Princess Secrets they Don't Tell You

[chamima]

Oh this is a really good one - we always stay in an inside cabin to save a little money. We bought a digital clock that projects onto the ceiling so we can tell what time it is without getting out of bed.

 

This is good for any cabin! Great tip!!!!!!!!

[jessica_33]

8 solid hours of reading 48 pages and 951 posts!!! I learned sooooo much I had to make myself a little word doc with memos on the things that caught my eye. For all those people who added tips thank you!!! Thank you so very much for informing a newbie like me (Nov 2011 will be my 1st cruise)! There where many many non-secrets here that I had to filter though but that's ok, cause I'll take what I want and leave the rest. Thank you all so much!

[jessica_33]

BTW here is what I took from this whole thread since we're not big drinkers or smokers:

• Complementary plate of assorted stuffed olives at the martini bar.

• Pre purchase internet minutes before you leave you’ll get free minutes based on the package you pick.

• Escargot!!!

• Insulated travel coffee mug

• One of the dining rooms will be open for lunch on embarkation day.

• Volcano dessert, available on children's menu basically a huge banana split.

• When you open the little door under the TV for the plug, well, there are extra outlets not being used. But not if it’s a flat screen

• Ask for Egg crates, top sheet, robe, slippers, bed topper, and upgraded pillows.

• Always ask if there is a charge.

• Under your bed is more bedding.

• Cocktails for $2.99 in all the bars after 8.00pm.

• Request that the steward remove the soft drinks and bottled water from inside and on top of the fridge to make room for our own drinks.

• Request extra hangers.

• Passenger Service Desk (also called the Hotel Manager) will make a hole in our card which we hang on lanyards. They will also do that for you in the casino and give you a lanyard.

• There is another electrical point under the bed.

• Bring a roll of quarters and laundry supplies.

• If you decide to eat in a specialty restaurant you may want to make the reservation for the last night

• Sabatini’s reservation for the night that they are serving Italian food in the main dining room.

• Reservations for the steak house ask to sit at the counter overlooking the kitchen area, fun to watch the staff put it altogether and see the teamwork involved.

• The Fettuccine Alfredo!!! Plus it’s served in a Parmesan bowl, a crispy melted cheese bowl.

• Bring along a small electric alarm clock.

• On the first day, we simply ask to see the week’s menus and look over what’s happing for the week. Then make plans for the week there and then. The MD or any head waiter can show them to you.

• Can go up to the Spa to shower.

• Take 3 or 4 of those black metal binder clips or plastic clothes pens and hang them on the bottom edge of the shower curtain.

• Computer station in the Future Cruise booking area or Internet Cafe, free e-postcard, 300 character limit but you could send more than one message to the same email address if you need to get a longer message out.

• Befriending the maitre'd, the head waiter, and everyone who takes care of you.

• Appetizers and sushi are free in the Vines wine bar but not the cheese.

• When you get off of the elevator to go to your room, one side of the ship on every passenger deck the hallways have blue carpeting. The other side has blue carpeting but there is some red in that side.

• Duck liver pâté appetizer.

• Various lamb entrees.

• Last night of the cruise, head up to the Horizon Court (or the International Café) for some pre-travel treats. Cookies are always available. We put a couple cookies in our zip loc bag(s) for our travel home the next day.

• Ask for anchovies on your caesar salad at dinner.

• Take a pop-up mesh hamper for your dirty clothes.

• Empty luggage? The Steward will stow it for you.

• Find out when/where the Muster drill is and go get your life jacket. Take it with you a little ahead of time and "beat the crowd".

• Highlighters for Princess Patters and highlight times/ places/ activities, etc for the next day

• Sticky notes for when spouse sleeps in to leave a note on the MIRROR or DOOR

• Magnet to put it on the door.

• Water bottles for on shore.

• Clothes line in the bathroom for swimming clothes

[5326jan]

8 solid hours of reading 48 pages and 951 posts!!! I learned sooooo much I had to make myself a little word doc with memos on the things that caught my eye. For all those people who added tips thank you!!! Thank you so very much for informing a newbie like me (Nov 2011 will be my 1st cruise)! There where many many non-secrets here that I had to filter though but that's ok, cause I'll take what I want and leave the rest. Thank you all so much!

 

Haha!!! Just consider us a very large, somewhat disfunctional family. Take the good and try to ignore the "eccentrics"!!!:D

[butternut1]

BTW here is what I took from this whole thread since we're not big drinkers or smokers:

• Complementary plate of assorted stuffed olives at the martini bar.

• Pre purchase internet minutes before you leave you’ll get free minutes based on the package you pick.

• Escargot!!!

• Insulated travel coffee mug

• One of the dining rooms will be open for lunch on embarkation day.

• Volcano dessert, available on children's menu basically a huge banana split.

• When you open the little door under the TV for the plug, well, there are extra outlets not being used. But not if it’s a flat screen

• Ask for Egg crates, top sheet, robe, slippers, bed topper, and upgraded pillows.

• Always ask if there is a charge.

• Under your bed is more bedding.

• Cocktails for $2.99 in all the bars after 8.00pm.

• Request that the steward remove the soft drinks and bottled water from inside and on top of the fridge to make room for our own drinks.

• Request extra hangers.

• Passenger Service Desk (also called the Hotel Manager) will make a hole in our card which we hang on lanyards. They will also do that for you in the casino and give you a lanyard.

• There is another electrical point under the bed.

• Bring a roll of quarters and laundry supplies.

• If you decide to eat in a specialty restaurant you may want to make the reservation for the last night

• Sabatini’s reservation for the night that they are serving Italian food in the main dining room.

• Reservations for the steak house ask to sit at the counter overlooking the kitchen area, fun to watch the staff put it altogether and see the teamwork involved.

• The Fettuccine Alfredo!!! Plus it’s served in a Parmesan bowl, a crispy melted cheese bowl.

• Bring along a small electric alarm clock.

• On the first day, we simply ask to see the week’s menus and look over what’s happing for the week. Then make plans for the week there and then. The MD or any head waiter can show them to you.

• Can go up to the Spa to shower.

• Take 3 or 4 of those black metal binder clips or plastic clothes pens and hang them on the bottom edge of the shower curtain.

• Computer station in the Future Cruise booking area or Internet Cafe, free e-postcard, 300 character limit but you could send more than one message to the same email address if you need to get a longer message out.

• Befriending the maitre'd, the head waiter, and everyone who takes care of you.

• Appetizers and sushi are free in the Vines wine bar but not the cheese.

• When you get off of the elevator to go to your room, one side of the ship on every passenger deck the hallways have blue carpeting. The other side has blue carpeting but there is some red in that side.

• Duck liver pâté appetizer.

• Various lamb entrees.

• Last night of the cruise, head up to the Horizon Court (or the International Café) for some pre-travel treats. Cookies are always available. We put a couple cookies in our zip loc bag(s) for our travel home the next day.

• Ask for anchovies on your caesar salad at dinner.

• Take a pop-up mesh hamper for your dirty clothes.

• Empty luggage? The Steward will stow it for you.

• Find out when/where the Muster drill is and go get your life jacket. Take it with you a little ahead of time and "beat the crowd".

• Highlighters for Princess Patters and highlight times/ places/ activities, etc for the next day

• Sticky notes for when spouse sleeps in to leave a note on the MIRROR or DOOR

• Magnet to put it on the door.

• Water bottles for on shore.

• Clothes line in the bathroom for swimming clothes

On our sailing a couple of weeks ago on the Emerald Princess, we noticed that the 2.99 drink specials after 8pm are no longer available. They did however offer a few specials from 4pm to 7pm (happy hour). But, it's not advertised anywhere and we had to specifically ask for the special.

[hansolosmom]

Jessica33 - thanks for putting that together !!

[feisty_tuffy]

We will be going on our 20th Princess cruise in Sept but still learning new things every cruise! Here are some of our top tips that have not been mentioned:

 

1 On disembarkation day if you are trying to get on an elevator to get down to the disembarkation decks, push the up button, ride up and then down as the up elevators are not full.

 

2 We do the hole in our ship card and put on a lanyard. We carry our own hole punch. We are however not so smart that we know where to punch the hole.....we solved that problem by always keeping the prior cruise card on the lanyard....then we can see where to punch the hole!!!:)

 

3 We take our empty water bottles up to the buffet and fill them from the water spigots there (late at night just before we go to bed) oh and we might pick up some desserts to eat too lol!!! When we get back to the room we put them in the fridge so they are cold and ready to go next day on shore trips!

 

4 Getting on CC roll calls certainly helps you feel as if you know lots of people before you ever board the ship.

 

5 If you are flying in come in a day early. While this is not a "Princess" secret it is smart. I build a day in coming and going, that way if the plane is full I can decide if we would like a free air voucher to take a bump. Also not a cruise secret, but on Airtran if you provide your own hotel you get double vouchers. I carry my laptop on every trip. When I found this information out (which they do not offer the info I was told by a fellow passenger) I hopped on Priceline and got a room in a 3 star hotel for under $90 and doubled our free airfare. Where else can you get 2 round trips for $90? The day early has saved us a few times as weather in our part of the country can be tricky.

 

6 Smiles and happy comments get things done faster than frowns and insults.

 

Make a frustrating incident into a funny story to tell at home, so as things are going wrong just remember them and fashion them into a wonderful tale to share.

[rusty12345]

If the ship has "Scoops" or an Ice Cream Bar on the Lido Deck, the ice cream there is now free and they have discontinued the free ice cream at the buffet. Thankfully, I was able to get free chocolate or vanilla hard ice cream at Scoops since I didn't care for the soft-serve. If you don;t like the cones, bring a small, empty dish from the buffet and tell them you have a wheat allergy. They'll put the ice cream in the dish.

We were on the Ocean Princess in Nov 2010 and I believe we had Ice cream at the Buffet every day of our 28 day cruise. I don't eat ice cream so I don't remember if it was every day. We had all kinds of cakes etc there also.

[bajacoral]

No...but can you buy adapters that would work like I do when I'm traveling outside of the US?

 

If you pull the bed back from the wall there is a 220 volt Euorpean outlet that the bedside lights are plugged into.

[rusty12345]

Under your bed is there is stored more bedding - only found it prior to disembarkation when checking that we hadn't left anything behind. Would have been useful as we did feel a bit chilly at night going through the fjords.

 

You can get cocktails for $2.99 in all the bars after 8.00pm - limited range but includes Pina Colada and Long Island Ice Tea. PC in the Crooners bar was good as it was frozen.

 

Get your coffee card on the 1st day - this entitles you to 15 coffees but also unlimited pots of tea and I think hot chocolate. You can sit in the peaceful surroundings of the International Cafe -get proper tea in a nice pot and save your coffee for when you really need it.

 

You get a lovely hot and tasty cup of tea in the dining room at afternoon tea - the only good tea we got on the ship!!

 

There is another electrical point under the bed. If you forget your adaptor as we did, you can get one from your room steward but this is hit and miss. We forgot ours but Steward told us he wasn't able to get one for us - other passengers managed to get one though?

 

You can also get brewed coffee in the Bar on the lido deck in the mornings. They actually call it Americano. I did this on the Ocean Princess every morning and I don't think you needed a coffee card. I bought one and got a free one and still have 15 cups left of the expensive cups as all I wanted was the brewed coffee not the liquid coffee they have in their regular pots.

[AAAAmerican]

The English pub lunch menu, that's newly available in the Wheelhouse Bar on the aforementioned Crown, Ruby and Emerald, is also featured on Caribbean Princess, with one difference: because the Wheelhouse on this older ship does not have access to a kitchen, the pub menu is served on sea days at the Crown Grill (11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.); there's no extra charge.

 

 

The "Queen of Steam" or "Jack of Java" punch cards are a great deal, giving you 15 espresso drinks of your choice for $24. Note that service can be quite slow during peak times of the day.

 

 

 

 

Cafe Caribe offered lots of variety, featuring a different themed buffet each night -- from Bavarian Bierfest and a Rijstafel rice table to (Caribbean) island seafood. (Island seafood Real State of MAINE Lobster, Shrimp etc.. Imbarkation Day in Cafe Caribe)..

 

Yes you should bring your Own Claw Crackers.. Princess does not provide these tools for the Lobster Claws...

 

 

mmmm Good...:cool:

 

 

 

[BridgeMates]

No it certainly was not our first cruise, but it will be our last on Princess..:eek:

 

Since you won't be cruising on Princess anymore, why bother to send your list of complaints???

[1 HappyCruiser]

In Ft Lauderdale the Embassy suites has a Winn Dixie and wine store just across the street. There is also a little hole in the wall raw bar too - yummy!

 

Does the Embassy suites have computer terminals available in the lobby area or meeting room area for people to use?

[cruiseron36]

Does the Embassy suites have computer terminals available in the lobby area or meeting room area for people to use?

 

They have a computer kiosk in the lobby for purposdes of printing out airline boarding passes. The wifi connection costs $9.95 per 24 hour period. I think there is also a small room in the upper level for business computer use - I do not know if there is a charge.

[cruiseron36]

We will be going on our 20th Princess cruise in Sept but still learning new things every cruise! Here are some of our top tips that have not been mentioned:

 

1 On disembarkation day if you are trying to get on an elevator to get down to the disembarkation decks, push the up button, ride up and then down as the up elevators are not full.

 

2 We do the hole in our ship card and put on a lanyard. We carry our own hole punch. We are however not so smart that we know where to punch the hole.....we solved that problem by always keeping the prior cruise card on the lanyard....then we can see where to punch the hole!!!:)

 

3 We take our empty water bottles up to the buffet and fill them from the water spigots there (late at night just before we go to bed) oh and we might pick up some desserts to eat too lol!!! When we get back to the room we put them in the fridge so they are cold and ready to go next day on shore trips!

 

4 Getting on CC roll calls certainly helps you feel as if you know lots of people before you ever board the ship.

 

5 If you are flying in come in a day early. While this is not a "Princess" secret it is smart. I build a day in coming and going, that way if the plane is full I can decide if we would like a free air voucher to take a bump. Also not a cruise secret, but on Airtran if you provide your own hotel you get double vouchers. I carry my laptop on every trip. When I found this information out (which they do not offer the info I was told by a fellow passenger) I hopped on Priceline and got a room in a 3 star hotel for under $90 and doubled our free airfare. Where else can you get 2 round trips for $90? The day early has saved us a few times as weather in our part of the country can be tricky.

 

6 Smiles and happy comments get things done faster than frowns and insults.

 

Make a frustrating incident into a funny story to tell at home, so as things are going wrong just remember them and fashion them into a wonderful tale to share.

 

Why go through all this bother when you can fill them from the tap in your bathroom (assuming you have a cabin). It is the same water.

[emtowle]

They will bump you if a disabled person needs the room - durr! If not, you end up with a nice big cabin

 

Actually, I think it has been discussed quite a bit in other threads that they don't bump people in handicapped rooms if a disabled person needs one. This then causes those that really need the rooms to book far in advance in order to secure on of the limited supply of handicapped rooms.

[emtowle]

BTW here is what I took from this whole thread since we're not big drinkers or smokers:

 

• Find out when/where the Muster drill is and go get your life jacket. Take it with you a little ahead of time and "beat the crowd".

 

I believe that they are now doing the muster drills without the life jackets so it goes much smoother. Still handy to 'beat the crowd' by going just a bit early!

[chamima]

3 We take our empty water bottles up to the buffet and fill them from the water spigots there (late at night just before we go to bed) oh and we might pick up some desserts to eat too lol!!! When we get back to the room we put them in the fridge so they are cold and ready to go next day on shore trips

 

Why go through all this bother when you can fill them from the tap in your bathroom (assuming you have a cabin). It is the same water.

 

Because large water bottles sometimes won't fit under the faucet in the sink. ;)

[butternut1]

I believe that they are now doing the muster drills without the life jackets so it goes much smoother. Still handy to 'beat the crowd' by going just a bit early!

On both the Sept 2010 and March 2011 cruises on the Emerald Princess, we had to bring the life jackets and were shown how to put them on and then had to put them on ourselves.

[BridgeMates]

Because large water bottles sometimes won't fit under the faucet in the sink. ;)

 

Not sure if those water dispensers in the HC are very sanitary. Last cruise I wouldn't use it as I saw so many people pushing their water bottles up on the lever where they touched the top, one right after the other. Just saying....

[soprano]

Actually, I think it has been discussed quite a bit in other threads that they don't bump people in handicapped rooms if a disabled person needs one. This then causes those that really need the rooms to book far in advance in order to secure on of the limited supply of handicapped rooms.

 

We were bumped from a handicapped room once...we had booked a inside GTY, and were immediately assigned to the handicapped room. Then, when we checked in at the pier, we were informed that we had been moved to a mini-suite because another passenger needed the handicapped room. This was in 2006 and was our only upgrade ever, so I remember!

[Ima Cruiser]

I have requested to book a handicapped cabin twice and was told at the time of booking that if a disabled person needed that cabin they would relocate us to an equal or higher cabin category. I never was bumped, but they do it make clear at the time of booking that you may be relocated.

[Ima Cruiser]

Not sure if those water dispensers in the HC are very sanitary. Last cruise I wouldn't use it as I saw so many people pushing their water bottles up on the lever where they touched the top, one right after the other. Just saying....

 

I fill up a water glass and then pour the water in the water bottle. The reason I don't use the sink is because I can get ice or tea if I prefer on the Lido deck.

[jagoffee]

Oh this is a really good one - we always stay in an inside cabin to save a little money. We bought a digital clock that projects onto the ceiling so we can tell what time it is without getting out of bed.

 

I assume that this runs on AC. Does your clock stay accurate when plugged in?

[pablo222]

Why go through all this bother when you can fill them from the tap in your bathroom (assuming you have a cabin). It is the same water.

 

The ice-makers / water dispensers in the lido have taste filters.

The cabin sinks do not.

 

In my house, the city water tastes terrible, and reeks of chlorine.

It's fine once it's taste filtered, and dispensed through the fridge

door. Of course, it's "the same water"...