Sep 25

Sep 25 Day 03 - At Sea

Ship: Princess Cruises Sun Princess
Itinerary: 16-Night Transatlantic - Southampton to Fort Lauderdale

Today is our first of many days at sea on this sailing as Sun Princess is headed to Vigo, Spain. Since we missed the evening performance of Viva La Música last night, we made sure to arrive early for the afternoon matinee performance today.

One section of the theater seating is reserved for guests with the Princess Premier package, a nice perk, but this area fills up quickly during evening performances, so you should still arrive early if you plan to get a seat.

Theater Seats Reserved for Princess Premier

The show features recorded music backed up by live musicians. A large LED screen behind the stage adds to the atmosphere of the lively combination of vocals and dancing.

There were four vocalists, two male and two female, and a cast of twelve dancers and two ballroom dancers. The show was very well produced and performed. The show was as good as we have seen on any Princess ship, but the theater makes it an even better experience. The stage, lighting and sound system are excellent. The only negative is that the Princess Arena is a little small for this size of ship.

Tonight is formal night and “formal” is now a little more lenient that it was 30 years ago. I can get by with a collared shirt and dinner jacket.

Our dinner reservations this evening were at Makoto Ocean on Deck 8 midship. The restaurant is in a space that is open to The Piazza, so having a quiet, peaceful meal is probably not going to happen since The Piazza is a venue for many entertainment activities.

When we were greeted and presented the menu, we were informed that the $45 cover charge per person only includes the eight-course tasting menu (see below).

There is another side of the menu with a la carte items, such as sushi rolls, etc. We were informed that the $45 cover charge does not apply to any of the items on the “right side” of the menu and that those come at an extra charge. What?

We consider ourselves to be fairly adventuresome, but some of the items on the eight-course menu are things we would never order. In fact, if the a la carte side of the menu had been available to us (as part of the $45 cover charge) we would have each had a sushi roll and Edamame and been fine with it. Instead, we ended up eating a lot of things we really did not want. That said, everything was very good and well presented.

The meal began with tuna tartare served with an egg yolk sauce (above), followed by four pieces of very fresh and good sashimi of fatty tuna and salmon (below).

There were other courses not pictured here, and again, all were good, but things we would have never ordered. Princess should re-think this restaurant and allow guests to order the tasting menu or the a la carte items. Perhaps apply the $45 cover charge to the a la carte menu and, if you order more than the $45 worth of items (per person), you pay the additional charge. And, by the way, $17 for a Spicy Tuna Roll is outrageous.

We saw one lady seated next to us enjoying a sushi roll and nothing else. Did she have to pay the $45 cover charge PLUS the $17 for the sushi roll, or can you simply walk up and get a table and pay for a la carte items without the $45 cover charge? I will try to find out and report back, because it is very confusing.

After dinner, we went to Princess Live! for Motown Music Trivia. We did pretty well at identifying the song titles, but only got a couple of the artists correct.

After Motown Music, Cruise Director, Corinne, conducted Majority Rules, a super fun game show. This, too, was held at Princess Live! This was one of the most entertaining games we have every played on a cruise. We hope they have it again on this cruise.