Dr. Peds

Thanks for all the replies so far. We at at the Crown Grill on the Enchanted in January. It was, at best, OK. We got a specialty dinner as part of our package on that cruise so we did not have to pay extra. The service was absolutely terrible, though it is not clear as to whether it was the server or that they were understaffed. My dad and I had surf and turf ($10 upcharge from surf OR turf). The was OK, but not in any way special. The filet and lobster were considerably better later in the cruise in the MDR (though, during our July cruise on the Sky, the MDR did not seem to be able to cook beef and the filet was not a good experience. The lobster was a bit better than tolerable, but once again nothing special). That said, the filet in the Crown Grill was a bit larger, and the inclusion of the specialty salts was a very nice upscale touch. Not sure when we will try another specialty restaurant, but I think Catch by Rudi might be the next place we look. My parents said that they had a decent meal at Sabatinis, but that was a number of years ago.

We rarely eat at the Specialty Restaurants unless we have received a credit that covers the service charge. We have been very happy with the MDR and the buffet as well. What is your favorite specialty restaurant on Princess (especially on the Royal Class ships)? Sabatini's? Crown Grill? Catch by Rudi? Why do you like your chosen restaurant?

What was odd was that in talking to our waiter we found out that he had been a waiter on our last five cruises (some on different ships) and we had never crossed paths to the best of our knowledge. That is why we will make the extra effort to find him this time. Interestingly, we had a pretty crummy table in terms of location right next to the galley door, but that meant that we actually had more interaction with our wait staff as their station was actually in an alcove by the galley door rather than out in the dining room itself. Made for extra good service apart from the waiters being excellent.

No, it did not. But it is good to know another name even though we have generally had good wait staff (particularly assistant or junior waiters) on all our cruises. But our last cruise was simply exceptional and we were onboard for a 14 day cruise which made it even better.

Thanks for all these helpful replies!

We had a fantastic waiter on the Sky Princess last month and he indicated he would still be on contract when we sail again in December. I have gone ahead and made dining reservations for our party for our upcoming cruise (earliest time available in the same dining room we ate before). Is the best way to find if he is still on ship and in our chosen dining room by asking when we check in at the restaurant on the first night, or is there another place we might consult at or before that time?

Yes, it appears I was mistaken about the free trolley being in service. Thanks for the additional information.

I stand corrected. Thank you for posting.

According to the up to date official San Juan website there IS a free trolley and the website has the 2023 information.

The official San Juan website indicates that there IS a tram and has 2023 information....

Thanks for the responses. They are both helpful and good news (probably, LOL).

When Princess ships visit San Juan (i.e., are not embarking or disembarking passengers at the beginning or end of a cruise), which cruise port at San Juan does Princess generally use? The one at Old San Juan or the one that is several miles away from the old town? Thanks in advance for any assistance.

Our fifth port was the capital of Sweden, Stockholm. The sail into and out of Stockholm was an unexpected bucket list experience. As we left, the experienced captain said that he believed this to be the most scenic and interesting approach to any port in the world. We agreed. The archipelago was amazing and the mix of homes, little villages, fishing huts, and natural beauty was breathtaking, Once we arrived in Stockholm, we went ashore via a shore excursion through Princess that was called Nobel Prize Museum and City Hall Stockholm. A bus tour was included but fairly incidental even though our guide was quite informative. There were then three parts that involved leaving the bus: 1) A tour of the City Hall; 2) A walking tour of the Old Town; 3) A brief tour of the Nobel Prize Museum. This was a tour that I had very much looked forward to. I have met 24 of the Nobel Laureates in economics, including at least six who were on the faculty in my department while I was there (none of whom had won their Nobel Prize at that time our paths crossed). Anyhow, I digressed. The City Hall tour was quite interesting and quite good, This is the site of both the Nobel banquet for that year's winners, as well as the post banquet dance. The banquet is held in the Great Hall, the dance in the Gold Room. Both are very impressive, as is the City Council Chamber itself. We then proceeded to Old Town, arriving simultaneous with the parade for the changing of the guard at the royal palace. The parade was fun and an unexpected bonus. We then proceeded to take a walking tour of the Old Town (Gamla Stan) that was quite informative. Like almost all cities we visited, the walking was tough on the uneven cobblestones,, narrow passages, and elevation changes. The walking tour ended at the Nobel Prize Museum. The summary is easy: Interesting, overcrowded, not a ton to see in the time we were there, and absolutely stifling in terms of both temperature and lack of air movement. The museum was a let down as a result, but the concept and contents are worth a visit if it is not too crowded. The next port was Berlin (Warnemunde, Germany). Warnemunde is a large and important port on the Baltic Sea. It is a couple of hours from Berlin via train or bus. We traveled to Berlin on a train that had been chartered by Princess and then were met by a guide who took us on a bus and walking tour of Berlin. The day was twelve hours long, but it was doable and worth it. Our tour was Berlin and Jewish History. I felt that it was a combination for me of a bucket list visit to sites I had only seen in books or read and a thorough discussion of the history of Judaism in Germany and other parts of the world. For me, our guide was exceptional. I may not be the best judge as I am a bit of geek and lifelong learner who has spent nearly 50 years in higher education as a student and professor. Our guide knew his stuff, had personal and family experiences that added to the commentary, and we had a small group of only 18 persons. Nadav broke our group into two subgroups. The first group toured the Jewish Museum with him, and the second group enjoyed a tasty box lunch that was provided to us and eaten in a courtyard at the museum. Most people chose to eat lunch first. They were one short on the first tour, so I volunteered. Our tour with Nadav was only five people and was amazing. Some of this was the guide, some was the greater nimbleness with such a small group. I gave this day and this tour very high marks. It is pricey to go on any of the shore excursions that went all the way to Berlin with or without intermediate stops. Plan on $250-350 per person. Our next port was Aarhus. The port was very secure and somewhat cut off from the town itself. A shuttle bus was provided at this port. As I recall, this was the only port where the shuttle was free and provided by the port authority. We took a simple Highlights of Aarhus shore excursion from Princess. Overall, it was HORRIBLE. This was the consensus of our tour group which was predominately extremely experienced Princess cruisers. While there can always be glitches and there can be unforeseen needs to change the order of a tour, we had what seemed to be a knowledgeable guide who was totally clueless and incompetent. We got to sites and they were closed (that is, the opening time every day was an hour later than we arrived). We were supposed to visit the Aarhus Cathedral, but he did not included that in the tour (it would have eliminated the wait that we had for the restored village to open) and made it optional by dropping people off there and telling them to find their way home on the general shuttle. He also informed us that our bus would not return to the ship and we would have to transfer to the shuttle bus to get back. He would show us where. He suddenly got off before the end of the tour. The bus drive who had not spoken all day gave us a nice condensed tour of a part of the city we hadn't been and took us all the way back to the ship as we had originally expected. The restored village in Aarhus was amazing and Aarhus is worth visiting despite our horrible experience.

They had stir fry stations a couple of times on our Sky Princess cruise a couple of weeks ago. They were rotating cook to order stations. There was a cook to order basic pasta station every day, and then cook to order burgers, pasta, fried rice, stir fry, sausage sandwiches, and seafood "stews" on alternating nights in the buffet. Some but not all were also available as options at lunchtime. Not sure what the case will be on the Caribbean Princess, but that was something we didn't see as much on an organized basis on our other cruises. So, maybe.....

This is a quick and dirty set of impressions of the nine ports we visited on our July 8-22, 2023 cruise on the Sky Princess, I will hit each port in the order we visited them: We took shore excursions in six ports and visited three ports independently without any excursion. This post includes the first four ports, two of which we tackled on our own. Gdansk, Poland: Ship docks several miles away in the coastal city of Gdynia. We took an excursion that included a short city walking tour, a visit to St. Mary's church, and a visit to the shipyards including a memorial to workers lost in the strike and the Solidarity Museum. Very, very interesting city and tour. Museum was crowded but our guided tour of the museum still went OK. Visby, Sweden: We did this port on our own, The distance from the dock to the old town area is very understated in terms of both length and difficulty of the walk. I will spare the details but am glad to answer if readers have questions. Ultimately, the walk took me about 30 minutes out and another 20 minutes back (I found another logical route back to the ship that eased both the distance and the rigor of the walk. They herd you out of the pier to climb a daunting overpass with many stairs on each side and then follow that with a rigorous walk involving many uphill and downhill sections that is also crowded}. My parents gave up the journey about 10 minutes into it, It was just too hard and too long a walk for them given their ages. I made it to the edge of the historic old town but didn't go all the way in (that would have added another 1/2 to 1 mile to the hike). There was a shuttle into town, but it was relatively costly for a simple shuttle or on/off bus. We should have taken the shuttle, LOL. There were enough interesting sites in the walled city that it was still worth visiting. Tallinn, Estonia: We did this port on our own, The walk from the ship to the port entrance was fairly lengthy at this port, but not unreasonable. We did get a roundtrip shuttle run by the port that cost 10 euros for the roundtrip. Because reaching the upper town of Tallinn involves a rigorous climb including cobblestone streets and slanted walkways, this can be a tough port for those who have ANY trouble walking, climbing, or maintaining one's balance. That said, the lower town is quite interesting and does not include the climbs but does still require navigating cobblestones. There were shore excursions to a few interesting sites outside the town center, but this is a city that we thoroughly enjoyed on our own (my 90+ yo dad chose to sit this one out and that was a smart choice). Helsinki, Finland: Shore excursion was a harbor cruise combined with a city tour and a visit to the Sibelius memorial, The harbor cruise was a great way to access viewing a wider range of sites including the famous fortress guarding one of the harbor accesses. You also get to see an early submarine that is dry docked near the fort. The city tour was basic but good. We got about 20 minutes to shop at a market in the downtown harbor after we finished our cruise and before our city tour. Wish we could have spent longer there. I was a great city market to visit. The rest of the tour was fine and did a good job of showing the sights of Helsinki. Very effective introduction to an interesting city. My next post will include Stockholm, Berlin, Aarhus, Copenhagen, and Kristiansand (Norway)

Just back from the Baltics. Did not use cash a single time while in the ports. Our stops were Gdansk, Visby (Sweden), Tallinn (Estonia), Helsinki (Finland), Aarhus (Denmark), Copenhagen (Denmark), Kristiansand (Norway), and Warnemunde/Berlin (Germany). Of those ports, only Germany, Finland, and Estonia use the euro (though some accepted it as an alternative currency). I used a credit card for every purchase I made and the exchange rate was excellent on all those purchases. My mom and dad had some Euros from a previous trip and were barely able to find places to spend them easily (and ended up using them for tips--that was actually a good use of cash).

For what it is worth, the chef de cuisine and restaurant operations manager indicated that all of the provisions for the cruises leaving out of Southampton are loaded in Southampton are put on board there. On our cruise, they did also get some provisions in Copenhagen. For the first time, it was noticeable when they started to run low on some of the provisions (melons were a big shortage by the end of the cruise for example). I mentioned the ships we were on in the original post because the Royal Class ships have a notably different buffet set-up and capacity than the smaller and earlier ships.

Just off two weeks on the Sky in Northern Europe and the Baltic. We cruised the Sky for 14 days in the Caribbean right before the pandemic in 2020 and cruised the Caribbean on the Enchanted in January 2023. We also cruised the Caribbean on the Royal a few years ago. Here are the differences we observed in the food and menus on the Sky this time: many buffet items were clearly aimed at a European clientele (cold cereal choices, hot cereal choices, breakfast meats, stews and meat pies not familiar in U.S., special theme nights that were very focused on our general itinerary). In the main dining room, menus were generally very reflective of the region in which we were traveling, fish and seafood choices were broader and more varied, appetizers were more regional (even if not marked as such). Finally, whether reflective of Europe or not, the meat in both the buffet and main dining room tended to be overcooked in almost all cases (no pink in any steak or roast beef, for example). This may have just been the chefs, but it was consistent with my grandmother's cooking of meat as a European immigrant. On the other hand, in general the fish and seafood was cooked deftly and with some great preparations. We very much enjoyed the food and drink portion of the cruise and welcomed many of the differences. But we found the food and menus to be notably different. The change was nice and we got to try some things we hadn't had. BTW, the surf and turf was terrible this time around--especially the steak.

This has been the case for some time. It was true in early 2020 when we did a B2B on the Sky and was also true last January on the Enchanted. If I recall correctly, we have also had cruises where they did not serve lobster at all (substituting very nice prawns). BTW, my Dad and I had steak and lobster twice on our last cruise, once at the Crown Grill and once in the MDR. The lobster was significantly better in the MDR much to our surprise (the MDR was a night after the Crown Grill so no unreasonable expectations for our Crown Grill meal factored in).

No issue at all. I have done this many times. That said, my athletic shoes are generally gray, brown, or black. GENERALLY, I have worn nicer shoes on formal nights but that was by choice. I will only be bringing athletic style shoes on the cruise that begins this week and feel very comfortable with that even as someone who does take the dress codes seriously.

Thanks so much for all this great information. It is incredibly helpful for our upcoming cruise!

We will be taking shore excursions in most ports but have not booked anything for Visby, Tallinn, or Kristiansand. Any advice on doing these ports on our own? Are there any "don't miss" things we should focus on seeing?

We have stayed at three different hotels pre-cruise in Fort Lauderdale--a Renaissance Hotel, a Spring Hill Suites, and an Embassy Suites. The Spring Hill Suites was terrible overall in terms of service and the transportation to the port. The Renaissance was a nice hotel and the transportation options were decent. This past January, we stayed at the Embassy Suites and made the arrangements through Princess with transfers included to the hotel and to the port. This was pricey, but the hotel specialized in Princess cruisers and other cruises. In terms of hassle, it was by far the best option we had had. Though the hotel was pretty much at capacity, things were pretty smooth and included an evening reception with complimentary drinks and snacks, the dinner costs were reasonable, and a full hot breakfast was included. The transfer to the pier was quite efficient though we had to wait on the bus for loading of passengers and luggage. The Renaissance was pretty much across the street in the same area as the Embassy Suites, the Spring Hill Suites was in a slightly different area but there were more off-site restaurant and shopping options near the hotel if needed.

We have done all three combinations--EZ air with hotel booked on our own, booked both air and hotel on our own, and EZ air with Princess Hotel Package. All in all, we think that the hotel package was the best option for our sanity. We had some glitches, but they were due to us getting used to how the system worked for transportation from airport to hotel and then hotel to port. Having Princess representatives at both the airport and hotel to help with our needs was a big help. That said, the hotel price was very, very high. But the guarantees to get us where we needed to go were worth it as we were traveling in winter time. Arranging our own transportation to the port was actually pretty nightmarish on our own in terms of hassle and fighting to get a transportation reservation, the luggage process at the port in Fort Lauderdale (we were extorted by the independent porters who we didnt have to deal with when we used Princess transportation), and having to schlep more of our luggage than using the Princess hotel transfer. YMMV, but we liked using the Princess hotel option and would do it again if needed.

This has not been our experience. Princess Theater capacity on the Royal was larger than when we were on the Island. We have also been on the Sky (didn't notice a difference between the Sky and Royal as I recall). We were on the Enchanted last January and the theater was larger than the Royal or Sky (I think I looked it up because it looked larger and I wanted to know). Maybe I'm wrong, but that has been our experience (or perception?) Rock Opera is definitely a good show and worth seeing. For the first show, the theater starts getting comfortably full about 30 minutes ahead and is pretty darn full by 15 minutes ahead. There are seats, but not as much choice. For Rock Opera, the theater at the early show was essentially full when we have gone.