Baltic Treasures July 12-22 Report

[sacarr]

We were on the Baltic Treasures cruise July 12-22. This was our 5th cruise with Oceania and our first time on one of the new ships. We stayed in a PH3 room (10030). Following are our observations.

 

We arrived in Stockholm on a Sunday, four days early, staying at the Radisson Blu Waterfront next to the central train station. We took the 20 minute Arlanda Express train from the airport to the train station and walked a very short distance (50 meters) to our hotel. Although we arrived at the Radisson at 9 AM, the hotel had a room available. We will talk about Stockholm when we talk about the ports.

 

The Ship

We arrived at the ship at about noon on Thursday. There was a small line and we waited a few minutes to check in. We were immediately impressed as we walked on to the ship. The designers did a masterful job on the ship's interior. After a leisurely lunch in the Terrace Café it was time to go to our room. The PH suites on Marina are beautiful and the baths are even more so. There is more than enough storage and plenty of space to move around. The beds are very comfortable. We met Lincoln, the butler assigned to our room, and found him very helpful.

 

The library is beautiful with lots of comfortable chairs to relax in. The same was true with the Grand Bar and Martinis. The Marina Lounge was quite nice with lots of room between rows, making is easy to get to open seats in the middle. (The aisle seats are always taken first aren't they?)

There was a new internet plan since our last cruise. $20/day for unlimited internet. That seemed a very good deal if the internet was usable. It turned out that the internet speed was very good; not DSL speed, but an order of magnitude better than the last couple of time on Oceania's smaller ships.

 

The Food

We found the food in the specialty restaurants to be outstanding. The new restaurants Jacques and Red Ginger are a very nice addition. The restaurants are beautifully decorated and the food was as good as you will find on land or sea. The sea bass in Red Ginger was the best I can remember. We also had dinner at La Reserve. This was a fantastic experience. I know that it seems hard to justify $112 ($95 plus gratuity) for dinner when there is so much good food available for no extra cost, but I really think that this was worth it and would do it again. There were seven small but splendid courses, each with its own wine, plus there was a pre-dinner cocktail. As each course is presented the chef and sommelier described the food and wine and explained why they go together. One night we also had dinner from Jacques in our suite.

 

Most days we had breakfast in either our room or in the dining room We also had lunch in the dining room whenever we were back on the ship in time While the Terrace Café is often busy and noisy, the Dining room is beautiful, quiet and peaceful. The food and service are wonderful there.

 

We had dinner in the Grand Dining Room twice and found the food very good.

 

The Entertainment/Activities

We really enjoyed the Oceania singers and dancers. We went to three shows, Groovin', River Rhapsody, and Con Molto. These shows were first rate productions. After seeing Groovin' we made it a point to see the other two shows the group put on. We also saw performances by Sally Jones and Bill Prince. Sally is a Comedienne/ Singer and Bill is a trumpet player.

 

Sally's first performance was mostly comedy and song parodies. Sally has a great voice, but her jokes and parodies were, in our opinion, stale and lame. We were about to leave but then she finished strong with a couple of "normal" songs and she did a great job. Bill is a very good trumpet player and we enjoyed his music, but when he tried to sing "What a Wonderful World" it was a painfully stiff, mechanical recitation. He should just let the horn sing for him.

 

With a ten day, ten port cruise it can be very hard to do everything one would like to on the ship. Many days we were off the ship and in port until late in the afternoon. Meg did some art classes when we were back on the ship in time and really enjoyed them. We have always enjoyed afternoon tea in Horizons, but only made it once this trip. We enjoy sitting in Martinis with a drink listening to the piano player but only did this once and we only listened to the string quartet once. I wanted to make it to the scotch or martini tasting, but just couldn't fit it in. So much to do, so little time.

 

Service

The staff on the ship seemed to work very hard to make everything as good as possible. I lost track of how many times I was asked by a crew member "How's your cruise going?" When I would answer "great" you could see them beam. They seem to take great pride in the ship and want to make the guest's experience the best. Our butler and the concierge in the Executive Lounge were very helpful and made life easier and less stressful.

 

Itinerary

As mentioned above this was a very port intensive cruise. We would have preferred to have a couple of sea days to enjoy the ship, however, we enjoyed every port we visited. We took ship excursions in St. Petersburg, Gdansk and Warnemunde. In all other ports we went off on our own and had a terrific time. There were shuttles or the areas of interest were within easy walking distance in all the ports we visited on our own. There was a little rain in 2 or 3 ports but we generally handled it with visits to museums or churches. We often enjoyed a coffee or beer in a café to break up our self guided tours and really enjoyed "drinking up" the local culture. Our ship diverted from Ronne to Svaneke on the other side of the island of Bornholm (Denmark). I'm not sure what we missed in Ronne, but we had a delightful time in the small town of Svaneke. This cruise took us to a beautiful part of the world with very friendly and interesting people.

 

In Conclusion

We spent 4 days in Stockholm and 10 days on the ship. We enjoyed every aspect of our trip. We expected a lot on this cruise on Marina and our expectations were met. Was there a glitch or two? Sure, but too minor to worry about. We weren't looking for perfection, but hoping for excellence, and that is what we found. With temperatures in the 60's and 70's, this was a great way to get away from the intense heat of the Midwest this summer.

 

Port comments to follow

 

Steve

[rgastin]

Thanks for this great review. I am anxiously awaiting our very first cruise on Oceania in three weeks and this is making me so excited.

 

I can't wait to read your port reviews as we are doing them on our own as well.

 

Thanks!

[roothy123]

Thanks, Steve. I, too, am anxiously waiting for MORE, as we are doing the same cruise (in reverse from you) in less than 2 weeks.

 

If you decide to post a full review in another section of CC, could you post on here and let us know, especially if you cover any of the ports? That's what I'm most interested in, as I know Marina (what I see of her with this port-intensive cruise!) will be great.

[sacarr]

Baltic Ports Part I

 

We took a Baltic cruise about 24 years ago when it was Leningrad that we visited rather than St. Petersburg. We visited many of the same ports; Stockholm, Copenhagen, Helsinki, St. Pete, and Visby. Most of the other ports such as Tallinn, Riga, Gdansk and Warnemunde (East Germany), were behind the Iron Curtain and I don't suppose that we were welcome back then. There have been quite a few changes since then and this certainly did not seem like a repeat of the previous trip.

 

Stockholm, Sweden

We really love cruising, but if there is one thing we don't like it is that the ship usually only spends a day in a port and there is not enough time to really experience the city and its culture. So we usually try to arrive early in the embarkation port. We arrived on Sunday morning and had 4 days to enjoy Stockholm before boarding Marina on Thursday. We stayed at the Radisson Blu Waterfront hotel. The hotel is next to Stockholm's central train station. We took the Arvada express train from the airport and had a very short walk to the Hotel. The train sped along at 200 kph and quickly got us to town in relaxed comfort. This was certainly the best way to make the transfer from airport to hotel.

 

After resting a while in our room we set out to explore the historic city center Gamla Stan. We walked quite a bit while in Stockholm. Whenever we asked someone if we should take a taxi, the answer was always "Oh no, you can just walk." The city is beautiful and we enjoyed taking it in on foot. Walking on the rounded cobblestones, however, can make you a little sore after a while.

 

Our second day we walked to the island of Djurgarden. (About a 20 min walk.) Stockhlom is built on a archipelago. The bulk of the city is on 14 islands but we were told hat there are 30,000 islands in the archipelago. We visited the Vasa and the Skansen Museum. In 1628 the Vasa set sail on her maiden voyage making it only about 1200 meters before a wind blew her over and she sank. She was found 50 years ago and has been restored. The Skansen is a outdoor folk museum. This was much more interesting than I had expected. Other things we did while in Stockholm were to take a "Under the Bridges cruise and take a ferry boat to Vaxholm to explore the island for the day. We also met a local couple who drove us around the north of the city and invited us to dinner at their home.

 

The sail out of Stockholm should not be missed.

 

Helsinki, Finland

Helsinki is the beautiful and small capitol of Finland. Most the sites of interest to travelers are easily covered on foot. Marina docked in the West harbor and we took the free shuttle into town and set off to explore the city. A few of the sites we took in:

 

The Church in the rock (Temppeliaukio) is a beautiful contemporary church blasted out of granite. There was a gentleman playing music on a grand piano while we were there. I believe that this is a regular feature. Meg said that it would be a wonderful place to meditate or pray if it weren't for all the tourists! We visited the train station designed by Eliel Saarinen. This is beautiful both inside and out. We stopped by the statue of the Three Blacksmiths across from Stockmann Department Store.

 

As we wended our way through the city we walked down the Esplanade which is a wide shopping boulevard with a beautiful park in the middle. There are fountains, many statues and other attractions in the park. If you are walking around Helsinki you really don't want to miss this park. In time we made it to the south harbor where there is a large open air market (Market Square). We went thorough the market to the Upenski Russian Orthodox Cathedral. The church is built high on a large rock. There is a beautiful view of the city from the cathedral. The cathedral is beautifully decorated with paintings and icons.

 

After visiting the church we walked back down to the Market Square. When we were in Helsinki 24 years ago we bought a doll for our daughter in the market. On this trip we found a lady selling dolls that looked the same as the one we bought back then. She said that she has been making and selling the dolls there since the mid 80's so we assume it is the same doll maker. We bought another one for our granddaughter We bought some berries from one of the vendors, sat down, took a break and enjoyed the people watching. There is also a beautiful Lutheran Cathedral which we had previously visited. We finally made it back to Lonnrotsg Street and took the shuttle back to our ship. We had a wonderful day walking around Helsinki.

 

St. Petersburg

We spent two days in this city. We decided to take the ship's tours because we didn't feel like hassling with the Russian visa process which we would have had to do to make an independent tour. We took the Classical St. Petersburg and Musical Evening at the Hermitage tours on the first day. We were basically on the go from 8 AM to 11 PM with little more than an hour break between tours.

 

Classical St Petersburg began with a 45 minute drive to the city of Pushkin to visit Catherine's Palace. This is an unbelievably extravagant and opulent place. Versailles has nothing on Catherine's digs. We spent the morning touring a tiny fraction of the rooms in this huge Palace. We did get to visit the famous Amber Room which is a reconstruction since the original amber panels were lost in WW II. After our visit Meg said its no wonder the starving peasants revolted. Following a mediocre lunch at the Baltic Brewery we visited St Peter and Paul Cathedral where many of the Tsars are buried. In addition to some other sites, we stopped but did not go into the Church on Spilled Blood and St. Isaac's Cathedral.

 

In the evening we visited the Hermitage. This was after hours so it was not crowded. Near as I could tell everyone except our group was gone shortly after we arrived. The highlight was a concert by the State symphony of St. Petersburg about halfway through our tour of the museum.

 

The next afternoon we took a tour of St Isaac's and Kazan Cathedrals and the Church of Spilled Blood. These are absolutely gorgeous and magnificent churches. Meg made it a point to be sure that we visited these and I am glad she did. In the Church on Spilled Blood there are over 70,000 square feet of mosaics. If you go, don't forget to look up and take in the ceilings and interior domes of the churches.

 

 

Tallinn, Estonia,

 

Well our luck with the weather ran out in Estonia. It rained much of the day Our strategy was to duck inside a church, shop or other building whenever the rain picked up. We got an early start since it was all aboard at 2:30 PM. This was not a perfect plan as some of the sites were not open until 10 or 11 in the morning. We took the short shuttle ride from the port into town. We did enjoy walking through the town and visiting the churches and other sites. One of the churches we visited, The church of the Holy Ghost, dated back to 1410 and it certainly looked medieval inside. We also visited the Russian orthodox cathedral which was magnificent inside. Near the cathedral is "Tall Herman Tower," the tallest tower of the castle wall. This tower is very significant to the Estonians as this was where they took down the Hammer and Sickle and first raised the Estonian flag when they were breaking away from the USSR. When we were done touring we dropped in a brew pub called Hell Hunt. This was a warm cozy pub with very good beer and friendly people. We then made our way back to the ship in time for a late lunch.

 

Riga, Latvia

Our day in Riga started out much more promising than the previous day. It was a beautiful warm and sunny day. Again we took the shuttle into town, although I don't know that the shuttle was necessary as some of the places we were to visit were fairly close to the ship. I noted at one point on our walk that we were much closer to the ship than the shuttle pick up point. We first visited the Church of St. Peter. The church has a high steeple that you can ascend for a beautiful view of the city. We thought that this might be a good way to get some perspective and pictures before we walked around. We the Orthodox Cathedral stopping by the large freedom monument celebrating the country's break off from the USSR. It was a beautiful day and we stopped at an outdoor café for a rest and a local beer. We then poked around until we found the "Three Brothers" which are the 3 oldest stone buildings in the city. Finally we walked to the Palace and Riga castle.

 

As we were approaching the Palace the weather took a sudden turn. The temp dropped about 10 degrees, the clouds moved in and the rain came. We ducked under a road overpass and watched the changing of the guard in pouring rain from the shelter of the overpass. We decided to cut the visit a little short. We were not far but it was raining so we ended up taking a taxi back to the ship.

 

End of Baltic Ports Part I

 

Steve

[rgastin]

Fantastic! Great report.

[Golfgirl canada]

We take this cruise in 2 weeks and are really looking forward to it. Even more so when I read your excellent comments and suggestions. I look forward to reading the next few port reports!

[sacarr]

Baltic Ports Part II

 

Visby, Sweden

Our next port of call was Visby on the Island of Gotland. We anchored off shore. There was quite a wait for a tender. We waited almost 2 hours after the ship anchored to go down to the lounge to get a tender ticket, and still had a 40 minute wait to get on the tender. The Shore Ex guys said that there were 900 people on tour. They pretty much gave them priority in boarding the tenders over those of us who were independent. Oh well, we still had plenty of time to explore the town.

 

Visby is a UNESCO World Heritage site. It is an enchanting walled town with narrow cobblestone streets, well preserved medieval stone buildings, and many ancient church ruins. Once ashore, map in hand, we walked around the town. The onboard tourist rep had pointed out a couple of scenic viewpoints to us, we found them and had some nice views of the town and the harbor. We visited St. Mary's Cathedral which dates to the 12th Centurhy. It is the only one of Visby's medieval churches still in use today. Interestingly, in addition to all the old art in the building, there are quite a few modern art pieces in the church. We visited some of the other ruins in the town and finally ended up in the Market Square. It started to rain, so we picked a cafe and sat down for a local beer and a bite to eat. We struck up an interesting conversation with some people at an adjacent table. We walked around a little more soaking up the ambiance, before returning to the pier for the tender ride back to Marina.

 

Gdansk, Poland

We were docked in Gdynia, Poland. The area is known as Tri City and consists of Gdansk, Gdynia, and Sopot. It was about a 45 minute ride to Gdansk and we decided to take a ship tour of this historic town. Gdansk is the site of the beginning of WW II as it was the first town that Hitler invaded.

 

We walked around the Old Town taking in the sites. Much of the town was destroyed in WW II and has been nicely restored. We visited St. Mary's Church which claims to be the largest brick church in Poland. We were told that to build a church any bigger, stone must be used.

 

We then went to the nearby town of Oliwa to see and hear the 7876 pipe organ in the Oliwa Cathedral. The church dates to the 13th Century and is a mix of Romanesque, Gothic, and Rococo Styles. I guess that as the church was renovated through out the centuries the current style at the time was incorporated into the church. The organ is quite something. It can duplicate many other instruments and even voices. The concert was not long, only 20 minutes or so, but it was very good and, truthfully, that was probably enough organ music for us.

 

Ronne/Svaneke, Denmark

Today we were scheduled to dock in Ronne, Denmark. Ronne is on the small island of Bornholm. Unfortunately there was a strong cross wind and the entry to the harbor is very narrow. The captain decided not to dock there. Instead we went to the other side of the island and anchored off the town of Svaneke. This is the second smallest incorporated town in Denmark. It has a population a little over 1000. Our ship of 1260 passengers plus crew overwhelmed the tiny town, I think. But they did their best and everything worked out surprisingly well, considering that the town was not expecting this sort of crowd. It is apparently rare for a ship of our size to call at Svaneke.

 

We had an absolutely great time in this town. The weather was perfect and the town wonderful. We walked around the town visiting the local church which is simple but very charming. The cemetery next to the church is like a beautiful botanical garden. The homes are all well maintained and colorfully painted. We walked a ways to Bech's windmill. It was built in 1629, making it Denmark's oldest preserved windmill. After walking around some more we found our way to the central square and the local brew pub. We found a table outside and had some beer and a cheese plate with some wonderful pepper jelly. We spent some time at the brewery taking with other guests from the ship. We finally left and went looking for the water tower. The tower was designed by Jørn Utzon, the same architect that designed the Sydney Opera House. As you might guess, the tower was not your typical water tower. It is a triangular affair, the top of which looks in profile like a pyramid. We finally made it back to the ship shortly before the 4 PM closing of Waves Grill.

 

Warnemunde, Germany

We had initially planned to go into Berlin from Warnemunde this morning. However, a few days before arriving at the port we reconsidered. It would be a 13 hour trip with a three hour bus ride each way. We decided it would be an awfully long day and this has been an exhausting trip. We have had more than a few 18 hour days and still have not done everything we would like. If this port had been at the beginning of the cruise we probably would have gone to Berlin, instead we decided to take the ship's tour of Roestock.

 

After having breakfast in our room, we took a 15 minute ride to Rostock and walked around the old part of the city. We started at Kropeliner Tower and walked along the town wall to the Holy Cross Convent. We also walked along Kropelin Street, looking into some of the shops, especially looking for some things that were made locally. What we did find was very expensive. At least twice what we would figure to pay in the US.

 

We walked to St Mary's Church, and then proceeded on towards St. Peters which has a 360 foot high tower. We took an elevator to the top and enjoyed panoramic views of the city. We were offered a glass of champagne while up on the tower. We also of course toured the church itself which was beautiful. There was an interesting modern art exhibit in the church which featured lots of naked women in provocative poses. Not the sort of thing one would expect to see in a Lutheran church back home. When we mentioned this to a native she said that we Americans are weird about nudity. One of the things we like about travel is the opportunity to experience different cultures and this seemed to be one of those moments.

 

Next to the Church was a blueprint studio. We stopped in. I expected to see plans of buildings, but this is the art of creating images on cloth somewhat similar to batik. After enjoying our stroll through old Rostock we rode home in time for a late lunch.

 

Copenhagen, Denmark

Sunday we disembarked Oceania Marina in Copenhagen. We took a taxi from the pier to the central train station where we stored our luggage. We then set out on foot to explore the city. We have been here a couple of times and kind of knew what we would like to do. The train station is next to Tivoli Gardens, the famous amusement park in the city. We walked down the Strøget, the pedestrian street that goes from Tivoli to Nyhaven. Nyhaven means new harbor. New is a relative term and Nyhaven dates back to the 17th century. There are many historic wooden ships moored in the canal. This makes for a very colorful scene. It is a trendy area and there are many cafes and restaurants along the canal.

 

We started near the impressive city hall. There is a well known statue of Hans Christian Andersen near the city hall. For years people have sat on his knee for a picture. I took a picture of Meg on his knee, but she decided to forgo a certain Danish custom. We walked by Tivoli gardens but it was not opened yet at 10 AM. As we walked along the Strøget we passed many statues and fountains. We made a side trip off Strøget to Sankt Peders Church. Near St Pete's is The Cathedral of Our Lady. We wanted to go in, but there was Sunday service going on and a sign said that it was closed to tourists. There is an Reformation Memorial Obelisk across the street from the Cathedral that celebrates Denmark's break with the Roman Catholic Church to become Lutheran in 1536. Because of the reforms of 1536 there is no Mary in the Cathedral of Our Lady!

 

Next to the church is Copenhagen University. Outside the University building, are the busts of scholars from the University. One of them is Nobel Prize winner Niels Bohr, who fled the Germans in 1943, came to the US and helped work on the Atomic Bomb.

 

Going back to the Strøget, we came upon the Fountain of Charity. Continuing on the street we came upon the Heron Fountain which features 3 herons. It was not operating when we were there. A little further down we came to an equestrian statue of the city's founder, Bishop Absolom. Also, Christiansborg Palace is nearby. Continuing we finally made it to Kings New Square and just past that is Nyhaven. Kings New Square was completely blocked off due to some construction going on at the Square. We walked around the barricade hoping to get a glimpse of the square but to no avail. The Statue of the King Christian V is barely visible over the barricade.

 

After enjoying the ambiance of the harbor area, we walked back a little to get lunch at The Dubliner Irish Pub along the Strøget. We had dinner here the last time we were in Copenhagen and remembered it as being good. We had delicious fish and chips. After lunch, we leisurely walked back to the train station where we collected our luggage and took the train to the airport.

 

This proved to be a very pleasant day. We enjoyed our Sunday walk around the town, reminiscing about our previous visits. It cost much less than taking the ship's transfers to the airport plus we got to experience the city.

 

Sorry for the length, but I don't have a good editor!

 

Steve

[Paulchili]

Steve,

I am enjoying your trip report.

Thank you for taking the time to share your memories. It sounds like you had a wonderful trip.

Paul

[sacarr]

Steve,

I am enjoying your trip report.

Thank you for taking the time to share your memories. It sounds like you had a wonderful trip.

Paul

 

 

It really was a great trip. I had hoped to post reports while we were on the cruise but we were so busy there really wasn't time. I did make time to keep a log which helped in this report. Meg and I both felt that we learned a lot about the area while we were there. We certainly enjoyed the local people we met. I would not hesitate recommending this itinerary and ship to anyone.

 

Steve

[corpkid]

I wanted to just say THANK YOU on so many levels. We are in the last "deciding" stages (e.g. the credit card is close to coming out)... Exact cruise, August next year. N. Europe and Baltics is a big bucket list item for us.

 

Oceania should give you an upgrade next cruise - you just sold us on this cruise. :) Thank you for taking the time to provide such a thoughtful and well-constructed review of your trip.

 

Dominic

[sacarr]

I wanted to just say THANK YOU on so many levels. We are in the last "deciding" stages (e.g. the credit card is close to coming out)... Exact cruise, August next year. N. Europe and Baltics is a big bucket list item for us.

 

Oceania should give you an upgrade next cruise - you just sold us on this cruise. :) Thank you for taking the time to provide such a thoughtful and well-constructed review of your trip.

 

Dominic

 

Thanks for your kind comments. I'm sure that you will enjoy your cruise. When you return please let us know your impressions. We all experience these trips differently.

 

Steve

[corpkid]

Did you perchance try out the Bon Appetit culinary classes? That's a big draw for both of us (well more me than he but it's my turn to pay for this trip so he better enjoy it!). :p

[sacarr]

Did you perchance try out the Bon Appetit culinary classes? That's a big draw for both of us (well more me than he but it's my turn to pay for this trip so he better enjoy it!). :p

 

 

We did not. Meg wanted to, but we were in port every day. The classes were in the afternoon and we figured that we might still be in port. We really did not want to have to rush back to the ship for a class. I stopped by the venue and it looked very nice and well designed.

 

This is a very nice concept that we wish we could have tried, but on busy cruises you simply have to make choices which are sometimes difficult. While these classes are often solcd out well in advance, I do not believe it was the case on our Baltic Cruise as we received notes about signing up a number of times during the cruise.

 

Steve

[corpkid]

We have one sea day and one day where we will probably just lightly tour the port in the morning so I was thinking this might a fun thing since we've both taken up cooking recently and have been having some fun with it.

 

May I ask what was the typical time for the classes, if there was a typical time?

 

Thanks again!

Dominic

[sacarr]

We have one sea day and one day where we will probably just lightly tour the port in the morning so I was thinking this might a fun thing since we've both taken up cooking recently and have been having some fun with it.

 

May I ask what was the typical time for the classes, if there was a typical time?

 

Thanks again!

Dominic

 

I don't remember for sure, but I think maybe around 4 PM. I know that the classes were often before all aboard.

 

In addition to the regular cooling classes there was at least one tour where you came back to the ship and went to the culinary center. We did not investigate, but I assume that cooking class was somehow tied to what happened on the tour.

 

Steve

[corpkid]

Many thanks! This gives us a good feel for the program. I have heard positive things from those who are into cooking and elected this program. I think it will be great. Hard to be disappointed on this ship from what I've read! We are very much looking forward to it, and thank you!

 

Dominic & Don

[rgastin]

Steve, thank you again for this report.

 

We will be doing the same cruise in less than 3 weeks and you've made me even more excited, if that's possible.

 

This will be our first time on Oceania and these boards were what sold me on the cruise. We've even signed up for TA - that's what these boards can do.

 

Glad you had such a great time. I am worried about the level of exhaustion too. It's partly why we signed up for the TA, so we could actually explore the ship and get to take advantage of everything they offer. This trip it's going to be about the ports and I don't expect to do a whole lot on the ship.

[Paulchili]

Steve, thank you again for this report.

 

We will be doing the same cruise in less than 3 weeks and you've made me even more excited, if that's possible.

 

This will be our first time on Oceania and these boards were what sold me on the cruise. We've even signed up for TA - that's what these boards can do.

 

Glad you had such a great time. I am worried about the level of exhaustion too. It's partly why we signed up for the TA, so we could actually explore the ship and get to take advantage of everything they offer. This trip it's going to be about the ports and I don't expect to do a whole lot on the ship.

 

I agree that these boards are excellent "free" advertising for Oceania (and are closely followed by O staff and management).

In view of this I wonder why we don't get better recognition/treatment onboard the ships as CC members (like they do on some other cruise lines)?

[roothy123]

I agree that these boards are excellent "free" advertising for Oceania (and are closely followed by O staff and management).

In view of this I wonder why we don't get better recognition/treatment onboard the ships as CC members (like they do on some other cruise lines)?

 

Well Paul, I don't think I really feel that those of us who are on CC should get better recognition/treatment from O than others who don't even know Cruise Critic exists, but I'm not trying to start an argument here! (I also don't know how Oceania would know who we are, since we don't give names in most cases!) It is apparent, however, that O. does monitor boards, and read all the comment cards from each cruise, as I've seen a lot of the commonly-requested things turn up in future cruises. A good example of that is the Oceania-arranged shuttles. Oceania did not use to arrange those for independent travelers, and now I hear there are many. They are certainly not provided to all cruisers, from what I've read.

 

In any case, thanks, Steve for your information. We leave a week from tomorrow night for our Baltic Treasures cruise, so I was hoping you'd give more information on ports before we left, and you have. Couple questions: About how long did it take you to walk to the water tower in Svaneke? I see that it's up north a little bit, and was curious. Also, were you the same person who posted earlier, saying that the ship had to anchor off Svaneke? I can't really imagine that more than one ship would have to do that, but was just curious, in case that was the case.

 

In St. Petersburg, if you're on a tour (we'll be going with Alla), can you go shopping in the terminal where the ship docks, or are you not permitted to do that without a guide? I believe I read that there is a duty free area with prices that are a lot higher than in the city. Would you happen to know anything about that? My husband wants to buy some dolls (hah, hah, he's the shopper in the family! but I DO need something for our house/petsitter, so I may need to pick something up as well). Also, would you happen to know if there's Wifi in the terminal? I hear there's not nearly as much in Russia as there is elsewhere in that part of the world. I'm mildly concerned that I might be totally out of touch for 2 days in St. Petersburg if the Russian government makes me stay on the ship in the evening!

 

I cannot believe that 900 people took tours in Visby. That's amazing. It's such a walkable town! (You didn't have any large groups on your cruise, did you? In Feb. there was a huge group of Honda dealers (the company's top-sales people) and Honda had paid for them to take excursions EVERYWHERE. I'm wondering if something like that happened on your cruise.)

 

Thanks again!

[LHT28]

Well Paul, I don't think I really feel that those of us who are on CC should get better recognition/treatment from O than others who don't even know Cruise Critic exists, but I'm not trying to start an argument here! (I also don't know how Oceania would know who we are, since we don't give names in most cases!)

Thanks again!

Usually someone in the Roll Call will take names & cabin numbers & give them to the concierge ...they will send invites to those on the list

 

The thing that most CCer's want is just to maybe have a drink & a few snacks provided by the cruise line

Have some upper management show up to the Meet & Greet...but if they are busy that is OK too

 

They used to do that for the YAHOO group if you had 25+ the Captain & several of the entertainment staff and the CD would show up

 

Good P.R. ;)

[sacarr]

 

Couple questions: About how long did it take you to walk to the water tower in Svaneke? I see that it's up north a little bit, and was curious. Also, were you the same person who posted earlier, saying that the ship had to anchor off Svaneke? I can't really imagine that more than one ship would have to do that, but was just curious, in case that was the case.

 

In St. Petersburg, if you're on a tour (we'll be going with Alla), can you go shopping in the terminal where the ship docks, or are you not permitted to do that without a guide? I believe I read that there is a duty free area with prices that are a lot higher than in the city. Would you happen to know anything about that? My husband wants to buy some dolls (hah, hah, he's the shopper in the family! but I DO need something for our house/petsitter, so I may need to pick something up as well). Also, would you happen to know if there's Wifi in the terminal? I hear there's not nearly as much in Russia as there is elsewhere in that part of the world. I'm mildly concerned that I might be totally out of touch for 2 days in St. Petersburg if the Russian government makes me stay on the ship in the evening!

 

I cannot believe that 900 people took tours in Visby. That's amazing. It's such a walkable town! (You didn't have any large groups on your cruise, did you? In Feb. there was a huge group of Honda dealers (the company's top-sales people) and Honda had paid for them to take excursions EVERYWHERE. I'm wondering if something like that happened on your cruise.)

 

Thanks again!

 

We walked to all the other sites I mentioned in Svaneke but we did not walk up to the Water tower. We simply went to a point where we had a clear view of it.

 

There are shops in the terminal. After your tour as you are walking back to the ship you can certainly stop and shop in the terminal. Also you will probably have time to shop while on tour. I did not stop in the pier area so I do not know about prices. Meg may have, but I don't remember.

 

I had the WiFi package on the ship so I did not try to look for WiFi in the terminal. Ship WiFi did work while in St. Pete.

 

That number of 900 sounds high but I was just quoting the Shore Ex guy. There was a "Go Next" tour group that sold tours to their clients on the ship. Their clients were college alumni groups. It was a fairly large number of people traveling with Go Next but I believe that the tours were ala carte and not included. I agree that Visby is easily handled on one's own. No tour required

 

Steve

[roothy123]

Thank you; very helpful!

[Hambagahle]

Thank you Steve - great reports. And I am delighted to hear about the WiFi package. I read that there would be one for the PH and above suites but did not have any details. $20/day is very reasonable, I think.

 

Your whole time in Scandinavia/Russia sounds just fabulous!

[roothy123]

Thank you Steve - great reports. And I am delighted to hear about the WiFi package. I read that there would be one for the PH and above suites but did not have any details. $20/day is very reasonable, I think.

 

Your whole time in Scandinavia/Russia sounds just fabulous!

 

I had heard about the $20/day for WiFi, but didn't realize it was for PH and above, so thanks! It IS only for PH and above, though, right? I'm in a G, so I can't expect many perks, I guess!

[cbb]

roothy123,

We also toured with Alla and we asked Julia, our guide, if she would take us a couple of places to shop. Several wanted the dolls, textiles, amber jewelry, and others wanted vodka. She was more than happy to arrange that but just tell her upfront so she can incorporate that into the schedule. Some of us also wanted to ride the metro and she did that for us as well.

The gift shop at the Hermitage is also pretty cool. I bought amber earrings for my daughter. c