DW and I just returned from our Iceland Norway Explorer transatlantic cruise on the Caribbean Princess. It was our 16th overall cruise, 9th in a row on Princess, and our 5th transatlantic. For this journey we had DW's sister and her hubby also sailed with us. Prior to the cruise we had a very active roll call thread where we got to know one another via the cyber world. Our group was named "NICEINGA Cruisers." An active roll call in my opinion is a great way to plan cruise related things and to also get to know your fellow roll call members.

For our pre cruise stay, we stayed four nights at the Hilton Doubletree in the Westminster area of London. The Doubletree is a very nice hotel with a super staff who attended to all of our needs. The hotel is a little pricey but well worth the few extra dollars it will cost you. During our four days in London, I mainly walked around and took in the sights while taking a ton of pictures. We also took a day trip to Paris, via the Eurostar train, where we had lunch in the Eiffel Tower, took a cruise on the Seine river, and had a brief stop at the Louvre. I privately booked this excursion and while it was very enjoyable it was definitely a little rushed. The night before we took the long taxi ride to Southampton, we met up with a fellow roll call member for dinner at the Loosebox Bar/Grill. The dinner was very nice and the company was great.

The day of embarkation, we made our way to Southampton to the cruise terminal. The entire embarkation process was very smooth and we were onboard in about thirty minutes after arriving. Since we are quite familiar with Princess ships, we had no trouble finding our way to our aft facing PH suite on the Aloha deck. When we arrived, we were immediately met by our cabin Steward "Dijo" who hailed from India. Dijo did a very good job throughout the entire cruise taking care of our cabin and was very attentive to our needs. Read more