NCL Getaway Baltic cruise 3rd June

Seems to be a limit for number of pics on the forum - the full version is on the blog. NCL Getaway - Baltic Cruise - Pre and Day 1 Copenhagen 2nd - 3rd Jun 2017

The timing of this cruise and the flight times meant that if we were to see any of Copenhagen we would have to take a flight out the afternoon before our cruise day. We used Easyjet to fly directly from Manchester to Copenhagen. The airport is to the south of the city and the port to the North so we chose an apartment/hotel in the redeveloped old port area to the North within walking distance of the fort and den Lille Havfrue -little mermaid statue. Booking these type of rooms gives you the equivalent size of a hotel suite plus a little kitchen - handy for a quick breakfast. Terminal 1 - Copenhagen Cruise Terminal The bus dropped us next to terminal 1 which seems to be the Getaways usual spot. Boarding was painless with no lines to speak of. There are no airway type walkways onto the ship here its just a simple gangplank into the bowels of deck 4. Rooms were not yet ready as it was a little too early but the decks are all open as is the buffet. Avoiding the first lunch buffet scrum as its usually everyone's first instinct we climbed to deck 6 where Savor ( one of the MDRs) was open for a more refined sit down 3 course lunch. [/center]

Jacks most excited that the fish carpets are back like they had on the Jade - at least she will know which is front and back for a change (just remember - the fish swim to the front). One of the things I never liked about the Epic was the pointless promenade deck where you cant see anything as it has a duel purpose as the lifeboat deck.

We have trips planned for the morning all pre booked with a third party company SPB tours (other tour companies are available). Big thanks to the roll call organisers on cruise critic which gave us a further discount on SPB Tours usual prices. Smaller groups and way better value than NCLs own options we booked the Berlin full day and 2 day Deluxe for St Petersburg (don't forget you must have a trip booked for St Petersburg or you wont get past immigration without a full visa) your trip ticket becomes your visa as long as the tour company are registered to do this.

Love this so far! Hope you can post more. We are doing this cruise in July.

What blogspot is this on? Thanks for posting!

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Going in September! Following! Thank you!

Thank you for posting this!

Very interesting start with the nice photos!

Will be following.

What blogspot is this on? Thanks for posting!

 

 

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Sorry my fault - its in the sig but I know sigs can be annoying so get turned off.. its https://notesfromthebarn.blogspot.co.uk/

Think I have worked out how to do it without removing half the pics... hopefully :eek:

Enjoying your post and blog I have one question...any stairs involved at the train station and airport ? Am considering the public transportation but will have large suitcases am hoping for elevators or even escalators,

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Enjoying your post and blog I have one question...any stairs involved at the train station and airport ? Am considering the public transportation but will have large suitcases am hoping for elevators or even escalators,

 

 

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There are elevators if there is no escalator.. At least at the airport and the central station

Thank you !

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We have breakfast in the room. Ever since the Transatlantic with Celebrity I don't think we have ever bothered with climbing up the stairs for the rugby buffet breakfast experience - Gemma spoilt us forever though we are yet to find her match. I dont quite understand why people put themselves through the whole buffet experience unless its to study how different cultures interpret the word queuing. TBF I think Savor is always open most mornings anyway if you prefer a waiter service.. Anyway tea (Earl Grey Hot!) is delivered on time as two flasks of hot water and the toasted muffins and croissants seem to have been misinterpreted as several rather random danish and cinnamon rolls. I also swear that it doesn't matter who you cruise with - if you ask for marmalade you will always get apricot jam. Anyway its enjoyable though the weather as expected looks diabolical - so a quick hot massage shower (woohoo!!) dressed and brollies at the ready we are ready for Berlin. Whats a little rain when you live in England.

The drive to Berlin wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't for the fact the scenery is basically grass, trees and the odd windmill - Jack says I'm being kind and it was trees, trees and more trees (apparently they were dull trees at that) - no hills of any description, just a never ending horizon of German fields and forests. Luckily the Kindle's battery lasts out and the coach has reclinable seats. There is a comfort break halfway through at a small service station where a poor German lady is suddenly attacked on all fronts by mad English speaking tourists demanding 50c Euro coins to use the bathroom whilst waving 50E notes at her. She handles all of this with typical German efficiency which gives me a glimmer of hope for Brexit negotiations.

We are finally deposited outside the Berlin Olympic Stadium built for the summer of 1936 games by Architect Werner March. A great **** showcase of the Aryan race until Jesse Owens threw a spanner in the works. Here we meet Stefan, who runs the Berlin side of the company whilst his wife runs the outfit in St Petersburg (he asks us to say hi to her from him). He introduces us to our guide the wonderful Jan - who is the teacher you always wished for but instead got the one who put you in a coma for the day. I swear we learn more in a day regarding the Kaisers, the 1st - 2nd and 3rd Reichs, the ****s and the Cold War than I have ever known before. Jan has a perfect Oxbridge sounding English voice - is a lawyer by profession but enjoys his other job, guiding in Berlin - his thesis was on the Reichstag. His style is highly effectual, highly non PC (in his words-hurray) and very dramatic as he runs around drawing maps in the ground. German history is quite complex but basically its like Game of Thrones without the dyed grey hair.

The rain has eased a little - and Jan spends some time getting his little group to say where they are from. So basically all Americans bar two families from Cuba & Singapore and us - Jan turns to us and pleads for us not to leave the EU. You may have noticed in the picture above a man dressed in shorts - t shirt and slippers. I can only assume they had an inside cabin and simply didn't notice the weather had changed overnight or they were caught up in the BA lost luggage fiasco that happened the week before as both he and his wife ended up looking like they had ridden river rapids after 10 minutes.

Reichstag On that note you'll notice a theme developing in these photos - dont forget to pack a brolly. Its quite odd but as Jan takes us through the complex history of the Tsars and the horror and lunacy of the 3rd Reich and ****s that the grey gloom seems to actually fit the city.

Brandenburg Gate Jan takes our orders for lunch (which he says will be a typical German affair - sausages then!) so it will be ready when we arrive at the traditional German restaurant. Here he helps serve the dishes and steal tap water for us to go with our beers and wine. (Germans like to charge for tap water - Be aware if they seem grumpy when they serve you that's fine and normal, Jan tell us - if they shout loudly at you they may be slightly annoyed - dont even ask what service will be like if they dont like you)

After Lunch the rain finally stops and it appears the sun is trying to break through - the forecast was correct then and we continue on our tour taking in more and more iconic buildings, including this subtle and thoughtful monument to the book burning event in Bebelplatz Square. Through a glass window in the square where the burning took place a library has been created with empty shelves.

There are so many buildings in Berlin that are recognisable due to the fact you have probably seen them or the huge squares in historic footage of the many rally events that took place once the **** party came to power.

Altes Museum

However the most visited area is a small crossroads in to what was the American sector during the cold war. To be honest Checkpoint Charlie is a bit of a disappointment after all the beautiful architecture and classic buildings. Its basically a fake tourist copy. Other than the fact its in the correct place everything about it is false including as Jan points out 3 spelling mistakes on the board. However there is nothing fake about the remaining section of the Berlin Wall (unlike the -ahem- bits of it you will see for sale as fridge magnets).

I probably have only covered half of what we saw and did today. Its a long day and yes its a long coach trip but we would not have missed it for the world. This is what we both love about cruising - waking up to a new place of interest in a different country every morning. We say our goodbyes to Jan and head back to the ship in glorious sunshine - though mainly asleep.

We are totally exhausted by the time we return but a quick shower and dinner in the MDR revitalizes us for the evening. Food is excellent again and our wine waiter is especially jovial tonight. The Tropicana dining room still has the same issue that I described in our last trip report on the Epic. When the band's playing in the dining room the sound can be really dodgy depending on where your sat - all we could hear was bass boom. We sail away late in the evening after dark - waved on by many locals and to the accompaniment by coincidence of a large firework display a little further down the coast. The captain confirms that we are going to have good weather from this point onward and as its a sea day tomorrow we can look forward to a nice lie in.

Yikes sorry the formatting seems to have gone a bit weird on here :rolleyes:

Took a minute for this Californian to figure out that a brolly must be an umbrella. ;)

And the guy in shorts and flip flops in the rain could be a Californian. That will be my teenage

son in a few weeks LOL! He wears shorts in snow. And won't carry an umbrella (brolly) even in a monsoon.

Loving your blog and review!! Thanks for sharing!

Sorry my fault - its in the sig but I know sigs can be annoying so get turned off.. its https://notesfromthebarn.blogspot.co.uk/

 

 

 

Think I have worked out how to do it without removing half the pics... hopefully :eek:

Thank you..my iPad cuts off the signature [emoji4]

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Soory for the delay... Moles have declared world war 3 on the garden whilst we were away so its been a bit busy As usual the pic limit has left this a bit disjointed

Day 4 - Tallinn Estonia

A cloudless sky greets us when we awake, the ship is slowly backing in to the dock at Tallinn. Its just ourselves and Viking Sky here today so hopefully not too crowded. We dont have a tour booked for Tallinn as we have an intensive package booked starting tomorrow for the two days in St Petersberg - so after a nice relaxing breakfast on the balcony we head out down the gang plank to take ourselves around Tallin with the help of a tourist map and some bits and pieces on the ipad.

Mmmmm Croissants

Tallinn Town Hall Square

Also worth noting is that the other big industry here is technology; Tallinn is in fact Europe's equivalent of the Silicon Valley California - so its a bonus to get non stop city wide wi fi and whilst here: time to delete those hundreds of useless emails sent to you whilst on holiday.

https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-M3OZ_XdPqGs/WUZO_vM8fgI/AAAAAAAADzo/2kM6hWotj8wlRIeh36cAl2mVyFu8oeS6ACLcBGAs/s640/DSC02970.jpg' alt='DSC02970.jpg'> Alexander Nevsky Cathedral The town is split into two parts - the lower town (All-linn) where the Town Hall Square is located and Toopea which sits on a fortified hill and is topped by Toopea Castle part of which is now the parliament and several fine churches including the Russian Orthodox Cathedral of Alexander Nevsky. Beautifully decorated inside and out with gold leaf and mosaic.

Hortus We wander back through the stunning flower markets and the south gates of the city. Its still lovely and warm. We are both highly impressed with Tallinn its an exceptional little jewel of a medieval city - despite the weather we buy a new umbrella (this should guarantee we have no rain) as we left the Berlin ones on the coach - Doh!

Viru Gate - Tallinn https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-bs6aANzS4vc/WUZwukdzRnI/AAAAAAAAD0c/q4yDS20KsmcHk4y4cmGnd6JUStzPJ7mGACLcBGAs/s640/DSC03011.jpg' alt='DSC03011.jpg'> Lifeboat testing on the Getaway. We take a late lunch back on the ship. Today the buffet excels itself with some of the thickest, juiciest and meaty king prawn burgers I have ever tasted - mmmmm. Perfect with an ice cold glass of Sauvignon Blanc or two. As usual the time soon flies by when you're doing nothing and we and the Viking Sky are pulling away together and heading out into the Gulf Of Finland towards St Petersburg. Woohoo!

Oyster Rockefeller at Ocean Blue

Dinner tonight is another visit to the Ocean Blue. We have tried to book most of the premium restaurants to tie in with the nights when we are not out touring all day and half asleep by the evening. The food is excellent as usual - in fact tonight its better than usual if a little sinful (Scallops and Belly of Pork really ought to be banned under some cholesterol law - but the 18 hour slow roasted pork is like butter (wait that sounds even worse)and the scallops like pure silk).

Scallops and pork belly with veal jus and grapefruit Its a great meal and another great evening - but can you please go dark at a decent time - tomorrow I suspect is going to be a seriously busy day.

I am so impressed by your review! Next cruise I am going to learn how to post some of my pictures!

Loving your review and photos. Our cruise next May seems so far away so reading about other's experiences makes the anticipation and wait more exciting.

Great information!

I am so impressed by your review! Next cruise I am going to learn how to post some of my pictures!

TBH I hardly know what Im doing - I just copy and paste straight from the blog but for some reason half the pics disappear on here

Wonderful review, thank you!

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DOH - just realised I missed day 3 out LOL

OK BIG BIG BIG apologies for the delay but the garden really needed a lot of attention...

anyway first the missing page.

Day 3 - Sea Day

It's a gorgeous sunny and nice warm morning to wake up to just as the Captain promised. We have a relaxing breakfast on the balcony having now mastered how to fill the order card in correctly. We are on the starboard side and have the sun streaming in. Its lovely and the sea today is like a mill pond. The map shows we still have a long way to go but there is a full day and night to sail before we reach Tallinn( we're almost north of Gdansk, Poland)

We spend the afternoon on the deck lying back enjoying the sun chatting and reading - its amazing how time just drifts away on these days. It's soon time for lunch (great Indian meal for me ) and wine and blue moon beer (these wash down the Indian perfectly) followed by Camparis in the sun. There's lots to do but I think we will give the slides and the rope walking a miss until another day. More than happy to relax after yesterday and sit on the deck above the pool so we can watch the various bands on the outdoor poolside stage perform..

Rope Course deck 17- you can walk the plank and stand 170 ft above the sea.

Deck 15 pool and stage from deck 16 We have dinner booked in tonight at "The Bistro" always one of my favourites both on the Epic and Jade (who can resist the Mushroom Soup in the Bistro - its an NCL must do). However a small complaint - the food is great (as usual) the service excellent; but who on earth decided that this position on the Getaway was a great spot for what is suppose to be a premium restaurant - an interior room - seriously!! Now to be fair the one good thing the room does have going for it is it's small and cosy and therefore a nice quiet experience (though they can't seriously think that anyone would want to sit outside practically under the casino in what is basically a corridor pretending to be a street.

Bistro - French restaurant The food though is excellent. Veal for me and Dover Sole for Jack - starters Crab and horseradish and of course the mushroom soup.We ate dinner quite early so it gave us some time to catch the end of the first show of Burn the Floor (yes the professional ballroom dance show I said I didn't like when we are on the Epic). Oddly I preferred it here. The sound in this theatre is much better (loud and powerful) and the live percussion comes across really well (it's just lacking that full live band though). Maybe the dancers and the staging was a bit better too. Did our usual trick of standing at the back so Jack can dance and I can pretend I can dance in the dark - Argentine Tango bring it on - oops another chair broken.

Burn the Floor - Main Theatre Coming out of the dark theatre and wandering out onto the promenade deck we had forgotten that as we head further to the North the sunset is getting later and later. There's no land in sight at the moment though the cruise ship 'Viking Sky' can be seen a few miles ahead of us. Revitalised by the fresh air and inspired by watching the dancing we head off to the Fat Cats club to hear Into the Drift, who are great!

Vikings ahoy - load the cannons I have to say the Japanese and Chinese (like the Italians and Spanish on Costa) take their dancing seriously. In fact they seem to be so focused about getting the feet and hand positions correct and cha cha cha ing to everything that I'm not even sure they can relax or hear any of the soul of the music, such is their concentration. I dont think Len Goodman would be pickling his walnuts to this but Bruno would say its entertaining to watch and they put my lack of effort to shame so they get a 10 for effort (note to self- remember to book dance lessons before next cruise - I probably said this after the Costa cruise)

And then its time for bed. Its still not gone dark and I'm not sure it ever will. An enjoyable sea day that was welcome after an exhausting day in Berlin. Tomorrow should be nice and relaxing as when we reach Estonia we will be docking practically on the doorstep of Tallinn.

And now back on track

Day 5 - St Petersburg (Day 1)

Viking Sky arrives in to St Petersburg, just behind us. Quite amazing to be in Russia!

Another gloriously warm morning greets us as we have tea on the balcony and slowly edge into the port of St Petersburg, The Viking Sky is now shadowing directly behind us. We are in Russia; not quite sure what to expect. We have been told by SPB to expect at least 45mins to clear the immigration and not to expect anyone to crack a smile during this process :)

It does indeed take exactly 45minutes and none of the ladies ever do manage a smile. It actually looks like it shouldn't take half as long as it does. We spend the time in the line with a NZ lady watching each booth and the time seems to range between a few minutes if you have all your paperwork in order to up to 30 minutes per person or sent back if you dont have your tour papers which act as your visa.

Anyway we finally get through and meet our guide for the day 'Elena' who speaks perfect English and guides us to our 18 seat Mercedes Bus, opulently decorated in an Amber wood effect (your going to see a lot of this in Russia)

Russian orthodox cathedral of St Peter & St Paul within the Peter and Paul fortress. Once we are all assembled, which takes time as everyone has to get through immigration, we are on our way. St Petersburg is made up of many interconnecting islands (by road and canal) and our first stop is to one of these on which stands the Peter and Paul Fortress. Within the Cathedral here lie the tombs of all the great Czars and Elena does a great job taking us through the history(tomb by tomb)

The Czars' remains are beneath the tombs. The green one is Alexander II's, the red jasper one is his wife Maria's.

We have often visited exhibitions at the National displaying selections of Icons from the Eastern States - but these are usually panels or individual paintings removed from there original purpose so its very impressive to see how a proper Icon Screen is actually used in a Russian Orthodox Church.

Unlike a Christian Church the Alter/Sanctuary is hidden behind a gate of icons from the nave of the church when a service is not being held. Overtime this gateway has become so decorated with gold leaf and the icons themselves that its now the most decorative part of the building. They are simply stunning.

The pulpit is never used, services are conducted from the iconostasis screen. Back on to the bus and into the air conditioning - phew. And its time to head out to Peterhof which we will reach by one of the many Hydrofoils you see darting around the river Neva. Its a short wait on the riverside and a relatively quick trip (though I do doze off).

Hydrofoil across Gulf of Finland to the Peterhof Palace Elena is the master of handing the SPB flag to one of our small group and darting ahead of us to get our admission tickets before we even catch up. The first thing that surprises you when you arrive here is how big the hydrofoil port is. There's room for 6 and they zip in and out like clockwork - and this is just people arriving by water at the beginning of the season.