
Now we all understand Marketing101, and how supply and demand
works and how the price of a product will be reduced if you want to clear your
unwanted stock – in this case empty cabins, and good luck to the folk who got a
104 night World Cruise for $8.7K, they were rewarded for their last minute
purchase with a very cheap cabin.
What really stung many people, and irrevocably damaged the
relationship that Princess Cruises had with many past loyal passengers was that
they rubbed salt into a very open wound by giving upgrades to the people who
only paid half price. So the very clear message that we got from Princess
Cruises was (a) If you book ahead you will pay a premium, (b) we will save our free upgrades for the
late bookers, and therefore (c) we do not value your loyalty like we say we do,
it is effectively lip service.
This subject was really hot around the ship for the first 3
or 4 weeks, it dominated conversations, and Princess did a lot of damage by
their actions. Cruise Critic members had by and large accepted and got over it
before we boarded, as there was quite some discussion on the boards about it
before we left, but it re-ignited on board once it was discovered that cabin
upgrades were denied to full price Captain Circle payers and given to the half
price payers.
So from this day forward we will not book a cruise until
final payments are in, and the last minute prices are on offer, it may mean
that there will be an occasional cruise booked out, but now that we have done
the 'holy grail' of cruises, it does not seem so important . Princess have made
a rod for their own back, and I will be comfortable to play by the rules they
have put in place:)
Communications
We spent quite a bit of time debating what our approach would
be with communications, both, back to back home, and with each other when we
were separated. So what worked and what didn't?
Blog:
Obviously the blog updates on a daily basis kept interested
family and friends in the loop about where we were and how things were going. I
did wonder if I would have the commitment to do the blog for the whole cruise,
but once I got started, it actually became an enjoyable exercise each day. I
had not intended to do daily updates, but they seemed to just roll that way at
the start, and I kept them going, although there were some that were a day or
two late in publishing for various reasons. I put a link to the blog on both
Donna's and my Facebook page each update, so keeping family and friends updated
was achieved successfully.
Internet & Email:
Due to the Internet being reliant upon the ship's satellite,
connection can be very problematic, so we used our Facebook for keeping up with
what was happening at home. Real time contact was able to be achieved using
Skype to Skype calls, but that was reliant upon folks at home being online,
which did not happen a lot due to time differences.
As well as using the Bigpond email, I setup a Gmail account,
which was a good back up as there were times when Bigpond was Bigdud. We were
able to send and receive emails throughout most of the trip, but only text as
videos and photos were just too time consuming, and ship Internet minutes are
very expensive (although we did have a good free allocations)
Telephone:
We elected not to get a travel-sim or similar, as we had seen
crook reviews (which were confirmed by the experiences of friends on this
cruise). We elected to have a few different approaches.
(a) We would buy a local phone-card in port that can be used
in a public phone in port. We did this only once, in Singapore, because it
became awkward to find either the card, or the public phones to take them, or
be able to understand how to use them.
(b) We took a couple of Nokias with us so that we could buy a
local SIM in port and use that to call home - never happened, usually because
we were unable to convey to the shopkeepers, in their language, what it was
that we actually wanted to buy
(c) Use our iPhones using International roaming. Did not work
for the few weeks because incompetent Telstra did not do what they had said
they did (Thanks again Katherine for fixing for us). Once working, it worked
best, although bloody expensive.
(d) We should have tried Skype to Mobile calls earlier on in
the holiday, as it worked really well, and was relatively cheap, but reliant on
an Internet connection.
Currency
Again what to do with currency, decisions, decisions,
decisions... cash or travellers cheques or credit card or travel card, and if
so, which one??? We were guided in the main by the experiences of previous
world cruisers, who were kind enough to share what their approaches were, and
what worked and did not work for them. We went cash. Simple, easy, always
available and flexible in the main.
So prior to leaving we exchanged AUD$1,000 into US Dollars.
Another AUD$1,000 into Euro. AUD$250 into British Pounds, and AUD$250 into
Singapore Dollars. We also took AUD$2,500 cash with us. So at the start of the
cruise we had $5,000 in the cabin safe. Now I am aware of stories about cabin
safes not always being so safe, but you go with what your comfortable with.
The logic of the cash approach was that in the main we
usually only take ashore the equivalent of about $100. That is usually enough
to buy snacks, drink, transportation and small souvenirs in the one day we have
in a port. We would use the credit card for larger value purchases. The US
Dollar is widely accepted, and the Euro cash would cover all the European
ports. There were quite a few ports where only the local currency was accepted
in taxi, or shop, or stall, and as we knew which ones they were in advance we
would just convert $100 into what ever the local currency was as soon as we got
off the ship.
Cash offered the flexibility and convenience that is
important when you only have one day in a port, as it was all about maximising
our time ashore. There were only 2 out of the 39 ports where we needed local
currency, and there was not a currency exchange on tap as we got off the ship,
so we just used the ATM, which does have pricey exchange and transactions fees,
but it was only a couple of times, so small fry in the scheme of things.
If we were to do a similar trip again, we would use 28 degree
MasterCard, no fees, no currency conversion charges etc etc. On board friends
did tell us about this card before we left, and we saw the value of it
afterwards.
On Board
Cabin
We had E328 on Emerald Deck 6. We usually book an inside
cabin up top on deck 11 or 12, and have always enjoyed them. On our last cruise
we decided we wanted to try a lower deck cabin. Probably not a good idea to be
trying something new for a 104 night cruise huh :) We were absolutely delighted
with our cabin, it fitted with our on board lifestyle perfectly. We usually
only go top deck for a swim and spa once a day, most of our on board life is
lower where the theatres, lounges, bars are, as this is where all the
activities and our main dining is.
When we looked at the deck plan and saw that our cabin was
under the Wheelhouse Bar, and directly under the band, we thought oh-oh, but it
was not a worry. We occasionally heard the soft muffled tones of the band when
we went to bed early, but it certainly did not inconvenience us at all. Because
the cabin was located low on deck 6, the movement of the ship was not an issue
for us.
As there are only a small number of cabins on Emerald deck,
it was only very rare did we not have use of the laundry whenever we wanted it.
It is a quiet deck, with very little foot traffic, again as there are so few
cabins. So the low inside cabin worked a treat for us.
The Captain for the whole cruise was Andrew Froude. He is a
good captain, kept passengers informed each day on location and progress, with
clear announcements with a touch of humour. Above all, he was professional, and
we always felt that there was a safe pair of hands managing the ship. When
things were happening that passengers needed to know, he made timely
announcements and informed everyone the whats , whys and whens. From port
cancellations to helicopter medical evacuations it was the Captains voice that
you heard, and I am sure most passengers appreciated that.
We had two Cruise Directors over the journey. Tim Donovan was
Cruise Director for most of the first half of the cruise. He was a nice enough
chap, but I found it hard to 'connect' with him, his communication style was a
little too self absorbed for me. He had to leave the ship due to an injury, and
was replaced by his Deputy, Dave Webster. Initially Dave was like a 'mini Tim',
and it did not seem to suit him, but over the next few weeks he was much more
relaxed, became more engaging, connected with the passengers.
The Cruise Directors staff, who ran most of the activities
around the ship were all friendly and engaging, some more than others, but they
were all nice folk who did a good job. Jen (whole cruise) and Paul (first half)
were two that really stood out in terms of their engagement with passengers,
and were very popular.
The Pursers Desk staff were friendly, bar an odd exception,
and were able to service our few needs. We are low maintenance passengers, so
we don’t need to go to the Pursers Desk very often. The Captains Circle Host,
Bernadette is in the wrong job, she is better suited to a job that does not
have contact with customers. She is unwelcoming, rude and aloof.
The Tour office staff were friendly and pleasant,
however many folk took issue with
miss-information, or lack of information,
that conspired to get you to use Princess transportation at inflated
prices. A classic example was the Barcelona shuttle. We were told that it was a
20 min drive into town. So as we waited in the queue for buses that had not
arrived at the terminal yet, we were told by friends walking past that it was
an easy 20 min walk into town, and sure enough it was. When we got back to the
terminal at the end of the day there was no end of cranky people venting their
spleen.
As regular blog readers would know, I had cause to visit the
Medical Centre a number of times. I always found them to be courteous, and
professional. It is comforting to know that when your are out in the middle of
vast oceans, that there is a quality medical attention at your fingertips. Yes
it is expensive, and some folk go crook about the cost, but it is not
government sponsored or subsidised health care, and it is not surprising that
it is expensive. The travel insurance motto holds true – if you cant afford
travel insurance, you cant afford to travel. The travel insurance claim ($1800) was processed and paid very
promptly (we used RACV).
The professionalism shown by the Sun Princess crew, combined
with the skill of the US Coast Guard in the medical evacuation of two
passengers was first rate, and worthy of special mention.
Food
One thing that constantly amazes me is how cruise ships are able
to produce mass meals and maintain quality. So it was again on this cruise, the
meals in the main are just fine. I am not a food critic, but all I want is for
meals that are fresh, tasty and hot, and in the main, that is what I got.
I much prefer dining in the Regency Dining Room, not just for
service, but the ambience, and there is some modicum of portion control :)I dont find the Horizon Court dining to my personal liking as it is a noisy place, people are pushy, rude and display rather unhygienic food handling practices. I also dont like hot food out of a bain-marie, never have, on land or sea, as it is just not hot enough for me. Having said that when we wanted something quick, or wanted to catch up with folk, that is where we went.
The pizzas are still as good as ever, the pasties up on Terrace Grill are to die for, and we would be guilty of the odd visit to the Ice Cream kiosk :)
Entertainment
Mmmm, now I come to probably the only item that consistently
disappointed over the journey. I dont know if Princess have adopted a new
approach to their entertainers criteria, but they had quite a few on this
cruise that you would not feed.
There were some great individual entertainers, who were very
very good, but they were in the minority. There was many a night when there was
no entertainment at all on in the Princess Theatre, sometimes they would run a
movie as a filler.
I am sure many of the entertainers did not find out the
demographics of the audience prior to their shows as they just missed the mark
completely. We had teenage toilet block humour, American gags using American
characters on a predominately Australian/New Zealander audience fall flat.
Jugglers and other one trick ponies that padded out a 45 minute show with inane
profanities.
We had three comedians who were quite good, interestingly
they were the only ones who did not resort to swearing and cursing in their
jokes. What is it with some of these comedians, is there some unwritten rule
that you must say f**k at least three times in your show??
The Sun Princess band were quite good, and they 'saved' quite
a few shows where the individual performers were clearly has beens, or never
would bes.
I have often raved to my non-cruising friends about how good
the production shows on cruise ships are. Well not this cruise I'm afraid, We
had two troupes for our productions shows. The first troupe from Sydney to New
York were so disappointing. Their shows were amateurish productions performed
by singers and dancers who were just going through the motions. Not having sets
on stage did not help them put together a single show that was top rate.All hopes were on the new troupe that joined in New York. The standard of the shows had a marked improvement, and we actually had stage sets used. The singers and dancers did have more energy and professionalism than the first troupe, although still not up to the usual Princess standard, they were fine I thought.
The house band , Derringer, were very good. They were on
board for the whole cruise, and maintained a consistently good performance all
the way round. They were used on deck for the sailaways, and at night for
dancing in the Wheelhouse Bar. Here was an example of a band that looked the
demographics of the passengers, and played music that appealed to the majority.
They really engaged with the passenger group very well, and were enjoyed by
everyone I think.
David Crathorne held court on the piano in the Atrium each
evening, and had a good following throughout the whole cruise, so that is an
endorsement in itself. He also co-ordinated the passenger choir , which was
really really good. There were various instrumentalists playing the pre dinner
music in the Atrium, and they were all very good.
There were no shortage of activities, arranged, and adhoc
across the ship. Trivia always had a big following, with the Vista Lounge very
full for the morning session, and there was also an afternoon session for the
diehards who competed in a sector competition. Bingo had a full house on the
final jackpot session of each sector, but it was almost empty on the lead up
days. I think the great challenge of a 104 day cruise is to have enough variety
of activities and I think Princess do have a lot set up, but we humans are
always looking for something new and fresh, and that is always going to be a
tough ask over such a long cruise.
Ship
I like the Sun Princess. It is a mid sized ship, so the
passenger numbers are around 1900, which makes for a busy ship, but I never had
a problem finding a quiet spot to myself when I wanted it. I think it is a well
maintained ship, yeah it does have it signs of wear and tear about, which are
the subject of continual maintenance. The paintbrush is always out and about
trying to keep it looking fresh. Given the ships age (1995) and given that it
is has been at sea almost every day since its launch (barring refits) the ship
is in remarkably good nick, and I would have absolutely no hesitation in
jumping back on again today – it is still a very fine ship.
Itinerary
Sensational, simply sensational. 28 countries, 39 ports (was
to be 40, but we could not tender at Mykonos). The itinerary was the great
attraction of this World Cruise, as unlike some other 'world cruises' it did do
a full lap of the globe. It will be impossible to select a 'best port' and I am
not going to even try, as there were so many fantastic locations.
For both Donna and I every port we visited after we left
Penang was new to us, we had never been to any of them, so every port was a new
adventure, a new culture to absorb, a new treasure to witness. Clearly there
were some real stand out individual items, like the Pyramids, the Lost City of
Petra (for Donna), Suez Canal, Anzac
Cove, the moonlit gondola ride in Venice, St Peters Square, Pantheon, Colosseum, Acropolis, Eiffel Tower,
Leaning Tower of Pisa, Times Square, Panama Canal etc etc
Visiting so many cities was just a wonder. The 'big ticket'
cities , Rome, Venice, Paris, Athens, London, New York all lived up to their
reputations, but there were some real surprises in the list that we just took a
real shine to, like Mumbai (yes truly), Istanbul, Dubrovnik amongst them. We
had an overnight stay at Venice and New York, which was just fantastic. The
decision to jump ship at LA and fly to Honolulu was a pearler, as we had just a
great week there.
The thing about cruising is that you dont get the time in
each location to 'experience' them, you are usually only in port for one day,
so with logistics, and transportation time, you get to see them fleetingly and
then move on. So we now have a very long list of places that we will be
returning to so that we can really 'experience' them. We feel so very very
lucky and privileged to have seen all
these places, which I am sure we would not have done, had it not been
for the cruising format of travel.
Weather and Seas
We were just so fortunate with the weather. We did not
experience any rain, land or sea, until we reached Paris, and then it was only
patchy. Similarly in London, patchy rain. The only real 'wet' day that we
experienced was our first day in New York, although the evening was clear, and
the second day there was fine.
As usual, Asia was warm, and slightly humid, but not
uncomfortably so. Egypt was bloody hot, no two ways about it, the day at Valley
of the Kings will be etched in our memory as it was 45C in the shade and 56C in
the open. The European summer was what we had hoped for, warm fine days.
After we left Dover, and headed north things cooled down
considerably, as expected, with our day at Shetland Islands being the coldest
of the cruise. Iceland was not the cold spot we expected, it was surprisingly
warm and sunny, as was Halifax. Of course once we left New York and headed
south towards the Caribbean the weather was stunning again, and stayed that way
all the way home, so we were just so fortunate.
The sea gods favoured us all the way around also, bar a few
days as we transited the North Atlantic where it got a bit heavy and tossed the
ship around a little, the seas were generally just as you would hope for from a
cruising comfort perspective. Again, having the cabin on the lower deck made
for a very comfortable ride, and we will probably always cruise down low now.
Shore Excursions
We did a mixture of Princess Tours, Independent Tours, and
our own thing. We enjoyed them all, although if given our time over again we
would have done more Independent, and less Princess. Not that there was
anything wrong with the Princess Tours, they were all fine, but when you do
Independent tours you are usually travelling with people whom you know,
everyone gets back on the bus on time, and they were cheaper for the same and in
may cases, better product.
On Princess tours you were stuck with selfish couples who
would hog the window seats by sitting apart, and therefore force other couples
to sit apart – this happened every single Princess tour, and on one occasion
Donna and I were made to sit apart –
selfish bastards. At almost every stop there was someone who made the
bus full of passengers wait, and if you have a lot of stops it gets a bit
tedious. This was not Princess's fault, just the nature of the beast, human
behaviour being what it is. This did not occur at all on the Independent tours
that were organised by Cruise Critic colleagues.
When we did our own thing, we usually caught the ships
shuttle into town and went from there, and on a few occasions we shared rental
cars with friends which were just great days.
Cool Cruisers
Most cruisers would know of a website called Cruise Critic.
This website has some great information resources available to assist folk
planning a future cruise. It also has forums where people exchange cruise
related information. One of the boards on the forum is for what is called 'Roll
Calls'. Folks who are going on a particular cruise look up the roll call
relevant to their cruise, introduce themselves, and perhaps agree to meet up
once on board.
When we booked the cruise in January 2011, a roll call had
not yet been started for this cruise, so I started one. Over the next 14 months
the roll call grew and grew and grew, to the point where we had 140ish people
starting the cruise in Sydney joined. There was another 40 or so who were
joining at other sectors around the journey.We had collectively decided to call our group the Cool Cruisers. Some of us who live within striking distance of Brisbane caught up for a lovely pre-cruise lunch, organised by a fine gentleman in Ross Anderson. There was a similar pre-cruise catch up arranged by the lovely Marie Callum, for those who lived, or would be in Sydney a few days pre-cruise.
The lovely Pam Ryan from Tuscon Arizona, was kind enough to
organise our first meeting on board, which was just the best. We had the
Shooting Stars nightclub packed out, with officers (including the Captain)
attending. It was just an amazing afternoon meeting all these people who you
had communicated with pre-cruise. This was the start of what would be an
amazingly social and enjoyable cruise that would last close on 4 months.
We met so many wonderful people at the catch ups, and lunches
arranged by Pam, and later by Anne, and some close friendships have been
struck. Some with folk who live in USA, some live in various parts of Australia
and New Zealand, and some who live in the next suburb from us.
No surprises with
disembarkation from a process point of view. Given this was the end of an epic
journey around the world I was expecting a little ra ra from Princess, Welcome
Home thingo, but nope.
Luggage
Ahhh, the dilemma of
luggage. Well as it turned out we did not exceed our flight allowance home.
However, we took far too much to start with. We did need to cater for all
weathers, and we did, but we took too much (although Donna will probably not
agree J) We had a flight allowance (Bris to Syd) of 4 x 23 kg cases, and we used
every bit of it on the way home.
Home again
In summary – UNREAL.
It did not seem real that we were going on a World Cruise when we left home. It
still did not seem real when we got on the ship in Sydney that it would be home
for 14 weeks. It did not feel real that it was at an end when we came through
Sydney Heads when we arrived back. It certainly did not seem real when we were
back home , sitting in our lounge, sleeping in our bed and doing all those
household things that we all do.
We have had some
catchups with friend who live in Qld since we have returned, and we really do
feel so lucky to have met so many wonderful people. We are even travelling with
some of them again on a Xmas Cruise on the Diamond Princess leaving in two
weeks on the 14th Dec.
Summary
We had a marvellous time on a fine ship, with wonderful
people, visiting sensational cities, seeing famous locations on the dream
holiday of a lifetime. We travelled in comfort and style around the world.
There was many a day when we just pinched ourselves, we felt so lucky and
privileged to be doing what we were doing, being with who we were, and going
where we did.
It was a very special way to spend 14 weeks overseas. Having
said that we probably would not do a full world cruise again. I think somewhere
around the 10 week mark on a cruise would be our maximum in the future. We love
sea days, but there were such a lot on the last third of the cruise, after we
transited Panama Canal. There was just a few too many blocks of 4 and 5 sea
days at a time, and whilst they are very relaxing days, it was a bit too much
end on end for us. This is not a criticism, just a personal preference.
The fact that all the ports after Penang were new to us,
really added to the enjoyment of the whole cruise for us, as we always had a
new location coming up. Our appetite has really been whetted now, and we have
all these places that we want to return to, and spend time at, plus new ones
that we have not been to.
