Welcome to all of us Canadians on Cruise Critic!

[TeaBag]

Welcome Tarin.  Good for you having 3 cruises to look forward to.

Welcome to Cruise Critic.  Do you know about joining the roll call section for  your cruises so you can chat with your fellow passengers long before the cruise?  This is also a good way to book private excursions which are smaller and much less expensive than what the cruise line offers you.  There has been some speculation that when cruising starts up that the excursions allowed will be ship sponsored only.  However, I think that may be in the past (hopefully) when we sail.  We have 3 booked in 2022 also.

[Steve H]

Hi everyone I just discovered this Canadian forum, it’s a nice addition to CC. I usually spend my time on the Celebrity forum , witch is predominantly U.S.,  and I sometimes think that they would like it that way. We have a cruise booked for the Baltic in  May 2022. with a group that we met in 2019 on our Med cruise . Glad that I found you guys!

[TeaBag]

Welcome Steve.  You will love the Baltic but maybe you've been there before.  We sailed on the Eclipse there in May also and weather was perfect except for our second day in Copenhagen.

[lostinparadise999]

4 hours ago, TeaBag said:

Welcome Steve.  You will love the Baltic but maybe you've been there before.  We sailed on the Eclipse there in May also and weather was perfect except for our second day in Copenhagen.

We did the Baltic on Holland. They upgrade us from inside to balcony. It was the first cruise of the season in the area so the ship had lots of cabin available. 

Loved every port it was all unique and interesting. Only thing was some of the ports was far away from the main attractions so you could not walk. 

[Steve H]

It’s our first time in the Baltic but the third try to get on this trip, covid canceled this year’s trip and the year before we moved it on our own . Looking forward to it, and will visit Ireland after the cruise.

[Anubi]

We are doing the Baltics next year, our 7th attempt and darn it, this time we're going LOL

 

[Steve H]

33 minutes ago, Anubi said:

We are doing the Baltics next year, our 7th attempt and darn it, this time we're going LOL

 

When are you going, we’re going May 15 th from Southampton.

[Anubi]

13 minutes ago, Steve H said:

When are you going, we’re going May 15 th from Southampton.

HAL in early May.  

[Steve H]

14 minutes ago, Anubi said:

HAL in early May.  

Celebrity for us.

[Anubi]

9 hours ago, Steve H said:

Celebrity for us.

We had been booked for the Baltics with Celebrity for August of this year but cancelled aka Attempt #6.  LOL  We chose HAL because it overnights in St. Petersburg and Stockholm.  We also wanted to be sure that we would be cruising the archipelago and HAL was the only one that openly stated that.  But, no matter which cruise line you choose,  its going to be amazing.  Which tour company are you using for St. Petersburg?  We're going with Alla's Grand Two Day plus the evening at Faberge.    

[puppycanducruise]

8 minutes ago, Anubi said:

We had been booked for the Baltics with Celebrity for August of this year but cancelled aka Attempt #6.  LOL  We chose HAL because it overnights in St. Petersburg and Stockholm.  We also wanted to be sure that we would be cruising the archipelago and HAL was the only one that openly stated that.  But, no matter which cruise line you choose,  its going to be amazing.  Which tour company are you using for St. Petersburg?  We're going with Alla's Grand Two Day plus the evening at Faberge.    

We did the Baltic on HAL many years ago.  We really enjoyed the cruise through the archipelago, in many ways, it reminded me of the Thousand Island region of Lake Ontario.

Hope you enjoy the cruise.

[Steve H]

5 hours ago, Anubi said:

We had been booked for the Baltics with Celebrity for August of this year but cancelled aka Attempt #6.  LOL  We chose HAL because it overnights in St. Petersburg and Stockholm.  We also wanted to be sure that we would be cruising the archipelago and HAL was the only one that openly stated that.  But, no matter which cruise line you choose,  its going to be amazing.  Which tour company are you using for St. Petersburg?  We're going with Alla's Grand Two Day plus the evening at Faberge.    

We’re with TJ tours one of the couples we are going with used them before and highly recommended them. We also overnight in St Petersburg so it’s a two day tour.

[Heidi13]

5 hours ago, Anubi said:

We had been booked for the Baltics with Celebrity for August of this year but cancelled aka Attempt #6.  LOL  We chose HAL because it overnights in St. Petersburg and Stockholm.  We also wanted to be sure that we would be cruising the archipelago and HAL was the only one that openly stated that.  But, no matter which cruise line you choose,  its going to be amazing.  Which tour company are you using for St. Petersburg?  We're going with Alla's Grand Two Day plus the evening at Faberge.    

 

If the port is listed as Stockholm then they must cruise through the islands. When the port is listed as Nynashamn, they are docking about 35 miles south of Stockholm and do not sail through the islands.

[Anubi]

33 minutes ago, Heidi13 said:

 

If the port is listed as Stockholm then they must cruise through the islands. When the port is listed as Nynashamn, they are docking about 35 miles south of Stockholm and do not sail through the islands.

Definitely docking in Stockholm.  We didn't want to dock at Nynashamn and have to bus in to town.  That's why we went with HAL and the smaller ships.  🙂 

 

[TeaBag]

We docked right in Stockholm with Celebrity and it was great.  Someone gave us the advice to get up really early, 5AM or so, to view the archipeligo as we sailed in.  This was great advice as it was simply magical.  It is just not the same on the way out as it is later in the day and the lighting is so different.  We also got off the ship as early as we could and caught the first water taxi over to the Vasa Museum.  This was also great as there were very few people in the museum at the opening hour.  When we were ready to leave in a couple of hours, it was standing room only.

We toured St Petersburg with Den Rus and had an amazing time.  I don't know how they are now as the older man who owned the company sold it shortly after we toured.  I know Alla and TJ both get good reviews.  We were some of the few on our cruise who saw the Faberge museum and it certainly was worth the visit.

[Alberta Quilter]

4 hours ago, TeaBag said:

We docked right in Stockholm with Celebrity and it was great.  Someone gave us the advice to get up really early, 5AM or so, to view the archipeligo as we sailed in.  This was great advice as it was simply magical.  It is just not the same on the way out as it is later in the day and the lighting is so different.  We also got off the ship as early as we could and caught the first water taxi over to the Vasa Museum. 

 

This information is spot on.  Do get up very early for sail in to Stockholm.  It is simply amazing!  We would have missed some of it if the sun hadn't burst through a crack in the curtains and hit my eyes at something ridiculous like 4:30 am.  It was absolutely glorious to stand on the balcony from then until around 7 or 8 am and peacefully glide by hundreds of islands.  And the Vasa Museum was so worthwhile to visit.  Small museum but quite well done.

[Anubi]

1 hour ago, Alberta Quilter said:

 

This information is spot on.  Do get up very early for sail in to Stockholm.  It is simply amazing!  We would have missed some of it if the sun hadn't burst through a crack in the curtains and hit my eyes at something ridiculous like 4:30 am.  It was absolutely glorious to stand on the balcony from then until around 7 or 8 am and peacefully glide by hundreds of islands.  And the Vasa Museum was so worthwhile to visit.  Small museum but quite well done.

We have one of HAL lanai cabins and the plan is to order room service and enjoy the view on the way in.  On the way out, a bottle of wine on the rear of the ship.  

[matamanoa]

On 5/28/2021 at 1:04 PM, Steve H said:

Hi everyone I just discovered this Canadian forum, it’s a nice addition to CC. I usually spend my time on the Celebrity forum , witch is predominantly U.S.,  and I sometimes think that they would like it that way. We have a cruise booked for the Baltic in  May 2022. with a group that we met in 2019 on our Med cruise . Glad that I found you guys!

We did a Baltic cruise a few years back with HAL and loved the itinerary.  After cruising in the Caribbean for many years, the Baltics was our first European cruise and we absolutely loved it.  We haven't been back to the Caribbean since and have travelled to so many different continents, experiencing the different cultures and sights.  You'll love the Baltics cruise!

 

Barb

[Steve H]

We have done lots of Caribbean cruises and they were great, but we are now finding that the flights from BC to Florida are sometimes more expensive than flying to Europe. 

[Anubi]

8 minutes ago, Steve H said:

We have done lots of Caribbean cruises and they were great, but we are now finding that the flights from BC to Florida are sometimes more expensive than flying to Europe. 

Its actually cheaper for us to fly from Toronto to London UK than to fly to Vancouver BC!!!

[Steve H]

1 minute ago, Anubi said:

Its actually cheaper for us to fly from Toronto to London UK than to fly to Vancouver BC!!!

I know it’s cheaper to fly to London than Florida from here, it’s a no brainer which one to pick!

[Blackduck59]

We have had to shift our focus from Oz/NZ to something closer to home so we will need to shift our down under flights to New York out and Ottawa home. So far the trip down under has made $1,500.00 of our money disappear in cancellation fees from Air New Zealand (for flights they cancelled) and others. Now the situation in Oz suggests perhaps 2023 maybe.

The Caribbean has never been of interest to me and Florida? no thanks.

[TeaBag]

$1500 in cancellation fees for a flight they cancelled?  Can you not dispute this with your CC company or is it too late to do this?  That's terrible.  Remind me never to fly with Air New Zealand.

[Blackduck59]

44 minutes ago, TeaBag said:

$1500 in cancellation fees for a flight they cancelled?  Can you not dispute this with your CC company or is it too late to do this?  That's terrible.  Remind me never to fly with Air New Zealand.

 

The Air New Zealand fees were $600.00 each and there were a couple of others. Also we booked for the 2nd try with Air Canada and there will be some change fees involved there to shift it to the other itinerary. We also have almost $1,000.00 deposit with Celebrity for the down under cruise, that is refundable. The new itinerary is on Princess so there is almost $1,000.00 there as well, of course that is refundable too. So the down under adventure is cancelled twice an we have new hope that we will finally get back on a ship at the end of August 2022.

[TeaBag]

Well, I sure hope you get to go to Australia some day.  The first time we were there, we felt we had come home!  really loved it.  New Zealand, we found really quaint.  I would go again in a heartbeat.  In fact, we will be at the tail end of a B2B that many are on.  We are only doing the one segment from Honolulu to Vancouver.  It will be fun to talk to all the Aussies on that cruise (May 2023, Eclipse).