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Guest on Board for Lunch? Bon Voyage Experience

West Coast Gal

By West Coast Gal,
in Princess Cruises

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West Coast Gal

West Coast Gal

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Has anyone done or known someone who has done the new Bon Voyage Experience with the 4 hour lunch and ship tour for $39? I was thinking of having my parents do it in Seattle the day of our departure, but wanted more information on it.

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mississauga

mississauga

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Copied and pasted this from a current Live from the Caribbean Princess by AlaskaGolden. It's on page 2 of his Live. Rather than have you search for it on his thread, I copied it. Hope he doesn't mind.;)

 

 

Yesterday, we arrived at the Brooklyn Pier around 10:45 AM. After dropping off the luggage and parking the car, we checked-in quickly in the Elite line since we were part of the Bon Voyage Experience. We waited about 10 minutes in a special section of the Main Waiting Area before we were escorted on the ship as the first group to board. We waved the Elites and Platinums in their special waiting area as we passed them!

 

We got our pictures taken by the ship’s photographers and then boarded the ship. We waited again once we boarded the ship, and then were offered to have an escorted tour of the ship as part of the Bon Voyage Experience. It was now about 11:30 AM, and since we had 5 carry-on pieces of luggage, we opted-out of the tour. Why would you want to tour the ship shlepping your carry-ons with you?

 

Anyway, we went to our room, dropped off our luggage and headed up to the Sanctuary to sign-up for the cruise-length pass. We picked two loungers in the shade right at the front of the ship. Let’s hope they’re not too windy; there is some protection.

 

We then did our own tour of the ship with me leading the way before heading to Coral Dining Room for lunch. Lunch for the three of us was a cold shrimp appetizer, garden salad, a delicious spinach/pasta dish, perfectly prepared baked salmon, apple tart tatin and fresh fruit. Alex had a glass of the house white wine—complimentary as part of the Bon Voyage Experience.

 

After lunch, which took over an hour, we headed back to the room to change for the pool. Alex and Joe wanted to see the FIFA World Cup Soccer (Uruguay vs. Ghana) starting at 2:30 on MUTS. I tried to go in the pool, but it was very cold! Went in the hot tub instead which wasn’t very hot, but at least it was warmer than the pool!

 

Since Alex had to be off the ship by 4 PM, we headed back to the room to change. Just as Alex was ready to leave we remembered the boarding picture which was included in his package. We got to the photo area just as they were closing in preparation for the Muster Drill, but they gave us three copies of the boarding picture with the three of us. I thought this was very nice, and the price of the three pictures would have been more than the cost of the entire Bon Voyage Experience!

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BosoxI

BosoxI

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Has anyone done or known someone who has done the new Bon Voyage Experience with the 4 hour lunch and ship tour for $39? I was thinking of having my parents do it in Seattle the day of our departure, but wanted more information on it.

 

We did it for my DS and BIL last month on the CB. Very nice, well worth it, and the tour on that particular ship was excellent because of the guide and because there were only 12 of us in the group. A large group would be unwieldy and not as informative.

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mississauga

mississauga

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our bon voyage experience was very similar to missisaugua's. i think your parents would like to see where you are vacationing. have they been on a cruise before?

 

LOL, no it wasn't me! I copied and pasted AlaskaGolden's experience. Not trying to take the credit.:eek:

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Colo Cruiser

Colo Cruiser

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News Article

 

 

2/11/2010

 

 

Princess Revives Nostalgic Cruising Tradition with New Bon Voyage Experience

Passengers Can Once Again Invite Friends and Family Aboard Ship On Embarkation Day

 

SANTA CLARITA, Calif. (February 11, 2010) -- Reviving a signature tradition from the early days of cruising, Princess Cruises is debuting an innovative, new program giving passengers the opportunity to invite their friends and family aboard their ship on embarkation day to wish them "bon voyage" and get a taste of the onboard experience.

Called the "Bon Voyage ExperienceSM," the program is a new twist on the departure celebration of bygone days, when friends and family would routinely come aboard to see off passengers. Because of increasingly tighter security procedures, this practice disappeared more than two decades ago, but it's now back -- complete with lunch in the dining room and tour of the ship.

Unique in the cruise industry, the Bon Voyage Experience enables passengers to extend an invitation to their guests to join them onboard during sailing day for a four-course dining room lunch with wine, a ship tour and even a souvenir photo. Passengers and their guests can enjoy priority embarkation and will be able to spend approximately four hours together on the ship before it sets sail. The cost for the program is $39 per person, which can be applied toward a future Princess cruise.

The program will debut in March in the ports of Los Angeles and Fort Lauderdale, and then roll out to New York, San Francisco and Seattle.

"Long-time cruisers will recall the fun of the bon voyage send-off with their family and friends, and we're excited to re-introduce a new, modern version of this experience," said Jan Swartz, Princess Cruises executive vice president.

Cruise passengers will be notified about the program through the pre-cruise emails they receive from Princess as their cruise date approaches. In-port guests can be booked through a travel agent or by calling 1-800-PRINCESS, beginning 120 days before the cruise and up to six days before the sailing date. Once registered, guests will be able to input their required security information through the line's Cruise Personalizer.

The number of guests who will be able to participate in the Bon Voyage Experience on any given embarkation day will be approximately 50.

The roll-out schedule for the launch of the Bon Voyage Experience is: Sapphire Princess -- March 6 in Los Angeles

Crown Princess -- March 6 in Fort Lauderdale

Coral Princess -- March 7 in Los Angeles

Emerald Princess -- March 7 in Fort Lauderdale

Island Princess -- March 10 in Fort Lauderdale

Ruby Princess -- March 10 in Fort Lauderdale

Golden Princess -- March 14 in Los Angeles

Royal Princess -- March 27 in Fort Lauderdale

Star Princess -- April 10 in Fort Lauderdale

Caribbean Princess -- May 18 in New York

Sea Princess -- June 1 in San Francisco

During the Alaska season, Sapphire Princess, Golden Princess and Royal Princess will offer the program in Seattle, beginning in May.

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capriccio

capriccio

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Before and after our October cruise on the Emerald we plan to visit (mooch off) my brother and sister-in-law in Pompano Beach. They've never cruised before but with the youngest finally in college we think this may convince them. It is a great little 'thank you' gift for them too.

 

Although the online instructions said to contact either your TA or Princess, our TA referred me directly to Princess. Signing up couldn't be simpler: just ask for the Bon Voyage Experience desk, provide the guests' details (names, address, phone number, email address) and a credit card number for the $39 (per guest) fee. The customer service rep said they needed to go into Cruise Personalizer and enter their ID info and (when the time gets nearer) download their boarding passes. She instructed us to be ready to board at 10:45 am. Within minutes my brother received a confirmation email.

 

All of us are very excited.

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popper

popper

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we signed our friend up for this on the Sapphire in March (LA - Mexican Riviera). One of the biggest benefits is we were all among the first 20 people on board - originally we were in group 2 boarding. I would pay $39 for early boarding anyway!

She didnt opt for the tour, but we toured the ship ourselves, had lunch in a main dining room (she got free alcoholic drink with lunch), got complimentary 8x10 photo of our group of 4 boarding.

I thought it was a very good idea and hope we can find someone to join us Dec 18th in Fort Lauderdale so we can get early boarding!!!

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Colo Cruiser

Colo Cruiser

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That is great information, I was wondering how early we would be able to get on board. Also the info on what you did to book was fabulous. With the lunch and the tour, did it really take 4 hours?

 

Some who have done this say you get on before everone else.

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Ula

Ula

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We want to do this with my husbands parents. Just have to sign them up in time. His mom does not like to travel but loves fancy service. They are in their 80's and we think they would get great joy out of the event.

Might get his mom into cruising. She is very active.

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cdngrl

cdngrl

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We want to do this with my husbands parents. Just have to sign them up in time. His mom does not like to travel but loves fancy service. They are in their 80's and we think they would get great joy out of the event.

Might get his mom into cruising. She is very active.

 

she just may love it! and the only travel is to get to/from the port. that can be very tiring. but after that she'll get to sit back and look at all the other ports and cities and princess does the travelling for her. that may just be the way she should look at it. i hope she loves it and you have introduced her to a new hobby!

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Denali2003

Denali2003

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We did it on the Royal Princess this past April. 2 friends of ours had just gotten off the Crown Princess the same day we were boarding the Royal. They joined us. They liked it because they will be on the Royal this November and wanted to see what it was like. It was nice spending time with them. We had not seen them since last November. We met them on our cruise in November.

It's a great way for someone who has never seen a cruise ship before - or will be going on that particular ship (which ever one) in the future and wants to see how it is. Only the NON passengers pay the $39 each.

We had lunch first then toured the ship on our own. You do get a free picture. In our case when we did the Embarkation picture, we had our friends in the picture. That was the ones they gave us. They had 2 different styles of the picture. Us & our friends each got a set. We thought that was very nice. Not sure if each ship that does the Bon Voyage luncheon does that our not.

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AlaskaGolden

AlaskaGolden

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We just did the Bon Voyage experience. It is a great value at $39! In addition to lunch in the Dining Room, our Bon Voyager received a glass of house wine (red or white, I think it was Woodbrdge), and three pictures of the Embarkation photo--one for each of us!

 

We skipped the ship's Bon Voyage Tour before lunch and just did a tour of the ship on our own after lunch. We then changed into our swim trunks for a swim in the pool as we watched a FIFA World Cup Soccer Game. Our Bon Voyager had to be off the ship by 4 PM. We boarded around 11:30 AM, so we got spend about 5 1/2 hours together.

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Loonbeam

Loonbeam

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Hmm.

 

Can you do it without a guest? It would actually work really well with our schedule for our next cruise, we get into the area fairly early, but not early enough to do anything special, and personally I'd rather eat lunch on the ship early than at the terminal...

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