CassCruise

We have stayed at the Hotel Alexander Plaza and really enjoyed it! Good location and lovely staff

On 5/19/2021 at 11:41 PM, CassCruise said:

In 2009 we stayed at the Hotel Bethel before and the Admiral after our cruise - loved both - so my thoughts on some of the differences the Admiral is a lot bigger and has bars, restaurants etc, with Hotel Bethel it is smaller and breakfast was included but no air con with the Admiral no breakfast but you can request a room with air conditioning which we did request and receive which was good.  Hotel Bethel is right on the canal with all the restaurants etc and the hoho bus right on the doorstep with the Admiral is a little further down the road but still very easily walkable but the Admiral is closer to the Palaces.  I would happily stay at either but would look at price and if both are equal would probably give the nudge to Hotel Bethel if it wasn't in summer.

 

Jane

 

On 5/19/2021 at 11:41 PM, CassCruise said:

In 2009 we stayed at the Hotel Bethel before and the Admiral after our cruise - loved both - so my thoughts on some of the differences the Admiral is a lot bigger and has bars, restaurants etc, with Hotel Bethel it is smaller and breakfast was included but no air con with the Admiral no breakfast but you can request a room with air conditioning which we did request and receive which was good.  Hotel Bethel is right on the canal with all the restaurants etc and the hoho bus right on the doorstep with the Admiral is a little further down the road but still very easily walkable but the Admiral is closer to the Palaces.  I would happily stay at either but would look at price and if both are equal would probably give the nudge to Hotel Bethel if it wasn't in summer.

 

Jane

Sorry that should read 2019 we stayed at the above!

I went with my daughter in 2019 and we only had 2 days in St Petersburg and elected to do the one day tour to Moscow (we had no choice but to do a ships tour as none of the "big" companies do it when there is only an overnight stopover) - I must say it was cold, wet and generally miserable weather (which we were totally unprepared for) and a super long day leaving at 6am and returning about 1.30am but we smiled the whole time and so thoroughly enjoyed this tour and to this day are so pleased we did this tour and I would say it is if not close to the best tour I have ever done - worth every cent.  The next day we managed to still see a bit of St Petersburg!

In 2009 we stayed at the Hotel Bethel before and the Admiral after our cruise - loved both - so my thoughts on some of the differences the Admiral is a lot bigger and has bars, restaurants etc, with Hotel Bethel it is smaller and breakfast was included but no air con with the Admiral no breakfast but you can request a room with air conditioning which we did request and receive which was good.  Hotel Bethel is right on the canal with all the restaurants etc and the hoho bus right on the doorstep with the Admiral is a little further down the road but still very easily walkable but the Admiral is closer to the Palaces.  I would happily stay at either but would look at price and if both are equal would probably give the nudge to Hotel Bethel if it wasn't in summer.

 

Jane

On 1/15/2021 at 9:53 AM, sansterre said:

How far away was the Tallinn Prison and what made it fascinating?

Did you see anything else of interest outside the city?

The age of the prison,  a glimpse into a long (and sad) history -  the fact that it was only closed relatively recently and something different to end the day.  It was only a short taxi ride to the terminal -  on a side note it was one of the most memorable because of the taxi driver - we laughed all the way and still think very fondly of him!

We went in August 2018 and it was so hard to organise a tour in Qaortoq but I am so so glad my persistence paid off - we did one of the best most memorable tours here - fast boat to a glacier - passing miles of icebergs was just magical the details of who we used are below

I second Hotel Bethel where we stayed pre cruise - post cruise we stayed at Admiral Hotel which was also very good (steps from the palaces)

Apart from walking the streets of the Old Town we caught a taxi to and found the Tallinn Prison a fascinating place to visit also!

I recently had trouble also - I rang Princess (even though I had booked through a TA who I might add was OS so couldn't get her help) and had no problem booking through their rep - they said there is sometimes a glitch!!!!

OK so my 2cents worth now my money has finally gone into the bank I want to also express my bitter disappointment with Scenic - I too was sucked in by the glossy brochures/video - without going too much into it the likelihood of being able to do this again with my daughter is slim - nothing serious just timing with dd finishing uni, jobs and several other factors etc etc etc  We had planned well in advanced paid the high non refundable deposit 18 months early again etc as others did - whilst you can never say never I with 99.9% certainty will never consider this company in the future.  The fact they were ringing my TA on the Friday (payment was due on the following Tuesday) asking for payment a few days early (thankfully she said she would pay on the due date) - to be honest I find that quite unconsciable.  With their "generous" rebooking option it would have cost me several thousand more for the same cruise - nope not for me customer service attrocious even if it is only now I have received my money.

I am another out hundreds of dollars and one of the things that really annoys me is they rang my TA for final payment on the Friday which was due on the Monday and on the Monday they cancelled my cruise!!!!!!!!!!!!!! apart from the appalling treatment and "goodwill" that really really gets me - I agree seek clarification in writing that your cruise is going ahead prior to making final payment as I am sure you will forfeit your deposit otherwise as per their terms and conditions

I believe we are going enter around 5am we are anchored for the night

thank you for that - unfortunately there seems to be very limited info out there - I suppose we will soon find out - is anyone else on December 6 sailing??

 

Jane

We are booked on the 6 December Antartica cruise and really looking forward to it

 

Jane

Just lost all interest in dreaming of a World Cruise.....

we are doing quite a bit of travel next year including the world cruise - apart from the visas I have just spent over $3000 for the 3 of us for vaccinations and 2 of us for Indian visas!!! sure will get a bit back from our health fund but my goodness not cheap!!

What I would like to know whether Portside will continue to function as a cruise terminal - anyone know??

We used Back to Natures tours in March and they were fabulous - did the train and then a tour out to the Otago peninsular and was one of our favourite tours - so much so wanted to do it again in December but unfortunately both trains seem to be being utilised (Celebrity and NCL in port that day) with not even being able to do it as Celebrity not offering tours there :(

 

Jane

I would also be interested in tours people have done in Barcelona and was wondering if anyone has done one of their tours in Lisbon? All very exciting!

 

Jane

We are booked on an Antartic cruise on the Eclipse - I am not sure how much extra it cost but with the non refundable deposits there is an option to purchase a no questions asked (up until final payment) option to have your deposit fully refundable - only discovered that yesterday when talking to someone from Scenic - she advised that my TA had already included that option for us.

You all seem to have been fairly lucky - I have now over the past week and a bit faxed as instructed, phoned 3 times to 2 different numbers I was given, emailed to the address I was given by princess and now phoned again and have been given yet another email address (the one I have just seen Rosie has posted) so am extremely frustrated by the process!!!!! Zero corro has been received except for the wrong email with the stock standard reply stating received my email yada yada yada!

When we missed the sounds, it was announced when we were in Port Chalmers, we came back via Cook Strait

We were there January 2016 on the Sea Princess and paid $15 direct to the locals and instead of a piece of wool recvd a colored wrist band!

Thank you for that - I heard the ships horns sounding before and wondered who was in town!

We've only been on the Diamond & loved the in room movies on the tv.

 

So with the Emerald ...how does the older system work do you not have a choice movies on the tv in your stateroom?

You have very limited selection and normally they repeat the "movie of the day" the following day several set times as opposed to the new system which is fabulous with an enormous selection and the ability to pause/rewind etc - loved it on the Sun as it is something in the real world I rarely get to indulge in!

Stu, does the Emerald still have the old type of inroom tv entertainment or the newer on demand??