Live From the Sky Princess, 21-Day Norway-Baltic B2B, Jul 13 – Aug 3

[joejoe 59]

@Ken the cruiser could you give us your thoughts on the shore tours you took please. 

Did you think they  were good Value & were you happy with them?

[Ken the cruiser]

6 hours ago, joejoe 59 said:

@Ken the cruiser could you give us your thoughts on the shore tours you took please. 

Did you think they  were good Value & were you happy with them?

I think the photos I posted with the description of each excursion we went on are pretty self-explanatory, as to the enjoyment we got from each of them. However, we would not recommend going to the Mineral Caves one in Kristiansand, as all we did was walk in various cave sections of one big cave where we saw displays of a bunch of stones from around the world. Not what we were expecting and the park in general was very commercialized. 

 

However, as far as value goes, I would also recommend you purchase the excursions you want to go on as soon as you can, as the prices will go up, especially for the more popular ones, the closer you get to embarkation day.

[PATRLR]

7 hours ago, joejoe 59 said:

@Ken the cruiser could you give us your thoughts on the shore tours you took please. 

Did you think they  were good Value & were you happy with them?

For the first week of Ken's trip (Norwegian fjords), I was also on board and did different types of excursions than Ken did.  You might want to review my trip report here (in particular posts 4, 5, & 6): 

 

[Esprit]

On 8/3/2024 at 2:17 PM, Ken the cruiser said:

Thanks Peter for following along and keeping me straight when identifying wildlife! 😁

 

As far as the weather in your beautiful country, it definitely improved as we headed towards London. However, as far as summer goes back in Alabama, it doesn’t look like we’ve missed anything. When we left it was 34C and humid, and when we get home, it’s forecasted to be about the same! 😂

Well the English weather can do what it likes from next Saturday and two weeks beyond.

i will be aboard Sun Princess repeating the Itinerary we did on Regal Princess back in 2022, except Kotor has been dropped! Can’t wait to be on a new ship.

I will post some stuff on CC and just piggy back someone else’s thread like I did with yours last time😉

I hope you got home OK?

[Ken the cruiser]

1 hour ago, Esprit said:

Well the English weather can do what it likes from next Saturday and two weeks beyond.

i will be aboard Sun Princess repeating the Itinerary we did on Regal Princess back in 2022, except Kotor has been dropped! Can’t wait to be on a new ship.

I will post some stuff on CC and just piggy back someone else’s thread like I did with yours last time😉

I hope you got home OK?

We just flew in about 60 minutes ago, as we had to stay overnight in Atlanta due to a scheduling change!
 

You're going to have a great time on the Sun! 😁

[Malleykatt]

Jojo 59.

 

Hi we did the 14 day segment of Ken's trip and thoroughly enjoyed our port calls.

 I only booked 2 Princess trips.

In Warnemunde we took the trip to Schwerin that Ken detailed earlier in his blog. The castle has just received UNESCO World heritage status.  3 groups went from the ship and 2 groups had some hiccups. 

In Kristiansand we did the Cannon museum/ Posebyen Old town walk. The museum was very good. The large cannon here was never fired in anger. You can walk inside the gun and the lower museum underneath. The walk of the old town was brief and easy walking. We then headed to the sea front by ourselves and through the old fish market area now full of restaurants on our way back to the ship.

If you are happy with hop on hop off buses one company operates in every country we visited and offers an ticket to cover the trip see Stromma website and look for their Multi destination ticket.

You can buy it online for 1050nok = @ £75 or @$96. 

[jaycruising]

Thanks Ken for the full 21 day report!  We loved the first 7 days so we actually are booked now to do the full 21 days next year… let the planning begin!

[Ken the cruiser]

23 minutes ago, jaycruising said:

Thanks Ken for the full 21 day report!  We loved the first 7 days so we actually are booked now to do the full 21 days next year… let the planning begin!

Thanks! Norway was awesome and we can’t wait to go back again! 😁

[joejoe 59]

On 8/4/2024 at 7:53 PM, Ken the cruiser said:

I think the photos I posted with the description of each excursion we went on are pretty self-explanatory, as to the enjoyment we got from each of them. However, we would not recommend going to the Mineral Caves one in Kristiansand, as all we did was walk in various cave sections of one big cave where we saw displays of a bunch of stones from around the world. Not what we were expecting and the park in general was very commercialized. 

 

However, as far as value goes, I would also recommend you purchase the excursions you want to go on as soon as you can, as the prices will go up, especially for the more popular ones, the closer you get to embarkation day.

Not sure from when excursions are available, but we don't have any up yet.

[Ken the cruiser]

38 minutes ago, joejoe 59 said:

Not sure from when excursions are available, but we don't have any up yet.

FWIW I use this link to research which excursions might become available at most of the ports Princess stops at:

 

www.princess.com/excursions

 

Then just select the Destination (e.g., Europe) and then what Port of Call (e.g., Olden).

Edited August 7 by Ken the cruiser

[paddingtonbear]

On 8/6/2024 at 9:04 AM, Ken the cruiser said:

Thanks! Norway was awesome and we can’t wait to go back again! 😁

Thank you very much for doing such an extensive, detailed trip report.  It was really fabulous.  We are interested in Norway now, thanks to you. 😁

[Ken the cruiser]

7 hours ago, paddingtonbear said:

Thank you very much for doing such an extensive, detailed trip report.  It was really fabulous.  We are interested in Norway now, thanks to you. 😁

Norway is definitely an awesome place to visit with a variety of port options, depending on the cruise line, up and down their coastline, to include looking for the Northern Lights or visiting Longyearbyen during certain key months.

 

If you wonder which cruise lines still visit Longyearbyen and when, here's a link to the Longyearbyen Port Schedule.

 

Longyearbyen (Spitsbergen, Svalbard Norway) cruise port schedule | CruiseMapper

 

It will be interesting to see how the upcoming Norway fjord (2026 and beyond) and Longyearbyen (2025 and beyond) itineraries might change as stricter Norwegian environmental rules are implemented. 

[Ken the cruiser]

For those that might want to follow along if they haven't experienced cruising on one of Royal Caribbean's larger ships yet, I just started a Live From thread that will cover our upcoming 7-day cruise on the huge Wonder OTS! As one might image, this ship for us will definitely be our target for discovery, as we only have one excursion booked so far. 

 

Following this short 7-day cruise, we'll be back cruising with NCL on a 23-day Europe/Transatlantic B2B on the Pearl around the end of November.

 

Edited September 16 by Ken the cruiser