Living on a prayer

We set sail on the on Saturday 16th July and I received an e mail from my Travel Agent about the Istanbul / Rhodes swap the following day.

The itinerary change that included the 26th Kotor and 27th Corfu stops. Was received via an internal letter delivered to the stateroom on Friday 22nd.

Hope this helps.

The Royal Princess was scheduled to stop in Kusadasi on July 28. Does anyone know if it did make this scheduled stop there? If anyone on that cruise has any other information for us, it would be wonderful to hear from you. We are scheduled to stop in Kusadasi on September 15 and are hoping we get to stop there!

We were on the Royal for the past 2 weeks. We were meant to go to Rhodes instead of Istanbul.

Then when Kusadasi was cancelled during the cruise

Kotor and Corfu were put on the itinerary and Rhodes was dropped.

We have just returned from a fantastic cruise on the Royal Princess. Being Platinum members, we attended the 1st Captains Circle event on the 4th day (I think). The Captain addressed the audience, and stressed how much they appreciated our loyalty in always choosing Princess. The most cruised people were celebrated ....(964 days).

We really enjoyed the whole event and it did make us feel special. But here's the twist..... We have never sailed on Princess before!!! We are Platinum members because of our cruises with P+O. This scenario was not addressed, so I felt it really wasn't for us.

Hence we did not attend the 2nd one.

It is a great perk, that our P+O cruises are recognised by Princess. Perhaps they should be more aware of people like us.

We tried to book 2 whole weeks in The Sanctuary. We did not board the ship until around 2pm. By that time, the 1st sea day was completely sold out. We managed to book the whole of the 2nd week, but we could not have "our" places on the sea day and had to be moved elsewhere (different beds) within the Sanctuary.

I think it's strange that priority is given to those who only want to use it for one day or half a day, ahead of those who want to book a whole week.

I am on my 1st Princess cruise tomorrow , after stacking up 50+days with P+O. That puts me in "Platinum" class and gives me priority boarding, 250 minutes internet and somewhere nice to sit on departure day. A nice gesture, it's a shame P+O don't do likewise. !

Apologies for jumping in but is the spa unisex?

Hubby and I are looking at booking the Iberia cruise for the 16th July.

 

Thank you

Yes it is all unisex - except the changing rooms !!!:)

£250 for two weeks seems absolutely extortionate! When I was on doing the around Britain i think it was about £150. I got the flu when I was onboard and ended up having half refunded.

Sorry Florry.

I was wrong. Thinking about it a bit more... It was £150 for me and £100 for my wife.

Day passes are subject to availability.

 

On embarkation they will be offering length of cruise passes. They usually say there are only a limited number of passes and that these usually sell out etc etc.

 

However, on every cruise I have been on, I have seen people buy access for just a day, later in the cruise.

 

It's a wonderful relaxing place :)

I went on her in July for 2 weeks. It cost me £250 and if my wife wanted to use it, it cost her £150. But the £150 offer, had to be taken, there and then.

A word of warning ! On the Britannia buffet, I thought I would have a pint of Carling from the self serve machine. Once you start the pump you have a limited time to fill your pint glass. I'm no barman, but I had the glass at 45 degrees, the Carling was "a wee bit lively" and by the time the clock had run out, I ended up with half a lager, half a froth. Best use a waiter, me thinks!

I agree with most of the posts on here. RCI ships do have more of a WOW factor. But I didn't like their casino. Too much like an amusement arcade. One thing RCI have that P&O will never have is Johnny Rockets. A great, fun type, US diner.

Great review with great photos. We are on the Royal in July. It will be our 1st time with Princess. We were on P&O Britannia last year, which is a similar ship. So we are used to the mid ships stairs issue. Looking forward to the MUTS. One question :- Are there waiters around, when a movie is playing?

Thanks

Thank you for your replies. I'll will look it all up, nearer the time. Then it will be fresh in my mind when I get on board. The free laundry will be useful to get rid of the gravy stains!

I would say that here are - not me though.

 

There are also people on this forum who are Elite category members on Princess who have never been on a Princess cruise as Princess count points earned on P&O in their scheme. The same does not work the other way though.

I am in this boat . (no pun intended). We are due to sail on the Royal Princess in July. I read on the Princess website, that in their eyes, I am an Elite member. Even though I've never set foot on a Princess ship. I hope all the benefits are made obvious. As I don't fancy going around asking Do I get this? Do I get that? Etc.

It will be our 1st cruise with Princess and this thread has provided some great information. We've cruised with Ocean Village, RCCL and mainly P+O. We were on P+O Britannia last year and this year we are on the Royal Princess. It sounds like Princess is fairly similar to P+O. Shame the Royal does not have a Crows Nest to watch the sun go down in the evening. But the outdoor cinema sounds great.

OP, have you been told what the substituted ports are? Would assume with your cruise not being until July that there is plenty of time to find alternates.

 

We enjoyed immensely our visits over the years to Turkey, but understand the cancellations. As with other cancelled ports and counties no longer visited by ships, these countries depend heavily on tourism so many innocent, hardworking folks suffer from the loss of the cruise business.

I think Tunisia was replaced with a stop in Italy. We have another stop in Turkey (Kusadasi). I guess that will be removed too. The cruising world is getting smaller. Sad times.

It will be our 1st cruise with Princess in July. Our original ports of call had us going to Tunisia. That was removed after the gunman murders on the beach. Istanbul is on the list, and I fear that may be removed, after the suicide bomber today, that killed up to 10 German tourist. It must be getting harder for cruise companies to supply "safe" cruising holidays.

We went to Livorno a couple of years ago. We did the red hop on hop off bus. It takes you all around the town then to the outskirts. The driver encourages you to get off at stop No.5 (I think). You then have a free ticket to take a little train up a very steep hill. At the top are a few shops and bars and a beautiful church, that the Pope visited a few years ago. The views are spectacular.

I loved Britannia. They will not be making the lifts bigger, they won't knock through a door, where you think one should be, etc, etc. So enjoy and cope with what is there. Let the people give it bad reviews, it's makes sure it's not sold out when we want to go.!!!

If you like your hot tubs, saunas etc. Give the Hydrotherapy suite a go. It cost me £150 for 2 weeks, but well worth it.

Enjoy

I'm on this cruise. The way I understand it... Because the sprinkler system came on. It meant the CCTV in the engine room could only see the water spray. So a B A team was sent in to investigate. The captain sounded and remained calm all the way through. And we never stopped moving. That assured me that things weren't that bad. Alot of passengers did worry and am sorry about that.

We are on Britannia 25th July. I received this e mail yesterday.

From P&O Cruises:

Coach Ticket Trial Message:

Cruise Connect will be supporting P&O Cruises' staggered arrival schedule for the embarkation of your cruise. The arrival timetable has been adjusted for your service to ensure a better check-in and boarding process. On board your cabins will be ready and all facilities including lunch will be available throughout the day. P&O Cruises will be contacting you directly nearer your cruise departure date with more information regarding the Pride & Joy programme and future enhancements.

It's all as clear as mud !

We are due to sail on the Britannia on the 25th July. On A Deck with a boarding time of 12.30. But.... We are travelling from Cheshire by coach. We've now had an e mail from Intercruises (see below) and a boarding time of 15.00.

"I would just like to apologise for the delay in sending the travel vouchers for the above embarkation.

We are working closely with P&O to trial a new check in procedure for guests choosing to take the coach connection service with P&O’s preferred partner – Intercruises. The object of this exercise is to ensure that guests arriving by coach will no longer have to queue up even outside the terminal for extended periods of time but rather be able to go straight in to check in and go through the whole check in procedure much more smoothly and efficiently.

We are therefore waiting for a letter from P&O to accompany your travel voucher to explain this whole new concept in greater detail. We would ask you to read your travel voucher very carefully as the time on it will, in some cases, be different from our usual departure time."

PS. there was no accompanying letter from P&O. Not yet anyway!

P&O seem to be afraid of offending the yobs that they are encouraging on their ships at the moment but they are not worried about those of us who like a quite life. We invariably book a balcony and I much prefer to sit there and read rather than go out on the decks which are generally too busy for me to concentrate on my book because I am really nosey.

"yobs" ? OMG

I read on the old P+O forum. That a first timer lady, attended the Black n White night dressed as a Friesian cow !

Have a look for the person in the buffet restaurant, looking for the till to pay! That's what I did on my 1st cruise. I knew the food was all inclusive. But because we hadn't sent sail, I thought I'd have to pay for my first meal !!!

Is it just me ? But isn't wanting a waiter sacked because you couldn't have your "No.43", a little bit over the top ?