Live from Regal Princess trans-Atlantic/Baltic

Love the Live From Norm, and thanks for the beautiful photos Dave!

Thank you for the live report Norm!! And the webcam pics from dmwmc1959!! Can't wait to sail on her!! :)

Enjoying the review, thanks

Sent from my iPhone

Today was the transition day for the ship. Approx 2,000 passengers got off and went home. More than that then came aboard, as our Rommel, our waiter at dinner said last night that the ship would be full after today with 3,800 on board. So we will see more people everywhere.

While all that was going on, we had booked a tour with a Russian tour agency that we will use for many future ports on this cruise (Alla). There were discounts for booking multiple cities and they do tours in most of the Baltic ports. So off we went on the bus with about 20 people instead of the 50 people on each of the Princess tour buses.

We first went up to Frederiksborg Castle, a 16th Century Renaissance castle (think red brick and limestone trim with copper roofs and towers that look more like church steeples. Inside it's like a 16th century palace. Lots of family paintings of the kings and queens, furniture, and wonderful carved ceilings. The Baroque grand hall on the 3rd floor was covered in gold gilt on the ceilings, and the walls looked to be paneled with carvings surrounding pictures. However, this turned out to be Goblein tapestries fixed to the walls from floor to ceiling.

Then it was off to Kronborg Castle, the reputed site for Shakespeare's Hamlet. This one is very fortified as it is on the coast directly across from Sweden. There was another similar fort on the Swedish side, and the two of them controlled the narrow passage between the two countries and taxed whoever came through.

Got to see the "Little Mermaid" statue but had to skip the Queen's current palace downtown because of a May Day celebration/protest. Weather was brilliant sunshine, but only in the high 40's and low 50's with a strong breeze, but we bundled up and were fine.

We came back to the ship and went up to the CruiseCritic informal party out on the back deck to connect with new passengers who will be going on future tours with us.

Then we came back to the room and Princess did it again. The room was "set"` up as if we were just coming on board for the first time. So here we go with two mini-bar setups with all of the liquours, beer, sodas etc. In addition, since or original flower bouquet that I had ordered prior to our sailing from Ft. Lauderdale, had died out before we reached Copenhagen, I had ordered another from the shop on board. That was there (beautiful), but they decided that the orchid plant that is given to every suite, was dying, so we received another flower bouquet in it's place. On top of that, Haffnar, the Concierge, calls the room and said we are entitled to another free meal in one of the ships speciality restaurants (normally $25 a person), the night of "boarding". So he made a reservation for us at Sabbitini's, the Italian restaurant. We are being "showered with riches"!!

Oslo, Norway

Today visited Oslo, Norway. This we planned to do on our own, not on a commercial tour as it's very easy to do. The ship docked at 10 am downtown, pointing to the City Hall which is where the Nobel Peace Prize is presented each year. We walked over there, and in front was the harbor with the ferry dock that takes us to the museum peninsula. So off we went over there. We went first to the Viking Ship Museum which contains three viking ships unearthed in the 1940's and 1950's as they had been buried to accompany important Vikings. They had an audio tour that worked using your cell phone. You scanned a QR code on the plaque and then played an audio narration. They had great Wi-FI so we used that to make this work (and downloaded e-mail and updated iPhone apps too!)

Then we walked to the Kon-Tiki Museum and saw both the Kon-Tiki and the Ra boats which are there. This one had storyboards on the walls in Norwegian and English so that was fine. We took the ferry back to City Hall and on the way back to the ship we stopped at an outdoor cafe and had a beer and watched the goings and comings in the harbor. By the way, we knew already that Norway was expensive, and the beer was $12 a pint!

Back to Denmark tomorrow. Will keep in touch.

Norm

Thank you so much for taking the time to post. The Baltics is one of my favorite itineraries and I enjoy reading about your wonderful vacation. One thing I'm curious about -- Are the Caribbean dishes still on the menu? Was a new menu rolled out now that the winter season is over? Thanks for taking the time to reply. Enjoy the rest of your journey.

Another day at sea, but this will cover the tours of the last two days.

 

Le Havre, France

 

 

Finally we found a little cheese "Frommage" shop and bought some of our favorite French cheese, mimellette, which is that dark orange cheese we've served at home sometimes.

 

 

On our day in Le Havre, we stopped at Honfluer and passed by a "Frommage" shop so we bought two pieces of cheese, one for us and one for the dinning captain.

 

Norm

Norm,

Do you happen to recall the location/address of the Fromage shop in Honfleur? I am a cheese-o-holic, and as we will be in Honfleur later in the year, I would love to stop into this shop.

Thank you!

Melissa

Loved reading your reveiw Norm. We were on the Regal and had to get off in Copenhagen on 5/2 since I had to go back to work. It was great reading about all the places that we had been too and I look forward to reading about all the new ports that you will be going to. This was a wonderful trip and one to cross off of my bucket list. My DH and I do plan on making a land trip going back to Paris for sure and maybe Ireland. In the planning stages right now. ENjoy the rest of your trip.

Karen

Really enjoying your post. We off to Baltic at end of June. Any info on currency in each country would be appreciated. Also heard sound of music films trivia etc would be on Europe sailings have you seen this?

Just a note from Schwerin Germany. Caribbean dishes not on menu. Will post cheese shop. I have a card in our Cabin.

Much more to come

Norm

For the people who asked about the cheese shop in Honfleur:

La Fromagere & Le Vigneron "Boutique d'Honfleur"

29, rue de la Republique

14600 Honfleur

e-mail: fromagere.vigneron@orange.fr

tele (+33) 2 31 88 60 54

No Caribbean menus on board now, but there are "local" dishes. Last night there was smoked pork chop with sauerkraut for example.

Another update from the last two days:

Aarhus (pronounced "ar hoose") Denmark

No tour here, we like many just wandered around the town. Princess had a shuttle to downtown since we we were docked at an industrial pier. Went over to the cathedral which was lovely. Gothic in style, but whitewashed inside like many of the former Catholic churches turned into Lutheran churches in the Reformation. In a few places they had removed the whitewash so that you could see the original murals which depicted saints.

We then walked the shopping street. For anyone who has been to Santa Monica in Los Angeles and walked the Third Street Promenade, this was like that. A former street open to cars with shops along converted to just pedestrians, so no cars. Lots of people and chain stores including H & M, Levis, as well as two local department stores one of which had Starbucks. We stopped at a coffee shop for a snack and to use the free Internet.

Warnemunde/Rostock

There wasn't room for us at the Warnemunde, Germany, cruise terminal as Celebrity Silhouette was there and supposedly an Aida (German cruise line) was supposed to be there but didn't show up. So we docked at an industrial dock south of there. It was convenient for Princess tours to Berlin (the whole point of stopping here) as there are train tracks adjacent to the berth. Princess chartered two private company trains which seemed to have about 10 to 12 cars each. I would guess they had close to 1,000 passengers going.

This actually worked very well in Princess' favor as yesterday the German state train system went on strike. So they went anyway. Made it difficult for passengers making their own arrangements though. Alla and SPB, the two tour agencies many CruiseCritic people are using I think used buses so they were not affected.

We chose something different here as we had already been to Berlin last week. On both TripAdvisor and CruiseCritic the most recommended tour was "Friends of Dave" who is an American living here who does local tours. Because we weren't in Warnemunde like we were supposed to be, he arranged for a cab to pick us up and take us back to the ship.

So off we went with 20 Celebrity and 4 Princess passengers for a walk around Warnemunde which is a North German beach town. Quaint architecture and a nice start to the day. Off and on rain during the day for which we are fully prepared (we are eventually going to Ireland!)

Then it was on to Wismar, an old Hanseatic League city with a couple of large brick cathedrals. The first was bombed out in the war so only the steeple stands now. The second is still being restored and is fully enclosed as it was, but not furnished. They actually said it wasn't functioning as a real church because there aren't enough people to attend. We were reminded that we were in the former East Germany where reigion was frowned upon and so an entire generation has lost that.

We stopped at the Brauhaus am Lohberg zu Wismar for lunch. I had goulash and Maureen had the pork schnitzel. We both had their local dark beer, which was not bitter at all. This was included in the price of the tour.

Then we drove about 45 minutes to a town called Scherwin. This was the old Mecklinburg family capital when this was one of the Hanseatic city/states. There is a castle there that is like an ornate version of Neuschwanstein or the Disneyland Castles but of a later period of history. Lots of towers and onion domes as well as copper roofed spires. The grounds around it were beautiful with flowers and a large lake surrounded it.

We then walked into the town square and had a snack. We had ice cream, but you could have had cake or a beer. Finally we drove home through a thunderstorm with lightening and thunder. We got back to the ship and the train passengers still hadn't gotten back yet. We went down to dinner, which was "open" seating in all dinning rooms because not all of the passengers had retuned. So we didn't have our usual waiters, but we had an enjoyable meal anyway.

Today is a day at sea (along with another time change!) and its formal night tonight.

Hello and thank you for taking the time to post your progress. I, too, was on this cruise up until Copenhagen. It was a lovely trip and I am glad I did it, but I learned a few lessons.

#1 is that it seems that doing your own independent tours is the way to go. I am a travel agent and was there to experience everything Princess has to offer. As such, I opted for the Princess Shore Excursions. With the exception of the 4x4 tour in the Azores, I was very disappointed in the tours. I think the descriptions were a little hyped. A lot more was promised than delivered. The walking tour of Rouen would have been great if we could have heard the tour guide who was just speaking at her normal voice. There were probably 40 people on tour and they did not provide any headsets. That was very frustrating. Additionally the tour in Ireland (Rock of Cashel) was sooooo boring. Nothing like how it was described. I saw many upset people at the excursion desk after the buses came back.

I did give Princess my feedback.

#2 - the Lotus Spa is beautiful. The Enclave is very nicely designed and the varieties of sauna's are nice. HOWEVER, the "Heated Stone Lounges" are not heated at all. Or as the Spa Manager Jenn told me, they are heated to body temperature. What is the point? They advertise "Heated Stone Lounges" yet don't deliver and won't back down when approached about it. I spent $300 for the Enclave and my primary interest was the lounges. Many people were upset by this. They said if they heated them, the room would get too hot. Seems like they should have worked that out after the Royal.

Overall I think it is a nice ship and the food was fairly good. The standard balcony cabin is a tight squeeze but I expected that. I will continue to recommend Princess to my clients, but to make sure they understand about a few things.

The itinerary was fantastic, the Captain very delightful and I liked the "Princess live" show with the Cruise Director every morning.

Wished I could have stayed on for the full 28 days. Glad you are having a great trip.

Ann

For the people who asked about the cheese shop in Honfleur:

 

La Fromagere & Le Vigneron "Boutique d'Honfleur"

 

29, rue de la Republique

14600 Honfleur

 

e-mail: fromagere.vigneron@orange.fr

 

tele (+33) 2 31 88 60 54

 

Norm,

Thanks for posting the cheese shop information!

Melissa

So much to cover!

The Baltic portion of the cruise is very port intensive. At the end which is where we are, we have had Tallin, Estonia, St. Petersburg, Russia for two days, and today, Helsinki, Finland, with tomorrow in Stockholm, Sweden.

Tallin

This town was very interesting. We used Alla Tours again, as we will for all these ports, and so our group of 16 shuttled around the more modern part first. Then they took us up to the top of the hill in the old Medieval city and we began to slowly walk down through the narrow cobblestone streets. We visited the Orthodox cathedral first, and stopped at a plaza that overlooked the entire city for great views. Then it was down the lower city and they gave us 45 minutes for either shopping or lunch. We found a little cafe "Oliver's" that was in the basement of a local hotel complete with a little fireplace in the corner where we sat. Had what they called "gumbo" soup and a local beer. Wasn't quite gumbo, but it was really good and hit the spot on a cold day. Then it was back to the ship.

St. Petersburg

It is hard to fully describe St. Petersburg both because of what is here, but also for the experiences we had on each of the two days. The first day was rainy, so Alla arranged for "indoor" things and we had 15 in our van instead of the 50 in each of Princess's buses. We went to the Hermitage Museum in the morning and spent about 2 1/2 hours. This is one of the 4 largest museums in the world (think Louvre, Metropolitan, and British Museum). Some museums would be lucky to have a Rembrandt. They have a Rembrandt gallery! Giotto, Leonardo da Vinci, etc., they have everyone who you learned about in art history. The basis of the collection was the Czar's, but when the Russian Revolution happened, many of the best paintings collected by the nobles were transferred to the Hermitage.

We went to a couple of churches both in Byzantine as well as Baroque style both with lots of gold, either in the mosaics or gold gilt decorations. In the afternoon we went to Catherine's palace. This imitation of Versailles is still in restoration. It was damaged heavily in WW II as it sits outside the city and was in **** held territory. Because of that, the paneling and gold gilt look practically brand new. The amount of gold was overwhelming.

The second day was a big national holiday in Russia, which we would call "VE" day or Victory in Europe. This was the 70th anniversary of that. So everyone had the day off and some things were closed which was also why Alla Tours re-arranged things so we could still see everything. This was an "outdoor day". We went for a canal cruise as St. Petersburg is situated on a number of islands. They call it the Venice of the north. This was a clear, bright and sunny (but chilly 55 degrees) day. Riding through the canals and seeing all of the gold domes, fortresses, palaces, and some of the parades of people was stunning.

All of the people were in a celebratory mood and there were long parades of people marching. There were some displays of army trucks, tanks etc, but they weren't in the parades we saw. One of the customs is that WW II vets and older vets dress up in uniform. and lots of the people bring red carnations and give them to the vets. Maureen in the afternoon tried to take the picture of one cute little old guy and he was so happy that he gave her one of his flowers!

In the afternoon, we went to Peterhof, the summer palace of Peter the Great. This is more famous for it's gardens than for the inside like Catherine's Palace. It seems like every king/emperor/czar just had to have what Louis had at Versailles. The palace sits on a bluff overlooking the Gulf of Finland. Down it's slope are stair-step fountains and there is a giant pool with a large fountain. Then from there goes a canal that goes to the ocean. There are gold statues, gold domes and towers and the whole thing is on a grand scape.

From there, we took a hydrofoil back into central St. Petersburg which was fun and visited the fortress of St. Peter and St. Paul. We had also taken the subway a little earlier in the day to see a couple of the elaborately decorated stations (not all are this way). We came away having seen the "people" of St. Petersburg that essentially were just like us. Young and old, kids on skateboards, etc. They were all in a happy mood and so were we!

Helsinki

This morning we went off for a 3 hour tour of Helsinki. It was nice, but didn't have the character of some of the other cities we visited. We stopped at their central farmer's market which had lots of fresh flowers, fruit and vegetables as well as crafts. Drove by the main Lutheran church and we could see the main Orthodox church high up on a hill,, but we didn't get to go into either one. We did get to go into the "rock church", which is a round space blasted out of solid rock with a glass and copper dome over it bathing it in light. It was very modern and space compared to what we had recently seen. We then drove around the town some more and came back to the ship for an early departure.

still enjoying the updates nreeder :)

do you have the princess patters from the Baltic portion? can you post them upon your return home? no pressure either way.

based on the weather, it doesn't sound like people are sunbathing in bikinis on sea days or after excursions. are you typically wearing pants on board?

So much to cover!

 

The Baltic portion of the cruise is very port intensive. At the end which is where we are, we have had Tallin, Estonia, St. Petersburg, Russia for two days, and today, Helsinki, Finland, with tomorrow in Stockholm, Sweden.

 

Tallin

 

This town was very interesting. We used Alla Tours again, as we will for all these ports, and so our group of 16 shuttled around the more modern part first. Then they took us up to the top of the hill in the old Medieval city and we began to slowly walk down through the narrow cobblestone streets. We visited the Orthodox cathedral first, and stopped at a plaza that overlooked the entire city for great views. Then it was down the lower city and they gave us 45 minutes for either shopping or lunch. We found a little cafe "Oliver's" that was in the basement of a local hotel complete with a little fireplace in the corner where we sat. Had what they called "gumbo" soup and a local beer. Wasn't quite gumbo, but it was really good and hit the spot on a cold day. Then it was back to the ship.

 

St. Petersburg

 

It is hard to fully describe St. Petersburg both because of what is here, but also for the experiences we had on each of the two days. The first day was rainy, so Alla arranged for "indoor" things and we had 15 in our van instead of the 50 in each of Princess's buses. We went to the Hermitage Museum in the morning and spent about 2 1/2 hours. This is one of the 4 largest museums in the world (think Louvre, Metropolitan, and British Museum). Some museums would be lucky to have a Rembrandt. They have a Rembrandt gallery! Giotto, Leonardo da Vinci, etc., they have everyone who you learned about in art history. The basis of the collection was the Czar's, but when the Russian Revolution happened, many of the best paintings collected by the nobles were transferred to the Hermitage.

 

We went to a couple of churches both in Byzantine as well as Baroque style both with lots of gold, either in the mosaics or gold gilt decorations. In the afternoon we went to Catherine's palace. This imitation of Versailles is still in restoration. It was damaged heavily in WW II as it sits outside the city and was in **** held territory. Because of that, the paneling and gold gilt look practically brand new. The amount of gold was overwhelming.

 

The second day was a big national holiday in Russia, which we would call "VE" day or Victory in Europe. This was the 70th anniversary of that. So everyone had the day off and some things were closed which was also why Alla Tours re-arranged things so we could still see everything. This was an "outdoor day". We went for a canal cruise as St. Petersburg is situated on a number of islands. They call it the Venice of the north. This was a clear, bright and sunny (but chilly 55 degrees) day. Riding through the canals and seeing all of the gold domes, fortresses, palaces, and some of the parades of people was stunning.

 

All of the people were in a celebratory mood and there were long parades of people marching. There were some displays of army trucks, tanks etc, but they weren't in the parades we saw. One of the customs is that WW II vets and older vets dress up in uniform. and lots of the people bring red carnations and give them to the vets. Maureen in the afternoon tried to take the picture of one cute little old guy and he was so happy that he gave her one of his flowers!

 

In the afternoon, we went to Peterhof, the summer palace of Peter the Great. This is more famous for it's gardens than for the inside like Catherine's Palace. It seems like every king/emperor/czar just had to have what Louis had at Versailles. The palace sits on a bluff overlooking the Gulf of Finland. Down it's slope are stair-step fountains and there is a giant pool with a large fountain. Then from there goes a canal that goes to the ocean. There are gold statues, gold domes and towers and the whole thing is on a grand scape.

 

From there, we took a hydrofoil back into central St. Petersburg which was fun and visited the fortress of St. Peter and St. Paul. We had also taken the subway a little earlier in the day to see a couple of the elaborately decorated stations (not all are this way). We came away having seen the "people" of St. Petersburg that essentially were just like us. Young and old, kids on skateboards, etc. They were all in a happy mood and so were we!

 

Helsinki

 

This morning we went off for a 3 hour tour of Helsinki. It was nice, but didn't have the character of some of the other cities we visited. We stopped at their central farmer's market which had lots of fresh flowers, fruit and vegetables as well as crafts. Drove by the main Lutheran church and we could see the main Orthodox church high up on a hill,, but we didn't get to go into either one. We did get to go into the "rock church", which is a round space blasted out of solid rock with a glass and copper dome over it bathing it in light. It was very modern and space compared to what we had recently seen. We then drove around the town some more and came back to the ship for an early departure.

Sounds like an excellent day in each of the ports. :)

Thanks for sharing your cruise with us.:)

Stockholm

This is the last port before we return to Copenhagen and get off the ship. We actually didn't "dock" here. The ship is too big to get into downtown Stockholm so anchors about 45 minutes away near a town called Nynashamn. This is a little coastal resort that you can visit if you don' want to spend the 45 minute journey each way to Stockholm.

Our Alla buses were at the pier and we had our usual group of about 16. Off we went and it seemed pretty quick as the speed limit was 110 KM per hour. We first drove around the new parts of the city and went to an overlook where we could see all of the islands that make up Stockholm. There are rivers and canals in between the islands as the city borders a lake.

We stopped at the City Hall which is where the Nobel Prize banquet is held and is quite beautiful. Then we went off to the Vasa Museum. In the late 1600's the Swedish king wanted a big warship to show off Swedish might. They spent two years and a lot of money on a large wooden ship. It had two complete decks of cannons and a huge tall back end with all kinds of carvings of soldiers, kings, etc that were brightly painted.

Because of the two decks of cannons the ship was quite tall on its sides with very tall masts. When it was ready the whole town turned out to see it sail and it was quite impressive. However, it was windy and the ship started to lean... All of the cannon ports were open and it started to take in water. They were able to right the ship, but the ship started to lean again, and sank! So it only sailed for 20 minutes.

In the 1960's they started a salvage operation. I mentioned that Stockholm is bordered by a lake (think fresh water), and thus there were no sea worms etc to eat up the oak ship. They took cables and put them under the ship and had two barges, one on each side and pulled up the ship intact. They did a little restoration, and built a museum to enclose it. It is extremely impressive and they have balconies around the museum so you can see all levels of the ship. It' about 260 feet long and almost that high and all of the carved back of the ship is still intact, although the colors have faded away.

Then it was off to a walking tour of the old town with it's narrow Medieval streets. Was fun to walk around there. We then had an hour free time and our guide recommended some cafe's to have lunch if we wanted. He said his favorite thing for lunch was "shrimp toast". So we had that. It was a piece of toast with a light shrimp salad (mayonnaise and dill). That plus a half liter of Swedish beer and were good!

We then went back to the ship.

Today is a day at sea. Tomorrow, when we get to the Hilton, I'll be able to have more consistent and free Internet and will post a wrapup.

Norm

I'll post a wrapup in a little while. Someone asked about clothing. The lonliest place on the ship had to be the Sanctuary up top. At 55 degrees and a wind chill factor to boot, not happening. This was not a shorts and flip flops cruise (although we saw those inside the ship). We wore jeans most of the time, and silk long underwear. Understand, this was the first cruise of the season, so it will get warmer. But right now it's chilly and possibly rainy.

We are off the ship at the Copenhagen Hilton Airport.

Norm

A few questions for you: do they still have warm cookies and milk in the afternoon in the Atrium? What about shrimp salad?

MARAPRINCE

Warm cookies and milk still served as are the shrimps. We had lots of the shrimps for happy hour in the room with the wine we bought on board.

Norm

Love both the shrimp salad and the cookies, just not together. ;)

And so the Baltic ends. We are flying from Copenhagen to France today where we will stay for the next three weeks.

We spent a wonderful day in Copenhagen which gave us sunny and bright weather with just a few clouds. We even had 60 degree weather which brought out the T-shirts for the residents. We stayed at the airport Hilton which was really convenient. It had a glassed in covered walkway direct to the airport and Metro station. We took the Metro for about 15 minutes and then got off within a mile of Tivoli.

We did manage to get lost so got some extra steps, but eventually we could see the tops of the thrill rides down the street so we did make it. Besides the rides, this is a lushly landscaped park and all of the tulips and spring flowers were in bloom around the lakes and fountains. We found a little cafe and had our final lunch of "shrimp toast" which we have fallen in love with. On the way out we stopped and watched a gymnastic festival/tournament by school kids and some of the jumps and synchronized dances were spectacular.

Then it was off to ride a canal boat for an hour. The weather was so spectacular and it was wonderful just to sit in the boat and glide by the city. We lucked out with front row seats so the pictures came out great.

My wife (the WeightWatcher queen) was overjoyed when she got on the scale at the hotel as she gained only 1/2 pound and I gained 1 for the entire 28 day cruise. There was a lot of walking around the decks and treadmill time to make that happen!

On to France

Norm

Enjoy France. It was good meeting you on the Normandy tour. Thanks again for the cookbook you gave us on the cabin crawl. We loved visiting Paris after the cruise, the only mistake we made was not staying long enough.

Warm cookies and milk still served as are the shrimps. We had lots of the shrimps for happy hour in the room with the wine we bought on board.

 

Norm

Great! :D My cabin mate and I have been raving about both to my cousin who is sailing with Princess for the first time.

MARAPRINCE

nreeder, thanks for this thread! We're really looking forward to taking the Baltic cruise in July, so it's great to read about your experiences!

A question about Nynashamn: how early were you able to get off? Did you have to wait for the Princess excursions before they let the DIYers off?

Hope France was just as wonderful!