Star Princess Cruise Review - Part 1
Cruise Line: Princess Cruises
Cruise Ship: Star Princess
Cruise Destination: Baltics and Northern Europe
Cruise Dates: May 2005
Guest Contributor: Ed Schlenk
Background in my late fifties and with my wife have been on sixteen previous cruises on six different cruise lines. What follows is a highly personalized review, with travel suggestions for the budget-minded cruiser. Since this review is quite lengthy, I have highlighted paragraphs with a key phrase so that the reader can skip down to any topic of particular interest.
I will begin with general cruise information, followed by specific Star Princess information, and end with suggestions for independent port of call excursions.
Please remember that prices and itineraries change, and some of the following information may not be accurate at the time of your cruise. Although our cruise was on the Star Princess, the general cruise information and the port information given in this review should be useful to any cruiser on a Baltic itinerary.
Last Things First: In summary, this is a very enjoyable 10 night, port-intensive cruise on an enormous (109,000 tons, 2600 passengers, and 1100 crew) but well-designed and well-run ship, cruising round trip from Copenhagen, and calling at easy-to-enjoy ports in Scandinavia and Eastern Europe.
Pros: Very reasonable cruise price ($1,100 per person for the best inside cabin category including all port fees and taxes, which is especially important now that the dollar is worth so little in Europe), great ports of call (each is or was an historic capital), ease of making inexpensive independent shore excursions (great public transport), ease of communication (almost everyone in Scandinavia speaks English).
Cons: Expensive airfares to Europe in high season; expensive visas (or non-visa shore excursions) in St. Petersburg; distance from the dock to the city center in several of the ports; different currencies in almost every port (more about all of these issues later in this review).
Itinerary: This cruise begins and ends in Copenhagen, with stops at Nynashamn (for Stockholm), Helsinki, St. Petersburg, Tallinn, Gdynia (for Gdansk/Danzig), and Oslo. This itinerary alternates between Oslo and Warnemunde (for Berlin) based on departure date. The disadvantage of this itinerary is that only a part day is available in Stockholm, Tallinn, and Oslo. The advantage is that this cruise begins and ends in the Baltic area, and one does not waste cruise days (and expenses) repositioning from England or Holland to the Baltic Sea. There are two days at sea, near the beginning and end of the cruise, to recover from jet lag and excursion fatigue.
Section 1 -- General Cruise Information
Why Cruise In Europe: European cruises tend to be expensive relative to North American cruises, especially when one adds the cost of airfare from the U.S. However, cruising is a way of controlling your costs by pre-paying most of your expenses in U.S. dollars. In addition, most European cruise ports are user-friendly and can be thoroughly explored for about $10 per person (see port sightseeing suggestions below).
Some of our favorite cruise lines like Celebrity and Holland America have recently priced their European (and Alaskan) cruises out of our market, but Princess offers some very reasonable cruise fares in this region, and we were very happy with the quality of this Princess cruise. Ironically, while on this cruise I received an e-mail from Princess advertising that their subsequent Baltic Star Princess cruise departures were being discounted even further, beginning at $800 per person (I don’t know if port and tax were included) for an inside cabin during late May and June, 2005. Such news is always frustrating for those who have already booked and paid for a cruise, but cruises are like stocks or airline tickets – someone has always paid less than you did, so don’t sweat it. If you did your homework, you still got a good value.
Page 2 > > Cruising the Baltics > >
Cruise Ship: Star Princess
Cruise Destination: Baltics and Northern Europe
Cruise Dates: May 2005
Guest Contributor: Ed Schlenk
Background in my late fifties and with my wife have been on sixteen previous cruises on six different cruise lines. What follows is a highly personalized review, with travel suggestions for the budget-minded cruiser. Since this review is quite lengthy, I have highlighted paragraphs with a key phrase so that the reader can skip down to any topic of particular interest.
I will begin with general cruise information, followed by specific Star Princess information, and end with suggestions for independent port of call excursions.
Please remember that prices and itineraries change, and some of the following information may not be accurate at the time of your cruise. Although our cruise was on the Star Princess, the general cruise information and the port information given in this review should be useful to any cruiser on a Baltic itinerary.
Last Things First: In summary, this is a very enjoyable 10 night, port-intensive cruise on an enormous (109,000 tons, 2600 passengers, and 1100 crew) but well-designed and well-run ship, cruising round trip from Copenhagen, and calling at easy-to-enjoy ports in Scandinavia and Eastern Europe.
Pros: Very reasonable cruise price ($1,100 per person for the best inside cabin category including all port fees and taxes, which is especially important now that the dollar is worth so little in Europe), great ports of call (each is or was an historic capital), ease of making inexpensive independent shore excursions (great public transport), ease of communication (almost everyone in Scandinavia speaks English).
Cons: Expensive airfares to Europe in high season; expensive visas (or non-visa shore excursions) in St. Petersburg; distance from the dock to the city center in several of the ports; different currencies in almost every port (more about all of these issues later in this review).
Itinerary: This cruise begins and ends in Copenhagen, with stops at Nynashamn (for Stockholm), Helsinki, St. Petersburg, Tallinn, Gdynia (for Gdansk/Danzig), and Oslo. This itinerary alternates between Oslo and Warnemunde (for Berlin) based on departure date. The disadvantage of this itinerary is that only a part day is available in Stockholm, Tallinn, and Oslo. The advantage is that this cruise begins and ends in the Baltic area, and one does not waste cruise days (and expenses) repositioning from England or Holland to the Baltic Sea. There are two days at sea, near the beginning and end of the cruise, to recover from jet lag and excursion fatigue.
Section 1 -- General Cruise Information
Why Cruise In Europe: European cruises tend to be expensive relative to North American cruises, especially when one adds the cost of airfare from the U.S. However, cruising is a way of controlling your costs by pre-paying most of your expenses in U.S. dollars. In addition, most European cruise ports are user-friendly and can be thoroughly explored for about $10 per person (see port sightseeing suggestions below).
Some of our favorite cruise lines like Celebrity and Holland America have recently priced their European (and Alaskan) cruises out of our market, but Princess offers some very reasonable cruise fares in this region, and we were very happy with the quality of this Princess cruise. Ironically, while on this cruise I received an e-mail from Princess advertising that their subsequent Baltic Star Princess cruise departures were being discounted even further, beginning at $800 per person (I don’t know if port and tax were included) for an inside cabin during late May and June, 2005. Such news is always frustrating for those who have already booked and paid for a cruise, but cruises are like stocks or airline tickets – someone has always paid less than you did, so don’t sweat it. If you did your homework, you still got a good value.
Page 2 > > Cruising the Baltics > >
