Just got back from Star Princess-what we did

[bayjoens]

Star Princess

July 31-August 10, 2010

 

Thursday, July 29, 2010 (Copenhagen Denmark)

The Copenhagen Marriot hotel was nice and a very easy walk up to Tivoli and into the restaurant area. We had dinner at a pretty good Italian restaurant there.

 

Friday, July 30, 2010 (Copenhagen, Denmark)

We walked up to Andersen Bakery for pastries and coffee.

 

The concierge sold CPH cards to us that were good for at least 24 hours at a cost of 229 DKK per card.

 

We decided to skip the Canal Ride today because it was raining. Instead, we started by taking the 6A from right in front of the hotel to Christianborg Palace, which was nice and full of interesting art. We then took another bus to Amalienborg Palace. This is going to be a future royal residence and felt like walking through someone’s current remodel which was exactly what we were doing. We had to wait in line in the rain for about 30 minutes for this one and the place was probably much more interesting to the Danish than it was to us. Rosenborg Castle was a short walk away and more fun, with a few crown jewels and old weaponry. We had lunch at a place called Skipperroen in Nyhaven and then some went back to the hotel and some went to the Round Tower. It isn’t much to see in itself but the view from the top was fun. It really wasn’t much of a climb either, unless you have any mobility problems.

 

Afterwards, our entire group met at Tivoli for dinner at Groften. After dinner, a couple of kids went on rides. Unlimited ride card was 205 DKK pp.

 

- DFDS Canal tour (20% Discount with CPH card)

- Christiansborg Palace (free with CPH card for ruins and royal room or 40 and 70 DKK)

- Amalienborg Palace (free with CPH card or 66 DKK)

- Rosenborg Castle (free with CPH card or 75 DKK)

- Round Tower (free with CPH card or 25 DKK)

-Tivoli for the evening (free with CPH card or 95 DKK)

 

Saturday, July 31, 2010 (Copenhagen, Denmark/Pier 245, Flex terminal, http://www.cmport.com)

After another breakfast at Andersen Bakery, we got to do our DFDS canal ride, because it was a bright and sunny day. We received a 20% discount from our CPH card, so instead of 60 DKK pp, the cost was 48 DKK/pp

 

Around 12noon, after dealing with very long check-out lines, we took a couple of taxis to the port. This was about 250-280 SEK.

 

Boarding the Star Princess was quick and efficient. We were probably in our cabins within 20 minutes of getting out of the cab. For $27.60, we got a couple of coffee cards with a 2-for-1 coupon in one of the discount books we were given and bought our son an exorbitantly expensive soda card for $48.88. Each coffee card was good for 15 specialty coffees and the soda card was good for unlimited sodas.

 

We met our wait staff that evening, Marius the head waiter, Joel our waiter and Angelito our assistant waiter. All were wonderful. Our group had two tables and the other table had different who weren’t nearly as good as ours. I have to say that since our last Princess cruise in 2003, the food quality has suffered greatly. Every piece of beef we had was overcooked and the seafood was dry. We were disappointed with that but it didn’t spoil our trip. Having someone serve you so nicely is still a treat. The best dish we had was a rack of lamb.

 

Sunday, August 1, 2010 (At sea)

I had a manicure that was very good this morning for $29 + $4 gratuity. I cancelled my other appts later in the week because I didn’t like the manicurist much. She did a great job but was not very warm and fuzzy.

 

Monday, August 2, 2010 (Stockholm, Sweden/Stadsgarden) 10am-5pm stads#167

Tour 10am-3pm with Sofia Lindh (sofialavoro@hotmail.com)

Sofia met us at the dock and walked us to the ferry terminal, about a 20-30 minute walk. From there we bought ferry tickets to the Vasa Museum which was fabulous. This was 80 SEK and the kids were free. After that we took the ferry back, walked through Gamla Stan, had lunch in a self-service restaurant in the market square and went to the Nobel, which cost 70 SEK pp and was free for the kids. We walked past the Royal Palace on our way back to the Princess shuttle stop. It was raining pretty hard throughout the day and the group was tired from walking around on the wet cobblestones. The Princess shuttle was 50 SEK or $7 USD pp.

 

*We turned our clocks forward one hour this evening.

 

Tuesday, August 3, 2010 (Helsinki, Finland) 10am-6pm (John Nurminen Navis/Hernesaari)

On Own:

1) The bus was about 3 short blocks away from the dock. We bought all-day tickets, 6.80 Euros pp and 3.40 Euro for students age 7 to 16, from the bus driver with Euro and he had change as well. Bus 14B stop for Rock Church is “Kauppakorkeakoulut / Handelshögskolorna” (meaning Schools of Economics).

2) We walked about four or five blocks to the 3T tram stop to Market Square (about a mile): Stop is either "Senattintori" (Senate Square) or "Kauppatori" (Market Square).

3) We walked: Lutheran Cathedral and Senate Square, over bridge to Uspenski Cathedral and back

4) We walked through the market square and up Northern Esplanada Street. We had a good lunch at Café Esplanade. I forgot about the “famous cinnamon rolls” but we had good salads and some kind of fabulous pastry with chocolate and nuts. I did a bit more shopping while my husband took our son back to the ship and some of our group rode the 3T tram around town. I also was able to buy the new Jo Nesbo mystery here at the Stockman bookstore, as well a couple of tea towels for gifts from the Marimekko store.

5) To ship: Bus 16, next to Clas Olsson hardware store).

 

*Public Transportation: Avoid paying with large bills as the driver may not have enough change. Drivers do not have to accept bills larger than EUR 20. Tickets may be purchased from drivers.

 

*We turned our clocks forward this evening.

 

Wednesday, August 4, 2010 (St Petersburg, Russia) 6:30am arrival

Anastasia’s Tours (anastasiaworld.com/AnastasiaDavidova@yahoo.com)

Our tour guide for both days was Lana, who we liked a lot and our driver was Slava. We had a City Tour and went to Pushkin/Catherine’s Palace, Peterhoff Park where we stopped for a blini lunch at a tent right outside the park, and Peter & Paul Fortress. The weather was actually a little too hot and sunny this day.

 

Thursday, August 5, 2010 (St Petersburg, Russia) 6pm departure

St Petersburg – Anastasia’s Tours. After pick-up this morning, we stopped nearby where Anastasia boarded the bus and collected our payment. We then went to the Hermitage with early admission, had a great pirogi lunch at Stolle and then finished up at St Isaac’s and the Church on Spilled Blood. We did some quick shopping at what seemed to be government stores before heading back to the ship. We bought a turtle lacquer box, a carved Christmas tree ornament, and an inexpensive Matrioski doll for a gift. Weather this day was cooler but still warm, perfect.

 

All in all, we had a great experience in St Petersburg. I would recommend Lana and Anastasia to anyone. They were friendly and efficient and flexible.

 

If you have to do laundry, you might consider doing it this evening. Tomorrow, as one cruisecritic member warned, the laundry will be busy from opening to closing.

 

*We turned our clocks back one hour this evening.

 

Friday, August 6, 2010 (Tallinn, Estonia) 7am-1pm

Walking tour of the Old Town (ahti@tours.ee)

We met Ahti at the port and walked from port to Old Town, 10-15 minutes. He gave a lot of historical perspective of the Tallinn because it has been through a lot in the past 100 years. We saw some of the major sites and then Ahti took us to a local café for lunch. Afterwards, people split up to go shopping around the market square and we met Ahti back in the square at 12pm where he took us to taxis for the return to the ship. I think if tour had not followed two intense days in St Petersburg, we could have seen more but I think the group was too tired to get much of the historical information. I bought a wool sweater there as well as a little model building. We also bought some chocolates at outlet right at the pier.

 

*We turned our clocks back one hour this evening.

 

Saturday, August 7, 2010 (Gdansk, Poland) 9am-6pm

Tour with licensed tour guide (Margaret), driver Marek, includes entrance tickets. Booked with Andrew Falkowski, biuro@omnibustourist.com.pl.

We went to Oliwa Cathedral, XVIII for a tour and organ concert and then into the Old Town. It was a festival for St Dominic so the area was crowded with lots of stalls. The kids got waffles there and we had lunch in a tent there as well. We had some trouble getting some of group members back from a rickshaw ride they had taken, but all turned out fine. We went through St Mary’s but didn’t have time for much else because of the crowds and the heavy rain in the afternoon. We had a leisurely drive back to the ship because the group didn’t want to go back out. I bought tins with chocolate cookies in there for souvenirs and got some cookies there as well. I also a scarf for 5 Euros from one of the stalls. We didn’t have time to try a lot but the baked breads looked great. My son bought a small roll and it was really good.

 

Sunday, August 8, 2010 (At sea)

Whew! We needed the rest. Second formal night and lobster for dinner.

 

Monday, August 9, 2010 (Oslo, Norway) 7am-2pm sondre akershus

On own:

We bought 24-hour transit passes (70 NOK and 35 NOK for kids) from tourist information desk at the dock. From just outside the dock, we caught the #12 Tram toward Majorstuen for Viegelandsparken. The stops have great digital displays showing the timings for the next tram. On board the tram, we validated the transit passes by stamping it using the yellow or orange box (you only need to do this the first time you use it). The tram stops right outside the gate to the park. After this, some took the tram back to the pier and some got off early to transfer to another tram to go to the ice bar. Those of us who the tram to the pier walked up to the ice bar with a stop to get smoothies and made it just behind the other group.

 

The ice bar was fun and the cost was 160 NOK per adult and 80 NOK per child. One member of our group negotiated a deal and got us 20% off the group. Cost included one hour in the bar and one drink.

 

After this, the group split up and walked around the area and then back to the ship by 1:20pm.

 

Tuesday, August 10, 2010 (Copenhagen, Denmark)

We were out of cabins at 7:50am and the group took a couple of large minivan cabs to the airport for about 500 DKK including gratuity.

 

The CPH was a huge shopping mall once you got into the gates. I used up our DKK for some souvenirs and gifts.

 

The transfer between flights at Munich was a bit painful because we had to go through immigration to have our boarding cards stamped and it took quite awhile.

 

The flight home was on a nice plane with seat-back video screens . Still at least we landed a bit early and were able to retrieve all our luggage quickly.

 

 

General notes:

*Everyone has questions about currency. Except for Finland, which uses Euros now, every other port had their own currency. Although a lot of people say it isn’t necessary, I wish I had taken some local currency for every port. We didn’t carry any for Gdansk (zlotys) because people said they take Euros and dollars. Well at the market stalls, some did and some didn’t. Life would have easier with a bit of local currency. You definitely need some for the places where you are on your own, so you can at least try a local pastry and some coffee. You may need bus or taxi fare as well.

 

*When people ask for tour guide recommendations for some of these ports, like Tallinn and Helsinki, many of the cruisecritic members discourage them. We did a combination of both but have to say that if you have a group of more than 8 people, the time saved with a local guide is great, especially when you have a short stay, as in Tallinn or Oslo. Herding a group on and off local transportation while trying to dig up foreign currency is hard, not to mention just trying to figure out which bus to take and in which direction with 10 or more people following you around… Trying to figure out where to have a meal with a group this size? Ouch! In a couple of the ports, we hired the guide but used public transportation. It was much like having a local take you around. If there had been just four of us, it would have been fun to do it on own our, but we had 18 people ranging in age from 16 to 88 and with varying degrees of mobility.

 

We enjoyed all the tour guides we had on this trip and I would recommend any of them highly.

 

If you have any questions, just post and I will try to remember to check back and answer them for you. Bon voyage!

[Giantfan13]

Nice report. glad you had a great time. Reading it brought back many memories of our cruise from last year.

 

Cheers

 

Len

[elaine5]

could we walk up to the old part of Tallin or do we need to take a bus?

 

didi anyone in your group or that you heard on the boat just do the HO-HO boats at stockholm? if so, how were they?

 

how $$ was the food at Tivoli, if you noticed?

 

thanks, Elaine

[Harry Cane]

bayjoens, thanks for that write-up. It looks a lot like the plans I've made for our 8/30 cruise!

[bayjoens]

Elaine: 1. Yes, you can easily do the walk into Tallinn, unless anyone has mobility issues. Even then, the road is paved and flat. It was probably a 15-20 minute walk and maybe 1/2 mile. (We're from California and noticed how flat almost all the Baltic cities are.) 2. I didn't see any HOHO boats in Stockholm but neither was I looking for one. I did see HOHO buses however. 3. I am not sure about the food in Tivoli but I don't think it was more than $20-$25 pp.

 

Harry, have a great time. Be sure to bring umbrellas.

[teachinla]

I, too, was on the Star Princess July 31 to Aug. 10. We used the hop on hop off boats in Stockholm. They were fast and convenient. They pick you up right by the ship. We started off the morning in Old Town, went to the Nobel Museum and Armory Museum, watched the Changing of the Guard (in the pouring rain) and then took the hop on/off boat to the Vasa Museum. We had to wait about 30 minutes to enter the Vasa due to overcrowding. I would recommend going there first. it was definitely worth the wait though. We had a great day in Stockholm, and except for St. Petersburg and Gdansk, we toured on our own. The cities were very tourist friendly and easy to navigate.

[Giantfan13]

could we walk up to the old part of Tallinn or do we need to take a bus?

 

didi anyone in your group or that you heard on the boat just do the HO-HO boats at stockholm? if so, how were they?

 

how $$ was the food at Tivoli, if you noticed?

 

thanks, Elaine

 

Elaine

 

It is very easy to walk to the old city of Tallinn. In fact, I would guess about 1/2 the passengers when we were there were doing it. Just follow the crowd.

 

As far as it being flat, it is far from that. In fact in order to get to the top of the city, there is a hill to climb and if you or anyone else has mobility issues, it might be strenuous. The sidewalks are very narrow and the streets are all cobblestone. From the top there are magnificent views over the old city out towards the bay. Walking back down, there are several set of steps to walk down, which makes it a lot easier.

 

Here are a few pix of going up and coming back down

 

The incline going up isn't steep, but it is a steady grade going up

http://i834.photobucket.com/albums/zz267/Giantfan13/baltics/europemaster537.jpg

 

At the top of the city, the views are magnificent

http://i834.photobucket.com/albums/zz267/Giantfan13/baltics/europe543.jpg

http://i834.photobucket.com/albums/zz267/Giantfan13/baltics/europe546.jpg

 

Some of the steps going back down

http://i834.photobucket.com/albums/zz267/Giantfan13/baltics/europemaster584.jpg

 

Tallinn is really a marvelous city to explore and very very easy to do on your own.

 

Cheers

 

Len

[bayjoens]

Actually we found Tallinn the grades pretty slight, almost flat, except for the one hill to Upper Hill which is in reality much easier than it looks as long as you are in decent shape. It really isn't a steep grade because it goes back and forth and has easy wide stairs. Our group of 14, ranging in ages 16 to 65 found is surprising how quickly we got up there without a pause. As for the hill back down, there was a choice of stairs and also an easy stroll. If by chance you have ever been to the Great Wall in China, consider that a 9 on a scale of 1 to 10 with escalating difficulty and this hill is about a 3. There are cobblestones though but they aren't difficult as long as it isn't raining.