Princess - Scandinavia-Roundtrip from London

[phabric]

Has anybody done this cruise? I have just booked this cruise for July 14/07 and would like any information you have on it.

 

Ports- Amsterdam, Oslo, Copenhagen, Helsingborg.

[luvnorway]

We did this itinerary last summer as part of a 21 day cruise on Sea Princess. I would be happy to answer any SPECIFIC questions that I can, but to reply to your post as worded would require an essay.

BTW, we avoid shorexes and sightsee on our own as much as possible and also enjoy walking, so my responses would be coming from that perspective.

[phabric]

I see that you are also from Toronto. What airline did you use? We will be flying to London and plan on staying pre and pro cruise. What did you do?What currency did you use on land? Is better to use US$ or local currency. Did you exchange money on ship or before you left? I have heard that Britain is very expensive, how about the other countries.

 

Would be interested on any information on any port as I have just started to collect information. How did you get from the pier into the different cities. Our main interest is to see the sights and with this itinerary you have a different country each day. Did you find it very tiring a different city each day?

[luvnorway]

We always fly Air Canada to Heathrow when sailing round trip out of Southampton.

 

We always use local currency obtained from our local bank and supplement it by ATM withdrawals in Europe if we run short. We do it for convenience and out of consideration for the European shopkeepers. It really bothers me to see tourists expecting local people to take American money when, of course, a European trying to spend Euro in the US would be very unsuccessful. Also, there's no point in losing on the exchange rate to convert your CAD to USD and then losing again when USD are converted to Euro or another local currency.That being said, on your itinerary, we didn't bother to get any SEK - found we were able to use Danish easily in Helsingborg because so many Danes/Swedes take the ferry back and forth from there.

 

Anywhere in Northern Europe is expensive - but worth it - this is one of the reasons seeing it by cruiseship is a good idea. We don't find the UK that bad - you have to base your comparison on Canadian prices + PST and GST and not on comments of Americans.

 

Re length of cruise - Can't comment on whether it will be tiring since we usually do a minimum of 3wks when we do European cruises and also have been to all the ports. Even when we do a cruise that includes places we haven't been, they're usually in the minority. It's obviously more tiring when you're trying to navigate around somewhere unfamiliar and trying to see as much as possible all in one day. Your intinerary includes 3 large cities, but Helsingborg is smaller and more relaxing. Also, you do have some sea days so that gives you a bit of down time.

 

Amsterdam is the most hectic on your itinerary with the most to see so you really have to research and figure out what is most important to you. (I'd recommend including a canal boat tour.) Watch out for cyclists everywhere and don't walk on the bike paths. If the ship docks at the cruise pier, it's an easy walk to Central Station and from there into the city centre.

 

Oslo - ships dock at Akerhus Castle (where the Resistance Museum is), less than a km from the city centre and the ferry to Bygdoy (peninsula across the harbour where the other museums are - highly recommend the Fram Museum)

 

Copenhagen - ship docks not far from the Little Mermaid - we always walk into the city centre and enjoy it, but some might not due to the distance - I'd estimate approx. 3km

 

Helsingborg is a tender port -> city centre.

 

Suggest you do a search on this board and also Google each port and you'll find tons of information on what to see and do. I'm sure you'll enjoy the trip - it's a great part of the world!

[phabric]

Thanks for all the information. We have a year for all the planning.

[beachgal]

There's a group of 8 of us doing this cruise on Princess in July. We also had about a year to plan it, and it's been fun doing the research. Sometimes I do excursions through the ship, and sometimes I do them on my own. Since we're going to be in a different city each day, we didn't want to take a chance on other tour companies and get back to the ship late, so we're doing excursions through the ship at each port. I also like to see as much as I can when I'm in a new place, so the excursions worked well for me on this cruise.

 

If you want to look at excursions, go to the Princess website, and you can pull them up and start looking at what's there. Then you can decide on the kind of things you want to do and if you want to do them through the ship or on your own. The excursion list didn't change much from last year to this year, so that's a good place to start.

 

We're going to have 3 days in London before the cruise, also. I'll post a review when we return. If you have any questions in the meantime, I'll answer what I can. Have fun planning!

[beachgal]

Luvnorway,

I'm doing Scandinavian cruise in July and am having the most trouble deciding what to do while in Amsterdam. We're doing a twilight canal cruise, but there is so much to so, I'm pretty overwhelmed with what are "musts." Can you give me some of the things you would recommend? Thanks!

[phabric]

There will only be 2 of us.

 

What hotel are you staying at in London.

How are you getting from London to Southampton and back.

 

I have looked at the excursions offered with Princess and it will be hard to decide which ones to take. We did private tours when we did the Alaska and Caribbean cruises but I think I would be more comfortable taking the Princess tours on this cruise. Some tours are only a few hours, so I hope we will be able to explore on our own also.

 

Do you have your tour documents from Princess with the times, yet. Since we will be in Amsterdam (2:30-11pm on Sunday, stores might be closed) and Copenhagen (9-11pm), we might be able to do 2 tours. The twilight canal cruise sounds nice, what city is it in.

 

Any information you have will be a help.

[Ine]

http://www.vvvamsterdam.nl/ gives you all the info about Amsterdam.

Highlights are: Rijksmuseum (Rembrandt etc.) van Gogh museum, both on Museumplein.

Ann Frank's house on Prinsengracht, sometimes long lines..

of course a canalboattrip of abt. 1 hour or the hopon/hopof or the museumboat.

 

From the cruiseterminal you can walk (15 minutes) to Central Station or take tram 16 near the terminal.

[phabric]

beachgal-

 

What currency are you taking with you for each country.

[beachgal]

Phabric,

We are staying at the Strand Palace Hotel. Some in our group have stayed there a few times and love the service there, plus it's a great location. We have already been e-mailing the concierge there and they have helped us with a lot of details. There are 8 in our group, and they arranged for a mini-van to take us from our transportation from the hotel to Southampton. On the way back from the cruise, we don't have to be at the airport until 3pm and we didn't want to sit in the airport all day, so we worked again with the concierge, and they are providing a mini-van to pick us up and take us to Winchester to spend a few hours sightseeing and to have lunch and then take us to the airport.

 

If you look at the excursions on Princess' website and go into "book excursions," it will give you the times of all the tours. In Amsterdam, we're doing a tour in the afternoon and the twilight canal tour in the evening. We get a lot of time in Copenhagen. I think we arrive around 9am, and we're planning to go into tour on our own. Then we're doing an afternoon tour and Tivoli Gardens and canal cruise in the evening. Here's a good website for Copenhagen:

http://www.cruisecopenhagen.com/faq/

 

Our itinerary is:

Sat. leave Southampton at 5pm

Sun., arrive in Amsterdam 2:30pm, leave at 11pm

Mon. at sea

Tues., arrive in Oslo at 8am, leave at 3pm

Wed., arrive in Copenhagen 9am, leave at 11pm

Thurs., arrive in Helsingborg, Sweden at 8am, leave at 2pm

Fri., day at sea

Sat. back to London

[herb]

There's a group of 8 of us doing this cruise on Princess in July.

 

beachgal- Are you doing this particular Scandinavia cruise this July?? If so, why don't you join us on our "roll call"? You can find it on the roll call page thread for Sea Princess 7/15/2006.... :)