First time ever on Princess and....

[southernshug]

First time going to Europe!!!! We just booked an 11 day cruise going out of Copenhagen Denmark for next year on the Enchanted with 2 days in St Petersburg Russia!!!! I know nothing about Princess or even how much to pack for something like this. Only been on 1 cruise and that was to the Caribbean, lol. I would greatly appreciate any and all insight or tips that you may have! I'm so excited 😊 TIA

[Tedferg]

We stayed pre and post cruise at The Admiral hotel in Copenhagen and used SPB Tours for Berlin and St Petersburg - both excellent.

[Tak8]

I did a British Isles cruise a couple of years ago on the Caribbean Princess.  I sent some clothes out for cleaning.  With the luggage restrictions, you can only pack so much and you need room for what you buy while you are on your trip.  

Enjoy your cruise.  

[Lady Arwen]

We are also on Enchanted in the Baltics May 4 2022!  We are looking at Scandic Front Hotel and The Admiral hotels...leaning to Scandic.  We’ll spend two to three days in Copenhagen prior to the cruise.  We’ve been to Europe and The Med a few times, but this itinerary is new to us, too.  We won’t know for some time if we can book independent tours or if we will have to book ship sponsored tours.  Time will tell.

We’ve sailed on Royal and Regal Princess and love this class of ship.  We really enjoy sailing with Princess.  Very good food and excellent service.  You will love it.  Have you joined your roll call yet?  Great place to meet your fellow passengers!

[gotta cruise again]

24 minutes ago, southernshug said:

I know nothing about Princess or even how much to pack for something like this.

So you may not know that in addition to being able to send out clothes to the ship’s laundry, Princess ships have launderettes with washers, dryers, irons, and ironing boards. The washer/dryers use tokens, which are available by using your cruise medallion in a machine in the launderette. You can also use medallion to buy clothes washing products. These purchases go onto your shipboard account.

 

I bring my own laundry products as I do not mind running a load or two during the course of a cruise. My DH sends his things out to the ship’s laundry (we do get complimentary ship’s laundry but I don’t like to send my clothes out).

 

You may not want to do laundry while on vacation but I thought you might want to know it is possible...just in case.

[suekel]

We're doing this cruise on July 31,2022.  Really looking forward to it.  

[mtnesterz]

Congrats! Pretty open request for info.  Looks like you sail with Celebrity. We sail X if not with Princess as they are very close.  Look at the Princess website for a lot of info then ask specifics here.

IMO, two main differences. Each time X disembarked for us, they had to reinvent the wheel to get everyone off the ship.  Princess disembarkation is always a well oiled machine. The second is that there are plenty of daytime activities on Princess. You might not like them, but there are activities. X, bring a Kindle, tablet or suitcase of books.  Food? Gotta give it to X, but not by much. 

#1 suggestion, don't ask here what to wear on formal night. If you do you won't hear the end of it. Simple answer, read the policy on the website. Take X's, "Evening Chic," then wear a tie. You'll be fine.

[memoak]

36 minutes ago, mtnesterz said:

Congrats! Pretty open request for info.  Looks like you sail with Celebrity. We sail X if not with Princess as they are very close.  Look at the Princess website for a lot of info then ask specifics here.

IMO, two main differences. Each time X disembarked for us, they had to reinvent the wheel to get everyone off the ship.  Princess disembarkation is always a well oiled machine. The second is that there are plenty of daytime activities on Princess. You might not like them, but there are activities. X, bring a Kindle, tablet or suitcase of books.  Food? Gotta give it to X, but not by much. 

#1 suggestion, don't ask here what to wear on formal night. If you do you won't hear the end of it. Simple answer, read the policy on the website. Take X's, "Evening Chic," then wear a tie. You'll be fine.

I don’t even wear a tie anymore. Slacks, button down shirt and sports coat. And the coat is probably optional 

[skynight]

We did this itinerary a few years ago.

Copenhagen is a very walkable and interesting city. We spent some time there pre-cruise and were not sorry. Be prepared for high prices for dining and snacks. While in Copenhagen we took the canal tour at Nyhavn. We also took the train over to Malmo, Sweden and spent a day there. It isn't very far.

Clothing, it summer and warm, but do bring a cover up, sweatshirt, sweater etc. and don't forget a rain jacket.

You should enjoy the new ship. Free dining is available on board in Alfredo's, World Fresh Market Place, Slice, Salty Dog Grill, International Cafe open 24/7, room service, of course the DR's. You can also get your latte fix at the International Cafe as well as some other locations on the ship. We also used SBP tours. They had tours in St. Petersburg as well as other ports. Very good.

This ship has Crooner's a very popular location for piano entertainment and evening drinks. Seats can fill quickly.

[candy4040]

Hair dryers provided by Princess aren't the strongest.  Also the soap, shampoo and conditioner are not good.  Bring a multi plug-in because very few outlets.

[Princess Cruises Fann]

8 hours ago, Lady Arwen said:

We are also on Enchanted in the Baltics May 4 2022!  We are looking at Scandic Front Hotel and The Admiral hotels...leaning to Scandic.  We’ll spend two to three days in Copenhagen prior to the cruise.  We’ve been to Europe and The Med a few times, but this itinerary is new to us, too.  We won’t know for some time if we can book independent tours or if we will have to book ship sponsored tours.  Time will tell.

We’ve sailed on Royal and Regal Princess and love this class of ship.  We really enjoy sailing with Princess.  Very good food and excellent service.  You will love it.  Have you joined your roll call yet?  Great place to meet your fellow passengers!

We did stayed at the Scandic Front Hotel in Copenhagen when we did a Princess Baltic cruise a couple of years ago. I would highly recommend it. The hotel is in a  convenient location and very close to Tivoli Gardens. The hotel employees were also very helpful and friendly. 

[mevs904]

We took this cruise in August 2019 on the Regal and it was fabulous!  Such a rich itinerary!  We book EZ Air with SAS and we’re very pleased with our experience.  We wouldn’t hesitate to fly with SAS again.  We also booked the Princess transfers  to and from the ship and the process was very smooth.  It was too early for us to board the ship when our plane landed so Our Princess transfer gave USA tour of Copenhagen and then took us to the port.  After the cruise we stayed in Copenhagen for three nights at the Scandic near the planetarium.  This was also close to Tivoli.

     I believe that things are still up in the air about shore excursions, but if you are able to take non-Princess excursions we can’t speak highly enough for our St. Petersburg 2 day excursion with Alla.  It was top quality with only 16 people and about half the price of the Princess excursion.  After reading the reviews on the Alla tours we also booked tours with them in Stockholm, Helsinki, and Warnemunde, Germany.  Since we had booked their St. Petersburg tour they gave us a discount on these other countries.  They also gave us a discount for being Cruise Critic members.

     As far as weather was concerned the temperatures were pretty much those of a cool summer.  We loved this cruise and I’m sure that you will have a wonderful time.

[caribill]

9 hours ago, southernshug said:

I would greatly appreciate any and all insight or tips that you may have! I'm so excited 😊 TIA

 

Find and join the Cruise Critic roll call for your cruise. Use the "Find your roll call" link near the top of this page.    https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/20-roll-calls/

[PaperSniper4]

On 3/23/2021 at 2:45 PM, southernshug said:

First time going to Europe!!!! We just booked an 11 day cruise going out of Copenhagen Denmark for next year on the Enchanted with 2 days in St Petersburg Russia!!!! I know nothing about Princess or even how much to pack for something like this. Only been on 1 cruise and that was to the Caribbean, lol. I would greatly appreciate any and all insight or tips that you may have! I'm so excited 😊 TIA

I have a cruise packing list I have been updating now for about 30 years. Works good for me. If you are interested let me know and I will get it to you. The document is in OpenOffice format. If you use OpenOffice <free, online> you can modify the file to your situation. If not, I can get it to you as a PDF file, which you could likely not modify other than re-typing.

 

Doug

[AF-1]

This link may answer some of your questions

Cruise FAQs - Princess Cruises

[southernshug]

On 3/23/2021 at 4:09 PM, Lady Arwen said:

We are also on Enchanted in the Baltics May 4 2022!  We are looking at Scandic Front Hotel and The Admiral hotels...leaning to Scandic.  We’ll spend two to three days in Copenhagen prior to the cruise.  We’ve been to Europe and The Med a few times, but this itinerary is new to us, too.  We won’t know for some time if we can book independent tours or if we will have to book ship sponsored tours.  Time will tell.

We’ve sailed on Royal and Regal Princess and love this class of ship.  We really enjoy sailing with Princess.  Very good food and excellent service.  You will love it.  Have you joined your roll call yet?  Great place to meet your fellow passengers!

We will be staying at the Scandic as well. Haven't joined the roll call yet but will definitely do that! I'm so excited about this trip that I think I've been packing in my head already, hahaha

[southernshug]

On 3/23/2021 at 4:18 PM, gotta cruise again said:

So you may not know that in addition to being able to send out clothes to the ship’s laundry, Princess ships have launderettes with washers, dryers, irons, and ironing boards. The washer/dryers use tokens, which are available by using your cruise medallion in a machine in the launderette. You can also use medallion to buy clothes washing products. These purchases go onto your shipboard account.

 

I bring my own laundry products as I do not mind running a load or two during the course of a cruise. My DH sends his things out to the ship’s laundry (we do get complimentary ship’s laundry but I don’t like to send my clothes out).

 

You may not want to do laundry while on vacation but I thought you might want to know it is possible...just in case.

Thank you for that information. Definitely good to know 🙂

[southernshug]

On 3/23/2021 at 5:20 PM, skynight said:

We did this itinerary a few years ago.

Copenhagen is a very walkable and interesting city. We spent some time there pre-cruise and were not sorry. Be prepared for high prices for dining and snacks. While in Copenhagen we took the canal tour at Nyhavn. We also took the train over to Malmo, Sweden and spent a day there. It isn't very far.

Clothing, it summer and warm, but do bring a cover up, sweatshirt, sweater etc. and don't forget a rain jacket.

You should enjoy the new ship. Free dining is available on board in Alfredo's, World Fresh Market Place, Slice, Salty Dog Grill, International Cafe open 24/7, room service, of course the DR's. You can also get your latte fix at the International Cafe as well as some other locations on the ship. We also used SBP tours. They had tours in St. Petersburg as well as other ports. Very good.

This ship has Crooner's a very popular location for piano entertainment and evening drinks. Seats can fill quickly.

Wonderful information....thank you!!!! I want to see as much as possible while we are there, lol. I love the old architecture and just nature in general. Definitely will be checking out your suggestions for Copenhagen as we will be there 2 days prior to the ship leaving. Oh....I have only been on the one cruise with Celebrity and we enjoyed it! I'm excited about getting to travel on Princess....I've heard really good things!  

[southernshug]

On 3/24/2021 at 12:51 AM, mevs904 said:

We took this cruise in August 2019 on the Regal and it was fabulous!  Such a rich itinerary!  We book EZ Air with SAS and we’re very pleased with our experience.  We wouldn’t hesitate to fly with SAS again.  We also booked the Princess transfers  to and from the ship and the process was very smooth.  It was too early for us to board the ship when our plane landed so Our Princess transfer gave USA tour of Copenhagen and then took us to the port.  After the cruise we stayed in Copenhagen for three nights at the Scandic near the planetarium.  This was also close to Tivoli.

     I believe that things are still up in the air about shore excursions, but if you are able to take non-Princess excursions we can’t speak highly enough for our St. Petersburg 2 day excursion with Alla.  It was top quality with only 16 people and about half the price of the Princess excursion.  After reading the reviews on the Alla tours we also booked tours with them in Stockholm, Helsinki, and Warnemunde, Germany.  Since we had booked their St. Petersburg tour they gave us a discount on these other countries.  They also gave us a discount for being Cruise Critic members.

     As far as weather was concerned the temperatures were pretty much those of a cool summer.  We loved this cruise and I’m sure that you will have a wonderful time.

Thank you for the wonderful information. Quick question, how do you even find out about excursion companies and their reviews (if things get back to normal and we can do our own)?

[southernshug]

2 hours ago, PaperSniper4 said:

I have a cruise packing list I have been updating now for about 30 years. Works good for me. If you are interested let me know and I will get it to you. The document is in OpenOffice format. If you use OpenOffice <free, online> you can modify the file to your situation. If not, I can get it to you as a PDF file, which you could likely not modify other than re-typing.

 

Doug

I would appreciate that! A pdf would work great!!! Thank you so much!

[PaperSniper4]

4 hours ago, southernshug said:

I would appreciate that! A pdf would work great!!! Thank you so much!

You are welcome, attached.

Cruise Pack List MASTER CC.pdf

[southernshug]

2 minutes ago, PaperSniper4 said:

You are welcome, attached.

Cruise Pack List MASTER CC.pdf 142.36 kB · 0 downloads

This is wonderful.....thank you so much. I drink Earl Grey too, lol

Edited March 26, 2021 by southernshug

[Cruisen Elf]

You can also check out the ports of call sections on these boards.  They have lots of info for just about any port you want to visit!  Here is the link for Northern Europe & Baltic Sea:

 https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/116-northern-europe-amp-baltic-sea/

[southernshug]

3 minutes ago, Cruisen Elf said:

You can also check out the ports of call sections on these boards.  They have lots of info for just about any port you want to visit!  Here is the link for Northern Europe & Baltic Sea:

 https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/116-northern-europe-amp-baltic-sea/

Perfect. I was looking for something like this!

[mjmalino]

We did the Baltic Heritage cruise in 2016 (round trip from Southampton). We also had 2 days in St. Petersburg and used Alla Tours, highly recommend them. One thing about Russia, (and admittedly this was 5 years ago, so things may have changed) if you are on a US passport, you must have either visitor's visa or tickets for a tour  to get off the ship. The tour could be through either the ship or one of Russia's licensed companies. Also, Alla gave us a discount when we booked multiple destinations with them, so we also booked Copenhagen and Helsinki. 

 

As for laundry, the laundromats on each deck that there are passenger cabins has been a huge thing for us as there are 4 of us (always travel with my kids, even though they are now grown), especially on longer cruises.