Live From Ocean Princess 8/9/12

[Posaune]

We woke up this morning in the Dover Best Western Marina Hotel with a great view of the Ocean Princess. We will transfer over at checkout time (11 AM) and hope to board soon! Clear skies with a bit of low fog today. We flew into Heathrow yesterday and shared a van with another couple from Cruise Critic to avoid the trains through central London during the Olympics. My wife and I are from Atlanta and this is our 9th Princess cruise. I will try and report once a day if our minutes on board allow!

[paul929207]

Hope you have a great cruise. We love the Ocean Princess. We are just a day short of 200 on her, with 48 booked for next fall.

[SoBaycruiser]

Looking forward to your live as we will be sailing out of Dover on her next year.

[cnd crsr]

I look forward to reading your posts on my favourite ship:)

[LMD]

Have a great cruise. Look forward to reading your report. We will be getting on as you are getting off. One more week - we are so excited.

[lovevacadays]

I'm looking forward to reading your live from thread. I have never sailed the Ocean and don't have any plans in the near future but I'm always interested in reading the threads on those that sail Princess' smaller ships. I would like to sail one at some point.

 

I hope you have a wonderful cruise.:)

[TracieABD]

Yay!!!! We are all going on a cruise!:)

[chipq]

Can't wait to read about your cruise but first and most important have a great time. Don't miss any of the fun to stare into a computer screen typing up a report. Enjoy your trip!

 

http://luv2cruise.blogspot.com

[Woobstr112G]

Have a wonderful cruise. Look forward to reading your reports.....:):):)

 

Bob

[Posaune]

Day 1: After a very quick cab ride to the ship, we were able to board at 11:30. Our deck 7 cabin is arranged rather differently from what we are used to on the larger ships. There seems to be a little less hanging space, but it is no where near as convenient placed right at the cabin door with four doors meeting in the hallway. It is nice to have a sofa though with the BB cabin. The sailaway was very nice, apparently the first sunny sailaway out of Dover this summer from what we were told. Entertainment for the sailaway was a nice duo the Walking Miracles. Once again we are used to larger groups instead of duos, but they did a nice job. This is the first time we have had traditional dining 6:00 seating) and I must say I prefer Anytime Dining, though there is no choice on Ocean Princess. The Welcome Aboard show was a little cheesy for my tastes. The smaller band and cast with no sets at all really did not show off the performers as well as they deserved.

 

Day 2 is at sea with smooth seas and just a bit of wind. It is quite chilly though at 17 C. The first formal night is tonight with the Captain Cocktail Party prior to the two dinner seatings. The Captain is Carlo Servillo and the Cruise Director is Brett Siborne. Motor City is the show this evening……. How many times now?

[TracieABD]

Thank you for keeping us posted on your cruise!

How is the food on the Ocean?

 

Oh and "cheesy" and the "Welcome Aboard Show" seem to be one and the same!:p

[Matcodixon]

 

Oh and "cheesy" and the "Welcome Aboard Show" seem to be one and the same!:p

 

A little good wine makes that cheese go down much easier! :D

[Posaune]

Day 3

Another smooth night last night and an on time arrival in Stavanger. The weather is cool with low clouds, but in the middle of our cruise along Lysefjord the sun snuck through and it was a wonderful day. I heartily recommend this excursion, well run and beautiful sights. Since we were here on a Sunday, the Cathedral was closed for services until 30 minutes prior to our onboard time. The city was bustling around the harbor with all kinds of maritime displays, steam engines & live music. Dining and service has been excellent. We were in port today with the Prinsedam, P&O Azura and Queen Elizabeth.

 

The cruise has 53 people doing B2B and a few in that number doing B2B2B! There are 22 nationalities amongst passengers with 332 from the UK and 250 Americans. One from Norway decided to see his own country! 661 total passengers and 374 crew.

[Woobstr112G]

Day 3

Another smooth night last night and an on time arrival in Stavanger. The weather is cool with low clouds, but in the middle of our cruise along Lysefjord the sun snuck through and it was a wonderful day. I heartily recommend this excursion, well run and beautiful sights. Since we were here on a Sunday, the Cathedral was closed for services until 30 minutes prior to our onboard time. The city was bustling around the harbor with all kinds of maritime displays, steam engines & live music. Dining and service has been excellent. We were in port today with the Prinsedam, P&O Azura and Queen Elizabeth.

 

The cruise has 53 people doing B2B and a few in that number doing B2B2B! There are 22 nationalities amongst passengers with 332 from the UK and 250 Americans. One from Norway decided to see his own country! 661 total passengers and 374 crew.

 

Sounds like another great day. Thank you for your continued reports.....:):):)

 

Bob

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

[as19111]

Day 3

 

The cruise has 53 people doing B2B and a few in that number doing B2B2B! There are 22 nationalities amongst passengers with 332 from the UK and 250 Americans. One from Norway decided to see his own country! 661 total passengers and 374 crew.

 

We'll be on the last B and our roll call is dismal. Do they know about Cruise Critic?

 

We sailed Iceland/Norway in 2010 and loved it! Enjoy the cruise!!

[sunluva7]

I got off the ship just before you came on, and we tried to leave it nice and neat for you. We were on Deck 7, too - the best deck on the ship IMHO. I met a few people staying on for your cruise, and I would have loved to join them, but unfortunately I have to go back to work to make money for the next cruise. Have a great week!:D

[vivavegas]

Really enjoying your live reports! Hope you have a great cruise!:)

[thumper860]

Thanks for your live posts. It's almost like being with you.:)

 

We'll be joining your ship in September and are wondering if there is an ATM on board that will give us Euros.

 

Thanks,

[PathfinderEss]

Have a wonderful cruise, thanks for taking us along:D

[Posaune]

Well, we did not disappear, but internet did for a little over two days. The satellite view is very low on the horizon, so if you are anywhere near mountains there is no satellite access. I will make some notes about day 6 & 7 now and try and get back with day 4 and 5 a little later today.

 

Once again it was glass like seas going into Bergen. Weather is fantastic with temperatures approaching 80, very unusual for Norway. We have had just a few very brief moments of rain all week. Our tour was canceled in Bergen so we struck out on our own to visit Troldhaugen, the home of composer Edvard Grieg about five miles outside of Bergen. We were informed that there would be a tour leaving from the information center, but that is no longer true. There is now a tram leaving from town that gets you within about a 25 minute walk to the house, museum and recital hall. FYI you have to have coin to buy tram tickets at 27 Kroner each way. The machines do not accept bills or apparently charge cards without chips. We had a wonderful visit to the home and the concert was superb, far above the quality that I expected. All aboard was at 4:30 with the Captain's Circle party at 5:15. There are 215 Gold, 103 Platinum and 37 Elite onboard. That is out of a total of a little over 600 total passengers as reported earlier. Everyone asks about the most traveled-- 3rd place, 32 cruises and 326 days, 2nd place 47 cruises and 603 days and first place 50 cruises and 706 days.

 

We were warned it would be rock and roll overnight and it was. Medium to high seas and it was nice to be rocked to sleep. Food has been excellent and the service continues to be great. British authorities insist on inspecting all passports, so we will not be able to get our passports back (which we turned in upon embarkation) until early the morning of disembarkation.

 

More later!

[phabric]

Enjoyed reading your review. We were on the Ocean Princess doing the same cruise in 2010.

[sunsetbeachgal]

Enjoy...like your observation, one of the few things we don't like about the small ships is that they don't have anytime dining...

[sunluva7]

Enjoy...like your observation, one of the few things we don't like about the small ships is that they don't have anytime dining...

 

I thought the same thing, but as it turned out, we liked the traditional dining on Ocean Princess. It seems to work on this ship, as there are fewer dining choices and fewer activities to interfere with dinner. We had the late seating which gave us time to rest up after a long day on shore. It all worked very well.:)

[NeptuneSeas]

You didn't mention who the Maitre D' is. Please advise as I'm sailing soon. Thank you, Bon Voyage.

[LindaM]

Thanks for your report. We will be on deck 7 on Sept. 9. We too have early seating, but prefer Anytime dining. This is our first time on Ocean Princess. We are devoted to HAL Prinsendam. We love small ship cruising. I have a feeling we will like this ship equally as well! This is our first Princess cruise since 98. We were lucky this cruise qualified us as platinum! I hope they still play the Love Boat song!