Mad dogs and Englishmen

On a more serious note Mark, I'm very sorry you've had this bad experience and hope you managed to get on board and enjoy some of the cruise, the weather was fabulous!

I think some of the responses have been a bit harsh but I do agree that it's very poor that Princess did not keep you informed of the situation.

I would be upset too!

Best wishes to you all and to the passenger who's cruise was sadly aborted.

I wonder if any entertainers were due to board in Stavanger?

If so, I'm sure Princess would have made sure they reached the ship.

Several crew members were supposed to embark/ disembark in Stavanger, including the Captain!!....:')

We were also on this cruise, our second time on the Crown and 4th cruise with Princess. We are relatively 'newbies' and have never cruised any other line so can't compare but our first cruise to Alaska on the Sapphire in 2011 was so good we had no reason to look elsewhere.

All cruises have been booked because of the itinerary, not the ship so we take what suits us, the Sapphire was great, the Diamond last year looked more tired and Crown is my least favourite of the 3 but all have been fabulous, we've been comfortable and well looked after by the staff.

Yes I've noticed cut backs over the years and not as good a selection of food as some would hope but could always find something that I liked and it was all of a good standard in my opinion.

The Horizon court always presents a problem for me but this is mainly down to selfish passengers hogging tables after they've finished eating so you have to walk miles to find a seat. The staff were generally okay but yes they seemed a bit understaffed on this cruise BUT... bearing in mind we missed a port and some crew members (and indeed the Captain!) were supposed to disembark at Stavanger so perhaps that explains it. They also had an extra sea day to contend with. These guys work long hours, they must get exhausted yet I've always found the staff fabulous!

I think the addition of 'fish and chips' is probably for overseas guests (not UK passengers) as its considered a very British thing! I would tell any American that if you want to experience a proper fish and chip supper visit a small chippy in the North of England!

Having had no choice but to do traditional dining last year on the Diamond we decided to do that again this year, being a party of 6. It meant that we were unable to see anything at the theatre as we couldn't get in by the time we finished dinner but our waiters were excellent and very entertaining.

The kids toilet was blocked for most of the cruise (C403) and I was constantly locked out of my cabin, I went through 8 cruise cards in the week (and no it wasn't near my phone or a magnet) which was inconvenient but it didn't spoil our week. Also disappointed with a 2 hour wait for tenders at Olden and missing a port but that's just one of those things...

Like Belfast Belle, can only say that we had a great time.

Life's too short to let things spoil your holiday, i just go with the flow and make the most of it....

Re: the cruise director, Duke was on our cruise on the Diamond last year in Japan, personally I found him extremely patronising towards his Japanese co-director. I think if I was her I would have punched him on more than one occasion!

Our first 2 cruises were the same CD, last 2 were, how odd is that?....

Just seen this on our roll call, we are also on this cruise.

I was only saying recently that I've never known UK citizens to get a move over offer, very tempting!!

Unlikely we will change it as my parents are both 80 this year and it's dads first cruise, he always wanted to visit Norway.

We haven't received any e-mail about it but I think they may be interested in our cabins as we have 2 adjoining balconies midship Caribe and an inside directly opposite. I might phone Princess out of interest.... ;)

Sapphire was our very first ship on our first cruise to Alaska. We booked a family 'holiday of a lifetime' when I was in remission from cancer so she will always be very special to us.

I was thrilled to hear she was sailing from the UK in 2018 :)

Typical for us! We had already booked the Norwegian Fjords for this year on the Crown for some milestone birthdays, us, the kids and my parents!

Don't think we can afford another cruise just yet as we also went to Japan last year but I'm determined to get back on the Sapphire, even if it means Mr Visa paying!.....😂

Thank you very much for the kind words! The kettle was a great PLUS on our cruise around Japan. I needed to take medication first thing in the morning with warm water. It saved me a trip up to the buffet to fill my thermos every night before bed time. :)

Have a wonderful cruise!

Thank you :)

We have booked it for our 25th wedding anniversary, looking forward to it now!

Yes, there will be kettles in the cabins when Diamond sails around Japan. A picture of our kettle here somewhere on this page of my blog. We sailed on the Diamond July of last year.

Thank you for posting this, great blog! It's given us a great idea of what to expect and the kettle will be a bonus! :)

Just spotted the fixed soap dispensers in the bathroom. I usually take some toiletries home for our local homeless shelter.

Hi 'Frankie'

We are also on this cruise, it will be our 3rd cruise and we have only sailed with Princess. For our first cruise we should have been sailing with NCL as part of a holiday package but were able to switch to Princess after doing all our research on Cruise Critic and we are very happy with them.

We haven't been on the Diamond but we have some U.S. Friends who are elite members. Apparently the ships that sail the Orient are adapted to cater accordingly so this cruise could be a lot different to what we are used to. Our U.S. friends won't do an Oriental voyage for this reason :confused:

It will be interesting......

There are no kettles on Princess ships for h&s reasons. (Or do you mean the hotel in Japan?) Room service is available or you can take a flask with you and fill up with hot drinks or water from the buffet area before retiring for the evening.

We had some travel mugs that we were given with a coffee card and just filled them with hot chocolate for supper and took them back to the cabin.

The second time we took a flask with us and filled it with hot water for in the cabin as there is a good selection of teabags.

If you like your coffee then you may wish to purchase a coffee card for speciality coffees such as lattes and cappuccinos. There's about 15 drinks on a card and there is no expiration date, you can carry them over to your next cruise.

The free coffee in the buffet isn't to everyone's taste as its like a syrup but I drink coffee and I found it ok. Probably because I often drink instant at home ;)

Soda packages are good value if you drink a lot of cold drinks, bear in mind though that you can take on board as much water and soft drinks as you like.

We purchased a soda package each for the kids. It includes a free tumbler as mentioned and quite often you can just use that to refill as the staff don't check the sticker on your card as they get to know you. A bit cheeky I know but we scrounged a couple of free sodas off the kids that way.....

We're not big drinkers so we just purchased alcoholic drinks when we fancied one and the odd bottle of wine at dinner. The prices are reasonable and not really any more than what you would pay in the UK at a decent restaurant.

You are allowed to take 1 bottle of wine each on board to drink in your cabin or you can drink it in the restaurant for a $15 corkage fee, which isn't worth it IMO.

(Check that though as it may be different for Japan cruises)

For relaxing you can't beat your own balcony! Or we liked the teak chairs on the side decks which are usually quiet if you take a good book! ;)