A Whole New World - Eurodam Baltic Review & Pictures

A Whole New World - Eurodam Baltic Review & Pictures

I know it's been over a year but there are so many details and this was such a long trip that I always procrastinated to write this. Now I just want to share more of our experience and help those with questions about this very unknown area that is passing through important changes and growth, including in the cruising area, and with this ship that is still young and has several future sailors to wait. I'm sorry for those who already sailed in both this wonderful itinerary and/or ship that I could not post this before your cruise to help you. Hope you Enjoy!

Ricardo

Explorer of the Seas as we approached JFK flying from Sao Paulo.

BACKGROUND: I'm 16 now (15 by the time of the cruise) and was born in Sao Paulo, Brazil but moved to Central Florida in Dec 2007. I usually travel with my parents (early to mid 50s) but this time we were in 9! It was the first time my dad traveled with his two brothers at the same time, including my uncle and aunt (both 51), cousin and cosine (23 and 20), my other uncle (40) and his fiancée who became his wife in September (I think she's 34...) so it was a nice and fun vacation for everyone especially for me who live far...

I actually never thought about cruising around the Baltic or onboard a HAL ship....for me countries like Denmark, Finland, and Russia where very far from my reality and almost impossible to visit (I wonder for my parents who watched the Cold War). What happened is the year before my uncle and aunt cruised with HAL's Zuiderdam in the Mediterranean and loved it to the point they booked this Baltic cruise on the newly launched Eurodam onboard so we did not really have an option since we wanted to have this family vacation. After several months planning, our itinerary was decided: London, Amsterdam, and Copenhagen before the 10 day cruise to Warnemunde, Stockholm, Tallin, St. Petersburg, Helsinki, and Kiel, and then Oslo, the Fjords, Bergen, and Lisbon after. Since this is a cruise website I will focus on the cruise, but also feel I should briefly talk about the pre and post cities since most of them are in other itineraries....

LONDON was our first destination. We flew from Sao Paulo (where I spent the beginning of my summer) to New York JFK on a totally full Boeing 777 because we were comming back to the US after so had to fly American Airlines. It was funny cause after 2 hours of immigration, customs, re-checking baggages, x-rays, etc we found out we were boardind the exact same plane on the same gate to London Heathrow...hahaha....fortunately this afternoon flight was the opposite of the first one and we had around 70 people on a plane for 300+ so each one of us had 3 seats to relax! By the end of the afternoon we landed in Heathrow. Even though I was impressed with the city, I was disappointed. Not that I did not like it but I was expecting much more of London. I did like the points of interest and the British Museum (really like the idea of it being free so the population has access), but overall the brick buildings are just not my type (they look like haunted houses!) and even though they say London is a culinary capital of the world we did not have any exceptional meal in there, actually in our opinion Sao Paulo is a hidden culinary capital (anyone who's been there agrees). Don't get me wrong, we do have a lot of problems and London is far a superior city, but it would not be MY first choice. We did enjoy our days there visiting the Tower of London and the amazing museum with the jewelry of the royal family, walking around the streets near our hotel in Kensington (BTW the hotel was awful and maybe it influenced our impressions of the city but the neighborhood was overall nice, despite the brick haunted buildings....hahaha), shopping at Harrods, etc.

I do want to ALLERT travelers who are flying! Check everything in your flight reservation! I decided to check our reservations to Amsterdam the evening prior and found out we were leaving from London City and not Heathrow which at first we thought was good. When we got to the small airport we were told that our KLM flight did not exist! Then when some other families arrived for the same flight they told us it was cancelled and that they tried to contact our TA in Brazil the day before which was a Sunday, and that they could fit us on a flight at 6pm, at the time it was 10am! Then after a lot of talk they transferred us to a flight from Heathrow and would pay only for the metro tickets, which we had to stop and change trains in 3 stations with our entire luggage! We decided to take a taxi that took 2 hours with traffic and cost 200 pounds, which KLM refused to refund. At least we got there on time, and after some additional problems with our carry-ons (my mom's was too big for the European standards....what else is new hahahaha) everything was solved and we were happy to board the flight to Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport. This episode only made us get to the conclusion of how cruising is better than flying around....we took almost a day to get there and it was only a 50 minute flight, and my uncle, aunt, and cosine who would get later than us on a KLM flight from Sao Paulo actually got earlier and were worried when checked in the Renaissance Amsterdam (really nice and modern hotel in a good location) and we had not arrived yet.

AMSTERDAM is a truly amazing city, and I say amazing because given the famous fact this is one of the most "liberal" cities in the world I thought it would be a real mess and found an opposite environment! Yes, there is the famous Red Light District full of prostitutes, sex shops, live sex shows, and tons of coffee shops with "weird" people around....but I had the impression this was more of an area for tourists, almost a trap for all ages from young people who go to have fun and get high to old people (and there were LOTS of them in excursions) who are just curious. Outside that area I found a beautiful city full of gardens, canals, unique architecture, museums, and great restaurants. Plus I have to say it is a real civilized country and people where you find clean streets, few cars (tons of bikes!!!), and very modern technology. That made me think about whether the legalization of everything could be good for a country like the US or Brazil....given the example of the Netherlands where Prostitutes pay taxes and take their job seriously to the point they get furious when someone takes pics of them the answer might be yes.

There is a lot to do beside the Red Light District. The good thing is it wasn't my cosine's first time there (she traveled around Europe with friends the year prior to this trip) so she knew where to go and what to do in a few days. We visited Anne Frank's house where they have the museum which is interesting and sad due to the tragic end of her story, did a small boat tour around the canals, visited the awesome Van Gogh museum (he really had unique works!), walked around the city, went to the Heineken Museum which was interesting and full of technologic features, and walked around a tulip fair that made us wish we had one more day to visit the countryside where they have the large tulip gardens and the famous windmills but that is our excuse to go back in the future....

Each one of us in our own name's initials in the I AMSTERDAM sign

Cosine and I

Great show, Thanks so much !! There's a big world out there - so much to see. Hope you see it all. I'm trying to see it all, too.

M.A.

COPENHAGEN was finally our boarding port, but we decided to spend two days prior to the cruise to visit the city and meet the rest of our party, we wish we had stayed more. The six of us flew once again with KLM to the modern Copenhagen International Airport (that looks more like a mall) on a calm flight were everything was smooth. We got two taxis (they're all Mercedes Benz's in Denmark!) and were dropped at the beautiful Marriott Copenhagen, located in front of a Canal, just a block away from the train station and Tivoli, and three blocks from the main street (I even saw a couple months later that President Obama stayed there with the first lady). That day the six of us met the rest of our party including my uncle and newly aunt who were coming from a 1 month long "honeymoon" in Italy :P and my cousin who flied from Sao Paulo. We just walked around in the main stores street (they have a nice Skagen store for those who like watches!) and had dinner at a really nice restaurant called Koefoed http://www.restaurant-koefoed.dk/ since it was my dad's 52nd bday. The food was really good, actually Denmark was where we had on of the best meals.

Parents enjoying the view from our room at the Marriott Copenhagen

The following day we did a brief city tour around the main points of interest including the Royal Palace, the Opera House (which was designed by the same Danish architect who designed the one in Sydney, but the one in Copenhagen is not as different as the one in Australia), and the statue of the Little Mermaid that was originally created in Denmark. After that we visited the Tivoli Park, which was Walt Disney's inspiration for his parks and, despite the fact its over 100 years old, it looks very nice! After riding the newest ride in there (a plane that spins in every direction while at I think 200 miles per hour...only my cousins and I went) we all had dinner at a very nice restaurant called Færgekroen Bryghus which serves traditional Danish cuisine.....have I mentioned Denmark was where we had the best meals in this trip??

On our last morning half of our group decided to stay at the hotel sleeping, relaxing, and packing up, and the other part (including me ) decided to visit the Our Saviors Church (Vor Frelsers Kirke) and the Carlsberg Museum. Besides the 400 steps that almost killed all of us lol the view is awesome! We could even see the Bridge my uncle saw from the plane when they were landing (that we found out was called Oresund Bridge and connected Denmark and Sweden by a half bridge, half tunnel architectural marvel). After the morning tours we all headed to the Marriott, checked out, and got the three taxis to the Port where we saw the Costa Atlantica, Azamara Journey, MSC Opera, and HAL's new flagship, Eurodam!

We boarded late which was good since we were the only ones at the terminal, filled the Swine Flu forms which were new at the time, and headed to have a quick lunch since it was almost time for the muster drill. This one was worst than in other ships since we had to stand on the outside promenade by our life boats but it was fast and we went up to the aft pool to sail away....Hello Baltic!

This review with photos may be a year in the making, but it is so Fantastic!! I am on the edge of my seat as I type wanting to read and see more from you Ricardo!!

What a brilliant and educated young man you are!!

OK, More please:D

Joanie

This review with photos may be a year in the making, but it is so Fantastic!! I am on the edge of my seat as I type wanting to read and see more from you Ricardo!!

 

What a brilliant and educated young man you are!!

 

OK, More please:D

 

Joanie

Thanks!

I'll try to finish posting today but have to leave now for a dinner but in a couple hours will have more....hahahah...sorry for the wait :o

It was our first cruise with HAL and took place right after our first cruise with Celebrity's also newest ship at the time, the Solstice, so the three of us were really excited to compare both lines' "creme de la creme" flag ships...hahaha...and believe me the Eurodam is a trully nice ship, and in our opinion just perfect for an European cruise given the fact most of the days everyone waked up early and was out all day, so at night wanted the best service and food for dinner and relaxing entertainment before heading to the stateroom and sleep. The ship has a convenient size, which means it was big, especially comparing to other ships we met in ports of call, offering different dining venues, bars, cafes, and pools, and at the same time has less people and a feeling of a private yatch. The decor is somehow Carnival"ish" but with some RCCL"ish" upgrades lol . While the main atrium has a very ugly chandelier which I will not comment what it reminds me of, the main pool area, the buffet, the Library, and Especialty restaurants on the other side have a modern feeling.

Food was one of the best, if not THE BEST, we've had on a ship together with Celebrity. My dad thinks HAL's is better, my mom prefers X's, and I don't really know....I guess we'll have to cruise with both again to find out....

We all had a huge round table by the stairs on the lower deck of the MDR, second seating, and there was a great variety of choices in the menu which, being in a large party, I could see were all excellent. My expectations were really high given the fact my aunt and uncle had told us about the exceptional dining onboard and believe me It was even better. We had most of our dinners in there since it was complicated to convince everyone to go somewhere else and we were all really tired by the end of every day, but one evening we made reservations for Tamarind, and we had this amazing dining experience while sailing from Russia, with the sun shining over the Baltic at 10pm as if it was 3pm.....the great sushis and tasty filet proved it to be one of the best especialty restaurants we know....and reminded us of Solstice's Silk Harvest. The buffet was a great surprise. Personally, I don't like having meals there due to crowds and not as good quality as at the MDR, but at the Eurodam it was different; the variety and quality was impressive as well as the availability of tables. Probably our favorite spot ***** the ship was the Crowns Nest with the fwd overview of wherever we were. There were chairs everywhere to relax and great puzzles which all of us spent hours at night trying to solve, and most importantly for us (especially my mom) the caffe where we spent hours chatting and drinking a cappucino or a frappucino and watching the Ocean. Besides our party my cousine found out a couple weeks before the cruise that one friend of herbwas going to be onboard with her mother, sister, and step father so especially by the end of the cruise our party grew from 9 to 13 which meant more fun and laughing.

In WARNEMUNDE we decided not to spend hours in a train to go to Berlin because half of us had been there (not me) and the other half thought it would be too much. My advice is GO to Berlin...seems to be a very nice city and of course important for the world history. We ended up getting a train to Rostock, which is 15 minutes from the port and just walked around and had a typical German lunch, but I really think visiting the capital would have been the best choice.

One nice thing is that by the end of the day we had a "german buffet" type of party in the pool area that was synchronized with a festival in the port of Warnemunde, that even had fireworks when the ships were sailing!

STOCKHOLM is truly a nice city. I woke up earlier to watch the ship passing through the several thousand islands that form the archipelago while the nice cold breeze makes the sun shines feeling like a heater was worth it. Too bad that the other ones did not and ended up only seeing my pictures....hahaha. We like to explore the cities by ourselves so most of the stops ended up doing it independently so today we got the tram to the Vasa Museum (around 10/15 minutes from Port) where the actual ship that sank on its maiden voyage while still at the Harbour is. When you get there you understand why it sank....IT IS HUUUGE!!! Besides the ship, there is a great collection of objects, maps, models, etc. to better explain what happened, in other words, a must while in Sweden.

We then visited the Skansen Museum which is an opened museum with different styles of houses from parts of Sweden including some historical ones (pretty nice but not a must do type of place, probably a nice place to hang out if you live there). We laughed a lot with the names around the Baltic, especially the ones that reminded us of portuguese words/sentences such as Stockholm which sounds like "Estou como?" or "How am I?", Skansen which sounds like "Se cansem" or "(they) Get tired" , and even Skagen, the famous Danish watches, that reminds the portuguese "Se cagem" or "s**t over themselves" hahahaah....do I have to mention we had a lot of fun in this family trip!? lol Besides that we went to the Royal Palace, walked around downtown, and visited the City Hall which is one of the most important points of interest, and has a really different architecture, not so pretty on the outside (even though it looks huge and its tower can be seen from far away) but with an interior rich of details so don’t judge it from the outside, do a tour! Unfortunately our sailing from Stockholm was not smooth; someone had a heart attack onboard while we were still passing through the archipelago on our way out. The Captain announced we would slow down so a ferryboat with an ambulance would approach the Eurodam, and we watched the entire process while having dinner....I hope it turned out ok! Besides that our day was incredible, my cousin and I fell in love every corner we turned (Swedish women are so incredibly pretty!), we also heard the nightlife is pretty nice so wish we would stay at least that night in port but we had to keep our itinerary so bye Sweden, you will be missed and I'm sure we'll be back some day!

You have to keep your strength up so go have dinner and enjoy. We will wait, impatiently:D for you to get back with more of this beautifult travel review.

This is definitely worth the wait of 1 year!!

Joanie

Great trip report! Can't wait for more!:)

A Whole New World - Eurodam Baltic Review & Pictures

 

 

BACKGROUND: I'm 16 now (15 by the time of the cruise) and was born in Sao Paulo, Brazil but moved to Central Florida in Dec 2007. I usually travel with my parents (early to mid 50s) but this time we were in 9! It was the first time my dad traveled with his two brothers at the same time, including my uncle and aunt (both 51), cousin and cosine (23 and 20), my other uncle (40) and his fiancée who became his wife in September (I think she's 34...) so it was a nice and fun vacation for everyone especially for me who live far...

Ricardo,

I don't know how you got such an amazing start in life - to have so many cruises at such a young age - but your ability to relate your experiences, in words and pictures, is a delight and a joy!

What a wonderful time for all of your family!

Thank you so much for posting this review of your trip - I'm loving it!!!

You have to keep your strength up so go have dinner and enjoy. We will wait, impatiently:D for you to get back with more of this beautifult travel review.

 

This is definitely worth the wait of 1 year!!

 

Joanie

Great trip report! Can't wait for more!:)

Ricardo,

 

I don't know how you got such an amazing start in life - to have so many cruises at such a young age - but your ability to relate your experiences, in words and pictures, is a delight and a joy!

 

What a wonderful time for all of your family!

 

Thank you so much for posting this review of your trip - I'm loving it!!!

Glad everyone enjoyed it so far....will try to post most of it now....I have it written for most of it but need to finish writting but I'll post the most I can tonight :D

TALLIN was actually only an extra stop on our cruise that had other cities as the focus. I woke up and headed to the buffet to have breakfast and had the first view on the city. Mom and I were "wowed!" Out of all medieval cities we'd been to this was the prettiest one, maybe because It has several aspects of Eastern Europe such as the Orthodox Church with the Russian Rococo Style of towers, or because it was the first stop in an actual ex Soviet country, but both of us already knew that day would be remarkable. We decided to take the sightseen bus around the city, that went way beyond the medieval city into the more modern areas of the area....and gave us several interesting information about Estonia....did you know Skype was created there? They're VERY proud of it! After the tour we decided to walk around the narrow streets in the center....some of us walked up the church's tower(600 steps!) to see the amazing view of the city and the Baltic Sea, then walked around the stores that already had several russian style souvenirs like “matrioskas”, and had lunch at a medieval and very traditional Estonian restaurant which was....lets say....interesting....where dad had bear, my uncle had boar, and I had......filet mignon....hahahaha it was so warm that everyone had a stomachache after.....and I advise all: DO NOT USE THE RESTROOM! Seriously, that was the worst, darkest, dirtiest, most nasty room I've ever been to.....like we say in Brazil "who warns friend is" hahahaha jk but the experience overall was amazing....and we bought some chocolates at the pier where we found the ship MonaLisa by the Eurodam which humiliated the old vessel.....that only made us feel even better about our ship....hahahaha......we are also really excited because tomorrow we'll wake up(early by the way) somewhere I had never thought I'd go and I’m sure my parents neither.....Saint Petersburg, RUSSIA!

We woke up early, around 5:30 am, due to the fact we had a ship tour and had to go through customs in order to enter the Russian Federation. We gathered at the theater and, after the lines that despite the lack of smiles of the officers gave us nice Russian stamps in our passports, boarded the bus that would take us to Pushkin. On our way most of the people were sleeping, but my curiosity kept me awake. I was simply amazed while watching the people, the buildings, trams, statues, the Airport, everything that resembled the so polemic and studied USSR. Also on our way, the guide told us a brief history of Russia and how her parents were born in Petrograd, she was born in Leningrad, and nowadays who is born in the same city is born in SAINT PETERSBURG.....she also told us about the tsars and why we were traveling around 50 minutes out of town to the city of Pushkin, to visit Catherine the Great's summer palace.

This place, Pushkin, was where my entire reference of Russia came to an interesting turning point. I had never imagined that there could be so much wealth concentrated in one place! Of course I had heard about the place before, but have to admit I was revolted by the fact we needed to pay five dollars to take pictures and were forbidden to do so inside the Amber Room, but once I saw the golden gates with the Romanov emblem and the light blue painted palace behind I felt something I cannot describe. In that cold, but cloudless morning we all discovered Russia's treasures, at least for us until that point. One thing I tell everyone is that the first place that come into our head when we hear the word palace is Versailles, but after you visit the palaces used by the Russian tsars you figure out that Versailles was only a sketch, or an idea, of what a real palace should look like. Filled with gold, marble, and wood pieces of floor and furniture make up the endless rooms of the estate. Since the ballroom only occupies one floor, the ceilings are painted as an extention of the original walls and windows, almost entirely filled with gold. That is the place where ****s who surrounded St. Petersburg for years were used to stay and, after failing, tried exploding the palace, which was later refurbished and reopened a couple years ago. Good that the servants could save furniture and other pieces that today are part of the rooms visited, but a shame that a place like this was almost destroyed forever. All the amber was stolen from the Amber Room and never found again, but the details were restored and, let me tell you, it is absolutely amazing! Walls, the fireplace, even the frames of the pieces of art are made of amber! Really a surprise that made our day.....what we did not know is that more amazement was to come. The gardens are very pretty, but I heard the best gardens are at Peterhof which we did not have time to visit....guess we'll be back soon! I was disappointed that the golden towers of the church were covered and being remodeled but I was happy for being there, all the way on the other side of the world in a place I thought I could never get to. We had lunch in one of the rooms at the palace, which was ok but nothing great, and headed back to the bus. I have to say we only got the ship's tour because of the visa concerns in Russia, which a couple months later declared Brazilians don't need visa anymore. That just made all of us agree that we enjoy it so much more if we get out alone and figure out maps, ways, people, culture alone....but we did enjoy our tour.

We spent the afternoon at the world famous Russian Hermitage, which is part located in the Winter Palace, right in the heart of the city and in front of the Neva River (which our guide pronounced NIVARIVA in an awesome Russian accent...loved it!), the other part in neighboring buildings.....yes it is huge, but uses other buildings due to the fact about half of the palace is still being remodeled to its original characteristics, including bedrooms. We entered through a large room filled with white arches that lead to several corridors with a cafe and restrooms, and by the end has the entrance to the actual museum....an incredibly gorgeous staircase that, once again, "wowed" us. The staircase surrounded with golden details and marble pillars leads to a series of huge rooms, including the throne room, all with rich details in the architecture (my sister is an architect and unfortunately she was home working but since I was always interested in her college projects I do like it too so was amazed by it). The museum itself was not different due to the fact Russian culture actually comes from all over Europe, their own culture is very small. Even though our guide went through several paints and sculptures, I could not stop to stare at the building itself, the marble and wood floors, the rare marble tables and vases, the details including five gorgeous doors made out of turtle shell! Only in Russia.....Before going back to the ship I was amazed once more that day, when I saw the Palace Square. This marvel is one of the biggest open squares in the world having the Winter Palace in one side and government buildings, which were once the Romanov Parliament, on the other. The huge arch leads to St. Petersburg's main street Nevsky Prospekt, and the amazing statues were designed to celebrate the victory against Napoleon. The pillar located in the center of the square is 47 meters high, the highest in the world, placed there by human force as I found a picture on my history book (after the trip for my surprise) weights 500 tons and is not fixed on the floor simply because it does not need to....it will not run away...hahahahah. The famous square is also where the massacre known as the Bloody Sunday happened and the Revolution started, when the entire Winter Palace was painted in the Bolshevik color, red.

Cool pics, looked like a great time!!

For our second day in Russia we got a city tour around the entire city and then a three-hour free time to explore wherever we wanted, which worked out perfectly. After having a better notion of the city under a nice warming morning sun we went to St. Isaacs Cathedral &, another surprise, the Church of the Spilled Blood. This architectural sanctuary was build where Tsar Alexander III was assassinated, and the result was a building so incredible that that architect had his eyes blinded, to not be able to do it again! It was where our tour would meet again so was the last, but certainly was a nice touch to end our visit. The floors all in marble, walls and ceilings all in mosaic, and all other details in carved marbles stunned us in a way I think I could spend an entire day there starring and taking pictures! Resuming these two days in a couple words would have: amazing, surprising, unexpected, exotic in way, impressive, and just unforgettable.

WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!

Joanie

HELSINKI was, sort of, less than what I had expected. Maybe because we were all so overwhelmed by Russia, or even because the train to Turku would take a while and I could not visit the construction of the Oasis of the Seas, which we were booked for the inaugural in December. Anyways, it is a beautiful Scandinavian city, but I expected it to be much bigger, but it was ok. Russian characteristics are everywhere, including in the Senate Square which has a statue of Tsar Alexander II in the center (from the time Finland was ruled by Russia….BTW It was Alexander II who was assassinated where the Church of the Spilled Blood is situated, not the third….sorry for the confusion).

After trying to take the train to Turku and failing, we took a tour to visit the Olympic Area and then a ferry to visit the Unesco Heritage Islands that make up the Fortress of Suomenlinna, very interesting as it’s a recreational park for Finnish people to use, during summer of course. They looked to happy to jump in the water even though it was cold! Poor people it must be hard to live in such harsh weather. Even though it was not what we all expected, it was nice visiting Finland….and I hope one day I’ll be back just to get that train to Turku.

KIEL is situated close to Germany’s most important port, Hamburg. It was our last stop onboard the Eurodam and we wanted to enjoy it as much as possible and not repeat the day in Warnemunde so were all waiting at the door to be cleared and be one of the first ones to get off the ship. We got a private van with a nice retired German guy from Lubeck, another historical city near. He took us on a tour around Hamburg, including the nightlife district where the Beatles started their career and the Red Light District which is a street literally closed during the day, as well as the famous port and a church’s tower from where we could see the entire city – very nice!

From there we went to Lubeck, a smaller, older city enclosed by a medieval wall that makes it really nice to walk around. We had lunch at a traditional German restaurant where no one spoke any English and we, off course, didn’t speak any German. Hahahaha I asked the guy what was one of the items in the menu and he just repeated the name…hahaha…like “Whats schnitzel?” “It’s…hummm…schnitzel!” lol Anyways it was a nice lunch and these schnitzels are simply amazing!

The cruise was amazing, definitely sailing with HAL again, food was amazing, service could not be better, but it is time to leave! We all did the express check-out and in minutes were back in Danish land, ready to go to the airport and, after a short Scandinavian Airlines flight, land in Oslo’s Gardermoen International Airport. We’re in Norway!!!

The day we arrived in Oslo was really rainy and cloudy, as well as cooooldd like we had been in other Scandinavian countries visited…those we actually warm! We left our luggage at the hotel and went out to walk, visit the Viking Museum(interesting but nothing “wow”), and walked around the harbor where they have bars, restaurants, etc.

There we had the best Norway has to offer including salmon, shrimp, and…..whale! I know most of you will think it’s mean and absurd but they actually have too many whales there and it’s their culture! Besides that, we all meat from other animals…what is really the difference? I personally did not like the smoked one but the actually grilled or whatever way it is made tastes pretty nice. I just had to have it….it was a unique experience! Now we needed some rest after all day walking in the cold….because there tomorrow there’s even more cold and a full day in the Norwegian Fjords!