JenRonn1104

Philadelphia has direct flights to San Juan as well.

We just booked this cruise for November 2024 to celebrate our 20th Anniversary.  I am enjoying everyone’s comments.  Thank you.

I was just checking out the ships and itineraries.  It all looks great.  The staterooms look beautiful but I had a question.  Does anyone know what a "Nordic Balcony" is?  It doesn't look like they are actual balconies, but I wasn't sure if anyone read anything about them.  I tried searching and couldn't find anything.

Thank you.

Peregrina, have a wonderful time.  I got my Facebook reminder this morning that 1/3/2019 we were on a plane flying to Barcelona to spend a couple days before our Iberian Explorer cruise.  Wish we were there again today.  Barcelona is one of my favorite cities.  And of course being on Viking is wonderful.  Enjoy the cruise.  I hope you have nice weather like we did.

Jen

14 hours ago, OnTheJourney said:

Thanks...as we get a bit closer I might 'pick your brain', so-to-speak as some questions arise. It'll be interesting to see how Viking handles this being that there is a day in between the end of the inaugural cruise (to Barcelona) and the beginning of this Iberian trip. I'm sure there will be more pax doing B2B (but never did one with a day in between sailings). 

Absolutely, anytime you need to pick my brain I am usually around.  🙂  There are a lot of lovely hotels in Barcelona for that in between night.  I would book that as early as possible.  There are a lot of hotel recommendations for Barcelona in the Ports of Call threads.  

Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays to everyone!

Hi.  We did this cruise this year (2019) and had a lovely time.  The times in port are short but it was so  nice to get away right after the holidays which are a busy time for us both personally and work wise.  We flew in two days early and spent those days enjoying Barcelona, one of our favorite cities.  We were lucky enough to be there for the Festival of the Three Kings.  

There are plenty of excursions even with the short port times.  In Portsmouth, we just took the shuttle over to the Dockyard and did the dockyard exploration ourselves.  So much to see there.  We had a great time.  

Let me know if I can answer any other questions about this itinerary.  Enjoy your trip next year!

What was that?  You will love the PV3.  We were in a PV3 for our Viking Homelands cruise and loved it.  It was a perfect location and we hardly ever needed the elevator because it was a short walk up or down to anywhere.  On our last cruise we got a great deal and went with a DV and it was nice but the whole week we said we would probably only book a PV moving forward because of the extra space and storage space alotted with the PV.  Enjoy your cruise!

Thanks all.  Right now the flight is twice what I am paying for it so I think I should be good but I can wait.  I didn't realize it was 45 days I thought it was right after final payment.  Appreciate the help.  

HI All, 

We booked our flight through EZ Air for our Canadian Cruise in August.  Our flight is only 57 days out and still do not show as ticketed with the airline.  Is this unusual?  Final payment was May 21.

Thank you for your insight.

Jennifer

Awesome photos!  Those otters are so cute.  I can't stop looking at their adorable faces.

We will be on her in August.  I hope you have a great cruise.  Let us know how she is if you can.

We sailed on the original Regal Princess through the Panama Canal in November 2006.  To this day it is one of our favorite cruising experience.  The service was fantastic.  The cruise came at the right time for us - a bit of stress at home - and it was great to get away and truly relax.  We have such fond memories of that ship.  It was the perfect size with the right amount of passengers.  I wish Princess would add some ships of this size again.  

Here is a picture of the ship docked in Costa Rica and one of the atrium decorated for Christmas.

We were on this cruise in May and did a private tour through TJ Travel for two days in St Petersburg and they provided the Visa and all went smoothly when we got off the ship both days.  I would highly recommend trying them.  I have also heard that Alla Tours is excellent also.  You are going to love this cruise.

Is that an extra $400 per person or for the total upgrade.  I love the extra room in the MiniSuite and we tend to book them most often but I wouldn't do $400 per person for it.  If $200 per person, I would do it.  Just my opinion.  Enjoy your cruise.  We love Alaska.

Gorgeous pictures.  Thank you for sharing.  This itinerary has now been added to the list of ones I want to do.  

1 hour ago, zitsky said:

There is one port where I'm thinking to do a private tour.  (Rome)

We did a private tour with 3 other couples when we were in Rome in 2016.  It was a great tour.  We used Drive in Rome and did the 9 hour tour including 2 hours Vatican Tour Guide and Fast Track Vatican and Colosseum tickets.  We really saw a lot.  I think it was around 140 euro per person for 8 people.  I would highly recommend it.

We have a wheeled case similar to that for a case of wine.  We bought it in Napa to check a case of wine to fly home.  We plan on bringing on our next cruise.  $150 corkage fee for a case is much cheaper than the wine package plus we get to bring what we like.  

OP, if you are talking about the Caribbean Princess Quebec to NYC 8/9-19 - it is docking in Brooklyn.  You can look it up on the Brooklyn Port schedule.  I found it there.  We are on this cruise.

5 hours ago, KBS1607 said:

Our first cruise on Princess was in 1994 on the “old” Regal. It was our 10th anniversary and everyone kept asking us if we were on our honeymoon. When we told them it was our tenth they all said we were babies when we got married.

 

I think my favorite is the Coral, we did a fourteen day and a seven day on her. 

 

New Regal next. 

We were on the "old" Regal for a Panama Canal cruise in 2006 and it was one of our favorite cruises.  I loved that ship.  It was laid out so nice and the service that trip was amazing.  I miss that ship.

We have done both itineraries and enjoyed both of them.  If I had to pick one of them to do again I would probably pick #2 because we love Barbados and Antigua.  But you can't go wrong with either.

Our first Princess Cruise was on the Star Princess for our Honeymoon in 2004 and we splurged on a Penthouse Suite.  Boy were we spoiled.  We fell in love with Princess on that cruise.

OP - we got the Silver Spirits package on both our Viking Cruises.  We were very happy with our choice to do so.  We are a tad wine snobbish, so the included wines just weren't to our liking but the premium wines included in the package were perfect.  We tried a lot of them as we do like a variety.  We will get it on our upcoming cruise as well.  I feel that for the price it is definitely worth it.  

We also did the Soviet Flashback tour in Tallinn and loved it.  Very well run tour.  Very interesting.  We had enough time to do this tour and the included Walking Tour which was also very good.  

Just an FYI on the Traditional Fishing in Stavanger.  My father and husband had that booked when we were there in May (my mom and I were doing the Pulpit Rock cruise) but when we got on board we were notified that due to lack of interest the fishing was cancelled.  They ended up doing the walking tour with oil museum and enjoyed it but were very disappointed to not go fishing.

We did the same thing.  Sat in the Living Room before docking and as soon as we heard the chime we got up and headed for the door.  We were the first 4 people off the ship.  No issues at all.