tully07

oh yeah, Canadian retail banks charge you a higher exchange rate than most currency exchanges.  Even my bank recommended that I use a currency exchange----

I do not let Princess do any currency conversions, I keep everything in USD on board ship -- and if they owe me a cash refund they send me a cheque in USD. 

There will definitely be more than 20 spaces -- ignore the number showing in the online excursion listing -- usually there's at least 3 or 4 busloads for each excursion and often more -- however, if it's showing as sold out, then you may be out of luck.

You may want to check with the excursion desk on the ship when you board....

This is all news to me -- sorry if I am reinventing the wheel however -- I have a card from March 2018 with some punches left -- a card that I purchased -- and you're telling me I can't use it on my upcoming B2B in February --- there was no mention in March 2018 that it would expire at the end of the year. 

I've seen no mention of how are they treating the new coffee "card" system for B2B cruises -- will a "card" expire at the end of the first 7 days??  So  I would need to buy a second "card"  for the second 7 days - even if I have 'punches' remaining??

This makes no sense......

Recently off the Grand -- new coffee cards had an expiration date of December 31, 2018. I still have an old card with no expiry date and a couple of punches left. I'm holding on to it -- it's still being accepted for specialty coffee, but not for specialty tea or brewed coffee.

Paul Burton was on the Grand in March 2018.

On the Grand a couple of weeks ago, we had a chance to compare the two internet services -- we had free minutes because we're platinum. Service was slow and we lost minutes waiting for things to connect -- at the time, I blamed on the fact we were in the middle of a bunch of sea days heading to/from Hawaii. One we used up our minutes, we bought additional internet time through the new packages -- we each selected the "surf" package. It is so much faster than the regular per minute internet - a completely different experience.

But it is expensive -- $14.99 per day for 'social; $24.99 per day for 'surf' and $29.99 per day for 'premium'. Towards the end of the cruise they offered it at a discount which is when we signed up. No more counting minutes!!

I am hoping they change the 'free' internet packages to some portion of this new service --- either some free days -- or a discount off the regular price.

My daughter has selected Venice as the place she wants to visit for her 40th birthday in 2018 -- so we're considering the Uniworld cruise but combined with a land tour with Insight vacations. I've been to Italy before (and loved Venice) but she has not. I would be very interested in reviews/comments from those who take the "Italy" Uniworld cruise in 2017.

Sent from my iPad using Forums

I've done a number {7} of Insight tours and have enjoyed them all. The tour guides have been excellent. On the other hand I have never done a river cruise -- and I am looking at a combined land tour/river cruise of Italy for May 2018. I am finding it a bit puzzling that the 2018 river cruises are already available for booking, but the combo tours are not. Given the limited number of cabins available on the ships, it seems to me that the cabin availability could be very limited or non-existent by the time the combo tours are available for booking. How quickly do the river cruises sell out?

We have stayed in these minis several times -- and have E727 booked for an upcoming 14 day cruise in February. Love this location!! :D

Yes, there were just two of us. I was travelling with my daughter.

Sent from my iPad using Forums

We stayed at the Scandic for 2 nights before our Baltic cruise in May [booked through Princess]. Our room was a good size -- clean and comfortable. The following picture from the hotel website is exactly what our room looked like [family standard plus room]:

https://www.scandichotels.com/hotels/denmark/copenhagen/scandic-copenhagen/rooms#roomcat-108791

It wasn't the Ritz but nicer than many "budget" hotels in the US. Loved the heated floor in the bathroom! The included breakfast was one of the best we've ever had --

The location was excellent -- we could walk everywhere. We had booked a free walking tour of Copenhagen for the afternoon of our arrival -- and we had no trouble checking in; getting some lunch at a nearby cafe, and walking to City Hall to meet up with the tour. Our flight arrived at 10:30 a.m. -- tour started at 2 pm. Our room was ready when we arrived. We even had time to watch some of the wedding parties coming out of City Hall.

The Princess desk in the lobby was open all day and their service was excellent. The hotel was full but we never had to wait for anything.

We were in St Petersburg on the Regal Princess on May 18 and 19. We encountered a significant delay in clearing immigration on the morning of May 18. Most lines were open and moving smoothly but not ours. It took us more than 45 minutes to clear immigration - for no apparent reason other than the immigration officer seemed to be taking her time reviewing each passport/visa. [she would look at each passport, look at our face, look at the clock, look at her computer monitor, then repeat the process several times] We were not offered a chance to switch lines -even though a person monitoring the lines was well aware that our line was not moving along. The terminal was full.

By way of example, we were group 2 out of 7 groups on our particular tour, and we were sent to immigration at about 10 minute intervals. Two people from group 1 in our line missed their coach and joined ours. At least two people from group 2 missed our coach and were moved to group 3. In contrast, all members of group 7 were through immigration and on their coach long before we made it through.

It made for a stressful start to our visit. When we returned to the terminal around 5 pm, we again encountered a delay in proceeding through immigration, but at least that time we were able to change lines. Subsequent travels through the terminal, both on exiting and returning to the ship, were very quick.

We loved the 2 day excursion -- we knew that it would involve very long days -- but we decided it was something we had to do. Of course, the first day would not have been so long if it hadn't taken almost an hour to get through Russian immigration on the first morning! That made us paranoid about long line-ups for subsequent departures for onshore activities in Russia, which thankfully never materialized.

My only regret about this tour is that I didn't take pictures of our Russian visas on that first day before the Russians took them back when we returned to the ship to get ready for our evening at Catherine's palace.

We did not tender in Nynasham in May. They have built a new dock so that tendering is not required.

At a Captain's Circle event on the May 12 Baltic cruise, a senior VP from Princess indicated that the Mediterranean cruises in spring 2017 were our opportunity to try the Majestic Princess before it moves permanently to the Chinese market. It did not sound like this ship would be marketed to the rest of the world once it is permanently located in Asia.

We did not have to tender in Nynasham on the May 12 cruise, we were docked and just walked off the ship as usual.

They didn't change just your sailing - they changed our May 12 sailing as well. They may have also changed others. We were told the Regal had a generator problem which meant that it had to travel at a lower speed, and sailing through the archipelago would have taken too much time. They did adjust excursion times as the ship stayed longer in Nynashamn, and provided shuttles buses into Stockholm (at no cost, I think).

The hotel is well located - it's easy to find your way around from there. Princess has reps at the hotel during the day who will assist you with directions if needed. We liked the hotel - the room wasn't fancy but we found it comfortable. The included breakfast was excellent.

It's about 10 minutes to Tivoli Gardens and maybe 15 minutes to the Stroeget. Lots of cafes and restaurants nearby.

The Sandemans walking tour that we took ended near the Amalienborg Palace at Frederiks Kircke. From there it was an easy walk back through the Nyhavn area to the Stroeget and our hotel (Scandic Copenhagen).

We just returned from our Baltic cruise and we did the free Sandemans tour in Copenhagen -leaving the City Hall Square at 2 pm. The tour lasted about 2 hours and was an excellent introduction to the city. We would have no hesitation in doing another tour with them.

Last week, on disembarking the Regal Princess, we waited well in excess of 30 minutes to clear immigration in St Petersburg - our "deliberately paced" immigration officer was watching the clock! Other lines moved more quickly, but it's all in the line chosen. Six lines were open - four of them moved quickly, two did not. Returning to the ship was initially slow, but they opened more lines. And, by comparison , we zoomed through for all subsequent entrances and exits.

There were no comments from Princess that I saw about ship's tours or private tours. We were all in the same lines waiting to be processed.

They weren't doing the Sound of Music last week on the Regal. They were back to the same old songs - Under the Boardwalk; Sweet Caroline; Oh What a Night; can't Take My Eyes Off You. No more Sound of Music -- [emoji45]

Our recent muster drill on the Island started late -- and we were in the fitness room -- no comfortable seating there !! I would have been delighted to be seated in comfort in the theatre. ;)

While I do like having the paper Patters and the Log of the Cruise, I wouldn't have a problem if they were made available for passengers to download and print once the cruise survey is submitted. It would save some weight in my suitcase. ;)

We used Princess@Sea a lot during our recent cruise for information about what was happening --although I must admit we also referred to the paper Patters in the evening to figure out what we wanted to do the next day! :D

Off the Island March 14 and did not get one. Very disappointing as I scrapbook all my cruises - so I keep the Patters and the Logs and the Port info. I don't save the junk - I.e. Art info, shopping, info, etc. Wonder if we'll get one on the Regal next month.......