Newbie and solo traveller

[Vict0riann]

One of HAL's greatest treasures is the crew. They are very attentive to, sometimes almost protective of, solo lady cruisers.

 

So true. LOL. When our daughter had her own cabin, they brought her two chocolates every night!:)

[rajkr74]

Hello all,

 

Very pleased to find this forum. I've just booked the Baltic Adventure on the Eurodam and it will be both my first cruise and my first solo holiday (I am 37).

 

Feeling both excited and daunted at the prospect and the whole language and convention of cruising is utterly baffling! I'm really hoping to meet some friendly people and would appreciate some advice concerning dinner. Should I book a table - presumably that means the same dinner companions for the trip?

 

I also realised that I made a mistake when booking my cabin and I have an obstructed view. Will they let me change this to an unobstructed view?

 

Any other tips for the solo 30ish traveller gratefully received,

 

Thanks,

 

Bev

 

We did this Baltic cruise in May 2013 and loved it. You should have a great cruise. We have had a number of obstructed cabins looking over and under life boats and found them fine for the price. The nice thing about those cabins is the full floor to ceiling windows that let a lot of light into the cabin. We went with our first verandah in this Baltic cruise in 2013.

 

We have done both fixed and "as you wish" dinning and have enjoyed them both. We generally selected fixed when the times leaving ports was early (5:00) and took as you wish when we stayed in ports later. On one cruise after a week with as you wish we meet two couples and we got together each night and went to dinner together. We just set a time each evening that we would met at the MDR.

 

Here is a link to some pictures we took of the Eurodam during the cruise. The link is to Microsoft's Skydrive where the pics are stored. Just click the link and then the first picture and a slide show will start. We have a lot more photos which I can link too you later if you like.

 

https://skydrive.live.com/?cid=07afc87cdf2f6dca&sc=photos#cid=07AFC87CDF2F6DCA&id=7AFC87CDF2F6DCA%216011&sc=photos

 

Keep asking questions since there is a lot to learn for this cruise and we are happy to help.

[TiogaCruiser]

.

 

One of HAL's greatest treasures is the crew. They are very attentive to, sometimes almost protective of, solo lady cruisers.

Kate

 

I had the same impression. My stewards always seemed to take a few more minutes to chat. And so did a few in the Lido. I did a solo last year and loved it. (Missed DH, who had started a new job and the trip didn't appeal to him).

 

I chose open seating and did Lido (which is DH and my preference) but did make myself go to the MDR on 2 formal nights. I tend to be shy so I ended up asking for a table alone ( in truth I really chickened out of the group table option). There were a lot of people who offered to snap a picture with my camera so I could get in (and that was real nice). Our rollcall was great.

 

Have a great trip! (You can do it!)

[bevfd]

Thanks all for the reassurance and for sharing the great photos. I would have loved a verandah but would rather spend the money on an excursion. I also suspect that not having a balcony will push me to spend more time out on the decks!

 

I might change from fixed time dining but can't find how to do this one the website. The Asian dining room looks fantastic and I think I will eat there a couple of times during the voyage.

[rajkr74]

Thanks all for the reassurance and for sharing the great photos. I would have loved a verandah but would rather spend the money on an excursion. I also suspect that not having a balcony will push me to spend more time out on the decks!

 

I might change from fixed time dining but can't find how to do this one the website. The Asian dining room looks fantastic and I think I will eat there a couple of times during the voyage.

 

We had booked a Verandah Guarantee cabin but went back to an obstructed view cabin. We kept watching the prices on the HAL site and noticed that this verandah cabin came up for an up sell of only $140 total. We called our TA and booked the cabin. We find that keeping track of prices up to final payment may provide a better cabin. Generally....up to final payment if your cabin price drops you can get HAL to refund the difference. But after final payment they normally won't refund the drop in price. But you can upgrade to another cabin like we did for sometimes a modest price.

 

If you booked directly with HAL just give them a call and they will change your fixed dinning. There is no link on line to do the change. It is usually easy to go from fixed to AYW dinning. Harder to go the other way because fixed gets filled up fast.

 

What date is your Baltic Cruise?

 

When you get to the point of looking at excursions in St. Petersburg let us know, we will give you some advice. We used Alla Tours of St. Ptsbrg. a private company. They come highly recommended and we had a great 2 day tour with them. There are others also that fellow cruisers used.

Edited January 1, 2014 by RAJKR74

[rajkr74]

Thanks all for the reassurance and for sharing the great photos. I would have loved a verandah but would rather spend the money on an excursion. I also suspect that not having a balcony will push me to spend more time out on the decks!

 

I might change from fixed time dining but can't find how to do this one the website. The Asian dining room looks fantastic and I think I will eat there a couple of times during the voyage.

 

A lot a cruisers love/rave the Tamarind restaurant. We tried it but were limited to certain selections since we are not spicy eaters and my wife has some seasonings allergies. But we found some selections which were very good. The dining atmosphere was special and we sat next to the captain and his wife, who is also the Future Cruise Director. Very nice talking with them.

[bevfd]

Oh, I have already paid in full so I take it they won't honour any drop in price? Seems like a harsh penalty for paying them early!!

 

My cruise starts on the 23rd May and the only excursion I have booked so far is the evening visit to the Hermitage. I liked the idea of a quieter visit there. Any details of alternative tour operators would be gratefully received. I plan on posting in the Baltics forum for some advice too. Everyone has been most helpful.

[rwams]

Wow, single & not gay.;) See ya in May on the beautiful "O".:)

 

Yes Gail see you in May!

[rajkr74]

Oh, I have already paid in full so I take it they won't honour any drop in price? Seems like a harsh penalty for paying them early!!

 

My cruise starts on the 23rd May and the only excursion I have booked so far is the evening visit to the Hermitage. I liked the idea of a quieter visit there. Any details of alternative tour operators would be gratefully received. I plan on posting in the Baltics forum for some advice too. Everyone has been most helpful.

 

Most often when booking a cruise the cruise line requires only a partial down payment then the remaining balance is due 75 days before the start of the cruise. Up to that date if the price drops you can get an adjustment. Lots of discussion on the threads about price drops after the final payment due date. Not sure how it would work with you paying all the bill even before the final due date. If you see a drop in price it would not hurt to call HAL. All they can say is no, but if they say yes you benefit. Some people have gotten a small on board credit when they complained after the final payment due date, but I would no depend on that. We had one cruise where we booked an inside cabin and an obstructed cabin came available at a lower price. We got a refund but it was an "Upgrade" into a better cabin.

 

St. Petersburg: We used Alla Tours. We found it is very hard to navigate St.P without the help of a tour. You would need to get your own VISA if you go on your own. The dock is a long ways out from the main part of town. You can't just get off ship and walk around. The tour company takes care of all the VISA requirements. We were in a 14 person passenger van very comfortable. The tour guide supplied receivers with earphones that you picked up her narrative even if you were 20 ft. away from her, very nice. Here is the link to Alla:

 

http://www.alla-tour.com/

 

Other people on the cruise used SPB tours and they also were very happy with them. We inquired about the best tour companies from other travelers who had been to St P. and both of these were recommended. Here is the link to SPB:

 

http://www.spb-tours.com/

 

Here is a link to our St. P. pictures. You can see in the 2nd picture the vans they had for us. The tour we took was a 2 day package. Two busy days but WELL worth the money and time. I was very impressed with St. P. and Russia having never been there. Nice people, clean town and great restoration since the war.

 

https://skydrive.live.com/?cid=07afc87cdf2f6dca&sc=photos#cid=07AFC87CDF2F6DCA&id=7AFC87CDF2F6DCA%215726&sc=photos

[rajkr74]

Oh, I have already paid in full so I take it they won't honour any drop in price? Seems like a harsh penalty for paying them early!!

 

My cruise starts on the 23rd May and the only excursion I have booked so far is the evening visit to the Hermitage. I liked the idea of a quieter visit there. Any details of alternative tour operators would be gratefully received. I plan on posting in the Baltics forum for some advice too. Everyone has been most helpful.

 

Are you flying into Copenhagen a day early? Most of us travelers generally get to the embarkation port at least one day ahead of the cruise. That way if you have any delays you have a whole day to still to get there. A same day flight in gives you no room for errors or delays.

 

We flew into Copenhagen 4 days ahead and had those days for site seeing, and loved it.

[bevfd]

Thanks, yes I arrive in Copenhagen on the evening of the 21st for sailing on the 23rd. I travelled to SA and Botswana last year and had an absolute horror with the flights out and several of the internal flights. In all we lost 3 days of our holiday so I have an extra day. I've found a food tour in Copenhagen which I plan doing on the 22nd.

[rajkr74]

Thanks, yes I arrive in Copenhagen on the evening of the 21st for sailing on the 23rd. I travelled to SA and Botswana last year and had an absolute horror with the flights out and several of the internal flights. In all we lost 3 days of our holiday so I have an extra day. I've found a food tour in Copenhagen which I plan doing on the 22nd.

 

Good for you to get to Copenhagen early. We had heard of some horror stories about delayed flights and passengers missing the ship.

 

We did 4 days in Copenhagen and my wife did a marvelous job in planning tours of the city. We even took the train out of town to Frederiksborg Castle. We don't have commuter trains here in Oregon and were pretty impressed with how easy it was to navigate around.

 

Here is the link to our Copenhagen pictures:

 

https://skydrive.live.com/?cid=07afc87cdf2f6dca&sc=photos#cid=07AFC87CDF2F6DCA&id=7AFC87CDF2F6DCA%215609&sc=photos

 

Oh also we found a thread here in CC for Ports of Calls where a citizen (Danish Viking) of Copenhagen has been answering questions for CC members. He was extremely helpful in figuring out the bus and train system along with other sites. The link started back on Jan 2013 that you can read or go forward to present day:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1772831

[dadroy]

So many great replies from others. I will throw in a little one here. The entertainment staff will normally go to one of the bars after the last show of the evening. The dancers and singers are normally your age and you can get to know them if you don't find others to hang around with.

 

DW and I had great times with them. And only the skaters were gay:D

 

Oops wrong cruise line, no ice rinks here.:cool: