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I am taking my first cruise on the Royal Princess next month, starting and ending in St. Petersberg (Scandinavia/Baltic 10 days). What are the booking charges for the specialty restaurants (I assume there is no additional charge for the food, just to book there), and on such a large ship, is there difficulty in making reservations, which I am assuming can be made upon embarkation? Do other eating venues charge for the food (gelato shop? bakery? seafood restaurant/bar?

Gambee,

Your review comments and photos are immensely helpful, esp. what to avoid (the shops) and what to expect. I just want a sandy, uncrowded beach and water with waves and a soft sandy bottom. It sounds like Adranaline Beach doesn't have the latter, so... which beach??

I too have had skin cancer and must either be out of the sun or when I am in it I am in sun-resistent, unattractive swimwear. I have ziplined plenty of times, not interested in water parks or kids, do kayaking where I live and plan to do so elsewhere on this trip, so water and sand is my goal for this destination.

I weighed in on this thread earlier when the initial person who dangled the thread out there was having difficulty booking shore excursions on Oceania. I shared by experience with that and my situation with another line at that time. I have subsequentlyI have read this thread with great interest. As I stated previously, I am a first time "O" traveller and will be going on the Mediterranean Rendezvous Ocxtober 12. I am a single traveller (and am thus paying a single supplement, on a veranda room), and have not been to any of the ports on the 22 day cruise except Marseille. I am doing an independent land trip in SZpain for 12 dayhs before the cruise starts, staying extra days in Venice, and going to London for several days, at the end of the cruise. I have purchased easily $500 worth of books on the countries and port and other cities that are being visited on the cruise, as well as gone on the internet and through my myriad travel magazines and articles collected from the NYT and other travel sections over the years. So, I have done my homework. That said, it is extremely expensive to take independent tours as a single person, though I am doing so in a number of ports where it was importat to me that I maximize my time (e.g. Florence/Pisa; Amalfi Coast/Positano, and Taormino/Mt. Etna). I did put a post on roll call and on this Board and got a few offers to share shore excursions but not many. I am renting a car in one port; in some, doing a completely independent tour on my own where that is feasible; and I have also booked a number of Oceania-offered shore excursions, as they were much less expensive than a guide/driver, especially when distances, a full day, etc. were involved.

The bottom line is: sme of the writes on this Board strike me as pretty elitist in their attitudes about a lot of things related to travel, make assumptions about other cruisers, and say some pretty stupid things to and about other travellers. I have travelled extensively on my own troughout the world and have never taken a tour. did go with a guide for a week in a dug out canoe down a remote river in Papua New Guinea and have similarly rafted white water rivers and scuba dived all over the world with guides, but not because I was too lazy to do my homework. I think writers in these threads that can't dream of not being in a penthouse or having a butler should get off their high horse as well. Who needs a butler? There are stewards.

Lastly, and I mentioned this in my prior thread reply, there is no such thing as a "free lunch." I am booked as I said previously on a 65 day Regent cruise roundtrip from Fort Lauderdale to the Canal and around South America in January. Despite their ads of "free shore excursions", I can assure you, since most of them were posted today, a vast majority of the ones that are interesting (i.e. not just a 2 hour spin around e.g. Montevideo, but others like going to penguin rookeries or an estancia and the like and even the beach) cost money, ranging generally from $89 to $119, and some places (not just the obvious, like Iguazu Falls and Macchu Pichu which also cost considerably extra on Oceania). So be careful what you wish for, and also, some of you need to get your noses out of the air.

I attempted to bok shore excursions for an upcoming cruise late last week on the Oceania web site and was also unable o do so. I called Oceania and spoke with a representative who said they were having problems with their site. He said he would book them for me. Unfortunately, every single one of the shore excursions that I wanted to take was full so he wait listed me. I called my TA and he is working on it. Unlike some of the advice I have seen on this Cruise Critic Board, in the future, I will book shore excursions for those trips I plan to take that are offered by the ship, as soon as they are available for booking, rather than wait until I am on board the ship, to avboid disappointment. I recognize that ship-provided shore excursions may not always be full in advance of sailing, but in this instance, perhaps because it is a Grand Tour and there are two parts (I am taking both) the excursions are.

Also, with regard to a discussion in another thread about Regent's advertised "free" shore excursions, I learned to my surprise and dismay that they are not all in fact "free". Rather, a Regent rep told me that Regent did not state that "all" of the shore excursions (in the particular cruise I am taking, or in any cruise that are advertised as having "free shore excursions") were free (which was certainly the way I read and understood it); that "there is at least one free shore excursion in every port" and that "at least 80% of them are free." Some of the most desirable destinations that would be accessed through a certain port are, in fact, only offered through very expensive multi-day "land and hotel" programs that take place during the cruise itself.