Trip Report: Breakaway Baltic July 22 with teen and tween!

[KittyloverCA]

Hello all, we are just back from our wonderful Baltic BA vacation, so having learned so much from everyone here, I wanted to report back in detail...ask away!! I may try to add pix later but I need a little time. I also have dailies and youth club schedules.

 

About us: Travelling from California with a 13.5 yo boy and 10 yo girl. We have previously been on 2 DCL cruises, as well as an NCL Alaska cruise when the kids were really little. It was the kids' first trip to Europe.

 

The whole time we were there there was a big heat wave, and away from the ship's A/C it was quite uncomfortable

 

Day 1:

Arrived in Copenhagen in the evening, checked into Ibesens hotel, very well situated in Norreport neighborhood. Lovely hip hotel, outfitted for us with a big bed and 2 twins. we immediately went to look for food (it was close to 9pm) and ended up at Sliders which has exactly what you'd expect from the name and was good. At that moment we just wanted to eat and wanted something the kids would eat, so it fit the bill.

 

after everyone went right to sleep. Downside of Ibsen's during a heatwave, no A/C, like most places in Denmark, so we had to keep the windows open and the little fans on, and there is quite a bit of noise from people dining/gathering outside. The windows are very good at keeping out noise but it was just too hot.

 

Day 2 was our anniversary. We had a great nordic breakfast at the hotel (very fresh and tasty breads, cheeses, yogurt etc). We bought 48 hr Copenhagen cards right at the hotel. We went on a morning canal tour which we all really enjoyed, especially my son. It also gave us a good orientation to the city. We then walked to Torvehall (food market) to get lunch. My kids had some barbacoa tacos (!)which my son was therafter craving, I had a vietnamese sandwich and don't recall what my husband had! Then on our way to our walking tour (free) that I had booked we stopped at the Round tower. Walking tour was interesting ,conducted by a young Australian guy names Jarod. We ended up at Torvehall again, kids got ice cream, husband got an affogato and I bought some delicious strawberries.

 

For dinner since it was our anniversary, I had booked dinner at Olives restaurant. At the time I had to chose a "short" reservation (1.5 hr) or long (2.5 hr). I felt 1.5 hr would be adequate. However in my state of fatigue I remembered incorrectly that our reservation was at 6:30 when it was at 6:15. Let me tell you, they are strict about the reserved time, so that we were not afforded the opportunity to have dessert. The food was otherwise good.

 

 

Day 3: We went to Torvehalle for breakfast and were surprised most places didn't open til 10. Even walking around, most coffee shops were closed til then and surprisingly even a bagel shop we encountered was closed.

 

We ended up first at the Danish Architecture Center, something my son was keen to visit. It was interesting and included in our card.

 

Then to the National Museum. Very interesting and could have spent a long time there. But it was so very hot inside, which made it difficult.

 

My daughter tends to have meltdowns when she is hungry and she is also very picky. So we went to lunch and the first palce we could find near the museum, Katz. It was good, but quite pricey ($100 lunch!) Kids were able to get hamburgers so all were happy. Then to an English language tour of the Victorian Apartment. Again so so hot and stuffy and made me a it claustrophobic with how it was decorated (by original occupants)...could not imagine living there!

 

That evening we went to Tivoli. I had been there many many years ago. I have to say while I like amusement parks I did not care for Tivoli this time around, very crowded, of course very hot. We did go on the Hans Christian Andersen ride and the kids and my husband did the bumper cars. We had a mediocre dinner there in the food hall and my daughter got the biggest cotton candy we'd ever ever seen, which she was very happy with.

 

Day 4: Embarkation day

We wanted to be able to use our Copenhagen cards to take the 25 bus to the Port, so we had to get a bus by about 9:30 before they expired. Therefore we were group 1 for boarding. We were allowed to check in about 10:30 and onboard by about 11. We signed up for the kids clubs. As soon s the box office opened we signed up for the escape room which was something we all wanted to do. We (kids and I) ended up eating at the buffet while husband ate at O'sheehans. We could get into our room about 1:30. Unfortunately I hadn't thought to put bathing suits in the carryon so my daughter had to wait to swim. We explored the ship etc. For dinner the kids wanted to eat in the buffet, we adults didn't want to, so they did that and they hung out in the room while we ate dinner at Shanghais. We eat a lot of Asian food around here, so the food was not exotic or special to us but it was decent.

 

I will come back to this report in a bit...

[Markj]

We were on this cruise too and also did the Escape room - I wonder if we were in the same group as there was a family with a son and younger daughter. We are Mark and Debbie from the UK. If you are the same family then we were at a table on the far side of the room with another couple and a father and his son - we didn't escape (its hard!!!) I don't want to give any spoilers!!

[Steff79]

Do someone of you know how many passengers was at this cruise? I think it was nearly sold out with many kids on Board.

[Markj]

Do someone of you know how many passengers was at this cruise? I think it was nearly sold out with many kids on Board.

 

I was told that there were nearly 4500 because some cabins were more then double occupied.

 

Have to say though - we did have concerns that the ship would feel "busy"! But because its so big with so many restaurants, bars, activities and public spaces it doesn't feel busy. And other than being in line at St Petersburg for 30 minutes every disembarkation and embarkation was easy with no line :D

[Steff79]

Thank you. I valued something about this number. For me the ship doesn’t feel busy too. Only at some times at the garden cafe but found every time a seat.

But sorry, don’t want to disturb the report.

[KittyloverCA]

Thank you. I valued something about this number. For me the ship doesn’t feel busy too. Only at some times at the garden cafe but find every time a seat.

But sorry, don’t want to disturb the report.

 

 

 

No worries, feel free to ask questions! I have no idea of the numbers, the buffet often felt very chaotic. There didn’t seem to be an especially huge number of kids, as I don’t think it’s a great cruise for kids much younger than mine

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[KittyloverCA]

We were on this cruise too and also did the Escape room - I wonder if we were in the same group as there was a family with a son and younger daughter. We are Mark and Debbie from the UK. If you are the same family then we were at a table on the far side of the room with another couple and a father and his son - we didn't escape (its hard!!!) I don't want to give any spoilers!!

 

 

 

Yes that was us! You were also on the FoD right? We enjoyed talking and trying to solve the puzzle with you!!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[KittyloverCA]

I was told that there were nearly 4500 because some cabins were more then double occupied.

 

 

 

Have to say though - we did have concerns that the ship would feel "busy"! But because its so big with so many restaurants, bars, activities and public spaces it doesn't feel busy. And other than being in line at St Petersburg for 30 minutes every disembarkation and embarkation was easy with no line :D

 

 

 

I think it took us even longer than 30 min to get through! More on that later!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[fabnfortysomething]

I think it took us even longer than 30 min to get through! More on that later!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

 

yes we had a nightmare disembarkation in St Petersburg

will be starting my own review soon but following yours

[KittyloverCA]

Day 5: Warnemunde. While we enjoyed our day overall I kind think if they skipped this port and added extra time elsewhere it would be perfectly fine. We had no desire to make the trip to Berlin, so I had booked a Friends of Dave tour in advance. We enjoyed the guide, Christian and enjoyed the little towns we visited. Unfortunately the A/C on the bus for the trip out was not working, so by the time we were headed to our last stop, Schwerin, a 40 minute ride after lunch, I felt fairly sure I would suffocate. Luckily Christian realized our level of suffering and arranged for a new bus for the longer trip back to the ship from Schwerin. The brewery lunch was good and very large. The only problem was I had been told by Dave at booking that they had a kids menu, but that wasn't offered to us at the time we needed to make our lunch selection on the bus, so it was a bit difficult to find something for my excessively picky daughter. Upon leaving the lunch I saw they had a dedicated kids menu. oh well.

 

We got back around 7, I can't recall what we did for dinner, probably the buffet. I don't remember about breakfast either, probably the buffet which wasn't bad this day bc many had left early for Berlin

 

Day 6 Sea day 1

We had a much needed sleep in this day. We made it to the moderno buffet for breakfast before it closed and decided it was much more pleasant and calm than the Garden Cafe. We ate outside which was lovely. We went to meet for the escape room at 11:30. This was lots of fun if you like this kind of thing, I imagine not everyone would though. We have done them before and my daughter and I even planned one for her bday party this year, so we do like these kidns of puzzles. That said, with the very smart group we had, we did not solve the puzzle. Still, I'd recommend it for the puzzle minded, we enjoyed meeting our small group and working together (Hi Mark!)! There are slots for 100 people and they divide you into groups of 10 to work together. After lunch my daughter went swimming and later my husband and I did the ice bar. I have to say I did not enjoy this experience. I did not even manage to have my 2nd drink I was so cold. My kids were disappointed that we didn't take them but I'm sure they'd have been as miserable as I was!

 

For dinner we had reservations for the Teppanyaki restaurant. Food was decent, a lot of it. My kids loved the food. Our chef kept dropping stuff and the shtick got a bit old after awhile, but it was fun and my kids would like to do one here at home sometime.

 

Day 6 Tallin

This day we ate breakfast at the Garden Cafe buffet and it was extreme chaos. Did not enjoy it.

 

I really liked Tallin and it's a shame the day here wasn't a bit longer. it's a darling quaint town. I flet sorry for the resisdents who must be completely overwhelmed by these huge cruise ships inundating the town. We just did it on our own, walked up to Old Town, it was already nearly 80 degrees in the AM, but otherwise the walk up was not challenging. The first stop that we came across was the museum of occupation, which was mildly interesting. My daughter was extrmemely anxious to go souvenir shopping and I had heard you could get good deals on some the Matryushka dolls here for good prices. She found a good one with 7 pieces and the littles practically like a grain of rice that she was happy with (in Russia and on the ship it was very had to find dolls with really tiny ones inside), I found a cute cat one. We also both found some cute knit goods...me a hat and and she a small cat made of yarn (yes we do like cats, true to my screen name!). She really loved shopping in Tallin but the male members of our group were bored with our frequent stops. We also visited the Museum of Estonian history which was very interesting to me. I think overall my son was less enthusiastic about this stop be cause he really enjoyed when we had a tour guide to tell us interesting fact.

 

We had a DELICIOUS lunch at a small restaurant my husband found on trip advisor, Ratskaevu18, away from the main square. My husband had gotten an elk soup and my son could not stop stealing bits of elk from it and was thereafter craving elk. I had delicious pan fried herring on a bed of fresh cottage cheese or similar. So good. My daughter was able to get her staple...pasta with butter, so all were happy. Then we made our way to the main square, where my daughter and I persused the stalls and my husband climbed to the top of the tower, and my son sat on a curb and moped.

 

The kids and I felt a bit anxious about getting back to the ship as it was a fairly early departure, my husband had wanted to continue our self guided walking tour. We did a bit more and then backtracked to the ship and were back around 3:30. I could have spent a couple more hours here.

 

I believe on this afternoon my son (both my kids are pretty introverted) forced himself to visit the teen club. Thereafter he spent much of his free time there. I don't have a lot of info about what he did there or how much he socialized, but he did ultimately win an award for playing Wii and I know he also sang karaoke one time and learned to play Texas hold em...mostly his attitude was what happens at Entourage stays in Entourage. meanwhile my daughter never did go to the kids club, not even once to check it out, which was puzzling because on the DCL cruises we could basically not pull her away

 

Next up will be SPB...

[agsailor]

Hi, thanks for the detailed review so far. Looking forward to reading about the remainder of the cruise. Is the Moderno breakfast buffet complimentary? Is it a good option for breakfast on port days?

[KittyloverCA]

Yes moderno buffet bfast is free and so much calmer than the main buffet

[KittyloverCA]

St Petersburg Day 1

I knew to look for the signup for the disembarkation groups for non-ship excursions, so I got group A for us. This was to meet at 8am, as our tour time was set for 8:30. So by the time we got to our tour guide it was 9:30! We went to the the theater and were eventually called to leave the theater. Then we stood in line for at least 45 minutes to go through customs. It was quite frustrating. they would not let family groups go together, I was allowed to go the booth with the kids but my husband had to go separately. Processing took at least 5 min per person ( I mean about 5 for kids and me and 5 for him). So imagine 10 people ahead of you in line and you can imagine how long it took...it does make sense to split your group up into different lines in case one line is moving faster and then you can switch to that line. I tried that, and thinking the original line was moving faster I moved back, but it turns out the original line was slower...anyway, prepare for a wait and get the earliest group possible! Our guide later told me she was hearing from some colleagues that some people didn't get out til after 10...

 

Now, onto the good stuff. So we splurged and booked a private tour (just us) with TJ. if you are going to splurge on one thing, go for a private tour. It was especially good for us with the kids. We had an amazing guide, Lisa. She was so friendly and knowledgeable, and both days brought little treats for us to try. Her English was excellent. Our driver also seemed very friendly though he didn't seem to speak English.

 

Thing in SPB were a bit complicated the days we were there bc the city was preparing for Navy Day and some streets etc were closed for parade practices etc.

 

It was also a difficult city for my picky child, but luckily I had anticipated this and brought a supply of peanut butter crackers and granola bars.

 

Our itinerary for Day 1 was:

1. Pushkin to go to St Catherine Palace

2. Lunch

3. Peterhof

4.Hydrofoil back to city

5. Cats Republic

6. Souvenir shopping

 

So we went straight to Pushkin, this was a different order than originally planned but it was due to the Navy day stuff so it was perfect because a lot of streets were closed in the city. She took us to Catherine Palace, it was already looking crowded by the time we got there but she had a magic skill of getting us in places with our group being so small...she talked her way ahead of bigger groups I think. it was really beautiful as was the Amber Room. She knew so much about the history and told us about all the Czars, Princesses etc. I cannot really keep them all straight. But I was impressed with her knowledge.

 

We went to Stolle for lunch for the pies. It was pretty good though I'm not a huge fan of pies. I got a salmon pie, but I liked my son's ground beef pie better. I also got cabbage rolls, hoping my daughter would try the meat but she wouldn't. My husband got borscht in addition to a pie, I don't remember what kind. We had also gotten an apricot pie for my daughter but she kind of just picked at it. Prior to this we had gotten ice cream outside of Catherine's. We also tried some local fruit sodas which were good.

 

Then off to Peterhof. My daughter took full advantage of the trick fountains. Everything was beautiful, I enjoyed watching all the Russian families/children too. We then took the hydrofoil back to the city. Again, with the theme of the trip, it was very hot. Our guide went to investigate and found acooler part of the boat for us.

 

Next stops was Cats republic. I had requested it initially without telling my kids, bc I figured we'd be missing our cats by then. But then I decided it was frivolous and cancelled it, but apparently the change got lost in the shuffle. Once Lisa mentioned it in the morning to the kids, there was no cancelling it! They were excited for it all day. Basically it's a cafe where you can hang out with cats. Apparently there are 2 in the city and the one we went to has exotic breeds. It's not set up too much for tourists, but we loved petting the cats etc. it was maybe 30 min we spent there, I think the employees were a bit surprised that we left after 30 min, but they were giving some talks in stuff with Russian and we couldn't really follow that, and had had our fill of petting kitties.

 

Then we went to a nice souvenir shop with goodp rices, off the beaten path a bit, called Pushkin Art and Souvenirs or something like that. Worth going to as it wasn't very busy with tourists and the prices were better than places we saw later. We got a fairy tale book, a faux fur hat for my son with a hammer and sickle pin (half the price I saw elsewhere), and my daughter wanted one of those pecking chicken things...she is crazy about them, and I admit they're rather. mesmerizing.

 

Then back to the ship, it was about 6 by the time we got back and people were already leaving again for evening programs. we didn't do an evening program. Dinner I think was again the kids at the buffet and we ate maybe at a main dining. I was exhausted and asleep before 10. Which was good bc we had to meet Lisa at 7 the next day!!

 

SPB day 2 in a bit....

[cincicruisers]

Enjoying your review. Looking forward to more.

[Markj]

Yes that was us! You were also on the FoD right? We enjoyed talking and trying to solve the puzzle with you!!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

 

Yes we were - definitely us!! And you! Haha

 

I will do a trip report over the weekend

 

Im glad you all got home safely - we loved the cruise

[KittyloverCA]

SPB day 2

 

On this day we were to meet our guide Lisa at 7am. We had gone to bed early so it was not too much of a challenge to get up in time. We ate again at Moderno and left the ship by 6:45. Got through immigration quite quickly and we were on the curb to meet her at exactly 7

 

today's itinerary:

1. Subway ride. We too k the subway 1 stop from the Stadium stop to the Admirality (?) stop. Admired the very long/steep escalators and beautiful art as well as the cleanliness and order of the system

 

2. Canal tour. For this we joined with some other groups from TJ. A couple of the TJ guides took turns narrating the tour. We were amused to watch a guy who was apparently running from bridge to bridge to greet us with a big smile and by the end the whole boat was cheering him on. What a letdown when I later mentioned him to Lisa, and she said there are sort of little groups of people or kids who do this for money and can be quite hostile if they don't get money at the end of of the ride!

 

3. Walked on Nevsky prospect, stopped for a coffee in the oldest coffee shop

 

4. Hermitage, with early admission. Oh boy do you want to go for the early admission!! It was later so crowded with throngs of people. Miraculously at every major piece she wanted to show us we were the first to arrive and could view the work with no obstruction, only to notice it later mobbed. I will admit my eyes got a bit glazed looking at all the Italian religious art and I felt like I was in Florence, but the gallery I'd wanted to see, the Dutch art that I love was closed. We saw the absolutely AMAZING peacock clock. Now, my daughter loves peacocks and at first we thought it was simply an elaborate peacock statue but when we learned it was a clock and how it works we were just stunned. We were able to see its working on an adjacent video monitor and also Lisa described it to us. For the rest of the trip whenever we had WiFi my daughter was begging to look up YouTube videos of it in action. We had lunch in the museum cafe and I was able to get some kind of meatball type things that both kids would eat. By this time the galleries were very crowded...and the bathrooms. when my daughter had to go to the bathroom the line was massive but Lisa got her ahead of it somehow. The other really interesting gallery we visited was the less visited archaeology gallery where they display the finds of tombs found in permafrost. amazingly preserved (and, one of the rooms was heavily air conditioned...wonderful)

 

5. Church on spilled blood. unfortunately there was a lot of scaffolding and so you couldn't see all the domes. inside was also beautiful ( and crowded). Lisa explained all the mosaic techniques

 

6. Grand Maket (scale model of all of Russia). Amazing and mesmerizing for both kids and adults (though I doubt a group without kids would come here, it certainly was not boring for adults). You could spend hours looking at all the tiny details.

 

7. Office in souvenir store for payment. It was my daughter's lucky day bc TJ allows children to pick a gift out from a selection and she was able to choose another pecking chicken set. She is in heaven!

 

Back to ship where my daughter and I perused the shops there, she bought a very small egg. Lisa had offered to take us first to the Farmers market but we turned it down as we were tired by then.

 

Let me reiterate that I would not hesitate to do a private tour with TJ or probably any of the best rated companies would be similar. It was really an amazing experience and I almost felt like crying when we had to say goodbye to her!

 

next up will be Helsinki and Stockholm as well as the last sea day!

[Clay Clayton]

Looking forward to hearing about what you did in Stockholm as we are in a quandary as to what to do there.

[Indykitten]

Thank you for your review! We'll be in Copenhagen the end of September before our Breakaway cruise and have many of the same things planned that you have done. We are also staying in the Norreport area. Did you find you got good value out of the Copenhagen cards? I'm thinking about getting the 3 day ones at the airport and using them immediately on the train. Tivoli won't be open while we are there, unfortunately, but I think I can live with that. May I ask which walking tour you did? I think we're going to DIY, but haven't made up my mind yet. :)

[KittyloverCA]

Thank you for your review! We'll be in Copenhagen the end of September before our Breakaway cruise and have many of the same things planned that you have done. We are also staying in the Norreport area. Did you find you got good value out of the Copenhagen cards? I'm thinking about getting the 3 day ones at the airport and using them immediately on the train. Tivoli won't be open while we are there, unfortunately, but I think I can live with that. May I ask which walking tour you did? I think we're going to DIY, but haven't made up my mind yet. :)

 

Yes the Copenhagen card was very useful for us! I tried to buy it at the airport but the guy directed me to go around to a different window and I simply didn’t have the energy after 20 hrs of travel! So it was lucky that our hotel sold them. We had 2 full days before the cruise, and 1 after. We bought the 48 hr card and with the timing used it to get to the port. Would have been good too for our 3rd day but since it was non-consecutive we couldn’t do that, and with the things we planned to do we decided it wasn’t worth it to buy a new card. It’s very useful that it includes transportation.

 

For the free tour we did this one:

http://www.copenhagenfreewalkingtours.dk/

 

We did the 90 min one, didn’t think we could manage a 3hr one!

[Clay Clayton]

Yes the Copenhagen card was very useful for us! I tried to buy it at the airport but the guy directed me to go around to a different window and I simply didn’t have the energy after 20 hrs of travel! So it was lucky that our hotel sold them. We had 2 full days before the cruise, and 1 after. We bought the 48 hr card and with the timing used it to get to the port. Would have been good too for our 3rd day but since it was non-consecutive we couldn’t do that, and with the things we planned to do we decided it wasn’t worth it to buy a new card. It’s very useful that it includes transportation.

 

 

 

For the free tour we did this one:

 

http://www.copenhagenfreewalkingtours.dk/

 

 

 

We did the 90 min one, didn’t think we could manage a 3hr one!

 

 

 

Thanks for the link. It says the 90 min tour starts at 1:30 and ends “just in time for lunch”. Do they really eat lunch that late?

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[KittyloverCA]

Thanks for the link. It says the 90 min tour starts at 1:30 and ends “just in time for lunch”. Do they really eat lunch that late?

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

 

 

Yes I though that too! We ate before we met up!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[KittyloverCA]

A few things I left out in the initial post:

 

-we were in cabin 5774. This was a large family porthole room. It was very spacious with tons of storage and a tub. There was a curtain to separate the 2 parts. Convenient for disembarking.

 

-I had been very concerned about smoke bc I really hate cigarette smoke, but it was honestly fine, even at Shanghai. The times I used the slot machines I was in a NS section

 

-when we left the ship we decided to do “self assist” . The schedule said 7am. We were not interested in getting off at 7am and left our cabin at 9 and it was fine. We were not ready to put our bags out by 11pm and still stuffing things in last minute so taking our own bags worked fine. And we only had to go down 1 level so no big deal

 

-we did not get a WiFi package. That said communicating on the ship was tricky. A few times I went to retrieve my son from the teen club since he wasn’t back at the appointed time, and was told he’d left 5-10 min ago and when I got back to the room he was there already. That was a big walk for nothing!

 

We had the UBP that came with our reservation. My husband made full use of it, I didn’t. We had gotten a soda pkg for the kids but not worth it bc we were on the ship so little . Would have been better to pay per soda.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[SClakeliving]

Hello all, we are just back from our wonderful Baltic BA vacation, so having learned so much from everyone here, I wanted to report back in detail...ask away!! I may try to add pix later but I need a little time. I also have dailies and youth club schedules.

 

About us: Travelling from California with a 13.5 yo boy and 10 yo girl. We have previously been on 2 DCL cruises, as well as an NCL Alaska cruise when the kids were really little. It was the kids' first trip to Europe.

 

 

We wanted to be able to use our Copenhagen cards to take the 25 bus to the Port, so we had to get a bus by about 9:30 before they expired. Therefore we were group 1 for boarding. We were allowed to check in about 10:30 and onboard by about 11. We signed up for the kids clubs. As soon s the box office opened we signed up for the escape room which was something we all wanted to do. We (kids and I) ended up eating at the buffet while husband ate at O'sheehans. We could get into our room about 1:30. Unfortunately I hadn't thought to put bathing suits in the carryon so my daughter had to wait to swim. We explored the ship etc. For dinner the kids wanted to eat in the buffet, we adults didn't want to, so they did that and they hung out in the room while we ate dinner at Shanghais. We eat a lot of Asian food around here, so the food was not exotic or special to us but it was decent.

 

I will come back to this report in a bit...

when did the Box office open on embarkation day?

[KittyloverCA]

Helsinki:

 

We did not book an excursion for this day. we took a tram into town (and lost a good half hour trying to figure out where to get the tram). We bought a day pass for transportaiton, which included ferries. Once we got to the main train station, we walked to the dock for the ferry to Suomenlinna Island. My husband led us on a walking tour. To be honest I didn't find it that interesting. And it was exteremely windy (and hot!) which made me feel grumpy. I would rather have stayed in town. And after walking for quite a while, in order to get to the public ferry would have required a pretty long backtracking so we took a private ferry and paid separately for that.

 

We ate lunch in the Market stalls. Got the kids some sliced salamis and breads, my husband got a reindeer sandwich and I got a couple of small salmon sandwich things. There were some great looking desserts too but we were short on time.

 

There was a very early all aboard, 3:30, much too short of a day IMO. What I had wanted to do was go to the open air museum but we simply didn't have time to do that and the island. After lunch my son and I were feeling a bit anxious about getting back in time, because we like to have a bit of a cushion, and my husband still wanted to go to the Rock Church. So the kids and I navigated back to the ship and got back before 3 and my husband went on his own to the rock church. we expected to see him jumping onto the ship as it sailed away but he did get back in time.

 

It was pretty frustrating to me that the time was so short. it's not a big city but the port is not right downtown so some time was lost getting there, and I barely had time to look around. So, not my favorite day. I had been there many years ago and was looking forward to revisiting...

 

For dinner we had reservations at Moderno. My kids love Brazilian Barbeque. I don't love it but their salad bar was quite to my liking.

 

Then my husband and I went to Rock of ages, first time we'd had energy to go out at night. I enjoyed it but it's definitely rather crass, not for kids, and I can't recommend it to anyone who doesn't love 80's music. I thought the performers were good.

 

Stockholm

We had booked before the port changed from stockholm to nynashamn so were eligible for a free transfer from the port. But at the time it was a bit of an unknown so I had opted to pay for a ship excursion. I did hear the transportation was a bit of a mess, so glad we didn't do that, and I think I'd have been too anxious to take the train on our own and as it turns out I did hear there were train issues. So we booked the "City highlights and leisure time." it included things I wanted: vasa museum and old town (on our own). I wish we'd have booked with TJ and then would have had a smaller group. This was a full busload. The guide was very sweet, but her English wasn't great. And the ride into town was long but pleasant enough. However, I could see she was struggling to keep us occupied on the ride by telling us all kinds of random things about Sweden. We drove around town a bit andthen to Vasa. This was what I most looked forward to. We got there and it was a madhouse, barely anywhere for the bus to stop. and then we only had an hour for the museum, not at all enough time given how crowded it was. It was fascinating and I'd have liked to have spent 2 hours + there. then we could not find my son who had looked around on his own so I was a bit panicked about that. I returned to the museum to get him paged and then he still didn't come so I went back to the meeting point and there he was already.

 

Then we went to Old town, in time for lunch. But the guide told us the wrong time to come back, she told us "quarter to 3" and meant "quarter after 3." Since my daughter was by then having a meltdown we went to the 1st restaurant we say in the square, an italian restaurant, to get her fed. it was good, but we could have found better options if not rushed. since we though we had 30 min less we didn't go to the nobel museum which would have been interesting. Instead walked around the very crowded old town. we went to get some ice cream and when we came out it was pouring, though that stopped quickly. that was the only rain we had. We went back to the meeting point at 2:45 and she said, oh no you still have plenty of time. so we went to look at the free museum of the palace where they have a lovely exhibit of carriages. but it was still kind of a haphazard experience. She had kindly bought a big bucket of candy for the group so how could we fault her? :) and then we waited with her at the meeting point and when we headed back to the bus with her, 75% of the group was already on the bus and we had lost our seats....very annoying. so it really was not a well organized tour and just too many people for my taste. then it was still early so she had the driver give us a driving tour of nynashamn. I'd rather have had the extra time at Vasa...so my suggestion is, try to book a smaller tour if you want to do a tour. i had again wanted to visit the open air museum or one of the other museums but there just wasn't time.

 

That evening my kids went to the buffet as usual and my husband and I decided to go back to shanghai. Later we all went to the dueling pianos...great fun, I've never done that before.

 

next up...last sea day and last day in copenhagen.

[KittyloverCA]

when did the Box office open on embarkation day?

I'm thinking 1:30? well before sailaway.