When Princess first announced that Park19, a family-friendly attraction filled with ziplines and roller coasters, would be on the top deck of Sun Princess, the line’s ultra loyal fans were divided.
Should the line that is Australia’s favourite be more family friendly? The jury was out.
When Cruise Passenger met line president John Padgett, in Sydney and put to him our readers’ concerns, he was defensive insisting it was an “insignificant part” of the new ship.
Now Princess has announced that Park19 construction won’t go ahead as planned, and the debate has returned.
Essentially cruisers are split between whether Princess, a cruise line associated with tranquility and sophistication, should cater more towards a family and children demographic and be more inclusive, or whether it should refrain from adding new features that will attract a different type of cruiser to Princess.
After all, Virgin Voyages and Viking have made successful marketing campaigns around banning youngsters aged under 18.
But the news that Park19 construction won’t go ahead has fuelled the debate with a new element: the cruisers who booked especially for the new features, and who now feel cheated.
They were preparing to sail Princess with their families, but now have fewer reasons to do so.
On the other side of the coin, Princess diehards are breathing sighs of relief that they won’t be seeing hoards of young children on their cruise.
If Princess catered for more families, this would mean parents that are accustomed to and fans of the Princess experience would be able to bring their children with them, with peace of mind that they’d have plenty of activities.
However, many cruisers feel that an influx of children would take away from the quintessential Princess’s experience, which is generally more upscale and adult-oriented than cruise lines such as Royal Caribbean or Carnival.
Essentially, Princess ships are not built primarily for family experiences. But should they be?
Liane Cutts is a long time Princess Cruiser, who generally cruises with her husband and wanted to plan a cruise with her two grandchildren aged eight and 11. She planned a cruise on Sun Princess, hoping to get the best of both worlds.
“I’m feeling wronged totally by our beloved Princess… first be clear I am Platinum, only a couple from Elite. I have cruised many many times and love this line. However, our December cruise is booked on Sun Princess which we specifically chose because it’s not just me and my husband, it’s my daughter, her husband and our two grandchildren.
“Now this week we are told that the whole reason we were finally able to get them to cruise with us on a Princess cruise, Park 19, not only will not open but it will be removed by the time we sail!
“Are they putting in any kind of kid friendly replacement? Are they compensating booked passengers in any way? We are all heart broken and my babies which were so excited to sail Princess are now sad and not even excited to go any more, very disappointing from Princess.”
The debate rages on
A slew of cruisers responded to Cutts, not only glad that Park19 isn’t going ahead, but believing that Princess has made the decision consciously due to reconsidering passenger preferences, rather than the constructions difficulties that were cited.
Nick Bova said: ” agree with a couple other comments, I don’t think princess ever promotes their cruises as a cruise for kids or young adults. I think they made an attempt to do something with Park 19 and found out that it could not be made safe for the passengers, good move to take it out.
“There are much better choices in cruise lines that cater to kids, I know you have status but it seems like you are trying to force a round peg into a square hole.”
Keith Wood said: “It’s a good move on Princess’s part. We only sail on Princess because they don’t have any of these items.”
A reddit user wrote: “Good. Princess should not try to become Royal Caribbean.”
Another reddit user added: “Princess should stay adult oriented. It’s why I sail princess so I don’t have to deal with a lot of kids running around like on royal. Let Royal and. Carnival keep the kids attractions.”
A different reddit user shared their theory on how they believe the operation went down.
“Princess had a minute they thought they wanted to market to families. Then they realized they could make more money with sanctuary class.
“The sanctuary on the Sun is right below Park 19. No one wants to pay extra to have kids screaming and playing right next to the adults only Sanctuary! Don’t be offended. Just book with RCI or NCL or Carnival. Those ships have stuff for kids.”
Other cruisers like Carolyn Busch Ehrlich believe that a noisy minority ruined the chance for Princess to be a leading multi-generational cruise line.
“We were just thinking of booking Sun out of Ft Lauderdale because of the activities on Park 19. Now we are learning that this area is not going to be open…. Sorry Princess but you had a great design for multi generational families traveling and you let the few grouches ruin it.”
The big questions
- If you want to cruise with you kids, should you simply take them elsewhere instead of worrying about if Princess is family friendly?
- Why would Princess advertise a leap into a more family-friendly ship and then back out so quickly?
- Should cruisers who booked on Sun Princess rightly feel aggrieved that what was promoted to them won’t be on the ship?
- Sun Princess is part of a new ‘sphere class’ of Princess ships, it remains to be seen if future ships will aim for multi-generational activities or features or stick to the tried and tested Princess formula. It’s a debate we suspect may well be going on at Princess headquarters
Personally, we prefer adults only!