Review: 12N Scandinavia & Russia - Celebrity Silhouette 28/May/2015

[pjs678]

Since you had visas for Russia already, did you consider doing SPb on your own? Or at least partially?

[nekzaadvakil]

Since you had visas for Russia already, did you consider doing SPb on your own? Or at least partially?

 

We requested for a multiple entry Russian visa but we were told that cruise passengers do not require a visa, and should be on a registered tour. In hindsight i would definitely do St.P on our own. Everything is quite close to one another.

[Mr. Click]

I keep looking for myself in your pictures.......but I am not there. You are right about the crowds in the Hermitage, it was packed and a good guide made a difference. We were with TJ Tours and our guide did a great job both days keeping us moving without making us feel like we were rushed.

[nekzaadvakil]

After a quick lunch we were off to St. Isaac's cathedral. Personally, I found this cathedral really nice from both outside and inside. The square outside the cathedral was also really nice. It started drizzling slightly but not enough to ruin our visit.

 

 

 

 

The inside of this cathedral was amazing!

 

 

 

 

We had enough time to take some photos and enjoy this cathedral.

[nekzaadvakil]

After that we went to the Yusupov palace and the Rasputin exhibit. Our guide did a good job of explaining the life of Rasputin and how they tried to murder him and how they failed, giving rise to various stories and myths about him. I honestly felt that this could be missed but many others from the group really liked it.

 

Next stop, was another jewel in St. Petersburg, the Savior on the Spilled Blood Church. To be honest I had not read up about this place too much or seen any pictures. And having seen St.Basil's Cathedral in Moscow, which we thought was the symbol of Russia, we really didn't expect this church to be so good!

 

And it was just amazing from outside as well as inside. We were advised to really take care of our belongings here as it was a major tourist attraction which automatically meant more pickpockets and scamsters. Someone from our group was bumped into but nothing was robbed/ stolen.

 

 

 

We were absolutely amazed by the interiors of this church. Wall after wall of intricately detailed mosaics - how did anyone manage to put together these works of art out of small pieces of stones? This was one of the best places we had visited.

 

 

 

 

Here's where we really wished we had some more time. The surrounding area was awesome, lined with little shops selling artefacts and souvenirs, along the canal. We had just 5-10 mins to take some quick pictures and we were back on the bus.

 

I must state again, that it's really unfair for any of us to blame SPB Tours for us feeling a bit rushed. Our guide was very interactive and always asked everyone if we needed more time. But with just so much to see in St.P in just 2 days, we had to make the most of it and move along quickly.

 

I believe Celebrity Cruises is modifying the Baltic Cruise itinerary to 2 overnights in St. P from 2016/2017 onwards and I think cruisers will definitely benefit from this decision.

[nekzaadvakil]

From there we were taken to the Peter & Paul Fortress. By this time I was done with museums (I really prefer spending more time outdoors than inside museums). However even this place was really beautiful and well maintained. However I would have liked to have spent more time at the Church of the spilt blood and less time at this fortress.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The coffins at the bottom of the pictures is where the Tsars were buried. Once we finished from here, we headed back to the ship for some much needed rest.

 

We really managed to see quite a bit in 1 day and we finished immigration and were back on the ship by 6:30 PM. We were also told that there was a slight change in schedule for the next day and that we would start at 7AM. This kind of ruined our plans for the night since we had planned to go on another excursion - the drawbridges night tour. We had booked with MarkoTour and we had to cancel that tour since the tour started at midnight and finished at around 2:30 am. We really didn't want to risk being sleepy the next day, since it was going to be another Looooong day in St.P

[nekzaadvakil]

After grabbing a quick bite, we were yet bummed about cancelling the drawbridges tour. We decided to go for the ship's show. We haven't really mentioned any of the ships entertainment so far, we went to many shows and found them all to be very good. But tonight's show was absolutely amazing. Celebrity Cruises outdid themselves and brought a world class Bolshoi theatre worthy performance to the Silhouette theatre. The singers were brilliant as was the authentic Russian music. The dancers and performers of this group were also outstanding. Hearing the music really made us feel that we were in Russia and the entire packed theatre gave them a standing ovation.

 

 

 

 

 

Grabbed some dessert on the way before heading back to bed. Mint icecream, chocolate ice cream, Russian Fruit truffle. Yum!

 

[nekzaadvakil]

1st June 2015

 

Day 5 of the cruise! After 4 rather long days with little sleep, this was definitely not feeling like those relaxing Mediterranean cruises! But we were yet super excited and happy to see so much in just 4 days.

 

With another 2 days of sight seeing and city exploring in front of us, we were also looking forward to our first sea day. But not before another full day in St.P and Estonia!

 

We woke up really early since we needed to grab some breakfast and head out by 7am. Here's my solution to keeping awake.

 

 

At the outset, I must state that this day turned out to be one of our favourites, inspite of the fact that it wasn't a DIY tour. It seemed like SPB had kept all the really amazing stuff to do (at least for us) on day2 of the tour.

 

Our group was on time and we really enjoyed traveling with these bunch of people who respected others time and didn't keep anyone waiting.

 

We got into the bus and a short ride later we were boarding an open air boat for a river cruise along the river. Since this was a Fairly large boat, we had 5-6 other SPB Tours groups with us too. Great sights but the guide on the cruise was barely audible. In addition to that there was a large group of Chinese tourists who were pretty loud, but it's their holiday as well and we didn't really let it affect us.

 

 

 

 

 

The weather was excellent, nice bright day, cool breeze. We finished the cruise and instantly got into the hydrofoil to go to the Peterhof Gardens. The hydrofoil is similar to the ones that go between HongKong and Macau. It was clean and allowed people to use the restroom as well.

[nekzaadvakil]

We reached Peterhof Gardens and honestly pictures cannot explain how beautiful this place is. The combination of clear blue skies, lush green trees & grass, and flowers of various colours, these Russian Tsars sure knew how & where to live! And kudos to the Russian Govt for maintaining this place so well.

 

Here are some pictures of our walk from the hydrofoil towards the gardens and palace.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[nekzaadvakil]

As we walked through the gardens, we were all amazed with just how large these gardens were. Our guide had the route mapped out well so we got to see lot of really nice installations/ fountains along the way.

 

 

Our guide also had impeccable timing, we were brought to a viewing area in front of the palace at sharp 11:00 hours when the music & fountains are switched on. Amazing experience!

 

 

 

 

 

 

After a thoroughly enjoyable morning which included ALOT of walking, we headed for lunch. A 4-5 minute drive away, we stopped at a cosy restaurant where we were served some authentic Russian fare. SPB tours had tied up with this place since 6-7 other groups were also here for lunch.

[nekzaadvakil]

After lunch, we made our way to our final stop, Catherine's palace and gardens. This too was a major highlight of the trip, beautiful palace and the most amazing gardens.

 

Each room was filled with decadence and luckily for us, this place wasn't too crowded.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[nekzaadvakil]

The walk in the gardens too were amazing. We were informed that the Peterhof gardens had a lot of fountains where as these gardens had none. That was the main difference between the 2.

 

 

 

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We were also fortunate to see a wonderful performance by these 4 guys who were showing us just how good the acoustics of the theatre were. I'm going to try and post a video of them on this review, so everyone can see just how good these guys were. No musical instruments, no words. They made music with just sounds! They really need to be on Russia's got talent!

 

 

And with that it was finally time to head back to this ship. But not before I got my hands on some ice creams!

 

[nekzaadvakil]

SPB also managed to squeeze in some time at a local souvenir shop, and ensured that we were back at the ship on time. Immigration was done quicker and we were back on the ship! We grabbed a bite at the Mast Grill - we absolutely love their burgers. With 4 hectic days behind us, we were now looking at a couple of fairly relaxing days ahead, and also more importantly, time to start exploring the ship and the bunch of activities they had planned.

 

 

 

The ship also had cute souvenirs and artefacts from Russia for everyone to buy on their bazaar day!

 

 

Having munched on the Mast Grill Burger, I focussed on the desserts for dinner. Did I mention that my love for desserts comes a close second after my love for cruising?

 

 

 

After dinner it was time to kick back and enjoy the sailing from our (rather cold) balcony.

 

 

Next up: Tallinn, Estonia

[prish]

We'd booked two cars with Avis at Fredericia, like with Mr Click we were also told it was a 5-10 minute walk to their office to pick up the vehicles. On arrival we found it was about 4-5 kms away, we couldn't find taxis and tried calling them for instructions but they wouldn't answer, so we started walking but got conflicting directions. The rest of my family, esp DH and my my brother were quite irritated, they also had urgent work related emails they needed to take care of and decided they'd rather stay back and catch up on work. We finally managed to get through to Avis after about an hour and cancelled the cars. They weren't too happy but I do feel they should have been upfront right from the beginning. We wasted almost an hour trying to contact them to figure out how to get to their office.

 

We ended up staying in town and walking around, my niece and nephew decided to rent bikes. I really wanted to visit Jelling and was disappointed we couldn't, so that was a bit of a let-down. But we did enjoy the festive atmosphere in town, also the send-off at sail away, that was really fun:)

 

BTW, JoAnn Mccurdy also rented from Sixt and they had trouble returning their car, apparently the office was closed in the afternoon and there wasn't even a drop-ff box for the keys. Luckily there was an Asian woman at a laundromat nearby who helped them, she also called them a taxi to get back to port.

 

This is only the second year cruise ships are docking at Fredericia and IMO they're probably still trying to figure out how to go about handling all these people and their requirements.

[prish]

Thanks. Just used my iPhone 5S camera. No filters, no touch ups, just simple pictures. The places were really picturesque.

 

Wow Nick, I have an iPhone 5S too but am no way as good, you have the eye too, am enjoying your write-up as well as the pictures, thanks!

 

BTW, I'm sorry your SPB guide wasn't quite up to the mark - must have been an aberration,we had an excellent one, as did several of the others we spoke to.

 

We saw the ballet "Sleeping Beauty" at the Mariinsky the evening of Day 1 at St Petes, a truly wonderful experience, though I was sorry to have missed the show onboard that evening. Wish Celebrity had scheduled it for another evening, though maybe they got local artists to perform.

[ginak1112]

Wow Nick, I have an iPhone 5S too but am no way as good, you have the eye too, am enjoying your write-up as well as the pictures, thanks!

 

BTW, I'm sorry your SPB guide wasn't quite up to the mark - must have been an aberration,we had an excellent one, as did several of the others we spoke to.

 

We saw the ballet "Sleeping Beauty" at the Mariinsky the evening of Day 1 at St Petes, a truly wonderful experience, though I was sorry to have missed the show onboard that evening. Wish Celebrity had scheduled it for another evening, though maybe they got local artists to perform.

 

Hi. I have booked SPB as well as bought tickets to the mariinsky ballet. SPB will be providing transportation for us to and from the ballet. Did you use them as well? What time did you get back to the ship and what time were you picked up? I am thinking that we wont have too much time to turnaround. Yes, I did hear that they use local artists for the show so it wouldn't work on the 2nd night unfortunately. Thanks for any info.

[ginak1112]

Thank you Nick for this wonderful review! I am getting excited for my upcoming trip with my husband and daugher. We have booked 2 day SPB and a tour of Warnemunde/Wismar as well as a walking tour of Tallinn. I am thinking about doing our own thing in Stockholm and Helsinki like you did. We would like to go to the Vasa museum and see the palace and old town in Stockholm along with any other important sites. What type of transportation do you recommend to accomplish this. In Helsinki, I know that there is a tram, according, to Rick Steves that does a loop of all the main sites. Any advice is appreciated. Thanks, Gina

[nekzaadvakil]

Thank you Nick for this wonderful review! I am getting excited for my upcoming trip with my husband and daugher. We have booked 2 day SPB and a tour of Warnemunde/Wismar as well as a walking tour of Tallinn. I am thinking about doing our own thing in Stockholm and Helsinki like you did. We would like to go to the Vasa museum and see the palace and old town in Stockholm along with any other important sites. What type of transportation do you recommend to accomplish this. In Helsinki, I know that there is a tram, according, to Rick Steves that does a loop of all the main sites. Any advice is appreciated. Thanks, Gina

 

Hi Gina,

 

You can't go wrong with the 2 day SPB deluxe tour and the one in Warnemunde ( I suggest you take the one with the concentration camp + Berlin).

 

For Stockholm, we bought the 24 hour ACCESS card which gives you access to all public transport. There are buses right outside the terminal which takes you to all the places you'd like to visit (Gamlastan, Vasa museum, etc). We found it very easy as everything was in english and I hardly needed to use Google maps.

 

At Helsinki, just walk out of the cruise terminal to the tram stop. There are 2 kiosks. Press the British flag for english and you can choose a single tram ticket, a return ticket or a day pass. We bought the day pass for 8 Euros each. The tram stops are very convenient.

 

I'm sure you will have a wonderful cruise. The itinerary, ship and staff are all excellent. We were also very fortunate to have a very good bunch of cruisers on our cruise.

[nekzaadvakil]

We'd booked two cars with Avis at Fredericia, like with Mr Click we were also told it was a 5-10 minute walk to their office to pick up the vehicles. On arrival we found it was about 4-5 kms away, we couldn't find taxis and tried calling them for instructions but they wouldn't answer, so we started walking but got conflicting directions. The rest of my family, esp DH and my my brother were quite irritated, they also had urgent work related emails they needed to take care of and decided they'd rather stay back and catch up on work. We finally managed to get through to Avis after about an hour and cancelled the cars. They weren't too happy but I do feel they should have been upfront right from the beginning. We wasted almost an hour trying to contact them to figure out how to get to their office.

 

Geeta, this is so sad to read. It looks like Avis completely ruined your day. I find it hard to imagine that large companies would struggle to get this right when smaller family owned businesses were so good!

 

Its a real pity since our trip to Egeskov castle turned out to be one of our favorite days, very relaxed. I hope other readers can learn from our experiences.

[nekzaadvakil]

2nd June 2015

 

Day 5 of the cruise was in Tallinn, Estonia! My parents and sister had been on a similar itinerary a few years ago and they had loved this port of call. We were told that this 'old town' was really nice and just a walking distance away from the ship.

 

I was expecting a sleepy old town, but that would soon be changed as Tallinn is a wonderful mix of old world charm but is also very modern.

 

The view from our balcony got us very excited to get out and we were happy to be out doing our own thing after 2 days of planned tours.

 

 

 

We were also glad to see our ship's cousin, Royal Caribbean's Serenade of the Seas right next to us (port side). There were 2 other ships docked as well, but the town didn't feel crowded at all.

 

 

 

The silhouette was the largest and best looking ship amongst the lot, although I may be slightly biased in my views (remember this ship is our firstborn child)

 

 

Right outside there are rows of small shops selling souvenirs and there is also wifi. Once you walk past the shops, there is a Segway rental and the Tallinn balloon ride as well which just goes up and gives you panoramic views of the city.

 

The walk to the old town is fairly easy and one just needed to follow the directions/ or the crowd. It was also a beautiful day in Tallinn, cold and clear.

 

[nekzaadvakil]

We loved the walk to the old town as we got to see the wonderful scenery of this port.

 

 

 

In 10 minutes were were at the entrance of the old town.

 

 

 

 

[nekzaadvakil]

We walked along the cobblestone roads, with plenty of shops, cafes along it. There was a carnival like atmosphere and it really felt like a happy place. It's the kind of place where you can just wander around without getting lost, and unwind.

 

 

 

 

 

We continued walking right to the other end of the old town from where one just had to cross to a huge mall called Viru for some retail therapy. DW was really happy with the shopping here, as well as in the old town.

 

 

[nekzaadvakil]

We also got to try some of the 'local' delicacies like Mint Magnum ice cream, lion bar, basically anything sweet that I don't get back home in India.

 

 

 

 

 

Also came across these doggy treats and felt very homesick. I lost my golden retriever, Magnus, 4 years ago and there wasn't a single holiday that we went on which didn't include buying these treats for him. :-(

 

[nekzaadvakil]

We had absolutely no idea how quickly the day had just gone by. It was a thoroughly relaxing day, even though we were on our feet for 5-6 hours in a row. It was time to say goodbye to this lovely port.

 

 

 

 

 

We also managed to get some really nice pictures of our gorgeous ship.

 

 

We then laid back in our room, opened the veranda door and played some UNO cards with our group. DW and I ended up winning most of the games.

[nekzaadvakil]

Dinner tonight was at the Oceanview. There was a huge spread of cupcakes (of different flavours) which were seriously calling out to me!

 

 

I only tried some of them and they were all amazing.

 

 

Amazing views from the Oceanview cafe as well.

 

 

 

Went back for some more cupcakes.

 

 

Post dinner we went to the casino and played some slots and roulette. The casino was great fun, filled with people unlike the Mediterranean cruises where there were hardly any people in the casino. DW won $80 in slots while I lost around the same amount in roulette!

 

With a much required sea day ahead of us, we said goodbye to Estonia!

 

 

5 down, 4 more to go!

 

Next up: 1st Sea Day!