Martha1974

I agree, I’m from the UK too and love reading live reports and reviews of British Isles / UK cruises either because they’re going to places I’ve never been or to experience places I know through someone else’s eyes (so to speak). Really enjoying this one - Cobh is on my to do list but haven’t made it there yet.

@BlackBox DH and I are relatively new cruisers (6 so far) but haven’t sailed with Marella yet. We’re planing a trip to the Eastern Med for next year so would be very interested to know your thoughts about your experiences. I hope you have a great time… they do say that cruising can become addictive so be prepared 😁

On our recent 11-night we had 2 formal nights. My husband took his kilt to wear on the first and a dark lounge suit for the second. He had so many comments/compliments about the kilt he ended up wearing it for both. It generally seemed that the dress code on port days was casual and on sea days was smart or formal. I guess that would change based on the itinerary and number of ports (we had a 50/50 split of sea days and port days)

Following. We’re booked on Sky for the 7 night France / Spain in September (only our 2nd time on board). Will be interested to hear about her changes post-dry dock. Have a fabulous time!

I understand that it's not the 'done thing' but from my last experience of Sabatini's (ordering a glass of wine before the food order was taken and actually getting it after the main course was served) I'll run the risk of offending people by taking a drink in with me.

Thank you for the up-to-date review, we sail again on 23 March (just ordered our covid tests) so it’s good to hear things are pretty good on board.

We're sailing on Ambience again at the end of March (11 nights Northern Lights cruise to Iceland). We did book it before we took the Christmas Markets cruise but would have been willing to cancel and sacrifice the deposit if we hadn't been happy. Overall impression was good - for us she's a good sized ship with plenty of food and drink offerings for the number or passengers. Yes, the cabins are tired and ready for a refurb but we spend very little time in the cabin so were happy that our interior was a good size, was comfortable and was kept spotlessly clean by Tony our lovely cabin steward. Yes, some of the public spaces were crowded, but it was a cold-weather winter cruise on a ship that (judging by the amount of seating on the pool deck and other outdoor areas) is really designed for a percentage of the passengers to be outside during the day... we expect that the cruise to Iceland will be the same but would imagine that on a warm-weather cruise it would be different. Yes, some people were complaining about the time taken to get drinks service etc, but from travelling on other cruises and reading other message boards this is by no means an isolated issue to Ambassador and is widespread across the industry. What I will say is that all the crew that we saw were going above and beyond to try and minimise delays and to provide the best service they could. I'm by no means an "Ambassador cheerleader" but we've taken other more expensive cruises and we think for the price Ambassador stacks up pretty well, but as I see it said many times on Cruise Critic - "your mileage may vary"! If you do decide to book for 2024 I hope you have a great time too.

Was on the same cruise as @Britboys - also happy to help.

I saw this listed on the menu and it made me chuckle - I didn't think of the issue of it being misheard, but you're right. The other one that made me laugh was the virgin Bloody Mary - called a Bloody Shame! For me the first drink is always a Mimosa on the lido deck (otherwise known as a Bucks Fizz to us Brits)

Thank you for your review - we’ve just booked our first Carnival cruise for the Western Med in October 2024… I know it’s 18+ months away but I’ve started looking at videos and reviews already so I’ve really enjoyed reading your thoughts and seeing your photos (not the same destinations I know, but it still gives a feeling for the ship)

We were on a cruise in September at the time of the Queen’s funeral (not a P&O cruise but another Carnival line) - formal night was moved from Monday (the day of the funeral) to Sunday and on the Monday the funeral was broadcast in 3 or 4 locations around the ship. It was easy to find if you wanted to participate and easy to ignore if you didn’t. I would imagine they will try and find a similar ‘happy medium’ for the coronation.

I’m not sure this will help much, but I’m in the UK and have just logged onto www.Princess.com and have been able to search for sailings from LA in August and they have come up priced in £GBP. If you’re also in the UK I’m not sure why your experience would be different unless you’re using a non-uk vpn, but to be fair I’m really not very tech savvy so others can probably suggest other solutions.

Thank you for a great blog! DH and I were on Sky Princess in Sept 2022 and I am delighted to hear that your experiences were so similar to ours (we’re sailing on her again in Sept 2023 so we’re hoping nothing much changes!) We didn’t use the Sanctuary as we had 4 port days and 2 sea days but next time there’s only 1 port we want to re-visit so we’re hoping to manage a couple of afternoons as a treat. Incidentally my opinion of 5-skies was the same as yours… I could appreciate the performances but didn’t really get the point of it - DH on the other hand thought it was brilliant.

Absolutely no insights, but an additional query… as well as the changes to Bistro sur la Mer I’ve also heard suggestions that the Crown Grill Bar will be rebranded as Wheelhouse. Hubby and I have only sailed on Sky Princess so don’t know the plus sides of Crooners and Wheelhouse but will definitely miss Bistro.

For us the time we selected on the app was spot on (but that was probably because we chose the first available slot so there hadn’t been much time for the queues to build up). The discrepancy was that our booking information stated that check-in wouldn’t open until 12:30… we assumed that we’d be kept waiting to check-in but that at least we’d be near the front of the queue when it opened. However when we got to check-in it was definitely already open and nearly empty. We didn’t have to wait at all and walked straight up to one of the available agents. We assume Princess are advertising the later time to discourage everyone from arriving at 11:00 considering (as @Rick&Jeannie has pointed out) it seems to be common knowledge that the boarding group selection in the app means nothing.

We sailed from Southampton in Sept 2022. We selected boarding group A in the app (11:00am) but the itinerary on our travel summary stated that check-in wouldn’t open until 12:30. We arrived at the terminal at 10:50, CPS booked the car in at 11:20 and we were on the Lido deck with a drink by 11:45am. We’re on the same itinerary this September and I plan to do the same again.

I was taught many years ago that the easiest way to differentiate is that ‘high tea’ usually requires silverware/cutlery and ‘afternoon tea’ doesn’t (other that for spreading jam and cream on the scones of course. Let’s not open the ‘which goes on first’ debate!)

I’m an ex-smoker (I was fortunate that I quit before I had to deal with too many health consequences) and my husband has never been a smoker. I think he is more tolerant of it than I am… I found it unpleasant walking through the casino on Sky Princess but it didn’t bother him. I would definitely support smoke-free casinos but maybe with an expansion of Churchills (or the introduction of another smoking venue) that is a closed-door venue so the smoke doesn’t permeate into public areas and affect other people.

We found that there was usually live music in the piazza in the evening (you could hear it if you could find a seat on decks 5, 6 or 7). There was also live music in Take Five (we didn’t go in there but understand from friends that it was mainly jazz), in the Crown Grill bar (we saw a superb classic guitar player there) and we were told that there was also some live music in the Vista Lounge. The only nights we were still around to see a late night DJ we were in the Vista Lounge… we probably stayed till about 12:30 but how much later than that it carried on I couldn’t tell you. It was our first cruise with Princess so I can’t help with information about Elite/platinum etc (although I feel like I saw the vista lounge was reserved so that may have been why!)

Everything @reedprincess said!! The only thing I would add is that Sky Princess doesn’t have the extra-charge Salty Dog Gastropub (my understanding is that this has replaced the Vines wine-bar on some ships, but Sky Princess still has Vines). The extra-charge speciality dining venues are Crown Grill, Sabatini’s and Bistro sur La Mer. We’ve only sailed on Sky Princess once and we did try all 3 speciality restaurants. I have my opinions but I’d advise that you try them if you want to and then you can make up your own mind. The only other thing I’d add is that there are items on the room-service menu that are included but there are others (such as pizza) that are extra-charge. As I said we’ve only sailed on Sky Princess once so that are many more CC contributors that are far more knowledgable, but if you need an indication of our opinion we’re sailing on her again in Sept 2023. I hope you have a great vacation.

We have annual cover with CedarTree and have always found their prices very good. We’re lucky that we don’t have many pre-existing conditions, and also that we’ve never had to make a claim so can’t say how good they are if something goes wrong

I usually pack a few magnetic hooks for extra hanging space (useful for handbags/ cruise card lanyards etc and for hanging wet clothes in the bathroom, especially if cold / wet weather cruising) and also a magnetic motion-sensor nightlight for getting to the bathroom during the light without switching lights on.

Hubby and I went to 'Spoons for our wedding breakfast! We had a very quiet (us + 2 witnesses) registry office wedding on a Monday (the cheapest day to get married!) with a big family party the following Saturday, so we were straight out of the Registry Office and across the road to Wetherspoons for fizz and nibbles (not the one in So'ton though).

We were booked on our first Princess cruise on Sky Princess for 12 days in March 2022 but weren’t able to travel due to a positive covid test so used some of the FCC for a 7-night France & Spain trip in September and rebooked the same itinerary for Sept 2023 with the remainder. Having also done a German Xmas Markets cruise in December on a smaller ship (1400 pax) we think that we may be ‘small ship people’ but we’re happy to give the Sky Princess another chance to change our minds.

We’re still on board and the food in the MDR has been as good as the event on Saturday, if not better (IMHO) but we have only had 2 evening meals so far. Haven’t done b’fast or lunch in there yet, just in the buffet but going gI’ve it a try tomorrow. Resorted to a 7:30 breakfast in the buffet this morning and it was lovely and quiet!