capriciousc

Thanks everyone for the information!!

At home I go to the gym every day before work, and at least one weekend day. On vacation it depends on the day - if I know I'm going to do a lot of walking or if we're going ashore really early, I'll skip the workout. If it's a sea day or we don't put into port until 10 am or so, I'll get a workout in. In terms of diet I eat pretty much the same as at home - I don't have much of a sweet tooth, and I don't eat anything fried - I save my calories for alcohol :D

That's really my big indulgence on vacation - at home I don't drink at all during the work week, but on vacation it's always wine o'clock.

Thanks everyone for the information! We’ll be sure to line up early, and I’ll put my husband at the front of our group - he has one of those faces that seems to make people not want to cross him

Our paperwork from TJ Travel explicitly states the cruise line can’t hold passengers against their will.

I just got off of a Baltic Cruise yesterday. We were in St Petersburg on Thursday. We booked a private tour for 2 of us through Alla Tours. The meeting time was 7:30. Royal Caribbean had in the cruise compass to not get off the ship until 8:30 if you did not book through them. We left the boat at 7am anyway. Most people in the line were on cruise ship tours. We waited in line for 45 minutes. We got through easily. They did not say anything about not being on a ship tour. Our guide got there right as we came through immigration. The line to get back through immigration at the end of the day was just as bad. I think we waited about an hour because the computers in some lines went down. All lines were open both times. There were only 2 ships in port that day and I believe we arrived first. I don't know if more ships would be more of an issue with not having a cruise excursion booked or not. The agent did not flinch that our ticket was an independent tour. Great day, besides the immigration process.

Thanks for the information! I double checked our paperwork from TJ Travel and it explicitly says that the cruise line can’t hold passengers against their will. Our meeting time is 7:30 am so we’ll be getting off the ship straightaway.

Hello fellow cruisers :)

We are sailing on Serenade of the Seas in a few weeks and one of our ports is St. Petersburg, Russia. I have been reading that those who book shore excursions through RCI are allowed to disembark first. We booked through TJ Travel on our own, not through RCI. I am just wondering how much time we should allow to clear immigration in order to meet our tour guide, and if anyone has any advice/tips, etc.

Thanks in advance!

TJ Travel picked us up at 8.30am on the first day and we returned to the ship approximately 6.30pm. On the second day we were picked up at 7.30am and returned at 5pm. Two very full days but totally worth it

KatielouAustralia - we have a tour booked through TJ Travel as well. Do you mind if I ask what cruise line you were on? I've heard people saying that those who book through the cruise line are given first priority in disembarking - we're on Royal Caribbean and I'm wondering if we need to accommodate for this. We'll be sure to get an early start, I'm just not sure what to expect. Thanks in advance!!!

Capriciousc. Harmony would be a great ship to try with Children. Might find a better price than Symphony since it has been around a few years by then.

 

Just a heads up about the Harmony; it does not have an adults only pool if you are looking for that.

 

We live in Savannah and cruise several times a year from PC and it is definitely an easy drive. No overnight required.

 

 

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Thanks seabreeze! We don't care much about an adults only pool (for now, we probably will care quite a bit more in a few years when the kiddo is an adult as well :) ) Good point about Harmony probably being a better price due to it having been in service a few years.

Symphony has 2 3 day cruises next year 5/25 and 8/31

 

Harmony has 2 5/6 and 5/9- these are out of Port Canaveral Not too bad a drive for the OP

Ooh, you're right - Port Canaveral is an easy drive from Savannah :)

Thanks everyone for the information - I think the Oasis class ships would be a fun, quick getaway for us. I'll check out our options when we sail next month!

Hello cruisers! We're taking our first cruise on Royal Caribbean next month, and I was wondering if they have the discount offers where while you're on a current cruise, you can purchase a future cruise at a lower rate? I realize there's probably even a name for it, but we're newbies with RCI and cruising novices in general. I was just reading an article about Symphony of the Seas and I think our teenager would absolutely love that ship - I'm thinking a 3 night Bahamas cruise sometime next year could be a fun opportunity to try out the 10 story slide, ziplining, etc. for our little adrenaline junkie. Any tips/suggestions for getting a good deal would be greatly appreciated! (Also if it's not realistic to expect a deal because it's a brand new ship, please feel free to tell me so). Thanks!!

We’re on Royal Caribbean - Serenade of the Seas

Hi fellow cruisers!

We are sailing out of Stockholm this summer, and our ship does not depart until 5:00 pm. We are staying for a few days before that at a hotel in the city, but will be checking out the morning of embarkation and want to do a bit more sightseeing before we board.

Can we take our bags to the ship in the morning and check them in and then board sometime later? Or is the cruise terminal located in an area where this would not really make sense (as in too far from the sightseeing areas)? We're staying in the central part of the city and I'm sure the hotel would hold our luggage if that makes more sense?

Any information you can provide would be greatly appreciated :)

FYI: many of the local tour operators offer an evening extension wherein you can do whatever you want - stroll Nevsky, shop, have dinner at a local restaurant, visit a pub, etc. (they provide you with an additional ticket, a driver and sometimes, if needed, an escort.)

 

That's great to know, thank you! Our teen daughter is a dancer and I want to look into options to see a local ballet performance.

Correct. You will be returned to the cruise terminal at the conclusion of your tour. There is nothing to see in the area so even if you illegally decided to roam around the city on your own at the conclusion of your tour, you would need a taxi to get back to the city.

Your tour company is responsible for you while in their charge but at the conclusion of your tour, you cannot roam about on you own unless you have a visa.

Sure - one could simply not go back through immigration at the conclusion of your tour - one could opt to risk roaming the city without a visa. Don't know what would happen if you were stopped by the Russian authorities for any reason - might not be pretty.

 

Thank you for the information - we definitely have no intentions to do anything illegal or dangerous. Like the OP, we prefer to explore on our own rather than as part of a tour but it sounds like a tour is the way to go given the visa requirements and the fact that we only have two days in SPB.

Does anyone know how it works if you book a half day tour in the morning, for example, and then want to explore on your own in the second half of the day? Is the visa that the tour company gets for you only good for the duration of the tour? Does the tour company escort you back to the ship and ensure you board or are you free to explore?

I feel sorry for the little boy - years from now it may be a funny story to tell around the dinner table at Thanksgiving but the poor child was probably frightened.

I'm entirely too paranoid to cut it close like that. We're always back on board with an hour or so to spare - we actually enjoy watching the process of getting ready to leave the dock (typically with a nice adult beverage in hand).

I would still consider the package as it includes a wide variety of non-alcoholic beverages as well. Coffees, bottled water, soda etc..... It also gives you glasses of wine up to $12 or $13 per serving and you only have to pay the difference if you order one that is more expensive. And who knows maybe at the pool one day you will want a strawberry daiquiri and that would be included as well!! Also if you want a really nice bottle of wine, you receive a discount on the purchase price on that bottle!

 

 

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Ooh, I didn't know that about the discount - that's a nice bonus! We both drink coffee and it would be nice to have bottled water as well. And I do like the occasional drink with a little paper umbrella while on vacation :)

We're definitely planning to bring aboard two bottles, but I know they won't last for the 7 days of the cruise. We're on Serenade of the Seas, and from what I've seen online there doesn't appear to be an option to buy bottles in advance, just the package.

We'll be taking our first RCI cruise next summer, and I'm wondering what the best option would be for us in terms of drinks. My husband and I are both primarily wine drinkers (vs. beer or mixed drinks). When we cruised on Disney we found it better to just buy a package with several bottles of wine once we boarded. I've looked at the drink packages for our cruise and I'm not sure if it makes sense to do that and then just get wine by the glass or to buy bottles (if that's even an option?)

What do my fellow wine lovers suggest? What has worked for you?

Thanks in advance for any suggestions :)

Our first cruise as a family was on Disney Magic in 2009 (I had cruised with friends in college but to be honest those trips are somewhat hazy in my memory). At the time we cruised Disney, our daughter was 5 and so the Disney theme was the prime appeal (e.g., at that point she still believed Cinderella was the real princess, now she knows it's someone whose job it is to pretend). It was a good trip but so much more expensive compared to the same itinerary on other lines. Since then we've tried Norwegian and now Royal. We like waking up in a new place every day, and also being able to sample new places and decide if we want to return. We pretty much only cruise to places we haven't been before, and only about 20% of our vacations are cruises. We enjoy cruising but like to do other types of travel as well.

Here in Savannah our kids start school the first week of August and are already out for summer. Many schools in the deep south are on similar schedules, but given that you're sailing from Baltimore and headed to the Bahamas I wouldn't think you'd have too many families from this area - there are lots of cruises out of Florida that go to the Bahamas so I'd think people would be more likely to book one of those, as the departure point would likely be closer.

Royal has been transferring their older ships to one of their other lines, such as Pulmantur. I believe Splendour is going to be sold outright to company.

Thanks clarea! We used to live in Long Beach, California, where the original Queen Mary ended up (and was turned into a hotel). Cruise ships are such a large asset (both in terms of size and as a capital investment) that it made me wonder what cruise lines do with them when they get a little "long in the tooth," as it were.

Apologies if this is off topic, but I'm curious, what happens to the ships after they leave the fleet? Are they purchased by other lines? Sold for scrap?

By planning and packing as early as I did, I knew about a month in advance I had room to Pack For A Purpose. You can find more about PFP on their website here:

 

http://www.packforapurpose.org/

 

The site makes it very easy to participate, with detailed wish lists from organizations in need. I noticed that most of the Caribbean organizations in need partner with the Sandals Foundation. That made it easy to drop things off at Sandals and go on touring, or if you make arrangements, you might be able to actually schedule a visit to deliver the items you bring while you are in port. I'll have more details about our PFP experience during the St Lucia post where we delivered our items.

 

But here is our collection...we used social media to let our friends and family know what we were planning and to share the PFP wishlist for St Lucia. We collected new and gently used items and we purchased several items on the wishlist to bring ourselves.

 

 

 

 

 

Their tag line "small space, little effort, big impact" was certainly true for our experience..tune in to St Lucia day to see how it turned out!

Thank you so much for sharing the information about Pack For a Purpose! What a wonderful idea :) We are heading out on this same itinerary in a few weeks and I'm going to have my daughter help gather items for donation.

In deciding on a first cruise or not, the dreaded formal night was a concern for us. We found lots of discussion and opinions on here. I didn't want to pack a suit, but also didn't want to miss a lobster night because I had to eat in the buffet. We booked the cruise this April when when I read a reply from a recent traveler, that casual wear works any night on RC Navigator of the Seas. While I can not speak to the dress on other cruise lines or holiday cruises, here's my short first hand take from being on the Navigator in April 2015.

While overall, people dressed up a bit more for formal night, many others were wearing casual attire. In other words, a cut above acceptable WindJammer buffet wear, but well below a tux. I wore slacks, a button up shirt with tie the first night, and witnessed many without ties, some in polo shirts. I ditched the tie after the first night. On either formal night, the unusual high end was a a lady with a flowing dress and wearing plenty of jewelry, accompanied by a fellow in a smart tux complete with a red rose. The most casual thing I saw, was a young lady in a black sleeveless AC/DC t-shirt, and not so tidy jeans. Her male counterpart wore similar clothing. So overall, most were simply just neatly dressed. I was enjoying the experience, my food, and not caring about anyone elses attire. My review is here.

RC Cruise Review

Thank you so much for sharing your experience! My husband wears a coat and tie every day to work, so when he's on vacation, the last thing he wants to do is put on "work clothes." He has some nice button down shirts that will work without a tie and that can be paired with dress slacks - hopefully this will feel relaxed enough for him. I also have to dress up for work, so am less than enthusiastic about having to dress formally. Sounds like a nice dress (but not necessarily cocktail dress) will work fine.

Thanks everyone for the information - it's very helpful! We're going to wait until we board to make a final decision, but it sounds like perhaps buying bottles is the better way to go. Thank you all for taking the time to answer my questions - it's much appreciated :)