Sky Princess was a ship we were very keen to see by the time it came to board her for what would be the first cruise since the pandemic that included stops at ports. It wasn’t just that we’d be visiting ports that accounted for how interested we were in stepping aboard, and it wasn’t just that we were looking forward to cruising with Princess again after the terribly disappointing cruise we’d got off earlier in the month on P&O’s Iona, although both of those points were valid reasons for excitement. The main reason was that prior to setting foot on this Royal-class vessel, we’d gone ahead and booked two more cruises on her for 2022. We really, really hoped that we were going to like what we found otherwise we’d have some soul-searching to do about potentially cancelling future trips.
This cruise was still taking place during a period of heightened pandemic precautions so there was the pre-cruise testing to get through first, but this was an absolute breeze. We drove to the testing centre to find there were barely any cars there at all – a benefit of being the only ship from the Carnival line sailing out of Southampton that day – so we were directed straight through to the marquee, got swabbed, and were on our way with hardly time to slow the car to a stop. The terminal experience was a joy too, with us walking in, being directed to a counter, and them having our medallions ready to go when we got there without even asking our names. In fact, this part was spookily good because we had, and still have, no idea how they knew it was us. Maybe they’d put tracking devices on us when we were on Regal Princess earlier in the year? Weird. But good weird.
Thus it was that by just after midday, we were on the ship. Our cabin – B737 – was an aft-facing balcony. We’d not been able to pick the room we wanted but had selected the grade and been allocated this space. The room itself was exactly what we’d come to expect from a cabin on most cruise ships, but what we very much liked about this particular room was the size of the balcony.
We do like a good balcony. The aft design of these Royal-class cruise ships includes a tapered balcony structure so there was some opportunity for other cabins to overlook us but for this deck of rooms the balcony was half-covered, meaning it could be used even in unpleasant weather (or to get some respite from the sun) or you could perform naked lunges in the open air with only the seagulls as witnesses. Not that we ever did anything like that. I swear.
The decks above and below us had no covered space at all, and that included the suites on the corners. This pattern of partly-covered and fully-exposed balconies at the ship’s rear appeared to be every other deck, so consider this if you’re booking an aft balcony on Sky Princess or one of her sister ships.
The view from our balcony while in port was, well, Southampton. Southampton is never going to win any prizes in the Most Attractive Cruise Port category of whatever ceremony chooses to dish out awards to ports (I guarantee there’s at least one; the travel industry is very big on self-congratulations and promotions). Still, if you’re looking at Southampton from a cruise ship then you know there are good times ahead, and not just because you’ll soon be leaving the city, although that is a big part of it.
Muster drills these days are mercifully easy. The days of suddenly having to grab your life jacket part-way through the afternoon and trudge into a packed venue to sit through safety instructions has been consigned to history on Princess ships. Now, thanks to the medallions tracking you, you can stick the safety video on in the room while you unpack (I mean pay attention to the important information), mark you’ve watched it, then head to your muster station so they can confirm you know where to go in an emergency, and that’s it. Leaves more time for exploring and drinking on your embarkation day. These are much more fun activities.
A good boarding experience helps to set the tone for a cruise, and, so far, our first impressions of Sky Princess were very positive. We were also seeing the medallions working in a way they hadn’t on Regal Princess, with our room unlocking from quite a distance as we approached the door, and with us being able to use the app and see that it was far more accurate in identifying where we were on the ship.
We don’t usually get on a ship as early as we had boarded Sky Princess as it’s just not that important to us. I know there are some people who simply have to get on early; even some people who will ignore when they should be boarding just to be able to get on the ship. That last lot are wankers. So, while it’s never been a thing that’s concerned us before, this early start to our week at sea did mean that we’d have a chance to get some lunch for a change, and, as we hit the central area of the ship – the Piazza – we saw that the Alfredo’s Pizzeria had plenty of seating free. Why not?
Service was admittedly sluggish, but this was embarkation day with lots of people coming and going, and likely a reduction in staff in certain areas to allow others to assist with those boarding, so we were fine with it. Besides, it’s not like we had anywhere we needed to be. The food was very good, and the wine was perfectly fine.
We’d chosen wine to go with our Italian lunch because that felt like the right thing to do, but one thing my wife likes to do very early on a Princess cruise (and then fairly frequently throughout) is have a Dirty Banana cocktail. If you’ve not had one and you are about to cruise with Princess Cruises at some point then make this something to do too. I went for something a little more grown-up, but, as you can see, fruit was included. This means it was healthy.
Southampton Sailaway
It eventually came time for the ship to cast off. We decided to order a glass of something sparkling each in order to sit on our balcony and watch the grey sight of Southampton disappear in our wake. Ordering drinks to the room is very easy on a Princess ship – you can use the phone app, or you can use the TV in the room – but it’s an area that still could use improvement for passengers on the Princess Plus package – this is the small daily charge that includes tips, really good internet access, and up to fifteen drinks per day, and yes, we always get it – because there was no way to order for both of us in one go. If there are two people in a room then each has to order separately otherwise one of the drinks gets charged. It’s, quite frankly, an unnecessary faff. A minor irritation that you get used to, but still an irritation that could easily be addressed.
Our drinks turned up ridiculously quickly. In fact, as we very soon realised on this Sky Princess cruise, ordering to the room, whether food or drink or a combination of the two, was by far the quickest way to get anything. You could easily wait over twenty minutes in a bar, whereas the same thing might be in your room in under five.
I rightly mock Southampton for its grim appearance, but that’s commercial ports for you the world over. Despite everything, I am a fan of industrial architecture designs, and you’ll be able to find many occasions on this website where I rave about brutalism to back that up, so I do enjoy the grain silos that are the last big things to see as your cruise ship starts its run down the Solent and out to sea.
In addition to watching Sky Princess depart from Southampton from our aft balcony, and in addition to taking photos of what counts for Southampton’s sights, I also set up my phone to record some time-lapse video of the departure, so if you’ve ever felt that your life would only be complete once you’d seen the port of Southampton under grey skies disappear in a sped-up video then today is your lucky day.
All that remains to describe of this first evening aboard Sky Princess is what we ate and drank, and where we were entertained.
We actually ate in one of the main dining rooms on Sky Princess, and this felt like quite a novelty. In fact, it had been around two years since we’d last done this, with all the cruises of 2021 to date taking place in speciality dining venues: Virgin’s Scarlet Lady didn’t have the concept of normal dining rooms, and on both Regal Princess and Iona we’d booked in for something special on each night. I have to say that we really enjoyed the main dining room experience a lot, helped, I think, by there being fewer people aboard than on a normal cruise, and the concept of sharing tables having been knocked aside for the most part. We would end up in the main dining room several times on this cruise, and the only issue we had was that we found booking a table for two impossible on the app or TV; as soon as the pair of us were selected, the option to pick a time became disabled. Shakes fist at technology! We worked out, though, that we could book a table for one, so ended up doing that, and just turning up when due, on the basis that they wouldn’t try to allocate us to a tiny table facing the wall somewhere or refuse the pair of us entry. That seemed to work fine.
A venue on Sky Princess, not on other ships we’d been on prior to this, that we wanted to check out, was Take Five. Confusingly located on deck six, this was the jazz lounge. Live acts performed in the evening and there was a jazz jukebox to select tunes from during the day, but it also had a fantastic selection of cocktails that we felt obliged to sample. This would end up being our place to go most evenings. Great atmosphere, fabulous staff, lovely drinks.
So, not a lot to report on for this first day aboard Sky Princess, but in the next part of this cruising travelogue series we’ll be docking at Portland near Weymouth under clear blue skies, and there will be a wander around the ship (plenty of photos), an afternoon tea, and another sailaway video to share.