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Grand Princess - Norway Iceland & Belfast |
| Reviewed By: Dyson, Birmingham on 25th Aug 2008 |
| Cruise Line: Princess Cruises |
Times cruised before: 3-5 |
| Cruise Ship: Grand Princess |
Sailed:
August,
2008 |
| Destination: Norwegian Fjords |
Age: 26-35 |
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Grand Princess 6th August 2008. Norway Iceland and Belfast.
This is my first review so bare with me!
We were a party of 6 ranging from 10yrs to 64yrs.
Embarkation: We drove to Southampton without any problems and arrived at the port at 1130hrs. Pre arranged cruise ship parking and it was soo easy! We queued up for about 5 mins and were directed to the entrance of the cruise terminal and handed over the car keys to the valet parking attendant and the porters whisked away our bags. We then walked straight into the terminal and were checked in within 15 mins - fantastic.
Room: We were in an inside cabin on deck 11 (Baja) aft and had no problems with the room at all, only a slight problem with the room steward as in that we had to regularly request beach towels and shampoo & conditioner despite asking for them to be replaced daily a couple of times. Although this was annoying at times but it def did not ruin our cruise at all.
We loved the position of our room as it was so easy to quickly pop up to get my mug of tea in the morning from Horizon Court.
We dropped our bags and explored the ship, bought my son his soda card and booked sterling steakhouse. I then took my son for a swim as it was warm and sunny in Southampton and we had packed our swim stuff in our hand luggage. We went in the outside pool by MUTs and it was FREEZING!!!!!! It actually felt colder than the English channel when I had been swimming in earlier that week which is saying something. The hot tubs out there were boiling though so it went to the extremes! The inside pool was heated (it was actually very warm) but throughout the cruise this pool was packed and constantly had kids bombing and jumping in which made swimming difficult. The lotus spa pool was heated but the swim against current was not working.
Dining: We were a party of 6 and all on anytime dining. We rang and booked a table for 2015 that evening at Michael Angelo and got table 68 with waiters Joselito & Luisito who I would recommend 100% and it was a lovely window table. We rang most days at 8am and booked this table without any problem - we only rang and booked on days we knew that all 6 were eating together.
The food was fantastic and we had no complaints at all - the best meal is still the chefs dinner as the crabs legs are amazing.
Horizon Court appeared very busy all the time (we often walked through to get to our rooms). Breakfasts were sometimes quite stressful with people saving tables and sheer weight of traffic made it difficult to get to the food. Food was hit and miss but I would say the majority was good. I still preferred breakfast and lunch in the dining rooms if it fitted in with the days activities. Horizon court did have a few themed lunches though and the mexican lunch was great as well as sushi on the last sea day.
Every afternoon milk and freshly cooked (still warm) cookies were brought round in a cookie cart which was a good touch. They also had free ice cream in Horizon court at certain times of the day.
Pizza - what can I say it was fantastic! Freashly cooked and always had a special of the day
Trident Grill - Also very good burgers hot dogs etc freshly cooked.
Ports of Call:
A quick mention about the port expert Alan Crisp - he was useless! Sorry but he had no background info of most of his ports, he constantly referred to the fact that he looked in the guide book in the princess library for answers to any questions. He kept telling us we were going to Dublin when we were going to Belfast and slides he used he had obviously not researched before hand as he kept saying he had borrowed the slides and he thinks it is showing (enter certain attraction).
BERGEN - We docked at Midday after a beautiful sail in through the fjords from about 9am. We were luck as it was a sunny warm day with great visibility. We were one of the first off the ship and straight onto the complimentary shuttle. From reading previous reviews we went straight to the Funicular and bought a ticket and went straight on. It was amazing, you could see for miles. On coming down the queue was massive including all those on the princess trips who I would have thought would get priority boarding.
We then went round the fish market and realised how expensive Norway was! We then went to the aquarium which cost £25 for myself and my son and personally I do not think it was worth it but there was some interesting exhibits.
We then walked through town and made our way to the shuttle bus.
OLDEN: A very picturesque port and I took soo many photos. We were on the princess tour to Brikesdale glacier and I would say it was my fav of the trip. The walk was difficult to the glacier but defiantly worth it. You can hire buggies to take you most of the way but be warned that it is quite a steep track for the last bit of the walk but if you can manage it do it as you will not regret it.
Princess then provided free coffee & fantastic pastries at the restaurant by the coach park and there was a big selection of fantastic cakes.
Olden itself is a very small town with a couple of shops and a church. I would recommend doing a half day excursion here as from talking to others there is limited things to do and there are no taxis or public transport. There was a helicopter doing trips to the glacier for an Arial view but I’m not sure if these were booked on the day or prebooked. I saw from the poster flights are from 750 krona p.p. (approx £75).
GEIRANGER: We did our own thing here and from looking on the ports of call board we downloaded the hiking map and hiked up through the vestras to a view point which was hard work but the views were magnificent. Geiranger was beautiful and again the weather was wonderful. I cannot say anymore other than you have got to see it to believe it!
AALESUND: We did not do any organised tours today and had decided to explore on our own. We had already got info from the tourist information prior to boarding so we had some background info. On getting off the ship there was a very helpful lady directing people to various tourist spots. We had decided to go to the Sunnmore museum but were unsure exactly how far it was. The lady advised getting the bus which was easy as we were docked next to the bus station and found the 618 bus straight away. The museum was fantastic and I would recommend it to any visiting the area. We then got the bus back to the town and went back on board to grab a bite for lunch and the hit the town and shops after lunch. Lovely town and would def like to visit again in the future.
We went to Sterlings steakhouse that evening which was wonderful and surprisingly there was quite a few empty tables. My brother and his girlfriend enjoyed it so much they booked a romantic dinner for two later in the cruise.
We then had a day at sea as we crossed over to Iceland. Again we had beautiful weather and flat seas.
AKUREYRI: We were very excited about visiting Iceland and we were not disappointed. To be honest I preferred this port to Rekyavik which surprised me! We had booked on the tour to Godafoss Falls and the Botanical Gardens which was originally due to meet at 0815 but the day before we received a note saying the meeting time had changed to 0645!!! My son was not pleased! Went to Horizon court at 6am and it was horrendous!! It was soo busy and they kept running out of coffee cups, cutlery and people (customers not staff) were so rude. Obviously a lot of tours were setting off early that morning.
The tour was very good and surprisingly enough it was the Botanical Gardens that I enjoyed the most. We walked back from the Botanical gardens (yes we did inform the tour guide so they didn’t think they had lost us!!) and walked through Akureyri which was beautiful. Iceland was cheaper than Norway and the shops and cafés were lovely - well worth a look round.
REYKAVIK: We had organised a taxi to take us to the blue lagoon as a 3 hour round trip. Between the 8 of us it worked out approx £14 p.p. for the taxi plus the admission to the blue lagoon. Full price admission was approx £15 p.p. but we had one 10 yr old with us who was free and 4 OAPs who were half price so it worked out a lot cheaper than the ships tour. Also we arrived before any tours so it was quiet and peaceful when we arrived . We arrived back at the ship at midday and grabbed some lunch then had to get shuttle bus tickets which were $5 p.p. each way which we thought was a bit steep but it would have been a long walk and we didn’t want to waste any time! I personally did not think it had a friendly feel to the town compared to Akureyri but that is my personnel opinion.
We then had another relaxing day at sea. My son enjoyed kids club and even though it was formal night he was allowed to go to the first hour that evening as it was their turn to play Wii on Muts which was fantastic - this also allowed me to go to the captains cocktail party so we were both happy!!
I ate beef Wellington for dinner which was gorgeous. The lobster and shrimp looked amazing so a good night had by all.
As the night went on the seas became rougher but nothing too bad but it was noticeable after 10 days of calm seas.
BELFAST: Our first wet day! We were meeting my brothers girlfriends family for the first time (they obviously live in N.Ireland). We were meeting at 1pm for lunch so we initially went on the wheel in the rain and then walked down to St Georges Market which was fantastic, great food and crafts and live music playing . If we had the time we would have spent a lot longer there.
We met for lunch at ten square hotel and the food was and company was lovely - though the portions were huge! Great location next to city hall.
We were planning to do the titanic walk after lunch but the rain was torrential so headed back to the ship. On the news later it showed the flooding in Belfast, I had never seen rain like it!!
Tonight after an amazing crab legs dinner, we decided to hit Skywalkers and had a great time till 2am. It wasn’t busy but it meant we had the dance floor to ourselves and up to date music. A good night!
Sea day and feeling the worse for wear!! Also choppy seas and rain so a slobby day and an early evening movie of Enchanted in the Vista lounge before dinner. Lovely landfall dinner and then an early night as we were due off at 0745 the next day!
DISEMBARKATION: No complaints. Met at 0745 and in my car heading home at 0815!!
The only minor complaints were only one useable heated pool, no youth patrol even though there were quite a few kids being the summer holidays and not enough movies playing on MUTs throughout the sea days (I do love the movies under the stars feature!). Though at least they started playing the Olympics in between the movies after a couple of days into them.
A fantastic cruise and fantastic attentive staff and cruise director Paul was a good laugh. I can’t comment on the shows as we didn’t watch them apart from the cruise staff talent show which was a laugh.
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| Quality of Food |  |
| 24 hr buffet often a mixed bag but you never go hungry!! Lunch times there was a bagette station and in the evenings a large pudding section. Mainly ate in the anytime restaurants which were always good quality. Good fast food area by pool for burgers and pizza. Popcorn given out at MUTs. | | Entertainment | n/a |
| | Shore Excursions | |
| Best excursion in Olden to Briksdale glacier | | Staff |  |
| Joselito & Luisito - our waiters on table 68 Michelangelo restaurant were fantastic and entertaining. Always happy to accomodate any requests and showed my son some funny tricks. | | Children's Facilities | |
| On arrival to our cabin a personal timetable saying what was on the whole cruise. Dedicated areas of the ship and good range of activities. Kids club hours 9-12 2-5 7-10pm on sea days and on port days 9-5 7-10. You could pay for supervision from 10 - 1 for $5 per hour. | | Onboard Activities | |
| | Cabins | |
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