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Balmoral. Our favourite Fred Ship. Was booked on it to see the Northern Lights but had to cancel.

Danced many a night away in the Lido Lounge. Always a great group in there.

We always book as Sleepingcat suggests.

We pick what we would ideally want then ring and work from there.

Although I recall we once booked what we considered the ideal cabin.

Middle of ship with cabins above and below.

No white spaces near.

Got in it and the vibration nearly shook me out of bed.

They changed us to a Cabin that we would never have picked and it was superb. 
 

How times have changed.

I recall our first cruise with Fred there was A Western night Theme, A Carribean night Theme, A “British” night Theme and 3 Formal Nights.

oh and a Rock and Roll Night.

Reiterate the above post. 
One of the easiest car parking we have used. 
Using it again next March. 
We stay at The Premier Inn night before the cruise, which is a stones throw from the Car Parking.

We are on this cruise. Second time, it was that good first time.

Been on over 20 cruises and never used a laundrette. 😂

Balmoral has one tho 👍

Happened to us a few years ago on the Celebration in Carribean.

Changed us to the lowest deck and noisiest position on the ship 2 days before.

Booked thro Travel Agent who claimed to have sorted it.

Arrived on Ship to be given the cabin they had re allocated.

We went to Reception and refused to move until they moved us to a cabin on the deck we had booked.

They claimed they couldn’t so I said we would sleep on the couch next to Reception. 
After an hour and a few Managers intervention we were given a cabin on the deck we had booked but had to move again after first week.

After two days I was passing Reception and heard a couple complaining  bitterly about been reallocated a cabin, I am sure it was the one we were originally reallocated. The lady was almost in tears. 
If anybody remembers cruising on the Celebration they will remember how incredibly noisy and bad the vibration was on the lowest deck.

As somebody else has said I wouldn’t trust Marrella or TUI.

Thank you for this topic.

I really enjoyed it.

Research should help with temperatures late October in your Ports of Call.

A quick look would be around 20 degrees give or take. So you dress for what you think is suitable for you.

As for on the Ship. Inside I would wear chinos and Pole Shirt and maybe a jumper. My wife would wear the lady equivalent 😂

On deck anybodies guess. You could be sunning yourselves or battening down the hatches with rain and wind.

As your not flying, with the weight limit, you can pack for every eventuality.

Have a great cruise.

Izzwizzy has summed up my thoughts.

We have just come off a Princess Cruise 3000 Americans and 325 British.

Personally I thought the staff treat us with a little more respect as we noticed the Americans seemed to be very abrupt with the Staff.

Not many please and thank you’s from them.

Also, and a point made above, on Fred passengers adhere to the stipulated dress code. The majority of Americans on the Princess cruise to be honest did not.

We cruise out of Barbados in January or February, carribean shirts and shorts all say. 

Weather perfect but it does tend to sometimes rain very heavily for 30 minutes or so.

They call it liquid sunshine. 
We are from the UK so anything above 20 deg C is hot😂


 

25 minutes ago, SargassoPirate said:

One cannot depend on others to do the right thing.  I've made it this far by treating everything in the world and everyone in it as if they are infected with something, and then I simply break the chain of contamination.  For example, if I'm riding a subway and grab the handhold, I don't go sticking my fingers in my mouth or touch any food without a good hand washing.  Same thing if I shake hands with someone.  If there's a vaccine available, I take it.

 

 

Wise words 👍

I came off the Regal Princess two weeks ago and tested positive 4 days later.

Somebody  4 cabins down from us had been quarantined in their own cabin for a good number of days of the cruise.

I didn’t see any difference between a cruise before Covid and this one.

I had Covid 12 months ago but felt worse for three days with this bout.

My opinion is that if you know you have it you should not mix with people.

That is not tho the opinion of many people.

We are from the UK.

For a cruise round the UK in Spring/Summer plan for extremes.

Could be sunny and warm one day and cold and damp a couple of days later.

For instance on Sunday I was playing golf in bright, sunny and warm conditions. Polo Shirt and shorts. 

Today, Tuesday, played in cloudy, windy and cold conditions enough for a warm top jacket.

We were on your cruise early May and didn’t see any rain. Which was really unbelievable.

Have a great cruise.

Went out of Southampton on 8th May.

After all the stressing about boarding times and QR codes, we wandered in about 30 minutes prior to our boarding time and was just waved thro.

They only looked at our Passports.

Barbara is spot on about the Ice Field Tour.

I am sure we were warned on this forum about it selling out quickly.

I remember sat up at 1 am on the day the Tours were released to ensure we got places.

Plastic Ducks ????😂

Now Dolphin Racing on Fred Olsen takes some beating 😂😂😂😂😂😂

A rule we always use.

If we can walk back to the Ship we tour ourselves, if not, it’s a Ship Tour.

ok a City Tour with a hop on hop off bus is different.

We went with Fred to Greenland and Iceland around 6 years ago.

Fantastic it was.

We booked every Tour with Fred.

Can not recall them been overly expensive.

Our mindset is we spend let’s say £2000 plus each on a cruise, so we will spend a few pounds more on a Ships Tour, over “doing it ourselves” for peace of mind.

Each to there own,

Make sure you do the Ice field Boat Tour in Greenland. Don’t remember name of place.

Also one POC in Greenland was horrendous for midges. We took full face nets. Looked ridiculous but we’re a god send.

Have a  great Cruise.

Hope you enjoy Fred.

3 hours ago, Harryjacobs said:

Luddites!.....Luddites everywhere! 😁

To be honest that’s how I felt after three hours trying to fathom out what to do pre cruise.😂

The one thing that really bugged  me on the Ship was being expected to read the Cocktail Menu from my I phone.😂

I know …..life’s a ***** sometimes ain’t it 😂😂😂😂😂

10 hours ago, Ranchi said:

I thought you didn’t need tickets etc. with Princess & that all you needed apart from your passport was your medallion…or have I got that wrong ?

Hi. Sorry I phrased it badly.

I meant sorting out at the requirements Princess needed through the App.

We have been used to just adding passport details ect on other cruises which always seemed simple.

On Princess you have to add much the same via the App, then you have to go on line for Luggage Labels. Also choosing your Medallion. Choosing your time of embarkation. 

Then your given “line colour” for embarkation.

We could not access this.
Eventually had to ring Princess.
They sorted it out over the phone.

So in the end all we need at embarkation was passport and the App with our Coloured line with chosen time. 
If we cruised with them again I would hope to be able to breeze through it.

1 hour ago, AndyMichelle said:

Why does it seem that you cannot express an opinion on this forum, good or bad, without someone challenging you because it doesn't match their experiences... 

I appreciate the positive and negative reviews as it enables me to hopefully make a balanced decision. 

Please keep sharing your experiences, that is what this forum should be for... 

Andy 

 

Agree Andy.

If you think this forum is bad try asking about Dress Codes on the Princess Site. 😂😂😂😂😂

Forgot to mention about the Dress Codes on Princess.

Smart Casual or Dress to Impress was indicated.

I would describe the majority of Americans on the cruise dressed

“direct from an afternoon in the Allotment”

On our first night, as we went for Dinner, the four of us were asked “are you famous?” by some Americans.😂😂😂😂😂

Just back from a first time Princess Cruise round the UK.

We are in our early 70’s and are very computer and social media literate.

BUT….to prepare for the Princess Cruise was an absolute nightmare if you had never done it before.

Switching between the APP then Webb site to input and sort tickets, embarkation time, luggage labels and personnel information was difficult to understand.

On Board you had to use your smart phone to book things.

They even wanted you to order drinks on the APP then a waiter should find you by GPS.

That was a laugh.

We ditched it after three days and reverted to normal, which to be fair worked.

If P and O are following this then it’s a no no for us.

Hope the Balmoral next March is APP free 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

Have a great cruise. We were on the Cruise two weeks ago. Had a fantastic time.

As we are from the UK look forward to seeing how you are enjoying yourselves.

As first time Princess Cruisers from the UK, our eyes were certainly opened to the majority of Passenger's interpretation of “dress to impress” on our recent Regal Cruise round the UK. 😂

I used my passport photo.