afto Posted June 21, 2017 #1 Share Posted June 21, 2017 First time writing a review, but we have fairly recently returned from the May 19 2017 Silhouette 13-night Baltic, and I have decided to give this a whirl. Warning to readers: expect this review to be opinionated, photo-heavy, long-winded, more about the ports than the ship, and lacking in useful information for foodies. Further disclaimer: I am aiming to provide an accurate account of our experience, but please don’t plan your own day around getting on the same bus # or train that we took … I would hate to have anyone late for sailaway because they relied on information provided by me. The story begins. We booked this cruise during our Equinox Caribbean cruise in December 2015. It just so happened that they were releasing the schedule for the 2017 Europe cruises while we were on board, so we went to a future cruise presentation. DH tells me my eyes were as big as saucers when I looked at the itinerary: with overnights in Copenhagen and Stockholm and 2 nights in St. Petersburg, I thought it looked great. I suggested to him that we “tentatively” book, with the usual promise that “we can always cancel” if we change our minds …perhaps some of you have had that same conversation before booking a cruise? So far, we have never actually cancelled one of these “tentative” bookings, so my strategy works. Cruise itinerary is as follows. We added 2 nights in Amsterdam pre-cruise, 1 night in Stockholm post-cruise, and then we flew to Berlin for 4 nights. May 19 Amsterdam Sailaway 5pm May 20 At sea May 21 Oslo 7am to 5pm May 22 Copenhagen 12 pm (overnight) May 23 Copenhagen Sailaway 5pm May 24 Rostock 7am to 9pm May 25 At sea May 26 Helsinki 8am to 6pm May 27 St. Petersburg 7am (2 nights in port) May 28 Docked in St. Petersburg May 29 St. Petersburg Sailaway 6pm May 30 Tallinn 8am to 4pm May 31 Stockholm 10am (overnight) June 1 Stockholm Disembarkation About us. We are 60-something suburban dwellers from the west coast of Canada, with a few Celebrity cruises behind us (we reached the Captain’s Club Elite level after this cruise). We have sailed with other lines, but Celebrity is the best fit for us. We appreciate good food (well, we appreciate most food, to be honest) but we are not foodies, and we are pretty happy with the main dining room fare most of the time. We are not particularly fit, but we do like to walk. We are both interested in history and architecture; I am also a keen birder, so be prepared for the occasional bird portrait, although on this trip I did not have any time for dedicated birding excursions. I am terrified of heights, so we normally choose our activities carefully. The Baltic ports are almost all pretty flat, so no fears of accidentally falling off a cliff: perfect destination for me! I know I promised a photo review, so here is one shipboard pic for now. More to follow, but it will probably take me “a few” days to organize photos. Stay tuned! (Or not; your choice, of course.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
afto Posted June 21, 2017 Author #2 Share Posted June 21, 2017 May 19 2017 Silhouette Baltic (+ Berlin)Photo Review Silhouette Photo Review continues … Research. On any cruise, DH would be happy to just get off the ship, stroll into town, and see what catches his attention, but he is rarely allowed to indulge in this easy-going and mentally healthy approach to travel because I am afflicted with obsessive over-planning syndrome. This was really a trip of a lifetime for us, and I did not want to waste a minute of precious holiday time, so I started researching this trip the day that I got back from the Caribbean and continued until the day we left. DH has resigned himself to this system, and if he finds it to be too much he has been known to park himself on a bench in the foyer of the third or fourth museum/art gallery of the day and have a power nap. This system works for us; your mileage may vary. Apologies for the long preamble, but I do want to mention a few things that might be useful for those who are planning a Baltic cruise in the near or distant future. Others may want to skip the rest of this post. I used a lot of the standard web sites (eg. Trip Advisor) to plan our itinerary, checking reviews of particular attractions before deciding where it would best to spend our time, and keeping in mind that individual reviews will reflect the tastes and expectations of the reviewers — I take both negative and positive reviews with a grain of salt. Many people swear by Rick Steves; I find him annoying for reasons that I can’t fully explain, so I did not consult his book or videos. There, I have said it. Sacrilege, I know. For those of you new to Cruise Critic, I will just point you in the direction of a few very useful threads on this site. Many previous cruisers provided detailed reviews, and I read every word of these three, in particular: scubacruiserx2: Eclipsing Northern Europe by cruise :Basic black , and Baltic blues http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2372103 pjs678: Russian Around the Baltic on Silhouette http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2374365 nekzaadvakil: Review: 12N Scandinavia & Russia - Celebrity Silhouette 28/May/2015 http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2223669&highlight=Baltic%2Cnick I am also enjoying Nick’s current review of his western Caribbean sailing. I also gleaned a good deal of useful information from various threads in the “Northern Europe & Baltic Sea” forum in the Ports of Call section of these boards, and I owe a particular debt of gratitude to the dedicated local residents who have opened threads about their home cities. These threads are a great source of local information; a good start is to read the first part of the threads by Desdichado62 (Stockholm), DanishViking (Copenhagen), Norwaylady (Oslo) and Jonza (Helsinki); GradUT and UltimaThule have also been very helpful. Travelanni often answers questions about Northern Germany and also has tons of useful information on her web site: http://travelanni.webs.com We are really so very grateful for the above individuals (and others) who take so much of their own time to help strangers on these boards. It was the detailed information about transportation, etc., that only a local can provide that made it easy for us to organize our own excursions in most ports on this cruise. Special mention to DanishViking, who bailed me out in my time of need — more on that in a later post. Thanks very much to all of you. Am now frantically sorting pictures of Amsterdam, and will post again soon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
upwarduk Posted June 21, 2017 #3 Share Posted June 21, 2017 I will read with interest as we are booked on a very similar cruise 23.06.18. It will be our first time on Silhouette and we will be sailing from Southampton. We took a similar cruise in 2015 on Eclipse, so I am looking for alternative excursions in the ports of call. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
miched Posted June 21, 2017 #4 Share Posted June 21, 2017 Being a "birdie" did you see the virtual birds in the cages? The Silhouette is the only Celebrity ship that has them. I have a first generation IPad that I no longer use and we keep in on 24/7 showing the bald eagle's nest in Decorah Iowa that is on UStream. 3 chicks hatched in Mar and they are now fledging. Happy cruising 🌊🚢🇺🇸🌞 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cruisecatmama Posted June 21, 2017 #5 Share Posted June 21, 2017 We, too, are doing a similar sailing on the Silhouette in May 2018 and I'm already happy with all the info you've provided! Can't wait for your review! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
luvtravel88 Posted June 21, 2017 #6 Share Posted June 21, 2017 Can't wait to compare your opinions to my own! I wrote a very long (27 page!) journal of our trip but decided not to post it. I enjoyed meeting you on this wonderful vacation! Kim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
H2OH! Posted June 21, 2017 #7 Share Posted June 21, 2017 very excited to read along! We are hoping to do this itinerary in 2019!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clarea Posted June 21, 2017 #8 Share Posted June 21, 2017 Nice start, looking forward to reading along.:) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
afto Posted June 21, 2017 Author #9 Share Posted June 21, 2017 Thanks for your comments everyone, and for following along with us. Kim, it was nice to meet you too, and feel free to chime in on this review. In fact, if I run out of steam, I will count on you to finish it for me. Miched, I had heard about the virtual birds on the Silhouette and wanted to see them but I never came across them. On any other cruise, I would have asked a crew member where this artwork was and gone looking for it, but on this cruise we put so many miles on our shoes when we were ashore that most days it was all we could do to just to limp to dinner and back to the cabin after we boarded in the evenings. May 16: Day Zero Son-in-law appeared right on time to pick us up for the ride to the airport. And by “right on time” I mean that he was there half an hour early — he knows we hate to be late. Nice to have that door-to-door service and not have to deal with parking lots at Vancouver Airport. Thanks to this great service, we were there nearly four hours before flight time and were thus able to enjoy the delights of sitting in a departure lounge for two hours longer than necessary. Eventually, the plane showed up, which is always a relief. It looked big enough to handle the numerous pieces of luggage that I had decided to drag along, but just barely. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pushka Posted June 22, 2017 #10 Share Posted June 22, 2017 We are doing the reverse of this cruise in exactly 14 days. Looking forward to your review. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goodtime Cruizin Posted June 22, 2017 #11 Share Posted June 22, 2017 Nice start! I'm following intently. We're on the Brilliance 5.1.18 for a 14 Night Baltic Cruise out of Amsterdam with a very similar itinerary. Looking forward to reading & learning about your experiences! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cruise kitty Posted June 22, 2017 #12 Share Posted June 22, 2017 Thanks so much for sharing! Looking forward to the rest, I'd like to do this itinerary some day. :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
easyboy Posted June 22, 2017 #13 Share Posted June 22, 2017 Nice start! Will be following along to know if you did a Berlin tour from Rostock. Sent from my SGH-M919 using Forums mobile app Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
afto Posted June 22, 2017 Author #14 Share Posted June 22, 2017 easyboy, no need to keep you in suspense: no, we did not do a Berlin tour from Rostock, because we were flying to Berlin after the cruise for a few days. May17: Day One (Part One) We had a pleasantly uneventful non-stop flight to Amsterdam on KLM, who provided more food than anyone should reasonably expect to eat on a transatlantic flight, some of it actually edible. They deposited us at Schiphol Airport on time and the sun was shining — hurray! Luggage successfully retrieved, immigration hurdle easily negotiated, and the last step before heading out of the airport was to stop bythe Holland Tourist Information Centre in Arrivals Hall 2 to pick up our 48-hour “I Amsterdam” City Cards. As you will see, we made very good use of these cards and thought they were excellent value. They included transportation within the city of Amsterdam as well as admission to all the sites that wewould visit. [i Amsterdam card info: http://www.iamsterdam.com/en/i-am/i-amsterdam-city-card] We purchased our train tickets to Centraal Station (easy to use machines; pay by credit card; tickets about 5 euros each), and descended to the train station below the arrivals hall. [useful instructionshere: http://www.dutchamsterdam.nl/40-public-transport-to-and-from-schiphol-airport] We were in the city in no time or, more accurately, 15 minutes. Amsterdam hotel prices are high, and I had planned to do so much during our stay there that we didn’t expect to spend much time in the room. So we had chosen a budget hotel near the station, the Ibis Styles. I have stayed in Ibis properties before, and I know that the rooms are basic and small, but that just gave us a chance to acclimatize to living in a smaller space prior to boarding the ship. We walked across to the hotel from the station and checked in before noon; we were assigned our room right away, so that was very convenient. Luggage was unceremoniously dumped in the room, covering all available floor space, and we were soon out the door. I didn’t want to linger in the room long enough for DH to get any ideas about napping; he had agreed before we left home to trudge bravely through whatever agenda I had planned for that day. The idea was to adjust to the 9-hour time change in one day by staying awake until after dinner. View from our first-floor room below. Centraal Station is the red brick building in the top left corner. Canal cruises left from just across thestreet and several tram lines ran right by the hotel. Light sleepers should probably ask for a room that does not overlook the street, but we had no problem sleeping even though we left the window ajar. It wasvery sunny and by this time very warm. This would be the warmest day of the entire trip. Looking at the weatherpredictions for the next day, “we” (OK, yes, I mean “I”) decided to shuffle ourminute-by-minute itinerary around a bit and do our outdoor excursion that dayinstead of the following morning. This wreaked havoc on the planning spreadsheet,as you might imagine. Nevertheless, back over to Centraal Station we went,where we bought one-way tickets to the recently renamed Zaandijk Zaanse Schansstation. A 15-minute walk from there broughtus to windmill central — the village of Zaanse Schans. [info: http://www.amsterdamtips.com/tips/zaanse-schans.php] Six old working windmills have been broughttogether on this site, and there are other buildings there too, also constructed in a picturesque traditionalstyle. It is indeed very touristy,complete with cheese-making and clog-making demonstrations and several shops,but it is also very photogenic and a nice place for a low-key stroll after atransatlantic flight. Apparently I can only include only 6 images per post, so I will have to post each day's activities in several parts. Alternatively, I suppose I could post fewer images, but then I did want this to be a photo review. Thoughts? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
afto Posted June 22, 2017 Author #15 Share Posted June 22, 2017 May 17 Day One (Part Two) At Zaanse Schans, we walked along the dike and stopped in at the mill called de Zoeker (the Seeker), which is an oil mill. There is a small admission fee (covered by the I Amsterdam Card). It was interesting to learn about how the oil is processed from seeds, and watch the work in progress. Looking out from de Zoeker mill: I'm in a windmill, looking out at tulips. Must be in the Netherlands. There is an opportunity to climb a ladder up to the deck of the windmill. Lured by the prospect of a good photo angle from the deck, I thought I could handle climbing this ladder, forgetting that what goes up must come down. DH was shocked that I followed him up, and it took a considerable amount of patience, coaxing, and specific directions about hand and foot placement to get me back down. And yes, I do know that the ladder is quite short, very sturdy, and probably perfectly safe most days. View from the deck was not much different from the dike. I should have been able to figure that out without climbing the ladder. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
afto Posted June 22, 2017 Author #16 Share Posted June 22, 2017 May 17: Day One (Part Three) After the successful high-altitude rescue, we wandered around for a while like the sleep-deprived zombies that we were. There were farm animals in the fields, and lots of birds. This one is a jackdaw: Cows, no doubt thinking about what kind of cheese they should make today: We stopped for an ice cream at the cheese factory and for a look-see at the rather interesting clog museum/souvenir store. Wooden roller skates: We watched a fellow demonstrate how wooden shoes are made, and decided that we could easily do this ourselves at home if we had the right equipment. Wedecided to take a Connexxion bus back to Amsterdam, since the bus stop iscloser to the village than the train station that we arrived at, and we thoughtit would be nice to have different scenery on the way back. By this time it was late afternoon, trafficwas heavy, what was visible from the windows of the bus was not especiallyinteresting, and it took about an hour (compared to about 20 minutes on thetrain) so if I had to do that over again I would take the train both ways. Five euros one way, about the same cost as thetrain; pay the driver, cash only. [https://www.connexxion.nl/industrial-heritage-line/1243] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
upwarduk Posted June 22, 2017 #17 Share Posted June 22, 2017 I love looking at photos, so am quite happy to read each day in parts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
afto Posted June 22, 2017 Author #18 Share Posted June 22, 2017 May 17: Day One (Part Four) The bus from Zaanse Schans dropped us at Centraal Station. I looked over at DH and he appeared to still be alive and almost awake, so I talked him into a canal cruise before dinner. I find that it’s much easier to talk him into things when he is almost awake than when he is fully awake. I have been to Amsterdam a couple of times before, but DH hadn’t, and I think a canal cruise is a good way to see some of the city because you can gawk at the architecture with no fear of being run down by a cyclist. It made sense to try to fit this in while the sun was still shining rather than take our chances on weather the next day. We had to walk right past the canal cruise docks anyway on the way back to the hotel, and the cruise was included in the I Amsterdam card, so why not? We just picked the cruise line with the shortest queue and were soon on our way. The cruise is about an hour and I think that most of the companies have very similar offerings: you float on water, see lots of buildings, and listen to commentary about them. Following protocol, here are exactly six pictures from the cruise. Starting point was just in front of Centraal Station: NEMO, the science museum: The National Maritime Museum: Looking down the Reguliersgracht from this point you can see seven bridges, and the captain of the boat insists that everyone take a picture. Apparently, it’s mandatory that you do so; border control agents have actually sent people back if they try to leave the Netherlands without a picture of the seven bridges. Oh, never mind, I think I might be mixing that up with some other country. Just the one bridge in this shot: I think this shot could also be mandatory: After the cruise, we had a light dinner at the restaurant attached to our hotel. Bitterballen with grainy mustard for me; I love those little morsels and they went well with a cider called Apple Bandit. Those of us who were still awake at the end of the meal were very proud of ourselves for making it past 8pm before crashing, and we slept very soundly indeed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrsNorman Posted June 22, 2017 #19 Share Posted June 22, 2017 Thank you for your review so far and the beautiful pictures. We also have booked to go to the Baltic on the Silhouette next May, from Southampton, which means that we will miss out on Amsterdam, but this part of your review will be useful for when we do. Looking forward to reading more! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dodger1964 Posted June 22, 2017 #20 Share Posted June 22, 2017 (edited) Being a "birdie" did you see the virtual birds in the cages? The Silhouette is the only Celebrity ship that has them. I have a first generation IPad that I no longer use and we keep in on 24/7 showing the bald eagle's nest in Decorah Iowa that is on UStream. 3 chicks hatched in Mar and they are now fledging. Happy cruising My first name is "trenton" and we live about 40 miles from Decorah! To OP, thanks for taking time to share info...Your cruise is on our list! We are taking cruise from Amsterdam in less than a month. We used some orphan motel points to score a free room about a block from where you stayed...Looks to be very convenient. We are also taking the train from the Airport and we will walk to the ship from the hotel. Edited June 22, 2017 by dodger1964 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JaniceB Posted June 22, 2017 #21 Share Posted June 22, 2017 Really enjoying your picture review. I vote for as many pictures as you want to add. Your husband sounds like mine, I do the planning and he follows along, sometimes with a smile. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Bimmer09 Posted June 22, 2017 #22 Share Posted June 22, 2017 Afto, thanks for bringing us along on this great itinerary and special thanks for the crisp photos to help the narrative along. Looking forward to more! Norris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cruise kitty Posted June 22, 2017 #23 Share Posted June 22, 2017 Wonderful! Your pictures are outstanding :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ecslady Posted June 22, 2017 #24 Share Posted June 22, 2017 Enjoying your review. Thanks for sharing. The pics bring back memories of my Baltic cruise on the Constellation a few years ago. Your itinerary is slightly different and I can't wait to read about Oslo which was not on my itinerary. :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
afto Posted June 22, 2017 Author #25 Share Posted June 22, 2017 May 18: Day Two (Part One) Welcome aboard to those who have recently commented; thanks for the encouragement. Norris, I have enjoyed your reviews in the past, so I am happy to have you following along. I have to start this post with a picture of the bitterballen from last night’s dinner because, seriously, don’t they look deliciously unhealthy? We woke up to a cloudy sky and threats of rain, but the showers never really amounted to much and we had a great day in Amsterdam. An adequate breakfast at the hotel, and we were on our way. We found the trams easy to use, after we figured out that some of the doors are for exit only and others for entrance only. You have to tap in and tap out as you enter and leave the vehicle. I have been to the Anne Frank house and the Rijksmuseum and while I would have loved to visit both again, I decided to skip those justifiably very popular sites for this trip and opt for less crowded attractions. On a side note, all the sites that we visited today were included in the Amsterdam city cards. First stop was the Stedelijk Museum, which focuses on modern and contemporary art. DH has a particular aversion to modern and contemporary art, so I thought it was a good idea to get this over with early in the day before he got cranky. I always learn a lot from the audio guides at art galleries, so that slowed my progress down quite a bit, but DH was remarkably patient. If modern art is your thing, I recommend the De Stijl exhibition, which runs until August. If modern art is not your thing, you might at least want to walk by and decide what you think about the 2012 addition to the building, which resembles a giant bathtub. Photo below is slightly squint because I wasn’t packing the wide-angle lens around that day. [info: http://www.stedelijk.nl/en] Because we were on the go early, it was still morning when we left the Stedelijk, and and we had time to fit in the Museum Van Loon before we headed to our planned stops for the afternoon. We walked past the long lines at the Van Gogh Museum and and beside the reflecting pond in front of the Rijksmuseum, stopping at the I Amsterdam sign, where the selfie-stick crowd seemed to be having a lot of fun. We ducked through the tunnel under the Rijksmuseum, crossed the bridge directly ahead, and it was about a 10 minute walk from there to our next stop, on the Keizersgracht. It would have been an 8 minute walk if I didn’t have to stop and drool outside a bakery for 2 minutes; I love anything with almonds, and almonds feature prominently in Dutch baking. The Museum Van Loon is a canal house that was eventually owned by a wealthy merchant family. It was built in 1671 but the interior decor dates from the 18th century. The house has a quiet private garden behind it and a coach house (complete with coach) on the opposite side of the garden. It’s a peaceful spot, and there are signs in English to help you learn about the house. A friend of mine is interested in monkeys so I am always on the lookout for them, and I noticed this delightfully fanciful wallpaper: monkeys, parrots, and even ostriches! I was also intrigued by the door in the second floor master bedroom. Note that on the inside of the bedroom the actual opening door is camouflaged to blend in with the wallpaper and wood panelling and when it is closed it is designed NOT to look like a door; what LOOKS like a door right next to it is actually a false door that does not open. The real door looks like a door on the outside, but not the inside. Are you still with me? The design is a result of the home-owner’s desire to achieve symmetry: the false door fits in the centre of the wall when viewed from inside the room, and the real door lines up directly opposite a door across the corridor when viewed from the corridor outside the room. Clear as mud, right? Well, the family still live upstairs; if you need further explanation about this ingenious feature, you could always ask them next time you are in Amsterdam. OK, moving on. [info: http://www.amsterdam.info/museums/van-loon/] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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