Coppenhagen Cruise-New to Princess

[briody]

I am new to Princess. I have shipped with RCCL and Oceania. I am taking my three children 23,21 and 18 and can not afford to do Oceania again. I am thinking of doing the June 2010 cruise from Coppenhagen.

 

Has anyone done this one before?

What is the weather like that time of year?

Does Princess dock close or provide shuttles?

 

I love the small ship feel of Oceania but the price of Princess is so much better.

Are there long waits or lines for meal(we will do anytime dining) and tenders?

Can you bring wine on board? We could for Oceania but not RCCL.

Do they have soda cards?

If you don't do a tour with them does it take awhile to get off the ship at ports.

 

Any ships to avoid - was seeing notes on the board about Sea Princess?

 

Thanks -

Briody

[penny1]

We sailed on the Crown Princess from Copenhagen last May 30. So we were there the first week in June. The weather was actually great except for St Petersburg where it was in the low 50's & overcast the first day. A little warmer-low 60's- the second day. The rest of the cruise was at least 10-15 degrees warmer than we expected. Most days 75-80 degrees & one day about 85. I think this was unusually warm for the first of June.

 

The ship did dock close to city centers except Gdynia is an industrial area.

 

We had anytime dining & never had to wait however we did usually eat between 6 & 6:30.

 

You can buy a soda card but not sure of price maybe $25-$30 as we have never purchased one.

 

Don't remember having to wait to disembark in ports. Look into private tour in St Petersburg. Either by yourself or with someone from your roll call. It was so nice & you will go to front of line. You do not need a separate visa to do this no matter what Princess literature might lead you to believe. We only did a ship tour in Poland as that was the only way to see the Malbork castle. None of the tour companies we contacted in Poland were willing to take us there due to traffic & time constraints. The other ports were easily done on your own using public transportation & walking.

 

Don't know which ship is sailing from Copenhagen in 2010. Have only sailed on Crown, Grand & Caribbean & had no problem with any of them.

 

We arrived in Copenhagen 3 days early & really enjoyed the extra time in Copenhagen. Hope this helps.

 

Gail

[briody]

Thanks Gail for your help. My ship is the Star Princess I think. Did Princess provide shuttles to the towns since you were away?

[beehive273]

Just returned from the Emerald Princess Transatlantic and Scandanavia/Baltic 27 day Cruise. Where we docked in Copenhagen there was a shuttle into the city arranged by Princess which cost $5 per person each way. We had such shuttles in most of the ports where we docked far from the city center.

The weather was rainy the day we were there on May 16 but was sunny and lovely there on May 26 when we flew home from there. So I think June is a good choice.

We also had Anytime Dining and only experienced short wait times as we requested a Table for 2. If you prefer to share a table in the dining room I think you would usually never have to wait. Also you can make reservations for your table in Anytime Dining if you know when you will want to eat that night.

You can bring one bottle of wine on board without any problem.

No delays for us in getting off at ports where we did a self-tour.

Hope this helps. Happy Planning!

[UT-Volsfan]

We just got back from this cruise on the Emerald Princess on Tuesday and had a wonderful time.

 

The soda cards are just over $42 for the 10 day cruise.

 

They also have what they call the Ultimate Card which is approx. $90. It is available to passengers 21 and younger. Besides soda, it's good for softserve ice cream as well as unlimited mocktails. Some of the adults wanted the card for the mocktails but the salespeople we saw were checking the ages of the people buying it on our sailing. Really wish Princess would ease up on this age restriction. They would be pretty popular with some of the adults.

 

On our cruise, we docked at all of the ports. We didn't have to use tenders in any of the ports. There were shuttles available for all all of the ports except St. Petersburg and Oslo. They were $5 or $6 per person each way and were available near the ship.

 

As far as lines, the dining room lines were very short. We ate early (around 6pm) so we could catch the early show in the theater and then go to the Explorer's lounge for the second show by the comic or listen to the house band. We (party of four) normally ate at a table for 6. Didn't take 5 minutes any night to get seated in Da Vinci dining room.

 

As far as wine, you can definitely bring at least one bottle of wine on per person per port. Just run it through the x-ray machine when you come on board with your carry on bag and go to your cabin (most we've ever carried on was a case at the start of our trans-Atlantic last year - Princess didn't say a word to me carrying it on). Then ask your cabin steward to keep glasses in your cabin. We use our carry on wine in our cabin and had 3 bottles from our TA that we used in the dining room (since those we didn't have to pay a corkage fee on).

 

Most of the ports there were not very long waits to get off the ship. St. Petersburg was the only one where it backs up, and that's due to having to clear Russian immigration each time you leave the ship. The first day there were several lines for Princess tours and one line for private tours (we were on a Princess tour and it took about 20 minutes to get thru the line). The second day the lines moved much better - maybe a 5 minute wait to get to our bus.

 

Most of the rest of the ports have a hop -on/hop-off tour of the city available near the ship or where the ship's shuttle bus drops people off in the town. It's a good, easy way to check out these other cities. Poland is the exception - it's about 45 minutes into Gdansk from the port. Taxis are available near the ship and many of the drivers speak good English. We hired a driver for the day because we wanted to go see the Stutthof concentration camp and the ship didn't have any tours going to see it.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Jeff

[bgelb]

I am going on the Sept 03 sailing of the Emerald and would love to ask you some additional questions. Can you send me your email address?

 

Thanks

Bonnie

bgelb@optonline.net

[Veryoldsalt]

Sailed the Baltic and St. Petersburg from Copenhagen last May. The Crown is the largest ship we have sailed and much larger than we would have liked, but we had a teriffic time on the ship and in all ports. St. Petersburg is worth the trip. But got into Copenhagen a day early and left a day late and fell in love with the city and the people and plan to return. You'll have a wonderful time.