Vlogs of our (mostly) Cruise holidays, and general info about the ships/places we visit. Find out what we have coming up on Instagram @richandsuzcruise
Compliments on the video of the fantastic scenery! May I ask what camera equipment you used for those shots atop the mountain sky tram? So beautiful. The wife and I will also cruise Norway fjords in Sept 2024 and hope the weather is as good as your trip! Thanks!
Sorry for the slow reply, we've been away this week. I just use a DJI Action 4 for most of the filming, and Samsung S21 for still shots. We hope you enjoy the Fjords as much as we did, every day was beautiful scenery. And also hope you're as lucky with the weather!
Great video, we definitely want to visit Lisbon soon. Hi there we are new to your channel and look forward to watching the rest of the Lisbon series and your cruise videos 👏
Hey Both! Loving the vlogs, I wondered if you would mind if I added your channel to catavlogs? I’m Trying to build up as many different type of vloggers as possible
Glad you liked Princess enough to grab that Future Cruise Deposit; it's a no-brainer free-spend option if you're planning another trip with them. We've been on Sky three times now and we're pleased to see you're fans of Take Five as well. We always tend to find one place that becomes our place on any ship, and on Sky that's the place. That drive back you home, though! That's dedication. A lot, lot easier for us with Portsmouth.
Yeah we really enjoyed Sky, so the future cruise deposit as you say, was a no brainer! Booked another one the week we got home. And yes, Take Five was a highlight of the ship, we loved the cocktails, and the jazz. It mostly seemed easy to find a good seat as well, not sure if we were lucky with our timing, or some people don't find it, as its a bit tucked out of the way where it is? And the drive home.. We're used to it I guess, our options are a lot more limited from up here for cruising.
Thanks for the kind comment. The ship was pretty quiet, I think it was about half capacity on the trip down to Southampton. I believe the majority of passengers were embarking there for the world cruise.
We really want to do the fjord cruise next year. Not sure what line to go with, but this is a great insight into what to expect. Those snow capped mountains are stunning. Alesund looks very pretty. Your food looked delicious! Cheers for sharing 🍻
Glad you found it helpful. We loved the Fjords, and Sky Princess. Most of the lines seem to do similar itineraries, with small variations, but honestly for first time here we were more than happy with the places we visited. I think if we'd done anymore scenic fjords it would almost have been too much scenic cruising for one week. Anyway good luck with choosing your cruise line, theres a lot of choice, as I'm sure you know!
Hi there, we left from Southampton. On the 8 night cruise, we had 1 full scenic cruising day, which was when our stop in Haugesund was cancelled due to strong winds. However, we did scenic cruising from each of the port stops in Norway both on sail in (if you were up early enough), and sailaway. Olden, and Skjolden were both several hours of scenic cruising through the Fjords on the way back to the sea. Hope this is some help.
The limiting factor here could be the bus you take to the skylift. Im pretty certain they will be able to stow a wheelchair for sure, but the Skylift and the associated buildings are accessible by ramp and lifts where required.
Another wonderful video! As I am only 12 days away from sailing Sky Princess to Norway myself, your videos have been whetting my appetite. 🙂 I have a couple questions about the service since you were just on her, 1) how did you find the service overall? 2) on average, how long did you wait for OceanNow delivery? I just sailed Sapphire Princess in Alaska and found the crew to be absolutely wonderful. Thank you! Can't wait for my cruise. Cheers!
Thanks for the kind comment. Service overall was really good, the staff were friendly and efficient, with a couple of exceptions that didn't affect us much. OceanNow, was mixed. Sometimes it was really good, breakfast to the cabin was quick, other times, out on deck very slow. If we wanted something in a hurry, we'd just go to the bar and order, or catch a waiter and ask. We loved the ship and the itinerary though, we booked another cruise on Sky as soon as we got home! We hope you enjoy your cruise as much as we did ours.
just to ask how many formal night did they have on your cruise , we are on this cruise in july, looks amazing , did you try all the MDR if so which would you recommend, and a last question did you try the specially dining thank you
Hi there, we had 2 formal nights,.We did all 3 MDR twice, overall we preferred the Estrella, but it was mainly because we had better service in there both times we went. We did Sabatini's, which we enjoyed, but its a lot of food and quite slow, so be prepared to spend an evening there.. We also did both casual options, had pizza at Alfredo's and sushi at Ocean Terrace, and we enjoyed both of those. We didn't do Rudi's or Crown Grill, we just ran out of time! Hope you have a fantastic cruise, we loved the ship and the itinerary.
Hi Rich and Suz, yet another great video - thank you so much for posting it. I will be in Olden on Sky Princess in a couple of weeks and would love to do the skylift, but, like you, would rather wake up and see what the weather is like - I see online it opens at 9am - what time did you buy your tickets in order to get the shuttle bus? I am assuming you got a really early start to avoid the queues? I have a bit of a mobility issue so wondering how much walking is involved from the Shuttle to the lift? thank you so much. Sheila
Hi Sheila! Suz here! We got up "nice" and early at 7am for breakfast and went off the ship about 8:15 and bought our tickets at 8:25. The ticket office is right outside the ship in a little portacabin type thing. There's no walking to the bus as it picks you up and drops you off right outside the ship. At Loen there's a little bit of a walk and some stairs but there is a lift too. I have a mild mobility issue and didn't find it too bad but was a little wary underfoot on the snow. There are some tarmaced paths at the top too which makes walking a little easier. You're going later in the season so there will be less snow (hopefully) but potential for more visitors, so early is better.
Hi there, I'm not sure which dancing you mean. If the Sailaway party, that's whenever the ship departs, in this case around 5pm. Otherwise, there was late night dance party in the Atrium, and Vista Lounge.
Thoroughly enjoying this series...thank you! I'm taking Sky Princess on the Land of the Midnight Sun cruise soon. So, getting this preview has been inspirational. Cheers! 🙂
Thank you for the wonderful scenery shots. So many cabins to avoid on these newer ships. Ones that don't look down on the sea are on my avoid list as are ones that are looked down on or ones that stick out and look across at others.
Glad you enjoyed the scenery, it was the main reason to visit the Fjords for sure. And yes there are a lot of balcony cabins now that really don't have a good view. We were quite happy with ours, as we'd just booked a guaranteed obstructed balcony, not expecting to spend much time on it in April, in Norway. As it turned out, it had a pretty decent view.
Hi Suz here. The canopy only actually covers the bulgy deck bit of the ship where in the warmer months there is seating for the "Catch by Rudi" so youre not missing out on any downward sea view
Hi there, sorry we didn't speed test it, we just had the 'Princess Plus' 1 device per person stock WiFi, and it was adequate for browsing, social media etc.
I think it was pretty much a full cruise, a lot of what I filmed was when places were a bit quieter. Certainly on the sea days, space in the Piazza and the inside bars was at a premium! We never had a problem finding somewhere to settle though as theres plenty of venues to choose from
Hope you enjoy/find it useful. Going to post some more vlogs from this trip as well. Also, hope you enjoy the cruise and the ship as much as we did, we had a really awesome time!
Sorry for the slow reply, we've been away and just got home. That's a tough question, we really liked both, and they were quite similar in many ways. The bathrooms were pretty much the same layout, storage was similar in both, both are a little old fashioned, but well kept. I think the Fred Olsen cabin felt a little bigger, but we didn't mind the slightly compact feel of the Aurora one, it felt cosy, and comfortable to us, rather than cramped. We did prefer the location of the Aurora cabin we had though, as it was much closer to everything, including Raffles coffee bar. Sorry if this isn't much help, but they are both nice cabins, in our opinion at least.
Its not the biggest cabin, but we didn't find it claustrophobic, more cosy. Theres plenty of light from the decent sized window, it's got pretty much everything you'd need, storage is good and the bathroom is a decent size. Theres not a massive amount of floor space as they've put in the sofa/tables etc, but we'd definitely book one like it again, for any length of trip to be honest.
Thank you, glad you enjoyed it. I think the ship was actually pretty full, I try to avoid filming where its busy, so most of what you'll see is early, or late, or when a bar/restaurant is quiet. There were definitely times when every place onboard felt pretty busy!
Apologies if you're not a fan of watching people drinking on holidays, as a lot of our content does show that. We do enjoy a drink or 2 whilst on holiday, particularly on a cruise, and love getting around all the different bars onboard. However, our everyday lifestyle is nothing like this, so I think it balances out fine.
We have never been on Aurora. Your video gave us a real feel for the ship. We liked the look of it! We started a YT channel about the same time as you. Good luck with it, new subscribers here 😀👍
We hope you have a wonderful time! We really enjoyed the Aurora, and are already looking at options for another cruise on her. Unfortunately not 65 days, though!
Thanks for the kind comment. Lisbon is a beautiful city and we really enjoyed our stay. And apologies for the slow reply, we're just back from a 4 night cruise.
I am doing 2 night S'ton to Newcastle on 28 Feb. For 2 people sharing cabin £99 each. For solo has cost me £149 + £30 for coach back to S'ton. So cheap, but perhaps that is because I only booked less than 4 weeks to cruise. How many hours approx did the coach take from S'ton to Newcastle?
We saw that, and if we weren't on another holiday we'd also do that for sure! Hope you have a wonderful cruise. And I believe the coach back was around 7 hours, including a stop for bathroom/lunch. And apologies for late reply.
Apologies for late reply, and no, I don't recall any karaoke onboard. The ship was too empty for it anyway. Hope you have a great cruise, and hopefully there might be some on yours. There was on our last 2 night from Liverpool, I think.
Please may I ask if those lovely pleases in Amsterdam where you grabbed drinks and snacks accepted card or did you need some cash with you? We sail to Amsterdam in a couple of weeks and unsure whether to get some euros or not. Thank you.
Of course. Everywhere we went in Amsterdam accepts card. We do take a few euros just so as to be able to leave a tip in places, and its possible you might find the odd place that doesn't take card, the same as in the UK, but generally I would think you can get by without. And enjoy your trip there, Amsterdam is a lovely city!
@@richandsuzcruise thank you for taking the time to reply. We’re going to get a few euros as suggested (hadn’t thought about it tips, good point). Thank you.
We spent 2 weeks on P&O Arvia last September without a drink package and I was shocked that we'd spent £330 on drinks. I wouldn't (and won't) in the future buy a package as we don't drink anywhere near enough to justify it. £100 a day over 2 weeks? That's £1,400 on alcohol which would pay for another cruise! Each to their own but I'd rather have another trip than booze.
You're right, a drinks package on a longer cruise can seem like a bit of a hefty investment. The longer cruises we've done (and booked for the future) have either had included drinks, or really good deals on a drinks package. And we would probably make the same choice.
I've just stumbled onto your videos, really enjoy the gentle music and your narrative is soothing and informative, your tour of the Balmoral was so good I felt that I was aboard and I love your appreciation of wines and other beverages, I will be following you from now on, cheers