June 26, 2017 Navigator of the seas Baltic's review

[Cruisingcouple22]

Doors of cathedral

Progression of the church over time

Wall of icons

 

Last stop of the day was a café\gift shop. We don’t mind this too much, as it was just 25 minutes and gave us a chance to pick up our souvenirs as well as sample caviar and vodka, quite a nice combo, although I’m not a big caviar fan it turns out, which my wallet is grateful for!

Vodka and caviar

 

We ended up getting back at about 18:00 so a very long, but immensely enjoyable, day. That evening we had dinner in the MDR before relaxing around the ship, as there wasn't much on due to a few evening tours.

There was a beautiful sunset this evening

 

 

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Then it was off to bed as we had to meet the tour guide (having got through passport control!) at 7am. Very early indeed.

 

 

Day 8 St. Petersburg

So a very early start again to make the most of our time in St. Petersburg. Passport control this time was a much easier affair, taking only about 10 minutes despite a much longer queue, they aren't as fussy if you have been in once already. Once we were on the coach we began our 45 drive to Catherine's palace in Pushkin. It was a long drive but the tour guides kept giving us interesting information along the way. On arriving we were taken aback with the size and majesty of the building. It is still being restored after destruction in the Second World War, but the rooms completed already are fantastic.

Outside of palace with chapel spires

You had to wear these covers to protect the floors

 

The amount of gold leaf used in Russia palaces is indescribably. Every room seems to have it, they could probably solve the world economic crisis by selling it!

The grand ball room

So much gold! And so many people

 

We saw the world famous amber room here too, and whilst it is beautiful, there was quite a queue to get in, and it was a bit underwhelming. Also they didn't allow photos to be taken inside. We then had a wander around the gardens of the palace and these were stunning.

Gardens

 

We were limited a little in our time here and could have spent much longer walking about. Following this we went for lunch at a local restaurant, and again it was a pleasant surprise.

We saw Putin's summer residence on the way.

 

 

 

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[Cruisingcouple22]

This time we had a Russian potato salad, beef stew with mash potato and poached pear with cherry sauce.

Potato salad

Beef and mash

Poached pear

 

All very tasty. After lunch we headed to Peterhof palace gardens. Our tour did not go inside, but consisted of a brief guide to the gardens and then free time to wander around these incredible grounds. There are over 150 fountains in the gardens, along with four cascades and photos do not do them justice. We could have spent hours walking through here as well, but alas, we had to get back to St. Petersburg for the final part of our tour, Peter and Paul fortress.

Man offering photos with an owl or monkey

The grand cascade

Another view of the grand cascade

 

 

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View towards the palace

And another!

Chicks in the fountain

Very tame red squirrel

The lion cascade

Fountains

 

What is most impressive about the fountains is that the water is not pumped out of them, it's all worked by gravity and water pressure!

 

After the approximately 1 hour drive we arrived and had a tour around the church where all the Tsars have been buried. The spire on the church is gold and the tallest structure in St. Petersburg.

 

 

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Spires of the church

 

Again our tour guide was fantastic, as throughout the two days. Although she avoided them were she could, there was still plenty of queuing that we had to do. This is to be expected though when there were five cruise ships in port! Some of which were right in town on the banks of the Neva river.

Overall I definitely recommend St. Petersburg as at least a two day stop.

That evening it was main dining again for dinner, which was a bit hit and miss with ok service, but they always seemed so rushed. The did make the effort to learn our names though. We then headed to tonight’s show, British tv and panto favourite, Bobby Davro. We weren’t too sure about this, being a bit younger than the target audience, but he was absolutely brilliant. He started off with some jokes that toed the line, testing out the audience and then went into a few songs etc. I was pleasantly surprised to find he has really good voice too. If he is on your itinerary definitely give him a try!

Another beautiful sunset

 

Then to bed as we were shattered from two very full days, and we arrived at Helsinki at 7am tomorrow.

 

 

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[Cruisingcouple22]

Day 9 Helsinki

Early start again, not quite as early as we wanted though do to an oversleep :) We ended up leaving the ship about 0750 and walked to the market square, about a 45 minute walk at a good pace. The first part of the walk was quite boring through the port, but helpfully guided by a red line on the floor. The second half is more interesting through the town however.

Sculpture on the wall to town

 

We caught the ferry over to Suomenlinna, a UNESCO world heritage site.

Sky on the ferry

 

We spend a good 4 hours walking around the fort and grounds, taking selfies with various cannons :) before grabbing a coffee in a lovely cafe.

Flowers around the island

 

 

 

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There were a lot of goslings around the islands

Fortress

 

There is also an artist that lives and works on the island creating beautiful works of art with nails, they have to be seen to be believed, unfortunately no photos were allowed :(

Art studio

 

There are a number of museums and a dry dock restoring wooden ships on the island as well, but we didn't have time to visit all of these.

Cafe selection

View from the cafe with chocolate cake

 

 

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Another view of the island

 

The ferry was very cheap too, only 5 euros return, although no one checked our tickets so you could probably do it for free if you were so inclined. After that we took a look around the market, which had a number of handmade souvenirs, as well as fresh fruit and fish, before having a slow walk back through town to the port. There are a lot of shops in the downtown district if you wanted to do a bit of shopping too.

Senate square

No drones allowed

 

Back on board we had a relaxing afternoon, taking in a bit of rock climbing and a hot tub. MDR once again for dinner, nothing of any particular note though. Today was the Fourth of July, so there were lots of celebrations on the promenade, mostly whilst we were in dinner though so we missed it, they did make an enourmous cake however which looked impressive.

Cake before

 

One comedy moment came when four officers huddled around the cake counting the number of stars, and only finding 49, before realising one had slid down the back and needs to be replaced!

Cake after!

 

 

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[terrierjohn]

CC22, can I ask a favour, will you please check the channels on the TV to see if Sky News, Sky Sports News and Sport24 (the live sport channel), are available on Navigator.

[sky0000547]

CC22, can I ask a favour, will you please check the channels on the TV to see if Sky News, Sky Sports News and Sport24 (the live sport channel), are available on Navigator.

 

 

I'd be very surprise if any of those channels are available especially Sky Sports News. Usually you might get BBC World News.

[terrierjohn]

I'd be very surprise if any of those channels are available especially Sky Sports News. Usually you might get BBC World News.

Which is about as much use as a chocolate fireguard.

[Cruisingcouple22]

CC22, can I ask a favour, will you please check the channels on the TV to see if Sky News, Sky Sports News and Sport24 (the live sport channel), are available on Navigator.

 

 

Hi terrierjohn,

Unfortunately no, they have BBC world news as well as BBC Brit and BBC lifestyle I honk, and the CNN news which occasionally has a sports segment, but no live sports channels that i found, and i looked hard because i wanted to watch the rugby! I tried to get a photo of the channel list but unfortunately it's only showing departure times now!

 

 

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Day 10 and 11 at sea

I'll put these two days together as we had such a nice time relaxing around the ship that they kind of blurred into one! We did another couple of enrichment lectures, which were agin vey informative, I hope they keep these going, and maybe even expand them a little bit. The lecturer explained today that he was supposed to be in the main theatre but the projector was broken, so had to make do with Studio B instead. I think it worked quite well as a space for this, as there were plenty of TVs to see.

We had another Yoga class, which was again much better than the first two and more challenging, a good way to wake up. We didn't end up doing the sushi making class this time around, but we did try ice skating. Whilst it was fun there were a lot of people crammed on the ice. We also did origami both sea days, making a water bomb and a flapping bird. Dominic who ran this was amazing, making it fun for everyone and ensuring all kept up. We also watched the film Passengers from the hot tub which was really nice. They have the volume at a good level, so it's not deafening but can be heard over the general noise of the pool deck. They have subtitles as well to help. We also saw the towel folding demonstration, these guys are seriously talented!

Towel folding demonstration was a lot of fun!

I have no idea how he made this birds nest

 

The love and marriage show was on at 2pm on day 10 which was a lot of fun, if a bit cringe-worthy at times. Also Cuddy, the cruise director had to censor some of the contestants at times! I was surprised it was on this early to be honest! We also did a bit of rock climbing, but the flow rider was shut a couple of the times due to high winds. We saw the battle boats float off too which was great fun, they were really getting into it. The "boat" that won was really just a few bottles taped together, but the guy basically splashed water all over it to push it to the finish line. Some people did an amazing job, with a Viking inspired boat definitely taking the best looking title. Whenever we go on a cruise with our friends we always do our own scavenger hunt. Each persons comes up with two things for each other person to go a find, one obvious like take a selfie with Godmother Stef Graf (there's a photo outside Boleros) and a cryptic one like find the photographer taking a very long exposure (on the sports deck there's a statue holding a camera) It's a great way to spend an hour or so on a sea day and gets you to appreciate different aspects of the boat too! On the second day a crew member injured their leg so had to be evacuated by helicopter to ensure they got the correct medical care. He seemed ok when we saw him though so hopefully he is on his way back to full health. The captain was very good at keeping everyone informed what was going on, and thank his crew and said he was proud to be their captain which I thought was a nice touch.

Slight detour to get closer to land for the helicopter, we also slowed down to about 5 knots

 

We had breakfast in the main dining room which was a great way to start a sea day and had lunch in the buffet both days. Dinner in the main dining room was good these days too, but we did have the "hard sell" to give them a ten rating on the post cruise survey, with our waitress saying it would affect their chances of moving on if we scored low.

Neither of the shows caught our fancy so we just relaxed in R-bar one day and Boleros the next. We had avoided Boelros on this trip because we had tried it on anthem and found all the cocktails we tried (about 6) quite unpleasant. However the menu is complete different on Navigator and much more to our tastes.

Boleros drinks menu

View from Boleros

 

 

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[Cruisingcouple22]

The first sea day about 10pm we passed under the bridge at Denmark. As it was a more reasonable hour than the first time, and the sunset was beautiful there were a lot more people out on deck watching it. It was a very impressive sight though! And the bridge got very close, to the point were some people applauded when we made it through!!

There were a lot of people watching the pass under the bridge

It did get very close though!

You can just make out the reflection of the funnel on the bottom of the bridge!

Carved watermelon

They were selling souvenir cups for about $4 each

View up the centrum

 

 

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Now we are off to prepare for our last day, Zeebruge where we've got the Victor shuttle going to Brugge. So sad it's our last day, but at least we've booked our next cruise so have that to look forward to!!

Thanks again for reading.

Ben

 

More random photos around the ship

 

A collections of towel animals from our stateroom attendant

 

 

Hot tub in morning sunlight

 

 

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View up the ship from the promenade

Sunrise over the ship

Freshly made waffle cones for ice cream!

Digital photo package (I think the prints are the same price)

 

 

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