OceanPrince

Here are some random thoughts and observations.

• The ship was in decent shape. Seem slightly better than my previous ship, her twin sister, Sapphire Princess.
  
• The Diamond is more geared for Japanese. Thus, the bath house took up valuable space.
  
• No International Cafe, wish it was there but not a huge deal. Dinning room menu more limited to make room for Japanese items.
  
• No BOGO for $1 happy hour, thus I spent $0 on bar.
  
• Excursions for English speakers are expensive but it's supply and demand. There are limited licensed English speaking guides and therefore they would charge 30% more for the same tour in English vs in Japanese.
  
• First cruise with no stated Anytime Dining. However, 4 of the 8 nights was late port days and it was effectively anytime dinning for everyone.
  
• There were buses/Shuttles at every port taking us to city center/main station. Mostly $10, Aomori was $5 since it was very close.
  
• The spring flowers cruises draws more international mix vs the other Japan cruises. Passenger count for the ~2700 capacity: Japanese: ~700s, American ~600s, Aussies ~500s, Brits/Canadian/Russians/Israelis were the next biggest groups.
  
• Peak Cherry blossom were up to 2 weeks earlier than normal. The cruise before our's didn't see much blossoms but we were lucky that we hit peak bloom at Aomori (as seen in last picture).
  

Bottom line: All 4 Japan port were terrific despite gloomy/wet weather at the first 3. Aomori was the highlight as it was sunny and had peak bloom. Again, cruises in Japan are geared toward the Japanese and we are along for the ride. I hear too many westerners nitpicking about every little thing that they are not use to. So you like to complain about lack of International Cafe, higher excursions costs, difference in dinning menus, crowed buses/trains, taking off your shoes at certain places, etc etc.. then this is not for you. If you want to humbly explore one of the most fascinating cultures with rich history and experience the dazzling display of peak Sakura bloom, this is a must do.

Here are some pictures. Click on my photo album linked via my signature to see the rest. Or follow me on Instagram @waynstapix for live port by port posts from my British Isles on Royal Princess next month

Precruise: daytrip to Matsumoto.

Port: Kanazawa

Port: Sakaiminato

Port: Hakodote

Port: Aomori

Was just at Chan May for an overnight recently. First day, I recommend getting a taxi to Hoi An.. it was $25USD/person in a 10 person van. I was by myself and they just gathered people from cruise ship. Get to Hoi An before 4:30 and walk around during sunset/twilight. A couple from that trip loved it so much they went back to Hoi An the next day, though they said it wasnt as pretty during day time. Another couple from ship spend the night in Hoi An cuz they wanted to get custom made shoes and suits which requires overnight tayloring. We missed Marble mountain cuz it closes at 5pm and getting to Hoi An for sunset was a priority.

Oatmeal raisin cookies.. honestly, I rarely eat oatmeal raisin cookies outside of Princess Ships and if someone recommends it to me on a msg board, I would probably ignore it. But fresh baked Oatmeal raisin cookies is one of the best things onboard.

Also... Lido deck pizza (though bit greasy), any Norman Love dessert (not sure if they still have it or how much longer they'll have it), most seafood appetizers, sandwiches at International Cafe toasted, tiramisu, etc

Most Cruise Critic members are long-time cruise fans who are use to certain things in certain ways. When a new ship comes along, they always focus on what's wrong and never on what's right. They will complain endlessly about no outside deck 7 but ignore the fact that the buffet is 100 times better.

I was on the Majestic in May after previously sailing on Royal and Regal each twice. Almost everyone I asked loved the ship. Personally, I can not imagine going back to any non-Royal class ship. In fact, I'm waiting for a Royal class to come to west coast before doing another Alaska or Coastal. Majestic did do some things that will irk western cruisers (no Prego's pizza!, too much space for casino and high end shops and not enough bars (no crooners), etc but I'll take it over the older ships any day.

There is a film crew aboard to do a marketing video. My guess is Princess doesn't want to pay them for an extra day

It funny how every time a cruise ship makes an itinerary change, there are always some people fighting tooth and nails to be the victim. They will always say "the company is screwing me over to make more profits". Couple years ago, a ship had to turn back to Cabo for a medical emergency and was forced to skip Puerta Vallarta, someone posted here "my guess is that the company wanted to save fuel.. thus screwing me over since I booked the cruise for Puerta Vallarta". Can't it just be a medical emergency, as it was later confirmed that a life was save by returning to Cabo. Can't it just be bad weather, as every forecast has 5 inches of rain (which is armageddon in LA standards)? Such a sad reflection of the rampant victim-mentality in the world today.

Historically, the only way to step foot on Glacier was helicopter or rigorous 8 mile hike. Starting this year, there is a new tour to paddle across lake and trek around the glacier. I did this tour last week and it was terrific. Was able to go inside an ice cave!

We have two questions and they are when is the best time

to take a Alaskan Cruise? Second question is Which line is

better. Princess or Celebrity? We are Elite passengers with

Celebrity but from what I see the Ruby goes to Glacier Bay

as Celebrity does not. Thanks for any thoughts on this topic:)

Here are the 3 main factors you need to consider if going with Princess:

1. Time of year.

A. May/early June: Drier, cheaper/less kids, more ice for more dramatic scenery, may be cooler (though my memorial day visit in 2013 had 85 degrees heatwave in Juneau), few bears if any, no Salmon yet

B. June/July/early August: More wildlife, warmer. Best time to go if you dont mind more expensive and more crowd on ship and in ports.

C. Late August/Sept: cooler with more chance of rain, cheaper/less kids, less ice, more wildlife/lots of salmon

2. Inside passage vs Voyage of Glaciers

A. Inside Passage refers to 7 day Seattle Roundtrip. It hits the same 3 ports as Voyage of Glaciers. The main appeal of this cruise is cheaper airfare.

B: Voyage of Glaciers refers to 7 day one-way Vancouver to Anchorage (Whittier) or reverse. Downside is that you have to fly one way to/from Anchorage. However, this cruise allows optional pre or post cruise journeys into the heart of Alaska (train to Denali/McKinley/etc. lodges) which is the true Alaska experience. This cruise also has an extra scenic cruising spot at either Hubbard Glacier or College Fjords (by some accounts either of these are more impressive than Glacier Bay)

3. Ships

A: Ruby/Crown does the Inside Passage. They are sister ships with ~3100 capacity. These two ships are newer and, for better or worse, bigger than the other Alaska ships.

B: Island/Coral does the Voyage of Glaciers. They are sister ships with ~2000 capacity. Many CC members love these two ships as they have one of the best passenger to public space ratio. However, Island recently added ~100 staterooms.

C: Star also does Voyage of Glaciers. She has capacity of ~2700. I have been on this ship to Alaska and enjoyed it. It's a smaller version of the Ruby/Crown. It has a covered and heated pool! Don't think Crown/Ruby has that.

Well, I suggest to making lemonade out of lemons. Visit other parts of China. China has lots of culture/history and definitely has the best natural scenery. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I heard China visas are good for 10 years now. Doesn't hurt to spend some time to visit another area of China post-cruise. If not, go back another time.

Royal and Regal are by far my two fav ships, so this is exciting. Do not want to go back to the grand class buffets. Hopefully they will bring it to the west coast. I thought I heard that Majestic will have central staircase so hopefully that will carry over. After that, my biggest suggestion is to fix the various 'wind-tunnels' areas (retreat pool, ping pong area). I do miss skywalkers, but there are waaaaaay too many positives to outweigh the negatives.

Does anyone have any advise for doing this venture on your own?

How far is it? Use a tour? Taxi?

We want to do this, but are nervous to venture out without on an excursion not sanctioned by the Cruise Line

Any and all advise welcomed! thank you

I've been to St. Maarten's 4 times and Maho beach 4 times. In fact, was just there 7 days ago. It's super easy to taxi there. When you get off of the ship just look for signs that leads you to the Taxi area (not water taxi). Then there will be signs and people screaming out various destinations. They will charge per person ($11 or so each way to Maho) and pack people into a minivans. Coming back is just as easy as there are dozens of overly eager taxi drivers offering to take you back to Cruise ship. I do agree to give yourself 2 hours to get back as one of my visits took over 1 hour to return to ship due to construction.

Maho will be PACKED with people during middle of the week. The beach itself isnt that great compared to other beaches. It's very small, crowded, and steep. Maho is not a relaxing beach. If you have 7+ hours and start your day early, I recommend going to the nearby Mullet Beach first to relax and then walk to Maho. It's 20 minute walk from Maho and to me, Mullet is one of the best beaches on the island (i think tripadvisor has it as top beach on island)

nothing there that would want me to pay $19 covercharge

When I first heard about gastropub concept with $19 cover, my first thought was '[Heck] No!'. But upon reading the press release, it got me very interested in trying it. If Salty dog was just some random pub started by some random Princess galley staff member, I would pass. However, Princess must have shelled out big bucks in order to hire the Chef that started Umami Burger and Plan Check to create the menu for Salty Dog. I'm in the 30s/40s age demographic and these two restaurants are quite beloved amongst my piers. Can't wait to try it!

I went on the Royal and Regal last year.. It was such a let down when I recently went back onto the (super)grand class... on the Caribbean Princess (CB).

- The CB buffet sucked compared to Regal. Regal has a salad section, dessert section... just much bigger! the CB buffet was crowded with passengers, foods that dont belong next to other are thrown together cuz space is tight.

- The TV!!!. On the Regal, it's an interactive on-demand entertainment system like Netflix but with live TV. I just choose what movies I want to watch and when I want to watch it. On CB, I missed dining room dinner twice cuz I wanted to finish a movie. On Regal, I would just turn off the TV in the middle of the movie, then resume the movie whenever I like!

- Sportscourt. The basketball court on the CB is a joke. Rubbery basketballs on a small rubbery-surfaced half court. The sportscourt on the Regal is a small full-court with a smooth surface that allows for leathery basketballs. It also doubles as a volleyball and soccer court.

- Pools! The retreat pool was my fav. CB pools just seems dated.

- Muts. The Movies under the Star was much better quality on the Regal.

- Overall bling, as the kids would say. All the public areas is newer, chic'er, nicer, etc etc. The Atrium, halls, casino area, etc are so beautiful on the Regal, like a new Vegas hotel.

If I could exclusively sail on Royal class ships, I would.

P.S. I usually do not care the the song and dance performances, but there is a production show exclusive to the Regal called Fieria. I thoroughly enjoyed that show. Check it out if you go on Regal.

Just saw this article on Yahoo front page.. Princess actually beat out Celebrity in both Mega and Large ship categories.

http://www.travelandleisure.com/worlds-best/cruise-lines#large-ship

A fellow passenger alerted me on the very first day of cruise that Andalsnes and Trondheim were switched to tender ports. The information was made public early, however, the information was not widely broadcast.

Princess prides themselves at serving people with special requests/needs.. i.e. glutton free diets, mobility issues, etc. They had a efficient and careful team helping people with mobility scooters on and off tenders. People with mobility issues were taken care of and always got off first. Thus, my guess is that the service reps wound not understand why changing from dock to tender was a valid reason to give refund after cancellation deadline.

I was on this cruise. Fantastic itinerary, great food and poor entertainment.

 

Over a 5 day spell our toilet failed to work so many times that we lost count. Not blocked, just sucking air. As for the stench coming from the shower drains, words fail me. It is not funny returning to your cabin at 1 am and finding the stench so strong that you could not enter. This also happened 3 times on separate days. As for the people at the customer services desk, as much use as a chocolate tea pot.

 

We have other issues of a serious nature, but am dealing with Princess about these, so do not want to mention what they are.

 

As someone who has done over 20 cruises I accept that things are not always perfect and at times problems occur.

 

If the CP is typical of the Princess fleet, then the Norway cruise will be my first and last with Princess.

 

Just one last comment, did we have captain ? if so, he kept a very low profile.

 

I will put my tin hat on and wait for the loyal fans of Princess to flame me.

If you know you might get flamed, then you know that there will be lots of opposing opinions, even within our Norway sailing. You happened to get a bad cabin. Seems like you already know that your experience is an outlier. Although this Norway cruise was my second enjoyable cruise on the Caribbean Princess (CB), I've always told people that the CB is last of the 18th Princess ships I would recommend. Ironically, CB is the first ship I've sailed twice on. If you do try Princess again, I would recommend the new Regal/Royal or the beloved Island/Coral. But truth is that even if you book the CB again, chances are that you will be have a great experience.

Captain not being seen was almost comical topic during dining room conversation. Some said that he might be too focused on the Technical side of his job that he doesnt care for the dog and pony aspect of his job. Passengers expect every ship to have a flamboyant superstar, but on this cruise it was not the captain... but more so, the Cruise Director and his assistant.

Thanks, OceanPrince! Your pictures are stunning, and I'm so glad you got such a good picture of the beach at Lofoten. I was not able to capture its beauty with my point and shoot.

Actually, all my pictures in my album are with my Canon S100 Point & Shoot, including these. Many P&S camera have better optics than a Go Pro, just that Go Pros have wider angles.

(taken same place as the 5th picture above)

(taken same place as the 6th picture above)

Lars, here are few more pictures from the ports you helped us with..

Hey Lars,

Recently returned from my Norway cruise on the Caribbean Princess. Thanks again for all your help and advice. Here are some pictures I took with a wide angle Go Pro.

Stavanger - Pulpit Rock

Andalsnes - Geiranger

Andalsnes - Trollstigen

Lofoten Island - Reine

Lofoten Island - Flakstad

Lofoten Island - Ramberg

Recently sailed on the 15-day Norway cruise on the Caribbean Princess. Some quick reviews and thoughts...

- Cruise was Southamption roundtrip with all10 ports in Norway. Each and every port had terrific places to visit though some required more work to get to. Lofoten island may be one of the most beautiful places in the world.

- Cruise definitely had the oldest clientele of my 7 Princess cruises which was anti-intuitive since it's a cruise with great hikes or other adventurous activities. We were surprised that only 6 of the 3200 passengers attempted to hike up Pulpit Rock in Stavanger.

- Was warned that Norway is expensive, but didn't realise the magnitude of it until I got there. Ship was at least 2/3 Brits. I've always thought Brits are king of the world when they travel as their buying power goes up wherever they go but I was wrong. It was interesting to see how paralyzed they were by the Norway prices.

Here are some wide-angle Go Pro shots.

Click on my signature below for the entire album.

do you have picture of the fjords do they speak English or kinda broken

I was on the same cruise. Not here to answer questions, but here are few of the picture highlights. I'll work on the rest of the pictures when I'm less jet-lagged. I will post my own thread when all the pictures are ready. Stay tune.

Stavanger - Pulpit Rock

Andalsnes - Trollstigen

Andalsnes - Geiranger

Lofoten Island - Reine

Aalesund - Fjord drive scenery

Aalesund - City from viewpoint

I am also on the North Cape cruise on the Caribbean Princess. Last month, I read all 40+ pages of..

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2018995

and

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1969271

LOTs of information on these two thread. Ten ports can be quite overwhelming, but there are do-it-yourself info on all the ports. I think I won't be booking a single ship tour on the cruise.

Overall, the two itineraries are about the same. But if you focus is Norway, the shorter one is a definitely better. There 3 norway ports in the longer route doesnt go north enough to hit the good Fjord area.

I'm going on the 15-day 'Norway & North Cape' cruise on the Caribbean Princess this June. It's designed to reach the most northern point in continental Europe around the summer solstice which means 24 hours of daylight. It also visits the popular Arctic town of Tromso. But one major reason I chose this cruise is because of Lofoten Island. I plan to drive down to the town of Reine and hike this mountain.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/11/06/reine-norway-fishing-village_n_6083944.html

Thanks Lars for your input. Is there a reason why getting to Geiranger from Andalsnes is better than from Olden? Figured its same distance but no ferry would be a huge factory. The concept of driving a car onto a boat is foreign to me and I'm not in control of time.

I think I will lean toward option B from Andalsnes. If the car breaks down or return ferry breaks down, I use option D as backup plan.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?p=45907336#post45907336 Roll Call!

Thanks Letsgo. I have actually been reading/skimming through 40+ pages of our roll call and 40+ pages of this thread for the past 3 weeks since I booked the cruise. Just figured that Lars probably knows more about this area so I started with him.