Live from the Ocean Princess - April 13-29

[paul929207]

My wife and I are on the Ocean Princess cruising from Shanghai to Singapore. It is a 16 day cruise. I will try to take you along with us. If you have any questions about either the cruise or the ship, post them and I will try to answer. We came early and spent 6 nights in Shanghai. It was great. In the last 20 years, Shanghai has been transformed into a modern city.

 

Yesterday was embarkation. Checkin started about 11am and boarding about 1pm. We had two of our three bags in our cabin when we got there about 1:15pm. The third arrived a short time later.

 

We sailed at 9pm and enjoyed a beautiful view of the Pudong area, which is the new business district. We sailed by the World Financial Center, the third tallest building in the world.

 

We have a day at sea, and then arrive at our first port – Okinawa, Japan.

[Astro Flyer]

Have a great cruise!

[Kelownabccan]

Can you take a look at one of the obstructed view cabins....such as 6039 or any on deck six that are obstructed and see what you think of the rooms....apparently they are smaller than other outside view cabins and have no couch in them?????? we were going to book one of them......Thanks....

[kruisey]

I eagerly look forward to your reports

Both of you have a wonderful time......Heather:)

[Joshua1]

We have just completed this cruise in the reverse order and enjoyed it very much as it was our first time in the far east. Very exhausting though as most of the places a long way from where the ship docks normally 1 to 2hr drive to get to city or attraction. Hope you will enjoy your cruise. :)

[Coolmama_1]

Have a wonderful cruise. I am looking forward to your posts.

[5326jan]

Hi Paul,

 

Thanks for letting us "stowaway" on your cruise. :) We're looking forward to doing this one and wondered if you did a pre-cruise land tour. We'd like to see Great Wall and Terra Cotta Warriors, so would love to hear your thoughts on it if you did see those through Princess or privately.

 

We also want to do this itinerary on one of the small ships.

[Pia1913]

One question. Did you get to the Shanghai market with all the fabulous knockoffs? I would swear some of them are real.

[Woobstr112G]

Paul;

 

Hope you two have a wonderful cruise. I look forward to reading your future reports.....:):):)

 

Bob

[Hoyaheel]

Enjoy the cruise! That itinerary looks delightful!

 

Can you confirm (for my very dusty memory) that there are 220v european plugs (2pin) in those cabins? I'm hoping to use my european curling iron on our Pacific Princess cruise....

[cnd crsr]

We did this exact cruise on the Ocean last year. It is a great itinerary. Enjoy!! Will enjoy reading your "live" Will relive a wonderful trip through you:)

[cruiserus]

Hi, Paul! While we sure do miss not being on the Ocean with you, we will be following your reports. Tell Jeannie hello. John's already looking ahead to perhaps booking this cruise on its return from Europe in the fall. It doesn't go to all the same ports in the Middle East though. Have a wonderful cruise!

[caribill]

Hi Paul,

 

We're looking forward to doing this one and wondered if you did a pre-cruise land tour. We'd like to see Great Wall and Terra Cotta Warriors, so would love to hear your thoughts on it if you did see those through Princess or privately.

 

 

First picture below was from a Princess tour when ship was docken near Beijing.

 

Other three pictures are from travel as part of a river cruise.

[paul929207]

I will try. As I recall from another cruise, they are sideways. That is, when you enter, the long way of the cabin is lefr to right, where normally in is in front of you.

[Shogun]

Hi Paul,

 

Thanks for posting live from, always nice to see this,

 

 

question what is the age group and mix of passengers

 

with you on this cruise.

 

Is it an older group of experienced cruisers.?

 

 

yours Shogun

[soraya]

Looking forward to following this - my DH & I are on the ship in July. Would love to hear about the food: main dining room choices and how the bistro system works.

 

Thanks

[BridgeMates]

I will try. As I recall from another cruise, they are sideways. That is, when you enter, the long way of the cabin is lefr to right, where normally in is in front of you.

 

We had a similar cabin on the Royal Princess and the cabin is smaller and layed out as Paul explains. It was ok, but I'd try for an upgrade.

[5326jan]

First picture below was from a Princess tour when ship was docken near Beijing.

 

Other three pictures are from travel as part of a river cruise.

 

Thanks Carbill, was the river cruise part of a Princess Cruise Tour or was that independent travel? Your pictures are great and the weather at the Great Wall looked clear and sunny which is better than many have. Do you have a review of your trip somewhere that you could provide a link to? Thanks again!:)

[WarEagle76]

Paul, thanks for taking us along. This itinerary is one on our radar for the future so will be following along with interest.

 

5326jan, there are many reviews on China River Cruises under River and Canal Cruises in Cruise Critic. We took a Viking River cruise package and enjoyed it greatly and good way to see a lot of China. There are a number of companies offering river cruise packages to China.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=191

 

Also, Princess offers cruise tours in China in conjunction with Asian Cruises:

 

http://www.princess.com/learn/cruisetours/asia/subtrades/index.jsp

[dutchess43]

Have a wonderful cruise & thanks for taking us along for the sail. I too am extremely interested in your posts as we are sailing in a balcony cabin in July so I am looking to hear about the ship as well as your adventures.

[6travelers]

Looks like an incredible cruise! Thank you for your offer to answer questions, very nice of you. I am wondering about the private spa deck. How much are passes for the cruise? And what is actually there? In other words what do you get for your money! Have a great time and thank you again. Pam

[JohnLauben]

Paul ... glad to see your posts. Can you find out, since Princess hasn't provided the information yet. We had an itinerary change posted for the follow-on cruise this morning (Friday), with no notification from Princess (as of yet). Jeddah (Saudi Arabia) deleted, Aqaba (Jordan) moved a day earlier, Luxor/Karnak (Egypt) back on the itinerary. I can only speculate ... but, they probably know why on board. Sorry to see Jeddah removed, since Saudi Arabia isn't really on the beaten path as far as tourism goes; but glad to see the return of Egypt. Luxor appears to be a much better experience anyway. (Previously booked shore excursions for Luxor have be re-instated, and Jeddah shore excursions removed.)

 

Also, Princess hasn't said where the ship will be in Singapore ... cruise terminal or container port. I have previously used the cruise terminal (on the old Regal, a much larger ship), but I know that the larger ships (Diamond/Sapphire) use a container port.

[JohnLauben]

We had an itinerary change posted for the follow-on cruise this morning (Friday), with no notification from Princess (as of yet).

 

This just came through. Sorry ... but (only slightly) off the original topic. But, some may be interested in this, especially the B2B passengers.

 

Please be advised that due to potential problems obtaining visas and security concerns, the call to Jeddah on May 18 has been cancelled. Additionally, the U.S. Department of State Travel Warning for Egypt, updated on March 29, 2011, advises that the security in the Red Sea resort region is calm. Therefore, the call to Safaga on May 20 from 7:00 am - 11:00 pm has been reinstated. To accommodate this change, Ocean Princess will depart from Abu Dhabi on May 12 at 4:00 pm and the call to Aqaba will now be on May 19. The balance of the itinerary remains unchanged.

 

If you had pre-reserved shore excursions in Safaga they will automatically be added back to your booking. Pre-reserved shore excursions in Aqaba have been moved to the new date.

[caribill]

Thanks Carbill, was the river cruise part of a Princess Cruise Tour or was that independent travel? Your pictures are great and the weather at the Great Wall looked clear and sunny which is better than many have. Do you have a review of your trip somewhere that you could provide a link to? Thanks again!:)

 

River cruise was not via Princess. It was a Viking River Cruise.

 

No review, but if you have any questions, you can e-mail me using caribill at yahoo dot com

 

We were lucky with the weather both times at the Great Wall with no smog. The Princess tour brought us to a different section of the wall than Viking did.

[paul929207]

Enjoy the cruise! That itinerary looks delightful!

 

Can you confirm (for my very dusty memory) that there are 220v european plugs (2pin) in those cabins? I'm hoping to use my european curling iron on our Pacific Princess cruise....

Yes, there are two round plugs in addition to the US style plugs