Essexlass2

For our first cruise on Brilliance next month, I plan to wear palazzo pants and sparkly tops.

Will that be okay?

Okay, have now experienced this in both Stockholm.

 

I would say, if you want to do the HOHO with the boats - not worth it.

Why do you think its not worth it please? Or do you mean its not worth booking in advance?

Essexlass - The Arts and Crafts was watercolor. Because of the lack of other arts and crafts on the ship, if you wanted to do watercolor you had to get there an hour early to get a spot. I therefore did not attend these classes because I would not stand for an hour to do watercolor. There should have been a second crafts instructor on the ship.

 

The instructor appeared to be one who came through an agency and I would not expect to have watercolor on your cruise. In fact, if it is a Baltic cruise, there may not be any arts and crafts instructor.

 

In addition, RCCL also only had one lecturer who most of us did not like. He talked on a variety of subjects but his powerpoint presentation was a lot better than the depth of the material. After 2 lectures I decided it was not worth giving up my lounge chair in the solarium. I would have expected at least 2 lecturers on a cruise with 9 sea days.

 

Even the port excursion talks were poor because most of the excursions were sold out and the poor girl was asked by people why she was talking about excursions that were not available. Of course the ports (and they were great ports) were one time only for the speaker and she did not have a lot of information. I usually use these talks to help me find out what to do on my own.

 

All in all, there were not enough activities for the number of sea days. RCCL was well aware that the weather was not going to be good for sitting outdoors. The Cruise Director even mentioned this at the beginning of the cruise, that it was good to have a cruise where people did not care about the weather. Therefore, you would have expected more indoor activities.

 

I agree with the comment about the movies. Many of us asked about showing the movies in the theatre rather than the cinema, but they had a few new acts for the longer summer cruises and they were practicing in the theatre in the afternoon.

 

On the other hand, I found the theatre entertainment to be excellent. In February I took a 14 day Celebrity Caribbean cruise and they were desperate for theatre entertainment relying on the lounge acts a few nights. If you normally like the theatre shows, I think you will be happy with the shows. Only one poor juggling act.

There was also a series of jewelry making classes in the Schooner Bar. I passed by them on several days. To your point, I'm not sure one could expect whatever was on the TA to be carried over to the Baltic.

Thank you both for your comments. I wouldn't be interested in water colour painting (can hardly manage to do matchstick men!) but the jewellery making or maybe beading, cardmaking, etc would be more my thing. Because a Baltic cruise is so port intensive, it might just be that on the rare sea days all we shall want to do is to relax and catch our breath in readiness for the next port of call, but it would be nice to learn a new craft or enjoy a good lecture.

We do love the theatre shows and it seems that we might be lucky there! :D

Anyone know what the craft sessions consisted of please? We're due on Brilliance one month from today, yay!! :D

Thanks for a great review!

I just made the Ranger Cookies on the King Arthur web site. OMG, they are like CRACK!! So freaking good! I used butterscotch chips instead of chocolate. I've never been on a RCI cruise before so I don't know if they even put chips or nuts in them. But these that I made are just divine! Never going to lose the 5lbs before the cruise at this rate!

 

http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/ranger-cookies-recipe

Anzura thank you so much for that link - it gives the equivalent measures for us here in UK to be able to make them too. :D

Mmmm, that would be a great shame though, especially as Brilliance is an American ship and will be carrying many American passengers along with those of us from the UK and other countries.

Does the tram route go anywhere near Sibelius Park please?

Thanks Mickie! :)

Hi Essexlass2, would you be kind enough to let me have a copy of the Tallinn Walking Tour PDF. Many thanks... mjpharrison at yahoo.co.uk

If possible I would really appreciate the walking tour too. prawny2@live.co.uk

 

Thankyou.

Both sent today :)

We will be on Brilliance on 4th July and wonder if anything special might be arranged on board. Any thoughts please?

We have booked the 2015 NCL North Cape cruise - 14 days - but are now considering the 7 day NCL cruise leaving a week earlier which goes to Alesund, Geiranger, Flam and Bergen. While it does not go to the Lotofen Islands or above the Arctic Circle, it does have decent 10 hour stops in each port and may be a better itinerary to see several fjords. Any thoughts?

Whichever cruise you choose, do make sure the itinerary includes Flam and Geiranger, two of the best fjords IMO and Alesund is nice too :)

We are also interested in the walking tour of Tallinn- could you email it to us at mockfour@yahoo.com as well?

Thanks for your help!

Can we please have the PDF of walking tour .l.downing@btinternet.com

Thank you :)

Sent to you both. Happy cruisin, I addressed the email exactly as you have put the address here but not sure if the first dot should be there. Let me know if you don't receive it and I will try again :)

looking for a walking tour of Tallinn as well. Please email to kpytoi9@comcast.net

The pictures sold me, looks like a great walking tour. If someone could please email the directions to bigkahuna at rochester dot rr dot com I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks so much.

Sent! :)

Look in to KGB Secret tour at the hotel Sokos in Tallinn. Very worthwhile, inexpensive, book online in advance.

Is that in the old town please?

I-Cruiser and Terry from Ohio are the best cruisers to give you the very best advice. Personally, I would recommend any cruise that includes Geiranger and Flam, both typical of the beautiful fjords Norway has to offer. We went at the end of May and right up to the North Cape, beautiful weather all the way and stunning scenery every day.

Coming from the UK and never yet having sailed with Royal Caribbean (first trip coming up in July), I have read this thread with GREAT interest. So, ladies, where do I go on Brilliance to find these yummy sounding cookies and what varieties are there please? I'm ready to take notes!

Oh, and can someone tell me please how many ounces there are in a cup measurement in US so that when love2cruiseforfree posts the recipe, I can join you all and give it a go. :D

Could anyone send me a pdf Tallin walking map? I am going in July.

 

nez168@gmail.com

 

thank you.

 

Nez

Yep, done! :)

I too would appreciate someone on this board to send me a copy of the Tallinn Walking Map. Thanks in advance for sharing.

 

kjg46@embarqmail.com

 

All the best,

 

Kevin

Could you send the link to: wilfredas@gmail.com?

 

Thanks!

Sent to all of you :)

What do people usually do about having breakfast on the two days they have in St Petersburg?

Both days are early start for those with tours booked and I wonder if most go to the buffet before disembarking or do they grab something from the buffet that morning or the night before or maybe use room service or simply don't bother! I can imagine it will be very busy very early just about everywhere as all the tour operators ask passengers to be out on the dock as soon as the ship docks and they can get ashore and through immigration.

I'd be interested to hear what others plan to do or have done in the past :)

"Chogs" - love it! That term is great and will stick in our memories now :D

LOL sorry, why are some people having trouble understanding OP? :D She said she and her partner were just on Allure and the Purel sanitizer was out - the staff asks passengers to sanitize before they enter the Windjammer and such. He declined to do so, got sick, she is going to razz him about it forever now!

Thanks for the translation. I didn't understand what the OP was saying.

Three tips to maybe help avoid norovirus or any other virus -

(1) Use the sanitiser!

(2) Keep hands away from nose and mouth.

(3) Put some Vaseline up your nostrils; it helps stop those nasty germs getting past and into your system.

Follow this link

 

http://www.premierinn.com/en/hotel/LONCOU/london-county-hall?CID=TRA_US_BL_LONCOU

 

It will take you to London County Hall Hotel, a Premier Inn Hotel

 

Been to London many times and this hotel beats all others hands down for great room sizes... and location location location -- it is right next to the London Eye... a short walk to Big Ben... and several tube stations! You won't be disappointed with this location and hotel! And it is a great price.

I second that too! We always book Premier Inns wherever we go in England, good hotels, good locations and great prices.

A train from nearby Waterloo station will take you down to Southampton.

Enjoy your stay in London and your cruise! :D

Oh okay, thank you. I thought they were going to whip away our 5% discount altogether as we are Pacific level (I think). I assume that will still apply then for future cruises or maybe not, maybe just on purchases made on board?

We decided that we would try another cruiseline before booking with P&O again and are now looking forward to a Baltic cruise with RCI in July, sailing from Harwich which is much nearer to where we live than the journey down to Southampton. We're not sure if we're going to like it, but if we don't try it then we won't know :D

I have also received a similar email and a card through the post as well. I don't understand why I've received this notification because we've never been told this previously. Its only six months since our last P&O cruise and we'd left it longer in the past before booking and didn't lose our discount then.

Am I not understanding this properly or have P&O changed the goalposts? :confused:

Its the old, old story - in general, those from Down Under prefer their own Vegemite and those from UK prefer our own Marmite. Personally, I don't like either! :D I do, however, like a thin spread of Bovril :)