Lessons
Learned
We
have learned a few things from previous World Cruises that might be helpful to
others. One of the biggest things is
this isn’t your typical cruise. Many,
many, many things are different and call for a little prior planning.
·
Over packing—We did this on both the
previous World Cruises. Too many clothes
were packed for our cruise. Looking at
the upcoming itinerary, almost all of it is to relatively warm weather and won’t
require different clothing (warm and cold).
Second, many passengers purchase clothing as we visit unique ports of
call. DON’T FORGET to leave some extra
room in your luggage to bring home all the little items you may pick up along
the 111-day journey.
·
Best Side of Ship—On this cruise, we
chose the Starboard side, since we prefer not having to deal with the afternoon
sun over heating the stateroom. This
will apply to most of the itinerary.
Pacific Princess in Aruba
·
Laundry Room—The one laundry room on
Deck 7 of the Pacific Princess can get a little busy, especially on sea
days. Plan on doing laundry at off times
or while in port. The laundry room has
been expanded to include 8 complete washer/dryer sets. In this photo the second set of 4 washer/dryer
units is behind Cindy.
·
Closet Storage—This is one of the
biggest limitations to the Pacific Princess.
One closet contains the mini fridge.
What we did was relocate this fridge and put it below the desk so we
could regain some storage space.
Also,
we utilized metal cascading hangers to hold more clothing.
·
Stateroom Walls—The walls of the
staterooms are metal. This will allow
you to utilize small magnets to hold maps, papers, etc. We use larger magnets to hold a small cloth
shoe hanger for Band-Aids, medical supplies, sun screen, scissors, eyeglass
repair kit, etc., etc., etc. Some of the
newer magnets are the size of pencil erasers and can hold lots of weight.
·
Passport Pages and Expiration—We have
found that you really need lots of unused Passport pages. It seems that the immigration officials in
many countries like to stamp on a new page instead of using a partially full
page. Most countries require that you
have 6 open pages, but we highly recommend many more. Also, your Passport should be valid for a
minimum of 6 months prior to entering some countries.
·
Travel Insurance—Can’t recommend travel
insurance enough. On the 2012 World
Cruise, Cindy broke her foot in Shanghai, China. The ship was gracious enough to allow us to
continue on the World Cruise and not return home. Our expenses utilizing the Ship Medical
Facilities far exceeded the price of the Princess Insurance. We utilized Princess Travel Protection, which
we have found is less expensive and gives you double the protection if you are
a Princess Ruby, Platinum, or Elite passenger.
Additionally, you can expect that some passengers will come on board with
upper respiratory infections and it spreads rapidly. In 2012 almost everyone got this and most went
to see the Ship Doctor.
·
Discounted Internet Minutes---Beside the
Internet minutes you receive as a Platinum or Elite passenger, you can purchase,
prior to departure 1100 minutes at a substantial discount. This package is only available for the World
Cruise and you must contact Princess to purchase this package.
·
Excursions—If you plan to use excursions
offered by Princess, it is a good idea to book these as soon as they become
available. The most popular excursions
will get sold out almost immediately.
