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! Before you do anything, decide if
the cabin is right for you. Now, this cabin is right for me because
I booked and chose it myself. So, I made sure it followed all my
usual rules. Cabins on either side, cabins above, below, and opposite me.
So, I'm completely encased and the chance of getting disturbed by noise or
loud venues or whatever is very low. Now, if you have a guaranteed cabin where the
cruise line has allocated the cabin to you, the minute you get in, before you do
anything else, decide if it's right for you. So, look, are there cabins on either side? Is there any noisy venues? Is there any things
you haven't realised like obstructed views? Or whatever it is, decide if the cabin is
right for you based on first impressions. If it's not, don't do any of these checks, go to guest services and try and see
if you can move to a different cabin. Then for me, it's all around the bed. Now,
obviously the minute you walk in, you can tell if it's set up in the right format, king bed
if that's what you're wanting, two twin beds. If it's not laid out as
you want, it's very simple. Write it on a list to ask your
cabin steward to get it changed. That's one of the things I start
to do is draw up a little list of the things I want to talk
to the cabin steward about. For me, there's also a couple of other things I
do. Now, I am particularly obsessed with pillow types. So, I try and see if any of these are
feather pillows. If they're not, I ask the cabin steward for a feather pillow. No matter what
line I've been on, whether it's a fancy one with pillow concierge or not, they normally
can track down a feather pillow. Also, check if the bed is too hard or too
soft. If it's too hard, they can normally bring you a little mattress protector, which
will make it a bit softer. If it's too soft, they can often bring a plank or something
underneath to make it a little bit firmer for you. Another little thing I do actually, when I'm
at the bed is check what my charging plugs are and if I'm going to need any adapters
or whatever. Not having chargers by the bed is a real pain. This one actually
has USB ports, so that's pretty good. But have a look at the different plugs you've
got. So over there on the desk, I can see I've got Euro style plugs and US style plugs. I
have all those adapters. If not, again, something to ask the cabin steward
if they can help you out with. One of the big changes to cruising post the
shutdown is a new approach to muster drill. So, one of the things you need to do is check what
you actually have to do for the master drill. Now, normally that involves watching the
safety video and then going to your respective master station and just clocking
in either with your cruise card Because I'm on Princess with my little Medallion. So, you have to watch that there. It'll also
normally tell you where the muster station is. If it doesn't, it'll either be in the back of
your cruise card or on the back of the door. Next what I do is I check all the paperwork
that's been left for me. Now there's normally loads of paperwork, but there's a couple of
really critical things that you need to do. So first of all, take a look at your daily
program. So, the Princess Patter in this case. And check things like what time lunch is, where
you can eat for lunch, any particular big events that you might want to go to, or stuff that
you really want to plan embarkation day around. The other thing that's really important to check
is in the Princess Patter, or equivalent or in any of the other various brochures that are
left, if there are any really good deals. So, there's often things, for example, on Wi-Fi
deals, or there might be drinks package deals. So, check if there's any particular
special offers that are being offered. So, for example, on my last cruise, they're
offering a 10% discount for your first spa, 20% if you book two spa treatments, 30% if you book
three. So, look for those and see if any of those are interesting because embarkation
day will normally have special offers. The next thing you need to do is check if
there's anything that you need to actually do on embarkation day. But for example,
I've got a little thing here because I have booked a helicopter tour because
I'm going in Alaska and there's certain weight restrictions and you have to fill
this out within a certain deadline. So, check if there's anything else that you absolutely
need to do that day, other than the muster drill. The other thing that I like to look for is
if there are anything linked to my status. So, for example, here, there is a letter from
the Future Cruise and the Captain’s Circle. So that's the loyalty club. And it actually lays
down for me here, what my actual perks are at my particular level on Princess. Which I'm not
a particularly high level, so I don't get a lot. Although I do get, for example, I didn't know
this, I get a lounge access every evening for canapes. I've been invited to a party and
that gives me a list of a couple of other perks I've got. It also lists a couple of
other perks that I get. So I get priority disembarkation, I get money off Wi-Fi, I get discounts off spa, I get discount off the
photo gallery, again, all linked to my status. If you don't have one of these in your cabin, the thing that I would recommend you
do is go and see the loyalty manager. They're often the same person as the Future Cruise
Sales and ask them, based on your status, what are the perks? Now, I've been on many ships where I
hadn't realised the amount of perks I could get. So, for example, on my last cruise, I discovered I
could get canapes every evening, I can get certain drinks in the mini bar and so on. So that's the
thing I always check, what perks am I going to get? I also ask the cabin steward when they
come, so put on your list. What, based on the cabin grade that I've booked, extra perks do I
get? And I've booked this here, which is actually mini suite and again, very little extra benefits.
But I just check with the cabin steward, anyway. The other thing to check if you've pre-booked
short excursions is take a look at your tickets, make sure that they're all what
you booked, check the times and it's everything as expected, because you
can then go and cancel or change those. They also very importantly check the cancellation time and date for those excursions in case you
change your mind. So, there's one here that I booked and I'm not sure if I really want to do.
And I can see that I have to have cancelled it with no penalty by the day after tomorrow by
6:00 PM, for example. So, know about those. Another thing I normally find in the daily
program, which is really helpful is it lists your itinerary, obviously. So, you can check on
the time you arrive and leave. But also really importantly, it tells you when the different gala
nights or formal nights are. And that may make you change some of your plans. So, for example,
I plan to do specialty dining on a different night. I see its formal night, I quite like
to go to specialty dining on formal night. So, I'm going to change that booking. So that's a
really useful little thing in the daily program. Another thing I like to check is
down here, which is the mini bar. Now it's worth checking what
is included and not included. So, for example, I have a drinks package, which is part of the Princess Plus. However,
it doesn't cover drinks in the mini bar. So really importantly, understand what is and
isn't included if you have a drinks package or with your cabin grade. So, I have a mini
bar that's completely empty, but I could choose to have it stocked. And there's a list
of what it would cost to have it stocked here. That's again, something you can
check with your cabin steward, again, ask things like what's included the mini bar and
what else in the room do you have to pay for? That is really important to
understand what within your cabin you can basically use and keep at no cost. Many people learned the hard way,
for example, on Virgin Voyages, where everyone got very excited because they found
these little packs of sort of sex aid toys thing. There's another pack of sleep aids.
And many people got very excited, used them and suddenly discovered they were
getting charges of $30 or $40 on their account because they weren't free, they had a charge for
them, and everyone ended up paying for those. In this cabin, there is pretty much no
extra stuff. So, there's no umbrellas, there's no tote bag or other stuff lying around. On my last cruise though, there was many, many
items which were left around the room because I had been upgraded into a suite. But if I'd taken
any of those items home, there were quite big charges. So, the bath robes would've cost like
$60, the umbrella was $25 and so on and so on. Early on I take a look at the air conditioning,
both to see if it's working well and also what the sort of the noise is like. If you
come into your cabin, you find it's really cranked down really low, but the room's hot. It
probably means that it's not working that well. Now I have had situations where I've
come in and it doesn't really work that well. What's relatively noisy,
I've mentioned to the cabin steward and they've sorted it out. A lot of people
just kind of grin and bear it, but don't. I have actually been upgraded because of the air
conditioning. I was once on a Princess Cruise, not this one, and there was big rattling in
the air conditioning. they sent an engineer, they just couldn't fix it because it
was some unit that needed to replace and they couldn't get it to another port.
And they actually moved me to a better cabin. So that shows the importance
of checking the detail Once that's all done, of course, it's time
to unpack, once your case has arrived. One of the things I actually like to do is understand
where the storage is. Now many, many cabins have all sorts of hidden storage. This cabin actually
doesn't have that many, but often you might find stuff high up. But really importantly, of course,
underneath the bed. So normally underneath the bed, big suitcases will fit under there. And
that means you don't have a clutching up in the cupboards or somewhere in the room. But trying
to find little secret bits of storage is something that's quite fun and you'll often find quite a
lot of it. I haven't tracked any down in here. A few bits and pieces in the storage area is
... this actually has humongous amounts of coat hangers, but many cruise lines don't give you many
coat hangers. So, if it's not enough coat hangers, just ask them. I know of people who pack and
bring coat hangers, but they've got loads. Also, the safe, make sure that the safe
is working. So, this safe is working. So check, have you got a
safe? Does it work? If not, get it reset. Often the batteries can be
low and again, people haven't bothered. My philosophy is I've paid good money to
be in a cabin, so it needs to be right. So doing these checks early on
could make a really big difference. Upgrades, improvements, changes,
perks, make sure it happens. If you want to know how to get a good cabin
every single time, watch this video where I talk about how to get the best cabins and avoid
the worst cabins, no matter what grade you're in. Starting with the one single tip that guarantees
you will get a good cabin. That's works for me every time. See you over there.
