Trip report. Baltic Cruise

[Funboy]

Well this was our first Cruise so I will be totally honest in what we found, mostly brilliant.

Firstly we were on Brilliance and in a guaranteed cabin. Unfortunately it was the verey nfront cabin and rather noisy everytime we docked.

Anyway, to start. The embarkation was very slow, reminding me of the American Customs!.

Once aboard it was very good.

First port was Copenhagen. I have to say very disappointing. The Little Mermaid is just that..tiny and it was covered in Japaneses tourists from another ship. The rest of Copenhagen was, to be honest, a building site and left us with the feeling we should not have landed!

Never mind as once again tyhe ship was excellent.

Tallin..very easy to get to..about 15mins walking into the old town and a very good day out.

St Petersburg...very busy and the only place we took 'official' tours both days. Slight disappointment in the speed going round the Hermitage but all in all an experience.

More to follow!!!.

[Oak Hill Cruisers]

Keep the reviews coming. I'd like to see your comments on the Russian folkloric dance troupe that was taken on board whilst in St Petersburg.

 

We did the folkloric dance with a private tour (DenRus) in St. Petersburg and we saw, on our stateroom TV, videos of the troupe that came on board it was very similar to the one we paid big bucks to go see in town (but we loved the experience).

 

Also, your impression of La Havre, if you stayed close to the ship and did the town tour.

[Funboy]

Oak Hill Cruisers.

The Russian troupe who came aboard and did a show were excellent. It was rumoured that they were better than the show which cost big bucks ashore. We did not see that one show personally so cannot compare.

We did not go to LeHavre as it was just the Baltic area.

[Funboy]

Well this was our first Cruise so I will be totally honest in what we found, mostly brilliant.

Firstly we were on Brilliance and in a guaranteed cabin. Unfortunately it was the verey nfront cabin and rather noisy everytime we docked.

Anyway, to start. The embarkation was very slow, reminding me of the American Customs!.

Once aboard it was very good.

First port was Copenhagen. I have to say very disappointing. The Little Mermaid is just that..tiny and it was covered in Japaneses tourists from another ship. The rest of Copenhagen was, to be honest, a building site and left us with the feeling we should not have landed!

Never mind as once again tyhe ship was excellent.

Tallin..very easy to get to..about 15mins walking into the old town and a very good day out.

St Petersburg...very busy and the only place we took 'official' tours both days. Slight disappointment in the speed going round the Hermitage but all in all an experience.

More to follow!!!.

Right..second half coming up!

The next stop was Helsinki. It did not appear too inviting from the first look but wow..an hour into exploring on foot we arrived at the market held by the waterfront and near the town centre. It was a great place and gave a couple of hours pleasure..

Stockholm was next and we only managed to visit two places but boy, were they worthwhile. Firstly the Vassa Museum with the 'old boat'. A beautiful museum in a great setting. Fifteen minutes walk away was the Swedish History Museum. This is ,by far, the best museum I have ever visited. The whole concept was based on education and there was an amazing display of artefacts from throughout the Swedish history. There was also an excellent gold room and a viking living display.

Our next, and final stop was Visby. This was a great place for a relaxing stroll round an old town centre.

A quick summary of the stops: Apart from St Petersburg all the stops were easily accessed on foot and did not need official tours if you do a little research beforehand.No need for coaches, buses etc. We did however use the hop-on hop-off water bus in Stockholm which was a really good buy. All the people seemed to speak very good English and there were plenty of places for a coffee etc.

Now to the ship.

Entertainment was very good, the most popular being a 50/60s night with a band called The Zoots. Dru, the cruise director was exceptional as were his staff. The casino was good and the various 'attractions' were also good. We played golf and the shuttleboard.

Food in general was good but I have to say that the Windjammer did not come up to scratch some days with wrong labelling and cold food. They also ran out of various dishes quickly.The main restaurant was very good and the service perfect. I wish we had used this from the start.

A word of advice. When settling up your bill (Sea pass card) and paying by credit card put that you want YOUR bank to do the exchange rates as in our case the ships exchange was 1.56 dollars to the pound but our banks rate was $1.71 so a big saving.

My only complaint, funnily enough, concerned the Captain. On the day we went to Stockholm he, being Swedish, insisted on a ship wide broadcast to let us know we were entering Swedish waters and the journey in was a beautiful sight. This was at 3 o'clock in the morning!! All in all, a brilliant cruise so congrats to Royal Caribbean.

Edited July 19, 2014 by Funboy

[poodog]

Good review thanks