Flyinby

Thanks, it's nice to finally get some information on this...we're booked for Feb. 14 '22 round trip, and really looking forward to it! The lack of any reviews had me wondering if it was "real", so I went right to your review. I'll no doubt have a few questions, so thanks for the email offer; with our mid-late February trip, I'm assuming the weather won't be great, so it's hard to know what to plan. I'm glad to hear you went on the Russian border excursion...one question, it describes it as 'strenuous', and that covers a wide range, so did you consider it strenuous or just a bit of uphill/stairs and walking? We are planning a full day in each Bergen and Oslo...sounds like maybe we should add a day in Bergen at least, but I'm wondering how the weather will limit things. It's also hard to imagine how to fit in excursions with such limited time in port, but I guess it works. Anyway, thanks again, much appreciated, and you'll probably get a few more questions as we prepare.

Thanks for the tips. While it's a bit of a convoluted way, at least there's hope. I did notice in the online app that if I lessen the number to 10 or less, it will let me proceed, where with thirteen everything is greyed out. Several previous trips on Carnival/Princess had 13-14 and it was no problem...we were seated at tables together, same place/waiters every night. We'll see how they do with this. The ship is the Royal Princess and shows two dining rooms...no idea which to pick. But a bigger issue is if I have a group of 6, the earliest time it shows is 7PM. If I cut it to fewer, it shows availability beginning at 5. We were planning on 6:30, so I may try 3 separate bookings to see if that will work with 6:30, and head to the dining room after boarding to let them know we need to have the tables together. If they can't provide that, we'll survive, but it will be our final Princess/Carnival/etc. cruise as there's no excuse to not be able to provide family groups seating together at dinner. I assume they'll work it out. This was never an issue before they "improved" to Medallion. Perhaps I'll give the cruise planner a call and see if she can manage it without all these workarounds. I don't know what time the shows are, but if the first one is 8, then 7 is probably too late for dining, hence the 6:30 preference. We don't particularly want the later shows, which again, was never a problem before. Thanks again for the info, it's very helpful.

We are a family group of 13, and planned to meet in the main dining room at a fixed time each night, with all of us seated together (not one table, of course). This has been simple in the past, but hitting the "Dine my way" in the app, choosing same time each night, and adding all 13 to the group returns a "Sorry, no reservations available, check back later". The cruise is Dec. 12, so not that far off. Any ideas? It's nice to see they've made what was once a simple process into a convoluted nightmare, thanks to the company's love for the "Medallion". We have jumped through hoop after hoop to get everyone properly registered via the app and web, yet keep running into glitches. We've done several Princess cruises in the past, but their fixation on this app and its associated processes has me leaning toward this being our last....we'll see, but what used to be a simple process is no longer. Being a computer tech person who's done a bit of programming in the past, I know that a main goal is to simplify and speed processes for the end user, and this is a fail in that respect. Maybe, someday, but after subjecting customers to being beta testers for years with no compensation? And, c'mon, Part 3 of the Medallion app posting on its 173rd page, and apparently mostly gripes or something not working? That in itself should speak volumes.

Thanks to Geezercouple for your great account of your experience (and the cold warning!) and to Hallasm for the tips and encouragement. It will be a unique experience to us, northern lights notwithstanding, just the journey along the coast in winter. We're flying to Oslo (from US) and taking the train from Oslo to Flam, spending a night, then on to Bergen for the ship, with a full day each in Oslo and Bergen...not much time, but then it will be winter and we have to be realistic about how much traipsing around we'll want to do in the cold. We'll save that for a near-future spring trip to see fjords and greenery. I appreciate the realistic assessment of the lights, and we'll hope for Hallasm's prediction to happen a lot during the trip. For years I went to Yosemite NP in early spring for the "moonbow" at Yosemite falls, and the description of the lights vs. what the camera shows sounds pretty much the same. We would be looking for faint colors and getting excited, while the camera showed a much more colorful display of the moonbow...and adding a correctly-oriented polarizer would accentuate the colors even more. Hopefully we'll see the lights so much that I'll have the nerve to experiment with the polarizer effect on them too 8^).

Yes, I noticed that on the Hurtigruten site back when I was booking the voyage. While it's not really much of a guarantee, I just thought it interesting that Havila had also added it, and figured that it was encouraging given the other comments about shipboard not being a good option for the northern lights. But we booked long ago with no guarantee, so it wasn't a factor in our choice. We'll (hopefully) see them if they appear, whether they're awe-inspiring or just a few flashes, and if not may not even bother with the guarantee, unless we can change the cabin and figure the associated costs are worth it to us. The alternative would be to cancel, figuring we may not see them at all so why take a chance, but I figure it will be an incredible and memorable voyage regardless...if we don't see the lights maybe we'll try again some other time or by some other means, but either way is OK.

We've booked a mid-February round trip (Bergen-Kirkenes-Bergen) with Havila, and I see that now they've added the "Northern Lights Guarantee" that I saw before on Hurtigruten. I'm excited about the new ships, and optimistic that we'll see lots of northern lights and hopefully get some good photos. We'll be ready to quickly don warmest clothes and head out if a middle of night event occurs. There's not a lot of info around on Havila; they're relatively new and had some glitches with the recent Russian situation, but it's looking good and starting to get exciting planning for the northern Norway weather in February. Best of luck with your 'bucket list', we're from CA also.

We've been on several Princess cruises and enjoyed them...prior to that we did several Carnival cruises which we also enjoyed, but the less "party-like" atmosphere on Princess was more to our liking. Last Princess cruise was Nov. 2019 Panama Canal. I booked a December 10-day Mexico cruise this year for our family, 14 total, and in getting things set up I've noticed some changes...the so-called "Medallion" being the elephant in the room. While not needing a card to get into the room is nice, I see nothing else useful there; getting 7% back from onshore purchases made from a merchant who had to raise his prices 20% to make up for the 17% Princess charges him? No thanks. And having to give my credit card info to a firm I never heard of, to enable this silly medallion, does not particularly thrill me. Setting up dining now seems like one could spend half the cruise time scheduling times for what? Before, we had early or late, and if we didn't want to bother or it didn't fit our schedule, we just ate at the buffet...simple and it worked fine. Now I look at a recent Princess Circle, with the new president raving about all the "great" changes coming, "MedallionClass" being one of them. Whooppee, sports betting, just what I never wanted. And you can gamble from your room, wow, wonderful (not). And maybe someone from a show cast will say happy something or other to one of us and surprise us, can hardly wait. And we can always watch the new "Love Boat II" reality show soon, that's about as exciting as nothing I can think of. So is Princess turning into Carnival, only more so? I'd have been many times more excited if they announced they were quitting being such cheapskates with drinking water, and no longer charging us for the bottle conveniently left in the room, or to carry on an excursion. Or eliminating formal night, though I don't begrudge them having it as some folks really like them. So perhaps I'm spoiled...we did a Viking trip this spring and really enjoyed it, besides things like water being freely handed out, coffee, drinks with dinner, sparkling water, wine, beer or whatever included, wi-fi for all. No onboard gambling, and never missed it. As I said, I did enjoy our several Princess Cruises before, so am withholding judgment until after this family cruise, but the things I've seen don't look good, if this is the way they're headed. They've hyped that silly Medallion so much (I think it's the president's pet project) that it monopolizes everying from magazines to discussion boards, and what a waste of everyone's time in figuring out how to use it. I actually liked the Princes app for onboard use before, it wasn't confusing and worked well. So we'll see, but I think their leadership is leading them the wrong way, and hopefully they'll figure it out before I write them off and head for other cruise lines.

Went back and forth between Hurtigruten and Havila, finally decided to give the new guys a chance and booked with Havila for the round trip coastal on the Capella Feb. 14 2023. The prices seem good and we liked the choice of cabins, and Havila has been good at responding to questions. So we are thinking of flying to Oslo and taking the train to Bergen...possibly also returning by train to Oslo for the flight back, but that's unknown right now. Is it worth taking this train in mid-winter? The photos look like it is, but that brings another question: should we get off in Myrdal and take the Flam railway to Flam, perhaps spend a night there, then back to Myrdal to re-board the Bergen train? Also, for a couple of older folks, both physically capable but not looking for strenuous winter activities, how much time should we spend in Oslo and in Bergen? 2-3 full days, or is that better left to a future visit with more late-springlike weather? Any things we shouldn't miss? Or should? I imagine we'll return in the near future for a late spring or fall visit, so we don't have to see things that may be better experienced then. Looking forward to the Havila coastal voyage...the small, less-touristy towns, winter scenery, a few yet-to-be-determined excursions, and of course, hopefully the northern lights in person. We're likely to give Hurtigruten a try in some other future trips, and if this one falls through we will probably do a coastal with them, but it seems kind of exciting with Havila just getting going, to (we hope) be a part of it.