Princess Cruise

[Gwyn]

FI and I have decided that, before everything gets hectic at the 6 month mark, we are going to go on a cruise for some last minute relaxation.

We just booked a 7 night Mexican rivera cruise on Princess (because it leaved from LA)

This is our very first cruise so I was wondering if any of you past cruisers (especially princess cruisers) had any tips/advice.

Keep in mind we already booked so if your advice is "Don''t" then keep it to yourself b/c it is too late

 

[MustangGal]

My hubby and I did the 7 night Mexico cruise on Royal Caribbean last April. I would look through the planned excursions and see if there''s anything you really want to do and book it now before you go. We did a great canopy zip line thing in Puerta Vallarta that was amazing. It took 6 hours, but was a lot of fun. If you want a spa treatment you probably need to book ahead also, I hear they''re less busy when they''re in port.

We had a lot of wind issues on the 2 days back, so the pools were closed, as well as the rock wall. We took some reading materials and a deck of cards and hung out in one of the bars and watched people try to hang onto their clothes as they crossed the pool deck in 50mph winds, it was entertaining . They''ll probably put the schedules for the next day''s activities on your bed each night, I liked to look through them and see if there were certain things we wanted to do. We took some dance classes, and they usually offer gem classes. I intended to go to one of those and see how bad the infor was.

Most of the ships take tons of pictures, and on the formal nights they have severl booths set up with different backgrounds. We went around to most of them and got different poses, and the next day they have them developed for you, and you only have to pay for the ones you want to buy. We got some great shots of us all dolled up. I just bought 1 shot and took it home and scanned it.

If you get motion sick, bring the pills, and take them before you get on the boat so they''re already working when you leave port.

Have fun!

 

[somethingshiny]

Gwyn~ I''m excited to hear how it goes. We''re taking an Alaskan cruise on Princess next year. (our first, too.)

 

[mjso]

Well, the only cruise I''ve gone on was a Holland America Alasakan cruise, but it was AWESOME! I loved it and the scenery was just amazing. I spent months checking out www.cruisecritic.com to get ideas about what to expect and what not. It is like the pricescope of cruising.

On a lot of cruises these days they have optons of "As you wish" dining and regular set time/eat with the same people. I honestly, loved the eat at the same time traditional cruising meal. It was one of the best parts about the experience. Basically you get either the early or late seating (early has more kids, if that is something you care about) and you get assigned a table where you sit with other people on the cruise. I went with my family and FI (prior to our engagement) so we were a party of five and we were sat at a 10 person table with another party of five - a couple, thier daughter and the mother''s mom. They were a delight to see every night and it was fun to get to talk about the daily excursions everyone did and whatnot. We ended up seeing them EVERYWHERE and it was cool to feel like you got to know some folks on the trip. "As you wish" is more of a regular restaurant feel, you go in whenever you want (between specific times) and they seat you wherever. They try to seat you either at a table alone or another table where people just walked in so you are at approximately the same course. Because it is always different people you are seeing, you don''t get to know people as well.

Holland America allows you to bring your own wine and then they have a corkage fee. I would DEFINTELY recommend this if you are wine drinkers and princess allows it. We were able to purchase some of the same wines they had on board for a lot less and the sommiler gave us a big discount on corkage fees (so he''d get a better tip!)

I think you''ll probably be able to find any answer you could have imagined on cruise critic. They also do "get-togethers" and roll call for different sailings, so you can see who else is going to be on the trip and ask any questions you have.