New Booking, New to Princess

[BRC6C]

Hi all!

 

Just yesterday I booked the Island Princess through the Panama Canal for Christmas '08. I have a couple questions for you, the Princess experts.

 

1) At the moment we are booked in category II and the agent said she can't request for the beds to be put together (it's a triple if that matters). Are there cabins where the beds can't be made into a Queen?

 

2) We are currently on the wait list for other cabin, the triples seem to be hard to book... any experience on how this works?

 

3) We have never booked a cruise this early, but I have heard tell of price reductions and getting credits. How do I look for these? (Although it being Christmas I don't expect any!)

 

4) I need advice on dining, we will be traveling with a 6-year-old who loves cruising, do you think anytime or early seating would be a better choice for us?

 

 

Thanks!

[ellbon]

I have been on the Coral. I thopught all beds can be made into a Quen. i would call Princess and ask by giving them you cabin #.

 

I would take anytime DR...That way you can eat later if she can wait. Also you will be able to use the kids club and have grown up time at dinner.

 

Have you looked at a mini. i do ont know what a Cat 2 is as I say AA AB AC etc. what deck are you on.

 

frogt cost it is Cmas.

[PescadoAmarillo]

1) At the moment we are booked in category II and the agent said she can't request for the beds to be put together (it's a triple if that matters). Are there cabins where the beds can't be made into a Queen? I thought I've seen on these boards where, if the cabin is made up as a triple (there is a bunk bed lowered in the room), the placement of the ladder for the bunk precludes the lower twins being made up into a queen bed. But every photo I've seen shows the bunk bed ladder coming off the END of the bed, not the side. Maybe it's a safety thing. Definitely, with the bunk bed lowered, you would have to get into a queen bed from either the end of the bed (working around the ladder) or the other side. Might just be ackward.

 

2) We are currently on the wait list for other cabin, the triples seem to be hard to book... any experience on how this works?

Triples are much more limited than doubles, and I would expect that on the Christmas holiday sailings they are even more limited. Are you waitlisted for a higher category cabin, or just another cabin? Your probability of moving would depend on cancellations.

 

3) We have never booked a cruise this early, but I have heard tell of price reductions and getting credits. How do I look for these? (Although it being Christmas I don't expect any!) Did you book through a TA or Princess? If you booked through a TA, just check the Princess website periodically or watch this board for postings about price drops. If you booked through a TA, you might not qualify for a lower price even if Princess drops their prices (i.e. you might have received a group rate price even though you are not part of a group).

 

4) I need advice on dining, we will be traveling with a 6-year-old who loves cruising, do you think anytime or early seating would be a better choice for us? I would definitely do early seating at a large table. Hopefully, and most likely, you will be seated with another family, and that would be great for your child. Also, I think that the waitstaff really endulge children in traditional dining (although there will be a lot of kids on the ship).

 

 

Hope that helps!

[mfredrik]

We recently cruised with our 8 year old daughter. We had the anytime dining and really enjoyed the flexibility. Most days we went early to the dining room and it was no problems getting seated. Lots of tables free and we got seated at our own table in no time. It's more crowded later however, but we didn't want to do that anyway since dining can easily take 1 1/2 - 2 hours. Some days we needed to get up pretty early for our tours so we had to get our daughter in bed in decent hour. A few other nights we took her to shows and she could stay up late. Anytime dining gives you the flexibility to go whenever fits you.

 

If you do like traditional dining then I would recommend early seating since you typically need to get up early a few mornings for shore excursions.

[BRC6C]

Thanks all, we booked through a Princess Vacation Planner. We're currently booked in A331 if that helps with info on bed configuration...

[BJS]

Yes, do Anytime dining with a 6 year old. The problem with Traditional dining is that many people order each course - eat slowly- and your daughter will have to sit through all of this to finish her meal. (We don't always want every course and find anytime a much better choice for us.) If you do Anytime dining you can sit at a table with her- choose just what courses you want- and finish the meal much faster which will result in a more enjoyable meal for everyone.

 

Looks like A 331 is in inside quad. Possibly because of the cabin layout the beds can not be pushed together and still use the bunk. I've seen pictures of them used as a quad and the beds were not pushed together. Maybe someone who has done it will post.

 

.

[mfredrik]

When kids get hungry, fuzzy, what and where they want to eat, etc changes from day to day as well (at least our daughter). With Anytime Dining you don't need to worry about synchronizing your kids body clock with a fixed dining schedule. Less headache for everyone. IMHO.

[LoveSanibel]

We always have done the early dining with the kids. The waitstaff will bring their food right away(whether it is entree, kids menu, appetizer/salad combo, or dessert).

 

We get a table for just us. They can eat and head to the kids club, without waiting for the whole dining process or disturbing anyone else. Kids club usually opens at 7, so for 6:30 seating they can eat and pretty much be on their way by 7 or shortly after.

 

Gives us most of a meal to ourselves (although sometimes they stay for the whole time) and then we can proceed to our evening activities. Allows us to catch up with them, make sure they actually eat something and have time for ourselves, too. We find it the perfect solution.

[Shelly97060]

As mentioned the beds wont be pushed together because of the pull down for the third person. If this matters to you, you can get a mini suite and the third person would be on a fold out sofa bed.

 

as for dining our choice would be anytime dining, that way you can either have dinner together or take your child to the buffet and then let them go to kids club while you go to dinner.

 

My dd was so excited about kids club when she was younger she really didn't want to sit through dinner and often would eat one course and one of us would take her to kids club. After that we started using anytime dining and it has worked well for us.

 

whatever you decide have a wonderful trip.