Russian Around the Baltic on Silhouette

[pjs678]

We are planning a Baltic for next summer on silhouette. Loving the review! I spent a year in Finland in 1989 - 90 and spent time in St Petersburg (Was still Leningrad, then) and am so excited to visit again. Appreciate all the detail.

 

Thanks for the response. You will have a great time next summer!

[pjs678]

Hey - hi from Atlanta also. We were with you on that bus walking back to the ship. Had a nice time meeting you! Love this review!

 

Hi there. I remember that. Seems so long ago now. I will probably finish up the review this week when I get a chance.

[T&T]

Hi and thank you so much for the amazing review, looking forward to more!

 

We also live in Atlanta and are heading that way Thursday evening on the same Virgin Atlantic flight in the same class. I understand you went on to a connecting flight however do you remember if they were handing out Fast Track tickets to those passengers needing to go through the T3 immigration lines?

 

Thanks so much again and now checking out your other reviews and photos!

 

Todd & Troy

Edited July 18, 2016 by T&T

[pjs678]

Hi and thank you so much for the amazing review, looking forward to more!

 

We also live in Atlanta and are heading that way Thursday evening on the same Virgin Atlantic flight in the same class. I understand you went on to a connecting flight however do you remember if they were handing out Fast Track tickets to those passengers needing to go through the T3 immigration lines?

 

Thanks so much again and now checking out your other reviews and photos!

 

Todd & Troy

 

Thanks guys - Yes, I believe they handed out Fast Track cards for anyone ending their trip in London.

[pjs678]

6/27 – Berlin OR My New Favorite Jeremy (even better than Pearl Jam)

 

Sorry for the delay in updating this review. I’m ready to finish this thing off now in the next few days. Now it’s time for one of our favorite days, which really surprised us.

 

I woke up at 4:45am and couldn’t get back to sleep. I remembered that the Game of Thrones finale was on Sunday night back home so it was on my DVR by this point. Thanks to the super fast internet (as everyone else was sleeping), I was able to watch it.

 

We had ordered room service between 6 and 6:30, but the butler called at 5:45am so thanks for that. He said the hot food was ready so he wanted to bring it while it was hot. We enjoyed breakfast on the balcony while we were sailing in through the channel into Warnemunde. Plenty of seagulls were keeping us company as well.

 

 

We were downstairs at Guest Services by 6:45am to meet with our group and we were all among the first off the ship. We had two other couples with us (from FL and CA) for the day who were all very nice despite also being lawyers like us.

 

Our tour guide, Jeremy Minsberg, had emailed me the night before with the name of the driver who would be meeting us at the port and Berny was right there as we got off the ship once it was cleared. We quickly got into the car and Berny handed me the phone so I could speak to Jeremy. We were scheduled to meet him around 9:30 at Charlottenburg Palace. We left the port at 7:20am. Incidentally, there was an ambulance at the port and some paramedics boarded the ship as we were leaving. I hope that person was OK, but we didn’t hear anything more about it.

 

We raced out of Warnemunde and got on to the Autobahn, ahead of all the buses and vans waiting for the various Berlin groups. We hit about 175kmh at one point (~108mph) and we called Jeremy as we hit the outskirts of Berlin to let him know we would be there by 9:20am. Berny was from Rostock and had grown up under Communism. He had an interesting perspective on life pre-1990 and post-1990. He also spoke Russian, as many do who grew up in East Germany (Fun Fact: including Angela Merkel).

 

We pulled into the Palace parking lot on the West side of Berlin and Jeremy was there waiting for us. He gave us an introduction and explained how a successful Midwestern Jewish gay businessman came to be a tour guide in Berlin. Short answer is: mid-life crisis! Longer answer is that he wanted to move to the place where he had an irrational hate for the people and the place (due to the Holocaust) and dig into those feelings to see why he felt that way. Turns out, Berlin was on the cusp of a rebirth when he arrived 15 years ago and is now a vibrant rebuilt city that is very welcoming to Jews, gays, and all minority groups.

 

Jeremy told us that we would not actually go inside the palace as the whole thing had been rebuilt since WWII and was very “Disney”. Our first real stop was the nearby Olympic Stadium, for which my initial thought was ugh, who cares? But, as would often happen this day, I was pleasantly surprised. We walked into the building across from the stadium and climbed up the tower built for the Olympics. From the top, we had a great panoramic view of the city.

 

 

 

 

Below the tower is a small museum with a movie playing about the 1936 Olympics, which we watched for a few minutes. There is also a room that Hitler used for ceremonial purposes. It was quite surreal to walk in the same place that you know who used to walk.

 

[pjs678]

Leaving the stadium, we hopped back in the van and headed to the Grunewald neighborhood. On the way, Jeremy showed us some pre-war pictures and videos. The neighborhood was a popular one among the secular Jewish population of Berlin in the pre-war days. Unlike most of Eastern Europe, the Jewish population of Berlin were assimilated into the German population, speaking the language and dressing like their countrymen. When Hitler rose to power, many of them thought that they would be OK, but it quickly became apparent that they needed to leave. Many of them had the means or opportunity to leave, but those that didn’t, ended up at Track 17.

 

Track 17 is the name for a particular railway line that left the Grunewald neighborhood and headed East. Berlin’s Jews were herded into railcars and sent to various locations, including ghettos, concentration camps, and death camps. Each transport is memorialized with a plaque next to the (now unused) railroad track.

 

 

 

It was a very moving memorial in an unexpected place. They were very thorough record-keepers so all of these plaques had the date, the number of Jews and the location they were sent.

 

 

 

From Track 17, we headed into the center of town. On the way, we passed through the Tiergarten and saw the Victory Column.

[pjs678]

We drove to the main railway station, built about 10 years ago to replace all of the other railway stations that served the fast trains to other points in Europe. Unlike London, Paris, etc., Berlin has one massive central station, conveniently located near the main government buildings.

 

 

We grabbed a quick lunch in the station. Of course, I had to try a currywurst, which was just OK. We walked across the bridge to the park and sat for a little while looking at some pictures on Jeremy’s iPad of what the area looked like pre-war and post-war.

 

At this point, we were going to walk for a while. We headed up past the Reichstag and the Bundestag, past the Chancellor’s office (she wasn’t on the balcony even though the weather was great).

 

 

 

Angela's balcony is below:

 

 

Offices for parliament members

 

 

We walked down to the Brandenburg Gate, which of course was in no-man’s land during the Cold War. There was a huge viewing party for the German victory in the Euros the night before so some of the area was still closed off.

 

[pjs678]

We took a nice picture in front of the gate.

 

 

Near the gate is the American Embassy, rebuilt a few years ago. It’s one of the only American embassies that you can actually walk up to the front door. Outside was a memorial for the recent Orlando shootings.

 

 

The embassy is literally right there in the square.

 

 

 

I loved the manhole covers in Berlin.

 

[pjs678]

Around the corner is the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. It’s a somewhat controversial memorial, consisting of different height monolith stones that are built on a slope so that you kind of disappear as you walk through. We all walked through and met on the other side.

 

 

 

 

 

Jeremy had a quick discussion with us on how we felt about the memorial. He also was disappointed that it was Monday so the below-ground museum was closed, as he said that would be something we would have appreciated. The museum opened 10 years ago and has a room where the name of a Holocaust victim is displayed every minute. It took 8 years to run through the names once and now they are doing it again.

[pjs678]

We walked over to where Hitler's bunker was located.

 

 

Then, Berny and his van were there to pick us up and drive us into the former East Berlin. Our first stop was the Topography of Terror, where there is a large piece of the wall still remaining and an interesting museum with Cold War history displays. We spent about ½ hour here and took a few pictures as well.

 

 

 

Group photo:

 

 

Berny then drove us past Checkpoint Charlie towards Museum Island, where we got out and walked through a couple of more memorials (all are free in Berlin), including where the book burnings took place at Humboldt University.

 

 

[pjs678]

We walked onto Museum Island and we obviously did not have time to go inside any of the museums on this visit, but the views were great.

 

 

 

 

We got back in the van and drove past Checkpoint Charlie and a couple of other sights, including the new Jewish Museum. We made a quick stop in a chocolate shop.

 

 

Then we had a couple of options for our last stop and we chose to drive through the old Jewish quarter, where Jeremy pointed out some landmarks. Then we headed to his neighborhood, which was really nice. He said it was rundown when he moved in, but now most of the buildings have been regentrified. The neighborhood was spared much of the bombing during the war, so most of the buildings are early 20th century or older.

 

 

 

Interesting sidenote: West Berlin ripped out the trolley car system when they built the metro, but now are putting trolley cars back in as people prefer them and they are easier to build than subway lines. The East kept their trolley system (because they probably couldn't afford to build up the metro).

[pjs678]

By this time, it was approaching 4:45pm. We dropped Jeremy off at his apartment and said our goodbyes. The tour was well worth the price. Jeremy does not set a price, just a guideline. We paid him 200 Euros per couple for the 7 ½ hour tour and paid the driver 500 Euros pus a small tip. I can’t recommend him more highly. He’s a must if you go to Berlin and we will use him again next time we are there for sure.

 

Berny drove us back to the ship and it took a little longer this time, about 2 ½ hours. We arrived back at around 7:15pm and there was a huge line to get back on board. I suppose all of the Celebrity/SPB/Alla etc. tours had arrived back as well. This was the one time we took advantage of the suite/zenith line to skip ahead and get on board quickly. People we spoke to said they spent about 5-6 hours in Berlin depending on the size of the bus. We had 7 1/2 hours so well worth the extra cost to squeeze in that much more of the city.

 

Here is today's Celebrity Today:

 

 

 

 

 

We decided on sushi for dinner again so we went back to our favorite haunt. They again gave us a discount. How would we ever spend our OBC if they kept giving it back?

 

After dinner, it was time to watch my beloved England in the Euros, and…well, the less said the better. Congrats to Iceland on a great match. Blech!

I went to the casino to play away the disappoinment, but that never works. We went to bed after a fantastic day in Berlin with one more stop to go. Up Next: Segway of Terror

[pjs678]

6/28 – Copenhagen Day 1 OR Just a Flesh Wound

 

After a long day in Berlin, we had time to sleep in on the following day as we weren’t scheduled to dock in Copenhagen until noon. Despite this, we were still up early. We went to Café Bacio for a light breakfast. We tried a couple of the pastries on display and they were really good.

 

We read and watched TV on the balcony for a little while and then I kind of aimlessly wandered the ship. Luminae opened for lunch at 11. There never seemed to be any rhyme or reason whether they were going to be open for lunch on a port day or not. I finally tried the burger and it was good, although at the end of the day, it’s still just a burger. J didn’t bother with lunch as she was still full from the pastries at breakfast.

 

When we docked, I was coming back from breakfast and J had already left the cabin to meet me on Deck 3. We missed each other and for some reason, neither of us was receiving the other’s texts. J actually left the ship as she got tired of looking for me, but then she got worried that I had some medical issue and that’s why I hadn’t responded. In the end, I saw her on Deck 3 and we both yelled at each other for not responding, followed by showing each other our phones and then realizing we were both victims of an internet glitch.

 

We finally set out around 12:15 and headed on a long walk to the Segway tour meeting point. We walked past the Little Mermaid (the most overrated tourist attraction in Europe in my opinion).

 

 

We carried on past the Gefion Fountain, past Kastellet, through Amalienborg Palace, and then down Stroget.

 

 

 

 

[pjs678]

We actually preferred the Straedet, which is the street parallel to Stroget where more of the Danes shop and there are fewer tourists. We reached the Segway tour shop a little early so we waited a few minutes for our fellow tour participants, a family of 4 from Miami who were also from Silhouette and a couple from Switzerland who were on one of the two AIDA ships that were in port that day.

 

We then did our training and J went first so she got a lot of practice, about 20 minutes worth. I was the last one to get on the Segway, so I got about 2 minutes of practice. We set out on the tour and when we came to the first corner, my wheels brushed the curb and I wiped out! I scraped my elbow, but other than embarrassment, I was fine.

 

I got back on and the tour continued. It was a fairly comprehensive tour of the city, all the way back to The Little Mermaid, where we had an ice cream break, including stops at Palace Square, Nyhavn, the Parliament, National Museum, and across the water to Christanshavn.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[pjs678]

Following, the tour, which lasted about 2 hours, we walked to an antique store that J wanted to check out. We walked past Tivoli and this was as close as we were going to get. We’re not Disney fans and the idea of paying to walk around past a bunch of rides we weren’t going to go on didn’t appeal to us.

 

 

Then we walked to Nyhavn and got on the Netto boat tour. It was interesting to see the city from the water after seeing it from the Segway.

 

 

 

New Opera House:

 

 

Garbage processing plant/ski slope - under construction

 

 

 

We walked through Nyhavn and then walked back to the ship along the waterfront. There was a 10k race going on, so we had to dodge runners most of the way back.

[pjs678]

Here’s what was on tap on Silhouette for this day:

 

Something weird happened with the pic of the first page - sorry.

 

 

 

 

When we got back on board around 7, I checked with Anca at Michael’s Club regarding the possibility of getting into Murano that evening, which had been sold out when I checked a day earlier. We were in luck. There was a cancellation at 9pm so we decided to take it.

 

Before dinner, we watched about ½ hour of the comedy juggler show. J didn’t like it, but I found it funny (probably due to a cocktail at the World Class Bar beforehand).

 

It was a good as we remembered from our last Celebrity cruise. We did have some wines that were slightly higher than the package price as there were not many available by the glass within the premium package. After dinner, J went to bed, but I went to see the last ½ hour of the comedy juggler’s late show. He had a great final act with a huge unicycle and knives.

 

I stopped by the Ensemble Lounge and watched Terry Dobson, the guitarist/pianist. For his final song of the night, one of the bar waitresses stepped in on drums for “Layla.” I went to bed, knowing that the forecast for the next day was rain for the first time in the entire cruise. Up Next: Hey Dude - No Hey Jude?

[pjs678]

6/29 – Copenhagen Day 2 OR What’s This Wet Stuff?

 

For our last port day on this cruise, we were up around 7:30am. We headed to Luminae for breakfast. We had no real major plans for the day. I had originally slotted the national museum and Rosenborg castle for me that day, but after all these ports, I had absolutely no desire to see another museum or castle/palace. I’m sure they are great and I will come back to Copenhagen some day and see them.

 

Instead, we brought our umbrellas and walked back to the Stroget area to check out a couple of stores that J had missed the day before. The rain held off for the morning and we walked from Stroget up past Copenhagen University toward the Globe Irish Pub. I was hoping to trade a Liverpool Atlanta Supporters Club scarf for a Danish one, but alas, they were closed until late afternoon.

 

We walked past Norreport station and saw some interesting memorials along the way.

 

 

 

From there we walked across Dronning Louises Bro to the Ravensborgade area where J had researched some antique stores and art galleries.

 

 

Swanning around:

 

 

We walked around the area, but it was still only 10am and some of the stores didn’t open until noon. We walked back toward Rosenborg castle and J found a great art gallery/store across the street from the castle grounds. We spent quite some time there and she bought some cool stuff (even something that wasn’t even for sale from the owner’s workshop).

 

Closest I got to the castle:

 

 

As we left, it started to pour. This was the first rain we had on the entire trip. As it was a straight shot down to Nyhavn, we went to the Hans Christian Andersen store and bought a couple of final gifts for folks back home.

 

 

We didn’t fancy the walk back to the ship in the rain, so we decided to get an Uber. We had no problem finding one and he drove us back to the ship around noon. We were really glad we booked the Segway tour and the boat tour for the first day in Copenhagen and felt bad for those touring around in the rain.

[pjs678]

Here’s the Celebrity Today:

 

 

 

 

 

Lunch was at, you guessed it, Sushi on 5. We got a nice 30% discount. We still had some OBC left to spend on the last day. After lunch, we took a nap and watched a movie in the suite as the rain was still coming down.

Before dinner, we started packing, putting all the dirty laundry in one small suitcase (we didn’t bother doing any laundry on board). We started having that “end of vacation” melancholy a little.

 

Dinner was at Luminae as it was lobster night. The meal was very good and I’m glad we ended on a good note with Luminae after a couple of hit and miss evenings.

 

After dinner, we went to the casino to lose some more money and then it was up to the Sky Lounge for a Beatles tribute by the house band. It got fairly crowded and plenty of people were dancing. The only negative was that I asked if they could play Hey Jude (as it’s our wedding song – long story) and they said they didn’t know it. Really? The biggest selling single by the biggest band in history (who you are covering) and you don’t know it?

 

From there, we went with some folks we had met down to the theater for Liar’s Club. It’s basically To Tell The Truth, featuring the Cruise Director, the Comedian (from last night’s show) and the HR Director (I guess she was the only crew member they could get). It was cheesy, but pretty funny.

 

After that, it was approaching midnight so we checked in with our younger kid via FaceTime and then it was off to bed. Up Next: Rolling Through the North Sea.

[smmountaingal]

Thank you for your review.

 

Is there a method to print the Celebrity Today file that you have linked and stored in Photobucket?

 

Marilyn

[pjs678]

Thank you for your review.

 

Is there a method to print the Celebrity Today file that you have linked and stored in Photobucket?

 

Marilyn

 

Hmmm - not sure. I suppose I could do it, but I'm not sure if someone else can do it from my photobucket account. I expect someone will chime in who knows more than me.

[TexSea]

Thank you for your review.

 

Is there a method to print the Celebrity Today file that you have linked and stored in Photobucket?

 

Marilyn

 

I scanned my copy and made a PDF of it. You can download it at

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/67289472/Silhouette-Baltics-06232016.pdf

 

Hope this helps!!

[TeanneTX]

Thank you so much for your wonderful review and pictures. We're going on this same cruise May '17 and I have already gotten a bunch of plans made but you've given me some new ideas. I like how you did your tour of Berlin. We usually don't do the ships tours but since its such a long trip to Berlin and the ship uses a train-I decided to book through the ship. I may have to rethink that decision. I love how you did Berlin with a small group and got out before the tours left. Something to think about. Thanks again for all your hard work putting this together.

 

Teanne

[pjs678]

Thank you so much for your wonderful review and pictures. We're going on this same cruise May '17 and I have already gotten a bunch of plans made but you've given me some new ideas. I like how you did your tour of Berlin. We usually don't do the ships tours but since its such a long trip to Berlin and the ship uses a train-I decided to book through the ship. I may have to rethink that decision. I love how you did Berlin with a small group and got out before the tours left. Something to think about. Thanks again for all your hard work putting this together.

 

Teanne

 

Glad you're enjoying it. We thought about using our OBC for a ship tour in Berlin, but we're really glad we didn't, especially because the ship's train tour on our cruise was canceled 2 days before we reached Berlin. That left friends of ours with very few options. They ended up just going into Rostock and Warnemunde and missed Berlin altogether. If you can book Jeremy, you won't regret it.

[pjs678]

6/30 – Sea Day 2 OR A Fishy Day at Sea

 

You probably think that we gave Copenhagen short shrift, as we didn’t set foot in a palace, museum or in Tivoli Gardens. Well, this itinerary is exhausting and we were mentally worn out from all of the history. Yes, I know, first world problems and all that. We figured that it’s one of the easier cities to reach in Northern Europe and we will likely be back some day via air, boat or train.

 

One of the things I noticed about this itinerary vs. the Mediterranean is that it doesn’t really offer the same mix of natural beauty vs. history that the Med itineraries offer (Santorini vs. Athens, Myknos vs. Ephesus, etc.). This is one long history lesson (with a few exceptions for some parks and rivers, but no real wow scenery).

 

Anyway, moving on to our last day, we were headed out around the main peninsula of Denmark into the North Sea. We were told by the captain that we would enter the canal towards Amsterdam around 1am and dock in Amsterdam by 6am.

 

Here are today’s activities:

 

 

 

 

 

We woke up to a rocking ship. The North Sea was running pretty choppy (as usual), but we don’t get seasick (at least not within normal cruise parameters) and enjoyed the motion. We decided to give the Oceanview Buffet a try as J was getting a little tired of the Luminae breakfast menu. It was OK, although I would have preferred Luminae.

 

We went back to the suite for a snooze and then I decided I would attend the Beyond the Podium speaker final event. The ship had a former NASA director on board and he had been giving presentations throughout the week about his time with NASA. This last one was kind of a summary of lessons learned that could be applied to life and/or business. It was interesting enough to hold my attention for an hour.

 

Following that, I went to the gym to work up an appetite for lunch. We tried to go to Sushi on 5 for lunch, but they were completely booked! We made reservations for dinner so we wouldn’t miss out again.

 

We remembered that Murano was offering a special lunch menu that day for $30pp. We walked over and they had a table for us. It was a little strange being there in shorts and T-shirts.

 

Here’s the menu:

 

 

 

It was good, but not as good as dinner there. J had lobster (again) and I had the fish. The desserts were excellent though.

 

After lunch, J went to look at the shops and I went over to the casino for the grand prize drawing. I had two lousy tickets (and some folks had hundreds) so I wasn’t expecting to win, but you have to be present to win, so why not? Where else was I going to be?

 

Ironically, the same person won the top two prizes – $200 and $500 (I think). While I was down in the general vicinity, I went over to Michael’s Club and printed our boarding passes for our flights the next day.

 

At some point, the butler rang our doorbell (another suite “feature”) and asked if we needed anything. Well, it was a little late now buddy. You were invisible for the whole cruise and now you are skulking around looking for a tip. Here’s a tip: be around a little more and be proactive when we have an issue early on in the cruise.

 

At 4pm, it was bingo time in the theater. We bought our cards (prices have gone up in 4 years) and played along with the annoying banter of the host, one of the activities guys. We didn’t win – this cruise we lost every penny we gambled – and used our gelato coupons to get over the disappointment.

 

Dinner was at Sushi on 5 again and as usual, it was excellent. Yes, we had fish yet again for what felt like the umpteenth meal in a row. We said goodbye to the waiters and waitresses who had taken such good care of us throughout the cruise. They did an even better job than the ones in Luminae in my opinion.

 

We stopped by the final show, but frankly, it was a little boring (some vocalists) so we went to watch the Euros instead before stopping by the casino to lose our last few hands of blackjack.

 

We went back to the suite and had our luggage out by 11. The ship then rocked us to sleep. Up Next: First Class Disappointment

[TeanneTX]

Glad you're enjoying it. We thought about using our OBC for a ship tour in Berlin, but we're really glad we didn't, especially because the ship's train tour on our cruise was canceled 2 days before we reached Berlin. That left friends of ours with very few options. They ended up just going into Rostock and Warnemunde and missed Berlin altogether. If you can book Jeremy, you won't regret it.

 

Could you tell me what tour company he is from or Jeremy's contact information. I'd really like to personalize our Berlin tour and be able to get out and actually see some of the sites rather than just seeing them from a tour bus. Might be worth the extra $$ for the private tour. You can email me directly at: Teannetx@hotmail.com

 

Thank you