Suite Perk Questions

[bubs74]

Thanks for all the great info! I have added many of these items to my notes for the trip. I am also hoping that staying in a suite may help us be selected for Chef's Table and Ship's Tour if it is sold out by the time we try to sign up on board. FYI, I tried reserving over the phone a few weeks ago and that was a no-go. Just thought I would try.

[Colo Cruiser]

Thanks for all the great info! I have added many of these items to my notes for the trip. I am also hoping that staying in a suite may help us be selected for Chef's Table and Ship's Tour if it is sold out by the time we try to sign up on board. FYI, I tried reserving over the phone a few weeks ago and that was a no-go. Just thought I would try.

 

 

Good luck. You always have to request once onboard.

I am glad or nobody would get in. :cool:

[ckfajf]

Where do you go to sign up for the thermal suite? We are going around the Horn next Feb I think it might be a nice way to warm up after a day of glacier viewing!

[azbirdmom]

Definitely tip! I do so in cash. You may need to ask your steward to deliver the menus to you, they may not do it automatically. Sometimes we have had the menus for the next day delivered the night before while they do their nightly service but last cruise we got the one for the next morning the night before and the rest in the morning.

 

For the thermal suite, just go up to the spa after you board. They will look you up in the computer and put a sticker on your cruise card.

[Gabby1162]

What's a thermal suite?

[GREGS1GIRL]

Fresh squeezed orange juice and espresso, berries for breakfast. Love ordering

room service for dinner and eating out on the balcony. This is probably our favourtive perk. Also you will get a choice spot in the dinning room. Love the cruise card holder also. Off times a nice umbrella in the room to use.

Also you are entitled to use the thermal suite in the spa. Must sign up early

as they only have so many spaces. Enjoy your suite.

 

We will be in our first suite in September on Island Princess. We are so excited!!

 

*What is the cruise card holder?

 

*What type umbrella are you referring to? Like a sun umbrella on the balcony?

 

*Is the thermal suite spa access limited even to those in a suite? Just want to make sure I know if we need to sign up as soon as we get on board.

 

Thanks!

[critterchick]

Fresh squeezed orange juice and espresso, berries for breakfast. Love ordering

room service for dinner and eating out on the balcony. This is probably our favourtive perk. Also you will get a choice spot in the dinning room. Love the cruise card holder also. Off times a nice umbrella in the room to use.

Also you are entitled to use the thermal suite in the spa. Must sign up early

as they only have so many spaces. Enjoy your suite.

 

We've never gotten preferred seating in the dining room when staying in a suite. We asked for a table for 2 and got a table for 8 right in the middle of things. We weren't there often enough to bother changing it, and our 4 tablemates were nice enough, as it turns out (if there were 2 others they never showed).

 

As for laundry, be aware that there will be days that the ship cannot do laundry while in Alaska, and the self-service laundromats will also be closed. We were on Golden at the end of July and our service varied from same day to two days later depending on the restrictions.

 

We had to ask our attendant to deliver the dining room menus. More often than not, he delivered the wrong ones, but I think I blame that on whoever gave them to him. It would be nice if they would use the Princess at Sea app to provide each night's menu.

 

The minibar setup is very nice - they will give you a standard setup of 8 airline-sized bottles of hard liquor, two beers, two Perriers, two still waters and 6 sodas/mixers. You can swap the alcoholic items for other alcoholic or NA items; the NA items can only be exchanged for NA items. You can swap the entire setup for a bottle of wine or two coffee cards (or is it one? I forget).

 

The cruise card holder is a small leatherette wallet - I use it for business cards and tip money. The umbrella is for rain.:)

 

I don't think you make reservations for the thermal suite (at least you didn't in 2009, which was the last time I visited one, but of course times may have changed). It's the Sanctuary that requires them, and that's not complimentary for anybody as far as I know. And I forget what's in there other than some nice heated stone loungers.:o

[Crystabel]

A corsage and boutonnière will be delivered to your cabin on the first formal night. We also received a plate of chocolate covered strawberries.

 

By far, breakfast at Sabatini's was our favorite perk. A latte (or two) was the best way to start my day.

 

You will really enjoy the Suite life!

[Shelly97060]

You can also have the full dining room lunches on sea days delivered to your cabin. The first time we sailed in a suite our Steward forgot to tell us until halfway through the cruise.

 

You can order from the full dining room menu all days, not just sea days. Our first time in suite we never got anything but the Breakfast menu at night at turn down. Now I always ask our room Stewart on the first day if they can bring us a full set of menus each day. They are happy to oblige.

[cr8tiv1]

I have often thought about ordering a hot breakfast on disembarkation day but shied away from doing so because my cabin steward worked very hard on the days I was cruising. I like to allow him/her time to get started on my room without all the extra dishes (s)he would need to clean up.

 

They are very accommodating to your needs and will do everything to please you. I usually give him/her the go ahead to start changing the beds and clearing out trash, etc while I get a cup of coffee from the IC and a pastry. By now, even the James Beard French Toast is more than I can eat.

 

I leave my luggage in the room and enjoy a few quiet moments in the Atrium before all the hustle and bustle begin.

[cpcanuck]

I have often thought about ordering a hot breakfast on disembarkation day but shied away from doing so because my cabin steward worked very hard on the days I was cruising. I like to allow him/her time to get started on my room without all the extra dishes (s)he would need to clean up.

 

Actually it is the Room Service person that delivers your breakfast and retrieves dishes on disembarkation day, not the room steward.

 

I quite enjoyed this perk. I ordered a simple breakfast, it arrived promptly at the time I asked for and had plenty of time to quietly enjoy my final morning in the room, and was ready to leave the cabin well within the time that we were asked to vacate. In fact, I was heading out the door when I met the Room Service attendant returning to get the tray. It worked very well and didn't seem to add any additional stress/time to the cabin steward.

[crochetcruise]

I'm sailing in a Window Suite on the Golden Princess and my former work colleague is in an Inside Stateroom on Plaza Deck. I know I can order canapés for myself, going to get the chocolate dipped strawberries, and would like to order a serve of cold shrimp and invite him to bring his Cocktail and enjoy some canapés with me. I am VERY happy to pay for the order of shrimp-do I just write on the order form I will pay for the extra order of shrimp please? I'll probably do it the Saturday and Sunday nights, and have already calculated to budget for the orders of shrimp in my On Board Spend costing.

[livinforcruisin]

That is correct. Sabatini's does not serve breakfast on disembarkation day. This also applies to turnaround day if you are on a B2B.

 

This has been correct on all our cruises in a suite until this May (2015) on the Emerald Princess. They now offered Sabatini breakfast on each disembarkation day morning. We don't know if it was because the cruises were now offered in 7 night blocks with a disembarkation / turnaround every 7 days. We had booked 21 nights, one as a 14 night cruise and one as a 7 night back to back. Therefore our own turnaround was after our 14 nighter. We also got the comp speciality dining restaurant meal 3 times and a new comp mini bar setup every 7 days.

 

We talked to the MD and he said it was their new policy. I don't know if it applies across the fleet.

 

Have a wonderful honeymoon

[jasbo49]

We're going to be in a suite for the first time soon too, and I'm hoping OP bubs74 will allow me to cut in with a few questions of my own. Seemed better than starting a whole new thread.

 

1. I've read the Princess PDF on suite amenities, but I don't see the free glass of bubbly you get in a mini. Is this just an omission?

 

2. There's mention of a DVD library. Where would this be? How extensive? I'm talking about the Grand Princess if it matters.

 

3. Chef's "welcome goodies" on embarkation day. What kind of stuff does this include?

 

4. It says there's a "private portrait sitting with onboard photographer." Is it just the sitting that's free or do you get a free portrait?

 

5. The list says "fresh orchid in stateroom," but I've seen videos with a nice bouquet in a vase. What are you likely to get in the way of flowers and how often? Just at embarkation?

 

Thanks for enduring my silly questions. We're still in the "pinch me" phase after accepting an upsell. We honestly thought we'd never sail in a suite and here we are booked in a penthouse. Yikes.

 

Jim

[Shelly97060]

I'm sailing in a Window Suite on the Golden Princess and my former work colleague is in an Inside Stateroom on Plaza Deck. I know I can order canapés for myself, going to get the chocolate dipped strawberries, and would like to order a serve of cold shrimp and invite him to bring his Cocktail and enjoy some canapés with me. I am VERY happy to pay for the order of shrimp-do I just write on the order form I will pay for the extra order of shrimp please? I'll probably do it the Saturday and Sunday nights, and have already calculated to budget for the orders of shrimp in my On Board Spend costing.

 

It is no problem for you to order for two people if you are hosting a guest in your room and you don't need to pay for the extra food unless you are ordering items they would charge you for anyway.

 

There are some items like cheese plates, shrimp trays that have an extra charge listed with them on the room service menu. If you ordered an extra plate of canapés they may charge you for those as well ( $10-15 per plate depending on whether you order regular or deluxe) but if you ordered something like two shrimp cocktails off the dining room menu they would not charge you for those. Just call room service to place the order.

 

Enjoy your cruise.

[Shelly97060]

We're going to be in a suite for the first time soon too, and I'm hoping OP bubs74 will allow me to cut in with a few questions of my own. Seemed better than starting a whole new thread.

 

1. I've read the Princess PDF on suite amenities, but I don't see the free glass of bubbly you get in a mini. Is this just an omission?

in addition to the mini bar we have gotten the glass of champagne

2. There's mention of a DVD library. Where would this be? How extensive? I'm talking about the Grand Princess if it matters. you will find a DVD menu inside the binder in your suite. There is a pretty good selection to choose from. Just fill out the request form and give to your steward

 

3. Chef's "welcome goodies" on embarkation day. What kind of stuff does this include? typically canapés

 

4. It says there's a "private portrait sitting with onboard photographer." Is it just the sitting that's free or do you get a free portrait? just the sitting

 

5. The list says "fresh orchid in stateroom," but I've seen videos with a nice bouquet in a vase. What are you likely to get in the way of flowers and how often? Just at embarkation? they use to have the bouquets, our last voyages in suite have had the orchid instead

 

Thanks for enduring my silly questions. We're still in the "pinch me" phase after accepting an upsell. We honestly thought we'd never sail in a suite and here we are booked in a penthouse. Yikes.

 

Jim

 

enjoy your cruise

[rockdoctor]

I ordered my mimosa without the orange juice.

[NavyVeteran]

You can order from the full dining room menu all days, not just sea days. Our first time in suite we never got anything but the Breakfast menu at night at turn down. Now I always ask our room Stewart on the first day if they can bring us a full set of menus each day. They are happy to oblige.

 

You can certainly order from the dining room menus for breakfast and dinner on port days as well as sea days. However, the dining room is normally not open on port days, and there is no lunch menu on those days. It is my understanding that you can only order from the dining room menu when the dining room is open, since the meal comes from the dining room kitchen - not the room service kitchen.

[Shelly97060]

You can certainly order from the dining room menus for breakfast and dinner on port days as well as sea days. However, the dining room is normally not open on port days, and there is no lunch menu on those days. It is my understanding that you can only order from the dining room menu when the dining room is open, since the meal comes from the dining room kitchen - not the room service kitchen.

 

You are exactly right!

[jasbo49]

enjoy your cruise

 

We will. Thanks for the answers -- and the good wishes.

 

Jim

[crochetcruise]

enjoy your cruise

 

THANK YOU! My knowledge is expanded, several questions that I hadn't yet realised I was curious about, have just been answered! Trust Cruise Critic members to be looking out for each other! :D

[ernieb]

I understand we get a minibar setup in the full suite. We will also want a refrigerator in our suite to keep Champaign in. Is the minibar the only refrigerator or can there also be another?

Thanks.

[CruisingJs]

I understand we get a minibar setup in the full suite. We will also want a refrigerator in our suite to keep Champaign in. Is the minibar the only refrigerator or can there also be another?

Thanks.

The mini bar liquor is on the counter. The sodas and mixers are in the refrigerator. You can shuffle things around to make room for champagne. It's a bar sized refrigerator with a small shelf inside and in the door.

[ernieb]

Thank you!

[crochetcruise]

It is no problem for you to order for two people if you are hosting a guest in your room and you don't need to pay for the extra food unless you are ordering items they would charge you for anyway.

 

There are some items like cheese plates, shrimp trays that have an extra charge listed with them on the room service menu. If you ordered an extra plate of canapés they may charge you for those as well ( $10-15 per plate depending on whether you order regular or deluxe) but if you ordered something like two shrimp cocktails off the dining room menu they would not charge you for those. Just call room service to place the order.

 

Enjoy your cruise.

 

THANK YOU! He's visiting his maternal grandmother who lives 2 units down from me, and she has invited me to join them for Afternoon Tea today. I shall pass on the information. I understood there was a specific menu for Canapes to be selected from, but will make sure I have budgeted to cover the costs anyway. Much better to save too much money than not enough-I can always buy an extra Future Cruise Credit! :D

 

Thanks to Cruise Critic, S. and I are both well prepared with our packing lists. I have warned him he will need to manage Embarkation by himself as we are not sharing the Suite, he cannot join me, but I will extend regular invitations to come and enjoy my Window views! In 65 weeks time, we will be aboard and probably enjoying our Nightcaps in Skywalkers Bar. I have a list of Cocktails I'd like to try.

 

I'm planning to take many photos and post a comprehensive report when I get back to the hotel, or possibly when I get home, depending on how I go with downloading the photos from my camera to the laptop-not a good techie here.

 

Even tonight, I came on for my daily drool on Cruise Critic, and another poster had asked the very same thing that had been puzzling me! Have written down the information, and been grateful for the expanded knowledge :D

 

Have also found several cruises I am interested in for the future in Australia, including 1 on the Emerald Princess-hopefully for my 60th birthday which is still a few years away so things could change.