All aboard the brand new Sun Princess by Princess Cruises. Photo / Princess Cruises
All aboard the brand new Sun Princess by Princess Cruises. Photo / Princess Cruises
All aboard the largest ship ever built by Princess Cruises. Helen Van Berkel crosses the gangway to experience the brand-new Princess Sun cruise ship.
Not much matches the excitement of wheeling your bag up the gangway of a gleaming ocean-going ship, unpacking in a room you don’t have to clean and waking up in a different incredible port every day. Except for an ocean cruise on a brand-new ship.
The Sun Princess was launched on February 14 in Rome – with Valentine’s Day being a very apt date given the original Sun Princess of 1977 was the Love Boat of the eponymous show. And I was among some of the first to fling open the balcony doors and, with 4299 other passengers, spend a few days with the flash new Sun Princess on its inaugural journey around the Mediterranean.
Being brand new, the ship is state-of-the-art. We didn’t even have to unlock our cabin door: a medallion we carried with us unlocked the door as we approached our rooms. It gave us far too much joy to try to sneak up on the door and catch it locked (we never did). The same medallion was used to charge drinks and entertainment aboard and smoothed the check-in and out process for shore excursions.
The Sun Princess’ first innovation was visible from the wharf where we boarded in Barcelona. On the side of the ship bulges a 10-deck glass sphere, designed to let light into the midships of the vessel while allowing passengers an ocean, instead of an interior wall, view.
Of a similar aesthetic is the technologically advanced glass dome at the front of the ship, which arches over the entertainment stages and configurable arena. It hosted performances of Vallora, A Pirate Quest show featuring a heroine who finds love, set to a backbeat of 80s hits.
Being brand new, the ship also needed to be christened with its new name in the traditional way. On our first night onboard we got to partake in a naming ceremony that involved lots of circulating trays of food and cocktails, plus celebrities.
The Sun Princess offers a Champagne breakfast. Photo / Helen van Berkel
Ted Lasso actress Hannah Waddingham was given the honours with the champagne bottle, successfully smashing the nebuchadnezzar against the hull of the ship. You know it’s a big deal when the Kiwis are also invited: former Lynfield College student singer-songwriter Natasha Bedingfield performed her hit Pocketful of Sunshine and other songs.
Later, taking the opportunity during the evening to rest our feet over a drink in the Good Spirits whisky bar, we ran into Bernie Kopell (Adam “Doc” Bricker) from The Love Boat show, who joined us for a chat and a gossip.
Lunch aboard the Sun Princess cruise ship. Photo / Helen van Berkel
Over the coming days we were introduced to all that was exciting and new onboard: the cocktails, the entertainment, the cocktails, the restaurants, the cocktails. We ate our way through a good representation of some of the 29 restaurants onboard, starting with the three-storey Horizons Dining Room at the aft of the ship while still in port in Barcelona and continuing with the full flashing blades and showmanship of the Japanese cuisine experience at Umai Teppanyaki on the eighth deck. And of course, we had to sample as many of the cocktails as possible - more than 100 new ones were created for this cruise.
Enjoy the showmanship of the Japanese cuisine experience at Umai Teppanyaki. Photo / Princess Cruises
I worked off as much of it as possible in the ship’s gym, helpfully situated overlooking the bow. My early morning treadmill sessions were made easier by watching some of the world’s greatest and most lovely cities emerge from the dawn.
The Sun Princess cruises the ancient Mediterranean coast towards Marseilles. Photo / Helen van Berkel
Resisting the allure of ship’s shopping mall, offering Prada, Pandora and other luxury goods, we went ashore in France’s second-largest city, Marseille, to visit the crooked little streets of the seaport. We could smell the money of the ancient waterfront, lined with magnificent sleek yachts and overlooked by locals and visitors seated at outdoor tables enjoying an afternoon croissant. Our bus took us along a seafront familiar to the Greeks since 600BC and up the narrow roads to the Notre-Dame de la Garde basilica that overlooks the city.
We were buffeted by Marseille’s famous nor’westerly wind, which is known to reach up to 90km/h - and certainly felt like it was reaching that speed - and it was a relief to reach the shelter of the ship to set sail for Genoa.
I started my day in the northern Italian city with a champagne breakfast on my balcony, spreading salmon on bagels as the sun’s rays curled into the shadows to bring out the multiple hues of the homes that blanketed the hillsides behind the city. Another deeply historic city, Genoa is dotted with beautiful cathedrals and a charming, picturesque mixture of architecture. It is famous for its public squares, such as the Piazza de Ferrari, which helped inspire the onboard piazza in the centre of the ship.
Edged by the Coffee Currents and Bellini Cocktail Bar, the deck-eight piazza is a central gathering place to meet up with newly met onboard friends for a coffee or to relax and swap stories after a day visiting some of Europe’s must-see cities.
My companions and I did our catchup over lunch at Kai Sushi with celebrity chef Makoto Okuwa, sampling from his menu of edomae-style sushi accompanied by sake. World-renowned butcher Dario Cecchini served us a dinner of perfectly grilled melt-in-the-mouth meatcuts (vegetarians most definitely not catered for) but we did not have time to try the seafood on offer at The Catch by Rudi, helmed by the renowned Rudi Sodamin.
The bridge of the Sun Princess is state-of-the-art. Photo / Helen van Berkel
We didn’t go ashore this day, instead exploring the ship further, including the bridge. Don’t expect to see an oversized wheel and white-clad sailors shouting ahoy here. Instead, three large seats face the prow of the ship, a board of buttons and knobs between them.
At the touch of a finger, the captain and the navigator are able to slot the 345.3m Sun Princess into its berth, lining it up to the correct bollard within centimetres. We stood on the thick window set into the floor that allows the crew to see how close they are to the lines on the wharf nearly 60 metres below.
Amid the silent technology up here on the bridge, it was a surprise to see a neatly arranged cabinet full of flags. Yes, the first mate explained to us, the sailors aboard the Sun Princess are still able to communicate with other ships using the old semaphore system. It is still taught because, if things go bad – as they famously can do on maiden voyages – the sailors need a backup.
We also toured the galleys, where staff were already busy making the thousands of pastries, salads and desserts that would be wheeled out to the ship’s 29 restaurants that evening. It’s a game of precision and skill, knowing 4300 passengers would be expecting the best of local ingredients in the range of cuisines on offer. And of course, built as it was in an era of increasing climate awareness and environmental demands, the Sun Princess does its bit to leave tiny footprints on the oceans it traverses. The packaging used onboard is diligently separated for recycling and giant biodigesters process leftover food to almost liquid before it is jettisoned to feed the fish deep below the Princess’ hull.
In another innovation for the Princess fleet, our ship is mostly powered by liquid natural gas. It’s a considerably cleaner fuel than traditional diesel and means the Sun Princess is also lacking the usual hot top-deck stack and stream of black smoke that trails most cruise ships.
We finished the day with an intimate Spellbound dinner and magical cocktails. In a hidden Magic Castle behind a nondescript door leading off the Piazza, is a Victorian-style library, its walls lined with books and haunted by a piano-playing ghost - who took requests. The intimate dinner and show experience, in a scaled-down version of Los Angeles’ Magic Castle, the world-famous academy for aspiring magicians, is reserved for 30 people at a time. Although I didn’t see any children onboard our trip, the magic show is great for families (and the ship also has a kids’ club). I still do not know how the magician pulled off a numbers trick that ended with not only the day’s date, but also the exact time at that moment.
The northern Italian city of Genoa is a port of call for the Sun Princess. Photo / Helen van Berkel
Our arrival in Florence was accompanied by cold rain – and a guide incredulous at the snow visible on the distant mountains as southern Europe approached summer. But we were snug on our bus for the three-hour journey into Florence for a taste of its historic treasures. La Croce Church is the world’s biggest Franciscan basilica and burial place of well-known Italians Michelangelo and Galileo. It’s easy to see why it is also known as the Temple of Italian Glories: Giotti frescoes enrich the interior walls with masterpieces of colour telling stories of the life of St Francis. Outside, the imposing gothic interior is topped with a Star of David and a magnificent dome, unadorned as per the Franciscan aesthetic.
The hours-long queue to see Michelangelo’s David at the nearby Uffizi Gallery snaked around the Galleria dell’Accademia so we had to satisfy ourselves with the replica in the piazza outside. It was a wrench to leave the crowded streets around St Croce, knowing I had barely seen the surface of the beauty held in this most lovely of cities.
The Basilica di Santa Croce is a magnificent Franciscan church in Florence. Photo / Helen van Berkel
And it was a wrench to leave our Sun Princess. We docked the next day in Civitavecchia, the gateway port to Rome. Throughout our journey, life aboard was organised to be almost crowd-free but it seemed all the passengers were off in Rome and we disembarked in a tumultuous rush of suitcases, taxis and shouted goodbyes. And the Love Boat is now making another run, setting a course for adventure – and romance.
