chaswill

We just completed our cruise on the Edge, 20 Jan - 27 Jan, and spotted a small dog being carried around by a passenger.  She took it in a small bag to a show in the theater and into the cafe!! We questioned a staff member at Guest Services and he said they have to go through a lot of paperwork to bring a dog on board and are told that some ports will not let animals off the ship. He said that there was a place on deck 5 where the dog can do their ‘business’. IMHO, I think this is setting  dangerous precedent after what has happened with the airlines.

Just got back from our Mediterranean cruise on Star and I was very impressed with the bar prices. Wine and beer were free with lunch and dinner, but we noticed that it seemed to be free during the day and evening around the pool and other public areas. Well drinks were $4 and almost all "fancy" drinks were $6. Compared to other cruise lines were have been on, those are great prices!

Thanks to everyone for the comments and clarification.

I know that Viking advertises free wine and beer. I need a little clarification...is it only with lunch and dinner? Is wine only by the the glass or can we order a bottle? I am assuming the free beer and wine offered are only the least expensive? Thanks for the clarification...don't want to be surprised.😜😜😜

Hi Vogager18...Try going to the Roll Call for this sailing, 10-27-15. You may be able to find some others from your area although it is not a very big role call sad to say.

Just wondering, has anyone booked Viking Air from the west coast, specifically from California to a cruise? We are booked for an October cruise and was curious as to which carriers and routes they have used. Since we won't get our air arrangements until summer, was just curious.

We recently did a short four day Princess cruise from San Francisco to Vancouver BC and took Amtrak back to Sacramento, CA. It was a short ten minute ride from the cruise terminal to the train station and since we would be spending almost four hours on an Amtrak bus to Seattle, we needed to find a place to get some food. FYI, McDonalds is no longer in the station and it's replacement, Taco Bell, has not opened yet, but we found a McDonalds and a Tim Hortons (local Vancouver fast food) a half block south of the train station. You can practically see both from the station parking lot. It is only fast food, but we didn't see anything else close enough to walk to with the little time we had before the bus left.

We are thinking about a future TA on Reflection and are leaning toward an ocean view cabin. Anyone have any suggestions on where the best ocean view cabin might be? Looks like some might be over some possibly noisy public areas. Anyone with experience with this category on Reflection? Thanks for the help.

To campo lady...Thanks for the input. It will help us a lot when we visit Palma in September.:)

Do you live in Spain? We are spending a week in Barcelona at the end of our cruise and would appreciate suggestions of what to do and not do. We would also like to take some day trips north and south along the coast via train. My wife speaks Spanish so that will help.

If I am imposing, I apologize. You can contact me at my email: chaslin@surewest.net.

Thanks again for your help. C. Purcell

We will be in Palma de Mallorca on a Sunday in early September and know from previous experiences in Spain that just about everything is closed. We have been here before but never on a Sunday. We will be docked from 1:00 - 8:00...what to do? We are not beach goers, don't drink enough for a wine tour, and the nearby caves sound like a tourist trap. Any thing else to do besides the HOHO bus? Thought about the train to Soller or going to Valdemossa but I think those towns would be closed up tight too. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

This is for Gail Boertzel...Yes, Oceania provided or at least paid for the shuttles and they ran every 15-30 minutes depending on the port....very convenient!

For Spindrift: No, we did not use any HOHO buses, but they were there waiting for us at all the ports except Berlin and SPB. In Stockholm, they even had a special that combined the HOHO bus with a river cruise around the city for a reasonable price.

For Ronniewales: I just had euros and a c.c. for all the ports. In some cases you may have to use the local currency and in that case, there are plenty of ATMs around.

Regarding whether you would want to stay in Rostock/Warmunde instead of going to Berlin, they are nice seaside towns, but even though it is a long drive into Berlin, it is still worth seeing.

This review is for the purpose of documenting our travel experiences for others to use in planning their future cruises to the Baltic, especially on Oceania’s Marina and Riviera.

Our journey began out of San Francisco. We used Oceania’s “free air” and were booked on SAS nonstop to Copenhagen. My wife and I are retired educators and were not looking forward to the long flight in cramped coach seats. We occasionally have enough air miles to fly business class, but this was not one of those times. The nine and a half hour flight was predictably uncomfortable and was made worse by the fact that SAS coach seats are very hard and not being able to sleep sitting up, it was a relief to finally land in Copenhagen. We breezed through customs and easily found a taxi to the cruise pier. Make sure you know which cruise terminal you ship is using as there are two terminals in Copenhagen. I had understood that most taxis took credit cards and verified this with our driver before leaving the airport, but when we arrived at the pier, he asked for my PIN and since PINS are not used in the US, he could not process my card and I had to pay in euros. My advice is to have a cash backup in case this happens to you. The fare was 65 euro or $86 for the 45 minute ride.

We checked in at the pier around 2:30 and were able to board and get into our rooms right away. A buffet lunch was served in the Terrace café.

On the advice of our neighbors, who had taken this cruise a couple of years ago, we booked our Berlin excursion privately using SPB Tours www.spb-tours.com and signed up for the Berlin Classic Tour. The price was $135 pp not including gratuity. The only drawback to seeing Berlin is that the city is a long three hour drive from the port. My advice is to sit on the right side of the bus, the side opposite the driver, or else you will have the sun hitting you up and back if you happen to have a sunny day which we did. In fact, it was close to 80 degrees during the tour. Berlin is not in a class with other European cities like London, Paris or Rome since it was almost totally destroyed by allied bombing during WWII. There is still a lot of construction going on and the city presented a rather shabby appearance for the most part. This is not to take away from the excursion stops which were mostly centered around WWII historical sites and those focusing on the Soviet occupation. The tour did not include lunch, but we stopped at an excellent location with several restaurants and had a nice lunch with some German beer. For the record, there was no time for shopping and besides, we didn’t see any stores or neighborhoods that looked particularly appealing. It was a long day, but in hindsight, while not what we expected, it was still a worthwhile journey.

On the advice of a previous cruiser, we decided to do Gdansk on our own. Due to the size of our ship, we docked in Gydnia, about 40 minutes from Gdansk. The taxis outside the ship all wanted 200 euro for the complete tour of the local area so we were directed outside the gate to another group of taxis and found a driver who spoke pretty good English who was willing to take us to Gdansk and the memorial dedicated to the union activists during the 1980’s for 100 euro. Gdansk was totally devastated during WWII, but was meticulously rebuilt by the Soviets and retains its old world charm. It was a Sunday and everyone was in town enjoying the glorious sunshine. Old town Gdansk is a wonderful place to shop especially if you are interested in amber jewelry, but be aware that there is a lot of fake amber. If the price you are quoted sounds cheap, it is probably is not real amber which is quite expensive, but well worth it. On the return ride back to the ship, our taxi driver decided to take us past some other sites which we did not ask to see and consequently when it came time to pay him, he expected more than the agreed upon 100 euro, and even with a generous tip, he walked away grumbling to himself. This is apparently a common tactic so be aware and stand firm. Tip: The shops will all take credit cards, USD and euros, but the street vendors will usually only take local currency.

After a day at sea and some much needed time to relax and rest up, we docked in Estonia, another place we decided to do on our own. While it was about a 20 minute walk into town, the ship provided a free shuttle which dropped us off just outside the old town walls. This is another shopper’s paradise and the ladies were giddy with the selection of local handmade items, especially scarves and sweaters. Bring lots of euros since most street vendors will not accept credit cards. The old part of the city is divided into two parts, new town which is comparatively flat and old town which sits on a hill and a bit of a hike to get to. If you have any time left after shopping, take the hike. We ran out of time, but heard that the views were wonderful.

While Oceania’s shore excursions are highly rated and we occasionally use them, they can be somewhat pricey and therefore we prefer to book private tours whenever possible. The big problem with SPB, was that since the ship was in port for three days, private tour companies would only book three day excursions. While there will probably be some differences of opinion here, we were advised by our neighbors, who had been to SPB previously, to only spend two days on tour. After some research, I was able to find a tour company that was willing to join us up with a two day excursion from another ship. This allowed us to spend the first day in port relaxing aboard an almost empty ship! TJ Travel www.st-petersburg-tours.ru picked us up outside our ship and there were only 16 people in our group. We spent the next two days seeing: All St. Petersburg Highlights for the cost of $300 pp not including gratuity, including two lunches. This stop was without a doubt, the highlight of our cruise. The second largest city in Russia, SPB, called Leningrad during the Communist era, has a fascinating history. After withstanding a 900 day siege by the Germans during WWII, the city has emerged from Soviet rule with amazing palaces, churches, gardens and museums. As we found out, you will not soon forget your visit to this incredible city.

Another sunny day greeted us as we sailed into Helsinki. Due to the size of our ship, we were docked in an industrial area too far to walk into the heart of the city. However, Oceania again provided a shuttle to the harbor area which took about 10-15 minutes. Foregoing an excursion, we spent the morning in town walking through a large open air market selling all sorts of food items and a large variety of locally make items and souvenirs. Finland is on the euro and most of the vendors also took credit cards. After walking through the nearby downtown area, we returned to the ship for some time around the pool. True to what we had heard and read, we found Helsinki and most of Scandinavia to be quite expensive.

While we were blessed with sunshine almost through the entire cruise, rain was predicted as we sailed into Stockholm. A shuttle took us into the heart of the city on an overcast Sunday morning and we made our way into Old Town. We walked through the quiet streets and found the main shopping area which quickly began to fill up with tourists and locals alike. Just as we stopped for a bit to eat and to use the facilities, it began to rain, but the shower only lasted for 10 to 15 minutes. While we had read that Sweden only accepts local currency, we found that many of the stores also accepted the euro and some even took USD as well as credit cards. We made our way back to the ship to enjoy our last day on board and begin packing for the journey home.

Getting off the ship was quite easy and the taxis were plentiful at the pier. It was about a 45 minute ride to the airport and the cost was about $100 with tip. While the taxis all take credit cards, we were told to agree on the price when you talk to your driver. After looking for the Lufthansa counter we found out that all Star Alliance members use SAS counters and check in machines so be aware of this if you use Oceania air arrangements. The flight home was predictably long and uncomfortable, but it all seemed worth it when we crawled into our own bed and quickly fell asleep.

The Marina and Riviera continue to be our favorite ships and Oceania remains our favorite hands down. We recently cruised the British Isles with our neighbors who are loyal Celebrity cruisers and found this cruise line to be a disappointment when compared to Oceania. The Marina is still in great shape and we enjoyed our Ocean View accomodations. While there is no verranda, these rooms still have a floor to ceiling window but be aware that you do look down on the large life boats a deck below. The bath tubs still seem to be an annoyance to some people, but it does give you the option to use as a shower if you want more room. The food is still above average and we enjoyed the four specialty restaurants, although the service in Jacques seemed to be an issue for us this cruise. The entertainment continues to be subpar, but this is not a big issue for us since we usually went to bed early so as to enjoy our mornings more fully. The ship’s personnel were all very friendly and helpful and we always got a smile and pleasant greeting where ever we went on the ship. Oceania does allow smoking in two parts of the ship, in one corner of Horizons and in the right forward corner of the pool deck. Nonsmokers beware that when the ship is moving, smoke will drift down the right side of the pool deck so be advised to use the left side of the pool deck if second hand smoke is an issue for you.

We continue to have pleasant memories of our Baltic cruise and hope that this recap will help some of you who are planning a future cruise to this part of the world. If you have any questions or concerns when planning your trip, please don’t hesitate to contact me: chaslin@surewest.net.

Hi Sinny...Four of us will be spending a day, 0800-1700, in Helsinki on a cruise and I have read through a lot of the posts. What do you think of this intinerary: Hilites of Helsinki and time in Porvoo? Is this doable in a day with time for lunch? Any suggestions for guides? Would appreciate any advice. Please email me: chaslin@surewest.net:)

On our last cruise, we only had one full day in Lisbon and we had to decide whether to spend time in Lisbon or get out of town and see some of the smaller towns in the area. We decided to spend most of the day in the charming town of Sintra and were not disappointed. We used www.toptentours.eu and had a wonderful day. After spending most of a day in Sintra, we drove back along the coast into Lisbon and back to the ship. Our guide, Alex, was very accomodating and arranged the day around what we wanted to do. He was willing to spend some time in Lisbon, but we opted to spend all day out of the city. The cost was reasonable and no deposit was required. If you need any other help with a good tour while in Lisbon, you may email me: chaslin@surewest.net.

We will be cruising to the western caribbean and DW needs to know where the best shopping will be...ports include Roatan, Belize, Cozumel and Cayman Islands. Any suggestions? Thanks