Baltic Cruise Report Constellation May 06

[Lyn Mc]

We were on the first Baltics Cruise of the season in 2006 on the Constellation. We did not take any ships tours and did our own thing in all the ports.

 

You may know from other reports that Celebrity now charge for the shuttle buses, $5 or 6$ one way, depending on the port. We never took these, there were also quite a high number of other passengers who either walked or took a taxi with others. Can’t remember taxis at Tallin or Oslo definitely not at St Petersburg but you are virtually in the town at these two and the shuttle was complimentary at Tallin anyway. The daily told you to get your tickets for the shuttle buses from the excursion desk but I don’t know if you could actually pay if you felt tired and would like to get the shuttle back from town in any port. Perhaps someone else could answer that one.

 

We had a balcony cabin on the starboard side of the ship for this trip. Although the balcony wasn’t that important for this trip, it was lovely to have the view and the door open on occasion so that we could hear the sea. If I did this trip again and the weather was the same, I would chose the port side, it definitely got more of the sun during the day and did slightly better with the views when we docked (and it was about 50/50 each side).

 

We docked on time (if not earlier) at every port and were usually given the all clear within 15 mins – Except Russia.

 

Gdynia – 7.00 a.m. to 12.30 p.m. (docked starboard side)

Shuttle Buses available to Gdynia ($5 each way) and Gadansk (~$28 round trip) I don’t know if Gdynia is in any other Baltic itinerary this season but it is a beautiful little seaside town. We chose not to go to Gadansk as we only had a few hours and thought that we would be looking at our watches all morning. We had done some research and found out that Gdynia was a sea-side town with a beach and harbour. The weather was wonderful with bright sunshine. So we got off the ship at around 8.00 a.m. and walked into Gdynia took around 15 mins. Once out of the port area (never the most picturesque sites), the main street in the centre of town is being redeveloped and large sections of the pavement (sidewalk) is being dug up as is some of the road. However, if you take any side street to the left this will eventually lead you to the harbour and a beautiful walk via the ‘Błyskawica’ which is an old world war II destroyer (now a museum) and also a beautiful tall-ship the ‘Dar Pomorza’ both moored here. You then come to the beach, people were out having fun and sunbathing. We walked back into town via a beautiful park-like walkway with a fountain in the centre and toured the shops and streets and made our way back to the ship. There were some stalls set up by locals mainly selling amber jewellery, so we collected some juice from the drinks table set up by Celebrity and browsed around. We then boarded the ship around 11.50 a.m. and sat on our balcony with a drink for a while in the sunshine and watched all the tours come back. They all seemed to come back together at around 12.15 p.m. and this caused the longest lines to get back onto the ship and we were late leaving. We were glad that we had chosen our little excursion and really enjoyed our first port of call.

 

Stockholm – 9.30 to 5.30 p.m. (docked starboard side)

Shuttle Buses available ($5 each way). This was our favourite port after St. Petersburg. You must get up early though when the Ship goes through the Swedish Archipelago, over 20,000 islands, the views are terrific. We were up at 5.30 p.m. and took plenty of photographs, some of the houses are amazing and only used in Summer, I don’t know how they find their way around this maze of islands.

 

The Swedish people are very attractive and the streets so clean. We walked into Gamla Stan (Old Town). This took around 20 mins, 10 mins at the side of a busy road, veer right over the bridge and another 10 minutes along the side of the river, not a bad walk at all. We wanted to see City Hall and arrived there around 10.45 a.m. However, we had missed the 10.00 a.m. public tour and the next one was not until 12.00 (noon). So we walked around the outside by the river and then headed back to town to have a beer (small beer cost around 4 euros). We headed to the Palace for the changing of the guard which is quite impressive and then walked around the town which is beautiful with lots of bridges, parks and squares and had lunch at a lovely café off the main streets. We then decided on a canal trip (16 euros). We have decided that we liked Stockholm so much and we still have quite a bit to see so we are planning on taking a trip (Ryanair do a cheap flight) for a long weekend and come again and see some of the sights we missed i.e. City Hall and Vasa Museum, etc.

 

 

Helsinki – 9.00 a.m. to 6.00 p.m. (docked port side)

Sun was still shining, not a cloud in sight and around 9.30 a.m. we got the HoHo bus which stopped right next to the Ship (at the Taxi rank). This was 22 euros each and worth it as the Shuttle was $6 each way. People who walked said that it was a comfortable 30 mins walk to the Centre. We went to the Rock Church and then bought some postcards and stamps across the street. Sat down on the benches, wrote the postcards out and posted them (they did arrive back before we did – just!). We then caught the bus to the Olympic Stadium. On the way to the stadium, one of the stops was the Sibelius monument but we could see this very well from the bus so did not get off at this stop. By today’s standards the stadium is very small but it is interesting none the less. We had a drink there and then caught the bus to the flea market – this is one stop you can do without! We then caught the bus and got off at the Ship for lunch. We then caught it again at 2.30 p.m. and went to the Cathedral, this is a most impressive site and a great photo opportunity as is Uspenski Cathedral which is also beautiful. We then went shopping at the outdoor market in Market Square and found some very nice pictures and souvenirs. We made our way back to the bus stop but by 4.30 p.m. the HoHo bus had not reached us and the traffic was beginning to build up. We could have walked it back to the ship comfortably but decided to get a taxi. You cannot hail a taxi in Helsinki, you need to go to the taxi rank. A very nice young local man showed us the way to the nearest rank (just across the road outside the station) and we got back to the ship well before 5.00 p.m. (cost was 12 euros).

 

 

St Petersburg – two days - (First Day - Open Seating at Dinner with an early Buffet for guests going on evening excursions) (docked port side)

We did a fantastic two day tour with Alla Tours and this was such a wonderful experience that my report was posted separately for that tour. However this has now been deleted because I started a new thread and mentioned our tour operator!!!!! So I am posting a report here as part of the Baltic review. If anyone wishes to contact me or request any further details please feel free to post and I can let you have any information you want.

 

We are reasonably independent travellers and have fun ‘doing our own thing’ most of the time so very seldom take ship’s tours. Of course, since we now have the internet and all of its fantastic information we can book lots of tours independently and for a lot less money than the cruise line. One always has to be aware of the timing for these independent forays because the ship will not wait for the likes of us but if you are sensible about this and use recommended tour companies i.e. those used and recommended by fellow CC’ers in the past you should be on to a winner. That is how we found Alla and her tour company - she is undoubtedly a First Class Winner!!!

 

Please keep in mind that is a purely personal account, we are all different and others, although on the same trip, may have seen things differently:

 

From the CC postings we gathered together 24 posters (20 from US and 4 from UK) who all wished to tour together in St Petersburg and in February I began to contact 3 tour companies, Denrus, Red October and Alla Tours, (all recommended by posters from the message boards). I had positive replies from Denrus and Red October at first but then there were problems getting replies from both these tour operators. I know there was a fire at a bank which did some damage to phone lines etc which obviously affected their communication abilities. When I did get replies neither company, for various reasons, was happy to give us the custom tour we wanted. Alla was always the first to reply and was extremely happy to answer even the smallest query, nothing was too much trouble for her, so we were delighted to book two minibuses (12 on each) with Alla tours – Alla took one bus and Anna the other.

 

We were very lucky and the weather was glorious for our two days. Our tour on the first day consisted of Catherine’s Palace, the Hermitage, Church on the Spilled Blood and Peter & Paul Fortress. The traffic in St Petersburg is horrendous, a case of ‘who dares wins’ at the junctions. The traffic lights at these intersections seem to impede the flow rather than help it and all drivers block off the junctions. We saw 4 accidents in the 2 days we were there. When we started out we did not think that we would be able to get to see everything we wanted because of the traffic and we began to realise that perhaps we had asked far too much of Alla. We had wanted to see everything we could and this was a demanding schedule usually done in 3 days and we were asking for this all in just 2 days, Alla did a superb job!! On both days we had a packed lunch on the mini-bus so that we could pack everything in.

 

Catherine’s palace is wonderful and the Amber Room exquisite. They have done a fantastic job in reconstruction. On to the Hermitage where you could really spend a whole lifetime just wandering amongst all the treasures, we only had a couple of hours but saw da Vinci’s, Rembrandts, Matisse etc besides the gloriously decorated stairwells, ballrooms and throne rooms. We had also booked the Gold Room, they say ‘room’ but this is one room after another of exquisite treasures and we felt worth the extra admission charge. Alla was not allowed to carry out this part of the tour, we were given a Russian guide who gave us a tour in English but with a very thick Russian accent which was at times difficult to understand and she could not understand questions in English, she just smiled a lot, but nevertheless it was an amazing tour. The Church on the Spilled Blood was wonderful and is being very well restored to its former glory.

 

Then onto the Peter & Paul Fortress and Cathedral. Anna’s minibus had those people on who needed to get back to the ship for evening excursions and they decided to forego the Fortress that day and went back to ship (they did see this on the next day as there was more time at the end of Saturday). Our minibus set off to the Peter & Paul Fortress and Cathedral, this was different in that it is not as awe inspiring as the other sights we saw and needs some care and attention, parts of the walls are crumbling and there is no marble, just a paint effect on the walls. The tombs are of course marble and stone but overall, and others we spoke to agreed, if we had to drop something from the tour this would have been the one to miss out. However, having said that we are glad that we went and had the comparison to make.

 

Alla then took us on to a Pub/Restaurant which brewed its own beer. We had drinks and others enjoyed a very good meal, some of them having the locally made sausages – our grateful thanks to Terry and Allen who very kindly paid the tab.

 

The next day saw us up early again, not so much traffic today as it was a Saturday. We visited the local food market, no shortages any more apparently, there were some wonderful sights and smells and the largest pomegranates I have ever seen. Some of us purchased Russian chocolate and Alla bought some wafer biscuits which she very kindly gave to each of us later as a present, very unexpected and a lovely gesture. You needed roubles for your purchases at the market and Alla helped out again here and we gave her dollars to cover the cost of the purchases.

 

We then had one of the most exciting parts of our tour and we went on the Metro – we saw three stations and they are truly one of the amazing sights you will ever see. The pillars are made of glass/crystal and there are chandeliers and carvings all around, it is like being in a giant palace. You are not allowed to take pictures in the metro/stations so all you see has to be committed to memory and there is quite a lot to take in. We are so glad that we did this, one of the other tour operators did not want us to do this because of our safety – we never once felt threatened – in fact in general people ignored us totally!

 

We then drove out to Peterhof and the Grand Palace. Alla had got us an early entrance time before the crowds. These were amongst the most impressive rooms we saw, no one really knows where all the original furniture was taken during the second world war but this palace has been very well restored. Everywhere we went there were (mainly female) ‘guards’ in every room ensuring the safe keeping of the paintings, treasures etc but at Grand Palace they were the most zealous we met and in no way friendly to anyone - do not even get near to a wall/pillar/doorway!!!!

 

However, it is the gardens at Peterhof that are the biggest attraction. The fountains and gold sculptures are amazing and this was definitely the biggest photo opportunity of the tour.

 

We again had lunch on the minibus on our way to Yusupov’s Palace. This is the place where it is alleged that Rasputin was murdered. When we first started the tour it was just like visiting a very large family home but as the tour continued the rooms became bigger and grander and the piece de resistance was the Home Theatre which included a Royal Box.

 

Then we went on to St Isaac’s Cathedral. Now, you have remember all the history and sights that we had seen over the last 2 days, for me it was becoming a very emotional tour as well a cultural one. However, when we walked into this building I truly was not prepared for the inside. It was a shock to the system, I walked in and stopped, no way could my brain assimilate all that it was seeing. It was a truly emotionally awe-filled moment for me, tears filled my eyes and I could not speak for a while. Everywhere you looked, every inch of wall and ceiling is decorated with paintings mosaics, marble, lapislazuli, other precious stones and gold. The gates protecting the altar are truly a wonderous sight. All of us on this St Petersburg tour have our own highlight(s) but, for me, my first walk through the door of St Isaac’s will remain the most vivid of my memories from this tour.

 

Alla then took us shopping to a shop called Northway. Excellent shopping and prices, the exchange rates are shown above the check-out. Fantastic selection of matroushka dolls. We should have done all our shopping here, the prices were excellent (we had been informed that Tallin (next stop) would be the best place for shopping because of the prices but we didn’t find this and were sorry that we had taken this advice and waited). The choice and prices here were better than any other port we stopped at and definitely better than those on the ship.

 

We then went back to the ship in plenty of time for sail-away. We said a very emotional farewell to Alla and thanked her for the tremendous job she and Anna had done. It had been difficult for Alla as we had asked so much of her but she had pulled it off and we owed her a great debt of gratitude because she and Anna had shown us so much of their wonderful city in a very limited time.

 

A few pointers.

 

The clocks go forward three times before you get to St Petersburg – the killer is that you lose the 3rd hour the night before you dock. We were up at 5.30 a.m. (4.30 a.m. by our body clock). It does make you very tired by the end of the day as there is a fair amount of walking and stair climbing involved.

 

If you are undertaking independent tours in St Petersburg you are asked by Celebrity to inform the guest relations asap of the people in your group and what time you need to get off the ship. They will then let you know where to meet up and what time you will be allowed to disembark (stating that you will be escorted to the gangway by Celebrity staff). We let them know of everyone on our tour on the Monday but still had not heard anything by the Thursday. We were not told until Thursday evening that we were to meet in the ‘Bar at the Edge of the Earth’. We all turned up at 7.00 a.m. having been given a 7.15 a.m. debarkation time. However, we were all given different numbers, we argued that we all wanted the same number so that we could stay together, however, in the end when they had clearance around 7.30 a.m. they called out numbers 1,2 & 3 together, this just left 6 people with number 4. In the end they relented and the 4’s joined us, so we all got off together around 7.35 a.m.

 

We had been warned about the delay tactics that the cruise line might implement but as we got off at a reasonable time this did not hinder us too much. If it had got to 8.00 a.m. things might have been different. Anyway, we then joined the long line of ‘independent tour’ passengers to go through customs. This is where they ‘screw you’ as one my fellow passenger’s stated. The ‘other’ line for the ships tours whizzed through, we took a lot longer but were all on our mini-busses for 8.00 a.m. There was a Russian band to keep us company on the dockside which started to play the US National Anthem which some of us found quite comical (how times have changed!).

 

Alla’s English is wonderful and never once did she refer to any notes, every fact and figure is in her head. She has a wonderful personality and tremendous sense of humour and it was an absolute pleasure to spend two whole days in her company. I must also mention here Anna (who was the guide on our second minibus) she was also tremendous and very easy to be with and everyone agreed that we must have had the best two guides of anyone from the Constellation for our two days in St Petersburg. I would also like to mention our driver – Slava – he was great and drove extremely well and safely (not easy in all that awful traffic) and was absolutely trustworthy, we all left our bags on the minibus whilst touring and he was always there for us when we needed to be collected after our tour of each sight. I would not hesitate to recommend Alla, Anna and her other tour guides, to anyone wishing to take a tour in St Petersburg. It is like seeing the sights with a trustworthy friend. Our tour was an absolute joy and the highlight of our trip.

 

Alla is happy to custom-make your tour and arranges your visa and all the tickets for the sights you will be visiting on your agreed itinerary. She will also book any evening events, ballet, folk shows, restaurants, etc that you may wish to undertake and she does not take any commission, you pay the going ticket price. At all of our stops Alla purchased camera/video passes. You will have to pay extra for these but it is only a few dollars. There are quite a few places where you cannot use the flash on your camera so ensure that you know how to take this facility off /on quickly. Also some (not many) places do not allow video cameras. Also, leave any big bags or coats on the mini-bus to save the hassle of using the checking in and out facility especially at the Grand Palace, Peterhof, they were really strict there.

 

 

Tallin – 8.00 a.m. to 5.00 p.m. (docked starboard side)

The day was sunny at first and then became overcast in the afternoon and a very cold wind out by the ship but still no rain so far on this cruise. Complimentary shuttle to town but this is a reasonably small place and it was only a 10 minute walk to the centre. The HoHo bus could also be caught here but I did not see many people using this facility at this port. Tallin is used by some of the Baltic folk as a duty free post, they can come in on the ferry, get their cheap booze and go back all in one day. There is a large supermarket right at the dock and then some stalls selling souvenirs, toys, etc. The town square is lovely, surrounded by eating/drinking places. There was a stage set up and around lunchtime there were all sorts of performances by singers, choirs etc. The prices are not too bad and we sat and had lunch and a couple of drinks. After this we toured around, it was a pretty town but perhaps because so many people had said that it was their favourite I was expecting too much. It was OK but I could not go overboard with my compliments. We had also been informed that this port was the cheapest we would dock in. We did not find this at all but perhaps we were looking for different items. I think some of the woollens were good value. The amber was exactly the same price as that in Poland and St Petersburg and in some instances the same as the ship. This was also the only place we felt hassled. If you even entered a shop they pounced!

 

 

Warnemunde – 7.00 a.m. to 9.30 p.m. Open Seating at Dinner (docked port side)

Raining Today - No shuttle bus needed for this town you are docked right in the town, but there were shuttles to Rostock. It was from here that 600 passengers went to Berlin by Train in the Celebrity Trip. Everyone we spoke to who had gone thought it was worth the trip but it was a very long day. Warnemunde is a beautiful place to visit and would be glorious when the sun shines, however, we were not so lucky. However, we got off the ship around 8.30 and made our way to the station. A station employee was helping everyone to get tickets from an automatic machine so that we could catch the train to Rostock (they run ~every 15 mins). For the princely sum of 3.2 Euros, this gave you all day on the train, trams 5 & 6, buses and ferry – what a bargain. Train took around 20 minutes to Rostock and we made our way to the Centre by foot. We now realise that we could have gone down the stairs and taken trams 5 or 6 which stop at the station and these would have taken us in to the Centre. However, we made our way through the Steintor (1 of 2 main gates still remaining in the Alstadt Wall) to the town hall square and found the Rathaus and the Church with the famous astrological clock (The Marienkirche). The rain had now stopped and the sun was trying to come out. We then got on the tram and journeyed out to see some more of the City. This is not a circular tram and if you do go as far as the terminus, you will have to get off, cross the road and get back on a few minutes later. We came back into the town square for drinks and lunch and had beer and sausages with two of our fellow passengers (who could actually speak German) from the St. Petersburg tour (thank you for lunch Bill and Maureen and it was very kind of you!). We then all caught the No 5 tram back to the station and within minutes were on the train back to Warnemunde.

 

We wandered around the town for a while. There are two lighthouses which we would have walked to if it had not started raining again. We went into a restaurant and had a couple of drinks by which time it had stopped raining. There were some stalls on the way back to the Ship and we bought a watch for 5 euros, costs more than that for a watch battery in the UK!

 

When we got back to the ship, they were serving German sausages, pretzels, sauerkraut and beer in the bar at the edge of the earth and there was a German band playing music too. So we ventured up there for a while.

 

We went for dinner at 8.00 p.m. so that we could be finished for the sail-away. We had been told that this would be a special event because a high number of townspeople come out to see the ships off. This proved to be correct. Luckily the rain had stopped and there were around 200 people on shore all the way down to the lighthouses all waving and there was also music playing. I am sure the Constellation looked a wonderful sight as she blasted her horn a few times and sailed out of the harbour.

 

 

Copenhagen – 12.30 p.m. to 11.59 p.m. (docked port side)

Shuttle buses available ($5 each way). However, be careful about the Copenhagen shuttle buses because they have one set up to 6.00 p.m. which was $6 but the later one which ran until 11.30 p.m. was just for Tivoli and set you back $20 but included admission (we thought this was good value though).

 

This was our least favourite port. The ship did not dock where it stated in the Daily paper. We should have docked in Langelinie near the Little Mermaid (the Jewel of the Seas was there in our place) but we had to dock a couple of kilometres further out at Frihavnen. There was no announcement about this on the ship and some people who didn’t realise had a really long and very tiring walk. Just a small niggle, proving they do not really care for those with an independent streak, but it would not have hurt them to announce this change whilst announcing that we had been cleared by customs. Once we realised where we were situated we got a taxi to take 4 of us to the Little Mermaid (where we took the obligatory photo) whilst en route to the Centre (Kings Square) cost was 14 euros.

 

The Stroget is the main shopping street and has very high end shops along it. There are some nice squares with statutes etc but on the day we were there, hundreds of people were arriving and we found out later that a demonstration was planned which stopped the traffic flow and certainly impeded progress. We walked to Tivoli but decided that this was not for us and then on to the Museum but that was shut for refurbishment until 28th June, they do not state this in the daily paper. We found a wonderful cake and pastry shop – The Galleri – the staff were all in old fashioned uniform and served post of tea, coffee and virtually liquid hot chocolate with the most amazing cakes and pastries and a huge bowl of whipped cream. It was the find of the day! We went to the Rosenborg and Amalienborg Palace. Tried to find a canal tour that had English spoken but there were none left that day. We had planned on visiting the Military Facility at Fredrikshavn and then staying on in town to watch the European Cup Final in a pub but the demonstration was in full flood by then so we got out of the main streets and caught a taxi back to the ship. This part was quite hilarious, our Danish pronunciation of Frihavnen was obviously not all we thought it was because the taxi driver did not understand us and the two guys were directing the taxi driver back to the ship with lots of pointing at maps and gesturing.

 

Luckily so many of the Brits on the Ship had been asking about the football (soccer) match that the Ship very kindly put this on in the Cinema where anyone who wanted to could go to watch it. Our guys had an early dinner from the buffet – not a lot of choice I was told and then went to the Cinema where thay had waiter service for the drinks, with nuts, nibbles etc. (we girls went to the dining room and left them to it). Apparently there were only 4 Spaniards who went to watch the match but Barcelona won Arsenal by 2 goals to 1.

 

 

Oslo - 2.30 p.m. to 9.30 p.m. (docked starboard side)

Shuttle buses available ($5 each way). The weather had caught up with us and it was pouring with rain. We got straight off the ship and headed left to the ferry terminal to catch the ferry to the Viking Ships and the Kon Tiki exhibition. This was 4kr each way pay on the boat. When you get off the ferry head straight up the hill you will eventually come to the Museum on your right. The admission is 5kr but there is not an awful lot to see there but we had least beaten the Ship’s tours. We then headed off to the Kon Tiki Museum, it is quite a trek and took a good 10 mins and some brisk walking still in the rain. However, this is definitely worth the trip and the 4.5kr entrance fee. As my husband remarked they were very brave men especially when you see the whale shark that is the same size as the raft, it could easily have tipped them over. Do not miss the film show with actual footage from the voyage. We were too late for the Fram museum so we walked to the end of the road to catch the ferry back from this stop.

 

We then went into town to look around, very clean and pleasant, if it wasn’t for the rain! We had our most expensive drink on this trip 9.60kr for 1 and half glasses of beer £9.60 or $17. Apparently Oslo has now overtaken Tokyo as the most expensive city in the world – I can believe it!!! The shop at the dock had a small selection of souvenirs but nothing special.

 

Back to Dover – Sorry Harwich !!!!

The seas became very rough on our way back through the North Sea and at 2.00 p.m. in the afternoon we were told that the Ship could not dock at Dover on Saturday morning due to high winds and rough seas and we would have to dock at Harwich instead (RCI have cruises leaving from Harwich, so I suppose they used their berth). Not a big thing in our lives but this meant a 2 and half hour journey down to Dover on the coach to collect our vehicle. They put us on one coach and our luggage on another, so once we got to Dover we had to wait another half-hour for our suitcases! We had never parked so near to a Ship in all our cruises as we had at Dover and we were looking forward to being one of the first off anf being home by late morning, but instead of being home by lunchtime, we were just setting off from Dover!!

 

However, we did feel sorry for the passengers we left at Dover, they had the coach journey the other way and traffic would be building up by the time they set out. I heard the Constellation left around 4 hours late from Harwich.

 

Overall the ports made a good itinerary, it was a shame that we got stuck in a demonstration at Copenhagen which obviously spoiled this visit somewhat. However, we enjoyed our cruise and met some wonderful people. I hope those of you who are taking a Baltic Cruise find that some of the above helps you.

 

Lyn

[evoni]

Great review, thanks for much for taking the time to write and post it. I really appreciate the information.

 

Diana

[lionheart]

Great review!!! I even printed it out to read again before my 6/3 cruise.

 

About how long did you tour Rosenborg castle?

 

Thanks,

 

Kurt

[CruisingChick]

Lyn,

 

Again, thank you so much for your wonderful review and the information you have provided. Only 36 more days to go!

[lionheart]

Also, you said the ship was on-time or early. In Stockholm and Oslo do you remember about what time you docked and what time you could leave the ship....

 

Thanks,

 

Kurt

[Lyn Mc]

Thanks,

 

Glad to see you all made it!!!!

 

Kurt, you have to make reservations for guided tours of the castles or take a ships tour, we got their too late and only saw the gardens and exteriors.

 

Kurt, from memory we docked on time in Stockholm, slightly earlier (15 mins) in Oslo, very quick clearance in each place so off within 15 mins of docking

 

You are in for a wonderful cruise.

 

Lyn

[DELFIN]

Enjoyed reading your review. We're on Connie June 3 and this information is wonderful.

 

Thank you!

SR

[lionheart]

Thanks,

 

Glad to see you all made it!!!!

 

Kurt, you have to make reservations for guided tours of the castles or take a ships tour, we got their too late and only saw the gardens and exteriors.

 

Kurt, from memory we docked on time in Stockholm, slightly earlier (15 mins) in Oslo, very quick clearance in each place so off within 15 mins of docking

 

You are in for a wonderful cruise.

 

Lyn

 

Thats good to hear. On the ship, did they have anything to talk about the different ports?

Also, WAs OSlo an open seating night too...

 

Thanks,

 

Kurt

[cadreamer]

Was it possible to tour the Copenhagen castles on your own without a guide? This has been possible in the past. They had cards in English to read in each area to learn more about what you were seeing. It was neat to see the jewels in the basement.

Thanks for your effort to post such a comprehensive review and I am very happy that your review of your tour with Alla is back on the board. It is heart warming to know that others had as great a time as we did with her.

[BaltiGator]

Excellent post with lots of info. I too will print this out for my cruise. Many thanks!

[phabric]

What currency did you use on land? Is it better to use US$. Did you exchange money on the ship or before you left?

[spearmint]

Thank you for a wonderful write-up. We will be on Constellation at first of September, and will print out your comments to add to others that we have. It is nice to have comments on this year's cruise as a guide, especially as we have been reading posts about the added costs of shuttles, or the use of Hop On-Hop Off busses, etc.

 

Some other posters have some good questions for you, and I will be interested in your replies to them as well. One has a question on currency and another has one on open-seating for dinner, which I did not realize occurred. (I am familiar with open-seating for lunch.)

 

Thanks, again.

[SF]

Great reviews.:) Thanks so much for taking the time to post. It's reviews like this that make it so easy for future cruisers to plan their trip to the Baltic. I also printed out your review for future reference.

 

Also interested in your replies to the two questions regarding ...currency and another one on open-seating for dinner.

 

I read on the boards in one of the threads that you can pre-book your reservations for the specialty restaurant, do you know if this is true or do you have to wait until you're onboard?

[evoni]

SF, if you are a member of the Captain's Club you can pre-book one night at the specialty restaurant. If you aren't, you have to wait until you are onboard.

 

Diana

[SF]

Diana,

 

Yes, we are members. Glad to know we can book ahead, do you know how far ahead? Thanks for replying to my question.

[Boo's Mom]

Thank you, Lyn.... for your review.

 

Did "not" debarking in Dover create a flight nightmare for so many folks?

I can't imagine being that late...

 

I too, am interested in how you prepared (or not) for all of the currency differences.

 

Thanks again. A great review.

[insidecabin]

Harwich is about the same distance/travel time as dover so no real problem for the flights.

 

Actually the ship was emptied pretty quickly, we had a short wait while the coach loaded 9:20 ish(our scheduled time), Those after us had to wait for more coaches to turn up.

 

At 9:00am I heard that 1600 out of 2000 passegers had disembarked.

[Boo's Mom]

thanks, insidecabin. (cute name! :D )

 

I wonder if there was enough advance notice, so that those with private transfers were able to contact their rides with the new information?

[OKCruzer]

Great review, thanks so much. We do about same route as you with HAL in August. Good friends of ours are on the Constellation now, they boarded on the 20th, I guess from your review in Harwich instead of Dover. Anxious for their return to hear just what they did. I am not so sure, checking the weather daily, that they have had as good weather as you did, looks like they have had a bit of rain. Thanks again:) it is postings and reviews like yours that help the rest of us on similar cruises.

[krispyk]

What a great review you wrote! We are taking a Baltic cruise in July and I wanted to ask you a question. You mentioned the prices in St Petersberg were much better than Estonia. My question is do you need to pay in Rubles in St Petersberg or do the local merchants take credit cards? I really enjoyed your review, if you are not an author you should become one.

[insidecabin]

thanks' date=' insidecabin. (cute name! :D )

 

I wonder if there was enough advance notice, so that those with private transfers were able to contact their rides with the new information?[/quote']

 

 

Those we new did at slight increase in cost(milage is higher), the anoucement was early afternoon the day at sea before we were due to disembark so plenty of time, Not sure if they got a free call from the ship or not.

 

I also think some coaches were made available for those that wanted to go into london for post cruise extensions rather than go to dover.

All in all not bad logistics for the first trip out of the UK

 

(If I win the lottery I will need a name change, for now it is inside GTY for more days at sea)

 

BTW. fantasic review Lyn, hope you don't mind me butting in in on the questions, today has been cruise info catchup day.

[Lyn Mc]

Hi everyone, thanks again for your comments. Thanks for the input Phil, it helps to have back-up/second opinions anytime!!

 

OK, here we go:

 

Kurt, There is a talk on all the ports in the Theatre (info in the Daily) if you want to go. BUT it is relayed on the TV continually so you can choose which way to get the information. Oslo was not open seating.

 

Cadreamer - I too thought we could take an unguided tour but by the time we got to the castle it was rather late. We enquired and they told us that we needed to book a guided tour but that the last one had already started. They stated that they did not allow unguided tours as the royal family was in residence. I don't know if this was the correct information. Perhaps someone else had a different experience.

 

RE CURRENCY: We used local currency on our trips but credit cards when shopping at main shops. You can get most of the currencies from the ship but not the zloty (poland) nor estonia kroon (Tallin). We purchased our currency on board ship. NOTE: You cannot charge this to your shipboard account you have to take dollars/pounds etc to the onboard bank and exchange actual notes!! They will also exchange back notes but not coins. However, having said all this we would not do this again the ships exchange rate is not that good and we lost out big time. We would use the local ATM's they are plentiful and only a small charge from your bank. There are banks that don't charge you and I would recommend looking into this if you are planning a trip could save you quite a bit on a Baltics cruise. In Russia they will take dollars but the market and some small stall holders only take roubles but our tour guide helped us out there and we repaid her in dollars. In Tallin they took euros but the change came back in estonian kroons, we gave all our coins from all the ports to our room stewardess.

 

Open seating at St Petersburg, we were back too late for dining, we could have had pasta or pizza but had room service instead. At Warnemunde we got together with our fellow tablemates in the Martini Bar and went down at around 8.00 p.m. and got a table together.

 

Boo's Mom - all those with prearranged taxis etc for Dover were allowed one 'free' phone call to rearrange the pickup. All those who were with Woodfords got together and made one phone call re all their bookings. The extra cost was ~£50 for each pickup.

 

OKCruzer - we really struck lucky with the weather, hope your friends enjoy their cruise as much as we did.

 

KrispyK - thanks for the comments, no I am just a humble PA, used to typing everything into 'minutes' of meetings so tried my hand at my once and only review - glad you liked it. Depends where you shop in St Petersburg. Street vendors we met and the market only took roubles but we heard of some that did take dollars. Never saw a credit card machine on the stalls/market, don't know whether I would have wanted to use my c/c here anyway. Our tour guide, Alla, helped us out wiht roubles and we gave her dollars n return. The shop she took us to - Northway - wonderful place and very good prices, took dollars or euros and the exchange rate was flashing above the checkout area. Most people paid on their credit card here.

 

Hope I have managed to answer the questions you had.

 

Lyn

[Tisha]

Firstly, thanks for the review. It's great having "fresh" info to work with! We are leaving in 7 days for the Baltics and I'm busy finalising my research. Can you remember, or did you take note of how wheelchair friendly things like the HOHO, Ferry & Sightseeing Cruise are. I will be travelling with my elderly parents - dad will be in a wheelchair as he's too weak to walk more than a few steps & can't do stairs at all. We are all veteran travellers & prefer doing DIY tours - If I know a ferry ride is not possible I'll get a taxi from the ship, but don't want to get to the ferry & then realise we can't go... I've booked a private tour with our favourite TO in St Petersburg, but our other ports Copenhagen, Kleipeda, Oslo, Helsinki & Stockholm must still be finalised.

Thank you so much for any advise you might have.

[Lyn Mc]

Hi Tisha

 

Thanks for the comments on my review. I have to say firstly that I am very lucky and am a very healthy able bodied person I really did not have to consider whether anything we did would involve a wheelchair or very little walking, etc. Therefore I have to answer your query from memory. We did see a number of passengers in wheelchairs on this trip but we did our own thing in every port except St Petersburg so were not with these passengers on any trips Ships/or otherwise. We only used the HoHo bus in Helsinki but the one we used did have a high step up to get on (no electric lowering step) and I cannot remember whether there was space to set up a wheelchair once inside. The canal cruise we took (in Stockhom) meant getting on to the boat from the dock via a very wide plank of wood (with ridges) but there were plenty of staff from the boat who could assist you.

 

If you still have time, you could e-mail the tourist information places at the chosen venues and see if they have any information for you. Sorry I could not have been more help.

 

Lyn

[Alan2504]

Rick T,

 

Try:

 

http://www.alla-tour.com/

 

 

 

 

Alan