Live from the Ocean Princess Top of the World Explorer June 25 to July 13

[paul929207]

I saw a post from them on Facebook that they got home last night.

[Pia1913]

I saw a post from them on Facebook that they got home last night.

 

I don't do facebook. That's all I need; something else to occupy my time. :eek:

[CruzinNoony]

Donna-I'm still following your travels and enjoying each day! BTW, our Australia/New Zealand roll call has fallen off the page! I couldn't figure out how to revive it because there wasn't a page 2 to go to.:confused:

 

Pia, I had to chuckle when I read your comment about facebook. I also don't do it for exactly the same reason. I already spend way too much time on the computer. Right now, I have three cruises that I am trying to arrange tours for. Not to mention, that I voluntered myself to lead the meet & greet for one of them.:eek:

[cboyle]

We had a great walk out to the South Forland lighthouse in Dover. Had accurate instructions on how to get there (thanks Carolyn and John) even with a few moments of doubt. From the Cliffs Visitor Center it’s a 2 mile walk to the lighthouse and about 2 miles from the ship to the visitor center. The 8 mile roundtrip with a detour through the town center was about 5 hours but well worth it. Just beautiful views from on top of the cliffs.

 

Tina,

 

Did you find the spot on the White Cliffs where you can take the path and ladder down to the beach below the cliffs? I wondered what you thought of the ladder!

 

Also, John identified the snake he saw on the top of Mt. Ulriken in Bergen --- it was an adder. Although they are venomous, they are pretty shy and it slithered off pretty fast when we came along. They have adders on the White Cliffs as well, but we did not see any when we were hiking on the Western Heights.

 

Have a great trip!

 

Carolyn

[Colo Cruiser]

I saw a post from them on Facebook that they got home last night.

 

Must be like a train wreck, just can't look away.

[Nick_C]

Day 1 – Sea Day enroute to New Castle

 

Its Newcastle, pet. But the way you've written it, you will probably pronounce it like a Geordie, which will go down well. Locals pronounce it with the emphasis on "castle", the rest of us pronounce it with the emphasis on "new". Have a great time, and don't worry that you can't understand a word anyone is saying, they have a dialect and accent of their own, and are lovely people.

 

Didn't realise Carolyn and John were on the previous cruise. I don't know them, but if they are following this thread, many many thanks for the reviews you wrote on your trip last year. They have formed a template for may of us who are getting (very excited about getting) on OP in 17 days time.

[treesah]

I just realized that I had booked cruises to South America, the Baltics and Australia based on, in part, on your enthusiastic "Live from....." reports. It occurs to me that Princess owes you some sort of a finder's fee, commission or kickback or perhaps a thank you note and a bottle of champagne (Veuve would be fine).

 

Thank you ladies. Good deeds should be rewarded.

[Pia1913]

I just realized that I had booked cruises to South America, the Baltics and Australia based on, in part, on your enthusiastic "Live from....." reports. It occurs to me that Princess owes you some sort of a finder's fee, commission or kickback or perhaps a thank you note and a bottle of champagne (Veuve would be fine).

 

Thank you ladies. Good deeds should be rewarded.

 

LOL Treesah. :D I got the Veuve (I know you read that on the May 5th-17th LIVE) and exchanged it for two bottles of what I really wanted. Placing #1 was good enough. ;)

[DonahCBrown]

In re: New Castle/Newcastle - my spell checked liked New Castle better and kept 'correcting' me...

 

We miss you John & Carolyn! No, Tina and Ken did NOT find the ladder down, but seemed to have had a good time anyway. We enjoyed the Cathedral very much, and are looking forward to tomorrow's tour, but miss your 'plan of the day,' Carolyn and your superb organizational skills!

 

And now for the remainder of the day's report.

 

The enrichment lecturer, Joseph Marchi, will be doing a series on the history and development of musical theater. Today’s presentation was the introduction, and was interesting enough, but Mr. Marchi was a bit technologically challenged and had some issues with his power point presentation technically, and there are also some problems with pacing as he tends to have his examples run for too long between bits of commentary, so that the lecture seems to move in fits and starts. I’ll give it another go, and see if things improve.

 

Captain’s Welcome Reception was very nice and Captain Ravera does an especially good job with these, focusing the attention and recognition on his officers and the staff. Formal night dress was generally adhered to at least for the reception and dinner, although lots of folks immediately changed for the show. Cinematastic translates well to the small ship/cabaret type presentation and this troupe of singers and dancers are particularly talented and well balanced and have been working together for a good while, so they do put on a really good show. A new group will be boarding in New York, however, and will be taking over at the end of the New York – Dover return and will be training during that cruise.

Chris Wakins, the violinist, remains on board and will be doing two shows, the first tomorrow, on this cruise as well (actually, pretty much the same two shows as on the Fjords cruise but he’s really good, so I’ll be back) and Heather seems to be taking a well deserved rest. Tonight, Cinnamoon was in the Casino Lounge, the Show Band and Pete Nilson Duo will split the duties in the Tahitian.

 

Tomorrow’s port is Newcastle, of the ‘carrying coal to Newcastle’ fame. Attractions in the area include Hadrian’s Wall, the Holy Isle of Lindisfarne, Alnwick (pronounced Ann-ick) Castle, Bamburgh Castle, Chester’s Fort, Heddon-on-Wall, Durham Cathedral and Castle, the huge Angel of the North sculpture, and the Beamish Open Air Museum – sort of a Victorian Industrial Age Williamsburg.

 

Nothing in the way of public transportation from the pier to New Castle, but there are buses and trains that go out from Newcastle to Hadrian’s Wall and some of the other attractions. There will be a shuttle from the pier to the metro.

 

For World Cup fans, the England & Germany match will be broadcast in the Tahitian Lounge, and in room tv as well. Movie of the day will be Up in the Air on the tv and Valentine’s Day as the evening movie at 10PM in the Cabaret Lounge.

 

Newcastle ship’s tours are Bamburgh Castle & Lindisfarne, Hadrian’s Wall and the Roman Fort (Chester’s), Best of Newcastle, Alnwick Castle, and an Easy Scenic Drive and Blanchland.

 

Berthing will be at Norhumbrian Quay, about a 5 minute walk from the Ferry Terminal. The free shuttle will operate from the pier to Tynemouth Metro Station – an approximate 20 to 25 minute drive. One way train ticket to Newcastle from Tynemouth is 3.50 GBP.

 

We will be doing a private tour in Newcastle – will report on this tomorrow.

[DonahCBrown]

Donna-I'm still following your travels and enjoying each day! BTW, our Australia/New Zealand roll call has fallen off the page! I couldn't figure out how to revive it because there wasn't a page 2 to go to.:confused:

 

Pia, I had to chuckle when I read your comment about facebook. I also don't do it for exactly the same reason. I already spend way too much time on the computer. Right now, I have three cruises that I am trying to arrange tours for. Not to mention, that I voluntered myself to lead the meet & greet for one of them.:eek:

 

Try resetting the number of days you are looking at (down at the bottom of the page) - will look about and see if I can revive it.

[103brandy]

We live near Newcastle and will be going down to see the Ocean Princess.

There is a good retail outlet within walking distance of the port. It's called Royal Quays if anyone is interested.

 

Does anyone have information on the cabin layout on deck 3 please?

We're booked on her for next year and hope the bed is centre cabin and not pushed against the wall as on some ships.

 

Enjoy our area. The weather is going to be lovely.

[caribill]

Does anyone have information on the cabin layout on deck 3 please?

We're booked on her for next year and hope the bed is centre cabin and not pushed against the wall as on some ships.

 

 

To get the best answer to your question, you will need to specify exactly which cabin you are asking about.

[103brandy]

To get the best answer to your question, you will need to specify exactly which cabin you are asking about.

 

 

I understand that deck 3 cabins are all the same.

 

We're off to look at the ship here in our home port.:D

It's a lovely sunny warm day.

[cboyle]

Didn't realise Carolyn and John were on the previous cruise. I don't know them, but if they are following this thread, many many thanks for the reviews you wrote on your trip last year. They have formed a template for may of us who are getting (very excited about getting) on OP in 17 days time.

 

I'm glad to hear that you found the reviews helpful. I've received so much help from CruiseCritic that I'm glad to be able to "pay it forward."

 

Once we get our lives back together here in NC, I will put together a review of the Midnight Sun cruise that will be similar --- mostly a recount of what we did in the ports and how we did it.

 

Carolyn

[phabric]

Enjoyed reading about your first cruise on the Ocean. I will certainly enjoy this cruise. We will be on the Ocean July 30 Dover to Norway.

[Pia1913]

I'm glad to hear that you found the reviews helpful. I've received so much help from CruiseCritic that I'm glad to be able to "pay it forward."

 

Once we get our lives back together here in NC, I will put together a review of the Midnight Sun cruise that will be similar --- mostly a recount of what we did in the ports and how we did it.

 

Carolyn

 

Your escapades/plans are always interesting, but you didn't go alligator hunting on this one, did you? :D

[cboyle]

We miss you John & Carolyn! No, Tina and Ken did NOT find the ladder down, but seemed to have had a good time anyway. We enjoyed the Cathedral very much, and are looking forward to tomorrow's tour, but miss your 'plan of the day,' Carolyn and your superb organizational skills!

 

Donna,

 

Oh, how I love being showered with praise! But don't forget that John did all the legwork for Flaam --- I only made the reservations and tried to scare up participants. Also, you are no slouch yourself in the organization department, as I well know from the Amazon River cruise!

 

Too bad Tina & Ken did not find the ladder down to the base of the White Cliffs. It is not very obvious --- John & I were lucky to stumble upon it.

 

It is great to relive last summer's cruise --- most of the ports are the same.

 

Have fun!

 

Carolyn

[cboyle]

Your escapades/plans are always interesting, but you didn't go alligator hunting on this one, did you? :D

Arlene,

 

No alligators this time --- just the adder, which I did not see. However, I gave out a nice scream when John said,"There's a snake!" And this is from the woman who held an enormous python in Singapore and regularly rescues black snakes and speckled king snakes that get tangled up in deer netting around here :o.

 

Hope to see you and Milt on a cruise again someday. We only have one future cruise planned because we are expecting to begin making frequent trips to California now that our son, Alan, and DIL, Brooke, have spirited our 2-1/2-month-old granddaughter, Clara, out to Menlo Park :(. Alan is doing a post-doc at Stanford in computational biology but we hope they will all be moving back east in a couple of years.

 

I have to disagree with you about Facebook. If I did not use it, I would never be able to keep up with what Alan, Brooke, and Clara are doing. It has pretty much taken the place of e-mail although we do still IM and use Skype so we can see the baby (and vice versa). Got to keep up with the times :)!

 

Carolyn

[Nick_C]

Donna, another favour please. Does the on board shop sell Clinique post shave healer? If so, how much is it?

 

Its about $25 to buy in the UK, so hoping to buy it cheaper either on board or in NY (Macey's sell it for $17).

[mmwc]

I'm glad to hear that you found the reviews helpful. I've received so much help from CruiseCritic that I'm glad to be able to "pay it forward."

 

Once we get our lives back together here in NC, I will put together a review of the Midnight Sun cruise that will be similar --- mostly a recount of what we did in the ports and how we did it.

 

Carolyn

 

Carolyn,

 

We are booked to do Land of Midnight Sun 2011 so would very much like to read your review. Would you let us know when and where you post it? We have followed and bookmarked and enjoyed all the wonderful postings from Donna and Ken and David's location pics. What a treat it has all been. Thank you to all it is very much appreciated.

 

Midge

[cboyle]

Carolyn,

 

We are booked to do Land of Midnight Sun 2011 so would very much like to read your review. Would you let us know when and where you post it? We have followed and bookmarked and enjoyed all the wonderful postings from Donna and Ken and David's location pics. What a treat it has all been. Thank you to all it is very much appreciated.

 

Midge

Midge-

 

I will be posting it in the CruiseCritic reviews section. Also, I will try to post the link on your roll call.

 

Carolyn

[mmwc]

Midge-

 

I will be posting it in the CruiseCritic reviews section. Also, I will try to post the link on your roll call.

 

Carolyn

 

Carolyn

 

Thanks very much for this. If it is easier I can send you our email address.

 

Midge

[DonahCBrown]

Will check on the Clinique product tomorrow during the sea day. In re: deck 3 cabin layouts - will see if any of the CC group are on deck 3 and see what they have to say.

 

Here are the reports for the last couple of days:

 

Day 2 – Newcastle

 

We had a lovely day in Newcastle – weather was ideal, warm and sunny, 20 C. Our tour was with Alex Jacobs, a Blue Badge Guide with his own tour company, Northern Secrets. Pick up was at the port gate, right on time and we had the unexpected bonus of a really large bus (17 PAX) for the 4 of us when we had expected just a 6 or 7 PAX van. It was quite luxurious. Alex is a delightful young man, one of the youngest Blue Badge Guides in the UK, and is totally bilingual in English and German. He was very accommodating in our planning process, very responsive to all our questions by email and easily made changes as the day went forward. We had a city tour first, walked the Millennium Bridge and the open market area along the river Tyne, drove around the city center with several photo stops including the Grey Monument, and then headed out of Newcastle to Hadrian’s Wall country. Our first stop was Heddon-on-Wall to get our first look at Hadrian’s Wall, and then proceeded through several market towns, stopping for a tea/coffee break in Corbridge, and visiting another long section of the wall and a quarry. After this we went to the privately owned excavation site of Vindolanda where we walked through the ruins of a village and fort and visited the museum. On leaving Vindolanda, we took a scenic route returning to Newcastle and passing through the North Penninies. Another short stop was made in Blanchlands for some pictures and a brief pub visit for Newcastle Brown Ale, and we were back aboard in good time for all aboard at 4:30.

 

Our evening entertainment was Chris Watkins, the Welsh violinist who has been on board for a couple of weeks now. His shows are worth attending twice, so I did. Still no casino as we are still in UK waters and not 12 miles from shore, so no contributions to the Princess bottom line until after the port call in Edinburgh tomorrow.

 

Day 3 – Edinburgh

 

Another privately arranged day for us today in Edinburgh. We had arranged for a pickup/drop off with Holiday Taxis online (email is admin at holidaytaxis dot com, phone is 01444 257 041), and our very talented driver Roddy picked us up promptly at 8 and we agreed on a pick up point in Edinburgh at 4 PM and were dropped at the Castle at around 8:45. Traffic wasn’t hideous, but it did take a little longer than the 30 minute estimate we had heard, so, we moved our return time back a half hour to 4 rather than 4:30 in order to be sure to make it back in time for the folkloric show the ship had scheduled for 5:30. We had a group of 6 and the price we were quoted was 72 GBP, making it very cost effective and time effective compared to the $12/person round trip shuttle to the train station plus the round trip train fare between Rosyth and Edinburgh and the hassle of trying to coordinate the two without huge loss of time on the ground in enchanting Edinburgh.

 

The Castle doesn’t open until 10 AM, so we were too early to be able to start right out there. We heard estimates from a minimum of 2 hours to all day as the time needed to ‘see’ the Castle, and vacillated back and forth about taking the tour, as we had a pre-booked tour of Mary King’s Close at 10:40. In the end, we didn’t pre-purchase tickets, got into the entry area, changed our minds about taking the tour, got in the line, realized we REALLY didn’t have time, so got out of the line and walked around the top end of the Royal Mile (locally, High Street) and went into a couple of shops and the entry area of the Whiskey Experience instead.

 

Our tour of Mary King’s Close was very interesting, with a costumed guide and many stories about the residents and the history of the old city. The tour is about an hour, well organized and entertaining as well as informative – you may well learn far far more about sanitation practices (or the lack there of) in the 17th and 18th centuries than you ever wanted to. Still, it was a very worthwhile tour and gives you a good background for realizing what you are looking at as you work your way around the city, looking at the closes (side streets that run, basically, from the High Street down towards what is now the Gardens, was ‘then’ the Loch) The homes build along these streets were the first ‘skyscrapers’ running up to 14 floors, building upwards over the years as population pressures and lack of space created demand for housing that could be met most easily by building up.

After our tour, we were met by our ‘pen pal’ friends Fiona and George – and it was lovely to meet in person at last! - and were given a true ‘insiders’ tour of (mostly) the older part of Edinburgh. We had a marvelous time, and saw parts of the town that simply aren’t part of any tour you can arrange. We did, of course, hit some of the ‘regular’ tourist spots – Greyfriars Church to see Greyfriars Bobby’s grave and statue, the Princes Street Gardens (and the chief gardener’s house – what a nice perk he has!),Calton Hill and the Nelson Monument and the spectacular views from there, but also the Grassmarket and the spot where the gallows stood until 1784, the statue of Abraham Lincoln (bet you didn’t know there even WAS one in Edinburgh!) We visited two spectacularly beautifully decorated pubs – the Royal is more like an art gallery than a pub with amazing tile murals and stained glass, and the interiors of two banks, one of which was formerly a private home (mansion, actually) that aren’t on anyone’s tour list that I know of. It is impossible to express our appreciation to George and Fiona for taking all that time out of their busy lives to take us all around – what a fabulous day!

 

Return was smooth, with Roddy waiting at the appointed spot well before the appointed time, and we got back to the ship in time for the excellent folkloric show presented by “The Music of Scotland” – three pipers, three dancers, a singer and a fiddler, plus piano player and accordionist – a really enjoyable show.

 

All in all just an outstanding day (plus we had great weather until we got back to the ship, when it started to rain) Thank you thank you thank you Fiona and George! And Roddy!

[edinburgher]

It was our pleasure to show you around Edinburgh, delighted you all enjoyed your time with us, only sorry your time was so short.

 

You really need several days here to see the city but you never know, someday you might return!:)

[DonahCBrown]

Day 4 – Sea Day enroute from Edinburgh to Torshavn

 

Quiet day for me, as I’m nursing a cold – I think from exposure to masses of kids in Bergen at the funicular – timing is about right, anyway. Cruise Critic group had a lunch today, attended by around 20 or 25, according to reports, and a good time was had by all.

 

In re: questions asked previously – still don’t have feedback on the 3rd deck cabins, but we do have a roll call member on 3, so maybe they will pop in with some feedback – otherwise, will try and get a peek one morning when rooms are being made up and the gangway is on 3.

 

In re: Clinique product – runs 15.50 USD on board for a 2.5 oz. and it is in stock.

 

Casino opened last night, but slots are apparently set so tight that hardly anyone is playing, including DH. Have been by there a couple of times and it is deserted. Today’s port talk was on Torshavn and Seydisfjordur – will catch on the tv tonight most likely. Caught part of the Enrichment Lecture – technical problems seem to have been resolved and the talk on Vaudeville was somewhat better paced – at least the part I saw on the in room tv between naps. One loss and one win at trivia today – they’ve gone back to giving out stuff rather than tokens – today was lanyards in the AM, shopping bags in the PM. Cabaret movie is Shutter Island, TV movie is How to Train Your Dragon. Chris Watkins will be doing his last show of this cruise tonight, followed by Shutter Island again, Cinnamoon and Pete Nilson split the time in the Tahitian and there is a late evening (10 PM) Polyester 70s Party, and Heather continues in the Casino Lounge.

 

Tomorrow we arrive in Torshavn at 7 AM – we are booked on a ship’s excursion – Sailing with Schooner “Nordlysid” – a 1945 fishing schooner, sailing for a couple of hours up the coast of Streymoy Island. Hoping for a good weather day.