We’re off on another adventure. This time, our destination is the Baltic Sea for a cruise on the Regal Princess. This will be our first experience on a Royal Class Princess ship, the newest and largest series in the Princess Fleet. This ship made its first cruise in 2014. It accommodates 3560 passengers and 1346 crew. Its Gross Tonnage is 141,000. To contrast, the Island Princess, which was our home for 2 months as we sailed around South America has a Gross Tonnage of 92,000. The Island Princess accommodated 2200 passengers with 900 crew for comparison.
By the way, Gross Tonnage is used to rank the cargo carrying capacity of ships and is not the weight of the ship or cargo. Interestingly enough, the term loosely derives from the number of standard wine casks called tuns that a ship could haul. A tun held 252 gallons, and weighed 2240 pounds. Tonnage was the tax assessed on the tuns. Boy, commerce in the 1700’s maritime industry was a ton of confusion, but Gross Tonnage is commonly used to express how big a ship is relative to others.
The Island Princess, and her sister ship, the Coral Princess, which was the very first Princess cruise ship we sailed on, are called Panamax class ships, which are the largest ships that can fit in the original Panama Canal Locks. They are 965’ long. The Royal class ships are 1083’ long.
We are curious to compare the experience on the Royal class with the smaller ones we have been on previously. More passengers might mean more crowding, but there are larger and more numerous public venues and real estate to spread those passengers around in. The ratio of passengers to crew is actually lower for the smaller ship, but not by much (2.4 vs 2.6 passengers per crew). Another metric would be Gross Tonnage per passenger (39.6 for the Regal Princess vs 41.8 for the Island Princess), which suggests that there is less space per passenger in the larger ship. Other ships we have been on include the Golden Princess (Australia/New Zealand cruise) with a GT/pax of 41.9, Diamond Princess (Japan cruise) with a GT/pax of 43.4, and Caribbean Princess (British Isles cruise) with a GT/pax of 35.96.
Both of these metrics suggest the smaller ship should have both better service and seem more spacious per passenger, but our experience with ships of various classes within the Princess fleet has left us with the impression that a GT/pax of 35.96 doesn’t feel any more crowded than a GT/pax of 43.4. The Norwegian Pearl, which we have been on twice, has always felt much more crowded than any Princess ship we have been on. There were always lines in the dining venues, crowds in the congested hallways, and no room in the theaters for shows. The Norwegian Pearl’s GT/pax is 38.8 and pax/crew is 2.2, so GT/pax or pax/crew may not be accurate surrogates for crowding or quality of service on a cruise ship. The layout of the ship, efficiency of operations, and crew training may have a lot more to do with the feeling of crowding and quality of service. We had heard many Princess passengers say they liked the bigger ships more, so we’ll see if we concur.
So, how did we end up deciding on this particular cruise? Well, we have met lots of other people on our prior cruises. The first question that breaks the ice is always “so, where are you folks from?” This is followed by “how many cruises have you been on?” And that leads to “ So what was your best and most highly recommended cruise experience so far?” A high percentage response to the last question has been “The Baltic”. Ben’s brother Carl and his wife Catherine did a Baltic cruise on Norwegian Cruise Line last year and they really enjoyed and recommended the itinerary. So the Baltic has been on our “to-do” list.
If you have been following this blog for a while, you may recall that we were given a 50% credit to compensate for the repeated interruptions to our itinerary on the Diamond Princess out of Japan to Southeast Asia caused by typhoon Saola. So we have been monitoring Princess Cruises promotions, and found one that offered free gratuities, $100 onboard spending money per passenger, and a free stateroom location upgrade, so that you could book a midship stateroom for the same price as one at the bow or stern. This is desirable because the midship location is subject to the least pitching movement in heavy seas, and is centrally located to all the venues.
So a combination of prior cruisers’s recommendations, a large future cruise credit sitting around waiting to be used, and a good promotion package lead us to book this particular cruise.
We also ended up using Princess EZ-Air to book our air travel, and as has been our prior experience, they did end up with a very competitive air fare rate with very little hassle on our end. This time we fly from Seattle to Toronto on Air Canada, and then from Toronto to Copenhagen on a Lufthansa flight. Our return trip is on Air France flights from Copenhagen to Paris, and then from Paris direct to Seattle.
Our outbound flight from Seattle left Sea-Tac airport at 7:00AM. Unfortunately for us, this means catching the Whidbey Sea-Tac shuttle at 2:30AM to get us to the airport in time to clear security and check in for the flight. The shuttle company did relocate it’s Oak Harbor pick up point and parking lot, and our 2:30AM pick up was the very first for it’s new location. The old lot was gravel, while the new lot is a nice paved parking lot, so our luggage can now roll easily to the shuttle van for loading. It’s a good thing we can sleep on the shuttle, although they don’t have comfortable vans. It’s hard to imagine how they managed to find seats that were actually more crowded and less comfortable than economy airline seats, but they found them.
We got through security pretty quickly thanks to our TSA Pre-check status, but we had both forgotten to empty the water from our water bottles, so those had to be emptied and run back through screening. Fortunately, it was not too busy in the pre-Check lane and the TSA agent was in a charitable mood. Otherwise, we could easily have lost our water bottles.
Sea-Tac Airport is in the midst of remodeling their main food court, so our favorite breakfast venue, Wendy’s, was closed. They built a temporary wall across the front, eliminating at least 80% of the seating as well. We ended up locating a McDonalds in the B concourse to get some McGriddles for breakfast.
The flight from Seattle to Toronto was 4 hours. We spent most of it napping, although Ben rewatched the beginning of Dunkirk, which had played on the last cruise, but he managed to always miss the first part of the movie. Turns out, he didn’t miss much.
Toronto was sunny and surprisingly hot- 94 degrees! We had no idea any part of Canada could ever get that hot. Fortunately, the Airport Terminal is air conditioned. We breezed through customs, which was largely automated with rows and rows of kiosks that scanned our passports while an agent inspected our boarding passes. Since we were just transiting through the airport, they must not be very picky.
Toronto’s airport has some very nice free lounge areas with comfortable seating, plenty of electrical and USB outlets, free wifi and iPads that could be used to play games, or order food and drinks from nearby food vendors for delivery to your table. American airports should take notice and copy these features.
We had lunch at Tim Horton’s which served a mediocre ham and cheese sandwich with coffee and a donut. Don’t buy donuts at Tim Horton’s. While the coffee is OK, the donuts were awful. They had the texture of over-microwaved hot dog buns (chewy rubber).
Ben ordered some Butter Chicken and garlic naan from the Indian restaurant, and it was delivered right to our table in the lounge area. That was just OK, but better than the Tim Horton’s.
As departure time approached, a huge crowd built up in the terminal, making it very hard to move around. So many people just can’t seem to grasp the concept of loading by zones, and they just jam up the gate area. It didn’t help that Air Canada was boarding two international flights simultaneously. We did manage to get loaded into the 777-300ER, which is a huge wide body jet with surprisingly small luggage bins. We booked premium economy for this flight, and got seated right behind the bulkhead behind first class. We had a full 24” of legroom, and the seats reclined a full 20-30 degrees, unlike the ones in economy that recline about 5-10 degrees. We ended up with a full meal service including wine, cloth napkins, and stainless ware. The food was decent enough for airline food- chicken or beef. We were just happy to be getting food at all.
The flight from Toronto to Copenhagen took 8 hours. The 777-300ER has bathrooms in the middle of the plane, which really helps when you have such a long airplane. There are two aisles, but no place to cross from one side to the other except at the exit doors. This is the largest plane in the Air Canada fleet, larger than the 787. We could nearly stand up straight in the space in front of our seats behind the bulkhead, which really helps make the transatlantic flight much more tolerable. The small premium over economy for this flight was well worth the money.
As we descended into Denmark, it was remarkable how flat the whole country seemed. It was a patchwork of greens and blues- very pretty from the air. We also noticed instead of clover leaf exchanges, their freeways had circular overpasses fed by smaller traffic circles. We saw a large wind farm off shore as we swooped into the airport over the water.
We breezed through customs and were greeted by Princess staff in the baggage claim. The gal who stamped our passports in customs asked if we were headed for a cruise. I guess we look the part by now. A Chinese couple who were seated behind us on the plane had a telltale Princess tote bag with them. As we deplaned, we confirmed that they were also boarding the Regal Princess in 2 days. In the baggage claim area, we ran into more Princess customers and boarded a van with 4 other couples who were headed to Princess Hotels, including a couple who’s daughter is attending Cal Poly Pomona playing softball, who had been contacted by MIT to try to get her to defect to play softball for MIT instead. Their youngest daughter just graduated high school and will be attending Scripps, but had her heart broken when the UW didn’t accept her. They were wearing MIT and Cal t-shirts.
It was a fairly short ride through Copenhagen to the Scandic Copenhagen hotel. There were several Scandic hotel properties in Copenhagen. Ours was situated just across the street from the Tycho Brahe Planetarium. This is a very Scandinavian hotel, with furnishings like an IKEA and design that is compact, efficient and functional. It was sparse compared with the hotels Princess put us up in for our Iguazu Falls and Machu Picchu excursions, but comfortable enough and with a convenient close in location, just 1 block from Tivoli Gardens and 2 blocks from the main pedestrian shopping district called the Stroeget in central Copenhagen.
Confirming our initial impressions from the air, Copenhagen is very flat, and nearly ideal for travel by bicycle, except for the fact that many streets are paved with rough cobblestones. For the most part, it it is quite an attractive city with plenty of European charm. After checking into the hotel, we went exploring by foot, walking past Tivoli Gardens to check out the admission and hours. From there we walked through the pedestrian shopping district of Stroeget to the New Harbor of Nyhavn where many of the canal tour boats tie up. Then we walked up to Kastellet (the old fortress) and Churchill Park where the statue of the Little Mermaid lives.
One of the most unusual stores in the Stroeget was a large shop called The Amber Store, which specialized in all sorts of amber jewelry and sculptures. The largest store is very close to our hotel, but there are several smaller franchises in the Stroeget and an Amber Museum at Nyhavn. We saw some tempting polished drops of amber containing insects for just $5600. There are also many LEGO stores, here at the birthplace of LEGO. The shopping district has just about any store you can imagine, including a Disney store and several Burger Kings and 7-Elevens.
We then had a classic Danish dinner at Restaurant PUK, where a very kind and friendly waiter gave us a virtual culinary tour of classic Danish cuisine. We had ordered a set multi course menu that opened with pickled herring, smoked salmon, and deep fried fish with a variety of condiments and breads that he explained how to eat like a Dane. The pickled herring in sour cream and dill was surprisingly sweet and unfishy, while the Danish smoked salmon was not salty or fishy either. The fried fish fillets were super crispy. One condiment looked like beef fat, and was spread on one of the dark breads. This was topped with the herring, fresh sprouts and a hard boiled egg. Butter went on the light bread, which was topped with the smoked salmon and dark danish mustard and dill sauce. Finally, the butter went on the light bread, topped with the fried fish fillet with a light honey mustard sauce. That had nearly filled us up, but then the mains came out which featured roasted pork belly with a super crispy and salty rind, and a very delicious liver pate. We were so full that we could hardly scratch the surface of the pate, and had to take it and the Brie and crackers dessert to go. By the end of our dinner, jet lag was fully setting in, and we got back to the hotel and collapsed into bed at 8PM.
According to Ben’s Apple Watch, we had covered over 22,900 steps and 8.78 miles, and it sure felt like it.
