Great Way to Se the Lights Would have given a 5 except for a few glitches read on, weather challenged trip
Island Princess Cruise Review to Europe - Northern Europe
Contributor Level:
First Mate
Cruises: 7+ cruises
Reviews: 6
Helpful Votes: 170
14 Night Search For The Northern Lights (Southampton Roundtrip)
Sail date: October 07, 2022
Ship: Island Princess
Cabin type: Balcony
Traveled as: Couple
Reviewed: 1 year ago
Review summary
Overall a really great cruise which affords plenty of opportunities to see the aurora, assuming the weather cooperates. Northern lights opportunities include Evening at Tromso and two evenings at Alta for viewing from land, as well as possible viewing from shipboard leaving Tromso and Alta as well as evening in Lofoten shipboard. Luckily weather cooperated and and we were able to view northern lights at all locations. On two of the nights the bridge announced appearance of the lights over the intercom, on the others they did not and one had to be up and about on their own. As noted Port of Stavanger was skipped due to inclement weather. Captain made and announcement day before, indicating the reasons, and that they were looking for another port if possible. Well no other port was found, nor did they even find a fjord for scenic cruising. this made for 4 sea days in a row!! No other info from bridge i.e. we looked at so and so port but could not dock because of.... Updates on this mater would have been appreciated. No compensation whatsoever, not even a drink!!! Medallion class app: first time we used it. Pretty easy to upload documents etc. pre cruise which are then available at check in. As supplied kind of clumsy and dorky wearing medallion around neck. We bought wrist straps for I think $12 each much easier and comfortable. Very convenient as the medallion serves as id card leaving and boarding the ship, opening stateroom door , and ordering drinks etc. to wherever one happens to be. Easy to reserve dinner time in MDR. Unfortunately cannot reserve specialty restaurants. Also can only communicate with front desk/guest relations. cannot use the app to communicate with dinning, shore excursions etc. still need to call or visit these departments. Shore excursion section only shows trips available to purchase, does not list those you already have bought , this would be useful. Section called journey which supposedly lists onboard activities such as entertainment is not user friendly, hard to figure out whats going on. The printed Patter that you receive each pm is more useful.Embarkation
Flew into Heathrow night before and stayed overnight at the Aerotel in terminal 3. Short walk down the terminal to Princess check in. On bus about 09:00 to Southampton, pleasant ride. Pretty quick check in as all documentation had been uploaded via the Medallion app. On board and having lunch by noon, room ready by 12:30
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
I would have given a 5 except for chefs table (see below), we did not eat in the specialty restaurants. Breakfast and lunches were taken at the buffet in Horizon court. Good choices of food and well prepared. On late and overnight port days buffet lunch was served late (until 16:00), and full dinner buffet until at least 00:30, very nice! Dinner in MDR was excellent. Nice rotation of menu items, with no repetition, well cooked and delicious. Great service. Pre scheduled dinner for the same time each night with the Medallion app, worked well. After the first few nights we found a waiter that we liked, and the maître de sat us at his station for the rest of the trip.
We decided to do the chefs table, a first time experience. Initially all participating diners met in the atrium with the head of food service, and headwaiter. When all assembled we were lead to our table where we also met several of the chefs. the menu (see pictures below) was reviewed and the wines to be served introduced and explained. Two additional amuse bouche not listed were served, a small dollop of caviar on aspic, and a samosa with mint chutney. While all were well prepared and tasty, as you can tell some of them were the usual type fare and nothing extraordinary i.e. coconut shrimp, samosa. Appetizer was quite good but also quite large. Many of the guests were getting full at this point. For all the pretentiousness on behalf of the staff the ball was severely dropped with the main course and desert. The beef filet was a very large piece of chateaubriand, and again while well prepared to a nice medium rare it was no better than that served in the MDR a few days previously, so therefore nothing out of the ordinary. Same is true for the lobster tail. Scallops 2 on a grilled on a cocktail pick totally average (and over salted). Pommes Anna is a scalloped type potato dish that was served twice in the MDR. Vegetables were plain steamed veggies big deal! Plating was absolutely pedestrian with all the proteins served on one large plate and "veggies" on another, looked like dinner at local diner. Same for desert, cake similar to that served at buffet only LARGER! So it looks like the wow factor for chefs table was large food without innovation, for the most part nothing one could not have had in MDR. My advice stick to MDR and if you like splurge on a few nice glasses of wine.
Onboard Activities
Really nothing to say did not use any activity but lotus spa pool and adjacent hot tub. They were fine. Lounge chairs surrounding the pool were very comfortable.
Entertainment
As expected a nice range of performers and shows
Children's Programs
No kids with us
Service and Staff
Our room steward was excellent. always pleasant and courteous. Keeps a clean room, provided us with all our requests i.e. robes extra towels ice etc. MDR staff was wonderful. we spent almost the entire cruise at a single station because of the outstanding service of the waiter and assistant waiter. Maître de very helpful. Waitstaff at horizon court very friendly, especially the morning coffee guy! We notice they were very helpful and respectful to older and mobility challenged folks, Kudos to them. One interaction each with quest relations and shore excursions no problem.
Ship Quality
Would be a five but, see further. Standard Princess type layout for a smaller ship. Aft to Stern on Lido Horizon Court (buffet), Lido Pool (with movies under the stars), Lotus (spa) pool, Spa. A good working arrangement. Fitness center on dec 6, Fiesta, all the way aft. (no water provided). Nice promenade deck for laps. Two MDR's. Ship was overall clean and well maintained, one exception three of the four automatic doors leading into the spa pool were broken remaining in the open position for the entire cruise.
Cabin / Stateroom
Standard Princess cabin layout with open style closet. Room was kept spotless by our steward. No longer provide pen and paper in room.
Ship tip
If on this ship for a northern lights cruise get a balcony room on a lower floor so you can see the lights from your balcony. Higher floors (ALoha) has an obscured view of the sky by overhanging lido deck
Thumbs up
0
Ports of call
Southampton (London), England Did not visit port
Stavanger, Norway Did not visit port
Port was skipped because of bad weather high seas significant wind. was going to do a boat excursion to the Lysefjord, really bummed that we missed this one!
Maybe I am underrating because of weather. Day time was very windy and rainy with lots of cloud cover and fog. We were going to go up the fjellheisen (cable car) but gave up because of the weather. Views are supposed to be spectacular again bummed that we missed it. Took shuttle and walked around town. Not much going on, many tourist shops. Polar museum closed. We got soaked. We were in port until 23:59, so several other couples that we met arraigned an excursion to play with huskies and view northern lights away from city lights. (get your guide: Northern lights and Husky Experience). Great trip we played with the dogs and saw the lights, back in plenty of time to board. Princess had no evening excursions to view lights.
Two days at port, tendered. First day took tender and shuttle bus to town. Again overcast and rainy. Easy and cheap city bus ride to Alta Museum. Very interesting lots of ancient rock carvings. Visited Northern Lights cathedral. 2 block walk from shuttlebus stop, small entrance fee. Stunning well worth it! Pre booked a northern lights tour with an Independent operator, LUUSO tour aurora. Tour ran from 19:00 to 00:00, picked up right outside security at tender port. Excellent weather opened up in time to see lights. Second AM took a Princes excursion: Local Connections: Alta Canyon & Sami Lavvu. Poorly designed tour. Sami Lavvu which was the first stop after about 1 hr. ride was very interesting, hosting family was very gracious. Ride continued for like another 45 min. to the dam. Short amount of time there, guide implied that if one used the WC one would have little time to view the dam and canyon. On the way back Guide had driver skip the Alta Canyon view point because "running late". Not sure why we left on time and did not get stuck in traffic. did a Princess excursion in the evening:
Northern Lights Safari At Paeskatun like 18:00-22:00. Held in a quarry outside of town, a good dark site view lights, unfortunately overcast. Second evening lights on deck after leaving good show not announced.
Originally had a Princess excursion booked: Catamaran fjord tour, however was cancelled by operator a few weeks before cruise. Incidentally Princess did not notify us, we figured it out when we saw a refund on our CC bill. Rented a car and drove E 10 to Moskenes. Beautiful countryside with fjords, and picturesque fishing villages. Rent a Car Lofoten delivered car to cruise port and picked up very easy
Princess Excursion: The Best of Romsdal & the Troll Path. 8hr. Well planned tour with good timing and great sights. Unfortunately we were markedly weather challenged, see photo, and got poor views ot Trollstigen and Trollveggan.
Disembarkation
Quick and efficient. We had an early breakfast, carried our luggage and walked right oof at about 07:30 and met our car.
Traveler Photos
