Sun Princess 'Northern Explorer' 26 June 2008

[NSWP]

Hi..anyone out there doing the Sun Princess 'Northern Explorer' cruise - 19 days Perth to Sydney on 26 June 2008.  We are.  Sun Princess is now based in Australia and boy are they filling the ship to the max every cruise.

 

[baglad]

Hi Les
Got your swag packed yet?
I hope you have an enjoyable cruise around the top half of Australia.
We join the boat the day you get off so any advice or comments you could post during your voyage would be appreciated.
Bon voyage.


 

[NSWP]

AHOY, BAGLAD are you still on Sun Princess around China somewhere?   I missed your post prior to us boarding SP in Perth.   I did a review of it on 'that other board.'

If you are still on board SP, I hope the Russian Navy did not upset you too much.   Hope you are still enjoying your trip.

 

[baglad]

Hi Les
We got back last Saturday. Good to be home again.
Highlights:The weather was fantastic. The ports we visited and the shore tour guides in Asia.
Lowlights: Cabin position up front on D deck. Anchor winch noise on port days and the forward Deck 7 crew door constantly slamming right below our cabin, especially first thing every morning, i.e. 3 to 4 am onwards.
Atrium coffee was the worst I've ever tasted. 75 days with same cruise director was too much in the end. The amount of people with coughs, cold and chest infections throughout the trip made going to the theater etc. a contagion prevention exercise. And yes, those pesky Russian officials got all Bolshie and ruined our day at Petropavlovsk by delaying passport processing in return for the western world's negative view of Georgia's invasion. The Russian tour guide was good though, when we did eventually get ashore in the afternoon.   

We have Dawn Princess S/H to Sydney booked next year but really doubt weather we'll go ahead with it.
Maybe we are all cruised out.

[NSWP]

Thanks Baglad..I had a couple of friends on your cruise, they said much the same, plus the food was indifferent.  I thought food on our SP cruise round OZ last June/July was ordinary not to usual Princess standard, what did you think? 

We cancelled our SP - Treasures of Asia cruise next June, because of a few issues on board SP, food, layout, tendering etc on the OZ cruise, just not to standard.  EVERYONE on that cruise got a 20% goodwill discount for their next cruise (just blown ours) without even complaining.!  In the post day we arrived home on 14 July, day you sailed.

Now we have to wait until June to fly to Rome to board that big mother of a ship, Crown Princess, B2B, European Explorer and British Isles.

Good luck with your future cruise career, sure we will talk again..Les

[baglad]

Hi Les
We canned our Dawn Princess U.K. to Sydney 2009 due to a newly found lack of enthusiasm for longer cruises.
Having read your post about possible retraction of our Elite status by Princess by not counting P&O Australian cruises, we are not sorry that we did.
I guess we must be destined to do our own washing forever and ever.
Mind you some of the best entertainment and news gathering happens in the laundry (as long as you adhere to the proper protocols). There were washing machines and dryers "out of order" for the whole 75 days on our Sun Princess tour so you had to time your visit to the laundry right.