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Princess Secrets they Don't Tell You

philsfun

By philsfun,
in Princess Cruises

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  • 2 weeks later...
beshears

beshears

Posted
Posted

It is just GREAT to be reading all these suggestions, especially since we are planning on cruising next spring.:)

 

I know I can go into the "ship" area and ask this question, but I thought perhaps someone in this forum might give me some ideas too.

 

We are planning on cruising on the Caribbean ship next year. If you have been on this ship within the past year, would you give me your pros/cons of this ship? We are to be on deck 8 also.

 

I know everyone has different ideas, but I like to read them anyway.:)

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CrusinAgain

CrusinAgain

Posted
Posted
It is just GREAT to be reading all these suggestions, especially since we are planning on cruising next spring.:)

 

I know I can go into the "ship" area and ask this question, but I thought perhaps someone in this forum might give me some ideas too.

 

We are planning on cruising on the Caribbean ship next year. If you have been on this ship within the past year, would you give me your pros/cons of this ship? We are to be on deck 8 also.

 

I know everyone has different ideas, but I like to read them anyway.:)

 

Which ship?

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caribill

caribill

Posted
Posted

We are planning on cruising on the Caribbean ship next year. If you have been on this ship within the past year, would you give me your pros/cons of this ship? We are to be on deck 8 also.

 

I know everyone has different ideas, but I like to read them anyway.:)

 

There are a couple of recent "live froms" from the Caribbean Princess. Just lookfor those threads.

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compozer

compozer

Posted
Posted

 

I know people who were on the ship during Sandy, and said the staff were rude (could have been the stress levels)

 

I was on her for three weeks and it WAS the passengers that were RUDE not the crew. I could not believe how terrible some of them were. Three woman booked a balcony cabin and demanded to be upgraded because the third bed was in the ceiling and they did not want to climb up there. They were constantly at the CS desk yelling at them. Didn't they do there research??? I was very pleased to hear they never changed their cabin.

 

People blamed the staff for the weather - for not getting to Bermuda, for being stuck in Boston (didn't matter that we were safe - we hd to have two tug boats holding us against the dock)

 

Blamed Princess for Sandy - I can go on and on.

 

I had to hold my tongue many times.

 

People - you booked during hurricane season!!!!!!!!!!!!

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  • 2 weeks later...
fireflymd

fireflymd

Posted
Posted
We just returned from a 10-day Alaskan cruisetour on the Island Princess and found several of the above tips/hints/suggestions very helpful! Here are comments on what worked well for us:

1) We loved the tip about having the room card on a lanyard, so we brought lanyards from home and after boarding and then finding our room, we headed right down to the Passenger Services Desk and had them punch a hole in our room card, then placed it on our lanyard. We wore the lanyard almost the entire time we were on the ship and it was great having it always right-at-hand when needed. We didn’t have to search our pockets or wallets for the card and that was a plus!

2) We brought an extension cord and used that for charging our electronics, plus I had brought along a small electric alarm clock (there are no clocks in the room) as I tend to wake up frequently during the night and didn’t want to have to hassle with finding the time on my cel phone, so having the extension cord came in really handy for that.

3) We found the extra outlet behind the TV so that was great knowing it was there if we needed it.

4) We brought our larger digital camera with changeable lenses, which was great for taking awesome pictures, but having a smaller point-and-shoot camera came in handy on those rainy days when we didn’t want to haul out the larger camera.

5) A couple of days before our cruiseI had read about some Princess beds not being very comfortable and that egg-crate mattresses were available on a first-come first-served basis, so I called Princess and requested one. When we got to our room, I mentioned it to our cabin steward (as it wasn’t on the bed when we arrived) and later that evening we had one.

6) There were plenty of hangers in our room, so we didn’t have to ask for more, but we did ask for a top sheet for the bed. We loved that hint, too.

7) As I am a Diet Coke fan, I purchased the soda package and was happy to have my Diet Coke fix every day, all day. To me it was well worth the purchase price. I used my soda mug most of the time, but there were also times I got a large soda since it contained more than the mug would hold.

8) My husband drinks regular coffee and at the buffet they only have regular coffee mugs. He would have liked to have brought a travel mug from home so that he could fill up his travel mug and bring it back to the room, plus keep the coffee hot for a longer time.

9) Although I did bring a couple of suction hooks to hang things up in the bathroom if needed, since we didn’t use the hot tub or pool, and didn’t need to hang anything up to dry, we didn’t end up using them at all.

10) If you have a hairstyle that heavily relies on styling it with a hairdryer, consider bringing one from home. The hairdryer in the room is adequate, but that’s about it.

11) If you’re doing the cruisetour, make sure you carefully read about the luggage information specifically regarding when you switch from land to ship or vice versa. Our travel agent did not forewarn us about how our luggage would be handled and thankfully I read it and therefore was prepared for how that was going to pan out. You can read about it here under “Luggage”:

http://www.princess.com/learn/faq_answer/cruisetours/cruisetours_alaska.jsp

12) Although we did not purchase any internet packages, we brought along our laptop and downloaded the pictures from the cameras on a regular basis so that we had a backup of the pictures should anything have happened to the cameras.

13) If you can do a flightseeing tour of Mt McKinley, make sure to do so--it was absolutely breathtaking and awe-inspiring, and an incredible way to end a fantastic trip!

 

Thanks for posting this! Very helpful and useful information.

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catsgirl

catsgirl

Posted
Posted

Thanks for going back on subject! I appreciate the hints.

One of my favorites is about the walls being metal. I take magnetic hooks and buttons along. We hang our lanyards on them to keep from loosing them in the room. Also hang the daily Patter up with the magnets.

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5326jan

5326jan

Posted
Posted
Almost embarrassed to ask - what is a top sheet?

 

Traditionally made beds have a bottom sheet wrapped around the mattress and a top sheet goes just under the blanket. A person normally sleeps between the bottom and top sheets. On Princess, they use a (removable duvet cover over the comforter like a pillowcase. We don't mind it that way, but some people still want the top sheet which is tucked in at the foot of the bed. Knowing that the duvet cover is replaced every 3rd day is fine for us. I don't wash my sheets at home that often! :o Personally, I like Princess beds and have always slept very well.

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  • 1 month later...
Lilly'sMom

Lilly'sMom

Posted
Posted
I have been on the CP in the last year and was pleasantly surprised at how well it's been kept up. Service and food were at their best

 

I know people who were on the ship during Sandy, and said the staff were rude (could have been the stress levels)

 

We were on the CP for Sandy - the only staff that were rude at all were from the Crown Grill - go figure! We finally decided to try it and they kind of ruined it for us! :mad: We may try it one more time and hope we get better service!

 

Everybody else was fantastic!

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5326jan

5326jan

Posted
Posted
totally off the current subject, does anyone know if they sell beverage packages on the Island Princess? I can't find any info anywhere. I would like to bring my own wine, but we fly directly into LAX and then transfer to the ship.

 

thanks

 

 

Don't know how picky of a wine drinker you are, but we put a "Black Box" of wine in our checked luggage to hold us over until we can get the good stuff! The wine travels fine, but we put it in a jumbo zip lock bag just in case. It has never leaked, even through the change of planes going through Paris and Athens! Its not our favorite, but is better than nothing at sail away!:)

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Iamcruzin

Iamcruzin

Posted
Posted
totally off the current subject, does anyone know if they sell beverage packages on the Island Princess? I can't find any info anywhere. I would like to bring my own wine, but we fly directly into LAX and then transfer to the ship.

 

thanks

 

Princess only has beverage packages for soft drinks, mocktails and coffee. They don't have anything that resembles Celebrity's or Royal Caribbean's drink packages if that's what you were referring to.

 

 

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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catsgirl

catsgirl

Posted
Posted

They do now offer wine packages. We were on the Coral going through the Panama Canal in October and used it. Sorry I don't remember the specifics. But it had 3 quantity levels that had a better price the more you buy. You get it in the dining room. But I also was able to bring back a bottle of wine to enjoy on the balcony.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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compozer

compozer

Posted
Posted
We were on the CP for Sandy - the only staff that were rude at all were from the Crown Grill - go figure! We finally decided to try it and they kind of ruined it for us! :mad: We may try it one more time and hope we get better service!

 

Everybody else was fantastic!

 

We were there on a b2b2b for that cruise and ate there many nights - they were GREAT - that is why we ate there so much. None of the crew were rude at all. And I wouldn't blame them if they were since there were so many angry passengers that blamed Princess for the weather and they were the rude people.

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5326jan

5326jan

Posted
Posted
thanks, we may resort to that...I'm assuming you took it out of the box?

 

No, we figured the box would give it a little extra protection. Some friends of ours took several boxes in a suitcase, figuring they'd pay $25 for the extra checked bag, then have an empty suitcase for souveniers. We were going to the Black Sea, so we had no idea what kind of wine would be there.

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