Sapphire Princess - Norway - Land of the Midnight Sun review June 23, 2018

[Coral]

Sapphire Princess Land of the Midnight Sun June 23 (warning long)

 

June 19th – Flew from LNK to LHR and arrived early on the 20th. Thankfully getting luggage and through Customs/Immigration was a piece of cake. I had booked a Princess hotel (Marriott Grosvenor House) and went to look for my transfer. It took an hour for the person to show up which was a bit nerve racking as I wasn’t sure if anyone would show up and I had no local number to call. I think he expected it to take an hour or two to get through Customs/Immigration. It took probably 10 minutes from exiting the plane to where I should have met the person. Eventually he found me as I had asked many of the individuals there waiting for people “where the Princess person was?” they pointed him to me when he did show up. The person had a very nice Mercedes van and was very pleasant. We did hit morning traffic on the way to the hotel. I did mention the delay in being picked up to “Carol” who was working the desk at the hotel and she seemed to argue with me that it could not have taken 10 minutes to get through luggage and customs/immigration as opposed to saying “I am sorry you had to wait.” She kept insisting it would take at least an hour or two.

 

I used Princess EZ Air for the first time. I was able to book United Business Class for significantly less than going direct through Princess (about a $6000 difference!) and had good connections (no such thing as direct flights where I live). I had no problems with EZ air. I changed my flights quite a few time (6 actually) before I got the flights I wanted. I did ask my TA to ticket the flights on the day of final payment. I did have problems with flights but it was due to weather in Chicago.

 

Marriott Grosvenor House– the hotel is located near Hyde Park. I arrived early and did not have access to my room right away. I was too tired to wander off so I waited for my room in the lobby and used the free public internet in the lobby and then once I got my room, I took a short nap before I ventured out for food. All of the local pubs that the conciergegave me were packed due to the “football games” going on. I ended up a small pizzeria and it was fine. My room at the Marriott turned out to be very small. When speaking with others who stayed at the hotel, everyone seemed to get something different. I spent the next few days wandering around London. I had purchased a London Pass and Oyster card https://www.londonpass.com/ before I left for London. The weather was perfect for being in London.

My previous stay in London had a more central hotel location and quicker access to multiple Underground lines. The location of this hotel is pretty high end and I would probably pick something else in the future. There was an Aston Martin dealership within a block of the hotel if that gives you an idea of the high end neighborhood. I had forgotten how much I like ice in my drinks until I hit London. I spent my first real day doing a hop on hop off bus and got sun burned (forgot suntan lotion in my room. It was warm, sunny with a nice cool breeze. I seemed to grab breakfast food at PRET: https://www.pret.com/en-us/ and was impressed with the place for a grab and go. They seemed to be all over London.

 

Princess transfer.There were 2 buses that took people to Southampton. My bus left at 10 and another left at 10:15. We were advised to have our bags ready at 8 am and a bell captain would pick them up. Mine arrived at 8:05. The luggage was transported at approx. 9 am on a separate truck and was in my room waiting for me on the Sapphire Princess when I got on the ship. Embarkation was simple and wasn’t crowded at the dock when we arrived about 12:15.

 

First impressions of the Sapphire Princess – she looks great after the dry dock! My cabin was L226 (right behind the pizzeria) and was an inside cabin. First time in an inside cabin in a very long time. There was one negative about the inside and will write that at the end of the report. Great location for my cabin and very quiet. I think they replaced most if not all of the carpet on the ship. The hallway carpet is new, the dining room carpet was new, tile looked new, everything on the ship looked sparkling new! They did move things around and eliminated things since the last time I was on the ship. For example, the Wedding chapel is no more - it is now the store where you buy things that has the Princess logo on them. There is now a Coach store and the makeup store is huge now. My cabin had a brand new 42” LG TV. It was definitely too large to put the Bridge station on as a nightlight with 24-hour sunlight some nights.

 

Service on the ship was exceptional. I had a great room steward (Heylord), I had Anytime dining and had great wait staff every day and the bar staff was also wonderful. No complaints here. Generoso is the Matride and he seems to have respect of the dining room staff and they all seemed very happy. Passenger Services desk remembered who I was one day which surprised the heck out of me – they were always pleasant.

 

Shore excursion staff– they were unfamiliar with this itinerary and ports. The 7-night cruise that occurred immediately before our cruise went to a few of the Norwegian ports but not as many as ours (ours was a 14-night cruise) so their only experience with the ports was the week before. I tried to ask the difference between 2 shore excursions “the Best of Geirangerfjord” and “the Scenery of Geirangerfjord” and the guy just pointed to the numbers that one shore excursion sees all of the numbers listed and the other just sees 1 item. If one had looked at the description, they would realize that it wasn’t correct.

 

The staff in Princess Corporate Shore Excursion in the US had not properly written numbers of what “the Scenery of Geirangerfjord” would see. The scenery shore excursion had been added later. I had called a few months previously asking the difference and the person on the phone had no clue and could not get to the shore excursion desk. From what I could tell, one had an extra stop with cake and coffee and cost $20 more. I asked questions on a few other shore excursions and they did not know. It is too bad employees who had worked here a year ago didn’t return this year for the same itinerary. It would have helped for them to have first hand experience.

Edited July 25, 2018 by Coral

[Coral]

The Destination Speaker (Humberto Neto) was interesting in the beginning but I found him frustrating. He had poor time management skills and would spend a lot of time on one port but would run out of time on the next port. In the mean time on the first port he spoke about that day, he would talk about WWII and how it affected that port. While that would be nice if he had time but he didn’t. He also was not informed well about docking positions in some port and also transportation into town. Or the cheapest transportation. The Theatre was used immediately after his presentation so he couldn’t continue on with his talk.

 

Ports – I did a combination of private tours and some booked through Princess. I hated paying for the tours that far in advance (they were expensive tours) and also hated that the price gradually went up. Honestly – Princess’s website for this needs to be more refined as when I cancelled a tour, it went in as OBC and I had to call to get the money refunded back to me (pre-cruise). I spoke with one person who said “why don’t you want OBC, everyone wants OBC?” and I said – “this is my money; I want it back”. It was difficult to understand which shore excursions one booked with OBC and which ones were booked with a credit card. I did have a difficult time on this cruise making some excursion decisions as there was so much I wanted to see.

 

We had a great roll call and I am thankful that a lot of research on the ports was setup before I joined the roll call. If you ever sail with Wayne (mreasier) - he was the unofficial “Captain” on our roll call and kept us all organized with an amazing spreadsheet with all the information we could ever think of (and more).

 

Stavanger – I did the Lysefjord and Preikestolen (Pulpit Rock) boat ride. https://rodne.no/en/fjordcruise/lysefjord-preikestolen/ I booked this privately and direct with the company. I believe I saved $100 by doing this. If you book with Princess, you do stop for waffles along the cruise. It was a gorgeous day and a beautiful cruise. They did at least 3 private boats that morning with those who had not booked through a cruise line, a 9:30, 10 and 10:15. This is in addition to the cruises that were booked directly with the cruise lines. I had heard a total of 10 boats went out with the company but they may have added more later. The boat had WIFI which was nice to check email on my phone. I struggled with this port as I wanted to do this excursion and also wanted to do Flor or Fjaere gardens https://florogfjare.no/en/about-flor-fjare/ With our times in port, there was no way to do both. Both seemed like favorite excursions. According to the cruise log, it was 60 degrees today.

 

The boat ride somewhat reminded me of Misty Fiord boat ride in Ketchikan with a bit more scenery and several more waterfalls! There were beautiful waterfalls, goats came and greeted us (I am going to assume they often get fed to come up directly to us), scenery fantastic through the fjords. Our weather was wonderful that day. There was plenty of space on the boat and most of us spent the entire time up on top deck. Many of us from CC were on the 10 am ride, though some accidently got on the 9:30 ride. After the boat ride, I walked up to Old Stavanger, then to the lake with a ton of swans and then to the church before returning. I wish I had time for the Petroleum museum as the reviews on that were amazing as well. When people mentioned the Petroleum museum, it didn’t sound appealing but after looking at the website, it looks amazing. Stavanger is a port I would like to return to as there were several things I wanted to do here. So many compromises on this trip.

 

Skjolden– this port only has 20 cruise ships per season with none in July. Ships do this port or Flam (often). I wish we had done Flam as I wanted to do the train ride but this port did not disappoint. Skjolden has a population of 200 people. I would definitely recommend a tour here as opposed to just walking around. Our roll call had reserved 2 buses (16 passenger) with http://skjolden.com/en/visit-skjolden-bussturar/ . Both buses did Tour F (Jotunheimen National Park, famous mountain road 1434 mas, peaks, glaciers, water magazine, waterfalls, Urnes stave church entrance incl, deer farm). This port is very small and is not used to a lot of tourism. That is part of the charm. It is not unheard of to have to stop the bus and wait for 8 sheep to leave the street. Once we had to stop the bus and honk as a sheep was asleep in the middle of the street. I was afraid he was dead but the guide knew he was just asleep. Jotunheimen National Park was gorgeous. We went to an area where Northern European skiers (Olympic quality) train in the summer. In some areas there was plenty of snow. The first part of the tour was through the beautiful scenery of Jotunheimen National Park and the second part was to the Urnes Stave Church. I admit, I was bored with the church. Otherwise, the tour was great. In some of these towns in Norway – the roads are not built for 2 lanes and more specifically for buses. Buses and vans are constantly backing up and making room for other vehicles to pass by. I heard that a Princess bus backed up and hit a pole and knocked something down. I am not surprised. I was glad I was in a small van with a local driver. This is a port where there is very little for private tours – our roll call did reserve the 2 vans that we could. I had hoped that by using a private tour, we would avoid the Princess crowds at the scenic stops but that was not the case. This is a port that I am glad I visited but I don’t feel like I need to go back. I think I saw what I wanted to see. It was approx. 52 degrees here.

 

I can’t remember which 2 ports it was but one was Skjolden and I don’t remember the other – one had told us we had the best weather since May 15thand another said they hadn’t seen the sun in 45 days. We really did luck out on most days for weather in Norway.

[Coral]

Hellesylt – Geiranger– This port I did the “Best of Geirangerford” through Princess. https://www.princess.com/excursion/exDetails.page?t=E&exType=S&tourCode=HE2-100

Those with all day tours got off the ship in Hellesylt and tendered, while the ship then sailed into Geiranger and let others off the ship. The sail into Geiranger is supposed to be amazing (I missed it) but I did see it on the way out. Both ports that day were tendering ports and I believe the town of Geiranger has 250 people or so. Guessing the same for Hellesylt. This was another port I would love to return to as there was so much to see and around here. The Best of Geirangerfjord was approx. $250 when I booked it. Did I mention Norway is expensive? I had several $250 excursions and this was one of them. I did hear the ship arrived in Geiringer earlier than it had planned. According to the log, it was 52 degrees but it felt warmer. The sun was out bright that day and unfortunately, the sun always seem to be in the direction I was taking pictures. We constantly had “bus interactions with other buses”. The streets are not wide enough for 2 buses to pass at once so one bus always seemed to have to backup and move over to the side of the road for another bus to pass. Plus, there are several hairpin turns here – definitely a windy road up to the top for the best views. This scenery that day was stunning. There were so many waterfalls, gorgeous scenery and beautiful views. I would recommend this shore excursion. Though, many in my roll call did a variety of excursions and they all seemed to enjoy their day also.

 

Immediately after we got off the tender in Hellesylt – there was a gorgeous waterfall with a scenic bridge above it. I don’t remember if we took a bus ride for 5 minutes for this or just walked to it but it stands out in my pictures as very beautiful.

 

We did stop for lunch on this trip and the meal was an asparagus soup and salmon (Kafeteria Hotel). I am not a seafood eater. I had asked about something else and was told by the guide there was a vegetarian option. Someone came and found me in the dining room and seemed to mention a vegetarian burger. Someone at our table said “don’t you have meat?” and they said they had a pork dish. I am thankful to them as the pork dish was pretty good and others were jealous that I was able to get pork and they got salmon. The asparagus soup really didn’t taste like asparagus – it was barely flavored. Looking back at my pictures – there was still quite a bit of snow on the ground in certain places and none in others. We also stopped for cake and coffee earlier in the day (First Hotel Raftevold).

 

There was a negative part of the day that beyond any one’s control and I had forgotten about it until I looked at my pictures. All large vehicles must stop off at a “Kontrol Center” which reminded me of a weigh station with out a scale. They do random stops and waive other vehicles by. Well – our bus was randomly selected. They check various things including brakes and driver’s papers. Since I don’t understand the language, I am going to report what our guide told us. The driver’s papers were in order but the clock on the bus was not working which then couldn’t accurately report how long the bus had been operating.

 

We were stopped at the “Kontrol Center” for 40 minutes before we were allowed to go on. At a later stop, we were told the bus driver was fixing the clock. I have to say the guide and the bus driver were incredibly nice and neither could be blamed for this situation. Also, all the buses I took during this cruise seemed brand new – very nice buses. It just happened to be the bus the driver was assigned for the day. I know they had to cut other stops short to make up for the time but we didn’t seem to notice it. We, along with at least 3 other buses doing our same tour, arrived late back to the ship. Though, there were probably hundreds if not 1000 people in line waiting for the tender back to the ship. Some took the opportunity to shop at the few souvenir shops at the pier as the line was so long.

 

This is definitely a port I would want to return to. I heard there was a gorgeous waterfall that several hiked to close to the pier and I would have liked that also. According to the log all passengers were back at 6:30 (we were supposed to be back at 5:30).

 

Sail away from Geiranger can not be missed (unless you sailed in). You pass the Seven Sisters waterfall and the Suitor waterfall. Both stunning. They are shortly after sail away. Unfortunately, the 7 sister waterfall had the sun beaming down at it and my pictures (like most of that day) are affected due to the sun. After seeing so many beautiful waterfalls up until this point in the trip, there were dozens of “smaller waterfalls” after and I didn’t take many pictures of those. These waterfalls would normally thrill me and are similar to many I have seen in Alaska but they were small compared to the many I had already seen on the trip early on and the waterfalls only got better as the cruise went on. I stayed outside about an hour for the sail away and it was stunning through the fjords. That night, I watched a Love Boat episode and noticed that the beginning pictures included the Seven Sisters waterfall!

 

Trondheim – this will be an easy port to talk about. I did not get off the ship. It was rainy and 57 in port that day. I ate a late breakfast and packed up my back pack to go outside. The ship was testing the generators and the elevators were off for a short period. After that, I went downstairs to get off the ship and at that point, it was pouring. People were racing back to the ship just drenched and told me not to get off. I think the rain came in spurts. This was the one day I did not have a tour and decided to just stay on the ship. I grabbed my kindle and went up to the covered pool area and ended up sitting next to some people from the roll call. We ended up talking more than reading. It was nice to have a relaxing day in here.

 

Later that day, I did the Escape Room. I had signed up on the first sea day as it was listed in the patter as “Escape the Room”. They did 3 different nights and 3-4 different rounds each night with 8 people per group. Each night was on a port day but they were at times after the ship had sailed. The Asst CD who was in charge of this activity was Martin Kidd. He was a delightful person to see through out the cruise. Very nice and approachable. So many CDs come across as fake and he was so nice. Long story short – if you want to do this, show up early. It was difficult to find in the Princess Patter and still, a ton of people showed up. They had 20 people waitlisted after everyone signed up. We had a fun group that included 2 twin boys who were probably 8 years old or so. Long story short, we did not escape in time. We were fixated on the wrong things. It was fun and I am glad we did it. There were only about 15 kids on this cruise and I kept seeing those 2 boys and then 2 other girls through out the trip.

 

According to my notes, we were 3 hours late leaving Trondheim due to the winds and there were no local tug boats to help get us out of port. We probably could have left if there were tug boats.

 

Honningsvag (North Cape)– this turned out to be sort of confusing as it usually is a docking port but there was construction on the dock up until the day we were going to arrive so it appeared we were going to tender and at the last minute they finished the construction, so we docked. People from my roll call had found the tour from Blue-puffin. Blue-puffin changed the depart time to 10 am (from 9) based on the chance that we would tender. http://blue-puffin.comNorth cape Sightseeing – More than a Bus Tour for 819NOK (approx. $100 US). Princess’s tour was $150 and only went to North Cape and back and I don’t believe there is much commentary. I spoke with someone and he said they didn’t talk at all on their tour with Princess. Our tour included a Fishing Village (Kamøyær), King Crab stop, a stop where they handled a crab and passed it around, stopping to see Sami Village and reindeer, he gave us some dried reindeer meat to try, etc… We saw several reindeer along the ride. It definitely was more than just a stop at North Cape.

 

I highly recommend the company Blue-Puffin. The company had been owned by another company previously and Monika and Sebastian had managed the tours. This spring, the owner decided to not continue and Monika and Sebastian bought the company and renamed it Blue-Puffin. They are a delightful couple. They had 2 buses the day we went up there and I was on Sebastian’s bus. He was fun, told us a lot of stories, explained about the Sami people and how they own the reindeer in Norway. When we stopped at Kamøyær, he mentioned the art gallery East of the Sun https://www.facebook.com/evaschmutterer/ which is well known in Norway. I liked their art and it was affordable. The artist is either at this site or at her Honningsvag site which is named West of the Moon. Princess does a tour that stops here and goes to an ice bar for $100. Long story short – I highly recommend Blue-puffin tour with Monika and Sebastian. If I was to change anything – I wish they ran smaller buses but I don’t think anyone does. I was getting tired of large buses at this point.

 

There was a negative to the day – the log said it was 44 degrees and Force 7 winds which is up to 40 MPH in Honningsvag. Well – it was worse in North Cape. Wind was much stronger. On top of that, it was extremely gray/foggy out. I had heard those who left earlier had a little better weather and late in the afternoon had clearer weather. Our wind was incredibly strong – I would say above 40 MPH; it was difficult to walk to the Globe at the top. I had met several who said they had fallen over. I was prepared for the cold weather (had a heavy hoody and a rubbery rain jacket with the hood plus ear protection. When I went to walk towards the globe, the wind was keeping me back. Some did go all the way forward. I wasn’t going to bother and just used my zoom to take pictures.

 

There is plenty to do at the Visitors Center, there is a Post Office to mail postcards and get a North Cape stamp, a large souvenir store, a cafeteria, and a film that is shown. My picture of the cliffs was foggy also. North Cape is one of the most Northern towns in Europe that you can drive to (or something like that). Several people in our group sent themselves a post card and several bought sweatshirts as souvenirs. I purchased waffles to warm me up as I was craving them by now as several on Princess tours had had them multiple times but I hadn’t yet. They were really good.

 

Once we got back to Honningsvag – I went into the Artico souvenir shop and bought a Norway sweatshirt and then went into the Ice Bar. There was a small discount due to going to North Cape with Blue-Puffin. There was a gorgeous large dog at the souvenir shop who was pretty elderly and as friendly as can be. Here is the link to the ice bar: http://www.articoicebar.com/en/artico-icebar/ This is within walking distance of the ship. They gave everyone a silver type poncho to put over you and once in the ice bar, you could have 2 drinks that were served in ice shot glasses. None of the drinks were alcoholic. I am not sure if they keep track of how many drinks you have but I only had one. The flavors were like kiwi, blue tropical or something like that – I think there were 6-8 choices. I also walked up to the sister art gallery – West of the Moon. I did like her art and it was small and affordable but I didn’t buy any of it.

 

My goal was to go back to the ship, drop off my backpack and sweatshirt and go back out. Once I got back outside, it was windy and I just went back to the ship. I figured I had seen enough of the town. Honningsvag has a population around 2500. There was another Sapphire ship in port that day – it was the Sapphire Saga. This night, several people went to deck at night to watch having 24 hours of sunlight but the sky was really gray and it was cold and no one stayed out very long.

Edited July 25, 2018 by Coral

[Coral]

Tromso – this is a port where I organized a tour for our roll call. https://www.tromsoindividuell.com Edel has a van for 8 people. She already had 2 booked from a hotel. There was more interest with our roll call, she was able to borrow a van for 16. We had a total of 15 on our tour, 13 from Cruise Critic. The cost was 1350NOK (small discount for having 4 or more people from 1400NOK) and this price included lunch and a stop for waffles (see a trend here?). Edel met us outside of the dock area. I had started to look for tours when I was not pleased with what Princess offered in town. Her tour took us outside of town – for a fjord tour to Sommaroy. According to cruise log it was 60 degrees that day (and perfect). I am also glad I did t his as it was a Sunday and many things in town were closed.

 

I liked the tour with Tromso Indviduell really well. Edel’s goal was to get us outside of the van as much as possible. She took us to several scenic places (waterfalls, beaches, farm houses, fishing villages, etc…). We had lunch at the Sommaroy Arctic hotel. The hotel sometimes has a buffet and when they do, Edel’s group has the buffet. The day we were there, they did not, so we ordered off of the menu. Not being a seafood person, I ordered the hamburger. Apparently the fish soup was very popular. I wished they had the buffet but that was out of our control. There was WIFI at the hotel.

The hotel is in a very scenic area with a beach nearby which we walked to after lunch. The scenery and weather that day was amazing. On the way back, we stopped at Tove’s glass (glass artist) for waffles. I purchased a glass lighthouse which arrived today (I asked the owner to not mail it right away as I had travel plans after the cruise). After that, we stopped at this very scenic farm house area. I was amazed through out Norway about houses with grass roofs. I kept hearing that people would put goats on the roof when the grass got too tall. I was hoping to see this but never did. My pictures turned out amazing this day. We did miss seeing the city of Tromso and someone in our group wanted to see the Arctic Cathedral (not necessarily go in but see it). Edel found a place to stop (looked like another ship pier) with a great distance view of the Cathedral. I did speak with others who did go in and with it being a Sunday, there was service going on and they couldn’t take pictures inside. Honestly, I will often pick countryside over city on most days and am glad I did this verses stay in Tromso. Weather was approx. 61 degrees. Several people went outside at night to watch the sun “not set” – it apparently was beautiful and I missed it. I had not slept well up until now and wanted the sleep.

 

Tromso had many bridges that were one way bridges with a street light. These were fairly new bridges that were built this way. The area we were in had a laid back type attitude and it didn’t seem to be an issue to those who drove the streets around here. I found it strange – why build a bridge with only one lane??

 

For 3 days when we were above the Arctic Circle – the Princess Patter had either said “Sunrise N/A Sunset NA always light” or something like “Sunrise 11:06 am, Sunset 11:06 am”

 

Gravdal – Lofoten Islands– I went on Trollfjord by Bus and Boat through Princess. https://www.princess.com/excursion/exDetails.page?t=E&exType=S&tourCode=GR1-500

Another expensive tour ($250) Weather 52 degrees. I have mixed feelings on this trip. The boat that they used was super crowded down below where people sat. Every seat was filled. I felt sorry as I saw a family from our roll call with a young daughter and they could not find 2 seats together, let alone 3. There was an upper deck on the boat and a small area outside on the deck. They would only allow us on the upper deck when we were going at slower speeds due to safety reasons and limited the amount of people to 30 people. We could always stand outside on the lower deck.

 

The scenery was gorgeous but the boat was too crowded to really enjoy. There were 3 of us hanging out and we took turns being in a good location near a rail down below and would switch off to take pictures. People were just fighting for places to take pictures. When we could go upstairs, they would often tell us to switch off so we would have to go downstairs so another 30 people could go upstairs. This trip would have been so much better if a better boat had been used. We did see seagulls and an eagle that day. They fed the seagulls so they were with us quite a bit. We saw some beautiful waterfalls, fjords and Norwegian houses and scenery. There was free WIFI on the boat.

 

After we got off the boat, we then walked to a hotel (Vestfjord Hotel Lofoten) for lunch. There was a buffet and it wasn’t very efficient time was, or maybe because we were the last in line, I thought that. I settled for bread and carrot cake as everything else seemed “fishy”. Two of us walked around the town and found a grocery store and stopped in and bought a few things.

 

After lunch we got on the bus for the 2ndpart of the tour. We had a bus ride through the Lofoten Islands and then stopped at the town of Vikten which is a small town with a glassblowing studio (so 2 glass places in 2 ports in a row). We were late getting back to the ship. We were in Vikten when we were supposed to be back on ship. I think most days, our ship sailed late except for Bergen.

Edited July 25, 2018 by Coral

[Coral]

Alesund– I did the Hjorundfjord cruise through Princess – I can’t find the link to the tour. Weather was 59 degrees and sunny. All I can say is that this boat was much nicer than the previous boat. It wasn’t crowded at all! It was a gorgeous day to be outside and go through the Hjorundfjord which is a lesser known fjord. After the cruise, I had a few hours to walk around Alesund. Such a delightful small city (population 48,000). There were water canals that ran through the city and you would often walk to the end of the street and there would be water. Many of the streets were cobblestone. I did not go up to the top of the city to take a picture but if you google Alesund, you will see some scenic pictures of Alesund. It was the first time in many days where I had free time to walk around as I had booked so many all day tours. Picture perfect weather day.

 

Bergen– I booked Fjords and Waterfalls through Princess: https://www.princess.com/excursion/exDetails.page?t=E&exType=S&tourCode=BGO-125

It was 55 degrees here and sort of rainy/misty here. My tour took up the entire time in Bergen (wish we had longer time). Tour cost $90. We went to Steinsdalsfossen waterfall which was a huge waterfall that one can walk up behind it. It rained on our way there but was fine when we were there. It was amazing but I missed Bergen by seeing it. I really would love to go back to Bergen. I hear Bergen is very scenic and I definitely want to return to spend time in Bergen.

 

Some notes about the cruise:

 

I had air conditioning problems in my room. I would not get back until late (for me) and when I tried to go to sleep, it was hot in my room. There were a few nights where I ended up calling Passenger Services desk at 11 or 12 pm with my room being approx. 77 degrees. After it was fixed, it took a few hours to cool the room down. I realized the fist night when it was hot that my alarm clock had a thermostat it it. They had to come 3 different times before it was fixed. Needless to say, I didn’t sleep well the first half of the cruise (and missed the wonderful sun not setting pictures that my friends got!) Except for reporting the issue, I never asked for anything nor did I ask to change rooms. It did make me regret booking an inside cabin though! I did receive a call from a Manager the last day offering OBC to make up for my inconvenience. I thought the amount was generous.

 

The Princess bed that was in my room was very comfortable! The linens were of high quality but were quite heavy considering I had this warm cabin. I ended up grabbing one of the blankets that was outside to use on deck and used that in my cabin.

 

Food – I thought the food in the dining room was mediocre at best. I am not a fan of buffets and usually stay away from them but felt myself drawn to it as some of the menus were uninspiring. Even worse, some of the food was tasteless in the buffet and dining room. The beef was the worst. One night, everyone at our table ordered Filet Mignon and it was this gray piece of meat with barely any grill marks on it and was tasteless. None of us ate the piece of meat. We all sort of played with it and our waiter kept asking us if it was prepared properly. We didn’t want to say anything negative to our waiter (as our wait staff was really good on this trip) – we just all explained that we were not that hungry. I later switched to chicken and it wasn’t any better. The salads started out excellent and after a week, they were poor also. I ordered a simple garden salad which is iceberg, tomatoes and cucumbers and all of my lettuce was white hard pieces. It should never have been served. The pastas seemed to be the one thing that I could order safely. The buffet was uninspiring as well. One night at the buffet they served roast beef and it was tasteless. I did eat one night at Sterling Steakhouse and it was good. I probably should have gone there more often. By no means did I starve but overall, was not impressed with the food.

 

I did go to Alfredos a few times and did enjoy that. A few times I went, there were lines. It was a popular place. Alfredos downstairs was serving pizza with the good (round cheese). Upstairs started with the bad cheese but ran out and is now serving the good cheese.

 

The grill upstairs was good. At night, it became a BBQ joint with 2 different menus – one night serving brisket, bbq wings, ribs and along with hamburger and hot dogs. Another night had orange molasses grilled chicken, beef chili, North Carolina pulled pork along with hamburger and hot dogs and they rotated. The guy who worked there was from India and was very friendly.

 

I did order a hamburger with room service on one of the nights I was waiting for someone to come to fix my air conditioning. It resembled a hockey puck. French fries were good though.

 

There was not enough people on the ship to do a Chef’s table. They did do a Crab Shack one night – I only know this as I went to see if there was an opening at Sterling Steakhouse that night and it was Crab Shack. I spoke with others who wanted to try Crab Shack but missed the one night they offered it.

 

Entertainment– I thought it was top notch on this cruise. There were several events at night I wanted to go to and it conflicted with each other. Most people seemed pleased with the various entertainment options. I liked a guitarist/singer named Chris Ricketts. ELUA was on our sailing but not doing Hawaiian music. Pete Best (fifth Beatle) did a talk one morning that I only caught the last part of. Chris Watkins did “Fireworks on Four Strings” which I thought was excellent. Peter Howarth from “the Hollies” also performed – I missed this. There was also a Chris Watkins and Peter Howarth combination one night. Danny Hunt and Stephanie Clarke were Escape Artists - people enjoyed this as well.

 

Production shows: Piano Man, Bravo, Do you Wanna dance, Let me entertain you, Born to be Wild.

 

To wrap up the review – I had planned to do Alaska again this summer (B2B). I usually book those trips last minute but had booked it far in advance and when you do that, Alaska is expensive. I looked at Norway and for 2 weeks, Norway turned out to be cheaper. Of course after I added Business Class air, hotel in London and very expensive excursions, this turned out to be one of my most expensive trips to date. Was it worth it – definitely. The best way to describe it was “Alaska on steroids with different types of glaciers”. Since I love Alaska, I knew I would love Norway (cooler climate, beautiful scenery, wild life, etc…). Norway did not disappoint and I would love to return. Most people on this cruise were extremely well traveled. The most sailed couple had almost 1900 days on Princess.

 

When most go to Europe for the first time, they do the Baltic or the Med. I strongly recommend Norway if you have traveled to the usual European ports. I can also add that I would have been disappointed with a 7 night Norway cruise or a combination of Norway and another country. I loved that we went as far North that we did and thoroughly enjoyed most of the ports. I wish I had gone to more Norwegian ports as I look at other itineraries, they go to many places we missed. I struggled on excursions as there were so many things that interested me. I also enjoyed this trip as I am less interested in “large cities” lately and more into nature and scenery. If you have never considered Norway and enjoy Alaska, I strongly recommend it. I have never seen so many waterfalls in my life!

Internet was very slow on the ship. I used all of my 250 free minutes just logging in and downloading email and then responding and then logging in again to send the emails. I barely looked at any website.

I am also very thankful to having a wonderful roll call! I appreciated all the research they did before I joined and how helpful everyone was.

 

I had hoped to include pictures but it will just have to wait. I had a conference immediately after this trip and am now in “back to school” world where I work. I hope everything I posted was accurate and will try to answer any questions. Apologies for any spelling and grammatical errors! I am not going to read this one more time as it won’t get posted. I keep wanted to add more and it is already a novel. Hopefully it helps future cruisers plan trips as I had a difficult time finding some info on some excursions.

Edited July 25, 2018 by Coral

[PurpleTraveller]

Thank you so much for your wonderful review. I will be doing the Land of the Midnight Sun cruise in June 2019 and your review has an enormous amount of very useful information. Thank you once again.

 

Sent from my A1601 using Forums mobile app

[JF - retired RRT]

Wow!! Great review. Thanks.:D

 

What a surprise that Elua was on this itinerary. Silly me. I thought they only did Hawaii.

What kind of music did they play?

[cdngrl]

thank you for all of the detail. this cruise is next on my "places i want to go" list.

[GrammySpo]

Alesund– I did the Hjorundfjord cruise through Princess – I can’t find the link to the tour. Weather was 59 degrees and sunny. All I can say is that this boat was much nicer than the previous boat. It wasn’t crowded at all! It was a gorgeous day to be outside and go through the Hjorundfjord which is a lesser known fjord. After the cruise, I had a few hours to walk around Alesund. Such a delightful small city (population 48,000). There were water canals that ran through the city and you would often walk to the end of the street and there would be water. Many of the streets were cobblestone. I did not go up to the top of the city to take a picture but if you google Alesund, you will see some scenic pictures of Alesund. It was the first time in many days where I had free time to walk around as I had booked so many all day tours. Picture perfect weather day.

 

Bergen– I booked Fjords and Waterfalls through Princess: https://www.princess.com/excursion/exDetails.page?t=E&exType=S&tourCode=BGO-125

It was 55 degrees here and sort of rainy/misty here. My tour took up the entire time in Bergen (wish we had longer time). Tour cost $90. We went to Steinsdalsfossen waterfall which was a huge waterfall that one can walk up behind it. It rained on our way there but was fine when we were there. It was amazing but I missed Bergen by seeing it. I really would love to go back to Bergen. I hear Bergen is very scenic and I definitely want to return to spend time in Bergen.

 

Some notes about the cruise:

 

I had air conditioning problems in my room. I would not get back until late (for me) and when I tried to go to sleep, it was hot in my room. There were a few nights where I ended up calling Passenger Services desk at 11 or 12 pm with my room being approx. 77 degrees. After it was fixed, it took a few hours to cool the room down. I realized the fist night when it was hot that my alarm clock had a thermostat it it. They had to come 3 different times before it was fixed. Needless to say, I didn’t sleep well the first half of the cruise (and missed the wonderful sun not setting pictures that my friends got!) Except for reporting the issue, I never asked for anything nor did I ask to change rooms. It did make me regret booking an inside cabin though! I did receive a call from a Manager the last day offering OBC to make up for my inconvenience. I thought the amount was generous.

 

The Princess bed that was in my room was very comfortable! The linens were of high quality but were quite heavy considering I had this warm cabin. I ended up grabbing one of the blankets that was outside to use on deck and used that in my cabin.

 

Food – I thought the food in the dining room was mediocre at best. I am not a fan of buffets and usually stay away from them but felt myself drawn to it as some of the menus were uninspiring. Even worse, some of the food was tasteless in the buffet and dining room. The beef was the worst. One night, everyone at our table ordered Filet Mignon and it was this gray piece of meat with barely any grill marks on it and was tasteless. None of us ate the piece of meat. We all sort of played with it and our waiter kept asking us if it was prepared properly. We didn’t want to say anything negative to our waiter (as our wait staff was really good on this trip) – we just all explained that we were not that hungry. I later switched to chicken and it wasn’t any better. The salads started out excellent and after a week, they were poor also. I ordered a simple garden salad which is iceberg, tomatoes and cucumbers and all of my lettuce was white hard pieces. It should never have been served. The pastas seemed to be the one thing that I could order safely. The buffet was uninspiring as well. One night at the buffet they served roast beef and it was tasteless. I did eat one night at Sterling Steakhouse and it was good. I probably should have gone there more often. By no means did I starve but overall, was not impressed with the food.

 

I did go to Alfredos a few times and did enjoy that. A few times I went, there were lines. It was a popular place. Alfredos downstairs was serving pizza with the good (round cheese). Upstairs started with the bad cheese but ran out and is now serving the good cheese.

 

The grill upstairs was good. At night, it became a BBQ joint with 2 different menus – one night serving brisket, bbq wings, ribs and along with hamburger and hot dogs. Another night had orange molasses grilled chicken, beef chili, North Carolina pulled pork along with hamburger and hot dogs and they rotated. The guy who worked there was from India and was very friendly.

 

I did order a hamburger with room service on one of the nights I was waiting for someone to come to fix my air conditioning. It resembled a hockey puck. French fries were good though.

 

There was not enough people on the ship to do a Chef’s table. They did do a Crab Shack one night – I only know this as I went to see if there was an opening at Sterling Steakhouse that night and it was Crab Shack. I spoke with others who wanted to try Crab Shack but missed the one night they offered it.

 

Entertainment– I thought it was top notch on this cruise. There were several events at night I wanted to go to and it conflicted with each other. Most people seemed pleased with the various entertainment options. I liked a guitarist/singer named Chris Ricketts. ELUA was on our sailing but not doing Hawaiian music. Pete Best (fifth Beatle) did a talk one morning that I only caught the last part of. Chris Watkins did “Fireworks on Four Strings” which I thought was excellent. Peter Howarth from “the Hollies” also performed – I missed this. There was also a Chris Watkins and Peter Howarth combination one night. Danny Hunt and Stephanie Clarke were Escape Artists - people enjoyed this as well.

 

Production shows: Piano Man, Bravo, Do you Wanna dance, Let me entertain you, Born to be Wild.

 

To wrap up the review – I had planned to do Alaska again this summer (B2B). I usually book those trips last minute but had booked it far in advance and when you do that, Alaska is expensive. I looked at Norway and for 2 weeks, Norway turned out to be cheaper. Of course after I added Business Class air, hotel in London and very expensive excursions, this turned out to be one of my most expensive trips to date. Was it worth it – definitely. The best way to describe it was “Alaska on steroids with different types of glaciers”. Since I love Alaska, I knew I would love Norway (cooler climate, beautiful scenery, wild life, etc…). Norway did not disappoint and I would love to return. Most people on this cruise were extremely well traveled. The most sailed couple had almost 1900 days on Princess.

 

When most go to Europe for the first time, they do the Baltic or the Med. I strongly recommend Norway if you have traveled to the usual European ports. I can also add that I would have been disappointed with a 7 night Norway cruise or a combination of Norway and another country. I loved that we went as far North that we did and thoroughly enjoyed most of the ports. I wish I had gone to more Norwegian ports as I look at other itineraries, they go to many places we missed. I struggled on excursions as there were so many things that interested me. I also enjoyed this trip as I am less interested in “large cities” lately and more into nature and scenery. If you have never considered Norway and enjoy Alaska, I strongly recommend it. I have never seen so many waterfalls in my life!

Internet was very slow on the ship. I used all of my 250 free minutes just logging in and downloading email and then responding and then logging in again to send the emails. I barely looked at any website.

I am also very thankful to having a wonderful roll call! I appreciated all the research they did before I joined and how helpful everyone was.

 

I had hoped to include pictures but it will just have to wait. I had a conference immediately after this trip and am now in “back to school” world where I work. I hope everything I posted was accurate and will try to answer any questions. Apologies for any spelling and grammatical errors! I am not going to read this one more time as it won’t get posted. I keep wanted to add more and it is already a novel. Hopefully it helps future cruisers plan trips as I had a difficult time finding some info on some excursions.

 

 

 

Thank you for the review. Food is subjective. I enjoyed my meals in the dining room and have to say there was confusion on the Chefs table. Initially we were told there were not enough people. We asked the mature de the second day and he said he would check on it. We were confirmed the next day. It was fabulous. Always enjoy but lots of food!!!! I really disliked the setup for Vines—don’t feel its conducive to good customer service. That was my only complaint for the whole trip. Thought it was fabulous.

 

 

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[Coral]

Thank you for the review. Food is subjective. I enjoyed my meals in the dining room and have to say there was confusion on the Chefs table. Initially we were told there were not enough people. We asked the mature de the second day and he said he would check on it. We were confirmed the next day. It was fabulous. Always enjoy but lots of food!!!! I really disliked the setup for Vines—don’t feel its conducive to good customer service. That was my only complaint for the whole trip. Thought it was fabulous.

 

 

Thanks - I spoke with 2 other couples who said there was no Chef's Table and how they wanted to do it.

 

I usually am a strong dining room advocate and was thrilled to not have repeating menus as I loved the last time I did a 15 night cruise that wasn't b2b. I did AT dining and of the people I ate with which were different most nights, they were disappointed in the food also. Glad you were pleased with it.

 

You are right it is subjective. I did read another review of our sailing and they said food was "meh". It is possible if someone ate mostly seafood on the cruise - we would not have had any of the same food. In the past, I may have not liked a dish but had never characterize the food on the ship as mediocre like I did on this trip.

Edited July 25, 2018 by Coral

[Coral]

Thank you so much for your wonderful review. I will be doing the Land of the Midnight Sun cruise in June 2019 and your review has an enormous amount of very useful information. Thank you once again.

 

Sent from my A1601 using Forums mobile app

 

I struggled finding info out on some of the tours and some for the itinerary. I figured when I returned, I would definitely write something in depth. I hope to write some info about the tours on the Northern European board. I was frustrating to do a search for a tour and not find any thing.

[Coral]

Wow!! Great review. Thanks.:D

 

What a surprise that Elua was on this itinerary. Silly me. I thought they only did Hawaii.

What kind of music did they play?

 

This was on their FB account that was posted on our roll call:

 

"So here is some breaking news FOE...we are getting back to our roots next month, and will be signing on the Sapphire Princess for a three month Wheelhouse Bar gig. The Hawaiian cruising season ends next week for us and we had the summer open...so we’re dusting off the golden oldies, tangos, classic jazz tunes, waltzes, rhumbas, Motown, RnB and whatever else gets people dancing and we are really looking forward to it! The Wheelhouse is where we started our Princess performing career back in 2005, and it gave us some of our favorite memories. We will be based out of Southampton, and will get to call on some new places for us...Norway, Sweden, Estonia, St Petersburg, Germany and a few others. Many mahalos to Princess for having us back! There’ll be lots of posts and lots of pics...it’s going to be a great summer!"

[Coral]

Sorry - when I copied and pasted the review into CC, some words seemed to run together. Apologies.

[mreasier]

Great review! Thanks. Our only disappointment was with the timing of dining and entertainment. After doing Anytime dining for many years, we switched to late dining for our past four cruises. We like having the same wait staff who gets to know you and your likes/dislikes. Although when we booked the prior cruises they said dining was 8:15, in each of those they switched it to 7:45 when we boarded; a much better time for us. To our disappointment, dining stayed at 8:15 for this cruise. This would have been OK except for the way entertainment was scheduled. On the prior four cruises, they had an early show we could attend before dinner. The late diners would go to the early show and the early diners would go to a later show, around 8:15. On this cruise, the shows were only 8:00 and 10:15. If we wanted to see a show we had to stay up late. OK for a sea day next day, not so great if we needed to get up for an early tour the next day. Exacerbating the situation was that most of the other evening entertainment/games was scheduled during our dining time. There was very little to do (other than consume adult beverages) in the 7:00 to 8:15 period. One night they did do a 7:00 and 9:00 show. We were able to see the early show and then have dinner. We came close to switching to Anytime but we liked our wait staff and the other 2 couples at our table so much, we decided to stick with the late dining.

 

We thought the dining room food quality was actually quite good. Maybe it has something to do with late dining when they are not so busy in the kitchen.

[DougH]

Great review Coral, reading about it took almost as long as you telling me about it on the phone lol. It should be required reading for anyone sailing to Norway, you have included so many tips for all the ports etc.

 

I told you that you would enjoy it :)

[CaribbeanIsland]

My parents were on this trip and the Baltic trip immediately after. They just got home. They loved both cruises. For them - it was a trip of a lifetime to visit Norway and the Baltics. New places for them as most of the European travels have been Italy and Greece. They loved the cruises, felt things were really expensive in Northern European compared to the Mediterranean but also were disappointed in the food. They have traveled quite a bit with Princess previously and didn't know what was off. They had Anytime dining for both trips. They said the ship looked brand new. I hope to see them this weekend to find out more.

[ladysheri]

Thank you so much for the detailed review. I have thought I would enjoy a cruise to Norway; now I know it is on my list.

[capriccio]

Coral - my DH and I plus my brother and sister-in-law are booked on this cruise next summer. Thank you from all of us for your detailed review! Now it is time for us to get serious about arranging excursions.

[wheezedr]

Hi Coral. GrammySpo beat me to it but I will confirm that they were a little disorganized on the scheduling of the Chef’s Table. Initially it sounded like there were not enough signed up but when we had it there was actually a total count of 11. Food was good, although the meat entree was somewhat over cooked and the quantities were ridiculous. Sometimes overloading a plate makes it less appealing. Good review. We were lucky that we got off early in Trondheim and were inside when the worst storms hit. Got drizzled on but not poured on. Overall the weather was way better than my original expectations for the whole trip.

[Coral]

Hi Coral. GrammySpo beat me to it but I will confirm that they were a little disorganized on the scheduling of the Chef’s Table. Initially it sounded like there were not enough signed up but when we had it there was actually a total count of 11. Food was good, although the meat entree was somewhat over cooked and the quantities were ridiculous. Sometimes overloading a plate makes it less appealing. Good review. We were lucky that we got off early in Trondheim and were inside when the worst storms hit. Got drizzled on but not poured on. Overall the weather was way better than my original expectations for the whole trip.

 

I do feel bad for the people I met at the end of the cruise who had been told there wasn't enough people for the Chef's table.

 

I do have to agree with the weather! I felt bad mentioning that it was "too sunny" in Geiranger as my pictures were all taken into the sun in this port. Sort of like Alaska, when 90% of your weather is great, you feel like you hit the jackpot. If I was to return, I am not sure when I would do it based on what we heard about this year's May and June. It may always be iffy when you get the sun. I think it was snowing up until 3 weeks before we arrived in Tromso.

 

I do have to say it was a very happy ship - both passengers and crew. The passengers were very well traveled on this cruise. I met a woman who this was her 8th Norway trip (she was from the US) and she had gone around the world in a plane, stopping in cities for 4 days before going to the next city when her husband was alive. Several Aussies I met had gotten on the ship the first of May and were leaving after our trip or 2 weeks later. Many of these people had 700 days with Princess. Lots of travel experiences to share with others.

[sjgertz]

For others going on this cruise in the future here is the link to my review of the same cruise:

https://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=627062

[srpilo]

Great Review

We got off the Sapphire in Southampton on the 23rd the day you boarded, and can certainly attest to some of your entertainment timing issues.

 

I had a small chat with Dave from ELUA who we sailed with last year on the Ruby in Hawaii about their transition to "oldies" and he said that's music he started with way back when, so it comes easy (they were pretty good actually )

 

This was our 3rd time sailing to/from Geiranger and I 100% agree, it's never gets old, and is magical

 

Once again , great review !

Srpilo

[DRS/NC]

Thanks for the review! I was on the same cruise, but did only shorter tours (Princess & private) -- can't handle those 7 hr. tours anymore.

 

I also did the Blue Puffin tour to the North Cape; I went in the afternoon. Sebastian (yes, he's delightful) said we had less fog than in the morning. The winds were HUGE! I use a walker; the wind pulled it out of my hands twice! I barely hung on to it & barely stayed on my feet! But I loved the experience of being so far north.

 

I too don't eat seafood so my choices (AT dining) were limited some nights, but I certainly had enough. Love those soufflés!

 

I really enjoyed the cruise; all the ports were new for me. [i too skipped Trondheim, being quite tired after the first 3 ports.]

 

Now, I'm eager to get back to Alaska!

[Coral]

 

I too don't eat seafood so my choices (AT dining) were limited some nights, but I certainly had enough. Love those soufflés!

 

It was the souffles that kept me going to the dining room! They were excellent!

 

Glad your North Cape experience was "a tad better" than ours!

 

Sorry we didn't meet. Or at least I don't remember meeting you.

[dreaminofcruisin]

Thanks very much for your review!

We have done the 7 day Norway cruise and loved it so much that the cruise you went on is also on our 'bucket list'.

I will be referring to this thread when we finally get it on the schedule.

:cool: