Getaway Baltic Capitals cruise - 16 to 25 May

[skatie]

Thank you for posting all your details and photos. We were anxiously awaiting reviews from this cruise as we are going in August. A couple of questions that come to mind...

- how does the time differences work - do you change to local times or stay on the original port/ship time? If you change times, are there 3 time changes?!

- does the normal menu rotation change at all to have a European flare, or do they stick with the regular menus in MDR that are the fleet wide ones?

- other than SPB, we plan on just doing our own things in each port - is it easy enough to find local transportation from port to and from city centers?

- did you get a reason why the ship didn't make Stockholm port and changed to the port outside the archipelago? Our itinerary still says Stockholm so fingers crossed the Getaway will be capable of making it there!

I look forward to more of your review! Thanks

[dixieagle]

Thank you so much for starting this thread! You provide excellent info and tips. We're leaving next Thursday and are doing this same cruise on June 3. Cannot wait!!!

[Huntingdon1701]

Thank you for posting all your details and photos. We were anxiously awaiting reviews from this cruise as we are going in August. A couple of questions that come to mind...

- how does the time differences work - do you change to local times or stay on the original port/ship time? If you change times, are there 3 time changes?!

- does the normal menu rotation change at all to have a European flare, or do they stick with the regular menus in MDR that are the fleet wide ones?

- other than SPB, we plan on just doing our own things in each port - is it easy enough to find local transportation from port to and from city centers?

- did you get a reason why the ship didn't make Stockholm port and changed to the port outside the archipelago? Our itinerary still says Stockholm so fingers crossed the Getaway will be capable of making it there!

I look forward to more of your review! Thanks

 

Time changes - you change to local time. I think there was one change forward, and one back. You get a card the night before to remind you, and then it is announced the next day. I always set the wake up call on the phone - that way I am sure I am on the right time.

 

Menus - they're all the same fleet-wide. This is why I stuck with the free restaurants this time - I've eaten everything on the speciality menus over my previous 3 cruises. They do throw in the odd special theme meal in Moderno, and I don't know if that is the same everywhere.

 

Ports - The ports are all pretty central, except for Nynashamn if you dock there rather than Stockholm. Pretty easy to catch some form of public transport. However, I did see Hop on Hop Off buses arriving in Nynashamn too. Warnemunde and Tallinn are probably the easiest to do that way.

 

Stockholm - no. This was very poorly handled by NCL, because I heard about the change from Alla a week before NCL bothered to tell me. Apparently, it is the Captain's call. We did check the port timetables and see a large container ship taking the Getaway's original berth, so maybe they were outbid - but I suspect that the problems of the Transatlantic made the Captain nervous about taking such a big ship through the archipelago. We did still see some of it though, so don't despair if your port gets changed as well.

[Huntingdon1701]

Okay, so somewhere in those days I also went to O'Sheehan's for snacks after tours - good for coffees and shepherd's pie/bangers and mash. Generally very easy to get into, although as most tours don't have time for lunch, people tend to head straight there after their tour finishes to get some food. I also had a flick through the pay per view movies, which were pretty much what you'd expect.

 

Day 5:

St Petersburg (Hurrah!)

Forecast: 55F/13C

Arrival: 7am

All Aboard: Overnight (gangways seemed to be open all night)

 

This was it. The really big day. We'd arranged to go out together as a tour group at the cruise critic meet up and gathered in the card room near the aft gangway. At 7.30 promptly we walked off the ship... and came to a dead stop at customs. There were very long queues, even though every available booth was open. It took us over an hour to get through, and for some reason my immigration officer was only doing one person compared to the next officer's three, which was very frustrating, but it didn't seem wise to make an issue of it. We did see a couple of people being refused entry (politely) so do make sure your paperwork is in order - you need your passport and your visa, which is usually your tour ticket. There are toilets in the queuing area, but no seats or other form of entertainment.

 

However, once the queuing was over, and you'd been stared down by the immigration officer, you go through a short corridor and that is where all the tour guides are waiting for you. We all hopped on our minibus and discovered it had free wifi - I've never seen so many happy tourists!

 

I have nearly 400 photos from St Petersburg, so if you're curious about something but can't see a photo - just ask.

Day 1 Tour itinerary:

 

 

Quick drive to the city for a sightseeing stop over the river towards the Hermitage.

 

Given that it was a quiet Saturday morning, we went straight to the subway to see the mosaics and ride a few stops. .

 

Then we went to St Isaac's cathedral, which rather dominated the skyline. Definitely worth seeing.

 

After that, it was off to Peterhof Palace gardens. These are most famous for their fountains, and we were actually there the day they officially switched them on for the year. We did a walk around the gardens, seeing the various types of fountain, summerhouses and hermitages. The spring flowers were just starting to come out, which brightened the place up. We didn't go inside the palace.

 

We then went off for lunch in a nearby palace.

 

After that, it was off to Catherine's palace, which also looked immense.

 

Every room is impressive, and it's interesting seeing how it moves from style to style. This palace, along with Peterhof, was looted during the war so it has been heavily restored. Luckily they were able to save a fair amount of it, and the restoration is very good.

 

After this, it was the end of day 1, so we headed back to the city. However, along with one other person, I had opted to do the optional ballet so they dropped us off at a restaurant to fill in time before the bus came along, with another dozen people, to take us there. The ballet was Swan Lake and very impressive. Equally impressive was the theatre itself.

 

We got back to the ship around 11.30, which was late, but we all felt it was worth it. If you didn't want to, or feel able to do, do the ballet, the ship apparently brought a Russian Folk Troupe on board to entertain (apparently quite cheesy).

 

When we arrived back, we had to go through another security check with our bags and pass through the immigration officer, but that took about ten minutes. The tour tomorrow was due to start at 7.50, so I went straight to bed.

[Seminole1975]

Very nice! Going in September. Enjoying the review & pics!

 

 

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[EllieinNJ]

Loving your review. How was the weather in May? Do you need sweaters and jackets? We are booked for this next May on the Breakaway.

[Huntingdon1701]

Loving your review. How was the weather in May? Do you need sweaters and jackets? We are booked for this next May on the Breakaway.

 

You might need one or the other. It was generally quite comfortable, but definitely started off cooler so layers were the way to go. I was in a t-shirt on a number of days. In every port they said that Spring had come late this year (they'd had snow the week before!) so the chances are that it will be a bit warmer for you.

[hisleepy]

You mentioned that they keep the dining menu the same fleet wide, so does it mean that they still have a lobster night? If they do, which night is that? I have a 3-night specialty dinner package and would like to plan out which night I should stay in the MDR. Thanks.

[Huntingdon1701]

You mentioned that they keep the dining menu the same fleet wide, so does it mean that they still have a lobster night? If they do, which night is that? I have a 3-night specialty dinner package and would like to plan out which night I should stay in the MDR. Thanks.

 

I'm afraid not. As far as I am aware, lobster disappeared from the fleet menu a while ago, except possibly in the Haven. The MDR has a rotating menu of about 9-10 menus so it is almost impossible to say what will appear on any one night - although a core element of the menu stays the same (Lasagne etc).

[pr0pel]

Are any of the ports able to be toured without a guide? Or do you recommend one for all the ports. I'm looking to use Alla in ports other than SPB since I already have another company but trying to see if they are really worth it for some ports more than others.

[Zynga]

Hi,

Going on the 18th of July. Looking forward to more insights into you cruise.Am interested in the Stockholm docking situation we are scheduled to dock and then pass through the archipelago.I hope that holds true.

To be on the safe side I bit the bullet and paid for the ship sponsored tour of Stockholm due to the chance of traffic in and out of Nyshamn, if we dock there.

Zynga

,

[phiphi1234]

Thanks so much for the detailed review. Looking forward to reading how the rest of your trip went! I'm going on the same cruise in a few weeks. I'm really excited about it!! We've booked the St Petersburg tour with Alla and i'm planning on self touring everything else. I just read about Schwerin castle recently... i didn't really want to travel all the way to Berlin, so i'm real excited about that option. I'll make sure to check out Rostok's cathedral though!

I do have quite a few very practial questions, if you don't mind (haven't cruised in 15 years! i'm a little rusty):

- how cold/warm is it on the ship? I live in the US and they do love their AC... so i'm always cold! Should i plan on carrying a jacket at all times?

- how formal do you have to dress for dinner?

- do you recommend advanced booking for their shows? What show do you recommend? Is their a best night to go see the show?

- Seems like you enjoyed the restaurant SAvor? Is that mostly because it was less crowded? Any other good options?

- I imagine the pools are heated, do they also have a hot tub (don't have a spa package)?

 

Thanks!

[nt13]

They were very short when I went - most of the time you could walk straight on. However, my Swedish friend said this was unusual and they would be much longer in the main season. I would recommend going thought - there's even plenty to see without going on the rides, if the queues are too horrendous, but I imagine you'd be able to find some with shorter rides.

 

 

 

Thanks for the advice! I am really enjoying your review.

 

 

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[LucasBraga]

Also going in the same itinerary in July-August. Is really good to see a review about this specific route :)

 

For now, I only have one question: why is the immigration in Russia is slow? Is any situation about people who don't have a Visa? I actually see in some roll call posts that russian officers just allow you enter in the country if you have a booked tour. Since I have a brazilian passport, I can enter in the country without a visa, so I'm planning to discover St. Petesburg by myself.

 

Thanks!

[Huntingdon1701]

Are any of the ports able to be toured without a guide? Or do you recommend one for all the ports. I'm looking to use Alla in ports other than SPB since I already have another company but trying to see if they are really worth it for some ports more than others.

 

You can probably do all the other ports without a guide, but the people who did didn't see half the things we saw. Those who took shorter excursions were also a bit disappointed to have not seen everything we did. The cost of the six Alla Tours I did was less than what NCL wanted for just the St Petersburg days, so it just seemed like excellent value to always have the guide and transport. I felt every tour they provided was excellent.

 

I would say that you could probably do Warnemunde and Tallinn most easily without guides. If you want to do something in depth, like the Vasa museum in Stockholm then you could also do that on your own.

[Huntingdon1701]

Hi,

Going on the 18th of July. Looking forward to more insights into you cruise.Am interested in the Stockholm docking situation we are scheduled to dock and then pass through the archipelago.I hope that holds true.

To be on the safe side I bit the bullet and paid for the ship sponsored tour of Stockholm due to the chance of traffic in and out of Nyshamn, if we dock there.

Zynga

,

 

I hope you make it. I'm sure the ship's tour is fine - but I actually heard about our change from Alla more than a week before NCL told anyone, so the independent tour providers are very on the ball. They check the port information regularly to spot any changes.

 

If you do make it through the archipeago, I'd love to see pictures of the full experience.

[Huntingdon1701]

Thanks so much for the detailed review. Looking forward to reading how the rest of your trip went! I'm going on the same cruise in a few weeks. I'm really excited about it!! We've booked the St Petersburg tour with Alla and i'm planning on self touring everything else. I just read about Schwerin castle recently... i didn't really want to travel all the way to Berlin, so i'm real excited about that option. I'll make sure to check out Rostok's cathedral though!

I do have quite a few very practial questions, if you don't mind (haven't cruised in 15 years! i'm a little rusty):

- how cold/warm is it on the ship? I live in the US and they do love their AC... so i'm always cold! Should i plan on carrying a jacket at all times?

- how formal do you have to dress for dinner?

- do you recommend advanced booking for their shows? What show do you recommend? Is their a best night to go see the show?

- Seems like you enjoyed the restaurant SAvor? Is that mostly because it was less crowded? Any other good options?

- I imagine the pools are heated, do they also have a hot tub (don't have a spa package)?

 

Thanks!

 

Temperature - I was quite comfortable in a t-shirt on board the ship, and had to take a jumper off. If you feel the cold, then a light jumper might be in order.

 

Formal dress - there is no requirement to be formal. They ask for slightly smarter wear in the Tropicana, Le Bistro and Ocean Blue, but there is no need to wear dinner jackets/long dresses - although this was the first cruise where I did see a couple of those in Le Bistro/Ocean Blue. I generally had jeans and a short-sleeved shirt (with a collar). People also tended to dress up for photos with the captain, and there are plenty of photo set-ups around the ship where you might want to dress up for a memorable shot. In the garden cafe, shorts are perfectly acceptable.

 

Shows - I do recommend booking because the Getaway has a lot of passengers and the show venues are generally small. Cirque Dreams and Steam is a must to see - I would pick a day with a shorter port call, as the sea days were packed. Turn up half an hour before it starts to get a good seat near the stage. I would also recommend Burn the Floor, and heard good things about Million Dollar Quartet (although not my sort of music so I didn't go) - any night would be fine for those. You might also want to see Howl at the Moon, which is very entertaining, but doesn't require booking. The same applies to the Magician. The other bookable entertainment is Wine Lovers The Musical, which I loathed and will rant about a bit further in the review. That said, the rest of the audience seemed to enjoy it.

 

Restaurants - I did enjoy Savor. It is small, and rarely crowded, and I usually got a seat by the window. The menu changes on a daily basis, and the waiters were always friendly. The few times I went to Taste, it's mirror image, the service was weirdly worse but I can only think that was bad luck rather than anything fundamental. Be warned that the service is quite slow in these, although if you tell them that you need to be out in half an hour, they do speed things up for you. The Tropicana is also very nice and has floor shows - there tends to be more of a queue for it and, as a solo traveller, I didn't really want to take up a table for four when there was so much demand. It was very enjoyable when I went with some friends though. The menus in Tropciana, Taste and Savor are the same, but they rotate menus so every day is a different menu. The other free restaurant is the noodle bar, Shanghai which was good - but again usually quite a long queue. I have done all the speciality restaurants previously so, as their menus don't change, skipped them. But they are all very good. I did also go to Ocean Blue and thoroughly enjoyed it. You should probably go to Teppanyaki if you haven't been before - requires booking well in advance.

 

Heated pools - there was a bit of a debate about that. From other conversations, I don't think the main pool was heated (didn't test it myself). The water slides certainly weren't! They do have hot tubs around the pool (about 4?) and another two in Spice. There was high demand for these, and you'd see people in them quite late.

 

I hope you have a fantastic cruise.

[Huntingdon1701]

Also going in the same itinerary in July-August. Is really good to see a review about this specific route :)

 

For now, I only have one question: why is the immigration in Russia is slow? Is any situation about people who don't have a Visa? I actually see in some roll call posts that russian officers just allow you enter in the country if you have a booked tour. Since I have a brazilian passport, I can enter in the country without a visa, so I'm planning to discover St. Petesburg by myself.

 

Thanks!

 

Well, I think our immigration officer needed a dose of coffee.

 

There were only about 7 or 8 booths, which was the maximum that the terminal holds, so that immediately limits things. There then appears to be quite a lot of information that they have to read on the computer - mine stared at it for at least 5 minutes without typing anything. However, some of the other officers just looked at the photo, typed in the basic details for the form and waved people through.

 

Having a booked tour means you get the visa, so that is why they let you through, but it's not a simple as just showing the ticket and going through the gate. I didn't see any issues with people not having a visa, although there were a very few turned back - but I don't know why. They accepted my tour ticket as a visa without question. In fact, they never spoke to me at all.

[Huntingdon1701]

Day 6

St Petersburg 2

Forecast: 47F/8C (It was much warmer than this!)

Arrival: Overnight

All Aboard: 6.30pm

 

We had agreed a slightly 'later' start of 7.50 for our tour today, as we'd managed to get the subway visit in yesterday. So, again, we all met in the card room and went down to immigration at 7.30. This time, it took under 20 minutes for us to get through immigration. Partly because people were getting off the ship in a staggered fashion rather than all at once, and partly because the immigration officers had recorded all your info yesterday. They still took longer with me for some reason - must have a guilty face.

 

 

 

We started the day off with a visit to a souvenir shop. On the entry, they offered samples of what they called Russian Water, but turned out to be two different types of vodka - so we were all quite cheerful by 8.30 am. There was an immense variety of Russian dolls on offer, including an example of some being crafted. They were excellent quality and genuine - unlike many of those we saw being sold elsewhere - but were also very, very expensive. There was also a lot of amber, which is something else they specialise in. The port terminal also has a wide-range of stores, including someone selling postcards and stamps if you need those, so you could hold off souvenir shopping until the end of your visit if you wished.

 

After that, we headed off for a river cruise, which was a phenomenal way to see the city. The real highlight for me was seeing the cruiser Aurora, which signalled the start of the revolution. I had no idea she still existed, and we got to actually circle her at close quarters. Amazing!

 

We all agreed that this was probably the best part of the experience. You go through a lot of narrow canals, as well as the open river, and under some low bridges. It was good fun, as well as giving a new perspective on the city. I recommend making sure that your tour includes a river ride. The only downside was that it was very hard to hear the commentator, so I recommend being assertive and asking them to turn up the volume if you are sitting outside (which is the best way to see things, and wasn't cold at all).

 

After the boat ride was the thing that everyone comes to St Petersburg to see.

 

Every room is crowded with priceless artifacts, including paintings by Da Vinci, Raphael and Rembrandt. I won't post many pictures here, because you'll want to discover it on your own. One thing that really stood out was the most beautiful peacock clock I have ever seen - I have a video of it and can e-mail it to anyone who wants to see - you need to make sure you stop to take that in.

 

 

It took about an hour to go around the Hermitage, moving quite quickly. Our guide knew something about every piece, which was very impressive - no reference sheets needed.

 

Then it was off to see the Church of the Spilled Blood - commemorating where one of the Tsars was assassinated.

 

After all this, it was time for lunch, and we went to a very nice restaurant for some beetroot soup, a savoury sort of pie (like a merger of a strudel and a cornish pasty) and - of course - more vodka.

 

Then it was time for our last stop of the trip - the Faberge Museum. We had skip the line entry, which was a good idea. This museum has only been open for a few years, so it's the first time you can really see the collection together. It's not just eggs, although these took pride of place. We were given the story behind each one, and how they were tailored to what was going on in the Tsar's life in the year that they were made - so sad years tended to result in an egg of a darker colour, for instance. There was also a story to each of the surprises in each egg, which frequently included portraits of the family, increasing as more children were born. There were also some of the mass produced eggs, which I didn't know they did, which could have been bought for a couple of roubles - they even had a shop in London apparently (spot the British flag).

 

 

 

That, unfortunately, was the end of our time in St Petersburg. It was amazing from start to finish, and I would have loved to have had more time there. Anya, our tour guide from Alla, was phenomenal and did a fantastic job.

 

Once we were back at the terminal, we did a bit of shopping for souvenirs (although many of the group had bought mini-faberge eggs to take back) and then boarded the ship. I think the rest of the day included a visit to O'Sheehan's for a snack, then Tropicana for dinner (very enjoyable, although too far away to see the floor show).

 

The ship had a few talks about Faberge and Russian culture throughout the cruise, which were in the Freestyle dailies if you wanted to go to them. There were also a range of Russian souvenir items on board.

[Travel R]

You had mentioned a magician - was that in lieu of the comedy show on one of the evenings?

 

Did O'Sheehans always have long queues, or was that only during the lunch/dinner times?

[Huntingdon1701]

You had mentioned a magician - was that in lieu of the comedy show on one of the evenings?

 

Did O'Sheehans always have long queues, or was that only during the lunch/dinner times?

 

It was a comedy magician and took place in headliners - I think twice during the cruise, although not sure if the content was different.

 

There weren't generally queues of more than a minute for O'Sheehan. Just the time for the host to take the preceeding guests to their table. I didn't go during lunch because we were always off the ship then. It got busy when the tours got back around 3 or 4, because generally there wasn't time to eat on the tours.

[hisleepy]

Thanks for answering my previous questions, and I have some more =P

 

 

- Is the music very loud at the Dream Cirque show? Do you think it's suitable for a 2 year old? How's the food quality at the show?- How's the smoke from the casino? A lot of people complained about the *away ships because of the open to above staircase on deck 6-8. How's the smoke at the Shanghai Noodles Bar?

[Huntingdon1701]

Thanks for answering my previous questions, and I have some more =P

 

 

- Is the music very loud at the Dream Cirque show? Do you think it's suitable for a 2 year old? How's the food quality at the show?- How's the smoke from the casino? A lot of people complained about the *away ships because of the open to above staircase on deck 6-8. How's the smoke at the Shanghai Noodles Bar?

 

Ask away ;)

 

I don't remember much about the music at the show, so it wasn't too loud, although it definitely 'pulsed' to the experience. I don't have any experience of 2 year olds, so a parent might want to comment on this. There is some knife throwing that can make a bit of noise, and a lot of flashing lights, so I'd think it probably isn't the best idea. They also do specify a minimum age.

 

The food quality at the show was actually quite good, and much better than my cirque experience on the Epic in 2015. After that, I'd needed to go get some more food, but this time it was a proper meal. It is a fixed menu, so you could ask to see it beforehand - unfortunately I didn't take a picture of that one. It's steak-based though.

 

Smoke - I'm asthmatic and quite sensitive to smoke, but I didn't have any problems with it. There is a different quality to the air in the central atrium, but I'm not sure it is due to smoke from the casino, and it didn't cause me problems anyway. Similarly, we ate in Shanghai on our last day and didn't notice any smoke. There's only a bit of a casino that backs on to Shanghai and most of it is behind a wall which filters it out. I didn't honestly see anyone smoking in the casino - they were all clustered in the smoking area on the pool deck, which is almost completely enclosed, or in the cigar lounge which is enclosed and well ventilated.

[hisleepy]

Glad to hear that smoke isn't an issue. Perhaps this itinerary is so port intensive that the casino only opens late at night and on at sea days?

 

What time are the shows that don't need reservations? I am wondering what time should I make the dinner reservations so that I would be able to grab a seat at those shows after dinner.

[Steff79]

thank you for your review, thinking more and more about booking Breakaway next year.