Onboard activities and entertainment

[oskarNZ]

My family and I are currently booked on a Celebrity Caribbean cruise as my husband and I have cruised Celebrity before and there is a lot about the line we love.

What we didn't love was the daytime activities and is the reason I am considering a possible switch to Princess.

 

 

We felt let down by the 'enrichment' activities which felt more like advertisements for onboard products, spa treatments and port excursions.

 

Princess promote their partnership with Discovery and Animal Planet, and also give the impression that they embrace the area of the world they are visiting through food and the arts. If true, this is great. We enjoy the type of relaxation where your brain stays active.

 

With this in mind, I would love some feedback on Princess' daytime activities. If I travel to Mexico, can I expect expert lectures on the Mayans, Mexican food options in the restaurants, and Mexican inspired music, dance and art on deck?

Are classes hosted by people who seem like experts in their field or at the opposite side of the scale, are they just hard sells for other products (e.g. Shore excursions).

 

If anyone has cruised both Celebrity and Princess, I'm also keen for comparisons of food, evening shows and the kids club (for an 11 year old).

 

TIA :)

[geoherb]

I don't remember any great enrichment activities on our Caribbean cruises on Princess. We had terrific ones on our Panama Canal cruise and our Alaskan cruises, so it must depend on the itinerary.

[JF - retired RRT]

The Hawaii program is amazing, especially if Elua is on your ship.

[jasbo49]

I was really disappointed by the lack of enrichment activities on our Mexican Riviera cruise last year.

 

Princess talks a lot about "enrichment," and it delivers on longer cruises (Transatlantics, Panama Canal) and in Alaska. But the Mexican cruises they just don't take seriously. I really wish they would. They used to at least offer a quick Spanish lesson.

 

I will say they had a killer Mariachi band in February 2016 that I went out of my way to see a number of times.

 

Jim

[oskarNZ]

Very interesting. Thanks for your honest replies. It gives me much food for thought.

[skynight]

My family and I are currently booked on a Celebrity Caribbean cruise as my husband and I have cruised Celebrity before and there is a lot about the line we love.

What we didn't love was the daytime activities and is the reason I am considering a possible switch to Princess.

We felt let down by the 'enrichment' activities which felt more like advertisements for onboard products, spa treatments and port excursions.

Princess promote their partnership with Discovery and Animal Planet, and also give the impression that they embrace the area of the world they are visiting through food and the arts. If true, this is great. We enjoy the type of relaxation where your brain stays active.

 

With this in mind, I would love some feedback on Princess' daytime activities. If I travel to Mexico, can I expect expert lectures on the Mayans, Mexican food options in the restaurants, and Mexican inspired music, dance and art on deck?

Are classes hosted by people who seem like experts in their field or at the opposite side of the scale, are they just hard sells for other products (e.g. Shore excursions).

 

If anyone has cruised both Celebrity and Princess, I'm also keen for comparisons of food, evening shows and the kids club (for an 11 year old).

 

TIA :)

You normally will not get a lot of enrichment lectures on 7 day cruises with limited sea days.There probably will be port lectures in the theater.These are recorded and also shown on the cabin TV. Princess' port lectures are not port shopping talks, those are separate, and not sales pitches for Princess' shore excursions. Princess tends to have enrichment lectures on longer cruises with many sea days, for example Hawaii, Trans-Atlantic. Daytime activities that are not sales promos can include things like trivia, food and drink demos, ZUMBA, silly pool side games on hot weather cruises, classic movies on the poolside movie screen, bingo, sport related activities like basketball shooting & golf putting, champagne ring toss, egg drop, and others. The Discovery & A.P. connection is mainly related to their shore excursions and their youth centers. There are individual brain games available each day in the library, I think there is a new Sudoku and a brain buster challenge each day.

[oskarNZ]

Thank you so much - that is very helpful.

 

I'm a bit disappointed to hear that the Caribbean cruises don't seem to warrant as many cultural activities (not just with Princess, but with other lines also) as for some of us the area is still quite new and foreign.

 

With this in mind, I will probably end up sticking with the cruise I booked, but will bucket list Princess for when I finally get to do an itinerary such as Alaska or the Panama Canal.

 

Thanks again everyone.

[JimmyVWine]

I have found that the Alaskan cruises present upgraded enrichment opportunities, and as noted earlier, Hawaiian cruises do as well. But if I am being honest, I haven't experienced anything worth crowing about on Caribbean itineraries. Everything that I learned about the Mayans prior to and during my Western itineraries I researched myself. That said, I don't mind doing the research.

[GloriaF]

We really enjoyed the various performances scheduled with local talent while the ship was in port:

Hawaii -- hula school performance on board.

 

Alaska -- Iditarod program when in Alaska, and reindeer chili served on deck while scenic cruising, several programs and wildlife sightings during the cruise from a naturalist, and a National Park ranger boards the ship in Glacier Bay.

 

Ireland -- Irish tenor on board performance, and Irish dance/music performance.

 

Canada -- mounted police

[Thrak]

The Hawaii program is amazing, especially if Elua is on your ship.

 

For that you have to sail out of LA. We sailed out of SF and it wasn't very "Hawaiian" onboard. Of course we had what I think is the poopiest CD in the fleet...

[itchyfeet]

We sailed Star Princess on the ten day Mexican cruise 3/28-4/10. I was really disappointed that there was little Mexican music and only one lecture. The one musical event (45 minutes) was held on a port day when most people (including us) were off the ship. Although I loved the evening entertainment, the daytime offerings on sea days weren't too enticing: games such as trivia, bingo, etc. The musical entertainment began about happy hour, 5 PM.