Live from the Golden

[rockin'theboat]

I was on the Golden June 11-21 and it was a blast. I loved Dublin and Kirkwall was a great little port. It was smooth sailing all the way!

[CruiserGreg]

Hi Laura,

 

You're the reason we had smooth sailing, remember. You have to go on every cruise with us from now on. ;) Our next cruise will be on the Golden, again, 16 days........May 6, 2006 New York to Venice!!!!

 

Greg

[kguth125]

Hi Dennis and all other cc members onboard!

Thanks so much for taking the time for the updates!! I am sure that you are still getting over jetlag, that is a very long flight!!It sounds like you are having fun, so great to hear! I wanted to ask.....what time did you go to Southampton for embarkation? We really want to get onboard early.

 

I also wondered if Kevin Hughes is still the comedian? We really enjoyed him on the Sapphire last summer and if he is onboard, you should not miss his show, he is so funny:D One more question, if you do not mind. what nights are the formal nights?

 

Thanks for all Dennis, have a very wonderful cruise:)

Linda

 

Linda,

 

Kevin Hughes was the comedian on the June 11th sailing and you are correct. The guy is great! Our formal nights were the 1st and 2nd sea days for this sailing.

 

 

KG in Tennessee

[Logie]

Hi Laura,

 

You're the reason we had smooth sailing, remember. You have to go on every cruise with us from now on. ;) Our next cruise will be on the Golden, again, 16 days........May 6, 2006 New York to Venice!!!!

 

Greg

 

I'll bet you a martini we'll/you'll cruise before then!! There is no way you can make it 10 months with out a cruise!!

[lkmamom]

Linda,

 

Kevin Hughes was the comedian on the June 11th sailing and you are correct. The guy is great! Our formal nights were the 1st and 2nd sea days for this sailing.

 

 

KG in Tennessee

 

Thanks KG! Kevin Hughes was so popular on our sailing last summer that they had to add an extra show. He is a very nice person, we had a little conversation with him in the Horizon Court one morning. I'm glad that you enjoyed him too. And thanks for the formal night info, I thought that it may be that way. I appreciate your help:D

Linda

[J18ktleo]

Richardgail...thanks for the info on 'Amsterdam on your own' I'll e-mail for the map today. ;)

If there's anyone else out there who's done this excursion...would love your feedback...want to catch the hop on hop off canal bus and not sure exactly where they arrive when we're dropped off at 'Museum Square'

:confused:

Jeani

[chefajax]

Hi to All...

Sorry for not writing sooner, but it has been busy here onboard. Holyhead was a fun place to launch a tour, but not much in the town per say. Took a tour of the three castles and the countryside on Fred's bus. Their son, Peter,was an excellant guide and we had alot of fun. Because of the size(11 of us), we got to get into alot of places where the big busses couldn't. Would recommend this to everyone.Would strongly suggest that you get to the docks early to avoid the tender lines,which was about 200 people or more in line waiting to return, but the morning was no waiting to get off(go figure?).

 

Belfast was nice, not great, as they are only 10 years into rebuilding after the peace accord. The countryside was beautiful, but getting to the Giant's Causeway took ALOT of time out of our day. We had a problem with returning to the ship as the ALL Day tours arrived together and we had to wait for an hour to return onboard, which is crazy as it was not a tender port. Well thats all for now as it is after midnight and the tours start early(AGAIN) Looking forward to that sea day so I can get some rest.....Dennis

[June Bug]

Western Europe, British Isles!

We had a really wonderful time with our family on The Golden Princess, however, there are a few things that I would agree with that another poster had commented on. First of all, this was a totally different itinerary than we had ever been on, so that in itself will lend to the fact that I'm sure there are many fewer "active" activities than on previous cruises....however, art, bingo and seminars did seem to prevail on this ship. But that didn't really matter to us. With only 3 sea days, we just took that time to relax on board after being so ACTIVE in port...and I'm telling you, with so little time in some of the ports, we looked like we were on "Amazing Race" to get to some of the places we wanted to visit! :D I was disappointed in the Horizon Court buffet selection. But the dining room was absolutely wonderful! Horizon court seemed to repeat tooooooo many times. If you like Scaloppini? You're in for a treat, because they served it in every variety (veal, pork, chicken) every day on the buffet...Like meat rolls? Again every day on the buffet (veal, pork, chicken)... ;) with the same vegetables making their appearance daily. I was just hoping for a little more variety. My kids had wished that the pizza and burger area stayed open past 7pm also, as around 11pm when they were hungry, the Horizon court did serve burgers and hot dogs, but they looked like they made them at about 11AM and left them out. So if I were you, I would definitely make the dining room your option for eating meals...again, there we weren't disappointed in the least. I'm not saying we didn't find something to eat in the Horizon court, because we did at times...it just may have been fruit and salad was all we ate...Others may have found the buffet totatlly tantalizing! :D

For some reason, I think we heard it was due to some safety inspections, our embarkation was a nightmare. We breezed thru getting our cards and showing passports...only to be corraled into a large room where colored letter cards were given to each family....it took TWO HOURS to get from Pink "D" to Pink "S"...I really felt sorry for the people who had Green "M" sitting across from us...I'm sure they were in that lounge forever!

Our cabin was great! Room steward was great and so were our waiters in the Traditional late seating in Canaletto dining room!

We missed BOTH cruise critic meetings, due to my extremely nauseated younger daughter who just could barely walk until about the 3rd day...It wasn't from the ship...it was from the jet lag that persisted so long. Our two day pre-stay in London was a blur to her...but once she pepped up, everything was great!

I will be glad to answer any other questions for this itinerary...and once again, we had a wonderful time. I don't hesitate to give the Great, the Good, the Bad and the Ugly....if you want the truth, you will get it from me. And no, I don't let some bad food or runs in the carpet threading in the hallway ruin my cruise!! HECK! I'm not having to cook and clean for myself so that in itself is wonderful!!!!!!!

Will check this posting later to see if there are any inquisitive minds.

Thanks,

June

 

PS. we are professional bus riders now...I think there is a hall of fame for us as we spent over 20 hours (yes, we added it up on the last bus ride) on bus rides on this cruise coming and going to various tours...so if you want to know anything about tour buses...I'm the one to ask! ;)

[Infocus]

Thank-you for all the updates, fellow CC-ers! I am curious about the conflicting feelings of embarkation: What time did you get to the dock and what time did you finally board the ship?

[spongerob]

Where do the tenders come in and out at the port of Kirkwall? Also, for those not on ship's tours, was there any delay in being able to go ashore? TIA.

[CruiserGreg]

spongerob,

 

From what I remember, after 9:30ish you no longer needed tender tickets for boarding the tenders in Kirkwall, and the tenders came in and out right at the edge of town. For some reason on our June 11th British Isles cruise there never seemed to be long waits to get ashore in the tenders.

[lkmamom]

Western Europe, British Isles!

We had a really wonderful time with our family on The Golden Princess, however, there are a few things that I would agree with that another poster had commented on. First of all, this was a totally different itinerary than we had ever been on, so that in itself will lend to the fact that I'm sure there are many fewer "active" activities than on previous cruises....however, art, bingo and seminars did seem to prevail on this ship. But that didn't really matter to us. With only 3 sea days, we just took that time to relax on board after being so ACTIVE in port...and I'm telling you, with so little time in some of the ports, we looked like we were on "Amazing Race" to get to some of the places we wanted to visit! :D I was disappointed in the Horizon Court buffet selection. But the dining room was absolutely wonderful! Horizon court seemed to repeat tooooooo many times. If you like Scaloppini? You're in for a treat, because they served it in every variety (veal, pork, chicken) every day on the buffet...Like meat rolls? Again every day on the buffet (veal, pork, chicken)... ;) with the same vegetables making their appearance daily. I was just hoping for a little more variety. My kids had wished that the pizza and burger area stayed open past 7pm also, as around 11pm when they were hungry, the Horizon court did serve burgers and hot dogs, but they looked like they made them at about 11AM and left them out. So if I were you, I would definitely make the dining room your option for eating meals...again, there we weren't disappointed in the least. I'm not saying we didn't find something to eat in the Horizon court, because we did at times...it just may have been fruit and salad was all we ate...Others may have found the buffet totatlly tantalizing! :D

For some reason, I think we heard it was due to some safety inspections, our embarkation was a nightmare. We breezed thru getting our cards and showing passports...only to be corraled into a large room where colored letter cards were given to each family....it took TWO HOURS to get from Pink "D" to Pink "S"...I really felt sorry for the people who had Green "M" sitting across from us...I'm sure they were in that lounge forever!

Our cabin was great! Room steward was great and so were our waiters in the Traditional late seating in Canaletto dining room!

We missed BOTH cruise critic meetings, due to my extremely nauseated younger daughter who just could barely walk until about the 3rd day...It wasn't from the ship...it was from the jet lag that persisted so long. Our two day pre-stay in London was a blur to her...but once she pepped up, everything was great!

I will be glad to answer any other questions for this itinerary...and once again, we had a wonderful time. I don't hesitate to give the Great, the Good, the Bad and the Ugly....if you want the truth, you will get it from me. And no, I don't let some bad food or runs in the carpet threading in the hallway ruin my cruise!! HECK! I'm not having to cook and clean for myself so that in itself is wonderful!!!!!!!

Will check this posting later to see if there are any inquisitive minds.

Thanks,

June

 

PS. we are professional bus riders now...I think there is a hall of fame for us as we spent over 20 hours (yes, we added it up on the last bus ride) on bus rides on this cruise coming and going to various tours...so if you want to know anything about tour buses...I'm the one to ask! ;)

 

June,

So glad that you and your family had a memorable cruise. I hope that your daughter is feeling better was the flight home better? That worries me a lot too, jet lag is hard to get over I think.

 

SO what would you recommend for a time getting to the port? It sounds like things are still disorganized but then some have reported getting onboard right away.

 

Did you and your family do the bus trip to Paris? I was wondering if the buses are airconditioned ( i hope) because it is such a long ride. If you did the bus ride, would you recommend doing it (because we are still on the fence and are still willing to cancel :o )One in our family is so excited to go and one is totally against going, I am somewhere in the middle.

 

Did the cruise staff offer port and shopping talks? I have heard that they do not. Those were always so helpful on our other cruises. Does Princess offer port maps?

 

Sorry for all of the questions. You had the same cruise as we will be taking and this is very helpful. Any other info that you have that you wish that you would have known before you went would be very appreciated. Thanks again for your help and welcome home!

Linda

[rimisk]

My wife and I want to explore Dublin, Glasgow, Rotterdam, and Bruges on our own (we already know how to get around in Bergen and have a side trip to Paris booked). Can someone who sailed this itinerary on June 21st tell me what sort of bus/rail transportation is available to get from the docks to the towns mentioned above? What were the costs? Any tips on things to do (or not do) in those cities?

[spongerob]

Thanks, Greg, that's what I needed to know. :)

[lkmamom]

My wife and I want to explore Dublin, Glasgow, Rotterdam, and Bruges on our own (we already know how to get around in Bergen and have a side trip to Paris booked). Can someone who sailed this itinerary on June 21st tell me what sort of bus/rail transportation is available to get from the docks to the towns mentioned above? What were the costs? Any tips on things to do (or not do) in those cities?

 

Hi rimisk,

We are on the same cruise. Please feel free to join in on the roll call. There are several fellow cruisers with your same experiance with Europe. Our family is completely new to Europe so this is all very overwhelming.

You will find the roll call under Golden July 21,2005 cruise started by kmabsd. Hope to talk to you soon!

Linda

[June Bug]

To answer all of your questions and to some of the others about embarkation:

 

We arrived from our hotel in London to the ship's terminal at about 11:00am...there were very few people in line to get sail/sign cards etc....however it appeared once we were put in the GIANT room with the bar (no the drinks were not free)...we waited atleast 10-20 minutes between almost each letter of the alphabet....I didn't think we would ever get to board! They offered no explanation, though my husband said he overheard one staff member state that they had some last minute inspections that ran overtime and they were allowing only a few passengers at a time to board. :confused: Don't know if that is true or not.

 

The airplane ride back home didn't seem to be as bad. For some reason, the Continental flight going to London did not have individual air vents and this made my "asthmatic" daughter feel very 'stuffy'....It was pretty warm on that flight...coming home we flew US air and had our own vents and she seemed to feel better. Though it was pretty rough for her the first few days...Never did HEAVE! :eek: but always on the verge...poor thing.

 

We did do the bus tour to Paris...VERY comfortable double decker tour buses with bathroom facilities that even my butt could fit into :p . And we made it to Paris in only 2.5 hours instead of the 3. I guess traffic was light, I'm not sure, but even the tour guide commented on it. We did receive maps from each tour bus as we traveled to the port...and Yes, that was Paris on our own tour. Let me warn you...they do NOT give you any metro maps, which are very helpful. I had been to Paris before and happened to bring mine and it was passed all over the bus so people could right down the colored routes to take to see each monument....and it still leaves very little time there. Oh well, we will just have to go back again soon! My family had never been to Paris before so there was no way that the long bus ride would deter us from being able to go...and they were so glad they did!

 

Princess doesn't offer the traditional group shopping/tour talks in their theaters that many cruiselines do. They have information on the television round the clock, but I did find it difficult to get clarification from even the tour desk if I had a specific question as the employees seemed to be more familiar with only the information listed in the paper listing. I found cruise critic website the most informative place to get my questions answered so I would try and write down you questions and ask them here before you leave.

 

I was disappointed in one other item. We had always liked the debarkation photos on our cruises (I know they are cheesy and kinda delay us a bit, but they are so cute to look back at all the years and see my kids and how they have grown)...so I was confused at the inconsistency on the Golden regarding this. In Dublin, they took photos getting off with a life preserver over one family member's head (cute photo of the kids)...In Scotland, they took it with a bagpiper in full gear! (another cute photo)...In Bergen, Norway, just a photo of the family standing together.....but once you get to Rotterdam....no photo...not a photographer in sight...and this repeated for the remaining ports of call. Not sure why they didn't take photos at all ports, or just not take any at all at any port....thought that was kinda weird.

I didn't really care, but my two daughters were heartbroken, because they just love the photo part! I asked the photo booth people and he said he wasn't sure why they didn't take them at each port... :confused:

Part two coming soon!

 

 

June

[June Bug]

I think another poster had asked about the "tours on your own" to certain ports. We did the tour on your own (utilizing Princess transportation) in Brugge, Amsterdam, and Paris. We took the Princess tour "Edinburgh City Tour" to Edinbugh Castle and then had lunch at a hotel with about 1 hour for shopping. We really enjoyed this tour. Our guide was SPECTACULAR! His name was Tom. And lunch wasn't bad either....it was more along the lines of an "americanized" lunch, than Scottish fare. ;)

In Dublin, we just made use of the Princess shuttle for 4US and then caught the hop on/hop off bus and went to Trinity College to see the Book of Kells, and then toured the Guiness factory and drank our pint ;) .

In Bergen, again, used the Princess bus to the town center and went up the funnicular to the top of the mountain for some great photos! Warning, you must have Krones to use the restroom at the top of the mountain.

 

This was a wonderful vacation! I could nit-pick on things I didn't like and I'm sure some would already think what I have mentioned is nitpicking, however, I just want to give you my view of what I encountered and even what I overheard others comment on (icky buffet in Horizon...but you can always find a seat there :D ).

 

Let me know if you have other questions.

Thanks,

June

[Logie]

Thank-you for all the updates, fellow CC-ers! I am curious about the conflicting feelings of embarkation: What time did you get to the dock and what time did you finally board the ship?

 

On June 11th arrived at 12:20 p.m. boarded at 12:21-no wait at all!!! :D

[June Bug]

I'm wondering if we even were in the same terminal....it took us longer than a minute just to walk thru the area where we got our cards and to imprint our credit card, only to then walk thru security, up the escalator, then into a much larger room (which even if there was no wait, would have taken another 5 to cross)...You must have been sprinting! :D

Had we not had to wait in the larger room the 2 hours...and been able to walk just on the ship after getting our documents settled, it could have been in the time frame of about 30 minutes from entry to boarding, but all that went out the window as soon as we went thru the security area and went up the escalators and were handed those dreaded colored cards!! :eek: so our total boarding time was from 11:00am until about 1:45pm...YOWSA!

But hopefully that was just a one time event that made ours last so much longer....but wouldn't you know it had to be on my cruise :rolleyes: .

June

[richardgail]

Thanks, June, for all this good info. Here are some questions that I, and other posters, have about Amsterdam on Your Own:

 

1. Where did the bus drop you off? About what time did they drop you off? What time did you have to be back to the bus?

2. What did you do in Amsterdam? We want to take a canal tour, but must get from Museum Sq. to Central Station to board the canal tour.

3. Did you take a Tram? This is how we think we can get to Central Station the fastest. Any hints for taking the Tram & where you got on at Museum Sq?

 

Also have some questions about Bruges:

 

1. Did you hear of anyone who took the train to Bruge? Please pass along anything you heard about taking the train.

 

Thanks for your help. I enjoyed reading about your experiences & they have made me very excited!

 

Gail

[June Bug]

1. The bus parks underground directly under Museum Square in Amsterdam. I can't remember the exact time we arrived but it was about 10:00am...we had to meet back at the bus underground at 2pm. We didn't have a great deal of time there :(

2. Our tour guide there gave us maps and told us to take Tram #2 to get to Dam Square. I think it was about 5-6 stops before we arrived at Dam Square. Make sure you take the Tram that is heading towards the Dam Square rather than away from it, or you will take FOREVER to get there...once you figure out their system, it was pretty easy. You pick up the Tram in Museum Square right outside of the Van Gogh Museum...just a short walk from where we were dropped off...maybe 5-10minutes at the most.

The Tram drops you off in front of an Underwear store :eek: on the corner of the street....you must go right on that street to hit Dam Square....anyone there though can tell you how to get there....it was only about a two minute walk from the tram to the center of Dam Square. Coming back however, if you want to catch the Tram again at the same location, you must catch it down the street further in front of the big shopping center that looks like a very old pretty office building. Just make sure it is heading to Museumplein....the trams have signs inside showing the next stops as well as they make announcements to warn you about the next stop. You must have 1.30 Euro (I think it was this, if not, something very close) to pay for your ticket. It is valid for one hour and you can get on and off within that one hour....we were much longer of course and were going to repurchase our ticket from the tram driver coming back...but he waived us on the back and we never had to buy another ticket :confused: not sure why.

 

Central Station is the LAST stop going in the direction you want to go...Dam square is somewhere in the middle. We didn't do the canal tour, but chose to get off at Dam Square, walk around towards the Red light district, then off in the opposite direction towards Anne Frank house only to see a line of college students that were there that must have numbered in the hundreds standing in line. Unfortunately we only got a few photographs of the outside.

That was a considerable amount of walking and took up alot of our time. Unfortunately the only other thing we did there, besides some light shopping, was to take the tram back to Museum Square and go inside Van Gogh museum. My daughter loves Starry Night and wanted to see it, but it wasn't on display at this time :( at this museum.

Word of warning....we had about one hour left at this point and wanted to eat lunch. So we parked ourselves at the little restaurant (sounded good) right where you come out from the underground from the buses. You will know what I am talking about. We waited nearly that entire hour for our food, and then when my husband and kids got their burgers....let's just say it SAYS 100% beef, but we don't know what kind of animal they get their beef from....they were ORANGE and tasted HORRIBLE!!!!! We only had about 10 minutes to eat. I got a ceasar salad, thinking it would be fine, but they put anchovies on top of the salad instead of in the dressing...which led to a very distinctive fish tasting salad...really very bad! :D We laughed about our lunch for quite a while!

 

About Bruges:

We had planned on doing the Train to Bruges from the port. But something inside me a few days before told me to just go ahead and buy the Bruges on your own tickets. I really struggle with this decision I made. If you are adventuresome, I would do the train. While we were on the bus and leaving the port, I saw no sign of a train...not sure where people caught it. I was led to believe that the ship shuttle dropped you off somewhere near that, but I never saw it leaving the port...and this port...there is NOTHING there but water and pretty much flat land...so the train station must be a ways away. Part of me said, I'm glad we didn't do the train since I had no idea if the shuttle would for sure bring us back to the ship on time...and it would be a hike if you missed it I'm sure, since I only saw about 2 taxis at the port when we got off the ship (and they didn't look like taxis either...just regular cars) Doing the Bruges on your own tour only left us THREE Hours in the city!!!! Why they did this, I don't know...I can only assume that they needed the buses to pick up later tours!!! But frankly we saw and did what we wanted in that time. The city is so small. I would have LOVED more time, but again, we were ok with it. I loved this city...I am so glad we went.

They told us if we changed our minds once we got in the city and wanted to take a taxi back (which several of us said we wanted to do once we found out about the short time frame there)...that we could get them in the Market Square. Well, I can tell you, that at no time did I see any taxis or cars that would resemble taxis...in fact...that city has very few cars traveling thru it at all!!! And I guess the other couples encountered the same as they were all on the bus with us coming back to the ship. We took a horse drawn carriage ride around the small city for 40Euros for 30 minutes for our family of 4. Very informative driver.

I hope I'm not giving you too much information...again...part of me was glad we did the ship tour to Bruges because I was terrified of being left behind (it happened at least once in each port...we heard the stories at dinnertime).

I just didn't want to risk it.

I think that was probably my biggest disappointment was that we just didn't get enough time in ports, but I'm sure transportation was an issue in some cities with just not enough buses. Oh well, we will just have to go back again sometime soon!!!

June

[lkmamom]

June, thank you so much for your help in all aspects! I really love your attitude about things, I can only imagine how that lunch in Brugges would have ruined some and the rest of their cruise;)

Linda

[rimisk]

I've read in other posts that the train to Bruges leaves from Blankenberge, a small seacoast resort town about 2 miles west of Zeebrugge and that Princess will shuttle you over to Blankenberge (for a small fee, of course). The fare is 4.30 euros for a round trip (about $5) and the trains leave for Bruges at 10 minutes past each hour and it's only an 11 minute trip. I'm assuming that the return trains also run hourly.

 

Richard

[blackpool belle]

Did you have a sail-away party? If so was it a Calypso band playing on deck or just ordinary music?

[June Bug]

Now that you mention it, I believe that you are correct. however, I was thinking that the last shuttle Princess runs from the seaside town was much earlier than if you got a taxi yourself....I'm thinking that is why the taxi was coming into play to get you back to the ship. However, I know people did it successfully without a problem. And the ship bus we took was about a 30 minute ride from the port to the drop off point in Bruges. So if you feel up to it, I'm sure the train is the way to go. I was just chicken for some reason and decided to change my mind at nearly the last minute. I know my family didn't care either way because they NEVER know where they are at any given time, since I'm the navigator :rolleyes: . They just follow me along and assume I know what I'm doing! :D

Have a great trip. I'm hoping these recent terror events in London and the riots in Edinburgh don't affect your vacations plans too much. Just hoping you all have a safe trip!

June