John Lawrence DVD Baltics

[source]

Greetings,

We are booked on the Emerald Princess September 3, 2009 and would very much like to see John Lawrence's DVD on the Baltics in preparation for our trip. Does anyone have a copy of this DVD? We have read wonderful reviews of this DVD on CC. We have been unable to locate one locally. We are willing to pay for copying mailing etc. and would be very grateful. Thank you in advance..................Marian

[Scottydogs]

You can purchase it online at johnlawrencecd.com. We purchased it last weekend but have not yet received it.

[Pia1913]

It's probably the best travel DVD you will ever see. You made a great choice.

[scoobydu33]

This post immediately caught my eye as we're also sailing on the September 3 Baltic cruise. Can't wait and this seems like perfect overview and hint giver. Thank you.

[Sailingpeace]

We had the great pleasure to have Mr Lawrence as our cruise director on the Star for Baltic cruise a few years ago. We had the presentations live and reruns on TV at night. It is absolutely great and useful information . Get a notepad and follow his advice. Do get the DVD and I believe there is a new up to date edition for this year. It will make what you see more interesting becausse of the background info you will get , and his humorous comments will make you see some things in a different way, and also if you want to do some ports "on your own" he gives the best advice in adition to showing pictures of what to look for : bus stops, etc.

 

Have a wonderful cruise

[Colo Cruiser]

I agree it is an excellent dvd.

[txsaxplayer]

The difference between John Lawrence (under whom I had the pleasure of serving as a showband musician for the entire summer a couple years ago in the Baltic) and any other CD you could name is that he's an old pro. Princess will not see the likes of him again, methinks.

 

Everything was run like a Swiss watch. And he knew more about Russia than most of the Russians I was working with, if that's a broad enough sample. And man oh man, could he ever sing!

 

I wish him well in his well-earned retirement.

 

But he lives on, in the video all of the crew members must watch every couple months about crowd dynamics, where he plays the part of the CD.

[tequilatamm]

Have fun on your Sep 3rd cruise! We're on the Sep 13th sailing, so if any of you happen to be in cabin D332, be sure and keep it nice for us!

 

We purchased the DVD from the John Lawrence website a couple months ago, and I've probably watched it 3 or 4 times in the background while doing other things since then. It's very informative.

 

I understand from the first few Emerald Baltic Cruises this year, that John Lawrence is on-board again this year as a guest speaker. I presume he will be here for the whole season, so we will have the good fortune to get to listen to him live in the Princess Theater, and also his talks are shown on the TV in the cabin.

[Grannycb]

 

I understand from the first few Emerald Baltic Cruises this year, that John Lawrence is on-board again this year as a guest speaker. I presume he will be here for the whole season, so we will have the good fortune to get to listen to him live in the Princess Theater, and also his talks are shown on the TV in the cabin.

 

I asked him if he was going to do this season on the Emerald. His answer was yes.

[caribill]

I understand from the first few Emerald Baltic Cruises this year, that John Lawrence is on-board again this year as a guest speaker. I presume he will be here for the whole season, so we will have the good fortune to get to listen to him live in the Princess Theater, and also his talks are shown on the TV in the cabin.

 

 

I was on the first Baltic of the season on the Emerald Princess.

 

Yes, John Lawrence is there as the port lecturer. The Princess Theater was overlowing for most of his talks.

 

He also gives a couple of historical talks.

[LuAnn]

We were on the Star Princess in '07 for his last cruise as the CD. He is/was awesome! I had read about him on CC before we went...got to meet him and his lovely wife (who was working on board in the shops) and they were getting ready to retire to Spain! Sounds like Princess has enticed him back! That is wonderful....and you are right...his information and presentations are awesome! You are lucky if you have him on board in any capacity! Enjoy! LuAnn

[SoCoCruiser]

John Lawrence was the cruise director when we took the Star to the Baltic in 2007. His lectures were great, especially about Russian history. The ship sold a book he wrote about the Romanovs and Russia. Very interesting to read to before one gets to St. Petersburg. His lectures are defintely not to be missed.

[tequilatamm]

I'm glad he'll be there for the whole season, because we're on the last Baltic of the season, so it was possible he wouldn't be there!

 

Good to know he will be.

[jb12]

How do you order DVD? I couldn't find any links on his website.

[caribill]

How do you order DVD? I couldn't find any links on his website.

 

http://johnlawrencecd.com/ and click on "Sales" at the bottom of the page

[jb12]

I even pressed on Make payment, however, I got some database error. Also it looks like he only accepts PayPal which I don't have and there's no e-mail or any contact numbers.

[jagsfan]

jb12

I found out signing up for PayPal is easy, and free. I always thought there was a

charge included somewhere, but there isn't.

I find it very convenient, and evidently quite safe.

[jagsfan]

http://johnlawrencecd.com/ and click on "Sales" at the bottom of the page

 

thank you so much for the link. I watched and listened previews of Stockholm and

Talinn, and can tell how much the dvd will help us in Sept. I just hope Sept 13 things

will still be running. I heard the hop on hop off buses may not be since it's the end of

the season.

At least with the dvd we should have a fair idea of what to see and how to get there.

Thanks

[tequilatamm]

thank you so much for the link. I watched and listened previews of Stockholm and

Talinn, and can tell how much the dvd will help us in Sept. I just hope Sept 13 things

will still be running. I heard the hop on hop off buses may not be since it's the end of

the season.

At least with the dvd we should have a fair idea of what to see and how to get there.

Thanks

 

We're on the September 13th Emerald cruise too, and I can confirm to you that the HOHO bus/boat quits running during the week as of September 13th in Stockholm! I haven't confirmed the other ports yet, but will let you know if/when I do.

 

For Stockholm, the HOHO website says this is the date they stop running during the week. They still run on weekends after that, but our September 13th cruise gets to Stockholm on September 15th, which is a Tuesday, so the HOHO will not be running on the day we're there! (John Lawrences DVD also suggests that they quit running during the week in September, which double-confirms this).

 

We are considering catching a water taxi from the ship to the Vasa Museum, from the Vasa Museum to the old town, and then either taking the shuttle from the old town back to the ship or another water taxi to the ship.

 

Water taxis can be pre-booked so they are waiting for you, and if you have 4 or more people, the cost is 120kr per person / per ride. It's a BIT more expensive than just taking the shuttle and catching a ferry from town to the Vasa Museum, but considering the limited amount of time we'll have there, I think it's probably a good investment! (That's assuming you're planning to do the Vasa Museum).

[tequilatamm]

I may stand corrected. I found a website that relates to both the Helsinki and Stockholm HoHo buses, and it says they run year-round.

 

The Stockholm website I was on that said it quits running during weekdays was for the Stockholm HoHo Boat.

 

So perhaps the buses keep running but the boats don't.

 

I'm a little unclear now!

 

I might enquire with them to find out for sure.

[tequilatamm]

Yes, it seems the HoHo boat in Stockholm is the thing that stops running on September 13th.

 

The buses run year-round.

[jagsfan]

tequilatamm

I never thought about its being the very tail end of the season when I booked. I hope

that doesn't affect us too much. On the other hand, we've got a great bunch of

people on with us, so I'm glad I did it.

Mimi

[Bowie MeMe]

We had the great pleasure to have Mr Lawrence as our cruise director on the Star for Baltic cruise a few years ago. We had the presentations live and reruns on TV at night. It is absolutely great and useful information . Get a notepad and follow his advice. Do get the DVD and I believe there is a new up to date edition for this year. It will make what you see more interesting becausse of the background info you will get , and his humorous comments will make you see some things in a different way, and also if you want to do some ports "on your own" he gives the best advice in adition to showing pictures of what to look for : bus stops, etc.

 

Have a wonderful cruise

 

We too were on the Star with John Lawrence. Absolutely the authority on the Baltic and interesting too. I thought that the shore excursions were very nice for this trip -- yes they were bus tours and there were crowds but the lunches and the folkloric entertainment were very very good. Some of the drives were long because the large ship could not go to close- in docks but keep in mind that when you are "parked" in a commercial port there might not be transportation or easily walkable routes to the more interesting tourist areas and in Russia there are visa requirements.

[TracieABD]

I was on the Crown last July. John Lawrence is so knowledgeable and intersesting. Also, he had a very wry sense of humor. My mother and I really enjoyed his talks.

[tequilatamm]

tequilatamm

I never thought about its being the very tail end of the season when I booked. I hope

that doesn't affect us too much. On the other hand, we've got a great bunch of

people on with us, so I'm glad I did it.

Mimi

 

Yes, I didn't think about it being the tail end of the season either until I found the bit about the hoho boats in Stockholm.

 

But so far, that's about the only difference I can find. Everything else seems much the same.

 

On a brighter note, I could only find one port where there was another ship docking the same day as us during that time, so it won't be as overrun with cruise passengers as usual!

 

The weather will be a bit colder than earlier in the season, but having looked at the temps there right now, they are the same as the temps in Sydney at the moment, and today is the first day of WINTER in Sydney, so I would say remember to wear layers in any case!