When looking into any trip with Princess Cruises, you’re faced with a number of choices along
the way - different fares and room upgrade, multiple dining experiences, and excursions,
all of which effect your total spend and enjoyment to varying levels. So with this video, I wanted to
give a clear understanding of what those options actually look and feel like, allowing you to
make better informed decisions when booking to any budget. I’ll also go through an overlooked
hidden cruise benefit, that may even change which cruise you’re interested in, in the first place.
All these experiences are based on the 7 day Alaska video I just shared, on board the Discovery
Princess, but this guide will work for any Princess Cruise. And since that trip was sponsored
by Princess, I was fortunate enough to sample lots of different extras. So I came away with
a pretty solid understanding of what’s on offer to provide you with a useful insight. So, here goes.
Let’s start with the different cruise packages and what’s included as standard for everyone.
The starting fare for a cruise is one of its selling points; Prices around the world can
obviously vary, depending on your home residence, where you’re travelling to and for how many days,
so as one example, this is for a similar 7 day Alaska trip to the one I went on.
The standard fare includes all your food at multiple dining locations - cafes for
a quick bite, the pizzeria for a quick… pizza,
a large and daily changing menu at the buffet, and the multi course fine dining.
Plus you obviously get all of the onboard entertainment which I’ll cover a little later,
the Medallion Class experience which allows you to order food and drink anywhere onboard,
along with finding your friends and booking activities through. You’ll
also get 24 hour room service, and use of the fitness facilities to counteract the
guilt of eating all those cupcakes. So this is obviously the best choice
for those watching their spend and you can purchase extras as and when you go.
The other fares, are Princess
Plus and Princess Premier. For the full list of included extras, feel free to pause now,
but I wanted to highlight 3 aspects of Princess Plus that I personally got the most value from.
First, the cocktails were always really good, and surprisingly got better,
as the day wore on. But especially as we were in a group, it was nice enjoying a
couple of cocktails after lunch in the various bars around the ship.
Second, for the wifi in Princess Plus, you have 1 device you can connect per person. One
thing I wanted to add here, is that after speaking to 3 different people on board,
they all said the wifi on Princess was the best they’d used at sea,
compared to other cruise ships, so you should be getting a good service with this, as I did.
And thirdly, there’s the included gratuity. Now,
as a Brit, the slippery surface of American tipping throughout the day,
literally fills me with dread and anxiety, so to have it already included for the crew
was one less thing to think about. And then everything else on this list was a bonus.
So for Princess Premier, and again, pause now for the longer list, I wanted to highlight the
2 speciality dining meals and unlimited fitness classes. The gym is available for
everyone and you do get 2 classes with the Plus fare which was enough for me,
but there’s a bunch of different classes running every day so if
fitness is important to you, this offers some extra variety and value.
For the Speciality dining, my personal favourite restaurant was Sabatini’s, an Italian restaurant,
which I’ll come back to later. But aside from the food being extra enjoyable,
it was great having 2 evenings meals that stood out as special occasions.
As currencies will be different all over the world, I’ll link your local prices
at the top right of the screen now and in the description box, just below the videos title.
The food was ultimately one of my favourite parts of trip,
so I wanted to elaborate a bit more on what you can expect.
For breakfast, most of the time I ate at the World Fresh Marketplace, a top deck buffet
serving pretty much everything you could want. The selection always had something that fit the
taste I was after but I mostly juggled between pastries and a cooked breakfast. For lunch,
I’d mix things up a little more, either going to the Fresh Marketplace again, or Gigis for
a made to order pizza or The International Cafe which for a smaller snack and coffee shop vibe.
If you’re at an all inclusive hotel, the danger is that things can get stale if you’re always
eating at the same place. The 5 different restaurants and cafes I would visit was
enough to minimise this, and the healthy mixture of a la carte dining and buffets also did too.
Another way Princess helps to mix this up further, is with a totally optional dress code for a couple
of the evenings. So, one night that dress code was formal, which meant I looked like this.
And then, there was white and gold night, meaning I looked like this. Which is either TOO much of
this guy or too much of THIS guy. And I’m not sure, which is better. As mentioned,
this is all totally optional but it did help make the evenings feel unique.
Also, as a quick by the by, the staff generally, were excellent throughout this
cruise. What especially impressed me was their ability to remember you, even two days later,
recalling conversations you’d had and following up on them. It happened on numerous occasions,
and left me feeling really cared for and noticed as a customer.
For the rooms, there are lots of different choices. I was staying in a mini suite which
gives you about twice the amount of space, compared to other rooms. Now, this extra
space was obviously nice to have, but in the end, it was the balcony that was most important room
feature over anything else. Having instant access to fresh air, the sounds of the sea, a coffee in
your own private space, watching a sunrise moments after getting out of bed, were all highlights.
But I think what matters most with choosing a room is the price difference for that balcony upgrade,
as I found this can vary quite a bit based on the trip you’re looking at.
So I think it’s worth playing around with different cruise ships, dates and routes,
to see what works best for your budget.
After the Mini Suite, there’s the Suites themselves, which I did get
the chance to see, but you can go even higher within this bracket to penthouse options to really
push the boat out, or ship out. Again, please pause for the nice long list of room upgrades,
but, if I was staying in this suite, the benefits that would mean the most for me,
would actually come from outside these 4 walls. And that’s because when you book a Suite,
they come with all these services and dining options outside of the room itself.
For example, Suite guests get access to breakfast at the aforementioned Sabatini’s,
again my favourite restaurant for that speciality dinner, but easily my favourite for the morning.
It was the most peaceful and spacious, and the best way to start my mornings.
Suite guests also have an included evening at the 360 dining restaurant I showed in the main vlog,
which as mentioned there, was in a league of its own. So,
I guess my point is, it’s more than just a bigger room you’re getting when comparing,
so have a think how those benefits might work within your budget.
Something I hadn’t expected was the massive list of daily activities going on around the ship each
day, which I’d undervalued the benefits of, at the start. As part of my eventual morning routine,
I’d scroll through the day and favourite what took my interest in the Princess app. The main
events for the evening always happened in the Princess Theatre, consisting of a magic show,
an impressive piano performance and two different hour long musicals. During the day, for example,
there were magic classes, Mario Kart tournaments, presentations, mini concerts, acupuncture classes,
Beatles trivia quizzes, fine wine tastings, and a genuinely nail biting Deal or No Deal.
One massive benefit of a cruise that I hadn’t previously thought of, is where
you’re starting or finishing, as opposed to just where you’re going, such as Alaska in this case.
Our departure was from Vancouver and I spent 3 nights here before setting
sail. So as you’re already paying for the flight to get to the cruise anyway,
it kind of became a bonus holiday, and with a relatively low cost per day,
since the flight was already covered, if you see what I mean.
I do have quite a bit of footage from Vancouver so
I may end up making a standalone video on it, but if not, all I can say is,
I loved it. And if you were looking at an Alaskan cruise specifically, getting one
that includes Vancouver will add a massive bump to your overall holiday with this added chapter.
We ended our time in Seattle which was great because I probably wouldn’t ever have visited,
and now, I’m really glad I did. The Space Needle was the best lookout tower I’ve been on, really
open, but still protected from the wind, and with a city that is extra interesting from above.
The Chihuly Gardens were uniquely enjoyable too, taking glass blowing to a whole other
level. And the area around the Worlds oldest Starbucks was a fun few hours although there
was no way I’m waiting in that line, no matter if it is the blueprint for modern day coffee shops.
So, if you are looking at a cruise anywhere in the world,
do take into account the starting or finishing port,
not just where you’re headed, as that could add a whole new dimension to your overall trip.
Some quick things I wanted to share in regards to booking excursions with your cruise. 2 of the
ports we stopped at were right by the town, so you could easily walk to the main attractions.
For the one that wasn’t close, in Sitka, they provided busses every 10 minutes to and from
town and they worked really well. If you hadn’t already booked an excursion through Princess,
there were usually vendors on shore, offering the most popular trips. Booking this way
through a vendor will always be a little cheaper, compared to going through your
cruise ship direct . The main benefit you get going direct through Princess, is the ship will
always wait for you, even if an excursion is delayed, so something to keep in mind.
Lastly, I wanted to quickly touch on seasickness. I personally don’t get seasick but I spoke to 2
first time cruisers whilst on board who said they were taking motion sickness pills and
hadn’t had a problem at all. Large cruise ships are stabilised by their size to some extend but
still, there was 1 day I remember when we were in the roughest waters on the trip,
and I could feel the movement. So I think if this was something you really suffer from a lot,
it possibly isn’t worth the risk, but if you only have a mild seasick history, I certainly wouldn’t
rule out a cruise if you’re interested by the idea. Tips for minimising the issue,
are obviously motion sickness medication, but also booking a route with more days
docked and on shore, with less full days at sea to help reduce the overall impact.
If you haven’t seen my full 7 days in Alaska vlog,
I’ll link it here as it gives you more of an idea of what a cruise feels like, especially
as a first timer. And I’ve linked a bunch of helpful related links to everything discussed,
in the description, below the title, along with your specific regional information.
So until the next video, thanks for watching Suitcase Monkey.