TMLAalum

We used SPB 4 years ago, and ate where there were quite a few food vendors/tables before entry to the Peterhof and on Day 2 ate at Stolle's. We were very rushed at both places and I wished we'd done what others had and selected a meal with a Russian family, one of the options at that time.

After several more cruises with private tour experience, I've come to the conclusion that it is very important to spell out your meal preferences from the get-go, both for the provider and the participants. So if you don't want to eat where it seems that your tour company is taking its tours, specify your wishes prior to committing/booking with that company. Do some research to see where you might want to eat to experience regional cuisine at its best. Also, if you are organizing members of your roll call, be sure they agree to the meal plan- on our most recent cruise, a private tour organizer arranged for a special lunch, placed an advance order at the restaurant, and then people backed out so those that did participate were stuck with the bill for all!

St. Petersburg is an amazing city, but you will need sustenance to keep you going full speed ahead!

Hi - Thanks for your information. Can you let me know who you emailed to get the brochures? I have been on the Helsinki tourism website but didn't see a direct way to contact to ask for brochures.

 

Thanks!

http://www.visithelsinki.fi/en/come/tourist-information/brochures

We were there 4 years ago, so I don't recall the details of how I got the tram map, but there may have been a comment box in the brochure request form and I'd have asked about it there.

Tram maps can be printed out as well- here is a link to the Tram company:

http://www.hel.fi/hki/hkl/en/HKL+Tram

Enjoy your day in Helsinki!

We received brochures with the tram routing from Helsinki's tourist bureau prior to our arrival. It was a walk from where the ships shuttle dropped us to catch the tram near the Market Square, but once aboard it was a great way to visit the sights we wanted, especially the Rock Church. We also enjoyed traveling with Finnish folk, who were very warm, extremely helpful and very welcoming to us tram riders from abroad!

The ports-of-call on a Baltic cruise provide one of the most diverse itineraries possible! Bruges, Warnemunde (Berlin if you choose), Stockholm, Tallinn, Helsinki, Copenhagen alone would require a lot of travel/planning/time/expense to visit via land, rail or ferries. St. Petersburg is just another jewel in the necklace of fabulous experiences you will find in the other cities visited by your cruiseship!

The countries and cities visited are as different from one another as Alaska is to Brazil. Go with an open mind, do a little research beforehand, and you will have an amazing voyage.

We'd been looking at cruises that combined the Norwegian Fjords & Iceland, but ended up booking a shorter fjords-only cruise that fit into other travel plans.

An offer popped up last week via that "zoo" site from Icelandair that mentioned taking advantage of a stopover in Iceland enroute from the US. What a great opportunity for us to spend more time in Iceland than the cruise itinerary would have provided!

This thread has been very informative and thanks for starting it and sharing your knowledge, karlth! Appreciate all the other posters insights, esp. Nitemare's, and all the questions as well!

The lack of announcements in your Celebrity cabin will be very relaxing in comparison to NCL's frequent interruptions about bingo, pool games, etc.

The captain gives a daily 'state of the ship' announcement around noon, that you will only hear in public spaces.

You might consider booking AQua class for access to Persian Gardens and the intimate Blu restaurant reserved only for AQ guests. AQ cabins hold a maximum of 2, so it's not too likely you'll be surrounded by little ones who have been known to cry loudly enough to be heard next door.

Plus being Platinum on RCL should equate to a comparable loyalty level in Captain's Club for you.

Hi Lars-

Re; the troll road from Alesund-

I found turistbussenalesund via the "What to Do" page from this website-www.visitalesund-geiranger.com. They have minibuses that might work if I can recruit some roll call members to join us. You are right about the limo windows making photography a challenge!

That waterfall hike in Geiranger has great appeal! Thanks again for all your help!

9 actual hours in Paris will give you time for a sight or two and a culinary experience. Have you been before?

The RER from CDG stops by Notre Dame & the Seine. Not far from there is the Pantheon which, depending on when you arrive there and your physical condition, has tours to the rotunda with fantastic views of the city. You can pre-book many sights including the Eiffel tower which will help maximize limited time.

Our last visit to Paris encompassed 18 hours- our ff flight from Lisbon was routed through CDG with an overnight layover- what might have been considered an inconvenience was a delight for us.

If I don't have a major trip in the works, I definitely experience withdrawal! As you can see from my signature, there are two cruises booked for us and each is to parts of the world we've not been. So lots of planning is involved especially since we extend our cruises with land-based travel and use ff miles for our overseas flights.

My latest idea (as of yesterday) is to book Icelandair for our Fjords cruise so that we can take advantage of one of their "stopover" offers and visit Iceland for several days. It'd mean paying for flights, but I'm hoarding miles so that we have enough for 1st class for voyage #2.

Prior to next May's fjords cruise, we have trips planned to the upper Midwest, Oregon, Cape Cod, Yellowstone in winter and Florida for spring break which take some planning but not nearly as much as our overseas journeys.

pcur- I am totally in awe of your flight booking savvy!

Hi Karen from Cincinnati-

I see from your signature that you are on the Solstice 1/19/16! Please join our "infant" roll call!http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2037735.

Barb from Cleveland

Been following this thread ever since we booked our Fjords cruise for May 9-16 on the Eclipse!

We are in Alesund (docked) from 7am-7pm and in Geiranger (tendered) from 7am-3pm.

I believe the troll road can be accessed from either port, but I am thinking that since we are in Alesund longer that we should do the troll road that day (either by rental car or through a service such as limousinewest) and then in Geiranger visit Dalsnibba or other vistas or perhaps take a boat cruise. What are your thoughts, Lars?

We will likely be a group of 6 or 8 which would make using a service more feasible than a rental car. Are you aware of any other companies that would be able to drive us?

Thanks!

Does my husband need a jacket and tie on the "formal" nights?

If your DH has a long sleeve shirt and tie, the maitre'd should be able to lend him a jacket from several that are at the ready.

On our last cruise, DH asked for a jacket, and he was told he was fine to enter the MDR on formal night with his very sharp shirt, and Jerry Garcia tie.

Alternatives are the specialty restaurants, buffet or room service.

My B-I-L is on a cruise now. He just booked 3 cabins for himself,us,and our cousins. We all got the OBC and 123 promo. We and our cousins chose the drink pkg and bro took the $300 price reduction. We have it all in writing for 2/15 cruise.

Hope this answers some questions.

Friends of ours are planning on joining us on a Fjords cruise on the Eclipse next May. They are not sailing in the interim.

However, other friends will be aboard the Millennium early next month. Can they book the Fjords cruise for the others, get the perks for them, but not book for themselves? We booked aboard last month, were offered the 1-2-3, so took the $200 OBC vs. prepaid gratuities for 7 nights/beverage package, got $150 OBC applied to the Fjords cruise for booking aboard and, in addition, received $285 OBC from our travel agent (who is the same as the friends who are joining us in Norway). Those would be great perks vs. the $125 they'd get from Celebrity's current offer for new bookings made from shore!

We have a week in a Yorkshire England timeshare reserved for mid-May so our best choice (although the shortest Celebrity fjords itinerary) was to book the 5/9 Eclipse sailing!

So far there are only 2 of us on the roll call:(!

We were on the Millennium's 4/13 sailing and had an excellent voyage, despite Code Red (BiL got the dreaded noro, but his wife was fine and we were, too). Our cabin was well-maintained (7003, one of those humungous OVs), food in the MDR was very good and included the best steak I've had over all our Celebrity cruises and trout prepared as it should be (I was hesitant to try it after not liking it at all on our 1st Silhouette cruise). We had an excellent cabin attendant-Martin.

Although we prefer the S-class ships, we found no significant fault with the Millie.

On our 4/13 Millennium cruise from Hong Kong, our passports were taken and held so that proper visas could be stamped for Taiwan and Japan. The night before we arrived in Tianjin China we had to retrieve our passports per a schedule. This process was well-organized and upon return to the ship we again surrendered our passports to be retrieved the night before arriving in Shanghai where the cruise concluded. Had there been a forewarning about Petroplavosk, passports could have been collected similarly.

Sounds like a mess in Russia that may well be 'politically' motivated. I hope those who failed to comply are located soon...perhaps it's a language barrier?

We'd have been on this itinerary had it's original sail date of 4/26/14 not been moved:eek:!

We've had two fabulous cruises on the Silhouette. I can't even think of one negative to report. I did start a review on our Ocotber '13 sailing, but didn't finish it. (Guess that confirms that people who are unhappy tend to publicize their complaints whereas those who were delighted with their cruise don't.) I did write a review about our April Millennium cruise which we also liked very much to provide a positive perspective among a sea of negativity- hopefully it will be published soon. Enjoy your cruise!

This is cruise critic, people should feel safe coming here and praising complaining, explaining as long as standards are met. When negative experiences are posted and are met with cheerleading only responses those responses become negative. Why negate someone else's life experience? They have a right to it as much as someone's happy experience.

This is right on; however, when no specifics are given about one's experiences, whether good or bad, the poster comes across as either a cheerleader or its opposite. (Is there a Cruise Critic term for a generic complainer?)

We had a delightful time on our recent Dynasties & Dragons cruise. Yes, there were glitches, but based on some previous threads and posts, I expected to sail on a rustbucket with crew that could care less about the passengers. I'm happy to say those preconceived expectations were not met!

The Millennium was in fine form last month. We had an excellent stateroom attendant, but MDR service could have been improved had the staff not been under noro regimen and had time to adjust to having to take drink orders. Our sommelier was very attentive. I found no fault with our cabin other than the bedskirt could use replacing.

Most evenings the dress code is "Smart Casual" except for formal nights.

However, there are options for avoiding the formal night dress code on Celebrity!

1. Book Aqua Class for dining in Blu which is anytime dining & smart casual every night.

2. Dine in the specialty restaurants on formal nights as the dress code there is smart casual at all times.

3. Room Service

4. Last (and least) is to have dinner in the Oceanview Café; however, choices are limited in the evening.

Was on Millie Last Week....Looks Fine

Even carpeting looks good, didn't see any signs of any run down spaces

Agree with you, Johnny! We enjoyed our cruise, loved our roomy OV cabin 7003, and found the ship to be very well maintained.

Nothing wrong that can't be repaired...door hinges are rusting so doors to the cabins are falling off. Many of the beds are on the floor due to collapsed bedframes. A few of the rooms still have running water and toilets that flush and they have managed to contain the rats from eating in the buffet at the same time as other passengers. Passengers are catching norovirus as they check in on embarkation and everyone is confined to their rooms for the length of the cruise. (Is this a loose summation of the reports you must have been reading?).

 

Fortunately, we sailed on her for 28 wonderful days earlier this year in Asia prior to the what must have been the very sudden deterioration you've found in all those negative posts.

 

Our perspective is that it's a very nice ship, in very good condition and we'd sail on the Millennium again in a heartbeat if it were sailing somewhere we wanted to go.

Thanks for the humor! We board tomorrow and are looking forward to our voyage on athoroughly sanitized (if not thoroughly modern) Millie!t

We arranged a private tour with Tours of Puglia for Alberobello and Polignano al Mare.

I am so glad we saw the trulli homes of beautiful Alberobello. Don't skip it!

If you do a half day morning tour, you could spend the afternoon in Bari. We didn't get to see it, but I remember returning to the ship and encountering a woman burdened down by 2 huge shopping bags filled with shoes she'd purchased for a steal in Bari!

So last night we were discussing with friends the mileage we used for our upcoming Asia trip- 32,500 UA economy class to HK and 67,500 AA 1st class from Shanghai each.

My one extremely frugal friend's eyes grew wide as she said, "You had to use that many miles? We only used 35,000 each UA round trip to/from Sydney last February (2013)!" My other friend and I were incredulous, asking are you sure you don't mean one way. But she was insistent, even as we clarified that would mean only 17,500 miles one way, because they only had that many miles in their account.

Could she be right?

I was thinking Accademia in Venice when I wrote my earlier post:o!

In Florence, our pre-booked tickets for the Accademia allowed us right in, even though we were early. We did have to search a bit for the sign for those with tickets already. Enjoyed seeing David from all angles, but disappointed we missed "Pink Dave"!