May 19 2017 Silhouette Baltic (+ Berlin) Photo Review Silhouette Photo Review

Thank you again for the great review! Safe travels home and I hope you feel better.

We leave next week on a Baltic cruise and I am stealing some of the hard work and research you did! Love your humor and pictures

Thanks everyone for all the kind comments. Glad to hear that some of you have found some nuggets of useful information sprinkled here and there. Have to confess I have no idea what to do with my life now that the review is finished. ;) Maybe I will have to plan another trip. :ship: :D

Wow, Afto! Thanks so much for this delightful review! It was a great way to spend a few days discovering the ports of call that we'll be visiting next May, 2018. (Actually, I should have been painting the bedroom ceiling - but this was WAY more fun!) We're on a similar itinerary, with most of the same ports.

"Some nuggets of useful information"? Uh....yuh! Like 3 pages of notes! We'd be quite happy to make it a template for our upcoming trip. Thanks for doing all that research, and for providing us links to follow up with. And your pictures are excellent - well done! I appreciate your taking the time and effort to entertain us with your writing and photo journal. It's an inspiration to maybe try my hand at it with our upcoming Transpacific/Japan B2B this September.

Happy Cruising!!

Afto, thank you so much for the entertaining and very helpful review. I love your humour and since we're also from the west coast, appreciated some comparisons, such as the sail in to Stockholm. We leave next week for 5 days in Amsterdam prior to the Silhouette cruise on the 23rd. We also fly with KLM & I've taken notes from your port visits, that will come in handy. I hope you & DH take another cruise soon, as you have many followers waiting for your next review!

Thanks for your comments, BCJO and Drifting. Glad you found the review useful and I'm sure that you will enjoy your Baltic cruises. Drifting, I will keep my eyes peeled for your trans-Pacific review.

Thank you for the time and effort! I really enjoyed your pictures.

OK, what was the verdict on the D5000?

And, in reference to the "fictitious" Peregrine Falcon in Moscow:

Ken

I loved this report!! Thanks for taking the time to do it.

Dawn

Thank you very much for the great review!

Thanks, Dawn and Ken. Nice falcon shot, Ken! I haven't taken the D5000 in yet but I suspect that it is toast.

This was so helpful to me for the start of our Baltic planning journey. Thank you!

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Looking in the other direction, a view of the convention centre with the Radisson Blu Waterfront Hotel behind it. There must be great views from those upper floor rooms.

 

Yes, the views are great. The Radisson Blu Waterfront is our favorite Hotel whenever we stay in Stockholm.

Loving your review!

Late to this party, but must add my thanks for a fabulous review--loved the pictures and very informative commentary along with your delightful sense of humor. I found your review on the Port of Call board as I am researching a Baltic cruise scheduled for June 2018 on Princess. I've taken so many notes that will be helpful and even better gotten a sense of all the ports from your beautiful pictures. You have a real gift for writing and photography. I'm an over-analytical planner too, so I really appreciated all the details and the helpful links to learn more. I've spent an entire Sunday afternoon reading your review and researching links when I should have been doing a thousand other things, but it was time well spent. What I've learned from your experience will really enhance our upcoming Baltic cruise. I also spent a few days in Berlin in September and really enjoyed your Berlin review as well. I agree that it is a great city and like you, one that I want to return to for more museum exploration. So much to see, so little time--but that just gives us an excuse for more travel. Again, many thanks for a great review.

HRPro, glad you found the review useful - it was fun to write it. Enjoy your Baltic adventure next summer!

So happy I found your review! Absolutely love all the pictures & links. Always nice to find a "birder" on CC. We're heading to the Baltic in August. Wonder if you would share you trip birdlist with me?

Cinda

Texascinda(at)gmail(dot)com

Been to all the countrys except Russia ( I had a m1 on my back) but where is your review of the SHIP)???

george35

First time writing a review, but we have fairly recently returned from the May 19 2017 Silhouette 13-night Baltic, and I have decided to give this a whirl. Warning to readers: expect this review to be opinionated, photo-heavy, long-winded, more about the ports than the ship, and lacking in useful information for foodies. Further disclaimer: I am aiming to provide an accurate account of our experience, but please don’t plan your own day around getting on the same bus # or train that we took … I would hate to have anyone late for sailaway because they relied on information provided by me.

 

The story begins. We booked this cruise during our Equinox Caribbean cruise in December 2015. It just so happened that they were releasing the schedule for the 2017 Europe cruises while we were on board, so we went to a future cruise presentation. DH tells me my eyes were as big as saucers when I looked at the itinerary: with overnights in Copenhagen and Stockholm and 2 nights in St. Petersburg, I thought it looked great. I suggested to him that we “tentatively” book, with the usual promise that “we can always cancel” if we change our minds …perhaps some of you have had that same conversation before booking a cruise? So far, we have never actually cancelled one of these “tentative” bookings, so my strategy works.

 

Cruise itinerary is as follows. We added 2 nights in Amsterdam pre-cruise, 1 night in Stockholm post-cruise, and then we flew to Berlin for 4 nights.

 

 

 

May 19 Amsterdam Sailaway 5pm

May 20 At sea

May 21 Oslo 7am to 5pm

May 22 Copenhagen 12 pm (overnight)

May 23 Copenhagen Sailaway 5pm

May 24 Rostock 7am to 9pm

May 25 At sea

May 26 Helsinki 8am to 6pm

May 27 St. Petersburg 7am (2 nights in port)

May 28 Docked in St. Petersburg

May 29 St. Petersburg Sailaway 6pm

May 30 Tallinn 8am to 4pm

May 31 Stockholm 10am (overnight)

June 1 Stockholm Disembarkation

 

About us. We are 60-something suburban dwellers from the west coast of Canada, with a few Celebrity cruises behind us (we reached the Captain’s Club Elite level after this cruise). We have sailed with other lines, but Celebrity is the best fit for us. We appreciate good food (well, we appreciate most food, to be honest) but we are not foodies, and we are pretty happy with the main dining room fare most of the time. We are not particularly fit, but we do like to walk. We are both interested in history and architecture; I am also a keen birder, so be prepared for the occasional bird portrait, although on this trip I did not have any time for dedicated birding excursions. I am terrified of heights, so we normally choose our activities carefully. The Baltic ports are almost all pretty flat, so no fears of accidentally falling off a cliff: perfect destination for me!

 

I know I promised a photo review, so here is one shipboard pic for now.

More to follow, but it will probably take me “a few” days to organize photos. Stay tuned! (Or not; your choice, of course.)

 

Other than Amsterdam, which I thought was disgusting on a Northern Europe cruise, you have my attention for a Baltic that is otherwise on my bucket list.

This was a wonderful pictorial review and I must, in part, withdraw my previous comment about Amsterdam. Our short time stop really did stink but your much more expansive review makes me reconsider it as a pre or post cruise stop.

Been to all the countrys except Russia ( I had a m1 on my back) but where is your review of the SHIP)???

 

george35

george35: sorry to disappoint, but I don't think we spent enough time on the ship to do much of a review! There are a few comments about the Silhouette buried in my posts in this thread, but I really have nothing to say that many others have not already shared; we like the S-class ships and everything lived up to our expectations.

cltncruisers, so glad that you are retracting your comment about Amsterdam! Everyone will have different experiences, of course, but we think it's a wonderful city and we very much enjoyed our time there. A short port visit doesn't do it justice.

Texascinda, I didn't do any real birding on this trip, but I will send you an e-mail.

Cheers, all.

Thanks for this great review!

or

Glad you are enjoying the review, Rascal 1.

 

May 21: Day Five (Oslo sailaway)

 

I will include a couple of pictures of the sailaway from Oslo. The images are poor quality but they will give you an idea of distance, and what you might be able to see on foot if you just wanted to get off the ship and wander around. As we pull away from the dock at Akershus Castle, you can see how close it is to the City Hall waterfront area. (City Hall is the brick building with two towers).

 

I’m also including a shot of the ship from inside Akershus Castle. As you can see, the Silhouette is docked right alongside the building. Very convenient.

 

You could actually see quite a lot just on foot in Oslo, if you restrict yourself to the downtown core and waterfront. Just past City Hall, on the opposite side of the harbour from the castle, is the Aker Brygge area: modern buildings, shops, and a marina. Easy to reach on foot. To give you a sense of distance, this shot was actually taken from Akershus Castle – you can see some Norwegian dandelions in the foreground.

 

At the farthest end of this area is the Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art; it’s the building with the curved roof. It’s on my list for my next visit to Oslo, whenever that may be. You can see the passenger ferry right in front of it.

 

A little farther out, we sailed past the Fram Museum.

 

 

And a little island in the harbour.

 

 

It’s a scenic sailaway.

Thanks so much for a great review. Just a couple of questions.

Did you notice the HOHO buses/boats in Amsterdam? What made you decide to use the trams instead of the HOHO? We are still trying to decide which to use.

And do you remember how long it took to get to the locks when leaving Amsterdam? And how long it took to get through the locks. We would love to view this, so trying to make appropriate dinner reservations for that first night.

thanks again, loved the pictures and the reveiw.

Thanks so much for a great review. Just a couple of questions.

 

Did you notice the HOHO buses/boats in Amsterdam? What made you decide to use the trams instead of the HOHO? We are still trying to decide which to use.

 

And do you remember how long it took to get to the locks when leaving Amsterdam? And how long it took to get through the locks. We would love to view this, so trying to make appropriate dinner reservations for that first night.

 

thanks again, loved the pictures and the reveiw.

Thanks for your comments, new readers. I am glad that people are still finding this review useful, but for those who might not have noticed, I will just point out that this thread has been resurrected and the review is a year old now.

Itsanita, in answer to your questions:

In Amsterdam, we knew that we would be visiting a few museums and attractions and I thought it was worthwhile to purchase the I Amsterdam city cards which already included public transportation passes. [Note: this is NOT the same as the "Amsterdam Pass" ... there are a number of similarly-named passes so do check that you have the one that looks best for you. I Amsterdam card info here: https://www.iamsterdam.com/en/i-am/i-amsterdam-city-card ] More generally, I think HOHO busses are a really good option for those who have not had the time to do a lot of planning: you don't have to figure out where/how to pay, the HOHO bus takes you to all the highlights, they give you a bit of commentary along the way, and you can't get lost. Because I am a compulsive over-planner, and because I don't always want to visit the particular highlights that the HOHO bus company has selected, in the order that they have organized them, I find that public transit usually works better for me. I also find that public transit will have much more frequent service than the HOHO busses, so I am not waiting a long time for the bus. Google maps will help you plan out a public transit route with a fair degree of accuracy. Most of the time a public transit day pass is available at a lower cost than the HOHO, and public transit runs later in the day than the HOHO.

As for the locks: we were there about an hour and a half (maybe a bit more) after sailing. It's a very quick transit -- I think maybe 20 minutes at the most. There is not a lot to see, and depending on your sailing date and time, it may be getting dark by the time you get there.

Best wishes to all those taking a Baltic cruise this year. I am sure that you will have a wonderful time.

Your review may be a year old, but it’s both a wonderful set of descriptions PLUS great photos. We are going on a similar Celebrity Cruise on August 4, 2018. It does not have as many stops but has 5 sea days! My general question is : other than SPB , which clearly requires a special tour, which of the other places require organized guided tours? Can any be done on your own? Eg Stockhom seems complicated .I find the ship excursions expensive.

Thanks in advance!

MZ from Toronto

Your review may be a year old, but it’s both a wonderful set of descriptions PLUS great photos. We are going on a similar Celebrity Cruise on August 4, 2018. It does not have as many stops but has 5 sea days! My general question is : other than SPB , which clearly requires a special tour, which of the other places require organized guided tours? Can any be done on your own? Eg Stockhom seems complicated .I find the ship excursions expensive.

Thanks in advance!

MZ from Toronto

Any of the ports we visited could be a DIY, depending on what you want to see. For a couple of the ports, exactly WHERE you dock would make a difference to how easy that is. Rostock, for example, is more complicated than if you dock in Warnemunde. Nynashamn is quite far from Stockholm. If you are docked there, you might consider an organized tour. But otherwise, it's quite easy to find your way around Stockholm by public transit; the only complicated part, really, is figuring out how to buy the actual tickets, and for that I would visit the tourist office rather than try to purchase them from a machine. With a little bit of planning and some help from Google maps, I think it's easy enough to see lots in Stockholm on your own. Of course, a good tour guide can help you make the most of your time, provide you with interesting information as you go, and lets you just relax and enjoy yourself. So there are definitely two schools of thought (at least) about which option is preferable. We were happy with our choices but everyone has different priorities. Hope you enjoy your holiday.

Awesome tr ... enjoyed every bit

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