dvmvet Posted October 20, 2013 #1 Share Posted October 20, 2013 Hi everyone: My husband and our now 11 yr old son have previously cruised on Freedom and Allure / Carribean. Loved those cruises. We have also last yr cruised the Epic Carribean again, loved the food but only liked the ship. We ended up preferring the ship build on RC rather than Norwegian. Somehow Norwegian tends to have too many things inside the ship, and the interior was darker than what we'd seen on RC ships. We felt more disconnected from our ocean environment on Epic than the RC ships, which had a more light, airy and somehow fanciful feel. So now, we are considering a European trip in July. This is a 13 day cruise on Brilliance, and will take us to Copenhagen, Tallinn, St Petersburg, Helsinki, Stockholm, and Visby Sweden. Our son has loved Adventure Ocean, and this will be present on Brilliance. But now, for the first time, he actually is showing interest in seeing new coutries... and we feel such a trip would afford us so much opportunity to see places we have only ever seen in pictures Can cruise critic people tells us about this Brilliance of the Seas? Is she old, dated feeling? We know she is a smaller ship than what we have been on. But smaller does not mean less interesting. Also,we would like to hear from anyone who has done this cruise for their comments. Thanks. Cruise critic has been a valuable info source in the past DVM vet Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brigbound Posted October 20, 2013 #2 Share Posted October 20, 2013 Hi everyone:My husband and our now 11 yr old son have previously cruised on Freedom and Allure / Carribean. Loved those cruises. We have also last yr cruised the Epic Carribean again, loved the food but only liked the ship. We ended up preferring the ship build on RC rather than Norwegian. Somehow Norwegian tends to have too many things inside the ship, and the interior was darker than what we'd seen on RC ships. We felt more disconnected from our ocean environment on Epic than the RC ships, which had a more light, airy and somehow fanciful feel. So now, we are considering a European trip in July. This is a 13 day cruise on Brilliance, and will take us to Copenhagen, Tallinn, St Petersburg, Helsinki, Stockholm, and Visby Sweden. Our son has loved Adventure Ocean, and this will be present on Brilliance. But now, for the first time, he actually is showing interest in seeing new coutries... and we feel such a trip would afford us so much opportunity to see places we have only ever seen in pictures Can cruise critic people tells us about this Brilliance of the Seas? Is she old, dated feeling? We know she is a smaller ship than what we have been on. But smaller does not mean less interesting. Also,we would like to hear from anyone who has done this cruise for their comments. Thanks. Cruise critic has been a valuable info source in the past DVM vet You are in for a treat! We took this cruise on Brilliance back in June of this year. Brilliance has been refurbished and will not disappoint. Radiance class ships seem to be a happy medium for those that don't want to feel like they are drowning in humanity like on the Oasis class but it certainly won't feel like you are on a tug boat either. :D The best advice I can provide is to become active on your Roll Call thread which I think is already started. This proved to us to be extremely helpful (as there are many who were generous and kind to share their resources as well). I think this may be your sailing's Roll Call. If not, apologies! http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1811841 The other advice would be to research the "Ports of Call" portion of Cruise Critic. There is a wealth of info. available. there (points of interest, DIY excursion activity ideas, currency questions and just about anything else you never thought to 'think' of.... If you have any specific questions that may not come up in your search, post here and I'll do my best to provide an answer. Have a terrific cruise! Brig Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dvmvet Posted October 20, 2013 Author #3 Share Posted October 20, 2013 Thank you!! It sounds like the voyage of a lifetime. Its expensive, but a dream for sure! RB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elainemasey Posted October 20, 2013 #4 Share Posted October 20, 2013 We did a similar cruise on the Jewel of the Seas 2 years ago. DS was 14. He had a blast!!! Besides seeing new places, he met so many kids from England, Ireland etc. Even a little shipboard crush on a girl from Spain. There was about a dozen of them that all hung out together. He is still in touch with many if those kids. Researching the ports on Cruise Critic was invaluable. We did do mostly on our own. I sort of feel like we should have done maybe a short overview tour from the ship and then go off on our own. Just to get a better feel of each country. In Copenhagen we did a Seguay (?) tour that I found on Trip Advisor ( I think) Your son may really like that and it was a fun way to learn about the city. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flick Posted October 20, 2013 #5 Share Posted October 20, 2013 You probably know this but you cannot do St. Petersburg on your own. A Visa is required and because there is sooooo much to see and sooooo breathtaking I would recommend a ships excursion there so you get the full story. Don't, whatever you do miss Peterhof. If you have not been to the countries before I would recommend ship excursions as they have checked out all the contingincies that can occur. You will certainly see a lot of the Ocean from Briliance of the Seas! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elainemasey Posted October 20, 2013 #6 Share Posted October 20, 2013 Flick is correct about St Petersburg but there is much talk on the boards about private St Petersburg tours. That is what we did with Alla tours and there could be some groups forming on your sailings . The private tours do a group visa for your tour. Because we are not HUGE history buffs, we like to go see something, learn about it and move on. We went with Alla and we were able to fine tune the tour to suit our interests. The ships tours seemed to long. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dvmvet Posted October 21, 2013 Author #7 Share Posted October 21, 2013 Wow thank you everyone for so much info and so quickly! RB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brigbound Posted October 21, 2013 #8 Share Posted October 21, 2013 Flick is correct about St Petersburg but there is much talk on the boards about private St Petersburg tours. That is what we did with Alla tours and there could be some groups forming on your sailings . The private tours do a group visa for your tour. Because we are not HUGE history buffs, we like to go see something, learn about it and move on. We went with Alla and we were able to fine tune the tour to suit our interests. The ships tours seemed to long. +1 for Alla Tour's "Grand Tour". As you said, they have a great amount of flexibility. We did the 2 Day Grand Tour which was an immense amount of information but we covered a lot of ground and truly felt we got our money's worth. At times when I needed a break from the info from our guide, I just took the 'whisper' out of my ear and took in the sites at my own pace. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
squadron Posted October 21, 2013 #9 Share Posted October 21, 2013 Flick is correct about St Petersburg but there is much talk on the boards about private St Petersburg tours. That is what we did with Alla tours and there could be some groups forming on your sailings . The private tours do a group visa for your tour. Because we are not HUGE history buffs, we like to go see something, learn about it and move on. We went with Alla and we were able to fine tune the tour to suit our interests. The ships tours seemed to long. Which tour did you do? I am leaning toward the Comfort one when I go. I do know you can get "castled" out. Any one have comments about either the Grand or Comfort tours by Alla? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elainemasey Posted October 22, 2013 #10 Share Posted October 22, 2013 I just read about what sites the ship visited and a lot on the message boards. I emailed a couple of company's with my thoughts and I felt like Alla took time to put something together. The others seemed to be pushing their set tours. If you check your ships message board there could be a private tour forming. For us, it was just myself, DH and DS, the guide and driver. We received a lot of attention. The guide was lovely, her English was wonderful. The driver also very nice but not as fluent... He took a lot of pride and enjoyment in teaching DS Russian words and phrases and encouraging him to use them. You will go through Customs when you leave the ship. The cruise director kept saying how stern the agents always were. DS tried his Russian " good morning" from the ships daily program and got a smile ( I hope that's what he said). The Agent then didn't look at myself or DH and returned all papers and passports to him. The next day, from our driver, he added a few more words and again a smile from customs agent. That Agent though gave me back the documents. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.