LIVE from the CARIBBEAN PRINCESS 6/19/12 - Norwegian Fjords & Scandinavia

NWelcome aboard the Caribbean Princess as we start our 19 days of cruising (this is a B2B; 12 and 7) from Southampton through the Norwegian Fjords and then a bit of Belgium, Denmark, Sweden and more Norway. Before we start our journey, I’ll tell you a bit about our hectic and aggravating day of travel.

Our nonstop flight on Sunday the 17th from Palm Beach to Philadelphia was fine. In Philly however, there was a plane stuck at our departure gate and it took them 2 hours to remove it. Then our plane had to come in from the hanger which most likely was out of town. Anyhow, our flight to Amsterdam left 1 ½ hours late. Normal circumstances would be fine, but we had a connection time of 50 minutes to Southampton and the only flight going there on the 18th. We deplaned in Amsterdam with 20 minutes to make it. Have you ever seen this airport? Well, we haven’t seen it either. We ran; and ran some more, knowing full well we were going to miss our connection and spend the night in the Netherlands. This place is HUGE. Well, we made it to our gate with 3 minutes to spare, only to find out the flight was being delayed 2 ½ hours due to “mechanical difficulties.” Hey, I don’t even want to board a plane with difficulties. Bottom line is they had to bring in another aircraft. When we got to Amsterdam we changed our watches 6 hours ahead. When we reached Southampton a little more than an hour flight, we got back one hour. BTW, AMS gives you 30 minutes free internet using your own laptop.

Taxi from airport was 17 GBP. There is no meter. You know the price before you get in and a taxi counter attendant calls it for you. Hotel checkin a breeze and found out unexpectedly we get breakfast included. Price for Premier Inn West Quay is 79.95 GBP. We dropped our stuff and went wine shopping. There’s a nice mall across the road, but our taxi driver had told us to go over to ASDA, this town’s Walmart and so we listened and very happy we did. Bought 4 bottles; 2 pinot grigio, 2 sauvignon blanc. Total cost 17.00 GBP. Walked around 2 malls; weather nice but bodies tired. Went back to first mall, bought some sandwiches at Marks and Spencer, saw that their wine prices would have been almost double ours and finally collapsed back at the hotel.

EMBARKATION DAY TUESDAY 6/19. We heard about staggered boarding, but since we only got our cabin assignment 48 hours before departure, I never even thought about looking to see what we were supposed to do. We had booked a GG guarantee and ended up with a C; highest deck and as far back as you can get without falling off the ship. We, who always like to be forward, are going to be experiencing something new. Far from the gym; close to the food. Anyhow, we took a taxi for the 5 minutes ride from our hotel, arrived at port 11:15, said we were Elite and shown right through. They checked us in immediately and we were in the cabin by 11:30. This cabin is long and skinny, so we will separate the beds instead of having one big one under the window. There is no room for a barrel chair; just the desk chair. Desk is larger and there are lots of drawers; more than we need.

Pertinent on board info:

Captain : Mariano Manfuso

Hotel Manager: Claudio Mazzoni

Cruise Director: Dan Styne

PSD: Karen McColl

Maitre d’ Giuseppe Gelmini

CC Hostess: Karina Garcia

FCC: Natalie

Crooners has Paul Burton, Explorer’s group is Superfly and it appears that in the Wheelhouse will be The Adrienne Hindmarsh Duo alternating with a group called Retrospect. Tonight as usual will be the Welcome Aboard Show and MUTS will show Euro 2012: England vs. Ukraine.

We are all settled in, everything unpacked and in its proper home and hopefully this will post. BTW, we will lose that hour of sleep tonight.

NWelcome aboard the Caribbean Princess as we start our 19 days of cruising (this is a B2B; 12 and 7) from Southampton through the Norwegian Fjords and then a bit of Belgium, Denmark, Sweden and more Norway. Before we start our journey, I’ll tell you a bit about our hectic and aggravating day of travel.

　

Our nonstop flight on Sunday the 17th from Palm Beach to Philadelphia was fine. In Philly however, there was a plane stuck at our departure gate and it took them 2 hours to remove it. Then our plane had to come in from the hanger which most likely was out of town. Anyhow, our flight to Amsterdam left 1 ½ hours late. Normal circumstances would be fine, but we had a connection time of 50 minutes to Southampton and the only flight going there on the 18th. We deplaned in Amsterdam with 20 minutes to make it. Have you ever seen this airport? Well, we haven’t seen it either. We ran; and ran some more, knowing full well we were going to miss our connection and spend the night in the Netherlands. This place is HUGE. Well, we made it to our gate with 3 minutes to spare, only to find out the flight was being delayed 2 ½ hours due to “mechanical difficulties.” Hey, I don’t even want to board a plane with difficulties. Bottom line is they had to bring in another aircraft. When we got to Amsterdam we changed our watches 6 hours ahead. When we reached Southampton a little more than an hour flight, we got back one hour. BTW, AMS gives you 30 minutes free internet using your own laptop.

　

Taxi from airport was 17 GBP. There is no meter. You know the price before you get in and a taxi counter attendant calls it for you. Hotel checkin a breeze and found out unexpectedly we get breakfast included. Price for Premier Inn West Quay is 79.95 GBP. We dropped our stuff and went wine shopping. There’s a nice mall across the road, but our taxi driver had told us to go over to ASDA, this town’s Walmart and so we listened and very happy we did. Bought 4 bottles; 2 pinot grigio, 2 sauvignon blanc. Total cost 17.00 GBP. Walked around 2 malls; weather nice but bodies tired. Went back to first mall, bought some sandwiches at Marks and Spencer, saw that their wine prices would have been almost double ours and finally collapsed back at the hotel.

EMBARKATION DAY TUESDAY 6/19. We heard about staggered boarding, but since we only got our cabin assignment 48 hours before departure, I never even thought about looking to see what we were supposed to do. We had booked a GG guarantee and ended up with a C; highest deck and as far back as you can get without falling off the ship. We, who always like to be forward, are going to be experiencing something new. Far from the gym; close to the food. Anyhow, we took a taxi for the 5 minutes ride from our hotel, arrived at port 11:15, said we were Elite and shown right through. They checked us in immediately and we were in the cabin by 11:30. This cabin is long and skinny, so we will separate the beds instead of having one big one under the window. There is no room for a barrel chair; just the desk chair. Desk is larger and there are lots of drawers; more than we need.

Pertinent on board info:

Captain : Mariano Manfuso

Hotel Manager: Claudio Mazzoni

Cruise Director: Dan Styne

PSD: Karen McColl

Maitre d’ Giuseppe Gelmini

CC Hostess: Karina Garcia

FCC: Natalie

Crooners has Paul Burton, Explorer’s group is Superfly and it appears that in the Wheelhouse will be The Adrienne Hindmarsh Duo alternating with a group called Retrospect. Tonight as usual will be the Welcome Aboard Show and MUTS will show Euro 2012: England vs. Ukraine.

　

We are all settled in, everything unpacked and in its proper home and hopefully this will post. BTW, we will lose that hour of sleep tonight.

Wow, what a nightmare!!! Glad you eventually got there safely. We usually use Premier Inn too, one of the best budget hotels IMO, and a very good breakfast.

Thanks for supplying the names. I will get the invitations printed out. I see the Captain is still Mariano Manfuso. I must have dreamed it about Tony Herriott.

Yay another live report from Pia..Even though I am not sailing with your itinerary, I still love to read your reports.

Hi you two - I'm with you now and waiting to hear all about the Fjords.

Glad to hear you made it in one piece. Look forward to reading your 'Live From' reports. Look after the ship until July 1st.:D Hopefully get to say hello at the Meet and Greet. Yvonne

Bon Voyage!!

Say Hi to Claudio M for Keith and I. :)

We had booked a GG guarantee and ended up with a C; highest deck and as far back as you can get without falling off the ship.

We have had the equivalent cabin on the Crown and loved it (did have the bigger windows instead of portholes). It was a nice, quiet location with great access to the aft pool area.

It must have been a little bigger than yours because it did not seem too small with the queen configuration.

Hi Pia, You had quite the airport fiasco, but you and Mike made it in one piece. That's the important thing. So, now have a super trip!!:)

Glad to hear you got some exercise in A'dam! How do you like it back where we usually live? We are with you now too.

Pia,

We are here along with you. We love aft cabin locations and you will too.

Have fun.

Must be wine time by now.

Gloria and Lew:D

We are looking to do the fjords next summer so this will be a great help in deciding if Princess is the line to choose for this one! Thanks for any upcoming info re ports, excursions etc.

Interested in how many nooks and crannies the ship will find. DH is looking at Hurtigruten for an up close view of all those, rather than the "big ship" experience. I'm trying to talk him into the more "luxurious" way of seeing the area.:o

Hi Pia. We're interested in the Baltics with a TA or B2B in 2014. Will be interested in your review as you cruise this area. Since we will be joining you on the Star from SF to Hawaii on Oct. 6th, we'd love to get together on board for a chat.

-Chris

So you flew into Southampton from Amsterdam? I had never thought of that. Maybe next time we will try that. We will be joining you on the 1st of July in Southampton and have already booked our flights into London.

How is the load on the ship?

We were on the Caribbean for the crossing and the load was so light that they closed off two decks to passengers and moved crew members into those cabins so they could refurbish the crew quarters during the cruise.

I am glad to hear that they have a new band in the Wheelhouse. I don't remember the name of the second band when we were on the ship in May, but they were awful. They wanted to play these long jazz riffs instead of playing decent dance musice. We tried to talk to them but their attitude was that they were the band and could play whatever they wanted. After that we lodged an official complaint.

Thanks very much for the post and please keep us updated.

We are getting excited!

Hi Pia. Glad you got to embarkation OK after a harrowing day before.

We are booked next year or the Crown to the fjords - itinerary a little different from yours, sine it goes further North all the way up to North Cape via Spitsbergen.. But I would suppose the weather and sea condition will be about the same.

Have a great cruise. Shalom, Andy.

Glad you are on board and settled in. Looking forward to your posts--and of course to meeting you on our July cruise.

Laurie

Glad that the travel nightmare is over and you can start enjoying your cruise! As always, I will be following you and virtually cruising with you! I can't wait to meet you in person in October 2013!

PIA-- One question about flying into Amsterdam and then on the Southampton. Was that segment seperate from your flight from Pa? Or was it one big booking from Fla? Did you have to get your luggage and recheck it or not? Never thought about going any other route to Southampton except thru London. Thanks.

Dottie

Answering a few questions now and then goodnite.

1. Ship is full. Totally.

2. Aft OK so far, but too soon to pass judgment

3. Flight to SOU was all part of PBI to PHL to AMS and then SOU. No. Did not have to claim bags. All went straight through to SOU.

4. Nobody asked, but I understand there are more than 200 Elites on board.

Goodnite

Hi Pia

Have a good cruise hope you have better weather than we had on the Grand,

Amsterdam airport is a nice airport used it many times,

however its KLMs home and is massive, mind you last time pilot did not turn up so had to spend a night there

yours Shogun

Hi Pia

The band Retrospect are fabulous and lots of fun to watch. Enjoy your cruise.

Bon Voyage. Have a great time.

Those fjords should be fantastic

Heres the Itinerary and a map for those who are following.

I think Pia is doing the next cruise as well as a back to back.

Itinerary

Tue 19/06/12 Southampton / England 17:00

Wed 20/06/12 At Sea

Thu 21/06/12 Bergen / Norway 10:00 18:00

Fri 22/06/12 Hellesylt (Sunnylvsfjord) / Norway 08:00 10:00

Fri 22/06/12 Geiranger (Geirangerfjord) / Norway 12:00 18:00

Sat 23/06/12 At Sea

Sun 24/06/12 Honningsvag (North Cape) / Norway 12:00 21:00

Mon 25/06/12 Tromsø / Norway 08:00 17:00

Tue 26/06/12 Gravdal (Leknes/Lofoten) / Norway 08:00 18:00

Wed 27/06/12 At Sea

Thu 28/06/12 Flåm (Aurlandsfjord) / Norway 08:00 18:00

Fri 29/06/12 Stavanger / Norway 08:00 17:00

Sat 30/06/12 At Sea

Sun 01/07/12 Southampton / England 05:00

Never cruised Princess but I feel we have after reading your posts for over a year. Enjoy this trip and thanks for taking us along with you.

Pia

We did the Norwegian fjords on the Crown round trip SOU in 2010 and loved it !! I'm seriously jealous :)

Have another great cruise :D

Pete

Glad to hear that Retrospect is a good band. Now let's just hope that they can play good dance music.

AMS is my favorite airport in the world, well at least so far. There are more for me to visit. :p

It is fascinating to see that the ship is totally sold out for this cruise, and also for the next segment. We bought our cruise dirt cheap just recently and it was pretty much wide open. I guess they do know how to price those sales to induce people to book cabins right up to the end. I wonder if it is alot of Europeans buying the last minute sale cabins as airfare from the US to the UK is very dear this year with the Jubilee and the Olympics.

Answering a few questions now and then goodnite.

1. Ship is full. Totally.

2. Aft OK so far, but too soon to pass judgment

3. Flight to SOU was all part of PBI to PHL to AMS and then SOU. No. Did not have to claim bags. All went straight through to SOU.

4. Nobody asked, but I understand there are more than 200 Elites on board.

Goodnite

Hi Pia,

Sorry to hear about the miserable travel day, they're more common than not these days.

After your good nights sleep let me know if they've upgraded the mattresses on CP, we're sailing her for 3 weeks in Oct. Last time the mattresses were really awful, egg grates didn't help at all.

Hope you have wonderful weather.