Sadie65 Posted June 5, 2015 #1 Share Posted June 5, 2015 We will be on the Regal Princess cruising the Baltics and Russia this July. I have seen some mention of "Port Lectures" on Cruise Critic. Are these lectures worthwhile or a they simply telling you at which shops to do your shopping? Sadie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skynight Posted June 5, 2015 #2 Share Posted June 5, 2015 We will be on the Regal Princess cruising the Baltics and Russia this July. I have seen some mention of "Port Lectures" on Cruise Critic.Are these lectures worthwhile or a they simply telling you at which shops to do your shopping? Sadie We did the Baltic on the Royal. We never actually attended a port lecture live, but they were shown on the TV, on demand and we watched them on the TV. The woman we had on board gave very helpful information. They were not shopping talks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colo Cruiser Posted June 5, 2015 #3 Share Posted June 5, 2015 (edited) We will be on the Regal Princess cruising the Baltics and Russia this July. I have seen some mention of "Port Lectures" on Cruise Critic.Are these lectures worthwhile or a they simply telling you at which shops to do your shopping? Sadie We dislike them, too much Princess shop hype. :( Edited June 5, 2015 by Colo Cruiser Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thrak Posted June 5, 2015 #4 Share Posted June 5, 2015 (edited) It depends on the lecturer. Some can be quite informative. Just be sure you don't end up in one of the "shopping" talks. I got in one of those once and it was a big waste of time. They just tried to get everybody to go to the specific stores in the port (Diamonds International for instance!!!) where they get a kickback. If it's a lecture about the port itself it can be good. Just remember that you can always get up and walk out if you find you have stumbled into a shopping "lecture". Edited June 5, 2015 by Thrak Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul929207 Posted June 5, 2015 #5 Share Posted June 5, 2015 We find that the ones for the Caribbean, Mexico and Alaska tend to be shopping talks. In the rest of the world they are port talks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FawnRiver Posted June 5, 2015 #6 Share Posted June 5, 2015 It depends on the lecturer. Some can be quite informative. Just be sure you don't end up in one of the "shopping" talks. I got in one of those once and it was a big waste of time. They just tried to get everybody to go to the specific stores in the port (Diamonds International for instance!!!) where they get a kickback. If it's a lecture about the port itself it can be good. Just remember that you can always get up and walk out if you find you have stumbled into a shopping "lecture". Especially the gentleman lecturing us on the Titanic while on a TA ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare PescadoAmarillo Posted June 5, 2015 #7 Share Posted June 5, 2015 We find that the ones for the Caribbean, Mexico and Alaska tend to be shopping talks. In the rest of the world they are port talks. I agree with the Caribbean but find the naturalist talks in Alaska very interesting and was surprised to see a married couple actually giving port lectures on our 9-night Mexico cruise on the Grand. On our French Polynesia cruises, we had a port lecturer (Douglas Pearson) who really made the cruises for us. Panama Canal lecturers can be very good too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Husky61 Posted June 5, 2015 #8 Share Posted June 5, 2015 We never attend them or watch them on TV. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colo Cruiser Posted June 5, 2015 #9 Share Posted June 5, 2015 Our Med and British Isles cruise they were terrible. :( Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
seamwoman Posted June 5, 2015 #10 Share Posted June 5, 2015 On our Panama Canal cruise on the Coral in April the port lecturer was excellent. He had lived in Panama and brought many personal experiences to his comments through the canal. Karen Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
capriccio Posted June 5, 2015 #11 Share Posted June 5, 2015 We will be on the Regal Princess cruising the Baltics and Russia this July. I have seen some mention of "Port Lectures" on Cruise Critic.Are these lectures worthwhile or a they simply telling you at which shops to do your shopping? Sadie John Lawrence - who, I think, is retired - was a wonderful port lecturer on the Baltic cruise. I have never met anyone who comes close but the naturalists - which is a different job - in Alaska are also (at least in our 2 Alaska cruises) very good. We were very disappointed (this was more than 5 years ago) with the lecturers on our Panama Canal transit and also found those on our Amazon cruise lacking. They weren't telling us where to shop but their presentations left lots to be desired. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peterspca90732 Posted June 5, 2015 #12 Share Posted June 5, 2015 We had a terrific lecturer on the Island, last February full Panama Canal transit to Los Angeles. We had no shopping lectures on that one, just good info and insight into each port. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bcnvcanada Posted June 6, 2015 #13 Share Posted June 6, 2015 We miss Joe (red shirt) who was on so many of our South American, and med cruises. He was wonderful, so many tips on DYT information and also for Princess tours. We understand that he pass, a year ago. He was a gem. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posaune Posted June 6, 2015 #14 Share Posted June 6, 2015 I must chime in and say that on two of our British cruises the port talks were excellent. On the third mediocre. On our first Med cruise the lectures were very good. On the second Med cruise the lectures were horrible. The information was VERY out of date. The shopping talks are not our cup of tea and we stay away. In other words, the quality varies cruise to cruise. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matcodixon Posted June 6, 2015 #15 Share Posted June 6, 2015 There is only one way to be sure.. Watch them and let us know..:D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
5waldos Posted June 6, 2015 #16 Share Posted June 6, 2015 Shopping lectures are useful in letting you know what shops to avoid[emoji33] Real lecturers can be wonderful although obviously there is a range of them. Good ones are great-some not so much. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joybook Posted June 6, 2015 #17 Share Posted June 6, 2015 Our experience is that we have never had a bad one. Yes they can be different and each has a different emphasis. Some give you a very historic based lecture of the port/city while some may give you a shopping guide. However we have never experienced one which we felt was giving us a 'hard-sell'. The ones we find most informative are those that give you an idea of directions to take from the dock, bus or train numbers to catch for various places etc. In otherwords helpful to visitors. They are usually held in the Princess Theatre and so there is an opportunity for you to get up and leave if you wish to. I can honestly say we have never walked out on one. We have always found them helpful or interesting or both.:) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rpcv77 Posted June 6, 2015 #18 Share Posted June 6, 2015 On my first Princess cruise, NZ/AUS, I attended a few port lectures and found most to be very informative. But, the port lecturer who spoke about Hobart was very wrong when we asked her a question about the Taste of Tasmania food festival. It was December 31 and she insisted that the festival would not be open that day due to New Year's Eve. We had researched it before we left and according to their website,mother were open (we were trying to confirm with the lecturer). Fortunately, the festival was within shouting distance of the pier and was one of the highlights of our trip :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J-D Posted June 6, 2015 #19 Share Posted June 6, 2015 We miss Joe (red shirt) who was on so many of our South American, and med cruises. He was wonderful, so many tips on DYT information and also for Princess tours. We understand that he pass, a year ago. He was a gem. Concur that Joe May was one of the best. He was also very helpful to us in previewing stops in South America during our cruises there. For a thread on Joe, see http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2090474&page=1 John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eandj Posted June 6, 2015 #20 Share Posted June 6, 2015 If busy, DH watches them in our room while relaxing or getting ready for dinner. I usually do enough precruise research that I leave the lectures to him.;) He's a born student. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pompeii Posted June 6, 2015 #21 Share Posted June 6, 2015 I catch them if there isn't anything else going on at the time they scheduled. I generally learn at least a few helpful things, sometimes I learn quite a bit. DH doesn't think they're worth sitting through, but when we get off the ship and I know where things are located or some other info, he'll ask "how'd you know that?" and I'll say "cause I went to the port lecture!";) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Putterdude Posted June 6, 2015 #22 Share Posted June 6, 2015 Generally we don't attend them, we do a great amount of research on each port before we embark the ship and are usually pretty much up to speed. However, occasionally we will watch the lecture on tv and of course read the port information that is stuffed in the Patters the night before. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caribill Posted June 6, 2015 #23 Share Posted June 6, 2015 We will be on the Regal Princess cruising the Baltics and Russia this July. I have seen some mention of "Port Lectures" on Cruise Critic.Are these lectures worthwhile or a they simply telling you at which shops to do your shopping? Sadie For the Baltics and Russia cruise they are worthwhile. Not a shopping talk. Of course the quality of the lecturer determines how valuable the information is. The previously mentioned John Lawrence was one of the best and his DVD on the subject was fantastic. Unfortunately, the DVD no longer appears to be available. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cityguy300 Posted June 6, 2015 #24 Share Posted June 6, 2015 (edited) We will be on the Regal Princess cruising the Baltics and Russia this July. I have seen some mention of "Port Lectures" on Cruise Critic.Are these lectures worthwhile or a they simply telling you at which shops to do your shopping? Sadie Assuming you have the same guy we had on the May 13 sailing on Regal, the port lectures are fine. However, as mentioned already, there's no need to attend them in person unless a) you have questions or b) you can't wait until the ship departs the last port to catch them on TV. When we boarded, the one for Oslo (presumably recorded on the previous sailing) was available, but not the others. The video for the next port would get replaced each day, although there didn't seem to be a consistent system for this (just as they would change and move the movie and TV lineup sporadically throughout the trip). Eventually they just put the last 2-3 videos up at once. The lectures run about 15-20 minutes each, and they are not shopping talks like the cheesy ones on the Caribbean voyages (I've attended a few of the latter and they're all the same, down to the jokes and "personal" anecdotes! :p). There is a bias towards the Princess tours versus DIY, but to his credit the guy did usually talk a bit (under a minute) about public transit options in each port. Edited June 6, 2015 by cityguy300 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cruiserkenn Posted June 6, 2015 #25 Share Posted June 6, 2015 The port talks on Hawaii cruises have been great! On the Sapphire, Star, and Grand. The presenters have been different each time. They all gave great info about how to get around and do things. Again... aloha:) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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