11 days until our first cruise...

[octoberdana]

Last minute advice? We are visiting Princess Cays, St. Thomas, San. Juan, and Turks. Have excursions booked at St. Thomas and Turks.

 

Reserved balcony dinner. Still deciding on drinks packages. Worried about what to pack. Any last minute tips or things we should plan for??

[Colo Cruiser]

Last minute advice? We are visiting Princess Cays, St. Thomas, San. Juan, and Turks. Have excursions booked at St. Thomas and Turks.

 

Reserved balcony dinner. Still deciding on drinks packages. Worried about what to pack. Any last minute tips or things we should plan for??

 

 

Have a Pina Colada at Barrachina's in San Juan.

 

http://barrachina.com/

 

Bon Voyage!

Edited August 6, 2014 by Colo Cruiser

[RickEk]

Last minute advice? We are visiting Princess Cays, St. Thomas, San. Juan, and Turks. Have excursions booked at St. Thomas and Turks.

 

Reserved balcony dinner. Still deciding on drinks packages. Worried about what to pack. Any last minute tips or things we should plan for??

 

Enjoy yourself! Don't sweat the small stuff. I sailed on Caribbean Princess last year and had a great time. Have a martini at Crooners! :)

[shredie]

Last minute advice? We are visiting Princess Cays, St. Thomas, San. Juan, and Turks. Have excursions booked at St. Thomas and Turks.

 

Reserved balcony dinner. Still deciding on drinks packages. Worried about what to pack. Any last minute tips or things we should plan for??

 

You can hear my husband as you walk out the door on the way to the dock: "Do you have your passport?" :)

[judy5cents]

The best advice is to enjoy it all. Try new things, have fun, meet lots of new people... eat whenever you can.

 

Best wishes...oh and don't forget to "Come back new"

[KLLund]

Go have fun and don't worry .. if you forget something chances are you can buy it on-board or at your first stop.. You aren't leaving civilization!

[skynight]

Pack light. Set up your clothes for packing, then go through them and take some out. Pack some cold remedies, they are sometimes difficult to get at the ports and on the ship they can be costly. One formal outfit is enough. Shorter hair? there are hair dryers in the cabins, but they are not too powerful for real thick long hair. You can carry on one 750ml bottle of wine without charge/pp over 21 for use in your cabin. All cabins have fridges. When boarding go directly to your cabin, no waiting your cabin will be ready. You can have lunch in the DR between noon and 1:30 on boarding day. Other free options include the International Cafe in the Piazza on deck 5 (a favorite of ours), and on the Lido deck, the Grill, Pizza by the slice, and the Horizon Ct./Cafe Caribe buffet. Arrive at the pier around 10:30/11:00am. Check in usually starts around 11am. After check in you will go to a waiting area. Boarding normally starts around noon with priority passengers first then general boarding in the order of arrival. You should be in your cabin by 12:30 latest. Enjoy from there.

[JF - retired RRT]

Pack light. Set up your clothes for packing, then go through them and take some out. Pack some cold remedies, they are sometimes difficult to get at the ports and on the ship they can be costly. One formal outfit is enough. Shorter hair? there are hair dryers in the cabins, but they are not too powerful for real thick long hair. You can carry on one 750ml bottle of wine without charge/pp over 21 for use in your cabin. All cabins have fridges. When boarding go directly to your cabin, no waiting your cabin will be ready. You can have lunch in the DR between noon and 1:30 on boarding day. Other free options include the International Cafe in the Piazza on deck 5 (a favorite of ours), and on the Lido deck, the Grill, Pizza by the slice, and the Horizon Ct./Cafe Caribe buffet. Arrive at the pier around 10:30/11:00am. Check in usually starts around 11am. After check in you will go to a waiting area. Boarding normally starts around noon with priority passengers first then general boarding in the order of arrival. You should be in your cabin by 12:30 latest. Enjoy from there.

 

Excellent "newbie" synopsis. :)

[jacketwatch]

Pack light. Set up your clothes for packing, then go through them and take some out. Pack some cold remedies, they are sometimes difficult to get at the ports and on the ship they can be costly. One formal outfit is enough. Shorter hair? there are hair dryers in the cabins, but they are not too powerful for real thick long hair. You can carry on one 750ml bottle of wine without charge/pp over 21 for use in your cabin. All cabins have fridges. When boarding go directly to your cabin, no waiting your cabin will be ready. You can have lunch in the DR between noon and 1:30 on boarding day. Other free options include the International Cafe in the Piazza on deck 5 (a favorite of ours), and on the Lido deck, the Grill, Pizza by the slice, and the Horizon Ct./Cafe Caribe buffet. Arrive at the pier around 10:30/11:00am. Check in usually starts around 11am. After check in you will go to a waiting area. Boarding normally starts around noon with priority passengers first then general boarding in the order of arrival. You should be in your cabin by 12:30 latest. Enjoy from there.

 

Good advice indeed! Pack light, as it will be warm bring plenty of undies. If you are fussy about coffee get a coffee card for premium and specialty coffees when you get on board as regular coffee is pretty lousy.

 

Relax and have fun! :)

[custompcsys]

My packing strategy after several cruises: Lay out everything you want to take on your cruise on your bed....now take a good look at what you laid out....put half of it back in the closet and grab your next smaller size suitcase. Whatever can fit goes :)

[cristine]

Pack a couple of bathing suits, sunscreen , sun hat , a coverup and comfortable sandals.. & most importantly a good attitude.

Relax & enjoy..you are going to love it.

Have fun

Chris

[Akaicb]

I loved my first cruise, I was a all-inclusive land based vacationer until my mother-in-law took the family on her "I'm retired cruise". I now only think about cruising for vacations.

One of the best tips I was given was to get a clear over-the-door shoe organizer. This saved me so much space, I hang it over the bathroom door and the top half is filled with suntan lotion, after sun lotion, ginger pills, charger cords....basically all the small things that if I placed them around the cabin I would forget where they were....now I just go to the organizer.

Some other things:

- power bar (helps with charging devices)

- fridge magnets (the walls are metal so it helps with hanging excursion tickets, notes and anything that you might need)

Things not to miss:

Sailaway from one of the ports with a drink in hand while sitting in the hot tub at the aft of Sports (17) deck. One of the best sailaways for me.

Spa Pool on Sun (16) deck. This is a lap pool and some people think you have an appt at the spa or pay for Sanctuary to use it, that is not the case.

International Cafe - food is all included and at 3pm they have warm cookies and milk (this also happens around the pool)

Pizza - some of the best pizza at sea

 

Most of all Have Fun. :D

Edited August 6, 2014 by Akaicb

[Potstech]

One item I recommend everyone take and it weights almost nothing. And that is a highlighter. Go through the Patter ever night and mark which events you want to do. HINT: You can not do them all. Be flexible and allow time to just sit back and relax. Like every couple my DW and I have different interests so we do our own thing yet manage to spend time with each other doing things we both like.

 

HAVE FUN AND ENJOY YOURSELF

[LeeW]

Two other points:

 

You will need a pen to fill out your precruise "I'm not sick" questionaire. Often a line at the tables and it is faster if you have your own pen.

 

Most important - split your clothes between several suitcases! If all your clothes are in one suitcase and it gets lost you won't have any for the trip. Usually if one is lost or delayed getting to your room at least both people have something to wear. Our son packed all his clothes in one suitcase and it took four days to catch up to the ship (weather delays on airlines). Not common, but it happens. Getting one suitcase too late for dinner happens a bit more often.

[Thrak]

One night at dinner order "The Volcano" for desert. It's not on the regular menu so you won't see it listed. (It's actually from the kids menu.) Try it, you'll like it. :)