OceanPrince

On 3/5/2024 at 11:28 AM, Kane said:

Are these polar bear sightings from a ship sail-by, or on a ground excursion?

 

I think it's more likely from ship as polar bears like to hangout by the edge of the ice. During ground excursions, guides are required to bring a gun for protect against polar bears, but sightings are rare

FYI for anyone interested

6 hours ago, cruiseej said:

 

Can one actually "expect" to see polar bears, or is it just a question of luck? (Sort of like seeing the northern lights.) But I'm sure you'll see puffins! 

I would be surprised (and very very unlucky) if I dont see any polar bears in Svalbard, but just hope I see one close enough to get a good cell phone picture for the 'gram lol. Saw an interview with a expedition team member [not Seabourn] who said during a season of 2-week cruises around Svalbard, the least polar bears he saw in one voyage was 3 and the most was 40.  

On 3/1/2024 at 12:20 PM, markandjie said:

I've been told by expedition staff it's the best place to see polar bears. 

Hi M&J! it's Wayne from your Iceland/Greenland cruise last June. Hope you and family are doing well.

I'm booked on the Venture June 9th going to Svalbard. Expecting to see Polar Bears and Puffins, hoping to see Belugas and Narwhals. Based on research, there will be some glaciers but not expecting anything spectacular.

People joke that Mt Fuji is very shy as it hides behind clouds most of the time. If it's clear, you should be able to see it from ship. It was not clear when I went.

I'm sure at least one or more of your ports will be in full bloom. Link below will gives forecast and then live reports when the blooms start. 

https://www.japan-guide.com/sakura/

As stated in my signiture, I only sail on Royal Class ships if possible and have been on Royal Princess 5 times. It's a beautiful ship with the best food. Did Coastal in last May and Alaska two months later in July on Royal Princess. I brought a group on first time cruiser for the July Alaska Cruise. Everyone loved the food/experience and one of them liked it so much that she bought CCL stock during middle of the cruise. Oh, we're all in our 40s or 30s.

Having also been to all three, definitely worth a visit. I liked Norway the most, but would not argue at all if other claims Alaska or Iceland is better. Norway is very green compared to Iceland and Alaska. I did the two week cruise up to North Cape. Highlight of my Norway cruise was Lofoten and Gieranger (better to cruise in, but I visited by driving from Andelsnes). But all the ports were amazing.

Here is youtube highlights from my cruise

Also, got some amazing pictures from all three places under "Travel Pictures" in my signiture.

18 hours ago, need2cruisesoon said:

 

Anything:

 

- Rotating dining room for ocean views.

- Cantilevered pool off the aft.

- outside elevators.

- Bay window balconies (just a shot).

- The Helm - a bar/lounge on the front of the ship with pano views

- 3 story MDR with huge water feature in the center

something, anything....

 

yeah, Anything:

- a cover pool with roof that doubles as planetarium

- ship should be able to spin 360 degrees while maintaining speed, hate for the other side of balconies to miss a pretty sunset

- zipline from Seawalk on Lido deck to wherever my balcony is located

- library stocked with only Fabio romance novels

- instead of painting sea witch logo on the front, paint "I LIKE BIG BOATS AND I CANNOT LIE"

My opinion is so much better than anyone else's, therefore anything short of my "Anything"s, the ship is deemed to be ancient and unimaginative.

On 10/5/2019 at 6:22 PM, need2cruisesoon said:

Don't get it, Princess orders another Royal Class ship the 6th in a series as such. 

 

When she is released for inaugural cruise the ship will be 11 years old of an ancient design that is anything but spectacular.(yawn) Kinda like Oldsmobile in the 70's.

 

Can somebody at Princess think out of the box and come up with "innovation" in a ship design? Something will make me remember the ship after I disembark....

 

 

 

Don't get this post. Royal Princess was launched in 2013. The 6th and final one is launched in 2021. That's 6 ships in 8 years. How is this different from any class from any other cruiseline? The Grand/SuperGrand class lasted 10 years.

Personally, I only sail on Royal class if I can help it, as you can see on my signature.

I have never been on Island, but really thought it was the consensus best ship on these boards, lol.

I booked roundtrip Southampton last year and requested to disembark 1 day early in Le Havre, but was denied by the Port of Le Havre. In all my cruising, I've requested 6 early disembark/late embarks and had all of the approved except this one. Le Havre limits embarks/disembarks to avoid extra burden, it's a small port. I think if you booked Le Havre roundtrip, you have a better chance to ask for delayed embarkation in Southampton.

1. Embarkation registration (after waiting in line for security) can be cut from 2hrs to 2mins.

2. able to msg and locate people you are sailing with

3. keyless door unlocking for when you are carrying a plate of pizza in one hand and buffet food in the other.

4. all ships with medallion has medallionnet, the fast and reasonably priced wifi

5. ordering drinks/items and have it brought to you

Hi all, I'll be going on the Majestic to New Zealand in couple weeks. Will be hitting up Tauranga, Wellington, Akaroa, Dunedin.

Do all these ports have vendors selling tours when we get off the ship or tender? 

Your pictures are beautiful and now I want to go to Britain. How was the weather during this time? It looks like the flowers were in full bloom!

Yeah, our cruise was lucky as it was 2/3 sunny and 1/3 cloudy with no rain. I got 2 shades darker after the cruise.

Thanks for posting the link to the photos. We need to go back to the places we missed last summer. We'll be in London before a trans-Atlantic cruise. The Sky Garden was already on my list of possible things to do. I think it will be on my list of definite things to do now.

If you do go to sky garden, remember there is a dress code. I wasn't able to get tickets in advance but was told that they allow walk-in's at 9pm. I got in line around 8:40 and waited just under 1 hour. While in line, a lady walked out and told a bunch of people they can't get in cuz they didn't fit the dress code stated on their website. This was on a Saturday night, so it was a lot busier.

Thanks for sharing. I did not see any photos?

Tony

Sorry, it's been a frustrating process trying to post the pictures on this site and I give up. However, I added the entire cruise album onto my flickr.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/91187091@N00/albums

How did you like Inverary? We are doing a tour there in September. Is there anything we don't want to miss while we're there? Thanks. Karen

p.s. Love your photos!

Can't speak to it much as I didn't even go inside. It's costs 5 lbs to go into Garden and 10 lbs to go inside. I just walked around the garden. Just wanted the photo op.

Belfast: Don't remember if there was shuttle. I booked Game of thrones tour with Giants Causeway via Irish Tour ticket.

Greenock: Not much around port. Can take train to Glasgow. I booked Discover Scotland tour to Invareray Castle.

Orkney Island: free shuttle to town center; T11 bus only accommodated ~120 people. A lot people were turned away. I was able to get on the T11 bus. FREEZING cold in the open roof upper deck of bus. Photo of Skara Brae which dates to 3100 B.C.

Invergordon: Ship docked in middle of town (not much to see). Can take train on your own to Inverness or Balmoral castle. I booked ship excursion to Lock Ness/Urquhart Castle

Edinburgh: Tender into Queensferry. 6 euros for the X99 bus into town center. I took the X99 bus and walked the Royal mile.

Le Havre: don't remember if there were shuttles. I took ship excursion to Mont St. Michel.

Attempt #2, hopefully the pictures will show up this time.

Here are some thoughts and info from my British Islands cruise June 12th-Jun 30th.

- Cruise had great ports, but very tiring. Cruise starts off with 5 straight early port days. In fact the very first stop I booked an ship excursion and the ticket says "meet at Princess Theatre at 6:45am".

- I booked Southampton round-trip and asked to disembark in Le Havre but was denied. Princess said Port of Le Havre denied my request. Since they already have a set capacity for Le Havre roundtrip, they don't want extra burden.

- Unscientific estimate: roughly 70% Americans or Canadians.:confused:

- Food was good, service was good as usual.

- World cup games on MUTS and stateroom TV.

- Entertainment was great. 'Secret Silk' had impressive production.

Ports by Port.

Guernsey: Tendered in. I booked excursion to bike around Sark (tour usually sells out). Photo of Little Sark.

Cork: dock right in the middle of Cobh (lots to see). Can take train to Cork on your own. I prebooked Paddywagon tour to Blarney and Kinsale. Photo of "Deck of Cards" houses close to where ship is docked.

Dublin: $8 shuttle each way into town. heavy traffic. I took the shuttle and walked everywhere - Trinity College, St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin Castle, Christchurch, Jameson Distillery, and Temple Bar area as seen in photo.

We are considering taking the Land of the Midnight Sun cruise in June 2019 on the Sapphire Princess and am looking for opinions on the itinerary and ship.

 

Itinerary:

London (Southampton), England

|

Stavanger, Norway

|

Flaam, Norway

|

Hellesylt, Norway

|

Geiranger, Norway

|

Trondheim, Norway

|

Honningsvag (North Cape), Norway

|

Tromso, Norway

|

Gravdal (Lofoten Islands), Norway

|

Alesund, Norway

|

Bergen, Norway

|

London (Southampton), England.

The only port we have visited before is Southampton. We have a friend that lives in Tromso so that day would be taken care of. I know the Flaam Railway is considered a must do by many but truthfully I haven't heard of the other ports. I am also researching ports on the Northern Europe board.

 

Ship: Sapphire Princes. We sailed on her in 2012 and enjoyed it but that was a long time ago! Does anyone have any current impressions to share?

Thanks for sharing your thoughts!

I did this cruise in 2015. Truly recommend the 2-week itinerary vs the 1-week. It was sunny at Lofoten Island and that was highlight of the cruise. Here are a few pictures. The photo album linked in my signature has full album.

Stavanger: Pulpit Rock

Lofoten: Reinebriggen (requires challenging hike)

Alesund: Fjord area

Thank you for your review! We’ll be on the diamond in October, do you have any pictures of the ship?

I see that you been on Ruby and Caribbean Princess. The Diamond is 90% the same ship as those. Just slightly older and they added two for-fee venues - Japanese bath house and Kai Sushi. They don't have International Cafe.

I don't have many pictures, here are a few..

Back of ship

Outside area of Japanese bath house

Japanese Bath house

Japanese bath house

Kai Sushi deck 7 aft

'Make your own Ramen' station at buffet

Looking at options for our cruise next spring.

We disembark in Yokohama after overnighting there. Thinking of a day trip to Kamakura from port, then disembarking the next day and head to Tokyo.

Do we need a tour guide or is it easy to hit major sites on your own (what are the "not to be missed")? We plan to spend the night, then catch a late flight the next day.

FWIW we are comfortable DIY'ers for the most part, but first time in Asia.

 

Suggestions welcome.

I just returned from Japan cruise a week ago. My first time in Japan. I considered myself an experienced traveler and can adapt to metro systems pretty quickly (NYC, Shanghai, HK, London, etc). However, I got on wrong train several times and there is a learning curve (different trains/routes would arrive at the same track/platform, often there are 'express' trains that skips stops, you some times need to get out of one station and enter adjoining station to make transfer, etc.) Riding the packed metro trains is part of the Japan experience. If you budge extra time, it's doable.

As for destination, Shibuya and Harajuku are close by and are a must do. Imperial Palace/Edo Castle is a good photo op but nothing much else. Check out my "japan cruise" pictures linked in my signature. Includes some precruise Tokyo pictures.

Beautiful pics! And you are correct in that the Japanese culture is truly unique. My oldest son lives in Shibuya. He has lived in Japan for many years, and is currently filing for permanent residency and in the process of buying a condo there he loves it so much. Have been there several times and we are always amazed. We have never cruised there but this sounds like a wonderful itinerary. Did you use EZAir through Princess? If so, can you share your experience with it?

I've end up using EZ Air for most international flights for the following reasons.

1. Its usually cheaper for major airlines. EZ air gave me best price for my Japan cruise.

2. more options to buy one way flight - airlines like AA and United price 1-way flights more than round trip for many international destinations. I would like to, for example, fly into London and fly out of Paris. EZ is usually best bet when I buy two one-ways to different destinations. Their (airlines such as AA, united) one-way price is roughly half of roundtrip.

3. As long as you choose the flexible option, you can change flights before 45 days prior to departure. I booked my Brit Isles flights in Jan. Last week (just before 45 day mark) I rebooked at lower price and will get a refund of $20 (better than nothing).

4... and of course, They take care of you when your flight is late for boarding or if the ship returns is late for your flight out.

Sometimes seat selection is an issue. You can select seats for most airlines. Others, you would have to get the booking numbers and go into that Airline's website to pick your seats. For AA, you would be able to select seats around 24 - 12 hours before flights (same as if you book on your own).

Other than that, booking via EZ air has been same as booking thru Kayak or airline website.

This is why I stopped using photobucket and switched to imgur. Too many restrictions or account requirement for photobucket. Not uncommon to see lots of photobucket error messages on old posts because users failed to keep their account current or changed the parameters of their account. I don't have that problem with imgur.

For now, seems Google Photos is working. Good to know imgur is another alternative. Guess I'll stop using photobucket also.

(hopefuly this works, thanks msmoger for pointing out the pictures are not showing)

Here are some pictures. Click on my photo album linked via my signature to see the rest. Or follow me on Instagram @waynstapix for live port by port posts from my British Isles on Royal Princess next month

Precruise: daytrip to Matsumoto.

Port: Sakaiminato

Port: Kanazawa

Port: Hakodate

Port: Aomori