Live from the Golden

[aaannnthony]

Now that you've read the many accolades for the Belfast tours by "minicoachni", beware that there is a "dark" side to their service.

 

Our scheduled stop at Belfast on May 16th was cancelled by Princess on May 9th, the day we left New York City, one day late. Two individuals from our group e-mailed Caroline at minicoachni immediately, same day, a full week before the tour, notifying her of our need to cancel. Recognize, also, that you are required to prepay the full amount of your tour with minicoachni. Our response upon returning home was "neither e-mail was received, we were ready for your tour, we lost other revenue possibilities that day, etc., etc......we, therefore can make no refund".

[Lindypc]

Anthony, we knew beforehand that there would be no refund if the port was cancelled but since their tour was one eighth of what Princess was charging, it was a chance that we could afford to take. We will probably get back a little from one cancelled port (Holyhead) and nothing from the other (Kirkwall). As Beth suggests several pages back, take a Princess shore ex for tender ports (Edinburgh is okay because it is on the river). Sorry you didn't know; we had 55 people who still signed up for ours and took that chance.

[aaannnthony]

Ours was not a tender stop cancellation, it was a schedule change, with notice a week beforehand, May 9th for Ma 16th!

[cfs]

For those of you who had travel insurance, you may be able to claim it on your insurance. I'm not sure, but you can check with your insurance carrier.

[Logie]

What do you sugest for Kirkwall? I am not sure what tour to book with Princess. For those of you who have made it into this port what did everyone do or what is reccomended?

 

Thanks!!

[blackegg]

Dear Golden-lovers:

 

Please forgive me for waiting until this cruise is half over to report on my impressions of the current cruise.

 

They just rolled us out of Sabatinis after a double order of Lobster on the 15th of 16 courses. I am now contributing my 0.35 cents per minute to Princess!

 

The cruise has been wonderful thus far with very few disappointments. A number of snags had many including us waiting a long time at embarkation. They delayed the lifeboat drill an hour.

 

The weather has been cool with a limited amount of sprinkles here and there. Seas have been quite calm as well - very little motion.

 

Yes - a new cruise director as someone noted and a new captain for this cruise only. He will return to the Queen Mary someone said.

 

Zeebrugge was fascinating. You need a taxi to the train station. We actually took a cab into Brugge for 45 euros - flat fee, no bargaining. We took the train back which was easy but had to go to a bank to have someone call us a cab. We made it.

 

Oslo was more rainy. Take the ferry near the ship to see the museums and then public bus #30 back into the city center. Museums open at 9 am. The3 Oslo pass (20% discount at the tourist shop right off the ship) was the BEST way to go here.

 

Copenhagen was crowded and a little dirty. You need to take a tourist bus or the public bus #26 outside the ship to town. We saw the line and walked ten minutes to a train station. We were SO glad to buy two RT tickets on the train over the long bridge to Malmo Sweden - beautiful city. Then came back and walked around Copenhagen.

 

Food is great, service just very good.

 

I am late for a show - sea day tomorrow - and will try to find an Internet cafe in Hamburg. BTW - Princess is keeping our passports until after Hamburg. No problem. And a surprise 50 DKK port charge ($8.21) for Copenhagen.

 

That's all folks,

 

 

Jim

Blackegg

[Logie]

Thanks Jim, we will see you in the Wheeleshouse in less than a week! Thanks for sharing!!

[calikak]

Hi all! We're back home now too, getting over the jetlag still. :) I have to say that we had a bad experience with disembarkation. The ship let too many of us off all at once around 7AM (we were scheduled to leave at 7:30 and they called our color a half-hour early) so there were a bazillion people in the baggage area and no pierside staff to organize us into a line. So a huge crowd formed at the one exit doorway marked as customs. Once everyone was in the huge mob of people, that's when the shoreside staff showed up and tried to get people into a line, which of course didn't work. Once we got through the exit doorway, there was another staff person telling us to form two lines. Then we went through another doorway and discovered that we were in a long line that led to nothing, there was no customs inspection to go through and we were all standing in line for no visible reason. It took us a half-hour just to get our bags and walk through two doors and down a long walkway to the taxi stand, which was pretty frustrating. I blame the situation entirely on the ship letting too many of us off at once. I'm glad to hear others didn't suffer the same frustrations we did at disembarkation.

 

Logie, we did some research before we went and I think the prehistoric sites (Skara Brae and Maes Howe and the Ring of Brodgar) are the top things to see in town. Also, the town of Kirkwall itself has a historic church and two ruined houses (the Bishop and Earl's Palaces) that are supposed to be worth visiting. I think Princess has a tour that goes to Skara Brae but not Maes Howe, if I remember right, and I think it's a half-day tour. Then you could spend the rest of the day exploring Kirkwall and visiting the church.

 

blackegg, thanks for the update! Hopefully someone else from your sailing with free internet will let you use their card. :D Have a great time on the rest of your cruise, and keep us posted if you can! It would be great if this thread kept going!

[Bob & Barb]

Thought we'd put in our two cents worth, too. Just came from a wedding where we, alng with Jim (Blackegg) (above) and a bunch of other ccers watched CCers Pete and Dede get married by Captain Warner. Lovely wedding and it was fun to be a part of it. Next stop (at 5:15 in the Wheelhouse Bar) CD Richard Josephi s throwing us a CC party, complete with champagne. They have been so nice to us -- came to our sailaway CC party and spent some time talking. There were the CD, his assistant, and 4 of their assistants and 6 of the officers who stopped by. All I did was ask him to be there and he was! I had emailed him before we left and he said he did get my email. As Jim said above, trip has been great. It got kind of rough on this sea day when we hit the North Atlantic off Denmark. We were plowing across it all morning, but now are running with it and it isn't so bad. Hamburg by 6:00 AM tomorrow. I'll try to answer any questions anyone has. Nap time, now......:D

 

Bob & Barb

[cpayne]

We are sailing the Golden 11/5 and are interested in arranging a CC party.

Who did you contact prior to your sailing to arrange your CC party? We've been on 9 cruises, but only 2 since discovering cc.com. How did I ever do it before then?!

 

Anyhow, the first cruise since discovering cc.com was NCL Spirit to Alaska and arranging a get together with the crew in attendance was very easy. Really enjoyed the get together. We sailed CCL Elation this spring and thought I'd arrange a similar get together. Without going in to great detail it was an absolute nightmare with over 20 phone calls. Finally got some to arrange something for us, but they said no crew would be in attendance. Was told to speak with Ms. _____ upon boarding to confirm, etc....Long story short, checked with this person and they had no record of our get together. She contacted the person at CCL that had supposedly arranged this for me and she recanted her story and said she had never arranged anything for me. The person on board then refused to help us set up anything. Couldn't believe a cruise line would be so unwilling to work with us! Don't want this experience again on the Golden and if it will be that much headache to arrange I'll just pass.

 

Also, have you received any special "perks" for being cc.com members while on board?

[June Bug]

What was the issue with trying to get a taxi in Zeebrugee getting off the train trying to get back to the ship? Is this something we should arrange ahead of time coming back from the train? Or was this a time issue...like you all were running late?

I want to be sure I make it back to the ship!

Thanks,

June

[AJY46]

Hi,

 

I'm on the Golden at the end of next month and may need to maintain easy internet access. I have found in the past that the best way is with a wireless network. Has the boat got one and if so how easy is it to access?

 

Thanks

Anne

[britsbest]

Wifi is available in the Atrium area I believe. It is not possible to hookup or connect wirelessly (if that is a word!) in your stateroom. As you probably know internet cafe is available at 0.35$ per minute unless you qualify for free access. If you did you wouldn't be asking I guess!

 

Enjoy

 

Bob

[calikak]

Cheri, one of the people from our roll call called Princess and told them we were planning a get-together, and when and where we wanted to have it. Princess made sure there was a bartender available so we could buy drinks, that was basically all they did for us. We didn't get any perks for being a CC member beyond them making sure a bartender was in Skywalkers when we had the party there. Oh, and they also let us use the microphone for a brief "thanks for coming" speech by a couple of CCers. But really, that was all Princess did. It's not like on Celebrity/RCCL when they have a more organized party and all that.

[Elcruzer]

Does Princess offer any tours on disembarkation that then drops you off at airport. I know many cruiselines do this if your plane departure is late enough in the day. I cannot find anything on the Shore Ex.

[Kruizefan]

I´m glad to see the ship in 15 hrs. at the cruise terminal in Hamburg.

Princess invited us for lunch at noon after a tour onboard the ship.

Very nice and many thanks to Princess Cruises!

[britsbest]

Does Princess offer any tours on disembarkation that then drops you off at airport. I know many cruiselines do this if your plane departure is late enough in the day. I cannot find anything on the Shore Ex.

 

Absolutely but I am not sure where the detais are! For the Brits we get taken to a "resort" hotel to wile away the hours, but some one said we will also get taken to a shopping mall in the afternoon. I hope thats optional or that the hotel is near the airport so that the cab fare is reasonable !:eek:

[Bob & Barb]

Well I just have to tell you -- what a royal treatment we got tonight! Princes and Cruise Director Richard Joseph and a half dozen staff invited us to the Wheelhouse Bar and Lounge at 5:15 tonight for a Cruise Critic Party -- and party it was!!! All but two of the 50 of us showed up (including the newly weds from this afternoon). We had an OPEN BAR for an hour (whatever you wanted), trays of hot and cold munchies and nuts on the tables, a chance to talk at length with any of them (at least 6 or 8 there the whole time), and a gift Princess tote bag for everyone. I just couldn't believe it. At the end, Richard took us out into the atrium and grouped us on the steps and then had the staff photographer take our picture from the next deck up. Wow -- couldn't have been nicer. ;)

 

All I had done was email Richard -- title it to CD Richard Joseph and email to www.goldenprincess@princesscruises.com and tell him when your first party is to be. Then when you come on board, seek him out and remind him. He'll take the ball from there. He's been a CD on many ships since the early 80's -- most recently on the Island to Hawaii this past summer. Don't bother to try to call Princess customer relations -- it won't help at all! Just contact the CD.

 

I had collected pictures from everyone which I arranged on a couple of pages and emailed to everyone before we left. Also made out a roster to give to everyone on board with everyone's name, cabin number, CC name and email address and home town, and also did up some name tags for everyone. It made the whole thing a lot more fun and we got to know each other more quickly.

 

Let me know if you need any other questions answered. Hope you have as much fun on your up coming cruises as we've been having. We're about to enter the Elbe River and travel up it tonight and arrive at Hamburg, Germany at 6:00 AM.

 

Bob

[cruisin'fool2]

Bob,

 

If you have an opportunity, could you ask Captain Warner if and when he is going over to Cunard?

 

Thanks, Mike

[GottoCruise]

Hi Rich -

 

Just read the post from Bob & Barb - "Live from the Golden" - Wow! what a wonderful party for the Cruise Critics on the June 1 sailing! Seems like you and your "staff" really outdid yourselves in making everyone feel so welcome.

 

Our Cruise Critic "bunch" is boarding July 31 - I am doing b2b (mentioned previously) on Aug. 10. We have exchanged names and photos (both sailings) and hope to arrange a CC "Meet & Mingle" get together...

 

We have a "Honeymoon couple" sailing with us ---"Flower125" (Chrissa & George ---they are getting married in July and the sailing will be their honeymoon....what can we do to make this "memorable" for them???

 

I hope you will have time to Please come by and say hello - everyone is anxious to meet you!

 

Cheers! GotToCruise :D (aka Renee)

[June Bug]

I just copied your posting about the CC party to our Roll Call thread for the

June 21 sailing on the Golden...I hope we are half as welcomed aboard as you guys! Thanks for all the info and keep it coming!!

June

[Logie]

Beth thank you for the advice. I did book the Princess tour to the Skara for that day after I read about not getting into port and some losing money on tours booked outside of Princess for tender ports.

 

I love Princess, but they are not known for giving anything free much less the party described above for free. That is just unheard of, I wonder if someone paid for it from the wedding party or they did it because of the wedding? Or has anyone heard of such a thing and I just never saw it posted. Maybe there is certain criteria?

 

Doubt I can email the CD and state that a few of our friends from CC would like a get together and could we get a slew of officers and an hour of free drinks and appetizers please? :) Anyone on the June 11th sailing want to give it a shot I'll show up.

 

Thanks everyone for all of your help and for those who have jet lag I hope it goes away soon!! That is the worst part of the trip no doubt!!

[J18ktleo]

We hear on 'dry land' are loving the daily updates...hope you all can spare a few moments (I know...internet is slow and even the quickest of replies takes awhile :rolleyes: ) to keep us updated!

Counting down til we're the one's posting 'Live from the Golden'!

Jeani

[AJY46]

Bob,

 

Thanks for your reply re WiFi connection. Interesting coz we got our book about the cruise yesterday and it it didn't mention this. In fact it said that laptops couldn't be used to access the internet!

 

Wow your party looked good. I know others on our cruise are trying to arrange one.

 

When did you enter the Elbe! A friend of mine who has visited Hamburg in the past says that there is a town outside on the Elbe which has a brass band which greets passing ships. Does this still happen and if so where is it?

 

Anne

[lkmamom]

Hi current Golden cruisers,

 

Thanks so much for all of the info! It is so helpful to all of us waiting for our cruises!!! I have a question that has possibly been asked before but....packing is an issue here (DH has put his foot down:rolleyes: ) are people dressing for dinner casually ( no jeans of course) on non formal nights?And for formal nights are there men in tuxes and ladies in glittery gowns or are you seeing a lot of suits and "little black dresses" for the ladies? Thanks for you help. Enjoy the rest of your cruise, the party sounded fabulous!

Linda