Laurino

Both I and my partner are mildly lactose intolerant. It's usually only milk, yoghurt, cream and ice cream that sets us off, we don't usually have problems with cheese and other processed dairy items. My partner is more intolerant than me, I can take small/moderate amounts. My partner avoids yoghurt, cream and ice cream onboard but likes milk with his cereals and tea during breakfast. There is lactose free milk (we don't like soy/almond/oatmeal milk that much) during breakfast in the Lido, but you have to ask the staff in the dessert/juice station and then they will fetch it. Have never tried in the MDR or other restaurants, we only eat breakfast in the Lido. Also he doesn't need milk other than at breakfast.

/Henrik

Laurino...thank you for your review of the Royal which we've previously enjoyed for a month during 2 cruises. It's good to read a current review since it's been 21 months since our most recent Royal cruise. We're sailing the Royal in a couple of months & looking forward to it.

 

I'm just beginning to view your great series of videos which are an enjoyable well done travelogue & are much better than home videos...thanks.

Thank you for the comments and I hope you get a wonderful cruise!

Thank you all for the comments!

Glad you liked the Royal more than Celebrity and Holland America.

It was an excellent cruise. I just said that the Royal is a beautiful ship, however I still prefer Holland America (Vista or Signature class). Other considerations are more important to me than the ship - such as itinerary, food, service and cabin.

Hi everyone,

We just got back a couple of days ago from our two week cruise on Royal Princess (July 1-15, Rome-Athens-Athens) in the Mediterranean. We had a great time. I've made a short YouTube-video for each day, see links below if you're interested. Later I will probably also make a longer video for the entire trip. Also see below for a mini-review.

/Henrik

Videos:

Mini-review:

GENERAL INFO. All in all we had a great time. The travellers were I and my partner, we are in our late 30s and early 40s. For full disclosure I should also mention that our favourite cruise line is Holland America Line. We have only cruised on Holland America, Celebrity and Princess. This was our second Princess cruise, our first was Emerald Princess in the Caribbean.

THE SHIP. Absolutely beautiful. Perfect condition too, still looked new. More elegant than both Holland America's and Celebrity's ships. The Piazza is stunning. Best place of all is the shaded seating on the Horizon Terrace (aft Lido deck), we had almost all our meals here. A bit sad not to have a wrap-around promenade deck, however nice with sun beds in the shade on Sun deck. The elevators get a little crowded sometimes and you need to get to the theatre ahead of time, other than that the ship doesn't feel crowded. Also amazing how stable the ship was at all times, probably because of it's size. It was our most calm / stable cruise ever, but also our largest ship so far.

THE CABIN. We had an obstructed balcony cabin, E531. Nicely decorated and adequate size, however the balconies are tiny. The next door cabin E535 would have had a much better view. Very quiet location.

THE ITINERARY. The itinerary was OK. This was sort of a compromise. We wanted a Mediterranean cruise with a good cruise line and still som value for our money, Princess offered the longest duration for the least money. The duration was more important than the itinerary, so we repeated some ports from a previous cruise. The cruise was a back-to-back, but it was sold as one cruise, you could choose one or several weeks I believe. There were also repeat ports in the two weeks, which isn't smart. We were surprised that the menus and most of the entertainment was repeated for the entire second week, however it didn't impact us very much. We had two ports, Chios and Mykonos (second week) that they swapped the days with each other. We did private excursions (through the roll call) in Messina, Kotor and Chios - all three were very good. In the other ports we DIY, mostly walked around or used public transport.

THE SERVICE. Was generally good. Our cabin steward Jose was good. However we missed the outstanding service we get on Holland America.

THE FOOD. Quite good, especially in the Horizon Court (Lido buffet) and the speciality restaurants. The Horizon Court has great variety, especially for breakfast and the themed dinners. Also great dining hours, especially if I compare to Holland Americas restrictive hours. The only slight annoyance was that the buffet was scaled down on formal nights, which was sad for us since we didn't bring formal wear and hence couldn't choose the other restaurants. We always ate outside on the Horizon Terrace, a great space in the shade and with nice views. We liked Alfredo's and Crown Grill. We didn't try Sabatini's. We did not like the MDR very much, to us the dishes were not so elegant/special and the portions were too large so we couldn't get several courses. Trident Grill was mediocre. Also great with good brewed coffee, in contrast to the syrup-based coffee on Emerald Princess.

THE ENTERTAINMENT. We attended few shows. We liked the comedian, magician (Hawley magic) and the ventriloquist (Kieran Powell). The music was good, I listened to the Romantica strings a couple of times. The Piazza is a bit too noisy for classical music / strings. We didn't care for the production shows. Did watch MUTS occasionally. Watched several movies on the in-room entertainment system, which had a good selection but the tech had many bugs (many interruptions and everything reset on change-over day in Piraeus). I played craps on three nights in the casino, and came out ahead. It's fun when I get the opportunity to play, as craps isn't available in our casinos in Scandinavia. Also got a port tax refund and shareholder OBC.

MISCELLANOUS. My partner got some kind of short lasting gastro sickness, which was difficult, unfortunate and frustrating. However it was sort of interesting to see how professionally the crew / ship dealt with it. Also it was short, in the beginning and only affected ports we already had done before. He was quarantined but I was free to roam around, so I still did the ports. Afterwards we both got a mild cabin cough as well. The weather was beautiful throughout the cruise, after Italy we didn't see any clouds again for two weeks. Wonderful! Very calm seas, only Mykonos was very windy on both stops, they actually had to stop tendering prematurely. A bit too hot sometimes, but that's to be expected in the Med in Summer.

I read a story somewhere of a HAL ship that was calling at a Swedish port last summer and had to call off tendering operations early due to a sudden change in the weather. The ship wasn't even able to retrieve the tenders and several hundred passengers will still ashore. HAL chartered some local coaches to take the passengers to Copenhagen by road to meet the ship which was due to dock there that evening and the tenders returned to the harbour to refuel and then made the voyage to Copenhagen in convoy under their own power. I presume that there were enough passengers not on board the ship to allow it to set sail without a full complment of lifeboats.

A few years back, a sudden storm came up and stranded a Princess excursion in Haines, Alaska. Golden Princess was in Skagway and had to sail. Princess put everyone up in a hotel for the night and then transported them to the next port.

 

As for the HAL ship sailing without tenders, there are plenty of life rafts on board cruise ships that would be able to handle the passengers aboard.

I'd love to read the details of the story. What an adventure!

 

 

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I watched it live from my home and posted a thread about it on the HAL board, have a look: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2356705

/Henrik

Hi everyone.

I know his is an old thread by now, but I just wanted to thank your all again and report back.

We chose the road trip in January from Los Angeles to Las Vegas and Palm Springs, instead of the Mexico cruise and had a good time. However we had bad weather with overcast skies and rain in both Los Angeles and Palm Springs but the weather was really nice in Las Vegas, go figure - that cruise might have been better. But we're happy anyway and packed in a lot of sights and experiences. The best part of the road trip was probably the Valley of Fire and Red Rock Canyon, and our hotel (Encore) in Las Vegas. In Los Angeles we really enjoyed Disneyland and the Getty Center.

Check out my travel video here:

Check out my YouTube channel with my cruise videos and more here: https://www.youtube.com/user/hlaurino

I am considering a Maasdam cruise this May....NYC-Montreal.

We generally sail on NCL or Carnival because they sail out of NY and I don't like flying or the chaos of flying. So, this may be a welcome change.

 

I am in my late 60s....DH is in his early 80s. I know the age group will be good.

 

We eat at the buffet for breakfast, lunch and dinner almost all the time. We dress casually.

 

So...the question is: Dining....

Are there formal nights? If so, can you eat at the buffet in "casual clothes", or is it against the rules to even been seen?

If we do eat dinner in the MDR...is it assigned seating with an assigned time? Or do you go when you want and sit by yourselves if you want?

 

Any insight will be appreciated.

 

TIA

We did a Montreal-Boston cruise onboard Maasdam in the summer of 2015, which was very nice.

I know you didn't ask but - if you don't like flying, there's a direct Amtrak train "68 Adirondack" between Montreal Central Station and New York Penn Station, we took it in the reverse direction. It departs daily (once per day) from Montreal and the travel time should be 10.20AM-8.50PM. It's a slow but very scenic ride through the Adirondack mountains and along the Hudson river. There are some caveats, there's no checked luggage and no first class on this train, the train might also be delayed a lot (although ours was not). Also I wouldn't hazard to book the train for the arrival morning of the cruise, I would spend at least one night in Montreal first.

I have links to a photo review and movie of the cruise in my signature below.

/Henrik

For posting this! We were on the cruise also. But, although we were supposed to arrive in CPH 28 hours before the cruise left - we arrived 2.5 hours after - due to storms in the NYC area. So, we boarded in Bergen. You're right, the weather wasn't the greatest - but it was a fabulous cruise!

 

Thanks again,

Pat

Ouch, that sounds nerve-racking! Well you didn't miss anything important in the beginning at least. Did you have time to see Cph after the cruise? What did you like most of the ports/ cruise? We thought the Faroe and Shetland Islands overall were the best/ most pretty ports, but we also liked Blue Lagoon and the waterfalls and geysers of Iceland.

/Henrik

Wow... Great professional looking videos. The drone footage is amazing and is a great way to document the northern landscapes.

 

But what the heck is the monstrous fish that can be seen at 29:22 ?

That's very attentive of you to notice that! We didn't notice anything from the beach when filming, only saw it afterward in the footage. I think it's a seal or something similar. I wish we could have used the drone more, but we had several rainy or moist days and threatening skies a lot of the time.

Thanks everybody for the comments :)

Hi everbody,

It's a bit late but nevertheless... We went on the Northern Isles cruise on July 16 2016 onboard Zuiderdam - roundtrip from Copenhagen to Norway, Iceland, the Faroe Islands and the Shetland Islands. The cruise was great but the weather wasn't very good. Anyway I have uploaded

/Henrik

I think you have a nice mix there, but I'd take one night from Las Vegas and do an overnight at the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. Do check out the El Tovar Hotel.

 

http://www.grandcanyonlodges.com/lodging/el-tovar/

Yeah originally we planned for Grand Canyon, but have now changed it for Palm Springs. Cold, snow and a long drive etc to South Rim didn't sound so appealing. Also, West Rim doesn't seem to be "the real thing". We considered air sightseeing from Boulder City, but again it only goes to West Rim and it seems short and low winter sun with long shadows seems to impair the views. For the last day in Vegas, we'll do Hoover Dam and Valley of Fire instead. Also we can visit Joshua Tree on our way to Palm Springs.

/Henrik

Just back for an update on the plans. We decided that there's just too much to see & do for our first visit in the area, so we've decided to skip the cruise. We'll do 4-5 nights in Hollywood, 3-4 nights in Anaheim, 3 nights in Las Vegas and 2 nights in Palm Springs.

Thanks again for all the suggestions.

/Henrik

DH got his 5* pin too on our cruise but his card never changed.

Didn't matter since he gets my benefits anyways ;)

Good info from shrimpboat123 -thank you Glen - it will help a lot of people :)

True, it could have only been the pins. But I think we actually got the 'complimentary photo of the ship'. We didn't try the logo clothing discount in the shops. Not much else we could have done with only 2 stars while onboard :o We'll get 3 stars after our next cruise, not much use with that either :rolleyes:

I agree with shrimpboat. We got our 2 stars onboard NA i the Med in 2014 after the first 12 day section of a 24 day Collector's Voyage. They had placed our pins in our cabin. It was odd because we needed the entire cruise to get a sufficient number of days. Then again 2 stars are sort of pointless when onboard.

Thank you all for the suggestions :)

We haven't decided yet, but there's still time. I'll let you know.

/Henrik

Don't lump Las Vegas and Palm Springs/Palm Desert into one weather pattern just because both are deserts.

Las Vegas average high in January is 58°, Palm Springs/Palm Desert is 70°. 12 degrees is a big difference. A lot of Vegas hotels don't have a pool open in January.

The South Rim of the Grand Canyon National Park (where El Tovar is) is nearly 7000' so snow is always a possibility.

Yes I think I understand the weather difference now. I meant Las Vegas and Palm Springs might be a better combo itinerary than Las Vegas and Grand Canyon. Partly because Las Vegas would be the main destination but a whole week in that area seems to much, partly because there's a big difference in driving distance and partly because we'll be needing at least an overnight anyway somewhere before heading back to LAX.

There's a 10 day Princess cruise leaving Jan 7. Seems to get back after your vacation?

Yes exactly.

Henrik-

Lots of good suggestions here. We have been full time traveling for the last 3 years and have done many of these trips.

1. Las Vegas - It gets cold at night in January. And the highs can be in the 60s. Grand Canyon will most likely have snow. Careful with weather reports because it may say 68 degrees in the Grand Canyon but they are talking about the bottom of the canyon. Its an all day hike down if your in fantastic shape and a 2 day hike out. If you are visiting the South or North Rim there will be snow.

If you get off the strip My Charleston will be snowed in. Valley of fire is a must see if you are anywhere near the area. The strip is something to see but if you are not wiping your butt with dollar bills it can get expensive quick and gets old after about 48 hours.

Pace yourself.

2. Mexican Riviera - We did this trip this past February. It was way better than expected. Like many we thought Cabo would be the bomb and it would be booring in Mazatlan and Puerto V. But we loved Mazatlan and Puerto Vallarta and thought Cabo was way too touristy. We loved this cruise and would do it again in a heartbeat and on NCL it was super cheap.

Locals say its usually dry and 70-90 every day in the winter. It might rain once or twice between Dec - March. The air is much cooler and because of the El nino last year it was cooler and wetter out on the Ocean. Its not the Caribbean. Pacific is much cooler and has a little more weather than the Atlantic.

3. Driving north on Rt 101 is amazing. We have done this trip from San Diego up to San Jose and South from WA state down to San Diego. Can't go wrong. It really is a must see. Highly suggest the drive. You won't be able to do a lot of the National Parks like Yosemite and Sequoia in the winter as they too will be snowed in. The coast is an amazing drive. Gotta see halfmoon bay and drive up to San Fran from there. Great ride.

Have fun.

-Sean

PS- 315 PM flight way easy to make if its the same day. No problem. Jump ship at 7 (walk off with luggage) Rent a car. Its a quick 2.5 /3 hour drive on a Sunday.

OK great summary, thank you, difficult choices! It seems that only Grand Canyon is a bad idea, Las Vegas would be better paired with the deserts and Palm Springs.

/Henrik

Another option... 4 days on land and a 10day MR cruise on Princess in January from Los Angeles . Cabo, Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlan, Loreto and La Paz. January one of the better times to go. Not too hot or humid.

 

As a native Angeleno I would LOVE two straight weeks of rain.

 

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There doesn't seem to be any Princess or NCL cruises in the short time span of 1-14 January 2017, only HAL (7 days) and Carnival (7 and 4 days). Thank you anyway.

One thing to note is that the Pacific can have pretty big seas at that time of year.

To cruise or not to cruise is a choice you can make, with obvious advantages and disadvantages. A road trip is obviously a very different experience, but if you DID decide to hit the road, there are numerous choices of destinations you could pick that would offer some great experiences.

For example, you could do a big loop like this - https://goo.gl/maps/vZB4XxWxBB92 which sends you to Death Valley, then to Las Vegas, then back to Joshua Tree National Park and Palm Springs. Note the Grand Canyon is at very high altitude and prone to icy and/or snowy conditions in January.

Death Valley is justly famous for its impressive desolation, and while Joshua Tree isn't as well known as some national parks, its variety and proximity to Palm Springs is terrific. You can stay in Palm Springs with its many lodging and dining options, visit Joshua Tree as a day trip, ride the PS aerial tram up to what may well be snow on the ground, and feel like you're on another planet. The weather in PS/Joshua Tree in January is typically warm in the day and chilly at night (like deserts everywhere) and lodging in PS is quite inexpensive then.

Another wonderful mid-winter driving trip is along the coast. Not as warm as the desert of course, but far from cold. Here's a route - https://goo.gl/maps/V7qnwpvdzPn - that would take you north (via the fast but not especially scenic inland route) to the Monterey Peninsula then back along the Big Sur coast to the Hearst Castle, then back through gorgeous Santa Barbara to LA.

This would also let you experience some terrific scenery and wildlife, small to big. In Pacific Grove, a nice waterfront town next to Monterey, in January the migrating Monarch butterflies put on an amazing show. You can go whale watching from Monterey, visit Point Lobos for stunning scenery and more marine wildlife, then visit the big elephant seal rookery just north of the Hearst Castle turnoff. Back in Carmel (next to Monterey) you can visit the historic Spanish mission, but you also shouldn't miss the "Queen of the Missions" in Santa Barbara. This is also a fantastic route.

Thank you for the very nice reply. Great pictures! Those map tours are great suggestions. You're making it even harder to choose... throwing in the coast too... ;)

If we would head up North along the coast, wouldn't it be strange to skip San Francisco? And we'll have almost a whole week for the road trip. Actually I'd really like to see Yosemite, but it seems far away and again not so smart in winter, Death Valley and Joshua Tree seems better. The Las Vegas roundtrip you suggested, might be a serious contender.

/Henrik

Puerto Vallarta and Cabo and very nice, Mazatlan is pretty urban but has great open air taxis that are a lot of fun.

Weather in January is - Luck of the Draw. I took a trip in 2009 where it was quite chilly/windy/cold at sea during that time of year. The next week could be hot though.

One benefit of traveling in January is that you may see (from the ship) pods of whales migrating down the coast. I have seen them and it's pretty spectacular.

Your choice - Grand Canyon and Palm springs can be very nice. Some people (not me) think Las Vegas is all that. If you haven't seen Las Vegas, it's worth seeing at least once.

I disagree. I have been on that cruise 9 times now and always have a great time. My suggestion is to consider taking either Princess or even Carnival or NCL rather than HAL. You may have to drive up to Los Angeles or Long Beach in that case. I find that the HAL cruises while having better rooms, great service and food, tend to have not so much to do on board and be rather staid/less-fun.

Yes plan for early departure/expedited disembarkment. Rent a car from SAN airport. The drive to LAX will take around 2 hours (on the weekend) and you'll have beautiful views as you drive through Camp Pendleton. If you are leaving on a weekday add another hour or two to the commute. Even on a weekday you'll miss the morning and afternoon rush.

Thanks for a great reply.

Even though the sea might be cold, it will be warm in the Mexican ports, right? Whales sound amazing.

We've been on 5 HAL cruises and it's our favorite line right now, so that won't be a problem. Have tried Princess and Celebrity also, but not NCL or Carnival. Anyway HAL and Carnival are the only ones with a fitting schedule (between 1-14 January). Now I don't think Carnival fits us, but C Miracle does depart from Long Beach (which would make the return easier than from San Diego) and does an overnight in Cabo instead of Mazatlan. Opinions on the C Miracle vs the Westerdam itinerary?

It sounds reassuring that we should make it to our flight. Yes it will be a Saturday morning.

/Henrik

Well...as Flagstaff (South Rim, Grand Canyon)has a ski resort, and we have arrived in Flagstaff in the first week of April to a blizzard...I wouldn't be holding my breath for warm weather in the area in January. Phoenix and Tucson- at a much lower attitude than Flagstaff and the South Rim, will be warmer and drier...maybe mid 60s.

 

By the way, the North Rim of the Canyon will be closed- buried in snow. It is a thousand feet higher than the South Rim.

 

A little Google searching for weather history of LA, Vegas, etc, will get you the factual histories.

Thank you Bruce, the weather doesn't sound very appealing. Yes I've checked the weather on Wikipedia and Wunderground, however facts and web sites can't tell me what the experience is like... so I'm looking for opinions/ recommendations and advice too :o

Btw I forgot to mention that it will be our first visit to the region.

Hi everyone,

Looking for some advice. Have booked a return flight to LA in early January (2017) to mix it up a little, since we've been to Florida and the Caribbean a couple of winters. We have two weeks and will spend the first week in the LA area, Hollywood and Disneyland etc. For the second week we can't decide if we should take a HAL Mexico cruise from San Diego, or if we should do a road trip to Las Vegas and Grand Canyon or Palm Springs.

The difficulty lies in that the Mexico itinerary seems slightly boring with 3 sea days in one week and I don't know if Mazatlan and Puerto Vallarta are worthwhile, but Cabo San Lucas seems nice. However Mexico would at least be warm, right? Going to Las Vegas and Grand Canyon in winter might be quite cold and we would be disappointed if LA also happens to be cold and we would get bad weather for 2 weeks. At least the deserts and canyons should be more bearable than in summer? Also all that driving and many places to visit is perhaps to busy for a winter getaway, the cruise would be a more relaxing after a week in LA. We also considered San Francisco instead of Las Vegas, but again with the weather in January that doesn't seem appropriate.

We're a couple in our 30s. If we went to Las Vegas, it wouldn't be to gamble and drink but rather for the shows, the hotels, the spectacle of it all and the nature in the vicinity. We really like HAL. If Mexico - we aren't that fond of beach life either really, but we love to cruise and we crave nicer weather during our boring winters in Northern Europe.

Also do you think we could catch our 3.15PM flight home from LAX the same day, if our ship arrives in San Diego at 7AM? Would a rental car be the best option in this scenario? Should we plan for expedited disembarkment?

Grateful for any advice.

/Henrik

We had cards on our Zuiderdam cruise last February that were $25 for $50 worth of drinks. My wife was also able to get virgin drinks using the card. Every time we got a soda we were given a can.

 

It wasn't strictly a soda card but I am not sure what it was called. We purchased them pre-cruise using points from our HA credit card.

We got a soda card onboard Zuiderdam this July, we got fountain soda.

Great video and a very nice walkthrough of the ship.

/Henrik