August 14th-21st Baltic Cruise Review

[ruechalgrin]

We were not the typical RSSC cruisers. This was our first cruise and we are a family with two in our mid-late 30s and two kids aged 7 and 4.5. Our children have traveled extensively in well over 20 countries in Europe, Asia, Africa (mainly Europe) – and they are very comfortable with sightseeing, nice restaurants, vineyard tours, etc. We are American, but are living in Paris, France. I apologize in advance for errors in spelling/typos, but I did not spend a lot of time proofreading.

Stockholm – We have traveled to Stockholm a number of times over the past couple of years and it is one of favorite cities worldwide. We stayed at the Hilton Stockholm Slussen which I recommend (you should book directly as you can save a bundle). Hilton breakfast was great, but note it closes at 1000 which is tough for Americans with jet leg (my family just arrived back in Paris before the trip). We like the location as it is a short 5 minute walk to the Gamla Stan (medieval city center in Stockholm) and to the ferries for some of the 14 islands of Stockholm and the archipelago. We recommend Gamla Stan, the Vassa (ship), Skaansen open-air museum, and the Slussen area (good galleries for art purchases). All these attractions are great for adults and kids alike. Stockholm in the Spring and Summer is one of our favorite cities in the world.

Arrival – We embarked about 1500 on the ship and paid equivalent of 20-30 dollars for our taxi to the shipyard. I could not believe the prices RSSC was charging for private transfers – you can do it for a fraction of their costs (I expect up to a 2x mark-up, but what we saw in Copenhagen for instance was about $600 for a family of four and we took a taxi to the Copenhagen airport for about $80). Check-in was quick and efficient – I was worried about this from other people who have cruised and it exceeded my expectations greatly. We were checked-in, had photos taken, etc. in less than 2 minutes. We checked out our room which was 1037. Good location, but we were surprised with the amount of vibration throughout the trip – perhaps this is because we are 1st time cruisers and expected more rocking, not vibration. Room was nice, they affixed plastic cover to our balcony to child-protect – nice touch. Our stewardess was excellent and was very accommodating to all of our requests from Actimel yogurt drink for the kids to coca-light (diet coke) for my wife. Room was always clean and little touches from her were great – particularly she was so kind to our children.

Service was absolutely outstanding throughout the trip – I was truly impressed by all the staff and this is the main reason I would book RSSC again. I have seen some complaints on the board about the service level decreasing. The only issue we say is sometimes communicating with people who have English as their second language sometimes requires clarification, but we are used to this living in Paris so we do not see this as a service issue, but just normal. We ate at the Veranda restaurant which was very good. Again, service outstanding.

Tallinn – We had room service for breakfast which we did almost every day – food was excellent and service was very prompt. We enjoyed Tallinn and went to the open-air museum and walk of the city. Like another reviewer, I do not think I would book excursions for Tallinn, Helsinki, or Visby (If we did the cruise again, we would only book a private excursion for Saint Petersburg). The guide was good, but having 20 people together, you tend to go at the pace of the slowest individual. Also, you cannot linger at places you enjoy. Hence, we ditched the group once we arrived back from the open-air museum (which was perfect for kids and we enjoyed as well) and were in the city. Nice medieval city which we enjoyed seeing. We appreciated the people very much, but would not be on our list of top-return trips. We had dinner at the Compass Rose which we thought was excellent with regard to both food and service.

Saint Petersburg – We booked a Red October private tour for 2.5 days. With 2 kids and wanting to see as much as possible we thought this was the best option. Our driver and tour guide were excellent. We saw all the must-sees in Saint Petersburg (too briefly of course with only 2.5 days), but we loved the Hermitage, Peterhoff, Catherine’s Palaces, Church of the Spilled Blood, etc. We really loved St. Petersburg and the city was one of the major reasons we took the cruise and we were not disappointed. I would have liked more time in the Hermitage even though with the private tour guides, we got in early (before any crowds) and did not wait in any lines. We paid for the Gold Room, but I do not believe it was worth the $220 for the four of us – it was interesting, but the Gold Room was not in our top 10 for Saint Petersburg. I also would have liked more time strolling the city and city and sitting in cafes – we generally spend 4-7 days in a city and feel like we get to feel the vibe of the city, but didn’t have the time and our tour was not really built for this. My 7 year old daughter and wife went to the ballet through RSSC and the loved it -- they continue to talk about it now.

We ate the Compass Rose for two nights and again had very positive experiences. The last night we ate at Prime 7 and thought it was an outstanding American steakhouse slightly below a place like Morton’s in food quality, but equal/above in service. Everyone on the cruise was wonderful to our children from staff to fellow cruisers. Although we had a couple dirty looks when we sat down for our 18000 dinner at Prime 7 (same at Signatures) when we brought the kids, afterwards we had a number of tables tell us how surprised they were with our kids behavior and that they were better behaved than many adults on the cruise. I give you this tidbit not to rave about my children, but to let other families know you can do the cruise and people treat you well, but a reasonable level of behavior is expected by the children and if they comply, no problems, and in fact people are very nice. We were a little disappointed by the lack of diversity on the cruise. Mostly white Americans with ages ranging from 50s-70s. Yes there were some British, Costa Ricans, etc., but I frankly would have appreciated a little more cultural and age diversity on the ship. Again, everyone that we interacted with was very nice, but this was probably one of the few negatives we had regarding the cruise (we knew this going in so it was not a huge surprise).

Helsinki – We ate at the Veranda restaurant for breakfast and it was fantastic. We loved the convenience of the room service, but selection was great here. We would like to see more fresh fruit and vegetables though throughout all restaurants. For example, we saw very few strawberries, blueberries, etc. and the lettuce for the salads we were served was not the typical mesclun or high quality lettuce we would have expected. Overall, again food was excellent, but we would have liked to see more healthy choices. We went on an excursion to Suomenlina island/fortress and the kids loved it (as did we). We left again the tour and stayed extra time exploring the island and cafes and the WWII sub. We went back to the city and strolled by the markets (we bought a lot of berries and lettuce) and enjoyed a casual afternoon in Helsinki. We took a swim at the pool when we returned. I would like to see the pool heated a little more. Overall, again a good experience, with excellent service at the pool, but it was too cold. I had to do a little work that evening and wifi connection from 1037 wasn’t great, but went to common areas and no problem. Pricing plan is not great. They should sell weekly package for $100 and I bet they would increase revenue at marginal cost. We paid $35 for a block of time. Perhaps generational, but I think they should include wifi in the all-inclusive package as the bandwidth costs cannot be that costly for satellite feeds. By the way, I had excellent coverage for my mobile phone/blackberry throughout the trip.

Our children only spent one afternoon at the kids club and I forget if it was Helsinki or Visby. They visited the Captain’s Deck (hope this is right terminology) with one of the officers (believe name was Bobby) and then baked cookies with Chef Jose. Again great service, the kids had a fantastic tour of the deck and individual attention from the Chef. I accompanied them as our youngest is 4 ½ and does not qualify for the kids club as he is not 5. I thought the people in charge of the kids club were great and would not hesitate to have our children with them once they are “of age.” However, we see this option for only a couple hours perhaps 2x during a future cruise as we want them to experience the different cities/cultures.

Visby – The tender was easy and efficient. We didn’t feel like we had enough time in Visby as we only had 5 or 6 hours. We ditched our tour very quickly and explored the city. We love the towers/ramparts and old city. The children played in a park. We would like to spend a week on the island in the future. ½ day was simply enough to wet the appetite, but not enough to get a good feel (We had been to all other locations on the trip except Visby and Saint Petersburg before).

We had dinner at Signatures (French-based cooking that we are familiar with living in Paris). Overall, we thought the food again was great and service outstanding. By the way, we booked both Prime 7 and Signatures on the 1st day of the cruise – we wanted 1800 reservations with the kids so no problem at all. Deserts were particularly tasty here. We also had one of their premier wines for $75 and it was worth the extra cost – good wine advice as well from the staff.

Copenhagen – We stayed at the Hilton Airport and used the metro (15 minutes door to door to city-center) as we got an excellent deal for about $150 for a night. Hotel was excellent, but dinner was so-so and very expensive. They had a kids eat free option, but tried to charge us and this was annoying. Hilton Breakfast was outstanding as usual. We took the kids to Tivoli Gardens, Little Mermaid statute, National Museum, Christianana, etc. We really like Copenhagen, but are always astounded by the high costs-there. We would have liked to spend time at the art museums, but did not have the chancel.

Overall – We were greatly impressed by our RSSC cruise – particularly outstanding service, excellent food, solid accommodations, and a good itinerary. We are doing a RCCL cruise with some other families of the Adriatic and Aegean Seas in October so it will be interesting to see if these pluses are worth the double-price. We plan on going on another RSSC cruise in the future. The negatives were mainly as follows: (1) vibration in room; (2) more healthy options for food (berries, better lettuce, etc.); (3) better wifi pricing and more reasonable transfer prices; 4) more cultural and age diversity on trip; and (5) and heat the pool a little more. Most of these are nits and again we loved the adventure and would recommend it to anyone – even those of you with young children. They will learn a ton from the excellent diversity of cities, museums, and experiences on the Baltic cruise. RSSC has set the bar high for our 1st cruise and we look forward to traveling with them again.

[gfranzen]

Great review - thanks. Did the ship dock in the industrial area remote to STP?

[ruechalgrin]

Great review - thanks. Did the ship dock in the industrial area remote to STP?

 

I believe we did not dock in the industrial area -- we saw many ships as we were leaving way out of Saint Petersburg in a more heavily industrial area. We were docked next to a Russian sub and only a 5 minute drive to the city center. However, it was at the edge of a lot of ship building/repairing yards. I would have felt safe walking the area toward the city if we had a visa, but the other way wasn't great. So I believe we were in the nice location for docking. Hope that helps.

[WesW]

Thanks for taking the time and posting an exceptional review, esp from the

Family w/kids perspective. Am sure Families that have booked Regent or are

considering booking Regent appreciated your thoughtful review.

[RachelG]

I believe we did not dock in the industrial area -- we saw many ships as we were leaving way out of Saint Petersburg in a more heavily industrial area. We were docked next to a Russian sub and only a 5 minute drive to the city center. However, it was at the edge of a lot of ship building/repairing yards. I would have felt safe walking the area toward the city if we had a visa, but the other way wasn't great. So I believe we were in the nice location for docking. Hope that helps.

 

You are correct--you were at the "downtown" dock location, which is very nice. Made me wish I had an individual visa so I could have walked around some.

[OrpingtonT]

Thank you for an interesting perspective on taking children along. It is yet another good review but once again the vibration question rears it's head, even though suite 1037 isn't particularly far back to the stern. In fact it is forward of the rear elevators. We were further aft than that and never noticed any vibration either at speed or in rough weather.

[ruechalgrin]

Thank you for an interesting perspective on taking children along. It is yet another good review but once again the vibration question rears it's head, even though suite 1037 isn't particularly far back to the stern. In fact it is forward of the rear elevators. We were further aft than that and never noticed any vibration either at speed or in rough weather.

 

Yes, you have our location right. This was pretty significant vibrating. Some examples, our TV vibrated significantly, we had very loud vibrating noises in our room, and it was even difficult to read in bed sometimes because the book was shaking so much in your hand. Again, perhaps being new to crusing, what we saw as significant, was slight so it is hard for me to give an objective assesment.

[gfranzen]

It's possible that the vibration is more apparent the higher you are in the ship - that old period of motion thing.

[Caroldoll]

the ballet in Russia. How did you have to dress for this? The adults..you and your husband if you went.

[JoAnne B]

I'm really surprised to hear that the lettuce choices were limited. There has always been romaine, spring greens, and small leaf spinach on the buffet. I hope this is not another example of cutbacks.

 

I did have to point out to the La Verandah manager on my last Navigator crossing that one bowl of lettuce that had just been put out was rusty and looked very, very old. I was discreet about it, but he seemed more irritated that I told him than that the nasty lettuce had been put out.

[ruechalgrin]

the ballet in Russia. How did you have to dress for this? The adults..you and your husband if you went.

 

It was actually my wife and 7 year old daughter who went to the ballet. (I stayed on the ship with my 4.5 year old son). They wore dresses that they wore to the informal night on the cruise. Again, they loved it.

[Caroldoll]

was wondering if it was formal. I presume not.

[ruechalgrin]

was wondering if it was formal. I presume not.

 

You are correct, not formal