Sky Princess - North Cape of Norway, June 2022

[Omega1]

We are part through a 28 day cruise on the Sky Princess (14 day Norway North Cape and 14 day Norway and Iceland). A number of people (well, 2 is a number) asked if I would write a report, so here goes. It’s the first time I’ve done a trip report, so I’ll start with the first cruise and see how it goes. Just for context, we were travelling with another couple who, like us, are of ‘mature years’!
The first cruise has been rolled over from 2020 and 2021 because of Covid cancellations and we were booked into a standard balcony cabin. We booked the second cruise much more recently and had an inside cabin.
A week before we sailed, we noticed on the Princess Medallion app that our cabin had been changed - well not just changed, but a fabulous upgrade to an aft, premium , deluxe balcony cabin for both cruises. This was a lovely surprise as we had ticked the ‘no upgrade’ box when we booked.
We drove to Southampton the day before and stayed in the Premier Inn at the airport - we love Premier Inns, never had a bad experience and does exactly what it says on the tin, clean, comfortable and all for £35 - what’s not to like?
Embarkation day was a bit stressful, we used Just Park for parking instead of our usual CPS who wanted an eye watering £324 for the month’s parking. Our taxi for the short hop to the port was booked for 10.30 but didn’t show up and hadn’t even been dispatched according to their app. I called the company and the guy was very apologetic and explained there had been a fire alarm at the Mayflower Cruise Terminal, nothing was moving, all the taxis were snarled up and it was ‘bloody chaos’! Anyway, Fabio the lovely Uber driver came to our rescue and eventually got us to the terminal, which had by now, reopened. The check in staff were working flat out and the long lines moved quickly, meaning we were on board for 12.30 - only an hour later than expected, so not too bad.
We’ve been on the Sky Princess twice before and as recently as April, so it seemed very familiar, with several of the excellent musicians and bands still on board which was a bonus.
Our cabin was wonderful and we sat on the balcony in the sunshine, with a view of the ship’s wake, sailing down the Solent and out into the Channel, gin and tonic in hand - life doesn’t get much better really.

Just before sailaway, the Captain announced that there was a problem with one of the ship’s generators which affected the vessel’s top speed, so we wouldn’t be arriving in our first port, Haugesund, until 1pm, it should have been 8am. We had booked a rental car but decided to cancel as only having four hours in port didn’t give us enough time to get to the places we had planned to visit.

After a busy day, we went back to our cabin at about 11pm to be met by DJ Ron - no, Ron wasn’t actually in the cabin, but it sounded like it. We discovered our cabin was directly above the stage of the Vista Lounge, the ship’s night club! To be fair, Ron plays some great music, but not being able to get to sleep until 2am, when he shuts down, was a bit concerning.


Day 2 Sea Day
The next morning we went to the service desk to ask if they had any earplugs we could buy, the clerk asked why and then asked if we would prefer to change cabins? The cabin he offered was a midships mini suite, of course it didn’t take us long to accept! Thanks Princess - so far, the service has been exceptional from the cabin steward, to the waiters and customer service and of course …… DJ Ron.
Housekeeping sent three people to help with our move to the new cabin - everything on hangers was put on a trolley and small items went into the case. It was really slick, all done in 40 minutes.
It was a very relaxed day just mooching round the ship, went to a presentation about upcoming ports and a win at trivia!
It was formal night, so we dressed up (tux and posh frock - I wore the tux). It’s fair to say the vast majority (80%) had made an effort. The food has so far been excellent (tonight’s beef tenderloin medallions were so tasty and tender) and if anything isn’t too your liking it’s easy to change, no problem.
The theatre show was ‘Rock Opera’ - absolutely outstanding.

Day 3 Haugesund
Overcast, rainy and chilly! Not the prettiest port on the itinerary - hence why we had booked a car to get to the scenic bits. We did wander round the shops and looked at stuff we couldn’t afford - itchy, woolly jumpers for a bargain £210. Found a cafe for a cappuccino and Coke Zero, £8 (not bad really). Someone told us it was £13 to get into the local church! Back to the ship in time to see a Viking longboat sail past our balcony and wondered if Ragnar Lothbruk was on board! (Only if you’ve watched the tv series The Vikings does that make sense.)
We booked into the speciality restaurant ‘Bistro sur La Mer’ for dinner ($29pp cover charge) - what an amazing meal, absolutely delicious and impeccably served.

Tonight’s theatre entertainment was comedian Tom Binns. We remembered him from being on ‘8 out of 10 cats’. He’s hilarious, especially his hapless, hospital radio DJ Ivan Brackenbury routine.

Day 4 Skjolden
No rain today! Skjolden is a tiny village at the head of Sognefjord around 130 miles inland from the Norwegian Sea - it’s spectacularly beautiful. After looking around the village which took all of 30 minutes, we walked up to a view point with great views of the ship and back down the fjord.
We arrived in the early hours, so didn’t get to see much of the scenery, but the sail away was amazing. I can’t get my head around that the fjord, in places is over 4000 feet deep.

Day 5 Olden
We’ve been to Olden twice before, so decided to take the Glacier Sightseeing open top bus, a one hour trip up the Olden valley to a viewpoint where glaciers coming off the mountains of the Jostedalsbreen National Park can be seen - and the sun came out! We bought the tickets on the pier with a local company, Olden Adventures, £28 pp.
After a coffee in the village, we had a walk along the river in the Olden Valley for a couple of hours - and then back to the ship for a late lunch and a well deserved beer!

Another excellent meal in the main dining room followed by a show in the theatre - Gareth Oliver (comedy ventriloquist), very funny. We’ve seen him several times on cruise ships and he likes to remind everyone he finished 11th in the final of Britain’s Got Talent in the year that Diversity won and Susan Boyle was second!

Day 6 Trondheim
Trondheim is quite a large city, so not as pretty as the two previous ports. We did a self guided walking tour that I had got from the internet but I need not have bothered, there were people handing out free maps with marked walking routes at the port.
The cathedral is pretty special as well as the old warehouses along the river that have been converted into restaurants, bars, cafes and offices.
The cathedral must be the unluckiest in Europe, having burned down four times!

Day 7 Sea Day
We are now 270 miles north of the Arctic Circle and it’s definitely getting colder. Since we left Southampton the seas have been incredibly calm and there has been no movement of the ship at all. Last night was the first where the sun didn’t set - 24 hours of daylight and will be the same for the next four days. In Winter, the sun doesn’t rise at all from 28 November to 15 January in this area. We also received an Arctic Circle Crossing certificate - one to display with my 25 yard swimming certificate and cubs knots badge.

Tonight is the second of three formal nights and the vast majority of folk really do make an effort to dress up. It was announced that there are 3170 passengers on board with around 2700 being British, the rest made up mainly of Americans and Canadians.

[Omega1]

Day 8 Honningsvag
The most northerly point on our trip - and the sun shone! We thought this was going to be a highlight and we weren’t disappointed. We booked a private trip with Blue Puffin tours to the North Cape, the most northerly in Europe - well that’s what they say. In reality there is a small peninsula close by that sticks out further, but it’s not accessible.
We wandered around Honningsvag in the morning, had a coffee, mooched around the shops and a small market, where the main things for sale seemed to a grim looking brown cheese and reindeer skins, plus the obligatory itchy woolly jumpers, hats, socks and gloves.
Back on board the ship for lunch before our 2pm tour.
The tour was one of the best we have ever done. Blue Puffin is run by an enterprising young couple who live in Honningsvag in the summer and Tromso in the winter. We drove north to our first stop, a small fishing village where the process of drying fish (mainly cod) was explained. It looks pretty unappealing but is very popular in Greece, Spain and Portugal (bacalhau). Large racks full of drying fish can be seen (and smelled) along the coast in this part of Norway. We also met some live king crabs which are caught in waters around here. Crab fishing is very lucrative!
We then continued to the North Cape, but on the way stopped to see herds of reindeer. The males and females live in separate groups - the females had their calves in May and then shed their antlers. The reindeer roam freely but are owned by herders from the indigenous Sami people who follow their herds and basically farm them. Our guide give us some dried reindeer meat to try - it’s an ‘interesting’ taste!
The North Cape itself is a high cliff and has a good (underground) visitor centre - a globe sculpture marks the spot. The parking area was crammed with camper vans because the thing to do is to see the midnight sun at the North Cape.
Our sailaway gave us a good view of the Cape from the sea along with several pods of whales and, of course, the midnight sun.

Day 9 Tromso
An early start. Princess cruises excursions are very expensive and we tend to avoid them and do our own thing wherever possible. The shuttle bus from the port into town was $19.95pp round trip for the 3 mile journey. The cheapest Princess trip was $89pp for a 3 hour scenic tour.
We got the public bus into town (£4.50 for a 24 hr ticket) and then the bus out to the Fjellheisen cable car. The cable car goes up the mountain on the mainland across from the island of Tromso.

After the cable car we walked to the Arctic Cathedral - the triangular structure in the bottom right of the photo. The cathedral, built in 1965, is an impressive building which dominates the view across the water from Tromso city centre.

We hopped back on the bus, over the bridge, to the city centre for a wander around and the necessary coffee with a Kanel Sturr, a kind cinnamon bun. Tromso is a regional centre and university city, with an attractive waterfront and lovely traditional buildings around the old cathedral. I can see why our guide (from yesterday) and her family spend the dark winters here rather than in a tiny village near Honningsvag.
Being a Sunday, most shops were closed (fortunately) but in both cathedrals there were christenings taking place, with many of the women wearing traditional Norwegian dress.
We got back on the bus and returned to the ship in good time for the 3.30pm all aboard.

Day 10 Gravdal, Lofoten Islands
Our plans for today were nearly scuppered before we started. Last night the Captain announced that we would be three hours late arriving in Gravdal (11am instead of 8am) because the local pilot had informed him that the ship was too big to go through the channel they had planned - which meant a 65 mile detour, hence the delay. We had booked a rental car to be delivered to the port at 9am , so hurried emails to Sixt to reschedule meant we managed to salvage our plans. The people at Sixt were brilliant and accommodated our revised requirements with no hassle whatsoever, so we still got our 7 hours exploring in the car. Gravdal port is tiny, with literally nothing there, no facilities, nothing, just a short pier so the ship had to anchor in the bay and tender passengers ashore.
Our car was ready and waiting and off we went. The plan was to drive to the south west tip of the Lofoten Islands approx 50km away, to the village of A where the road ends and then slowly explore the fishing villages and sights on the way back.
The scenery was absolutely spectacular even though it was not the best of conditions with low cloud and a stiff breeze making the felt temperature around 6 degrees. The village of A is surrounded by snow capped mountains (as are most of the coastal villages) but part of the beauty is how remote this place is. More coffee and Kanel Sturr and a listen to a group of children from the south of Norway giving an impromptu concert.

We headed out just as the tour buses arrived and visited the gorgeous villages of Sund, Reine, Nusfjord , a lovely church at Flakstad and walked on a white sand beach at Ramberg, well worthy of the Caribbean, only 30 degrees colder! Our final stop was in Leknes to fill up the car (only £2.50 a litre) and then back to the port. An amazing day.

So far Covid protocols have been very relaxed with mask wearing advisory. Only a minority of people have been wearing masks around the ship but tonight the Captain announced that there had been a spike in Covid cases, with those testing positive being moved to quarantine cabins on de k 9, locally known as the plague deck. He also announced that masks were now mandatory in all indoor venues except when eating, drinking or in your cabin.
We were too tired to bother dressing up for dinner (smart casual night) so after a quick shower we went to the buffet or ‘World Fresh Marketplace’ to give it its full title. Tonight it was Italian themed food - the choice, as usual, was great and the quality very good. The only problem with the buffet is it all looks so good I want to try a bit of everything and end up feeling stuffed. After stopping off in the ship’s atrium to listen to some live music, it was back to the cabin for a cup of tea and a Gaviscon chaser.
Tomorrow is a sea day, so I’ll write more about dining venues, food and entertainment.

[Omega1]

Day 11 Sea Day
The ship has three main dining rooms (Soleil, Estrella and Cielo) it’s the same menu in each venue and is included in the cruise fare. It’s possible to book dining reservations through the Medallion app, which we did (before we left home) for 7pm each evening in the Soleil dining room. Breakfast and usually lunch is available in one of the dining rooms.
Also included in the cruise fare is the World Fresh buffet, or whatever it’s called, which is pretty much open all day (6am to 10.30pm) the Salty Dog Grill (burgers, hot dog etc and Slice (pizza) which are on the pool deck. There is also the fantastic Alfredo’s pizzeria serving superb pizzas and pasta. Lastly, Swirls for free ice cream. Also, there is a nice selection of breakfast items, cakes, pastries, sandwiches etc at the International Cafe 24/7. It’s fair to say, no one ever starved on a cruise ship and listening to other passengers, Princess seems to cater well for specific dietary requirements, but I don’t have personal experience.
Basic coffee and tea are served in the buffet all day and after meals in dining rooms - speciality teas and coffees are served at extra cost in venues all over the ship.
Alcoholic drinks and sodas are extra unless you have one of the Princess packages (too complex to explain but it’s all on the Princess website).
There are additional restaurants at extra cost - the Crown Grill and Bistro Sur La Mer $29pp and Sabatini’s Italian Trattoria $25pp.
Evening entertainment has generally been good. The is some form of show in the main theatre each evening (8.15pm and repeated at 10.15pm). In the two weeks there are two main production shows, currently Rock Opera and 5 Skies. Other shows are performers (singers, musicians, comedians etc) who join the ship for a few days and then move on. The quality of performers is variable but it’s down to personal taste. Around the ship there are several live music venues with a variety of music styles, so something for everyone really.
Lots of activities are planned each day (more on sea days than port days) plus activities for kids, grouped by age - we haven’t seen many children on board, my guess is no more than a dozen.

ay 12 Alesund
Another early start and off the ship at 8am for a 10 minute walk to the Budget car rental office. Today’s plan is to drive the Troll Road (Trollstigen) a famous and spectacular route through the mountains - one of our friends is a ‘nervous’ passenger and I didn’t dare tell her I’d been researching the route on dangerousroads/europ...en-norway.html
We drove out of Alesund alongside Storfjord to our coffee stop in the village of Valdall. We continued to climb into the mountains and stopped at a small but spectacular gorge, only 5m wide but 30m deep. There were walkways and footbridges criss crossing the gorge giving great views. We weren’t expecting much but it was fantastic.

The climb continued up onto the Trollstigen Plateau where the road was only opened after the winter snow closure, two weeks ago. The road is described as the most ‘exciting’ in Norway and it didn’t disappoint.

At the summit, before Trollstigen (which translates as Troll’s Ladder) descends into the valley there is a small visitor centre with a walkway that gives great views of the 12 hairpin bends- by this time the road was getting busy and the tour buses and camper vans negotiating the bends was not for the faint hearted.

Conscious of time we headed back to Alesund, which was 110km away. Many people who cruise prefer to take ship excursions knowing that if they are late back, the ship will wait. Doing independent trips carries a risk, but we always try to have a plan B, if something goes wrong, like a car break down or a sudden train strike like we once had in Athens. Today’s plan B was a little more extreme in that we would get the 21.05 flight from Alesund to Bergen, our next port, if the ship sailed without us. Driving there wasn’t really feasible as it’s 8 hours by road and probably more expensive than the £121 to fly. Anyway, plan B wasn’t required and we were back in good time. Today’s trip (car and fuel) cost £33pp, the equivalent Princess trip was around £200pp, and didn’t visit as many places as we did, but it did include lunch.
Back on ship, tonight’s main entertainment was a crew production show called ‘5-Skies’. It was excellent in every respect, singing, dancing, special effects, etc.

Day 13 Bergen
The final port on this leg of our trip. It’s a relatively short time in port (8am to 2pm) but having been to Bergen twice before, we decided we would have a leisurely start and see where the mood took us.
We quite like Bergen, but having done the usual sightseeing stuff, we had a gentle wander round the harbour, exploring the old warehouses of the Bryggen, and found a nice bakery for coffee and pastries. The ship was docked about a kilometre from the centre of the city so we headed back for lunch on the ship, but first there was an important task - to find the shop we found a few years ago, that sells the best salted liquorice in Norway. It’s Mrs O’s favourite. Mission accomplished we went back to the ship.
Tonight is the third, and final, formal night. It’s grandly called the Captain’s Gala Dinner and it’s going to be a difficult choice between the Beef Wellington and the Lobster Tail - or maybe have both!
Update: my final choice was, Roasted Tomato Bisque - brioche croutons, basil pesto: Beef Wellington - truffle Madeira Demi-glacé, dill-scented vegetables, layered buttered confit potatoes (with a lobster tail on the side, a kind of home made surf and turf): Chocolate Pistachio Dome: Cheese and biscuits.
As I said earlier, the food on this trip has been great.
The official policy of Princess is each passenger can bring on board one bottle of wine for consumption in the cabin. If the wine is taken into a dining room a $20 corkage fee is charged. We brought on four bottles of wine, no questions asked. We took three of them into the dining room at various times but weren’t charged the corkage fee.

Day 14 Sea Day
The number of Covid cases on board seems to have risen dramatically. Anyone testing positive is transferred to a balcony cabin on deck 9 (known as the plague deck), unfortunately all those cabins are full so those passengers now testing positive have to isolate in their own cabins which isn’t much fun if you have an inside cabin. Anyone isolating has to order from a room service menu but the room service stewards have been under pressure to cope with the demand, consequently some areas of the main dining room have been closed off whilst the waiters in those areas are reassigned to room service duties. The problem is made all the more acute by a general shortage of crew across all cruise lines. Princess recently took one ship out of service and redeployed crew across the fleet.
Last night we had a letter in our cabin asking us to go for a Covid test at 10am - if negative we get to stay on for the next leg, if positive we have to isolate and get off in Southampton tomorrow.

One of the major benefits of being on the highest tier of the Princess loyalty scheme is that we get unlimited free laundry on board, meaning our dirty clothes get washed and ironed as we go along and we go home with cases full of clean stuff!
Two letters were pushed under our cabin door late afternoon- Covid test results - both negative! We’re good to go on the next cruise.
For our final dinner of this cruise, we booked into Sabatini’s, a speciality restaurant with a cover charge of $25pp. It was one of the best meals we have had on any cruise ship, we were given a lovely table with a sea view and the service was impeccable. We hadn’t eaten much all day as we had been tipped off that a good appetite is needed to do it justice. I won’t bore you with our menu choices (the menus are online) but each of the six courses was absolutely delicious.
During coffee at the end of the meal I was alerted to a Facebook message that said our ship would be four plus hours late arriving into Southampton. We were just discussing this when……’Bing bong’ This is the Captain speaking………..
It was true, unfortunately, the problem with the generator limiting the ship’s top speed had meant we had missed the time window (5.30am) to enter the main channel into Southampton before it closed owing to the start of the Round the Island yacht race - a massive event in the yachting calendar. With five other cruise ships making it into port, it appeared to be a huge miscalculation by the Captain of the Sky Princess. The knock on impacts were enormous - lots of missed international flights and other onward travel arrangements, passengers needing additional hotel rooms etc, all trying to be sorted on an internet connection that on a good day takes a minute to download the BBC news homepage! It was chaos - within a minute of the announcement the queue for guest services was half the length of the ship - the poor folk with Covid isolating in their cabins had no chance of getting any assistance.

Southampton - the final day!
The last morning on a cruise is always a bit hectic with people having to be out of their cabins by 8am, grabbing breakfast and disembarking at their allocated time.
We are in the fortunate position of not having to pack everything as housekeeping staff will move our things back to our original cabin and when everyone is on board the front desk will look to assign us to a new cabin so that we don’t have to share with DJ Ron!
With the delayed arrival, passengers were informed they could keep their cabins until 1pm. Disembarkation eventually started at around 11.30 but after not too long a fire alarm in the terminal meant a further delay of over an hour - you couldn’t make this stuff up!
Our plan was to get off asap and catch the crew shuttle bus to the West Quay shopping centre and pick up some items (mainly wine and tonic water) for our next cruise. We were off the ship for about four hours but when we tried to get back, all the roads around the port were gridlocked with vehicles with passengers leaving the ship meeting those arriving. We jumped on the crew shuttle bus for the P&O Iona which was at a different terminal and walked the last kilometre to the ship. As we walked to the ship, people stuck in the chaos were abandoning their taxis which were racking up huge fares waiting for over 2 hours.
As we arrived back at the ship, we snuck in through the crew entrance with our ‘In Transit’ cards and managed to get on board against the tide of people still disembarking. The last group of Covid positive passengers were getting off just before 4pm.
Many passengers arriving at their original boarding time had not received emails from Princess telling them to delay their arrival - it was a perfect storm.
It certainly wasn’t the best end for many to an otherwise fantastic cruise - fortunately, we were amongst a small group of passengers least affected.

Thanks for reading, hope it’s been interesting/ helpful. To be continued…………

[2point]

Fantastic report of a very interesting trip!

Thanks for taking the time, really appreciate these firsthand experiences.

Looking forward to part 2.

[Smilesonfaces]

Thanks for sharing your photos and report. It looks a fantastic place to visit and is certainly on my list now.
We sail on Sky in September and really can’t wait !

[1972]

Great first trip report!

Really looking forward to our trip in August.

Enjoy the rest of your cruise.

28 day cruise sounds great!

[ClaireNJ]

Stunning photos looks really lovely 💕💕
Have a great time x

[Rachaelwoolly]

thanks so much for taking the time to post this report !
Really enjoying it. A great insight into the ports and also Princess who I have yet to sail with... Im reassured that the food sounds good..

[pinkbelle]

Really enjoyed your trip report, please do one for your current sailing.

[Twentyyears]

Great report, been looking at the Fjords cruise with Princess or P&O Iona