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Live From Island Princess, 7/9-7/21, Aft Facing Balcony

flourpot

By flourpot,
in Princess Cruises

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pzbz

pzbz

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Posted
It's now 2:00pm and we're still at the small island in Greece. The Red Cross came onboard, as well as the Greek Child Protective Services because there were apparently a number of minors included in the 117 refugees from Syria. They had to get clearance from the local authorities to remove the children from our ship and take them into Greece.*

 

The captain just came on the intercom and said that all of the refugees are safely on shore and we're free to go as soon as we put our lifeboats back up. He also said that instead of going to Istanbul (it's now too far away and we won't make it in time), we will be spending tomorrow in San Torini, Greece. I don't know anything about it, but people on board cheered when it was announced (if you know anything, please tell us!). The shore excursions desk asked for 2 hours to get tours ready for us (pretty spectacular to get that going in only 2 hours in my opinion) and they would have info sent to our cabin.

 

We just started moving again and the captain tells us we'll *be in San Torini tomorrow from 8:00am to 8:00pm.

We were there a few years ago..beautiful. Take the cable car up and walk intotown and go into a travel shop and you will find cars and guides who will take you to Oia! They will drop you off for you to walk and then pick you up at the end!

It is the most beautiful walk in the world! Enjoy!:)

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azbirdmom Great Review Rare

azbirdmom

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What an adventure you have had. It's great that the Island was able to rescue so many people and I hope that the passengers aren't too disappointed about missing Istanbul. We've been to both Santorini and Istanbul and will echo those who cheered about the replacement. It's one of the most beautiful places we have ever visited. Whether you go on a tour or just sit atop the cliffs staring at the Mediterranean, it will be a stop you'll long remember. Hope you enjoy the rest of your cruise and that it's uneventful!

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Astro Flyer

Astro Flyer

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Posted (edited)

With the time difference I am guessing that arriving tomorrow is on Monday July 13.

 

If so, that's a great day for the Island to be in Santorini because the only other ship scheduled is the Wind Star with a maximum capacity of only 168 passengers. Tuesday would be very crowded with about 9,500 passengers arriving on 4 cruise ships. I've been told that with so many passengers the experience would be very different. :(

 

For my early December visit we were the only cruise ship at Santorini & the crowds were not too bad with 3,000 passengers from the Crown Princess.

 

http://www.santorini.net/information/cruise-ship-calendar/

Edited by Astro Flyer
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Colo Cruiser

Colo Cruiser

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With the time difference I am guessing that arriving tomorrow is on Monday July 13.

 

If so, that's a great day for the Island to be in Santorini because the only other ship scheduled is the Wind Star with a maximum capacity of only 168 passengers. Tuesday would be very crowded with about 9,500 passengers arriving on 4 cruise ships. I've been told that with so many passengers the experience would be very different. :(

 

For my early December visit we were the only cruise ship at Santorini & the crowds were not too bad with 3,000 passengers from the Crown Princess.

 

http://www.santorini.net/information/cruise-ship-calendar/

 

Someone else posted Sea Dream as well. Tiny ship though.

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ElinorD

ElinorD

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I'm sure the change in itinerary was concerning, but you'll be thrilled by Santorini. I've never seen a more beautiful place. We stayed in Thira, and just wandered around (after hiking the volcano across the sea), and just loved it. We hope to go back someday soon. Bravo to the crew and passengers of the Island Princess for helping those in need, and enjoy Santorini! the views are incredible, and it's one of the most unique places on earth.

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villageneighbor

villageneighbor

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Things to do in Santorini:

 

Take cable car ride up to top. About 5 euros

 

Walk around Thira or take local bus

(About2-3euros) to Oia and walk around there.

 

In Thira there are spas where the fish eat the dead skin off your feet

 

Both Thira and Oia have lots of good places to eat/drink local beer/wine/food and have a great view. Greek salad, feta cheese, fresh fish, grilled octopus, tzatziki and pita bread

 

Both Thira and Oia have lots of little shops, beautiful Greek Orthodox churches.

 

It's absolutely stunning. Just soak it all in.

 

Where comfortable walking shoes for the stone paths and stairs, and if warm, plan coverage hat/sun glasses because it's very sunny.

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tomatospice

tomatospice

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What an adventure you are having :) I have a question that you may not be able to answer until you get to Livorno, but you mentioned that they were offering a shuttle for 5 euros to Piazza Grande. Is that a round trip price or just a one way? We are on the Island Aug 14th and I'd appreciate any info you could give me about that shuttle. Thanks!!

 

Stephanie

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brian1

brian1

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Forward on which deck? Was it warm? Did they sleep outside?
hi,i wouldnt worry too much,it is very hot here in the med at the moment.we would gladly swap places with them for 1 night on deck. we sleep with no covers and both balcony doors open with ceiling fan on all night,cheers,brian.
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cheeseclan

cheeseclan

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I remember when we are on the Regal in 1995 and we saved a fisherman from Puerto Rico that had been lost at sea for several weeks. My husband was jogging on the track when another passenger asked him to "look out there" with his binoculars and see if he saw something. Sure enough they did and immediately contacted the bridge.

The bridge looked and agreed something was out there. The ship then turned around to save the guy. He had been fishing in his tiny fishing boat when a storm hit. He had been drifting for weeks eating bait and drinking rain water. His family had already had the funeral.

We got him and his boat on the Regal where he was able to contact his family who of course was in shock. He also was given a great meal, steak and lobster night.

We then went to Puerto Rico and met up with the Coast Guard who took him and his boat to shore. It was a great feeling to know that this man was back home with his family:)

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kc20202

kc20202

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I remember when we are on the Regal in 1995 and we saved a fisherman from Puerto Rico that had been lost at sea for several weeks. My husband was jogging on the track when another passenger asked him to "look out there" with his binoculars and see if he saw something. Sure enough they did and immediately contacted the bridge.

The bridge looked and agreed something was out there. The ship then turned around to save the guy. He had been fishing in his tiny fishing boat when a storm hit. He had been drifting for weeks eating bait and drinking rain water. His family had already had the funeral.

We got him and his boat on the Regal where he was able to contact his family who of course was in shock. He also was given a great meal, steak and lobster night.

We then went to Puerto Rico and met up with the Coast Guard who took him and his boat to shore. It was a great feeling to know that this man was back home with his family:)

 

What a great story cheeseclan :)

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ihermdar

ihermdar

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Good morning!

 

I'm currently sitting on one of the 4 brand new aft facing balconies on the Island sailing between Venice and Istanbul on the Grand Mediterranean itinerary. Before I left, I said I would report on the room and ship since it's drydock.

 

So far, so good. I know that there was a problem with one of the engines or something on the previous cruise (I'm typing this offline, so I can't check the specifics), but I'm happy to report that everything is fixed and we are traveling at full speed on this first of 2 sea days.

 

As far as the new balcony room, we are in B741 and are one of only 4 rear facing balconies on the whole ship (with the exception of a couple of suites). The balcony room is a tiny bit smaller (the only thing I noticed is that there is a *tiny* bit less room at the end of the bed, but it's really not very noticeable. When you first walk into the room, you need to use your cruise card to make the lights and a/c work (I put my JoAnn Fabrics teacher discount card in the slot...any flat, plastic card will work...so I could have the a/c going while out of the room cause it's hot here). When you put the card in the slot, all the lights turn on and they are VERY bright LEDs. One change is that the 2 switches by the door don't control closet area for one and the bedroom area for the other. The closest switch to the door turns on 2 small canister lights over the bed and the switch further from the door controls extremely bright lights in the closet area as well as the bedroom area. The problem I found with this was that if you want to take a shower the morning and then get dressed in the closet area, you will wake up the other person in the bedroom area if you turn on the closet area lights. Otherwise, you just have to get dressed in the dark. The closet area itself is exactly the same as other ships, along with the cabinet with the safe. There's a coat hook on the wall behind the front door, which is different.

 

The bathroom is where I saw most of the changes. There is no longer an overhead light. Instead, there are 2 lights built into the mirror. They work fine and I think they're actually better than the overhead. The shelving near the sink is more spacious (I can actually stand my electric toothbrush up in it!). The sink is awesome! It's a large rectangle. There's so much more space. I was able to wash a few clothing items in the sink without the worry of splashing water everywhere. There's also a free standing soap dish. The shower is HUGE! I haven't smacked my elbows into the side of the walls once! Instead of a square, it is a rectangle with a shelf on one end (you could put your foot up on it) and the shower at the other (it's a pull down shower head where you can adjust the height of it). There is also a soap dish shelf near the shower head like in other ships. The only thing I don't like is where the toilet paper is located. It's kind of behind the toilet, under the sink, so you have to twist around to get to it. Other than that, the bathroom is pure awesomeness.

 

OK, moving out to the bedroom area. The beds are brand new. We always ask for egg crates, but didn't need them for these beds...so much better than usual (I do realize that we are only the 3rd people to sleep in them, so that's probably why). The TV is mounted on the wall directly opposite the beds and is quite big. They have installed Samsung smart TVs and I'm sure they're for when the ship gets upgraded to the Princess@Sea and OnDemand, which hasn't happened yet. Anyway, having the TV out of the corner gives you and extra flat storage space above the mini bar fridge which is wider than before. You still have the small table next to the mini bar and the desk with chair on the opposite side if the room, along with another chair. Oh! You won't find the hair dryer on the wall near the desk. I was very confused and thought they had need eliminated. They have new hairdryers (much higher quality) in the top, left hand drawer of the desk. It is already plugged in, so just pick it up and hold down the button to use it. There are 2 US outlets and 1 European outlet on the desk and 1 US outlet and 1 European outlet in the bathroom. Our stateroom steward said that the bathroom ones were fine for charging or using with 2 pronged US cords, but 3 pronged cords needed to be used at the desk.

 

The balcony is really nice. If you look at pictures of the rear if the ship, our room is right smack in the middle of the big white wall. We are the farthest square to the right. It's actually pretty great because there are actual walls on all sides instead of the partitions between balconies. The glass fence area is higher than on the sides of the ship. There are 2 chairs and a table and the balcony itself is deeper than I expected. Not as deep as a Caribe balcony, but I can sit in the chair with it all the way back to the door and not quite touch my toes to the glass.

 

Oh, we're elite, so we get a free mini bar setup. We always switch out the alcohol for pop. The choices this time were ginger ale, Aranciata (which is like Orangina), Coke, Coke Light, Sprite, and Sprite Zero. We also get free canapes and the chocolate covered strawberries have disappeared off of the list. *sniff* So sad. Those are my favorite. They've also added ChapStick with SPF to the elite bathroom pack, along with a gel eye mask that I hadn't seen before. We're storing it in the fridge.

 

Since we're in the new cabins on the back of the ship, they created a new area for our muster station drill. We went down the crew stairs at the back if the ship to the gym on deck 6.

 

There have been questions about the vibrations in the aft balconies. During our 2 days in Venice there was little to no vibrations in our room. After sailaway, the cabin did start to vibrate some, but it's not horrible at all. Currently, we're in motion and I don't hear any glasses shaking and nothing in the bathroom is falling over. While lying in bed, you can feel the vibrations, but it really just feels like a light massage. I had no problems sleeping at all. It's really not that different than any other room on a cruise ship that I've been on before.

 

If you're on this Grand Mediterranean itinerary later, you might like to know that Princess offers shuttles into town for Venice-boat to St. Mark's Square ($29), Istanbul-bus to Grand Bazaar ($10), Mykonos-bus to town ($8), Livorno-bus Piazza Grande (€5), and Toulon-boat to downtown ($20). The port talks are also happening well before the cancelation times for the tours, so we've ended up dropping some of our tours since we sort of know where we want to go and we have plenty of time to get it done with the shuttles.

 

The cruise director is Richard Joseph. The deputy is Duke. The maitre d'hotel is Giuseppe Gelmini. Captain is Andrea Poggi.

 

I think that's all for now. If you have any questions, you can ask, although I can't guarantee that I can answer them (I don't have access to other cabins, so I can't answer those questions) because of internet access and such.

 

Bonnie

So what is the actual situation on an International Café. Is there one on the Island now?

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Astro Flyer

Astro Flyer

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Posted
So what is the actual situation on an International Café. Is there one on the Island now?

 

I read a recent post from a passenger who sailed the Island after the changes who said there was no International Café. :(

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