On Tuesdays when there’s a westerly and an “r” in the month

[Toryhere]

My wife and I have a problem.  We want a week’s holiday in April or May this year. 
 

We were thinking of going to a luxury resort in Vanuatu. But then my wife received an email about a Sydney to Sydney cruise on Majestic Princess. The cruise basically sails to Port Douglas and back.  We live a short cab ride away from the Sydney terminal. So we thought that it might be nice, to have a trip that didn’t require air travel. In addition, some American friends had been on Princess and said that it was OK. And although the ports on the cruise we were considering weren’t particularly exciting, we thought we’d look into how much the cruise would cost.

 

Our experience of cruising has always been on smaller luxury ships, where the fare is all-inclusive.  What we found on these ships is that you really don’t have to worry about perks, because you are treated just the same, no matter what sort of cabin you have. This past week we have just booked three voyages back to back on SeaDream II for next year. It was a very easy process.

 

Then we sat down to look at booking Majestic Princess.  Firstly, we did some research. My eyes began to glaze over, as every review we watched or read made it look so difficult to plan, book and sail on the ship.  It seems that you have to constantly be ready to claim your perks, consulting apps and worrying whether you were missing out on something.  First you had to know what cabin class, then what perks. If you worked that out, then there were the promotions, which were all rather confusing. And there was the whole specialty dining stuff, which seemed very odd to us.

 

My wife eventually called a halt, on the basis that she couldn’t feel she could ever on this ship relax and get the sort of service she likes. My response was that we try it out, as plenty of other people seem to understand the way it works without too much stress and have a good time. She remains dubious.

 

My question is thus what is it that makes you choose to cruise on ships like Majestic Princess and how easy are things once you’re on board?

How could I sell this to my wife as being as good as the luxury resort in Vanuatu?

 

 

 

 

[SinbadThePorter]

43 minutes ago, Toryhere said:

My question is thus what is it that makes you choose to cruise on ships like Majestic Princess and how easy are things once you’re on board?

 

Things are as easy as you want them to be.

 

The things that you don't want to concern yourself with, you can just ignore. You don't need to worry about any app, each night the next day's itinerary is delivered to your stateroom on paper. If you don't want to worry about the specialty dining, then you can limit yourself to the MDR and the buffet.

 

I'm not sure what "claim your perks" means. There are different packages available, standard, plus and premium. Unless you are a dedicated drinker, I would suggest just sticking to standard and putting the occasional drink onto your account.

 

But unless you are somewhat gregarious and willing to suffer a certain amount of crowding on occasion, then you may feel more at home on SeaDream.

[Ozwoody]

I have been sailing on Princess for many years, never found it difficult to book.

Just select a cruise you think you would like to do.

Decide what kind of alcohol drinker you are, low, medium, high, then select standard fare, or plus, or premium package. book your cruise, hay presto done.

 

I'm like Sinbad above, don't drink a lot of booze, so just book standard fare.

 

Once on board, staff don't care if your private suite, or internal cabin, everyone is treated the same, on Princess.

 

As Sinbad said don't want to fuss with alternative pay dinning, don't go.

However if your willing to spend the money, they deliver a different level of dinning.

 

The main difference in your previous cruising would be the cost of the cruise, pay more fore your cruise get a higher level of service. but that's the same as adding a package, as far as drinking and some other incidentals.

But they can be purchased as separate smaller packages.

 

Do what your comfortable with.

 

Regards

John

[MicCanberra]

For me the cruise is itinerary pricing and timing, the cruiseline and ship are secondary considerations .

For us, if there is a pick between several lines due to having the same itinerary and similar pricing and timings, Princess is a good line to use and the Majestic is a nice ship, we have some status that may help sway us that way.

[OzKiwiJJ]

If you're used to the luxury lines I'd recommend booking either a suite or a reserve collection mini-suite on Majestic. This will give you slightly enhanced dining in a special section of one of the MDR, and suites also get an enhanced breakfast in one of the speciality restaurants. 

 

Warning: if you do decide to book a Plus or Premium fare be aware the wines by the glass under those fares are mostly poor quality. Princess does have some decent bottled wines and you get 25% off the price of those. Unfinished bottles are stored for you until the next day. 

[arxcards]

Don't overthink it. You have more options when you book. We find the hardest part is deciding on what ship suits our plans best, and you are already there. So, cabin choice - extra space and amenities in suites. OK, you are booked.

 

Then do you want a base fare or to pay for packages that make the fare even more inclusive. You can book a base fare and decide to upgrade it to plus or premier later, so it isn't even a decision that needs to be made now.

 

Tomorrow is Tuesday, and there is an R in January. Bad luck though, as there is no westerly forecast for Sydney tomorrow.