To Russia with Love

[shofer]

We did this as a 12 day RT Amsterdam on the Vision last June and loved it. Also did 2 day pre-cruise and 1 day post in Amsterdam. We stayed at the Ibis-Amsterdam Central and it was the best location.

 

Sue

[Goodtime Cruizin]

We didn’t plan much in Skagen. Pronounced Skane. The plan was to go to the furthest ‘point’ of land . So when you get off the ship, you either walk 15 to 20 mins to the town center or buy a $7us per person to get there. We should have walked it wasn’t as far as we were lead to believe. Then you can either walk the town or buy a Hop On Hop Off bus ticket, $8us each. We did the HoHo as well. The first bus drove us a mile. We then walk to bus stop and this is where things went awry. There was NOT enough buses to handle the masses and the busses they have were small shuttle style buses. It was a complete but. No pun intended. So we decided to punt. Find a coffee house to get out of the rain. An Irish Coffee and a Walnut pastry did the trick.

$30 for bus tickets were a total waste. The town of Skagen is not set up to transport masses amounts of people leaving a ship at the same time.

 

Pretty town. Friendly folks but just a poor set up for HoHo.

[grapau27]

We didn’t plan much in Skagen. Pronounced Skane. The plan was to go to the furthest ‘point’ of land . So when you get off the ship, you either walk 15 to 20 mins to the town center or buy a $7us per person to get there. We should have walked it wasn’t as far as we were lead to believe. Then you can either walk the town or buy a Hop On Hop Off bus ticket, $8us each. We did the HoHo as well. The first bus drove us a mile. We then walk to bus stop and this is where things went awry. There was NOT enough buses to handle the masses and the busses they have were small shuttle style buses. It was a complete but. No pun intended. So we decided to punt. Find a coffee house to get out of the rain. An Irish Coffee and a Walnut pastry did the trick.

$30 for bus tickets were a total waste. The town of Skagen is not set up to transport masses amounts of people leaving a ship at the same time.

 

Pretty town. Friendly folks but just a poor set up for HoHo.

The pretty medieval town of Tallin was beautiful and you will love it.

 

 

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[kernow]

Hi Goodtime! We will be in cabin 8102 on the May 28th Sailing. It's the last cabin next to the elevators in the Centrum (deck 8). I am kind of curious how late the music plays in the Centrum and if it's noisy around our cabin. If you are really bored one night and feel like walking around, please go to our cabin and see how loud it is! (If there is a party in the Centrum, I should be at the party, not in my cabin!)

 

Have a great cruise! We are enjoying your live review.

We has 8102 for a b2b on Brilliance a few years ago. When there was music in the Centrum it was quite noisy in the corridor outside the room but when we were inside with the door closed it was more like background noise and didn't really bother us. At that time the music always stopped by midnight anyway.

For us the big balcony more than made up for any noise we heard.

 

Julie

[rool]

Thanks for your posts, we are on Navigator on 3 June for a Baltic cruise so watching closely with interest.

Interested whether you have ship or private tours in St Petersburg and particularly interested in whether there are any delays in getting off the ship for those on the private tours.

[Goodtime Cruizin]

Thanks for your posts, we are on Navigator on 3 June for a Baltic cruise so watching closely with interest.

Interested whether you have ship or private tours in St Petersburg and particularly interested in whether there are any delays in getting off the ship for those on the private tours.

Thanks for following! We have two excursions booked through SPB tours. StPtete & Berlin. We do not believe there will be delays as the ship will be docked. So there should not be any preference (Royal excursions) off first.

[Ginlyn]

We didn’t plan much in Skagen. Pronounced Skane. The plan was to go to the furthest ‘point’ of land . So when you get off the ship, you either walk 15 to 20 mins to the town center or buy a $7us per person to get there. We should have walked it wasn’t as far as we were lead to believe. Then you can either walk the town or buy a Hop On Hop Off bus ticket, $8us each. We did the HoHo as well. The first bus drove us a mile. We then walk to bus stop and this is where things went awry. There was NOT enough buses to handle the masses and the busses they have were small shuttle style buses. It was a complete but. No pun intended. So we decided to punt. Find a coffee house to get out of the rain. An Irish Coffee and a Walnut pastry did the trick.

$30 for bus tickets were a total waste. The town of Skagen is not set up to transport masses amounts of people leaving a ship at the same time.

 

Pretty town. Friendly folks but just a poor set up for HoHo.

 

Following along. DH and I are doing this cruise next year on the Brilance and I’m interested in learning of any recommendations and tips.

[bobmacliberty]

I'm just now finding this thread and am looking forward to your posts. Looks like a very interesting itinerary.

 

You earlier mentioned a 3 hour tour (a 3 hour tour) in Amsterdam, and then you said that the weather started getting rough. If you have rough seas and your tiny ship (relatively speaking) is tossed, I wouldn't wait to see how courageous the fearless Brilliance crew is, I'd look for safer ground. :p

[Goodtime Cruizin]

Bob, we were all having a bit of fun regarding Gilligan’s Island the next song of a “three hour tour”. Actually the weather has been great while at sea. But before we boarded and after we ported, it has rained often.

 

Ok, I’ve learned a bit more regarding Skagen. Pretty much the only tour or excursions one can get are through Royal. I surely can’t tell anyone what to do but I can tell you what we did do and what we’d do differently. I would not buy any tickets for the HoHo bus in Skagen. There’s only one bus operating today and it was a hotel shuttle style bus. With the bad weather, nobody Hopped Off. Meaning.... you can’t hop off a bus if you never hopped on! The town is prettt much touristy but does have some decent seat & drink establishments.

 

If your attempting to get to the ‘point’ your choices are limited to the following... Royals excursion, HoHo bus, Taci or walk the 3 miles. If I had to do it all over again, and wanted to go to the point, I’d do the Royal Excursion.

[Goodtime Cruizin]

To those that just recently joined us.... thanks for following along. I hope this live blog helps some of you as others have helped us.

 

After returning from Skagen early, we enjoyed a nice long nap! I think the world would be a nicer place if we all had afternoon naps and woke up with warm cookies & milk.

 

The wife went to the 70’s dance lessons, I went to the bar. She then joined me. Our friends were tired and didn’t want to do Late dinner but we did! We both enjoyed Tiger Prawn Shrimp. And our new table mates, were two couples from Australia. We enjoyed their company & conversation.

 

Tomorrow we port at Aarhus. (pronounced R-whos ) We are doing a Viator HoHo bus. Hopefully... since this is through Viator, it’ll be a much better product than what we experienced in Skagen.

 

We also had a medical evacuation tonight. Apparently there was a heart attack in the MDR and a Doctor (passenger) resuscitated the fellow and saved his life!

 

See you in Aarhus!

[Tin can]

Thanks for your posts, we are on Navigator on 3 June for a Baltic cruise so watching closely with interest.

Interested whether you have ship or private tours in St Petersburg and particularly interested in whether there are any delays in getting off the ship for those on the private tours.

 

 

 

If it’s the same as when we did our Baltic cruise there will be constant announcements for private tours to stay onboard until ship tours have left.

 

My advice, don’t. We were on a private tour and were waiting for the gangway to open.

 

We heard it was absolute chaos at customs when ships tours tried to leave due to shear numbers. Some ships tours were hours late leaving.

 

We were long gone in our small mini bus [emoji3]

 

 

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[Goodtime Cruizin]

FYI.... we booked the Aarhus Hop On Hop Off bus w Viator. #1060871929 for $34.99 ea. The HoHo will pick us up at the Cruise Port & the first bus begins @ 9am. We’re not sure yet on how often the bus intervals are, but we decided to forgo the first bus and the potential crowds trying to get on. We meet our buddies on Deck 2 at 9:15am.

 

Before I leave the ship today to visit Aarhus, I visited w/ Amit the Concierge to confirm Chops for our Anniversary dinner on Sunday May 6th @ 6:30. We’re set.

[Goodtime Cruizin]

We had a nice day in Aarhus! The weather was beautiful as it reached very near 60, plenty of sun and now wind to speak of. As mentioned earlier we planned our visit via the HoHo bus. But this time they had large buses (yes multiple units), open topped, double decker styled busses. There a total of eight stops included the cruise port stop. We stopped at the Marselisborg Palace which is stop #2. This is a man active residence of the Queen. So only the grounds are open and only then will members of the Royal family are not there. Our next stop which was stop #6 on the route was to Den Gamble By, which is an open air museum that covers roughly 1200 years of time. From houses to merchants, black smiths to the bakery, this was a fun stop. Cost was $45 US for the two us. We enjoyed a lunch there as well. We then proceeded to the last stop on the HoHo tour, stop #8 to the Cathedral. Construction began in 1200 & at 315’ tall, it is the tallest Church in Denmark and the 2nd tallest in Northern Europe. I felt the three stops in Aarhus we’re good, enjoyable and worth our time and money.

[Goodtime Cruizin]

Yesterday was a sea day and it was very relaxing. We attended several functions along w some time spent in the Solarium. We were invited to a a VIP brunch for suite & gold card holders. This was nicely done and the food was pretty tasty. We then attended the second Meet & Mingle. This time the invites went out and there was close to 100 in attendance. And finally in the evening was the Top Tier Event which was very well attended!

I believe that reviewing food is so subjective so there won’t be much on food/meals but I will say that we have had very good table service. On the other hand the cabin service has been very weak. On two occasions already, we’ve had to call guest service to have the cabin made up & freshened. The housekeeping dept manager did pay us visit w an apology.

 

Today is 40th Anniversary and we’ve been blessed with a beautiful weather day for Tallinn, 64 , sunny w a 7 mph wind from the west. We’re headed to old town to find some fun!

[Goodtime Cruizin]

As we wait to leave the ship for Tallinn, a little bit about GS 1600. It is a corner aft starboard side. As such, it is configured differently than the rest of the GS cabins on Brilliance. And not necessarily to the advantage of the cruiser. For instance, it has a small hallway after you enter the cabin that really eats up valuable living space. As a result the cabin has NO walk-in closet. It appears to be the size of a balcony cabin closet. The bed is on an angle & the balcony is half the size of the JS balcony next door. These things were not known to us at the time of booking. One has to walk to the aft of the ship to enter the cabin which is a pretty long walk. This we understood. What we didn’t know is there are NO stairs accessible at the aft of the ship. One has to walk all the way to the elevator bank to find a stairway. The balcony has two padded loungers, two padded chairs, and one small table. But the balcony is so small that it is difficult to maneuver through and around the furniture. So we took one of the loungers and leaned it upright along the front glass balcony wrap around wall.

 

This GS does give one Gold Card privileges. Having said this, so do all of the other GS cabins. Unless one just wishes to be on the aft of the ship in a GS, there are GS cabins that offer more space for the same money.

[grapau27]

Yesterday was a sea day and it was very relaxing. We attended several functions along w some time spent in the Solarium. We were invited to a a VIP brunch for suite & gold card holders. This was nicely done and the food was pretty tasty. We then attended the second Meet & Mingle. This time the invites went out and there was close to 100 in attendance. And finally in the evening was the Top Tier Event which was very well attended!

I believe that reviewing food is so subjective so there won’t be much on food/meals but I will say that we have had very good table service. On the other hand the cabin service has been very weak. On two occasions already, we’ve had to call guest service to have the cabin made up & freshened. The housekeeping dept manager did pay us visit w an apology.

 

Today is 40th Anniversary and we’ve been blessed with a beautiful weather day for Tallinn, 64 , sunny w a 7 mph wind from the west. We’re headed to old town to find some fun!

Happy 40th anniversary to you both.

Tallinn is a beautiful place and an ideal location to celebrate your anniversary.

 

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[Paulxyz2004]

As we wait to leave the ship for Tallinn, a little bit about GS 1600. It is a corner aft starboard side. As such, it is configured differently than the rest of the GS cabins on Brilliance. And not necessarily to the advantage of the cruiser. For instance, it has a small hallway after you enter the cabin that really eats up valuable living space. As a result the cabin has NO walk-in closet. It appears to be the size of a balcony cabin closet. The bed is on an angle & the balcony is half the size of the JS balcony next door. These things were not known to us at the time of booking. One has to walk to the aft of the ship to enter the cabin which is a pretty long walk. This we understood. What we didn’t know is there are NO stairs accessible at the aft of the ship. One has to walk all the way to the elevator bank to find a stairway. The balcony has two padded loungers, two padded chairs, and one small table. But the balcony is so small that it is difficult to maneuver through and around the furniture. So we took one of the loungers and leaned it upright along the front glass balcony wrap around wall.

 

This GS does give one Gold Card privileges. Having said this, so do all of the other GS cabins. Unless one just wishes to be on the aft of the ship in a GS, there are GS cabins that offer more space for the same money.

 

I´m sorry you didn´t know about this cabin beforehand.

 

I fully agree with your sentiments. IMO 1600 on the Radiance class is the worst GS.

[Goodtime Cruizin]

I´m sorry you didn´t know about this cabin beforehand.

 

I fully agree with your sentiments. IMO 1600 on the Radiance class is the worst GS.

 

Live & learn! And while true, it’s still a GS and has been thoroughly enjoyable. And besides that, we got the GS at JS pricing. ;)

[Paulxyz2004]

Live & learn! And while true, it’s still a GS and has been thoroughly enjoyable. And besides that, we got the GS at JS pricing. ;)

 

 

Absolutely! I´m glad you got it at a great price and the Baltics are a great itinerary too.

[Goodtime Cruizin]

A bit of info on Tallin for you future planners. Tallin is a wonderful stop & is a beautiful is city along the coast. There are quite a few excursions available to satisfy the many. We chose the Hop On / Hop Off. Which btw there are two different operators. The one we used was called, City Sight Seeing Tallinn through Viator. And finally, one can purchase a bus ticket at the pier $10 US / $8 Euros pp RT cash only that will carry you directly from the cruise port to a drop off point that is a 10 min walk to Lower Old Town.

If you decide to go HoHo, it picks you up outside the gate, about a 5 min walk from gangway. It has three different lines,

Blue 60 min, Green 75 mins, & finally Red 60 min. Altogether offering 18 stops total. The Historic Center & Old Town is on jthe Red Line which is where we eventually went but we did jump on the Green by mistake but it was no biggee as it brought us back to a shared stop w Red. Anyway, it was really nice w great buildings etc. we enjoyed a nice lunch w/ a patio too. Old town seemed to be the most favorite stop as the tour buses were everywhere! good times!

 

Tonight for dinner, we check out Chops as we celebrate #40 w/ friends & reservations at 6:30pm!

[tugtraveller]

Enjoing your post as we will be on Brilliance Aug 8th Baltics sailing. Especially appreciating all the information on the Viator tours. I've been reading the Rick Steves Northern European Cruise Ports book, and he doesn't really mention Viator. But they look like they have some nice affordable HoHo options right from the cruise port? Good to know.

--- Rene

[accio_7]

Happy belated 40th anniversary to you and your wife!

 

 

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[Goodtime Cruizin]

Thanks for following along and the nice Anniversary wishes. We’re only age 60 & 59. We married young and I was accused of marrying up! LOL but we feel old tonight when we couldn’t keep up w the 80’s party,l. We did dance! Though!

 

Tomorrow is Sr.Petersburg via SPB tours. I’ll keep you posted!

[FlorenceItaly]

Happy Anniversary. Have a wonderful dinner celebrating. I am enjoying your review very much.

[tvnewsengineer]

Goodtime are you still there?... Been following along because we are in GS 1600 on the 28th. Really enjoying you port tips.