sue117

I have one other question - and thank you for answering my previous one...

 

What do you recommend regarding currency? Just use ATM's? Anywhere that was difficult?

 

thanks,

 

Sheila

We honestly didn't have a need for too much foreign currency. Most of the stops took Euros, so you can use those for lunch or snacks or whatever. If you need to you can use a credit card. we did change some money for tips and whatnot, but even tips we gave in Dollars. :)

I will say that we don't buy much "stuff" when we are on a cruise. Therejust isn't much that we have to have. Bt we did change money on board when we needed to. I guess it wasnt a huge deal for us or I would remember more about it! Lol

W didn't need Roubles in Russia either because meals were included with our private tour, and again, we used a credit card in the gift shop to but Russian souvenirs and could give the tip in dollars.

We want to take one of the Collector's Baltic cruises on the Eurodam in the next couple years. I was happy to see that you did go to Berlin even though it was a long day. I've read others' reports that they didn't think it would be worth it. Our neighbor was born in Berlin so I very much would like to visit her native city. How long was your day in port? I've seen that the ship is there up to 16 hours -- in which case there would be plenty of time to visit Berlin IMO.

 

I had never been to Germany (DH was stationed there for 3 years while in the Army in the early 90s) and really wanted to go. It WAS a long day, but worth it in my mind. Now that I've been I probably wouldn't do it again, but for us it was great. We actually thought we had TOO much time walking around Berlin on our own, but we saw all the sights that we wanted to (Wall, Checkpoint Charlie, Hitler's bunker, B-gate, etc). I don't remember exact times, but it had to be a LONG time in port. I remember we were walking around the port after we got back from Berlin and it was getting dark...

I found it SOOO interesting that we were taking the train through EAST Germany (well, you know, what USED to be E Germany). So weird for us since we grew up in the "they are the enemies" era of the Cold War. It was surreal and a great experience (and beautiful countryside too BTW).

And we got a nap on the way back to the ship on the train too so it wasn't all bad! :) Anytime I can take a nap in the middle of the day and not "miss" anything is a good day for me! lol

Just wondering if you can offer some suggestions of what to pack - and what you wished you had.

 

You mentioned that an umbrella was a must....Did you dress in layers most of the trip? More long sleeves than short? Warmest day? Coldest?

 

Thank you so much - we are leaving on July 7 on the Ryndam.

 

Sheila

The rain gear was a must. We actually wished that we had a "poncho" instead of a raincoat, because that would have covered our backpack that we were wearing, but I suppose an umbrella will take care of that as well. Layers is always good. The sunniest day was towards the end of the cruise in Sweden, other than that it was pretty overcast. Not raining every day, but not completely sunny either. So yes, layers is always a good thing (and a good backpack or bag that you can throw a layer in when you shed it off!)

Honestly I don't remember the temps, but if you check out the photos you can see what I'm wearing in them and that should give you an idea. :)

Have a GREAT cruise! It's a very port intensive cruise and we were very tired at the end of each day, but there were such great things to see at every port! A great experience that I'm sure you will share! :)

Hi Sue, I enjoy reading your most informative post. I am curious to know if TJ is your tour agent since your mentioned the guide name.

I'm not sure if I'm allowed to say or not...but if you check out our roll call before we went you can see some discussion (including mine) on the St Petersburg tours. :)

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1184498&page=12

And to round out the total number of pics that we took of INSIDE the ship I must preface this by saying that my husband and I have this "thing" that we do....it started out on our first cruise to Alaska...I was making him pose by all the stuffed things that are outside the stores...you know, the stuffed bears, the stuffed moose, etc. He was getting tired of just standing there nicely, so in one photo he picked the nose of the bear he was standing next to...POOF, instant tradition. So now we have to pick the noses of statues (and as you will see below, art) that we see. It's obnoxious, yes, but it's "our" thing. :) And yes, we have corrupted some of our friends and every now and then they will pick a statue's nose just for us when they are on vacation! :)

So anyway, below are some pictures of the art on the Eurodam. If you look in the background you can see some of the ship (yes, I know ,it's pathetic and I DID promise in my last post to do better in the future and take more "ship" photos).

Picking a fish's nose...oh and you can see some stairs of the ship in the background!

Picking a lady's nose...hey, it's better than fondling something else of this woman! lol

Picking Neptune's nose...and there is one of the lounges behind them!

Ok, you can't see anything behind this work of art except for the wall in the stairway, but I thought this was a funny picture, and of course we had to pick it's nose!

Thanks for the notes everyone. Reading back over my review makes me miss being on a cruise that much more! lol. Luckily we have 2 more planned...but Nov can't come soon enough for me! :)

I'm not sure why, but it doesn't look like I took ANY pics inside the ship at all! Sigh. I'll have to be better at that in the future. I did find SOME that I took.

Here is a picture of the Eurodam waiting for us to board in Dover.

Here is a picture of the back deck when some of the workers were putting up (taking down?) the flags in one of the ports. You can see the white "box" that we love to sit on when we are leaving ports. It's comfy, can support our weight and there is a nice breeze when it's hot out.

This one is of....well, you KNOW what it's of...lol

The next 2 pics are SORTA of the ship...you can see the side of it! lol The pilot coming down the ladder to get back into the pilot boat after guiding us out of the port of Dover. In the last pic the pilot is waving to our captain.

I am going July of 2013 on this itinerary. It is different in some ways. We are not going to Stockholm nor Tallin. Instead we are going to Ystad, Sweden; Gdansk, Poland and Klaipeda, Lithuania.

 

Debbie

I'd love to go to Poland! I've thought "Why would I ever do a Baltic cruise again now that we've done it once?" Well. THAT is my answer! Because it goes to different ports! lol

I know it's a year later, but if anyone has any questions about ports or whatever just ask! :)

 

That being said, on our last cruise (not on HAL), we missed the muster drill because we boarded AFTER the muster drill (don't ask - never again!). As we ran across the pier and onto the ship, (gangway went up after we boarded!) we were handed an emergency evacuation instruction sheet by a security officer. That evening, after settling down and realizing that we made the ship by minutes - we took the sheet and found the location ourselves.

The last time we missed the muster we had to do a "make up" muster the next day while at sea. We had to show up with our life jacket on the promenade deck....it was kinda funny as people looked at us weird with our life jackets on wandering around and finally one passenger asked us if there was something that they needed to know! lol

When I was a freshman at college I remembered a story my older brother told me about when there was a fire drill at his college he stayed in his room and didn't bother to go. This seemed like a good plan for me too...so the first time the fire alarm went off I stood in my closet door...I did NOT expect the floor director to open my door to check to make sure my room was empty!

I took a step back and held my breath...I didn't get caught, but I was freaked out...and NEVER skipped a fire drill after that. It just wasn't worth my angst and stress! (not to mention it's a SAFETY issue! lol).

So yeah, I'm not sure why someone would deliberately skip it and if caught would still deliberately not go!

Wrap Up:

Overall this was a great cruise. The seas were incredibly calm. No major issues there. We loved the food, but then again we aren’t “foodies”. We don’t scoff if we have a piece of meat that isn’t cooked exactly to our expectations. We eat it anyway. We don’t freak out if there is a ladybug crawling on the side of the salad plate as it’s put down in front of us (and yes, that happened to someone at our table, but our dining room steward was appalled and whisked the plate away. He said that he had to let the chef know immediately…and a new dish was immediately set in front of our dining partner.). We didn’t eat in the Pinnacle Grill…we figure, why pay for food on a cruise ship when the food in the “regular” dining room is always excellent. We didn’t eat at any of the other specialty restaurants (and one is just an “extension” of the Lido anyway…why would we eat there when it’s basically eating at the Lido??).

There are people on every cruise that we go on that we are just amazed they allow themselves to go on a vacation at all. They complain about everything. They complain about the food taking too long, they complain about the elevator taking too long to get there, they complain about anything and everything. We try to relax, not let the little things get to us, and just relax. I think I read about 25 books that I had been saving up on my Kindle for the trip (ok, not 500 page novels, just light formula fiction books). I know I’ll have a ton of work emails to catch up on when I get home, along with a ton of work to do, so we try to just ignore that and have a good time anyway.

We earned our 3 star mariner status on this cruise. We love Holland America because it’s relaxing. There aren’t a million kids running everywhere. It’s more low-key, and that’s what we like. We don’t do it to hobnob with the captain, we don’t go to the mariner brunch (which someone I talked to said wasn’t that impressive and there were a TON of people there). Do I think that I am special because I’ve cruised on HA more than 75 days? No. Do I think that HA really cares that I’ve been on their ships more than 75 days? Not really. Nothing against them, but honestly, they don’t know me. I’m just another paying customer. Again, not a complaint, but just my rambling thought. We really like Holland America and in fact I’m a “third generation” HA cruiser (My grandmother cruised HA all the time, and my mom does too (she just got off the World Cruise in April this year)).

Overall this was a great cruise. A great itinerary and a great way to see the Baltics and Northern Europe. There is nothing like being able to come back to the ship after a long say doing the “tourist thing” and not have to unpack or get on a plane or train to get to the next stop. Cruising is our favorite type of vacation…and we are sad that this one is now over. Until next time….

Let me know if you have any other questions for me about the trip. I know there were some other people that posted reviews of this same cruise, so I'm not sure how helpful my ramblings are, but they are what they are I suppose :)

Here are some random shots...

One of my favorite pieces of art..it was a bit abstract with the chef being the only one sitting in a big concert hall, but I liked it!

Hanging out on the balcony during a sunny day at sea!

Snoozing on the balcony

Beautiful sunset...and this was late at night...like 9pm, and the sun still had a ways to go before it actually went under the horizon!

Pulling back into a foggy Dover in the morning we were to leave. Check out the ferry in the background!

Sweden

We went to Sweden on a holiday day (Friday). It was midsummer. That means that all the shops closed at 2. This was the only port where we had to tender in. We heard that the people that didn't have a tour had to wait a long time to get on the tenders (because all the shore excursion people got to get on first). We did the “ride into Stockholm” tour…a pretty expensive shuttle ride basically! We had about 5 hours on our own, which was a bit much. Looking back we probably should have done the Vasa Museum and then time on our own, which would have been about 3 hours.

But Stockholm is another beautiful European city. We spent some time in the old town, watched the changing of the guards at the palace. Then we walked around the main shopping district. Then when time was up we got back on the bus for the hour ride back to the ship.

We were surprised that we didn’t have to show our passports at any time except in Russia, and getting back ON the ship in Sweden. We were told that we had to have our passports in Germany, but no one looked at them. Essentially it’s because of an agreement that the European Union has about traveling in Europe, but it was a bit odd to us. So we have 2 stamps (in and out) from Russia, 2 stamps in England (since we flew in and out of London) and one stamp (out) in Sweden! Hopefully no one wants to know how we got INTO Sweden! Ha!

I had ordered chocolate covered strawberries before we came aboard. I wanted them delivered on each of the 4 sea days. I figured that it would be a nice treat. The first sea day came, and no strawberries. So I went to the front desk about 7pm, and they sent them right up. Super. They were delicious. The next sea day (2 days later I think), the strawberries showed up in the cabin. Awesome. Again, they tasted great.

Then we had the 5 days straight of being in port….the 3rd sea day came, and no strawberries. I had my husband go to the front desk and ask to be reimbursed. I figured, it was late, and I was just irritated. They apologized and reimbursed us on our ship board account. Then at 10:45pm there is a knock at the door. It’s a room service guy with the strawberries and a plate of chocolates…apologizing for them not being delivered. Ok, now it was great of Holland America to apologize for their mistake…but to send them up at almost 11pm?? Really? And of course they were delivered without any issues on the 4th sea day. I’m sure it’s difficult to keep track of the orders like that, but isn’t that what computers are for? So in the future, if I want chocolate covered strawberries, I will wait until I am on board and will just pick up the phone and order them that way.

Changing of the guard in Stockholm Old Town at the Royal Palace

DH taking a break at the pedestrian walkway where the shops are...can you spot the geocache?

The tender and the ship

On the way back to the ship. This was the nicest day in port...sunny all day, high of around 70ish.

Helsinki, Finland

Helsinki was another nice European city. There was a shuttle bus that takes you into town. It doesn’t seem like the city is far from the dock, but of course the dock is in an industrial part of the city and you have to weave in and out of buildings, so if you walk it would take about 45 minutes. So I paid the $10 and took the round trip shuttle. WELL worth it!

DH wasn't feeling well today (he had caught a cold in Russia and was sneezing and just generally feeling icky, so I was on my own in Finland today!

The shuttle dropped me off in the middle of the city. At first I was like "hummm, just a big city", so I walked around a bit more. Finally came into the "touristy" part of town. Saw the big cathedral, saw the open air market, walked around some more. I didn't get to the "rock church", but that looked really neat and I'm sure is worth the trip to it. I probably would have walked to it, but I wasn't sure where it was on the map. The shuttle arrived every 15 min or so so whenever you are ready to go back to the ship you can. There was a geocache about 200 feet from where our ship docked, so for anyone that wants only ONE geocache in the country, you can get one easily in this port!

As soon as I got back to the ship it started pouring! I had just missed the rain. And it rained harder than we had seen it rain the entire cruise so far. Sideways rain!

So, what do you do when you are tired from walking around and it's raining?…I took a nap! Lol. When I woke up the sun was shining. That is kinda how it was the entire cruise. It would rain a bit, then clear up, rain a bit, then clear up.

My husband used the workout facility several times and had no issues with it, although it was crowded on the last 2 sea days, and he said very hot. But I think that is to be expected. We didn’t participate in any of the spa treatments. We went to a few of the shows. We aren’t really “show” people. (refer back to the hermit comment above and our love of reading), but the ones that we did to go were very well done. I know that some have said that HA doesn’t have good entertainment, but we remember on one cruise that we were on we saw Jeff Dunham (the ventriloquist with dummies)…and now he’s FAMOUS!

The ship...and I didn't know it, but my husband was watching me from our balcony. Top floor, not the big wrap around aft deck, but the one right next to it...you can JUST see him in this pic.

And here I am with the geocache...you can see how close it was to the ship!

Big Church (which I'm sure has a name, but since I wasn't on a tour I couldn't tell ya what it was! lol...but I CAN tell you that there are 2 geocaches nearby it! )

Open Air market

A geocache under a pedestrian bridge near the open air market.

We signed up for the early seating. 5:30 was a BIT early I found on this cruise to eat. Most of the time we were leaving port around that time and we like to watch us push off and watch the sights as we leave a city, but we couldn’t do that with the 5:30 eating time. We just missed dinner in the dining room the first night in Russia because our tour didn’t get back to the ship in time. So it would have been nice if dinner was even a little bit later..I suppose we could have gotten the “as you wish” dining and it would have solved all these issues, but we really like eating at the same time each night and with the same people.

We signed up for a table for 6. That seems to be a good number for us. DH is a bit hard of hearing and too many more people would make him miserable because he would be too far away from them to hear what they were saying. I discovered another reason on this cruise why we like the tables for 6…their location!!! Almost EVERY cruise we’ve been on with HA we have had a table at the back of the room right by the windows…it’s because that is where the tables for 6 are located! Seriously! The tables for 8 and 4 and 2 and whatnot are scattered around the room, but most of the tables for 6 are in the back near the windows…so that’s a tip for you all!

I also tried to sign up for the ship tour that I learned about here on Cruise critic. The one that is $150. I thought that it was a bit steep, but was finally convinced. BUT because of the code red when we got on board, I was told it was canceled. :( I was sooo bummed. That was one thing that I really really really wanted to do. And I wanted to find out what the “gift” was at the end of the tour too!

About the code red. As I said in the beginning of my review, we were offered a full refund if we didn’t want to get on the ship. It must have been a big breakout of the virus in my eyes. Some of the people that took the combined cruise might have more to say on that though. We were under the code red for about 5 days I think. No salt shakers on the table, no serving yourself in the Lido, no table numbers on the dining room tables, no bread bowls, etc. It’s a lot of extra work for the crew I’m sure. We had no info about the sickness at all. We just went to dinner one night and POOF the saran wrap in the Lido was gone, and we had salt shakers back on the tables!

I was even MORE bummed about the ship tour being canceled as a result. If they canceled it because of the code red….why didn’t they have it back when the code red was removed? We had been on the ship for almost a WEEK after they removed it and had 2 sea days before we disembarked. Certainly they could have had the tour when it would have only been about 12 people going through the tour? Whatever the reason it was disappointing.

The towel animal situation in our cabin was hysterical. I’m not sure if our cabin steward was a “free spirit” or new or just tired of making the same ol thing all the time, but we honestly had a hard time figuring out what the animals were each night! It was almost like he just twisted up some towels and threw some eyeballs on them and VIOLA! An animal! Lol. It was a running joke between DH and I to try to figure out what the animal was. We went into one of the couple’s that ate at our table on the last night and they had a very cool monkey hanging on a hanger….we didn’t get an animal that night at all! Lol. So here are some pics of some of animals so you can see what I’m talking about!

OK, this one is probably a squid...not too bad...

This one we figured was a water animal...but what kind?

elephant without big ears?

Duck?

What the HECK is THIS one?

And this was the best yet....?? A rolled up towel with a balled up towel on top with eyes? lol Honestly it was funny, but we had NO idea what these were supposed to be!

More pics from Russia

You do NOT want to have to use one of these! I'm sure you can figure out what this says! lol

Shoe condoms at Catherines Palace

We Shuffled through Catherine's Palace like this...from room to room wall to wall people.

The "wild" tourists waiting to get into Catherine's Palace. These are tourists that aren't on an official tour

9:30pm in Russia. The sun is still nice and high and bright!

Relaxing on board in Russia

St Petersburg, Russia

In SP we opted to go with a private company. I’m not sure that I’m allowed to talk about which one we took here, but it was an excellent decision! We had a mini van bus thing and there were only 10 of us. We were able to get in and out of traffic a bit easier than the big busses and it was easier to stick together in the crowds at the touristy spots. I had to been in the USSR and Leningrad about 20 years ago, and it’s amazing what has changed…and what hasn’t! Our guide, Olga, was SOOO knowledgeable about her city. We didn’t have any problems understanding her with her accent at all. She knew every building in that city and she knew the history with all the czars backwards and forwards. She didn’t breathe when she was lecturing us either!

There was no way to butt in with a question because she didn’t stop talking! (in a good way!). The other thing that was handy, that the big tours had too, was an individual ear piece radio. You can hear the guide talking and she/he doesn’t have to yell to be heard over all the other tours. Olga could walk and talk in a regular voice without having to walk backward or strain her voice. Very handy.

We saw the Hermitage the first day. It was crowded, but not obnoxiously though. One of the couples that sat with us at dinner said they went the second day and it was horribly crowded. We saw Peterhof and the beautiful gardens, took a hydrofoil boat ride, ate lunch at a Russian café, Church of the Spilled Blood, and had several photo stops. Honestly? That really was enough for my husband and I, but off we went the second day, since we had signed up for the 2 day tour. We went to Catherine’s Palace first. Oh. My. God. It was horrible. Don’t get me wrong, the scenery was to die for. The Palace was amazing. Wow. Beautiful. But it was really hard to appreciate it when we were packed in like cows going to slaughter. Olga, of course, kept a running commentary of every room we went through (and there were only like SIX rooms total!!) and all the furniture and every portrait on the wall, but it was too crowded, it was too hot, and we were more than happy to get out of there.

The traffic in SP is horrible. Too many cars, not enough roads. So we crawled back into town and tried to go on a boat ride in the canals. Something was off with the timing, so we went and got lunch. Olga was amazing. There was a huge line, she was stressing about getting everything in that was on the schedule before we had to go back to the ship. So she snagged someone that worked in the café and told them that we would all take ours to go. So they took all of our orders right there at the back of the line. She was a great “problem solver”. And I know that we wouldn’t have been able to go to this little café and had lunch if we were on the big tour (although they DID provide lunch on those, so I suppose it would have been a moot point anyway).

Off we went to the boat ride in the canals. Then we were seriously running late and it was starting to rain…so Olga told us all about Peter and Paul’s Fortress on the way to the fortress. Told us what czars were buried there, told us about the Romanovs and when we got there only 6 of us on the tour got out to see it. It was almost amusing…we got in and Olga started pointing here and there…”here is Peter the Great, Here is Czarina Elizabeth, here are the Romanovs’…ok let’s go”. Dead czar, dead czar, dead czar, ok, let’s go. We were laughing. Of course it was pouring when we went back outside, but back to the van we went. If we weren’t so tired maybe it wouldn’t have been so amuzing. But we were just glad it wasn’t that crowded in there. Then we went back to the ship and all was well. We saw everything that was promised in the tour brochure that we had signed up for!

SP is a beautiful city. Still very corrupt I think. Olga talked constantly about how the policeman’s pockets were “very deep” and if you got stopped,it was cheaper to just pay the policeman, than to go to court. It was the only stop where our passports were checked and stamped. In and out, both days. There is no openness about going in or out of the country. There was no smiling and you had better be sure that your papers are in order or you won’t be able to go into the country. We didn’t have any issues with our paperwork. Our tour tickets for the tour company in Russia were sufficient and counted as our visa so we didn’t have to get one ahead of time. (Holland America does have an excursion where you have a tour then get about 3 hours "on your own" on the shopping street..so I guess it's a little lie that you have to stay with your tour the entire time if you don't get an individual visa).

We did hear that one woman had her purse stolen when she was at the Hermitage the first day, and they won’t let you back on the ship without your passport! I have no idea where she stayed that night. I am assuming the US Embassy or a nearby hotel. It’s scary to think about though. One of the other passengers told us that their guide told them that replacing a US passport is easier in SP than other nationalities. For instance a Canadian passport would have to be replaced in Moscow! So hopefully that woman had her passport replaced and got back on the ship on day 2. Olga told us constantly to watch for pick pockets...at EVERY touristy place..and her cell phone has been stolen 3 times out of her bag...so be very careful with your stuff when you are there. It probably wouldn't be a bad thing to buy one of those money holders that you put on your belt or around your chest just in case!You don't want to be left in Russia because your passport was stolen!

So as neat and interesting as it was to be in Russia, we were just as glad to hit the road and get back on the ship!

Our Tour Van

"Trick" fountain at Peterhoff...one of the men behind the bench is running the fountain, when kids are there trying to find the "trick" rock he will randomly make the water shoot up!

Crowds at the Hermitage...not TOO bad, but this was towards the end when it was getting more crowded. Holland America DOES have a night tour of the hermitage which I heard wasn't crowded at all. Might be worth it!

Church of the Spilled Blood (the only Virtual geocache in the city)

Rain storm the first night coming in...and this was about at 9pm! The white nights were in full effect! Sun set around 11pm and rose about 3am!

The only building we saw that still had a Lenin statue in front!

Everyone on our sailing actually was offered a free refund if they didn't want o go because of the sickness. I have no idea if anyone took them up on it or not. The code red was cancelled after our first day in St Petersburg. I think that was day 6 or so. And I am sure the crew was relieved because it LOOKED like a lot more work for them!

Thanks for your Kind words about the review. I'll get the Russia review up tonight. :)

Great review! One question - do you know if HAL provided a shuttle to the Old Town in Tallinn and how steep was the climb to see the sites once you got there?

Thanks

I'm glad that someone is still reading! :)

I don't think there was a ship shuttle because we were so close. But there was a "hop on, hop off" bus in every port. You would pay them and it would make loops to the tourist sites and you could get on and off at will. I'm sure if you google it you could find info.

I do recall Ian the port guy/cruise director saying that at Tallin it didn't really go into the town because of the curvy streets. A bus is just too big. I think even the excursions on the ship couldn't get the buses in there. There were also taxis at the pier that you could take too. There were some hills in old town but they didn't seem too bad. :)

Tallin

Tallin was beautiful. Very easy to walk from the ship to the old town. It really is a town of contractions…the new city right next to the old city with its cobblestone streets and the old castle wall. I must admit that we were happy every time when we were walking around and saw people with the Holland America excursion stickers on their shirts. Means that we were seeing things that others paid for…and we didn’t!

We had a hard time finding geocaches here though! We must have had about 6 or 7 that we tried to find that we couldn’t. Either they were hidden very well, or we weren’t good at finding them, or we were just bad lookers that day!

The memorial to the sinking of the ferry in 2002 (I think) that killed over 800 people was very moving. And scary too. We saw a lot of ferries when we were in that part of the world and it’s no wonder so many people died. Think of a small cruise ship that would just suddenly sink or roll over. It’s not like those ferries are open aired boats…they have enclosed cabins, with no verandas, just like a cruise ship. So if it suddenly tipped over…there is no way that people could escape.

We also avoided the photographers like the plague on the cruise. I know that my weakness is photos, so we just went around them and refused to have our pictures taken when we got off the ship and when they came around at the formal nights at dinner. HOWEVER, if I had known this little piece of knowledge, it might have changed my attitude towards those pictures…..there was a note on like our 3rd to last day in the daily program that said that you could get ALL the pictures taken on the cruise of you for $300…if I had known that I would have made my husband get all sorts of photos taken! Every time we got off the ship, at EVERY station set up at nights before dinner. The photo people set up the photo shoots…5 different backgrounds most nights). We would have gone to each one and had our photos taken. THAT would have been a deal. I’m not sure if there was “fine print” attached to that $300 offer, but if one of the nice photos was $40 (an 8x10 and 2 wallets) that would have been a bargin!

We did sign up for a “blacklabel photo” experience on this cruise. We did it on the formal night when DH was in his tux and I was also dressed up. Samantha took a million photos (ok, maybe 300) and then we set up an appointment to come back and look at them on another day. They were all very nice (of course) and even nicer that Sam could photoshop our out wrinkles on the extreme upclose shots. We did buy a package, but be warned…they are NOT cheap! (was it worth it?....maybe. Since we didn’t really buy any knick knacks as souvenirs I think it was ok, but if we spent a ton on excursions and other things then we probably wouldn’t have splurged on the photos). We went with the “digital” package, so we could have the photos on a CD Rom to do with what we pleased when we got home. If (of course) was more expensive than getting the package when they ship the photos to you all done up and nice on cork board. But now we can use them in holiday cards and do up our own presents for people. The black and white photos are very nice…I think that black and white does wonders for anyone…makes us all look nicer I think! Lol I'll post one or two here and you can decide!

This is the memorial to the sinking of the Ferry in Tallin

Wall of the "old town" Tallin

"Fat Margaret" In Tallin

One of our "Blacklabel" photos

Another of our "blacklabel" photos

(I have no idea why the "up and down" pictures aren't up and down! They are that way on photobucket! Oh well, you can turn your headsideways to look at them! lol. Sorry about that!)

And one of many photos I took of the parts of the wall that are still standing

More examples of the cobblestones showing where the wall used to be. This is, of course, now in the middle of a street.

Germany

We opted for the Holland America excursion to Berlin in Germany. Neither of us had been to Berlin and I really wanted to see it. We had the “city tour” and time on our own. We figured that a bit of a bus tour wouldn’t be a bad thing. The train pulled up right next to the cruise ship docks. It was very convenient. It was a train car only for the cruise passengers on excursions going to Berlin. So we didn’t stop for any other passengers or any other people getting on and off. That was helpful.

We DID stop on our way there because there was a man who had had a mild heart attack. He had passed out twice before we stopped, and finally the decision was made by the tour manager to send him to the hospital. His lips were blue and he was very pale, but he was conscious and talking. But she figured it would be better to be safe, so off he went in an ambulance to the German Hospital. We heard on our way back that he had been discharged and sent back to the ship, so it was good that he didn’t miss any of the cruise (although he DID miss Berlin!).

Our tour guide was very good, although she talked non stop. Don’t get me wrong, she was very knowledgeable, but I’m not sure we needed to know what every single building was that we passed. Eventually we did get “released” from the bus and we had 4 hours on our own in Berlin. It was honestly amazing to be standing by the destroyed wall, and to be in East Germany. I guess because all that history happened in my lifetime it made it more “real” or something. Then we had the 3 hours train ride back to the ship.

It was an exhausting day. The trip was long and we were glad to be back on the bus. I’m not sure that we will ever take an excursion that was that long again. We’re more happy to stay in port and be able to go back to the ship when we are tired and not have to wait for the bus, and the train….

At the Brandenburg Gate

Checkpoint Charlie --DH..the retired Army Sergeant was NOT happy with the "fake" soldiers set up for pictures on the other side of the little building here in the middle of the street. So you won't see it in the picture!

In the old East Germany

Everywhere the wall USED to be and isn't anymore they have put down these cobblestones to "commemorate" it. I thought it was neat.

The Holocaust memorial. Very well done and interesting.

Copenhagen

Copenhagen was good. We paid for the shuttle bus to take us into town because we didn’t have any official excursions scheduled. You have to pay to get into Trivili gardens, and we didn’t want to do that, so we just walked around and geocached. We saw lots of neat buildings, walked around the pedestrian only shopping area and got rained on. We didn’t bring an umbrella, but that was ok, we had our raincoats. (but I would recommend that you bring a travel size one…it could come in very handy!) We actually ended up walking about 6 miles because we had to walk an extra 2 miles to go back to where we had already been in the city because of a mystery geocache that I had the wrong coords for, but overall it was a good day. We saw many people that had the Holland American sticker on their shirt so we knew that we were seeing lots of the “right” places downtown as a result!

I’m sure that everyone wants to know about life on board the ship. Well, I will admit up front that my husband and I are hermits. We work all day with people. Meeting new people, talking with people, solving people’s problems, so when we go on vacation, we like to relax. And that generally doesn’t mean “making nice” with strangers.

So we didn’t participate in the team trivia, we didn’t go to the Ocean bar and hang out. We didn’t go to the Northern Lights and trip the light fantastic. We hung out together, read a lot of books in our room and in other nooks on the ship. I’ll tell ya, the Silk Den is a gold mine for being quiet! Most of the time people weren’t in there, it only started hopping towards the evenings. We didn’t order room service in the mornings, we went upstairs and got a nice hot omelet each morning. We ordered breakfast room service in the past and usually it was a bit chilled. Not that they did anything wrong, but I prefer hot toast right out of the toaster.

I DID take someone’s advice here on Cruise Critic and order club sandwiches for our trips ashore. What a life saver!!! I ordered them the night before, ordered them DRY (with no mayo), stuck them in the little fridge (wrapped up in the linen that the silverware came wrapped up in since I had no plastic baggie (that would be a great thing to put on your list if you are going to go on a cruise….plastic baggies)). They came in handy in Russia and also in Germany and when we were walking around on our own and weren’t near the ship.

This is looking out into the port from being docked. The windmills were beautiful!

Patrick and our first cache in Copenhagen. If you look VERY closely, you can see the geocache under the bench on the right hand side! It is a film canister.

Thought this picture was hilarious. "probably" the best beer?? lol

O We haven't tried one in Europe yet and we will be on a Baltic cruise next year so please let us know the best ports to look for the caches.

Diane

ALL of them! :) There are caches everywhere. The closest one to the ship that we found was in Helsinki, it was 200 feet from the ship!

Where'd you leave your luggage when you went to the White cliffs?

Once we handed over our suitcases ta the airport we didn't see them again until we were in our room. So we didn't have have to worry about them while in Dover. We did have our "carry ons", but they were backpacks, so we could carry them around.

First day at sea

Today was a very lazy day for us, especially me. Again, I go on vacation to be on vacation, so we got up late, went up to the Lido, had a bagel, came back to the room, read some of my “vacation books”. Went up for lunch, went back to the room, read some more, got dressed up and went to dinner. Now I’m back in the room. Some people will be flabbergasted that I did nothing but hang in the room all day, but I love to read and having the time to read while being gently rocked by the ship is MY idea of vacation!

DH did a bit more than I did today! He roamed the ship, wrote 2 pages on an 8 page paper that will be due soon, changed some dollars to Euros in preparation for Germany, read some in the room with me, wandered the ship some more, ran 2 miles in the gym, then went to dinner with me!

So for today’s review you don’t get too much. I am not allowed to play Bingo anymore onboard because my husband says that I am too competitive. I get mad when I don’t win and it’s not fun! Lol. I don’t sing, neither one of us drink…so I’m not sure how much this review will help anyone as we are both pretty laid back when it comes to our vacations. Put us on a ship and we’re happy! We tend to “go with the flow” and not complain about “stuff”. But honestly so far I don’t have any complaints…ok, maybe one…the hand sanitizer squirter people standing at the doors to the Lido take their job way too seriously! Lol. On our way into the Lido we got squirted. We found a seat. I wanted a diet coke, so I went out to the pool deck bar, presented my drink card, was told I needed my room key to activate it, went back into the Lido, got squirted. Went back out to the pool bar, got my Diet Coke and went back into the Lido and they wanted to squirt me again! Lol It’s not really a complaint as I would rather people be squirted with the hand sanitizer than have me get sick. It was just amusing.

Tomorrow we are in Copenhagen. We have not signed up for any tours, but we will be paying for the shuttle to get into the city proper (around Triviloi Gardens). We will be geocaching in the area, and if I can prevent us from having to walk another 10 miles I’ll be happy! We figure that we will see a lot of the city while geocaching and many of the caches are placed in “tourist” spots anyway.