Baltic Cruise May 19, 2017 Review II New and Improved!

[luvtravel88]

A couple of other interesting pictures...

 

Subway and Coke are everywhere!!

 

After lunch our van picked us back up and we were taken to Peterhoff Palace where we walked along the beautiful gardens behind the Palace. There are 148 fountains in the gardens. We were there about an hour and a half. Irina gave us a lot of information and history about the Tsar’s and how they lived.

 

This area was jaw- droppingly beautiful.

 

 

 

 

Irina then took us to a small souvenir shop and gave us a few minutes to shop.

[luvtravel88]

We then headed to the Church of Spilled Blood. We all filed out of the van and waited for Irina to go get our tickets. She came back to say that the church was closed for a service but would reopen in 15 minutes. She asked if we wanted to stay and wait and come back on Wednesday. It was late and we were all tired, so we decided to come back.

We were then driven to a very large gift shop and were met by a few people at the door offering us each a shot of vodka. At the back of the shop was Alla’s counter where we all got in line to pay for our Alla tours.

Once we had all taken care of our payment, we left to head back to the ship. We had to stop at Immigration to turn our Immigration slip back in. When you go through Immigration, they put a white slip of paper inside your passport. They take this paper back from you when you go back through Immigration in the evening, so be sure you keep it. They don't give you that slip of paper on the subsequent days.

 

We boarded the ship about 6:45.

We had dinner in the dining room and complimented the waiter on the pacing of the meal.

We were to bed very early as we had to get up really early tomorrow.

[luvtravel88]

Sunday, May 28 Moscow

We met as a group at 5:20 at the Martini Bar and went through Immigration together. It went much faster and took us about 15 minutes. There weren’t a lot of people up that early. We were out at the port gate by 5:45.

As we were leaving the ship, I was in front of DH and began walking to the port gate with another Mom. I realized there was a bunch of commotion behind me, so I turned to see what was going on. I saw several of the ship’s workers going to help someone on the gangway. I heard someone say, someone fell. Then I watched them help DH up. I went running to see what was going on. DH had hit his head on the low door frame at the doorway of the ship and had hit it so hard, that it knocked him down. His cabin card fell into the Baltic. Amazingly, they had another key card for him in under a minute!

 

The staff wanted him to go to the Medical office, but he said he couldn’t or he’d miss Moscow. He was a bit dazed for a minute but we walked on. Once we got to the train, I gave him some advil and other than complaining that his neck hurt, he was OK. He had a red splotch on his forehead, where he hit the door frame, but within an hour, that was gone. He was really lucky.

 

 

We were supposed to be picked up in the parking lot outside of Immigration 6:00. At 6:30, someone called Alla and we were told they were on their way.

We were picked up a few minutes later and were taken to the train station where the woman in charge was running through the train station to get us to our track. Someone finally yelled for her to slow down and she slowed to a fast walk. We arrived at our track about 6:55. The train was leaving at 7:00. We were all allowed to board the train after several of us began to rebel, when the young guide with us thought she was going to call everyone’s name and have them board the train as she called them. Someone came around and checked our passports instead of using tickets after the train had gotten on its way.

The train left on time at 7:00 and arrived in Moscow at 10:45. We dozed a bit, had a snack on the train, read and watched the landscape go by. Most of what we passed was forest with an occasional small village.

We were met by our guide Lena, as we got off the train. We boarded our 16 person van and began our day in Moscow. There were people and cars everywhere. We spent about 20 minutes in traffic and hardly moved, so Lena suggested we get off the van and take the subway to the Kremlin. She said our armory museum tickets were times and we were going to be late. We all agreed although that meant that we wouldn’t get a driving tour of the city. We thought that was OK as we’d get to spend more time at the Kremlin.

 

 

We took the subway to the Kremlin stop. We went through security which took some time, as the crowds were huge.

 

State Historical Museum

 

We walked into the Kremlin grounds through the Nikolskaya Tower

 

The armory is not a military museum, but rather where clothing of the Tsars and Empresses are housed, where past crowns are exhibited, there’s a collection of carriages and a large room of gifts that had been given to Russia from other countries.

Pictures weren't allowed, but I just couldn't resist this! Don't judge.:)

Tomb of the Unknown Soldier along the Kremlin Wall

 

When we left the Armory, we went into the Cathedral Square and went into the Church of Dormition. It was a beautiful church.

There were several churches in the Kremlin and we went into two of them.

Annunciation Cathedral

[luvtravel88]

Hi Everyone!

I've been out of town and just returned, so I'll start working on this review again. Hopefully I'll have it finished in a few days. Thanks for following along!

 

We walked down to the Tsar’s cannon and the Tsar’s bell and walked through some of the gardens.

Tsar's Cannon

Tsar's Bell with DH and Myself.

Kremlin Gardens

We went to a Ukranian restaurant for lunch. We had chicken noodle soup, some beef dumplings with sour cream and a scoop of raspberry ice cream.

We left there and walked into Red Square, after we had gone through security again. We were given a bunch of information about the area and were given about 15 minutes to wonder around and take pictures.

We all wanted to take pictures in front of St. Basel’s Cathedral so that was how we spent most of our time. I didn’t wander too far away from that area and was really sorry that I didn’t as there were other things to see in Red Square.

St. Basels

I saw Lenin’s tomb on the way out and was able to take a picture of it, but wasn’t able to get up really close.

Lenin's Tomb

The tomb is only open from 10:00-1:00 so we could not have gone in even if we'd had the time.

Red Square was quite large and there were probably other areas that I didn’t get to see. Lena pointed out buildings around Red Square and we soon left the area.

We walked a couple of blocks and into GUMS Department store. The ceiling looked much like the ceiling is the shopping mall in Milan. It was quite beautiful. We all stopped at an ice cream kiosk and had an ice cream.

[luvtravel88]

Lena then took us to the subway station and we boarded a train and went down past several stops. Once we got off, we looked around the station then got back on the train. We then got off for a few minutes at 4 stations to see the subway art as each one was different.

 

There were not many references to Lenin around Moscow and there were none of Stalin.

 

 

Each station stop was different and more beautiful than the last.

 

Our last stop was at the train station, and we had a few minutes to grab

 

something to eat to take on the train. I got us 2 stollie pies and a merinque.

Lena took us to our train platform and helped us to all get aboard. The train attendants put in our passport numbers on the platform this time, so we were finished with them.

The train left promptly at 7:40pm. We ate our dinner, John had a couple of beers and we dozed on the way back. The train arrived at 11:30 and we were met by the same red headed girl that led us to the train this morning. We walked quite a way to our bus, so far that someone muttered under their breath that we could have walked to the port.

We did get to see some of St. Petersburg by night, which was also very beautiful.

 

 

We boarded our bus and drove first to the Eclipse to drop off 4 passengers and then back to the Silhouette. After going back through Immigration, and boarding our ship, we got back to our cabin about 12:45. After showers and getting ready for bed, we had our lights out about 1:30.

[easyboy]

Great review and awesome photos!

[luvtravel88]

Thank you Easyboy! Glad you're enjoying it!!

 

Monday, May 29 St. Petersburg

Today was beautiful and sunny.

We got up at 7:00, ate a quick breakfast and were at the Martini Bar at 8:00am. We walked off the gangway together and went pretty quickly through Immigration and we were waiting for our bus at 8:15.

Irina told us we wouldn’t leave until 8:45, so we stood and waited for 30 minutes. They came right on time at 8:45 and off we went for our canal ride at 9:30.

The boat ride took us up and down the river and into some smaller canals. Irina and another guide pointed out buildings of interest on each side of the river. The ride last an hour and we were back on land by 10:30.

Peter and Paul Fortress from the water

We reboarded our van and headed to Peter and Paul Fortress. We first went into the church where all of the Tsars and Empresses are buried. It was a very pretty church and was quite crowded. There were many places on the floor that were taken up by crypts, making it difficult to move.

There was a small room at the back where Tsar Nicholas II and his family’s remains have been interred.

We left the Fortress and headed to the Hermitage. We spent about an hour and a half walking through some of the Great Masters exhibits. We saw some DaVinci’s and Raphael’s. We also got to see the Faberge eggs. We didn’t have time for a whole lot else. The crowds were really bad and Monday’s are reserved only for groups.

Entry Hall at the Hermitage.

 

This is a 19th century gold peacock and rooster that was a clock with moving parts.

It was so hard to choose which pictures to post here. There were so many beautiful rooms and pieces of art. The only thing we saw that we weren't allowed to take pictures of were the Faberge Eggs, which were extremely difficult to get near.

[luvtravel88]

We left the Hermitage and went to the Church of Spilled Blood, which was a fantastically beautiful church all of mosaics.

 

 

 

One of the few images of Jesus as a child.

 

We spent about 30 minutes there and then headed out to St. Catherine’s Palace. We were given a really nice box lunch that we ate on the way there. It had a savory and a sweet stollie pie, a bag of nuts with raisins, a bottle of water and a candy bar.

When we arrived at Catherine’s Palace we stood in a large group of people waiting to get inside. Irina went to get our ticket and came back and told us that we had to wait for another group that wasn’t there yet. We rebelled. We didn’t have much time left in our day, and we told Irina we were not going to wait for the other group and we were using the ticket to go inside. She went and got the red headed lady that had done such a poor job the day before, and was the one who bought a ticket for 52 people and told her she was going to follow us to the gate, the 16 of us were going to go through using the ticket, and then Irina was going to pass her the ticket and let her wait for the other group. That was fine with all of us and we went inside.

As we entered the building, we had to put shoe covers on our shoes as they didn’t want the floors scuffed, but they are worried that the dust from the covers may damage the exhibits. Right now the shoe covers win out.

 

Someone in our group had a very creative way of using his shoe covers and they ended up on his head. Since I don't have his permission to embarrass him here, you'll have to use your imagination!

The Palace was exceptionally beautiful. Everything was very ornate inside and out. We were taken through several of the rooms in the Palace and into the Amber Room. We were allowed to take photographs everywhere inside the Palace except for the Amber Room.

 

Seeing this doll really moved me, as it belonged to one of the Romanov children.

We headed back to the ship and were back on board about 4:45. We went back to our cabin and cleaned up and went for a drink about 5:30. We met another couple at the Martini Bar and chatted until about 6:00.

We went to dinner about 6:15 and sat in our same seats. We sat next to the same couple again and had another really nice dinner.

We got back to the room about 8:30 and we were in for the night. We were really exhausted after 3 wonderful, but very busy days.

 

 

And... for those of you that were following the original thread, I finally caught back up!!

[Clarea]

Gorgeous photos, thanks!

[TeanneTX]

Hi Everyone!

I've been out of town and just returned, so I'll start working on this review again. Hopefully I'll have it finished in a few days. Thanks for following along!

 

We walked down to the Tsar’s cannon and the Tsar’s bell and walked through some of the gardens.

Tsar's Cannon

Tsar's Bell with DH and Myself.

Kremlin Gardens

We went to a Ukranian restaurant for lunch. We had chicken noodle soup, some beef dumplings with sour cream and a scoop of raspberry ice cream.

We left there and walked into Red Square, after we had gone through security again. We were given a bunch of information about the area and were given about 15 minutes to wonder around and take pictures.

We all wanted to take pictures in front of St. Basel’s Cathedral so that was how we spent most of our time. I didn’t wander too far away from that area and was really sorry that I didn’t as there were other things to see in Red Square.

St. Basels

I saw Lenin’s tomb on the way out and was able to take a picture of it, but wasn’t able to get up really close.

Lenin's Tomb

The tomb is only open from 10:00-1:00 so we could not have gone in even if we'd had the time.

Red Square was quite large and there were probably other areas that I didn’t get to see. Lena pointed out buildings around Red Square and we soon left the area.

We walked a couple of blocks and into GUMS Department store. The ceiling looked much like the ceiling is the shopping mall in Milan. It was quite beautiful. We all stopped at an ice cream kiosk and had an ice cream.

Beautiful pictures. Love all the pics of Moscow since we didn't go there. We did watch yall leave that morning. Thanks for sharing all the pics and the commentary-I'm enjoying it a lot.

[luvtravel88]

Thanks Bob and Teanne!

 

Tuesday, May 30 Tallinn, Estonia

Today was sunny and a high of 65.

We got up at 7:15 this morning and were at breakfast by 8:00am. We were outside at the port gate by 9:00 and met our Alla tour guide.

We took the Enchanting Tallinn tour with Julia as our guide. It was a driving and walking tour. We were dropped off by the home where the president lives and we walked around the gardens and the park area surrounding it.

 

We were driven to an ampitheatre with historic significance.

We walked from Old Town to New Town, visiting a couple of very pretty churches.

 

 

 

The cobblestones that we walked on were from the 13th century.

 

We stopped at a Marzipan store where they hand painted the marzipan. It was beautiful and we bought several pieces to take home.

We were given about 45 minutes to wonder around Old Town and we walked a bit and then decided to go to a restaurant called Peppersack where we could get wifi. We sat at a table outside and watched the crowds go by. DH had a beer and thought it was delicious.

[luvtravel88]

We met back up and were taken to Toompea Hill. It was very crowded here and we had to work our way slowly to the front so we could take some pictures. The view was really very pretty.

 

 

We grouped back together and were taken back to the ship. We boarded about 2:45 and went to have a light lunch at the buffet.

We came back to the room and began to pack up. We spent the rest of the afternoon in the room and on the balcony.

We got cleaned up and met our group for drinks at 5:00. We went to dinner at 6:15 and then back to the room to finish packing and just rest. We are exhausted!

Tallinn was a very pretty city with a vibrant medieval old town area that tourists are interested to see. If we hadn’t just come from Russia, we probably would have been enchanted with the port. As it was, there were 5 cruise ships in port that day, so the town was absolutely over run with tourists. There were crowds everywhere, making it difficult to see what sights are there. The town itself if pretty small, and there aren’t really any fantastic historical sights like those we’d just been visiting which kind of made this port anti climatic.

We were glad to have been able to stop here and if I ever stop here again, I think I would just wander the streets and really wish that’s what we’d done.

[tompeter]

Great review and wonderful pictures, Thanks!

[luvtravel88]

Thanks for the kind words tompeter!

Wednesday, May 31 Stockholm

We got up this morning about 8:30, got dressed and had breakfast.

We didn’t arrive in Stockholm until 10 and the ship was quickly cleared. We met our group of 6 at the Martini Bar at 10 and we all left the ship together.

As we got off the ship this morning and they scanned our cards, there was this loud honking sound. It was alerting them that we would be getting off the ship today. They just wanted to know what time we would be leaving and when we told them that evening, they nodded and off we went.

We got off the ship and met our guide Thomas , with Stockholm Guiding Tours, right outside of the port gate. We had a van for 6 and off we went. Thomas took us on a short driving tour and pointed out some of the landmarks on the way.

Thomas took us along the waterfront, overlooking City Hall, where we stopped at a small park with a monument.

 

We saw the President’s residence and Parliament building on our way to City Hall.

 

Stockholm is several islands bridged together, and Thomas drove us round 2 or 3 of them. We would stop to take a look at some scenery and would find that we were on the other side of a body of water from where we had just been.

 

 

The visit to City Hall was very nice and we got to see where the Nobel Prizes are awarded as well as where city business is conducted. The grounds were very pretty as well and there were people everywhere although we didn’t feel crowded.

Blue Hall, where the Nobel Prize dinner is held

Council Chambers

 

Golden Hall

[luvtravel88]

We left City Hall and made our way to the Ice Bar. This was the first Ice Bar and then other cities started opening them. This was a blast! After you paid your entry fee, you were helped to get into a large, fur padded cape with a hood, with gloves on a string that ran across the back of the cape and down, outside the sleeves.

We went into an air lock, so we had to close the door to the lobby, before we could open the door into the bar. Once inside, the lighting is blue and there is ice everywhere. The floor was slick and you had to be careful when walking. There were several places to stand or sit that had been cut in ice.

 

 

There was a small hallway to the left or right of the entry that led to the bar. Your entry ticket entitled you to one drink and DH and I ordered something with vodka and lignonberries. The glasses were rectangular blocks of ice that had test tube shaped holes in them and that’s where they poured the drinks.

 

We were warned to use our gloves before reaching for our drinks. There was a small sitting area where you could sit to drink your drink. The tickets were timed as the area was very small and there were people coming in almost right behind us.

We drank our drinks, took several pictures and then left. We were only inside about 15-20 minutes and it was enough as we were beginning to get cold. The area is kept at 20 degrees.

We were told that the bartenders stay for 30 minutes and then they trade off, so they can warm up.

[luvtravel88]

We left the Ice Bar and then it was time for lunch. Thomas took us to a Swedish restaurant called Ulla Winbladh.

 

 

We had excellent Swedish meatballs. The waiter was very nice and helpful to all of us.

After lunch Thomas headed to Skansen, which was an open air village where different types of Swedish abodes had been moved from their original locations to this village.

They had an area where they had people showing the crafts that might have been done in a village. We saw a glass blower and a dry goods store.

 

They also had an animal area with indigenous animals.

We think this was an albino reindeer!

 

Although not indigenous, I thought the peacock was very pretty. This picture doesn't really do it justice, but I was afraid I'd miss his feather spread if I took too long setting up my shot!

 

We were underwhelmed by this area and although it was later in the day, there was almost no one here. If we had not been to other interpretive centers other places, I’m sure we would have enjoyed it more. Thomas walked through with us, and gave us some information about the houses we were seeing. The most interesting things we saw were original runes that had been found in Sweden and brought to the village. They were in really good condition and some of them still had the original coloring in the designs.

[luvtravel88]

We left Skansen and headed to the Vasa Museum. This was the most impressive museum we went into on our trip. This was a ship that had sunk in the middle of the harbor in Stockholm only 300 feet into its maiden voyage. We spent about 1 ½ hours here, walking through the exhibits and viewing the film that had of the recovery of the ship. The ship was cleaned and put back together with 90% of the original wood. Areas that are not original have been intentionally left a different color. It was all very fascinating. We could have spent quite a bit more time here, but ran out of time. There were a lot of people here, but it was a very large museum so didn’t feel overly crowded.

Some pictures of the ship:

 

 

A replica of what the ship looked like.

 

A cross section of the ship and what workers would have been doing.

 

We arrived back at our ship about 6:00 and went to the dining room for dinner. We sat next to the same couple again and had a lovely dinner.

After dinner, we went back to our room and made sure we had all of our belongings.

 

We had decided a while ago, that we would leave the ship on our last evening rather than waiting until the morning when there would be a mad dash off the ship. We had a 9:30am flight, and working backward time wise, we figured we'd have to be off the ship by 5:30am to be at the airport on time.

We left the ship about 8:30 with all of our luggage and when we scanned our cabin card to leave we didn’t hear the loud horn noise. We were off the ship about 8:40 and had some time to wait for our private taxi. It was the easiest disembarkation we had ever had! Of course, you had to take your luggage off the ship yourself, but since almost no one else was leaving at the time, it was easy to use the elevator and leave the ship.

 

The port terminal was pretty big with lots of chairs and free wifi, so we sat there to check email. Another couple we had spent a lot of time with were also leaving and we met up with them there and chatted for a few minutes.

We booked a private taxi with suntransfers and they were a bit early, which was great. We said our goodbyes and then we were off.

The ride to the airport was about 45 minutes and we arrived at the Clarion Arlandia airport about 9:45.

I chose this hotel because it was actually at the airport between terminals 4 and 5.

 

The hotel was fine with really pretty lobby and convention areas. It was a really huge hotel and we walked quite a way to get to the entrance and then to get to the restaurant area the next day.

The room was small but functional with a walk in shower. We faced the airport runways, but we never heard any noise.

If you choose to use this hotel, be sure to make your reservation many months ahead. They were sold out by January for our May cruise.

 

 

Thursday, June 1

We got up at 5:00am, got cleaned up and went to breakfast about 5:45. Breakfast was a long walk from the elevator and wasn’t really easy to find as it was kind of tucked away but we did find it and it was really great. It was a buffet with several tables of hot and cold items. We had a full breakfast as this is a travel day, so meals might be difficult.

We checked in about 6:30 and made our way through security which took a while. We found our gate and had about a 2 hour wait.

We boarded when we were called and the flight left on time and was uneventful. I watched 4 movies and dozed a little. DH read and listened to music. The flight was almost 9 hours and we landed on time in Atlanta.

We had about a 3 hour layover in Atlanta and it took about an hour to go through Immigration, collect our bags and go through Customs.

We went to our gate and waited for our flight to be called. We boarded about 30 minutes before our flight, but then sat on board the plane for a while, because the manifest didn’t match the passengers on the plane. They finally figured it out and we left about 30 minutes late.

We were only about 20 minutes delayed in landing and Mom and Dad were there to pick us up.

We got home about 9:00pm, exhausted and happy to be home.

 

 

I'll finish up in the next post with a few final thoughts.

[portcbob]

Hi Luvtravel88.

 

Bob and Chris from Australia calling.

Loved your review and fantastic pics of your Baltics Cruise. It looked absolutely fantastic.

It is on our bucket list that's for sure.

Can you please tell us the best time of the year for this cruise, weather wise.

 

Regards Bob.

[upwarduk]

We sailed on Celebrity Eclipse from Southampton July 2015. We had a wet first week but sunny 2nd week.

The cruise ships visit Russia between May- September.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[luvtravel88]

Hi Luvtravel88.

 

Bob and Chris from Australia calling.

Loved your review and fantastic pics of your Baltics Cruise. It looked absolutely fantastic.

It is on our bucket list that's for sure.

Can you please tell us the best time of the year for this cruise, weather wise.

 

Regards Bob.

 

Hi Bob,

I think June, July and August would probably be the warmest months, but it's so far north, that is could be cool and rainy even then. We were very lucky at the end of May and we only had a short shower two different days and the temperatures were very nice. We took layers for any type of weather and even had a couple of packable down jackets as well as umbrellas.

You may want to google annual temperatures for the individual cities you'll be visiting as well as monthly avg rainfall.

You can get lucky or unlucky anywhere you go. We did a 3 week land tour through Italy several years ago in June and it rained all but 5 days!

Happy planning!!

Kim

[luvtravel88]

Thank you everyone for following. I finally re-created the first thread and finished it up.

Just a few final thoughts.....

When we travel we try to make the most of our time and see and do as much as we can balanced with our poor old body's needs. You know.... sleep!

We decided long ago that we can't control every aspect of our travels no matter how much planning I have done, so we just need to go with the flow. We may complain to each other, and I've given my opinions here, because that's what a review is for, but really, we just don't let the small stuff bother us. No vacation is going to run perfectly smoothly all the time.

For those of you thinking about this itinerary, it was a fantastically wonderful trip, but it wasn't a vacation. We were exhausted when we got home and it took a few days of good sleep before we felt rested again. Of course you could choose to do less, but then you wouldn't get to see as much!!

Now for some small stuff...

~If you have select dining, try to decide on the times you'd like to have dinner when doing your planning, and make your reservations online before leaving for your trip. There were no 6:30-7:30 reservations left on board. You could go at those times but you'd likely have to stand in line and wait for a table.

~If you go to select dining about the same time each night, they will hold your same table for you if you wish.

~If you're staying at a hotel pre or post cruise and you like to use a washcloth when you bathe, take your own and a zip lock bag to put it in, because many hotels don't offer them. They are considered a personal item.

~Get in line very early on the first day in St Petersburg, as it takes a long time at Immigration.

~If you're taking private tours, arrange for a meeting spot on the ship so you can all leave together. It makes leaving for the day so much easier, when you're not waiting on someone.

~If you'd like to have anything for your stateroom, be sure to ask your steward. They are very accommodating. We asked for some additional hangars the first afternoon and when we returned from dinner, they were on our bed. We also asked for ice the first day, and it was changed morning and evening everyday, thereafter.

There is a coffee and tea bar in the Hideaway on Deck 7 that is maintained 24/7 and is wonderful to use in the mornings or when coming back on the ship in the afternoon.

~If you're going to any kind of organized activity on the ship, arrive at least 10 minutes early or you may not get a seat.

~Use the CC boards a lot! There is so much information here that makes your trip so much more pleasurable and become active on your roll call. We had a ready made group of friends before we ever boarded the ship. We took some tours with some of them, met for drinks several nights as a large group, and went to Qsine together one night. It was so nice to run into people that we knew and several of us still keep in touch.

Now on to planning for our next great adventure.... to Spain and Greece on the Eclipse next September. Happy planning everyone!! Let me know if you have any questions.

Kim

[jmecme]

Really enjoyed your review! Lots of planning when you are going to so many places with so much history and beautiful sights to see!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[luvtravel88]

Thank you Jmecme!

Yes, there was a LOT of planning. I began about a year before.

Kim

[suzzek]

Thank you for your very comprehensive review! We will be doing the Baltics next June. I will be looking back on your review as I plan the cruise excursions.

[Islander500]

Loved this review. You have truly inspired me to plan much beyond what I've ever done for any cruise or other vacation. It helped that I just retired in June and have more time than I've ever had to plan. My DH reminds me that once you retire, you don't go on vacations anymore, you travel and go on trips. ;)

 

Our Baltic cruise on Celebrity Silhouette is next month. We are (almost) ready thanks to you. Very much appreciated!