Your First Princess Cruise

Posted By Mark on Dec 13, 2008

As you may very well possibly be aware (I may have mentioned it once or twice), we recently went on a cruise to The Far East on the Princess Cruises line. It was to be our first ever cruise and, not wishing to spend the entire honeymoon in a constant state of surprise, we cleverly (we thought) approached my new parents-in-law and enquired as to what to expect on our luxury sailing vacation since they were – and still are – old hands at this cruising malarkey. The information they showered upon us was – it turned out – borderline useless, verging on the criminally negligent. But don’t worry: our near-constant state of surprise and frequent nautical faux pas didn’t entirely detract from a fantastic trip after all and I’ve returned with only minor thoughts of cold, cold revenge on my cruise intelligence-deficient in-laws. My major thoughts – you’ll no doubt be thrilled to hear – are to expel from my brain tissue such cruising knowledge as I have recently absorbed, both to make room for this year’s hot new minimalist cranium look and to prevent any future cruise virgins with the good taste to find this site from making any of the mistakes we made. So, if you’re about to be a first-time cruiser or you’re cruising for the second time but some time between your first trip and this upcoming one you were hit on the head by a tortoise and have suffered debilitating memory loss ever since, then this guide to what to expect when you go cruising may be just what you need. Or you might be able to cancel or exchange for a skiing holiday in the Alps. Perhaps you’re pretentious. The information in this guide to your first Princess cruise is based on my time aboard the Diamond Princess, Voyage M834 to the Far East, November 2008. If you are incapable of moving back in time to travel with me then your experience may differ. Money A cruise costs quite a lot of money. When you look in the brochure you’ll probably think: Golly gosh! That’s quite a lot of money! A pricey sum and no mistake! And yet if you break down the cost of the cruise on a per day basis it actually works out to still cost quite a lot of money. But that doesn’t include any of the drinks you’ll be buying or the sneakily hidden automatic tipping (we’ll talk more on this in a minute) or any of the tours you’ll want to do. Including these additional expenses, a cruise actually turns out to cost quite a lot...