Getaway July 18 Baltic Cruise

Thank you! My son plays Carl Perkins-lead guitar & Blue Suede shoes! It is a very talented group. Can't wait to see this cast. The young man who plays Elvis 🕺 is new to this contract. The other 3 leads on on their 2nd contract.

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

Thank you! My son plays Carl Perkins-lead guitar & Blue Suede shoes! It is a very talented group. Can't wait to see this cast. The young man who plays Elvis 🕺 is new to this contract. The other 3 leads on on their 2nd contract.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

Your son was really good! My son really enjoys the guitar and was impressed by your son's playing ability. I thought the entertainment on this cruise was amazing. More on this later.

Hello.

We are going on this cruise on August 23rd. Was wondering if my kids (and I) will be able to use the pool and water slide? Is there any warm pool?

Any information would be highly appreciated.

I thought I read somewhere from another review that the passport control lines moved faster towards the right hand (restroom) side of the building, because at some point, the lines splits up, and can leads to more booths? But I guess that's off-set by people cutting in from the bathroom :(

Hello.

We are going on this cruise on August 23rd. Was wondering if my kids (and I) will be able to use the pool and water slide? Is there any warm pool?

Any information would be highly appreciated.

My son used the hot tub constantly. There is a family hot tub where I saw some kids. My son did go on the slides, but he said they were cold. The good news is that there was very little wait. I did not see a lot of people in the pool, but we were usually gone during the day.

I thought I read somewhere from another review that the passport control lines moved faster towards the right hand (restroom) side of the building, because at some point, the lines splits up, and can leads to more booths? But I guess that's off-set by people cutting in from the bathroom :(

I read that too and that is why we went to the right. As you go into the building, the right most line splits into two, so theoretically this would be faster. Maybe it is faster, so that is why one person from each group would get into our line and then bring the entire family over. At one point we were 5th in line and the next minute we were 15th in line. That is when they wanted to bring in the 30 people from the tour.

We were next in line for passport control and this guy walks over and gets in front of us. Did he think we would not notice?

Let me work backwards... Our tour was to start at 8:30 am. We were to be outside customs by 8:00-8:15. The ship was supposed to dock at 8:00. I think we got off early, maybe 7:30-7:45. We did not get outside the customs building until about 9:30. Just so you know, all the tour companies waited for passengers. Our guide said this was unusual that it took so long.

 

It was almost as bad when we cruised two years ago, so it has nothing to do with the Getaway. This time I timed it and it took 2-3 minutes per person to go through customs, so you can understand our concern if they put 30 people ahead of us. I am not sure if another ship was in port or not. Maybe someone else on the trip remembers.

 

I did not monitor the other lines. We were on the far right near the bathrooms. The sneaky people came from the right. I am not sure if it would be better to be further away from the bathrooms or not. In the scheme of things, a couple hours do not matter. It was just frustrating that it was so unorganized.

There were 7 ships in the dock that day with one sharing the terminal the Getaway was using, although the Getaway had by far the larger share of the passport control area.

We left the ship at lunchtime on the first day and were through in about 5 minutes.

Once we got through the lines in St. Petersburg, things went fairly well. We went with SPB tours again. Our guide was good, but I have had others that I liked better. We saw all the major sights. Our tour did not call for the hydrofoil. There were a lot of navel ships in port practicing for Navy Day which was happening the following week. Because of this, we had heard that the hydrofoils were shut down for the day.

Lunch was not included in our tour. We ate the first day at the cafe in the Faberge Museum. The food was pretty good, but the service was slow. I had a delicious bowl of borscht. The museum itself was OK. There is one major room that contains the eggs. Our guide explained each egg in great detail. I would have rather seen them myself and then have the ability to explore the rest of the museum.

The second day we ate at the pie shop which did not take credit cards. We had Rubles, but our guide said that she would pay the restaurant if needed and we could pay her back. The crust of the pies was not pastry like an American pie, but is more like a soft, sweetened bread crust. The food was good, quick and inexpensive. I enjoyed lunch very much that day.

We walked a great deal those two days, but besides the hail, the weather was good. It did rain for a little bit and SPB gave us rain ponchos.

That night was the night we ate at the buffet because they had Russian night. I was a little disappointed in the food. They served Beef Stroganoff and Chicken Kiev. The food was OK, but nothing special. There was some Russian cake which I did not try.

The next night in Tallinn, the ship featured the Russia Bazaar. Previously, when we traveled on the Star, they were selling very reasonably priced items. On the Getaway, the items might have been more authentic, but they were very expensive. I did pick up a couple of Russian souvenirs in Tallinn which were inexpensive, but I am not sure how authentic they were.

And the queues at the Russia Bazaar where massive. Perhaps to give it that authentic Soviet experience.

And the queues at the Russia Bazaar where massive. Perhaps to give it that authentic Soviet experience.

Ha, ha, ha!!

I am thinking about booking this cruise. I have 2 questions: what side of the ship should I book my room to see the archipelago? and to you think we will be able to see it even if sunlight will be shorter.

What side of the ship does the ship dock at most port? room no# ex:13101-13202 or 13702-13808. My husband likes to watch the ship dock from our room.

thank you

I am thinking about booking this cruise. I have 2 questions: what side of the ship should I book my room to see the archipelago? and to you think we will be able to see it even if sunlight will be shorter.

What side of the ship does the ship dock at most port? room no# ex:13101-13202 or 13702-13808. My husband likes to watch the ship dock from our room.

thank you

It takes several hours to get through the archipelago. I think we left Stockholm at 4:00. We probably left the archipelago around 7:00. Both sides of the ship, I imagine, will give a great view.

We were on the starboard side of the ship. Some of the time we were on the port side and some of the time we were away from the port. I think it just depends on what berth the ship is assigned.