JG&Lcruisingnewbies

Bergen. 6.30pm all aboard so a decent length day. Buffet food we ate exclusively in the buffet today. We were up later for breakfast, & didn’t know what time we’d be back for dinner. Buffet food could have been warmer- but that’s pretty normal in my experience. It wasn’t cold unless it should be, so that’s ok. great selection. Salad bars, themed section, carvery, kids section where I saw plenty of adults getting food too. Curries, rice dishes, minute steak, white fish, pork loins, so much to see & eat. we went at odder times. Got back from Bergen at 3.30. Had dinner at 8pm. So because it wasn’t peak time, it was Easy to get seats, but still a great selection of food to choose from. Breakfast in the buffet was ok- all the hot breakfast items seen in a full English, egg station for fresh eggs, fruits, cereals, yogurts, pastries where you would find the puddings other parts of the day. oh, puddings we’re decent. I was expecting a lot of dry cake but only one I tried was that. A strawberry layer cake was soooo good. I picked up the last one- I can see why! Note: you will see puddings previously seen in the MDR. That Pecan Cheesecake from the MDR made an appearance so we had it twice 👍 😋 only difference- not presented in any way other than on a plate. Doesn’t matter. Tasted great. Today we were in the buffet on our return from Flam at 2. It wasn’t full, but it was much busier for sure.

Yes that right. Long Dresses. However people were wearing dresses of all lengths. It was pretty varied. Nobody was in shorts & t-shirt. Or even jeans. But otherwise honestly it’s seems to be as long as it’s ‘smart’ for want of a better word, wear what you are comfortable in. women were in long smart trousers & blouses too. Observed that most women were in dresses all men I saw had at least a collared shirt. Long or short sleeves were both seen

I promise to cover Bergen later but this was my view when I stepped onto the balcony half hour ago, Today in Flåm: I just can’t express my delight enough Gorgeous ☺️ view left & view right

Thank you so much I should have put our itinerary up earlier for anyone reading. Here we are: at sea Bergen flam andalsnes trondheim at sea honningsvag Tromso at sea Olden Skjolden at sea Brugge at sea Southampton

I’ll chat about Bergen properly tomorrow BUT just to say we’ve had an amazing time & the weather has been fabulous today. Rock Opera. wow! just wow! I would love to know who the 2 leading men and 2 women are. One of the males in particular had an incredible voice. West end theatre voice. Honestly I’ve been to loads and loads of musicals in the UK. West end & former west end on tour shows. I hoped this would be good. My expectations were exceeded, and then some. there was a moment when it was clear the leading male singer was about to sing Freddy Mercury’s part in Barcelona. Me, I thought, unkindly, a sceptical ‘right, how’s this going to go then’ husband pretty much thinking the same. what can I say. We had nothing to worry about. He was AMAZING. As far as I’m concerned, a big fan of Freddy, not many can do that justice. He did. The show was so clever, professional & fun. I just wish I wasn’t too tired to go to the later showing at 10. And confused as to why on a 2 week cruise they seem to be only showing it on one evening. Please sort that Princess. advice. Get there early. 7.30. Seriously. It was heaving and standing room only by the start of the show. they release the remaining reserve seats 5 min before the show started. This was still not enough to seat everyone. Don’t be disappointed. Grab a drink & sit down to wait for half hour. It was worth it i just am sad I need to go one another cruise to see it again. Good enough excuse to tell the husband do we think 🤔 😜

Yes! hewas fantastic. We’ll go to as many of his talks as we can now. So funny. and thank you! We’ve been having a fab time so far 😃

Formal night food….. MDR Ceilo this time. Reservation 5.50 and again, very yummy, & great service. out in plenty of time to get to the theatre at 7.30 as recommended by others here. Rock opera which I’ll cover later. more food pics! Me: crab cake starter. Halibut husband: beef daughter: fish and chips, with her requested ‘normal’ peas, she’s not a fan of mushy. They did as asked, she approves. Not always easy to get her approval lol pudding- Love boat for daughter this time, and pecan cheesecake for us adults. No complaint at all! menus!

Kids club info: frankly I wanted to join in 😂

SEA day and formal night. What did we get up to. Well we went to the trivia, which was fun! Got 16/22 which we were actually pleased with. We don’t often do trivia on cruises recently. Pleased we went! Daughter was doing pretty well. We’d have gotten less right without her for sure but she’s only 10! Daughter went to the kids club in the afternoon which she really really enjoys. Skeeball, air hockey, colouring in T Shirts, Mario Kart competitions, and so much more. I’ll post pics below of the kids club itinerary for anyone interested. while daughter was at the club we went to hear a destination talk about Andalsnes & Tronheim. We’ll definitely attend more talks with the gentleman who gave it. His sense of humour was great. Had a lot of us chuckling quite often 🙃 then it was formal night. Not to invite debate here or anything. This was our experience. I was playing special attention to what others were wearing here because I find it interesting to see how cruise lines compare. husband was in a suit & tie, daughter & I in smart dresses. I saw everything from Tux, suits with & without tie, collared shirts no suit jacket. women in smart gowns like you might see at a wedding, in dresses you might see in a party or nightclub, and I saw women in smart blouses & trousers. what I didn’t see at all in the MDR or actually in the piazza even, was shorts, jeans, t-shirts. I did see a few in the buffet for a snack post theatre, but very few. im not commenting on what people should/ shouldn’t wear. I don’t mind. Be comfortable. Most cruisers here were Brits. Followed by USA. Almost Everyone was in formal wear, however that looked to them. Black tie, or any tie, or a jacket not required. Shirt & trousers are just fine. No idea if anyone got turned away from a MDR for their attire. I just didn’t see anyone not in smart casual at least

dinner embarkation day. this was the Soleil MDR and we had a reservation for 5.30. We’re an early eaters. Definitely not the experience you had @villauk I’m sorry to hear yours was so different later in the evening. I hope that improves! we were out of there by 7 having eaten 2 courses leisurely. Service friendly and efficient and food- wow. Not a bad dish amount the three. Me, the seafood stew. All the seafood perfectly cooked. Too often places cook seafood either downright badly, or at least a little poorly & make it rubbery. Not so here. I’d have this dish again and again! daughter had the white fish. Beautiful. I tried some. The flavours were so yummy. Husbands chicken. That was HUGE and he loved the dish. we’re not foodies. But love to eat 😂 anyway, pictures, because it’s a food. And it’s cruise food! Menu:

Have the other people gotten anywhere with the complaints? honestly we’ve had no issue with the staff so far sorting out 2 issues for us. But the hard sell to upgrade had certainly been racked up. I know it’s always heavy on the pushes to get you to buy packages in the first few days, but wow! The spin on it was exactly as suspected. Enhancing the package etc etc. I mentioned to one member, because I was a little frustrated at it being the 6th or 7th approach, ‘I know this isn’t something you have any control over, but we know that these items used to be included’ she looked sheepish but credit to her, she apologised and said it was frustrating, she could understand the upset, & unfortunately all prices were increasing. Didn’t try and wash over it. I did say to her I hoped that no one gave her a hard time over it, which she appreciated. GS is the place to go to complain. Please let me know If others or yourself have any success on it. im enjoying myself so far, please add to this if you wish to share your experiences I don’t mind. I hope you have a wonderful cruise 😃

Hi I don’t think we will visit not to be honest, now it’s chargeable, but I will try and snap a picture of the menu for you when we inevitably go past it, no prob!

2nd attempt posting at room info. Here goes…. Mini suite, deck 12, forward. cabin attendant is lovely and we were very impressed with the room. We8ve NEVER sails in any cabin close to this size. We usually sail in Balconies, but regular ones. However it’s our 15th wedding anniversary so we splashed out! Sofa is a sofa bed and brilliantly it’s one that flips over into a bed, not a pull out bed. So we don’t have to clamber our it when it’s out to get to the balcony! We’ve done that a few times. 2 issues, 1. Our bed. Wow it was like being swallowed by marshamallow! So next day I mentioned it. It’s much better as I think it had a few layers of topper on it. It’s not great. But better. And the issue was sorted first thing. Also at 9.30pm we notices our screen outside our room had turned into the white screen of death. It let us in & out automatically as we approached but otherwise- nothing. Called guest services and told IT we’re finished for the evening - fair enough! Next morning, first thing, it was fixed. Impressed with how quickly they dealt with both issues and without any fuss at all. Luckily I took these pics before the room got a bit messy!

Embarkation day lunch. Estrella MDR. yum! seevice with a smile and really good food. I love fish & shellfish so you’ll have to excuse the many fish food pics. ‘Seafood eat it’ is my mantra in resurants 😂 anyway, food pics! Forgot to take a picture of min until a few mouthfuls in. Sorry! Husband had the beef & enjoyed that very much. Salmon was moist & flaky. Daughter had the salmon too. Taking after me with the seafood!

Hi all, Im currently on my first ever Princess Cruise, & first ever time in Norway too. it’s Myself, Husband & Daughter age 10, sharing a Mini Suite which has to be the best cabin we’ve ever had. This is a celebration of our 15th wedding anniversary. Im British, and we live only 1hr 45 drive from Southampton Port. We drove there and parked using CPS at the port. This is unlikely to be ‘live’. I don’t want to promis that and not be able to give it, so I’m just going to be posting random thoughts & experiences on board & I’ll try and answer questions if anyone has them 😃 Anyway, Embarkation. QEII terminal. First time here too. we arrived at 10.30 & directed to drive into the area Taxis go to pick up disembarking passengers by mistake. Sat for 10 min until we could Call over a member of staff who told us we should drive back around to where the coaches park. It was bedlam. Couldn’t go far because of the number of taxis pulling out. Just as we’d managed to pull out of the area we were parked a CPS lady ran up to us, directed us to park back up. they’d take our car then & there. we were the first car taken by CPS. You give them the keys, they give you a barcode, off they take your car to be parked in a secure area. This took a few minutes & would ordinarily be very easy if they told you the right place to go 🤦🏼‍♀️ so, a big mistake turned into a happy accident. Walked 30sec to drop off bags, into departures. Was checked in in minutes. Collected medallion without issue, Then directed to a seating area outside of security where people were snaked around long lines of chairs and told to sit & wait. It was 10.55. Then we were directed to snake out of the lines of chairs we sat on through security which was very efficient and we were on the ship at 11.20! Chatted to lovely lady who worked at the port said last week was absolute chaos. They were not told much information nor given much of a warning about the embarkation times stopping. And they like their embarkation times in Southampton! It seems in the week they worked out a very efficient system and for us at least, it worked well. we now know there are around 3800 on the ship. 300 ish kids according to my daughters club info. Not as many kids as we assumed given it’s summer hols here. I think they are all sticking to the Med! Rough figures around 1900 Brits, 900 USA, 250 Canadians. 150 Aussies & Kiwis, and 80 or so very happy Spanish people celebrating their footy win! the rest are from scores or other countries. Anyone else have more precise figures please feel free to add In fact, if anyone else on the ship sees this, please add anything you wish! we walked about to explore, sat by the shops and ordered drinks on Ocean Now. With us in 10 minutes. Was impressed with this. Warning though. The selection on Ocean now is limited compared to what’s in the Bars. Quick example, no Apple juice listed. Daughter loves the stuff. Available everywhere on the ship otherwise. We’re not complaining, just being aware. not every Mocktails is listed, & honestly the food selection on it is poor & that I’d complain about. Especially with the activation charge. Delivery anywhere is great- if they have the item on it you want. Still a useful service for us, when required. Rooms were ready just after 1. AWSOME!

Can confirm streaming videos works great. Hopfully we’ll continue to get good service in the Fjords but am expecting it to not be as good there

Currently on Sky Princess. Location- umm somewhere in the middle of the North Sea. Don’t ask specifics. I’ve no idea 🤷‍♀️ 😂 Internet since we got on the ship has been really good. I’ve not tried to watch videos but browsing has been great. No delays in loading pages at all.

This. I’ve vented on here and I stick by why I’m upset. I’m cruising just 3 and a bit weeks after the announcement and have been fully paid up for months. BUT I am emailing Princess already, politely. And will go to HQ if I feel I should. I may also go and have a chat with GS. Also politely. I worked for a well known general advice agency In the uk for many many years. Complaints & problems with a multitude of issues. Housing, consumer, employment, whatever. My stream of thought on social media isn’t my professional approach. It’s a vent. I’m not going to rant/ be rude to the servers & to the staff on board. I’ve no time for that or for anyone who does it. I’ll approach the appropriate people in the most appropriate way. You are more likely to actually get anywhere close to a resolution that way. and there is no way I’m letting this upset our cruise either. I step on board tomorrow and none of this is going to impinge on our enjoyment of it whatsoever Im now in a Premier Inn, in Eastleigh UK near to Southampton port. My holiday starts now. If you are also on Sky tomorrow, spare a thought for the on board staff, & have a fantastic time. I will! cheers 🥂

Thank you for sharing your cruise with us. It’s been so lovely to hear and see what you have enjoyed on board & around Norway. We’re boarding Sky Princess tomorrow & it’s made us even more excited, so big thanks for that ! have a fantastic time travelling around England, and for your time in London. Do you have it all planned out where you are going?

Definitely glitchy I had no access to the app earlier. Now I can get in but I’m hopping between yellow lane & blue lane. It’s different every time I start it. I’m getting on Sky Princess tomorrow. If I get yellow lane then I’ll just restart it and hope for the best!

To be honest if I’ve already booked but get on the plane to discover that to get movies I now have to pay to activate the screen, and I need to pay for my meals, then yes. If I booked months ago & got movies & meals, but the next time I look it’s the same price but without them, I’d moan but that’s it, because I’ve not booked yet. I know what the deal is & I can make a choice. Look elsewhere, or suck it up & find the cash. What Princess are doing is a penny pinching frustrating change but yes, unfortunately I know they are all doing it. my issue is that when I paid I knew I got X,Y & Z. Now I don’t and there is nothing I can do about it except pay more to get the same Also, in my mind, something that was no cost at all suddenly carrying a fee AFTER you’ve paid for it, is a lot different than putting up prices of things you knew you had to pay for. But haven’t paid for yet. Others may well see it differently but that’s where I’m at

Exactly if I was buying now I would grumble But at least I can plan accordingly. I can make informed choices. We have an old package. Was give option to upgrade months ago but I didn’t want the extras . Now I have to upgrade just to get the same. or PAYG for the same. what’s next for next year? Perhaps suddenly & all at once IC & slice pizza is not included, but it’s only a ‘nominal charge’. ‘Nominal fee’ for afternoon teas. Activating your Ocean now service is public areas only Or pay $5. if you don’t read blogs/CC etc you’ll only discover it when you step on board. Princess says it’s only a ‘nominal charge’ but with so many of them it adds up to a figure no longer ‘nominal’ never mind say Princess, you can go buy a ‘newly enhanced package’ to get it instead. Princess say that’s good value for you if you pay more to not get less. Must be true 😏 yes, I know Princess are not the only company treating people like they are idiots with their rubbish marketing spin. I don’t have to like it though. (apologies to those in marketing. I do know not all companies are like this!) if they can behave like this they could suddenly decide the package is $13.50 max for your drinks. You paid for $15? Tough. But not to worry, you can pay that upgrade fee for ‘extra value’ this is more than the money. It’s the Principle too

@dunscrimpin & @villauk Last I heard we were tendering but they’ll be taking us to Loen because where we are tendering is closer to there & it’s easier to get to. Apparently when this happens Princess provide transport to Olden Some on the roll call found this out, contacted tour operators and the tour operators are already aware and will pick up in Loen https://www.nordfjordhavn.no/en/cruise/ if you look at the cruise schedule there are 3 large ships in. We’re listed as pos 2/3 even though it also says pier if you click on the photo under the ‘Mooring plan’ link you can scroll to this picture of the tender positions. Where it says ‘new tender position’ at the top is olden. to the left, Loen

Oh my word Im so excited for Saturday when we get on the Sky, and you are making that double. Those pictures…. Love them! Forget the rain- that cloud cover has a beauty and mood of its own If my experience is anywhere as good as yours I’ll be returning to the fjords on a future sailing for sure Thank you for sharing your trip with us. Wishing you a continued wonderful cruise 😃

I got an email from Princess today no, not THAT email one linked to my cruise in a few days telling me I need to select my arrival time. The one Princess got rid of weeks ago. Princess are really on the ball aren’t they 😂 😂