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Sunday, September 07, 2008

Princess Cruises to Open Off-Limit Crew Areas to Tours

Have you always wondered what happens behind the scenes on a cruise ship?

You'll soon be able to find out -- assuming you sail on a Princess ship. The Love Boat line says it will launch what's billed as the industry's first comprehensive "back of the house" tour in November.

Dubbed The Ultimate Ship Tour, the guided explorations will debut on the soon-to-launch Ruby Princess and eventually spread fleet-wide. The tours will take passengers to the engine control room, medical center, print shop, laundry, photo lab and even the bridge.

All good things come with a price, of course, and cruise junkies will have to fork over $150 per person for the three-hour tours, which can be reserved on board vessels at the Passenger Service Desk. The tours will be offered once or twice per cruise, and space will be limited.

The tours include a chance to meet quite a few crew members. One stop, for instance, will be the back stage area of the ship's theater, where passengers will meet cast and production staff who will show them what goes into putting on a show. In the galley area, passengers will meet the executive chef, who will explain the process of preparing meals for thousands of people at a time.

In one of the most unusual stops, the ship's staff captain will accompany passengers to the top deck of the ship to peek inside the ship’s funnel area. At the last stop, on the ship's bridge, tour-goers will meet the captain and learn about the navigational equipment and safety systems on board.

The 3,070-passenger Ruby Princess will be christened Nov. 6 by The Bachelorette's Trista and Ryan Sutter. The 113,000-ton vessel will spend its inaugural season sailing to the Western Caribbean out of Fort Lauderdale before heading to Europe next summer.

1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

That is so amazing! ive always always ALWAYS wondered what happens behind the scenes on a cruise ship, i love cruises and the sea i go out for one at lease once every two months if not more. Ive been on the princess more than 7 times.
Looks like ill have to be going again!
Great post!

Cheers,
MaryKate Walsh

7:39 PM  

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