29 day itinerary questions

[lhall85917]

We have booked the 29 day Sea Princess cruise from Sydney to San Francisco next April and are over the top excited! In the course of planning, some questions have come up.

What is entertainment like on long cruises - shows each night? Will they change (perhaps bring on new entertainment along the way). I wouldn't expect a major production every night but just wonder what I should expect.

Dinner menu - will it change or will we see a rotation every couple of weeks or so?

We are staying off ship one night while the ship is docked in Papeete then rebounding in Moorea - I know I need to let them know we will be off, should my TA let them know now or do I just wait until we are onboard?

Anything else I should know that would be helpful? :)

[Shogun]

Hi There,

 

A lot depends on how your cruise is made up, is it a true 29day cruise.

 

we often book 14 day cruises as this is how they are sold to us,

 

however they are sold as 7 day cruises in the US as such everything repeats for us.

 

I would get in touch with Princess as soon as possible about staying of ship, while do able may be a ton of paper work to get done.

 

have a great cruise.

 

yours Shogun

[PescadoAmarillo]

We have booked the 29 day Sea Princess cruise from Sydney to San Francisco next April and are over the top excited! In the course of planning, some questions have come up.

What is entertainment like on long cruises - shows each night? Will they change (perhaps bring on new entertainment along the way). I wouldn't expect a major production every night but just wonder what I should expect.

There will be entertainers embarking and disembarking throughout your cruise. Entertainment will not be repeated, except for the possibility of shows being performed a third time on a subsequent night (this is dependent on the CD). But you will not see the same show later in the cruise. You can probably expect 4 production shows. Possibly 5. We've done this itinerary twice, and I think we had 5 on one sailing and 4 on the other.

Dinner menu - will it change or will we see a rotation every couple of weeks or so?

Certain menu items might be repeated, but entire menus will not. It's pretty amazing. The maitre d' gave me a copy of all 31 of our menus, and I still enjoy going back and looking them occasionally.

We are staying off ship one night while the ship is docked in Papeete then rebounding in Moorea - I know I need to let them know we will be off, should my TA let them know now or do I just wait until we are onboard?

The one night stay on the Tahiti-Moorea night is not that uncommon, but I would have your TA mention it to Princess before you board. When we did this itinerary, our ship actually stayed overnight in Tahiti one time. In that case, people could stay off the ship and it didn't matter. But you have to be accounted for when the ship sails onto the next port.

Anything else I should know that would be helpful? :)

This is an amazing itinerary. We've done it both directions and I liked them both for different reasons. Flying to Sydney first was great...we got that long flight over with and also spent a week pre-cruise in Sydney when our excitement and energy levels were high. But you do have several 23 hour days, which I didn't like (and one day twice!). Going east to west, I loved the 25 hour days, but when I get off the a ship, I want to be home, and so I didn't spend any time sightseeing in Sydney at the end. Plus, you face the long flight at the end.

 

If you go to Tasmania, it can be COLD. Hobart was one of the two coldest days I've ever experienced on a cruise (the other was Punta Arenas, Chile). I was very glad I had jacket, fleece, headband and gloves. But, of course, you also have to pack for the equator.

 

The Samoas (Independent and American) are the best. I loved how very different the cultures were from what we know. Fiji too, somewhat, but not as much. And French Polynesia is just gorgeous. If you go through Fiordland National Park, unless you have an uncovered balcony, you really can't grasp the majesty of the place. We had a covered balcony, and kept running out on an open deck because we felt we were missing things.

 

Have fun!

[paul929207]

Is your cruise sold in smaller segments as well as your 29 night one - something like Sydney to Papeete & Papeete to SF? That will affect the entertainment and menus.

[Toto2Kansas]

Since this is a 29 day cruise from SF to Sydney (these are not usually sold in segments), most things will not repeat. You should have different menus each night, although some foods will likely be served more than once combined with other choices.

Entertainment (in some form) will be available each evening, but production shows will usually be about once a week or so. There will more likely be music, singers, comedians, jugglers, etc. on other evenings.

 

I would definitely contact Princess to make the arrangements for doing an overnite in Tahiti..............

 

Have a great cruise. We sailed from LA to Sydney a few years back and it was one of our most memorable cruises to date. ;)

[lhall85917]

Thanks for the quick and very helpful replies. I believe this is only sold as a 29 day and not segments, when I search on the Princess site it only shows this itinerary and not separate portions of it.

[Waynetor]

We did this as a 30 day Sydney to LA in 2009. Great trip.

 

The menu was repeated twice - standard Princess menu, nothing special related to the ports. You can wait until on the ship to let them know you will be off 1 night. Very small chance but if for some reason the Moorea stop is skipped you would be responsible to catch up with the ship so make sure you take your passport with you. We had weather problem in Dunedin resulting in us missing Christchurch.

 

Each Princess production show was done once. For the stretch from Sydeny to the end of New Zealand the other entertainers were Australians. After that they were Americans. They are only on the ship for part of the cruise such as Papeete to Hawaii and then someone else gets on to do their shows. We had a great rock band from San Fran for the whole trip that played nightly in one of the lounges. For about 6 ports local entertainers did a show before for shipped sailed. Some of these were done in the main theater and others were done dock side and we watched from the side of ship. On each sea day there was an excellent guest lecture.

[Pam in CA]

I did the 30-day Sydney-to-LA cruise in 2008 and the menu was never repeated. A few appetizers, soups, entrees and desserts were repeated but not on the same night.

[lhall85917]

Thank you all, great information and advice! :)