Goodtime Cruizin

Did you see this guy? Our Helsinki tour started early that morning and one of the first thing we saw leaving the port was this statue. It's called Bad Bad Boy.  The story has it that is was introduced in 2014 and placed in the East harbor but eventually moved to the West Harbor in 2016. It got my attention for sure. LOL  The second image is when it was at the East Harbor which I found on the web. 

You'd probably win that arguement too! It just seemed everyone was following everyone.  Having said that, we thoroughly enjoyed SPB. Two days was enough to tell me that two days wasn't nearly enough! 

John, Laura's hat looks great on her! Good job. Better than your composed picture hat for sure. Ha. It looks like y'all had a great time in St.Petersburg. Looking forward to the Helsinki pics. 

We enjoyed a 2 day small group tour w/ SPC tours. Amazing guide w/ a great sense of humor. We learned alot but noticed that everyone goes to the same places. All the guide services pretty much carry everyone where 'they' want you to go and show you what 'they' i.e. Russia wants you to see. I've attached a couple of videos of the commuter subway. It was beautiful. But we did not take a ride though as we actually convinced our guide & driver to take us to a 'grocery store' somewhere off the beaten path. She could not believe we wanted to go to a mart. But we did! Spent about 20 minutes in a store about the size of an Aldi. It was fun. We all bought a few snacks. Someone bought beer, which BTW was shelf temperature, beer is not sold cold!  Anyway we all jumped back into the van and away we went. Goodtimes!

 https://www.dropbox.com/s/c27tbg762w1vb34/IMG_4228.MOV?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/sc/gzgtecj23zodgym/AADodkzRoi6M_ftBBvjgwSCca

Talin's beauty is also in that is has embraced tourism but not a complete submission yet. Relatively speaking, Talin is still in it's infancy as far as tourism goes. The people were gracious and only matched by the sights & sounds. It's a wonderful port stop. 

There is no doubt that I would have had to stop for a beer in the Texas Honky Tonk even if it required a quick chugging. Great image right there. 

Awesome pictures and great review. Keep'em coming! 

BTW, Talin was the port stop our cruise that fell on our 40th wedding anniversary. We really enjoyed it and it's also where my avatar pic is from! Cheers!   

On 6/27/2020 at 4:33 AM, CRUISEFAN0001 said:

Interesting that the sinking smelly city with sewage commonplace in the canals isn't part of the problem. Going there in July or August (hot days when the canals warm up) exposed just how bad things have gotten.

 

Yes, the ships have caused some havoc there in recent times, but the city itself is rapidly declining in condition, rendering it a problem destination for tourists anyway.

 

It's a shame...but reality is that going there 10 years ago and current times is a completely different experience (and not better).

Which means that it can be corrected as well. IF and only IF there is enough people to organize and push for it. I think they will. I hope they will. It may cost more money to travel to/from, stay over night, and eat in the once beautiful tourist city, but it can be cleaned up w/ proper management. 

...and along the way on the walking tour... we walked right by this establishment. Turns out, the owner received his undergrad at UT and loved it so much he set up shop back home in Stockholm. 

One thing we noticed was how crowded Stockholm was. From adults to kids, everyone was out & about. I asked our guide if it was a holiday or something her reply was, "No it's just that the temperature is to be in the low 70's today, so everyone has taken off work. We don't get many days like this in May."   We took a water taxi to cross over from Stockholm to Djurgarden Island. We visited the Vasa Museum, enjoyed a nice lunch in a beautiful park and also grabbed a quick pic of us at the Abby mural. 

In the 1800's you had to pay a fire tax before the Fire Dept would come to your home in a fire emergency. The emblem above the door let the firemen know if you had paid or not. No emblem, no help in a fire!

We did a guided walking tour and we met in old Square. We arrived early enough to grab a coffee and breakfast at this lil restaurant... 

 few of our pics from Stockholm.  The wife set her alarm to wake up for sunrise @ 3:45am ! Not me though. Ha! 

We were enjoying dinner w/ a nice table of eight. Our party, and two Aussie couples. Luckily we were at a nice table by a window w/ an great view right at sunset. It was amazing. Thanks for jogging the memory bank.

Good... we were blessed & fortunate to have the Hurricane go east of us last night by about 150 miles or so... so we didn't recieve even a drop of rain. In fact, I'm watering the lawn right now. LOL  

Diggin' your review. We were on the Brilliance in May 2018 for a Baltic Cruise but we started in Amsterdam. Coppenhagen was my favorite port. We did a Segway tour and was able to cover a lot of ground pretty quickly. I hope you don't mind me sharing a video. After a bit I as able to get comfortable enough to one hand the segway and shoot video too.  Hope this link works... here goes. 

Three different videos. 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/p11wqpbil1wk28c/Video May 13%2C 5 08 52 AM.mov?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/x5v5efabvz1e3vw/Video May 13%2C 5 10 28 AM.mov?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ajcyjilokt66q56/Video May 13%2C 4 56 19 AM.mov?dl=0

I'm not sure but I don't think I'll buy any flights until we have a better picture of travel. Getting flight money returned is trickier than even the cruise itself as I use points in most cases. But again we have some time yet. I'll most likely address it right after the first of the new year. 

14 minutes ago, Ashland said:

Are you worried about our entry for our July 30, 2021 British Isles itinerary ?

I will eventually i'm sure. Especially Amsterdam. And espcially as we get close to final payment due date. But right now, we have time on our side. What are your thoughts?

Just received this from our TA.  I have not varied everything.

Effective August 11, all non-residents must arrive with a negative COVID-19 PCR test taken within 72 hours prior to departure or proof of a pending test result from a test taken within 72 hours prior to departure. Non-residents should test 72 hours before departure and upload negative result into the Alaska Travel Portal,  If tested 72 hours before departure and awaiting results, travelers will need to upload proof of test taken into the Alaska Travel Portal and quarantine while waiting. If a non-resident arrives without a pre-test, testing is available for $250 per test. The traveler will be required to quarantine while waiting on results which could be 3-5 days.

Effective October 1,  travelers to Hawaii who have a valid negative COVID-19 test 72 hours prior to boarding their flight to Hawaii will not be subject to the 14-day quarantine. This test must be done prior to arrival and the traveler must present evidence of the test. Travelers will be responsible for the cost of the pre-travel test. No testing will be provided upon arrival at the airport. For more information, visit the Hawaii Visitors and Convention Bureau, and the Hawaii Department of Transportation.

Antigua & Barbuda - Effective July 16, 2020: Open for tourism and business travel. Requires documentation, testing, and health screening. Ask one of our travel experts for specific regulations.

Aruba - Effective August 13, 2020: Open for tourism and business travel. Requires documentation, testing, and health screening. Ask one of our travel experts for specific regulations.

Bermuda - Effective August 14, 2020: Open for tourism and business travel. Requires documentation, testing, and health screening. Ask one of our travel experts for specific regulations.

Costa Rica - Effective September 1, 2020: Open for tourism and business travel for residents of six states from the United States of America (New York, New Jersey, New Hampshire, Vermont, Maine and Connecticut). Requires documentation, testing, and health screening. Ask one of our travel experts for specific regulations.

Dominican Republic - Effective July 30, 2020: Open for tourism and business travel. Requires documentation, testing, and health screening. Ask one of our travel experts for specific regulations.

Jamaica - Effective August 13, 2020: Open for tourism and business travel. Requires documentation, testing, and health screening. Ask one of our travel experts for specific regulations.

Puerto Rico - Effective July 15, 2020: Open for tourism and business travel. Requires documentation, testing, and health screening. Ask one of our travel experts for specific regulations.

St. Lucia - Effective August 7, 2020: Open for tourism and business travel. Requires documentation, testing, and health screening. Ask one of our travel experts for specific regulations.

St. Maarten - Effective July 31, 2020: Open for tourism and business travel. Requires documentation, testing, and health screening. Ask one of our travel experts for specific regulations.

Turks & Caicos - Effective August 14, 2020: Open for tourism and business travel. Requires documentation, testing, and health screening. Ask one of our travel experts for specific regulations.

Although we only had 1 reservation, the emails & the FCCs came in seperate emails.  I was emailed mine and about 3 hours later a second email came regarding my wife. And the FCCs were emailed seperately as well.  We cancelled in late June on the date payment was due for a Greek Isle cruise next  month. 

3 hours ago, lynncarol said:

When I spoke to the agent about redeeming the future credits, he said that the expiration date on them referred to the last date to book another cruise. From that point, I seem to recall him saying that we had until mid 2022 to sail.

Thank you for the reply. That's good to know as we won't be able to use them for 2021. But we'll most likely book a cruise in 2021 fro 2022! 

17 hours ago, chipmaster said:

 

 

 

 

 

The Titanic dwarfs the Liberty. Humans have a need to always be moving forward, progressing, and reaching new heights. Once a vaccine is developed & distributed, us humans will be doing great things again. Fact.  

16 hours ago, chipmaster said:

 

 

 

 

 

Life will return to normal eventually. The 'new' normal is only a temporary fleeing moment in life. This gloom & doom mentality will not last forever. It won't be long before we're all watching Hollywood movies telling us about our lives and individual stories during Covid days. Cruising will exist. Ships will get bigger. 

The world has survived small pox, malaria, polio, HIV, and the list continues. And it came out better on the other side each time. So smile on brother and L&S.  We'll get there. 

Yes. We too received our FCCs yesterday for the full deposit amount. It wasn't much since we booked the cruise at the Next Cruise desk while on a cruise. But we got them! 

I do have a question though. They are dated with an expiration of one year. What if RCL is not cruising by within the next year? Do we then just 'lose out'? 

7 hours ago, yogimax said:

I also could go on and cite evidence that supports exactly the opposite, but what's the point?  I think a good number of people, if not the majority, have their minds made up.  My sense is that much of it is based, not on science, but politics!

How's this for science?  

https://fee.org/articles/npr-mounting-evidence-suggests-covid-not-as-deadly-as-thought-did-the-experts-fail-again/?fbclid=IwAR1ighA94btod6K7TV_iRsc5O1sLWRCHd4IrXHQ9lVnzWaQ4zmZEBmZANb4