Cruise MedallionClass™ for Christmas

This post is sponsored by Princess Cruises.

I’ve watched enough holiday movies to know that for some reason, the heroine is supposed to be stuck in some cold and snowy Christmas town to celebrate properly while her parents are off cruising the Caribbean. If you ask me, the parents have the right idea—get me on a boat! After the dreamy vacation I enjoyed sailing from Venice, Italy to Athens, Greece this fall with Princess Cruises, you can bet I’ll be taking my Mediterranean merry right into the holiday season. Thinking about gifting someone—or yourself—a cruise this month? Allow me to tell you all the reasons why that idea is nothing short of brilliant.

Cruise MedallionClass™ for Christmas | truelane
Cruise MedallionClass™ for Christmas | truelane
Cruise MedallionClass™ for Christmas | truelane

Anticipation

There’s nothing better than anticipating something wonderful. Christmas, a cruise, pay day, a birthday…even that first cup of coffee in the morning. The next best thing to cruising is anticipating the trip once it’s booked! Receiving your OceanMedallion™ in the mail before you depart is practically an early Christmas present, and utilizing OceanReady™ ensures you’re set to jet long before you even hop on a ship-bound airplane. Upload your passport information, profile photo, and contact information right from the comfort of your home so nothing is up in the air once you’re off at sea. With each passing year, people have less time—and since time is money, if you can save thirty to sixty minutes embarking on your vacation, that’s some serious bang for your buck.

Plus I have to say, there is so much information on the Princess website about every ship that you can really map out a blueprint of the restaurants you’d like to try or activities you’d like to experience while you sail (don’t miss the Lotus Spa and adults-only Sanctuary for optimum relaxation!). Whenever I book a cruise, I usually end up scrolling princess.com for hours getting pumped about all that will be happening on board…SailAway Celebration™! String quartets! Bingo! The Voice of the Ocean! Movies Under the Stars! They really don’t quit.

Cruise MedallionClass™ for Christmas | truelane
Cruise MedallionClass™ for Christmas | truelane
Cruise MedallionClass™ for Christmas | truelane

Tasty Treats

A warm, seasonal drink made especially for you at the Princess Live! café (my personal favorite bar on board…it has coffee!) is sure to get you in the holiday spirit in no time. While I was cruising the Mediterranean, taking a hot toddy back to our stateroom to sit on the balcony and stargaze was the most magical way to end our nights. You can simply the order using OceanNow™ on your mobile device and have a drink brought right to you, have the drink ready when you arrive at the bar, or have it delivered to your stateroom to be waiting for your arrival. It’s seriously incredible how many ingenious new ways OceanMedallion™ enhances the cruise ship experience!

Alex and I both share a love of sweets, so the International Café is another spot we visited…let’s just say a couple times a day. Whether you’re looking for a muffin or croissant, or possibly something more indulgent like Paris-Brest or a Napoleon, they’ve got it all, and it’s included in your passenger fare. Snack away! Everyone knows holiday calories don’t count…especially not at sea.

Cruise MedallionClass™ for Christmas | truelane

Family Bonding

One thing that’s brand new on Sky Princess is the Phantom Bridge Escape Room! They are a huge trend right now, and as usual Princess is way ahead of the entertainment game at sea. I’ve always been a little hesitant to try an escape room, but I’m sold now. Even the name “Phantom Bridge” sounds like a Nancy Drew mystery novel. I have always loved Nancy and my favorite is Mystery of the Brass Bound Trunk, so getting to solve a mystery on board a cruise ship is really a dream come true!

Another Christmas wish come true? The myriad dining options. If your family is anything like mine, everyone’s got their own idea of what dinner should be every night…and they almost never match up. With d-o-z-e-n-s of options on board Sky Princess, Alex and I could always find something we both wanted. Full of new restaurants and Princess favorites like Crown Grill and Sabatini’s (definitely look into Chef’s Table Lumiere for an unmatched dining experience), Sky Princess is a culinary destination all its own.

Stay Connected

Even if you’re off gallivanting around your dream destination, the holidays are a time to be together, and there’s no better cruise line to keep you connected to your loved ones than Princess. MedallionNet is the fastest WiFi at sea, and I’m always impressed by its reliability. I’ve published blog posts, uploaded videos, and streamed Netflix in the middle of the ocean without a glitch to be seen!

In between FaceTime calls with my cute nephew in Minnesota or my parents in Mount Vernon, I was also able to chat with pals I sailed with or with new friends we met on our excursions. OceanCompass™ is such a simple yet immensely effective way of communicating with your fellow cruisers. When you make a new friend, simply add each other as ShipMates™ to stay in touch throughout the duration of the cruise, or even keep tabs on your friends and family’s location. It’s worth noting that you can also hide your location from anyone you’d rather not share with.

Cruise MedallionClass™ for Christmas | truelane
Cruise MedallionClass™ for Christmas | truelane
Cruise MedallionClass™ for Christmas | truelane

If your holiday plans don’t include a cruise right now, you can always start planning for next year…or, you can surprise a loved one with the ultimate cruising experience: a MedallionClass™ cruise with Princess Cruises. With a Medallion™ in hand, the opportunities for adventure are endless.

Destination Connection: Kotor, Montenegro

This post is sponsored by Princess Cruises.

You know that I never want to forget this moment feeling? Imagine feeling it for six hours straight, and you’ll come close to the immersive experience I had in Kotor, Montenegro. It was my favorite port on our 5-day Mediterranean cruise!

Destination Connection: Kotor, Montenegro | truelane
Destination Connection: Kotor, Montenegro | truelane
Destination Connection: Kotor, Montenegro | truelane
Destination Connection: Kotor, Montenegro | truelane
Destination Connection: Kotor, Montenegro | truelane

Princess Cruises is the only cruise line I’ve traveled on that fully immerses you in the destinations—and not just while you’re in port. OceanView™ brings exclusive travel shows like Ocean Treks with Jeff Corwin, Good Spirits, and The Voyager with Josh Garcia from your stateroom to your iPhone—even to your living room (Apple TV, Roku, and Amazon Fire TV) . The shows present the ports on a Princess voyage in such a unique way, drumming up a ton of excitement around port days during your vacation. It’s always exciting to hear the first officer’s voice come over the intercom in the mornings: “Good morning and welcome to beautiful, Kotor, Montenegro!”

I’ll be honest—the amenities on the ship are so enticing, there have been a couple times I wanted to hang back on the ship over exploring the port town…but that wasn’t the case the day we docked at Kotor. Kotor had already been such a buzzword since we got on board—Alexander, our savvy and sassy cruise director on board Sky Princess, insisted that Kotor is his favorite port in the entire world. Talking with the crew is truly one of the best ways to learn about what the top activities are in a port town. Most of them have been to each destination multiple times, and it’s always exciting to hear their unique perspectives and experiences.

My photographer, Alex, and I were blown away by this seaside city in the mountains. On our shore excursion we booked through Princess, we were so lucky to be paired with an extremely knowledgeable guide. He took us and one other passenger on a perfectly paced, intimate tour of both Kotor and Perast, a nearby seaside village. Not only did we get a personal history of Montenegro (there was a photo of his great grandfather in the history museum!), but he also took us out for coffee when we were convinced we couldn’t walk another step without caffeine. Getting to know our guide, Krsto, on a personal level and learning about his day-to-day life as a local was a truly special connection…one I can’t imagine finding outside of Princess Cruises! Experiencing life as a local is such an important way to travel, and the fact that it matters to Princess as well is the reason I keep sailing with them.

Destination Connection: Kotor, Montenegro | truelane
Destination Connection: Kotor, Montenegro | truelane
Destination Connection: Kotor, Montenegro | truelane
Destination Connection: Kotor, Montenegro | truelane
Destination Connection: Kotor, Montenegro | truelane
Destination Connection: Kotor, Montenegro | truelane
Destination Connection: Kotor, Montenegro | truelane
Destination Connection: Kotor, Montenegro | truelane
Destination Connection: Kotor, Montenegro | truelane

Plus, when we arrived back onboard Sky Princess, our shipmates and all the crew members we encountered were eager to hear all about what we did in port! Trust me, it was a long list:

  • Explored the beautiful streets and alleys of old town Kotor

  • Received a fascinating mini history lesson on Montenegro

  • Enjoyed local cuisine—a fresh seafood platter and fish soup—right on the water

  • Drank espresso on a cobblestone patio enjoying the last of summer’s warm breezes

  • Strolled the streets of Perast, learning about the art & culture of the seaside town

  • Sailed to a manmade island in the inlet housing a beautiful abandoned church

There’s really no end to the draw of this charming country, and I still have such a long bucket list for the next time I return to Montenegro! To think, I may never have known about this gem of a Mediterranean destination if it wasn’t for Princess. It never fails to surprise me how much of an impact one cruise have on the rest of my life.

Photography by Alex Ry

8 Things You Didn’t Know About Sky Princess

This post is sponsored by Princess Cruises.

It’s officially Princess Week on truelane! I’m pumped to finally reveal all of the experiences we had on our incredible Mediterranean cruise vacation with Princess Cruises in October. It was such a whirlwind of new experiences mixed with everything I’ve always loved about the Princess Cruises brand. What a treat to be on board a brand new ship for the first time…I almost felt like the Queen christening her with a champagne bottle sendoff! The Sky Princess, the newest addition to their Royal Class fleet, didn’t leave a thing to be desired. She was glitzy and glamorous. She was comfortable and relaxing. She was our home for four days, and there was nowhere else I’d rather be.

8 Things You Didn’t Know About Sky Princess | truelane
  1. Sky Princess is the first ship to be built from the ground up with OceanMedallion technology. Although this wasn’t my first OceanMedallion™ cruise, it was my first time on a ship fully outfitted with its incredible technology. From the portals around the ship serving your every need to the way the crew is able to personalize every experience, the new technology was a total game-changer.

  2. Sky Princess was built in Monfalcone, Italy...which is where most of Princess' ships have been built! This is also why the “shakedown” cruise I got to experience departed from Trieste. It set us up for a trio of spectacular Mediterranean destinations. Jan Swartz, the president of Princess Cruises, told us they received the keys just the day before all of the guests arrived on board! The “shakedown” was a fascinating experience—it was Sky Princess’s maiden voyage, which made me the first to lay my head on the pillow in stateroom M243. The enthusiasm about launching the ship was palpable among all the passengers, which made it easy for us to provide feedback on how smoothly everything was running. Let me say, no complaints from me!

8 Things You Didn’t Know About Sky Princess | truelane
8 Things You Didn’t Know About Sky Princess | truelane

3. The crew is as excited about the cruise as you are. Part of the fun of cruising is getting to know both crews members and guests alike from all over the world. One of the spa employees I met had been working on an older ship for years before accepting a position on the brand new, Royal Class Sky Princess, and she was ecstatic! The OceanMedallion™ experience is really in a class all its own. The energy on the ship was truly unmatched. I’m the biggest Princess geek (no really…major fan girl right here) and felt like I found my people!

4. The Sky Suites host the largest balcony at sea. My favorite place we spent time in on the ship was the Sky Suites. They are a stateroom experience unlike any other, providing a 270-degree panoramic view from the gigantic balcony. The suites are exquisitely designed and as luxurious as it gets on a cruise ship. If you’re staying in a Sky Suite, you even get your own dedicated Suite Experience Manager to “deliver your every desire!”

8 Things You Didn’t Know About Sky Princess | truelane
8 Things You Didn’t Know About Sky Princess | truelane
8 Things You Didn’t Know About Sky Princess | truelane
8 Things You Didn’t Know About Sky Princess | truelane

5. Sky Princess has all-new performances, shows, and activities—don’t miss the Phantom Bridge Escape Room or the dazzling Rock Opera! We were treated to the musical stylings of America’s Got Talent star Brian Justin Crum. The entire cast of Rock Opera was incredibly talented! I won’t lie…my travel buddy, Alex, was moved to tears by the music and visuals. Nothing is quite as powerful as live music!

6. There are brand-new, specialty dining options found nowhere else at sea! It’s not secret that cruising is all about the food, and Sky Princess offers the best. The new ship is packed with mouth-watering new restaurants like Bistro Sur La Mer by Emmanuel Renaut, serving exquisite French cuisine. Our group frequented the Ocean Terrace sushi bar almost every night as well! Nothing like eating fresh fish out in the middle of the ocean…it creates such a deep connection between you and your location.

8 Things You Didn’t Know About Sky Princess | truelane
8 Things You Didn’t Know About Sky Princess | truelane

7. A MedallionClass cruise is not just for adults or couples. Sky Princess offers a really cool play-and-learn experience for kids at Camp Discovery. Don’t expect them to be distracted with mindless entertainment—it’s a place they can learn and enjoy tons of enriching activities! (Can we up the age limit to 28, please…?) Another one of my favorite family-friendly draws to MedallionClass™ cruising is the OceanTagalongs™. Since this was my second OceanMedallion™ cruise, I got to reunite with Morris, my sea turtle Tagalong™, and play fun games against my fellow shipmates on deck.

8. You’ll be checked in and onboard faster than you can say “Love Boat.” OceanMedallion™ takes you from curbside to poolside in a snap. Since you can order your Medallion™ ready to go with all of your information pre-loaded, all it takes is a simple scan in the cruise terminal and you’ll be directed right to your stateroom. After cruising with OceanMedallion™ technology, it’s hard to imagine going back. Instead of carrying around papers and filling out forms and scanning passports, all you need is one swipe of the Medallion™ and bon voyage!

8 Things You Didn't Know About Sky Princess | truelane

Our four-day cruise on Sky Princess was short, sweet, and unforgettable. Getting to see a new corner of the world on such a spectacular vessel was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Stay tuned for more posts covering all the highlights coming this week!

Photography by Alex Ry