CaptainPedantic

We did this cruise on Island Princess in August this year and loved it. We had considered it a 'do once' trip when we booked it, but we agreed at the end that we would definitely do it again. Being based in the UK is an advantage of course, to avoid the long flights which would be a big negative for us... Ship-organised excursions were expensive and also scarce - we booked this cruise late and most of the best tours were already fully booked. But we did manage to find some great independent excursions. We had two magical yet very different whale-watching tours on RIBs in Iceland (in Akureyri and Isafjordur), and our Iceberg Safari in Nanortalik was also excellent. Blue Lagoon was well worth a visit, although we were forced to do this through the ship (due to availability) and didn't really have enough time in the water to truly appreciate it. We also enjoyed Falmouth having never visited Cornwall before, and Cobh was lovely. Yes a lot of sea days - although one of those was spent cruising through Prince Christian Sund, which was spectacular and a wonderful surprise, since it wasn't on the itinerary. The 4 straight sea days on the way back to Southampton were very relaxing if a little on the cold side. We did get lucky with the weather on the whole, apart from a foggy morning in Qaqortoq (which lifted into the afternoon) and a foggy afternoon in Falmouth - and we did get to stop at all the ports, so we didn't have any disappointments on that front. All in all we had a fabulous holiday and would definitely do this itinerary again!

I don't think Princess cruises have ever counted towards P&O loyalty tiers. My P&O cruise history doesn't show any of our Princess cruises, and (as expected) my Princess cruise history only shows P&O cruises taken before 2017.

Same for us, £409 each for our December cruise that we booked in July. £180 to book our seats, so total £998 for 2xPE return flights. Adding another £100pp for that AND still charging to book seats is excessive in my opinion... (but I'll still have to do it next time, Mrs Pedantic hates flying and PE with guaranteed seats together is pre-requisite for us)

This is precisely the reason we choose P&O for the Caribbean. I do agree that the seat booking prices are excessive, especially for those already paying for Premium Economy, but the alternatives aren't great. We took a Princess cruise to the Caribbean back in May, used their EZAir flight booking and it was not EZ at all. AND we still had to pay to reserve seats in PE. Taking direct flights to Barbados from Manchester with P&O and being transferred directly to the ship without having to collect luggage is a huge positive.

We've been split once in 8 fly-cruises, and we were a family of 4 for most of those, so we were keen of course to avoid the extra cost of booking seats for 4. We were still relatively near to each other, with 3 together and the other 1 three rows back on the same side. I'm sure they would only split you if there was no alternative.

This is frustrating, but I imagine there's nothing can be done to get around "computer says no" - 3 in a cabin = 3 beds = pull-down bed needed = can't have a queen bed... regardless of the fact you will be using a cot. I'm sure this will be sorted quickly once onboard, but you're right to get annoyed by this, it should not be this difficult!

Sorry I just noticed a typo (I said 29 July, but it was 27 July as per your screenshot above). Still it's still working for me right now. Gremlins indeed!

@rosevew I just tried Sun Princess U429 29 July 7 nights Med, and got flight quotes from London from £41pp roundtrip (1 stop) down from £341pp

@rosevew give me an example cruise and departure airport and I'll give it a try

@rosevew I've been able to get several different flight quotes today for cruises in the Black Friday deal (UK)

Don't give up all hope on cruising to Norway and the fjords though! We have had some amazing adventures and whilst not being able to make Pulpit is a disappointment, especially if that was a main reason to choose, but there is plenty else to do. We've had 3 very different but equally amazing visits to Olden - we've taken a thrilling RIB ride through the fjord (independently), and taken the ship's excursions to Briksdal Glacier and Kjenndalen Glacier/Lovatnet Lake. All brilliant. Geiranger is stunning, has some fabulous walks and we also took a once-in-a-lifetime helicopter ride there. Bergen offers a nice trek up Mount Floyen, or you can take the rather interesting funicular if you prefer - as well as having a very quaint and interesting Hanseatic quarter. We've had lovely trips in Flaam, Skjolden, Alesund, Kristiansand, Nordfjord not to mention Oslo. And we have enjoyed Stavanger too, the old town is lovely (but accepted, nothing like a trip to Pulpit would be). All that while spending the mornings and evenings sailing slowly in and out of the fjords. Obviously I'm a huge fan and we likely have very different interests, but I wouldn't write off a fjords cruise just yet.

I may be an early bird (I am), but a big part of a Norwegian fjords cruise for me is the sailing in - so I'm up much earlier than the arrival time! Sure, you'll be able to see the same scenery on the way back out at a more sociable time, but for me the early morning peaceful fjord cruising into the likes of Olden, Geiranger etc. is heavenly.

@kbt cruiser You probably tried this already, but in case not... The peninsular club number for the website should be 8 characters, but sometimes it has been quoted as 10 characters - if you're using 10 characters, you need to drop the 'PO' at the front. For example, if your peninsular club number is quoted as POAB12345C, then the website is expecting only AB12345C. I've had this problem in the past, I hope this might help.

How old are your kids and what other ports are you hoping to visit? We did a few fjords cruises with our two when they were younger and they thoroughly enjoyed them. Lots of options to keep them entertained / burn their energy!

Absolutely right - and I see from the itinerary that the cruise doesn't go on to Iceland so it's highly unlikely... sorry to OP for the bad info

UK-based passengers are now advised to "cash out" at reception before disembarking, since due to GDPR concerns our credit card details are immediately removed once we've left.

There were blenders at the beach bar near the BBQ area when we were there in May this year.

We were probably on the same cruise as DCThunder (Island Princess, 9th August?). We took the RIB trip around the icebergs in Nanortalik and really enjoyed that as a unique experience, although must admit we enjoyed the whale watching in Iceland even more. We also had a good walk around both towns and agree the scenery was beautiful, especially given we got lucky with the weather. We visited the outdoor museum in Nanortalik also, which was a pleasant extra surprise and a nice way to spend an hour or so. Again, helped by the weather. What I would add is that we got an unexpected bonus of sailing through Prince Christian Sund on our way from Iceland to Qaqortoq. It wasn't on the itinerary - I understand because of the chances of not being able to transit having only received clearance from the 'ice pilot' the day before - but this was a real highlight of the entire cruise. We went into this cruise considering it a 'do once' holiday, but both agreed on the way back that we would love to do it again.

Hope you have a great time! Looking forward to your updates 🙂

I'm assuming you're on G339? Some conflicting info online for Hamburg. Cruisemapper doesn't have arrival/departure times for Hamburg 11 Dec 2023, but hamburg-travel suggests arrive 7am depart 11pm https://www.hamburg-travel.com/see-explore/events/events-calendar/arrival-iona/#c21108040 We were lucky to have a full 24 hours in Hamburg, arriving 9am and leaving 9am the following day.

Hamburg was the highlight of our Christmas Markets cruise a few years back - there are a few markets dotted around the city, including one with a lovely Christmas tree-lined walkway, but the one at the Town Hall was spectacular. Have a look here: https://www.christmasmarketsgermany.com/hamburg.php Bruges was also lovely. Unfortunately, we were late arriving in Rotterdam so didn't get the chance to do as much as we'd hoped. Have a fabulous time!

You are not being unreasonable at all, not on any of those points, and I too would not want to try to resolve these issues onboard - I hate having to spend any time on holiday not enjoying my holiday. Although it can be quite entertaining overhearing some of the complaints at the desk 🙂 I'd suggest the cot availability is the most important issue to get resolved before you go. I doubt there will be an issue onboard - after all, they should only allow a certain number of that age group to be booked and ought to have enough travel cots to cope. But that's the one I'd be most worried about getting confirmed. I do understand the 'computer says no' insistence that you had to book a cabin with extra berths even if you won't and can't use the pullman - but this shouldn't prevent you from having a queen bed setup with a cot. Your cabin steward will sort this out easily onboard, I wouldn't worry too much about this - just get confirmation of the travel cot and the rest should be ok. It's a shame they can't get around this for an outside cabin, but I do understand those limitations. The drinks package situation is ridiculous really - this is something they really should be able to sort before travel, especially since there is a small discount available for booking before boarding. I'd be following this one up too. (I have no experience of this with P&O, but with Princess it was very easy to not have to book packages for 3rd/4th passengers). We sailed a lot with P&O when our kids were young. Our first on Oriana was with a 6-month old and 2-year-old, we were given a travel cot and took a 'ready bed' with us - there was just about enough room in an inside cabin for the 4 of us, yes it was a squeeze but only at night - the 'ready bed' went under our bed, and the cabin steward collapsed and re-made the travel cot every day for us (but left it in the cabin in case we needed it during the daytime). I'd hope your TA should sort all of this out for you, but I also wouldn't give up harassing P&O directly. You shouldn't have to do this now and you definitely shouldn't have to do this onboard. It's making me cross just writing this, given all the amazing holidays we had with P&O as our kids grew up... I could go on and on about how P&O crew made our holidays so so brilliant with our kids, but I must admit we didn't have all this worry before travelling. Good luck getting everything sorted out, I hope to read about it when you have and I'm sure you will have an amazing time.

Not sure that this offers any real insight but since I took a quick look out of personal interest, I thought I would share... According to Carnival annual reports (which obviously don't only include Princess): 2019 - ticket revenue was around 68% of overall revenue 2022 - ticket revenue was around 58% of overall revenue I believe beverages/packages would be considered onboard spending so this could suggest a significant uptake in packages (or maybe just more speciality dining, excursions etc.?) Also interesting to see that there is a big difference by 'segment' - for 2022, the NAA (North America and Australia) segment had ticket revenue at 57% of overall revenue, and the EA (Europe and Asia) segment was at 75%. You can make any number say what you want I suppose 🙂 but hope someone finds that interesting!

I got 16 emails the day before our holiday, one for each night of our Island Princess cruise in August. All like yours, no difference in From and To. I wonder if they had simply allocated our table number and it was essentially automatically triggering emails. No issues onboard whatsoever.

Should be or at least previously was 8 mini-bottles yes - but on our last 2 cruises we've only received 6, both times the brandy missing