Baltics Cruise Video

This is a one hour video of our May 2005 cruise on the Celebrity Constellation.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showpost.php?p=6278289&postcount=12

Thanks Dileep,

I watched the video yesterday morning. It was a great trip, thanks for bringing back the great memories!:) This is one cruise Bob and I would love to repeat, so much to see.

Take care,

Elaine

Thanks Dileep,

I watched the video yesterday morning. It was a great trip, thanks for bringing back the great memories!:) This is one cruise Bob and I would love to repeat, so much to see.

 

Take care,

Elaine

yes, the Baltics cruise was great. You should try South America next. We enjoyed that one just as much too. We are looking at a couple of options in the Med for next year.

Great Video...took a while to load but good job thanks....

Here is what Ann & I ended up doing:

Dover: stayed at Churchill Hotel Best Western (best rates on-line) after driving from Heathrow. Car return about 1.5 miles from Western Docks. Old hotel but comfortable inspite of slanty floors.

Copenhagen: Shuttle to town (15 min) at 8;30 am to King's New Square. ATM near bus drop off. Money change with good rates at entrance to the pedestrian street. 1 hour canal tour for 50 Kr (need local cash) each was worthwhile. Walked down pedestrian street.

Warnemunde: Picked up Hertz car at the dock and 4 of us drove to Berlin (2.5 hours) leaving at 8 am. Parked near the zoo (15 Euro). Took a hop on - hop off bus with about 12 stops (several different companies - ours was Berolinas) for 19 Euro each. Has head phones with commentary in 8 languages. Lopp takes about 2 hours if you don't get off. Car rental and gas cost about 150 Euro (gas was almost half that amount!) split among 4 people. Driving seemed easy (Henry drove).

Stockholm: Took shuttle at 8:45 am for 15 minute ride. Walked over to catch the ferry boat (30 Kr per person each way paid in cash) near Old Town to Vasa Museum to see the old ship (ship's map was incorrect about where the ferry dock was). Museum accepts credit cards. Changing of guard at place from noon to 1 pm. Walked around Old Town (Gamla stan).

Riga: caught first wave to shuttles to town (30 minute ride). Walked around and shopped. Plenty of places to change money. Local guided tour available but we did not see it; others did. Good quality Amber esp at the shop next to Amber Museum and it is listed on the tourist map.

Tallinn: the surprise jewel of the trip. 15 min walk or short shuttle ride. Good shopping. Money changers charge $4 fee. Paid $ for purchases and got local money back for beer! Stores accept $ or credit cards.

St Petersburg: ignore the ship's schedule and get off when you want. Immigration lines were not too long. Red October returned us by 5 pm. Plenty of time to eat and go out for evening shows, but we were too tired. 2 shopping stops. Visited Pushkin, Hermitage, Peterhof (fantastic fountains), Spilled Blood Cathedral, St Isaacs, Yusupov's Palace, Peter & Paul Fortress, ST Nicholas Church, and plenty of picture taking stops. Good guide, but it was difficult to get her to take time to buy camera pass (they charged$4 for a 50 ruble pass when she did get a pass!). Good guide (Alyona) otherwise. Small group of 14 (with Eddie and others) was better than a bus load!

Helsinki: 15 min shuttle to town. Nice walk to Market Square. Local sightseein bus was 22 Euro per person. We bought a 8 Euro group ticket (works for up to 6 people) and rode tram 3T and 3B around town and the ticket covered ferry ride to Semnolinna Island too. Trams run very frequently. Single all day tourist ticket costs 5.4 Euro. Good deal! Hellps to have Euro cash for tram ticket. Vendors in Market Square take credit cards.

Klaipeda: easy 10 min walk into town. Good shopping for Amber and lines or wood items. Big welcome for us (first big ship ever!) from the town and lots of local came to see the ship. Welcome party on the pier with music and dancers. Rather small Old Town with not as much to see as Riga or Tallinn. Easy money change at bank. We decide against 8 hour Curonian Spit tour which would have consumed entire stay and opted instead for Palanga Museum Celebrity tour ($49 each) which included a stop at alocal micro-brewery pub. We would have done better just getting a taxi with English speaking driver instead of the 4 hour tour. Walked and shopped in Old Town in the morning.

London: Coach ride to Victoria Station was easy. Would suggest booking on-line as the bus tends to be full. With got to the Coach Terminal half hour early and wre able to get a seat on earlier coach.

Trafalgar Hilton was a great loaction to walk around the West End. Plenty to do within walking distance. Hotel booked a fixed price Black Cab (45 GBP) for us for returm to Heathrow.

All in all a great trip. We used ship's tours only once. Going around by yourself is pretty easy.

__________________

Dileep

Just watched your video with great interest. 4 of us are doing the 12 day

HAL Rotterdam cruise in July and this gives us great insight into what we

will be seeing and how best to see the cities we will visit.

I want to thank you for posting this here. You obviously did a lot of work

producing it and enjoyed doing so as well. It shows.

This is the beauty of the internet and sites such as this. We have used

CC and other sources to our advantage in planning our trips and try to

repay in some measure by offering information to others about our part

of the world.

Thanks again.

Cliff

Happy to see 60 downloads of the video!

Hope you enjoy your cruise as much as we did. I have enjoyed making the video and sharing it almost (well not quite) as much as the cruise!

Our next cruise is not until Sept 2007 in the Med. So, there is no dnager of another video post :D .