Roll call : constellation 5/17/08 baltics

[IMNiles]

Any other family aboard?

 

Constellation May 17, 2008 - Scandinavia/Russia

[sussex-woody]

Hi IMNiles. We're Derek and David from Sussex, UK, and will be aboard.

[IMNiles]

Excellent - good to meet you. We are Dan and David from Phoenix, AZ. Are you two travelling with a group, or just yourselves?

[sussex-woody]

Just ourselves. Although fairly widely travelled (including twice to Phoenix), this is only our second cruise - our first being a Northbound Alaska cruise on the Summit last year. We enjoyed the experience and the Baltic itinerary coupled with (for us) a simple road trip to the port made it easy to choose this cruise. Hoping for a smooth crossing of the North Sea each way - past experiences (on car ferries rather than cruise ships) has been decidedly mixed!

 

We visited St Petersburg 20+ years ago as part of a week split between Leningrad (as it then was) and Moscow so we are looking forward to seeing how the city has changed. Particularly looking forward to Peterhof, which was closed when we were last there.

 

Apart from Stockholm and Amsterdam, the other ports will be new to us.

 

Are you spending time in London pre-or post-cruise?

[IMNiles]

Apart from Stockholm and Amsterdam, the other ports will be new to us.

 

Are you spending time in London pre-or post-cruise?

 

David will be in town ahead of the trip for work, but I'm arriving the night before and flying out the day we return (I love London, but the dollar-pound exchange right now is positively brutal, and I don't really have enough vacation time to stay longer right now). All of the ports except Amsterdam are new to us. Did you get Visas for St. Petersburg? We put together a group of 10 on the regular roll call board and have a two day tour booked with Red October, so we dodged the visa issue. We have short morning tours booked in just about every port, and will spend the rest of the time just exploring on our own.

 

If I have my way, I'll just find a quiet pub and have a beer while I people-watch. I fear I won't be able to get a proper pint as I dash through London, though, which is a shame since I do love a good real ale (I'm partial to Courage Best Bitter, but honestly compared to the gassy piss I'm generally subjected to about any English ale would do! ;) ). Alas, RCCL/X don't stock their ships with English beer, unless you count the occasional Newcastle in a bottle, though I did find John Smith's extra smooth in a can on one RCCL Legend sailing right after she returned from Southampton. Continuing the beer theme, we're doing a brewery excursion in Rostock/Warnemünde as well. :)

 

We're fairly regular cruisers, about twice a year (sometimes more), but this is our first sailing on X. We typically cruise Royal Caribbean, but the timing and itinerary of this trip were hard to beat.

[sussex-woody]

Did you get Visas for St. Petersburg? quote]

 

No, we are taking the asy way out and using ship's tours. On the second day we are taking the all day tour to Peterhof since we didn't get there when we visited before. On the first day we are taking the general sightseeing tour.

 

In the other ports we plan to do our own thing.