Princess Cruises Dawn Princess Questions & Answers

Yes...all meals are included, of some description, such as the Free Dining Rooms, Buffet, plus on some ships if there is a Hamburger bar, Pizza bar, Ice cream bar, these are also free. The "Specialty Dining " venues eg. Asian, French and up-market you will pay a cover charge, which sometimes can be quite expensive. Log onto your ships web site and you will get all your answers there. We ate quite well on our voyage although there were occasions where food was not as hot as one would like, and putting up with some very rude passengers, but this was probably the fault of staff on our ship. Don't let it stop you. I am sure you will enjoy yourselves and eat well.

Yes all meals included. Breakfast, morning tea, lunch, afternoon tea, dinner, supper and anything you can fit in between.

Hello, yes, to avoid the very long lines, book as soon as you can at the desk.

Hi Danv80.
Save ypur money & book your on shore excursions when you get on shore.
You will find better & less expensive tours on shore. Alsi they are less commercial & money grubbing than the ones in board. We did not find any problems with getting a tour anywhere in NZ when we went ashore. And like I said, more informal, more time to spend where you want & only half the price or less.
Heres a tip. Give your guide a $10.00 AUD tip & you will get over rhe top service.
Hope this helps.

Hi Guys stay away from the drink package. Unless you want to drink a doxen bottles of beer a day each. You both have to ve a card. One cant buy for the other so to speak. it is a rip off. My wife & I purchased the non alcoholic cards at $80.00 each. This only provided us with the soda fountain drinks. Cordial & water. Pay as you go if you are not big drinkers. It really is a floating trailer park. Dont get suckrd into buying "extras" & if you do shore tours, book them on shore & save 100% of cost.
Enjoy if you can.

Hi, I would not bother- same with the coffee card, the coffee was so bad that we hardly used the coffee card and stuck with instant coffee. cocktails were between 8 and 11 dollars, beers were about the same as pub prices, so not overly inflated.

Hi have a look at the post I put up on the drinks package, might help .That is if all the ships on Princess have similar deals

The cruise on which we travelled ( 35 nights ) with the viral bronchitis essentially terminated in Sydney on the 1st November . I believe that the Dawn was then going to Tasmania, might be an idea if somebody on this cruise to Tasmania could answer the question. Several people we have spoken too since our return to Australia have suggested that we should have taken general antibiotics on board, however as we believe the outbreak was viral, antibiotics do not help.
Hope you have a great cruise and stay healthy.

Thanks for the reply. Hope someone answers but will take lots of medicine Judd in case

Unless the Dawn Princess has been thoroughly fumigated (which I am sure it has not) the virus will still be prevalent. You will need to take your own antibiotics with you. They will prevent you contracting the bacterial pneumonia my husband ended up with and any upper respiratory infections. Also take your own cough medicine as the ship ran out of stock and were charging ridiculous prices anyway. Your own hand sanitiser is important, as is a can of Glen 20 to spray your cabin. Avoid the lifts if you possibly can as they are definite incubators. Take the stairs instead. Make sure you spend as much time as possible on the deck where there is fresh air. Our 35 day cruise included a lot of sea days and these are the worst for spreading bacteria and viruses as there is no escape. Go ashore wherever possible just to get off the ship. We have been on a lot of cruises but this was by far the worst for illness. Won't be cruising with Princess again. Good luck!

Sorry never been on Dawn Princess nor any cruise ship except P&O's Canberra 30 years ago. Our first Sea princess cruise is in December. Therefore i am unable to answer your questions. Have a great holiday! The Colonel.

Thank you. But surely, there must be some one who could give me an answer as lots of people from what I've read have been on the beautiful Dawn Princess.We have too, but never on that low deck. Any help ?....
Celloplayer.

best part of the ship! My wife & i are in p302 for cruise on 6 May to the Islands. We asked for this cabin as it is close to everything & very stable! enjoy your cruise the dawn is a lovely old ship & the food is first class!

Our cruise is 7 days so Alcohol Drinks package was not available, the cruise must be 8 days or more to qualify.Sorry I can't answer this but I'm sure if you call Princess they will be able to advise best. My guess is both have to buy it.

drink packages are per person. they put a sticker on your card and i found that when asking for 2 drinks they asked to see the second sticker.

Thanks to "The Colonel" and to "Helen" for your answers.
We are undecided about purchasing the drinks package, we are on a 14 day cruise and have been trying to calculate our daily costs for drinks and coffee etc but it's only a best guess .
I think we will just have to wait until we get onboard, check the prices and then decide.

We have recently completed a cruise on the Dawn Princess and chose the early sitting for dinner (5:30pm). We found it perfect. Yes, there were a few kids around, but they did not impact on our dining enjoyment. The early sitting allows passengers to attend both evening shows if they so desire (7:45pm and 9:45pm). We were at a table for 10 and received excellent service from our two waiters. Certainly did not feel rushed at all and were usually finished by 7:00pm. If you intend drinking a lot, the drinks package is probably worthwhile, but $160 per day added to your bill (for a couple) adds up to a lot of money. We prefer to pay as we go, but we are not big drinkers.

Thankyou for the reply Nina, happy to hear your cruise was a good experience. Can you tell me if bottled drinking water is a reasonable price please?

Hi john i know is a pain with the no option on time we had the 530 time got sick of resturant food as wasnt much choice and same so dont think you will want to be eating there for 42 nights just book it go when you wantbto know,the table is still there whether yiu go there or not.The buffet food is good lots choice plus speciality resturants to eat at.the other ship went on lsst year p and o booked night before in resturantwhich was much better.Well good luck with it long time on a ship i find 15 days was long enough karen

Thanks Karen for your advice. Yes, we wouldn't be eating there every night. Maybe the table for 8 would be the best option. That way there is a fair chance other diners on the table may be better dinner companions than being stuck with monosyllabic diners on a table for two couples. We've been on four long Princess cruises before and had some real "doozies" to contend with. Spoils the night. What's the Pizzaria like?

Hi John, my husband and I sailed on the Dawn Princess end of February this year on a fourteen day cruise to Fiji and South Pacific. We loved every minute of it ! We dined in the Florentine dining room and our wait staff Ariel and Janos were excellent.. nothing was too much bother for them and they certainly contributed to our enjoyment of the cruise.. ( we had the same concerns as you so we chose a table for 2 )
We dined in the pizzeria twice.. lunch .. we found the pizza excellent, couldn't fault it.. thin crust with no soggy middle !
We're sailing to NewZealand on the Golden Princess Jan '17 and we're hopeful that the cruise will be of the same standard.
Hope you enjoy your cruise.. btw you must be sailing on Dawn Princesses last voyage ? She is going to be totally re-fitted and going over to P&O as the Pacific Explorer sailing end of June.

There is only 1 Australian power point in the room - otherwise you need a convertor which I recommend!
AUD is the currency on all Dawn Princess cruises.
Have fun!!

Best you check with your GP on that one.

Beer prices were from around $5.50ish for a lite beer up to around $7.50ish for a Corona. Spirits were around the $7.50 mark as well. Not sure on wine as not a wine drinker. Depending on how much you drink as to paying the $73.75 per day. Adds up over 17 nights which I guess is the length of your cruise. We went with the soft drink package which seemed more practical to us. It also included hot chocolate which is really good. Note - Royal Caribbean cruises are much more expensive with drinks & everything is in US dollars.

Hi TSW,
Did not take the 'per day package' as we found we were off the ship often and imbibed at leisure in various ports at better prices. As you will be in Australian waters that is even more advantageous to you. As Terry said the cost of beer and wine varies depending on the brand. We found ordering a bottle of wine (depending on your preferences) was reasonable ie restaurant prices. If you didn't finish the bottle(imagine that) it could be held in the wine locker for you until the next evening. Alcoholic cocktails ranged from $9AUD's to $15AUD's. Mocktails (non-alcoholic) around $5-$6.
Hope this helps,
Have a wonderful time. Cheers, KMac

There is a number of wines priced at AU$8, $9 and $10 a glass and the Nobilo sauvignon blanc (AU$39.10/bottle, $10/glass) was the best of a bad bunch. There was an acceptable Nicolas Feuillatte Brut priced at AU$15/glass or AU$69/bottle. Here is the link to the bottled wine list and (AU$) prices http://www.princess.com/learn/cruise-gifts-celebrations/gifts-and-services/culinary-delights-wine/ . If you like to drink wine, I'd suggest that you do as we did and take your own wine on board. We happily paid the AU$15 per bottle corkage and regret that we didn't take another case with us. The staff are quite delightful and are enthusiastic to pour wine and provide information, unfortunately, they have no or very limited wine knowledge. To save your sanity, I'd suggest that you pour your own wine. The coffee is poor also and I was envious of a man who had brought his own coffee and pot with him.

We find it more convenient to change money before joining the cruise. One less thing to worry about once your on the ship, after all,
your on there to relax.

Hi Kazza,
Not sure which parts of Asia you are covering, however when we did parts of Asia with Dawn 3 years ago, we took some US currency (at that time the rate was favorable) as well as Australian currency. We found it easy to exchange once off the ship, however in some cases it was just as easy to exchange the AUD on board before disembarking, for a fee of course. You will always get a better rate with the money changers at the port and most of the time (depending on where you are) they will not charge a fee. Those who don't charge will usually display the fact at their location. Most ports will have a guide who will kindly advise you the best places to go. We also found that small Australian currency was valuable for small miscellaneous items in some Asian ports which accepted same. Of course they prefer the US dollar now, as the rate is better.
Wishing you a very happy journey, KMac

Thank you:)

Not sure about Dawn but sister ship Sun Princess was $20.00 for half a day from memory ?

Thanks Terry, I had read differing amounts, but $20 per half day was the most common.
First time on Princess in November so trying to get first hand info.

Sanctuary is $20 per half day on Dawn Princess. If you are fortunate to have Timothy working there, he is awesome. Enjoy!

Sorry Amanda, no longer smoke, can't help. Happy Travels, Katherine

In November 2015 a packet of 20/25 Marlboro cigarettes cost approx. $10.00AUD over the Bar aboard the SEA Princess.

Angie cheers. They were $12AUD on Dawn however our 1st port stop was Lombok where a carton cost about 20. It just got cheaper and cheaper though and soon we were paying $10 AUD a carton in places like Vietnam and Cambodia!

Hi Kazza I did post info. on drinks pckg. on here before, see if you can find it, if you cant see it, ask again . Definitely pre purchase bottled water before you go as it is heaps cheaper .I went to the gym sometimes early in the morning and topped up my water bottle there .I went on the Saphire Princess so am assuming they operate the same. I did read a post that you can take some alcohol on board when you go

Thanks Terry :) can I wait until I'm on the cruise to pick which drink package I want?

Hi Kazza,
We did as Terry suggests, having a bottle to refill up on the Lido deck is the best way to go. If you go to the dinning room for breakfast as we would, the staff often did us the courtesy of filling our bottle when we were immediately going out one tour or an early activity with no time to think about water. We didn't pre-purchase the drinks package, easy enough to decide when you are on board and settled in. Not sure about water on the soft drinks package. We did purchase a coffee card which gives you heaps of options, never ending cups of hot chocolate at no-cost. Depending on the length of your journey $35 goes a long way.
Have a great time.
Cheers, Katherine

Hi Liz,
Congratulations on your forthcoming Wedding Anniversary.
When we were on the Dawn (2013) mocktails ranged from $4-$6 ...I think soft drinks were half that. Just remember to ask for little or less ice on your mocktail as they often like to fill the glass with ice making it a very short drink. Have a wonderful time.
Best Wishes, Katherine

Have been on the Saphire and all the ''western'' nights and ''hawaian nights'' just didn't happen although I and lots other people did take costumes of some description .Even though I found the ship and the cruise very good there was quite a bit of mis-information about lots of events that were supposed to occur.The first ships news paper I read even had the wrong route we were on .Don't know if all the ships are like this but maybe if somehow you could confirm the advertised events somehow with them would save you packing stuff you wont use.Would be interested myself if this happens on other ships, as like I said the cruise itself was ok and I probably would go again.

Forgot to say, have a look at question I answered on the drinks package (not suggesting you have a problem )

Hi Suzie,
We did the 3 month "round the world" on the Dawn, (don't know why they called it that, as it doesn't go around the world, but then we knew that). Didn't have fancy dress nights just formals; however we were invited to join in on a production of "grease", which was pretty simple for us to put stuff together with much effort, depending on your role. We depleted supplies to tweak our outfits at one of the "cheap & cheerful" shops in Darwin. It was great fun and we didn't have to come loaded with costumes. Have never done the Hawaii run, but I would bet my bottom dollar their will be something with a Hawaiian theme. I wonder why "Princess won't say or give advice on such a simple matter.....perhaps they don't know as yet themselves. Have fun. Happy sailing, Katherine

Deb
Dont smoke so cant help you with that though there are numerous Smoking locations . Unlimited drinks package is what it says unlimited, but does not include room service.. smart pants and shirt are fine. Laundry works out about $20.00 per laundry bag, it will cost you about $4 a load in self service launderette. 1 Visa should be fine but you will get info on this. During Port days The Buffet is open and sometimes 1 of the restaurants but there is always pizza and Hamburgers on Deck Room Service is unavailable during Port Stops. You cannot book a seat in the Shows it is on a first come basis, but usually there is not a problem as they have two performances a night. As for activities you get a princess patter (newsletter) delivered every evening to your cabin, this outlines times and location of all that is happening throughout the day and evening. You also get info on ports you are visiting. Ps I would take your own smokes just in case your brand is unavailable. Buy them duty free before you leave. And remember that you can take on 1 bottle of wine per adult passenger on embarkation day only
Happy sailings
Elite Princess Cruiser

Thank you for your time in answering my questions

Dear folks at Product Review,
Glad someone answered all of Deb's questions, I agree on all points. Just to add activities we enjoyed were 'Zumba', Tai Chi, and Port Info Sessions.
However kindly note that our APPALLING review was in relation to the Sea Princess, not the Dawn Princess. The Dawn offered 'Zumba' Tai Chi, Art classes etc, Book Club Choir for those in good voice, plus sport activities.
Bon Voyage Deb, Enjoy ! KMac

Hey Doll, When we did the 90 days around the world cruise, Gym was at no cost, as was Zumba, and Tai Chi. Yoga classes were at a cost from memory. However there were stretch classes a.m. and p.m. at no cost. Lots of activities. Have a great tome. Kind Regards, Katherine

Hi Katherine, Thanks for your reply.It sounds like we will have plenty to do in the exercise department. Might offset all the lovely food available. Thanks again and have a great day. Kind regards, Doll.

I was on the saphire and had facilities in the cabin so other ships would have the same i reckon .I just tried all the different tea bags from the restaurant and took them with me

We have cruised with the 'Sea Princess; before and were not able to use a jug in our stateroom because of the danger of fire. But on a Royal Caribbean ship every stateroom was provided with tea & coffee making facilities. Wyn

Hi Wyn, unfortunately no is the answer.....my recent feedback was on the Sea Princess not the Dawn.
Better amenities on the Dawn 3 years ago, (the Sea last month, needs work) regardless neither provide coffee or tea making facilities.
Agree such a nuisance to have to get room service just for a cup of tea. So many guests travelling to the top deck and bringing their
tea/coffee to their suite. Aside from dangerous it lacks grace. We are going for the smaller vessels from here on. Best Wishes, Katherine