Steve (DOS) and I are now on the beautiful Sky Princess, and it’s actually our 12th day aboard this mid-November 2025 cruise. As funny or strange as it seems, we’ve been so busy on this cruise, I haven’t had to blog about the ship even with the many Sea Days we’ve had on this 16 itinerary from Southampton to Port Canaveral. There’s a lot to cover, so I’ll break this up into a couple posts, starting with this one, giving an overview of the cruise and activities, summarizing the overall experience rather than going day by day.
We’ve sailed the Sky Princess before, previously in the Caribbean, and really enjoy this class of ship. While still a large ship, it’s not overwhelming in size or layout like the newer Sun Princess, which is part of the Sphere Class. There are a couple venues notably missing on the Sky Princess, however, such as the signature piano bar Crooner’s, and the Wheel House Lounge, which are on many of the other Princess ships. No issues for us though, we’ve found plenty to do and keep us busy for the last couple of weeks aboard.
We have a wonderful Aft suite on Dolphin deck 9, number 727. The suite itself is very nice; not overly large, (perhaps 450sqf) but it has a separate living room, complimentary minibar setup (courtesy of our Elite Princess status), bathroom with tub, bedroom, and lots of closet space.
The best feature for us, however, is the HUGE wrap-around balcony (with 2 sliding doors, one in the bedroom and one in the living room) providing stunning views of the ship’s wake and beyond, as well as views from the starboard side as well. The next three photos were taken on the first day of the cruise from our embarkation in Southampton, when it was misty and cool, but as the cruise progressed and warmed up, it was a wonderful place to relax and watch the sea go by, as well as sailing away from the ports of call, sometimes with beautiful sunset views.
This is our 4th TransAtlantic, having previously sailed the Celebrity Millennium and Constellation and the Royal Caribbean Adventure of the Seas across the Atlantic. Transatlantic cruises are technically called “crossings” as you’re going from one continent to another, and everyone regardless of where they live, must get transportation from either the embarkation or debarkation point from or to their home. Most North American passengers flew to London (for Southampton) or UK and European citizens back home to England/Europe from Orlando (Port Canaveral).
We did meet perhaps a half dozen people, however, that sailed from New York City over to Southampton on the Queen Mary. The Queen Mary is the only true passenger ocean liner still sailing, and the only ship that still does regular transatlantic crossings. The other cruise ships such as the Sky Princess spend their summers and early Autumns in Europe and then do a single westbound repositioning or crossing to the US, usually/ to Florida for the winter season. Then in late spring, the same ships do one more transatlantic crossing this time eastbound to Europe, for a summer season in the Med, Scandinavia or other destinations in Europe.
Steve DOS and I have only done westbound transatlantic’s mainly out of convenience in schedules, but we also enjoy having the 25 hour days, which is achieved by changing the clock once a day over the course of the cruise at least for five of the days. Going eastbound however to Europe, you would have 23 hour days for at least five of the days losing an hour each day as you changed time zones, but possibly avert jet lag that way flying east.
TransAtlantic cruises are great for well traveled passengers, mostly retired or near retirement, those who love sea days, some who are still working and can work remotely, and even a few who don’t like to fly overseas. It’s definitely not a cruise for kids and we only saw maybe half a dozen children under school age aboard, traveling with their parents. The ports of call are usually interesting and off of the path compared to traditional Caribbean or Med cruises.
On this crossing we had a total of 5 port stops, which were inter-mixed with Sea Days. The port stops are listed below, and I will go in more detail on the next post. Our first stop was on our second day, in Porter England for Weymouth:
Cherbourg France (2nd and next to last stop of the Titanic, and gateway to Normandy).
Vigo Spain:
Puerto, Del Gorda in the Azores, part of Portugal
and finally Bermuda. (I inserted Bermuda when I returned home as this was our last stop).
This has been a fairly smooth crossing, although being in the very aft of the ship, you sometimes feel a little bit of vibration or more movement from the ship, but fortunately neither of us has gotten sea sick.
Daytime activities aboard the Sky Princess on sea days consists of various lectures (on people, maritime history, places etc), trivia teams, indoor putting in the Piazza and other games against the officers, musical trivia, bingo, wine tasting or culinary and other events, “behind-the-seas” talks with the Cruise staff and crew, Pop Chorus rehearsals, Dance lessons hosted by crew staff, and for some people like us, just general relaxation with no set activities to worry about.
the Main Theater.
Steve (DOS) and I were even offered a special invitation for just the two of us to go backstage at the Theater one day, hosted by the Cast Manager and one of the Lead Dancers. We had seen them having pizza one evening and expressed how much we enjoyed the show, not knowing they would offer to show us backstage a couple days later! They actually sent us an invitation delivered to our room! Really a cool experience for us! Thank you!
for the Production Shows!
The cruise weather, starting in Southampton was a bit rainy and cool, however, as the cruise has progressed, its has gotten a little bit warmer each day. I’m writing this on day 12 of the crossing, and DOS and I are sitting on our balcony, watching and listening to the waves crash the wake of the ship, with not another ship or land in sight. It is truly amazing to imagine how far we are out to sea and how big the world really is especially, and affirming the geography we learned in school that 3/4 of the world‘s surface is covered with water.
Here is view out the back of the ship in a short clip to just listen to the sound of the waves and nothing else. The wake of the ship is always mesmerizing to watch.
As far as the shipboard life goes for us, we’ve more or less settled into a daily routine aboard. Since we have a suite, we are entitled to have breakfast in Sabatini’s Italian specialty restaurant, which we’ve enjoyed most days of the cruise, except for early port days when we had a quick breakfast in the Concierge Lounge, also for Suite guests.
For lunch on Sea Days, we would either go to the Windjammer Buffet, or several times to Alfredo’s Specialty Pizza Restaurant. Alfredo’s was included daily with the Premier package which we have, while only twice with the lesser cost Plus package. We normally had an appetizer salad, followed by a made to order pizza of our choice. By finishing the pizza we were normally too full for dessert, although one day I did have the tiramisu.
In port days we would sometimes have lunch in town, or a snack somewhere on an excursion, and if we got back to the ship in late afternoon, a burger or slice of pizza by the pool. Of course DOS loves getting an ice cream cone too, even in the colder weather!
Afternoons were relaxing with time spent on our balcony, which even in the colder first few days of the cruise were comfortable, bundling up with the complementary blankets provided at the pool areas, which we brought back to our cabin.
It was nice reading or surfing the internet on our iPads, and the high speed internet worked pretty well most of the time, even on the balcony. With the Premier package we have with Princess, it includes high speed internet on up to 4 devices, which is huge compared to the daily cost for one device on other lines.
As the cruise went along, it became a bit warmer each day as we sailed westward to Bermuda, and ultimately our final destination of Port Canaveral, Florida, and you could comfortably wear shorts and a T-shirt outdoors. Some people even got in the pool, but we thought the sea water would be a bit cool for that so we declined. (The Sky Princess does have an indoor Thalassotherapy pool as part of the Enclave spa area, but we did not purchase this add-on, and really didn’t miss going there either.)
It was so relaxing laying out on our lounge chairs on our balcony, that more than once I fell asleep out there, with the gentle sound of the waves providing a peaceful ambiance.
If not napping on the balcony, we normally got our late afternoon nap in the cabin, along with a pre-dinner shower before heading out for the evening.
The key-carded entry for the Concierge Lounge on deck 14 is open all day for coffee, tea, water, soft drinks and snacks, while in the evenings for complementary drinks and hors d’oeuvres from 4:30pm – 7pm.
Evening Hors d’oeuvres spread in the Concierge Lounge.
DOS and I normally started our evenings around 6:15pm, with pre-dinner cocktails in the Concierge Lounge. The Concierge Lounge is only available for full Suite guests, and over the course of this crossing we have made several good friendships, sometimes sharing dinners, theater shows, and even fun at the silent disco nights or as karaoke viewers.
DOS and I both have the Princess unlimited specialty dining and drink package, which priced at $100 a day, also includes shipboard gratuities and four internet devices which is a great value. Unfortunately, the unlimited specialty dining and drinks package tends to add more pounds than it should to our bodies! 🤣
There are 3 specialty dining venues for dinner: Crown Grille, Sabatini’s, and The Catch by Rudy. in addition to the main dining rooms, and Alfredo’s Pizza and a sushi place. Here are a few photos from some of the evening specialty dining dinners we’ve been to so far.
Crown Grill Restaurant
Crown Grill Wine Room with some friends we met aboard.
but split it for both of us.
After dinner, we would go to a show (next post) and/or karaoke. As far as karaoke, no, we do not sing, but we go and participate as spectators, for better or worse. About half of the people that usually sing every night are exceptional while the other half are not so good but they try. We give anyone credit for trying getting up on stage and singing. What’s the tag line for ship karaoke on Princess “Come to Karaoke. If you can sing, Great! If you can’t sing, even better! LOL!
To be continued to next post. . . Thanks for following along on our TransAtlantic Journey!