No matter what type of cabin I’m cruising in, I do
a series of checks the minute I get in. They’ve unlocked perks, they’ve even got me
upgraded, and certainly made the cruise so much better. You should do these too!
Before you do anything, decide if the cabin is right for you. Now,
this cabin is right for me because I booked and chose it myself.
So, I made sure it followed all my usual rules. Cabins on either side,
cabins above, below, and opposite me. So, I'm completely encased and the chance
of getting disturbed by noise or loud venues or whatever is very low.
Now, if you have a guaranteed cabin where the cruise line has allocated the cabin to you,
the minute you get in, before you do anything else, decide if it's right for you.
So, look, are there cabins on either side?
Is there any noisy venues? Is there any things you haven't realised like obstructed views?
Or whatever it is, decide if the cabin is right for you based on first impressions.
If it's not, don't do any of these checks,
go to guest services and try and see if you can move to a different cabin.
Then for me, it's all around the bed. Now, obviously the minute you walk in, you can tell
if it's set up in the right format, king bed if that's what you're wanting, two twin beds.
If it's not laid out as you want, it's very simple.
Write it on a list to ask your cabin steward to get it changed.
That's one of the things I start to do is draw up a little list
of the things I want to talk to the cabin steward about.
For me, there's also a couple of other things I do. Now, I am particularly obsessed with pillow
types. So, I try and see if any of these are feather pillows. If they're not, I ask the
cabin steward for a feather pillow. No matter what line I've been on, whether it's a fancy one with
pillow concierge or not, they normally can track down a feather pillow.
Also, check if the bed is too hard or too soft. If it's too hard, they can normally
bring you a little mattress protector, which will make it a bit softer. If it's too soft,
they can often bring a plank or something underneath to make it a little bit firmer for you.
Another little thing I do actually, when I'm at the bed is check what my charging plugs
are and if I'm going to need any adapters or whatever. Not having chargers by the
bed is a real pain. This one actually has USB ports, so that's pretty good.
But have a look at the different plugs you've got. So over there on the desk, I can see I've got
Euro style plugs and US style plugs. I have all those adapters. If not, again,
something to ask the cabin steward if they can help you out with.
One of the big changes to cruising post the shutdown is a new approach to muster drill. So,
one of the things you need to do is check what you actually have to do for the master drill.
Now, normally that involves watching the safety video and then going to your respective
master station and just clocking in either with your cruise card
Because I'm on Princess with my little Medallion.
So, you have to watch that there. It'll also normally tell you where the muster station is.
If it doesn't, it'll either be in the back of your cruise card or on the back of the door.
Next what I do is I check all the paperwork that's been left for me. Now there's normally
loads of paperwork, but there's a couple of really critical things that you need to do.
So first of all, take a look at your daily program. So, the Princess Patter in this case.
And check things like what time lunch is, where you can eat for lunch, any particular big events
that you might want to go to, or stuff that you really want to plan embarkation day around.
The other thing that's really important to check is in the Princess Patter, or equivalent or in
any of the other various brochures that are left, if there are any really good deals. So,
there's often things, for example, on Wi-Fi deals, or there might be drinks package deals.
So, check if there's any particular special offers that are being offered.
So, for example, on my last cruise, they're offering a 10% discount for your first spa, 20%
if you book two spa treatments, 30% if you book three. So, look for those and see if any of
those are interesting because embarkation day will normally have special offers.
The next thing you need to do is check if there's anything that you need to actually
do on embarkation day. But for example, I've got a little thing here because I
have booked a helicopter tour because I'm going in Alaska and there's certain
weight restrictions and you have to fill this out within a certain deadline. So,
check if there's anything else that you absolutely need to do that day, other than the muster drill.
The other thing that I like to look for is if there are anything linked to my status.
So, for example, here, there is a letter from the Future Cruise and the Captain’s Circle. So
that's the loyalty club. And it actually lays down for me here, what my actual perks are
at my particular level on Princess. Which I'm not a particularly high level, so I don't get a lot.
Although I do get, for example, I didn't know this, I get a lounge access every evening for
canapes. I've been invited to a party and that gives me a list of a couple of other
perks I've got. It also lists a couple of other perks that I get. So I get priority
disembarkation, I get money off Wi-Fi,
I get discounts off spa, I get discount off the photo gallery, again, all linked to my status.
If you don't have one of these in your cabin,
the thing that I would recommend you do is go and see the loyalty manager.
They're often the same person as the Future Cruise Sales and ask them, based on your status, what are
the perks? Now, I've been on many ships where I hadn't realised the amount of perks I could get.
So, for example, on my last cruise, I discovered I could get canapes every evening, I can get certain
drinks in the mini bar and so on. So that's the thing I always check, what perks am I going to
get? I also ask the cabin steward when they come, so put on your list. What, based on the
cabin grade that I've booked, extra perks do I get? And I've booked this here, which is actually
mini suite and again, very little extra benefits. But I just check with the cabin steward, anyway.
The other thing to check if you've pre-booked short excursions is take a look at your tickets,
make sure that they're all what you booked, check the times and
it's everything as expected, because you can then go and cancel or change those.
They also very importantly check the cancellation
time and date for those excursions in case you change your mind. So, there's one here that I
booked and I'm not sure if I really want to do. And I can see that I have to have cancelled it
with no penalty by the day after tomorrow by 6:00 PM, for example. So, know about those.
Another thing I normally find in the daily program, which is really helpful is it lists
your itinerary, obviously. So, you can check on the time you arrive and leave. But also really
importantly, it tells you when the different gala nights or formal nights are. And that may make you
change some of your plans. So, for example, I plan to do specialty dining on a different
night. I see its formal night, I quite like to go to specialty dining on formal night. So,
I'm going to change that booking. So that's a really useful little thing in the daily program.
Another thing I like to check is down here, which is the mini bar.
Now it's worth checking what is included and not included.
So, for example, I have a drinks package,
which is part of the Princess Plus. However, it doesn't cover drinks in the mini bar.
So really importantly, understand what is and isn't included if you have a drinks package or
with your cabin grade. So, I have a mini bar that's completely empty, but I could
choose to have it stocked. And there's a list of what it would cost to have it stocked here.
That's again, something you can check with your cabin steward, again,
ask things like what's included the mini bar and what else in the room do you have to pay for?
That is really important to understand what within your
cabin you can basically use and keep at no cost.
Many people learned the hard way, for example, on Virgin Voyages,
where everyone got very excited because they found these little packs of sort of sex aid toys thing.
There's another pack of sleep aids. And many people got very excited,
used them and suddenly discovered they were getting charges of $30 or $40 on their account
because they weren't free, they had a charge for them, and everyone ended up paying for those.
In this cabin, there is pretty much no extra stuff. So, there's no umbrellas,
there's no tote bag or other stuff lying around.
On my last cruise though, there was many, many items which were left around the room because I
had been upgraded into a suite. But if I'd taken any of those items home, there were quite big
charges. So, the bath robes would've cost like $60, the umbrella was $25 and so on and so on.
Early on I take a look at the air conditioning, both to see if it's working well and also
what the sort of the noise is like. If you come into your cabin, you find it's really
cranked down really low, but the room's hot. It probably means that it's not working that well.
Now I have had situations where I've come in and it doesn't really work
that well. What's relatively noisy, I've mentioned to the cabin steward
and they've sorted it out. A lot of people just kind of grin and bear it, but don't.
I have actually been upgraded because of the air conditioning. I was once on a Princess Cruise,
not this one, and there was big rattling in the air conditioning. they sent an engineer,
they just couldn't fix it because it was some unit that needed to replace
and they couldn't get it to another port. And they actually moved me to a better cabin.
So that shows the importance of checking the detail
Once that's all done, of course, it's time to unpack, once your case has arrived. One
of the things I actually like to do is understand where the storage is. Now many, many cabins have
all sorts of hidden storage. This cabin actually doesn't have that many, but often you might find
stuff high up. But really importantly, of course, underneath the bed. So normally underneath the
bed, big suitcases will fit under there. And that means you don't have a clutching up in
the cupboards or somewhere in the room. But trying to find little secret bits of storage is something
that's quite fun and you'll often find quite a lot of it. I haven't tracked any down in here.
A few bits and pieces in the storage area is ... this actually has humongous amounts of coat
hangers, but many cruise lines don't give you many coat hangers. So, if it's not enough coat hangers,
just ask them. I know of people who pack and bring coat hangers, but they've got loads.
Also, the safe, make sure that the safe is working. So, this safe is working.
So check, have you got a safe? Does it work? If not,
get it reset. Often the batteries can be low and again, people haven't bothered.
My philosophy is I've paid good money to be in a cabin, so it needs to be right.
So doing these checks early on could make a really big difference.
Upgrades, improvements, changes, perks, make sure it happens.
If you want to know how to get a good cabin every single time, watch this video where I
talk about how to get the best cabins and avoid the worst cabins, no matter what grade you're in.
Starting with the one single tip that guarantees you will get a good cabin. That's works for me
every time. See you over there.