Paula_MacFan

Today we took the Princess excursion to Amsterdam with canal cruise & time on your own. We left around 9am and returned around 5:15. The drive from Rotterdam to Amsterdam is about 1.75 hours. We had a good guide who educated us on the water system and dykes on the way. The canal cruise was nice and lasted an hour, cruising by the Anne Frank house. We had about 3 hours on our own in the afternoon for lunch & shopping. The guide provided maps and contact info in case anyone got lost. The weather was very nice today with partly cloudy skies and low 70s. Many places we saw today still have lovely flowers blooming. Looking forward to our sail away later tonight down the long river way.

Last night was our final formal night. We had reservations at Sabatini's and enjoyed our meal there. We loved the arancini and cheesy bread in the basket. I had the calamari & shrimp appetizer and hubby had the meat & cheese plate. (You can look at the menu for the specific names 😊). We skipped soup & salad, and both had the lobster tortellini pasta followed by the lasagna. We regretted not getting one lasagna and one sea bass to share, but maybe next time. We thought it was all very good but the lasagna was a little too meaty for my taste. Hubby liked it and I ate about half of mine. We ate at an Italian restaurant in London prior to the cruise that we liked slightly better, but we don't regret doing Sabatini's and would do it again but maybe order some different dishes. Keep the arancini though! Those are delicious. The service was prompt and attentive. We had early reservations so we got a lovely window table. When we left they were about 1/3 full. After dinner we attended the comedy magician show in Explorers which was a hoot. We stayed for the house band Asian Soul next. They are great and we've really enjoyed them throughout the cruise. They said they have been on other Princess ships as well.

You are quite welcome & I encourage you to keep the reservations. We've seen many people your age on our tours who did just fine 🙂

You'd have to ask Princess. Time of year maybe? This itinerary is only offered 2x each fall. We did have Oktoberfest themed meal at a beer hall in Berlin.

We are 54 & 55. Glad you have enjoyed my posts! We've seen age groups from 20's on up, but no kids at all. All our excursions have followed the descriptions exactly so I'd recommend reading the activity levels if you aren't sure. Paris & Berlin didn't have a huge amount of walking, other than in Berlin at the train station. That was a zoo of people and you really had to keep up with the guide. I'm happy to answer any other questions you may have later too.

Day 11 patter. Note page 1 says they are replacing outside furniture.

We slept a little late today (sea day) and therefore had a late breakfast and didn't attend the pop up Alfredos lunch. We did walk by and it looked about 1/3 full not long after opening. This itinerary has been great but it's port intensive. We've had port days for the last 4 days in a row, so today it was nice to sleep in a little bit. Also we have a 7 hour time difference from home which we've adjusted to, but still 😊 I didn't mention at the beginning of my post but we flew to London 5 days in advance using EZ Air. We flew United first class which we booked way cheaper than we could have on our own. Our tickets got us lounge access which was a huge value for our 4 hour layover in Chicago. No problems with EZ Air and I've managed our flights on the United app, including seat selection at the time of booking months ago. We had a good time in London and had many pre-planned activities to make the most of our time. I'm happy to answer questions about that if anyone has any. We used the International Friends transfer to ship with Stonehenge stop. Picked us up right on time in a nice bus and everything went was promised. Another fail noted on the Destination Guides here on the ship tv. We've been watching them every night for our next port and as I noted prior there have been some inaccuracies. For our next port Rotterdam the program said 'we kindly ask that you not travel to Amsterdam given the distance from port, and Princess will not be offering any shore excursions there on this trip'. Obviously this was recorded for some other prior cruise because we have had a Princess excursion booked for months, and I see several offered on the app. Again, a small thing but sloppy on Princess' part IMO.

Day 10 patter

Today we toured Oslo on our own. We docked at Filipstad (more on that later) and walked into town about a 15 minute walk to the city center by City Hall. Our first activity was the Viking Planet museum which we loved. It's all digital and you get to simulate being a Viking, fighting off attackers and sailing in a ship. We had a great time here, learned some stuff, and it dove-tailed nicely with the actual Viking artifacts we saw later in the day at the Historical Museum. The weather rebounded nicely today and we had a lovely day. It was mostly sunny and high 60s, and many people were out enjoying the day. We had a nice lunch at an outside table in the square (circle) in front of the City Hall building. We saw many wedding parties entering and leaving City Hall and taking pictures out front, some with large family groups. It was rather festive. After lunch we walked to the Akershus Fortress where we did the self tour. Nice views back across the water to our ship from here as well. Our next stop was the Historical Museum I mentioned earlier, followed by a stop at the Royal Palace. You can pretty much walk right up to the front door (a few guards are stationed there but no fences) and the gardens are also open to the public. We walked back to the ship by late afternoon. For those wondering, we noticed several hop on/hop off buses right at the port this morning. They also had reps with maps and info available at the pier. Lastly to circle back to my comment about where we docked -- this is another complaint about Princess. Several port guides on the app and also the destination talks on the TV have had incorrect info about where we are actually docked, example here and Gothenburg. I did my research in advance so I knew where we were docking, but for people relying on these tools from Princess they would be misinformed. Fail Princess. I had someone argue with me prior to the cruise about where we were docking today, as they were insisting we were docking by Akershus according to the Princess port guide. I was relying on the official port website which was correct. Hope they met their planned tour from the other dock. On our walk back to the ship we were stopped by a nicely dressed local couple out for a stroll on the waterfront. They asked if we were on the Island and asked where we sailed from and where we are going. They both said it looked like such a nice ship and something they don't see here very often. I thought that was amusing based on some of the CC comments that the Island is a floating junk heap 😉

We miss the International Cafe but it's not a deal breaker for us. We haven't attended any production shows as we've either been in port late or doing other things on the ship. We've found the service to be fine and staff pleasant. Haven't been to the library or had any need for IT services. Our next 2 scheduled cruises are back on Grand & Royal class ships. But I wouldn't hesitate to sail on Island again if the itinerary was right. I'm a firm believer that a cruise is what you make of it 😊

Thanks! The beer is nothing exciting -- just Michelob Ultra. It's a small annoyance and not cruise defining.

Day 9 patter

LOL yes we've tried at every bar. They are out ship wide. Every bartender has told us the same thing -- the Berlin shipment didn't come through so they are out until Southampton. The Island is an older ship but in good condition. Our mini suite is very comfortable, the bed is super comfy, and the furnishings we've used in the public spaces has been in good repair.

Today is a drizzly day (our first so far -- so yay for that). We are docked at the Arendal port of Gothenburg, Sweden, so we walked across the parking lot to the huge Volvo Museum. We spent 3 hours there and enjoyed it a lot -- hubby is a car guy. But they have lots of other things besides cars and it was a good way to spend a dreary afternoon. I was curious before the cruise just how far the walk would be. Even using Google maps sometimes it's hard to tell at an industrial port. So for anyone else who may be curious, here is a picture of our ship literally right outside the museum entrance. Notice the building on the left with the Volvo flags out front.

Here 7 is Day 8 patter

Today we visited Copenhagen and took the Princess tour Mighty & Magnificent Royal Fortresses. We left a little earlier than scheduled as everyone showed up early which was nice. There were around 30 on our tour which was sold out, but the bus was only about 2/3 full so we had plenty of room. We had a good guide and driver, and the tour matched the description exactly. We visited Frederiksborg, Kronborg, & Fredensborg Castles. All were fascinating and different. Lunch was a traditional Danish meal served family style at a historic inn from 1740. At the end of the day on the way back to the ship we stopped for the obligatory Little Mermaid photo. Back to ship by 5:15, right on time. We had lovely weather today with temps in low 70s and partly cloudy. We've been very lucky with weather the whole cruise so far. We noticed maintenance painting on several balconies as we left port this morning. So far our only complaint is they ran out of our favorite beer on day 2 and won't be replenishing until we return to Southampton. Fail Princess. We have the drink package too 😕

Today we visited Aarhus, Denmark. We didn't take a ship excursion but walked to Den Gamle By on our own, a pleasant 20 minute walk from the ship. There were reps at the dock with maps and info, but we had already purchased tickets in advance and had a general idea of where to go. We walked along the canal to the complex where we spent the whole day. It's an open air museum with buildings and homes from the 1500's to the current times. There are people there in period dress doing demonstrations, preparing foods, & giving carriage rides. We had a great day and were glad we didn't do the ship's tour here. At sailaway a local marching band serenaded us for about 30 minutes. Everyone was out on their balconies clapping & cheering. That was a first for us, and really fun.

Day 7 patter

Day 6 patter. Also a word of caution not to pre-plan too much based on the Journey View function of the app prior to your cruise. Several things that were listed as recently as last week on the app have changed now that we are on board.

We attended the 2nd captain's party after dinner. Here are the stats: First timers - 616 Gold - 416 Ruby - 282 Platinum - 537 Elite - 313 Total - 2,165 Most traveled 74 cruises & 1,250 days Total Elite & Platinum combined 101,422 days or 278 years at sea 😮

We thoroughly enjoyed the Bayou Steakhouse tonight. We had early reservations and got right in with a nice window view table. We both had lobster cake appetizers, hubby also had sea scallops, nice basket of cheesy bread rolls with butter, and filet mignon. Hubby added lobster to his entree for surf and turf. The steaks were cooked perfectly and were delicious. We took our caramel cheesecake to go for later. The service was prompt and attentive. We are happy they switched the menu over recently to more closely match the Crown Grill on other ships. There were around 8 tables when we left around 6:30. I have some general comments about our fellow passengers but will reserve those until the end of the cruise. I'll report on Sabatini's later in the cruise 😊

The Island does unique itineraries though, so if you want to do them that's the ship. The itinerary we're on is only offered twice a year in the fall. I'm currently sitting in my mini-suite enjoying a calm day at sea, perfectly happy. Beats a day at work 😉

Yesterday we took an all day Princess excursion called Scenic Berlin. We met in Explorers at 7am but were delayed getting off the ship until 8am due to slightly late docking. They hurried 500+ of us off the ship to meet the chartered train cars on time. No disembarkation photos set up yet due to hurry 😊 The train ride to Berlin was 3.25 hours despite the tour description of 2.5 hours. During that time we had a host who provided info, water bottles, iced coffee, and snacks. The trip across the countryside was pleasant. Once in Berlin we exited the very busy train station according to our groups. There were several different Princess excursions offered that all take the same train. We had a competent guide & driver who led us on a city tour of the Reichtag, Berlin Wall, CheckPoint Charlie, Brandenburg Gate, and other local sights. We made several stops throughout the day. Lunch was at a traditional beer hall with German food & beer, served family style in a lively atmosphere. After lunch we had a River Spree cruise, followed by a quick shopping stop on the Kurfurstendamn. We left from a different but just as busy train station around 6pm to make the train trip back to Hamburg. We arrived to the ship around 9pm and left shortly after. It was the longest excursion we've ever taken but felt it was worth it. We sat on our balcony and enjoyed the moonlit sail down the Elbe River. The captain said the river is about 81 miles to the sea and one of the busiest shipping ports. It was a lovely evening and we called it a day around midnight. Glad the next day is a sea day to relax 😊 So far our evening food has been: Day 1 - buffet Day 2 - Lido pizza Day 3 - MDR Day 4 - room service/late arrival back onboard Day 5 - Bayou Steakhouse reservation (tonight) Day 10 - we have Sabatini's reservations scheduled

We're having a great time so far. Both my husband and I have remarked this trip has had the calmest seas/least movement of any ship/trip we've been on. Which is rather surprising given the ship size & itinerary. Speaking of itinerary, as I mentioned earlier we pushed back another year to get the original schedule which includes Paris & Aarhus which weren't offered last year. We're glad we waited as we enjoyed Paris a lot and are looking forward to Aarhus tomorrow. We tend to cruise for the ports and experiences, and treat the ship as a floating hotel. We will partake in some evening live music or the occasional comedian, but we usually don't go to the MDR much if at all, don't usually go to production shows, and spend a lot of time on our balcony for sailaway or sea days. So far the weather has been lovely and on our first sea day there were even people in the outdoor pool swimming.

Here is the patter for day 5. 8