Aug 2 Copenhagen to Stockholm Voyager

[RachelG]

I am here in Copenhagen ready to embark tomorrow. I will try to give daily updates and info as I know how much I enjoy reading all the details, and I tend to forget things if I wait too long to post.

We arrived yesterday evening, exhausted, and checked into the airport Hilton. Excellent hotel with very comfortable rooms, great beds and bathrooms. We are in an executive room due to my husbands's Hilton Honors status, and I would highly recommend those. The perk is that you get a huge breakfast included as well as afternoon tea and evening snacks. Food is EXTREMELY expensive in Copenhagen in restaurants. We paid 60 dollars for a SMALL lunch today (1 caesar salad, a cheese plate, bread, 1 beer and 3 waters). That is actually cheap by Copenhagen standards. So we ate a big breakfast and had big snacks (actually really nice) for dinner.

We took the metro into town to explore and walk around. The metro is fast and efficient. Copenhagen is really walkable and very calm as far as cities go. I like it a lot (except for the prices). Very clean and the people are quite friendly and helpful. The Danish resistance museum was small but very informative. The botanical gardens are also well worthwhile if you like plants. They are large, and I think we missed about half because there are so many little paths. Both the museum and the gardens are free, so all in all, not an expensive day considering that we only had to pay for lunch and the metro tickets (get a 10 trip card at the station as you can use it for more than one person per trip).

Good thing we came in 2 days early. British Airways lost all our luggage, which resulted in major stress yesterday, but all is well now. All 3 bags found their way back to us, so I won't have to wear the same outfit 3 days in a row.

Tomorrow, the ship!

[gemcruiser]

Rachel,

 

I'll look forward to your updates. I'm scheduled for the Stockholm to Copenhagen Baltic cruise leaving 8/23. Hope your group has a great time!

 

Laura

[RachelG]

Yesterday was down right hot! Probably about 90 F, which would be no big deal in Oklahoma, but here, they have no air conditioning.

Today is much cooler, cloudy, very comfortable at maybe 75F. A few sprinkles of rain on and off.

My husband, who has traveled in multiple 3rd world countries with no problem, got food poisoning last night. Very ironic! We tried to figure out what it was as we had eaten mostly the same foods. The ONLY different thing was some mango gelato at the botanical garden. So beware--he is still not quite right, but better.

This am, my son and I went to the National Museum. It is huge, but very interesting. We probably saw 1/2 of it before we ran out of time. We walked around the shopping district--lots of fun--and ate food from one of the little stands. Hopefully we will stay healthy.

Then on board. We arrived about 2 pm. No lines at all. We were greeted with bubbly and quickly had our room keys, then to La Veranda for a nice lunch. Rooms were ready at 3. I have 2 loads of laundry going and am all unpacked. Tonight is dinner at Latitudes (we happen to love it, and reservations there on the first night were my husband's first request).

[orchestrapal]

Rachel, I love your reports since we are booked on Voyager for the first time in May. We usually cruise with Oceania but the Iceland, Greenland and British Isles sold us on this cruise.

I look forward to your continued reports and if you have ever been on Oceania, some comparisons. Continue to enjoy and I hope your husband feels perfect by now.:)

[RachelG]

Today we were in Visby which is on the island of Gotland off the coast of Sweden. It is a well preserved medieval town which is a world heritage site. There is a wall around most of the old town, about 2 1/4 miles. We hiked around the perimeter. At various places, there are plaques which tell about the towers, history, etc, and you can go in one of the towers and climb to the top for a great view of the roofs of the old town.

 

They were having their annual medieval festival. Lots of people walking around in medieval dress and booths selling everything from pelts of dead animals to swords and bows and arrows (both real and pretend) to sandwiches cut from a whole pig roasted on a spit. It was really crowded, but fun. They also have various entertainers, which according to the response of the crowd must be very funny, but it is all in Swedish, so it was lost on us.

 

The botanical gardens are also worth a look--lots of beautiful roses and a garden made especially to attract bees, of which there were a lot.

 

The day was picture perfect with temps in the low 70's and a nice breeze. We did not dock here. Rather we took the tender which is really a lifeboat and therefore very bouncy on the ocean. But at least we wouldn't sink.

 

Last evening, dinner at Latitudes was good, but not as good as I remember from before. The service was excellent, but the food is just a bit too bland for Oriental. It was very healthy, but a little spice would have gone a long way to make it better. The green pork curry was very good, probably the best thing on the menu.

 

The show in the Constellation theater last evening was songs from the 70's. The singers and dancers on this particular cruise are, at least so far, the best of any I have seen on Regent. There are a couple of them who really are exceptionally talented, and all are very energetic and entertaining. I look forward to seeing more of them.

 

My husband won $250 in the casino, so he was happy.

 

A word on vibration--in our room, 667, you can definitely feel it, but it is something that bothers some more than others. My son and I slept through it. My husband was more bothered by it. Hopefully he will adapt.

[hobse]

orchestrapal,

I don't want to hijack RachelG's thread, but we were on Oceania in April and Voyager in July, so are there any specific details on comparisons between the two you would like to know?

[RachelG]

Hi, orchestrapal, we were wanting to do the Iceland cruise next year, but our son is graduating high school that week, and it wouldn't look good to miss the graduation. So we are booking the Norway cruise. I haven't been on Oceania any so can't compare with Regent.

 

Today we were in Tallinn and went from summer weather to cold, overcast, with intermittent rain. I had my regular jacket with rain jacket on top of it and was glad I did.

 

We did the Soviet Navy and KGB tour because we wanted to see the Occupation Museum, and it is closed on Mondays. SO the only way to gain access is to take the tour. The museum is small but really well done and interesting. I could have spent all morning there. Unfortunately, we only had 45 minutes.

The rest of the tour is not as good. It could have been really good if we had had a guide that was at all enthusiastic about the subject, but this lady projected an air of "I really don't want to be doing this, but I have to". Everyone was yawning.

We went to see an ice breaker and an Estonian sub that was stolen by the Soviets--this part actually was quite interesting as we had a different guide for it, a young man studying to be a merchant marine and he was quite informative and engaging.

Then we went to the KGB house, but you can't actually go in it, so we just walked by it. We drove by some old Soviet era apartments, went to a graveyard, and went by the radio/tv tower that was taken over when Estonia declared its independence. These could have been interesting if we had a better guide.

I would have been happy if Regent had just had a tour that went to the Occupation Museum only or a walking tour of the old town that included that.

 

Regent ran a free shuttle from the ship to the old town and back every 30 minutes all day. We ate a light lunch in the old town and walked around. Food was actually very good, and we wanted to say we had tried something Estonian. Lots of sweaters for sale that looked nice. One note--they only take Estonian money at most places, but you can get some onboard the ship if you haven't obtained it prior. A bank representative comes onboard.

 

Yesterday I forgot to mention that they had champagne and caviar at breakfast, mainly because I didn't have any. But it was on offer, as much as you wanted. I don't really like caviar anytime except as a garnish, and it was just a little early for champagne for me. But many people were enjoying it.

 

We had dinner at Signatures last night. I was very pleased--as wonderful as I remembered. Carlos, the wine guy, remembered us from last year (DO we drink that much??) My halibut, my son's steak, and my husband's duck were all perfectly done. We will try to get reservations there for a extra night on this cruise.

 

The vibration issue is weird because last night, it was not at all apparent. My husband slept like a baby. Maybe it has to do with the speed of the ship.

[RachelG]

I woke up early in the morning to go out on the balcony to watch as we entered St. Petersburg. We are docked right downtown along with a Seabourn ship. Larger ships have to dock outside of the city in an industrial area.

 

We had arranged a 3 day tour through Anastasia. At 9am, we got off the ship and went through customs for the 1st time--the line was long because our departure happened to coincide with the departure of several ships tours. Subsequent departures have had no lines at all. It was cold and very windy, almost blowing me off the dock.

 

Our guide and driver were right there to meet us.

 

We went on a driving tour of various sites in the city first, including the Peter and Paul Fortress where we went inside. Then to the Church on the Spilled Blood which has the most magnificent mosaics I have ever seen. It was used as a storehouse for vegetables and potatoes during Soviet times, but now is completely restored and beautiful.

We then went to Peterhof on the hydrofoil. Peterhof is Peter the Great's summer palace. But the real attraction is the gardens which are vast and remind me a lot of Versailles, with huge fountains and beautiful flowers. There are sections representing different areas of the world (France, England, Holland, China, Italy and Russia), each with a garden in the style of that country. The trick fountains are also really neat.

We had lunch at a restaurant closeby because my husband thought he was starving. Be warned, food in restaurants is extremely expensive, but it is quite good. I had a salad with goat cheese and raspberries that was excellent, but it cost about $13.

We drove back to St. Petersburg, rode on the Metro (imagine Soviet era decorations like hammer and sickle but now with signs for Diet Coke and McDonalds all over). The we went to the Church of St. Isaac, very impressive with lots of gold and paintings.

By the time we returned to the ship, we were exhausted.

 

Today we visited the Hermitage and Yusopov castle, where Rasputin was murdered. Both were crammed with visitors, but our guide was very skillful in getting us through them. We were the very first people in at the Hermitage and moved quickly, so we were able to see a good part of it with no crowds. I thought I was very knowledgeable regarding Monet and his work, but they have many of his paintings that I have never seen in any book, as well as lots of other Impressionist paintings. The collection is overwhelming as are the surroundings.

 

Dinner both last night and the night before have been in Compass Rose. I know that many think their portions are too small. To me, they are just right. That way, you can try several different things, and they are happy to bring extra of anything if you want more.

[RachelG]

Today started out RAINY. Not just a little sprinkle or mist. A pouring rain. We could see Helsinki looking very inviting but wet, so we took the free shuttle provided by RSSC to Senate Square, which is right downtown. They dropped us off in front of the Lutheran Cathedral, so we went there first. Very impressive church with fantastic looking organ which I would have loved to hear played.

 

We took off walking to Market Square and looked around at the stalls a bit. There were all varieties of fruits and veges which I wished I could take home as well as Finnish crafts of all types. The prices didn't seem bad, but we were totally soaked, so we went back to the ship for lunch.

 

After lunch, the rain had stopped, so we went back downtown and walked to the Rock Church. We were really glad we did--you could also take the tram there if you didn't want to walk that far. It is totally unique, very worshipful and peaceful.

 

We checked out Stockmann's dept store then walked back to the ship (wasn't too far once we knew our way around).

 

We had planned to visit the fortress, but it was just too rainy to take a ferry there then walk around outside. We will just have to return to Helsinki.

 

Tonight is the last night. The week has gone fast.

[SnoBirdCruiser]

Rachel, were you pleased with Anastasia? We are thinking about Red October next July but are reading positive remarks on Anastasia. thanx,Pat.

[40cub]

Also do not wish to highjack RachelB's diary, however we had communicated briefly prior to this same Baltic cruise and just wanted to say hi . Also wanted to mention that we did the Red October private tour in St. Petersburg and enjoyed it very much. Although you pay more than utilizing one of Regent's tours, the difference is like day and night. We did not have to wait in line for ANYTHING and were also able to customize our tour to exactly what we wanted. For example, we have a particular interest in World War II history and wanted to visit the memorial cemetary outside of town which holds the graves of nearly 500,000 from the Seige of Leningrad. We also went into the beautiful metro stations and visited a large local market by special request (I love to cook and wanted to check out the various food sources!). Bottom line is that I would highly recommend a private tour of your choice in this city. There is no comparison to what the ship can offer you.

[RachelG]

Just got home after doing 3 days post-cruise in Stockholm.

To answer the questions about guides in St. Petersburg, we were very pleased with our guide and driver which we did through Anastasia. Our guide, Svetlana, has a degree in art history and was extremely knowledgeable. We definitely got more out of it with just the 3 of us and a guide than we would have in a larger group. She was able to figure out what we really were interested in and focus on that. Actually, the price (considering we did 3 full days) was less than what it would have cost to book the ship's tours. I felt it was very reasonable and good value. She gave us a discount for booking early (in Jan) and another for paying cash.

 

Now to finish the cruise--we loved Stockholm. We carried our own luggage off the ship so that we could get a very early start. We were the first off, and there were taxis waiting. We stayed 3 nights at the Hilton and were very pleased with the rooms and service. Stockholm is so full of things to see and do that we just barely scratched the surface in 3 days of heavy sightseeing. We loved the Vasa museum, Skansen, the Royal Armoury. Used the subway and ferry to get around which was just so easy. We will definitely be going back to Sweden!

 

PS: Lost our luggage AGAIN! So I don't have to do laundry tonight.

[orchestrapal]

Thanks for the informative reports. Glad you enjoyed all elements of your trip and are safely back home. I hope your luggage joins you shortly.:)

[browneyes7]

I am here in Copenhagen ready to embark tomorrow. I will try to give daily updates and info as I know how much I enjoy reading all the details, and I tend to forget things if I wait too long to post.

We arrived yesterday evening, exhausted, and checked into the airport Hilton. Excellent hotel with very comfortable rooms, great beds and bathrooms. We are in an executive room due to my husbands's Hilton Honors status, and I would highly recommend those. The perk is that you get a huge breakfast included as well as afternoon tea and evening snacks. Food is EXTREMELY expensive in Copenhagen in restaurants. We paid 60 dollars for a SMALL lunch today (1 caesar salad, a cheese plate, bread, 1 beer and 3 waters). That is actually cheap by Copenhagen standards. So we ate a big breakfast and had big snacks (actually really nice) for dinner.

We took the metro into town to explore and walk around. The metro is fast and efficient. Copenhagen is really walkable and very calm as far as cities go. I like it a lot (except for the prices). Very clean and the people are quite friendly and helpful. The Danish resistance museum was small but very informative. The botanical gardens are also well worthwhile if you like plants. They are large, and I think we missed about half because there are so many little paths. Both the museum and the gardens are free, so all in all, not an expensive day considering that we only had to pay for lunch and the metro tickets (get a 10 trip card at the station as you can use it for more than one person per trip).

Good thing we came in 2 days early. British Airways lost all our luggage, which resulted in major stress yesterday, but all is well now. All 3 bags found their way back to us, so I won't have to wear the same outfit 3 days in a row.

Tomorrow, the ship!

 

Thank you for the info.:)