"LIVE" from the Crown Princess 28 days from Copenhagen to Ft. Lauderdale

[Pia1913]

I will try to do a LIVE depending on how good the satellite treats me.

 

We arrived in Copenhagen 3 days in advance; first one spent sleeping and worrying about 2 suitcases which decided to spend extra time at CDG. There is no worse airport in the world than Charles de Gaulle. I used to think Heathrow and Narita were tied. WRONG! Paris is a disaster. Thankfully luggage arrived at the beautiful Marriott the next morning. Copenhagen is a great city; we walked and walked and walked. Other than taking the train from airport to center city (11 minutes and $6.00/PP) we never took another form of transportation.

 

Boarding the Crown yesterday (Sept. 7th) took all of 5 minutes. Priority boarding had nobody except our friends and ourselves and even regular boarding seemed to be moving at a quick pace.

 

After tossing our carryons into the cabin we went to look for the infamous International Cafe where I had great chicken salad (a bit too much mayo), marinated mushrooms and shrimp. Lots and lots of shrimp. There are many different choices of salads, sandwiches, quiche, desserts, etc. I only looked at what I selected. Today is another day. ;)

 

Last night instead of going to any diningroom we chose to have our dinner up in Horizon Court/Cafe Caribe. First night is sensational seafood extravaganza. Pigged out on crab legs, shrimp and lobster claws. There was prime rib and other stuff for the carnivores, but I was very happy with the shellfish.

 

We didn't go to the welcome aboard show; same old same old. Instead went back to cabin and watched "Hairspray" on TV.

 

Up very early today; 6:30 for us. We like to get to the fitness center before it gets crowded. There are 24 treadmills each with its own TV. Be sure to bring your own earphones or you will have no sound. I understand that the spa desk will give/rent some to you, but they don't open until 8:00 and anyhow, you probably would be happier not to use earphones used by many others.

 

Breakfast at the Horizon Court and here I am with another cup of coffee from the bar on deck 5. DH went to take some freebie camera class; that's how they'll suck him in. :)

 

Lots of activities going on today; lectures + fun and games. My interest is trivia and the spelling bee. Formal night tonight. They don't waste much time.

 

Captain is Andy Proctor; CD is Billy London. Show tonight will be Destination Anywhere which doesn't sound familiar. Could this be new? There's also a juggling comic tonight; Pete Matthews. Not my cup of tea.

 

I will try to continue this each morning that I'm aboard ship. If you have questions I'll try to answer them, though I'm not much into the napkin folding; wine tasting or food preparation stuff.

 

Bye for now.

 

Pia

[rianvi]

Pia...Thank you for taking the time to stat this thread. We will be on the Crown...Feb. 22/09...Caribbean ports. So any info about the ship is greatly appreciated. I wasn't aware that the International Cafe was open when boarding. One of my favourite spots. We are planning on trying the Seafood Extravaganza on the first night. Have missed it in the past.

As for napkin folding class...I fail everytime...lol.

Enjoy your cruise and Thanks again.

Anna

[Judyjay]

Pia,

Thank you, I'm so looking forward to your live reviews. It would be such a dream come true to be on that cruise, but that darn college my son goes to wants their money. Oh, well at least there are nice people like you willing to share the experience.

 

Have a great cruise.

[caber]

Very interesting post. I look forward to more of the same:)

[Druke I]

I certainly agree about ChasDeGaulle airport being worse than Heathrow.

 

We went through CDG a couple of years ago, en route to Istanbul. Absolutely awful.

 

You have a wonderul Captain in Andy Proctor. We think he is one of the best - and he has a great sense of humor.

[Colo Cruiser]

Hi Pia, thanks for the live from and say hi to Capt Andy for me. :)

[luv2swim]

Thanks Pia. Looking forward to what you have to share.

[Clutterlady]

Looking forward to your daily posts...thanks Pia!

[nabby]

Sigh... You are making me jealous, Pia! I can't believe our cruise is over and done with. We hung out at the International Cafe quite a bit too. I look forward to reading your posts - it gives me a chance to "relive" things a bit. To be honest I'm still recovering from European Overload!

[Toto2Kansas]

Pia, Thanks for checking in. Glad to hear your luggage found you without much delay.

Will watch for more reports as the cruise continues. Have a wonderful time, like there is any doubt, I know it will be fantastic!

[dutchess43]

Pia glad that you & your luggage arrived okay for the start of your cruise. I am interested in your CD Billy London & the job he will be doing. We did the TA in May 08 Ft.Lauderdale to Copenhagen(15 days) & our CD was JJ Ulrich the worse CD we have had in all of our 25 cruises. Have a great time she sure is a beauty of a ship.

[aaerobear]

Pia,

 

Could you please tell us what pier you left from in CPH, we have gotten two different answers and your experience will confirm which one we use.

 

Thanks

 

Ed/Jeff/Bob/Paul

[nabby]

Pia,

 

Could you please tell us what pier you left from in CPH, we have gotten two different answers and your experience will confirm which one we use.

 

Thanks

 

Ed/Jeff/Bob/Paul

 

The Crown Princess departs from the Free Port terminal (NOT Langelinie).

[dewats784]

Looking forward to your posts Pia as my sister and I are sailing on the Crown in January. I am looking forward to the International Cafe. I love chicken salad (love mayo too)! We are going to be in a Caribe deck balcony mid ship. What is your cabin location? We also love all the shows and would be interested in your opinion of any you go to. Thanks for keeping us updated on the Crown!

[cruisin_fanatic]

Enjoy your cruise!! And please do tell us all u can about the ship itself and what not to miss etc. I will be on the crown princess for the first time Jan. 4, 2009 and have been making a list of what to do. So please add to my list :D

 

Thanks for taking the time to post your review

[sabu24]

PIA1913,

Please ask Billy London if he will be staying on as CD. We enjoyed him in the past and will be on the Crown Oct.12

Thanks

Fran

[Sea Fan]

Hey Pia you're on your way again, I am so jealous. Thanks so much for doing this "Live" I'm looking forward to hearing about your trip.

Dianne

[Francine]

Hi Pia,

I am so glad to see that you have made it safely on board. I agree with what you wrote about CDG. It is my least favorite airport, too.

I hope you have a wonderful time.

Send our regards to Mike, Tina and Ken. We can't wait to hear about all of your adventures.

 

Fran and Len

[caribill]

We arrived in Copenhagen 3 days in advance; first one spent sleeping and worrying about 2 suitcases which decided to spend extra time at CDG. There is no worse airport in the world than Charles de Gaulle. I used to think Heathrow and Narita were tied. WRONG! Paris is a disaster.

 

 

You are not alone in your opinion of CDG. Following is from a travel newsletter I received today:

 

 

In this newsletter, I'd like to talk about one of the most frightening things in travel today--a tight connection at Paris' Charles de Gaulle airport (CDG).

 

I know better than to try, but on my recent trip home from Venice to Houston, I tried anyway.

 

The only other connection would have required my family to wake up at 3:30am, leave our cruise ship for the airport at 4:30am and lay over for five hours at CDG. I decided to live on the edge.

 

I took the connection offered by the airlines when I booked my tickets--one hour and 10 minutes. By the time my flight from Venice arrived in Paris, my flight to Houston had already departed.

 

All travelers know that sooner or later your number comes up and something goes awry, but attempting a short connection at CDG, Europe's most-delayed airport, is like playing Russian roulette with no empty chambers in the gun.

 

CDG is France's own Bermuda Triangle, where people and their luggage go quietly missing in huge quantities on a daily basis, only to emerge later, unable to explain what happened or where they have been.

 

At any given time, there are enough people lost or stranded in CDG to line the entire course of the Tour de France, elbow to elbow. In fact, if you took all these travelers and stacked them on top of each other...well, that's probably not a good idea.

 

We queued up at Air France's service desk, and when I reached the front of the line, the agent confirmed what I already knew, that there was no other flight that could get us to Houston that day and we'd be spending the night.

 

I asked about our luggage, and she seemed surprised to hear that people traveling from Venice to Houston might check bags.

 

"Ohhh," she winced, shaking her head as if a grave mistake had been made. "You will need to go to baggage services to retrieve your bags."

 

Where is that?

 

"Take a left and walk 10 minutes."

 

I learned long ago that most people who work at CDG have given up on providing complete directions to anything that is not already within sight. They seek merely to move you along. I had been given the standard directions to anything and everything at CDG.

 

Eventually, in baggage services, it was explained that bags "in transit" cannot be retrieved. Why? It's simple:

 

"If these bags could be retrieved, they would no longer be in transit, and these bags are in transit, making retrieval impossible."

 

So rather than disturb our bags, presumably still enjoying some forward momentum, we were each given a small box with one white T-shirt, a toothbrush, a razor, an impenetrable pouch of shaving cream and laundry detergent--in case we decided to wash the clothes we were wearing in the sink in our hotel room.

 

We stepped outside and joined all the other misconnected people waiting for hotel shuttles. As vehicles of all sizes pulled up, we heard the song of the frustrated over and over again.

 

"Is this the bus...?"

 

"No."

 

"Is this the place...?"

 

"No."

 

"Do you know where...?"

 

"No."

 

To be clear, I don't blame the people who work on the airplanes or the people who work in the airport for the way the airport operates. These are problems that cannot be solved at the individual level, and possibly not at the country or planet level. This is inefficiency of galactic proportions, and a galactic solution may be required.

 

And please don't get me wrong--I like France and the country's new, no-nonsense, pro-American president, Nicolas Sarkozy. He has pledged to clean up the inefficiencies and out-of-control bureaucracies that stifle the French economy.

 

I even like Air France, mostly. I have enjoyed good crews and clean, modern planes with this airline. I believe they are hampered by the sad reality that most of their flights begin or end at CDG, Europe's most illogical airport.

 

For example, what are the airlines at CDG hiding from? There seems to be no signage outside or inside the terminals that lists airline ticketing/check-in locations.

 

Security checkpoints could also use some attention. Earlier in our vacation, standing in a very long security line for a flight to Barcelona, I couldn't help noticing that each conveyor belt was allocated TWO trays, which meant that only one person at a time could go through the laborious process of emptying their pockets and removing their metallic objects.

 

Maybe it's a job creation project since it results in lines that move at about 1/5 the theoretical rate and thus requires 5x as many conveyor belts--and operators.

 

Then there's Terminal 2, a series of loosely connected buildings identified as 2A to 2F. They all sound so close, but that's just one of the inside jokes CDG plays on travelers.

 

Terminal 2 covers an area roughly the size of Belgium. Strike out walking from 2A to 2F and your passport will likely expire en route.

 

My advice: Always allow extra time for connections at CDG if you can. Never take the last flight of the day to connect to a cruise or tour departure--where the penalty for a missed connection or cancelled flight is so steep. If you want to live dangerously, do it on the way home.

 

So, President Sarkozy--and I really am pulling for you--where should you begin such a massive undertaking as making CDG consumer-friendly?

 

I'd go straight to the airport and ask disoriented travelers what they're looking for and how long they've been at it. I'd try to find out why so many jetways sit vacant while so many planes park in the hinterlands and bus their passengers to the terminal.

 

I'd watch what's happening at Air France's self-check-in kiosks, which time out after two seconds of inactivity and force everyone into an "exceptions" line manned by a single agent.

 

I'd talk to the shuttle drivers and service managers that aid the helpless and hopeless and finally, to that guy that works in the information booth--as soon as his break is over.

 

"How can we improve this system," I would ask, and I can almost hear his suggestion:

 

"Take a left and walk 10 minutes."

[CruzinNoony]

Thank you Caribill for that funny bit. Pia- how nice of you to take the time to do a "live from". What time did you arrive at the pier? Duchess43- is that you Charlotte? We were trivia partners on the Infinity r/t Hawaii. Great to hear from you!! Ed and Jeff- my notes say the Crown docks at pier 245 Frhavnen Flex Terminal. See you at the Hotel Christian maybe in the lobby in the morning of the 17th. We'll be on the lookout! We leave next Sunday. Can't wait to meet everyone! Meredith

[monakayk]

Thanks for sharing...and can't wait to hear more about your cruise! We will be on the Crown over Halloween week!

[coiran]

Arlene - you must let us know if they have lamb chops!! One of our favorites.

Ron

[mississauga]

Pia, thanks for the Live from. I will look forward to cruising vicariously with you until FLL.

 

Enjoy and have fun!

[rdsqrl]

Pia, thanks so much for taking the time to post. How'd you do in Trivia and the Spelling Bee? I loved the Crown; can't wait to hear more about your impressions and details from this wonderful itinerary.

Caribill, my stomach muscles hurt from laughing so hard -- that's great! Thanks for sharing it with us!

[mississauga]

Pia, what's the weather like? Will you be able to enjoy MUTS?