bluenoser2

Can you still "browse" the appetizers if you aren't purchasing a drink, but are platinum?

As I was reading the posts above out loud to my DH, I said "oh, I don't think we have a Worst Packing Mistake...." to which he grunted, and said, "what about the one mistake you let everyone know I made?"

Oh yeah....on our European Explorer cruise which began in Rome, we decided to take one large suitcase and two smaller cases. The night before, I had everything ready to go, and since we had discussed the idea of packing some things for both of us in each case, in the event that one didn't make it, he said "let me take care of that". Trustingly, I left him to it.

Upon our arrival in Rome, off came all our luggage except for one. The Big One. MY Big One. So we completed the necessary details, trundled off to the ship and once our other luggage arrived in the room, started unpacking. Apparently, making sure some of my luggage was in the other luggage meant I had what I was wearing (my NOTFORWALKING shoes), 2 casual dresses, a formal pantsuit, 2 skirts and no tops. That's it. Luckily (for him) my suitcase arrived the next day having taken a detour to Germany. It was a grand reunion. Since then we have gone carry-on only AND I pack my own bag.

Is the laundry room open 24 hours? I would like to get this unfortunate ironing chore over with as soon as possible on the first full day, so my DH doesn't get "the look" for any longer than necessary. I've decided that if I can get in there really early while he's out for his stroll on deck at 5:30 a.m. (we have the benefit of an hour on the time zone we're heading into) and get it done quickly, I can treat myself to something at the International Cafe as my just reward, and be back in my room before he even knows I'm off slaving away. I'll just have to make sure the sugar crumbs are wiped off my face.

DH and I love Salty's which is right on the harbour. They have a lower section that is more pub-style, and the more upscale and pricier upstairs level with a view of the harbour no matter what table you're at.

If you want to eat while at Peggy's Cove we can vouch for the Sou'wester right there. We usually have New Year's day brunch there. All the food is very good and homey, and their gingerbread cake is soooooo yummy.

There isn't anything else between there and Halifax, except for what has already been mentioned.

Thanks everyone! I really never imagined being the person who initiated a thread about fibre. But there it is. Yes, there will be no box dragging to the MDR for us. He's used to taking it with him, but I do like the individual ziploc bag idea. Subtle. Thanks so much.

Egad, I'm asking one of those questions I never thought I'd ask! DH is under doc's orders to have Bran Buds daily (not just All-Bran, but Bran Buds....sigh) and in preparation for our Regal Princess cruise next month, DH has asked me....do ya think they have it on board or will I have to pack my own? So, there it is. You breakfast cereal aficionados tell me what there is! Thanks so much.

We had one of the angled balconies on the Royal on Emerald deck - E109 - and loved it. It does not have the clear panel, since it is in the bulkhead, but the space was lovely as our 3 children were in an inside and could come over and use our balcony - if we opened the door when they knocked...... loads of room and we didn't miss the clear panel since I'm usually the one enjoying to stand right at the edge to see everything. No wind issues that I remember.

We tried to book the lunch in the Eiffel Tower, but were waitlisted, and never did get on it - but we did do the Seine river cruise and loved it. The food was fantastic, the violin player was excellent and we had no regrets. The only negative of the whole day was the fact that the bus we were on must have been made for very small people, because while neither my husband and I are very tall, it was a long time with no leg room! We were like you - might never be back that way, and if we were that close to Paris that was what we wanted to see. Loved our (brief) time there!

You should have no problem. With the young ages of some of your family, you might want to go when the dining room opens and you'll be taken right to a table for all of you. If you like it, you can continue to be there all the time. When we were travelling as a group of 6 we would go at opening time, and after the first night, we would just request the same table number if we had enjoyed the service there, and after that we wouldn't even have to ask.

We did the tour with SPB last summer as you are, and the tender was no problem. Our group just went to the meeting area (dining room), got our number and I don't recall even having to wait for more than a few minutes before we were going to the tender. So just get your group together and go to the assigned meeting place as soon as you can so that you won't be anxious! (Our SPB tour was great - fantastic guide - we really enjoyed our time there!)

We experienced this last summer on the Royal - I actually don't recall noticing it much at all - we embarked in Copenhagen which was the biggest embarkation bunch, and aside from feeling like they couldn't really talk about it being your last night on board when we were in the theatre on our last night, there wasn't any inconvenience, or anything that made it feel less like other cruises. I suppose it might make a difference if you were involved in a roll call where some people weren't there when you have your first meet and greet and such things. It didn't have a "ferry" feel to it for us. That might have been different if we had been embarking other than at Copenhagen. The St. Petersburg embarkation was pretty small as I recall.

Thank you, I wondered if that might be the case. Hubby thinks we would be going "early enough" to not worry about lines to which I reminded him that we're talking NYC, not our little town of 3000!

We will be embarking our cruise at Red Hook terminal in October (on a Saturday). Prior to that we will be staying at a hotel near the UN/Grand Central Station. Has anyone had experience with taking a taxi to the port? I've heard some reports that because of the long queue of taxis on cruise embarkation days the fare can be quite hefty, and that one cannot be dropped off before the terminal. Would it be better to have a car service take us? Any suggestions or experience with this will be greatly appreciated!

Why thank you! I was just reminiscing about our trip the other day, and then I got the notification that someone had actually read the review! I'm ready for another one but I think our next will be an eastern coastal trip so we can act like tourists in some of our favourite cities that we already know and love!

We had one of those forward Emerald deck balconies. Loved it - it is more like the Caribe balconies of other ships, very spacious, and lots of room to stretch out. We didn't mind the solid wall instead of clear. When we want to really look at things we're always at the railing anyway! Ours was E109, which has the largest balcony of those in the bulkhead.

Thanks everybody; you make my day. (And my day was pretty boring so you really wouldn't want to hear about it).

Pia, I look forward to your next "live from" and will practice some new languages to try out then - I will live vicariously through your world cruise!!!

Now if I could just figure out how to get the duct tape off Florence, and wash her up......

Aw, shucks....(several bobbing curtseys, blushing cheeks and embarrassed smiles to you all), thank you for your lovely compliments. You're too kind. I will go to sleep with a smile on my face for sure tonight. It's been an indulgent pleasure to write this and I thank those of you who hung in there to the end.

So to answer a few questions, when asked what her favourite port was, Florence refused to budge from her response of London, which really stirred the proverbial pot since I had told my offspring they weren't allowed to pick London, since it wasn't officially a port on this cruise. But Florence, stubborn little zebra that she is, (I don't know WHERE she gets that from) would not be moved. Seems we didn't put her in as many precarious positions there - we were just getting warmed up.

As to the question of the gang's favourite parts of the ship, I polled our family (not an easy task as 2 were out of province now, and the rest of us were - cue Willy Nelson - on the road again today). Here are the results:

DD2: The Piazza, the Lido Buffet, The Dining Room. (I sense a theme here....)

DD1: International Cafe. And in her editorial comment, "the showtimes kinda sucked" but she really liked the ones that weren't the Princess performers - the comedians, magician, and the Russian group.

DS:

(note the green sign....any port in a storm, right?)

When asked, he replied "I liked that there were no hairy chest competitions". "And they didn't push selling the drinks".

DH: The Princess Live Theatre and The Seawalk (go figure!)

Me: The walking track up on deck 17 with the exercise equipment, and the Horizon Bistro, and the International Cafe, and the Piazza, and the shelf in the shower, and the bed, and.......

Florence:

But of course....the big balcony (Florence lives for danger....one of these days....you may end up being Florence's foster parent if you're below us!)

And, for the ongoing saga of Florence and her new beau Vlad....stay tuned..I'm sure the adventure will continue. Somewhere. Somehow. But he won't fit in my purse.

Sniff. Sniff. Blows nose. Wow, this has been such a great time. Thanks for letting me ramble on and on and on and on about my trip. I love to relive it as I go back through all the pictures and paraphernalia when I’m back in the real world.

So does Florence (this one's for those of you concerned that she wasn't eating enough on the trip...)

We were up early out of habit more than necessity on the last morning. (More blowing of nose….maybe it’s just allergies.) So DS, DH and I breakfasted at Horizon Bistro one last time, with all the other sad people (except for those not disembarking – they were the ones with smirks on their faces). In the time that we had breakfast, Elrich our room steward had already gotten our bed ready for the next people (really? Next people? Other people in our room, on our balcony? Harumph.) So we vacated the room since we had nothing left to prove there, and found our girls had abandoned their room as well and were sitting like waifs near the stairway. We had a 7:40 disembarkation time, but when we got to the meeting area, we were just waved off the ship since apparently of the 700 that should have already left the ship at that time, only 70 had. So we left. One last ping of our cards as we left. Gosh, I’m getting teary just thinking about it….

So after reading on CC about the madhouse that is trying to get a taxi in Copenhagen, we were a little concerned about getting one for our whole family, and the cost that it would entail, and the long line-ups, and the congested roadways, and …….

We walked off, got our luggage, and there were taxis aplenty, even 6 or 7 van taxis, just waiting for someone to take. Did we take? Nah, that would have been too easy. A beautiful sunny day, loads of time before our flight was due to leave (sob, tantrum on floor…) so we decided to walk to the train station. And by “we” I mean 2 of us….I know for a fact that some of our group were not on board with this decision. Off we went, rolling our suitcases behind or beside us, and it was actually a really nice walk. An hour long leisurely walk, but a nice walk nevertheless. (The roads were not congested at all by the way, possibly they would have been later, but from 8-9 they were almost empty, and this was a Thursday.) When we stopped to rearrange some things, another couple came by, doing the same thing. We did pass right by the Bus #26 stop, a stone’s throw away from the terminal, which would have also taken us to the train station. We figured there would be enough sitting in our day later, so why not walk. We found the station easily (the trains going by on the tracks were a fairly good clue), DH got our tickets, and we boarded – still found this whole Danish thing confusing – had it been German I could have dealt with it better, but no matter, a real live person had told us what to do and we did it. Got off at Central station, and made the switch to the train that took us back to the airport.

I had no idea how big Copenhagen’s airport is when we arrived there at the beginning of our journey! First there was the lineup to drop off our baggage – longest lineup I’ve seen – even longer than the Heathrow customs lineup! Then the lineup for security! I was actually glad we had all that “loads of time” as we used much of it standing in lines. Once through security, I was amazed by the size of the “mall” we were in! We had the most expensive lunch in the history of lunches, and played cards for a while before heading to our gate, where Florence met her new buddy Vlad, the Moose of Finland.

Then it was the flight to Iceland again, (a humble airport to be sure....)

which was uneventful, we all used the wonderful washrooms there, played more cards, ate some food, and waited for our flight, and then an uneventful flight back to Canada, a 1 ½ hour drive back to our home sweet home, and that was the end of the 30th Anniversary Getting Funky in the Baltics 2014 Tour! (It’s a bit unwieldy for a title, but it’ll do.)

In the de-briefing that followed upon re-entry, here were the port favourites:

DD2- Estonia, 2nd place Germany

DD1- Stockholm, 2nd place Germany

DS – Berlin, no 2nd

DH – St. Petersburg, 2nd place Berlin

Me – same as DH – one of the secrets to 30 years of wedded bliss!

Where next you ask? Even we do not know the answer this time…perhaps Florence knows, and hasn’t told us – I have a feeling there are a few islands in the Caribbean that she has a hankering to visit, so that may be next on our list, but we’ll just wait and see. I’ll let you know.

Zdrastvutye, Marla. I'm just loving your review and it's fantastic to see photos of places I know so well (except the CTAPbAKC: that is definitely new since my time. How I would have loved that . . . ).

LOL...I had to look up CTAPbAKC! Good one! Thanks!

bluenoser2 - Regarding Nynashamn... It sounds like Would they only give tender tickets to a husaband & wife if both were present, correct? How early did your group assemble before the announced start of Princess providing tender tickets?

 

 

 

We just went to the assigned area when we were ready - which was a little after they made the announcement that we had clearance. It was no big deal. Just go all together, each one gets a little card with a number on it and wait til they call that number. It didn't take hardly any time at all.

Marla, spasiba!

 

My mother was born in Kiev, UKraine... We have a very interesting history there... My great-grandfather was the tzar's banker but my grandparents, with my mother, had to flee during the revolution. We still have family there.

 

Thank you so much for your review and photos!

Wow! My mother was the first of her family NOT to be born in the Ukraine, as they also fled during the revolution, to the prairies of Canada!

Just off a Baltic cruise on the Royal - MUTS had Gravity, Last Vegas, Saving Mr. Banks, The Monuments Men, The LEGO movie, Captain Phillips, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, Jack Ryan:Shadow Recruit, Veronica Mars, and Captain America.

All shows were available on the on-demand movies in the staterooms by the next night as well.

We were on Emerald deck, 2 decks below Caribe and the view was beautiful from there - it certainly didn't feel "low" at all, so Caribe should be fine for you!

Second and last sea day for us – an interesting feature of this cruise, is that while we are with the many who embarked and debark in Copenhagen, the rotation of different ports of origin means that there are others who are mid cruise, having boarded in Warnemunde, and others who embarked in Russia. Which means, oh how they can chuckle discreetly when we have to put our suitcases out in the hallway tonight.

We 3 girls attended the culinary show in the theatre with Chef Dave. Thankfully, he did most of the talking in the show and was witty, charming and held our attention fully, even though it was much longer than I remember other shows being. But the girls had never been on a galley tour and I wanted them to get to see that. Why thankfully? Well, I just didn’t have an appreciation for our CD on this trip. She was good, but a little goes a long way as far as I was concerned. Same with the Assistant CD. But that’s just my humble opinion.

Anyway, we filed through the galley along with just about everyone else on the ship and managed to find the men afterwards somehow, even with a stop at the Disappointing Dining Room Sale. That’s my title, not Princess’s obviously. Because who would go to a DDRS? After convincing DD2 that she did not need to take a $20 ceramic dolphin home in her luggage, we decided to try Alfredo’s for lunch. In spite of it being a sea day, a table for the 5 of us was easy to get, and we had a nice lunch there. The girls chose pasta, which was a nice luncheon size, and then they were off to try dessert on Lido. DH tried the calzone, DS the Hawaiian, and me the vegetarian. It certainly was much better than the Lido deck pizza, and one pizza is a nice size for one person, especially if you have an appetizer or salad first. And it was hot –the first hot pizza of the trip. But it was NOT as good as the pizza my DH makes. His is the best (and was our first meal upon returning home!).

There was the packing time, the returning library books time, and tea time. Oh, those scones! Or is it the cream? The cream AND the scones? So good.

We prepared for our last supper, trying to figure out what to keep out of our luggage, and what we could do without, so we would be ready to put the luggage in the hall later. DD2 ordered the chicken and sweetbreads in puff pastry appetizer – we never did tell her what sweetbreads are, but it didn’t matter – she was just in it for the chicken anyway. While the rest of the table had The Love Boat Dream for our final dessert, I had the cheesecake, which Narin added a dash of chocolate sauce to as he had for DH another night when requested. Mmmmmmmm. We completed our meal with thank yous to our waiters, and a unanimous vote to NOT attend Showtime.

While DH assisted in the jamming of things into suitcases for the kids, and checking for lost items in their corners of their room, he sent me above to Deck 17 for a walk. (Isn’t he just the sweetest?) What a beautiful night. When I got up to the walking track I noticed that we would shortly be going under a huge bridge that I hadn’t heard of – it was one of those great surprises and treats that you’re so glad you lucked in to find! And that’s WHAT I LEARNED ON ROYAL PRINCESS TODAY: You can phone your stateroom from one of the yellow phones on the walking deck. They’re not just for emergencies. So I told DH about the bridge so he could take pictures from our balcony (did I ever mention our balcony?) while slaving away at the packing, since I had no camera with me and was NOT going to go down to 8 and back up again and miss the whole thing!

I did 15 laps (7 is a mile) before the guys found me and then, just to say we did, we watched the end of a movie on MUTS. We walked around the upper decks – this would have been around 9:00 pm and you would never have known there were 4000 guests on board. There wasn’t a soul anywhere! Kind of eerie really. Here it was a warm, sunny evening, and no one was above decks! Were we the only ones to not go to the ShowTime, or were most people just weeping quietly in their rooms and packing?

After meeting up with everyone in Horizon Bistro for a eeny weeny teeny piece of mud pie (after all that walking…), we retired to our rooms, except the girls who decided they’d like to stay a little longer and people watch (what people?) at MUTS We attempted Draft Day in our room, but between it not being all that interesting (yes, even WITH Kevin Costner….) the TV seized up one last time for us and we decided it was a sign for us to have one LAST sleep in our cozy comfy Princess bed.