FollowingTheSun

2 hours ago, Mo Jito said:

I am pleased with the overnight in Stockholm on the May 4 Enchanted itinerary. We were originally going to berth at Nynashamn, which is quite a distance from Stockholm, so it will be great to not have to cut the day short to get back to the ship. Also really looking forward to sailing into the Stockholm Archipelago, which everyone says is beautiful and which we would have missed docking at Nynashamn.

Yes, the trip through the Stockholm Archipelago was a highlight of our first Baltic cruise. We were very disappointed when they changed us to Nynashamn on our second trip after especially selecting a cruise that DID go into Stockholm again.

I would happily swap an overnight in Stockholm for St Petersburg.

Early March I told my sister that if she did come to Australia (from the UK) on her planned visit, my invite to stay with us was not on any more.

That was the hardest email I have ever sent.

She was already busy cancelling flights etc.

8^th March, I shook my head in disbelief that the Ruby Princess was sailing on that infamous voyage.

3^rd April, the second of two Ruby passengers died in our local hospital.

11^th April, the hospital was closed fully and all 1100 staff plus their families put into isolation. The rest of the 100,000 residents in our area went into tight lockdown.

5 days later, after a deep clean, the emergency department opened, staffed by military personnel flown in from other areas.

The rest of the hospital is still closed.

On that last day, a friend was visiting his wife in the hospital in preparation for her discharge. A nurse came in fully gowned up and put a mask on my friend’s wife. He was told to go home and isolate. That was the last time he saw his wife of 64 years.

1^st May, her death notice appeared in the local paper. She is one of 10 patients (so far) who contracted COVID19 at the hospital and died.

On Monday 4^th May, I will be allowed to go to the hardware store again. 3 weeks waiting to get some things to finish a project.

I still count myself one of the luck ones.

The new dock is a long way from the tram stop so the shuttle is more convenient.

If you charge it to your ship account, it will be $19.95US but I did see people purchasing tickets with cash for 15 euro.

Princess didn't tell us about the cash option.

We took the buss into town and walked back. About 3kM

On the Regal in May.

Sometimes the wait staff scanned our medallion.

Sometimes they asked for our room number.

Sometimes they addressed us by name.

Sometimes, none of the above.

Once I overheard the waiter address the next table by name - my wife's name.

This was in spite of having the neighbors medallion on his tray and my wife 2 meters away from him.

I am not sure who got the biggest surprise.

The detailed account only tells you where you spent money and the date but not what you purchased or the time so it is very difficult to keep track of any rogue purchases.

11 hours ago, steelers36 said:

We are finishing up a Baltic cruise on Regal.  It seems that the emphasis has ramped up now on using the Piazza for every imaginable entertainment, including the house band.  So, it gets very loud - to the point that you feel like you are in a noisy bar when attempt to converse.

We were on the Regal on May.

We had to give up and leave the piazza on many nights due to the ridiculously loud volume, especially during 'activities'

The wait staff could see our pain as we arrived and tried to tell us that the racket would stop soon, but we said sorry and left.

Looking on the bright side, it did mean that our bar bill was lower than budgeted.

My experience on a May Baltic cruise on the Regal was equally dismal.

Unable to read our local newspaper on line much less consider any streaming.

Even banking was difficult.

Certainly, no better than the old system two years ago.

Another example of false advertising.

4 hours ago, FilthyFifthAggie77 said:

We are also booked on the Regal Princess on July 26.  We received notification from Princess a few weeks ago that the itinerary has changed and they are now docking in Stockholm.  Yea!

I hope you are right.

We are on the Regal cruise starting next week.

When I booked, it was listed as Stockholm.

Then they changed it to Nynäshamn.

No reasonable explanation.

Then they changed it back to Stockholm with great fanfare.

Then they changed it back to Nynäshamn without any explanation.

The port of Stockholm website is still showing Regal as Nynäshamn on the 28th July.

https://www.portsofstockholm.com/vessel-calls/

The sail into Stockholm is fantastic so I hope Princess aren't playing around with you.

Jim

Plenty of taxis and easy to find.

All take credit cards.

48 minutes ago, AnnieE said:

My friend and I arrive on May 19, Sunday, 11am.We need a taxi from airport to Copenhagen Plaza. We each have 1 medium suitcase and I use a walker. A regular size taxi has always sufficed .

~Is there a taxi stand outside airport  where easy to get taxi? 

~Do taxi drivers take Visa credit card for payment? 

We will have credit cards, US$  and some Euros.

~Can those 2 cash currencies be used as well for taxis? 

Thank you,

 

Taxis take credit cards and are easy to get to at the airport.

Just about everywhere in Copenhagen prefers credit cards.

19th May is the Copenhagen marathon which is run through the city so it might be 'interesting' getting to your hotel.

The marathon does add to the already enjoyable atmosphere.

Time of day might have some bearing on the scenery but the sail through the archipelago in either direction is fantastic.

My upcoming cruise with Regal Princess has had the port changed from Stockholm to Nynashamn and I am very p...d off.

Unfortunately, the port of Tallinn schedule for cruise ships doesn't show the dock.

https://www.portoftallinn.com/static/files/189.Cruise%20Ship%20Schedule%202019%20-%20Tallinn.pdf

The usual cruise dock has room for 4 ships so when ever there are more than 4 scheduled for the same day, I would expect them to go elsewhere such as Muuga.

I just realized that you are talking about a cruise in 2020

Most of the ports won't have the 2020 schedules available until January 2020.

You CAN look on their websites for similar cruises this year and it will probably give you a fair indication.

Docks can and do change any time up to arrival so don't get too bogged down.

You need to go to the website of the port authority in each destination.

There you will find a list of cruise ship visits and the dock allocated.

The best way to find the port website is through "cruise port wiki":

http://cruiseportwiki.com/

Most have English versions of the website available.

When I was taught about RF energy and the likely effects on humans, The phrase "Prudent Avoidance" was used.

We can't escape the background radiation but it is wise to avoid what we can without going to extremes and missing out of the benefits of RF devices and living in the comunity.

Don't build the children's playground under high voltage power lines, don't stand in front of high power transmitter antennas and don't hang an active RF device close to your pacemaker for extended lengths of time.

You can't do much about those around you, but you can live without a medallion.

Jim

Walking around Copenhagen is easy to do. It's a great pedestrian friendly city.

You do have to find out which dock you are coming to. There are two main docks Langelinie and Ocean Quay.

Langeline is an easy walk to the city. Ocean Quay is not.

Jim

Most of the Baltic states are going cashless.

We went to buy an ice-cream in Copenhagen with cash (the local variety) and got a strange look. They pointed us to a cash machine that took the money and dispensed change. The staff didn't want to handle dirty cash. We were probably their only cash sale for the day.

We did have some Euros which were used for a toilet stop in Helsinki. Everywhere else we used the restrooms in the cafes we dined at.

I do think that your credit card has to be the chip and pin variety.

Australia went that way years ago but I understand that not all cards in USA are of the chip and pin variety so it is worth checking.

Any time you do use a credit card it is usually better to do the transaction in the local currency and let your card provided do the currency exchange. If you don't, you may get hit with an inflated exchange rate or two exchanges which can increase the fees considerably.

It is also worth telling your card provider that you will be traveling overseas. That way they won't block your card when they detect abnormal transactions.

Jim

Hobart in December can be anything from 35 degrees C (90 degrees F for you northerners) to snow on the mountain or even on the beaches.

The sail into Hobart would be very nice. Not up to Stockholm, but nice to see.

Jim

On 2/11/2019 at 1:20 PM, gottagocit said:

We each could only “request” either an aisle or a window seat which in itself is screwy as the plane has of 3 rows per side so if we chose either we are essentially asking to be separated. 

That is a typical Qantas 'option'

We booked codeshare Qantas/Emirates through Qantas recently and that was our choice. On the Emirates website, it insisted that our tickets have to be issued before we could select seats. The (inexperienced) travel agent insisted that tickets had been issued.

When I sent the travel agent a screenshot of my Emirates screen, she finally talked to Emirates and got the tickets issued. Then we were able to select our seats (for a fee). The Qantas leg still doesn't allow seat selection but it's only a one hour flight so no big deal.

We were stuck in the back row on one leg of a long flight once and the wife says never again.

Jim

Windows 10 and Firefox.

I had to clear cookies yesterday and again twice today.

Two different PCs

Jim

On the right hand side, just below the name of the last poster, the is the time since that last post.

That's where you have to click.

On the time since last post.

Well hidden!

Jim

We sat in the Piazza bar area and a waiter would go up to Alfredo's to get ours for us.

I hope they will still do that for us next time.

Jim

We were in Copenhagen May/June last year. It was busy and 'alive' but not too crowded. It was easy to get around on foot and we are looking forward to a return visit next year, also in May/June but staying a few days longer.

You just have to look out for the cyclists when crossing the road.

Jim

Last year we booked Alla for St Petersburg and did our own thing for the rest. We didn't go into Berlin and had a lovely day in Warnemunde on the Fathers Day holiday.

WE will do the same next year.

If your itinerary shows 6 or 7 hours in Stockholm, you are very likely to be going through the archipelago.

If your itinerary shows 10-12 hours, you are more likely to be docking at Nynashamn.

The port schedule for 2019 doesn't seem to be available yet and as others have said, weather or other conditions can cause a change of plan.

We enjoyed the sail out through the archipelago last year and were careful to select a cruise with the archipelago again next year.

The Regal Princess has some cruises with the archipelago and others without.

Jim

This is good news. Cruise personalizer for my Regal cruise next year has unlimited internet at a good price.

If the speed is half as good as users have claimed, I will be very happy.

As long as it works most of the time and unlimited doesn't have any sneaky restrictions.

Jim