Princess Cruises’ promise of Come Back New is so accurate! It is exactly how I felt after only one short day of being treated like royalty aboard the newly refurbished Sun Princess. I can only imagine how relaxed, refreshed, pampered and ‘new’ the passengers of a full cruise would feel!
I was so excited to recently be invited to an exclusive culinary immersion day aboard the Sun Princess with a handful of other bloggers to experience internationally acclaimed Aussie celebrity chef Curtis Stone’s first local restaurant SHARE by Curtis Stone and also to experience first hand the state of the art pampering and relaxation facilities on board. Let me tell you right up front they were AMAZING!
After boarding the Sun Princess mid morning our culinary experience started straight away as we were greeted with a tray of mouth watering master chocolatier Norman Love pastries.
Even today, together with her sister Princess ships, the Sun Princess remains the largest passenger ship to ever cruise under the Sydney Harbour Bridge.
So exactly how big is the Sun Princess you’re probably wondering. Let me tell you. The Sun Princess is 261 metres long, 32 metres wide, has a height of 49 metres above the waterline and weighs 77,000 tonnes. That fits my definition of enormous!
Walking two laps of the Sun Princess’ outdoor wraparound promenade deck, which takes you right around the ship, equals 1 km!
The Sun Princess contains 14 passenger decks with 975 staterooms and can carry 2010 passengers, in addition to her 924 crew.
The latest refurbishment of the Sun Princess occurred in April 2016 so she is looking the best she ever has!
During this multi million dollar refurbishment the Sun Princess became the first Australian-based ship to offer the new Princess Luxury bed, designed in conjunction with US sleep experts and including a plush five centimetre thick mattress topper on top of a 23 centimetre mattress. Yes, I did have a test lie down and yes, I could have blissfully fallen asleep on it!
The Sun Princess also features 4 pools, 5 whirlpool spas, 2 main dining rooms each with their own galley, SHARE by Curtis Stone and 6 other eateries including a steakhouse, seafood bar and New Zealand Natural Ice Cream outlet, 2 main show lounges, 7 lounges/bars, a sanctuary retreat, a movies under the stars outdoor movie screen, duty free shops, deluxe health centre and spa, beauty salon, sports deck, sports court inside the funnel, business centre, photo shop, art gallery, youth centre, library, card room and casino! You can see what I meant when I said the Sun Princess is enormous!
As everyone knows, eating is a huge part of cruising. I was fascinated to find out that every seven days, Sun Princess guests consume 40 tonnes of food and drink including 10,000 bottles of wine and champagne, 10,000 cans of soft drink, 2500 litres of milk, 2400 bottles of water, 25,000 eggs, 500kg of bacon, 1.4t of chicken, 500kg of lettuce, 1.3t of rice and 375kg of coffee!
That is a lot of food and drink!
Spas on cruise ships are so luxurious and amazing!
I was lucky to be pampered with a mini facial using luxurious Elemis products by the lovely Marianna, followed by an arm and hand massage using amazingly scented chocolate oil! For the second time this day I was transported to chocolate heaven! I felt soooo unbelievably relaxed and blissed out afterwards.
As the name suggests, the SHARE menu and restaurant has been designed to encourage diners to connect with each other and share holiday memories over a delicious meal.
I love the concept of this restaurant, namely that you choose a variety of dishes from the menu and then share them with the others at your table. There is nothing better to bond over than shared, good quality food. This is how friendships and relationships are strengthened,and good memories are created!
Everything in SHARE, from the decor to the memorabilia to the music playlist, has been specifically selected by Curtis Stone.
I wish I was an expert food photographer or a food blogger with the foodie vocabulary to do justice to the amazing Curtis Stone cuisine I experienced in SHARE. Unfortunately I’m not, but let me still share (pun intended) some of my favourites that I sampled from the menu with you and please just imagine it being that much better than I photographed or put into words. It really was THAT good!
Firstly, here’s a sample of some of the tasty goodies from the chatcuterie and cheese section of the menu including Hungarian salami, Bethmale cheese and olives. The attention to detail especially with the mustard seeds was astounding! My sweet tooth also loved the honey comb on this plate.
The 17 ingredients of the shrimp with lemon gel, turnip, citrus salt and brioche dish, including three different types of radish all combined beautifully to create the most exquisite and refreshing taste.
Out of all the dishes I tasted this was my overall favourite. The wafer of brioche was so fine it literally melted on my tongue and the lemon gel left such a lovely taste in my mouth.
This tomato with burrato, oregano and arugula dish had a lovely rich flavour.
This roasted crab legs dish with Tobanjan aioli and clarified butter is reportedly Curtis Stone’s favourite on the menu. Being a seafood lover myself I absolutely loved this dish too!
The potato gratin with black winter truffle and cream was another delightful winter dish to share.
Turbot with Gruyere crumb and spinach. Once again this dish was melt in the mouth delicious! It had a really delicate flavour. I hadn’t ever tasted turbot before. After some research I found out that it’s a flatfish native to the waters of the North Atlantic, the Baltic Sea and the Mediterranean Sea.
Dessert was delicious! The Tarte Aux Citron with raspberry granola and meringue was the perfect way to finish off the meal. Or so I thought until ….
Thank you so much to Princess Cruises and Fuel Communications for this amazing experience!
If you are wanting more information about Princess Cruises’ Sun Princess click here.
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Ingrid is a lifelong beauty lover living in Australia who started Fabulous and Fun Life in 2014 to share her love of all things beauty. Being a qualified ergonomist Ingrid is especially interested in researching & testing beauty appliances to write product buying guides to help you find the best beauty appliance suited to your specific needs. Ingrid was an Influencer Judge in the TVSN Beauty Awards 2023, and also in 2021 in the hair care category. She has worked with numerous beauty brands & PR companies. To contact Ingrid, visit her contact page. Ingrid’s best beauty secret is sleeping on a silk pillowcase.