Crusing TO South Pacific with 4 Year Old..First Cruise Questions!

[Yulara336]

Hi, this will be our first cruise and we are looking at the 'Papua New Guinea Wanderings - Roundtrip Sydney 18 Nights ' leaving on October 16, 2009

 

What bedding options do we have for a triple occupancy? I understand that regular inside rooms have twin beds that push together to make a doulbe but what about the third bed...is it a rollaway? Or *gasp* bunk beds?

 

How are the child care facilities for little ones?

 

How does the dining work, I read that there may be up 2 formal nights, I cant see my son getting dressed up for dinner let alone sitting still well enough for it!

 

I want to add on airfares but my departure point isnt listed, can I add this on at a later date

 

Also in regards to payment, do you have to pay the final amount in one lump sum, or can you pay off in installments? Is it best to book through the Princess website direct or via an online travel agent?

 

Cheers and thanks in advance for your help! :):)

[Toto2Kansas]

I am going to guess this is a P&O sailing and not actually Princess? If so, the rules and guidelines are a bit different for these two cruise lines, as well as what ship you will be cruising on. You might ask these questions on the P&O board if it isn't a Princess cruise, they will probably be able to give you better answers than we can here.

Link to the P&O message board is here: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=431

 

I can tell you that on Princess, if you are booking an inside, outside or regular balcony stateroom you will have two lowers and an upper bunk/bunks for the third passenger. There are times they can bring in a roll-away bed (as there are no sofas or sofa sleepers until you reach the mini suite and higher categories). But a roll-away in one of these staterooms will mean wall to wall beds in the evening as there just isn't much floor space to begin with. Think along the lines of basic bedroom with no real sitting area.

 

Also, an 18 night cruise on Princess would mean 3 formal nights onboard. But Princess ships have alternate dining venues, such as the Horizon Court Buffet open in the evening, another thing I am not sure about with P&O.

 

Best of luck, I hope you find the answers you seek!

[caribill]

How are the child care facilities for little ones?

 

Also in regards to payment, do you have to pay the final amount in one lump sum, or can you pay off in installments? Is it best to book through the Princess website direct or via an online travel agent?

 

 

There are no "child care" facilities on Princess. There is a children's program that your child can participate in. Read about it at http://www.princess.com/learn/onboard/activities/youth_teen/fun/index.html

 

You can pay in installments if you like as long as 100% has been paid by the final payment date, normally 75 days before the start of most cruises.

 

As a first time cruiser, I would not book with an online agent unless you find one where you can reach an actual person easily as you will no doubt have many questions before your cruise starts. You may want to also consider booking with an experienced brick and mortar agent near where you live.

[flamomo]

What ship are you sailing on? We can answer your questions better if we know that.

[Jac199]

It looks like this might be the Dawn Princess based on the 16Oct09/Sydney information the OP listed.

[Yulara336]

Yes its is the Dawn Princess which departs on October 16 2009. We live at Ayers Rock Resort, so funnily enough there are no 'local' travel agents unless we go to Alice Springs which is 500km trip each way

 

When I meant child care facilities, sorry I meant kids club. I read reviews where the ratio of older people on the Princess lines compared to others such as P&O are higher and less kids.

 

I have yet to find an online travel agent who I can call to ask questions. Lia at Zuji doesnt seem to offer this one at all. Any recommendations?

 

I am happy to book online at the Princess website, it seems to allow a lot of personalisation, and I have been playing around with it for a bit today.

 

What are the major difference between decks on this Dawn Princess, if we were to choose between Aloha, Baja and Cariba, and which would be the best choice. It seems they are all stateroom only decks with no public areas, but there is a small price difference of $100 between A and C

[Toto2Kansas]

The main difference in the stateroom will be location. You will pay a higher rate if the 'location' is more desireable under Princess standards. As to the actual stateroom itself, they will have the same interior space no matter which deck you choose.

I will attach a picture of a quad stateroom to give you an idea of how the sleeping arrangements are layed out.

 

I know that those in AU have a difficult time booking through U.S. agents. We have friends in Sydney and it took quite a while to find a way around this rule, but we did finally suceed. ;)

 

Tried to attach a pic of a quad inside, but CC won't load the attachment tonight, will have to try again later on. ;)

[Toto2Kansas]

Trying again to get the attachment to load.

It worked this time. This is a quad inside stateroom.