Muffinz

thanks for the info - we are boarding Crown Princess in December at Sydney OPT

we're having a discussion about when best to embark.... I want to get to the OPT about 10:30-11am and get on the ship as soon as possible before the crowds, but wife said there'd be huge queues then and it's best to get there about 1pm once the queues have 'died down'  - but I'd like to be on the ship by then having something to eat / drink....

26 minutes ago, cr8tiv1 said:

I am a "get there/board early" passenger.  Unfortunately, you will not be in the Green Lane since Princess does not ship medallions to New Zealand.  The blue lane will need to pickup the medallions at the port upon check in.  Some have said this is a painless process.

 

What does does it say embarkation starts?  I am usually at San Pedro (LA) by 10 - 10:30 and onboard by 11:30.  Do you have any loyalty level perks for priority boarding?

 

It is nice to board early and have a leisurely lunch in the MDR (on Deck 6 from noon to 1:30).

ok thanks for that - I thought if we completed all our paperwork on the app, we'd be good to go and just have to pick up our medallion at the port?

I remember for our first cruise (on Solstice) we had to provide credit cards and get our photo taken at the cruise port terminal, but we can do this all on the app and I've done most of it already

I don't know what time embarkation starts as the cruise is still 9 months away.... but Princess will probably send out the embarkation info well before the cruise sail date

this is our first ever Princess cruise - so no loyalty perks or anything unfortunately

We are on Crown Princess from Sydney (Australia) in December and we are in the process of finalising flights / hotel pre cruise - we're getting very excited! 

Last night we were talking about embarkation day and wife said she doesn't want to queue for an hour (give or take) waiting to board the ship and she wants to get to the Cruise terminal in Sydney about 1pm to 'avoid' the queues.... I said that by 1pm I intend to be on the ship having something to eat / drink and relaxing... and I suggested getting to the cruise terminal about 11am-11:30am, but she is dead against this and said in the morning there will be big queues with everyone trying to get on the ship at the same time and she thinks that by about 1pm the queues would have 'died down'

I said that if we have all our details correct we should be in the 'green line' and boarding should be easier than it was in 2018 when we boarded Celebrity Solstice in Sydney (that took about 60 minutes).

Wife doesn't like standing for long periods of time as she has a dodgy knee, but I said it doesn't matter what time we get to the cruise terminal there will be queues, as Crown Princess holds over 3000 passengers.

I'd just prefer to board early so we can relax, unpack our luggage and spend the afternoon exploring the ship.

what are other peoples thoughts on an early or later embarkation?

On 2/29/2024 at 8:57 AM, PacnGoNow said:

If you booked it online with Princess, you would call in and tell them to mark it No upgrade.

 

If you booked with a TA or CVP call them to mark it.

 

But, recheck it periodically, as mentioned, they sometimes UG it anyway.

 

 

 

 

We did this when we booked our cruise for Dec 2024 - just incase they give us a stateroom in a noisy location or something

5 minutes ago, robncruise said:

Yes EZ air is Princess acting as a travel agent for many of the airlines if you look at any cruise underneath where it says book now it says itinerary, shore excursions, flight quotes . what flights are available in the cruise personaliser. I would recommend you read a up about EZ Air . Sometimes (not often) they are cheaper than direct with the airlines. They have restricted  and flexible airfares. Flexible are usually more expensive but the advantage is you dont pay until final payment of the cruise AND you can cancel/ change up to 45 days before departure. There are a no of other benefits too.

Yes - I had a look at EZ air and they bought up the same flights we've already looked at, and they were more expensive than booking direct with the airlines

7 hours ago, lyndarra said:

CKS Sydney airport hotel shows a double king room for $152 (Booking.com) for Dec 26. They run a shuttle to the airport. I've stayed there many times pre international flights,

thanks for that - it's good to know

but I think for this time we will opt for a later flight in the afternoon

2 hours ago, robncruise said:

Why not check out Princess EZAir.  They show flights Sydney - Akld from as early as 9.30 am for a cruise arriving in Sydney on 26 Dec.  The beauty of using EZ Air is if the ship is late arriving Princess will reschedule flights for you.   Also their transfer from OPT to the airport at 29AUD is quite reasonable  for singles/ couples .

thanks - I don't know anything about EZ air.... I assume they are flights organised by Princess on the regular carriers that fly between Sydney and Auckland?

is that $29 per person or couple because if it is per couple than that would work out cheaper than the train

2 hours ago, possum52 said:

Is it possible to stay overnight in Sydney and fly home the next day? No stress and it doesn't matter what time you disembark. Spend a nice leisurely day without worrying if you will make it to the airport in time.

Unfortunately We've only been able to get a certain amount of time off work and we're both going back to work on 27 December..... anyway if we did stay overnight in Sydney we'd have to fork out about $400-$500 AUD for a nights accommodation...

We're already staying in Sydney 2 nights before the cruise (hotel yet to be decided)

I think we're probably going to get the 1:45pm flight back to Auckland just to be safe

Just now, icat2000 said:

Your not going to make that flight. If it was domestic yes. But international no. 

 

My questions are is the cruise a domestic Australian cruise or is it a South Pacific/NZ one (if so you have to factor in customs). Also just because it docks at 6.30 am they still got to wait for clearance and sometimes not everything runs to plan. What happens if its a rough coming in throug the heads. That potential delay factor too.

 

I would book a flight that departs 1pm for NZ to be safe. 

thanks - the cruise is Sydney to Sydney (around South Australia) so customs won't be an issue

But yes.... being delayed could cause a problem

I'd prefer a later flight myself, but they are on the smaller A321 planes, and last time we flew international on one of those planes it rattled like buggery for most of the flight.... and really put us off... but we might just have to suck it up

We're on a Princess cruise that docks / disembarks in Sydney on 26 December 2024 at 0630

We've managed to get a really good airfare going to Sydney from Auckland 2 days before the cruise starts and we are now debating which return flight to get.

The flights at the best times (later in the day) are on the smaller A321NEO planes (both Air NZ & Qantas), and we'd prefer to fly on a larger 777 or similar 

There is an Air NZ flight that leaves Sydney at 11:45am on a 777-300ER, but would this flight be too risky to make?

Passengers can apparently 'self disembark' the cruise ship with their own luggage at 0630, so if we did this and got to the Circular Quay Train station at say 7am, then we'd probably be at the Airport by around 8am and have plenty of time to make that flight.

The only problem could be if there are any issues with the ship docking or if it arrives late into Sydney..... 

We're in 2 minds about this - part of me wants to book the earlier flight, so we can get back to Auckland earlier.... but part of me doesn't want to risk it

thanks for posting this - we have the plus package on our cruise in December

so we can go to Salty Dog Gastropub and get 1 of those small plates each and that will count as 1 casual meal each?

a Lanyard will work fine for us... no need to splurge for medallion accessories 

on our only cruise to date (celebrity) we had a lanyard with our card on it and we just hung it up on a metal hook in our stateroom and every time we left the room we took it with us....

but it's good to know you can use the app  on board without needing wifi

We've got the plus packace on our December cruise... for us it worked out more beneficial than not having the package and that's why we chose it plain and simple

some people don't drink much alcohol or speciality coffees like flat whites, or don't use wifi, so if you're one of those people then the package is not going to be beneficial to you

2 hours ago, Host CJSKIDS said:

They kept putting my husband's drinks on my account this past December.  I even went up to a bar with both of our medallions and asked them to please place one drink on mine and one on his and they still added them both to mine.  

 

 

I think the solution here is to order 2 drinks using your medallion.... then when you order the next 2 drinks use your hubby's medallion?

of course the easiest is for Princess to do put 1 drink on each medallion... but if they don't then try the above 

thanks for the replies.... how others are dressed is not really of a concern to me.... if they are happy wearing a basketball singlet and shorts / flip flops, then good on them

We will dress how we want to - depends on how warm / chilly it is in the evenings... but I am tempted to take my old Santa costume 😁

so are you saying it's up to the passengers to know the cost of each drink?

we have the plus package on our Crown cruise in December and the last thing we want is to find out we've been charged extra for a drink(s)

Surely the barperson serving you should be able to tell if you have a plus or premier package and if you order a drink that's abuve the plus package $$ limit they should tell you

also I assume the 15 drinks a day applies to each person - e.g.wife and I both have the plus package, so we could get 15 drinks each?

Thanks for the replies - I wasn't aware of any 'dress to impress' night, but will look out for that.

On our celebrity cruise in 2018 they had 2 formal nights, but like some of the replies here some did dress up and some didn't

sad to hear though that Princess allows 'under dressed' people in the MDR.... I treat it like I'm going to a really nice restaurant and dress accordingly (smart casual)

Forgive me if this topic has been discussed before on here, but do Princess have 'formal' nights on their cruises? (ours is 12 days) We need to know if we should pack our glad rags 

Also the last sea day of the cruise will be Christmas day - do princess do anything special for Christmas, such as Christmas themed menus or something?

thanks in advance

We just booked our first Princess cruise on Crown and elected not to be 'upgraded' should the opportunity arise, because the Princess rep on the phone said if they upgrade you, you don't get a choice of what cabin or what deck / location.... and the Princess rep said if we accept an upgrade then we just have to take whatever stateroom they upgrade us to

So we chose to just keep our booked stateroom

3 hours ago, skynight said:

" is this 2 casual meals per person"

yes it is per person, but currently only two options on the Crown. 

ok thanks for that - I'll have to look at the menus for The Salty Dog Grill closer to the time 

Wife is looking forward to the specialty deserts... they look calorific! 

ok with the dining, we will mainly use the MDR / Buffet / International cafe and the grill out by the pools that does burgers / taco's...etc (forgot the name sorry)

but according to this (below) we're entitled to 2 casual dining meals per cruise - is this 2 casual meals per person (we both have the plus package) per cruise?

and apart from the Salty Dog, is there anywhere else we get 'casual dining' on Crown?

thanks in advance

thanks for the replies

@skynight we are just regular passengers with a balcony stateroom - but we do have the Princess Plus plan

@cnice515 thanks - they look good, but we both wear fit-bits and I don't really want to wear something on my other wrist 

also does anyone know the latest time when we can disembark the ship in Sydney?

reason asking if we're looking at airfares and have found one that leaves later in the day so we don't have to worry about racing to the airport

Could we self disembark at say 10-11am, or do we have to be off the ship at a certain time?

1 hour ago, reedprincess said:

Nope.

Suite guests breakfast is in a specialty restaurant, not the MDR.

"Reserve" dining is in one MDR, which is any Reserve class mini or full suite, mainly only matters for dinner, as breakfast and lunch is same as everyone else (except suite breakfast in a specialty restaurant).

 

ok thanks for clearing that up  🙂 

7 minutes ago, Rick&Jeannie said:

Excellent!  Glad you got it straightened out!  Start packing!!! 😄

Ha ha.... cruise is in December - We'll pack closer to the time  🙂 

thanks - what I meant is one of the 3 main dining rooms is apparently set up for suite guests breakfasts, but I can't remember which one