4 day Caribbean Princess getaway questions

[puttersolive]

I need to hear from you all that have done this short getaway cruise on the CB please. I have a few questions. This will be my 7th princess cruise, however my first short cruise.

1. Can I book the Sanctuary for sea day when I embark or do I have to wait until sea day to do this? Previous cruises I've booked the whole week upon embarking, we do not want the full week this time.

2. There is no formal night on the 4 day correct? But there is a night that you can "dress to impress"? Which night is that?

3. We are getting a bungalow on princess cay, dont need any comments on whether its worth the $, we are doing this. I've never reserved a bungalow on Princess Cay, we will get tender tickets prior night and then what do we do in the morning as far as the tenders? Go directly to front of line?

4. Do they do the EZ check luggage on the 4 day getaway cruises?

[trixiegal]

Great questions! I am also doing one of these cruises in September.

 

 

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[gator582]

1. We did a 4 night in May. You could book Sanctuary on embark day.

2. Our formal night was the 2nd night.

3. For Princess Cay, you met in assigned area and went to tenders when your group was called. We waited til a little later, but since you got the cabana, I could see why you want to get there earlier.

4. We used EZ Check. Not available to everyone. You have to inquire at customer service desk to find out.

Have fun! We loved our short cruise.

[caribill]

3. We are getting a bungalow on princess cay, dont need any comments on whether its worth the $, we are doing this. I've never reserved a bungalow on Princess Cay, we will get tender tickets prior night and then what do we do in the morning as far as the tenders? Go directly to front of line?

 

Those without priority must go to a dining room to receive a tender ticket and then wait until told to go to take the tender. This happends until the rush to go ashore is over. After that, anybody can go directly to where the tenders are loaded.

 

Unless notified otherwise, you can bypass the dining room and should go to where the tenders are being loaded and go on the end of the line that is there.

 

The tickets only give priority for going ashore. To return to the ship, you will wait in the same line as everybody else.

[puttersolive]

Thank you for the responses. Looks like I'll have to make the mad

"sanctuary dash" upon embarking.

[Disconnections]

I need to hear from you all that have done this short getaway cruise on the CB please. I have a few questions. This will be my 7th princess cruise, however my first short cruise.

1. Can I book the Sanctuary for sea day when I embark or do I have to wait until sea day to do this? Previous cruises I've booked the whole week upon embarking, we do not want the full week this time.

2. There is no formal night on the 4 day correct? But there is a night that you can "dress to impress"? Which night is that?

3. We are getting a bungalow on princess cay, dont need any comments on whether its worth the $, we are doing this. I've never reserved a bungalow on Princess Cay, we will get tender tickets prior night and then what do we do in the morning as far as the tenders? Go directly to front of line?

4. Do they do the EZ check luggage on the 4 day getaway cruises?

 

As far as your formal night, we did not have one on any of our previous 3 or 4 day getaway cruises, but we did have one on our 5 day. On the ones without a formal night, they did have a dress to impress night and it was advertised as a smart casual evening on our cruise personalizer.

 

However, our upcoming B2B is a 4 night with a 5 night. The cruise personalizer shows 2 formal nights with 7 smart casual nights. I'm assuming that they may have added a formal night to the 4 night cruises because the verbiage is different. I haven't seen anyone post about a similar situation on the Princess boards.

 

If your cruise personalizer only shows smart casual nights, go onboard expecting a dress to impress night. If it shows one formal night, go onboard expecting a formal night.

[geoherb]

Thank you for the responses. Looks like I'll have to make the mad "sanctuary dash" upon embarking.

When we did the four-day cruises, the Sanctuary was selling the cruise-long passes the first afternoon. If you wanted to use it for a specific day, you had to purchase it that day. You couldn't book a future specific day.

[Pam in CA]

When we did the four-day cruises, the Sanctuary was selling the cruise-long passes the first afternoon. If you wanted to use it for a specific day, you had to purchase it that day. You couldn't book a future specific day.

Right. For just one day, not the whole cruise, you must book it the morning of the day you want. It cannot be pre-booked. That said, if your first day is a sea day, it's worth checking at embarkation whether you can book it for the next day.

[caribill]

However, our upcoming B2B is a 4 night with a 5 night. The cruise personalizer shows 2 formal nights with 7 smart casual nights. I'm assuming that they may have added a formal night to the 4 night cruises because the verbiage is different.

 

Have you booked this as one cruise (one booking number) or two (two booking numbers)?

 

If booked as one cruise, the Princess software just sees that it is a 9 day cruise and lists 2 formal nights because that is the number for a 9 day cruise.

 

The software is not good enough to realize there will only be one formal night.

[Disconnections]

Have you booked this as one cruise (one booking number) or two (two booking numbers)?

 

If booked as one cruise, the Princess software just sees that it is a 9 day cruise and lists 2 formal nights because that is the number for a 9 day cruise.

 

The software is not good enough to realize there will only be one formal night.

 

Our upcoming B2B is under one confirmation number, whereas our last one was under two. That explains why it says two.

 

Thanks for the clarification.

[RotaryMike]

we did a 4day last december on Ruby from FLL. We wanted to do EZcheck, and signed up for it, BUT when the last night came along and we didn't have our airline bag tags in our cabin i went down to the passenger service desk and found out that the policy is if they don't have 20 people sign up, they don't do it.

Be sure to ask about this when you try to sign up for it !!! Mike in CT

[caribill]

Our upcoming B2B is under one confirmation number, whereas our last one was under two. That explains why it says two.

 

 

It can work the opposite way also, telling you less formal evenings than you will have.

 

For example, if you have two seven-day cruises booked separately as a B2B, there will be two formal evenings on each segment for a total of four.

 

However, if these two weeks of b2b are booked under a single booking number, the Princess software will see "14 day cruise" and tell you incorrectly that there will be three formal evenings.

[RotaryMike]

One reason why there might not have been enough people interested in EZcheck was that it was just 4 days, and i think a majority of passengers carried on their own , smaller, luggage. there were probably more FL residents .

we saw a lot more blue cruise cards, and my guess is that there were many 1st time Princess, or just 1st time cruisers. MDR dress was a lot more "casual", as was attire in general. People were not concerned about "cruisewear", and more "i'm going to the beach for 4 days" type of packing . just my observation.

[caribill]

we did a 4day last december on Ruby from FLL. We wanted to do EZcheck, and signed up for it, BUT when the last night came along and we didn't have our airline bag tags in our cabin i went down to the passenger service desk and found out that the policy is if they don't have 20 people sign up, they don't do it.

Be sure to ask about this when you try to sign up for it !!! Mike in CT

 

To me the question is why they did not notify you once they determined it would not be offered.

[RotaryMike]

i agree, they should have told us, but maybe they were close to the minimum and hoping to be able to do it. It almost screwed up our day, because we docked bback @ FLL in the morning and our flight out wasn't until about 7:oopm. friends were picking us up at the pier and were then dropping us off at the airport in time to check in for the flight. (their trunk wasn't big enough for our bags) We had to lug our bags to a bus to the terminal, tried to check our bags for the flight, and was told by the airline that they won't check bags for a flight more than 4 - 6 hours later. Fortunately while wheeling them in, i noticed a small a-frame sign with a phone# for a "private luggage storage service" that was in the terminal (downstairs at the other end of the terminal).

Of course we had to get back to the airport earlier than planned so that we could get our bags and take them to check in. Just one more instance that proves however much you plan ahead - things can get compliated !!

[SteelMagnolia9]

I'd like to add a question to this thread as I'm new to Princess and going on a 3 night cruise in Dec.

 

Can reservations to the specialty restaurants be made online? I didn't see any capability to do that or is it too early? I have the Anytime Dining.

 

Thanks for answering my question!

[rdsqrl]

I'd like to add a question to this thread as I'm new to Princess and going on a 3 night cruise in Dec.

 

Can reservations to the specialty restaurants be made online? I didn't see any capability to do that or is it too early? I have the Anytime Dining.

 

Thanks for answering my question!

No, you can't book until you get onboard.

 

On onboard, you can book by telephone (although boarding day is very busy and they may not answer the phone until late afternoon) or by stopping by the restaurant. Also, on embarkation day, there's a table set up at one of the two restaurants and they'll have the menus and will be taking bookings. Check the Patter [ship's daily newsletter] you'll find in your cabin when you arrive and it will list where/when to find said table.

[SteelMagnolia9]

Thank you for the response!