ultimate ship tour

[nanfromatlanta]

You sign up at the Passenger Services Desk as soon as you board the ship. You cannot make arrangements prior to then. The tour is limited to 12 people and the cost is $150 per person. Well worth the money. The gifts are great also.

 

SilverBird

 

What type of gifts did you get?

[VTX-AL]

What type of gifts did you get?

 

Read through this thread start to finish - all the answers you need are there :rolleyes:

 

...VTX-Al

[rob2102]

It was excellent and well worth the money. Best shore excursion I ever taken. On the our last cruise we had a group of seven. toured the ship from top to bottom. Being on the bridge and in the windlass room with the docking doors open was cool. Not only got gifts but food and adult beverages. Matter of fact I Have the picture from the tour hanging over my desk, has our group, the captain and was taken on the bridge. The tour was hosted by one of the crew that assists the cruise director.

We toured the bridge, engine room, photo/ print shop, back stage of the princess theater, the laundry ( got a robe from their ) windlass room and the galley.

 

We took the tour on the Caribbean princess ( 3000 passengers) only seven in our group and was on the last sea day.

 

cheers

[TracieABD]

The one time I did the UST, I was staying in a balcony or a mini-suite (so no, a suite in not required).

 

I really loved the tour. My favorite part was the laundry room. I could have spent all day in there. Of course, I have a bizarre fascination with all things laundry. So much so, my husband bought for me a high speed water extractor one year for the holidays. My family was horrified, but I was thrilled! I use it all time.

 

The Princess laundry is amaze-balls! Worth the cost of the tour.

[Pierlesscruisers]

Sorry to say the answer to your second question is probably not. You are on your feet for a solid three and half hours and must climb a suspended ladder staircase to get to the rope casting room in the bow.

 

While you may be right about not being able to in most cases, not every tour follows the same itinerary. The one I went on, for example, had stairs to go to a number of the locations, but there was no "suspended ladder staircase" or visit to a rope casting room and while a wheelchair definitely would not have been able to make the tour, a person using a cane probably would have had no problem. It just depends.

 

Tom

[PenguinLife]

I have been debating trying to do a UST on Caribbean Princess next month, we did one aboard Carnival Magic a few years ago when it was fairly new (6 months old), it was much the same as described here, just less swag. So for those of you that have done multiple UST's is it really worth it the 2nd,3rd, etc. time around?

[hm9912]

Read through this thread start to finish - all the answers you need are there :rolleyes:

 

...VTX-Al

 

I took the UST on the Caribbean Princess on our 23 day TA tour

Well worth the money for those that are interested. The wife wasn't!

We were told no cameras or picture taking was allowed while on the tour. They give you photos of your group in some of the various locations while on the tour.

During the tour of the medical center we were shown the cold storage space where they are able to store a dead body which does happen occasionally.

It happened to a friend of ours a year ago who passed away in her sleep on board ship while in Aruba. We attended her wake in NY and her husband had only praise for how the ship handled the death of his spouse. She got her moneys worth since it was the last port of the cruise.

 

The amount of fuel the ship uses is incredible.

Make a list of questions prior to the tour.

We took a mostly empty extra suitcase and paid the extra airline baggage charge so we had room for the heavy robe, picture frame and all the stuff we purchased for the grand-kids.

 

I would sign up again as it is an interesting 3 to 4 hours.

 

Howard

[notalandlover]

We did it on the Royal a few days ago and It was great. Signed up right after boarding around 12.15. Four other people were already on the list.

[Friscoonetwo]

Did UST on the Emerald a few weeks back. Will not repeat all that others have said other than to say that it is well worth it. I really enjoyed meeting and talking with the various ship officers at the various stops on the tour. Had to laugh when the officer in charge of the control room told us that the captain may think he is in command but I am in control. If the captain wants more power, I am the one that "makes it so" A reference to Star trek.

[caribill]

 

I really loved the tour. My favorite part was the laundry room. I could have spent all day in there.

 

The Princess laundry is amaze-balls! Worth the cost of the tour.

 

The laundry room was the most fascinating part of our UST on a Grand class ship.

 

The laundry room on the Royal UST tour was not nearly as impressive as they have greatly reduced the size of the room used, only one story tall.

[TracieABD]

The laundry room was the most fascinating part of our UST on a Grand class ship.

 

The laundry room on the Royal UST tour was not nearly as impressive as they have greatly reduced the size of the room used, only one story tall.

 

If it is only one story tall then it is just half as fun...

[wishIwascruising]

We recently took the UST on the Coral (Nov. 7-22, 2015 Panama Canal). We signed up immediately upon boarding. We were notified that we would be included on the tour a few days before our cruise ended. Our tour was on our last sea day. There were 14 attendees. We really enjoyed it and felt it was well worth the $. It was really interesting to see the inner workings of a cruise ship. We especially enjoyed the tour of the bridge. In the letter we were told that photos would not be allowed but that was not the case. I didn't bring my camera but I did have my cell phone. At our first stop on the bridge the Captain said "photos are allowed but no videotaping." So, we all got out our cellphones and snapped away. We continued taking pictures throughout the tour. Questions are allowed but we had one attendee who monopolized all the time and kept asking questions, finally our tour guide got everything under control by saying "please hold off questions until the very end as they may be included in the tour." Each presenter had a spiel of sorts covering their specific area. It was a very enjoyable few hours. We got the parting gifts that others have mentioned: Princess aprons, robes, photos, notepad, picture frames etc. The tour was definitely a highlight of our cruise.

[masterty]

Our group did a UST couple years back on the Star. Well worth it. We were a group of 11. In my case I used my sister as a BVE guest and boarded in the first grouping onto the ship. We told the BVE agent we needed to go straight to the guest services. She understood and we all got in. There was a couple standing in line behind us, unable to join together. I almost felt bad for such a large group hogging the UST, but later saw them both on our tour after one in our group fell ill and dropped out. No one after the first 50 people boarding that day could have made it onto our Ultimate Ship Tour. Our entire party was dedicated to be first.

I enjoyed the printing room the most. We visited back stage, bridge, engine control room, laundry room, kitchen, employee areas, printing and photo rooms, crew recreation rooms, anchor locker, welding, machine shop, and hospital. There was more but I forget. Swag we received was 8x10 photos taken throughout the experience (3), VIP embroidered robe, printed cup, key chain, pens pencils and possibly other low value items.

 

I would do it again, but not every cruise. Our UST photos have higher value than most do to the fact all but 2 guests being in our party. YMMV.

[Colo Cruiser]

We enjoyed it. Its a must do at least once. :)