Squire5000

We're booked on a cruise tour of Italy and a 14 day Med cruise in July.  We're watching the situation carefully. Only time and developments will  tell if we will find it in our best interest to cancel.

Has anyone taken the 6 day cruise tour in Italy offered by Princess Cruises?  If so, could you please provide some details on your experience?  Thanks

20 hours ago, scubacruiserx2 said:

 

I had looked into the RX 100 VI but I have a hard time holding a small camera steady when fully zoomed . We get the part about the old eyes . Where are you going in Norway ?

I too have a problem keeping the camera steady but in playing around with it and a few tweaks, it seems to suffice.  We’re doing the Niewu Statendam  Voyage of the Midnight Sun with another couple.  Should be fun as well as getting away from this crazy weather 🥵

7 hours ago, scubacruiserx2 said:

 

Thank you . I use a Canon 6D and SL 1 . Also a Sony  RX - 100 III pocket cam .

Thanks for the information.  When traveling, I often bring a Sony 6300 and a couple of lines.  For an upcoming trip to Norway, I'm going with a Sony RX100VI and the Sony RX100M3 as a backup. Candidly, I've been trying to compare the VI with the 6300 and to these tired old eyes, I don't see much difference.

7 hours ago, scubacruiserx2 said:

 

Thank you . I use a Canon 6D and SL 1 . Also a Sony  RX - 100 III pocket cam .

Great photos! What camera gear are you using?

Anybody out there on this cruise that can offer a report?

On 2/13/2019 at 4:37 AM, Caribbean Chris said:

 

I join everyone else who has expressed their sympathies on the rough weather that so badly affected the cruise itinerary for those of you who have been posting from the ship.

 

We’ll be on a Hawaii cruise on Eurodam next year, so appreciated faerievert’s numerous posts with the daily programs attached. The port ambassador’s talks about Hawaiian history and culture,  the related crafts like Lei making, the hula and ukulele lessons, Aloha Sunset Music Hour, all sound like destination-related theme activities I typically enjoy on ships that still offer them. There also seemed to be the typical range of options for cooking demos, digital workshops, sports like pickle ball, Trivia, bridge and other games, casino, recent movies, wine events, spa, the music walk venues, etc. that I expect to see on HAL.

 

So your last sentence (above) that the activities were dismal from the first day at sea was kind of puzzling. I’m not questioning your opinion, but I'm just genuinely curious to know what activities you felt were missing during the first five sea days.

Please keep in mind that this is a very subjective overview of this cruise compared to roughly 50+ cruises we have been taken over the years. My wife enjoyed the pre arrival talks on Hawaii though she noted that cooking demos presented she observed last fall.

My comments should not be construed in any way to dissuade you from the cruise.  If the activities offered by HAL  enrich your cruise experience, I’m sure you’ll have a great time.Just hope for good weather and calm seas.

We are on this cruise. A few observations:

By all accounts, there was no way this ship was going to tender into Kona as the scheduled first port of call.  Once docked in Honolulu, we were going nowhere as the port was closed.

Arriving this morning at Kona, there were many small boats apparently searching for whales.  One reason I think that the captain canceled the port call is the ships demographics.  There are lot of elderly people on board.  Under the best of conditions, some people  experience difficulty in using a tender.  Imagine the outrage if someone had a serious accident utilizing the tender.   BTW, I’m in my 70’s.

Being cooped up on this ship for 10 days and only one port call will test any relationship.  LOL.

We all seem to be getting along fine.  However, the lack of shipboard activities is unconscionable on the part of HAL and the cruise director.  Your only options are to eat, sleep or drink.  Today they’ve come up with checkers, “The Story of Surfing”, a trivia challenge , flower arrangements, basketball shootout, (bet that will be something), etc.  In fact, shipboard actities from the first day at sea have been dismal.

We’ve been to Hawaii before.  We selected this cruise as we sought a break from the Caribbean for our February cruise.  I really feel sorry for those passengers who would be seeing Hawaii for the first time.  It’s a beautiful place and cruising is a great way to get around and see all Hawaii has to offer.  Just not this time.

I enjoy a Manhattan prior to dinner.  I plan on purchasing a bottled of Jack Daniel's from HAL but I'm not sure if i can bring a bottle of non alcoholic mix to enjoy my cocktail on our balcony.  Has any had any experience with this situation?

Thanks  

Fincantieri has signed a memorandum of agreement (MoA) with Princess Cruises for the construction of two next-generation 175,000-ton cruise ships which will be the largest ships built so far in Italy with deliveries scheduled in Monfalcone in late 2023 and in spring 2025.

 

The vessels will accommodate approximately 4,300 guests and will be based on a next-generation platform design, being the first Princess Cruises’ ships to be dual-fuel powered primarily by Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG).

 

“This revolutionary platform for next-generation, LNG-powered cruise ships will introduce innovative design and leisure experiences driven by the future vacation and lifestyle trends of our guests – further evolving the already best-in-class Princess Cruises experience we deliver today. We look forward to collaborating with Fincantieri to bring our vision for this next-generation premium cruise ship into service," said Jan Swartz, President of Princess Cruises.

 

While commenting the announcement, Giuseppe Bono, CEO of Fincantieri, stated: “We are proud to further extend our long-established partnership with Princess Cruises, a brand we are indeed tied to since our comeback to the cruise ship industry in 1990. After so many years, we are getting ready to enter, together, into a new era of our industry, increasingly aimed at reducing environmental impact. We proudly do this with an all-time record project, both in terms of size and technological level”. Bono concluded: “We believe that there are no more significant milestones than these to reaffirm the market-leading positions we achieved. They allow us to keep a solid partnership between our country and the Carnival group - the largest foreign investor in Italy - and at the same time to maintain know-how and increase employment."

 

Source : www.cruiseindustrynews.com

Sorry Princess, not interested unless you make the staterooms larger as well as the balconies without having to book a royal suite at an outrageous price. Every new ship you build results in more cramped space. I’m sure you’ll do the same on these new ships. Also, I bet you’ll try to emulate RCL with their mega ships with all sorts amusement rides.

For those of us that are “boomers”, it’s time to wake up and accept the fact that we are no longer the target demographics for the cruise industry. That’s OK. We still have money to spend on vacations which we are using on river cruises, upscale cruise lines, e.g., Oceana, Seaborne, etc.

See ya Princess👎

For those of you who received your drinks and snacks, Bravo. In the future, we'll bag the Captains Circle as well as the hokey Champaign party. However, we have 3 cruises in the hopper and none are with Princess. My wife has had it with Princess after this last cruise. We're booked on HAL for the next 3 and our next Caribbean cruise will be on Celebrity where we have Diamond status. The free laundry, the internet service, priority embarkation are not offset by how we felt we were treated.

Reaching Elite status on Princess is a milestone for many of us; free laundry, free internet, a reserved cocktail lounge from 5-7 being a few examples. You also get to attend a Captain's Circle party. That party used to be a nice event. Not anymore.

On our recent cruise, the staff packed the Club Fusion to the rafters with Elite and Platinum customers. In the past, the wait staff would pass out h'ordeuvers and drinks. Well, no more h"ordeuvers and you'll be lucky to get a drink before they usher you out. Oh, and you used to be able to interact with the senior staff. I recognize that the handshake business was out due to the flu. However, the senior staff stood at the rear of Club Fusion like a bunch of kids at their first dance. As soon as the event was over, which is basically a Princess sales pitch, the senior staff immediately beat a hasty retreat to the exit. Even the captain could't get out of there fast enough. To put up with this, you get at least a free drink. Not this trip. Despite repeated attempts to get served, we were finally offered a beer as the other attendees were leaving.

We were on a back to back cruise and didn't waste the time the second week to attend this charade. Furthermore, with a significant number of Platinum and Elite passengers blended at these events, I strongly suggest that Princess start treating Elite passengers at these events a bit better recognizing their status and not combine the two groups together.

We boarded the Regal Princess on February 4th. We always tip the baggage porter $10 for 2 bags. We did the same this trip.

As we were walking towards the Princess terminal, I was a few feet ahead of my wife. All of a sudden, my wife starts calling out for me. I turn around and she is being verbally intimidated by a porter. I immediately go back and the guy starts berating me telling me "You have to tip". I tell this clown I did and he continues on telling me to identify who received the tip. I locate the guy and drag him over to talk to "The Intimidator" My guy tells "The Intimidator" I tipped him. "The Intimidator" starts yelling at the porter to turn over the tip to him. We picked up the pace and soon were safely inside the Princess terminal while the 2 porters were still jawboning at each other.

I don't know who oversees these guys, but you better leave a tip - or else.

I got notified also that the Feb 4 2018 Eurodam 14 day was cancelled. This is the third time HAL has done this to me since Nov. We had a 14 day booked on the NA, cancelled, able to rebook on Eurodam. (Had 4 cabins and cabanas booked for family--took over two hours on phone to sort out). Our Feb 2018 NA was cancelled, rebooked the Eurodam. NOw that one is cancelled.

 

Been very loyal to HAL. Like the size of the ships, the low key atmosphere as we just want to relax. Almost 4 star too. Bye bye HAL. CAn't count on you.

We too are very frustrated with this development. It's all about the bottom line. Loyalty to a cruise line takes a back seat to the revenue department. As long time cruisers like to say, "cruising sure has changed over the years". Indeed it has. We can put up with the little blips that often occur on a cruise, but this nonsense of opening a cruise to a booking, letting clients book the cruise and then pull the rug out from under them once the cruise line gets a better offer. HAL, you know what you can do with your cruise line.:mad:

Many 2018 cruises have been populating throughout the entire day of Dec 2nd, so keep checking for the ones you want! I'm also looking forward to TA's coming online!

Does anyone know why you can't book a cabin on the Eurodam sailing 2/11/18 (14 days)?

Thanks everyone for your responses.

Doing a TA on the Caribbean Princess. In cool weather, do any of the pools have a retractable

roof?

Any thoughts? Considering Princess; from either starting point, you get an overnight in BA on the ship, not so in Santiago. Thanks

Glad you had a great time. We too have had this cruise booked and also had to cancel because of my husbands work etc. Trying again May 2016. Will not know for sure until mid Feb.

That is always the fun thing, trying to get a good deal on air and a hotel that late. Oh well.

 

Glad you enjoyed the Princess excursions. Still deciding if we want to use them or private. Were the tours with Princess packed? We used them in Rome and yes they were packed but we had a blast.

Each tour had about 30 people. What was problematic was that everyone and his/her brother were at the same sites at the same time. However, on each tour, we didn't have to wait in line to get into the museum, church, etc. We went right to the front. The only place that seemed to get very congested was Perterhof. Lots of buses there that day. Surprisingly, our tour of the Hermitage, which was early in the morning, went very smoothly as did Catherine the Great.

We are also staying in the Marriott before our cruise on the 20th. May I ask from whom did you arrange transport?

Cabforce. Cost about $69. Driver was waiting for us in the terminal as we came out after picking up our luggage. Taxi fare from the Marriott to the port was about 280K.

The Marriott is a great hotel.

Some random thoughts on our recent Baltic Cruise:

With the exception of windy conditions at Helsinki which precluded our stop there and a dreary last day at sea, our weather was fabulous; sunny, mid 60's to low 70's.

Pre cruise, we stayed at the Copenhagen Marriott. We made prior arrangements for transportation from the airport to the hotel which expedited our arrival at the hotel. Our room was ready when we arrived (9:00 AM), so we were able to put our luggage in the room and set off to explore Copenhagen.

We purchased a Copenhagen card before our trip, but wouldn't do it again. We had to walk a couple of blocks to get the actual card and then try and navigate our way around Copenhagen. We did that for a day and, the following morning, we purchased a Hop On/Hop Off ticket to get around. Way to go. There was a stop right in front of the hotel.

Embarkation on Saturday was a breeze.

First stop, Oslo, we also had made arrangements for an Oslo card. Again, I would recommend the Hop On/Hop Off alternative. We had to walk a long distance (to Central Station) to convert the voucher. We visited Central Station 2 more times as the directions we received were very confusing, transit stops had changed, etc.

These cards are a good deal in that they include admission to many venues but you spend a lot of time navigating around the cities to get where you want to go.

All of our ship excursions were booked thru Princess. I recognize that you pay a premium for Princess excursions, but we were very satisfied with our choice.

In Gothenburg, we took the excursion to the West Coast Islands. Very scenic.

During our stop for Berlin (Warnemunde) we embarked on a tour of Schwerin Castle, Lake Schwerin and Rostock. This was very enjoyable. We had a great tour guide and our stop for lunch was a pleasant surprise.

After a day at spent resting up and reading, we arrived in Tallinn. We did not book a ship excursion at this port and set out on our own. Tallinn is a avery friendly tourist stop and you really don't need to pay anyone to facilitate seeing the sights. One word of caution, you can walk up to an observation deck on the main church in Tallinn. The view is spectacular, but the trek up the stairs is not for the unfit. There are about 250 steps up a circular stone staircase that can't be more than 3 feet wide, people going up and down at the same time.

The next day, we arrived in St. Petersburg. We took the 2 day Princess excursion ""Discovery Exclusive: Hermitage, Gold Room, Peterhof and Catherine the Great" This tour is a killer. We were up at 5:00 AM the morning we arrived in St. Petersburg. We went thru immigration and were on our bus around 7:00 AM. (No problems with immigration). With the exception of a 90 minute break to return to the ship, clean up and go out again, we didn't get to bed until midnight. The next day, we were up at 6:00 AM and didn't get back to the ship until 4:30 PM. It's almost impossible to describe what we saw without writing an extensive review. Suffice it to say that the Hermitage lived up to it's reputation, Catherine the Great was over the top as was the concert/dinner we had at that stop. The Peterhof gardens are not to be missed. When we finished St. Petersburg, we were exhausted, but it was a wonderful exhaustion.

As noted, we missed our stop at Helsinki. Most people seemed to sleep that day.

Our stop in Stockholm centered around the palace. We toured the palace, stopped by a church and took in the changing of the guard before returning to our ship.

The following day was a sea day, packing, etc., in preparation for our disembarkation in Copenhagen.

Getting off the ship, we opted for the Princess transfers to the airport which worked out very well for us.

An 8 hour flight back home, a quick meal and it was to bed.

We booked this cruise twice before, but had to cancel due to circumstances beyond our control.

We're glad we finally got to do it for it was truly a trip of a lifetime.

Thanks everyone for all the replies and great information!

Are there any restrictions on bringing camera bags, backpacks, purses into museums/sites on a Baltic cruise? Do you have to check that type of stuff before you enter, especially in St. Petersburg?

Has anyone ever used this company? If so, how did it work out? We'll be staying at the Marriott Copenhagen so mass transit won't really work for us with our luggage. We of course could use a taxi, but on a recent trips to London and Amsterdam, we used a car service and were very pleased with the results.

Thanks in advance.

Far better to be researching this on the Northern Europe board, here:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=192

 

where Copenhagen is covered. That way you get the benefit of experience from everybody who as been there and possibly used the vender. The Mods might even move this thread there as it has nothing to do with Princess.

Good point. Will do