Sun Princess Sanctuary Cruise A luxurious cruise in a quiet, un-crowded, relaxing area of the Love Boat

In February of 2025 it was our pleasure to sail on Princess Cruise Line's newest ship, Sun Princess.  We haven't really been fans of Princess up until now.  We've sailed with them three times previously, but for the last eleven years we've chosen to cruise with other cruise lines instead.  Up until now, their ships have been very unexciting...  lacking some of the modern features that I appreciate on more modern cruise ships...  and without anything very special about them.  But this new ship is different.  It's a modern Love Boat, up to today's standards.  In fact, during my week aboard, I actually noticed several things that were better than any cruise ship I had ever been on.  This was my 69th cruise overall, so that's really saying something!

The thing that we loved the most about Sun Princess was The Sanctuary...  a secluded and un-crowded section of the ship that only a small number of passengers have access to.  The Sanctuary has its own restaurant, bar, lounge, pool, and sun deck...  which are exclusively for the use of guests who chose to pay a little extra to stay in what's known as a Sanctuary stateroom.  The focal point of The Sanctuary is this relaxing and un-crowded pool and sun deck at the top of the ship:

Cleary, Princess was inspired by the success of The Haven on Norwegian Cruise Line.  We've done quite a few cruises in The Haven on various NCL ships, and the Sanctuary is basically just a Princess version of the same thing.  But Princess executes it just a little better, and charges MUCH less for it.  So, I have to think that we'll be sailing Norwegian less and Princess more, in the coming years.

On a warm, sunny day in the Caribbean, Kellyn and I totally loved relaxing on a daybed at the Sanctuary Club sun deck (they call it The Sanctuary Club).  Here's a picture that one of the crew members shot for us...

When lounging around in the sun, enjoying a cool beverage is part of the fun.  It doesn't have to be booze, it could be Diet Coke, or lemonade, or whatever.  Or it can be a margarita, or any kind of booze you want.  Sanctuary guests are entitled up to 15 complimentary drinks of any kind, per person, each day.

One of the things that's better about The Sanctuary on Princess versus The Haven on Norwegian is the level of service provided.   Rather than having to get up out of your comfortable daybed and walk to a nearby bar when you're thirsty, the friendly staff of The Sanctuary is at your service.  There is a large number of roving waiters constantly walking around The Sanctuary, ready to fill drink orders for the guests.  This is a big improvement from The Haven on Norwegian, where they seem to be saving money by keeping the staff in The Haven at a minimum.  So, in my cruises in The Haven, it was very rare for any staff members to make their way to the sun deck and ask if they could bring us drinks.  But in The Sanctuary on Sun Princess, there was a large number of staff members constantly providing this service.  It completely changed the tone of the entire experience for us.

The week we were aboard Sun Princess, the ship was carrying about 4,100 guests.  But most of them did not have access to The Sanctuary, which kept it very un-crowded and always made it easy to find a comfortable lounger or daybed on the sun deck, or a seat in the lounge, or to get a table (without making reservations) at the Sanctuary's private restaurant.  The only people who got to enjoy the benefits of The Sanctuary were the ones who had been willing to pay a little extra to stay in a Sanctuary cabin.  There are lots of different types of Sanctuary cabins, depending on how much space and storage you need, and how luxurious of a room you wanted.  The most basic can be had for under $5000 per couple per week, but prices vary depending on exactly what week you want to cruise.  We opted for something a little larger and with more storage than the least expensive Sanctuary staterooms.  The type we chose is called a Signature Suite.  Here's a look at ours:

The best way to show you what's so special about The Sanctuary is with a video.  Here's an 11-minute video that gives you a very good look at The Sanctuary, and which explains why we liked it so much:

To start the video playing, click the triangle in the middle of the video screen
To make the video fill the screen (recommended) click the little symbol in the lower right corner of the video player

This next photo gives you a good view at a couple of special features at the front of the ship...

The first thing I want to point out in that photo is the big round dome.  It encloses an entertainment venue that's inside.  It is simply called The Dome.  Here's a look at it from the inside:

During the day, this is a nice space to relax on loungers and listen to music performed by solo artists on that small stage.  At night, larger acts perform here, including aerial acrobatic performances.  You can also barely see in that photo above that there is a small swimming pool behind the stage.  This next photo, from outside, shows it better:

So, you can actually swim in to the dome from outside, and pop up behind the stage...  if you really want everybody in the room to see you.  I never used this particular pool since we had a much nicer pool available to us in The Sanctuary.

This next photo shows the dome from a slightly different perspective, and I want you to also notice all that blue-tinted glass to the left of the dome.  That's designed to block the wind up here at the front of the ship, so that people can comfortably relax in loungers underneath those blue-tinted glass panels.  Unfortunately, it was a horrible design.  Instead of fully enclosing that area in glass to keep the wind from bothering people in that area, they just partially enclosed it.  Scroll back up the page, three pictures ago, to see the very large gaps between the glass panels.  It doesn't do a good job of blocking the wind...  so, when the ship is in motion, there's an uncomfortable amount of wind in the area underneath those glass panels.

This next photo shows a performance space known as The Piazza.  They do all sorts of game shows, musical entertainment, and audience-participation events in The Piazza.  It is located in the center of the ship.

The performer in the photo played saxophone to a pre-recorded music track...  which was nice entertainment during cocktail hour or after dinner.  He goes by the name "Dr Sax"...  and I enjoyed teasing Kellyn at dinnertime by asking if she would be up for "good sax" after dinner.

One of the places the ship visited was Princess Cruise Line's private beach area in the Bahamas, known as Princess Cays...

Kellyn and I rented air-conditioned bungalow #6 for the day, and enjoyed a nice relaxing day of food, drinks, and good views during our Bahamas beach day.  I especially appreciated that the price to rent a bungalow for the day from Princess was about 1/3 the price that Royal Caribbean asks for a bungalow rental on their private island...  which we visited last year.

For folks who chose to book a (less expensive) stateroom without access to The Sanctuary, the main pool in the center of the ship is a popular place to hang out.  There's always music playing, so it is not a quiet, relaxing place, and you can see it's a bit crowded.  Also, the children's pool is just out of the photo, to the left, so you hear a lot of screaming kids.  I would have had no problem with that 30 years ago, but as a senior citizen I appreciated The Sanctuary.

There were several things about this cruise that were the best we had ever experienced on all of our cruises.  The sanctuary was the big one, but we also really enjoyed a stand-up comedy show that was the best we had ever seen, a wonderful app that allowed us to order drinks delivered to wherever we were on the ship, and a huge thing for me...  the best pizza that I've ever had on a cruise ship!

I know the shape of that pizza slice looks a little unusual.  It's just because I requested a double-wide slice so that I could fold it over, New York style.  It was as good as the pizza I had during a stay in New York City last year, and better than any pizza I had ever had on a cruise ship before.

Another place the ship visited was San Juan, Puerto Rico.  Here's a photo I snapped of the historic fortress known as El Morro, which sits at the entrance to the harbor.  Sir Francis Drake's armada of warships tried to enter the harbor and attack the city in 1595, but the defenses at El Morro successfully stopped him.  In fact, a cannonball shot from El Morro went right in to Drake's cabin!  He survived, though.

Here's one last photo.  All the aerial photos were supplied by Princess, as I did not bring my drone with me on this trip.  This photo must have been shot during Sun Princess' sea trials, as I see that there's no "Sanctuary Club" sign on the ship's structure near the club, as there is now.

Need A Travel Agent?

Booking a cruise can be confusing, especially if you haven't been on many cruises before.  There are lots of first-time cruiser mistakes that a travel agent can keep you from making.

If you're interested in booking a cruise with any cruise line...  please feel free to use the services of my travel agent, Caitlin Gallagher.  She's extremely pleasant to deal with, easy to talk to since she lives in the United States and speaks without any kind of an accent, and quite experienced and knowledgeable about different types of cruising.  Caitlin is the owner of Ambren Travel.  Visit her web site, check out the Ambren Travel Facebook page, or contact her using the information below.

The Cruise Ships We've Been On

If you've enjoyed this page, you would probably also enjoy reading the stories about some of the other cruise ships I've traveled on.  Click here to see the complete chronology of all the cruises we've ever taken, and to read the full story of any that look interesting to you.

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