Trixie21

For 2025 season ?

Our ship Sky Princess arrives at 7am according to the port schedule for a cruise in May next year. The only flight that day to Belfast or Dublin is at 9.15am. Is that doable or just much too tight given that the ship has to be cleared etc before disembarkation can begin. My other options are to book a hotel in Southampton for the night and fly the next morning or go to Heathrow and fly home from there , both of which I am thinking are better options.

Hi I hope you don't mind me asking if you managed to organise your back to back anthem cruises with your wife's TPN? I hope it all worked out and you had a great time! My wife's condition deteriorated over the first half of this year so we decided to not risk any holidays until next year when hopefully things will have settled back down a little. We are starting to look at next year and are currently looking at Princess from Southampton as they have been able to give an assurance they can store the TPN in a fridge , whereas Royal have not been able to give me that assurance, If they were able to do it for you that would be of great help to us as we are diamond plus with Royal and my wife would prefer to stay with them . I

I wonder will Allure get the full amplification then she was due just before covid appeared ?

Yes , I've looked at the flight times and the cruise gets back on a Saturday which is the only day of the week there is not an evening flight. The more I look at it the more I'm of the opinion that its either a hotel in Southampton for the night or go to Heathrow.

I posted it on the UK cruisers board but I will also post it on the above , thanks.

If no other Oasis class is due dry dock and Icon 2 is ready for the summer season in Europe id say thats a good bet.

We are planning a cruise (our first princess cruise) on sky princess in May 24. I am looking at possible flight times back to Dublin or Belfast from Southampton . The flight time that morning to each is 9.15am. The ship docks at 7am on a Saturday morning. We have flown home from Southampton many times before after a cruise, but never with a flight this early. I'm thinking its doable if there are no delays but I am unfamiliar with Disembarkation with Princess. I assume you can walk off with your own luggage? If so do you think we could be off the ship and in a taxi (I would have a prebooked car waiting) by 7.30am? If so we should be at the airport before 8am which should be OK. Thoughts? Anyone successfully caught a flight from Southampton Airport this early ?

We are working on booking a cruise on Sky Princess for May 24. Trying to put together flights to and from Belfast. Outbound is no problem. Flying back the only flight that day with Aer Lingus from Southampton to Belfast is 9.15am. The ship docks at 7am on a Saturday axcording to the port schedule - I have never had so early a flight from Southampton after a cruise - I'm thinking its doable if we walk off with our own luggage , but no room for any delays - don't really want to hang about another day in Southampton. I know we could go to Heathrow and fly back that way but would rather not have to do that if possible. I think port to airport was about 20 minutes if I am remembering correctly ? Has anyone successfully made a flight from Southampton Airport that early ?

Thanks for the reply - thats very helpful. Enjoy your day !

Hope you don't mind if I ask a couple of questions. - How does dining in the MDR work? Do you book times in advance of the cruise , or each day , or just walk up and ask to be seated when you want to go? Does Princess have early and late seating ? Because of my wife's celiac disease , we like to have the same servers each night on a cruise. - Does Alfredos serve gluten free pizzas? If so can you just walk up and order one , or does it have to preordered? Is Alfredos an uncharge or is it included? - The cruise we are looking at for next year gets back to Southampton at 7am , according to the itinerary. What would be the earliest you could disembark , assuming no unforseen circumstances? Just trying to work out possible flights. There is a flight back to Belfast from Southampton at 9.15am but that seems very tight to me , although we have never been held up flying to or from Southampton previously . If we were off the ship shortly after 7am its certainly doable. It it were 8am before we were off its getting more dicey lol.

Very much enjoying your live thread. We are lfrom the UK and looking at booking sky princess for 2024 - it will be our first time with princess having previously cruised with Royal Caribbean. Food pics look great !! We did a version of this cruise last year with Royal and it was one of our favourites - so much so that the cruise we are looking at next year on Sky is the 8 day Norwegian fjords. Thanks for taking the time to do this- its giving us a great insight to the onboard experience on Princess and we like what we see!

So Icon is due to be delivered to Royal Caribbean in October . Her first revenue sailing is January 2024. I am aware they want plenty of time to work through all the new systems , venues etc on the ship and get staff up to speed , but what are the chances of there being a couple of short shakedown cruises maybe from the UK or somewhere in Europe prior to her going across the Atlantic to Miami ?

Still waiting on Celebrity to get back to us - however since they are part of the Royal Group i have a feeling they will follow the same policies. And yes , Celebrity would be a good choice also and particularly for the reasons you mention.

Interesting Thread. My wife and I are almost diamond plus on Royal and thoroughly enjoy our cruises with them and what they offer. They have also been superb at dealing with my wife's dietary requirements, which is a big factor for us. However unfortunately my wife has a further medical condition which has deteriorated to the point where we would be need to bring certain medical equipment on board. From our enquires so far it appears Royal would not be able to accommodate the specific requirements (although they are still looking into it for us). For this reason we are considering booking a short Princess cruise (they have confirmed they can accommodate my wife's needs) just to see if it is our thing. We are in our 50's and like a relaxing cruise , with some good entertainment and enjoy music in the bars etc. I have done a certain amount of research into other cruise lines and on paper princess or celebrity seem to be the best fit for us if we can't sail Royal.

Yep! Many other cruise lines / departure ports / classes of ship out there. If one doesn't suit you then find one which does - each person has different wants/expectations from a cruise. I'm willing to bet you could find thousands of satisfied , happy passengers on the same cruise.

3/4 day getaway calling at perfect day and Nassau with the new beach club on a brand new Oasis class ship - while not for me (We look at destination now rather than ship) I can see it being hugely popular and also hugely profitable.

Good to know! I always thought the new menus had promise , but need to be executed well and need more of the "always available " items each night for those who like plainer food.

What changes have you noticed ? Curious to see if they are as you suggest beginning to "tweak" the new menus in response to feedback. I know grilled chicken breast reappeared on every menu at some point (as an on request beneath whatever other chicken dish was on that night).

It seems to me that the smaller segments of the world cruise have been very popular. Unique itineraries, ports not normally called at. But for my wife's current health problems we would have booked a couple of the released small segments . If they released a "world cruise " with the small segments avaible right from the start I reckon it could sell really well at good prices. They would have to get the pricing right so that the folks on the entire voyage were not disadvantaged but with the correct framework of included perks etc this should be perfectly possible to achieve.

I do think Odysssey will do really well from the UK. Very new ship with lots of differences to Anthem even though its the same class. Anthem was our favourite ship until we sailed on Odyssey last year. I also happen to agree that a smaller ship (radiance class is perfect size) which was able to do more varied itineraries could do very well from Southampton alongside Odyssey. We are big fans of Jewel - i wish they would do the Iceland etc itineraries from Southampton .

We earned a block on our Odyssey cruise last September and it just arrived with us last week. It was the old style.

And is it then Anthem to Singapore ?

Thank you. It is certainly worth asking the question about even a future cruise credit. The worst they can say is no , and nothing is lost by trying. Good luck.

My wife and I had 2 cruises booked for this year - neither was at final payment stage , but one was close - so only deposits had been paid. We are almost at diamond plus level so have a fair few cruises with RC under our belt. My wife has been unwell for the last few years and without going into detail she is unable to travel this year , and we may not be in a position to be able to cruise again - time will tell. We obtained a doctors letter detailing her condition and my travel agent contacted the appropriate department and explained the situation. The next day she had an email saying they would be happy to refund our deposits. Quite unexpected as I knew they were under no obligation to do this and I was actually quite resigned to losing the deposits - it was my travel agent who suggested giving this a try. I always take out travel insurance just before I make final payment on a cruise or holiday . Quite often the excess you have to pay is similar to the deposit so makes no sense to take it out before then.