Egreg19

My wife and I will be traveling to London for 14 days in April 2024. Were currently debating on whether we want to do land based sightseeing or take a cruise. We have done a Princess cruise in the past to Alaska and one to Caribbean. We want to try to fit in Disneyland Paris on this trip, so that will limit the length of cruise we can do. to maybe 8 ish days with as many stops as possible. We aren't necessarily set on a princess cruise, however we are currently part of the "Ecosystem" I just wanted to feel out what some of the London based cruises people have done, and whether they feel like that was a nice way to fit in a lot of sightseeing. Thanks!

Formal night last night. They seem to have cancelled some of the events we saw in the medallion app before arrival. Specifically the “good spirits” events and the “white and gold” piazza party. Not sure about other events we didn’t pay attention. formal night notifications were posted around the ship alerting you to the dress code for the MDR. We saw plenty of men in shorts and T-shirts however at dinner.

So far we have been impressed with the music. We have heard an acoustic guitar/singer at the wheelhouse and the pianist at crooners. Pianist was very good and sang a lot of Elton John, maybe it was a themed performance I didn’t pay attention. Our highlight musically has been the violinist catz. When we were boarding she was playing pop songs with a classical twist and her classical music is amazing. we seem to remember on our previous cruise more options for themed dancing. Having organized times for different dancing and lessons, haven’t seen that yet. Only dancing we have done is at the nightclub.

Wanted to preface this with my wife and I are currently on our second princess cruise, first was Alaska about 9 years ago, so we are far from experienced cruisers. embarkation was a little time consuming. Due to norovirus outbreak on previous cruises the ship underwent a deep clean. Scheduled group arrivals were in 30 minute intervals starting at 1:00. Ours was 1:30 we arrived at 1:15 and asked one of the employees if we were too early, and he said to just get in line. No one was checking arrival groups. There were 3 lines I could see, people who had their medallion, people who didn’t, and disabled. They allowed the disabled in as they arrived. We stood in line outside the processing room in the medallion line for about 45 minutes unmoving. We found out later that they made the cruisers who were on the ship previously for the first half of the 14 day cruise option to completely leave the ship for 4 hours for cleaning. It seemed like loading up previous cruisers and allowing the processing room to completely empty before filling up again was the reason for the delay. Once in the processing room it was about 30-40 more minutes to board. We received a notice to try to use our own restrooms and wash hands often to prevent illness. Besides that they have a crew-member stationed at each buffet station serving. as far as our experience so far. We’ve enjoyed it. Food is on par with what we experienced on our last cruise, although we had the crown grill first night and presentation was lacking. Just a chunk of meat and a potato on a plate. We ordered the asparagus and mushrooms as a side and it was delivered on a seperate plate. We placed it on the steak plate to take a picture so it didn’t look so sad. Flavor was there though. It has also been a little odd that we have been solicited to buy souvenir shot glasses at each of the meals we have had in the formal dining room. We have the drink package and it’s a little unclear how they handle the drinks. Sometimes on our app it shows the drinks as “package discount” and sometimes it shows as a charge with a “complementary” as an additional item. We have been assured by guest services that both those mean it’s part of the package. Our highlight of the ship so far has been hanging out with Asheesh at crooners bar. Super friendly and knowledgeable. He even went to the kitchen to get fresh peppers for my wife’s spicy marg! If anyone has a suggestion for an inexperienced cruiser on how to show a crew member special appreciation I would take it. Tips given at the bar seem to be shared. And I would assume a envelope with a name left at the end would be as well. Any questions I’ll try to get back!

Someone mentioned on another thread some changes being made on the ship due to illness. Food service changed and entertainment, have you noticed anything?

Thanks for the replies! Ill look into riverside hotel and also Sunny.org.

We are taking a princess cruise in April. We fly in a day before embarking and we fly home a day after disembarking. It’s our first time in the area so I’m unfamiliar and have a few questions for anyone more experienced. 1. does anyone have hotel recommendations that may have a airport shuttle as well as a cruise port shuttle? Or do most people do Uber etc. from hotel and cruise port? 2. Our flight home doesn’t leave until 7pm. Are there any hotels or resorts in the area we may be able to do a day pass and store our bags while we relax before leaving for our flight, or are we better off politely asking the hotel we stay at the night before to hold our bags while we find an activity for the afternoon before our flight? thanks in advance! Evan.