NeoVega

There are ways you can get different travel agents to bid or compete for your business. I am not allowed to post the website, but if you use the right search terms you should be able to find it.

The pricing will likely be pretty much the same, but some TAs may be more motivated to share some of their commission in the form of OBC or other perks.

Post the cruise or cruises you are interested in at this website and then check the responses. As always, use caution if something sounds too good to be true.

Even interior staterooms can get some OBC. I did!

I did not dock at Muuga but did take a bus to Teletorn not far from there. I posted the following for another traveler last year:

Bus 34a Doesn't quite go to the dock at MUUGA but does go from Muuga to Viru Square just outside of Old Town. It also stops at TELETORN, the TV Tower which offers a beautiful vista, information on technology in that part of the world and the historical role it played as Estonia reestablished its sovereignty, with hundreds of Estonian men, women and children peacefully protecting the vital communications link from a siege of Russian tanks in 1991. See the documentary "The Singing Revolution" available at Amazon or with individual parts on YOUTUBE.

http://soiduplaan.tallinn.ee/#bus/34a/a-b/map/en

You might want to take a taxi to TELETORN and then catch a bus from there to Old Town.

Here is the link to the previous thread

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1868248

Last year there were differing opinions as to whether things were different in the New Russia. I think it is looking alot like the old Russia again, and frankly I thinking it is getting pretty scary over there.

I would not recommend straying from a Group where you only have a Group Visa.

If you are able to stop in SPB, here is a painting that has been banned and you will not be able to view:

http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Europe/2013/0828/Painting-of-Putin-in-drag-highlights-abuse-of-Russia-s-anti-gay-law

The tragic thing about all this is that it is because Putin is an aging man with a failed marriage and gay tendencies having a mid-life crisis.

Sure, he speaks anti-gay rhetoric, then he prances around the internet with shirtless pictures on horseback and bears which practically amount to Gay porn.

Sure he and Alina the gymnast "deny" an affair, they "deny" having a love child or two. Nice coverup, eh! Brilliant in fact. They deny it so much the Russian public believe it is true, and that their leader is not gay...

So he creates more of a diversion by seizing the Crimea.

The United States and the EU just don't realize that you can't reason with a man having a mid-life crisis! They should concentrate on discrediting him and letting the Russian public do the rest.

Then we can all get back to cruising and dealing with our mid-life crises in a healthier fashion.

Perhaps Riga could be substituted for SPB on many cruises except for the largest ships.

They do not offer as deep a berth and not as long (max 295 ft length 16m depth) as Tallinn or SPB, but it is a delightful city to visit. The old town is wonderful, there are miles and miles of beaches nearby and there are a number of castles in the countryside. And perhaps cruises could spend 2 nights in Tallinn so that tourists can better enjoy what that medieval (and modern!) city has to offer.

Statistics from:

http://www.kpmg.com/EE/et/IssuesAndInsights/ArticlesPublications/Pressiteated/Documents/Competitive-Position-of-the-Baltic-States-Ports-2013.pdf

I think you are probably right, St Petersburg will probably remain available to visit, and also continue to safe to visit with the oh-so-strict controls of the Russian tourist visas. Private visas might more frequently get denied, but that doesn't affect most cruisers.

But some may choose to NOT enable the Russian Federation by spending their tourist dollars in St Petersburg. Some may choose to deliberately hurt the economy of those poor Russian locals, to send a message.

Others will continue to spend their dollars and euros as before, because they feel all the beautiful ports of the world are here simply to entertain them. There is alot of talk of the history of these places, as if history and all the bad things that once happened are in the past.

We are still living history...

You might also want to check out:

http://www.visitventspils.com

It looks like you can earn credits (Venti) for local attractions by logging in via Google or Facebook and then doing some activities.

You might want to look into renting bikes. It really looks like you could walk nearly everywhere you might want to go.

This group offers a tour starting from Riga, but they might be able to provide a local tour since you will already be in Ventspils. http://www.eatriga.lv/ventspils-sightseeing-tour/

Hi I speak Latvian, and although I have only been to other parts of Latvia, I can tell you that they have a well developed public transportation system all over Latvia. Ventspils appears to be no different.

It almost seems to me that they don't publish much online, because the locals all take the availability of Public Transportation for granted. They just know that it is convenient and cheap.

It took me a while to pull up info of fares and maps.

Here is a bus map:

http://www.ventspilsreiss.lv/index.php?option=com_docman&Itemid=34&lang=en

Here is a listing of fares:

http://www.ventspilsreiss.lv/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=267&Itemid=20&lang=lv

(It looks like fares run generally € 0,60 in the City limits )

And here is a little online brochure you might find useful:

http://www.visitventspils.com/files/ventspils_tk_eng.pdf

Hello!

You are right the ship vill dock at Frihamnen. Just take bus 76 from Frihamnen which goes directly to Gamla Stan, just remember to buy the ticket before you get on the bus because the driver does not sell tickets.

I usually take the train to the airport, it is quite expensive but fast and convenient, they also usually have some discounts during summer https://www.arlandaexpress.com/.

One can also take the bus which is cheaper but takes longer http://www.flygbussarna.se/en

If you are studying the maps both the Train (Arlanda Express) and the Bus (Flygbussama) depart from nearly the same location Central Terminal just north of Gamla Stan.

For the record, neither is covered by the Stockholm Card, even though the Card covers other transportation around Stockholm, so if you thinking about buying the Stockholm card, you need to take that in account.

Expedia sometimes offers a discount for Flygbussama vouchers. At least they did for our Summer visit in 2013. The Arlanda Express site sometimes offers 2-fer specials but even so, the cost is somewhat higher than the bus. I didn;t think the time savings (roughly 1/2 hour compared to 1 hr) justified the cost difference.

can you redeem the voucher for the card at the visitors bureau at the cruise dock

S167 stadsgarden

Yes. It looks like there are Stockholm Visitors Board Centers at each of the ports as well as the Arlanda Airport (where we got ours) and in Central Stockholm.

The Arlanda Center is open 24 hrs. The ports have limited hours.

http://www.visitstockholm.com/en/Information/Customer-service/Tourist-information-centers-in-Stockholm/

May 16 – 19, June 5 –7, Daily, June 24 – July 31st Monday – Friday 10 am to 5 p.m., Saturday – Sunday 10:00 a.m.-3:00 p.m. (2013)

is there any promo code that will enable me to purchase the stockholm card at a discounted price?

Last year, I found an EXPEDIA promotion which gave me a discount on advance purchase of STOCKHOLM CARD vouchers. I think it was 10%. It is not currently available, but you could watch for it. When we arrived at the airport, we redeemed the vouchers.

We chose to pay for the Flygbussarna Airport Coach into Stockholm, and started the clock on our cards for transportation and the sights the next day.

But it was very strange to me that we left Bayonne at 5:00pm on tues. and by weds. night people were getting sick. Not a few people but many.

By late thurs. am there was a congo line to the medical and it lasted well into thurs night.

....

I feel this was on the ship before we got on as it was to soon and to many cases.

 

(

It is not so strange if you look at the reports on the ROLL CALL of the EOS Jan 12 sailing. There are SEVERAL reports of folks who became ill immediately after disembarking. The source of the NORO probably came on board near the end of their cruise and then affected the folks on the 1/21 sailing.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1712507&page=24

Interesting read with some good info

 

http://www.emetophobiahelp.org/norovirus.html

Thank you. That is a very useful link with alot of facts and simple unambiguous explanations.

 

Food can be a source for noro virus. Lettuce is a big one.

Based on the posts in related threads and in the Roll Call for the Previous EOS Cruise (1/12 sailiing), it seems to me that something brought the virus onboard a day or so before the end of the 1/12 cruise -- maybe the lettuce or another food source? A number of people from the January 12 sailing reported getting sick immediately after the end of their cruise. That then carried over to the 1/21 EOS sailing.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1712507&page=24

 

hapycruzr

That bug was on our ship too. We had some clues that we didn't pay attention to.. but wife and I both came down with it within 24 hours of getting home. We had contact with no other people other than shipmates the whole time. Glad it didn't get bad while we sailed. Lots of news about other RCCL problems too.

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eh270

I , too, am sick…it started about 2 days after I got home…still feeling yukky. we even bring small lysol sprays and lysol wipes , along with the hand sanitizer. My husband is fine…as of last night.

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JKSYNDER1

I , too, am sick…so far my Husband is ok…on our floor the Cabin stewards were sanitizing each and every cabin door handle. We kind of smiled and joked by saying "keeping all the bugs at bay" they just smiled and went about dousing all the door knobs / handles …

 

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Hi everyone,

I came with a group of 100. Looks like 1/2 came down with symptoms immediately after we returned. 2 of the kids in my group were sent to the hospital with symptoms. Has anyone contacted RCL about this? I have with no response.

Steve

I doubt "most" people have an immunity to norovirus. I believe the only "immunity" is in people who've had it in the past couple months, it's nothing permanent.:rolleyes: Would be interested in a link to information to the contrary.

Actually, there appears to be a relationship between blood type and immunity/resistance to NORO:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norovirus

A non-functional fucosyltransferase FUT2 provides high protection from the most common norovirus GII.4.[54] Functional FUT2 fucosyltransferase transfers a fucose sugar to the end of the Histo-blood group ABO(H) precursor in gastrointestinal cells and saliva glands. The ABH antigen produced is thought to act as receptors for human norovirus. Homozygous carriers of any nonsense mutation in the FUT2 gene are called non-secretors, as no ABH antigen is produced. Approximately 20% of Caucasians are non-secretors due to the G428A and C571T nonsense mutations in FUT2 and therefore have strong although not absolute protection from the norovirus GII.4.[55] Non-secretors can still produce ABH antigens in erythrocytes, as the precursor is formed by FUT1.[56] Some norovirus genotypes (GI.3) can infect non-secretors.[57]

Of individuals who are secretor positive, those with blood type O were more likely to be infected and B less likely

http://www.mnn.com/health/healthy-spaces/stories/norovirus-and-blood-type-whats-the-connection

Individuals with type O phenotype were found to be most susceptible to norovirus infection. Those with B and AB phenotypes were at decreased risk of infection. When these B and AB phenotypes were infected, they were more likely to be asymptomatic.....If you have a blood type other than O, you can still contract norovirus, but the disease may not be as severe...

all a lot of speculation as

you don't know how many were infected the week before

you don't know that the crew didn't take it seriously

you don't know the crew didn't deep clean and or take precautions

You are right. I don't know the number that were infected

My comments are from the post referenced above from a passenger from the previous cruise.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?p=41450765&highlight=honeymoon#post41450765

There was a considerable outbreak on our cruise so I have to disagree that the outbreak on the 21st voyage was caused by selfish/unsuspecting passengers taking it on board. They have simply picked up the virus left behind by us. I've heard from 2 crew members that I've kept in touch with that staff were definitely ill with a "stomach bug" on both cruises so the ship were definitely aware that Noro was present between the 12-21.

Just got out of hospital after disembarking EOS on 21st

We were on for our honeymoon and disembarked on the 21st after a wonderful cruise. Unfortunately, I started being extremely ill 5 minutes after take off that evening. 6 hour flight with constant vomiting is not fun - I am so sorry for my fellow passengers and, yes, I fully expect to have infected some of them :-( I became extremely ill and was admitted to hospital on landing and they kept me in for 3 days due to the severity of my reaction

Would you not wonder if the outbreak on the 21st sailing of the EOS could have been prevented? Would you not wonder how many pax had NORO on the previous cruise? Hopefully the CDC has access to the facts from the previous sailing .

Actually, if you look at post #209 of the large thread on this http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?p=41450765&highlight=honeymoon#post41450765 the poor woman disembarked the ship on the 21st and was ill within hours of disembarking. That bug was already on the ship!

WOW! I wonder how many cases of NORO were on the previous cruise of the EOS. It sure sounds like the crew did not take the "small" outbreak of NORO on the previous cruise seriously enough. If they had done the "deep" cleaning and taken precautions, perhaps the Big NORO outbreak on the EOS could have been avoided.

I am thinking candles.. Real flame candles are a no-no but LED candles can be alot of fun. Maybe attach peel and stick magnets to them and attach them to your walls everywhere. add some faux roses or other decorations. Crystals to reflect? Little mirrors? Maybe some non-breakable mirrors that are a little larger and strategically placed?

How about a canopy of nylon netting? I am not sure if that could be done with magnets, but if it could it could be very romantic.

Hi

I did the St. Petersburg 2-Day Highlights with SPB Tours with my daughter last summer. That one is priced very reasonably (we paid $200) especially if you book early.

I had (and still have ) knee issues and walked with a cane during my entire trip.

I really wanted to do it all, but frankly ran out of steam after the mind boggling beauty of the Hermitage, which we did on the first day instead of the usual 2nd day. When we got to Peter and Paul's Fortress after a delightful lunch and the Church of the Spilt Blood, I asked to stay in the van. I found a chair by some trees near the parking lot, and looked at the Russian street and relaxed.

I was so worn by that point of our trip, I chose to stay on the ship for the second day after I knew that I had handled payment. My daughter (age 20) went with the group the next day without me. Because the cost was one of the more reasonable tours available, I felt I had gotten my money's worth the that first day, and provided for my daughter to enjoy the St Petersburg days of our trip.

There was an elevator in the Hermitage, but it wasn't conveniently located, so we never used it. I remember walking up and down alot of stairs, especially to the restroom before and after the actual tour.

Check out the different tour companies (TJtours, Alla, SPB-Tours, etc.) , and ask how they handle someone with a wheelchair.

Did you mean to say that you cannot offset tips against the OBC if you prepay? You can use OBC to pay the tips if they are being charged to your seapass daily.

With My Time Dining, tips are prepaid and not charged daily. With MTD, OBC can not be applied to tips.

With fixed time dining in the MDR, tips are charged to your Seapass card, and OBC when it shows up on you account can be applied to those tips.

It is all a game of timing. With MTD, RCI benefits from getting the Prepaid gratuities early, anywhere from the time of booking to the Final Payment and the "float" of getting those funds early. Plus they prevent OBC from applied to the gratuities.

It does not matter when you earn or learn of your OBC. You can not apply it to anything until the 2nd day of your cruise.

If you have OBC, it can be used for tips if they are not pre-paid. If the tips have been pre-paid, then you can't use the OBC for tips as the OBC is not credited to your account until after embarkation. That's my main objection to pre-paying the tips.

 

Tucker in Texas

Tucker

I am with you. I think RCI requires prepaid tips for MTD so that OBC can't be used for tips, and then has to be spent somewhere else, very profitably...

To find a great deal on one way fares I would suggest checking skyscanner.com and check them throughout the week because prices change.

We didn't do a transatlantic. For our Baltic Cruise we disembarked 1 port early starting in Stockholm and disembarking in Riga Latvia. We ended up booking 3 one way fares at a very reasonable price last June. We also stopped in Iceland before the cruise. Our flights were Cleveland OH to Keflavik Iceland, Keflavik Iceland to Stockholm, Sweden and Riga, Latvia to Cleveland OH. The total price was around $1250, which is comparable to a roundtrip ticket at that time of the year.

Thanks so much for posting. Doing similar itinerary next year. Question for Tallinn our port has been changed to Muuga (the commercial port for Tallinn) which is some 12km away. Did you use a taxi/transfer company to get into Tallinn? Any info on this port would be gratefully appreciated.

Carole

Bus 34a Doesn't quite go to the dock at MUUGA but does go from Muuga to Viru Square just outside of Old Town. It also stops at TELETORN, the TV Tower which offers a beautiful vista, information on technology in that part of the world and the historical role it played as Estonia reestablished its sovereignty, with hundreds of Estonian men, women and children peacefully protecting the vital communications link from a siege of Russian tanks in 1991. See the documentary "The Singing Revolution" available at Amazon or with individual parts on YOUTUBE.

http://soiduplaan.tallinn.ee/#bus/34a/a-b/21215-1/map/en

You might want to take a taxi to TELETORN and then catch a bus from there to Old Town.

Helsinki tourism at least in fact nows runs on rich Russians with the real purchase power. The occational cruisers from the west are paupers compared to them. The world has changed quite a bit.

SUBARCTIC

Now I understand why you have been talking about St Petersburg and the "new" Russia with such saccharin praise.

You are easily influenced by money, big money.

Of course, all of those rich Russians came by their wealth honestly. ;)

We took Bus 76 from the Slottsbacken stop on Gamla Stan to Frihamnen before our cruise

I was very happy with Stockholm transportation. The bus stops clearly post the schedules, and there is an electronic sign showing when the next buses for that stop are expected to arrive. 1 min 4 mins etc. This was very comforting to me.