Feedback on behind the scenes tour

[lindyloo17]

I have looked to see that Princess offer a behind the scenes tour for 3 hours on selected at sea days..

 

I'm thinking of booking this for a birthday present for my traveling companion.

 

Any feedback please .

We are on the Sapphire in Feb 2018 around asia 😀

[Colo Cruiser]

I have looked to see that Princess offer a behind the scenes tour for 3 hours on selected at sea days..

 

I'm thinking of booking this for a birthday present for my traveling companion.

 

Any feedback please .

We are on the Sapphire in Feb 2018 around asia 😀

 

 

A quick search found many threads on the "Ultimate Ships Tour".

 

Here is a review.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1437974&highlight=ultimate+ships+tour

[JF - retired RRT]

The UST is expensive, but the "swag" that you get is worth about as much as the tour costs.

Warn your friend to leave room in her suitcase or she'll be wearing the robe when she boards her plane home.;p

[LongToSeeTheSea]

I have looked to see that Princess offer a behind the scenes tour for 3 hours on selected at sea days..

 

I'm thinking of booking this for a birthday present for my traveling companion.

 

Any feedback please .

We are on the Sapphire in Feb 2018 around asia 😀

 

We did this on Regal Princess on our Trans Atlantic cruise last year. We thought it was great! Highlight was spending a good 25 minutes on the bridge with the Captain sipping champagne at the end of the tour. Was a very cool experience and we felt worth the $150pp just to be on the bridge on a sea day. :cool: We're thinking of doing it again on Majestic in a couple of months if they offer it.

[donswife]

The UST is expensive, but the "swag" that you get is worth about as much as the tour costs.

Warn your friend to leave room in her suitcase or she'll be wearing the robe when she boards her plane home.;p

 

We took the UST on the Caribbean Princess and loved it, such an interesting way to spend a morning.

[Thorpe]

I enjoyed mine on The Dawn and Oosterdam , and had booked another on Diamond when on an Asian cruise, only trouble was I didn't have enclosed shoes so they wouldn't let me do it. So make sure you have enclosed shoes.......I hadn't packed any due to hot weather in Asia .......

 

 

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[caribill]

I have looked to see that Princess offer a behind the scenes tour for 3 hours on selected at sea days..

 

I'm thinking of booking this for a birthday present for my traveling companion.

 

Any feedback please .

We are on the Sapphire in Feb 2018 around asia 😀

 

It is usually offered only once per cruise and usually on the last sea day.

 

It is limited to 12 or 14 people.

 

To book it, go to the Purser's Desk as soon as possible after you board and ask to be put on the list.

[lindyloo17]

The UST is expensive, but the "swag" that you get is worth about as much as the tour costs.

Warn your friend to leave room in her suitcase or she'll be wearing the robe when she boards her plane home.;p

Thank you for the info...

Whilst I love the idea of the swag.... I wish we had an option, as I can't see why I would want or need a chefs jacket etc. It's quite pricey, bit guess it's once in a lifetime.

As for the robe again...we will have to leave it behind 😣

What a shame

[lindyloo17]

I enjoyed mine on The Dawn and Oosterdam , and had booked another on Diamond when on an Asian cruise, only trouble was I didn't have enclosed shoes so they wouldn't let me do it. So make sure you have enclosed shoes.......I hadn't packed any due to hot weather in Asia ....

 

 

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Thanks..we would be the same... just planned on flip flops and evening sandals

Are trainers ok ?

[lindyloo17]

Thank you so much Keith for the info... I'm not very technical on searching on my small mobile

 

These tours were in 2011 so whilst amazing review, just wanted to chk out any more upto date information

[Thorpe]

Thanks..we would be the same... just planned on flip flops and evening sandals

 

Are trainers ok ?

 

 

I'm sure trainers would be fine. After I wrote that I realised when we did the tour on Dawn in 2011, my daughter and I both had flip flops (or thongs for us Aussies). It was only on Diamond in 2014 where it said shoes needed to be enclosed. So I checked before hand on that rule and cancelled as they said def enclosed after checking , I did wonder if they would have let me do the tour if I had just turned up, they might not have even looked at my shoes .

So don't know if it's a new rule , or ship by ship rule ?

But I enjoyed the tour , we did the galley, engine room , food storage area, print room, behind scenes in the theatre, anchor area and the bridge from memory. Had photos taken at each stop with crew and were given lots of goodies including the big robes and nibbles in the galley.

 

 

 

 

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[dforeigner]

We did it last year and loved it. Would do it again is sailing on board a Royal class ship.

[just hooked]

Great tour worth the $ princess do it much better than RCI

[Colo Cruiser]

Thank you so much Keith for the info... I'm not very technical on searching on my small mobile

 

These tours were in 2011 so whilst amazing review, just wanted to chk out any more upto date information ��

 

 

 

Your welcome. There are comments/photos in the thread from this past Nov.

It is very detailed and accurate.

We have done the tour in the last 6 months and it's pretty much the same. FWIW.....

Trainers would be fine.

[JF - retired RRT]

Thank you for the info...

Whilst I love the idea of the swag.... I wish we had an option, as I can't see why I would want or need a chefs jacket etc. It's quite pricey, bit guess it's once in a lifetime.

As for the robe again...we will have to leave it behind

What a shame

We packed with taking the robes home in mind and still didn't have room for them.:o

Luckily we have "collapsible" backpacks (they fold into themselves and zip into a tiny pouch). We got the backpacks out of our suitcase, put the robes in the backpacks and carried them that way.

It would be a shame to leave them behind, they're really nice.

If you absolutely can't take the robes with you, make a new friend and give them the robes...you'll make a friend for life.

[RollerCoasterLover]

It is usually offered only once per cruise and usually on the last sea day.

 

It is limited to 12 or 14 people.

 

To book it, go to the Purser's Desk as soon as possible after you board and ask to be put on the list.

 

Just to be sure, do you go to the Purser's desk or the excursion desk? I am interested in doing this tour on our next Princess cruise, but don't want to stand in line at the wrong desk and miss the opportunity!!

[sunsetbeachgal]

Go to Guest Services desk as soon as you get on the ship. They will put your name and cabin number on a list. We did this tour on the Regal and found it to be very interesting!

 

Fortunately we had driven to the port so could carry the gift items off.

 

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Edited April 3, 2017 by sunsetbeachgal

[lindyloo17]

It seems a shame the gift items are so large, especially with many international guests.

Hoping if we get to do the tour we get a chance of an apron.

 

We are causing south East Asia, so maybe the gifts will be more suitable for guests with a plane baggage allowance ?

[caribill]

 

We are causing south East Asia, so maybe the gifts will be more suitable for guests with a plane baggage allowance ?

 

Same "gifts" everywhere in the world.

[Wehwalt]

I enjoyed it when I did it on the Ruby but I haven't been tempted to do it twice. The robe sits in my closet.

[towhee]

I signed my husband up for this tour as a birthday present. He loved it.

Go to Guest Services aka Purser's Desk on the first day and sign up. There is a limit to the number of people they will take and quite often will have a lottery if there are too many signed up. They will send you an invitation with all of the particulars if you made the cut.

[napunani]

I would recommend doing it once. We really enjoyed seeing it all and hearing so many details that makes a ship function, especially the time on the bridge and then refreshments with the Captain in his conference room.

Even though the robe is very nice, it is very bulky and heavy. We had no desire for the chef jacket. If they could give reduce the tour price by permitting a person to choose from one or the other or neither, I believe that would be a very good option.

[caribill]

I would recommend doing it once. We really enjoyed seeing it all and hearing so many details that makes a ship function, especially the time on the bridge and then refreshments with the Captain in his conference room.

Even though the robe is very nice, it is very bulky and heavy. We had no desire for the chef jacket. If they could give reduce the tour price by permitting a person to choose from one or the other or neither, I believe that would be a very good option.

 

Princess can usually fill the tours with the current pricing.

[lindyloo17]

I would recommend doing it once. We really enjoyed seeing it all and hearing so many details that makes a ship function, especially the time on the bridge and then refreshments with the Captain in his conference room.

Even though the robe is very nice, it is very bulky and heavy. We had no desire for the chef jacket. If they could give reduce the tour price by permitting a person to choose from one or the other or neither, I believe that would be a very good option.

I absolutely agree.

After all, you would hope they would consider all guests needs.

And many passengers will fly with a weight restriction.

[Shmoo here]

The UST is expensive, but the "swag" that you get is worth about as much as the tour costs.

Warn your friend to leave room in her suitcase or she'll be wearing the robe when she boards her plane home.;p

We did the Ultimate Ship's Tour on both the Crown (in 2015) and recently on the Star.

 

The swag, while really nice, has been hit with another of the Princess cutbacks. On our first tour we got the really nice plush robes. This time we got the cheaper waffle weave type ones.

 

We probably won't be doing the tour again, as we've see it twice now.

 

But it's really interesting.

 

I found the Behind the Scenes tour on Carnival more informative (we went into more crew spaces on that one), but not as much in the swag department.