Baltic Cruise with the Eclipse August 16 - the best ever

[sonia2509]

This was our 6th cruise, the second with Celebrity, as I had booked this cruise on the Solstice last November. We previously have cruised Princess and one with Norwegian Cruise Lines. The moment we embarked on the Solstice last November, we fell in love with the S Class Celebrity Ships, and we were hoping the Eclipse would be just as good. The Eclipse if possible was even better and I am hoping one day she comes down to Australia and we can go on her again.

We arrived in London, 4 days before the cruise and spent those days touring London. We had organised a private transfer for the four of us from London to Southampton with PNK Executive Travel Ltd (a small family company from Southampton) who were much more reasonable in price than other private transfer companies recommend on Cruise Critic. Our transfer was promptly there at 9.00am and we arrived in Southampton just before 11.00am. The porters were there waiting to take our bags, as soon as we opened our car door.

We had booked Concierge Class and my cousin and his wife had booked a Verandah room, as we were Concierge we could embark whenever we wanted to. My cousin was advised that he could embark at 2.00pm, after speaking to staff at the cruise terminal they embarked with us, and we were sitting at the Martini Bar at 11.20am. We also upgraded to the Premium Beverage Package.

From the moment we boarded to the moment we finished the cruise, we could not fault anything. Our room was in a perfect location, and was always kept spotless. The Eclipse like her sister ship The Solstice is such an elegant ship and the artwork throughout the ship even for me who is not an art lover is done beautifully. The ship never feels crowded even on the five sea days we had on this cruise.

The service from our Stateroom attendants, to the bar staff, the Café Del Bacio staff and even the bathroom staff was always friendly, smiling and helpful. A few times I saw a few passengers berate the staff for taking too long to take their coffee order etc, some of these passengers need to step into the shoes of the staff and maybe then they will treat the staff a little bit better.

The food in the MDR was superb, yes there is only 3 courses now and the serving sizes are smaller and if you are still hungry you can always order extra plate. We had fixed dinning at 8.30pm and after the second night, our Sommelier – Tony knew exactly what wine we liked and it was poured for us a soon as we sat down. Our waiters Mario and Jason service was always fast and friendly.

The food in the buffet was also fresh and lots of choices. Some sea days it was hard to find a table for four, but there is always tables outside if we could not find one inside. We ate at Murano on the first night, and it was good, but our favourite speciality dining was Tuscan Grille. We enjoyed it so much we went there twice for dinner and once for lunch.

Chic night was perfect for us as my husband does not like to wear suits, he always wore long pants and a short sleeve dress shirt most nights but on Chic night he wore a long sleeve dress shirt. As most of the passengers were from the United Kingdom, there were many tuxedo’s and formal gowns, but we never felt underdressed. I cannot understand why the biggest complaint from many previous Celebrity passengers that this was a big mistake by Celebrity, and that they will never cruise Celebrity again because of this. Go ahead and cruise with another company there will be many more new people who will be cruising with Celebrity in the future who will take your place, remember “clothes don’t make a man”

We booked our own shore tours, in Copenhagen we booked with a three hour walking tour with “Copenhagen Fairytale Tours”. Stockholm was wet, cold and windy and we used the hop and off ferry to visit the Abba Museum and the Old Town. Tallnin we did our own walking tour in the old town, St Petersburg we completed a private tour with Insider Tours (which I have reviewed on Northern Europe Board) and Berlin we did a private tour with Insider Tours.

Disembarkation was quick as well, we were due to disembark at 8.15am as we had a private transfer to St Pancras station with PNK Executive Travel. They called our number at 7.45am and we were waiting for our transfer with our bags at 7.55am. The most efficient embarkation and disembarkation we have ever seen.

Prior to the cruise I was starting to worry that sailing with Celebrity again we were going to be disappointed with some of the very negative points I read on the Cruise Critic forum regarding Celebrity cruises and their changes. Every time I read a bad review, I would think remember this is only one or two passenger on a cruise ship that hold over 2,800 people, and probably over 80% of people do not read or subscribe to Cruise Critic and take a lot of the negative comments with a grain of salt. I

We could not fault Celebrity and its beautiful ship, and have booked another cruise to the South Pacific in April 2017 and are hoping to do a Panama Canal cruise in late 2018 with Celebrity!

[FlorenceItaly]

Wonderful review! Thanks for sharing. We will be on the Eclipse in January. She will be our first S class ship, previously sailing 4 times on the M class.

 

 

 

 

Marie

[LuvCruzn4Evr]

We absolutely love the Eclipse!!! It's great to hear someone else sing their praises. We feel the staff is amazing, service is impeccable imho and can't wait to get back onboard in December. It is our home away from home this year :D:D:D.

[Texed]

Sonia,

 

Thank you sooooooo much for posting. :)

[MustBCruzn]

Thank you for your great review. I'm so glad you enjoyed your cruise, the ship and Celebrity. It's sometimes easy to forget that the very vocal nay-sayers are a minority of the passengers--or CC posters. :D

[H2OH!]

glad you had a great time. We plan to do the Baltics in 2018!

[Rkoz1122]

Great review! We love the Celebrity S class ships too! Maybe we will see you in the Tuscan Grill on a future cruise :).

 

 

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[riclop]

Thanks for the review.

[TeaBag]

Lovely to read such a positive and appreciative review. We did the Baltics on Eclipse last year and absolutely loved i too.. We were lucky in Stockholm in that we got great weather. Our very rainy day was in Copenhagen.

[Lastdance]

glad you had a great time. We plan to do the Baltics in 2018!

 

If you can spare the money, take two days with in St. Petersburg with SPB Tours. Do this by yourselves and not with even a small group. We had our own guide and driver. Never did we have to wait in line for anything! We even had an entire restaurant to ourselves. i can't tell you what a truly magnificent time we had, and my DH was so excited about each day. Originally, he thought I was paying way too much, but i told him to just wait and see...it was the very best of everything in St. Petersburg, Russia, and we will NEVER forget it!!! It is the only tour i have paid that much for, yet it has still been our favorite. We are by no means wealthy, but received a tip from a friend...

Edited October 3, 2016 by Lastdance

[sonia2509]

I have written my experience of our tour in St Petersburg with Insider Tours on the Europe board. It was a private tour as well, and it is a very honest opinion of the tour. I highly recommend Insiders Tours

 

 

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[Clarea]

Thanks for the feedback.

[texasgirl29]

Thanks for the review -- we did the Baltics on Eclipse last year and it was everything you said. I also had concerns prior to boarding our first Celebrity cruise after reading all the moaning and groaning on the Celebrity board but we found the passengers to be happy, down to earth people and the staff was friendly and outgoing. (You can see my review with lots of photos, link in my signature.)

 

I'm looking forward to next June to be reunited with the Eclipse.

 

JoAnn

[CashewNuts]

If you can spare the money, take two days with in St. Petersburg with SPB Tours. Do this by yourselves and not with even a small group. We had our own guide and driver. Never did we have to wait in line for anything! We even had an entire restaurant to ourselves. i can't tell you what a truly magnificent time we had, and my DH was so excited about each day. Originally, he thought I was paying way too much, but i told him to just wait and see...it was the very best of everything in St. Petersburg, Russia, and we will NEVER forget it!!! It is the only tour i have paid that much for, yet it has still been our favorite. We are by no means wealthy, but received a tip from a friend...

 

I'll second your recommendation! We had 3 days there with SPB Tours in August, taken around everywhere in a shiny new black Mercedes sedan, awaiting us each day just outside immigration!

 

NEVER queued (there seemed to be an understanding that the tour guide of the front group in an hour long queue would allow a guide with just two visitors to go in front of them!), excellent driver and fabulous guide, with perfect English. Table always reserved for us at lunch (included)! Saw so much more (including 2 or 3 little detours we asked for on the spur of the moment) and spent so less time queueing and sitting in traffic!

[trivia addict]

Agree with previous posters. A private tour with one of the companies mentioned is the way to go in SPB.

We did a RCCL cruise this past summer and booked a two day ( with optional night tour) with Alla tours. Four if us did this, while the ther six in our group did ship tours. We saw more, had quicker entry, had a private guide and van, and paid less than the six. While I highly reccomend Alla, I have read that all of the others have very satisfied customers as well.

The key is to book a PRIVATE tour! You will not regret it. SPB is amazing!

[Deep Thinking Fish]

Good reviews here everyone, very useful.

 

We're doing the Baltic in 2017 and domestic consideration is being given by one member of the household as to whether Moscow is an option whilst in St Petersburg for two days. Any thoughts on whether this is viable or just a daft idea?

 

Thank you!

[CashewNuts]

Good reviews here everyone, very useful.

 

We're doing the Baltic in 2017 and domestic consideration is being given by one member of the household as to whether Moscow is an option whilst in St Petersburg for two days. Any thoughts on whether this is viable or just a daft idea?

 

Thank you!

 

To answer your question - my thoughts are that it is just a daft idea! If you are in St Petersburg for 2 days, spend 2 days in St Petersburg!

 

3 days in St Petersburg? Viable, doable - yes - on the second day if you dock in St Petersburg for 3 days. You can look at SPB Tours who offer such a tour - and ships do too (ours did). You cannot do it yourself, without a visa.

 

Even then timings make it a long day, though! ... and, believe me, there are plenty of very major sites to see in St Petersburg even if you spend 3 days there. We decided there were plenty of places to visit in St Petersburg over the full 3 days, when we cruised in August (see my post #14) - we were far from disappointed ... but exhausted!

 

As with us, you are able to visit Moscow from the UK without a Transatlantic air fare - and may be able to "do" Moscow separately. We decided that we will visit Moscow "soon" - and pay for the visa!

 

But, when it comes down to it, everyone to their own. Whatever ... enjoy, just don't miss the ship because of delayed transport back from Moscow.

[sonia2509]

I am not sure if I would do Moscow even if it was a 3 day stop in St Petersburg. I have written a review on our Insider Tours in SPB as well. We only did a moderate tour and we were exhausted after these 2 days. It would be a very long day, but we did do Berlin and it was also very long day, but we had a sea days between these 2 ports so we were able to rest.

 

 

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Edited October 11, 2016 by sonia2509

[scubacruiserx2]

Good reviews here everyone, very useful.

 

We're doing the Baltic in 2017 and domestic consideration is being given by one member of the household as to whether Moscow is an option whilst in St Petersburg for two days. Any thoughts on whether this is viable or just a daft idea?

 

Thank you!

 

Thinking of going to Moscow from St. Petersburg ? We did a day trip there and It's reviewed here complete with photos and videos : http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1927687

 

This is the first installment :

 

 

We would like to share how we did it and explore options on how to visit this great city.

Because we were staying in St. Petersburg, we chose a "Day Trip".

We found a guide on the internet and contacted her. We asked her the best way and day to visit Moscow. We agreed Saturday would be good and the Sapsan train is the preferred way to travel. We booked our e-tickets for the train on the internet.

The day began early with an accuweather check. It showed brilliant sun all day - in St. Petersburg (1 of only 35 days a year) and rain all day in Moscow. Walking to the Metro station we began the long ride down to the underground train.

 

 

 

 

 

The early morning Metro

 

 

 

 

This is the Moscow train station in St. Petersburg

 

 

 

 

And here is the Sapsan at rest

 

 

 

 

 

After scanning our tickets and a walk through a metal detector ( which we set off) we walked to wagon #3. Showing our passports to the attendant , we were seated by 0630 and ready to ride !

 

 

 

 

 

 

We also did a Baltic tour on the Eclipse this summer with photos and videos and the St. Petersburg part begins here : http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2372103&page=15

 

 

We have visited SPB five times before this cruise and we would recommend that if you wish to visit Moscow , do it before or after the cruise and spend a night or two . You can save about 10 hours commuting time and see a lot in SPB , by staying there while on the cruise .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited October 11, 2016 by scubacruiserx2

[JanetNDave]

I have written my experience of our tour in St Petersburg with Insider Tours on the Europe board. It was a private tour as well, and it is a very honest opinion of the tour. I highly recommend Insiders Tours

 

 

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We are thinking of using Insider Tours for St Petersburg and Berlin too. I'd love to hear more details of what you did on your tours. Not sure if that info is in the review you wrote because I can't seem to find it. Can you post a link to it or tell me how to find it. Thanks!

[sonia2509]

It looks my thread was deleted. I am not sure why. I would highly recommend Insider Tours, they organised the tour around what we would wanted to see and we were very happy with them. St Petersburg was the port I wanted to see the most but it was not my favourite port. It is a very full on 2 days and you are exhausted with information overload once it is finished. If you have any questions I am happy to answer them for you

 

 

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[JanetNDave]

It looks my thread was deleted. I am not sure why. I would highly recommend Insider Tours, they organised the tour around what we would wanted to see and we were very happy with them. St Petersburg was the port I wanted to see the most but it was not my favourite port. It is a very full on 2 days and you are exhausted with information overload once it is finished. If you have any questions I am happy to answer them for you

 

 

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I have a million questions but I'll just ask a few:

 

1. In St. Petersburg, what things did you change from their standard tour? I feel like I want to see everything they list but wonder if some of us may get overloaded with beautiful palace/church/museums. I also like to see the local's everyday life when I visit places but not sure what to ask for except the subway.

 

2. Did you think the long day in Berlin was worth it or is it too much bus time? Is the 6 hours in Berlin walking around or mostly bus with getting off just for photo ops. And which Berlin tour did you pick? I can't decide on that either.

 

3. What did you do for meals - quick snack stops or any sit-down meals at restaurants? Did you arrange any of that beforehand or just go with what your tour guide suggested that day?

 

4. Were your guides really good? I don't know if we can request a specific one but if you remember their names, let me know.

 

Any other tips are welcome. I'll get in touch with Insider and see what they have to say too. Thanks!

[sonia2509]

I have a million questions but I'll just ask a few:

 

1. In St. Petersburg, what things did you change from their standard tour? I feel like I want to see everything they list but wonder if some of us may get overloaded with beautiful palace/church/museums. I also like to see the local's everyday life when I visit places but not sure what to ask for except the subway.

 

2. Did you think the long day in Berlin was worth it or is it too much bus time? Is the 6 hours in Berlin walking around or mostly bus with getting off just for photo ops. And which Berlin tour did you pick? I can't decide on that either.

 

3. What did you do for meals - quick snack stops or any sit-down meals at restaurants? Did you arrange any of that beforehand or just go with what your tour guide suggested that day?

 

4. Were your guides really good? I don't know if we can request a specific one but if you remember their names, let me know.

 

Any other tips are welcome. I'll get in touch with Insider and see what they have to say too. Thanks!

 

Hi Janet

 

My answer to your questions are below - both in St Petersburg and Berlin we did private tours. We were two Australian couples and normally never do organised tours as we like to do our own thing and not be shuffled through museums, churches etc in a big group. I chose Insider Tours firstly as there communication was excellent and my emails were answered promptly, and they were the only one of the four tour companies that I emailed that were willing to change their tours to suit us. They definitely were not the cheapest especially with Berlin. My husband is not interested in churches and museums and palaces and this is why we looked at something different as all the tours go to the same churches and museums etc.

 

1. The only museum we saw was the Hermitage and this was on the second day (our last day) in the afternoon and we were only in there for about 2 hours, but in that 2 hours we saw so much as our tour guide (Natalia) knew exactly what was the best to see and we saw just the highlights. We did not go to any churches but we did see the Church of Spilled Blood from a bridge. Our first stop was the Farmers Market and then we went to Youpov Palace (which was much bigger than what I was expected and by the end of it I just wanted to get out of the Palace and sit down). That afternoon we went to the Summer Palace and saw the fountains and then walked the gardens which was wonderful. We then took a Subway ride between approximately 4 stations, and saw the wonderful mosaics in the Subway - we enjoyed the afternoon much more than the morning. The next day we walked Nesky Prospect and the back streets of Nesky Prospect, we then took a private canal ride - this was my favourite part of our St Petersburg - there was only 4 of us on the canal boat, and it was a beautiful morning and coming out of the canal into the main part of St Petersburg was amazing- they sometimes call St Petersburg "the Venice of the North" and I could have stayed on that canal boat all day and just watch the beautiful scenery. We then went to the Vodka Museum and had Vodka museum and tasted Salted Herring. That afternoon we went to the Hermitage Museum. If any places had a line up to get in, we never had to wait till get in as Natalia would talk to the person in the entry, and we would automatically get in ahead of everyone else in the line. Natalia should also recommend places for you to see based on what your interests are. The Subway and Private Canal tours were the highlights of these two days.

2. Berlin - is it worth - most definitely. Again we took a private tour and it was expensive but so so worth it. The car picked up from the port and we traveled in a very comfortable Mercedes van. It took us two and half hours to get to Berlin. We met our guide (Theo) who was Australian like us, and he asked us what we wanted to see. All four of us were interested in Pre/post WW2 and Cold War, and our tour started from this moment. He is fantastic in the way he brought history of this beautiful city to life. He spoke and show photos to show what that part of the city looked like in the past and now. We walked and the van would follow us and if walking would take to long to get to the next stop we would hop in the van and within 5 minutes we were in the next stop. We saw so much in Berlin and many times i was bought to tears in the stories he told of people trying to escape East Berlin, the torture of people by the SS etc. Berlin was our favourite port and I think is due to the wonderful tour guide we had in Theo. It was not a cheap day - it was $300 USD each but so worth it, I would highly recommend going to Berlin but if you can on a private tour, not in a bus of 30 people as you would not see everything.

3. In St Petersburg, Natalia booked us to eat at a Russian restaurant on the first day and then in the restaurant in the Vodka museum, the food was okay. As the day is so full on we did not have time to stop for a snack. In Berlin, Theo took us to a cafe at a major department store, where we ate German sausages, sauerkraut and German beer, this is what we wanted as we did not want to go to a restaurant and waste time. We did stop and have a coffee at a cafe just across the road for Checkpoint Charlie and enjoyed just sitting there for about 20 minutes and people watched.

4. Natalia was our guide for St Petersburg and she is also the owner of Insider Tours. Her english was excellent, and she knew her history of Russia, but we came away after two days listening to her talk with information overload. Theo is a freelance guide and is subcontracted by Insider tours and I think we were just very lucky to have him as our guide.

 

We were very happy with Insider Tours they were a very professional tour guide company and I have no hesitation recommending them.

 

A couple of tips, really research what you want to see in St Petersburg (tripadvisor and virtual tourist) are two websites that are great help, that way you see what you are interested in seeing. Berlin is worth the long day especially if you can get Theo as your tour guide. If you can do a private tour it is worth the extra cost especially in Berlin.

 

Good luck with you planning I would love you to come back and let me know what you have decided to book. Apologies for such a long reply, but anymore questions please ask.

 

Sonia

[JanetNDave]

Sonia, thanks so much for all the info. It's exactly what I was looking for! I will continue with my research and let you know what we decide. I think I am all set to go with Insider tours but there are 7 of us so I will have to convince the others to join us. I think one of the couples is nervous about St. Petersburg and would prefer to do the ship tour but there is no way I'm doing that! I may have more questions as I'm planning. Thanks again.

[grandmarb]

do you know if anyone went to Moscow on the tour and should we?Also how was the weather