Live from the Ocean Princess - April 29 to May 27, 2011

[paul929207]

Welcome to this live from thread. We just finished the prior cruise from Shanghai to Singapore in a separate live from thread. I will try to post most days and to answer questions that are posed here.

Day 1 – Embarkation – Singapore

As we are continuing passengers, we did not have to go thru the checkin process. It looked like boarding started about noon. We went out this morning to Chinatown. We took the subway which is very easy to use. There is a station in the cruise terminal.

Today is the Royal Wedding and it is being shown on the big screen in the Cabaret Lounge (main show lounge) as well as the TV in our cabin.

Sabatini’s and the Steakhouse are both closed tonight.

The Ultimate Sticker is $5.95 per day plus 15% tip.

[Coolmama_1]

I am looking forward to your live posts! Thanks so much for inviting us along on your fabulous journey!

[Kiwi Kruzer]

Heres Pauls itinerary through to Rome.

Fabulous cruise......

 

 

Fri 29/04/11 Singapore / Singapore 07:00 17:00

Sat 30/04/11 Port Kelang / Malaysia 08:00 19:00

Sun 01/05/11 At Sea

Mon 02/05/11 At Sea

Tue 03/05/11 At Sea

Wed 04/05/11 At Sea

Thu 05/05/11 Kochi / India 08:00 17:00

Fri 06/05/11 At Sea

Sat 07/05/11 Mumbai / India 07:00 23:00

Sun 08/05/11 At Sea

Mon 09/05/11 At Sea

Tue 10/05/11 Muscat / Oman 07:00 13:00

Wed 11/05/11 Dubai / United Arab Emirates 09:00 22:00

Thu 12/05/11 Abu Dhabi / United Arab Emirates 07:00 17:00

Fri 13/05/11 At Sea

Sat 14/05/11 At Sea

Sun 15/05/11 At Sea

Mon 16/05/11 At Sea

Tue 17/05/11 At Sea

Wed 18/05/11 Jeddah / Saudi Arabia 07:00 19:00

Thu 19/05/11 At Sea

Fri 20/05/11 Aqaba / Jordan 07:00 19:00

Sat 21/05/11 At Sea

Sun 22/05/11 Passage Suez Canal / Egypt 01:00 17:00

Mon 23/05/11 At Sea

Tue 24/05/11 Piraeus (Athens) / Greece 06:00 17:45

Wed 25/05/11 At Sea

Thu 26/05/11 Sorrento / Italy 08:00 18:00

Fri 27/05/11 Civitavecchia (Rome) / Italy 05:00

[Woobstr112G]

Paul;

 

I'm sure you'll have a fantastic cruise. Looking forard to reading your reports.....:):):)

 

Bob

[Pia1913]

Welcome to this live from thread. We just finished the prior cruise from Shanghai to Singapore in a separate live from thread. I will try to post most days and to answer questions that are posed here.

Day 1 – Embarkation – Singapore

As we are continuing passengers, we did not have to go thru the checkin process. It looked like boarding started about noon. We went out this morning to Chinatown. We took the subway which is very easy to use. There is a station in the cruise terminal.

Today is the Royal Wedding and it is being shown on the big screen in the Cabaret Lounge (main show lounge) as well as the TV in our cabin.

Sabatini’s and the Steakhouse are both closed tonight.

The Ultimate Sticker is $5.95 per day plus 15% tip.

 

Does this ultimate cover the same things as what they are charging $9.00 for on the other ships? $5.95 seems very cheap.

[caribill]

Does this ultimate cover the same things as what they are charging $9.00 for on the other ships? $5.95 seems very cheap.

 

From another poster on another thread:

 

The UKP (Ultimate Kids Package) has dropped from $9/day to $7/day so a one week cruise with the 15% gratuity will now only set you back $56.35. Non-alcoholics of the world drink up.

[Waynetor]

Looking forward to your review. We are doing our first 'Ocean' this fall doing the reverse trip Rome to Singapore. We will also then be staying on for the next voyage down to Sydney.

Question re Singaore - did Princess offer any excursions for those doing the B2B? You mentioned you took a subway. My wife has trouble walking and uses a wheel chair part time. Was the subway accesable? Thanks

[paul929207]

Looking forward to your review. We are doing our first 'Ocean' this fall doing the reverse trip Rome to Singapore. We will also then be staying on for the next voyage down to Sydney.

Question re Singaore - did Princess offer any excursions for those doing the B2B? You mentioned you took a subway. My wife has trouble walking and uses a wheel chair part time. Was the subway accesable? Thanks

I did not see any tours for b2b folk and there are about 80 of us. Subway was accessible with escalators, elevators and moving sidewalks to and from the trains.

[paul929207]

Heres Pauls itinerary through to Rome.

Fabulous cruise......

 

 

Fri 29/04/11 Singapore / Singapore 07:00 17:00

Sat 30/04/11 Port Kelang / Malaysia 08:00 19:00

Sun 01/05/11 At Sea

Mon 02/05/11 At Sea

Tue 03/05/11 At Sea

Wed 04/05/11 At Sea

Thu 05/05/11 Kochi / India 08:00 17:00

Fri 06/05/11 At Sea

Sat 07/05/11 Mumbai / India 07:00 23:00

Sun 08/05/11 At Sea

Mon 09/05/11 At Sea

Tue 10/05/11 Muscat / Oman 07:00 13:00

Wed 11/05/11 Dubai / United Arab Emirates 09:00 22:00

Thu 12/05/11 Abu Dhabi / United Arab Emirates 07:00 17:00

Fri 13/05/11 At Sea

Sat 14/05/11 At Sea

Sun 15/05/11 At Sea

Mon 16/05/11 At Sea

Tue 17/05/11 At Sea

Wed 18/05/11 Jeddah / Saudi Arabia 07:00 19:00

Thu 19/05/11 At Sea

Fri 20/05/11 Aqaba / Jordan 07:00 19:00

Sat 21/05/11 At Sea

Sun 22/05/11 Passage Suez Canal / Egypt 01:00 17:00

Mon 23/05/11 At Sea

Tue 24/05/11 Piraeus (Athens) / Greece 06:00 17:45

Wed 25/05/11 At Sea

Thu 26/05/11 Sorrento / Italy 08:00 18:00

Fri 27/05/11 Civitavecchia (Rome) / Italy 05:00

Just a correction to the itinerary. It was changed again, so May 18 is a sea day instead of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. May 19 is Aqaba, Jordan and May 20 is Safaga, Egypt.

[JohnLauben]

It is my understanding that we are sailing with a few less that 500 passengers, out of a capacity of about 675. There are approximately 180 elites on board. The cut-off for the most traveled luncheon is about 323 days.

[paul929207]

Day 2 – Port Kelang, Malaysia (for Kuala Lumpur)

We arrived in Kelang about 8am. Most people are on tours to KL which is about 2 hours from here. We did the city tour in 2009, so we are not touring today. Princess offers a shuttle to the center of Kelang for $6 per person each way. The shuttle goes to a shopping center. The other choice is the cruise terminal, which is a short walk from the ship. There we found taxis and tour guides looking for business and one shop which sold sodas, cookies and potato chips. Whoppee.

 

Day 3 – At Sea

Today we are sailing north thru the Strait of Malacca. For much of the day, we have been able to see Sumatra, one of the islands that make up Indonesia off the port (left) side of the ship.

At trivia this morning the said that in addition to the usual fine prizes, they would tally the scores for each team for all the sea day morning and afternoon trivias and give prizes to the top team.

We had our Meet & Greet today. About thirty members and four officers attended. Everyone introduced themselves; we asked questions of the officers and discussed plans for the private tours that have been arranged. We are planning to have a luncheon during the six sea days between Abu Dhabi and Aqaba.

[paul929207]

Day 3 – Sea Day (continued)

This was our first sea day and, as usual, it was also a formal night which included the Captain’s Welcome Cocktail Party. Along with introducing the senior officers, Captain Ravera said there were 504 passengers and a crew of 384.

 

Day 4 – At Sea

As people often ask what is there to do on the small ships on sea days, I thought I would include today’s program:

6:00am The Wake Show on TV

8:00am Sunrise stretch

9:00am Strength – Tour de Spin

9:00am Bridge lecture

9:15am Enrichment Lecture – Famous Sea Voyages

9:30am Ping Pong

9:30am Service club get together

9:30am Captain Circle overview for new Princess passengers

10:00am Mahjong

10:15am Ballroom Dance lesson

10:15am Cullinary Demonstration

10:30am Exotic Gemstones

10:30am Arts & Crafts – Card Making

11:00am Health Seminar

11:15am Enrichment Lecture – Indian Cutural Heritage

11:15am Morning Trivia

11:30am to 1:30pm English Pub Lunch

12:15pm Poolside Melodies

1:00pm Champagne Art Auction Preview

1:30pm Goofy Golf

1:30pm Bridge

1:30pm Movie – The Social Network

2:00pm Champagne Art Auction

2:00pm Pool Volleyball

3:30pm Games – Outburst

3:30pm Afternoon Tea

4:00pm Aqua aerobics

4:15pm Interview with Hotel General Manager

4:15pm Afternoon Trivia

4:30pm Friends of Doctor Bob and Bill W meeting

[meh56]

We are thinking of taking the Ocean Princess from HNL to Tahiti...Concerned with size of ship sailing in open water...Has the

[meh56]

Sorry for above post ...We are thinking of sailing on the Ocean Princess from HNL to Tahiti...Concerned with sailing on small ship in open waters...Has your voyage been pretty smooth? Also can you comment on if you find the dress code on the small ship to be more formal than the larger ships...Are there dining areas open where you can go casual with just shirt and slacks?

[chamima]

Sorry for above post ...We are thinking of sailing on the Ocean Princess from HNL to Tahiti...Concerned with sailing on small ship in open waters...Has your voyage been pretty smooth? Also can you comment on if you find the dress code on the small ship to be more formal than the larger ships...Are there dining areas open where you can go casual with just shirt and slacks?

 

 

We just did that cruise in February on the Royal (may P & O treat her well :( ).

She did fine on the open water.

The dress code is the same as on all Princess cruises. It varies according to who is on the ship with you. We were on B2B and on the Hawaii-Tahiti leg it was mostly middle aged to older Americans who dressed up on formal nights. The second cruise around Tahiti had younger French and French Canadian cruisers who wore extremely casual clothing and were obnoxious and pushy enough to get themselves eventually seated in the dining room on formal nights even when it was suggested they go up to the buffet . (At night the buffet turns into a restaurant with waiter service and table cloths.However you are welcome to eat there even in shorts.)

[JohnLauben]

Has your voyage been pretty smooth?

 

For much of the first 2 days, it has been so smooth that you didn't even realize that you were on a moving ship. More recently, the wind has picked up a bit and we have been rocking ... but nothing really serious.

 

Are there dining areas open where you can go casual with just shirt and slacks?

 

Everything during the day is casual. In the evening (24 day cruise ... 4 formal and 20 smart casual nights), the buffet area is available as a casual venue. It is a true buffet on port days until 9PM. Otherwise, it serves as a bistro, with sit-down service until about 11PM (every night; opens at 9PM on port days, and earlier on sea days).

[cruiserus]

Hi guys! John and I are following your journey and will enjoy it vicariously, since we had to cancel. DH is recovering nicely from his surgery and no chemo or radiation are needed. The dr said his prognosis is excellent. We are now looking at the reverse itinerary, but it doesn't go to all the same ports, which is a bummer, as we really wanted to go to the ports offered on this cruise.

 

Did anyone say why the ship was sailing with so few passengers? I wonder if many cancelled due to all the trouble in Egypt a few months back.

 

Can't wait to hear about the rest of your journey.

[KruzPrincess]

Thanks for your live from thread. I hope that I can do lengthy cruises after I retire. For now, I'll enjoy it vicariously through you.

[paul929207]

Hi guys! John and I are following your journey and will enjoy it vicariously, since we had to cancel. DH is recovering nicely from his surgery and no chemo or radiation are needed. The dr said his prognosis is excellent. We are now looking at the reverse itinerary, but it doesn't go to all the same ports, which is a bummer, as we really wanted to go to the ports offered on this cruise.

 

Did anyone say why the ship was sailing with so few passengers? I wonder if many cancelled due to all the trouble in Egypt a few months back.

 

Can't wait to hear about the rest of your journey.

Linda,

Glad to hear John is doing well.

We were told that there were quite a few cancelations when Egypt was dropped and these did not come back when it was re-added.

[JohnLauben]

Did anyone say why the ship was sailing with so few passengers? I wonder if many cancelled due to all the trouble in Egypt a few months back.

 

I'm sure that Egypt had something to do with this. Also, airfare and visa requirements probably came into play. We had to obtain the visa for India in advance; others are issued on board. (This may be different for non-US citizens.) Also, some may be concerned with safety.

 

From the Captain's cocktail party, we actually have 504 passengers on board, with 383 crew members. Seems like we keep tripping over each other!

 

Cochin, India tomorrow (Thursday).

[DonahCBrown]

Thanks Paul and John for the Live - we'll be watching with great interest to see what, if anything, changes in the itinerary with the latest news from the region:eek:

 

Have a great time!

[paul929207]

Day 5 & 6 – At Sea

Like everyone else we are thrilled to hear the Bin Laden is dead.

I haven’t posted much since we are at sea and each person finds their own activities among those offered, or does nothing. If there are any questions about what is offered, let me know and I will try to expand.

This afternoon, we will enter waters where there is a chance of pirate activity. While it is highly unlikely that they will attach a ship with about 1000 people, our Captain is making sure we are prepared. This afternoon, we will have a pirate drill. We did the same thing in 2009 when there were pirates in the Seychelles. All passengers will go to their cabins, close the curtains and drapes and sit on the floor away from any window.

 

Tomorrow, about 125 passengers will disembark for a two night overland excursion to Agra for the Taj Mahal and Delhi. So we will have more employees than passengers on the ship for a few days

[paul929207]

Forgot to mention that there was NOT a shuttle in Cochin.

[cruiserus]

Is there anything you can do on your own in Cochin, or would you even recommend it? Can't wait to hear about what you did there.

[paul929207]

Is there anything you can do on your own in Cochin, or would you even recommend it? Can't wait to hear about what you did there.

I was not feeling great the day we were in Cochin, just run down with a cold. So I decided to stay on board. Jeannie went on a tour with a friend. It included a visit to a village to see the cottage industries they had and a cruise on a river. They enjoyed it.