OceanPrince

Hi Lars. First of all, thank you very much for the time you spent on this board helping others. It's much appreciated. Below are the Norway ports from my itinerary on the Caribbean Princess.

Stavanger, Norway Sun, 06/14/15 7:00am - 4:00pm

Olden, Norway Mon, 06/15/15 9:00am - 6:00pm

Flaam, Norway Tue, 06/16/15 9:00am - 6:00pm

Andalsnes, Norway Wed, 06/17/15 10:00am - 7:00pm

Trondheim, Norway Thu, 06/18/15 9:00am - 6:00pm

Honningsvag (north Cape), Norway Sat, 06/20/15 8:00am - 9:00pm

Tromso, Norway Sun, 06/21/15 9:00am - 6:00pm

Gravdal (lofoten Islands), Norway Mon, 06/22/15 9:00am - 6:00pm

Aalesund, Norway Wed, 06/24/15 8:00am - 5:00pm

Bergen, Norway Thu, 06/25/15 7:00am - 2:00pm

Missing from this itinerary is Geiranger. Since Norway is very far from California, I have to plan this trip as if it'll be my only trip to Norway. A Norway trip does not feel complete without going to Geiranger. Based on the maps Geiranger is located right in the middle of the Olden-Alesund-Andalsnes triangle. Which option below do you recommend for visiting Geiranger?

A. Olden port day- Only route without having to take ferry. But will not be able to visit the Briksdal glacier. Will I able to see the fjords and lakes scenery along the drive to Geiranger. Car rentals in Olden seems more limited and pricier.

B. Andalsnes port day - I read here that its possible to drive Road 63 roundtrip there, but seems like it will be very rushed for both Troll Wall and Geiranger?

C. Alesund port day - This seems to be the longest drive to Geiranger? I also need some time to take pictures at top of Mt Aksla. Also, the trip to Hotel Union Oye mentioned on this thread sounds very enticing. Therefore, unless you tell me otherwise, I'm leaning against going to Geiranger during this port.

D. Andalsnes side trip - From Andalsnes, take my time with Troll Wall and Geiranger all day and even take the scenic route back. Find a hotel in Andalsnes for the night. Take the train to catch up with the ship at Trondheim the next day. I believe there is a train that departs Andalsnes at 9am and arrives at Trondheim at 2:30pm. This will still leave me couple hours to walk around Trondheim. The first 1/3 of the 5-hour train ride is from Andalsnes to Dombas on the very scenic Rauma Rail, do you know about the other 2/3 of the train ride? However, this option is costly and risky to deviate from the ship.

E. Geiranger is over-rated, there's already plenty of great fjord scenery on itinerary. It's okay to just skip it.

I would speculate the following factors

- Ships are built in Italy, thus they usually start with routes along the Atlantic

- The more lucrative itineraries are Caribbeans and Europe

- Until the widening of panama canal, company will lose money sailing around S. America to bring them to the west coast.

I think the Royal/Regal are amazing ships, definitely a step-up from the older ships. Cant wait for them to come over here.

There it is again, that weird idea that some people like one thing and other people like something else. ;) I prefer the proletariat pizza on Lido. I guess it's my unsophisticated palate on display again.

I totally agree. The Lido pizza is simple and unhealthy, but so so good. Recently, I had 20 friends that went on a cruise. They has mixed reviews on everything, but the consensus was that Prego's Pizza on Lido deck was highlight of the trip.

How can Alfredo's pizza be best pizza among all cruise lines when it's the second best pizza on Princess Ships? :)

How was the audio quality for the screen? My last few cruises, I've ended up leaving partway through the movie because the audio was so bad, you couldn't really follow along with the movie.

 

Erin

Hmmm.. the only time I watched movie was when I was sitting in Hot Tub, I remembered I can hear it but barely, but it probably cuz of the hot tub jets.

how did you arrange to get off and stay in St. Marrtin in middle of cruise?

very interested, did not know you could do this.

Did you have any trouble getting back??

Yes, I had to contact Princess for approval first. As previous post mentioned, I have to pay for entire cruise and all the port taxes. However, I closed out folio on day 5 and saved gratuity for the remaining 2 days. Also, I had to hand over my passport the night before disembarkation so that the ship people can do the immigration paperwork for St. Maartens.

I flew into FLL and flew out of SXM. Really enjoyed my 3 days in SXM. Once the cruise ships leave, it's a nice chilled vibe. Was able to visit Anguilla and St. Barts as well, though the ferry rides were not pleasant.

Here are some quick thoughts and reviews. But first some background info. This is my 6th cruise with Princess, 3rd 7-day Eastern Caribbean, 2nd on one of the new ships. The main reason for this cruise was that my friends saw my pictures from previous cruises, particularly the airplane landings at Maho Beach, and they wanted to go. We decided that we disembarked at St Maartens on the 5th day of the cruise and spend the weekend there.

The Ship: I was on the Royal in March and really enjoyed the beauty and elegance of the ship. The Regal is basically the same gorgeous ship. Every time I walk thru the atrium, I'm in awe.

Food: This is a subjective topic. Not sure if it's psychological bit I enjoyed the dinning room food on the 2 new ships the most. The buffet is definitely better.

The IM system: Since it's web based, it doesnt have alerts and often lags. You would need to open up the browser on your smartphone periodically to see if you have any new msgs. Overall, it's better than nothing. Maybe the app will eventually come out and it'll be flawless.

Happy hour: From 11pm to midnight, drinks are buy one get one free at the club. This was great. Not only cheaper drinks, but people actually going to the Club.

Crown Grill: first time trying Crown Grill after 6 cruises. It was one of the highlights. Totally worth the $25 cover. I rarely eat at fancy restaurants but my friends do. So I asked my friends how much would the same food, same decor, same service be worth if we move Crown Grill into the middle of LA as a stand alone restaurant. The consensus was about $150 per person.

Toiletries: Seems like everything is "by request" now. It started with the conditioner, now even lotion. I had dry skin for the first day until I realised this.

Entertainment: First half of the cruise had comedian Adam Ace. I find all comedians good. Adam Ace is good but probably the least 'good' of all the comedians I've seen. As mentioned, I disembarked on day 5. The patter that day has the Beatlemaniacs that night. They are possibly the most enjoyable act I've seen on a cruise. Very bummed that Adam Ace was during first couple nights and Beatlemaniac was during last couple nights.

Production show 'Fiera': I usually dont care for the song and dance routines. But since Fiera is exclusively on the Regal and got great reviews, I went to check it out. It was terrific. (1) The production and choreography was amazing (2) the popular songs they sang were from the 80's thru Present. Finally!

Time change: my stateroom attendant did not give me the slip of paper informing of time change. I didnt see anything on the patter either. During the 3rd and 4th day, I was constantly asking crew and other passengers what time is it. (once you turn cell phone on land, it resets to local time)

Ping Pong: I play lots of table tennis during cruises. But the location of the tables on the new ships makes it impossible to play at sea. It's in the middle of a wind tunnel!

Movies under the Star: Sun and Mon (football). Tues (the Giver). Wed (Guardians of Galaxy). The screen on the new ships are noticeably more clear than the other ships

Anguilla: A 25 minute ferry ride from St Maartens is the island of Anguilla. It's roughly the same size as St. Maartens but has 1/5th of the population and much fewer tourists. It has very nice secluded beaches with the softest white sand. Shoal beach is rated one of the top beaches in the world and Rendezvous Beach is just as good. If you want to avoid the crowd at St Maartens, Anguilla is an alternative. If you want to go during St. Maartens port day, it's doable but you would need to have 4-5 people to make it cost effective and you need to hustle (be first off of ship, taxi to Marigot port, clear customs, get on ferry ($30 rt ferry plus $13 tax), rent a car in Anguilla ($65 total), drive to beaches, then repeat everything in reverse before 2PM). I visited after disembarking so I had plenty of time.

The movies I remember....A fault in our Stars, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, Edge of tomorrow, Guardians of the Galaxy, Maleficient, Million Dollar Arm. during the day they showed concerts...i.e., Barry Manilow, Il Divo, Pavarotti, Paul McCartney, etc. Hope this helps...

Oh perfect. Thanks RoePost!

Thanks for the great review, RoePost. 4 more days till I embark on the Regal. I loved my previous cruise on the Regal's twin sister, the Royal. Such a beautiful ship. It absolutely boggles my mind that the Royal Princess is rated 18th out of the 18 Princess ships on Cruisecritic.

Also, Can you tell me whats movies were shown onboard?

I sat with a lady that only ate GF. She says she mostly sails with Princess because they are most accomodating and have best options. If I remembered correctly, at the end of each meal, the waiter brings her next night's menu and she orders in advance.

No comparison, Regal is an absolute step up. People that dont like it are so fixated on certain things that are not there and choose to overlook all the improvements.. other than smaller balconies and maybe lack of central staircase, i would scoff at all other complaints.

summary of why Regal is better than Caribbean Princess (CB).

The entire ship is so much nicer and doesnt look dated like the CB. Atrium is bigger and absolutely georgeous (see my Royal pics below). To me, this is enough to offset all the negatives. But here are other improvements:

- buffet is so much bigger and better, much better salad bar.

- retreat pool is georgeous (makes up for lack of aft pool)

- Alfredo's specialty pizza

- real basketball court with real leather balls that doubles as volleyball court. CB has rubber pebble flooring and rubbery basketballs.

- Upperdeck is nicer with seawalk and fountains (makes up for small promenade deck)

- Free IM system with your smartphone, leave your walkie talkies at home

- Free movies on demand in your stateroom, can watch many new movies anytime. you can just turn tv off and then resume movie later.

(I think the last two are slowly being rolled out to older ships)

Thank you everyone for all the responses and opinions.

 

First of all, this is a good problem to have and from everything I've seen and read whichever I choose we'll have a fantastic time. How could we not it's Spring in the Caribbean on the water with free food!

 

Anyway after I watched some youtube videos I really want to book Regal as she just looks lovely and the amenities and food appear wonderful. Surprisingly my DH voted for the extra sea day, he's always wanting to snorkel so I would have thought for sure he would pick another shore day but I think life's so busy now the poor man just wants to veg ;). But as much as I think I would enjoy Regal I'm choosing itinerary over "state of the art" and going with CB for all the reasons everyone has pointed out. In the end while the luxuriousness of Regal would be lovely all the things offered on Regal would not be deal breakers for me while not having ample pool space would.

 

I also think Cozumel, Grand Cayman and Roatan are more in line with our young, active family then St. Thomas and St. Maarten.

I would say book CB as your first Princess cruise. If you all have a good time, then book the nicer Regal for your next cruise. It's better to not start with best ship, so you can work your way up. Also, not sure how picky your kids are about sports but Regal has a REAL basketball court (which matters to me a lot) and extra activities like foosball, batting cage, etc.

I've been on Western Carib once and next week will be my 3rd time doing Eastern Carib. I think there are plenty of things for your kids to do on both itinerary. When I was a kid, going to Maho Beach in St. Maartens would have been the coolest experience ever. Actually, it still is! :D

The Seahawks and Princess??? That is just soooooo very wrong. Really, that's enough to ruin my entire day.

 

As for football on MUTS, oh yeah, we're big fans. Take away the football and you can keep the MUTS.

 

As for Thanksgiving, we've cruised the last three on the Emerald and had at least two games that day on MUTS. But there is no certainty that a particular game will be shown until you get to the playoffs.

 

We've only ever seen bowl games shown for college football, but they do cover them fairly well (not all of them, obviously).

 

(Respectfully submitted by someone who loves football, and lots of NFL teams: Broncos, Saints, 49ers, Colts, Ravens, and many others...except the Packers and ESPECIALLY those meanie Seahawks and REALLY ESPECIALLY RICHARD SHERMAN.)

Haha, relax... Seahawks are not the only team.

http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/233692/princess-cruises-partners-with-nfl-teams.html

I assume you meant the Sea View bar. I have a very quick video of it at 1:10 mark.

Did they give any reasons?

 

What annoys the passengers (small balconies, no center staircase above deck 7, no full walk-around Promenade deck, lack of an aft pool) would not be anything the staff would care about.

hahaha good point, Caribill. Some people just get carried away with negativity.

Thanks SadieN and everyone else, I actually feel a lot better about the cruise/ship :D I was actually a bit nervous after seeing the ship decor in pictures and youtube videos.

Looks like there were 4 types of repeated complaining.. :D

Resistant to change

- "forget the many good things on the ship, there is no promenade deck. OMG! Also.. what's with emails, fax machines worked just fine!"

Misplaced dissapointment

- "heavy traffic getting to port, weather is bad, and fellow passengers are rude, thus this is not a good ship. Horrible experience on the Royal!"

Overblown minor issues

- "the waiter didnt smile when he took my order, I demand onboard credits for his rudeness! While you are at it, make my balcony 3 feet deeper!"

Misaligned expectations

- "where is the rock climbing and the water slides? there's nothing to do on this ship! Gosh, so bored!"

After 5 cruises on Princess including the fancy new Royal Princess last month, I will be going on my first Carnival cruise - a weekend booze cruise on the Inspiration. What should I expect? Any advices?

Any alternatives to the $17/day parking? ..given that there are 6 of us that want to get to work as soon as we can on Monday after cruise.

What a really fun video! Would love to know what kind of camera you used.

 

THANKS for sharing this with us.

 

:D

I used an old Canon SD870 for the timelapse/videos and the Canon S100 (highly recommend the canon S series) for pictures. Both low end cameras.

Following up on my Photo album/Short Review, here is a collage of videos, photos, and timelapses.

Turn the volume up before starting the video!

We also received notification from Princess that our St. Thomas excursion which was the Virgin Gorda Excursion to the Baths had been cancelled. The paperwork we received indicated that it was for operation reasons; however the young man at the excursion desk indicated that it was because the numbers were lacking. He indicated that they require sixty people to run this excursion and have not met it all year. I guess that explains why when posting for information on the St. Thomas boards, I received interest in my posts but no responses from anyone that had actually completed this excursion.

I was on the Royal last month and book the Virgin Gorda excursion on the morning of Princess Cays. Shorex guy said I was #21 that booked the excursion and they need 30+ by end of day. He was hopeful that few more would book since Princess Cays was cancelled. However, not enough people booked and it was cancelled. I saw your post on the St. Thomas board, and would have given you a review if it wasn't cancelled.

Enjoy the rest of your cruise!

Most of my friends (mostly in their late 30's) have never been on a cruise. When I tell them that I'm going on a 7 day cruise, I repeatedly get the response "I can't imagine being stuck on a boat for 7 days." To us here on Cruise Critic, we laugh at how naive they are. How can they know they wont like it till they try it? Yet, some people here on cruise critic were bashing the Royal princess before ever trying it out. Some even cancelled their bookings simply based reading reviews. Yes, there are some design flaws like lack of central staircase

Onboard Comedian Phil Tag: "I had a relaxing day at sea today, I almost finished a 400 page novel. I got to page 390, but then the elevator finally came"

However, the Royal is an absolutely gorgeous ship. The positives far outweigh the negatives. It's up to you whether you want to focus on what's not there or all that is there. To me, the good far outweighs the bad.

Some of the ship highlights are..

- pure beauty and elegance of the public areas

- on demand entertainment system, it's like netflix with some live tv

- retreat pool, so much better than the other ships

- more food options and larger buffet (and in my opinion, better food)

- Seawalk and seaview bar

Gorgeous Atrium

Beatles Tribute Band playing in Atrium

Seaview Bar

Water fountain show

Seawalk

Retreat Pool

Click on my signiture below for the complete album of Royal Princess pictures

Cozumel/Tulum

Roatan/Mahogany Bay

Belize/Cave Tubing

Click on signature for rest of pics...

The Victoria is chartered almost year round, apart from the small time frame at the moment. I'm sailing on the last non charter, which arrives in Hong Kong on the 11th Jan. I investigated booking that first cruise out of Hong Kong to extend my cruise but couldn't get any answers. Even when I emailed Costa.

Looks like the Hong Kong travel agency Miramar has dips on the Jan 11th Cruise. Might be able to book thru them directly.

http://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?depth=1&hl=en&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dmiramar%2Btravel%2Bhong%2Bkong%26rls%3Dcom.microsoft:en-us:IE-SearchBox%26biw%3D1680%26bih%3D819&rurl=translate.google.com&sl=zh-TW&u=http://www.hkmiramartravel.com/OnlineCruise/Tour_Item_Isactive2.aspx&usg=ALkJrhgSpfOLobw9e8X4Jl-MKBjtZlI7YQ

thanks everyone for the reply. I called them and they said all those 4day Hong Kong cruises were chartered out. However, I can book the cruise on the 15th and 23rd directly thru them, but the cruise on the 19th is not available on their system. Guess no Costa Cruise for me.