Honest reviews of RSSC please

[new_cruiser]

Just now, the only firm plans we have are with our best friends in June 2006 when we're doing Tauck Tours Treasures of the Aegean - a week on land and a week on the Wind Spirit.

 

Is it possible that you mean June 2005? I don't think the 2006 Windstar schedules are out and the Tauck site doesn't show 2006 dates either. It looks like one of these groups will be on my June 4 Wind Star sailing. I wonder how that affects the dynamics of the cruise.

[MisVic]

Well, we haven't booked it yet but it's on our schedule so I hope that it's on Tauck's too! We've been wanting to do that one for awhile.

 

Vicky

[dfb]

Just off Diamond on 2/6/2005 and the price for caviar now is $35.

[wishIweretravelling]

Poss, in Stockholm I stayed at the Lady Hamilton. The rooms are small but comfortable, and reasonably priced (for Stockholm). The location is great. She has a brother hotel, the Lord Nelson (of course!), a couple of blocks away. Some friends stayed there. The rooms were larger but the hotel was on a busy street, as opposed to the Lady's location on a pedestrian way.

[NCCruzQueen]

Hi Poss,

 

I am also going to be on the Voyager Baltic cruise: July 2. Is this by chance the same cruise you are on? Let me know and maybe we can meet onboard.

 

Beth

[JeannetteC]

I just got off a Royal Caribbean cruise and I am anxious to try another line. We've tried Princess in the past and it satisfied most of our needs although we thought the Royal Caribbean ships were more stunning. We prefer dining when we want to so RSSC seems like a good choice.

 

Entertainment, particularly dancing, is important to us. I've read that entertainment is a little weak on RSSC. I don't mind weaker show quality but we love to do a little ballroom dancing during the evening. On Princess, there was always one group (and sometimes two groups) playing all during the evening and we could slip in a little dancing before and after dinner. On Royal Caribbean, most of the music didn't start until 10:00 and that was late for us (with early morning excursions) or conflicting with other events. How is the dancing and music on RSSC?

 

Thanks!

[freddie]

Poss - We were on the Voyager Baltic cruise in August, 2003 and loved it. I agree with Miriam about visiting Helsinki and Talinn. In St. Petersburg, you must arrange for a private car/minibus and guide, either by yourselves or with another couple. We used the service provided by the ship; but we have also heard very good things about Red October. With your private car, YOU decide how long or short to stay at any particular place and can govern the pace of your day, as opposed to a bus tour, where you spend half of the time waiting for some fool to find his or her way back to the bus and where the schedule is determined by the guide, rather than by you. We spent one day on a bus tour (to our great regret), one day with our own car and guide (fabulous), and the third day on our own in the city (also fabulous, but not really advisable unless you want to get personal visas, speak a bit of Russian, and are pretty confident traveling in strange places - if you do, the day on your own is utterly delightful, as was ours). I cannot emphasize strongly enough how much better it is to have your own car and guide than to take the bus tour, considering how valuable these two or three days in St. P. are.

 

Regarding hotels in Stockholm and Copenhagen:

 

We stayed at the Grand in Stockholm, where I have stayed a few times on business. It is a marvelous hotel, probably the best in Scandanavia. But it is expensive, unless you find a good promotional rate. Website is: http://www.grandhotel.se/english .

 

Since you said that you were looking for "quiet", as well as a nice view, another option is the Radissson Strand, just around the corner from the Grand. It has rooms overlooking one of the bays of the harbour and Strandvagen, the most exclusive street in Stockholm. It is an easy walk from the wonderful park, Djurgarden - great for a morning power walk before breakfast. Info is available on the Radisson hotel site: http://www.radisson.com .

 

In Copenhagen, we found a hotel which I consider one of the most delightful we have ever found, 71 Nyhavn. Even though it is in the Nyhavn district, the most fun part of the city, it is on the end of the canal and is very quiet. It is two old port buildings restored into a lovely hotel, with exposed beams, spiral staircases in the suites, and nice views over the the canals. The restaurant in the hotel is one of the best in the city, very innovative and quite excellent. And when you don't want "quiet", the Nyhavn district, just a few minutes walk from the hotel, is great fun - blocks of restaurants along the canal with outdoor dining areas - in summer, truly the most fun place in Copenhagen (certainly a lot more fun than Tivoli).

 

Good luck - you will love Voyager and the Baltics.

 

Cheers, Fred

[canadagal]

I've cruised Radisson, Silversea, Seabourn and NCL in the past year and my favorite line is still Radisson...............even though I prefer the full all inclusive aspect of Silversea and Seabourn which Rad does not offer...........Radisson is still my top choice.........why?..........I just love their crews...........they seem to be more relaxed and happy in their jobs..........which to me translates into a more relaxed and positive experience for the passenger when aboard their ships. Nothing worse then being on a ship with a disgruntled and overworked crew which I have experienced on other lines.

[Winner]

Sorry, but on all our cruises on Seabourn and Silverseas, we have yet to see a disgruntled and/or overworked crew member. I do agree that most crew is overworked as we would define the word but it was never reflected in their attitudes towards guests. Service with many smiles has been our experience on bothe these lines, especially Seabourn!

[canadagal]

Let me clarify, Seabourn was an all most perfect cruise experience, if that is even possible and I was not referring to them having disgruntled and overworked employees but rather Silversea........to which several other CC members that were on the same voyage agreed with me and posted about. I have yet to ever experience a crew member on Radisson complain about how glad they were that their contract was up soon. Maybe they thought it but they certainly never expressed it and it never reflected in their work. Incidently, some of the best and friendliest crew I ever ran into was on the mass market line of NCL. They were never short staffed or seemed overworked but I really can only stand those large amount of crowds ever so often.........so give me the smaller luxury ships any day with less passengers.

[Judith02]

Canadagal, the one cruise we had on Princess, the wait staff complained every night that it was finally the end of their contracts and they couldn't wait to get off the ship. Our service was horrid. We had been upgraded to the largeset suite on the ship (don't know how or why, just accepted it and loved it), but the wait staff ruined the trip for us. I'm truly sorry they were unhappy, but why did they have to take it out on us and our tablemates? I would very much like to try Radisson one day as the ships and their crews sound excellent from the posts that I have read. Until then, we have four more cruises booked on Crystal, which we love.

[cruiseyguy]

Several of the crew (not staff) that I spoke to on my sole RSSC cruise (Mariner in Alaska) said that while they really enjoyed working on the Mariner (the no tipping policy made for a more relaxed atmosphere for both passengers and crew) they all tried to periodically rotate out to the larger cruiselines (particularly Celebrity) to make the "serious" money from tips.

[canadagal]

Judith, sounds like you had one of those bad experiences too...........sorry to hear it. I am hoping to try Crystal one of these days also as I hear their food is fantastic. Cruiseyguy, what you say sure makes sense to me.........while the no tipping policy on some ships may make for a more relaxed atmosphere I can see how it may not be in the best interest of the crew if they want to make some serious tip money. Either way of tipping is fine for me.........I kind of enjoyed personally handing over tip envelopes to the crew on the last day and saying good bye. My last cruise on Celebrity our waiter gave me a big bear hug and sang me "Oh Canada" much to my hubby's surprise but it sure was a fantastic way to end a voyage.

Pat

[Judith02]

We were on a cruise where a family of 18 (all staying in the various penthouse accomodations) were seated next to us (they had two tables). They had extra waiters, etc. all doing handsprings to serve them. The next cruise we took (about two months later), we learned that they had not tipped anyone on the ship -- not butlers, stewardess, or wait staff. It made me think that maybe giving passengers the option to tip as they saw fit might not be the best way for the crew. Maybe Radisson is best by including it already. On Radisson, does the included personnel include more than the stewardess, butler, waiter, and assistant waiter? What about the maitre d', headwaiters, alternative restaurant staff, other lounge staff, etc.?

[canadagal]

Judith02: no tipping policy on Radisson includes all staff even the ones you mentioned in your previous post. However, some pax, me included will give a little somthing extra to a staff member that went over and above the norm of service to make the stay enjoyable. Some people bring gifts from home, issue extra cash or give out phone cards or something of that nature. But the norm is to tip none of the staff and I do believe in other threads on this subject that Radisson and the other lines that follow this practice of the no tipping policy do not want passengers to tip. I did however issue a monetary tip to the spa personel on the PG as they at that time belonged to Carita and had nothing to do with Radisson.

Pat

[KatieS]

We went on the Baltic Cruise last August. This was our first cruise on Radisson. It blows all the other cruise lines away. We cruised Celebrity first, then two Holland America's. From start to finish, Radisson was awesome. The service, food, staff, and accommodations were superb. We never had a bad meal. All the wines recommended on the menu matched the dinners 100%. We were lucky enough to get copies of our menus from that week, so we can search for our favorite wines here in the states.

We booked a private tour guide through Red October. Our guide, Elena (also a professor at the university) was great. She would call other Red October guides before we got to our destination and they would move us right up to the front of the line at all the museums! After a while, we kidded around and said "Coming through. Red October People. We're with Elena!". Our driver was Peter and he zipped us around St. Petersburg in record time. Elena went out of her way to make sure we saw everything we planned on seeing. She even made arrangements for our son to meet with a Russian Orthodox priest so he could talk to him about the priesthood. At the end of our tour, Elena gave us some fresh baked sweet rolls that she bought from the church we attended. They were delicious. If you can afford it, go the Red October route. It's well worth the dollars.

Helsinki's marketplace was great. We bought a lot of neat things from the locals, i.e. hand knitted slippers for the winter. There were many food carts and the food looked and smelled delicious. It was a hot day when we walked around!

We didn't see any of St. Petersburg without our tour guide. My husband and son saw the folk dancing program one evening (I was down with a nasty sinus headache --bummer). They took our video camera and filmed the show. They also bought me a gorgeous shawl and chocolate bars.

We did lots of walking in Visby and Tallin. My son had to buy a Frisbee from Visby just because! There were many nice shops and an outdoor market. My husband bought these very toasty boot slippers. We had tasty pastries and tea at a konditori (? spelling).

You'll have a wonderful experience on Radisson touring the Baltic. Enjoy yourself!

[KatieS]

Despite Radisson being a no-tip cruise line, we ALWAYS tip the people who have gone out of their way to make sure we had a wonderful time. It makes us feel good and we know they appreciate the heartfelt gesture. Our waiter, waitress, and sommelier didn't want to take our gifts at first, but we insisted. They were gracious. When we asked them if they ever get tips, they said "Not very often."

My MIL asked us one time "What are the little white envelopes for?" when she sailed on Celebrity. When we told her, she said she thought tips were included. She isn't one to go in her wallet for anything and was quick to tell us they didn't tip anyone!

[simonv]

Radisson is a good value. The rooms are very good. The service isn't up to the very top of the luxuary lines such as Silversea or Seabourn, but you aren't paying the price of those two, either. Don't misunderstand me. The service on Radisson is good enough. On discounted ones the Radisson is an outright bargain for what you get. I would never go on the Princess ever again even if you paid me, but I wouldn't hesitate to take Radisson.