We watched two of the live shows , giving one a thumbs up and the other a thumbs down. But there wer

When it comes to travel, we believe people are interested in more than just the latest gear and reviews of ludicrously expensive resorts. We know that not every female is in search of the world s perfect facial. And that people without trust funds travel too.
Left to right: Courtney McGann, Kim Mance, Princess Cruises Commodore Giuseppe Romano, Shanna Quinn on the Bridge of the Crown Princess. (note: Kim ambushed the commodore and lap-sitting best caribbean cruise deals isn t a conventional pose offered during photo-ops :)
The Ultimate Ship Tour aboard best caribbean cruise deals the Crown Princess is normally a three-hour best caribbean cruise deals tour for which a limited number of Princess Cruises passengers can pay $150 for a behind-the-scenes look at pretty much every nook and cranny of the ship. Since we were on a press trip and had a bazillion questions, our tour ended up lasting five and a half hours it s quite the operation and we learned a ton.
Feeding 3,100 people best caribbean cruise deals (including crew members) is obviously a big task. But on the tour, seeing the vast amounts of stored food really illustrated how complicated an infrastructure it takes to keep everyone happily fed for a week.
Bread-making - all items served on board are made from scratch On an average 7-day cruise aboard the Crown Princess, passengers consume: 1,500kg of butter, 1,300kg of cheese, 24,000kg of vegetables, 32,000 bottles and cans of beer, and 240,000 eggs.
Executive chef Giuseppe Pollara best caribbean cruise deals said that not only do passengers have a smorgasbord to choose from, but a wide variety of meals are made for the crew as well. They make everything from Chinese food to Middle Eastern delights to please various tastes and keep the ship s crew members feeling at home. I thought that was pretty cool. (Side note: food for the crew is on the house, as it s part of their compensation package).
Crown Princess executive chef Giuseppe Pollara, Kim Mance, Commodore Giuseppe Romano (a.k.a., Kim the 2 Giuseppes). Photo by Johnny Jet The dining rooms and specialty restaurants all have different menus, so the kitchen on-board is a 24-hour operation. Chef Pollara also offers a Chef s Table experience for passengers willing to fork over $75 to eat a top-notch multi-course meal. Part of the dinner is prepared table-side, and hors d oeuvres are served in the galley during a special tour beforehand. You even get to wear a chef s coat for the tour, and the captain will come by for a photo-op.
Next, the ship s full-time environmental officer best caribbean cruise deals Pete Smith spent quite a while showing us the vessel s extensive recycling efforts, as well as answering our questions about the environmental impact concerns that arise when a boat the size of a small town floats best caribbean cruise deals out into pristine best caribbean cruise deals oceans.
Every waste bin including passenger cabin trash cans are hand-sorted in the recycling center on board Crown Princess. Items are recycled, food waste is composted used cooking best caribbean cruise deals oil is converted best caribbean cruise deals into biofuel. Just like at home, all our trash, waste, and sewage have to go somewhere. It used to be that cruise ships (plus naval vessels and freighters) would pretty much just heave things overboard and dump raw sewage. Those days are long gone and cruise ships are highly regulated by international laws across best caribbean cruise deals the globe. The US recently decided to jump on the bandwagon and finally join other nations requiring that no raw sewage be dumped within three miles of our shores, among other regulations, within the proposed Clean Cruise Ship Act.
Before embarking I called and spoke with the corporate environmental department to get an idea of Princess Cruises efforts in this regard. When asked, Dwight Hutchinson a former Coast Guard Commander said, We ll have absolutely no problem meeting the [Clean Cruise Ship Act] standards since we re were already meeting or exceeding them in every way.
All cans and glass are crushed aboard the ship before unloading at ports. In fact, Princess (and most other cruise lines) never dump raw sewage no matter how far from shore. Period. Likewise, they dump no solid waste. They are also leaders in using shore power rather than running diesel engines while in port (where available). best caribbean cruise deals And Princess scores very well on Friends of the Earth s Cruise Ship Environmental Report Card . Whew.
All cruise ships still need big improvements on their C02 emissions, and that is a very important aspect. For more on the topic of cruise best caribbean cruise deals ships and the environment, you may want to check out my (forthcoming) article over at Huffington Post.
We got to check out a lighting demonstration and backstage look at the Princess Theater. Being a huge nerd, I was totally interested in the state-of-the best caribbean cruise deals art lighting and stage equipment they had. And being ladies with flair, we all had fun checking out the dressing room.
A few of the many, many costumes backstage Their system for getting all the actors and performers changed between scenes was really interesting to hear about, and it s quite the operation. best caribbean cruise deals And cast members best caribbean cruise deals learn and practice all choreography and staging best caribbean cruise deals for shows in a replica theatre located in California, before ever boarding the ship.
We watched two of the live shows , giving one a thumbs up and the other a thumbs down. But there were so many people on board, there are surely a lot of varied tastes and I think they try to cover them all.
movies under the stars - photo courtesy Princess Cruises Fresh air is more my thing, so I really best caribbean cruise deals enjoyed the Movies Under the Stars out on the Lido Deck, while wrapped best caribbean cruise deals in a blanket strewn over a lounge best caribbean cruise deals chair.
But our favorite was dancing the night away with the Crown Princess dance troupe (one of whom was celebrating a birthday) up in the hip Skywalker s Lounge , well into the morning hours. Double bonus that alcohol aboard the ship was cheaper than any of the bars near my office or home (yes, I have expertise in this area). I wasn t expecting that to be the case.
Ninety-two percent of all the printed material distributed on board is also printed on board the ship in its very own printing press . And there s a lot of it: Daily newsletters, port destination information, best caribbean cruise deals menus, and even karaoke song request forms, best caribbean cruise deals to name a few. Again, being mindful of the environment, the crew uses all misprints and unused paper as scrap paper before recycling it all.
Gone are the days of photo processing best caribbean cruise deals with stinky chemicals and rolls of film everything is now digital. The photo lab is full of computers, ink drums, and tech-savvy best caribbean cruise deals photographers. Prints are made on-demand and can be re-touched before ever leaving the camera s memory card. And their team seemed to work around the clock since photographers popped out of every corner of the ship, no matter the time of day!
When we first walked into the medical center, I thought it was just a little doctor s office and he d be responsible only for handing out anti-nausea medication. But as it turns out, there are in-patient rooms, an ICU, a pharmacy, a treatment room with capability best caribbean cruise deals to do x-rays and all sorts of other things best caribbean cruise deals I didn t expect. The only thing they don t do on board the ship are surgeries, but short of that, you are pretty well set.
Fully equipt patient room with cute port hole windows Don t forget to buy travel insurance however. If not, you ll be charged for any medical services that become necessary, and if the unfortunate situation ever arose that you needed to be evacuated best caribbean cruise deals by helicpopter for surgery, you d be looking at the cost of a brand-new luxury sedan to cover the expenses of that. No worries, travel insurance is cheap and you should get it regardless of cruising or any other travel, in my humble opinion.
Captain s Bridge first officers making sure all is well The last stop on our ultimate ship tour was the captain s bridge. This was definitely the best seat in the house as far as views go, with a bank of windows across the entire front of the ship.
Commodore Romano explaining the navigation systems On our particular trip, the entire route was re-ordered just a couple of days before departure due to Hurricane Ida. And though the first day was pretty best caribbean cruise deals rocky, the rest of the trip was smooth sailing as they were able to navigate around the storm.
Be sure to check out all our reviews of personal best caribbean cruise deals experiences both on the ship and during shore excursions as we update more this week. We decided to do each review from all three of us, so that our unique perspectives could give readers a range of opinions. If you subscribe by email or RSS (top right), you ll be the first to know when they re posted!
Kim Mance is Galavanting s editor-in-chief and host of the Galavanting.tv web travel series. She s based in Chicago, IL and some of her other writing can be found at MarieClaire.com, best caribbean cruise deals The Huffington best caribbean cruise deals Post, and Babble.
Disclosure: This trip was funded by Princess Cruises. Galavanting contributors and editors *always* do our best to give an honest review (good and bad) of all destinations and locations visited. Our readers viewers are what keeps us going and we ll never choose a tour operator or destination representative over being honest with you.