First time cruiser on Star Princess-some hints

[Mizwoodym]

I began this discussion while I was on the Star Princess in the Inland Passage last week but the time got away from me. I thought I would mention some of the things I learned as a First time cruiser. Now, I am not saying that this is the way all cruiselines operate. I will just tell you of my observations.

We left from Pier 91 in Seattle. Slow getting to the building but once there there were many people there to help direct us. They will want to see your documents and you will go thru a metal detector and your bags will be xrayed. Get used to that. Every time you return to the ship from a port you will repeat this process.

As you round the corner from the b uilding before you go up the gangway to the ship there will be a photographer to take pics. Take the extra time and put your stuff down, take your sunglasses off and smile for the camera. We were soo overwhelmed by the chaos that we just stood there with our coats over our arms and sunglasses on that when we went to look at the pics we all looked like idiots.

Once up the gangway you will be greeted by the guy selling the coke cards. If you drink soda like a few of our party do, this is a great deal. They put a sticker on your cruise card and every time you ask to order a coke, they will want to see your card. We were then directed up to our room, where we dropped off our stuff and then headed to the Horizon Court Buffet(our second home for the following week :))

There are two buffets set up with tons of food... I mean TONS. There are discussions here about that I am sure. We then returned to our rooms and our luggage was waiting for us. We unpacked and waited for the drill. Our room steward, maria came by and gave us some information, etc. She was really great. Once when I had to have her paged, I swear she was waiting outside the door, she was there in seconds.

Other things you might want to know.

The balcony rooms and good sized with lots of storage. We didnt ring a shoe organizer and didnt really need one. There were drawers in the room where we did store stuff. You may need a power bar for plugging things in if you need to plug in more than three things at once. Bring a clock. The rooms do not have one. The TV has cable movies but there are wo channels that are great. One is basically a fact channel. It shows how many miles we have traveled, the sea condition, the sunset time, etc. The other is the view you would get from the web cam online. The nice addition is that when there are things going on(whales, etc)the Naturalist will be doing a running commentary so you can see what is going on. We would sit on our balcony and listen to what he was saying as we looked out. The bathroom is big enough for one person. The shower is wide enough for a person to stand it.. that is it..It reminded me of the “beam me up, scotty” pods on Star Trek.Be sure to close the toilet when you flush... it make take it with you if you dont...:0. There seemed to be aroudn 12-15 hangers per person in the big closet.

Things to do on the ship.Before I went I thought the Princess Patter would be worthless. That is the daily paper you get slipped under your door each night. It will show you all the things that are going on during the next day. From Trivia to movie listings to stage shows. I loved reading it each evening.

Movies Under The Stars(MUTS)Being that it was mid May in Alaska, we only went to one movie. It was in the morning and the sun was shining. There is a door marked staff right under the screen. If no one is handing out blankets at that time, go knock on that door. Someone will answer and ask them to get you a blanket. A must to keep you warm.

Trivia and other games. We had some really hard core.. and I mean SERIOUS game players...we were playing light heartedly. Its a nice thing to pass the time. We enjoyed it.

Stage shows. A must. It was our 30th Anniversary so my husband went along to the show. It was cute, they even sang the theme to Titanic...haha.

Playing Cards- ask at the Passenger Services desk. If they have any, they will just give you some.

Stores/sales: On the Thursday of our cruise they put tshirts out for sale on Level 7 for $10. they are for each port we visited. That is a good deal. They have a huge clearance sale on the last day of the cruise but they had stuff from ports we hadnt gone to. They had $10 watches and scarfs too.

Tours- We took Princess sponsored tours and were glad we did. Both ours and my sisters tours ran late and if they hadnt been sponsored by Princess, the ship would have sailed without us. The ship called the bus as we were rolling into Skagway and they held the ship.

Ill add more later but this is way too long already.

Any questions I can answer for anyone?

[claz]

How much were the coke card please and are they unlimited drinks?

[paul929207]

Coke sticker is $4.25 per day plus 15% tip. With it you get unlimited fountain sodas. It cannot be used for cans or room service or Princess Cays, if that is on your itinerary.

[nanabells]

I saw a thread about bringing along a coffee mug. I don't drink coffee, but was wondering about bringing a thermos to take water along on my shore excursions? We are going to Cozumel and Belize.