Sailing through Scandinavia on Brilliance OTS (long review w/ pictures!)

[Penton]

Thanks for posting your great photos which provide a lovely record of the cruise. We returned yesterday from the 7 day Brilliance cruise which did the same itinerary only in the reverse order and we had a fabulous time overall, feeling quite sad that it is all over. The weather exceeded our expectations and showed our ports of call at their most beautiful. However this was my second cruise on Brilliance and 20th cruise with RCI and over time I have seen cutbacks, only 3 towel animals this week and the waiters only sang on Italian night, not even a farewell song! As for the entertainment the farewell show was grim, the singers and dancers appeared in dull black clothes, had they sent all their outfits to the laundry? Towel animals and singing are nice little touches but I am concerned that the decline in the standard of the entertainment more seriously impacts on the passenger cruise experience. Anna Bass was an excellent cruise director.

[Iluvcruising2]

Wonderful review so far. Keep it up!

[loma linda ca a & j]

for your awesome review w/ photos !!!:)

 

we are sooooo looking forward to our 12 day brilliance cruise 19 aug 2013 - have already chosen a few selections from your menus ;)

[chickadee1]

I told the people in my roll call about this thread so, please, keep the pictures coming!!

[reney313]

Thank you for the review, I can't wait to read the rest of it.

 

The Baltics are one of my choices for next summer so I definitely will be referring back to your very detailed notes.

[jstducky]

After the Olympic Stadium Tower, we hopped back on tram 3T for the route around the city. The tram ride a great way to see local life, as the tram wound through both residential and commercial districts and away from the tourist crowd. We passed by little neighborhood parks, Helsinki’s amusement park, various statues, and saw numerous locals and school kids get on and off the tram. The tram also passed by the stunning train station with its 4 huge mammoth statues out front. Finally, we came around to Stockmann’s Department Store, Scandinavia’s largest, where we hopped off. Right at the tram stop is the bronze statue of the Three Blacksmiths who have come to symbolize Helsinki.

 

A quick 5 minute walk through Helsinki’s busy shopping district brought us right to Senate Square and the stunning Lutheran Cathedral. As you round the corner and see the Lutheran Cathedral for the first time standing high above the square, it’s rather breathtaking. A large and beautiful white building topped with various green domes atop a set of imposing and steep stairs just hits you. The Lutheran Cathedral stands in stark contrast to the other buildings in the square that are all full of color. The statue of Alexander II in the middle of Senate Square with his arm outstretched seems to call to the pigeons that flock to him. And the stairs in front of the Cathedral seem to be a good meeting place, or resting place for both locals and tourists alike. The interior of the Lutheran Cathedral is as plain and stoic as the exterior is bold and remarkable. Like any other Lutheran Cathedral, the interior is white and muted with a simply decorated altar and pulpit inside a cavernous space. Across from the pulpit is a statue of Martin Luther. The

highlight, for me, of the interior of the cathedral is the massive and beautiful organ that rests on the upper floor across from the pulpit.

 

 

The iconic Three Blacksmith's statue in Helsinki

 

 

 

Walking around Helsinki's shopping area on our way to Senate Square

 

 

 

Gorgeous view of the Lutheran Cathedral and the statue of Tsar Alexander II in Senate Square

 

 

 

 

Lutheran Cathedral sits atop a large set of stairs that is a popular meeting point

 

 

 

Interior of the Lutheran Cathedral

[jstducky]

The Altar of the Lutheran Cathedral

 

 

 

The pulpit of the Lutheran Cathedral

 

 

 

The gorgeous organ inside the Lutheran Cathedral

[jstducky]

From Senate Square, it’s an easy 5 minute walk over to the Russian Orthodox Uspenski Cathedral. Before reaching Uspenski, you cross over the “Bridge of Love” which is a small bridge filled with hundreds, if not thousands, of various locks in different colors and shapes. It was kind of neat to see all the couples, presumably, who have come to place a lock on the bridge.

 

The Uspenski Cathedral is as different as day and night to the Lutheran Cathedral. Where one is plain white with green domes, the Uspenski is a red brick building with green turrets and topped with gilded onion domes. And the interior is also as different as night and day. Where the Lutheran Cathedral is plain and solemn, the Uspenski is filled with gilded icon images, incense and candles, and every inch of the walls and pillars and domes are painted with different religious images and symbols. It’s a sight to see, especially since we knew that we wouldn’t be visiting the interiors of any Orthodox cathedrals in St. Petersburg the next day. And it’s really interesting to see the Lutheran Cathedral and the Uspenski Cathedral one right after the other to really compare how different they are.

 

 

 

The Bridge of Love

 

 

 

Uspenski Cathedral

 

 

 

The gilded onion dome of Uspenski Cathedral

 

 

 

 

The imposing red brick of Uspenski Cathedral

 

 

 

 

The interior painted domes of Uspenski Cathedral

 

 

 

 

 

The classic icons through the burning candles symbolic of an Orthodox Church

[jstducky]

When you exit Uspenski Cathedral, you can see Market Square just ahead of you. It’s literally a 3 minute walk until you get to the many stalls that make up Market Square. This would also be where you can catch the public ferry to Suomenlinna, but since we knew we were running out of time we chose to do Market Square over Suomenlinna. Perhaps on a future trip. Market Square is filled with many stalls of vendors selling everything from handcrafted local goods to your normal tourist trinkets. Also, one half of Market Square is also set up with fruit and vegetable booths for locals as well as tourists to pick up snacks. The best part of Market Square is probably the food vendors who cook up and serve all sorts of fresh, local food – grilled salmon, potatoes, reindeer, etc. It’s just a fun and relaxed atmosphere to shop, eat and people watch. We had a wonderful hour or so spending our money and looking at all of the amazing handcrafted goods.

 

 

 

 

A view of Market Square from Uspenski Cathedral

 

 

 

 

One of many stalls cooking up potatoes, reindeer meat, fish and other Finnish favorites

 

 

 

Stalls selling local fruits

 

 

 

Even more beautiful fruit

 

 

 

 

And fresh vegetables too!

[jstducky]

A reminder that most of Helsinki was build (and formerly controlled) by the Russians - an obelisk topped by the imperial double-headed eagle in the middle of Market Square

 

 

 

 

How about a break for a scoop of banana split (oh, it was good!) ice cream!

[jstducky]

Just past 3 pm, we decided to play it safe and begin the journey back to the ship. All aboard today was set for 4:15 pm. From Market Square, it’s easy to hop on the tram 3T back towards Kamppi, where many buses, Metro and trams converge. Since we had passed by the area earlier in the morning, we knew exactly where to go to catch bus 14 back to the pier. Take the bus all the way to the last stop on the line and the ship is a 3 minute walk straight ahead. As long as you do your research in advance, taking public transportation in Helsinki was a piece of cake. As we sailed away from Helsinki, we sat out on our balcony and watched as the city faded away in the distance. We both agreed that Helsinki is a place we’d love to come back to and spend more time at, to see the things we missed like Sibelius Monument and Sumonelinna Island, but also to have time to go out and explore beyond Helsinki, to Porvoo and other parts of the countryside. Perhaps we’ll be back one day in the future so that we can travel north to Lapland as well.

 

 

 

 

Sailing away from Helsinki

 

 

 

 

Vitality and Alternative Selections Menu

 

 

 

 

Starters Menu

 

 

 

Entree Menu

 

 

 

Oxtail and potato soup

 

 

 

Fried Camembert Salad

[jstducky]

Chilled Pina Colada Soup

 

 

 

Atlantic Salmon En Croute

 

 

 

Mixed Grill

 

 

 

Dessert Menu

 

 

 

Belgian Chocolate Tart

 

 

 

 

Wimbledon

[jstducky]

The sun sets on our day in Helsinki

 

 

 

 

Our first towel animal - a slithering snake!

[Sinppu]

Do come back, I can be your personal tour guide then!! ;):)

[jstducky]

St. Petersburg

 

Of the port cities on our itinerary, I knew in advance that this was the only port stop where I wanted to take a tour. Well, I guess I should say, this is the only stop where I knew I had to take a tour. But, I certainly wouldn’t be taking a ship tour. Private tours through an approved tour company who can obtain a group visa for guests are definitely the way to go in St. Petersburg.

 

When I went to St. Petersburg 5 years ago, I booked a private tour through Alla Tours and had a wonderful experience. In doing research for this cruise, I had decided in advance that Alla Tours and SPB Tours were the 2 tour companies I wanted to reach out to, for various reasons.

 

With only one day in St. Petersburg, I also knew that it wouldn’t be possible to do everything in the city in this short amount of time. So, my husband and I knew that there would be compromise as to what the itinerary would be. My husband indicated to me that The Hermitage Museum was a must. I told him that I really thought that we should do a subway ride. Due to time constraints, we also realized that we would only have time to either do Catherine’s Palace or Peterhof, but not both since they are both out of town. Since I had been to Yusupov Palace before and hadn’t been impressed, I had ruled that out as an option. And since we would be in town on a Wednesday, I already knew that a visit to the Church on the Spilled Blood and St. Isaac’s Cathedral would have to be ruled out since they would be closed, which was a disappointment. After discussing all of this with my husband, he told me that he would prefer we do Peterhof rather than Catherine’s Palace. I was fine with the decision since I had been to both, and since they were both built by the same architect, it didn’t really make a difference to me where we went.

 

I emailed both Alla Tours and SPB Tours and asked them to come up with an itinerary for me based on my requirement to ride the subway, tour Peterhof, and see the Hermitage. Within 24 hours, I received responses with possible itineraries from both companies, and both with comparable prices. Since I was indifferent, I asked my husband to take a look at the responses and the proposed itineraries and choose one. My husband ended up choosing SPB Tours due to their proposal to include a canal cruise, which really caught his eye. In the months leading up to our arrival in St. Petersburg, dealing with SPB Tours was a joy. Viktoria, Anthony and Leila were wonderful to work with. They answered all of my questions in a timely manner and were always professional.

 

My husband and I were prepared to take this tour with just to two of us if we couldn’t find others to help offset the costs. But, that didn’t mean we wouldn’t try and find others. After booking the cruise, I immediately joined my Roll Call for the cruise and started soliciting others to join our private tour in St. Petersburg. In the end, we were able to form a group of 13 passengers for our 18-seat mini bus. It was the perfect tour size, and the group of people in the tour was outstanding!

 

2 nights before our arrival in St. Petersburg, we were all given Russian immigration forms to fill out left in our stateroom by our stateroom attendant. Along with the immigration forms, was a letter from Royal Caribbean stating Russian immigration policies and regulations for entry into Russia. While the letter did initially state that guests either needed to have a Russian visa purchased in advance, tours booked through an independent company that issued Russian visas, or a tour booked through the ship which would handle the Russian visa issue for guests, this became less and less clear in subsequent notifications from the ship. During both onboard announcements and subsequent editions of the Cruise Compass, the ship personnel seemed to indicate that if you did not have a Russian visa purchased in advance that you needed to have been booked on a tour through the ship. All mention of having booked tours independently disappeared. I did start to feel that there were “scare tactics” being employed by the ship to try and pressure guests to purchase Royal Caribbean tours. But, I knew in advance, and had been warned by the tour company that this would happen. In addition, since I had been to St. Petersburg before, I knew I would have no problems getting off the ship. Our head waiter did mention that the ship had record of about 600 passengers who didn’t have Russian visas (I would assume they were counting based upon the number that didn’t book tours through them – I would estimate that probably about a hundred or so people booked private tours and were itching to get off the ship as soon as possible) and would probably be spending the day onboard.

 

What you will need to have with you is your completed Russian immigration form (one per person), your tour ticket issued by the company you booked a tour with (one per person), and your passport. With those 3 pieces of documentation, you will have no problems getting off the ship at all. In fact, the immigration official that both my husband and I dealt with was actually very nice and even smiled!

 

Our ship was scheduled to arrive in St. Petersburg at 7:00 am. We were instructed by SPB Tours to disembark the ship as soon as possible and to meet our guide between 7:00 – 7:30 am. Unfortunately, even though the ship docked on time, the Russian officials were very slow about clearing the ship. We didn’t end up being cleared until 7:20 am. As soon as we were through immigration, our guide was waiting just outside the exit to the immigration area. While we waited for other tour members to clear immigration, we were able use that time to use the ATM at the port to get the Rubles we would need for lunch later.

 

 

Wednesday - Cruise Day 5

 

 

 

The sun rises dramatically over the MSC Poesia as we arrive into the Marine Facade in St. Petersburg. There were 5 other ships in St. Petersburg the day we were there.

[jstducky]

Our guide for the day Luba, introduced us to our driver Dimitri. We were all assembled, in the minibus and Dimitri had us on our way out of the port area at 7:47 am. We learned from Luba that she is originally from Omsk in Siberia, where she learned English in grade school. She moved to St. Petersburg for school and has been a freelance tour guide for 8 years now. We all were incredibly impressed with how good her English was. It’s not a stretch to say that it was pretty much perfect, even picking up a lot of English nuances that only someone familiar and comfortable with the language would understand. We are also all very impressed about Luba’s level of knowledge about everything, art, politics, Russian life, etc.

 

As we drove from the port area into the city, Luba began to tell us of St. Petersburg and Russia and pointed out different monuments, statues and buildings along the way. We learned that St. Petersburg is actually made up of 42 islands and 30 canals and is often called the city of bridges due to the 500 bridges that exist in the city. She told us that we were about to see many more of those bridges as the first order of the day was to take the canal cruise. Dimitri drove us to the banks of the Neva River, within view of St. Isaacs Cathedral where we boarded a canal boat that was already waiting for us. For those of us who braved sitting on the outside decks, blankets were provided to keep us warm. We were lucky that rain was not predicted for the day and were going to have good weather, but even so, sailing at 8:00 am on an overcast morning is still quite chilly!

 

The canal cruise started on the Neva River as we sailed pass Vasilievsky island and the Rostral Columns, the Winter Palace and other buildings that make up the Hermitage and Peter & Paul Fortress. From the Neva River, we passed the gated summer gardens and made the turn into the Fountain Canal. We saw the beautiful St. Michael’s Palace near the summer gardens. Further into our canal cruise, we even saw the Church on the Spilled Blood, which was a thrill for everyone, especially since we wouldn’t be visiting it later. We finally turned on to the Winter Canal and sailed underneath the passage that connects the Winter Palace with the Small Hermitage. Despite the chilly temperatures, we all enjoyed the canal cruise which gave us a good introduction to the city.

 

 

 

Gorgeous classic Russian Orthodox Cathedral we see as we drive into town from the pier

 

 

 

A look at the dome of St. Isaac's Cathedral that we see as we board the boat for our canal cruise

 

 

 

Panoramic view of the Neva River waterfront as taken from the canal cruise

 

 

 

Neva River waterfront

 

 

 

 

A look at the Winter Palace, which is now home to the Hermitage Museum, from the waterfront

 

 

 

Looking at the Rostral Columns and other Neva River buildings

[jstducky]

Peter and Paul Fortress as seen from the water

 

 

 

 

The imperial double-headed eagle symbol as seen from the water -- this symbol is found everywhere in St. Petersburg

 

 

 

 

Everyone was waiting to see the Church on the Spilled Blood on the canal cruise

 

 

 

 

Traversing one of the smaller canals

[mj]

Great review and pictures. Thanks for sharing.

[jstducky]

From St. Petersburg, we drove out to Peterhof for our tour of the Grand Palace and our look at the fountain gardens. Our driving route took us on the beautiful, new, and almost deserted new toll road that leads out towards Peterhof. When we arrived at the Grand Palace, there was a line to get in, but the wait wasn’t too bad. Luba took us through the 20+ rooms of the 60+ room palace that are open to the public. Unfortunately, no photography is allowed at all within the palace. We saw some spectacular artifacts (both restored and original), beautiful inlaid parquet floors and rooms that made your jaw drop. After the tour, we went out into the gardens and were given some time to walk around and take pictures of the grand cascade fountain, which is quite impressive.

 

 

 

We drove by the beautiful Trinity Cathedral on our way out to Peterhof

 

 

 

 

The Cathedral at Peterhof

 

 

 

 

Even more stunning in color

 

 

 

 

View of the backside of the Grand Cascade Fountain looking out towards the Gulf of Finland

 

 

 

 

Grand Cascade Fountain at Peterhof

[jstducky]

Gilded statues at the Grand Cascade Fountain

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Centerpiece of the Grand Cascade Fountain

 

 

 

 

 

One last look at the Grand Cascade Fountain

[jstducky]

Before we left Peterhof, we stopped to have a quick snack/lunch. Luba brought us to a place that served traditional Russian blinis. Luckily they had menus in English so we could all understand what we were ordering. We ordered based upon Luba’s suggestion that 2 blinis per person would be a good snack/lunch. There were both savory and sweet blinis, and I think everyone was pleasantly satisfied with what they ordered and we all agreed that it proved to be a good snack since we could all find something that fit our individual tastes.

 

 

 

Menus for the different kinds of blinis we could choose from for lunch

 

 

 

 

 

There were also salads and other items to choose from

 

 

 

 

And a menu in English for those of us who couldn't read cyrillic

 

[jstducky]

The blinis we ordered for lunch

 

 

 

 

Three cheese blini --- my husband thought it was kind of plain

 

 

 

 

 

Blini with strawberries

 

 

 

 

Blini with chocolate and bananans

 

 

 

 

Peaches and cream blini

[CRUIS4ME]

Absolutely enjoying your review - your transportation details will definitely be used next summer when we follow your footsteps! Thanks so much for the details and photos!

Will tune in tomorrow for more. Thank you.

[dadatsea]

Thank You so much for this review..Will be on her next mo...cannot come soon enough... Thanks

[Ren1216]

Fascinating!! Great job.... really enjoying the pictures! I would love to do this sailing some day. Thank you so much for sharing.