Grand Princess 1 Sept 06

[Princess Jessie]

hi Everyone... i am going on the above cruise with my family... 3 kids in early 20's (yeah they still want to come away with us if we are paying!!):cool:

Does anyone know if on these cruises there are generally kids their ages? I am hoping they wont be the only young people with the rest being in the 40's and up...

 

Also, this is my first proper cruise.. any hints or tips that anyone can think of...

When is the best time to board the ship on the first day.. as soon as poss, or should we wait a while for the rush to be over?

 

And tipping... i know it is added to the account at the end.. but should one also leave tips in the cabins? I know Americans are really keen on doing that but we Brits tend to be less free with the tips!

 

Also.. sorry about this, i keep remembering questions... the formal nights.. neither my husband nor my two sons are in any way keen to wear a suit on holiday... are we really missing out if we skip the formal nights? and where do we go and eat if we do skip it? We have anytime dining..

 

Another question sorry.. i read that all the sockets on board are 110 volt is that correct? and are all the sockets all for the American plugs with 2 flat vertical pins?

 

And my very very last question .. is my three adult kids (2 sons and a daughter) are all in an outside balcony cabin for 3 people... how squashed are they going to be? Does anyone know? They have a BC cabin on Baja deck.. I just managed to upgrade them as originally all i could get was an outside cabin on Dolphin deck without a balcony and with the 2 extra berths that fold down from the wall...

 

sorry to bombard with questions.. I hope someone can answer some of them..

Anyone else going on this cruise from uk?

[LILynn]

Hi Jessie -

 

We are on the same cruise with you. Check out the roll call board for the cruise - there are a bunch of us going on the trip. Here is a link:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=282830

 

I can't wait - It's go to be great!

 

Lynn

 

 

Lynn

[enymarsh]

You'll all have a great time!!

 

Princess typically attracts a wide variety of ages and the difference is usually due to the time of the year combined with the length of the cruise. We went on the Star Princess with our two kids who were 18 and 21 at the time on January 3rd a couple of years ago. I have never seen so many young (20-30yo) people on a princess ship!! I think it was because of college intersession. On September 1st you are not necessarily going to get a lot of college students but then again you won't be getting lots of families either with school just starting in most areas here in the US.

 

The only time you'd see a large number of older people - such as over 50 :eek: yikes! that's me!! - would be on a longer cruise (10+ days) during a non-vacation time...unless of course that's what you are doing...where is your cruise going?

 

We always like to get onto the ship early (noonish) in spite of the potential crowds because we enjoy exploring before the ship fills up.

 

If you're not interested in dressing formally, there is a buffet to go to that's always open and at dinner time usually has similar food items to what is offered in the dining rooms.

 

I don't think your kids will feel too crowded in the balcony cabin and if they get that feeling, one of them can always escape out to the balcony for quiet time!:)

 

We never do much with tips other than to leave them on the account unless someone (like a waiter or our cabin steward) has done something exceptional that we want to acknowledge. Then we try to hand it to them personally near the end of the cruise.

 

Not sure about the socket question, but I would guess that the outlets are American-type outlets.

[enymarsh]

I just went to see your roll call thread and saw that you'll be going to the Greek Islands... well, that in my (limited travel) view is an exotic cruise that might attract older cruisers more than, say, a caribbean cruise might. That said, Princess still tends to attract people who aren't as old as some of the other lines (HAL, Celebrity) so there should still be a nice mix.