Flyinby

The porter service is https://porterservice.frb.io/ or email at porter@porterservice.no . Sounds like they've been around for some time, and they replied promptly...picking up our luggage both from and back to Oslo, in the morning at the hotel before we leave on the train. The site does say they can deliver to private apartments or airb&b's, so possibly they can take your luggage directly to Havila (?). The cost seems fair enough, considering what they do and how much it will make things easier.

Thanks, we're really looking forward to and getting excited about the trip...now only about 2 weeks before we leave for Oslo. Having booked nearly a year ago, we've had plenty of time to prepare for the winter in Norway...now we just have to sort what to actually take. If we took and wore all the layers we've accumulated, we'd be rolling around the ship like balls 8^) We did find a porter service to pick up our luggage in Oslo and deliver it to our Bergen hotel...we're taking the train to Flam, spending a night, then continuing to Bergen, and so will only need the carry-on for that. With everything booked now in advance, I won't have to be sticking my nose in a laptop or phone much on the trip...except maybe to translate or find our way around. With a half dozen excursions, I don't think we'll be bored, but hated to pass up this opportunity. Gondolas, dog sleds, North Cape, Russian border etc., should be fun. Will definitely report back as soon as I can after we return.

The starboard side is pretty clear here: https://www.havilavoyages.com/about-havila/media/havila-capella-delivered if that's of any help. I can't really tell from the pictures if there are cargo doors there, but when booking our trip for this February, I checked with Havila about which side they generally docked on, since I wanted our cabin to be able to view the towns and mountains as much as possible on the short stops, and was told they dock on the port side (I know that's the origin of "port side" but ships dock on different sides since they don't have "steering boards" now 8^). I should know more in about a month when we return from the trip.

Why push the lower limit? Why not just pop up and change, then go eat? Or eat in the pool area's snack bar if it exists? While the style of bathing suit isn't specified, there's a big difference between board shorts and bun-hugger speedos...so if a "bathing suit" is OK in the buffet, regardless of what it does or doesn't hide, maybe a shirt is unnecessary, and of course who needs shoes in the pool. And if you go by what the "others" are doing, you're going by the lowest common denominator, so that one potbellied guy having lunch in a speedo and his similarly-shaped wife in her string bikini, who are making everyone gag, make it OK for others too? Why not just up the standard a bit, or at least keep it relatively even, so the cruise has some class instead of looking like a cheap booze cruise? Or else just just take a cheap booze cruise. Nothing fancy needed, but just changing out of a swimming suit if you're not around the pool shouldn't be much of a sacrifice...and instead of having some people offended and the other half joining you in their speedos/strings, everyone will be happy. 8^) Consideration and thoughtfulness goes a long way in this world of "ME".

On the Royal in December, we bought coffee packages and each had 15...no matter the price, or the size. I found that the new system is actually better for us coffee card users. Last Princess cruise in 2019 we bought 2 cards, and I'd go down to get a couple of morning coffees and would get a dirty look from the guy when I wanted 2. After I made it clear that there was no reason for my wife to have to walk down there every morning, he backed off and was fine about it. But when that person was off, it again became a hassle. Now with the medallion, it never was an issue...they knew instantly we had coffee cards, and no dirty looks for 2 brewed coffees, which don't count against the number. Then one morning we discovered it was actually faster to just order via room service...they often showed up within 5 minutes, and it was much easier than me carrying 2 coffees back, especially if I added a couple of snacks to go with it.

Yes it does. Our mini-suite had a really bright closet hall light that was bright enough to wake someone asleep on the bed, plus 3 under-nightstand/desk lights that would come on if you, for example, stuck your foot outside the covers. I didn't notice the sensor but taped a brochure over the light, which let it still work but not bright enough to bother anyone. The sensor tape is probably a better idea. For the nightstands, a rolled T-shirt or towel works, just jam it under there. I left the one on the desk alone, it didn't bother us at night because no one walked over there. There were no switches for any of them. So if you're sailing on the Royal, bring tape.

If you're using an Android phone, go to settings...apps, tap on the medallion app, and tap and confirm 'force stop'. In my case on our recent cruise, it always worked fine after that. Any time it hung, no matter where in the app, I didn't waste time looking at the spinning circle if it was more than maybe 10-15 seconds. They seemed to have designed it to not shut down when you use the back button to exit, so instead of getting a fresh start when you return to the app, it keeps all the glitches it has accumulated since it was last shut down. It's a buggy app, but has some handy features (finding travel companions), just too bad it's not more reliable.

They do have a decent selection, but in our case the problem was more with quality. Good cheesecake, for example, should be rich and creamy, not light and fluffy...but then it's not only Princess who pushes off the air-filled version, it's gotten to be quite common. There were some good desserts, some disappointing, and about half the time I opted for the build-your-own sundae, which was made with surprisingly good ice cream or gelato. I've learned to be careful and judicious with starters and other preliminaries, so I don't spoil the main course, which of course comes at the end of the meal 8^). The pastries, tarts, etc. at the coffee place sort of qualify as desserts, and they were mostly pretty disappointing. They all looked nice, but were often stale, flavorless, or an odd combination of flavors. I always liked the tarts with coffee on previous cruises, but both the fruit and pastry this time was just not that good...I'd generally get 3-4 at a time that looked good, and then sort out one that actually tasted good, and left the rest.

It wasn't exactly a complaint, it came bundled with a positive comment: "I'd say the $7 bottled water packages are the best bargain of the whole cruise. We ordered 2-12 packs, and others in our group with "plus' came by often to mooch a bottle; they had to order it and wait around for it to be delivered, which was pretty annoying." Having the 24 bottles of water in our room, easy to grab whenever the need arises or if we're headed out, was great, as opposed to those who had to order it sent individually and/or wait for it in room or elsewhere...hence several found it easier to "mooch" one of ours, or we just offered them one when we were leaving. Even if I did have plus, which I won't, I'd probably still order a 12-pack or two just for the convenience. Our room service for coffee etc. was very good, usually showing up in probably 10 minutes or less, but having the water already there was still more convenient than having to order it.

I didn't ask. They did get water sent to their room (small bottles, large ones cost even if you have plus, apparently), but I'm not inclined to tell someone in my family to "get their own damb water" if they ask for a bottle or I offer them one. Perhaps they didn't know that the bar dispenses bottles of water, or perhaps Princess doesn't make that clear...I didn't know that, but then I don't use the "plus". At the buffet, my daughter (plus) asked for water, the guy asked if she wanted a bottle or glass, she said bottle, and he proceeded to poke at his screen and said it would be delivered. After about 15 minutes we left, sans water bottle.

Having just returned from our 10-day Mexico trip, I'd say the $7 bottled water packages are the best bargain of the whole cruise. We ordered 2-12 packs, and others in our group with "plus' came by often to mooch a bottle; they had to order it and wait around for it to be delivered, which was pretty annoying. I suspect they've lowered the quality of the "ordinary" desserts in order to make the upgrade desserts more desirable. I was not too impressed with the desserts...would rate the buffet desserts at maybe a 2 out of 5. The dining room desserts were somewhat better, but mostly I found myself ordering the sundae, which is good, rather than things like the cheesecake that's more like a cake than a cheesecake. The special pink Princess heart-shaped dessert seemed well-liked among others in our group, but I didn't try it myself. I was happy the buffet was back after Covid, but it was pretty borderline. If you like anything breadlike with breakfast, the buttermilk biscuits are good, but not much else...lots of stale muffins and toast abound. The fruit bowls...cantaloupe, watermelon, honeydew, and pineapple were often old, soggy, or just not good to begin with, with the exception of the pineapple which was generally OK. We did enjoy the cruise, with our large family group, but the food was not the reason, and it has gone downhill since our 2019 cruises. I'd rather see them improve the quality of what they offer, rather than just add another "premium" layer you need to get something decent.

Nobody said anything about changing cruise lines over a few dollars....and Princess isn't my "exclusive" cruise line anyway. For certain situations, it works out fine, but more often the experience and the destinations matter more, and I'd rather those, or drinking water, or wifi, and so on aren't "extras". Example: 3 of the six rooms we have booked on an upcoming cruise have one person in the cabin that would like drinks...in one, the wife is pregnant, in two others the second person is under age, so that's a total of $3000 spent for "extras" because of their policy that just one can't buy the plus. Now they're raising that, so I don't see that as much of an improvement, and will no doubt look elsewhere if the situation comes up again. Do I want a cheap basic rate and a bunch of upgrade fees, or a line where excursions, drinks, wifi and customer care are included, and there is no "Premier" class or other such nonsense? Do I want a deluxe suite at a Motel 6, or should I just book at a nicer hotel to begin with? We all have choices, I know which mine is.

They're headed the wrong direction by doing this. One of my gripes about Princess and its associated lines is the cheapskate bottle of water they leave on the stateroom desk, which, if you open without reading, costs you. For drinking water. And wi-fi? Maybe in 2020, but now that it's a basic, which even the lower grade hotels mostly provide for free, they raise the price? The increase for Plus doesn't affect me, since I don't drink, but if you have one drinker and one non-drinker in a stateroom, they BOTH have to get the plus if one wants it. It's already ridiculous at $1000, now it will be more? Throw in $10 to ship the medallions, which were their idea in the first place, even more so. I suppose choice is good...one can always book an inside cabin, do without wi-fi, and tell them not to deduct any gratuities, but after experiencing cruise lines where most basics are included...wifi, drinks with meals, shore excursions, gratuities, and they hand out bottles of water as if they were...well...water..., this latest news just makes it less likely I'll be checking Princess when looking for cruises. So it costs a bit more, but not being nitpicked for every cent while on the cruise makes it worth it to me.

We've always had to use 2 tables...usually an 8 and a 6, in the past, but always next to each other so it was fine. That's what I'd hoped to do in the app, but it's not possible, so if the staff can't arrange it when we board, we'll try just showing up at 5 or so and see how that works.

That's interesting about the dressing up. On earlier (2000-2010) Carnival and Princess cruises it was pretty strictly "enforced". Not sure about later, we've tended to skip it and eat elsewhere rather than go to the trouble, but some folks do seem to enjoy it. I agree that it's better to shop for a better experience, even if it does mean fewer of them. But it's nice to have choices that suit everybody. While our previous Princess cruises have been very enjoyable, the changes they seem to be making aren't exactly making me eager for more after this one. Even the "dress to impress, white and gold piazza party" isn't doing it...8^). I've seen some Oceania cruises that look pretty tempting, we'll no doubt be giving them a try also, but our schedule is pretty full for a while.

If you haven't been on a Viking cruise, I think you're in for a treat. Nothing's perfect, but we did a wonderful Viking river cruise earlier this year and now, looking at where Princess has gone is not a pretty sight. I think that's the only way they'll eventually get the hint that they took a wrong turn, by customers choosing other options, of which there are plenty. We have a group of 13 going on a Princess Mexico cruise soon, and it's been nothing but hassles with the medallion app, pre-cruise processes, and poor website information. Now today I get an email that we're supposed to get excited about the "Love Boat Piazza Party", a night of "romance and celebration" where we're supposed to come "dressed to impress" in white and gold (on the formal night). Gag. Yeah, I want to have to pack TWO suits instead of only one... This is supposedly celebrating their new "Love Boat" reality show, a show that has a 3.8/10 rating at IMDB, of which the selected review starts with "another brainless reality show..." I'm trying to cut Princess some slack, since we did have some nice cruises with them in 2019 and earlier, but it's getting harder and harder...while I'm sure we'll have an OK time on the cruise, I really doubt we'll be returning. It sounds to me like the new head of Princess, who is in love with the Medallion people, is trying to revamp things without a clue that the "Love Boat" was not real, it was a scripted TV show. And, most of the faithful Princess cruisers we've seen on our cruises weren't anything like the Love Boat cast...so what is he thinking? We have two future cruises coming up so far, and they aren't on Princess.

How do you switch to 'anytime' dining? We have an upcoming cruise with a family group of 13, and trying to book a reservation for the same time each night has been a nightmare. Finally had to call them and even then they had to do some workaround and said I'd need to go in first day and clarify that we wanted to dine together. Even at that, if the group got over 4 the earliest available was 7PM, and it's nowhere near a full ship (Royal-Mexico-10 day-Dec. 12). I'd have taken 5PM if available, even 6:20, but not happy with 7 this time of year. I can't find anything on their website about any options but making reservations. Of course they have all the "dine when you want, with who you want, where you want" ads which is a laugh. Do you just show up at the dining room to get "anytime dining"?

Thanks, it's nice to finally get some information on this...we're booked for Feb. 14 '22 round trip, and really looking forward to it! The lack of any reviews had me wondering if it was "real", so I went right to your review. I'll no doubt have a few questions, so thanks for the email offer; with our mid-late February trip, I'm assuming the weather won't be great, so it's hard to know what to plan. I'm glad to hear you went on the Russian border excursion...one question, it describes it as 'strenuous', and that covers a wide range, so did you consider it strenuous or just a bit of uphill/stairs and walking? We are planning a full day in each Bergen and Oslo...sounds like maybe we should add a day in Bergen at least, but I'm wondering how the weather will limit things. It's also hard to imagine how to fit in excursions with such limited time in port, but I guess it works. Anyway, thanks again, much appreciated, and you'll probably get a few more questions as we prepare.

Thanks for the tips. While it's a bit of a convoluted way, at least there's hope. I did notice in the online app that if I lessen the number to 10 or less, it will let me proceed, where with thirteen everything is greyed out. Several previous trips on Carnival/Princess had 13-14 and it was no problem...we were seated at tables together, same place/waiters every night. We'll see how they do with this. The ship is the Royal Princess and shows two dining rooms...no idea which to pick. But a bigger issue is if I have a group of 6, the earliest time it shows is 7PM. If I cut it to fewer, it shows availability beginning at 5. We were planning on 6:30, so I may try 3 separate bookings to see if that will work with 6:30, and head to the dining room after boarding to let them know we need to have the tables together. If they can't provide that, we'll survive, but it will be our final Princess/Carnival/etc. cruise as there's no excuse to not be able to provide family groups seating together at dinner. I assume they'll work it out. This was never an issue before they "improved" to Medallion. Perhaps I'll give the cruise planner a call and see if she can manage it without all these workarounds. I don't know what time the shows are, but if the first one is 8, then 7 is probably too late for dining, hence the 6:30 preference. We don't particularly want the later shows, which again, was never a problem before. Thanks again for the info, it's very helpful.

We are a family group of 13, and planned to meet in the main dining room at a fixed time each night, with all of us seated together (not one table, of course). This has been simple in the past, but hitting the "Dine my way" in the app, choosing same time each night, and adding all 13 to the group returns a "Sorry, no reservations available, check back later". The cruise is Dec. 12, so not that far off. Any ideas? It's nice to see they've made what was once a simple process into a convoluted nightmare, thanks to the company's love for the "Medallion". We have jumped through hoop after hoop to get everyone properly registered via the app and web, yet keep running into glitches. We've done several Princess cruises in the past, but their fixation on this app and its associated processes has me leaning toward this being our last....we'll see, but what used to be a simple process is no longer. Being a computer tech person who's done a bit of programming in the past, I know that a main goal is to simplify and speed processes for the end user, and this is a fail in that respect. Maybe, someday, but after subjecting customers to being beta testers for years with no compensation? And, c'mon, Part 3 of the Medallion app posting on its 173rd page, and apparently mostly gripes or something not working? That in itself should speak volumes.

Thanks to Geezercouple for your great account of your experience (and the cold warning!) and to Hallasm for the tips and encouragement. It will be a unique experience to us, northern lights notwithstanding, just the journey along the coast in winter. We're flying to Oslo (from US) and taking the train from Oslo to Flam, spending a night, then on to Bergen for the ship, with a full day each in Oslo and Bergen...not much time, but then it will be winter and we have to be realistic about how much traipsing around we'll want to do in the cold. We'll save that for a near-future spring trip to see fjords and greenery. I appreciate the realistic assessment of the lights, and we'll hope for Hallasm's prediction to happen a lot during the trip. For years I went to Yosemite NP in early spring for the "moonbow" at Yosemite falls, and the description of the lights vs. what the camera shows sounds pretty much the same. We would be looking for faint colors and getting excited, while the camera showed a much more colorful display of the moonbow...and adding a correctly-oriented polarizer would accentuate the colors even more. Hopefully we'll see the lights so much that I'll have the nerve to experiment with the polarizer effect on them too 8^).

Yes, I noticed that on the Hurtigruten site back when I was booking the voyage. While it's not really much of a guarantee, I just thought it interesting that Havila had also added it, and figured that it was encouraging given the other comments about shipboard not being a good option for the northern lights. But we booked long ago with no guarantee, so it wasn't a factor in our choice. We'll (hopefully) see them if they appear, whether they're awe-inspiring or just a few flashes, and if not may not even bother with the guarantee, unless we can change the cabin and figure the associated costs are worth it to us. The alternative would be to cancel, figuring we may not see them at all so why take a chance, but I figure it will be an incredible and memorable voyage regardless...if we don't see the lights maybe we'll try again some other time or by some other means, but either way is OK.

We've booked a mid-February round trip (Bergen-Kirkenes-Bergen) with Havila, and I see that now they've added the "Northern Lights Guarantee" that I saw before on Hurtigruten. I'm excited about the new ships, and optimistic that we'll see lots of northern lights and hopefully get some good photos. We'll be ready to quickly don warmest clothes and head out if a middle of night event occurs. There's not a lot of info around on Havila; they're relatively new and had some glitches with the recent Russian situation, but it's looking good and starting to get exciting planning for the northern Norway weather in February. Best of luck with your 'bucket list', we're from CA also.

I've noticed something on some of these discussion boards...a "love it or leave it" tendency from many that post there. While I understand brand loyalty and a tendency to be defensive of one's favorites, how are businesses to know what customers like or dislike if no one says anything? If someone really likes Princess overall but dislikes the smoke whenever you're anywhere near the casino, what's wrong with saying it bothers you? If people speak up, perhaps they'll listen. If you just cruise once, enjoy all but the smoke, and then write them off without saying anything, what good does that do, except for you individually? And it doesn't do Princess much good either, if people just leave and don't tell anyone why. A good example, since I started this thread about something else, is that I've enjoyed Princess cruises in the past, but weren't too thrilled about some recent changes (like the medallion, or having to authorize your credit card to a company you've never heard of and they don't say a word as to why or even who it is). There were some helpful responses, of experiences with Medallion etc., which were helpful and informative, which is what I was hoping for...people's thoughts, positive or negative, on those issues. But then of course in no time came the useless posts saying no way would I enjoy the cruise because I was a complainer, maybe I should just take a hike, how stupid of me to even book the cruise (even though the changes became apparent after booking, and I said I'd see how it goes after taking the cruise, as to whether to continue with Princess). To those folks, don't waste your time answering anything you don't have anything useful to comment with, it's a waste of time and will be ignored anyway. This post I'm replying to wasn't one of those, but since it only expressed the (obvious) "you can always go somewhere else", I thought it was worth mentioning...no one is forced to answer here, so if you don't have anything useful to say, maybe think twice before posting.

I guess it's mini-suites, probably getting the terminology mixed up with Viking junior suites, which really ARE suites. I saw that the mini-suite is basically just a little bigger "deluxe balcony" which is just a little bigger "balcony", with some different configuration. No club class here, we associate with the normal riff-raff...8^). Thanks for the heads-up, though...I didn't bother mentioning that I could see that the suite really isn't one, had I done that someone up the thread would have no doubt branded me even worse of a complainer. Some folks are very sensitive about their favorite cruise line, apparently.