We’ve just returned from a 2 week cruise around the Mediterranean on board Sky Princess, and how much the suite offering and perks has changed in the past four years was surprising.
Let’s start by covering exactly what the perks of a suite on Princess cruise line are:
- Complimentary breakfast in a specialty restaurant
- Complimentary dinner in a specialty restaurant on embarkation day
- Dedicated suite lounge access
- Complimentary mini-bar setup
- Complimentary laundry and professional cleaning services
- Exclusive Reserve dining
- Extras in your room like upgraded bathrooms, complimentary wine and evening canapes
- Priority embarkation, disembarkation, and tendering
Depending which class of suite you are in, and which ship you board, these perks may change or have additional perks, e.g. access to the private sanctuary club.
Back in 2022 we sailed in a Premium Penthouse Suite on Enchanted Princess which is a sister ship to Sky Princess. Both being Royal class ships although Enchanted is two years newer than Sky.
In 2025 we were in a different suite, again on Sky Princess, and it is surprising to see how the suite offering has changed quality and value substantially.
Before we take a detailed look at each of the perks in turn, here’s a quick-comparison table of some of the main features.
| Suite Perk | 2022 / 2025 Experience | 2026 Reality | Verdict |
| Specialty Breakfast | Gourmet meats, fresh pastries, top-tier juice | Single salami, diluted apple cordial, missed pastries | Downgraded |
| Lounge Access | Required magnetic card, small internal room | Integrated into Medallion, still small internal room | Slight Improvement |
| Embarkation Priority | Dedicated check-in area and fast-track | Merged into general arrival queues | Downgraded |
| Reserve Dining | Table-side preparation, dedicated waiters | Excellent seating speed, scaled-back table-side service | Still High Value |
Complimentary breakfast in a specialty restaurant
On both ships, the speciality restaurant open for suite breakfast was Sabatini’s. There are only a few minor differences between the venues, but the quality of the food offered has dropped dramatically.
In 2025 an order of cooked cured meats for suite breakfast included four or five different types of cured or cooked meats including different salami, bresaola, ham or turkey and some cheese and a selection of pastries was always offered daily.
In 2026 it was a plate with 3 slices of a single type of salami topped with a few slices of a nondescript meat similar to supermarket pre-packed ham, served with a drizzle of oil over the top and a couple of tiny leaves of picked herbs. Unfortunately I didn’t think to grab a photo, but needless to say it was quite disappointing, and the pastries were forgotten several times. No major issue and I’m sure if you asked they would have brought a tray over, but just another way that attention to detail has slipped.
Other breakfast options from this year were ok, but no different to, or better than what was available in the buffet or main dining room.
Another place the Sabatini’s suite breakfast fell down this year was in the fruit juice that was served. Whilst the grapefruit juice was not the pink grapefruit served in 2022 and 2025 it was nice, as was the freshly squeezed orange juice. The apple juice however varied from decent to something more akin to an apple cordial or squash which had been over diluted some days.
In the end we had breakfast in the main dining room about as often as we did in Sabatini’s.
Complimentary dinner in a specialty restaurant on embarkation day
Back in 2022 the Princess packages, which was just the Plus package then, didn’t include any speciality dining so this was quite a nice perk. As well as getting complimentary dining that first night you would also get a complimentary bottle of wine to take back to your cabin.
In 2026 with unlimited speciality dining being included in the Premier package this is not necessarily much of a perk unless you are travelling on Plus which doesn’t include any speciality dining or without a package. The complimentary bottle of wine to take back to your cabin has also unfortunately vanished into history.
Dedicated suite lounge access
This is one area that has not really changed over the 4 years. Back in 2022 and 2025 you needed to carry an additional magnetic card around with you to get access to the concierge lounge but thankfully in 2026 it has now been rolled into your medallion.
Beyond that, the concierge or suite lounge on Royal class ships like Sky and Enchanted is a small room at the rear of deck 14 surrounded by staterooms, giving no view out and as a venue it leaves a lot to be desired, especially when you compare it to say The Yacht Club lounge on MSC ships like Virtuosa which would be the equivalent suite grade of experience.
Whilst the concierge lounge may not be an exciting venue it is a handy location to go and grab some nibbles or a hot drink if you are close to it, or just want somewhere quieter to get away from the hustle and bustle.
You can also grab a complimentary alcoholic drink during happy hour which is normally 5 – 6 pm every day, when you will find the lounge at its busiest with other suite guests.
Some days, you will also have the captain and ship’s officers pay the lounge a visit. Your room steward will leave you a note letting you know which night that will be, but it is usually one of the formal nights.
Complimentary mini-bar setup
This is another area that hasn’t changed much over the years. You will get a handful of mini bottles of spirits and your mini fridge stocked up with a selection of drinks, e.g., a can of beer, cider, some mixers and soft drinks at the start of your cruise.
Complimentary laundry and professional cleaning services
In fairness we are not that comfortable with the idea of handing our dirty washing over to strangers to take care of, and as such haven’t used this service, which means I cannot say if this has changed.
As this last cruise was two weeks long, I did head down to the laundrette to do some underwear and a few small items.
Exclusive Reserve dining
You need to take the “exclusive” with a little pinch of salt here as it is not exclusive to suite guests. It is also available to anyone booking reserve collection mini suites.
That being said, this is by far one of the best perks as far as we are concerned. This is a section of the main dining room. Whilst the queue for any time dining can get very long at times, you can normally walk right past the entire queue up to the reserve collection doorway and be shown straight to a table, usually with the same waiters every evening. This used to be known as Club Class previously.
Over time this offer has also changed significantly. From full silver service with an exclusive extra dish prepared table side for you every evening to much more standard service now.
We’ve seen everything from an exclusive main for club class, a special main and a pie of the day option, desserts prepared in the main restaurant e.g. flambé pears when we were on Caribbean Princess, and this time round every night the reserve dining section had a special starter, main and sometimes a pasta dish that was prepared for you right in the dining room.
One evening the special selection was filet mignon, where it was an extra charge item for the remaining dining rooms, freshly prepared pasta arrabiata and one of the special starters was escargot in pastry.
Extras in your room like upgraded bathrooms, complimentary wine and evening canapes
In previous years we would regularly see canapes delivered to our stateroom, however this time round beyond twice having chocolate strawberries appear, they only turned up on the first night even though we ordered them by filling in the card more than once.
This time round there was no wine in our cabin on arrival and none was delivered to our cabin for us. We did still get a welcome glass of sparkling wine but in the past there was always a bottle of wine or sparkling wine in the cabin waiting for us on arrival.
Priority embarkation, disembarkation, and tendering
Whilst the priority embarkation used to be a great benefit and you would be swept past large queues of folk to a special section at the rear of the terminal in Southampton where someone would come to you, check you in and go and fetch your medallion before showing you into security through a back door, this appears to have fallen by the wayside. As with the introduction or reintroduction of arrival groups, there was no sign of any priority embarkation availability this time. We joined the same queues as everyone else although they were thankfully very short and we were less than 20 minutes from terminal door to ship.
Priority disembarkation was also of limited value as there was no attempt made to check disembarkation groups when people were leaving the ship. We saw tags on bags for multiple different numbered blue groups, silver and gold all disembarking alongside us when their groups had not been called. Some of them were not due to be called for an hour or two.
Priority access at tender ports does sound great but as there were no tender ports on this itinerary I cannot comment on how effective that is in practice now.
Summary
So are Princess suites good value in 2026?
It really does depend on what you personally value. If you want that extra cabin room or some special touches then they can still offer great value.
The things that we personally valued, like the elevated service, suite breakfast, the assistance of the concierge, who unfortunately wasn’t much interested in helping us when we were trying to rearrange an excursion, and the priority boarding / disembarkation are gone or are now of limited value, and on the other side of the equation, suite prices have risen dramatically.
We will go back to reserve collection mini-suites in future instead of full suites as we feel that is the sweet, or is that suite spot, between cost and features.
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