Seniors/Retirement village on a boat!

Sun Princess Cruise Review

Cruises: 7+ cruises
Review: 1
Helpful Votes: 37

Overall rating:

2.8 out of 5
Sun Princess

15 Night Indonesia (Fremantle Roundtrip)

Sail date: December 23, 2019

Ship: Sun Princess

Cabin type: Inside

Cabin number: D309

Traveled as: Family (young children)

Reviewed: 4 years ago

Review summary

A very boring cruise with not much to do during the day and very difficult to do something at night. Not recommended for people under the age of 50.

Embarkation

5 out of 5
Fremantle port was very professional and actually quite quick compare to previous years.

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

3 out of 5
On a two week cruise the menu becomes very boring, There was a great selection of food the first few days but after that everything was very repetitive. Warning some of the food through room service is slightly old, we got a desert that was mouldy on the bottom and the kids ate half of it until they said it didn’t taste normal and I had a good look at it finding mould on the bottom.

Onboard Activities

1 out of 5
We were very bored on a two week cruise, the entertainment is mainly aimed at older/senior people and even my in-laws were quite bored and they are in their early 60s. If you want to watch something in the theatre you must go roughly 40/60 minutes earlier to get seats otherwise good luck finding somewhere to sit and being able to watch a show, we were quite disappointed that in two weeks we only manage to watch two shows and every other night we were unable to find somewhere to sit. During the day there are no fun activities for younger generations of people if you are aged between 20 and 40 you will find this cruise very boring if you’re aged between 40 and 65 you may find the odd thing that you like but still find it boring if you’re over the age of 65 you will love this cruise

Entertainment

1 out of 5
Very boring and not much to do and good luck been able to catch a show. During the day it seems like everyone is sleeping the day away as there is nothing to do apart from sit at the bar and drink beer.

Children's Programs

4 out of 5
They try very hard to make kids welcome and it’s nice to see princess actually trying to get some young families onto their boats by offering kids club. Unfortunately my kids didn’t quite enjoy this program as much as Royal Caribbean’s programs and MSAs programs. Our kids wanted to stay with us during the day and only go in the evenings for some weird reason.

Service and Staff

5 out of 5
The staff were fantastic apart from the odd one or two, Everyone was very helpful and very knowledgeable, all the staff are always prepared to help.

Ship Quality

2 out of 5
Definitely time for an update/rebuild/restoration. The boat is definitely showing its age and no matter how much paint you put over everything you can always see that rust is slowly eating this boat away. I guess for an old boat it is clean but always smells like sewage throughout the front half of the cabins area, layout of the boat is very datedAnd all your entertainment is on deck seven which gets quite frustrating because he will walk from front to back of the ship multiple times a day trying to find something to do.

Cabin / Stateroom

1 out of 5
Decent location on the ship but beware that there is a theatre and pub under you. Very quiet in the mornings but from 7 pm in the evenings until 1 am in the morning you will hear loud music and lots of bass through the floor. If you are a light sleeper you will not be fall asleep until 1:30 am minimum. Honestly there must of been a speaker on the ceiling right under the floor as it was so loud in our cabin that the crew admitted it wasn’t a good location and upgraded us to a balcony cabin which we were very thankful for and definitely made the remainder of our cruise better!!

Ship tip

Very old boat with very minimal entertainment, beware if you are going for a long cruise as you will find it boring if you are young at heart. If you want to watch a show make sure you get there early and save a spot for your friend as everyone else does good luck in getting a seat just before the show starts. During the day the only fun thing I can think of was bingo but you better concentrate as they call the numbers very fast

Ports of call

Bali, Indonesia

3 out of 5
Bali is fantastic apart from not having a port big enough to dock a cruise ship at, the tenders take about 45 minutes to go from the ship to the port and doing that trip two times is a waste of a lot of time.. Princess cruises should maybe consider having a one night stop at Bali to give tourist more time to look around as we didn’t have enough time..

Semarang, Java, Indonesia

3 out of 5
The train museum is a highlights of this stop but unfortunately we were only given 20 minutes to look around before we had to leave. I highly recommend the tour guides change some things aroundAnd give us tourist more time to have a better look at the Museum, There’s no point going to a train museum and only been able to look at one or two trains before you have to leave when there are another close to 100 trains in better condition at further corners of the museum, definitely need at least 1.5 hours here.

Komodo Island, Indonesia

2 out of 5
Nice to get off the boat and stretch your legs and go for a hike through the mountains to find some Komodo dragons, unfortunately it rained very heavily and made the tracks very dangerous and slippery. Unfortunately if you have mobility issues you are unable to do any tours at this location and will not be able to get off the boat as you must be with a Ranger at all times, was not a fan of the ranges/tour guides pushing you to spend money at the market stalls at the end of the tour.

Fremantle (Perth), Australia

5 out of 5
Freemantle is a great location unfortunately not many choices when it comes to cruise ships.

Makassar, Sulawesi, Indonesia

2 out of 5
The locals don’t like Westerners and beware that it is not cheap here! It’s a very dirty city nice to have a look around but I don’t recommend buying anything here.

Lombok Island, Indonesia

1 out of 5
Very dirty location and not much to do on the tours.

Disembarkation

5 out of 5
Once again I was very impressed at how professional and efficient Fremantle port has become.

Traveler Photos

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6 Comments

Cruisers4Lyfe     1 month ago

Thanks for sharing

Madmuzza    4 years ago

@Poolie, Only reason why I’ve done this cruise three times is because it’s the only cruise ship that leaves Fremantle in December/January (the only time of year that I have off) the convenience is very good and I know exactly what to expect every time I go on the ship. Travelling with two little children we try to avoid aeroplanes. If we had the choice of other ships in Fremantle at the same time of year preferably a Royal Caribbean one we would not think twice about catching a Royal Caribbean ship instead of a princess ship.

Poolie    4 years ago

You have (apparently) been on the Sun Princess 3 times, surely it was the same each time? If so, why did you go back on it, if it was so bad??

cruisereckoning    4 years ago

Sorry for your disappointment but hope you enjoyed the ports.

jess2020    4 years ago

awesome review very detailed thanks ! I think we’re doing this cruise this year in December but on sea princess not sun!

portofrome    4 years ago

Thanks for your review

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