Guest on Board for Lunch? Bon Voyage Experience

[topher7]

We're also interested in showing the ship to some friends with a 6 year old daughter in Seattle.

So...the fee is only for the guests? The passengers get the tour etc. without paying the fee? Sorry for asking the question again...I'm blonde and didn't follow the previous responses.

[Ula]

We want to reserve this for my husbands parents. Rich brought it up to them months ago for our November cruise. Getting time to reserve. His mom ran out and got a passport for it. I think they really want to do it.

[Loonbeam]

Passenger and guests pay the fee.. $39 each if avail. There might be a kids price.

 

 

 

 

We're also interested in showing the ship to some friends with a 6 year old daughter in Seattle.

So...the fee is only for the guests? The passengers get the tour etc. without paying the fee? Sorry for asking the question again...I'm blonde and didn't follow the previous responses.

[pris993]

You sign up the guests (not passengers) only, they receive a separate booking #. It costs $39 per guest regardless of age including children. Call Princess to do and be prepared to pay on a credit card to sign folks up. You need name, date of birth, address and the credit card number for the guest account.

 

There is a limit -- only 50 guests allowed on board, so do in advance.

 

Reservations are non transferrable and non refundable.

 

I was given a booking # -- I then entered the required information in the Princess "personalizer" for each guest. I found that I had to enter birth certificates as the form of ID for both adults and the one child I registered because Princess' personalizer was not set up for this program and has to be modified to complete the process for guests. I called Princess to inquire when I could not get the system to accept a California drivers license as ID.

 

We are taking our 6 year old grandson on board and looking forward to sharing this experience with him and his parents.

 

Adults needs a drivers License as ID; child a birth certificate when they come to the port to board.

 

I plan to print their boarding passes in another week, as they are available at the same time passenger boarding passes are available - 75 days in advance of the cruise.

[Almagetty]

We're also interested in showing the ship to some friends with a 6 year old daughter in Seattle.

So...the fee is only for the guests? The passengers get the tour etc. without paying the fee? Sorry for asking the question again...I'm blonde and didn't follow the previous responses.

 

Yes, the fee is only for the guests. The passengers who are sailing do not pay extra but will be cleared to board early and eat lunch with their guests.

[tiyana4]

This sounds like a great program! I would love to be able to surprise my DD's friend with something like this while we are in NY. She will be going on her first cruise with us next summer and I want to give her a taste of what to expect. Unfortunately, we don't know any friends sailing out of NY.

 

Is anyone aware of any cruise lines that offer packages like this without having friends or family onboard that particular sailing?

[scooby girl]

My husband and I went on the cb on june 23rd out of brooklyn. We brought my sister and brother in law for the bon voyage. It was great. The price was $39 each, just for the guests. We arrived at the terminal around 11a.m. Checked in, they brought us to the bon voyage waiting area. We were on the ship at 11:30. They took pictures of us all together as we boarded the ship. We went right to our cabin the took our own tour around the ship. Went to the dining room at 12:30 for lunch. There were quite a few choices on the menu, and a glass of wine was included. They stayed on the ship with us until 4. We picked up the pictures that were taken (the guests 2 pictures were free) Our pictures were $39, wich included a free scrapbook. The $39 fee was applied to the guests account for a future cruise when booked. It was really a great experience! The only problem, they did not want to leave. :)

[West Coast Gal]

tiyana4

I have had lunch and tour on a couple of ships that have been in the area that I knew no one on board. It was something my travel agent had set up and invited people to. My travel agent specializes in cruises.

[tiyana4]

Thanks for the tip. I will check with my TA to see if she can set something up. What cruise line was this that you were able to do the tour?

[Cruisin' Chick]

tiyana4

I have had lunch and tour on a couple of ships that have been in the area that I knew no one on board. It was something my travel agent had set up and invited people to. My travel agent specializes in cruises.

 

The one tour I've had (on a Celebrity ship about four years ago) was something set up by the cruiseline and the TA, I'm guessing. I had seen the invite on another site, but didn't sign up at first as I couldn't bring my child and wasn't about to pay for a kidsitter. A few weeks before the tour, someone dropped out for whatever reason to create a space at the same time, I found out my hubby was going to be off from work. So I took the available spot and immediately sent my DOB and DL number as requested. There was a dress code (no jeans) for this tour and I had to surrender my photo ID before boarding.

 

I had told hubby about what Princess is doing. We discussed that maybe one day when leaving from our home port on a cruise, we'll invite this one couple who have never been on a cruiseship (she tends to have motion sickness, but I do too; the husband is a penny pincher) -- maybe that will get them interested in a cruise. We would probably pay the $70 for them.

[Cruise Raider]

I can see why this option would be quite popular. We met a couple on a Princess cruise up to Alaska several years ago and have cruised with them a couple of times since that time. We live on opposite coasts but meet up in Vegas as often as we can and have visited each other's households.

They came out west last time around and asked when we were going to plan another trip out of Ft Lauderdale. Well, we did just that and are staying at their house on the evening before the cruise. I wish they could go with us but some work scheduling is getting in the way.

I would love to treat them to the Bon Voyage program as a thank you for picking us up at the airport, fixing up a room for us and taking us to the pier...and also just to have a nice relaxing afternoon of spending a little more time with them. They have sailed on Princess almost as many times as we have -- and would probably will sail on them again. Would they still be able to enjoy the $39 credit towards their next cruise if they aren't new to Princess??

I think this would be the perfect way to start our vacation....hopefully there is room on our sailing as I read it is limited to 50.

[Buddy604]

This sounds like a great program! I would love to be able to surprise my DD's friend with something like this while we are in NY. She will be going on her first cruise with us next summer and I want to give her a taste of what to expect. Unfortunately, we don't know any friends sailing out of NY.

 

Is anyone aware of any cruise lines that offer packages like this without having friends or family onboard that particular sailing?

Actually Princess has really pushed this program with Travel Agents to let their clients tour a particular ship before booking. Your agent can either accompany you or you can go and explore by yourself - useful when your agent is 3000 miles away. :D It's the same $39 fee, includes lunch, a tour and a photo.

 

I've had a few clients use it and tried it out myself back in May when I had two guys from our head office join me aboard in between B2B segments in LA. I highly recommend it - and you can use the $39 as a credit toward a booking made within, I believe, 90 days.

[jennifers490]

So you don't even have to know someone on the sailing to sign up and get the tour? That's nice for people in the home port to get a cruise fix for the day :) I guess that answers my question, i was wondering if there was a limit of guests you could bring, I'll be traveling solo on my next trip but had 3 guests that may be interested.

 

thanks,

jennifer

[caribill]

So you don't even have to know someone on the sailing to sign up and get the tour? That's nice for people in the home port to get a cruise fix for the day :) I guess that answers my question, i was wondering if there was a limit of guests you could bring, I'll be traveling solo on my next trip but had 3 guests that may be interested.

 

thanks,

jennifer

 

There is a total limit (around 50 per initital press release) so as long as your guests fit into the total it should be OK.

[tiyana4]

Actually Princess has really pushed this program with Travel Agents to let their clients tour a particular ship before booking. Your agent can either accompany you or you can go and explore by yourself - useful when your agent is 3000 miles away. :D It's the same $39 fee, includes lunch, a tour and a photo.

 

I've had a few clients use it and tried it out myself back in May when I had two guys from our head office join me aboard in between B2B segments in LA. I highly recommend it - and you can use the $39 as a credit toward a booking made within, I believe, 90 days.

 

Thank you for the additional info! Maybe I will be able to do something locally. I live 15 minutes from the Norfolk port and it would be nice to do this from our home port. If not, Baltimore is a few hours drive away. Thanks again.

[mikeinseattle]

Can anyone confirm if they have been able to do this out of Vancouver? I know it is Alaska Cruise season right now and Seattle is definately on the list but I have my fingers crossed that maybe Vancouver departures might also be included.

[Library Lady]

We recently signed up friends to join us on an upcoming cruise. I did not have the birthdate available when I called Princess. That was a mistake -- please read

 

Post #29 by pris93 She has written exactly what needs to be done. I wish I had read her post before I called.

[West Coast Gal]

I have been on the TA / Cruiseline set up luncheons on both Princess and Celebrity.

[aaerobear]

As far as I know it is limited to US ports. May have something to do with customs etc.

[Host CJSKIDS]

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...

 

Did you ever find out if you could do this program without a guest?

[mtaylor04]

Did you ever find out if you could do this program without a guest?

 

I am in complete agreement, I would pay the extra fee to get on early and have lunch in the dining room - anyone want to be our "friends" in Ft Lauderdale on November 18th. :D

[Host CJSKIDS]

I am in complete agreement, I would pay the extra fee to get on early and have lunch in the dining room - anyone want to be our "friends" in Ft Lauderdale on November 18th. :D

 

You do have to have a guest with you. I just booked my son to go onboard with us for the afternoon.

 

You do only pay for the guest, no charges for those already booked on the cruise. Within a minute of hanging up the confirmation showed up.

[tbears]

I highly recommend it - and you can use the $39 as a credit toward a booking made within, I believe, 90 days.

 

Yes, you must use the $39 credit for a future cruise within 90 days. We just booked the Bon Voyage experience for my BF's parents to join us on our Sea Princess cruise to Alaska in Sept. It'll be nice to be able to get onboard early!

[Buddy604]

Can anyone confirm if they have been able to do this out of Vancouver? I know it is Alaska Cruise season right now and Seattle is definately on the list but I have my fingers crossed that maybe Vancouver departures might also be included.

Hi mike, unfortunately, it hasn't been rolled out to international ports yet, though Princess says that's coming eventually.

[sfbear]

Yes, you must use the $39 credit for a future cruise within 90 days. We just booked the Bon Voyage experience for my BF's parents to join us on our Sea Princess cruise to Alaska in Sept. It'll be nice to be able to get onboard early!

 

We have booked the Bon Voyage experience for a special friend of ours who has never been on a cruise, nor (hard to believe) has she seen one of today's cruise ships. She's very excited. We'll be on the Sea Princess - SF/Alaska RT departing Sep. 9th.

 

Would love to hear any comments from those who have done this season's BV on the Sea Princess.

 

See you then ! Rich and Merlyn