Question

[deeolasingh]

On my last cruise I saw there were doors decorated for birthdays and anniversaries who decorated the doors? The cruiser or the the cruise line? Just curious going on a big birthday cruise feb 07 with several people celebrating birthday's on that week :confused: :confused:

 

Thanks

[Spender Nui]

The decorations were done by the people in the room or their friends. Bring lots of scotch tape.

[Perky1]

Actually if you fill in your cruise personalizer that you are celebrating a special event and the day they cabin stewart does it. Friends of ours they even had a birthday cake for supper when his wife let them know in the dining room it was his birthday today.

[judynorth]

On our last cruise I celebrated my birthday and our friends were celebrating their anniversary. Our TA told Princess when we wanted the celebrations in the dining room and they presented us with a small special dessert for each celebration. One of our friend's was not feeling well the night they were supposed to celebrate so when the waiter realized that he was not at the table he quickly removed the cake and gave it to them the next night. (It was a surprise to them and our waiter kept it a surprise.) We had traditional dining so I am not sure how this would be handled in PC dining.) We also had balloons on our doors when we arrived on the ship.

 

There are also special packages that you can buy for any special occasion. You can read about those on the Princess website.

[mississauga]

You can indicate the birthday on your cruise personalizer for the balloons and birthday sign on the door of your cabin ( your room steward does this, although they might not always get the message....see comment below) and mention the birthday to someone in the dining room, be it the maitre'd or your waiter. The following have been our experiences on Princess:

 

We celebrated my husband's birthday on the Diamond last year and the room steward hung the balloons over the doorway with a Happy Birthday sign on the door. We did not mention his birthday in the dining room and no one sang or brought him a birthday cake which was how we preferred it. We just returned from the Dawn where we celebrated our 30th anniversary. One of our tablemates (who had a birthday a few days before the cruise) brought the champagne I had given her for her birthday to the dining room on the day of our anniversary and told our waiters ( we had PC dining ) that we were celebrating her birthday and our anniversary. To our surprise, they brought a small individual cake with a candle and sang Happy Birthday to her and then brought a larger cake ( enough for 4 people ) and sang Happy Anniversary to us. The cakes were delicious ...

more like a torte with a chocolate coating ( not icing). Balloons were also taped beside the door of our cabin by our room steward ( only after he realized that it was our anniversay when flowers were delivered to our cabin, courtesy of BIL & SIL.)

[flamomo]

On my first cruise, my cabinmate had her birthday, and the TA had notified Princess at the time of booking. She was provided by Princess with a Happy Birthday sign and balloons on the cabin door the morning of her b-day, and in the dining room (traditional) she was served a small chocolate cake while the wait staff sang to her.

I celebrated my retirement with our most recent cruise, and I included that info on the Cruise Personalizer, but did not know if they would do anything for that. We chose Personal Choice dining, so I had a written message waiting for me when we entered our cabin at embarkation, as well as a certificate for 2 free "stock photos". The message told me to give the message form to the maiter 'd whatever night we selected to go to the dining room. I did this a few nights before the end of out cruise, and at the end of the entree part of the meal, the waiter served me a small cake like the one my friend received for her b-day. I chose not to eat the cake at that time, so the waiter wrapped it in foil that he shaped to look like a swan, and I took it to the cabin and refrigerated it until the next day.

When we got back to the cabin after dinner, there was a "Happy Retirement" sign on the door along with balloons.

The next day, we borrowed forks and napkins from the buffet and had a small retirement party with our CC friends that we met with daily in Crooners at 4 PM for drinks and to chat. That was much more fun, to me, than having the cake in the dining room.

As for the certificate for free photos, I had taken LOTS of pictures already and was not interested in the stock photos, so the guy at the photo desk allowed me to use it for the embarkation pictures instead. He said he wasn't supposed to substitute like that, but he offered and I accepted.

 

So if you have special ocassions to celebrate onboard, tell your TA or enter the info in the Cruise Personalizer, and Princess will help you celebrate. It's a nice touch.

[Cruisin' Chick]

My daughter's birthday was just a week before our 2004 cruise so I put it in the CP. When we got onboard, I noticed there wasn't a sign on the door nor balloons. The next cabin's door was decorated. A few days later, I figured there must have been a mistake (either next door got my daughter's sign or the info in the CP went into cyberspace). So I call the desk and said it was going to be my daughter's birthday. At dinner, they brought out the cake. Unfortunately, my daughter was not at dinner, but the kids area. I asked if they can bring the cake over there, but was told no, because of some kids may be allergic to chocolate. So we had it delivered to our cabin.

 

I noticed on our cruise in December that the door signs had the receiptant's name(s) on them.

[deeolasingh]

thanks for the info.... Spendor I will remember to pack lots of scotch tape we have booked 5 cabin and 3 are birthday cabins:)

[Karen Carney]

Most cabin doors are metal. Instead of Scotch Tape try magnetic strips. You can buy them in the arts and craft stores or departments in stores like Walmart.

[thecoop]

I bought this at Staples and am printing up pictures as I type for our Alaskan cruise. It is Magnetic backed inkjet photo paper.

 

http://www.staples.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/StaplesProductDisplay?prodCatType=0&storeId=10001&catalogId=10051&langId=-1&productId=141359&cmArea=SEARCH

[nlb1050]

Have done both on cruises and we do PC dining. what has happenned in our case is we inclided the info on personallizer and then the day prior to celebrtion or maybe morning day of received a call to confirm then in afternoon a note was delivered to the room to take to dinner that night to receive the special dessert.

 

Also the ballons were placed next to the door but the room steward.

 

 

I must say I love the cake they do for this.

[Cruisin' Chick]

Are you sure about the doors being metal? I seem to remember that ours hasn't been on our last few cruises.

[RevSmith]

I know on Caribbean Princess that the doors are metal...they may not appear to be metal but they are. How do I know? We are all getting signs made because we are members of cruise critic and are having our own little party, so we each wanted to put a sign on our door. A wonderful lady on our thread volunteered to make the signs. Naturally the subject of is the door metal came up...because she could get this special magnitized paper. Fortunatly one of the other members of our thread had a friend who was going on the ship the following week (after the question had come up) and asked them to please check the doors. The friend did and sure enough they were metal. So much for the door material question on Caribbean Princess...I do not know about the other ships. Rev

[stungazed]

I think your mileage may vary on this one. I was on the Sapphire in December and filled out the personalizer that it would be my birthday. I was presented with a small cake at dinner but there were no signs or balloons on my door. I did notice that other people did have this stuff though.

 

Also the previous year on the Sapphire one person in our party had a birthday as well. She got a cake at dinner but the door was never decorated.

 

I was thinking that maybe it had to do with actually having to be on board for your birthday. Mine was actually 2 days after we returned home as was the other person's on the previous cruise. Of course Princess allows celbration 45 days before and 30 days after the actual event.

[judynorth]

Our friends who were with us in May were celebrating their 50th anniversary which actually occured the previous December. Princess gave them a cake and balloons. I think that if your TA sets things up it goes more smoothly. Ours took care of everything for us including which night to celebrate the event. My birthday was the 20th but the celebration was on the 21st because it was a formal night.

[glenneagle]

Good For Princess.rc Does Nothing For Birthdays. Mine Is Dec And We Cruise Every Dec To Celebrate And Nothing. In Fact Last Dec My Daughter Told The Maitre D We Would Like A Cake, Which They Gave Us After Dinner. At The End Of The Cruise There Was A $20.oo Charge On Our Ship Board Account And When We Went To Inquire What It Was For Were Told A Birthday Cake.

[judynorth]

Good For Princess.rc Does Nothing For Birthdays. Mine Is Dec And We Cruise Every Dec To Celebrate And Nothing. In Fact Last Dec My Daughter Told The Maitre D We Would Like A Cake, Which They Gave Us After Dinner. At The End Of The Cruise There Was A $20.oo Charge On Our Ship Board Account And When We Went To Inquire What It Was For Were Told A Birthday Cake.

 

Wow! Talk about adding insult to injury. I would have been pretty upset about that.

 

On my birthday cruise last year I actually had TWO birthday cakes courtesy of Princess. The ladies in our CC group met one afternoon for tea and I was surprised with a birthday cake. That was actually on my birthday. The celebration at dinner was on the formal night nearest to my birthday. I also had balloons on my door. It was also our 40th anniversary cruise but we didn't even mention that. After all, our friends were celebrating their 50th and we didn't want to steal their thunder.:)