7 Night Scandinavia from London

[cflutist]

Any feedback from anyone who has taken this cruise?

 

Which ports did you enjoy (Belgium, Denmark, Sweden, Norway) and what shore excursions did you take.

 

What didn't you like about this cruise?

 

Is it worth flying in 2 days early for a pre-cruise stay in London?

Thought this might be worth looking into since we'd be flying from California and it would be a long plane ride.

 

We have never been to Europe before and thought this 7 night cruise might be a good introduction. If we find we like it, then we might do the longer 10, 12, or 14 night ones in the future.

 

Thanks in advance for your help.

[love2bonboard]

Any feedback from anyone who has taken this cruise?

 

Which ports did you enjoy (Belgium, Denmark, Sweden, Norway) and what shore excursions did you take.

 

What didn't you like about this cruise?

 

Is it worth flying in 2 days early for a pre-cruise stay in London?

Thought this might be worth looking into since we'd be flying from California and it would be a long plane ride.

 

We have never been to Europe before and thought this 7 night cruise might be a good introduction. If we find we like it, then we might do the longer 10, 12, or 14 night ones in the future.

 

Thanks in advance for your help.

Hello, I am from California too. We now live in Germany (military) and I will tell you w/o any doubt, I would do the longer cruise now. You will be glad you did after that long flight. If you have any interest in St. Petersburg, then I would do it as well. A 7 night cruise is just not long enough!!! Trust me on this. Now, with regards to London (of course everyone is different), we have travelled a lot throughout Europe and London is still my favorite place to go. YES, stay two nights, maybe even three if you can take the time. Stay at a hotel walking distance to the train station, get an oyster card, and ride the train for three days...very easy. Most places...museums (the British Museum is a must), Buckingham Palace (changing of the guard), Hyde park...all free. The theatre is fabulous. I highly recommend seeing Les Miserables, Billy Elliot or Wicked. The exchange rate is great right now too!!!!

[sunsetbeachgal]

HI Cheryl,

 

We have a deposit on this cruise using future cruise credits but may cancel due to jitters over the economy. However, it appealed to use as we have already done several Med cruises and have done Baltic with St. Petersburg. all of which we absolutely loved.

 

My advice, just like the poster above would be to do a longer cruise-you have such a distance to get there and there is so much to see. If you don't want to do a longer cruise, then 2 days is absolutely not enough time to come early to London. First of all from California the time change must be at least 8 hours, so you will be absolutely wiped out the first day, then you should have at least three days or more to sightsee. From London, in addition to what others suggested it is an easy day trip to see Windsor Castle or other lovely sights.

[hellokitty49]

Any feedback from anyone who has taken this cruise?

 

Which ports did you enjoy (Belgium, Denmark, Sweden, Norway) and what shore excursions did you take.

 

What didn't you like about this cruise?

 

Is it worth flying in 2 days early for a pre-cruise stay in London?

Thought this might be worth looking into since we'd be flying from California and it would be a long plane ride.

 

We have never been to Europe before and thought this 7 night cruise might be a good introduction. If we find we like it, then we might do the longer 10, 12, or 14 night ones in the future.

 

Thanks in advance for your help.

 

We're on the 7 Day Scandinavian from London in August. We choose this cruise because it had all the ports we were interested in except Amsterdam so we're adding a couple of days before Southampton in Amsterdam and one day at the end in London.

 

We've been to Europe a couple of times but I haven't been to any of the Scandinavian countries or England. You have to pick the itinerary that best fits you. The 7 day works for us because we have a teenage son who will be staying back with his older sister, we work, and we take 2 other big vacations a year. It may be a few years before we can do another cruise.

 

My DH and I are celebrating my 50th birthday and our 25th wedding anniversary. If you decide on this cruise, please join the roll call.

[phabric]

We are doing this cruise July 11-18/09. We have a Roll Call going.

 

Since this cruise is only offered 1x a year, and this year 2x there are not many reviews. If you go to the Princess Review section under Sea Princess (last year's ship), you will find a review by CINDEP - "Sea Princess July 12-19 - Observations". I also think there is another review for the previous year with the Sea Princess.

 

Check out Ports of Call - British Isles and Northern Baltic very helpful.

[bubbadog]

We are from california too,and definately fly in 2-3 days early,The crown has 2 great itineraries,One on the july 19th,crown princess,British ailes cruise,and again on August 12th,crown princess,These are really really good itineraries,and we loved them,It is by far the best cruise i have ever had,and are going to do it again in a year or 2,so dont hesitate to take these 2 itineraries,you wont be disappointed;):p

[cindep]

Thanks for the nice reference to my review. I hope it is helpful.

 

We really enjoyed our 7 day trip as we're still "working stiffs" and couldn't take any more time than that! I don't know if you've got your air yet, but we thoroughly enjoyed flying Virgin Atlantic in their premium economy. I was concerned about the long flight, but it really went by surprisingly fast.

 

We had friends who showed us around the south part of England after our 7 day trip. There was so much to see in that area, that we personally didn't miss seeing London. But that's just us. We're more country folk than city dwellers.

 

We really enjoyed Oslo. The tour we took to the gardens and the Viking museum were good. However, I think we could have spent more time at the gardens and less time at the museum. There were just too many people there at the same time and we really didn't have time to enjoy it. We also enjoyed going up to the ski jump, but I believe they are tearing it down and replacing it so I'm not certain it is still there.

 

I personally enjoyed the changing of the guards in Copenhagen, but that was the one place we found a lot of crime ... several people in our group were approached by pick pockets -- although they picked on the wrong folks and no harm was done (don't mess with an ex-marine).

 

We went outside of Amsterdam and I personally enjoyed walking the streets of Edam. It was a beautiful village.

 

Yes, this is a short cruise, but it does give you an opportunity to see a bit of Europe and make a decision to return (or not). You're fortunate as the pound to dollar ratio is much better than our trip last year. I think our next trip "over the pond" will be to do the British Isles. There was so much more to Great Britan than I expected. I do know that the people in Southampton were all VERY nice and helpful -- much more so than what I've experienced in the US.

 

If you have any specific questions, I'll be happy to answer what I can. We flew into Gatwick and took the train to Southampton. Very nice way to start the trip.

[cflutist]

Thank you everyone for your input so far.

 

Questions for Cindep, what did you do in Belgium and Sweden?

 

How does "premium" economy class compare to "regular" economy class

on VA? How long is the plane flight?

 

Princess quoted about $3K for air from San Francisco. Can we do better on our own?

 

We are just in the planning stages for 2010 as we would like to book our next cruise in April (or soon after) when we sail on the Star (to get the FCC :D).

[cindep]

We didn't go to Belgium, so I can't help you with that one. In Sweden, you go to Helsingborg which is a very small town/village. We had to tender in. We went to the Sofiero Gardens. It is a very large garden with an old royal summer palace. We didn't go through the house, although there were some in our group who did. I am guessing you could do this tour on your own fairly easily and have plenty of time. The weather was kind of cloudy and drizzling the day we were there.

 

As far as Virgin Atlantic is concerned, premium economy buys you a seat more on par with US first class ... 21 inches wide and 38 inch pitch (space between your seat and the one in front). You also have cabin crew assigned just to premium economy, a nicer food service/selection, preferred boarding, and your luggage "should" be out before regular coach. That's just a few of the "perks". You can check them out at www.virgin-atlantic.com. We would definitely fly them again as their price was quite a bit less than flying business with the US carriers. I just checked and Virgin's economy is running about $1,300 per person out of San Francisco so you definitely can do better on your own. Currently premium economy is quite a bit more (almost $1000 per person), but in our case it was worth every penny. I did a lot of research on the airlines before we flew and Virgin is ranked very highly compared to other airlines, especially in/out of London. (Too bad I don't get a comission for chatting them up!)

[phabric]

We're on the 7 Day Scandinavian from London in August.

 

I noticed on the Princess website that your cruise is listed under the "2 for 1 Savings". You might want to check it out, if you have not already done so. Our July 11 cruise was not listed but I was able to get it reduced when they had a balcony special.