Cruisen Elf

I read in last year's Roll Call of a Northern Lights Cruise that Rodne would not refund money less than 2 days out. Since their port stop was cancelled after that, they did not receive a refund. I am struggling with the same dilemma - not wanting to pay Princess's prices, but hesitant to book in case the port is cancelled. I decided to to tour the port on my own, and if we want, to take a Rodne cruise the day of our stop without booking and paying ahead of time. We are stopping in October, though, so the demand may not be as large if you cruise earlier in the season. Here is the link to that roll call:

I am so sorry - our pub tour with traditional Irish music was in Dublin, not Belfast. So please disregard my previous post unless you want to try the music in Dublin. 🥴

We did a pub crawl with traditional Irish music and dinner with this company: https://www.musicalpubcrawl.com/ They also have just a pub crawl with no dinner that may fit into your time frame better. They played and talked about traditional Irish music, and we really enjoyed it. It is a quick taxi ride back to the ship. This was pre-pandemic, but it looks to be the same tour.

While browsing the Celebrity website today, I saw 2024 cruises that included Ireland and Iceland, and Iceland and Scotland. Both included stops at Kirkwall. They may have others, I didn't look at all of the options.

Good to know! On our last cruise, I waited until we were onboard to make specialty dining reservations so I could use OBC, and there were few options available. Most restaurants were booked solid.

This was our experience, too, on our recent Enchantment cruise. We had to wait in line every night, in spite of having reservations. We were never seated at the same table or same section. IMHO the Medallion App made it more chaotic than before. It certainly did not give us an opportunity to "Dine My Way!"

Can anyone recommend which main dining room to select on Enchanted Princess? I have never had a choice before, and can't find any info or pictures about the different dining rooms on the Princess website. Thanks in advance for any info you can provide!

Thanks! I never noticed that it specified refundable & nonrefundable OBC right in the personalizer. 🥴

Is Shareholder OBC refundable or non-refundable?

Another vote for the Best Western Plus in Elkridge, MD, booked through Trinity Reservations. We have stayed there several times and have been satisfied with the hotel, location, shuttle, and parking.

I just did a mock booking with Trinity for this coming Friday, 8/19/22, and found "free round trip Baltimore Cruise Port shuttle from 8am to 12 Noon" at the Best Western Plus BWI in Elkridge, MD. We have stayed there several times, and have been pleased with the hotel and shuttle service. If this one is the one you referred to as "out of the way," we didn't find that to be the case for us, and we travelled from the "North," out of the Pittsburgh, PA area. And it had an Irish Pub next door (pre-Covid at least) with great food! Hope this helps!

I have found detergent pods are easier to pack than liquid or powder detergent. I use them along with unscented dryer sheets I pack when doing laundry aboard Princess ships.

That's the best kind of place! It's like reading a good book over and over again, and always discovering something new.

I submitted a request for 3 separate cruises on April 21st, and on May 2nd I received new invoices showing the shareholder OBC for 2 of the cruises. The one they didn't credit the OBC to was an upcoming New Zealand cruise in Oct. 2022. I am speculating that it may be cancelled since New Zealand has not yet re-opened to cruises. Does this sound likely? Or should I follow up with Princess? TIA for any insights you can share.

Does anyone know where Princess ships are anchored and where we are tendered to at Port Arthur? I'm trying to find an independent tour, or transportation to the historic Port Arthur site from the port, and haven't been able to find anything yet. It sounds like they have lots of interesting tours at the site, but I can't figure out how to get there! TIA for any info you can share.

I am looking for book recommendations about the general, overall histories of Australia and New Zealand. I would also appreciate any ideas for general travel books that folks have found useful for each of those countries. Thanks in advance for any suggestions you can share! (Trying to remain optimistic that our upcoming October/November Australia and New Zealand cruisetour will happen, since it's already been cancelled once.)