Baltic Cruise first timer

[sailingbuddy]

I have sailed many times in the US but since this is the first foreign cruise I am wondering what to expect as far as any major differences onboard the ship. We will be on RCCL Legend of the Seas in July. Since this is a US ship I am assuming that all staff will speak in English and that American food will be served. Am I correct? Also will there be a need for any electrical converters to operate hair dryers, etc? Are the staff tipped in AMerican currency or Euros? Please help! The cruise is fast approaching. Many thanks!

[Silver Sweethearts]

Your best bet is to Google "Cruise Critic - Legend of the Seas" to find out what you wish to know - and more. Bon voyage!

[CruiserBruce]

Actually the better place to look is the RCI board here.

 

The outlets on the ship don't change when the ship moves from the Caribbean to Europe. RCI's fleetwide currency is dollars, that doesn't change either, so you will be tipping in dollars. The food will still be mostly American oriented, although experiencing European food isn't a bad thing.

Edited June 11, 2014 by CruiserBruce

[ldubs]

On board outlets are 110v. Tipping and everything else on board is in US dollars. You won't have any problem speaking English -- it will be predominant on board. I don't know what to say about the food. It seems to be about the same, menu wise, regardless of the location. Sometimes they will add dishes to the menu that are geared to the local cuisine.

[John Bull]

You'll find those things much the same as on your previous cruises - you might even meet the same staff.

Hopefully the ship will offer a few local dishes, it's also part of the chefs' enjoyment of a cruise - but still mainly American.

 

Since you're American, use USD for tips cos that's convenient for you. Unless you have left-over euros.

Since I'm not, for cruises where I don't need American cash for anything else, I tip in euros - or even GBP for ships sailing out of the UK.

Crew have uses for local currencies for their shopping, USD for saving/sending home, so all are very acceptable to them

 

JB :)

Edited June 11, 2014 by John Bull

[rkacruiser]

You can probably expect a more international group of passengers. On the Eurodam last Summer during a Baltic cruise, there were many European passengers along with a few from Australia and the Middle East. That was no problem and made for some interesting conversations with different people.

[TruckerDave]

You can probably expect a more international group of passengers. On the Eurodam last Summer during a Baltic cruise, there were many European passengers along with a few from Australia and the Middle East. That was no problem and made for some interesting conversations with different people.

 

To me, that is the best part. Meeting and talking to people form other parts of the world. (staff and pax alike).

[Blamar]

Like Trucker Dave said you will meet many more people from other countries and most likely will not have such a strong United States influence. Not as much on the ship as in the cities you will visit. An example of this is you will see different flags to designate what language is spoken and usually for English it will be the Union Jack of England instead of seeing the Stars and Stripes. But English will do you fine on the ships and in the ports. We recently returned from the Eurodam and barely got time to practice Danish, German or Russian.

 

The other thing you may find is that these are port intensive trips that can be pretty exhausting. There is a lot to see and not much time to rest and recoup. We found that we took most of our time in Helsinki off so that we could recover from our two days of touring St. Petersburg.

 

It is an awesome area to cruise. Have fun.