First-Time Princess Cruisers - what should we pre-book/make reservations for before the cruise?

[TripsYouMustDo]

Hi all,

 

We are fairly experienced cruisers (about 30 cruises total), but it's going to be our first time on Princess (Crown Princes in February, 2024). Different cruise lines have different things you can and should pre-book before the cruise (or book as soon as you get on the ship), e.g. Royal Caribbean allows you to pre-book some of the shows (ice skating, Aqua Show, comedy, etc.), and on Virgin Voyages it's absolutely critical to check-in 45 days before the cruise and immediately pre-book all of your complementary dining.

 

What's critical to pre-book on Princess? And when can I do the "final" check-in to get my embarkation slot? Again, on Royal Caribbean and Virgin you pre-book 45 days in advance (opens at midnight I believe). I already entered our passports, security photos, etc. in the app - when do we do the final "check in" and get our emaciation time assigned? 

 

We are not buying specialty dining or shore excursions, so that's not a concern. I guess I should say "what should I pre-book that's included into the basic fair"? We didn't do Plus or Premium. 

 

Thank you!

[TripsYouMustDo]

OK, I think I found the answer to my question about "final checkin" and boarding time slot - sounds like there aren't any anymore? 

 

 

[charliedalrymple]

Definitely spa treatments if you want to do them on sea days.  They will be fully booked well before the cruise date.

[sunviking90]

We book our dining times in the MDR as soon as we can. This can be done in the app. You’ll be given options for 2-3 dining rooms, but they all have the same menu. Shows do not need to be prebooked, but arrive at least 30 min early.

Edited December 18, 2023 by sunviking90

[TripsYouMustDo]

10 minutes ago, sunviking90 said:

We book our dining times in the MDR as soon as we can. This can be done in the app. You’ll be given options for 2-3 dining rooms, but they all have the same menu. Shows do not need to be prebooked, but arrive at least 30 min early.

 

Thank you, I've just done the dining reservations and you basically answered most of my questions 🙂 

 

I noticed private tables are not available until 7pm or later - am I just too late? We like to have dinner early, but all dining rooms only show shared tables 5pm-7pm. 

 

Good to know reservations are not needed for the shows, I always stress out about that with RCCL 🙂 I prefer first come first serve (I'm there 45 minutes before the show starts anyway).

[Kmkub]

4 minutes ago, TripsYouMustDo said:

 

Thank you, I've just done the dining reservations and you basically answered most of my questions 🙂 

 

I noticed private tables are not available until 7pm or later - am I just too late? We like to have dinner early, but all dining rooms only show shared tables 5pm-7pm. 

 

Good to know reservations are not needed for the shows, I always stress out about that with RCCL 🙂 I prefer first come first serve (I'm there 45 minutes before the show starts anyway).

That may change, and you can always wait in line. We are just off the Enchanted and while we had reservations most days for 6:40, several times we wanted to go earlier and just got in line at 5:00, when the dining rooms open. When we were in line, we asked them to cancel our 6:40. We didn’t wait more than a few minutes.

[TripsYouMustDo]

2 minutes ago, Kmkub said:

That may change, and you can always wait in line. We are just off the Enchanted and while we had reservations most days for 6:40, several times we wanted to go earlier and just got in line at 5:00, when the dining rooms open. When we were in line, we asked them to cancel our 6:40. We didn’t wait more than a few minutes.

Great to know, thank you very much!

[1412p0oi]

32 minutes ago, sunviking90 said:

We book our dining times in the MDR as soon as we can. This can be done in the app. You’ll be given options for 2-3 dining rooms, but they all have the same menu. Shows do not need to be prebooked, but arrive at least 30 min early.

By arriving 30 minutes for shows, do you mean that if you don't arrive 30 minutes you won't get a single seat? Or maybe you get a bad seat? There are several back-to-back shows on the app that I'm seeing for my upcoming Princess cruise and I want to attend them all, but realistically there is only a 15-minute gap between them (and have to account for travel time)...so is it impossible for me to make them?

[ldubs]

This is a great question and great answers. We have been on about 45 cruises with a bunch on Princess.  And, I would not have been able to answer!  😀   We must be super chill because we generally don't book much ahead of time.  Or Mrs Ldubs is doing that and I just don't know about it.  😀

 

Except I do know that arriving 30 minutes early to the main theater will give you a lot of different seating options.   

Edited December 18, 2023 by ldubs

[memoak]

The only things we book in advance are spa and excursions everything else can wait till we are on board.  Of course that means you have to prepay 

[TripsYouMustDo]

7 minutes ago, 1412p0oi said:

By arriving 30 minutes for shows, do you mean that if you don't arrive 30 minutes you won't get a single seat? Or maybe you get a bad seat? There are several back-to-back shows on the app that I'm seeing for my upcoming Princess cruise and I want to attend them all, but realistically there is only a 15-minute gap between them (and have to account for travel time)...so is it impossible for me to make them?

I hope sunviking90 replies, but just from my personal experience on other cruise lines, 15 minutes between the shows is very tight to get a good seat. You will need some time to make your way between the show venues, possibly including waiting for an elevator. Coming in 5-10 minutes before the show starts (after making your way to the next show) you might be left with limited number of seats. I think you should be able to get some seats, though I've seen fully "sold out" shows before where they turned away people (e.g. comedy shows are often in smaller venues and may completely fill up to where they turn you away, other shows in bigger showrooms/theaters will typically have some seats available).

 

My wife and I are short and we can't sit anywhere other than front row or else we won't be able to see, so I try to be at the theater at least 5 minutes before the showroom opens (which is 30 or 45 minutes before the show start, depending on the cruise line). I have to get us those front row seats. 🙂 

[sunviking90]

25 minutes ago, 1412p0oi said:

By arriving 30 minutes for shows, do you mean that if you don't arrive 30 minutes you won't get a single seat? Or maybe you get a bad seat? There are several back-to-back shows on the app that I'm seeing for my upcoming Princess cruise and I want to attend them all, but realistically there is only a 15-minute gap between them (and have to account for travel time)...so is it impossible for me to make them?

We don’t attend a lot of shows aside from the occasional production show in the main theatre, and definitely be there early for that. The second show “may” be easier to get into. Are you talking about some of the game shows, etc in Princess Live? It’s a fairly small venue so I’d arrive there about 15 min early too. Just prioritize what you want to see. We are more laid back, so maybe someone else can advise.

[TripsYouMustDo]

12 minutes ago, ldubs said:

This is a great question and great answers. We have been on about 45 cruises with a bunch on Princess.  And, I would not have been able to answer!  😀   We must be super chill because we generally don't book much ahead of time.  Or Mrs Ldubs is doing that and I just don't know about it.  😀

 

Except I do know that arriving 30 minutes early to the main theater will give you a lot of different seating options.   

I love being chill and not having to book things in advance. Leaves you a lot more options and a more relaxing vacation. Booking everything in advance and trying to figure out all the time slots and schedules can be stressful and definitely takes away from vacation.

 

Unfortunately I had a few bad experiences after not booking reservations early enough on Virgin Voyages and Royal Caribbean, so now I'm a lot more proactive.

 

On Virgin Voyages all restaurants are free, but all restaurants are also small (compared to the size of the ship), and all require reservations (other than pizza place and non-buffet buffet), even for breakfast or lunch. On our first cruise we didn't book dinning 45 days in advance, and only a couple of restaurants were available at 9pm on that the last two nights of the cruise. I was stressing out about that. Fortunately we were able to book more reservations once we got on the ship. But we still had to go to a couple of places and "beg" the Maitre D to sit us (some of them were more accommodating than others). Miserable experience. I was much more prepared on the second cruise (and even that didn't go 100% smoothly). Also you have to book other stuff on VV as soon as you are connected to ship WiFi (e.g. exercise classes are gone in seconds, etc.).

 

On RCCL bigger ships you have to book some of the shows (even the free ones) but not others. If you don't book, you have to wait in the stand-by line until 15 minutes before the show (when they release the remaining seats to "stand-bys"). Also a miserable experience. We are short and much prefer front row seats so I always try to have a reservation when possible. If you don't care about your sit it's not as bad (except their comedy shows were in a ridiculously small room for a 6,000 passanger ship, so every single one of those "sold out" and you couldn't get in if you didn't book a reservation or didn't stand in line for 30-45 minutes). 

 

Each cruise line has their quirks you have to learn about. Our Celebrity cruise on Eclipse last October was super chill (no reservations required for anything), that was so nice. I hope Princess experience will be smiilar. If you mostly cruise Princess, maybe that's why you don't have to worry about it. Smaller ships/smaller crowds/more chill sailing? Looking forward to that.

[ldubs]

3 hours ago, TripsYouMustDo said:

I love being chill and not having to book things in advance. Leaves you a lot more options and a more relaxing vacation. Booking everything in advance and trying to figure out all the time slots and schedules can be stressful and definitely takes away from vacation.

 

Unfortunately I had a few bad experiences after not booking reservations early enough on Virgin Voyages and Royal Caribbean, so now I'm a lot more proactive.

 

On Virgin Voyages all restaurants are free, but all restaurants are also small (compared to the size of the ship), and all require reservations (other than pizza place and non-buffet buffet), even for breakfast or lunch. On our first cruise we didn't book dinning 45 days in advance, and only a couple of restaurants were available at 9pm on that the last two nights of the cruise. I was stressing out about that. Fortunately we were able to book more reservations once we got on the ship. But we still had to go to a couple of places and "beg" the Maitre D to sit us (some of them were more accommodating than others). Miserable experience. I was much more prepared on the second cruise (and even that didn't go 100% smoothly). Also you have to book other stuff on VV as soon as you are connected to ship WiFi (e.g. exercise classes are gone in seconds, etc.).

 

On RCCL bigger ships you have to book some of the shows (even the free ones) but not others. If you don't book, you have to wait in the stand-by line until 15 minutes before the show (when they release the remaining seats to "stand-bys"). Also a miserable experience. We are short and much prefer front row seats so I always try to have a reservation when possible. If you don't care about your sit it's not as bad (except their comedy shows were in a ridiculously small room for a 6,000 passanger ship, so every single one of those "sold out" and you couldn't get in if you didn't book a reservation or didn't stand in line for 30-45 minutes). 

 

Each cruise line has their quirks you have to learn about. Our Celebrity cruise on Eclipse last October was super chill (no reservations required for anything), that was so nice. I hope Princess experience will be smiilar. If you mostly cruise Princess, maybe that's why you don't have to worry about it. Smaller ships/smaller crowds/more chill sailing? Looking forward to that.

For Princess I think the answers your received by others earlier are dead bang on.  Enjoy.