lstone19

Hate to tell you but it's July already so last month was June. [emoji3] A lot of rain the first 2/3 of the cruise but it was still great. I posted a short review which you should be able to find.

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Well, and perhaps taking this in a slightly different direction, my pet peeve is the people who ask ship-specific questions about things that should be consistent across all Princess ships. For instance, "On Star Princess, our room was cleaned twice a day. Will my room be cleaned twice a day on Ruby Princess?"

The purpose of a brand is to provide a consistent product across the brand (which is why Carnival Corp. has multiple brands so that they can offer different products). My expectation is that I will get the same product regardless of the ship (where there are differences, it should be because of factors such as market, cruise length, and physical differences between ships, not because of the whims of the ship's officers. For instance, currently, Star, Coral, and Island are all doing the 7-day Voyage of the Glaciers Alaska cruise. It shouldn't matter which of the three I take - they should all be delivering the same product except for whatever differences are forced by the physical differences in the ships).

That said, delivery of a product is only going to be as good as the people charged with making sure that product is delivered (that would be the ship's senior officers, particularly the Hotel Director and his or her senior staff). So often the differences will be due to the people running the ship, not because of the ship itself (a ship, being a hunk of steel, makes no decisions and does nothing on its own; a ship only does things because its officers and crew makes it do so). And if something is not done on a ship the way it should be, then that is something Princess management needs to fix as the Princess "product" is not being delivered and that harms the Princess brand.

To put this all together, a recent thread dealt with how the all-inclusive beverage package worked on a specific ship. This is something that had better work the same way on every ship or there is just no point in having a brand.

If I had to choose, I would embark at Warnemunde and have a couple of days in Berlin to explore the sites at leisure. The day trip in Copenhagen was long enough to see the major sites. And we could walk back to the ship from the town centre in Copenhagen.

Was this a few years ago? Princess ships and most other ships doing embarkations in Copenhagen now dock at the new Oceankaj terminal which opened in 2014. For most people, it is not walkable.

Perhaps your ship used Langelinie. That one is walkable and it appears that was used for turnarounds in the past but it no longer is.

Try explaining that to a clerk who does not understand English.

We're talking about Australia. English is the primary language.

We were on Regal last month. The numbers I heard were 90% of passengers embark in CPH, 5% in Warnemunde, and 5% in St. Petersburg. So I would expect a limited choice of cabins for Warnemunde.

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Just returned from Europe. GE did not get us pre check outbound with British Air (Heathrow). My brother did get pre check outbound on Delta (Glasgow). Returning home none of us got pre check on Delta (four of us) from Paris.

Pre-check is a U.S. TSA program that requires air carrier participation. To the best of my knowledge, the only participating foreign carrier is Air Canada. So apart from AC, you will never get Pre-Check when flying a foreign carrier.

Also, as it is a U.S. TSA program, Pre-Check has no meaning when outside the U.S. Even if your boarding pass had said Pre-Check at Paris, it would not have done anything as TSA does not do the security screening in other countries.

The only exception, my experience is showing an actual Global Entry card may get you access to expedited security lines in Canada, the same as if you had a Nexus card. My experience is only when boarding a flight back to the U.S. at a pre-clearance airport so I don't know if that will work when boarding Canadian domestic flights, other international flights, or at non-pre-clearance airports (at pre-clearance airports, it is a separate check point for flights to the U.S. since it comes after you've dealt with U.S. Customs and Immigration.

 

I did meet a couple of Russians, but I don't know how many actual Russian's boarded the ship in St Petersburg.

 

The numbers I heard were about 200 board in St. Petersburg (and 200 in Warnemunde with the rest at CPH) but probably not all of them are Russian (although it's an expensive port to use as you need a visa plus you lose a day - embark day 2 of the port call but disembark day 1)

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The latest chip card I received from a US bank made it very clear that the PIN was only for getting cash from an ATM and was not for foreign credit transactions which would be chip and sign. Just back from a Baltic cruise and had no problems with chip and sign although I did not try to use it at any unattended devices where a signature might not be possible (on the other hand, I've had no problems with unattended chip transactions in Canada although they're more used to U.S. signature cards).

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I'm not going to quote FraudBroad's complete thing about the trip home - you can read it above - but I need to comment on my own experience. I was part of her CC group on this ship. I also am an airline employee but was travelling on a service award from my wife's employer so was on an airline I was totally unfamiliar with (KLM) plus flying as a confirmed, revenue passenger is something I just don't do very often (not flying standby, particularly to a cruise, relieves a lot of stress).

First, I really don't get why people feel they must check-in well in advance. A boarding pass issues at the airport an hour before departure is as good as one issued online 24 hours in advance. I would never pay money to check in early. I did have internet minutes to burn (platinum free package - thanks to having T-Mobile for cell service which includes unlimited international data, I did most Internet while in port) so did although KLM's app is so bad, it really wasn't worth it. Couldn't get them all saved in the phone until after we were back in Copenhagen. I had entered passport information on KLM's website months earlier and that part worked with no requests for us to re-enter anything.

Our flight was at 9:55, just 25 minutes after the earliest legal time for Princess so we were in the second disembarkation group. Off as scheduled at 6:25 and quick trip to the airport. Grabbed bags from the Princess tent and headed to KLM to check the bags.

At this point, I noticed KLM (and since they're co-owned) and Air France had a couple of counter positions with Princess signs with a long line. I guess this was for people with Princess air arrangements but our Princess arranged travel ended with the transfers - we were now on our own which thankfully let us use the no line check-in kiosk and automated bag drop. Quickly out of there and through security by 7:45 leaving us over two hours to kill. So yes, you can easily make those 9:30 to 10:00 flights.

And then…we arrived at…the LARGEST FREAKING DUTY FREE STORE I’VE EVER SEEN IN MY ENTIRE LIFE….I mean that place was FREAKING MASSIVE….It had EVERYTHING…perfume, make-up, cigarettes, candy, chocolates…you name it…they sold it…so what did we do? We shopped.

You obviously have never been to the new Heathrow Terminal 2. They have a two-level shopping area (you enter on one level and leave on the other so you have to walk through both levels). CPH's was small by comparison. And when I was at Heathrow in December (working station visit), I had to pass through it three times (twice while working, then when departing).

Anyway, the first things I noticed was no place to sit so although no gate was posted for our flight, we just headed to the gate where we had arrived figuring it would be that gate or one near by (CPH is not a large station for KLM and they just use a couple of gates). We sat until our flight was posted at a gate two away from where we were.

Quick flight over to Amsterdam, through Schengen departure passport control, and over to our flight to Chicago. We had purchased KLM's Economy Comfort (extra legroom) for the long flights months ago so reasonably comfortable plus the B-zone (second area) of their 747s have the galley on right side and seats on the left in a 3-2 configuration, the three side against the window and the two side against the galley wall. We went with the 2-side (although no window which I really prefer) just so we wouldn't have another person to deal with.

KLM is aggressive at indicating that the lavs at the front of the B-zone are for Business Class; none the less at one point, we were directed to use them due to carts in the aisle. Despite that, another flight attendant was about to shoo me away until I said the purser told me to go there.

Finally arrived at O'Hare. Bags start coming out. There's mine but where's my wife's. Finally talked to a KLM person who looked at a list and said it wasn't on the flight. They couldn't have made an announcement about who you needed to see? Gave us the needed information but was surprised they wanted us to submit the claim on line rather than in the airport (I think they really don't want to deal with the paperwork at the airport). I dropped in a bit of industry jargon to let them know they weren't dealing with a know-nothing flyer which did get a little bit of a reaction. At least this happened on the way home as even after it arrived on the next day's flight, it still took them another 24 hours to deliver it.

Finally off to the Customs exit. We both have Global Entry but since we had both bought some Finnish chocolates, had to answer yes to the "food" question which gets you a big O on the form indicating a Customs (but not Immigration) issue. The CBP agent was about to send us on our way when (my take on it at least) a supervisor on a power trip walked by, saw the O on each of our forms and without further inquiry, told the agent to send us to secondary. So f-in nice to be back in the U.S. after just walking by Customs in Europe when you have nothing to declare (and what we had would be "nothing to declare" when in Europe). Another five minutes wasted after the time wasted dealing with missing bag. And to be clear, just because you say yes to one of the questions does not normally earn you a trip to secondary. I've had the O before and was sent on my way in about five seconds after verbally declaring what I had that had me answer yes.

Called taxi and 30 minutes later were home. Loved the cruise but being back in our own bed felt very nice.

Now if they could only combine the elevator bank call buttons it would really save time. ;)

Yep. Just off Regal (same design as Royal) and the elevator logic is very bad. First problem is that in the stair-less center bank, the six elevators are in three separate control groups: the main bank of four plus each scenic elevator is on its own. So people typically call all three so a lot of needless stopping.

Second issue is logic that won't allow another to be called until the first (even if full) has departed. On the deck 4 (gangway) as people are boarding at the end of a port call, long lines can develop as not enough elevators go down there. Example: large group waiting, one elevator goes to 4 and quickly fills. Meanwhile, others are waiting but can't call another elevator (pressing the call button just keeps the doors open on the one already there). Watching the display, you can even see one come down to 5 and start back up because the control system thinks the demand on 4 was met by the one already there.

A solution is during these high demand periods on one floor, all the elevators should be on "recall" to that floor so they all keep coming down there (e.g. in the office building where I work, there's always an implied call to the ground floor so if one departs, another comes down to the ground floor - the call button on the ground floor does nothing since one is always being called whether the button is pushed or not).

One of the most entertaining review I've ever read on cruise critics. Our family will be on the NCL Northern Baltic cruise with very similar iterinary as the Princess in June of next year. Just wondering about your thoughts on TJ travel. I plan to use them for all 5 Northern Baltic port. I just can't decide between Alla tour, SPB tour or TJ tour. Thanks.

I believe all of them only actually provide the tour service in St. Petersburg. For the other ports, they're contracting with local providers. I heard nothing seriously negative about any of them. That said, there were some warts although FraudBroad and I (she and her family and we were together on the St. Petersburg and Stockholm tours) both attribute some of it to translation issues.

At St. Petersburg, I had inherited a private tour that someone else who subsequently cancelled had initially setup. Despite what we though was an agreement that there would be no more than 12 on the tour, all of a sudden a few weeks before they gave us a list of 15. We pushed back and they agreed to move four to a second section of the tour and we were very specific that we had our core group of 11 and we wanted just that 11 on our tour with no one else. Yet that first morning in St. Petersburg, we found that they had 13 in our group (and only 10 in the second section). But they quickly moved the two we weren't expecting to the other group so all was fine. Lest you think what difference does it make, a small group moves faster than a larger group. A larger group will spend more time waiting for the stragglers, more time getting on and off buses, etc., all of which comes out of your limited touring time.

Wart #2 was at Helsinki (did not involve FraudBroad) where we all showed up at the meeting spot at 7:30 as indicated on our confirmations only to find no tour guide (in addition to those with TJ's confirmations were a few confirmed threw another company (not SPB or Alla) which again indicates that they contract out to other companies). Turned out after a few calls that the tour company changed it to 9:00 but the word did not get back to TJ's. I really wanted the extra 90 minutes of sleep. To their credit, TJ's refunded 50% of the tour cost.

Through all this, we realized that at least TJ's probably has no automation behind their reservations system. We think it's all manual, probably working out of someone's apartment (when you go to pay TJ's, they take you to a local store where they have a desk they use to process payments but no other presence - other than that, there is no TJ's office you can walk into to arrange things). So when a change is made like happened to us in Helsinki, they need to find all the affected people and manually update them. And there's nothing to enforce a tour size limit other than a person not putting too many people on it.

So in other words, no matter who you work with, particularly if you do any sort of customized tour, it never hurts to verify that they have things right.

Was the ship warm enough in the evening to wear short sleeves? I am only used to hot weather cruises.

I was on this cruise as well (and doing a lot of things with FraudBroad). One of my "mistakes" was bringing too many long-sleeve shirts and not enough short-sleeve. Inside the ship, temperatures will be typical of any indoor environment.

We were midship - B420 - so not subject to much pitching but for the most part, seas were pretty calm with very little motion. Even on a day with whitecaps I felt very little motion in the ship. The Baltic is sufficiently protected that I don't think there's much sea action unless you're actually caught in a storm

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Thanks for your thoughts on your cruise. Sorry to hear it rained a lot, but it sounds like you made the best of it. :)

Oh, we did. On a cruise ship in the rain still beats work. [emoji3]

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Thank you for the report. Which hotel was Princess using in Copenhagen?

The Scandic. There are several Scandic hotels in Copenhagen but this one is just Scandic with no additional qualifier on the name. It's on Vesterport across from the planetarium.

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I've posted a mini-review in another topic I just started.

My wife Maggie and I were on Regal’s 6/14/16 Baltic cruise. I’ve posted the Patters in another thread. My friend FraudBroad is in the process of righting a detailed review in another thread which I’m sure will give much more detail of a lot of what I’ve written below since we were together for a lot of this.

EMBARKATION: We arrived in Copenhagen two days in advance. Had plans to meet with FraudBroad and her family that night and a larger CC group for a pre-cruise dinner the next night. Both went well and helped set the tone for the cruise.

Returning to our hotel the first night, we discovered it was one being used by Princess for pre-cruise stays. A sign at the Princess desk was offering transfers for guests staying there independently. At $25/pp including bags (picked up at the room), it seemed like a good deal (I was already expecting at least $50 for a cab). We were assigned to the 12:15 bus. It left at 12:20 and we were on the ship and starting on lunch before 1:00. Bags were at our cabin when we arrived there after lunch.

THE SHIP: I was concerned about the size. About 2,000 passengers is the largest I’ve been on before. But the Royal class ships handle their nominal 3,600 passengers well. It was always easy to find some place uncrowded when desired. I have no idea where most of those people went because it rarely seemed to be where I was.

DINING: We’re traditionalists and had late traditional. Our table of 8 was great. Four of the other 6 were Warnemunde passengers so after Watnemunde, we had new table mates which were even better. Our table was right next to the chef’s table which was fascinating to watch. Service at our table was great. And on formal nights, all four men were wearing tuxes.

I was less impressed with service in the other dining rooms. We had one breakfast, three lunches, and one dinner (where we had a conflict with our traditional time) in Concerto. At all of them, service seemed slow and not as polished as at our regular dinner table.

Other than that, we ate most breakfasts and a couple of lunches in Horizon Court and one lunch in Alfredo’s (would have gone back on the last day but too many good things on the MDR lunch menu).

PORTS and other:

OSLO: We did this one on our own. It rained.

WARNEMUNDE (BERLIN): Tour to Berlin arranged through TJ’s (from St. Petersburg). It rained. Great tour guide. Traffic on the return was slow and we were getting concerned. Arrived at 8:15 for 8:30 “all aboard” to find out there were still a few hundred missing. Turned out the second Princess charter train was delayed (sadly, from what we heard, a passenger had died on it).

AT SEA between Warnemunde and Tallinn: While at lunch, the captain announced that an ill passenger needed to be evacuated by helicopter. The rear of the ship (including some cabins) needed to be cleared for this. Helicopter did not land - passenger was transferred with the helicopter in the air just like pulling someone out of the water. The ship did a 180 to turn into the wind and then slowed almost to a stop. Afterwards, it was “pedal to the metal” to make Tallinn on time.

TALLINN: We did this on our own as well. It rained.

ST. PETERSBURG: It rained some more. Two-day tour from TJ’s. Immediately announced that the order of the tour was being changed as due to the number of ships, the Hermitage was making a special Monday opening. Morning at Catherine Palace was a mess (too many groups all trying to get in at once) and as result, our restaurant meal turned into box lunches as we drove to the Hermitage. But it was worth it as we were the first there for the afternoon special session and we were walking into empty rooms as we made our way through the museum. Absolutely incredible to be in there with no one else. Did everything else on Tuesday. Did I mention it rained some more?

HELSINKI: It raine… Wait a minute, no it didn’t. Dutifully showed up at 7:30 for our TJ’s arranged tour. Lots of people waiting (including some from another company also sub-contracted to the same company) but no tour guide. After some calls, we found out the tour company changed it to 9:00 but the word did not get to us (don’t know if it was the tour company or TJ’s that messed up but I’m guessing it was the tour company since multiple companies’ customers were affected; none the less, TJ's refunded half the tour cost due to the mix-up).

With a speed run required to make Stockholm on-time, the captain warned everyone to be back on board at 3:30 as we were not waiting. Despite that, eight runners arrived at 3:59 as they were about to pull the gangway for our scheduled 4:00 departure.

STOCKHOLM: No rain here either. We docked downtown having come through the archipelago. Short five hour port call so our tour moved quickly. Back out through the archipelago and on to our speed run for Copenhagen.

ON-BOARD ACTIVITIES: Prior to this cruise, we had not been into things like Trivia. But our CC friends got us to go and we were hooked. One game, we lost by one only to find the winner included someone from our dinner table. Somehow, he ended up with the champagne bottle which he brought to dinner to share with the table. A couple of days later, I was on a winning team but all we got was pens. I brought the pen to dinner to “share”. We had a good laugh about that but when someone needed to sign a bar bill, he of course asked for the shared pen.

DISEMBARKATION: Princess has it all down to a science. With a 5:00am arrival, 9:30 was the earliest legal flight time. Our flight was at 9:55 so we bought Princess transfers. We were assigned to the second disembarkation group to leave at 6:25. Quick trip to the airport, grabbed our bags, and checked-in. Out on the course by 7:45 with over two hours to kill. Since we were independent air, we were done with Princess as soon as we got there but while we breezed through check-in at KLM, I noticed they had a couple of Princess check-in desks with long lines. Not sure why those with Princess air had to go there rather than checking in on the kiosks and immediately dropping bags at the bag drop area.

Loved it so much that we just booked Regal’s Sept. 2017 TA cruise Copenhagen to New York. Fire away with any questions I can try to answer.

You sound like a fun person.

FraudBroad is a very fun person. My wife and I are the couple she mentioned that met up with her and her family at Tivoli Gardens. Then at the Monday dinner she organized, we ended up with a group of about 14 of us who did a lot of stuff together on this ship. For my wife and I, this ended up being our best cruise ever and a lot of that was due to being with fun people.

But, just so FraudBroad doesn't feel singled out by airlines (although she already knows this), KLM mishandled my wife's bag on the way home (no where near as serious as heading to a cruise). But at least they knew where it was. Made it to O'Hare the next day but then took them another 24 hours to get it delivered.

Such great writing I feel as if I actually was there. Oh, wait a minute, I was. [emoji3]

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Thanks again! Any highlights from the cruise?

As soon as I can. Look for a separate topic when I get to it.

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The boarding numbers break down 90% at CPH with 5% each at the other two. The "full" muster drill is done only at CPH. At the other two, embarking passengers meet in one room (not their muster stations) and through passengers aren't even aware it's happening

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The remainder are up including the disembarkation instructions and the Log of the Cruise. Enjoy!

Just got back from my Global Entry interview. This is my review of the process.

...

- You do not have to fill out the Customs Declaration form. You will input that when you use the Global Entry Kiosk. Not sure how that will work. I can't imagine having to key in all the information about the t-shirts you bought in Cozumel. Maybe it's only an amount??

I have no experience with being over the duty-free allowance but if you're under, you just answer No to the question that asks if you've exceeded. There is no need to list everything you bought. If you're over, I have no idea what it does.

Days 6, 7, and 8 are up.

Excellent scans, thanks.

You're welcome. I'm glad that the extra effort to scan them on a flat-bed scanner rather than just take pictures is appreciated. Takes about a minute per page for the scanning.

This certainly makes sense. It is a lot more frustrating when you book 3-4 weeks in advance and the airline makes changes a week before your departure....or even the day of the departure.

 

Sorry' date=' one airline has 5 flights per day from our local airport to Chicago. It is not at all unusual to arrive at the airport only to find that at least one of those has been canceled. My suspicion (no way I can prove it) is that the flights didn't fill and they were able to put all the people on the other flights. My "trick" is to try to arrive at the airport before the flight before mine. If my flight is canceled, I ask whether there is a possibility of moving to the EARLIER flight rather than being booked or standby on the next flight. But then, I'm a person who would rather have a long layover rather than be racing thru O'Hare. And of course, either way luggage issues are common![/quote']

 

There is a big difference between "schedule changes" and a "day of operation irregularity". Airlines do not make "schedule changes" on the day of operation (although I've noticed European airlines will frequently refer to delays as "schedule changes". Keep in mind the old saying about the U.S. and the U.K. being two countries separated by a common language). At least for U.S. carriers, a "schedule change" made less than a week before the day of operation is a cancellation or a delay, not a change in the schedule. Things happen on the day of operation and sometimes that results in delays or cancellations. We don't like it to happen; in fact, at many carriers, employees receive bonuses for hitting performance targets so a day of operation cancellation or delay puts bonuses at risk.

 

Are flights cancelled due to low loads? At my carrier, never. But, once other circumstances force a cancellation (e.g. plane out of service), load becomes a valid criteria for deciding what flight to cancel. This is not like a cruise where you book a particular ship. With air travel, you have not booked a particular plane and if needed, we will reassign "your" plane to another flight that needs it more. Given a choice of cancelling a flight with 100 people on it and no protection available or one with 25 people and protection available two hours later, you better believe we will cancel the one with 25 and move its plane to the one with 100. It's about having the least overall impact on the passengers.