Regal Princess Review - Baltic 6/14 - 6/25

[FraudBroad]

One of the most entertaining review I've ever read on cruise critics. Our family will be on the NCL Northern Baltic cruise with very similar itinerary as the Princess in June of next year. Just wondering about your thoughts on TJ travel. I plan to use them for all 5 Northern Baltic port. I just can't decide between Alla tour, SPB tour or TJ tour. Thanks.

 

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So are you sailing the Getaway next year? Beautiful ship...we were on her last year and enjoyed her! We were actually docked next to the Star when we returned to Copenhagen.

 

So here's my two cents on TJ's. I can't comment on any other tour companies (and neither can anyone else that was on our tours) because we only used TJ's. It seemed to me that each Roll Call tended to gravitate towards a particular tour company. Many on our used TJ's though closer to the cruise some used Alla.

 

We had 4 issues/problems with TJ's.

 

1. We couldn't get a "clean" confirmation. There was always one thing off. I had originally booked a private tour for just the six of us. I'm not kidding you when I say I have over 100 emails from TJ's going back and forth. In the end, we decided to ditch the private tour and go with another group.

 

All fine and well, their website clearly stated no more than 11 in a group. When the group ballooned to 16, I told the guy that inherited the group that that didn't fly. I told him exactly what to email back to TJ's. I had NO desire to tour with a huge group...too slow for my taste and SOMEBODY always disappears.

 

TJ's then broke us into two group and we had our desired 11. When we arrived in St Petersburg they told us there were 13 in our group. No way, no how, that wasn't going to happen. They quickly made the change and there was a total of 11 in our group.

 

Bottom line, when you're emailing back and forth and a different person responds each and every time and English is their second language there are going to be mistakes. None of which will kill the trip and get you a bad tour. People make mistakes :cool:

 

2. Helsinki - Confusion with the meeting time (I was not part of this tour). Once person said 7:15 meeting time and that's when they waited. TJ's didn't show until 8:45. In the end TJ's refunded half the cost to everyone on the tour for the inconvenience.

 

3. Stockholm - We had a group of 16 and I had arranged a tour that included City Hall, Vasa, ABBA Museum and Gamla Stan. The tour guide had us down for 14, not 16 and was missing two tickets. I immediately emailed TJ's and told them of my displeasure. By the time we left the Vasa two more ABBA Museum tickets has magically appeared. Problem fixed.

 

4. When emailing them about the missing ABBA Museum tickets I found out that people on the bus had paid different amounts for the tour. Some paid $142, others $128. I immediately emailed them again and they told me that since we were 16, not 14 that everyone was getting money back. We had our refunds (cash through paypal and credit card refunds) before we were back on US soil.

 

It important to note that the tour guides for TJ's, no matter what city you tour in, are all contracted by the tour company. And every single one of them were excellent.

 

In the end, while we had some bumps along the way, TJ's cleared them up IMMEDIATELY. I would HIGHLY recommend TJ's to anyone traveling in the Baltic. I don't think you can go wrong!

 

 

You should put this in a book. It is brilliant. Keep going.

You're so sweet to say so! Thanks so very much!

[FraudBroad]

Was the ship warm enough in the evening to wear short sleeves? I am only used to hot weather cruises.

 

I had no issues with the temperatures on the ship. There were times I wore short sleeves and was perfectly comfortable. I always carry a light cardigan or jacket with me just in case!

 

Excellent review! We did our second Baltic cruise last year, loved and appreciated it every bit as much if not more than the first!

 

I'd love to go back!!! I'd really like to take my time the second time to truly see things more in-depth. It is a high paced/overwhelming trip for sure. My brain needed a big break after St. Petersburg! So much to learn and see.

[FraudBroad]

I am loving your review. We have been lucky enough to have taken two Baltic cruises. After reading about your cruise maybe I need to go one more time. The second cruise we escorted my in laws and two other older couples. I really can appreciate all the situations with taking ones parents. Potty breaks were plentiful indeed. Cant wait to read more about your trip. Memories to last a life time.

 

It was simply the most amazing trip I've ever taken in my entire life. And like you, I'm already craving a return trip! Thanks so much for following along!

 

Don't know why I clicked on your review. But I'm so glad I did. It's wonderful!:)

 

Awwww...you're too kind! Thanks for your nice words and thanks for following along!

[raz455]

By far, one of the best - if not THE BEST - reviews I have read. I feel the rain, I taste the food, I smell the smells, I hear the sounds, and see the sights as I read. You have a gift! Thank you for taking the time to put your experience into words!

[FraudBroad]

By far, one of the best - if not THE BEST - reviews I have read. I feel the rain, I taste the food, I smell the smells, I hear the sounds, and see the sights as I read. You have a gift! Thank you for taking the time to put your experience into words!

 

Wow...I am truly humbled...thank you SO much for you kind words...I really do appreciate you following along! You just made my day :)

[FraudBroad]

St Petersburg – Day 2 - the almost sequal - except this time it's wet!

 

Before everyone had returned to the ship the day before we’d agreed to meet a little before 7:30. One of the men thought that was too early (we had to meet our guide by 8:15) but his wife quickly agreed the earlier the better. Men and prostates…you must be prepared.

 

On-time everyone arrived in the IC and after the potty stops we walked off the ship and breezed through immigration. And we were early, our guide wasn’t even there yet. Inna was so stinking proud of us! We were learning how to be on time and stick together. Gold stars for the entire group!

 

And of course, as promised….it was freaking raining….again all I could think about was how lovely Peterhof would have been with the sun and blue skies. It just wasn’t meant to be.

 

First stop of the morning was to pay for our tours. Inna had indicated the day before that we’d pay today and I asked for us to be able to pay first thing in the morning. I was paying cash and I didn’t want to be hauling all of the money all over St Petersburg.

 

We stopped at a souvenir shop and had some time to look around before the TJ’s representative arrived to take our payments. Here’s an important note. When I was planning this trip I had a huge spreadsheet that listed out what we were going to do where, when and how much it was going to cost everyone. I sent that spreadsheet to my parents and aunt at least 4 times. I even sent separate emails to all of them detailing the cost breakdown at least three times in the weeks prior to leaving. The DAY BEFORE our second day I detailed for each of them how much they were going to have to pay TJ’s.

 

So I paid first and they told me I owned a different amount, much higher. I didn’t even show the woman my paper work, just told her the correct amount, she took it, no questions asked, and I went on my way to peruse the shop while the other members of our group paid. And then I heard it…my aunt…YELLING MY NAME AT THE TOP OF HER LUNGS….seriously? I can’t make this up folks.

 

So to get her to stop yelling my name, over and over again, I rushed to the front of the line to see what the problem was. And she says….

 

“How much am I supposed to pay them?”

 

Shaking my head folks…just shaking my head…I can’t make this stuff up….

 

We finished paying, the skies fully opened up and it was pouring rain.

 

We made our way back to the van and headed to pick up the hydrofoil….in the pouring rain…and I do mean POURING RAIN. It was fruitless to try and look out the windows, everything was fogged up. After a 30 minute ride we arrived at Peterhof.

 

Exiting the boat the rain really began to fall even harder. This was going to be one really, really, freaking wet day and there was nothing anyone could do about it. Again, I would have traded an empty Hermitage for a sunny Peterhof any day…now you art lovers stop rolling your eyes and shaking your heads…seriously, a sunny Peterhof trumps an empty Hermitage ANY DAY!!!!

 

So this morning before we left I decided I was tired of wearing wet tennis shoes so with the warmer weather I opted for my flip flops. I knew my feet would get wet, but they’d dry off quicker in flip flops than they would in sneakers. My only problem was I didn’t account for the dirt/gravel we’d be walking on. With the flip flops the dirt was launched onto the back of my jeans and even my jacket. I was one hot mess by the end of the day.

 

We walked around the entire lower gardens, in the rain, sometimes just sprinkles and sometimes much more and saw all that Peterhof had to offer. The fountains are down-right amazing. Especially when you know they use gravity, no pumps. They’re fed by springs from the upper gardens and flow into the Gulf of Finland.

 

Now our tour guide made one decision this day that totally ticked me off. Because of the weather, when we arrived, instead of waiting for the huge centerpiece fountain to be turned on (look at youtube…they play music, it’s a huge deal) we walked around the lower gardens and totally MISSED the centerpiece of the entire palace being turned on. Again, thoughts of the empty freaking Hermitage vs Peterhof in sunny warm weather danced through my head. I wasn’t happy…at all….don’t get me wrong, I’m thrilled with what we got to see but the bottom line was I was expecting lines at the Hermitage and that would have been fine. But sunny weather on this trip was hard to come by. I really was disgusted at the decision that was made.

 

When we finished the lower gardens we walked up the huge staircases flanking the center fountain, took some pictures and were ready to roll. A few wanted to see the upper gardens but my group wanted to sit under some umbrellas and get a respite from the rain. Of course, all of the chairs were wet, and the concession stand only accepted Rubles, no credit cards, no Euros, no US dollars. And before you think that’s weird, trust me, we’d used credit cards, Euros and US dollars to pay for things the day before. So we waited, standing, thankfully under the umbrellas and protected from the rain, for the group to finish.

 

We hopped in the van and headed back to the city where we stopped at “Stolle” for lunch. Stolle is a chain restaurant that serves pies. Pies are “Russian comfort food” like your grandma would make...that is if your grandma is Russian. They have both savory (beef, pork, chicken, egg, and mushroom) and sweet (apple, cherry, lemon and lingonberry) pies. And let me tell you what…they were freaking delicious!

 

We tried the chicken/pork combo and the beef. We also had the cherry, apple and lingonberry..a small slice of each. The chicken/pork combo and Lingonberry win hand down. Make a note, insist on Stolle and you won’t be disappointed. The girls and I each had a large piece of savory, a small piece of sweet and each ordered a soft drink. The total bill was $12. That would be the cheapest meal we bought throughout the entire Baltic cruise.

 

Note…I said we got LARGE slices of the savory pies…my thought was if there was going to be any more vodka today I wasn’t doing THAT again on an empty stomach…sadly, no vodka…but dang…those pies were freaking fabulous!

 

When we arrived at the restaurant, solo Aussie sailor Trevor realized he’d lost his credit card. Poor Trevor!!! If you remember he was the one that lost his passport the first day in Copenhagen! He was pretty sure he must have dropped it when we stopped to pay for the tours at the beginning of the day so Inna called to see if they could located the card. Long story short, they didn’t located Trevor’s card for two more days. He was traveling with ONLY one credit card! When he got back to the ship his brother sent him OBC. He was able to close out his shipboard account and would have enough left to get him through his overnight in Copenhagen the last day (Trevor stayed over on Saturday and didn’t return to Australia until Sunday). For the rest of the trip everyone kept saying “where’s Trevor, we can’t lose Trevor). If we ever all cruise again together we will all have “Where’s Trevor” t-shirts.

 

After our delicious lunch we headed for a subway ride. This was so freaking cool….number one, the escalator is one of the LARGEST you will ever ride in your LIFE….next, the marble columns, sculptures and paintings they have in their subways are so unbelievable. Seriously, it was totally cool and a “can’t miss” if you spend time in St Petersburg.

 

Once done we headed to our canal boat ride. Honestly, because of the weather, I wish we’d skipped this. It did stop raining a bit where you could go outside, but everyone was super tired and just really wanted to sit (all chairs outside were wet). And because it was raining…the windows were fogged up. The canal boat had been an “add on” to our tour and I wish I’d saved the $20 per person that it cost. Not really worth it…IMHO….we saw pretty much the same view on many occasions while driving through the city. Just my two cents…I’m sure others feel/felt different…again this is my perspective.

 

We were all starting to get a bit nervous about the time…the Captain had been VERY stern when he said “YOU MUST BE BACK NO LATER THAN 5:30.” We wanted to be back by 5:00 so we weren’t cutting it too close. We only had one more stop, Peter and Paul Fortress. We were only going to the church to see the burial place of the Czars.

 

When we got there, we literally walked in and hurried around quickly…yep, there’s Peter the Great…yep there’s Catherine the Great….okay, yep, I can see over that head into the room that houses the remains of the Romanov family…okay we are done…the end.

 

A total disappointment. I really would have enjoyed spending more time there to take in the sight and really be able to see everything. Again, it was a mass of humanity and it was difficult to get a good look at anything at all. I can tell you there’s a lot of marble in there. There’s a lot of marble everywhere in Russia….I can’t help but think if we’d skipped the canal boat tour we would have had the time we needed to really see everything and not feel so rushed.

 

We got back in the van and made it back to the ship by 5:00. As we watched Princess Tour buses arrive at the Fortress as we were leaving, we knew the ship would not sail on-time. We gave both Inna and Oleg their tips (TJ’s suggests 10% to the guide and 5% to the driver), thanked them both profusely (especially Oleg, the traffic in St Petersburg sucks and he got us everywhere on-time and safely) gave them each a hug and headed back to immigration. Again, immigration was a breeze and we were back aboard Regal Princess in no time.

 

Best line of the entire two days came from Inna...when speaking of female drivers in Russia...."We say women drivers are like the stars...we can see them, they can't see us..."

 

Priceless

 

The cost of the two day St Petersburg Tour with TJ’s was $245. It would have been $225 but we added the stupid canal tour which added another $20. As both my girls are students the cost for them was $210 each. The evening portion of the tour was an additional $45 per person, no student discount.

 

I would use TJ’s again and highly recommend them to all who are researching tours in St. Petersburg. We could not have had a better guide or a better driver for our time there.

 

That evening on-board I enjoyed the Beatlemaniacs in the Piazza for a bit before I headed to the “Couch Potato” game in Princess Live. I think our team did win…so what does that tell you about me? I really do need to get a life….

 

I did make my daily deposit in the casino before calling it a night. We were sadly not going to have a much needed day at sea, instead we were arriving in Helsinki nice and early.

[FraudBroad]

Truly enjoying your review. Amusing and touching at the same time!

 

Lisa

 

Thank you so much for your kind words. As much as I would have love to have found humor in Berlin, it would have been in poor taste. It really does make you think when you see those sites. And the flowers at the Embassy, well, just tears. The city and that experience are ones I think everyone should do. Thank you again for following along!

 

I'm beginning to think that this will be a BAD HAIR cruise for the ladies, I really don't like Bad Hair Days and Hat Hair IS THE WORST!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

OMG...can I just say...bad hair day is an understatement. I ended up putting my hair in a pony tail every day and tying it into a knot on the top of my head. Now add my big puffy white jacket and hood. I looked LIKE A FREAKING CONE HEAD from and old Saturday Night Live episode...seriously...it was bad...bad...bad!!!

[FraudBroad]

Final thoughts on St Petersburg

 

When the weather is beautiful you can be darned sure you'll spend ALL DAY LONG INSIDE....

 

Catherine's Palace is breathtaking and beautiful...but it's not the original and has been totally rebuilt...and you're kids will never let you forget that you've taken them to a reproduction.

 

And because it's been re-done all they'll ask you about is how they knew which piece of amber to put where on the walls in the amber room..."Mom, that's like the biggest puzzle I've ever seen...."

 

After having told the group that you're touring with about your day in Oslo at the Sculpture park, they will be sure to point out each and every single penis in St. Petersburg.

 

To which you'll feel obligated to point out every single boob you see.

 

After 4 shots of Russian vodka you will learn that your oldest daughter and your aunt both make sloppy drunks.

 

You will see during your evening tour that the name of the restaurant you are at is called "Pectopah." When you see the same thing the next day at Peterhof and point it out to your guide and tell her you went to the same restaurant downtown the night before she'll burst out laughing...."Pectopah" is Russian for restaurant. And for the rest of the day your tour group will point out that "restaurant" all over the city...like everywhere...all day long.

 

Which brings you to the thought you should have learned to read Cyrillic before you left.

 

Your kids will then point out that the fountains and palace at Peterhof have also all been re-built and again you've taken them to ANOTHER reproduction and why would you do that to them???

 

You will learn all there is to know about each and every single Czar that every ruled Russia. They will tell you how amazing Peter the Great was and how wonderful Catherine the Great was. All the time you're thinking....you arrested them, executed them and overturned their rule. But hey, you now think they're marvelous!

 

They will not once talk about Stalin, Lenin, Gorbachev, Communism or Socialism. The closest you get to that is when the tour guide talks about communal apartments.

 

As you're about to get on the Russian subway your youngest will remind you of the time you lost her on the subway in Washington DC when she was 11...and you'll panic...and drag her by the scruff of her neck on the subway and won't let go until you're back above ground...

 

You'll be amazed by the number "Subway" restaurants in St Petersburg...more Subways than Starbucks if you can believe it...

 

You will be amazed at the number of Russians that speak English and think to yourself that's probably only come to be in the last thirty years.

 

Your kids will think the church at Peter and Paul Fortress is a rip off because while they have the tombs, the bodies are buried underground. Which makes said tombs a rip off and that's just "stupid."

 

And when you finally get back on-board the ship after two overwhelmingly wonderful days...you kid will complain that you didn't buy her ice-cream in Russia and she's had the ice-cream in every other Baltic country and you've now ruined her life.

 

Next up...a beautiful day in Helsinki

[Coveguy4]

So enjoying this posting. Brings back so mant memories of my Baltic Cruise and makes me remember how fantastic it was. Time to do another. Looking forward to seeing how you enjoyed Poland, the food there was fantastic and sooo reasonable compared to other ports I ate in.

[moki'smommy]

This is great fun reading.

 

Just a hint though. When we pack, we play "musical chairs" with outfits. Lay out the suitcases. Each person puts two FULL outfits in each--undies, socks, bras, everything. Then pack the rest with whomever the case "belongs" to. That way, if a bag is lost each person has something to wear. Also, I always pack a full outfit in my carry on (if ALL the luggage gets lost, I have one change of clothing!)

 

Yes, this approach requires a little sorting out when we arrive at our destination...but after luggage being lost for 4 days of a WDW trip....I didn't fit well into teen daughter's jeans.

[diane.in.ny]

Love reading the review.

 

And found interesting the weight limit on your carry on. And then I remembered that I have traveled on international airlines where we had a weight limit.

 

Which reminds me why I try to stay with U.S. airlines because only the size matters .... the weight limit is how many lbs I can lift over my head into the overhead bin (I'm 70). :D

[GeeBeez]

I paid $135 for my set. The sets on the ship ranged from $300 to in the thousands. It really depends on how eleborate the doll is, how many pieces there are etc...My set breaks down to 15 dolls.

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Thank you for reading along!

 

Enjoying your blog. We are taking Viking River Cruise from Moscow to St P and then boarding the Regal back to USA. I am excited to be able to paint my own set of dolls at one of our ports on the Volga...

[cruisenfreak]

I can so relate to your lost and then found luggage. 2 1/2 years ago we flew from Newark to Munich arriving late. We then ran for and made our connecting flight to Athens. Our luggage didn't run fast enough and didn't made the flight. As we arrived in Athens and were entering the baggage area, they were calling our names so we knew our luggage was sitting on the ground in Munich. This is when we met some very, very nice and helpful people - the lady behind the desk in baggage and all the Princess employees.

 

We were not flying in early so went straight to the ship and to the front desk to also get them involved in locating our luggage. We were supposed to sail at 5:00 and during the afternoon were told we probably would not get our luggage until 3 days later in Venice. Then a bit later they told us a plane with a good number of passengers for this cruise was sitting on the ground in Düsseldorf and would be several hours late getting to Athens so the ship would not sail on time. The flight from Munich to Athens with our bags was due to take off about then and there was a slim possibility they might actuaflly be able to deliver the bags to the ship a few minutes before we sailed.

 

Of course we were checking every half hour on our luggage and on the flight from Desseldorf - the later they were, the better chance we had to get the bags. When the bags were not there by 7:30, we gave up on them and resigned ourselves to no luggage for the first few days. Just then we learned the Düsseldorf flight had landed in Athens, so that just confirmed for us - no luggage. We went to dinner and as we returned to the cabin, our cabin steward ( who of course knew we so wanted our bags) followed us into the cabin because he wanted to see the book on our faces when we saw our luggage sitting there! Big grins, big, big grins!!

 

Only those who have experienced this can really appreciate what you wrote.

 

Thank you for this very enjoyable review

Edited July 2, 2016 by cruisenfreak

[tright]

Really enjoying your review, thanks for posting.

[phabric]

I have enjoyed your review.

 

One man at our dining table on a 7 day Scandanivan capital cruise, had his luggage lost for the whole cruise. He had a hard time finding clothes to fit an American size man.

[sonia2509]

I agree with your point that every roll call seems to stick with one tour guide, our seems to be SPB. We are 4 Aussies and we are doing our own private tour with Insider Tours, and they allowed us to pick what we wanted to see. I tried a few companies and Insider Tours always answered promptly and it seems always the same person responded, the other 2, I heard from one and they just quoted their normal tour and even after I emailed and advised we did not want to spend too much time at The Hermitage or too many churches the other never replied. We are also doing a private Berlin tour with Insider. After reading your experience with TJ, I will make sure I email Insider again about a week out before our cruise to confirm all the details. Again this is the best review I have ever read.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums mobile app

[DubbyLee]

I paid $135 for my set. The sets on the ship ranged from $300 to in the thousands. It really depends on how eleborate the doll is, how many pieces there are etc...My set breaks down to 15 dolls. I actually took it apart yesterday for a friend, the entire time terrified I'd drop the last doll on my dark hardwood floors and never find her again...the get SUPER tiny at the end. We really only had the one store to shop in but they had a great selection. I was very pleased with mine. If I can figure out how to post a picture I will!

Thanks for following along!

 

 

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Thank you for reading along!

 

Thank you so much for the info. I'm loving your review.

[JWUC]

Really enjoying your review. We did the Baltic cruise aboard the Regal last year. Yup - got rained on quite a bit. We juggled our plans for Oslo and did the ship museums with a Princess tour during our time in port. We went back to Oslo after the cruise and got to see "Penis Park" when it was sunny out. We walked out there and took the bus back.

[scotslizzy]

Just love reading your review .You make the bet out of any situation you fnd yourself in.

 

Keep it coming.

 

Scotslizzy

[mic23key]

Hi Fraudbroad!

I am SO loving reading your posts! We are sailing on the Regal on August 30, then the TA to NYC. Bucket list cruise for me!

Thanks for sharing your adventures - you have a "book in the making"! I am looking forward to reading your posts on the remaining ports, since I'm making a list of some of your ideas, e.g. take a cab or shuttle in Talinn, and buy a doll in St. Petersburg, and needing umbrellas (plural) and maybe even a second raincoat? I don't even want to THINK about "bad hair/hat hair" days!

And regardless of the gripes and complaints of your teenagers, you are making memories with/for them that they will cherish - our adult daughter often talks about our travels, and she now works for a travel company and is "travel-holic"!

You have given us a gift with your posts!

Mary Anne

[plan09]

Still loving your post!

[Floflegs]

Really enjoying your review. Great to reread about places we visited.

If anyone is visiting Copenhagen I recommend the free walking tour from outside the City Hall. You top the guide what it is worth. It was an excellent way of seeing the city.

While on the luggage theme it is a great suggestion to pack some of each persons things in the other case it was no good to us when our luggage was lost for 5 days. All we had was a change of underwear and T shirt. On that cruise over 30 families had no luggage, some for the entire time. Ours travelled to places that we didn't, Rome and Athens, and finally caught up with us in Santorini.

I look forward to the final stage of your trip.

[FraudBroad]

So enjoying this posting. Brings back so mant memories of my Baltic Cruise and makes me remember how fantastic it was. Time to do another. Looking forward to seeing how you enjoyed Poland, the food there was fantastic and sooo reasonable compared to other ports I ate in.

 

Unfortunately we didn't go to Poland on this sailing..though I would have loved to! And you're right...the food throughout the Baltic was sky high in price and not that great in quality. Lesson learned, don't eat in the touristy spots!

 

I have to say though the meal we had our last night in Copenhagen at Copenhagen street food was exceptional!

 

Thanks so much for following along! I really do want to take another Baltic cruise. The whole experience was amazing!

 

This is great fun reading.

 

Just a hint though. When we pack' date=' we play "musical chairs" with outfits. Lay out the suitcases. Each person puts two FULL outfits in each--undies, socks, bras, everything. Then pack the rest with whomever the case "belongs" to. That way, if a bag is lost each person has something to wear. Also, I always pack a full outfit in my carry on (if ALL the luggage gets lost, I have one change of clothing!)

 

Yes, this approach requires a little sorting out when we arrive at our destination...but after luggage being lost for 4 days of a WDW trip....I didn't fit well into teen daughter's jeans.[/quote']

 

YIKES! I would NOT have fit in teen daughter's jeans either...OMG...but at least at WDW there are store near where you can FIND clothes that FIT that don't cost you and arm and a leg!

 

Lesson learned on the packing...next trip I'll be taking an entirely new approach!

 

Thanks so much!

[FraudBroad]

Love reading the review.

 

And found interesting the weight limit on your carry on. And then I remembered that I have traveled on international airlines where we had a weight limit.

 

Which reminds me why I try to stay with U.S. airlines because only the size matters .... the weight limit is how many lbs I can lift over my head into the overhead bin (I'm 70). :D

 

Amen to that one...I am NOT a fan of European airlines after this trip! I'll try and stick with American and United when I can going forward. The whole crazy thing was they didn't even weigh the darned carry-ons...so why the limit???

 

Enjoying your blog. We are taking Viking River Cruise from Moscow to St P and then boarding the Regal back to USA. I am excited to be able to paint my own set of dolls at one of our ports on the Volga...

 

They actually offered a doll paining class on the Regal...I believe it was $30. As they didn't offer a "Paint by Number" option I chose to skip it!

 

I do love my dolls! I just took them all apart to show a friend yesterday!

 

Thanks for following along!

[FraudBroad]

I can so relate to your lost and then found luggage. 2 1/2 years ago we flew from Newark to Munich arriving late. We then ran for and made our connecting flight to Athens. Our luggage didn't run fast enough and didn't made the flight. As we arrived in Athens and were entering the baggage area, they were calling our names so we knew our luggage was sitting on the ground in Munich. This is when we met some very, very nice and helpful people - the lady behind the desk in baggage and all the Princess employees.

 

We were not flying in early so went straight to the ship and to the front desk to also get them involved in locating our luggage. We were supposed to sail at 5:00 and during the afternoon were told we probably would not get our luggage until 3 days later in Venice. Then a bit later they told us a plane with a good number of passengers for this cruise was sitting on the ground in Düsseldorf and would be several hours late getting to Athens so the ship would not sail on time. The flight from Munich to Athens with our bags was due to take off about then and there was a slim possibility they might actuaflly be able to deliver the bags to the ship a few minutes before we sailed.

 

Of course we were checking every half hour on our luggage and on the flight from Desseldorf - the later they were, the better chance we had to get the bags. When the bags were not there by 7:30, we gave up on them and resigned ourselves to no luggage for the first few days. Just then we learned the Düsseldorf flight had landed in Athens, so that just confirmed for us - no luggage. We went to dinner and as we returned to the cabin, our cabin steward ( who of course knew we so wanted our bags) followed us into the cabin because he wanted to see the book on our faces when we saw our luggage sitting there! Big grins, big, big grins!!

 

Only those who have experienced this can really appreciate what you wrote.

 

Thank you for this very enjoyable review

 

OMG..how crazy...and how flipping luck you were!! That's an unbelievable story! I totally would have been freaking out...oh wait...I did do that in Copenhagen...

 

Never in my wildest dreams did I think they could lose luggage on a direct flight...oh well, live and learn!

 

So glad you got your bags and had a great trip!!! Thanks for following along!

 

Really enjoying your review, thanks for posting.

 

Thanks so much! I do appreciate your kind words!