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LIVE - Royal Princess Transatlantic & Baltic day by day

GweninTX

By GweninTX,
in Princess Cruises

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EV2008

EV2008

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Yes, I will be glad to, I will continue my day by day thru the Baltic's. I would highly advise water PROOF jackets for the trip! They have been the best thing we have brought. Average temps each day have been mid 50's to low 60's. The temperature on ship has been nice - no freezing theaters and never hot either.

 

 

Thanks, the temps don't sound bad but that rain that you experienced dosn't:(

WOW what a day you had in Amsterdam. Hope your next tours will be better for you.

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icemom5120

icemom5120

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Thanks GweninTX , I have been following your posts, now that you're starting the portion that I will be doing on June 3rd, I'm looking forward to hearing about the tours and entertainment on board. Thanks again for taking the time to do this.

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Elcruzer

Elcruzer

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Gwen, just love reading your review, it's one of the best I've read. I love transatlantics and enjoy reading about your experiences and also reading about the Royal, which I am looking forward to sailing in Oct.

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GweninTX

GweninTX

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Good morning, our last sea day before Copenhagen. So many will be spending today packing and I am so glad I do not have to! Breakfast together in the HC again. So many choices - Jerry loves the waffles. I love all the fresh fruit available. I do not understand the Pastry shop though. To me it is a wasted space. The pastries in the International cafe are 100 times better! The only good thing about it is the availability of lattes and cappuccinos for dining in the HC and for those of us living in the back of the ship.

 

Line dancing at 10:30 for me - today is Brazilian and I do love the instructor, he is So much fun and such great exercise! Jerry opted to read.

 

I also sorted my dirty clothes and put a load in before line dancing. I truly would like to know what it is about laundry rooms and elevators that bring out the "Lucifer" in sane and normal people. I witnessed a gentleman dumping clean laundry on the floor because the person had not returned the minute they were finished. I suggested we put them on top of the table or on top of a dryer out of common courtesy. He totally ignored me and so I did it myself. When I returned from line dancing I raced to the laundry to make sure my laundry was intact in the washer. I got them put in the dryer and went back to the room to shower. I had forgotten to put a Bounce sheet in the dryer so I went back after I dressed. Thank goodness I did! Someone had opened my dryer door and had not pushed the button to restart it, so my clothes were in a wad wrinkling! Come on people. There is a green light so you can tell which ones are in use. I also witnessed a woman ironing her husbands socks - what planet are these people In the laundry room from? I give up!

 

When I returned my room steward told me that he had me on the manifest as staying in the same room for the Baltic cruise. I decided I should confirm with the passenger services and they said yes too! Yippee - no packing or moving tonight! SCORE!

 

Pub lunch in the Wheelhouse Bar! Very good and then I went to the Princess Theatre to watch Now you See Him - very good movie! Jerry read and kept the casino alive by donating!

 

Tonight was our night to eat in the Crown Grill Steak house. It was full of our fellow Cruise Critic friends. We should have just reserved it for all of us. It was our first time and we went with our friends Sheila and Stu. New for them too, but they gave us nice comparisons to Carnivals for fee Steak house. We enjoyed hearing the piano player in the nearby Wheelhouse bar, it did not keep us from visiting. The steaks were really tender and flavorful. Sheila had the veal chop and she said it was a little fatty. Jerry asked for a lobster tail with his steak and they brought him 2. The black and blue onion soup was excellent. I loved the creamed spinach. I got the dessert sampler - a small portion of all 4 desserts. I loved the chocolate dessert best and will get it next time. Jerry got the full size portion of it and he also got ice cream. I have a recipe for baked fudge and this tasted a lot like it!

 

They debuted a new show in the Princess theatre tonight which was fabulous! It was called "Spectacular" and it was! We had to wait for the 10:30 show as our dinner in the steak house was very slow. Glad we stayed up though! Copenhagen tomorrow!

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Astro Flyer

Astro Flyer

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I don't know what it is about some people in the laundromat and I had the same experience as you with my dryer being stopped when I briefly returned to my my cabin! :mad: There is a light showing the dryer is in use so there's absolutely no reason to open it up. And then to close the door without restarting it is beyond being inconsiderate! Thankfully we qualify for free laundry however things we wash in cold water on a gentle cycle we wash at the laundromat.

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Sydney24

Sydney24

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Loving your post! Really looking forward to the Baltic leg as we only have three weeks until we are on board. Keen to understand how Princess manages the tenders in Stockholm.

 

Thanks.

Anne

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Cruise Critic Forums mobile app

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koolprince

koolprince

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Loving your review ,so helpfull and so funny!

Nice to see we have finally shaken off the toilet roll moaners, I have never seen so much fuss made over a tissue issue, I thought they were going to rename the ship the" Royal Flush".

Looking forward to your Copenhagen experience as we will be on this cruise soon, enjoy yourself and keep making us laugh ! you are a true gem!!!

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GweninTX

GweninTX

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The Good, the Bad and the Ugly!

 

Well I thought I had covered all my bases on our room upgrade for the Baltic and our great luck in getting to keep our Balcony for 11 more days! My room steward showed us on his manifest and I called guest services at lunch time and a nice young lady checked her computer and she also confirmed my good fortune and that indeed we did not have to move to the inside room! This was good!

 

When we got back to our room at 11:45 and read our mail in the door, I had a letter that said we had to move to Caribe 431 for the Baltic cruise. This was not good and definitely qualified for bad! I called guest services and was on hold for ten minutes before someone finally picked up (also bad!) and she checked her computer and said she was sorry, but indeed we were in C431 for the next cruise and not in our current balcony room. I at first calmly explained about my room steward and the woman at lunch time saying the exact opposite. She apologized for their misinformation and said we would have to pack up and move. This now enters ugly territory! I am furious that it is now midnight and I have to pack up all my loose items, the drawers and the bathroom items. But Jerry helps me pack it all up as we have a tour of Copenhagen that departs at 9:00 AM. I am so mad, but what can I do at midnight? I asked for a supervisor, but she said she was the only person to talk to!

 

Next morning we get up early and eat breakfast in the HC. When we get back to our room I see my steward, Aries, in the hall. I tell him the news and show him the letter. I tell him to find someone to move all our stuff while we are gone. He still insists we are in our balcony and said he even has our name tag for our door. I show him the letter again, show him our new room keys and tell him I had talked to the night supervisor at guest services and she told us to pack and move. We leave for our tour, still feeling ugly and mad as hell!

 

I decided I really wanted to enjoy our tour so I told none of our Cruise Critic friends on our castle tour our tale of cabin woes. It was sort of drizzly and gray, but we are on a lovely high bus that our Alla guide has brought us. I was lucky and found the bus first, so we got a front seat. This is good for the view and also because I get car sick if I am in the back. We head out for the castles and the bus has a great sound system. Things are looking up!

 

We stop at the Little Mermaid for a photo stop. We then have a nice ride thru Copenhagen and get a lot of information. When we get to Fredericksborg Castle there are about 13 buses in the lot, starting to look bad again. Sure enough, it is very crowded and we are about an hour off schedule, but it was a beautiful castle and we took lots of photos. We then board the bus and head to castle #2 - Kronberg Castle and drive by Hillerod. We take more pics and stop for coffee and Danish. We then have to take a vote and decide if we take the scenic route and not have time for shopping, or go the highway and shop. I was happy that the scenic route had the majority of votes and we drove home on a scenic coastal highway dubbed the "Danish Riviera". We still got back 45 minutes later than scheduled, but the tour bus driver said it was OK. I was very impressed with our first of many Alla tours.

 

We got to the dock at 3:45 and were able to walk right on after going thru security. For all you liquor smugglers - they had tight security and I saw bags of alcohol (not wine) sitting at a desk. None of us had any wine so we breezed thru. I also saw fruit that they had confiscated too - they did not tell us not to bring it back?

 

We are now onboard and go to C431 to see our new inside room. We get to the door and our names are NOT on the door. I try my key and it does not work. Ugly is starting to come back and I am not a happy cruiser at this point! Jerry says let's go to our old balcony room and see if our new key works there. We walk all the way to the back of the ship and down to deck 8, our key doesn't work here either, but here comes Aries, our room steward with a big smile. He said that indeed this is our room, he said that they took all of our stuff to C431, but then brought it all back and said there was a huge mixup. YOU THINK??? So now Aries lets us in our old room and sends Jerry to get us new room keys. I ask Aries if it is safe to unpack AGAIN and he assures me it is. Jerry said that when he got to the passenger services desk they said they were expecting him. He told them to be glad it was him and not his wife who was upstairs unpacking. They gave him new room keys and we got unpacked and settled again. I needed a large glass of wine at this point and sat on my balcony with it.

 

I am going to just say this was a "lemonade from lemons" moment and be happy we have our old room back. It will definitely make for good conversation when we get our new table mates for dinner. We also were assigned the wrong table in the dining room, but got to eat there tonight. We will meet our new table mates tomorrow night - and dinner is now at 6:00 instead of 5:45 - stay tuned!

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caribill

caribill

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I would bring this to the attention of the Hotel General Manager.

 

At least, it may prevent some future passengers from having to go through this stress.

 

At best, you might get a bottle of wine or ???

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Ashley_lb

Ashley_lb

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I see you mentioned alla tours! We are doing the Baltic cruise this summer and have booked many tours with alla! I am very excited to read your reviews of the whole cruise but also alla! Sounds like you are having a wonderful time besides the stateroom mix up. At least you get the balcony for another 11 days. Safe travels!

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TracieABD "Live from...." Rare

TracieABD

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I am finally caught up on your review! What a great trip... and there is still more.

 

I am sorry about Amsterdam/Rotterdam. The whole day sounds like a drill... I hope you can get back there sometime and see the tulips. It is so lovely.

 

I am also glad that you were able to keep your cabin, in spite of the mix up. I would love to know the back story on this situation, and I bet you would too!

 

I hope you have a wonderful cruise in the Baltics. It is one of my favorites.

 

Thank you again for your terrific live from...

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