Eurodam Baltic Review June 15-27

[brazilgirl]

Truly beautiful photos...you have a great eye. Do you have any photos of the ship itself ( on board? ) Am looking forward to sailing the Eurodam next year....

 

kim

[sue117]

Thanks for the notes everyone. Reading back over my review makes me miss being on a cruise that much more! lol. Luckily we have 2 more planned...but Nov can't come soon enough for me! :)

 

I'm not sure why, but it doesn't look like I took ANY pics inside the ship at all! Sigh. I'll have to be better at that in the future. I did find SOME that I took.

 

Here is a picture of the Eurodam waiting for us to board in Dover.

 

Here is a picture of the back deck when some of the workers were putting up (taking down?) the flags in one of the ports. You can see the white "box" that we love to sit on when we are leaving ports. It's comfy, can support our weight and there is a nice breeze when it's hot out.

 

This one is of....well, you KNOW what it's of...lol

 

The next 2 pics are SORTA of the ship...you can see the side of it! lol The pilot coming down the ladder to get back into the pilot boat after guiding us out of the port of Dover. In the last pic the pilot is waving to our captain.

 

[sue117]

And to round out the total number of pics that we took of INSIDE the ship I must preface this by saying that my husband and I have this "thing" that we do....it started out on our first cruise to Alaska...I was making him pose by all the stuffed things that are outside the stores...you know, the stuffed bears, the stuffed moose, etc. He was getting tired of just standing there nicely, so in one photo he picked the nose of the bear he was standing next to...POOF, instant tradition. So now we have to pick the noses of statues (and as you will see below, art) that we see. It's obnoxious, yes, but it's "our" thing. :) And yes, we have corrupted some of our friends and every now and then they will pick a statue's nose just for us when they are on vacation! :)

 

So anyway, below are some pictures of the art on the Eurodam. If you look in the background you can see some of the ship (yes, I know ,it's pathetic and I DID promise in my last post to do better in the future and take more "ship" photos).

 

Picking a fish's nose...oh and you can see some stairs of the ship in the background!

 

Picking a lady's nose...hey, it's better than fondling something else of this woman! lol

 

Picking Neptune's nose...and there is one of the lounges behind them!

 

Ok, you can't see anything behind this work of art except for the wall in the stairway, but I thought this was a funny picture, and of course we had to pick it's nose!

[falcon10156]

I'd love to go to Poland! I've thought "Why would I ever do a Baltic cruise again now that we've done it once?" Well. THAT is my answer! Because it goes to different ports! lol

 

I know it's a year later, but if anyone has any questions about ports or whatever just ask! :)

 

 

Poland is why we choose this particular date. The Baltic cruises in 2013 go to diffferent ports on each of the summer sailings that we looked at and Poland clinched it for us.

 

Debbie

 

I may have questions and thanks for this again.

[keukalady]

More pics from Russia

 

You do NOT want to have to use one of these! I'm sure you can figure out what this says! lol

 

Shoe condoms at Catherines Palace

 

We Shuffled through Catherine's Palace like this...from room to room wall to wall people.

 

The "wild" tourists waiting to get into Catherine's Palace. These are tourists that aren't on an official tour

 

9:30pm in Russia. The sun is still nice and high and bright!

 

Relaxing on board in Russia

 

 

Hi Sue, I enjoy reading your most informative post. I am curious to know if TJ is your tour agent since your mentioned the guide name.

[brazilgirl]

Love the pics of the statues! Believe it our not , we have a similar tradition! Our daughter stands by the statues and mimics the poses , very funny.

 

Thanks for the great review.

[sue117]

Hi Sue, I enjoy reading your most informative post. I am curious to know if TJ is your tour agent since your mentioned the guide name.

 

I'm not sure if I'm allowed to say or not...but if you check out our roll call before we went you can see some discussion (including mine) on the St Petersburg tours. :)

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1184498&page=12

[Piccolopower]

Just wondering if you can offer some suggestions of what to pack - and what you wished you had.

 

You mentioned that an umbrella was a must....Did you dress in layers most of the trip? More long sleeves than short? Warmest day? Coldest?

 

Thank you so much - we are leaving on July 7 on the Ryndam.

 

Sheila

[sue117]

Just wondering if you can offer some suggestions of what to pack - and what you wished you had.

 

You mentioned that an umbrella was a must....Did you dress in layers most of the trip? More long sleeves than short? Warmest day? Coldest?

 

Thank you so much - we are leaving on July 7 on the Ryndam.

 

Sheila

 

The rain gear was a must. We actually wished that we had a "poncho" instead of a raincoat, because that would have covered our backpack that we were wearing, but I suppose an umbrella will take care of that as well. Layers is always good. The sunniest day was towards the end of the cruise in Sweden, other than that it was pretty overcast. Not raining every day, but not completely sunny either. So yes, layers is always a good thing (and a good backpack or bag that you can throw a layer in when you shed it off!)

Honestly I don't remember the temps, but if you check out the photos you can see what I'm wearing in them and that should give you an idea. :)

 

Have a GREAT cruise! It's a very port intensive cruise and we were very tired at the end of each day, but there were such great things to see at every port! A great experience that I'm sure you will share! :)

[Cruising-along]

I am just seeing this now -- wow! What a great review and I love your pics. :)

 

We want to take one of the Collector's Baltic cruises on the Eurodam in the next couple years. I was happy to see that you did go to Berlin even though it was a long day. I've read others' reports that they didn't think it would be worth it. Our neighbor was born in Berlin so I very much would like to visit her native city. How long was your day in port? I've seen that the ship is there up to 16 hours -- in which case there would be plenty of time to visit Berlin IMO.

 

Thank you again, loved your review!

[sue117]

We want to take one of the Collector's Baltic cruises on the Eurodam in the next couple years. I was happy to see that you did go to Berlin even though it was a long day. I've read others' reports that they didn't think it would be worth it. Our neighbor was born in Berlin so I very much would like to visit her native city. How long was your day in port? I've seen that the ship is there up to 16 hours -- in which case there would be plenty of time to visit Berlin IMO.

 

 

I had never been to Germany (DH was stationed there for 3 years while in the Army in the early 90s) and really wanted to go. It WAS a long day, but worth it in my mind. Now that I've been I probably wouldn't do it again, but for us it was great. We actually thought we had TOO much time walking around Berlin on our own, but we saw all the sights that we wanted to (Wall, Checkpoint Charlie, Hitler's bunker, B-gate, etc). I don't remember exact times, but it had to be a LONG time in port. I remember we were walking around the port after we got back from Berlin and it was getting dark...

I found it SOOO interesting that we were taking the train through EAST Germany (well, you know, what USED to be E Germany). So weird for us since we grew up in the "they are the enemies" era of the Cold War. It was surreal and a great experience (and beautiful countryside too BTW).

And we got a nap on the way back to the ship on the train too so it wasn't all bad! :) Anytime I can take a nap in the middle of the day and not "miss" anything is a good day for me! lol

[Cruising-along]

I had never been to Germany (DH was stationed there for 3 years while in the Army in the early 90s) and really wanted to go. It WAS a long day, but worth it in my mind. Now that I've been I probably wouldn't do it again, but for us it was great. We actually thought we had TOO much time walking around Berlin on our own, but we saw all the sights that we wanted to (Wall, Checkpoint Charlie, Hitler's bunker, B-gate, etc). I don't remember exact times, but it had to be a LONG time in port. I remember we were walking around the port after we got back from Berlin and it was getting dark...

I found it SOOO interesting that we were taking the train through EAST Germany (well, you know, what USED to be E Germany). So weird for us since we grew up in the "they are the enemies" era of the Cold War. It was surreal and a great experience (and beautiful countryside too BTW).

And we got a nap on the way back to the ship on the train too so it wasn't all bad! :) Anytime I can take a nap in the middle of the day and not "miss" anything is a good day for me! lol

 

Thank you! It sounds like our day in Egypt, we took a long bus ride from the port in Alexandria to Cairo. The tour (including bus ride) was 13 hours. And I'm very glad I did it.

 

Neither of us has ever been to Germany, and I feel the same way about seeing Berlin. The long day may be tiring, but IMO worth it.

 

(Besides, how would I explain to my friend that we came so close but didn't see it, lol!)

[Piccolopower]

I have one other question - and thank you for answering my previous one...

 

What do you recommend regarding currency? Just use ATM's? Anywhere that was difficult?

 

thanks,

 

Sheila

[sue117]

I have one other question - and thank you for answering my previous one...

 

What do you recommend regarding currency? Just use ATM's? Anywhere that was difficult?

 

thanks,

 

Sheila

We honestly didn't have a need for too much foreign currency. Most of the stops took Euros, so you can use those for lunch or snacks or whatever. If you need to you can use a credit card. we did change some money for tips and whatnot, but even tips we gave in Dollars. :)

 

I will say that we don't buy much "stuff" when we are on a cruise. Therejust isn't much that we have to have. Bt we did change money on board when we needed to. I guess it wasnt a huge deal for us or I would remember more about it! Lol

 

W didn't need Roubles in Russia either because meals were included with our private tour, and again, we used a credit card in the gift shop to but Russian souvenirs and could give the tip in dollars.

[madera1]

We used the ATM located just off the ship in the terminal in St Petersburg. We did exchange just enough to cover expenses for lunch as it was not included in our private tour. We paid for the tour by credit card and they accepted US dollars for the tip. I did go to an ATM in Copenhagen so I would have a little money as we took a canal boat trip and wanted to take a bus. It was very easy to exchange money. Also there were a few days where Holland announced that they would exchange money before getting to a particular port. I think that was done before Russia.

[Cheekyrn1]

I actually went to my bank Friday and ordered DKK, SEK, Euros, and Rubles because I like have that business taken care of already. I exchanged just enough for waters, postcards, and stamps...everything else I might need will use credit cards...but all of my friends are asking for postcards with stamps from the different countries and from past experiences the foreign post offices insist on their currency...only 3 more weeks!!!!!

[foodgirl]

Loved your review and pictures......we hope to take this cruise someday when our work schedules will allow. We stayed in the same cabin you were in for our recent Eurodam cruise and really enjoyed it.....we like you prefer to relax and not do much so our balcony got much use. Thank you for taking the time to post and share your experiences. I learned a great deal.

[kazu]

Not only was the review wonderful - this has been a wonderful thread for those entertaining this type of cruise - very helpful - thank you for posting, sharing and taking the time to answer questions.:D

[cruiseclues]

Thanks for your good review and photos. :):):):)

[AttilaTheFun]

Thanks for the review and pictures!