Sapphire Princess - Baltic Heritage - 31 August 2019

[Geoffa30]

So it’s nearly time for me and my partner (Frflatt) to head out on our next Princess adventure. 14 nights on board the Sapphire Princess starting 31 August sailing to the Baltic. Looking forward to being back on board and sharing our adventures with our fellow CC members.

 

Having blogged our last trip to New Zealand on Blogspot which turned out to be a nightmare, we are going to revert to just doing a “Live From” on Cruise Critic. Stephen will be doing the words (with editing and embellishments from me) and I’ll be doing the photos. This is all internet permitting of course 😃.

 

Our itinerary is as follows. Lots of new ports for us. Especially looking forward to our two days in St Petersburg where we have booked a two day tour with Alla Tours. Will be playing it by ear in most other ports. This is other than Zeebrugge where we'll be making the trip to Bruges by train for our usual visit to the Beer Wall to sample some delicious Belgium Beer. 

 

Two weeks and counting.

 

 

Edited August 17, 2019 by Geoffa30

[lovetoholiday]

Looking forward to that as I will be boarding The Sapphire Princess the day you disembark for the round trip trans Atlantic and am keen to hear about the ship.  Plus I am doing a Baltic trip next June, so am interested in hearing about your ports too.

 

Have a great trip.

[voljeep]

will be following ... do you have any coffee cards with unused punches you will be trying to use ??

 

just asking because 8/31 is the "deadline" for all unused coffee cards and want to hear first hand experiences

[Geoffa30]

13 hours ago, voljeep said:

will be following ... do you have any coffee cards with unused punches you will be trying to use ??

 

just asking because 8/31 is the "deadline" for all unused coffee cards and want to hear first hand experiences

 

Sorry won’t be able to help on this. We’ve never really had punches left on a coffee card to carry forward to another cruise. We have a coffee every morning so get through one card per week long cruise. Have already preloaded two coffee packages for this upcoming trip on the Cruise Personalizer.

[Geoffa30]

13 hours ago, lovetoholiday said:

Looking forward to that as I will be boarding The Sapphire Princess the day you disembark for the round trip trans Atlantic and am keen to hear about the ship.  Plus I am doing a Baltic trip next June, so am interested in hearing about your ports too.

 

Have a great trip.

 

Thanks.

 

Lucky you that you’ll be doing the cruise after ours. 24 nights and a really great itinerary. One can only dream of spending 24 nights on board. Maybe one day. Hope you have a great trip too.

[PurpleTraveller]

I always enjoy your reviews and I'm looking forward to this one and to your photos which are always fabulous! The Baltic Heritage cruise I did in 2017 was one of my favourites and I hope you both enjoy your cruise as much as I did. I also hope that you have great weather and calm seas. Safe travels! 😊

[lovetoholiday]

Thank you both!

[phabric]

I will be looking forward to your review.

 

When you stop in Copenhagen, can you report back if the HOHO stops near the ship?

[Coral]

I love the Sapphire and I love the ports I have been to on this trip (haven't been to all of them). It will be a great cruise.

[Scorpio41]

I will be joining you on this cruise. Can’t wait.

 

[cabin4three]

Have a fantastic time, we got off the Sapphire yesterday and miss it.

[We_like_to_cruise]

13 hours ago, Geoffa30 said:

 

Sorry won’t be able to help on this. We’ve never really had punches left on a coffee card to carry forward to another cruise. We have a coffee every morning so get through one card per week long cruise. Have already preloaded two coffee packages for this upcoming trip on the Cruise Personalizer.

Hi!

We will be joining you on the Baltics cruise - less than 2 weeks now !

Are considering the coffee package card.  Do you know if they tend to have any specials the first day that may be cheaper than ordering it pre-cruise?

Thanks !

 

[lois1112]

I will also be joining you on this cruise (can't wait)

I got the sip and sale promo- does anyone know if this includes specialty coffee?

[Geoffa30]

20 hours ago, We_like_to_cruise said:

Hi!

We will be joining you on the Baltics cruise - less than 2 weeks now !

Are considering the coffee package card.  Do you know if they tend to have any specials the first day that may be cheaper than ordering it pre-cruise?

Thanks !

 

 

From past experience there are no specials when you get on board. 

 

See you you in a couple of weeks.

Edited August 19, 2019 by Geoffa30

[Geoffa30]

3 hours ago, lois1112 said:

I will also be joining you on this cruise (can't wait)

I got the sip and sale promo- does anyone know if this includes specialty coffee?

 

Yes speciality coffee would be included. See you on board.

[Geoffa30]

On 8/18/2019 at 1:44 PM, phabric said:

I will be looking forward to your review.

 

When you stop in Copenhagen, can you report back if the HOHO stops near the ship?

 

Last time we were in Copenhagen the HOHO was right next to the ship. We’re docking closer to the town this time. Expect it will be the same. Will report back.

[Geoffa30]

22 hours ago, cabin4three said:

Have a fantastic time, we got off the Sapphire yesterday and miss it.

 

Thanks. Did you do traditional dining? If so do you know what time the late sitting was please?

[Geoffa30]

On 8/18/2019 at 4:26 PM, Scorpio41 said:

I will be joining you on this cruise. Can’t wait.

 

 

Us neither. Hopefully see you on board.

[Geoffa30]

On 8/18/2019 at 8:39 AM, PurpleTraveller said:

I always enjoy your reviews and I'm looking forward to this one and to your photos which are always fabulous! The Baltic Heritage cruise I did in 2017 was one of my favourites and I hope you both enjoy your cruise as much as I did. I also hope that you have great weather and calm seas. Safe travels! 😊

 

Thanks. Hope we can match your recent trip report.

[cabin4three]

17 minutes ago, Geoffa30 said:

 

Thanks. Did you do traditional dining? If so do you know what time the late sitting was please?

We did anytime dining as it suits us better with the children.

[Scorpio41]

1 hour ago, Geoffa30 said:

 

Thanks. Did you do traditional dining? If so do you know what time the late sitting was please?

 

Traditional dining second sitting is 7.30pm

[Bazandgiz]

I will follow your updates with interest! We did this exact itinerary (also on the Sapphire) last year and had the time of our lives. The weather stopped us getting into Poland, but we diverted to Warnemunde in Germany instead, and that was also a wonderful place.

 

We did the 2 day Alla Tours excursion too and highly recommend them. If they offered tours without the Hermitage museum we would definitely use them again (not that their Hermitage tour was bad, I'm just not a museum and art sort of person!)

 

Have a wonderful trip 🙂 

[Scorpio41]

Has anyone researched the weather for this cruise? Not been at this time of year before.

[Geoffa30]

4 minutes ago, Scorpio41 said:

Has anyone researched the weather for this cruise? Not been at this time of year before.

 

We haven’t done this exact cruise but have sailed up to Norway at a similar time of year. It was a mixed bag really. Some beautiful sunny days warm enough for shorts and short sleeves but other days were wet. Probably best to pack for every eventuality. Luckily we’re from the U.K. so no need to pack light! I see you have that luxury too.

[Scorpio41]

5 minutes ago, Geoffa30 said:

 

We haven’t done this exact cruise but have sailed up to Norway at a similar time of year. It was a mixed bag really. Some beautiful sunny days warm enough for shorts and short sleeves but other days were wet. Probably best to pack for every eventuality. Luckily we’re from the U.K. so no need to pack light! I see you have that luxury too.

 

We've been April, May time and had mixed weather. One time we had perfect calm seas and wall to wall sunshine. Fingers cross for something similar and only carry waterproofs just in case.

 

Not long now.