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No matter what type of cabin I’m cruising in, I do a series of checks the minute I get in. They’ve unlocked perks, they’ve even got me upgraded, and certainly made the cruise so much better. You should do these too!
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no matter what type of cabin i'm
0:02
cruising and i always do a series of
0:04
checks the minute i get in they have
0:06
unlocked perks they have even got me
0:08
upgraded and certainly made the cruise
0:10
so much better you should do these too
0:13
before you do anything decide if the
0:16
cabin is right for you now this cabin is
0:19
right for me because i booked and chose
0:21
it myself so i made sure it followed all
0:24
my usual rules cabins on either side
0:26
cabins above below and opposite me so
0:29
i'm completely encased and the chance of
0:31
getting disturbed by noise or loud
0:33
venues or whatever is very low now if
0:36
you have a guaranteed cabin where the
0:38
cruise line has allocated the cabin to
0:41
you the minute you get in before you do
0:42
anything else decide if it's right for
0:45
you so look are there cabins either side
0:47
is there any noisy venues is any things
0:49
you haven't realized like obstructed
0:51
views or whatever it is decide if the
0:54
cabin is right for you based on first
0:56
impressions if it's not don't do any of
0:58
these checks go to guest services and
1:01
try and see if you can move to a
1:03
different cabin
1:04
then for me it's all around the bed now
1:06
obviously the minute you walk in you can
1:08
tell if it's set up in the right format
1:11
you know king bed if that's what you're
1:12
wanting two twin beds if it's not laid
1:15
out as you want it's very simple write
1:17
it on a list to ask your cabins to to
1:19
get it changed that's one of the things
1:21
i start to do is drop a little list of
1:23
the things i want to talk to the cabin
1:24
student about for me there's also a
1:26
couple of other things i do now i
1:28
am particularly obsessed with pillow
1:30
types so i try and see if any of these
1:32
are feather pillows if they're not i ask
1:34
the cabin steward for a feather pillow
1:36
no matter what line i've been on whether
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it's a fancy one with pillow concierge
1:41
or not they normally can track down a
1:44
feather pillow also check if the bed
1:47
is too hard or too soft if it's too hard
1:50
they can normally bring your little
1:51
mattress protector which will make it a
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bit softer if it's too soft they can
1:55
often bring a plank or something
1:57
underneath to make a little bit firmer
1:59
for you another little thing i do
2:00
actually when i'm at the bed is check
2:03
what my charging plugs are and if i'm
2:05
going to need any adapters whatever you
2:07
know not having charges by the bed is
2:09
real pain this one actually has usb
2:12
ports so that's pretty good but have a
2:14
look at the different plugs you got so
2:16
over there on the desk i can see i've
2:17
got euro style plugs and us style plugs
2:20
i have all those adapters if not again
2:23
something to ask the chemistry if they
2:25
can help you out with one of the big
2:27
changes to cruising post the
2:30
shutdown is a new approach to must drill
2:32
so one thing you need to do is check
2:34
what you actually have to do for the
2:35
master draw now normally that involves
2:37
watching the safety video and then going
2:40
to your respective master station and
2:42
just clocking in either with your cruise
2:44
card or because i'm on princess with my
2:47
little medallion so you have to watch
2:48
that there it'll also normally tell you
2:50
where the muscle station is if it
2:51
doesn't it'll either be in the back of
2:53
your cruise card or on the back of the
2:57
door
2:57
next what i do is i check all the
2:59
paperwork that's been left for me now
3:01
there's not loads of paperwork but
3:03
there's a couple of really critical
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things that you need to do
3:07
so first of all take a look at your
3:09
daily program so the princess patter in
3:12
this case and check things like what
3:15
time lunch is where you can eat for
3:16
lunch any particularly big events that
3:18
you might want to go to uh or
3:21
you know stuff that you really want to
3:22
plan uh embarkation day around the other
3:26
thing that's really important to check
3:28
is in the princess patter or equivalent
3:30
or in any of the other various brochures
3:33
that are left if there are any really
3:35
good deals so there's often things for
3:37
example on wi-fi deals or there might be
3:40
drinks package deals so check if there's
3:41
any particular special offers that are
3:43
being offered so for example on my last
3:45
cruise they're offering a 10 discount
3:47
for your first bar 20 of your book two
3:49
spa treatments 30 if you book three so
3:52
look for those and see if any of those
3:53
are interesting because embarkation day
3:56
will normally have special offers the
3:58
next thing you need to do is check if
3:59
there's anything that you need to
4:01
actually do on embarkation day i've got
4:03
a little thing here because i have
4:05
booked a helicopter tour because i'm
4:07
going in alaska and there's certain
4:08
weight restrictions and you have to fill
4:10
this out within a certain deadline so
4:12
check if there's anything else that you
4:14
absolutely need to do that day other
4:15
than the mustard drill the other thing
4:17
that i like to look for is if there are
4:19
any things linked to my status
4:22
so for example here there is a letter
4:25
from the future cruise and the captain
4:28
circle so that's the loyalty club and it
4:30
actually lays down for me here what my
4:32
actual perks are
4:33
at my particular level on princess which
4:35
i'm not a particularly high level so i
4:36
don't get a lot although i do get for
4:38
example i didn't know this i get a
4:40
lounge access every evening for canapes
4:42
i've been invited to a party and it
4:44
gives me a list of a couple of other
4:45
perks i've got prior to disembarkation i
4:48
get money off wi-fi i get discounts off
4:50
spa i get discount off the photo gallery
4:53
again all linked to my status now if you
4:55
don't have one of these in your cabin
4:57
the thing that i would recommend you do
4:58
is go and see the loyalty manager
5:01
they're often the same person as the
5:02
future crew sales and ask them based on
5:05
your status what are the perks now i've
5:06
been on many ships where i hadn't
5:08
realized the amount of perks i could get
5:10
so for example on my last cruise i
5:11
discovered i could get canapes every
5:13
evening and get certain drinks in the
5:15
minibar and so on so that's the thing i
5:18
always check what perks am i going to
5:19
get i also ask the cabin student when
5:22
they come so put on your list what based
5:25
on the cabin grade that i booked extra
5:27
perks do i get and i've booked this here
5:28
which is actually mini-suite and i get
5:30
very little extra benefits but i just
5:32
checked with cabin student anyway the
5:34
other thing to check is you will if you
5:36
pre-booked your excursions is
5:39
take a look at your tickets make sure
5:41
that they're all what you booked check
5:43
the times and it's everything as
5:44
expected because you can then go and
5:46
cancel or change those they also very
5:48
importantly check the cancellation time
5:51
and date for those excursions
5:53
in case you change your mind so there's
5:54
one here that i booked and i'm not sure
5:56
if everyone to do and i can see that i
5:58
have to have cancelled it with no
6:00
penalty by the day after tomorrow by 6
6:04
pm for example so know about those
6:06
another thing i normally find in the
6:07
daily program which is really helpful is
6:09
it lists your itinerary obviously so you
6:11
can check on the time you arrive and
6:12
leave but also really importantly it
6:14
tells you when the different garden
6:16
nights or formal nights are and that may
6:18
make you change some of your plans so
6:20
for example i plan to do specially
6:22
dining on a different night i see it's
6:24
formal night i quite like to go to
6:25
especially dining on former night so i'm
6:27
going to change that booking so that's a
6:28
really useful little thing in the daily
6:30
program another thing i like to check is
6:32
down here which is the minibar now it's
6:35
worth checking what is included and not
6:37
included so for example i have a drinks
6:38
package which is part of the princess
6:41
plus however it doesn't cover drinks in
6:43
the mini bar so really importantly
6:44
understand what is and isn't included if
6:46
you're a drinks package or with your
6:48
cabin grade so i have a minibar that's
6:50
completely empty but i could choose to
6:53
have it stocked and there's a list of
6:55
what it would cost to have it stocked
6:56
here that's again something you can
6:58
check with your kevin stewart again ask
7:00
things like what's included in the
7:01
minibar and what else in the room do you
7:03
have to pay for that is really important
7:05
to understand what within your cabin you
7:07
can basically use and keep at no cost
7:10
many people learn the hard way for
7:12
example on virgin voyages where everyone
7:13
got very excited because they found
7:15
these little packs of sort of sex aed
7:17
toys thing there's a little pack of
7:19
sleep aids and many people got very
7:21
excited used them and suddenly
7:22
discovered they were getting charges of
7:24
30 or 40
7:25
on their account because they weren't
7:26
free they had to charge them and
7:28
everyone ended up paying for those on my
7:30
last cruise though there was many many
7:33
items which were left around the room
7:35
because i had been upgraded into a suite
7:37
but if i'd taken any of those items home
7:39
there were quite big charges so the
7:41
bathrooms would have cost like 60
7:43
dollars the umbrella would it was twenty
7:44
five dollars early on i take a look at
7:47
the air conditioning both to see if it's
7:50
working well and also what the sort of
7:53
the noise is like if you come into your
7:55
cabin you find it's really cranked down
7:57
really low but the room's hot it
7:58
probably means that it's not working
7:59
that well now i have had situations
8:02
where i've come in and it doesn't really
8:04
work that well or it's relatively noisy
8:07
i've mentioned the cabin street and
8:08
they've sorted out a lot of people just
8:10
kind of grin and bear it but don't i
8:12
have actually been upgraded because of
8:15
the air conditioning i was once on a
8:17
princess cruising off this one and it
8:19
was big rattling in the air conditioning
8:21
i reported it they sent an engineer they
8:23
just couldn't fix it because of some
8:24
unit that needs to replace and they
8:26
couldn't get it to another port and they
8:27
actually moved me to a better cabin so
8:30
that shows the importance of checking
8:32
the detail once that's all done of
8:34
course it's time to unpack once your
8:37
case has arrived one of the things i
8:39
actually like to do is
8:41
understand where the storage is now many
8:43
many cabins have all sorts of hidden
8:45
storage this cabin actually doesn't have
8:47
that many but often you might find stuff
8:49
high up but really importantly of course
8:51
underneath the bed so normally
8:53
underneath the bed big suitcases will
8:55
fit under there and that means you don't
8:56
have a clutching up in the
8:59
the cupboards or somewhere in in the
9:01
room but trying to find little secret
9:03
bits of storage uh is something's quite
9:06
fun and you'll often find quite a lot of
9:07
it i haven't tracked any down in here a
9:10
few bits and pieces in the storage area
9:13
is
9:15
this actually has
9:16
humongous amounts of containers but many
9:18
cruise lines don't give you many coat
9:20
hangers so if it's not enough coat
9:22
hangers just ask them i need people to
9:24
pack and bring coat hangers but they've
9:26
got loads also the safe make sure that
9:28
the safe is working so this safe is
9:32
working uh and it's really good because
9:34
princess didn't used to always have them
9:35
so check have you got a safe does it
9:37
work if not get it reset often the
9:39
batteries can be loaned again people
9:40
haven't bothered my philosophy is i've
9:42
paid good money to be in a cabin so it
9:44
needs to be right so doing these checks
9:47
early on
9:48
can make a really big difference
9:50
upgrades improvements changes perks
9:54
make sure it happens
9:55
if you want to know how to get a good
9:57
cabin every single time watch this video
10:00
where i talk about how to get the best
10:01
cabins and avoid the worst cabins no
10:03
matter what grade you're in
10:05
starting with the one single tip that
10:08
guarantees you will get a good cabin
10:10
that works for me
10:12
every time see you over there
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