Batic on the Jewel - May '09

[Atina Reports]

We (four gals from Canada) were on the May 10 NCL Baltic cruise too and we had a great time. Actually, this is my 3rd time on NCL, first on the Jewel though. The ship is a bit big but we had no problem finding our way around – we were in a mini-suite on deck 11.

I thought embarkation was a small disaster – we’d flown overnight from Canada and arrived at the port too early (about 9:30 am) so were held until after noon when we were allowed to board. The one saving grace re embarkation was that the scanning machine was at the other entrance (where there had been an apparent emergency) so our bags didn’t get scanned and we didn’t have to pay corkage for the sherry and I really needn’t have poured my duty free gin into water bottles to carry in my hand baggage!

I loved the itinerary but I really got tired of the pushing of excursions by NCL. Usually, the on shore excursions are sold out but I guess most passengers did what we did, went it alone. The port information provided by NCL was not very good probably because they wanted us on the excursions. They could have given us better maps of the ports.

We took the #26 bus to Tivoli and did a canal cruise in Copenhagen and then the HOHO bus that went right back to the dock. We bought the $10 Rostock Card in Warnemunde, took the train to Rostock, returned by boat to the ship for lunch and explored Warnemunde in the afternoon.

In Tallinn we took a taxi to the cathedral in the old town and walked back to the ship in time for lunch. Then two of us walked back into town (to the old gates) and found an internet café that charged $1 US for 20 minutes. Sure beats ship prices.

In St. Petersburg we took a private tour with Anastasia Tours (no deposit required) – two days cost us just over $300 US each and that included the port fees as well as all the building entry fees, the photo permits and even a ride on the Metro/Underground/ Subway. The tour guide spoke very good English and as expected was very knowledgeable. She even took us to a typical pie shop for lunch on the 2nd day.

We had been warned by Anastasia that the cruise line would attempt to make us wait until after the NCL excursion passengers disembarked and that they had no right to do that. Our tour was to start at 8 am on the first day, so once docked we headed down to the disembarkation deck (luckily, we took the elevator not knowing the crew were holding non-NCL excursion passengers on the stairs). A crew member stopped us and told us we couldn’t get off yet; he backed off when we told them we were getting off and they couldn’t stop us. Another crew member also tried to stop us but we told him the same thing and they let us get off without any fuss. Of course, we then had to stand in line waiting to go through Russian immigration like everyone else but we did get to our tour guide reasonably soon after we docked.

Obviously, there were a lot of irate passengers because of the NCL disembarkation rules that were total rubbish. The explanatory letter they distributed that evening was also rubbish saying that passengers that were not on NCL tours didn’t have the right documentation so they held things up. Actually, the couple in front of us was on an NCL tour but didn’t have their excursion ticket so they held the line up until they were told to stand aside. The Russian Immigrations officers, I’m sure, don’t care who’s on what tour, they just want the right documentation.

There was no problem disembarking on the second day but Anastasia told us that the Princess Cruise Line had started ushering their non-excursion passengers to one of the public rooms on deck 12 telling them that the Russian Immigration Officers were coming aboard to process them. She said there were not enough officers to board a ship so that was just another ploy to keep the independent tour passengers aboard longer.

At the end of our 2nd day tour we bought some vodka that we put in our water bottles and got it on board without question.

In Helsinki and Stockholm we took the HOHO bus but I think there might have been a better way in Stockholm – the shuttle bus to the start of the HOHO route was crowded and dropped us at Stop #9, the Vasa. After a wait of at least 30 minutes, we took the HOHO to the beginning of the route so after disembarking it took us almost 2 hours to get from the ship to the Royal Palace!

All in all, it was a great trip. I like NCL and am not adverse to the $12 per diem service charge – how, otherwise, would you tip the staff that serve you – just think how many there are. This way everyone gets a share and presumably no-one is left out.

My main complaint was the continual hounding by NCL to buy something whether it was a shore excursion, a spa visit, your next cruise or a Russian souvenir. I think they must be hurting because I’ve never experienced anything like it before on any previous cruises. I was also a bit annoyed at the amount of paper NCL distributes to the rooms daily especially since at least half of it was an ad for something they were trying to sell. I figured we got at least 6 pieces of paper a day, so with (conservatively) 1,200 rooms that‘s over 86,000 sheets (or 43,000 reams)! Hopefully, they recycle it - we might have found out had we taken the ship’s tour on the last sea day but we passed on it thinking it was a total rip off at $55.00US per person!

[Bacchus76]

Thanks so much for the post and information! I will be traveling on the same cruise (with two ladies) on June 15th. All of your tips will be very helpful. I was worried about getting off the boat in a timely manner for our St Petersburg tour...I guess we will have to be very assertive to get through. What a mess!

 

We also have a red-eye flight to London. We will probably be early for embarkation as well. I wonder if we can't just check our luggage and tour Dover until the afternoon. If anyone has any tips on this, please let me know. Is Dover easily navigable from the cruise terminal? Can we walk or do we have to take a taxi (if they are even available)?

 

How did you do with currencies? We will be getting some euros and pounds but we are finding it difficult to exchange into the other currencies. Were you able to get transport into Stockholm, Copenhagen with dollars, euros or credit cards?

 

Cant wait for our trip and your booze smuggling stories had me cracking up! We will be up to the same shenanigans :)

 

 

Thanks much! Jill

[dinoman]

Jill, you might wish to visit the CC Baltic Destination Board from which I collected tonnes of information re my cruise:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=192

 

From what I've learnt, Dover terminal is quite a distance away from the town centre and although it could be done on foot I don't think you would like to do so with luggages. I suppose there is a taxi stand near to the terminal where you can take a taxi to the railway or bus station.

 

I am still very confused with the currencies arrangement and so far I think US$, Euro and Pound Sterling are the basics, and credit cards are widely acceptable. For the other ports some OPs would get from the local ATMs and others just pay by Euro/US$. For myself I feel secure to have some local currencies at hand for small purchases and leave the credit cards to settle the big buys.

[Atina Reports]

I'm sure the NCL embarkation procedure has improved by the time you sail. Also, the cruise before ours had an outbreak of noro virus so they were cleaning furiously prior to our boarding so that could have delayed things.

 

I'm not sure but I think you'll need a taxi from Dover town to the dock. From the ship we could see the white cliffs and it did look as though you could walk along what looked like the sea front if you wanted to waste some time before boarding. We had NCL transfers from Heathrow to Dover so we didn't see our luggage until it came to our room on the ship.

 

We took various currencies with us (Danish Kroner, Swedish Kroner, Euros, GBP and US). In hindsight we could have easily survived with Euros and US$ although GBP were useful at Heathrow. You can use an ATM to get the local currency (although not advised in Russia) and there's always a credit card (also not advised in Russia I hear).

 

Happy sailing.......

 

Thanks so much for the post and information! I will be traveling on the same cruise (with two ladies) on June 15th. All of your tips will be very helpful. I was worried about getting off the boat in a timely manner for our St Petersburg tour...I guess we will have to be very assertive to get through. What a mess!

 

We also have a red-eye flight to London. We will probably be early for embarkation as well. I wonder if we can't just check our luggage and tour Dover until the afternoon. If anyone has any tips on this, please let me know. Is Dover easily navigable from the cruise terminal? Can we walk or do we have to take a taxi (if they are even available)?

 

How did you do with currencies? We will be getting some euros and pounds but we are finding it difficult to exchange into the other currencies. Were you able to get transport into Stockholm, Copenhagen with dollars, euros or credit cards?

 

Cant wait for our trip and your booze smuggling stories had me cracking up! We will be up to the same shenanigans :)

 

 

Thanks much! Jill