Ports of Scandinavia - LIVE from the Voyager 6/28 - 7/27/2014

For this report I will focus on ports since we will be stopping at ports that Regent ships only do once or possibly twice a year. I will also mention whatever else may be of interest to readers – such as food, service, etc. The following is the itinerary:

June 28 - Stockholm, Sweden

June 29 - Tallinn, Estonia

June 30 - July 2 -St. Petersburg, Russia

July 3 - Helsinki, Finland

July 4 - Mariehamn, Finland

July 5 - Klaipeda, Lithuania

July 6 - Karlskrona, Sweden

July 7 - Copenhagen, Denmark

July 8 - Kristiansand, Norway

July 9 - 10 - Oslo, Norway

July 11 - Kristiansand, Norway

July 12 - Bergen, Norway

July 13 - At sea

July 14 - 15 - Honningsvag, Norway

July 16 - Murmansk, Russia

July 17 - Hammerfest, Norway

July 18 - At sea

July 19 - Spitsbergen (Longyearbyen) Norway

July 20 - 21 - At sea

July 22 - Harstad, Norway

July 23 - At Sea

July 24 - Hellesylt, Norway (7:00 a.m. - 10:30 a.m.)

July 24 - Geiranger, Norway (12:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.)

July 25 - At sea

July 26 - Copenhagen, Denmark

While we booked this as a single cruise, it was also available as two segments. The second segment begins July 10th in Oslo. This is when most of the CC’ers will board. There is only a handful of us on the first segment.

Flew British Airways Business Class to Stockholm. The plane was lovely we sat in our normal upstairs seats. At the end of the cruise we will fly back in the same seats from Copenhagan to Vancouver with a stop at Heathrow. If you depart from Canada, depending upon the destination, you can fly BA without an additional fee. Because we are Platinum Seven Seas Society members, we were able to deviate at no cost.

Later this evening we will be staying at the Scandic Grand Central Hotel. Regent booked the hotel and is taking care of our transfers. Should the hotel not be to our liking, we will upgrade. After reading about recent hassles getting from the hotel to the ship via bus, we will likely take a taxi. After all, this is a luxury vacation and if we do not feel the pre-cruise arrangements are up to that level, we will do what we can to change it. This is a recommendation that I typicallly make.

With the exception of Copenhagen, all of the ports in the second segment will be new to us. About half of the ports in the first segment will be new. For this reason we will be utilizing Regent excursions.

A few reports have already been posted on Cruise Critic about St. Petersburg. Having been there previously, we will be doing only two or three half-day excursions. We really enjoy St. Petersburg and find the history and architecture fascinating. We do not consider politics or government issues when we travel. We see the world to meet people and to learn as much as we can about their lives. They are likely not responsible for the position their government takes.

We are looking forward to returning to Tallin, Estonia. We consider Tallin to be amongst our top five favorite ports in the world. The last couple of days the forecast has been for rain during our time in both Tallin and St. Petersburg. This will not affect us at all as we love cool, drizzley weather;-)

Once onboard, we will introduce ourselves to the GM and send regards from mutual friends. We have a few days to arrange the Meet and Greet for the second leg of the cruise. Peggy has been kind enough to give me names of the the key people to contact to make this event happen.

Updates to follow once we board the ship tomorrow.:D

I am looking forward to hearing of your adventures. I would love to go back to St. Petersburg to see more of the Hermitage. I also really liked Tallinn. Have a great cruise.

TC2: Have a wonderful time. So looking forward to your posts since we are planning a Baltic cruise in AUG 2015.

We're on an August Baltic cruise, hitting several of the same ports, so I'll be interested to get your impressions of cruise and of the ship. Also of the Scandic Grand Central, since we're spending a night there.

Have fun!

Always enjoy your reports!

Looking forward to your reports, TC!

Since all of us, and above all TC, are most interested in the accuracy and "preciseness" in our collective reporting on the many different cruises, and particularly as a service to "newer cruisers", I wanted to make sure that prospective travelers knew that they could not literally fly directly to/from Scandanavia from Vancouver (or most anywhere else on the North American continent) on the same plane and in their (same favorite) "Business Class" seats (at least on BA) without a plane change, as well as a layover, in LHR.

Also, Thanks much for the sarcasm! We need a little a "cheer" on these threads sometimes, don't we? Best Regards.

Thanks for your live updates!

We're glad you arrived safely in Stockholm, Jackie, and look forward to seeing you on 7/10, when we board the ship for the "second leg", or shortly thereafter.

Pingpong, I don't know about nonstops to Vancouver, but there are plenty of nonstops between NYC airports and Scandinavia. We'll be flying nonstop on SAS Newark to Oslo and Copenhagen to Newark for our 7/10 to 7/26 cruise.

Jackie have a great trip... Just a bit

(a lot) envious! Thanks for taking the time to bring us along :)

Safe Journey

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

Joanandjoe - Yes, my point exactly. In my own research as well, I found that Newark (EWR) was the only US gateway city (and only on SAS/United) where you could find non-stop flights between North America and Scandinavia - directly; not even JFK or Dulles offers those direct to Scandinavia flights. IcelandAir provides service between the US and Scandinavia, but always with a connection through Keflavik. You can't do it "directly" on BA.

That means if you're starting your trip out from nearly any other place in the US or Canada, and want to get to Stockholm or Copenhagen (while staying on the same overseas Business Class flight), you'll either have to somehow first get yourself to EWR and then board the SAS aircraft (as you point out), or fly to London (on BA) or another European gateway (such as Amsterdam) and then transfer to a European regional flight (which will NOT be overseas BC) and then, into Scandinavia. Regards.

Have a great trip. A lot of the ports are new to me so will be interested in hearing about them. I have been to most of the Norway ones however, and they are outstanding! And we really enjoy Tallinn, Helsinki, and Stockholm. Hope your weather is outstanding. It can be hit or miss in this part of the world. Who is the GM?

Joanandjoe - Yes, my point exactly. In my own research as well, I found that Newark (EWR) was the only US gateway city (and only on SAS/United) where you could find non-stop flights between North America and Scandinavia - directly; not even JFK or Dulles offers those direct to Scandinavia flights.

That's not correct. I'm flying from Chicago directly to Stockholm via SAS on August 3. It's flight SK 946, and today's flight is in the air as I'm posting this.

pp1 - Is it possible that you might consider giving it a break and simply allow this "Live From" thread to proceed without gratuitous (and, in the case of comments on flight connections to Sweden or Denmark, erroneous) slams?

So many threads have been removed from this forum because of the internecine battles between certain posters that many of us have despaired of the long-term usefulness of this Regent forum on CC.

I am anything but an apologist for the OP; but I welcome her observations and will give them appropriate consideration. Perhaps we can all do so, without the need to dissect those posts.

BTW, I certainly do not agree with the negative observations on another thread regarding St. P., as we found the city to be quite delightful, and, indeed, worthy of another visit sometime. Perhaps the fact that I speak Russian and that we had private visas made it less oppressive than some found it. In any event, St. P. is, and should remain, the highlight of most Baltic cruises.

Cheers, Fred

Thank you Freddie, many posters (me included) would like to just enjoy a Regent trip report without the picking and bickering.... So please stop!

By the way I did not see anywhere that Jackie claimed to fly non stop from Vancouver....and why would you pick apart something like that anyway. A direct flight on a BA flight is not necessarily a non stop flight. What ---- difference does it make!

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

What luggage? Anyone who flew British Airways in the past few days most likely has no luggage. We are amongst that group. BA is fairly certain that it will arrive on board the ship. With approx. 150 pounds of luggage missing at the moment, we are a bit apprehensive.

Regent is working with BA to get it sorted out.

I am sure than there will be complaints about the hotel. Small rooms, noisy....... but it it is clean and I slept fine considering that I had nothing to wear. You can drink the water from the tap...no problem.

I can give you one guess as to what the conversation at breakfast will be:eek:

Looking forward to getting on the ship and finding our luggage. Updates as they happen.

Freddie...Agreed with all you said

I just flew round trip from Copenhagen to Toronto last week so these claims don't hold

Jackie - hope your luggage arrives soon. I know how much you love laundry services onboard and it would be great to have a change of clothes after the long trip

Tina -- you are so right! A change of clothes would be lovely right now. Thankfully I am able to brush my teeth. The latest I heard is that the luggage will arrive (lots of luggage - not just ours) 1:00 p.m. today (which is now). The rest will arrive tomorrow in Tallinn.

The welcoming onto the ship was overwhelming! First thing I want to mention is that the Cruise Director is someone named "JJ" (hope that is right). I will learn more about him as time passes. He is apparently a great singer.

Transfer from the hotel to the ship was flawless. We were on the first bus and checked in quickly without a problem. Another comment about the hotel, the location is amazing (may have said earlier) so I am happy that Regent choose that hotel.

As soon as we were checked in, we were escorted over to meet the GM, Andreas. That made it easy for us as we were anxious to meet him. Then Goran (F&B manager) showed up. We know him well from previous cruises. From there, one of our former butlers showed up and escorted us to our suite. Our suite (a Voyager suite) was ready (assume that no one occupied it on the last cruise since it was only 12:30 p.m.). At that point we were feeling like we had just entered into a family reunion. However, it was not over yet.

Once in La Veranda, we were recognized and gave hugs to a few servers that we know and our favorite sommelier, Laksman (who really should be head sommelier). Next was, IMO, the best Head Chef on Regent, Jonathan Schmid (hope I spelled his last name correct) stopped by our table. We chatted and learned that he has just gotten engaged (in a helicopter) and will be getting married in May. His presence on the ship is extremely important as it is a guarantee that the food will be better than ever.

If Peggy and/or Joan and Joe are reading this, Goran will be getting off the ship when you get on the ship. Thankfully, Donald will be replacing him as he is also wonderful (Jonathan will be on the entire cruise). Between these two amazing gentlemen, we will have our Meet and Greet. Very happy about that:-)

I'm in the computer room, next to the WONDERFUL open space (formerly Park West). There are many people learning how to sign on to the internet. Although I will do my best to resist, I would really like to do a dance in that space.

Back to our suite where I will cross my fingers that any one of our three pieces of luggage shows up. I am looking pretty ratty since I left Vancouver 8:40 p.m. on the 26th.

Oh!! Hope the luggage arrives ASAP. We had the same experience with BA flying into Copenhagen for a Baltic cruise several years ago. Thank heavens I had built in 2 extra days at the front end for us to explore in Copenhagen, or we would have been without it until Tallinn. It did arrive right before we sailed, so thinking positive luggage thoughts here for you.

Hi Jackie,

Keeping my fingers crossed that your luggage arrives soon.

Thanks for all the "people" information . . . .the staff is one of the thing I love about Regent.

I'll be at the same hotel . . . . .

Keep the messages coming . . . .great information!

Peggy

One more question: who are the lecturers? And who will be on going forward?

Thank you Freddie!

Yes!!! Thank you Freddie!

Here's an article describing the chaos at Terminal 5 in Heathrow. Travelcat2 isn't the only one with missing luggage who tried to fly into or out of that airport since Thursday.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2672523/Check-chaos-Heathrows-Terminal-5-baggage-belt-BREAKS-leaving-hundreds-passengers-globe-without-luggage.html

Hi Jackie, we've not met but I look forward to the pleasure when my husband and I board in Oslo. Hope you have your luggage by the time you see this note!

Thanks for the updates on the cruise so far. I am thrilled to hear that the chef is one of Regent's best. To me, the chef is the most important staff person on the cruise - since I am involved with him (at least) three times a day, every single day!

Best, Janice