Photo Review --> Sea Princess/Scandinavia 7/15-22

[herb]

What a wonderful time we had on our cruise to Scandinavia aboard the Sea Princess.

 

We left NYC on Virgin Atlantic. Probably the nicest airline crew to date, with plenty of food and drinks served, but the seats were the most uncomfortable ever!! (no, we can't afford first class.. we always fly steerage) We were so glad when the plane landed in London. We walked, what seemed like miles, just to get to immigration and customs. After retrieving our luggage we then walked, what seemed like miles, to get to the bus station where we boarded our bus (National Express) to Southampton. We stayed at the Holiday Inn which is located very close to pier.

We then took a taxi to the pier and boarded the Sea Princess. We entered the atrium and I must say it reminded me alot of Royal Caribbean. (a lot of brass and glass).

 

We were given maps at the entrance and made our way to our cabin. We chose and oceanview cabin on Caribe Deck. It was very comfortable and well laid out. We found the storage space available quite ample. The bathroom was small, but we managed The safe in the room is quite user friendly where you just punch in a 4 digit code of your choice. Our cabin steward was very friendly and efficient.

 

We decided to head up to the Horizon Court and grabbed some lunch. They had a nice variety of food, with dishes geared for both US and UK passengers. (approx. 2/3 of the passengers were UK citizens, the remaining 1/3 were mostly US and Canadian). Hand sanitizers were placed at strategic places and I always noticed people using them.

 

We sailed away in perfect weather and the weather remained perfect throughout the cruise. We were VERY lucky! We were glad that we could make good use of the pool and surrounding sun deck.

There seemed to be problems with the heating system for the pool. On the first day the water was great. But the next day the water was unbelievably hot! After that day they must have shut off the heating system and the water was cold! Oh well, we enjoyed the pool nonetheless. We did not notice any sort of youth security near the pool, as we had on RCI or Carnival. Yes, the kids took over the hot tubs and every so often they were in the adult pool, but for the most part the children on the cruise were very well behaved, as were the adults

 

We chose Anytime Dining which in theory could have worked if they wouldn't allow people to pick a specific dining time in the Anytime Dining room (which caused a longer wait) and that defeats the point of Anytime Dining. Our dining room was the Rigoletto Dining Room. It was very nicely appointed and there was no cavernous feel to it since they had partitions all around. It gave the room more of a "private dining room" look. The food was good, but to be honest no better or worse than on other cruiseline we have sailed, so far.

 

Everyone dressed very nicely for both Formal Nights.

JoAnn & I in our formal attire

 

We did notice that many of the British gentlemen wore white dinner jackets, which I have never noticed much of on American cruises to the Caribbean.

 

We had a great time at each port of call.

 

After a very uncomfortable flight home our daughter Stephanie and her boyfriend picked us up from Kennedy Airport. Now it's time to get back to work, and earn some money to pay our bills and put some aside for our next cruise...

[NZYU]

Thanks, Herb, for the good review and photos.

Glad you had a great time.

 

What were your ports of call?

What tour excursions did you take?

[tennisobo]

Thanks so much for posting with pictures! :)

Would you recommend this particular cruise?

[Strawberry]

Hello Herb - We are thinking about flying Virgin Atlantic Economy to London. You said that seats were uncomfortable. Are they just too close together with no leg room or are they very narrow--or both? I just find that most economy seats are terrible these days. What if anything made the Virgin Atlantic seats worse than the usual economy seats on other airlines? Thanks!

[phabric]

Great review and enjoyed the pictures. We will be on this cruise next year. Interested in hearing anything about it. Can you tell me when formal nights was? What did you do in each port? Any tours that you heard about that we should stay away from. What kind of UK food was there? What time did you get off the ship. Did you have plenty of time to get the National Express (what time did you pick)?

[herb]

What were your ports of call?

What tour excursions did you take?

 

We had 4 ports of call: Amsterdam; Copenhagen; Oslo; and Helsingborg,Sweden.

Whenever possible we took the ship sponsored walking tours. We didn't want to zip by all the interesting places in a bus. For example:

In Amsterdam our walking tour was followed by a wonderful canal cruise.

 

In Copenhagen we also took a very interesting walking tour and then at night we went to Tivoli on our own.

 

In Oslo we took a bus tour to the Viegeland Sculpture Park (very interesting) as well as to a park where you can see how people lived hundreds of years ago and also to the Olympic ski jump site in Holmenkollen. We did have time to wander around the main city and we used that time to walk along the waterfront promenade where we just enjoyed an ice cream cone and basked in the sunshine.

 

I had wondered what Helsingborg, Sweden would be like since it is not as well known as the other ports we visited, but I was pleasantly surprised. It's a medium sized city just on the other side of the Danish coast. We took a bus/walking tour. We had a very good tour guide for this excursion.

I wouldn't mind living in one of these waterfront apartments!

 

Would you recommend this particular cruise?

absolutely... the ship was very nice, the staff very accomodating and the ports of call were all very interesting.

 

We are thinking about flying Virgin Atlantic Economy to London. You said that seats were uncomfortable. Are they just too close together with no leg room or are they very narrow--or both? I just find that most economy seats are terrible these days. What if anything made the Virgin Atlantic seats worse than the usual economy seats on other airlines?

We are not tall, so we didn't find that the legroom was the issue, but we found the seats too narrow to be able to shift from side to side. Unless you got up you didn't move much at all in your seat. Unfortunately Virgin Atlantic messed up our seat reservations and we were the middle 2 seats in the middle section of 4 seats. (Seat configuration was 2-4-2)

 

Can you tell me when formal nights was? What did you do in each port? Any tours that you heard about that we should stay away from. What kind of UK food was there? What time did you get off the ship. Did you have plenty of time to get the National Express (what time did you pick)?

Formal nights were the first sea day, and the evening after we visited Helsingborg.

As mentioned above, we wanted to see the cities by foot, not from a bus window, so we opted for the walking tours whenever possible. We didn't really hear anyone disliking their tours, although some tour guides I'm sure are better than others. We found ourselves to be lucky and had very informative and interesting tour guides.

UK food: I noticed baked beans for breakfast, stewed tomatos and various other items I can't recall anymore. I quickly by-passed them and went straight for the bacon and eggs/ pancakes etc. Lunch and Dinner items were pretty standard.

They started disembarking about 8:45 am and then it depends on your color of the tags you placed on your luggage. We were at the pier waiting for a taxi around 10. Our National Express bus left Southampton at 12:45. We chose that time JUST IN CASE there was a problem with the ship not clearing immigration on time.

 

Hopefully I was able to answer everyone's questions.

herb

[PADDWIG]

:) HI Edd

We were on the same cruise.

Turned up at Riviera Bar but it was a bit chaotic so sorry we missed you. was on same tour in Amsterdam maybe in the other group.Realy enjoyed the cruise and the tours.Wished we had had more time in Helsinborg.

Lucy too meet Montu 6 at the same table one lunch time.

Great photos

One complaint.The time went so fast.:mad:

Enjoyed every minute glad you enjoyed it too

Paddy:)

[sirencallofthesea]

Thanks for the pictures Herb. We too were on this cruise and went up to the Riveria Bar after the drill, but there were so many people we couldn't identify anyone as being with the CC group. After wandering around for a bit we gave up. Next time we will think to carry a sign identifying ourselves. However, had a wonderful time on this cruise, the ship was great, food wonderful and shore trips (with the exception of Amsterdam) were very good. I have to say the Amsterdam experience was not Princess' fault, but we were all delayed getting off the ship by immigration who decided to be awkward and had 2 guys checking the passports of approximately 2000 people waiting to go ashore. Of course that resulted in bottlenecks and tours beginning late. As a result, we had to rush through the tour of Amsterdam to make up for beginning 1 hour behind schedule. Other than that it is a beautiful city, and the canal tour is well worth taking.

Sorry we missed everyone, but hope you had as great a cruise as we did. Maybe next time.....

[phabric]

Paddwig and sirencallofthesea - What tours did you do at each port, private or Princess?

 

You mentioned problems with immigration in Amsterdam, do we have to carry and show our passports at each port.

 

Any suggests for hotels in Southampton or London?

 

What kind of transportation did you use to get to and from Southampton?

 

What currency did you use in each port? Did you get it at home or while on the ship? Did you just get enough to pay for tips or something small? What did you do with the leftover change?

 

Will be on the same cruise next year and looking for any information since there is only 1 cruise a year.

[ParrotTops]

When you were coming into Sweden, was the shoreline dotted with little fishing villages??

[sirencallofthesea]

We did organized tours in both Amsterdam and Copenhagen. In Amsterdam we did a 3 hour walking tour and canal boat ride, which would have been great if we hadn't been an hour late starting the tour because of the problem getting off the ship. Amsterdam was the only place we where our passports were checked by officers, even though we were told to have our passports available every time we got off the ship. In all the other ports there wasn't anyone checking anything. The explanation we got from the staff was that the Sea Princess only visits Amsterdam once this year. Therefore, the officials insisted on checking passports. The crew seemed very surprised that emigration was being so sticky and repeatedly said that this normally doesn't happen. On the whole passengers were very understanding and patient, but the delay did impact on the many tours and of course people who were waiting to get off to do independent touring. In Copenhagen we did a 3 and a half hour walking tour with a wonderful lady guide. She was very knowledgeable and she set a leisurely pace with many stops for picture taking. We had tea and strudel at a very nice spot at about the halfway mark of the tour which rejuvenated everyone. All in all well worth the $44 each that we paid for the tour. After the tour we were bussed by to the ship, where we had lunch and rested in a lounge chair before going back into Copenhagen for some shopping. You can pay for bus transfer to the centre of town at the purser's desk on the ship - it costs $5.00 per person each way - a total of $20 round trip for my husband and I. The tickets are available all day while in Copenhagen, so you don't need to prebook.

Oslo and Helsinborg were both small enough that we felt we could wander around by ourselves using the maps provided by the ship. We were only in those ports for about 6 hours each, so didn't want to spend all our time on a tour. Both ports were very nice, but not a huge amount to see.

We did not stay in either London or Southampton, but I can recommend Woodford Chauffeur Cars for transportation between Heathrow (or London) and Southampton. We used them on the recommendation of someone on these boards and were very pleased with the service. It was necessary for us to use this kind of service because we had a 1:00 p.m. flight out of Heathrow to Canada on the day we returned to Southampton. I was very worried about getting to the airport on time and didn't want to chance a bus or train. I made all the arrangements on the internet before leaving home and asked for an early disembarkation as soon as we got on board the ship. We were off the ship by 8:45, the driver was standing right inside the terminal holding a card with our name, and 5 minutes later we were in the car (a large 5 seater with enough room for our luggage) on the way to the airport. Cost was 115 pounds for the two of us, which I know is a bit high, but the peace of mind and the service - and getting us to the airport as quickly and painlessly as possible - were worth it to me and I would highly recommend them. We found things VERY expensive in all the ports in Scandanavia. In Copenhagen it cost $10 for two ice cream cones (one scoop each) and a bottle of water. We exchanged a very small amount of money, in money exchange centres in each port, as we only wanted to carry cash for snacks and drinks and did not want to be stuck with coins, or currency after the trip. For everything else we used our credit cards. Visa, and American Express are widely accepted. Just be careful to check the exchange rate so you know the cost of what you are buying. Hope this helps, if you think of anything else just ask. By the way we took warmer clothes because we had been told that summers are a bit cooler in these places and you often need a sweater. In actual fact it was hot everywhere we went and we could have left the warmer things at home.

For ParrotTops - the scenery entering all the ports on this trip is lovely. Small fishing villages are on both sides of the ship and the way into Amsterdam through a lock is really interesting. We were often followed by small sailing and power boats with people waving and at times were close enough to the shore that we could see into people's apartments.

[phabric]

Thanks for all the information.

 

Was your walking tours through Princess.

[herb]

Thanks for all the information.

 

Was your walking tours through Princess.

 

Our walking tours were through Princess.

 

A note about private non-ship sponsored tours: What I noticed was that when we got off the ship at each Scandinavian port, there are no throngs of private tour operators outdoing each other with offers to take you here and there as is common when you arrive at Caribbean ports. The cruise terminal area was actually very quiet except for the passengers and the pre-arranged tour buses.

[phabric]

Thanks for the information about the tours. I have done private tours in Alaska and the Caribbean but I don't think I would do them in Europe, too much can go wrong.

[luvnorway]

FWIW, we did this cruise last year on Sea Princess and experienced exactly the same bottleneck going thro an immigration check at the Cruise Terminal in Amsterdam. As was described by previous posters who did the cruise last week, it was only staffed by 2 immigration officers last year also. They were very nice and as frustrated as the passengers were. Princess should have been aware of this situation based on last year's experience - doesn't mean they could have prevented it since the Netherlands obviously has the right, as any country does, to impose passport checks on arriving passengers, but I'm surprised that, after last year, Princess shorex people didn't enquire about the situation in advance of arrival in Amsterdam so they could build the probable delay into their schedule.

[PADDWIG]

Paddwig and sirencallofthesea - What tours did you do at each port, private or Princess?

 

You mentioned problems with immigration in Amsterdam, do we have to carry and show our passports at each port.

 

Any suggests for hotels in Southampton or London?

 

What kind of transportation did you use to get to and from Southampton?

 

What currency did you use in each port? Did you get it at home or while on the ship? Did you just get enough to pay for tips or something small? What did you do with the leftover change?

 

Will be on the same cruise next year and looking for any information since there is only 1 cruise a year.

Hi Phabric. We did the walking Amsterdam and Canal cruise. Itnroduction to Oslo. Fred.Castle/Sealand. Scenic coastal.Only needed Passports in Amsterdam which was a bit chaotic.Didnot change money as their all different currencies. All the ships tours so we didnot need too spend.Nobody apart from in Denmark bothered about tips.We enjoyed all the tours .You can make your own way into the cities easily if you just wanted too browse about.

Hope you enjoy it as much as we did.

Paddwig

[phabric]

We have a choice of cabins on the Caribe deck on the left or right side of the ship. What side did you have the most of the scenery on. Did the ship travel the same route coming back to Southampton.

[jennew]

that was a great review!! Thanks for the pics!!

[showmetheship]

Thanks for a no nonsense review. I will be sailing on a 2 week med cruise with my family of 4 in June 07. I notice you have taken a lot of the same ships we have (Celebrity Zenieth and RC Majesty of the Seas).

 

Hoping for a better experience than on Zenieth/ Horizon (no sold off) staff were great, the ship was terrible.:)

[showmetheship]

Thanks for a no nonsense review. I will be sailing on a 2 week med cruise with my family of 4 in June 07. I notice you have taken a lot of the same ships we have (Celebrity Zenieth and RC Majesty of the Seas).

 

Hoping for a better experience than on Zenieth/ Horizon (no sold off) staff were great, the ship was terrible.:)