Yet Another Baltics Review by an NCL First-Timer - June 21

[flexsmom]

So, I’ve never reported on a cruise, but considering the chatter about the Getaway and the Baltic itinerary, I figured I’d toss my hat into the ring to add some information. I won’t be doing a full review per se, but will be covering some seemingly random stuff that has jumped out at me during our trip. We were on the June 21 sailing. About us – we are experienced cruisers, albeit with no particular brand loyalty. Started out initially with Disney for years, but as the kids have grown we’ve branched out to RCCL, Princess, and now NCL. We tend to like suites because I learned longago that cramming the four of us into a small space just doesn’t result in us enjoying one another – and my teen daughter is a bathroom hog so having two bathrooms is a must.So, we elected to sail in theHaven for our first NCL.

 

First thing’s first – we made all ports on time, and we left all ports on time. (Actually, we were 1/2 hour late into Tallinn, and the Captain announced early that we'd therefore get an extra 1/2 hour extending our all-aboard time.) We also sailed into Stockholm directly! Our cruise was the first to do so since the two prior ones that were scheduled for Stadsgarden switched to Nynashamn prior to their embarkation days, and it was spectacular!

 

Secondly – I am an obsessive planner and pretty organized. I’m a bit OCD about stuff, totell the truth. Yet somehow, I managed not to notice that I had misplaced my passport after having used it last monthfor an unrelated purpose. Fortunately, I figured that out on Tuesday before our Saturday the 17th departurefor Amsterdam! And, fortunately, we live close to a passport center in DC, so I became VERY familiar with that whole process of being issued an emergency passport. It wasn’t enough of an emergency that they’d do it “same day”, actually, so I had to come back on the second day at 6:20 am and line up before the 8am opening. (Hint – they opened early and I walked out at 8:03 with a slip to pick it up the next day after 11:30am.) After reading the post on this board in May about passports expiring, I had felt so confident in my vast organization skills and then there I was in more or less the same boat! So – lesson learned. Never assume you have all of your docs together! And– after having bonded with the ten or so people around me at 6:30am, it seems every single one of them was there because they had been denied boarding due to not having 3 or 6 months left on their passports based on the requirements of their destination.Not one of them had heard of that requirement and hadn’t thought to check. Eye-opening that my informal survey suggests a huge number of emergency passport issuances are due to that problem.

 

I figured the worst was behind me and the trip would go smoothly after that. Nope – after sitting on the plane at Dulles for an hour so they could change a tire, we started to taxi…..slowly…..and then pulled over on the tarmac to sit for 30 minutes until they turned around to another gate since the auxiliary power was down. We did finally leave about 3 ½ hours late and the airline was very generous in providing vouchers to each of us for future use as an apology. We had award tickets, so my son laughed that we ended up making money on that flight in exchange for a small delay! Moral of the story – we weren’t really stressed about this since we were leaving several days early, and even though we would have missed Amsterdam (en route to Copenhagen) if we had to postpone a day or two, the main part of the trip wouldn’t be impacted, and our travel insurance would have reimbursed us for the hotel, tour tickets, etc.

 

Things come in three’s, right? So on to the trip – we had a whirlwind day in Amsterdam visiting the Anne Frank House and the Van Gogh museum, using the HOHO Canal boat. We had initially planned to go direct to Copenhagen but after trolling the United site for months for business class frequent flyer to Europe, the Amsterdam flight popped up instead so I grabbed it and decided to stay a day then hop to Copenhagen. The train to/from the airport to the city was easy, and we grabbed a quick dinner at the train station before heading back to the airport Sheraton (which I highly recommend – one of the nicer Sheraton’s I’ve visited.) And…..this is where #3 happened. You know all of those warnings about pick-pockets, and people always believe it won’t happen to them, or theyare SO careful that they’d never have that occur? Yeah – so we’re sitting at the table eating our food, and the kids and I were all looking down at what we’re eating – when all of a sudden my husband hurls his burrito (yes, we were eating at theequivalent of a Chipotle in Amsterdam – no judging please) – and flies off of his stool. A guy had come up behind himand yanked his messenger bag off of the stool from under him, taking off in the train station. One other bystander moved towards the thief when we saw my husband lunging, and the two of them must have caused the thief to think better of it and he dropped the bag (plus, he was hemmed in by the ticket stalls). We had just lectured my 18-year old about taking her debit card out of the phoneholder stuck on the back of her iPhone that all kids use these days….andwhy. She was dismissive – until she experienced it first-hand with her family! Most importantly, the burrito had only lost some of its contents and had landed in its basket, so my husband was able to finish his dinner, although he was wary and wanted to get out of there. Oh - and the bag itself only had umbrellas and raincoats in it!

OK – so that’s it on the bad stuff. We had our three and none of them were insurmountable, so on to the cruise!

 

 

UGh - sorry for the formatting issues!

 

 

Edited July 21, 2017 by flexsmom

[flexsmom]

We had two great days in Copenhagen and then headed to the port. The kids would say their favorite activities in Copenhagen were the canal tour, and our quick trip to Roskilde where we visited the Viking Museum and the cathedral. We were at the cathedral at noon when the church bells rang all over the town and it was actually a really cool experience. It’s a beautiful cathedral – all brick andvery unique compared to most of the European cathedrals we’ve seen. My son visited a local barber as we had all commented that he needed a trim. He has what my daughter calls a “European” hair cut (super short on the sides with alonger shock on top). While he was getting his cut, she asked the barber if he had a bathroom. He looked at her like she had lost her mind. I pulled up google translate and again he said yes but didn’t offer to show it to her. We finally mutually figured out that he thought she was asking for a room with a shower…..not a toilet! All of us had a good laugh. We stayed at the Marriott and had no complaints (plus the A/C worked great).

 

On to the cruise. First, we were assigned Terminal 2 at the port. I think odd decks have Terminal 1 and even have Terminal 2. I’d have thought they’d split the ship down the middle and have forward be Terminal 1 and aft Terminal 2, since we were escorted down the length of the dock once we checked in. No biggie. Anyway, security and what not was easy, although there was some initially confusion about the two bottles of wine we brought with us. After listening to five of the port staff debate in Danish, one turned to us and smiled and pointed to the table where to check it in to pay the corkage fee, which we had seen and were anticipating going anyway. Maybe we were the first of the day, who knows. We opted for the complimentary lunch in Margaritaville, which was good, but a mistake because the wind was vicious up there! (A quick word on the weather – we were extremely fortunate. Amsterdam was in the mid 80’s and sunny; Copenhagen was in the high 70’s both days of touring and in the high 60’s on our sail day. It was in the mid 80’s in Berlin and we had a brief 45 minute storm roll through in the afternoon so we dodged the rain drops back to the van and then it was sunny again when we got back to the ship albeit cooler. Poland was high 60’s and partly sunny .It rained at night or right around sailing time out of some of the ports – but nothing that has impacted the cruise.)

 

Food – we didn’t have what I’d call a bad meal and I’d rate the food as consistently better than what we have had overall on our other cruises. We ate meals at Margaritaville, the Haven Restaurant, La Cucina, have had wings/nachos atO’Sheehans, and ordered room service breakfast regularly. We were pleasantly surprised by the meal at Cirque – I was expecting “meh” but it was much better in our opinion that Moderno (too salty, although the salad bar was great), or even Le Bistro, where the service just wasn’t good and we were told up front that due to a large party, we’d more or less be second fiddle. My husband wasn’t amused. I’m pretty sure my son grazed through the Garden Café a few times in the evenings particularly for free ice cream. My allegedly adult daughter (18) has the palette of a 3-year old and has asked for buttered noodles almost everywhere we ate for dinner. She was accommodated at each location without fail. The Haven Restaurant breakfast was fabulous – I wish we could have that menu for lunch, too! At the end of the day, my DH would have been happy to eat at the Haven and skip most of the specialties. I ate more Eggs Benedict on that trip than I have in the last year.

Edited July 21, 2017 by flexsmom
Formatting

[easyboy]

Good you had your passport problem fixed!

[flexsmom]

Entertainment – let me preface by saying the 14-year old was knee deep in the teen club but decided he likes to do the trivia shows with us so he kept showing up where we were. The older one doesn’t have a “group”, and despite our pointing out activities for18-21 on occasion, she became a grandma and was hanging out with us almost every night until she finally met some people and did the Bliss thing the last two nights! I’ve decided that since shejust graduated from high school and was inundated with social activities for weeks, she was just ready to not have to make the effort to make friends. And, since she’s leaving for college in August, I won’t complain. She enjoyed the ability to order a glass of wine on this trip, and commented about how the European kids don’t make such a big deal about it since they’re allowed to do so. Back to entertainment – we LOVED Burn the Floor - it was fabulous! I’veread some reviews recently that people thought it was lackluster. I lived the Dance Moms world for too many years when my DD danced competitively, and DD & I were extremely impressed. The dancers had a ton of energy and really seemed enjoy performing – it was better than any show we saw on RCCL or Princess. We also did Escape the Big Top, which was fun although geared a bit more to the younger set than we realized. We’ve also played Deal or No Deal and Bingo –the cruise staff is on top of its game in an environment where most everyone is indoors except for the most hardy teenage boys who are sliding and hot tubbing. Overall, our family rated theentertainment we saw – which also included MDQ and Cirque – as the best of the four lines we’ve cruised.

 

TV – I know there are always threads about TV and sports availability and the debate rages on about difficulty in viewing US football, baseball, etc. I’ve laughed on other boards when posters sniff about how Americans shouldn’t expect to be able to see American sports all of the time, particularly when there are many pax fromother countries, or that it’s too expensive for NCL to buy the satellite time. So I chuckled as we watched the All Blacks play Lithuania in Rugby, saw numerous soccer games on the screen, and wall to wall America’s Cup coverage. We love watching rugby and follow the All Blacks, but there have been LOADS of sports available the last 4 days…..just not a stitch of anything considered “mainstream” to the US! (Don’t hate – I know lots of people followthe America’s Cup, but it’s not what a lot of people schedule their time to watch.) Clearly NCL is willing to spendsome $$ on coverage. This isn’t a complaint by the way – just an observation to add to the running debate about the sports they choose to show!

 

Ports – We bit the bullet the did Berlin. SO glad we went private and had a van driveus each way, with a guide who joined us there for 6 hours. We saw so much more than what I heard others saw on their big organized tours, as well as the people on the train that took much longer to get there and back. It wasn’t nearly as grueling a day as I anticipated and had two thumbs up from the kids. Gdynia was a hoot – we pulled in around 12:30pm to see crowds lining the docks around where we were to be berthed. Drones were flying around the ship! When we disembarked, there was press lined up to talk to some of the first people off. Evidently this was the Getaway’s first visit here, which I had forgotten. We had gone through Viator to have a driver take us to Stutthof Concentration Camp, where we met a private guide. It was a sobering experience, but so worthwhile. Traffic was HORRIBLE due to road construction, and we are glad we hadn’t decided to do a tour of Gdansk, too. The drive should have taken a bit more than an hour and was 1hr 45min – 2 hours each way. Busses ended up being late toget back, I understand, even from Gdansk. So, if you’re slated for Gdynia, be prepared for all transit to take longer than expected.

 

We did a Segway tour in Tallinn early in the morning, which gave us a great overview of the city. And….I’m sure some tour groups out there have video of my horrible accident that left me looking like I’d been in a car crash. My DH didn’t take to the Segway very well,and he was tentative. Too tentative, to the point that I “kissed” his Segway with mine and the result was that mine tipped. I didn’t get off fast enough and long story short, I wore pants the rest of the trip so no one would see the bruises! The guide was horrified, but I popped up like a cork and insisted I was fine (which I was) – but it gave the kids something to laugh about for the rest of the trip! After the tour we enjoyed the town and Tallinn was DD’s favorite port. (Juniper trivets became our gift-of-choice for relatives at home!)

 

We did Alla in SPB – amazing two days! Happy to answer questions, but lots of other people have covered SPB. It was a packed two-days full of so many awe-inspiring sights that it almost became "routine". Our guide was really fantastic and provided a lot of insightful commentary about the transition when the USSR broke apart. The shipping lane into STB is quite busy, and several people on the ship managed to get pictures of a Russian sub that surfaced alongside us. I thought it was a rumor initially, until someone showed me a picture they had taken! The one piece I will add is that we should have done an evening program. DD was interested in the ballet, but I thought we’d be too tired after a long day touring, and we’d just go to the on-board folklore show instead. OMG – I paid for that one. The dancers were fine, but the singing was….not good. It may have helped if there was someone setting up each song/number by relaying in English what the song was about…..or something. Or not. I don’t want to be unkind, but it was the only show we attended that had large numbers of people walking out mid-song during many of the numbers.

 

Anyway – next port for us was Stockholm. DH & I were up on deck by 5:15 watching the sail in and it was just amazing. The turn we did to dock was phenomenal – not much clearance either direction to make the rotation. We attended the Captain’s Q&A the next day and there’s not much more than 1 meter clearancefrom the ship’s draft in some areas. The way out was even better – although likely more challenging for the bridge crews ince there were sailboats, jet skis, and car ferry boats all around us. We were definitely a (large) object of curiosity. Anyhow – Stockholm was terrific- we all decided we’d go back and rent a house in the archipelago for a week! We had bright sun and about 80 degrees all day. The HOHO boat was available directly off the pier, with a direct trip to the Vasa. We hit the Vasa Museum followed by a couple of hours at the ABBA museum, then HOHO around to Gamla Stan where we caught the changing of the guard and lunch at a non-touristy place we found a couple of streets off of the main tourist road. But the best part…..and this sounds terrible, I know….was that Stockholm was the only port we had some entertainment with port-runners! All aboard was 3:30 and sure enough, at 3:20, we saw the first of the runners. It was a steady stream until 3:40. Around 3:45 there were groups of 4-10 people running from taxis down the street – whole families complete with strollers…..and shopping bags. At 4pm there were three people who made it on, including a small one in a stroller. Mom wasn’t wearing sensible shoes for her run and just about gave up, handing off the stroller to dad. The ship’s horn sounded twice over about 10 minutes. The first was a standard long blast. The second was a series of toots…..”getyour @#(*& moving”…..that I’m sure could be heard through out the port area. We joked that there were likely some loud arguments going on in taxis about the fact they should have left earlier to get back to the ship! The crew pulled up the gangplank and we left a bit before 4:15, right after the announcement seeking 8 or 9 names. DD told me later that we left 4 or 5 people (all one family), after she talked to a young man who had become friendly with one of the girls who had been left behind. We had a port day after this, so they had some time to figure out how to get back to Copenhagen. It's a decent place to be stranded, but I wouldn't have wanted to lose 2 nights of my 9-night cruise!

[flexsmom]

Ship observations - our 2BR Family Suite was nearly perfect for us. The kids liked having their own “closet”(what they called the second room) and more specifically their ownbathroom. My only complaint would be about the heavy curtain separating the bathroom from the master. In normal circumstances it would probably be fine, but when sunset is 11:30 and sunrise is 3:37, it just doesn't cut the mustard! We dealt with it, though! DH just wanted to hang in theroom while DD & I did Bingo, shopped, hit the spa, or whatever. Or he’d be in the Haven Lounge. He loved the ports, but preferred to hang outin solitude the rest of the time. It wasso convenient to pop into the lounge for drinks. We had a huge group on board (over 700) fromthe same company with a large number of them in the Haven, but after the firstday we didn’t really notice it too much. I’d be interested to see what it’s like when more people are around thepool area and the upper deck. As it was,most people concentrated inside since it wasn't really tanning or pool weather, except for Stockholm.

Our butler and steward were fabulous. We ended up walking in at the end of long days to plates of sandwiches that hit the spot before a late dinner, and we really had no wants! The entire Havenstaff was very attentive and friendly, but not overbearing. We had a bottle of water and a bottle of champagne waiting for us when we embarked, and I had ordered a 12-pack of water which was there, as well. Glad we did this as we just grabbed a bottle or two each day to take on excursions and had no trouble finishing them all by the end of the cruise. (Side note - I only witnessed one guy getting irritated when he had to pay for a bottle of water. He ordered it from the Haven bar, opened it to drink some, then was confused about why he was given a purchase slip, since he had UBP. The bartender explained it wasn't included and the guy grumbled that he should have been told but signed the slip.)

I spent more time than I should have in the casino - but it was limited because it did get too smoky for me. During the day when it was open, the smell wasn't too bad, but at night it was really intense, and due to the open spaces with the staircases, the odor permeated down - or up, I can't remember - to the other decks in the immediate vicinity. So, we just avoided it when it got bad, which was fine with DH since that meant I spent less $$!

Disembarkation – We opted for the ship transportation to the airport. Glad we did this, as it was raining cats/dogs (which was fine since it held off most everywhere else!) The concierge escorted us down at 9am and we were at the airport by 10:15 for a 1:30pm flight to Munich. Finding our bags at the airport was easy –all set out in a large tent – and we were checked in quickly. The crowds and disorganization at that airport were noteworthy. We had no issues getting to Munich, and were on to our last 4 days of a circle around Bavaria before we flew home. Driving through Germany was a piece of cake, and the weather held out for us except for one day that disrupted my perfect plans! 😊Long story short, we hit a number of castles,went to a summer mountain toboggan place for the kids, detoured to Innsbruck in Austria to visit the Olympic ski jump arena (which ended up being a hugehighlight for all of us!) and then on to Berchtesgaden where we toured the Eagle’s Nest and that entire mountain area (one of the most impressive days we had). If I had to do it again…..well, the family would say let’s go home after the cruise because 17 days was too long. But – none of them were disappointed with what we visited. We had only one family meltdown, and that was associated with picking up the rental car from the Munich airport the day after we arrived there. For that long of a trip, I consider that to be a victory!

[Travel R]

Thanks for posting!!!

 

I had begun my own review stating that everyone's Journey is unique, and we took different excursions, and even went to different cities pre-cruise -- but some of your comments (e.g., Cirque food vs. Moderno, the "singing" for the folklore show, etc.) are almost a parallel to what I will (hopefully soon) be writing.

 

Glad your terrible threesome got out of the way early in your trip and you had a great time afterwards.

 

I will comment, however, that you lucked out with the weather. If you look at many of the pictures in my review, many of the one's taken outside show clouds, clouds, and more clouds.

[jinteso]

Great summary! We are doing a similar version next June on the Breakaway in the Haven. Our cruise replaces Poland with Helsinki. I am already planning since I am a planner too and a bit OCD. We are looking at tours in SPB. I am seriously considering Alla. How many people did they allow on the tour? Did you get to see both the Amber room and the Fabrege collection. They are 2 musts for us. We definitely want to experience the ballet but thought that we would be too tired. Apparently, that is not the case? Also, I have seen some tours that are considered "Haven only" but can not get any more details on them and of course they are not listed for our cruise yet. Any idea what they are?

[Travel R]

Great summary! We are doing a similar version next June on the Breakaway in the Haven. Our cruise replaces Poland with Helsinki. I am already planning since I am a planner too and a bit OCD. We are looking at tours in SPB. I am seriously considering Alla. How many people did they allow on the tour? Did you get to see both the Amber room and the Fabrege collection. They are 2 musts for us. We definitely want to experience the ballet but thought that we would be too tired. Apparently, that is not the case? Also, I have seen some tours that are considered "Haven only" but can not get any more details on them and of course they are not listed for our cruise yet. Any idea what they are?

 

Might I also suggest into visiting the Gold Room (within the Hermitage) as well.

[jinteso]

Might I also suggest into visiting the Gold Room (within the Hermitage) as well.

 

I saw that on the itinerary that you posted I believe yesterday on another thread. I was going to ask you about them. That is one company that I had not heard of yet but would be interested. Why did you not like the guide? Did you completely miss the vodka at Catherine's Palace and completely miss Peter and Paul's Fortress? Do they have an add-on option for the evening ballet?

[flexsmom]

Thanks for posting!!!

 

 

 

I had begun my own review stating that everyone's Journey is unique, and we took different excursions, and even went to different cities pre-cruise -- but some of your comments (e.g., Cirque food vs. Moderno, the "singing" for the folklore show, etc.) are almost a parallel to what I will (hopefully soon) be writing.

 

 

 

Glad your terrible threesome got out of the way early in your trip and you had a great time afterwards.

 

 

 

I will comment, however, that you lucked out with the weather. If you look at many of the pictures in my review, many of the one's taken outside show clouds, clouds, and more clouds.

 

 

 

Yes I think we ended up at right place right time for sun to peek through - especially our trip to Berlin vs staying in port. In retrospect, we did get doused at Peterhof for about an hour but the rest of the two days there we were fortunate I think. It poured in Berchtesgaden while we were in the hotel, but stopped when we left to tour!

 

 

 

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[flexsmom]

Great summary! We are doing a similar version next June on the Breakaway in the Haven. Our cruise replaces Poland with Helsinki. I am already planning since I am a planner too and a bit OCD. We are looking at tours in SPB. I am seriously considering Alla. How many people did they allow on the tour? Did you get to see both the Amber room and the Fabrege collection. They are 2 musts for us. We definitely want to experience the ballet but thought that we would be too tired. Apparently, that is not the case? Also, I have seen some tours that are considered "Haven only" but can not get any more details on them and of course they are not listed for our cruise yet. Any idea what they are?

 

 

 

We had 16 total on our Alla tour and they had at least 4-5 full busses that we saw on occasion. There was another family of four with two teens, so that was good. We did visit the Amber room but not the Faberge collection. We did the Grand Tour - I think they do offer one that includes Faberge.

 

I think we would have been fine doing the ballet. The day was shorter than our Berlin trip so would not have been too tired. Those that did it enjoyed it from what we heard the next day.

 

Interesting story - my DH and I are former military. Years ago he did a brief trip to one of the former Soviet block countries to brief their military on budgeting approaches. When he went through immigration, the woman in our booth stared at a computer and at him, back to computer and then at him and finally asked if he was in the military. He said no (we got out in the early 2000's). She stamped his passport and that was it. We didn't see the officials speaking to anyone so this was definitely noteworthy! They must have good records......

 

 

 

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[jinteso]

Interesting story - my DH and I are former military. Years ago he did a brief trip to one of the former Soviet block countries to brief their military on budgeting approaches. When he went through immigration, the woman in our booth stared at a computer and at him, back to computer and then at him and finally asked if he was in the military. He said no (we got out in the early 2000's). She stamped his passport and that was it. We didn't see the officials speaking to anyone so this was definitely noteworthy! They must have good records......

 

That is an interesting story! I retire in December. Although I have not been to any of the Soviet bloc countries before, I have been to other "less than desirable" locations. I was worried about my DW or me being held up since they probably have a file on one or both of us.

[Travel R]

I saw that on the itinerary that you posted I believe yesterday on another thread. I was going to ask you about them. That is one company that I had not heard of yet but would be interested. Why did you not like the guide? Did you completely miss the vodka at Catherine's Palace and completely miss Peter and Paul's Fortress? Do they have an add-on option for the evening ballet?

 

I am probably being too critical, so read the below with a grain of salt:

 

At Catherine's Palace we bypassed a huge, huge line to get in (as we did for all of the places) - and after we finished we skipped over the vodka (I did not even realize we missed it until after we returned to the ship - but it was not a big (or even a small) deal to anyone).

 

We did a drive around Peter and Paul's Fortress on the bus - so we saw it from the street on a moving vehicle, which was a little disappointing. [Note: in the contract, they do state that you may not be able to go to all places due to time limitations - which I do understand.]

 

There was also some confusion about the length of visit to the Choral Synagogue (which we had added to the standard tour) - so I am not sure if this was related to the timing for entry to the P&P Fortress. We saw so many amazing places during the two days that I do not think it would have made much of a difference aesthetically (only for the historical significance, which I am probably in the minority).

 

One of the biggest issues that occurred had to do with allergy and dietary restrictions for the lunch on the second day - there was confusion as to what the restaurant served.

 

My personal thing- and I am not sure if anyone else noticed, or even cared - was that as a history buff, she was not as detailed as I would have liked. She provided all of the basic information, but I would either have liked a little more, or some interesting tales about some of these places. But there were teens and tweens on the bus, so she may have limited her comments to accommodate the youth.

 

Otherwise, the guide was friendly, organized, and mostly time effective. She got us into every palace, museum, fortress very quickly - even got us ahead of the line for the canal ride boat. She was conscientious of our needs - and even got us into a pay bathroom (although we did pay her back).

 

They do have evening add-on options. We had decided that the day would have been too long (we met our group at 7:15 PM, and started the tour at about 7:45 and were not back to the boat until almost 6 PM). From others that went to the ballet, they said it was fabulous, but I am not sure if I would have enjoyed it to its fullest effect.

 

I hope this helps.

 

[And thank you for your service!]

[Clarea]

Excellent review, thank-you.:)

[Glide_Path]

Enjoying your great review flexsmom :p. I'm going to be on the Getaway in Sept in a H4 as well, this was a last minute booking and will be my first time on NCL, I was hoping you can help out with a few question that I had.

-Being in Haven, were there reserved section for haven guests in the comedy/magic shows, or did you have to get tix from the box office once onboard or wait in the standby lines? I believe for Cirque, Burn the floor and MDQ there are reserved sections right?

-It sounded like you loved the Haven restaurant, but was the menu the same through the cruise?

-Since this itinerary had ports 8 out of 10 days, did you have to pay taxes on the drinks(under the UBP) during port days?:eek:

Thank you!

[rocklinmom]

Great review! We are on this cruise right now (July 18th sailing). Just docked in SPB and the Russian folkloric show is tonight, so glad to know my teens might not enjoy all of it. LOL on your Tallinn Segway story, I almost booked that for Monday and now so glad I didn't! And thanks for your warning about pickpockets...will heed that advice today especially.

 

 

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[easyboy]

Thank you for your concise review of your cruise! Nice post-cruise tour too!

[rocklinmom]

Happy to report back that we all enjoyed the Russian folkloric show and also that pickpockets weren't a problem on our first St Petersburg excursion. Today we go to the Church on Spilled Blood which looks more crowded so will stay vigilant.

 

 

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[flexsmom]

Enjoying your great review flexsmom :p. I'm going to be on the Getaway in Sept in a H4 as well, this was a last minute booking and will be my first time on NCL, I was hoping you can help out with a few question that I had.

 

-Being in Haven, were there reserved section for haven guests in the comedy/magic shows, or did you have to get tix from the box office once onboard or wait in the standby lines? I believe for Cirque, Burn the floor and MDQ there are reserved sections right?

 

-It sounded like you loved the Haven restaurant, but was the menu the same through the cruise?

 

-Since this itinerary had ports 8 out of 10 days, did you have to pay taxes on the drinks(under the UBP) during port days?:eek:

 

Thank you!

 

 

 

Sorry for the delay in responding!

 

We did not attend any of the comedy or magic shows so I cannot comment on any special seating. We ended up not using the area roped off for the Haven for MDQ or BTF but sat a few rows above that area - seemed like those were better suited to be closer to stage level. I do recommend seating on the left side, though, which is where the Haven seating is, for MDQ so you can watch the piano player do his thing.

 

No taxes for any drinks at any time for us.

 

And yes, my DH did comment that he wished the Haven menu had changed a bit throughout the course of the trip. That said, we did order "off menu" a bit in that they would do just about any variation of what was on it for us (hence the buttered noodles) and we ordered some lunch foods for dinner at least once. I suppose we could have looked at the MDR menu and spoken to them about getting something off of that but it didn't occur to us.

 

 

 

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[flexsmom]

Great review! We are on this cruise right now (July 18th sailing). Just docked in SPB and the Russian folkloric show is tonight, so glad to know my teens might not enjoy all of it. LOL on your Tallinn Segway story, I almost booked that for Monday and now so glad I didn't! And thanks for your warning about pickpockets...will heed that advice today especially.

 

 

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Oh please don't skip the Segway because of my klutz move! It was really fun - and nice to get to the top views without the walk (but we did it again later walking!) The kids particularly loved it, and I'd do it again (although maybe not with my DH!)

 

 

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[rocklinmom]

NCL doesn't offer the Segway in Tallinn and I already booked a walking tour :-)

We will be there tomorrow.

 

 

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[Glide_Path]

Flexsmom, thank you for your review and taking the time to answer my question. So glad you had a great overall trip. Still can't believe about the grab and run with your husband's bag, or that he ran after them.