Back from Regal 6/24 to 7/5

This was my 4th time on this ship and I'm happy to answer any questions you have. I highly recommend a Baltic cruise to anyone, it was one of my favorite cruises to date.

Some things of note:

Food was excellent and never really had a bad meal. Thanked Nicola on the last day. Never really had a wait for the dining room (and if we did we were paged within 15 minutes)

Kelly Rose was our CD and she was a star. Always visible on the ship, very personable and down to earth. Entertainment schedule was excellent and always something to do.

The mix of passengers on this cruise was very diverse. Lots of families, people of all ages. Announcements were made in English, Spanish and Chinese.

Laundry service was excellent- never had an issue and always came back next day.

Like I said any questions I would be happy to answer them!

Curious if you visited Crooners and who the waiters were in there?

Thanks and welcome home!

-Andrew :)

Curious if you visited Crooners and who the waiters were in there?

 

Thanks and welcome home!

-Andrew :)

Sorry Andrew, I didn't. We only saw Kory Simon in the Vista Lounge.

What shore excursions did you take?

Thanks for sharing. Happy that you had a great cruise. :D

Tony

What shore excursions did you take?

All were through external tour providers

Oslo- A three hour walking tour in the AM and a two hour fjord cruise in the afternoon

Warnemunde- a tour of there, Schwein and Wismark

Estonia- tour of old and new city

St Petersburg- two day tour, including ballet at night

Finland- tour of Helsinki and Porvoo

Stockholm- tour of the city

Wish we had more time in Stockholm and skipped Finland. Otherwise all tours were excellent.

How long did it take to get from the cruise port to Schwerin? And can you take photos in the castle?

Also, how long did it take to get to Porvoo? Would you recommend a visit there or just staying in Helsinki?

All were through external tour providers

 

Oslo- A three hour walking tour in the AM and a two hour fjord cruise in the afternoon

Warnemunde- a tour of there, Schwein and Wismark

Estonia- tour of old and new city

St Petersburg- two day tour, including ballet at night

Finland- tour of Helsinki and Porvoo

Stockholm- tour of the city

 

Wish we had more time in Stockholm and skipped Finland. Otherwise all tours were excellent.

HI

What company did you use for your Oslo tour. City n the morning and fjords in the afternoon sounds perfect.

All were through external tour providers

 

 

 

Oslo- A three hour walking tour in the AM and a two hour fjord cruise in the afternoon

 

Warnemunde- a tour of there, Schwein and Wismark

 

Estonia- tour of old and new city

 

St Petersburg- two day tour, including ballet at night

 

Finland- tour of Helsinki and Porvoo

 

Stockholm- tour of the city

 

 

 

Wish we had more time in Stockholm and skipped Finland. Otherwise all tours were excellent.

We too had private tour operators and some DIY. But we were not able to do the fjord cruise in Oslo on our cruise. Must have been nice.

Thanks for your response.

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

What on-ship productions were outstanding and can't miss? What about shows that were more of a waste of time???

Thanks for your thoughts.

Good to hear you had a great time! We sailed on the Regal to Baltic 4/30 to 5/11 and had a grand time as well. Interesting that Kelly Rose is the CD. Billy Hygate was the CD for us. Do not know if he is on vacation or retired. We really enjoyed him and remember him from our 5/10 Panama Canal cruise.

How long did it take to get from the cruise port to Schwerin? And can you take photos in the castle?

Also, how long did it take to get to Porvoo? Would you recommend a visit there or just staying in Helsinki?

We were on a tour, and that was our last stop. Probably about a 45 minute bus ride. We didnt go into the Castle, just took pictures on the outside, I'm sorry.

Porvoo was about 45 minutes also. It was cute and I think worth a visit. Helsinki was kinda boring to be honest. My least favorite stop of the cruise.

HI

What company did you use for your Oslo tour. City n the morning and fjords in the afternoon sounds perfect.

We used SPB for the walking tour (if you book St Petersburg with them, you will get a discount on tours in other cities), and purchased the fjords tour through Viator. Highly recommend eating lunch along the waterfront there (reminded me of Sydney Harbour). We ate at a burger place down at the end that was very good.

What on-ship productions were outstanding and can't miss? What about shows that were more of a waste of time???

Fiera is ALWAYS a must see for me. I actually think all of the production shows (Fiera, Spectacular, Sweet Soul Music and Bravo) are great in their own way, but Fiera is the best. We also loved Kory Simon's shows in the Vista Lounge. Did not go and see the other entertainment on the ship.

The CD staff did a great job with the usual games, Majority Rules (we actually won!), Liars Club, Yes/No, etc.

Good to hear you had a great time! We sailed on the Regal to Baltic 4/30 to 5/11 and had a grand time as well. Interesting that Kelly Rose is the CD. Billy Hygate was the CD for us. Do not know if he is on vacation or retired. We really enjoyed him and remember him from our 5/10 Panama Canal cruise.

Such a fantastic intinerary- one of my favorites. I think we had Billy Hygate on the Regal in January as well, so I am guessing he was overdue for a vacation :)

Did you have to surrender your passport at embarkation ? If so, did you not need them for walking around in ports ? We are doing a transatlantic in a few weeks and just want to understand the processes.

Did you have to surrender your passport at embarkation ? If so, did you not need them for walking around in ports ? We are doing a transatlantic in a few weeks and just want to understand the processes.

We did not. Only port it was needed in was St Petersburg. No one even checked government IDs, just cruise card, in the other ports. Not sure if yours will be a different experience. Enjoy the trip!

This was my 4th time on this ship and I'm happy to answer any questions you have.

Thanks for doing this. I'm wondering whether to get a bit of each foreign currency or just assume the credit card will work along with an occasional ATM stop.

Jim

Thanks for doing this. I'm wondering whether to get a bit of each foreign currency or just assume the credit card will work along with an occasional ATM stop.

 

Jim

I got DKK (we were in Copenhagen for a couple of days before the cruise) and brought USD just in case. I also brought EUR and USD. USD i used for casino on ship otherwise brought it home with me. EUR were helpful in Estonia and Russia to use them up, but never had an issue using a CC. I had a back up CC as many places did not accept AMEX, but MC/VISA were accepted everywhere I wanted to buy.

I was wondering what your experience was like in getting off the ship in St. Petersburg. What time was your SPB tour scheduled to start, where and when did you start lining up, and how long did it take you to get off.

I was wondering what your experience was like in getting off the ship in St. Petersburg. What time was your SPB tour scheduled to start, where and when did you start lining up, and how long did it take you to get off.

Our tour was at 8, but SPB sent an email the week before stating that the tour will start between 8:30 and 9 because immigration was taking longer.

We were at the dining room for non princess tour guests by 7:15, called our number range about 10 min later and then took less than a half hour to go through immigration.

The second day was a much shorter process. Straight off the ship and shorter lines through immigration.

The immigration process time seems to vary a lot. During the July 5 sailing on the Regal, i.e. on July 11 it easily took over 3 hours to get through this process! Perhaps it was a better experience if you were among the very first to get off the ship before 7 am but we went to the dining room at 7:30 am and did not get through immigration until 10:40 am with hordes of people still behind us waiting. Our disembarkation ticket numbers were in the 600s. A tour group going to Moscow missed their morning train and people with early admission tickets to e.g. the Hermitage were not able to reap the benefit. A couple we met on the plane over to the cruise told us they were simply too tired to go on their booked tour on the second day after this horrible experience and cancelled it.

The Serenade of the Seas was in port that same days sharing the services of the same terminal. The crowds were horrendous on the pier and Princess staff said there was nothing they could do to expedite. The arrivals hall was full of tour guides once we got through and luckily ours had not given up on us! What an exhausting morning it was.

It seemed the process was more geared towards keeping people out than letting them in, at least on that particular summer day (each individual was processed separately and thoroughly).

Hopefully nobody else has to experience this long wait going forward but July 5 sailing was definitely not lucky in St. Petersburg!

Thanks PrincessCatarina and azdmelani for the info. We'll be sure to line up as early as possible and hopefully our experience in September will be good. I have one more question and I almost hate to ask it but what did you observe most people wearing in the dining room on formal nights? I don't want to turn this into another dress code fight thread - I've read plenty of those unfortunately. I know what Princess suggests as formal attire and I've also seen the "packing list" so we don't need to hear all that over again. I'm really only interested in hearing from people who were on the Regal Princess this summer in the Baltics and what they saw on formal nights so that I can pass it on to the friends that we are cruising with.

I'm just shocked by this report of delays getting off in St. Petersburg. We were on the mid-June 2016 Regal Baltic cruise and the experience was completely different. No need to get tickets to disembark - just go when you were ready. And the wait to get through Russian Immigration was only about 10 to 20 minutes the 1st day. The second day, it appeared they just looked to see if you had the stamp from the previous day and that was it. It does sound like having a second large ship there made a huge difference. On our cruise, while there was a second ship there, it was much smaller and I believe being processed in a separate section of the terminal.