Questions About Royal Princess Transatlantic Enrichment Activities

[arctickitty]

I'm curious about the types of enrichment activities that might be offered on board the Royal Princess during the Spanish Passage Transatlantic April 2016. By "enrichment activities" I mean classes, workshops, lectures, and other (at least minimally) educational activities not including the various types of sales pitches or the main shows. Reviews frequently mention the big acts, but I'm looking for information on smaller-scale activities that you found added to your experience (or detracted).

 

What I can gather from reading other posts is that some cruises have extra staff who run special programs, eg on Hawaiian and Polynesian cruises they might have ukelele lessons, hula dance classes, and lei making craft work shops. On a Caribbean itinerary they have steel drums. Sailing to Mexico, they have a Mariachi band. So what would be the parallel for a Transatlantic?

 

Thanks for sharing your memories, details, & opinions.

 

~Carrie aka ArcticKitty

[Astro Flyer]

Looked through my Patters from April's TA (FL to Copenhagen) on the Regal and there were no enrichment lectures related to our itinerary and only a series of lectures about the US auto industry.

Edited January 2, 2016 by Astro Flyer

[Mapu]

On the two crossings that I was on there were lectures about the ports we would be getting to in addition to lectures on oceanography.

[arctickitty]

thanks to you both for replying. looking forward to other responses as well.

[Aus Traveller]

Some cruises have Enrichment Lecturers and some don't. They are more likely to be on long cruises where there are a lot of sea days to fill in, rather than on short cruises. Usually Princess will advise by email the names of the CD, the Captain etc and also if there are any enrichment lecturers scheduled for your cruise, you will be advised.:)

[arctickitty]

thanks for your reply

[skynight]

On our TA there were morning lectures in the theater on sea days. There was also a port lecturer that was fairly good, not a Princess tour sales person. These lectures were recorded and shown on the cabin TV's later in the day. There were no other themed activities like you get on a Hawaii voyage.

[Astro Flyer]

The in cabin on demand entertainment system has videos produced by Princess about many of the ports. They're informative & include historical perspectives presented by university professors.

[AKman2495]

We just came back from a TA going the other way. We had port lectures and a guy who talked about financial planning.

 

They had a number of demonstrations, and talks on art and the usual sales pitches.

 

Going from Europe, the port lectures were not really good as the ports came first so why bother with the lectures. Going your way, I would go to the port lectures.

[bcnvcanada]

Load up your kindle.

[bendar06]

We have done several TA cruises and can say that the presentation of enrichment activities is inconsistent.

On our first TA, there was a lecturer on the subject of elder finances and besides being very informative, he was a laugh-riot. On another cruise, a full transit of the Panama Canal, a couple of attorneys lectured on estate planning and end-of-life issues. Again, very informative.

On a TP cruise, we had two lectures in a filled Princess Theater from a gentleman who was the XO of a US Navy ship that had been captured by the North Koreans.

We have not attended presentations that sounded too much like college courses"- YMMV.

Take your pick.

And enjoy the peace and quiet of the sea days.