Highs and lows of our Scandinavian cruise

[stecee]

I’ll start with the who and where. There was just the two of us. We sailed with Princess Cruise line, on the Emerald Princess sailing from Southampton.

Our ports of call were as follows ;
Embark at Southampton
Zeebrugge
A day at sea
Copenhagen
Helsingborg (Sweden)
Oslo
A day at sea
Disembark at Southampton.

I’ll start with the highs, though some things will fall into the other categories for reasons that I hope will become clear. I will give my opinion on the ports of call at the end.

So, the highs,

We booked Intercruise Coach Company to get from Bolton to Southampton and back. Absolutely no complaints, we received clear instructions about times etc a few weeks before departure day. The coaches were clean and modern.

The ship.
This was our third cruise and the smallest ship we’ve been on, though by no means small. The beds have recently been replaced and it was probably the comfiest bed I’ve slept in. The ship itself looked very nice.

We had a balcony stateroom B239 on the 11th deck. There was more than enough storage space. The cases, which on our previous two cruises have had to go under the bed, could easily fit in the space under where our clothes were hanging. The bathroom was a little small, but more on that in the next section. There was a TV with plenty of English speaking channels and a fridge.
It was kept spotlessly clean, everything worked as it should, which leads me to:

The crew, from the waiters in the restaurant to the cabin steward to the entertainment staff. Nothing was too much trouble, most of them worked incredibly hard to make our cruise as enjoyable as possible.
There was always something going on. I personally enjoy a good quiz and there was at least two trivia quizzes each day, which were very well attended and were very well hosted by the entertainment team. Some of the quizzes in the evening had an adult theme and were hilarious, a real highlight for us.
The food, whether it was the main evening meal or a snack from the buffet at lunch time, the food was very nice. There was always a good choice, nicely presented, though strangely the buffet food was served on plastic plates.

The so so’s.
There was a lack of sockets in the stateroom. There was a double socket next to the desk area, but unfortunately they were so close together, we couldn’t plug two adapters in at the same time. There was an additional socket in the bathroom and that was it! I’d read a tip to take an extension lead on the cruise, so you only have to use one adapter for the extension and use the sockets in the extension lead for your electrical items. I’ll do this in future.

The bathroom, it was quite small, the toilet roll holder was too close to the toilet, you had to be a contortionist to get to it if you were in situ (sorry if this is too much information). Also the shower wasn’t the largest. It had a curtain and I can imagine a larger person would find it a bit of a squeeze. The water pressure and temperature was fantastic though.
The evening entertainment was only OK on the whole. The first show on we saw in the theatre was dire. It was a Disco Extravaganza, the dancing was good but the singing... The performer’s voices didn’t suit disco songs, the harmonies were terrible. There was an announcement at the end of the show, that one of the cast had had an accident during the first show, so they had had to hastily rearrange the show, which may explain the bad harmonies. The other entertainers we saw were OK. I don’t think any of them will become stars but they put on a good show, though I wouldn’t go out of my way to see them again.

The lows.
There is only one and it’s something no one can control, the weather! Something we both enjoyed on our previous cruises was sitting on the deck with a cold drink watching the world go by. On the whole the weather was cool, windy and wet with a couple of nice part days thrown in. The weather was so bad the day we were due to visit Helsingborg that the captain deemed it too unsafe to use the tenders to go ashore, therefore we didn’t get to see it.

The ports of call.
Zeebrugge, we had pre booked a shuttle with Viator to take us into Bruges. Anyone we spoke to before the cruise that had been to Bruges had said how nice it was, they were right. It was a beautiful place to visit and somewhere we would like to go back to. The weather was on the whole dry and bright.

Copenhagen, we used the Hop on Hop off buses to get around Copenhagen. I was a little disappointed in Copenhagen. It was very busy with a lot of building work going on. Tivoli Gardens looks like it would be worth a visit and the Nyhavn area was very nice but overall we weren’t impressed. The weather was cool, overcast and later in the day heavy rain.

Helsingborg, see lows

Oslo, a major highlight of the cruise. From the moment we stepped off the ship, seeing the impressive waterfront with its cafes and restaurants. We walked to the Royal Palace and from there, through beautiful tree lined streets to Vigelandsparken, which I would recommend to anyone. It is a parkland with fountains and statues of which my description wouldn’t do justice. The architecture around Oslo is wonderful. We spent the last hour or so in Oslo walking around the pedestrianised area close to the port, it was lovely. The weather was dry bright and warm.

[APP].

When the ship left port in Oslo, it had to navigate through the Fjords, the scenery was spectacular. So much so it has made us want to go on a cruise around the Fjords.

Conclusion,
on the whole we really enjoyed the cruise. Comparing it to the two previous cruises we have been on, on the Norwegian Epic and the Allure of the Seas, which are both huge ships with over 5000 passengers, we enjoyed the comparative intimacy of the Emerald Princess, which carried 3500. It was nice to see people that we had met earlier in the cruise on a regular basis, something that hadn’t happened on our previous cruises. Apart from certain aspects of the entertainment, the cruise was as good, if not better, than our previous two. If you are thinking of booking a Princess cruise, go for it, we had a fabulous time.

Feel free to ask any questions and I will try my best to answer them.

[SBF]

We're going on a Carnival Europe cruise in a few weeks (having been on Carnival Caribbean cruise last year, so we know what to expect). We did consider a Princess cruise, but thought that it may be a little too 'posh' for us. We don't really do the whole 'dress for dinner' thing. For future reference, did you find it like that ... or can you be a little more casual if you want?

[stecee]

It was by no means posh. There was two formal nights, though the majority did seem to dress up, we saw people in the main dining room dressed casually.

[Scotty]

We did this itinerary a few years back on the Golden (I think) Princess, we were lucky and had great weather except from the first morning in Bruges, I will always remember leaving Helsingborg in baking heat cocktail in hand watching Mama Mia on the big screen.
The biggest ships we have been on are the Princess Grand class and Celebrity's Solstice class, not sure if I fancy the huge ones but never say never.

[stecee]

I really fancy trying Celebrity, they get good reviews across the board.
It's a pity we couldn't get off at Helsingborg.

[sheluk]

Sounds like a great trip, thanks for sharing

[SBF]

Originally Posted by stecee

I really fancy trying Celebrity, they get good reviews across the board.
It's a pity we couldn't get off at Helsingborg.

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Celebrity is owned by Royal Caribbean.

[Scotty]

Originally Posted by stecee

I really fancy trying Celebrity, they get good reviews across the board.
It's a pity we couldn't get off at Helsingborg.

See more...

We love Celebrity, the one thing they need however is a self service launderette! I prefer them as a brand compared to Royal Caribbean, however if the price was right would go on P&O, Princess, Royal Caribbean or Celebrity.