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Yet Another Review for the May 25/26 Baltic Sailing!

Brandy14

By Brandy14,
in Norwegian Cruise Line

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Brandy14

Brandy14

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Like everyone else, I used cc to answer so many questions for me, I thought I'd write a quick recap in hopes of helping anyone that may be researching their own trip.

 

We loved this cruise a lot and my mom said she thinks it's her favorite out of all the trips we've done. Our last NCL cruise was on the Epic which we both disliked because it was so crowded but we both loved the Getaway. Our cruise was undersold and there were only about 3700 or so on board so it never felt crowded at all.

 

I'll try to break this down by category so you can skip to the parts that interest you since it's going to be long.

 

Food:

For this cruise we only booked Cagney's and the Cirque dinner since it was very port intensive and we weren't sure how tired we would be after long days in Berlin & Russia. Cagney's was excellent as always. We went twice and enjoyed it both times. We were a little disappointed in the cirque show this time. We did Cirque Dreams on the Epic and really loved it. This one was Cirque Dreams & Steam and while we liked it a lot there was just something about it that we didn't love. I can't put my finger on it. The food was just okay and not at all cooked consistently but we were going for the show & not so much the food so we didn't care. Others said they really loved the show so I definitely think it's worth going to, we just preferred the one on the Epic.

We also visited two of the main dining rooms: Taste & Savor. They were right across from each other & pretty much the exact same so I don't remember which meals we had where but we had 1 breakfast, 1 lunch, and 1 dinner there. I only had one thing that I really didn't like and it was oddly the yogurt parfait at breakfast. The yogurt was a little grainy and not really smooth so I just didn't care for the texture. Everything else was good & we had good service each time.

We had dinner at Shanghai's two nights and enjoyed everything we got there. They were very fast both times we went and on those long days it was nice to not have a long drawn out dinner. They did fill up and we had to wait one of the nights but only for about 30 minutes & they gave us a pager so we could walk around while we waited. We also visited O'Sheehan's several times. We just love the atmosphere and the quickness of eating there so we tend to visit it a lot. We are not buffet people so we only went there twice-once to grab some yogurt for a quick breakfast and the second time to grab dessert. I don't like the chaos and rudeness of all the people so I tend to stay away from that area as much as possible. We ate at Margaritaville one day for something different and were happy with our choice to do so. On the second sea day we grabbed lobster rolls at the Ocean Blue walk up window. They were so good that I wish we had done it the first sea day so I could have had them twice!

 

Onboard Activities:

The weather was very cool on this cruise so we did not do a lot of outdoor activities. We did watch some kids climbing the rock wall & also watched the ropes course a little. I think they had to close the ropes course one day because of the high winds.

We also did not have a spa pass since we had such a limited amount of time on the ship.

There were not a ton of activities we were interested in during the sea days but we did participate in the Escape the Big Top. It was really fun and our group won so that was even better!

They had some good entertainment on this cruise so we hung out at the mojito bar a lot to listen to music.

We only made it to one show in the theater. It was Million Dollar Quartet which was excellent! Definitely a must see.

 

Cabin:

We had originally booked a balcony room but upgraded to a mini suite a couple of weeks prior. There was a price drop and my TA was able to get the upgrade for us for free so we didn't do the bidding process. The mini suite gives you a larger bathroom with double sinks and pulsating shower heads. It was really nice to have those after walking so much! Our cabin steward was not as good on this cruise as they normally are. He never introduced himself to us so I don't even know what his name was. Sometimes he would forget to empty our trash or replace certain towels. Again not a big deal because we always had extra towels but just unusual. Nothing that would ruin our cruise or that we would complain about.

 

Pre-cruise Copenhagen:

We stayed at the Hotel Bethel which I had heard great things about. We wanted to stay in the Nyhavn area since we stayed closer to the Tivoli last time we were in Copenhagen. We couldn't check in when we arrived which was fine as we weren't expecting to since we got there early. The hotel held our luggage for no fee, however that meant just leaving it in their little lobby area out in the open. Everything was fine but it was a little concerning since everyone's luggage was out there & as far as I could tell only one person working, so anyone really could've gotten into the luggage at any time pretty easily. I definitely wouldn't store anything valuable in there. The room was very basic but very clean. We don't need a lot since we are in the room for such a limited amount but the one thing we did miss was having a safe in the room. They did have free breakfast which was good & there was a variety of things to choose from. You could also get coffee & tea for free throughout the day & they seemed to have a few things there you could buy as well such as soda and snacks. The hotel desk will get ice for you for your room if you ask. The staff was very friendly & accommodating as well. We did love our view which was overlooking the canal & the Nyhavn restaurants. It can be loud but it didn't really bother us that much.

As I mentioned we had been to Copenhagen before and had done all the museums & attractions so we chose to do the Culinary Experience tour with Copenhagen Food Tours for something a little different. I would highly recommend the tour if you enjoy hearing about local food and trying new things. Our guide was lovely & we got to sample several things such as cheese, chocolate, honey, smorrebord, local beers, & hot dogs. (The hot dogs in Copenhagen are amazing!) We went to Copenhagen Street Food for dinner which was interesting to see but we didn't love the food we chose. (Maybe we just chose wrong!) It's a great concept & I wish we had something like this where I live.

 

Embarkation:

We took a taxi from our hotel to the port around noon. I don't remember what the cost was but it wasn't terribly expensive. You do need to have your hotel book a taxi as they aren't readily available in Copenhagen. For our cruise NCL was able to secure 2 terminals so checking in was very easy. We walked in & got right through. We had lunch at O'Sheehan's and by the time we were finished eating the rooms were all ready.

 

I will get into the ports tomorrow as my jet lag is taking over! Happy to answer any questions as well!

 

 

 

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Brandy14

Brandy14

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How long was the Culinary Experience Tour? Sounds interesting.

 

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It was about 4 hours. It's a lot of walking but since we sat down to eat a few of the things a couple of different times it didn't feel that long. You also get plenty of food so we were full when it was over.

 

 

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Brandy14

Brandy14

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Warnemund/Berlin-we decided to do the full day to Berlin since we thought this would be the only time we would get the chance. We booked with Jeremy Minsberg early on because of the great reviews we had seen on cc. Unfortunately as the cruise got closer Jeremy emailed to let us know his family was going to be in town from the states and his colleague Robert Sommer was available to take over. We were disappointed but ended up loving Robert so no worries! I would recommend him to anyone doing the trip. It only took us 2 hours to get to Berlin thanks to our awesome driver (and the autobahn.) We left around 8 and headed back to the ship around 6 so we were in the city for about 8 hours. It was a long day but we were glad we did it. We saw a ton of things (too many to list) but never felt rushed. Robert was very informative & really flexible when we asked for anything. We even had a lovely sit down lunch at a biergarten so that we could relax a bit. We were glad we paid extra for the tour vs taking the train as we felt we got more time in the city & it was more maximized since someone was driving us around instead of us trying to find our way. If you have any specific questions regarding Berlin let me know but as I mentioned we saw so much that it's hard to list every single thing.

 

 

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EllieinNJ

EllieinNJ

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Thank you for your trip report. Looking forward to more. How far in advance did you book your hotel? We are going next May 29-June 7, 2018 and Trip Advisor hotel bookings only go up to first week in May. Then when I went to some hotels official website it says my dates are already booked up. Could it be that it is just too early?

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Brandy14

Brandy14

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Thank you for your trip report. Looking forward to more. How far in advance did you book your hotel? We are going next May 29-June 7, 2018 and Trip Advisor hotel bookings only go up to first week in May. Then when I went to some hotels official website it says my dates are already booked up. Could it be that it is just too early?

 

 

They are probably saying sold out because it's so early. I notice that a lot when booking hotels. Such a pain for us planners! I booked in December and booked direct with Hotel Bethel as they weren't showing up on other sites at that time.

 

 

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Brandy14

Brandy14

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Tallinn-We joined up with a group from CC & walked from the port to the KGB museum at the Hotel Viru. It was an easy walk from the port into old town. We took the English speaking tour of the museum & it was very interesting. I would recommend booking in advance as the tour was sold out. After the tour we walked over to the Kalev chocolate shop where we had set up a chocolate making class for our group. It was such a fun activity! We made several different kinds of truffles and while the chocolate was setting we made fondue. We were then given time to enjoy the fondue along with come coffee or tea & given a lot of chocolates from their store to taste test! Everything was delicious! They gave us little boxes to put our truffles in (somehow they didn't look quite as nice as the ones they sell) and we were then given a discount for the shop. After purchasing several goodies we set off to see some of the sights around Tallinn. We did a whirlwind tour of old town, grabbed a couple of souvenirs & then headed back to the ship. I had read several things about the hills in Tallinn but I didn't think it was too bad. There was only one steep hill up to the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral so if you want to avoid the hill start there and work your way down. I believe the hop on hop off bus stops there. The port does have several places for souvenirs as well so if you forget something you can always stop & shop on your way back!

 

 

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easyboy

easyboy

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It was about 4 hours. It's a lot of walking but since we sat down to eat a few of the things a couple of different times it didn't feel that long. You also get plenty of food so we were full when it was over.

 

 

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Will have to try that when we come back. We love to try dishes from different countries.

Thanks for the response.

 

 

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Brandy14

Brandy14

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Did you go straight to the airport after the cruise?

 

 

 

Were there taxis readily available?

 

 

 

( on both Getaway right now)

 

 

I did but took the NCL shuttle because of what I had read about taxi's. I wouldn't do it again and when I left around 8 am there were plenty of taxis there.

 

 

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Brandy14

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St. Petersburg- When I booked this trip I researched all the big companies listed on these boards but never felt pulled to any of them because I really wanted something small & a little more personal. I'm sure they are all great, but I prefer traveling in smaller groups so I set out to find something more in line with what I wanted. Luckily I stumbled on Lentina travel. I found them mentioned on CC a couple of times and they had great reviews on Trip Advisor. When I started researching I was overwhelmed by all the tours offered on everyone's websites so I emailed all the big companies asking for recommendations and received back generic emails with their various tours offered as attachments. All of which I had read on the website. Not exactly what I was looking for. When I emailed Lentina I got a personal email that answered all of my questions and a recommendation of 2 tours they thought would offer what I was looking for. That sold me immediately. Again, I'm sure the other tour companies are great, I just wanted some help & didn't feel I was getting that initially. (I would also point out that only one of the big companies ever followed up with me after that initial email.) Anyway, while I was a little bit nervous because they weren't mentioned on here often, I went with them anyway and it turned out to be the best decision I made. Lentina could not have been more helpful or accommodating. I emailed them what seemed like hundreds of questions in the beginning and Stanislava answered them almost immediately every time. We kept our group at 6 so we could maximize our time but we also didn't want to be absolutely exhausted at the end of the days so we decided to not go to Catherine's Palace which in hindsight I still feel was the right decision. It gives us something to do if we ever go back.

 

Removing Catherine's Palace meant we could start out a little later each day so instead of getting out super early, we met our guide at 9 am both days. Unfortunately that did not mean passport control was any better for us that first day. We had been watching the lines from our balcony the first morning and they didn't seem so bad, however when we got down there we picked a line that didn't appear to be moving at all. It probably took us about 40 minutes to get through. Once we were through Stanislava met us outside the door. She took us to our van where we met our driver, Sergei, and our guide, Anastasia and settled up all the payments. My mother and I had actually prepaid by credit card just so we could have that expense out of the way but the other two parties in our group paid quickly and we were ready to start our day. We headed to Peterhof (along with absolutely everyone else) and were a little scared when we saw the line but not to worry because since we were only a party of 6 we were allowed to go right in. I think a lot of the tour groups were able to bypass the line but we saw several that had to wait so that might be something to clarify when you are inquiring about the trip. The Palace is beautiful but they do rush you through because of all the people so that was another reason we loved being in a small group-we were always in the same room as our guide and in some of the rooms that you had to go through single file your guide would be on to another room if you were a large party.

After the Palace we went outside to the gardens & the amazing fountains. (Side note-I'm not sharing pictures in this review because I personally like to be surprised when I see things vs looking at someone else's photos so I don't want to ruin the beauty for you.) we walked around for a bit and then were asked about lunch. Our original itinerary had us getting something at Peterhof to enjoy while we were in the gardens. Our guide asked us if we wanted to do that or if we would want to go to a sit down restaurant and have traditional stroganoff that she would order in advance to alleviate the amount of time we had to be there. We all chose the stroganoff and I'm so glad we did. We went to the Stroganoff Steak House which was amazing. After the trip I was looking through some of my notes & had written this down somewhere along the way as well. Sitting down also allowed us a little time to regroup (two of us had a headache,) use the bathroom, and just rest for a little bit. It was not crowded at all and our food came out really fast. It was a great little refresher. I know you want to see as much as possible so eliminating lunch is an easy way but honestly we enjoyed our afternoon so much more after having a real meal and sitting down for a little bit. After lunch we were supposed to go to St. Isaac's Cathedral but since we had the lunch, we had to switch the cathedral and the canal boat ride because of the time. So we did the canal boat ride next. It was lovely but a little cold and windy in certain parts. They did have an inside part you could sit in and they had blankets as well so it wasn't so bad. After the boat ride we headed to St. Isaac's and were given some time there to take photos etc. We then stopped at the shop for souvenirs before heading back to the ship. Someone in our group asked why they chose this shop and our guide explained to us that this is one of the shops that is approved by the government which means it's a little safer to use credit cards and there isn't as big of a worry for pick pockets etc. This store also accepted Euros & dollars. I had mentioned to Anastasia at lunch that I wanted a nice set of Matryoshka dolls. You will find hundreds of sets throughout the city but I wanted to make sure that the ones I bought were hand painted, not mass produced and looked really nice. I knew they would be expensive but that was the only thing I wanted so I was willing to spend the money. She pointed me in the right direction and pointed out differences between the ones I wanted and the cheaper ones. Visibly you can easily tell if you see the really nice ones first. I never did see another set throughout my 2 days that was comparable to the ones I purchased. If you just want inexpensive ones to take home to someone you can gets them literally everywhere including the port shops but if you want hand painted ones ask your guide. The store also had samples of vodka and clean bathrooms.

We were taken back to the ship around 5 so that we could have a little time to rest, eat dinner, and change before being picked back up to go back to the city at night. We were so thankful for the break in between even though it wasn't long. You do have to go back through passport control but they just take the immigration paper they had placed in your passport on the way out so it didn't take long at all. We had limited time so we just grabbed something at O'Sheehan's and then changed and headed back out around 7:30 for our pickup at 8 pm. We weren't sure how long it would take to get back out but it took about 5 minutes so we were way early. However, our driver Sergei was already there waiting for us! We had chosen to go to the Russian Folk show at Nikolaevsky Palace. Since we were doing a show, Anastasia did not need to be with us so she had given us our tickets and Sergei kept track of us for the evening. He got us to the Palace and since we were early he walked us in to make sure we knew where to go. We had a little time to wait but the Palace is beautiful and we met some other people from our cruise that were waiting as well. The show was very good. I can't speak to whether or not it was the same on the ship, however I believe it's a bit longer and you also get snacks during intermission. Nothing fancy, just a few light snacks and desserts but it does allow you to try some local items for free. After the show we were taken back to the ship. Unfortunately it was just getting dark so we didn't get to see too much of the city at night. In the end we were glad we went back and we actually weren't that tired.

 

Day 2 coming a little later!

 

 

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rocklinmom

rocklinmom

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Did you ride the hydrofoil to Peterhof? I'm wondering what that is like.

Also, the canal cruise is said to be an hour long (?). Or perhaps that's just in the shore excursion itself. Was your ride that long? And were there restrooms on the boat?

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Brandy14

Brandy14

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Did you ride the hydrofoil to Peterhof? I'm wondering what that is like.

 

Also, the canal cruise is said to be an hour long (?). Or perhaps that's just in the shore excursion itself. Was your ride that long? And were there restrooms on the boat?

 

 

We did not do the hydrofoil. We just drove the van straight there.

The canal cruise was probably about an hour. I'm not sure if there were restrooms on the boat as I never went inside. Hopefully someone else can speak to that for you. Sorry.

 

 

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retiring soon

retiring soon

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HI all!

 

Brandi ~ enjoying your review & glad to hear Lentina worked out well for you.:D

It's fun to read the different accounts of our cruise, one I enjoyed so much especially SPB. I went with Alla & found them to be great too. I also chose Alla for Tallinn & Helsinki.

 

rocklinmom ~ I took the hydrofoil to Peterhof. It's quite a large enclosed boat with lots of passengers so I imagine it would have w/c facilities We ate our Stolle pies onboard. The canal ride was lovely, seeing the buildings from a different angle & going under low bridges. It was a little cold but they supplied blankets so that was nice. I'd try to sit up front if you could as I couldn't hear the narration at the back.

 

This was such a lovely interesting cruise on a beautiful ship with great entertainment. The Russian show onboard was enough for me to see after a long day of touring. Allow enough time, 45 mins to 1 hour to make it through customs that first day or you'll keep your guide waiting. The 2nd day was nothing like the 1st!!

 

Carry on B-Star14 looking forward to the rest of the story.;)

 

~ Jo ~ :)

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retiring soon

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Hi again!

 

rocklinmom ~ the Russian Folkloric Show was on Day 5, the 1st night in SPB at 9:00 pm in the theatre.

Talking about shows don't miss "Million Dollar Quartet" if you like rock 'n roll ie Jerry Lee Lewis, Elvis, Johnny Cash & Carl Perkins, We watched it twice, the 2nd time up closer to the stage to see JLL's fingers flying across the piano.

"Burn the Floor" was also a great show! If you like a giggle be sure to see "Celebrity Dance Off" Day 4 Tallinn in the Atrium at 9 pm or catch it later on tv channel 12 I think it was. It's sure to be a hoot especially if solo host Jose's in it. The Welcome Aboard Show was good too.

It was a great time overall!!!!

Sorry to get carried away on your thread Brandi! Forgiven?

 

~ Jo ~ :)

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