All Access Ship Tour

[Sarastep]

We went on this tour on the Symphony of the Seas. It was offered on our sea day. We have been on a few cruises, on different cruise lines, and thought this would be an interesting couple of hours, and it was

At each stop on the tour a crew member in that area speaks to you about their job and the operations of their department. We got tours of the dining room, kitchen, bakery, freezers/storage, internal corridors, engineering, laundry and the bridge. It was an interesting behind the scenes look at how things operate. I liked that someone from each specific department spoke to us as they were able to give lots of insight and answer any questions.

If you choose to do this tour, please follow the instructions and wear long pants and closed toe flat shoes. They will not let you participate if you don’t. This policy is made very clear in the information you get with your tickets, and they even call your room the day before to remind you. We still had 2 people show up in shorts. Luckily they ran to their rooms and changed before the tour started, but it would be very disappointing to miss if you weren’t as quick (they won’t wait for you as everything is setup for a certain time).

[JohnK6404]

Thanks for the review! We're doing this on Wonder in October and can't wait as this will be our first behind the scenes style tour!

[CrimsonCruiser]

I'm glad to hear they were upholding the dress restrictions somewhere. We did a galley tour on Harmony and in the rules it says no shorts  or skirts/dresses, no purses, no open-toed shoes....and people showed up in all of the above and were able to participate no problem. The mom and I were shocked especially since anything can happen in an active kitchen.

[happy cruisers 2]

Good information in the previous posts regarding ship tours.  Thanks.  I thought I once read something about ship tours being a free perk for some guests.  My question is this:  Do SUITE GUESTS ever get a free ship tour?  Or maybe free tours involve a certain level of Crown and Anchor points?  We are cruising in a suite in a few weeks and have purchased the All-Access Ship Tour, but now I'm wondering if that is maybe not necessary.  Perhaps someone with more Suite or Crown and Anchor experience than me can share their experience.  Thank you.

Edited August 22, 2023 by happy cruisers 2
clarity

[Ryan79]

3 hours ago, happy cruisers 2 said:

Good information in the previous posts regarding ship tours.  Thanks.  I thought I once read something about ship tours being a free perk for some guests.  My question is this:  Do SUITE GUESTS ever get a free ship tour?  Or maybe free tours involve a certain level of Crown and Anchor points?  We are cruising in a suite in a few weeks and have purchased the All-Access Ship Tour, but now I'm wondering if that is maybe not necessary.  Perhaps someone with more Suite or Crown and Anchor experience than me can share their experience.  Thank you.

Not something suite guests or C&A get for free. It is however a benefit for Platinum Latitude members for NCL. Maybe this is what you recall.

[Xaa]

I *think* it's included for Star Class.

[bobroo]

Once upon a time Diamonds could get free galley tours and Diamond+ could get free bridge tours. They just had to request them.

These tours, even though they were a perk, made an important connection between the ship as a workplace and your vacation. I am a better cruiser because I was on them. 

[happy cruisers 2]

Thanks to the previous posters for their info.  We will plan to keep our reservations.  It's probably the only ship tour we'll do and it sounds about as inclusive as possible, as far as what they let you see.  We always feel that the life of the crew members must be very tiring and challenging.  I think the tour will give us even more appreciation for what the crew do for us.

[ckruetze]

On 8/22/2023 at 2:57 AM, happy cruisers 2 said:

Do SUITE GUESTS ever get a free ship tour?  

I've recently been on the Symphony in a star class suite. And what the star class guests got was a free bridge tour.

We also booked the all access tour (actually the same day as the star class bridge visit just later).

The all access tour was great. As described by @Sarastep only on the bridge it wasn't a bridge crew member but the tour guide who spoke to us.

On the star class bridge tour it was the second officer who showed us around and explained everything. The advantage was that he had more knowledge then the tour guide. And working there he knew what buttons to press. My daughter asked how high the waves were and he said not sure but let's look at the wave radar (I can't remember the actual name of that radar) and he showed her the current wave height, wave height for the entire day etc.

Also the star class bridge tours are usually smaller with less people.

So for visiting other parts of the ship definitely book the all access tour, it was great fun.

[happy cruisers 2]

Good advice on the all-access tour, ckruetze.  Thanks!  We have always talked about doing a ship tour, but just never did it.  Looking forward to that on Allure soon.