Review of Baltic Cruise on the Regal June 13-24/2017

Here I go. ..Just got off a couple weeks ago from the Baltic 12 day cruise round trip Copenhagen Denmark.

The itinerary was

Copenhagen, Denmark

Oslo, Norway

Sea day

Rostock, Germany

Sea Day

Was supposed to be Tallin, Estonia (didn't make it in)

St. Petersburg for 2 days

Helsinki, Finland

Nynashamn,Sweden for Stockholm

Sea Day

Copenhagen Denmark

Captain : Tim Stringer

Cruise Director: Kelly Rose

Executive Chef : Flroin Dragan

I'm going to try to post pictures from my phone with the Cruise Critic app.

Not sure how but hope I figure it out.

I have a Samsung Galaxy so we will see what happens.

We had a great airfare that we got through EZ air. I always find that the airfare is cheaper after you log into your cruise personalizer. So we are on Air Canada all the way to Copenhagen with a change of planes in Toronto. We were delayed leaving L.A. by 45 minutes which left our already tight transfer even worse. We landed in Toronto when we should be boarding our next flight and thought we would be screwed. But there were about 13 or so more passengers on our flight that were also connecting so they held the plane as we ran down the people movers to go through a quick customs check and run down some more people movers. Sorry to the people who had to wait for us

Now onto Copenhagen.

]We are exhausted and tired when we arrive but ready to adjust to the time change by heading out to the city. We meet our friends who live in Copenhagen and will spend our next two days eating, laughing, and exploring new places amidst the sea of bicycles. Let me say that this is a truly bike friendly city and if you don't have one.....you will feel out of place.

]We head down to the park facing the river and wanted to book the little motor boat that had a table to eat picnic style food. But if you don't reserve it ...they will be sold out. So we settled on the waterfront to eat our little picnic of fruit, crackers, bread and cheese and catch up on all our stories.

After that we head towards the main tourist street with waterfront cafes and sherbet painted houses that offer canal rides through out the city. Instead we walk through the town sightseeing before we head back to the apartment for a couple hours of sleep.

Quick shower and we head out to dinner at a restaurant called Neptune which is known for it's Hygge. A Denmark term I learned for "Coziness" or "good atmosphere". The menus are a lot different from American menus so it's a little challenging to navigate especially if you are a vegetarian. They will usually advise you to order a few things....like appetizer or salad with a hot meal. Their drinks are a mixology of herbs and liquor which turn out to be sparkly and refreshing. I went for the cheese and basil appetizer with vege tempura and cod for the main. The portions are small which are perfect because you will be full after that. A great night with friends food and drink.

Now to go home and catch some zzzzz's before 2nd day in Copenhagen.

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Streets of Copenhagen

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It's good you have friends in Copenhagen to guide you around to real good places.

Church in Copenhagen

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It's good you have friends in Copenhagen to guide you around to real good places.

Yes easyboy and a good deal on their place. Free. But we paid for dinners, taxis, entrance fees...whatever we could for their hospitality. And they did know the good restaurants to go and we appreciate that!

On our previous Baltic cruise, we went to sites with our Copenhagen card but not in a good restaurant. We missed that.

Will be following your review.

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We are leaving for the Baltic cruise from Copenhagen on 8/29.

I am eagerly following another thread on the Baltic and am thrilled to now follow yours as well.

Following! Can't wait to read the rest. Doing same itinerary next week.

We are leaving for the Baltic cruise from Copenhagen on 8/29.

I am eagerly following another thread on the Baltic and am thrilled to now follow yours as well.

OK my goal is to finish it this weekend.:p:D

Following! Can't wait to read the rest. Doing same itinerary next week.

OK I better hurry and get this done. My weekend will try to be dedicated to this.

Day 2 in Copenhagen.

After we sleep in we get up , shower and head out for breakfast. Our friends are truly helpful as they can navigate us through the metro system and take us to their favorite places. An out of the way breakfast cafe with organic fruit smoothies and mushroom and cheese omelettes. It's so nice to not be on a schedule and take our time enjoying the day.

Next stop is Christianborg castle. We visit the ruins, the formal castle and the horse stables. Before going into the castle you will need to put on some dispoble blue booties over your shoes so you might as well take a photo of this lovely fashion statement. A magnificent castle with ornate rooms and grand ceilings. The horses weren't there this time of the year but was interesting to see all the history there.

After that we went to the rooftop bar Illum for Cappucinos and my husband a beer. After some more walking around and some shopping we rest for a bit and start our night time trek to dinner.

You think that Monday nights weren't so busy for restaurants but they are packed. We tried to eat at BOB (Organic bistro) but you need reservations and there is no walk up list. But if you go around the corner there is another place called "Pate Pate" which has openings and it's just as nice there. I have another mixed drink of Dark Rum, mint leaves and a couple other ingredients. I order the cucumber , pomegranate with almond salad and the chili cured salmon with dill and avocado. The funny thing is they bring the salmon before the salad. Another great night of food, entertainment and laughs. It's been a very relaxing 2 days in Copengagen and it's a wonderful, clean , beautiful city. The people are even beautiful with pale nordic skin and blond light hair. It looks like Sting is sitting next to us as dinner but a younger version. The tables are very close in this restaurant. lol. All the waitresses are so nice with great service so my takeaway is an overall great experience.

Tomorrow is board day for the cruise.

Booties for your shoes before you go in the Christianborg

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Food porn shot from "Pate Pate" in Copenhagen

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And most alcohol drinks looked like this.

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Making notes as I read along, I. Preparation for next year!

Thanks for the review.

Christianborg slot.

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Today is the day to board the Regal. I was on the Royal last year for the Mediterranean so we are familiar with the layout....but we are now officially Platinum. You know what that means?

Free internet !!! A whole 250 minutes. What I have learned from these boards is to compose what ever you are doing...log in ...send....log out. By the end of the cruise I had 15 minutes left. I have to say the internet was a lot faster than I expected. From reading the message boards I thought things would never go through, but actually went through pretty fast. I think in my room it worked the best. The girl in the Internet cafe told me that it may not work as fast on deck but I don't think I noticed that much of a difference.

Check in went smooth and quickly. Because guess what? I got to stand in the Platinum/Elite line. Wow do I feel special. lol.

When we get to the room my suitcase comes pretty quick so I unpack really fast. My husbands suitcase is taking a lot longer so we go to the buffet to grab some quick eats...but I know better than to eat a lot otherwise I won't want to eat dinner. When we come back to the room the phone was ringing and it was the "security/suitcase patrol" (I forgot what it said on caller ID) only to find out that .....Guess what you can't pack in your suitcase and we have confiscated for them to hold till the end of the cruise? A steamer. lol. My husband bought a new little steamer so he could steam his suit for formal night. But I guess that won't be happening. As we were picking up his suitcase another lady was coming in right after us and she said she also had a steamer in hers. And probably all the other 50 or so suitcases lined up there. I think I knew at one time you weren't supposed to and I forgot. I know I have seen kids in the laundry room who put the iron on steam, holding up the iron and pressing steam shooting out and try to steam their clothes that way. But we didn't try that. Oh well. Lesson learned.

They did deliver it to us the day before the last day of the cruise.

The livery design on the Regal.

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Thank you for posting. I'm looking forward to reading more. :):):)

Off to buy the AIBP for my husband who likes his beer and Jameson whiskey drinks. We thought we might try it this time because we realize it also includes specialty coffees and bottled water which is good to grab when you are heading off the ship to an excursion. The sail away party is cancelled on deck because of high winds and it was held inside. So we go to the deck anyways for a selfie and then off to dinner.

We always choose "anytime dining" because we don't like a schedule and we usually share table so we can meet other people. The only time we have to wait is formal nights with a buzzer but it's not too bad. We find that if you share you get a table faster.

Michael Quinn is in the theatre who does a great impersonation of Elvis (even though he says he is not an impersonator) and also sings some Tom Jones songs.

We usually end up going to the 9:00 show because of dinner. This cruise we usually go to Crooners after because we discovered Kory Simon who is hilarious and very entertaining. Then off to bed for Oslo Norway tomorrow.

That would be my husband's hand in the photo. Not me being a contortionist. Not many people on deck this whole cruise because it's mild weather. We love it.

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We get into Oslo about 10:00a.m. and I have signed us up for a bike tour of 3 hours.

However the actual bike riding part is about 2 hours. The guide meets us at the ship and we walk up to Akerhaus Castle for a look around before she takes us to the office to collect our bikes. The name is "Viking Biking" hence some of the helmets have viking horns on them. If the one I picked up wasn't broken I might have worn it so I just wore the regular black indiscreet one. We ride down to the dock for a look around and head to city hall.

City hall is a rather boring brown building but inside has beautiful marble floors and murals up to the ceiling. On to the "Royal Palace" where this two toned palace is large but boxy with one quard out front. Luckily we have a nice, warm sunny day with no rain so it's a great ride. After a short visit there we ride through Oslo's quaint, high end neighborhoods down quiet one lane roads and end up at Vigeland Sculpture Park. This is the highlight of Oslo as it is the largest sculpture park in the world created by one artist....Gustav Vigeland. It represents our circle of life from infancy to adulthood all withrout clothes. Some might call it "penis park" but it is truly remarkable. "Mad boy" is the most photographed and people think it is lucky to rub his hand which is now worn down to a brassy kind of color. You walk to the fountain with the water overflowing over a circle of statues and up the final stairs is the tallest sprial of figures with scuptlures leading up to it in about 12 different rows. It was a pretty warm day so felt good riding down the streets and riding the bike through the park passing all the people walking in. It is definitely worth a visit. Mostly downhill after this we end up waterfront again by the "Art Museum" before we head back to the ship. We had a knowledgeable guide who grew up there and was very entertaining. A great way to get around with out getting tired, I wish I could do bike tours in every city.

We get back to ship for and ice tea and salad before heading out again since we are there til 10: 30 pm.. Right outside the ship is "Tax free" shopping and is known to have the best souvenir shopping. But since we don't want to shop and carry everything with us we decide to buy on the way back and walk the 10 minutes to town to see what we can find. We head out to the main road but it is mostly restaurants. Because we just ate and really can't find any cute shopping for souvenirs and getting hot by this time we had back to the cruise terminal to pick up a "Edvard Munch Scream" t-shirt for my teen son, a Christmas ornament. A viking magnet and a Norwegian cross to put on the wall of crosses. Norway is the 2nd most expensive country and tax is 25%. If you buy over (I think) 320 Krones you can bring your receipt to a desk (which was on deck 5) from 7:00 - 9:00 and get your tax back in U.S. money.

Which for me was 50 krones but they gave me $5.00 U.S. Hey better than nothing.

Then back on the ship to have a drink and lay by the pool before going back to the room and take a shower before dinner.

The menus have changed since last year. Instead of a starter, salad and main it's just starter and main. Not to say you can't order 2 from the starter section. I always like to order the salad because they are small with something else. And of course there is no problem with that.

That night in the Princess theatre they had the Norwegian Folklore enterainers brought on board. It was really great that they brought them on for us to see. There must of been about 20 people and it was of a love story. After that we went over to see the karoake and that was ridiculously entertaining. The sun doesn't set til about 10 :30 or so and it stays light for quite awhile. Tomorrow is sea day so no need to wake up early.

Viking Biking

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