Live from Voyager in the Baltic

[CruiseMelissa]

44 minutes ago, Biker19 said:

Regardless of any previous flexibility, it would be considerate to show up sorta on time or go elsewhere. Yes, the very low capacity on Voyager may allow for flexibility but that doesn't mean you should count on it.

 

I'm fully aware of normal MDR rules and the courtesies involved but appreciate the generic refresher.  From what I understand, however,  all seating times kind of go out the window, so it's not like you'd be "late" for your 5:30 seating time, they were almost seating people like MTD with ships on this type of itinerary.  And I believe this was in a thread from the pre-Covid days but I can't find it which is why I would love to hear from those that were on Voyager recently to see if this was the case.

[HankaM]

2 minutes ago, CruiseMelissa said:

 

I'm fully aware of normal MDR rules and the courtesies involved but appreciate the generic refresher.  From what I understand, however,  all seating times kind of go out the window, so it's not like you'd be "late" for your 5:30 seating time, they were almost seating people like MTD with ships on this type of itinerary.  And I believe this was in a thread from the pre-Covid days but I can't find it which is why I would love to hear from those that were on Voyager recently to see if this was the case.

That’s a good point. I haven’t cruised since 2011 and I think we were on my time dining, which I did not like as there were huge lines and sometimes we could not get in.  I signed up for early dining this time and now I’m concerned our excursion will cause us to miss our dining time. Do the push the early dining later on days when excursions are scheduled to return late? 

[Biker19]

5 minutes ago, CruiseMelissa said:

From what I understand, however,  all seating times kind of go out the window, so it's not like you'd be "late" for your 5:30 seating time, they were almost seating people like MTD with ships on this type of itinerary.

The itinerary won't affect that too much. And what someone tells you which might be true today with 1700 on board could be very different when the ship is all of a sudden at say 2500 or 3000 on a future sailing. If you show up at 6:30 you'll be competing with all those MTDers trying to find a table - something that was subject of a previous thread.

[LarryHD2]

We will be MTDers on the June 15 sailing which looks to be at 50% capacity or so....  have there been long lines for this recently?  

[HankaM]

I was wondering if anyone from the US set themselves up with cellphone service during their Baltic Cruise?  How did you do it and how has the service been while in port?  What kind of costs were involved?  Thank you in advance for info. 

[LarryHD2]

16 minutes ago, HankaM said:

I was wondering if anyone from the US set themselves up with cellphone service during their Baltic Cruise?  How did you do it and how has the service been while in port?  What kind of costs were involved?  Thank you in advance for info. 

With Verizon I turned on TravelPass which allows me to use my voice and data plan internationally for $10/day if I use it.  There are also other international plans available.  However, I plan to use wifi calling if needed which is free when making/receiving calls back to the US but there is a charge when calling Intl numbers (even if in the same city).  I bought a Sapphire mobile wifi.

[AdventureKenandCar]

4 hours ago, HankaM said:

I was wondering if anyone from the US set themselves up with cellphone service during their Baltic Cruise?  How did you do it and how has the service been while in port?  What kind of costs were involved?  Thank you in advance for info. 

I have AT&T, and I've been looking into this offering:

 

AT&T INTERNATIONAL DAY PASS

• Stay connected while you travel abroad
• Access your eligible plan in 210+ destinations with unlimited talk, text, and high-speed data*
• Pay $10/day for your first line
• Get additional lines for $5/day each if used in the same day
• Only pay for the days you use, no extra charge after 10 days per line, per bill 

[CruiseMelissa]

6 hours ago, Biker19 said:

The itinerary won't affect that too much. And what someone tells you which might be true today with 1700 on board could be very different when the ship is all of a sudden at say 2500 or 3000 on a future sailing. If you show up at 6:30 you'll be competing with all those MTDers trying to find a table - something that was subject of a previous thread.

Couldn't one say this about each and every question asked on these message boards about real time information vs. what will happen on their actual cruise?

[Biker19]

14 minutes ago, CruiseMelissa said:

Couldn't one say this about each and every question asked on these message boards about real time information vs. what will happen on their actual cruise?

True, some things are rather meaningless to provide info on when things could change so much between sailings, especially in the COVID era. Pre COVID you could sorta expect some sort of pattern and that may return slowly. 

[IRMO12HD]

7 hours ago, AdventureKenandCar said:

I have AT&T, and I've been looking into this offering:

 

AT&T INTERNATIONAL DAY PASS

• Stay connected while you travel abroad
• Access your eligible plan in 210+ destinations with unlimited talk, text, and high-speed data*
• Pay $10/day for your first line
• Get additional lines for $5/day each if used in the same day
• Only pay for the days you use, no extra charge after 10 days per line, per bill 

I've used the AT&T International Day Pass in ports on several cruises, and it has worked great.  Do, however, make sure that you switch back to airplane mode BEFORE or AS the ship departs the port. It would make more sense on a port-intensive itinerary

[Bfsroyal]

21 hours ago, CruiseMelissa said:

I thought I had read that in the past, dining times on Baltic sailings were kind of flexible because it's so port/excursion intensive.  That they still assign early/late dining but people kind of show up when they can to  those seatings (not the MTD section).

 

Has anyone that sailed Voyager in the Baltic experienced this?  We love early dining and will make it most days but there will be a few days that excursions will cut it close and I don't love the idea of dinner in the Windjammer if we can avoid it.  

We asked if we could show up at 6pm on one day only for our 5:30pm slot and this was ok. We were the only table our waiters had out of three when we showed up. Another table in our section came at 7pm.

 

There seems to be some flexibility but would ask prior as not to cause annoyance. In fact our waiter came and chatted with us for about 10 minutes that night as we were the only table he had for that sitting.

Our MDR waiters have been excellent. We had one disappear mid week (presumably with covid - it was just mentioned he was feeling unwell). I think we can go to guest services and give a specific employee tip for him to be passed on.

[Bfsroyal]

In terms of cell reception this has been available most of the cruise even at sea. My provider does free calls texts and internet across all the destinations.  I have my mobile data off when sailing though just in case. One of our travel companions phones managed to go onto cellular at sea in port whilst on the ship in Copenhagen. But we haven’t seen it since. We haven’t felt the need for internet package.

[Bfsroyal]

As far as ports go in all ports of call Uber is available and is substantially cheaper if 2 or more people than the shuttle buses. To get into town in Tallinn €3-4, Stockholm €11 and Helsinki €9.

[Nunagoras]

For the ones interested regarding meal times on Baltic and Norway cruises; industry wise, not RCI specific:

 

Once those cruises tend to be very port intensive with generally longer times in port, making it common to have some 8 hour long shore excursions, if not longer ones, in place, the cruise lines use to give some allowance for guests to arrive. Obviously, announcing that you'll be late in advance is key for them to adapt. They may very well to have the buffet open longer hours in certain of those days. Official time slots for early and late dining use to be slightly later on those cruises as well.

 

Never gone with RCI on those destinations, but on MSC, when St. Petersburg was an option (it is not now because of the obvious situation), on that day they had the MDR's open on a free flow, with a partial buffet. I can't remember well, but I believe they had the same for Oslo and Stockholm.

[CruiseMelissa]

1 hour ago, Bfsroyal said:

We asked if we could show up at 6pm on one day only for our 5:30pm slot and this was ok. We were the only table our waiters had out of three when we showed up. Another table in our section came at 7pm.

 

There seems to be some flexibility but would ask prior as not to cause annoyance. In fact our waiter came and chatted with us for about 10 minutes that night as we were the only table he had for that sitting.

Our MDR waiters have been excellent. We had one disappear mid week (presumably with covid - it was just mentioned he was feeling unwell). I think we can go to guest services and give a specific employee tip for him to be passed on.

This is great information, thank you!

[CruiseMelissa]

5 hours ago, Bfsroyal said:

As far as ports go in all ports of call Uber is available and is substantially cheaper if 2 or more people than the shuttle buses. To get into town in Tallinn €3-4, Stockholm €11 and Helsinki €9.

This is great to know.  I wonder if you can order an Uber on disembarkation day in Copenhagen, I know others have said taxis are tough to find.

[Bfsroyal]

10 hours ago, CruiseMelissa said:

This is great to know.  I wonder if you can order an Uber on disembarkation day in Copenhagen, I know others have said taxis are tough to find.

Sorry apologies for any confusion. Uber isn’t available in Copenhagen - but all the other ports of call along the journey. Taxis in Copenhagen seem expensive based on the distance travelled. Our journey from the airport for 6 to the port area hotel was around £70. A smaller taxi for up to 4. I think would be about £35. This obviously worked well for convenience for 6 with luggage.

 

If two or less and if staying near the train station then the train I think is very efficient and more cost effective. Their public transport network is very good. If not using the Copenhagen pass then a single ticket lasts for one hour across the public network including water buses, buses and metro.

[little britain]

12 hours ago, CruiseMelissa said:

This is great to know.  I wonder if you can order an Uber on disembarkation day in Copenhagen, I know others have said taxis are tough to find.

There is no Uber in Copenhagen and there are dozens of cabs lined up when you disembark.  Cabs are expensive - about DKK500 to the airport 

[icsys]

On 5/19/2022 at 6:37 PM, HankaM said:

That’s a good point. I haven’t cruised since 2011 and I think we were on my time dining, which I did not like as there were huge lines and sometimes we could not get in.  I signed up for early dining this time and now I’m concerned our excursion will cause us to miss our dining time. Do the push the early dining later on days when excursions are scheduled to return late? 

 

Not according to the Cruise Compass on the may 1st sailing...

Day five Tallinn, all aboard was 7.30pm but main seating was still 5.30pm and 8.00pm

 

On the May 29th sailing the latest 'all aboard' is 5pm so should not be an issue that week

Edited May 22, 2022 by icsys

[icsys]

On 5/17/2022 at 6:16 PM, Bfsroyal said:

We had 11:30am arrival time - we checked in as soon as it opened and that was the earliest available. We were at a hotel in the port and left early to get there. There is a free shuttle bus from the metro station near the port that leaves every 10 mins. We arrived probably at the terminal for 10:40am.

 

Could anyone boarding Voyager this morning confirm if there is a free shuttle from Orientkaj Metro station to the cruise terminal?

[Bfsroyal]

3 hours ago, icsys said:

 

Could anyone boarding Voyager this morning confirm if there is a free shuttle from Orientkaj Metro station to the cruise terminal?

Just used it on disembarkation. Arriving about every 5-10 minutes.  The drop off location which I presume is also the pick up location is next to the metro station down at the Copenhagen International School side. The drop off point is marked with a yellow x on the map

[CruiseMelissa]

7 hours ago, icsys said:

 

Not according to the Cruise Compass on the may 1st sailing...

Day five Tallinn, all aboard was 7.30pm but main seating was still 5.30pm and 8.00pm

 

On the May 29th sailing the latest 'all aboard' is 5pm so should not be an issue that week

I would never think they'd change it to be flexible in the Cruise Compass, I assumed it would be a more casual conversation between potential latecomers and the head waiter/wait staff, as some have suggested on this thread. 

[icsys]

11 hours ago, icsys said:

 

Could anyone boarding Voyager this morning confirm if there is a free shuttle from Orientkaj Metro station to the cruise terminal?

 

8 hours ago, Bfsroyal said:

Just used it on disembarkation. Arriving about every 5-10 minutes.  The drop off location which I presume is also the pick up location is next to the metro station down at the Copenhagen International School side. The drop off point is marked with a yellow x on the map

 

Thank you.

[LarryHD2]

I found this Cruise Compass from the May 1, 2022 sailing

https://issuu.com/hochmania/docs/cruise_compasses_voyager_5-1-22

Edited June 1, 2022 by LarryHD2