Brilliance of the sea 30th May 12 nights Baltic.

[chelseauk]

Just got back from the brilliance of the sea and a trip around the Baltic. This was our first trip with RCL after having been on the Celebrity Eclipse twice previously so it was interesting to compare the two. Before we start I will say we don’t drink, and don’t use the speciality restaurants.

Embarkation.

 

 

Coming from the UK we parked at Harwich and whilst not as organised as Southampton is was perfectly adequate. After parking and having got rid of our luggage we took a short bus ride to the terminal. This didn’t seem as organised as Southampton and the queue was pretty long – total check in time to the ship was about 45mins to 1 hour. Southampton with celebrity seemed to be about 30 mins so a bit slower and a bit more waiting in line. Once on the ship the staterooms were ready at about 1.40pm.

 

 

Room

First time in an outside room (previously balcony) and to be honest was pretty impressed, we were on deck 3 (room 3070) and it was very quiet. The room was smaller than celebrity and the shower with shower curtain quite a bit smaller (and celebrity had a glass shower partition).

There was plenty of room for storage and the bed was big but a little hard the only real issues was a fridge/cooler that wasn’t very cold (But did have space without it being emptied). The air conditioning wasn’t great (we did report it) but it could only get the room down to about 21c

 

 

 

Food.

I suffer from a food allergy and can’t eat capsicum which makes life very complicate when eating out. The MDR staff was brilliant and their efforts were much better than celebrity last year (A particular low point on the eclipse was a carbonara that somehow ended up as spaghetti with a bit or parmesan cheese on it. The food in the MDR was generally pretty tasty and nice albeit the cheaper cuts or meat and small fish portions but on balance we thought they did better than celebrity who have better cuts but don’t seem to cook them as well.

 

 

 

The windjammer was much better for getting a seat (Always could get something outside) but the food wasn’t brilliant – breakfast didn’t very much and the cooked breakfast was to be honest fairly poor, two types of bacon for instance – “English” back (palid and undercooked) and “American” overcooked and tough. – Didn’t eat in breakfast in the MDR – maybe we should have….

 

 

Lunch in the MDR wasn’t bad but as it was port intensive it wasn’t open much. Dinner in the buffet was better than breakfast but because of my allergy I was limited to what I could eat.

 

 

 

That’s enough for now as not been home long - I’ll do some stuff on what we did in port later (as we went self-guided everywhere but Russia) if anyone is interested.

[Carolla5501]

Thanks! Definitely interested in the ports as I am doing the 7 night Baltic on the Serenade later this month which goes to several of the same ports.

[SpainAlien]

Thank you for posting your review, I look forward to the rest of it. I hope you don´t mind a few questions as we are doing this cruise on 23rd June and are particularly curious about what there is to do in Skagen. Also did you happen to notice if there were any themed nights that I should pack for? Thanks again, I can´t wait for the rest of your installments once you have had a chance to recover from your journey.

 

Gail

[chelseauk]

Quick word on Skagen ....

 

There isn’t really much to do at all in Skagen. (In fact there are only a few organised tours). It’s a nice little town, with friendly people a street with shops and some fish restaurants. We just had a stroll to the town a bit of a wonder around and had a coke in a café (£8 for two eek). The church was worth a quick visit – but on the whole I’d call it a nice little sea side town with not much to do beyond a nice stroll (There are some things to visit like light houses, the point where the Baltic and north sea meet, a recreated beacon , a museum and artist house – but nothing really thrilling). Its not a bad way to wind down the holiday though (And the town is an easy 15min walk so don’t get the shuttle)

Edited June 12, 2015 by chelseauk

[chelseauk]

Before I start with the ports – we did as much as we could on our own as to be honest we are not keen on being dragged on an off coaches :) to this end the Rick Steve’s Northern Cruise ports is absolutely brilliant! (We cut out each section to make it lighter to carry.

 

Copenhaggen.

 

We docked at Langelinie Quay and intended to take the bus into town but whilst we found the bus stops (bus 28) right along the pier we didn’t see a bus so we walked down to the little mermaid – get off the ship turn left and walk – it’s on the sea front so pretty easy to find (follow the crowds) – it really isn’t hard to find but really isn’t worth it but you kind of have to do it

 

We then realised this is the end of the Rick Steve walk so we followed it backwards, it is well worth doing as Copenhagen has some lovely places to see – beware though that things open at 10 (Churches museums etc) so it you go at 9 like us you may not be able to get into everything (oops). Toilets were plentiful, free and nice so that’s a bonus, and we really enjoyed the walk (It took a couple of hours) but if you just walked into town I’d say about 30 mins. We finished at the town hall and decided to go back to the ship. We caught a no 28 bus from right outside the Tivoli gardens it didn’t actually have the destination we expected – but we got on and asked the bus driver how to get to the cruise pier at Langelinie Quay, and the drive who spoke excellent English told us to hop on and he would tell us when we got there (cost 24kr each). He didn’t go quite as far as the pier but dropped us off right by the top of the pier (about 3 mins from the ship).

Edited June 12, 2015 by chelseauk