Why Princess Cruise Line?

Picking a cruise line to cruise with is something like picking the mate you want to live with. You need to find out how your personalities match, both with a selected mate, and also with the cruise line or ship you choose.

While cruise lines may try to persuade travelers they can offer an all-things-to-all-people onboard experience, we're increasingly seeing them carve out distinctive lifestyle niches. Still, picking the perfect cruise line or ship -- like choosing the perfect love match -- can be tricky. Even the same cruise line can offer different experiences based on the age and size of a ship and the destination and time of year you're sailing. 

Similar to hotels, there are four main classes of cruise ships:

★★★ Mainstream cruise lines are the most affordable and they tend to have a lot more resort style ships offering water parks, climbing walls, etc. and tend to target and attract families and a younger crowd. While we would have been more attracted to this type of cruising years ago, or if we were taking children with us, we feel we would probably would not partake of many of these activities today. Because of the families and younger crowds, you will also experience more children running around and perhaps a more loud party atmosphere crowd onboard, neither of which we are attracted to. Cruise lines in this category are: Royal Caribbean, Carnival, Norwegian Cruise Line, and MSC.

★★★★ Premium cruise lines are more expensive than Mainstream cruise line and offer a wide range of accommodations to consider, such as balcony and suite options. They provide a slightly more premium experience and tend to have more of a traditional cruising experience and more bells and whistles and features. Cruise lines in this category are: Celebrity, Princess, Cunard, and Holland America.

★★★★★ Luxury cruise lines tend to operate slightly smaller ships and they tend to go to more unique and different ports than Premium lines. They offer a much more luxurious experience, are slightly more all inclusive, and offer a wide range of accommodation types. Cruise lines in this category include: Azamara, Oceania, and Windstar.

★★★★★★ Ultra-Luxury cruise lines label themselves as six star cruise lines and are typically have all suite accommodations, butler service, all inclusive, and a more personalized service. Cruise lines in this category are: Seabourn, Silversea, Regent Seven Seas, and Crystal.

On a Princess Cruise you are mostly likely to be on the ship with the following guests:

• American. This is the largest group of cruisers in the world, and Princess is popular with US based travelers. The experience and ambiance has a strong American bias. You will though find a large mixture of nationalities, but with English as the onboard language there is a natural bias towards these countries.

• Older (average age is 57 years old) especially on longer cruises and when schools are in session.

• Couples, but a good representation of solo travelers.

• On cruises heading to beach and sunshine areas you will have more families during times when schools are on break.

While we cannot make judgments on other cruise lines besides Princess Cruises, because we have not sailed on them, we do love the crowd, atmosphere, and size of their Royal Class ships. On our past  cruises we spoke to a lot of veteran cruisers who have sailed with multiple cruise lines and their overwhelming consensus was that Princess Cruises was a more affordable and better alternative to the other cruise lines in its premium class. Unknowingly we stumbled upon a cruise line and class of ships that fit our lifestyle and feel we have met the perfect mate in doing so. I guess we are the older American couple who loves the beach and sunshine!

Gary Bembride (a popular cruise youtuber) visits the 4 main classic premium cruise lines (Princess Cruises, Holland America, Celebrity Cruises and Cunard Cruise Line) to see how they have changed, what makes them different to each other, and who they are now best for in the video below

Top 10 Things We Love About Princess Cruises

1. Food! The food choices and quality on a Princess Cruise ship are top notch. Whether you are dining in one of the Main Dining Rooms or a Specialty Restaurant, or even grabbing a bite at the buffet or some of the other smaller food cafes onboard the ship you will find top quality food which is handmade to perfection. Now with Dine My Way   experience, dining onboard is reimagined.

2. Activities and Entertainment! You should never find yourself bored on a Princess Cruise. There is always something going on and they offer many things to satisfy your quest for activity and entertainment. The show productions are high quality and filled with a passion to entertain you.

3. OceanMedallion™. This high tech wearable device will streamline your  cruise in ways you might not imagine. We love what it can do to make our cruise more seamless.

4. MedallionNet. While it is nice to get off of the grid and just enjoy life, it is also nice to share your adventure with others back home and the super fast Medallion Net internet onboard is an awesome feature.

5. Movies Under the Stars. The movies shown in the evening are current movies being shown in movie theaters. It is nice to cuddle up together under a cozy blanket and enjoy a movie together. During the day they show concerts or documentaries to entertain the whole family.

6. Mature Travelers. Princess Cruise passengers are typically older so there is much less of a party atmosphere or kids constantly running underfoot as there may be on other cruise lines. This type of cruise fits our lifestyle perfectly.

7. Elegant Décor. We love the distinctive upscale contemporary design of the Princess Ships featuring marble, brass, and fine wood.

8. Piazza. We love spending time in the Piazza area, whether it is enjoying a small string quartet or just people watching. There are many small eateries in the area to grab a bite and a cup of coffee to enjoy some relaxing time together.

9. Crew.  The ships crew is always friendly and helpful. It makes the whole vacation so much more relaxing when you don't have any stress.

10. Romantic Environment. Perhaps all of the above combine to make a Princess Cruise a romantic place to be with your partner. It is great to share such an adventure with the one you love.

Who are Princess Cruises?

Princess Cruises started sailing in 1965 with a single ship that cruised from the United States to Mexico.  Princess Cruises and the “seawitch” logo first became famous in 1977 when one of the Princess ships, Pacific Princess, was cast in a starring role on a new television show called “The Love Boat”. The weekly series, which introduced millions of viewers to the concept of a sea-going vacation, was an instant hit and Princess Cruises has remained synonymous with cruising ever since. The show, which can still be seen around the world, has been widely credited with fueling the dramatic expansion of the cruise industry. You will be reminded of this TV show whenever a Princess ship leaves a port as  they play the "Love Boat" theme song on the ships horns!

By 2023 Princess Cruises will have 15 ships in its fleet carrying more than one million passengers annually. This makes it one of the fourth largest cruises line in the world based on passengers after Carnival, Royal Caribbean and Norwegian cruise Line.

The Princess line is based in Santa Clarita, California and is owned by the huge Carnival Cruise Corporation. They also own other cruise lines including Carnival, Holland America, Seabourn, AIDA, Costa, and P&O Cruises.

The Princess Cruise ships range in size from mid-sized vessels like the 2,000 passenger “Coral Princess” to the larger mega "Royal" ships, like the “Sky Princess” with 3,660 passenger capacity. To review the entire fleet visit princess.com/ships-and-experience/ships/. In 2024 Princess will be launching their newest  sphere class ship, which was recently named the Sun Princess, which will be their largest ship (passenger capacity of 4,300) with a whole new layout to explore.

If you have never been on a cruise ship before you may have a preconceived idea that they are very crowded and you will feel claustrophobic while onboard. In reality, because of their huge size they are very spacious and it feels more like you're at a large resort hotel. Many times on our previous cruises we have wondered to ourselves "where is everyone?" as we walked around the ship at times. If an area does become crowded because of a special event happening there you will always be able to find some quiet spots away from everyone else to be by yourself if that is what you desire. 

Most of the Princess fleet of ships provide more of a premium and luxurious cruising experience which promote entertainment, activities, and dining experiences tailored to typically older (average age is 57 years old) passengers without the water park resort feel to them.

Princess Cruise line is recognized as an industry innovator, having introduced many new features and programs through the years that were so well received they were later adopted by many other lines and became standard throughout the industry. Innovations such as affordable balconies on many of the ship’s outside cabins, 24-hour dining, and a choice dining venues and flexible dining times.  Princess ships also debuted features such as Movies Under the Stars poolside theaters, The Sanctuary adults-only oasis, and the Chef’s Table dining experience. The line's newest Royal Class ships, debuted features such as an over-water SeaWalk, a new Princess Live!; and a special Chef’s Table Lumiere dining space that surrounds diners in a curtain of light. 

Princes Cruises realizes that your vacation cruise time is valuable, so they strive to always provide exceptional service to you. As part of that commitment, they have introduced the "Princess Promise". They are confident about their services, and if you're not satisfied, they will make it right, or refund you the value of that service. Crew members are empowered to resolve issues then and there, when the can, and will work with you to find a solution to your issue. 

About this Princess Ship

This cruise is aboard the Sky Princess, a Princess Royal Class ship which came into the Princess Cruise fleet in 2019. This ship is similar in size to other Royal Class sister ships in the Princess fleet which includes the Royal Princess (2013), the Regal Princess (2014), the Majestic Princess (2017), the Enchanted Princess (2021) and the Discovery Princess (2022). The ship elevates the distinctive, upscale contemporary design utilizing marble, brass, and fine wood décor and luxurious attractions found on the other renowned Royal Class Ships. We have previously sailed upon the Regal Princess in 2019, the Sky Princess in 2020, and the Enchanted Princess during our 2022 spring cruise and we can attest to these ship's "Royal" designation as being a premium cruising experience. We expect no less with this Sky Princess cruise.

The Sky Princess has a capacity of 3,660 guests (based upon double occupancy), with a crew of 1,346 staff. With a tonnage of 145,000 Gross Tons, a length of 1,080 feet, a beam of 126 feet, it sports 19 decks, 15 of which are accessible to guests. Powered by four Finnish made Wärtsilä  marine diesel-electric genset engines (model 46F, 2 x 12V and 2 x 14V) with combined power output 62.4 megawatts (83,700 HP), the ship can cruise at a speed of 22 knots (25 mph). The propulsion system is based on two azipods with combined power output of 18 megawatts (24,000 HP).

The Sky Princess will be commanded during our cruise by Captain Heikki Laakkonen from the coastal town of Kotka, Finland. He began his illustrious career in the Finnish Navy. Since joining the Princess team in 2001, he has commanded 9 of their ships. 

Fun facts: It took 3 million man hours to build the Sky Princess and used 37,000 tons of steel. Over 95,000 gallons of paint were used on this vessel (which is two times more the quantity consumed to paint the Golden Gate Bridge). The electrical cables wiring the ship are 2,484 miles long which is enough to link New York City and Los Angeles. The Sky Princess was built by Fincantieri shipyards in Monfalcone, Italy at a cost of $760,000,00.

The videos below gives you a deck by deck tour of the Sky Princess 

About the Chosen Cruise Itinerary 

The dates and itinerary selected gives us the opportunity to spend a bit of time in Florida before or after the cruise and perhaps take in some Twins spring training baseball in Fort Myers. 

The chosen cruise itinerary  onboard the Sky Princess will be visiting some areas we have visited before and some new islands to explore and enjoy. 

This 14 day cruise leaves Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale, Florida on Saturday February 25, 2023 and visits the Western and Eastern Caribbean. Times shown below are on "ships time" and may vary from local port times. Announcements will be made to remind you of time changes. Map illustration may contain port order and/or port substitutions, please review itinerary list below for actual list of ports. Port arrival and departure times are approximate and subject to change without notice per the Princess Passage Contract. 

Sat, Feb 25 Fort Lauderdale

Depart: 04:00 pm

Sun, Feb 28 At Sea

Mon, Feb 27 Cozumel, Mexico

Arrive: 07:00 am

Depart: 05:00 pm

Tue, Feb 28 Roatan, Hondorus

 Arrive: 9:00 am

Depart: 7:00 pm

Wed, Mar 1         Belize City, Belize

Arrive: 07:00 am

Depart: 06:00 pm

Thu, Mar 2   Costa Maya (Mahahual), Mexico

Arrive: 07:00 am

Depart: 05:00 pm

Fri, Mar 3 At Sea

Sat, Mar 4 Fort Lauderdale, Florida

Arrive: 06:00 am

Depart: 04:00 pm

Sun, Mar 5 Princess Cays, Bahamas (private beach)

Arrive: 09:00 am

Depart: 04:00 pm

Mon, Mar 6 At Sea

Tue, Mar 7 San Juan, Puerto Rico

Arrive: 07:00 am

Depart: 05:00 pm

Wed, Mar 8 Amber Cove, Dominican Republic 

Arrive: 09:00 am

Depart: 06:00 pm

Thu, Mar 9 Grand Turk, Turks & Caicos

Arrive: 07:00 am

Depart: 05:00 pm

Fri, Mar 10 At Sea

Sat, Mar 11 Fort Lauderdale, Florida

Arrive: 06:00 am

To help answer questions you may have about taking a cruse, Princess Cruises has created a Cruise Answer Book to try to answer  questions you may have.

About the Princess OceanMedallion and MedallionClass Experience

To make the most out of our cruises we have come to love the Princess MedallionClass experience featuring the OceanMedallion™. It allows us to experience a more personalized and hassle free vacation, so we can do more of what we love. 

We have learned to love the OceanMedallion and we use it a lot throughout our cruise. It makes for much faster booking, the ability to open our locked stateroom as we walk up to it, etc. Crew members may even call us by name and will be aware of any dietary needs we may have without asking!

With over 8,000 sensors onboard and over 4 million feet of cable routed throughout the ship, the MedallionClass™ App can help you find your way around onboard (not an easy task with a ship this size!) and more importantly, find each other if we become separated. Without it, you would wander around the ship all day looking for your shipmates. The App also has a chat feature which is handy for sending messages back and forth if you are on opposite ends of the ship.

The App shows entertainment and activity schedules allowing you to bookmark those you don't want to miss.

You can order beverages, snacks, or other items delivered to you while you're lounging by or in the pool or in your stateroom! Hungry during Movies Under the Stars®? Realize you forgot sunscreen by the pool? Order whatever you need — burger, extra towels, aloe, etc. — it will be delivered to you with no service delivery charge (purchased items will automatically be added to your onboard account)! 

Dining has also be reimagined onboard Princess Cruise ships with the introduction of the Dine My Way  experience. Using the MeddallionClass App you will now be able to make dining decisions to choose When, How,  With Who, and Where you want to dine each evening!  One of the only complaints we had with the Princess Cruise dining experience in the past was trying to make reservations each day for our evening dinner. 

Perhaps the only glitch we found using the app during our last cruise was that the ability to make or revise dinner reservations using Dine My Way  use may be limited to the primary traveler (or perhaps it was a glitch in the system as my wife was not able to use it).

No need to carry money while onboard. You can leave your wallet in the digital safe located in your stateroom. The OceanMedallion allows you to make any purchases from any ship store or service without having to carry cash with you. Spending too much that way? Check your current ship expenses on the App!

You can wear the OceanMedallion on the free supplied lanyard, or purchase clips, pendants, bracelets, lanyards, lanyard inserts and sports bands. We have tried a few variations of clips to wear but we have found they don't tend to be very secure in holding the medallion in place and I was always scared of losing mine. Perhaps a better option would be to place them in an Apple airtag holder which the medallion fits into nicely.  There are many options available such as these on Amazon.

Click here to learn more about the Princess MedallionClass experience and  click here for answers to many frequently asked questions. 

This website offers an informative, although a bit tongue-in-cheek detailed description of the app.

There are some older cruisers who perhaps do not own a smartphone and don't like change who are the ones who are most resistant to using the app (they also probably resisted the sails being put on ships instead of rowing their ships back when they started cruising) . However, we have found that it makes our cruise from start to finish a much more relaxing experience as you have access to everything at your fingertips!

Below are some screen shots from just some of the available screens I took from our cruise in 2020 to give you an idea of some the of information you may see and use with this app. The app has recently been updated so the new screens look totally different from what is picture below but the app will still provide all of the available features in a much improved format.

While all of the Princess Cruise ships were idled during the pandemic of 2020 they took the opportunity to update ALL of their ships to utilize the MedallionClass™ experience! However the Sky Princess was built from the keel up with the distinction of being one of the first of the Princess Cruise ships to be totally designed and built for this experience. As a result you will find it easy to be connected to their fast Wi-Fi service from nearly anywhere on the ship.

So what can you expect using the OeanMedallion™?  Below is a video showing one cruisers experience testing this technology:

MedallionNet

Princess Cruises proclaims their MedallionNet internet to be "The Best Wi-Fi at Sea". This unlimited internet is included in the Princess Plus and Princess Premier packages.

We have found the Princess Cruise Medallion Net internet to be very fast. On previouse crusies it allowed us to check emails, social media sites, send snaps, and watch and send videos with no issues. The internet is provided from satellites and they have good coverage in the Caribbean. Some parts of the world the internet coverage can be very spotty or non-existent during a cruise. We have heard however, that lately the internet is becoming slow at times even in the Caribbean area.

On January 18, 2023 Carnvial Corporation (which owns Princess Cruise Line) announced that they will start using the new Starlink satellite system in the near future! It proabably won't be available for this cruise but future cruises will enjoy the high speed and access to this satellite system!

The only issue we experienced was not being able to totally access our home security cameras while at sea. We are hoping that issues can be resolved before this sailing.

Cruise Personalizer®

Once you have finally booked your cruise, you should then start planning for the cruise itself!  and start  by logging into the Cruise Personalizer and begin entering the required information as described below:

Anytime before the cruise, but at least a month before departure, you should download the MedallionClass app and personalize your cruise. If you have not already done so, register for an account on the Princess Cruise website and sign in. By creating an account you can:

• Receive special offers and notices about this cruise and future cruises

• Manage your bookings

• Customize your preferences

• View future cruise credits

Some of the Cruise Personalizer can be done on the Princess Cruise Website once you have created an account and logged in. Go to the "Booked Guests" tab and there is some information you can enter or change there.  This is where you will also find your luggage tags and Travel Summary which you can print out for boarding.

Princess was trying to shift all cruise personalization to the MedallionClass app but they got a lot of push back from people who do not like to use their smartphones for such things so they have returned some of the options back to the Cruise Personalizer on their website.  The app still allows you to make most choices, however you may find the website easier to use at times too.

Once you have downloaded the MedallionClass app, or logged into the website and are signed in, navigate to the "Cruise Personalizer" area. Here you will be able to view all of your preferences for the cruise and give you the opportunity to:

• View Summary of Cruise

• Check-in

• Book Excursions

• Order Onboard Services

• Reserve Specialty Dining

• Book Airfares via Princess

• View Cruise Itinerary

• View Payments and Cruise Credits

Here is a step-by-step pre-cruise checklist to help you get Ocean Ready for your cruise using the MeddalionClass app.

The Summary will show all of the preferences you have currently made, either through your initial booking selections or through the Cruise Personalizer, such as your booking number,  Stateroom location, bed configuration, dining preference, etc.

Prior to boarding you must complete the check-in process for each passenger listed. This includes:

• Passage Contract Acknowledgement

• Guest Information Form

• Personal Information

• Emergency Contact Information

• Travel Documents

• Credit Card Information for Shipboard Account

Within 75 days of sailing your travel summary will be available to be printed from the Princess website in the Cruise Personalizer area.  It appears you do not have to bring a printed travel summary with you but you may want to print it out or save it as a pdf and send it to your emergency contact and relatives so they have a schedule of where you will be. About 30 - 60 days before departure you should also be able to print out your luggage tags to be used during embarkation.

You can also personalize your cruise on the app by completing information about your:

• Accessibility and Dietary Requests

• Flight Schedule

• Excursion Reservations (Available to Pre-Pay)

• Vacation Protection (optional)

You also have the option of changing any of your onboard preferences that you have previously made in your initial booking or through the Cruise Personalizer®:

• Dining Preferences

• Bed Configuration (Queen or Twin)

• Choose whether you want a Complimentary Robe in your Stateroom

• Onboard Documents Language Preference

If you and/or your partner are celebrating a special occasion, such as a birthday or recent anniversary, there is also an area to enter that information in. Princess will arrange a special service or gift by completing the information areas under the "Special Occasion" heading near the bottom of the check-in page. This occasion can also be a surprise to the guest by calling the Princess Celebration Support team at 1-855-500-7690

If you have any questions, please ask me, or call the Princess Cruise Help Desk at  1-800-774-6237