Longer cruise information Princess

[resordanis]

Hi all,

For those of you that have done longer cruises……over 20 days, can you tell me what activities, etc will Princess have available? .I am starting to doubt my next cruise  and doubt cruising, so before final payment(very shortly) I want to know we have made the right decision. On our last Brilliance of the Seas cruise, we found it quite boring at times. We do not play bingo or trivia and the shopping on board is of no interest these days. The Spa prices were absolutely ridiculous too! We like shows, and some nights there was nothing. We are also interested in music around the ship before and after dinner, but will Brilliance the timing of these didn’t suit the 5.00pm dining (never again either).
Generally we used to love 5 or 6 sea days but we are both questioning this at the moment. 
Do Princess have guest speakers? Shows each night? Any information would help.

Thanks

[Aus Traveller]

We have done many long cruises with Princess. There will be two shows every night in the Marquee Theatre (7pm or 7.30pm and 9pm or 9.30pm). There is often another show in the theatre at the back of the ship. In addition, a band with a singer will entertain people (usually in the Wheelhouse Bar). I don't know what time this starts but it is certainly before 7.45pm. There will be a pianist playing in the Crooners Bar but this doesn't usually start until 9pm. There will also be some game shows (Marriage Match etc).

 

Daytime - We don't play bingo but we do go to trivia usually twice a day. On long cruises Princess usually has Enrichment Lecturers who present a talk every sea day. In addition, the shore excursions staff (or a Destinations Expert) will present a talk on each of the ports of call. There are sometimes craft activities.

[resordanis]

13 minutes ago, Aus Traveller said:

We have done many long cruises with Princess. There will be two shows every night in the Marquee Theatre (7pm or 7.30pm and 9pm or 9.30pm). There is often another show in the theatre at the back of the ship. In addition, a band with a singer will entertain people (usually in the Wheelhouse Bar). I don't know what time this starts but it is certainly before 7.45pm. There will be a pianist playing in the Crooners Bar but this doesn't usually start until 9pm. There will also be some game shows (Marriage Match etc).

 

Daytime - We don't play bingo but we do go to trivia usually twice a day. On long cruises Princess usually has Enrichment Lecturers who present a talk every sea day. In addition, the shore excursions staff (or a Destinations Expert) will present a talk on each of the ports of call. There are sometimes craft activities.

Thank you for the information. We don’t play Trivia, but might have to as we are both good at useless information.🤣 I know my husband will do Princess Pop Choir too! I only ask because whilst on Celebrity earlier in the year and also in the past on Cunard we have never been bored, but 4 of the last 5 Royal Caribbean I could have jumped ship with boredom, so it has me doubting cruising.

[Ozwoody]

3 minutes ago, Aus Traveller said:

We have done many long cruises with Princess. There will be two shows every night in the Marquee Theatre (7pm or 7.30pm and 9pm or 9.30pm). There is often another show in the theatre at the back of the ship. In addition, a band with a singer will entertain people (usually in the Wheelhouse Bar). I don't know what time this starts but it is certainly before 7.45pm. There will be a pianist playing in the Crooners Bar but this doesn't usually start until 9pm. There will also be some game shows (Marriage Match etc).

 

Daytime - We don't play bingo but we do go to trivia usually twice a day. On long cruises Princess usually has Enrichment Lecturers who present a talk every sea day. In addition, the shore excursions staff (or a Destinations Expert) will present a talk on each of the ports of call. There are sometimes craft activities.

 

As Aus Traveller says, plus usually a boat making competition where you have to scrounge parts around the ship and sail it around the pool with six cans of beer as cargo, plus egg drops, and paper planes competitions to launch from top of atrium and land in a designated area at the bottom.

Also regular bean bag toss, putt putt golf competitions, all take place in the atrium.

All these things have an enthusiastic following as well. their a lot of fun even just to watch.

 

Usually there are art and craft classes run as well.

 

On longer cruises people tend to become more of a community, than on the shorter cruises.

 

Never once felt bored on a long cruise.

 

If there is an active CC group on board, they are usually organising events as well.

 

Regards

 

[Ozwoody]

1 minute ago, resordanis said:

Thank you for the information. We don’t play Trivia, but might have to as we are both good at useless information.🤣 I know my husband will do Princess Pop Choir too! I only ask because whilst on Celebrity earlier in the year and also in the past on Cunard we have never been bored, but 4 of the last 5 Royal Caribbean I could have jumped ship with boredom, so it has me doubting cruising.

 

Yes, they also organise a choir, and other musical events performed by Pax, and crew members.

[windsor26]

We have found for our requirements  RCI cruises are daytime boring but Princess are not

[icat2000]

I have done longer cruises and found that some Princess activities during the day can be stale. Not trivia fans (certain cruisers can get very upset at trivia and I aint on a cruise for dramas) and sometimes we do the theatre. But some how we manage to fill in our days.  We are great nappers.

Edited December 20, 2023 by icat2000

[resordanis]

Thanks all for information. Much appreciated.

[Over from NZ]

You're answering your own questions basically. Sounds like you're going to get bored. Why would you do it? 🙂 

[Ozwoody]

1 hour ago, Over from NZ said:

You're answering your own questions basically. Sounds like you're going to get bored. Why would you do it? 🙂 

Because until you try it, you don't know.

Pre doing a long cruise, I thought I would be bored silly, however I was surprised at how involved I got.

If you participate in a few things, get into a routine.

We do the gym before breakfast, spiff up, then go up for breakfast and meet people, consult the Platter for what's on, then get into the day.

Some days are lazy days, reading and snoozing, some are participating in activities, some days because there are no distractions like like when your at home that fog your day, your free to catch up on things you meant write to family, or to write your life story to pass onto your kids.😁

 

That's why you try different things, you will never, never know, if you don't give it a go.😊

[Over from NZ]

13 minutes ago, Ozwoody said:

Because until you try it, you don't know.

Pre doing a long cruise, I thought I would be bored silly, however I was surprised at how involved I got.

If you participate in a few things, get into a routine.

We do the gym before breakfast, spiff up, then go up for breakfast and meet people, consult the Platter for what's on, then get into the day.

Some days are lazy days, reading and snoozing, some are participating in activities, some days because there are no distractions like like when your at home that fog your day, your free to catch up on things you meant write to family, or to write your life story to pass onto your kids.😁

 

That's why you try different things, you will never, never know, if you don't give it a go.😊

These people are not new cruisers. They're experienced cruisers.. who already have told us they get a bit bored on shorter cruises. Heck.. she doesn't even need to be asking the question. No point in trying to sell it to them.. 🙂 

 

[Aus Traveller]

2 minutes ago, Over from NZ said:

These people are not new cruisers. They're experienced cruisers.. who already have told us they get a bit bored on shorter cruises. Heck.. she doesn't even need to be asking the question. No point in trying to sell it to them.. 🙂 

 

The OP said this - On our last Brilliance of the Seas cruise, we found it quite boring at times. We do not play bingo or trivia and the shopping on board is of no interest these days. The Spa prices were absolutely ridiculous too! We like shows, and some nights there was nothing. We are also interested in music around the ship before and after dinner, but will Brilliance the timing of these didn’t suit the 5.00pm dining (never again either).

 

He/she is asking about activities on a long Princess cruise, whether there would be a show every night and whether music around the ship would be available before and after dinner. The experience on a Princess cruise would be quite different from what they indicated they had on their RCI cruise.

[MicCanberra]

We enjoy reading books, doing puzzle books/ magazines, watching movies, etc apart from any ship activities that may be of interest.

[Over from NZ]

1 hour ago, Aus Traveller said:

The OP said this - On our last Brilliance of the Seas cruise, we found it quite boring at times. We do not play bingo or trivia and the shopping on board is of no interest these days. The Spa prices were absolutely ridiculous too! We like shows, and some nights there was nothing. We are also interested in music around the ship before and after dinner, but will Brilliance the timing of these didn’t suit the 5.00pm dining (never again either).

 

He/she is asking about activities on a long Princess cruise, whether there would be a show every night and whether music around the ship would be available before and after dinner. The experience on a Princess cruise would be quite different from what they indicated they had on their RCI cruise.

Of the 2 - Princess is thought to be even more sedate than RC. They've already travelled more than once on Princess.. and a number of other brands.. and many times on R.C. They know the answer already. Taking a longer cruise is just going to be more of what they've already had many times before. 

[Aus Traveller]

16 minutes ago, Over from NZ said:

Of the 2 - Princess is thought to be even more sedate than RC. They've already travelled more than once on Princess.. and a number of other brands.. and many times on R.C. They know the answer already. Taking a longer cruise is just going to be more of what they've already had many times before. 

I don't know the OP personally or which cruise lines they have cruised with or for how long. I was just going on what they had in their post.

[resordanis]

3 hours ago, Over from NZ said:

You're answering your own questions basically. Sounds like you're going to get bored. Why would you do it? 🙂 

I actually have done many, many long cruises prior to Covid, but feel things are a little different these days. Thank you for your reply.

[resordanis]

Gee thanks all, thanks I think we will finish it here. Appreciate all replies and comments.

[OzKiwiJJ]

22 minutes ago, Over from NZ said:

Of the 2 - Princess is thought to be even more sedate than RC. They've already travelled more than once on Princess.. and a number of other brands.. and many times on R.C. They know the answer already. Taking a longer cruise is just going to be more of what they've already had many times before. 

Not necessarily. Sedate doesn't mean they don't offer things to entertain people, it just means the entertainments are different. Sure, Princess doesn't have flow-riders, water slides, ziplines, and so on but the Princess Patter is full of activities. 

[Relaxing Robbies]

23 minutes ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

Not necessarily. Sedate doesn't mean they don't offer things to entertain people, it just means the entertainments are different. Sure, Princess doesn't have flow-riders, water slides, ziplines, and so on but the Princess Patter is full of activities. 

Since covid the Princess Patter has been downsized. It may look like there are fewer activities on offer now. However if you look on the app at the JourneyView Activities Timeline the full list is provided there. We find that there are so many activities offered, we have clashes of things we would like to do, even though we do not attend trivia very often.

[arxcards]

2 hours ago, resordanis said:

Gee thanks all, thanks I think we will finish it here. Appreciate all replies and comments.

Hi Cheryle,

I get it. For us, there is a fine line between relaxing and boring. The former is what we are after, and if I get bored I will often grab my camera and go for a walk up on deck. We only do longer cruises for the ports and we already find most cruise ship activities repeat from earlier cruises. Trivia is way too competitive for a prize of a bottle of ship champagne and bingo is a donation we don't participate in unless we have surplus OBC on the last day. The bright lights of the casino are not for us either.

 

In all, I am not really sure how we fill our time, but will rarely do any patter activity on a port day, and only one or two on a sea day. We generally avoid trivia unless we are joining in with friends, and theatre shows are a rarity for us. For many brands, it is all a bit predictable even before we board. If we graduate to the bored state, I would be inclined to look for something on QM2, or even try Virgin or something else out of the square.

 

I see the point of your initial question being about any extra activities and/or enrichment lectures on the longer cruises, in order to stave-off repetition & potential boredom. The right speakers can be awesome but, since covid, I have no idea what Princess has available.

 

[resordanis]

Hi Geoff,

You have answered my question and seems you feel the same as us and we seem to do similar things!

We have been tossing up since we got back from Brilliance between QE and the current cruise. I think we will continue with our original  Princess cruise, mainly for the Ports we will travel to. QE whilst we like the talks/speakers on the ship, we have been to all but one Port, so we would be doing the cruise for the ship.

 

I still have a couple of weeks to decide, so something might pop up. Royal Caribbean seems to have lost it for us, and we haven’t done a Princess cruise since the one last October 2022 (which you were on)  that we both got Covid. We have Majestic again in February, so I hope we have made the right decision.

Thank you for your constructive answer.

 

[OzKiwiJJ]

Interesting comments about trivia. Yes, some people are way to competitive but who cares! For us the point is not winning but testing our knowledge and learning new facts. We only compete with ourselves, hoping to improve our scores. 

[bretts173]

Different people are obviously suited to different cruise lines. I have mainly cruised Royal as I am not overly young but I guess younger at heart. I did Princess 5 years ago and while I still made my own fun it wasn't with most of the passengers. The entertainment and atmosphere was not mine or my family's style and was the only cruise at the end where I was not disappointed to get off. 

 

I'll be rocking out with Pulso band on Ovation for my 50th in no time. 

[JohnGc]

I  Just eat my way through boredom.😁

[Relaxing Robbies]

Princess does still have guest lecturers speaking about various enrichment topics, which may or may not be of interest to you.  The lectures are also recorded and are available on the tv to be viewed in your cabin if you miss the live lecture.

 

On Grand Princess this month to New Zealand there were lectures about Ancient Egypt -

-  Ramses The Great

-  The Trial of Akhenaton

-  Tutankhamen

-  Female Pharaohs

There was also ANZAC Story with Jessica Potter, and Navigation From The Bridge.

There were Maori ambassadors onboard and they conducted several New Zealand related classes and dance workshops.

The destination expert presented lectures about the various ports before we visited them, providing information about history, culture, and practical information about how to get around independently etc.

 

On the followingGrand Princess South Australia cruise there were destination lectures and Enrichment Lectures were:

-  Captain Cook Setting Standards for Travellers

-  Famous People’s Illness Changed The World

 

On Majestic Princess to Fiji in November there were destination lectures, navigation lectures and a guest lecturer presented 8 lectures about aviation. The topics were:

-  Adrenalin Rush - Training Jet Fighter Pilots

-  Top Gun For Real?

-  Amelia Earhart - Facts, Theories, Stories

-  WW1 Biplanes and the Brave Young Pilots

-  Antarctic Flying Heroes and Rescues

-  Air Show Jet Pilot

- Trouble at 39000 Feet: When Planes Crash

-  Business Jets: Glamour and Glitches