Brilliance Cruise to Scandinavia and Russia, planning, cruising and LOT of photos

[ace1zoe2]

I'm really enjoying your trip review & photos. We are hoping to do this itinerary some day in the future.

 

 

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[Kevin's girl]

I'm really enjoying your trip review & photos. We are hoping to do this itinerary some day in the future.

 

 

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Thank you very much. I have enjoyed you reviews and photos in the past. You are a great inspiration.

[Kevin's girl]

I’m not sure how this works so this will be a little test. This is hopefully a little video of us going under the first of many bridges. She had just warn us all to keep our heads down and hands in.

View My Video

 

Cool, the my video link takes you to Tinypic where you can see the video. It was a very low bridge.

Edited September 17, 2014 by Kevin's girl

[Kevin's girl]

Here are a few pics of the sites along the tour:

The Royal Danish Opera House

 

Holmen Navel Yard

 

Now, I know that this may seem like an odd photo. I want to explain why my DH was so very excited about the strange thing in the middle. You see, it is a tall ship mast crane. It was built in 1748-1751 and was used to hoist the masts of the navel battle ships.

I had read that the Little Mermaid was really little and that the crows were unreal to see her. We found all to be true, so we were happy to see her from the water and not be a part of the on land gaggle of people vying for a spot to see her.

 

Frederick’s Church at Amalienborg

[Kevin's girl]

So, I promised I would get this review finished, so let’s get going. Shall we?

Denmark, continued:

 

 

 

 

 

The canal tour was the perfect way to see the city with our limited time. We couldn’t help but notice as we came back into the pier there was a storm heading our way. We made plans to make our way back through town, grab a local beer and find the church and shuttle pick up spot.

[Kevin's girl]

We found this nice square (didn’t get the name of it or the pub, sorry) and pub. There was a festival going on when we got there. It seemed to be a radio station putting on the affair. There were street vendor and even a guy doing chalk drawings on the sidewalk.

 

 

 

 

Our local beer and our traveling gnome. Perhaps I need to take a minute and explain the gnome. Back several years ago our youngest son gave the Chicago Bears gnome to my husband for his birthday. He explained that we needed to take it traveling with us to demonstrate that we are Bears fans and live in a part of Indiana that is more Chicago than Hoosier country. We don’t have NASCAR around here and root for the Bears over Colts every time. We have been taking the gnome with us on all of our trips long and short. He has been on an eagle tour on the Mississippi where he road with the Captain and even a Buckwheat Zydeco concert where he got his first autograph. It may be a bit odd, but he does come along everywhere we go.

 

 

Making our way back to St James church.

Please keep in mind that our map from RCI was awful and did not have many street names on it. We did have to stop and ask for directions. This was interesting as the three groups we asked had no idea there was even a St James church in the area. We did share our map with the third group, and they were able to figure out where we were and how to get back to the church. We were just three blocks away. We got to the corner and the shuttle just as the skies opened up and the downpour started. Our timing was perfect.

 

Saying goodbye to Copenhagen.

[kftw]

So glad to see your review continued. I was so afraid you had given up. I'll have more patience now so take your time. :D

[Kevin's girl]

So glad to see your review continued. I was so afraid you had given up. I'll have more patience now so take your time. :D

Thank you so much for the patients. Life has been so very crazy around here the last few week. I was afraid everyone would give up on me and loose interest. I will get this finished.

[bess128]

Fantastic review great pictures :)

[Kevin's girl]

Fantastic review great pictures :)

Thanks bess128

[flpab]

I just want to say that I love the black and white dress you wore in London.

[Kevin's girl]

I just want to say that I love the black and white dress you wore in London.

Thank you, I bought it at Sears in the Spring.

[Kevin's girl]

Good morning everyone! Happy Saturday, it’s a very cold day here. The temp is only supposed to reach 46 degrees and it’s raining. It seems I may actually have a good day to work on this review.

 

Following our day in beautiful Copenhagen we had a late dinner in Chops. They said that they were just starting their new menu with our cruise. I thought the choices were good but more basic than with the menu from last year. The biggest change for us was to lose the duck choices. These had been my DH’s favorite on the old menu. The service was as usual, wonderful.

When we finished dinner we took a stroll out on Deck 5 so DH could pollute his lungs (the after dinner smoke) and we were treated to a wonderful surprise. Looking forward we saw the Øresund Bridge coming into view. The Øresund Bridge joins Sweden and Denmark. We stood there out on the small promenade hump and watched as we sailed up to and under the bridge. It was such an unexpected treat and we were the only ones out on deck to see it. We ran up from deck 5 to our cabin to take pictures, as I the camera/photo fiend had forgotten (gasp) my camera in our cabin. The following are the photos after we had past the bridge.

 

 

 

Day Four, Sea Day

Today we decided we would sleep late and get ready for the next few very busy days. My pack light decision was coming in to haunt me as I realized we were running low on clean underwear and shirts. There was a ship wide laundry sale today only. It was $20 for all you could fit into the mostly small bad of laundry. There were rules on what “all you can fit” meant. So I included 4 pairs (yes, “pairs” was a rule) some underwear and several of my DH’s tee shirts. Once the bag was full I sent it out with our cabin steward. I also did some laundry in the bathtub and hung it out to dry on the balcony. I had wanted to compare which turned out better. Now, I also noticed that there was no Diamond laundry coupon on this cruise. I’m not sure if there was one for pressing as we rented the tux for formal nights and my dresses didn’t need it. I would highly recommend renting the tux.

Let me take a moment to talk about how wonderful the tux rental worked out. First, this is the website to go to for RCI tux rental: https://tuxedorentals.rccl.com/tuxedo/tuxrental.nsf

All of the pricing is there and it is super easy to enter the measurements and all of the info needed to get the tux. Second, the tux was hanging in our cabin closet when we arrive. Next, we received a call from the ship’s tailor to come and fit the tux and make what ever changes or alterations were needed to the shirts, jacket or pants that were needed. It was wonderful. We did have an issue with the shirts, and in the end he only had one shirt to properly fit. His solution to the fact that we had three formal nights and only one shirt was to come up to our cabin the morning following each formal night and collect the shirt for cleaning and to return it later the same day for seamless formal night apparel. On the last day of our cruise the tailor called again to pick up the tux and all of its parts. No worries.

 

Back to the laundry comparison. I was not impressed with the laundry done by the ship. I had figured there was no way they could mess up what I had sent out. It was clean and folded as promised but the tee shirts had a damp feeling to them and I ended up hanging them all around the cabin to finish drying and get the terrible wrinkles out of them. I will not waste money on this service again.

 

We hung out on our balcony enjoying the views most of the day.

 

 

We had dinner in the main dining room at our table for two by the window. I had requested this type of table before the cruise. The request was made on the phone one night when the RCI customer service was very slow and everyone here on CC was having problems getting through. I mention this now because I was on hold for 93 minutes (I got through 3 minutes before midnight). You may think this was crazy but I had called because of a $600 per person price drop. It seemed worth $1200 total to wait on hold and I was afraid the price may change again after midnight. The RCI rep was very nice and apologized for the outrageous wait. She applied the price drop and asked if there was anything else she could for me. I decided to ask about the table. This was our 16th cruise and we have never sat by the window before. It turned out to be a great table and the only table for two by the window in the dining room. We had wonderful views like this one the entire cruise.

 

 

After dinner out on Deck 5, where we met some of the nicest people on the ship.

Edited October 4, 2014 by Kevin's girl

[Kevin's girl]

Day Five: Tallinn, Estonia

This was a port we were rather excited about. We had been looking at pictures of the Old Town area for months and thinking of Tony Curtis and the movie The Great Race (dating myself, I know). We were not disappointed. What a magical place Tallinn turned out to be. Warning: We took hundreds of photos here and I intend to share quite a few of them. The port was very manageable on our own. We opted not to do any set excursion here. We got off the ship, walked out through the small shopping area next to the ship and on through the gates of the port. We could see the Old Town from this point and decided to take a ride into town on a Rickshaw Bike. This was a lot of fun and gave us a local’s view on what we were about to see and a bit of history on the town. The cost for the ride into town was €15.

Shopping near the ship

 

Near the corner where we found our Rickshaw driver

 

Over the shoulder of our driver

 

Our first look at Old Town

 

Just inside Viru Gate which is the Southeast corner of Old Town

 

We decided to start our Tallinn experience by going along the inside wall and making our way up and into the center of town.

[Kevin's girl]

It’s so important to look into the little doorways and arches along the way.

 

 

This reminded me of the folk tales my sister used to read to our kids. I believe it is a Baba Yaga. I was so excited and Kevin just thought I had lost my mind (again). But it did bring back such fond memories that it set me on the task of finding my own Baba Yaga to bring home. And yes I did find one and she is proudly hanging in the family room as I now write this.

 

Winding our way up the hill

 

[Kevin's girl]

 

 

 

So many churches

 

With my main objective (the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral) in sight, we decided to stop for a local brew. My DH is not exactly a church fan and I intended to go into as many as possible so I figured this would be a good way to start out. A beer, for him and a church for me. It worked nicely for us.

 

 

This is the pretty little bar we found to take a break at. The Nevsky Cathedral is just around the corner. It was such a treat to have the quaint outside seating in all of the countries we went to. You don’t feel like you are missing out by taking a break.

[Thetrail]

Next up was the Tower of London (the only thing really on my husband’s must see list). I figured OK' date=' we can walk there from the Eye. We will just stay on the boardwalk and be there in no time. I figured it was flat and even and would be an easy walk. Haha. So, in my defense and before I go any further we had past the Tower on the bus tour the night before and as we went over Tower Bridge I could clearly see Westminster Bridge and it didn’t look that far. Looks can be deceiving. And if you stay on the boardwalk you will surely miss out on lovely little streets and a great pub with really good fish and chips. Sorry, I digress. My thought was to walk down the boardwalk to the Tower Bridge and cross the bridge on foot and then tour the tower the go to Hung Drawn and Quartered for lunch. We took off from the Eye, and headed down the boardwalk as planned. I later noticed St Paul’s Cathedral and just how close it was (not really). As we approached the very pretty Blackfriers Bridge I suggested we cross there and pop over to St Paul’s. My loving DH looks at me like I’m nuts and you guess it out came the whine. Sorry, but ever since I was a kid and saw Mary Poppins I have wanted to see where the little old lady fed the birds and here that song in my head. So off we go.

 

This is where the great pub with really good fish and chips comes in. Now Kevin (my wonderful DH) has been a real sport so far and has had nothing to eat yet today. Breakfast was just a cup of tea as neither of us was hungry at the start of the day. It was also definitely time for a pint of beer. We just happened to run smack into the Black Friers Pub. What bit of luck.

 

[img']http://i60.tinypic.com/2vcsz1k.jpg[/img]

 

 

 

 

This is the best Fish and chips of the trip, I had the Cottage Pie which was really good too. This is also where I had my first Pimms and lemonade. Very tasty.

Thanks for letting us join in! Looks like a wonderful start...K.O.:)

[Kevin's girl]

Thanks for letting us join in! Looks like a wonderful start...K.O.:)

Thanks for coming along. It was a n amazing trip and I'm happy to share.

[Kevin's girl]

The local brew

 

 

I know that this may seem weird to some, but we noticed rather unusual gutters all over Tallinn. This was one of them.

Area around the bar.

 

 

The Alexander Nevsky Cathedral

 

Our first onion domes

 

[Kevin's girl]

A park at the top of the hill

 

 

Coming back down the hill

 

 

 

[Kevin's girl]

Keeping close eye on the clock, we came down the hill and decided it was time for some lunch. We usually try to eat at places that serve local foods and are not terribly touristy. I’m not really sure that this place was non touristy, but it was nice. Going in was a bit like following a hole in the wall and then finding a dungeon. Our server encouraged us to walk on through the dungeon

And into the light at the end of the room. We came out to a very nice, sunny terrace. This was a very nice place to have lunch.

 

 

 

 

Food porn, my pepper steak salad. It was light and very tasty.

 

Tip jar on the way out. It was just a fun little place to grab a bite.

[Kevin's girl]

 

Moving on down the hill and to the main square.

 

 

From the square, it was easy to find our way back to the gate. We decided to grab another rickshaw back to the ship. We had a different driver which gave us another local perspective on Tallinn and Estonia. It also gave us a totally different kind of ride. There seemed to be some sort of race with the clock and this guy. Nothing dangerous, just very fast as he spoke passionately about his town.

 

 

On our way back to the ship.

 

After getting through security we wandered our way back through the shopping stalls near the ship. We made a few purchases and went to the pier where we found this young lady and her bagpipes. It was very nice.

 

Last looks at Tallinn, Estonia

[Kevin's girl]

Here is something we happened to notice before leaving port in Tallinn. We had an Aida ship across the pier from us and we noticed that on every balcony there was either a hammock or the hookup for a hammock. I couldn’t help but think of the CC people here that post pics of hammocks tied to RCI balconies and how best to get them secured and whether or not it’s even possible on this or that balcony. I was green with envy and think this could be a suggestion for RCI ships.

[Royal_Cruiser]

My DH is not exactly a church fan and I intended to go into as many as possible so I figured this would be a good way to start out. A beer' date=' for him and a church for me. It worked nicely for us.

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I am thoroughly enjoying your review. Thank you for all of the details.

 

You and your husband sound like me and my husband in the church and beer department. :)

[Kevin's girl]

I am thoroughly enjoying your review. Thank you for all of the details.

 

You and your husband sound like me and my husband in the church and beer department. :)

LOL, it's nice to company in the church and beer department.