Ultimate Ship Tour – UTS -- Review'ish

Ultimate Ship Tour – UTS

The Cost is $150 USD.

I signed up on the first day on the ship. I have read that the tour can fill up quickly on some cruises. The tour was scheduled for Day 7 the last seaday of a 7 day Mexican Riviera Cruise on January 12, 2018 at 8:15am. One of cruise director's staff, Martin, gave the tour.

We met outside the Princess Theatre. From there we went to the mooring lines andanchor. An Officer spoke of how theanchor works and the color of the chain links. The Officer told a story about how they picked up another anchor whilein Rhode Island and had to cut if off of the other ship’s anchor with a blowtorch. That anchor was originally cutfrom another ship when it was caught on something on the bottom. It had been down there for 15 years. A photo was taken of the group with this officer

The next location was the Princess Theatre back stagearea. The Technical Stage Manager talkedabout the sets, how the stage moves, lowers, etc. How the productions go from drawing board,script, dancers practice at the Santa Clarita, California dance studio.

Dressing Rooms were next. We took a photo with two of the dances in makeup and costume. There is an impressive dry cleaning type rackwith all of the costumes that goes up three decks. Whenever rack is going to move, they have toyell so that no one gets caught up in it. They use lots of Fabreeze because they cannot clean the costumes aftereach performance because they would wear out too fast. Many of the costumes have been bedazzled withreal crystals so they are very difficult to clean.

Galley was amazing how the food is prepared. We went to the DaVinci dining room’s galleyon deck 5. The Chef walked us aroundshowing the butter ball prep. The ButterLady makes butter balls for three hours each morning with a tiny ice cream scooper. The soup prep has huge vatscooking. All of the bread is baked freshdaily in their bakery. There is a pastrysection as well. There are several galleys. Some galleys prepare certain dishes to make it more efficient and nothave redundancies with work and to keep the tastes consistent. At the end they had a non-alcoholic drink andchocolate covered strawberries, and several other tasty goodies for us to try.

Food Storage area is very cold and huge. We were in the fresh veg frig, long with theloading area. The Officer in charge toldhow they have to test each bit of fresh food to ensure that it is good. One time a load of water was so over ripethat you could put your finger through it. When this happens, they have to refuse the entire load and the vendorneeds to send a new load before the ship leaves port. They only take food from the United States includingUS Beef. Everything is ordered two orthree months in advance.

Medical Center is very impressive. I hope to never had to need it. There are two doctors, two EMTs and three orfour nurses on board. They have a full pharmacy,including Tamiflu. A lab to test foralmost anything that you could have wrong with you. X-Ray, five exam rooms, one is used as theIntensive Care Unit.

Laundry area is huge and has several different areas oflarge washers, dryers and folding machines. The sheets are not run through the dryer instead they have a giant drying/foldingmachine. They feed the wet sheets in oneend and they come out the other end dry and folded. There is a towel folding machine as well, butthey towels are already dry. The drycleaning area is very similar to that we have on land but they use more eco-friendlychemicals instead. They also have atailor to fix anything that needs fixing. The laundry is below the water line on deck 2. The movement was notably less any other deck.

The Photography processing area has two copier sized photoprinters. They print until aboutmidnight each night the photos taken.

Print Shop has a kind of old fashioned looking printingpress. The cabin stewards fold the patters before they leave them in your cabin.

M1 the long pathway that goes pretty much bow to stern

Crew Mess has three different areas depending on the type ofemployee. There are three differentlocations – Crew, Staff and Officer. The crew eat the same food as we do, except for the lobster.

Human Resources/Payroll is on the M1. Florist shop is very small area with one person. We just did a small “drive by” wave.

Bridge area was very interesting to me. The Captain showed us the computer equipment,introduced the officers and they even have two people as look outs. The look outs are constantly scanning theseas and reporting anything they see including land, other marine traffic andany sea life. When they see whales,which were migrating during this voyage, they slow down to avoid any collisions. The Captain stated that any collisions are usuallywith whales that are sick or already dead. He showed us the old fashioned flags that get put up to show that theyare taking on fuel, while in port. The Sextantis still there even though computers are used for navigation. There is still a law that someone on thebridge needs to know how to use it properly. A photo was taken of us with the Captain. The three women, including myself, were givenofficer hats to wear during the photo.

Adagio, very quiet bar where you can read a book and have adrink, was our last stop where they had chocolate covered strawberries andglass of champagne for us. Since I donot drink, I had cranberry juice and water. Some other did the same. Duringthis time the cruise staff member answered many questions about himself andabout the ship etc.

They were doing maintenance in the control area so we couldnot go to that location.

Many of the crew who never see passengers seemed very happyto have us. They enjoyed showing usaround and loved that we clapped at the end. I was also amazed with how clean and tidy everything is. No junk lying around. Everything had a place and was secured.

Later that day a gift bag was delivered to my cabin with aPrincess Robe, Princess Chef Apron, Photo Frame and the three photos takenduring the tour.

I would do this tour again on a different ship. There are a lot of stairs to go up and down. We walked from front to back and many places in the middle. My Fitbit said I walked about 2,000 steps during the tour. We only took the stairs and an elevator once at the end to go up to Adagio. Just as a warning to those who are step and stair challenged. The tour was about 3 hours and 15 minutes.

Have they eliminated the trip to the stacks, behind the Seawitch logo way up top?

Very informative. Thank you so much!

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

Have they eliminated the trip to the stacks, behind the Seawitch logo way up top?

We did not go up there.

My husband has signed up on our previous cruises but was never picked in the "lottery". We recently sailed to the Panama Canal on the Coral Princess and he went on the Ultimate Ship Tour and loved it. He was very upset though when others were invited to take pictures on the tour when the written guidelines for the tour that he received prior to the tour stated... absolutely no pictures. He would have taken his camera had he of known. He also did not take his phone since he knew no pictures were allowed. It also stated that anyone that could not walk freely should not take this tour. Needless to say the directions were not read on this either and he ended up helping two ladies that could not go up/down steps. In spite of those two negatives... he loved the tour.

My husband has signed up on our previous cruises but was never picked in the "lottery". We recently sailed to the Panama Canal on the Coral Princess and he went on the Ultimate Ship Tour and loved it. He was very upset though when others were invited to take pictures on the tour when the written guidelines for the tour that he received prior to the tour stated... absolutely no pictures. He would have taken his camera had he of known. He also did not take his phone since he knew no pictures were allowed. It also stated that anyone that could not walk freely should not take this tour. Needless to say the directions were not read on this either and he ended up helping two ladies that could not go up/down steps. In spite of those two negatives... he loved the tour.

I had heard about the tour filling up so I trotted right to the cruise desk to sign up. I was number 3 on the list. If you want to take the tour, sign up right away. They said that sometimes the tour does not go because not enough people sign up. They can have up to 15 and we only had 8. No one brought any cameras nor did anyone try to take any photos. I left my mobile phone and camera in the cabin. The tour was totally worth it for me. I would have paid for my son (age 24) to join me, but he did not want to be up and down there by 8:15am.

Very good Review, we did it on the golden Dec16 and was pretty much the same except we did go to the control room, and was a bit over 3 and half hours.

I agreed well worth doing

Cheers Don

We did the UST on a different ship last year. It was, as you say, totally worth the cost.

BUT you got more information than we got on our tour and we didn't get drinks & strawberries.

I've always thought it can't be interesting enough to be worth $150. But your post tells me I am wrong. I think I would love to take it. Just curious-how bulky is the robe they give you? We travel with carry on only so don't have extra luggage space.

I've always thought it can't be interesting enough to be worth $150. But your post tells me I am wrong. I think I would love to take it. Just curious-how bulky is the robe they give you? We travel with carry on only so don't have extra luggage space.

The robe is very nice - and very bulky. It is much nicer - and much more bulky - than the one provided for use by non-suite passengers in the cabin.

We did this several years ago on a Hawaii cruise. After we visited the bridge we were invited by Captain Nash to his stateroom for tea! What a delight that was. We felt it was totally worth the price. We were able to go up into the funnel.

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

I'm not one who parts easily with money ;) but we did the UST on the Regal in 2016 with Commodore Guiseppe Romano. Money well spent.

Have done the tour on both Grand Princess and Royal Princess... loved both.. would do it again 100%

Sent from my iPad using Forums

I've always thought it can't be interesting enough to be worth $150. But your post tells me I am wrong. I think I would love to take it. Just curious-how bulky is the robe they give you? We travel with carry on only so don't have extra luggage space.

Same robe you get in the standard balcony cabin. Waffle pattern in white. The picture frame weighs more than the robe.

These are photos taken by my iPad of the robe, apron and frame. Also the three photos taken by the ship’s photographer

Robe

Sent from my iPad using Forums

Apron and frame

Three photos taken during the tour. Back stage in the dressing room, in the mooring area and on the bridge

Sent from my iPad using Forums

I understand that there is a jail on board, and I am curious as to what it looks like, but no one has mentioned seeing it on the tour. Is there a jail, and if so, did anyone see it on a tour?

I understand that there is a jail on board, and I am curious as to what it looks like, but no one has mentioned seeing it on the tour. Is there a jail, and if so, did anyone see it on a tour?

We never saw a jail or anything like it. But the ship is huge and we could have passed it behind a closed door.

Sent from my iPad using Forums

Very interesting and thorough explanation of the ship’s tour.

Thank you for posting !

He was very upset though when others were invited to take pictures on the tour when the written guidelines for the tour that he received prior to the tour stated... absolutely no pictures. He would have taken his camera had he of known.

Different cruise lines have different rules about photography on this type tour.

a) Princess says no photos, but if you bring a camera and ask as you go along, you can take photos in some areas including the Bridge. Definitely not in the Engine Control Room.

b) Carnival says absolutely, positively no, nada, noway. You need to turn in any cameras or cell phones for safekeeping before the tour starts. You also get wanded and pass by a metal detector to be sure you do not have any such devices. The wanding is at the start of the tour, before the Engine Control Room and before the Bridge.

c) Celebrity encourages you to bring your cameras/cell phones and to take photos everywhere including the Engine Control Room.

Terrific review.

Keith

Same robe you get in the standard balcony cabin. Waffle pattern in white. The picture frame weighs more than the robe.

On the Star in 2015, we received the thick terry cloth robe. Thankfully, we drove to the port, so just another thing to carry off the ship.

Were you actually taken to the crew mess, or did they just talk about there being different ones? We did not get to see them on our tour.

I understand that there is a jail on board, and I am curious as to what it looks like, but no one has mentioned seeing it on the tour. Is there a jail, and if so, did anyone see it on a tour?

Typically, the jail (brig in nautical terms) is merely a small room off the Security Office. About 6 x 10, bunk, sink, toilet.

Question for OP. I don't see mention of the Engine Control Room, doesn't Princess go there on the tour? For me, that would be a deal breaker, but then again, I would prefer to spend the whole tour there nattering with the Chief.

Culvercitycruiser-thanks for the photos. Pretty sure I want to do this. I'll just have to find a way to make a little extra room in my carry on. :D