Sky Princess in the Baltic Sea

[Traderboy]

I believe the Sky princess Baltic  cruise returns to Southampton tomorrow.

 

Can anyone update us on how the cruise has gone. 

Were all the port days as expected?

 

Any problems?

[belle2go]

I'll be anxious to hear also.

[lynxie]

I was on this trip with my husband and I’m pleased to confirm that it was absolutely wonderful – no complaints whatsoever. The staff, food and general ambience were all excellent and we felt very safe. More people were wearing masks than we expected especially in the lifts and whilst walking around the ship. We were on a sailing that was only 45% full however, and although this probably contributed to the speed of our drink ordering and lack of waiting times in the restaurants at times it did feel a little under populated (if that’s possible). All the ports were as expected and we enjoyed them all, again, we were blessed with good weather so that may have made a difference! If you have any specific questions I’ll be happy to answer them for you.

 

Our opinion on the medallion is that it’s better with than without though there were glitches at times. Wi Fi surprisingly good thought the cruise.

[windsor26]

19 hours ago, lynxie said:

I was on this trip with my husband and I’m pleased to confirm that it was absolutely wonderful – no complaints whatsoever. The staff, food and general ambience were all excellent and we felt very safe. More people were wearing masks than we expected especially in the lifts and whilst walking around the ship. We were on a sailing that was only 45% full however, and although this probably contributed to the speed of our drink ordering and lack of waiting times in the restaurants at times it did feel a little under populated (if that’s possible). All the ports were as expected and we enjoyed them all, again, we were blessed with good weather so that may have made a difference! If you have any specific questions I’ll be happy to answer them for you.

 

Our opinion on the medallion is that it’s better with than without though there were glitches at times. Wi Fi surprisingly good thought the cruise.

That is so good to hear as there is a live from at the moment which does not sound too good as the ship is 95% full and there are few staff so long lines the OP says

[joeecco]

19 hours ago, lynxie said:

I was on this trip with my husband and I’m pleased to confirm that it was absolutely wonderful – no complaints whatsoever. The staff, food and general ambience were all excellent and we felt very safe. More people were wearing masks than we expected especially in the lifts and whilst walking around the ship. We were on a sailing that was only 45% full however, and although this probably contributed to the speed of our drink ordering and lack of waiting times in the restaurants at times it did feel a little under populated (if that’s possible). All the ports were as expected and we enjoyed them all, again, we were blessed with good weather so that may have made a difference! If you have any specific questions I’ll be happy to answer them for you.

 

Our opinion on the medallion is that it’s better with than without though there were glitches at times. Wi Fi surprisingly good thought the cruise.

So pleased you had a wonderful time.

 

could you please share any info about Helsinki port - did Princess offer a shuttle to the centre and if so what was the cost? Thank you

[Tug10]

36 minutes ago, windsor26 said:

That is so good to hear as there is a live from at the moment which does not sound too good as the ship is 95% full and there are few staff so long lines the OP says

It’s currently half term here in the UK and so the kids are off school for a week so maybe this might be a reason why the ship is almost full. My parents were on Sky Princess 2 weeks ago and they said although they sometimes had to wait & there were occasionally queues they thoroughly enjoyed themselves and said the food was lovely. I’m due to board Sky Princess myself on 11 June so I will see first hand myself what it’s like.

[lynxie]

I’m afraid our Helsinki stop was cancelled so we never went there though we did enjoy Germany instead - bit misleading to call it Berlin though as it was a long way from there -at least 2.5 hrs on the train each way.  
 

We spoke at some length with a staff member who told us they didn’t like it when the ship was quiet as the time went so slowly  - they actually prefer a busy ship even though it’s more work for them. Some lunch times it seemed there were more staff than passengers!

[windsor26]

7 hours ago, Tug10 said:

It’s currently half term here in the UK and so the kids are off school for a week so maybe this might be a reason why the ship is almost full. My parents were on Sky Princess 2 weeks ago and they said although they sometimes had to wait & there were occasionally queues they thoroughly enjoyed themselves and said the food was lovely. I’m due to board Sky Princess myself on 11 June so I will see first hand myself what it’s like.

Thank you  half term of course

[Traderboy]

Thank you Lynxie for this information.

 

So Helsinki was cancelled and Berlin was a long way from the port.

 

what were the other ports like and how close to the destination was the berth?

Did you do an overnight at Copenhagen?

 

presumably the evening shows were easy to get into with the ship only half full.

what were your feelings about Sky Princess compared with othe4 a Princess ships?

 

Did everyone feel safe in the Baltic with the War going on?

 

[seamwoman]

Asking for a friend who is booked on July 10 - do you have to take Princess tours in port or can you go on your own?

[lynxie]

23 hours ago, Traderboy said:

Thank you Lynxie for this information.

 

So Helsinki was cancelled and Berlin was a long way from the port.

 

what were the other ports like and how close to the destination was the berth?

Did you do an overnight at Copenhagen?

 

presumably the evening shows were easy to get into with the ship only half full.

what were your feelings about Sky Princess compared with othe4 a Princess ships?

 

Did everyone feel safe in the Baltic with the War going on?

 

Firstly and most importantly yes, we felt very safe and would not have known there was any trouble if we had not tuned into the news now and again to keep abreast of current events.

 

We did not do any excursions but made our own way ashore at every port, I’ve give you a brief run down on what we did but obviously there were plenty of other options!

 

Gdynia - we walked from the ship to the station and caught the train into Gdańsk- very easy and cheap to do, about 40 mins. Trains go every 10 mins or so. Explored the old town in the morning and then returned to Gdynia in the afternoon after buying a picnic lunch in a supermarket- enough food for 4 plus drinks cost the equivalent of £5! Walked around the town before returning to the ship about 5 ish

 

 

Visby was beautiful, a longish  and hilly walk from the ship but we’ll worth the effort. The town was also hilly and we spent some time exploring the  botanical garden. We’ll worth the visit as was the town museum ( good place for lunch!) 

 

Stockholm was a fairly long  train ride from the port (another fair walk too!), we did a HOHO bus and boat trip there. Wouldn’t really recommend the bus to be honest, the traffic was really bad (roadworks) and it seemed to spend a lot of time picking up passengers from hotels and an other cruise terminal! We also spent time wandering around the old town before catching the train back. There had been an incident on the railway and the train terminated a couple of stops from the port but luckily we managed by some fluke to catch a local  bus back to the right station and returned in plenty of time. It was a lesson on not leaving things too late!

 

The nearest we got to Russia was Tallin in Estonia, a lovely town with friendly people and lots to see.Easy flat walk from the ship. Spent a good few hours walking around, lots of cobbles. We saw the old apothecary and walked up some steep hills to the Russian church which gave us an excellent view over the town. 

 

After two sea days (we needed them at this point!) Our next port was for  Berlin, although we decided it was just too far so explored the pretty seaside town of Warnemunde, though we did take a train in to have a look at Rostock in the morning. All great and really enjoyable. Those who did do the excursion to Berlin said it was incredibly tiring - I think it was mainly those who had come from the US or Australia who did it as they might not get the opportunity again.

 

Next was an overnight stay in Copenhagen. Haven’t learnt our lesson in Stockholm, we decided to use the first afternoon to catch the train from the city centre  across THE bridge (it featured very heavily in a popular TV series in the UK. We took our passports as the other end is in Sweden (Malmo) where we had a coffee and brief wander around before we returned to the ship.No one asked to see the passports at any time but I think they may do spot checks.  There was a shuttle bus into the town from the ship, $20 each for a 2 day pass. The second day we explored Copenhagen using the HOHO bus and boat, this time it was good and we all enjoyed it. We saw the little mermaid and also walked along a bit further to see the Genetically Modified Mermaid statue which I thought was more moving than the original though not nearly as pretty. Back to the ship to recuperate before our last port - 
 

Kristiansand. Very short walk to the most beautiful town which was almost spookily deserted until we found out it was a religious holiday and everything was shut. It didn’t spoil the day though, the walk along the seafront past the water fountains was beautiful and we enjoyed the peaceful atmosphere. A good and quiet end to a very busy and active cruise!

 

Just one thing that might (or might not) be of use to you - the only place we drew local money out was Gdańsk, everywhere else it was easy to use either cards or Apple Pay for coffees souvenirs and fares. 
 

We had a fantastic time which was helped a lot by the good weather we had despite the bad forecasts. I don’t know how enjoyable it would have been walking in the rain…. I would imagine it would be difficult to fit in as much as we did had we had mobility problems. All the old towns were cobbled, sometimes very roughly and it would be nigh on impossible to get a wheelchair or scooter through the streets - and very uncomfortable if you did so. 
 

 

 

 

 

 

[lynxie]

Sorry, forgot to address your other questions 

 

Yes, we were extremely fortunate to have plenty of available seating in the theatre, at times it was remarkable how many empty seats there were. Even the two big production shows had plenty of spaces (in the early showing anyway, I don’t know what the late one was like as we were in bed by 10;every night after all that walking!)

 

I’ve been on several other Princess ships and I thought the Sky was beautiful though we did feel the lack of Skywalkers to sit reading indoors with the sea views. It was a lot newer than we’ve been on before and felt very modern in comparison with the Grand or Crown for example 

[Traderboy]

Many thanks Lynxie for your answers about the cruise.

They will certainly help us as we prepare for the same cruise on September 3rd.

Your 45% full sounds lovely especially when compared with the live report from the subsequent cruise.

Perhaps it is the war that will be putting some people off an extended cruise in the Baltic Sea.

we are looking forward to our cruise very much. We should have gone in 2020 and then in 2021 . Third time lucky we hope!