Jump to content

Trip Report - Oct 2-11 Baltics on the Getaway - First Haven Experience


fastpitchdad
 Share

Recommended Posts

Pre-Cruise and Day 1

 

We booked this cruise well over a year ago (there wasn’t even a roll call yet). We were really looking for something that would stop in Riga but NCL doesn’t have any ships that stop there so we figured we would just do that as a side trip (it worked out much better that way). When I got a notice from our TA that the final payment date was approaching for our Balcony Cabin I checked the prices and noticed that a mini-suite with a large balcony was just about the same price. Our TA was able to switch us to that cabin type for the small price difference. I also went ahead and purchased the Thermal Spa at that time…we definitely wanted it for this itinerary.

 

Usually I obsess over planning but I had so much going on that I slacked off a bit. Earlier in the year I found some premium plus/business class seats on Skyteam (Delta is my FF program) for about $1500 each but I got side tracked and didn’t book them. They were long gone. I did manage to find an Air France Premium Economy itinerary for $1500 each so I grabbed it. From the seatmap it looked like the premium economy seats would be similar to Domestic First Class (it was and it wasn’t). Lesson learned. We are doing a 12 day British Isles cruise for our 25th anniversary next August and I will book the tickets as soon as I find a price I like.

 

As our sail date approached I got the upgrade bid notice and bid for a Haven Thermal Spa Suite. I think the minimum bid was $750pp. I figured we would be refunded the ~$500 I paid for the thermal spa so that wouldn’t be a bad deal. A couple of weeks out I checked to see how many Haven Spa Suites were available and the price to book was $622 more than what we had paid additional for the minisuite and with the refund for the Thermal Spa it would be a net of $122. I called my TV who called NCL and the first agent wouldn’t do it but they offered a different Haven Suite for about $1000 total. My agent didn’t know why I couldn’t just get the Spa Suite so she called back and that agent was able to make the change and refund my Thermal Spa Fee. We were thrilled. This would be our first experience in the Haven.

 

Sept 25th finally arrived. We way overpacked as always but one of these bags holds 8 bottles of wine.

 

48794078698_b45cc636fc_k_d.jpg

 

We were flying SEA-SFO-CDG-CPH. This is kind of frequent flyer geeky but I was disappointed to learn our SEA-SFO flight was from the S gates rather than the A gates since the A gate sky club is the best in the system. When we arrived at SFO we went to the AF lounge which was kind of small and crowded. We had a 2 ½ hour layover so I tried to talk my wife into walking through the tunnel to the Centurion Lounge in the United Domestic Terminal. She gave me a “are you f’ing crazy?” look so I settled in. I asked the AF staff about any available upgrades to business but the flight was oversold. When we boarded the Premium Economy seat did have about the same room as domestic first class (one seat fewer across than regular coach) but it didn’t recline…it kind of slid forward within itself. I think it would have been fine on a non-sleeping flight but when we arrived in Paris my back was so jacked up that I could barely walk. It loosened up a little bit but it wasn’t until the Thermal Spa several days later until the pain completely subsided.

 

I travel a lot for business and usually stay at Marriotts so we booked the AC Marriott Bella Sky. It was very nice and the staff was outstanding and the Metro was just steps away. I highly recommend it. Our itinerary for this trip was 2 nights is Copenhagen, 3 nights in Riga, 1 night in Copenhagen, 9 day cruise, 2 nights in Copenhagen and then fly home…so three different Copenhagen stays. Originally I had booked 3 different Marriotts but switched to the Bella Sky for all three a few weeks ahead of time. We brought two very large suitcases and a medium sized included 8 bottles of wine in one of the big ones. For our quick trip to Latvia we were able to just take the medium suitcase and the hotel held the two larger bags for our return. They upgraded us to a corner suite on the 21st floor which had floor to ceiling windows with a view of Copenhagen (we could even see the ship when it arrived). 

 

48924841828_0a048d1583_o_d.jpg

 

The Wine made it in tact although the suitcase was pretty beat up.

48925649402_65dc96e9d8_o_d.jpg

 

Corner Suite

48925368191_6188a7cd00_k_d.jpg

 

Copenhagen was beautiful. I have a friend who used to live there so he wrote up a list of things for us to do and sites to see (I can forward the email if anyone is interested). We ate at his favorite bakery, walked through Pusher Street (interesting experience), had drinks in Nyhavn, hung out at Magasin du Nord, and had crepes at La Gallette.

48925377581_d0bbe48619_h_d.jpg

48924841983_e8cd7c6532_o_d.jpg

48925575057_5a71cc7711_o_d.jpg

 

We then spent 3 days in Riga. My father’s family had to flee Latvia when he was 2 years old and he never went back to visit. I think he always wanted to but just never got around to it and he passed away earlier this year. It was a great trip. I will skip most of the details (unless someone wants a more in depth trip report of this side trip) but it was very nice. Maybe the highlight of the whole trip.

We visited the family farms in Madona and met cousins on both sides. My grandmother had a twin who had long been the administrator of the Madona area so when the soviets arrived he was sent to Siberia and eventually shot (which is why the rest of the family fled to avoid the same fate). His son (my father’s first cousin) was hidden with friends for several years and eventually stayed in the area. When the soviets left the land was returned to him and he lives there now with his wife. His Daughter and her family come from Riga and stay there most weekends. It was beautiful with gardens, forests, a lake and a sauna house. 

When my father passed away I am to inherit all of the land from his father’s side. When the soviets took everyone’s land for 50 years unlike my grandmothers family land most of the time they didn’t just leave it untouched. So now this property has an olympic biathlon training center on part and worker housing on another. Long story short, we are probably going to swap some land with the state but I will have to become a dual citizen to do it.

 

We flew back from Riga the night before sailing and went to bed early...excited for what the next day held.

 

Our hotel offered a shuttle to the Pier for 150 Krone each but it didn’t leave until 12:30PM so we just took a cab for 400 Krone. We later found a way (thanks to a fellow Haven Passenger) to do this much cheaper through the Dantaxi app (which also saved us a ton of time when we disembarked). We were dropped off right in front of luggage check, went through screening, health form, wine corkage, and then to the Haven check-in. It was quick and easy but honestly the check-in part wasn’t all that different then our previous non-haven experience. We were then directed to a little roped off area with light snacks, juice, tea, and coffee to wait for our butler to take us on board. It was probably a little before noon at this point.

We were taken directly to haven lounge which was already pretty full. There were drinks that seemed like virgin mai tais available…I don’t recall any snacks. I had all of our wine so I asked the Bartender (Daniel…who was great…more on him later). He called the ship Sommelier who stored our wine in the wife refrigerators at Prime Meridian. We could either call and have a bottle brought up or got down and get one ourselves. It was very nice. We were welcomed within a few minutes told our state rooms were ready. Because we were in a spa suite we had to open the doors to get access to our area. Daniel added some vodka to our virgin mai tais and we were on our way.

 

The room was perfect. Larger than a regular balcony, larger bathroom, a Spa Tub in the corner, and a slightly larger balcony. We were a little hungry and heard that Margaritaville was free for Haven Guests for lunch so we figured we would try it. We order fritters and nachos. It was also outside seating and pretty freaking cold. The nachos were huge but they used canned nacho cheese sauce like to see at a ballgame. We kind of picked at our food and then wanted something warmer. We then went to visit the Thermal Spa and were given a tour. They had some kind of discount special for Spa services that my wife did. She did the teeth whitening, fire and ice manicure, and something else. I was just thinking about when I could jump in the therapy pool to work on my back. The spa is nice but I thought it would be bigger. It wasn’t that much larger than what we had on the Pearl. It had a therapy pool, hot tub, Sanarium, Sauna, Eucalyptus Steam Room, salt room, and the different types of loungers.

48925371051_203a25b908_k_d.jpg

 

We went to Haven bar and met some of our fellow travelers. One thing I liked about this ship within a ship is that we got know several other passengers pretty well. Bartenders Daniel and Patrick were fantastic the entire trip. Around 3:30 we were told we should make our way to the Muster Drill. We got there 20 mins early and the room was already pretty full but we had to wait for everyone (next time I am going to wait until 3:55 before finding my seat). I managed to stay awake which is more than I can say for the guy next to me and after repeating for foreign languages we were dismissed.  

 

We were gone for more than 2 ½ weeks which is too long for me to be completely away from work. So after the Spa I had a conference call which I took from the cabin (I got the premium internet…webex worked pretty well) and I missed the sail away. 

 

We had dinner in the Haven restaurant which we would do so several times during the cruise. I read complaints that because the menu didn’t change you could only eat there once. I guess those people never eat at their local restaurants more than once either. The food was delicious and we were in kind of a hurry which the wait staff sensed. We were in and out with all courses in less than 45 mins just in time for Syd Norman’s Rock Trivia.

 

We were able to grab the last open table (it was right up front with the score sheets and pencils were). We did pretty well but didn’t win (I don’t know who the original singer for AC/DC was). As they set up for Rock the Pour House one of the performers came over and said “go Hawks” because as I often do (much to my wife’s chagrin) I was were a Seahawks shirt. We talked for a while. Her boyfriend was from Seattle and she was now a big fan. The Seahawks were playing Thursday night that week which I planned to watch even though it would start at around 3am that day. She said she avoids hearing scores and watches a replay the next day. Rock the Pour House was very good…they are very talented musicians.

After the show we walked over the Howl At The Moon and had a fantastic time. We would come back several more times during the trip. The little request slips ask you for the song, artist, and special occasion. I requested Take It Easy and under special occasion wrote “because Jeff Lebowski hates the f’ing Eagles” which was read with the additional comment “yes he does”. We ended up closing the place down and stumbled back to our rooms ahead of our first port stop of Berlin (although it is nowhere near Berlin).

 

 

Edited by fastpitchdad
  • Like 2
  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Day 2 – Warnemunde - 3 hours away from Berlin

 

When we boarded we met our Butler Stefan. He explained to us that if we needed anything day or night we should call him (and gave us his card). He also checked in on us almost every day. Being new to this whole haven thing I really didn’t know the right way to use this benefit. The rooms all have fancy pod based coffee maker. We have a Keurig at home but this thing seemed more complicated. Anyway, my wife is very particular about her coffee…Americano, breve, with a squirt of sugar free vanilla. So I asked Stefan if he could get some cream and sugar free vanilla from Starbucks. He didn’t make any promises but sure enough when we returned there was cream in the refrigerator and sugar free vanilla syrup next to the coffee maker.

 

Coffee Maker and Bar

48926066287_98b0bf730f_k_d.jpg

 

Virgin Mai Tai that wasn't virgin at this point. 

48925758911_6322771748_o_d.jpg

 

Since we howled at the moon so late we woke up a little bit late but still in time for the Haven Breakfast. I had a seafood benedict which I had been craving since we were first able to upgrade to the haven. It was as good as it sounds. When I was reading about Berlin excursions I couldn’t get past the “3 hour train ride each way” so we decided to just take the local train to Rostock. The ticketing for the train was kind of a cluster. In typical German fashion the ticketing machine was very utilitarian but difficult to use the first time which created a very long line which didn’t move very fast. As we waited a couple of trains came and left. Finally, a local stood at the front of the line and taught people how to use the machine and then everyone subsequently showed the next person in line so eventually we boarded and made it to Rostock. We had no idea what we were going to do when we got there but as luck would have a hop on hop off bus pulled up as we exited the station.

 

We enjoyed the hour or so loop and walked around a bit. One of the large administration buildings used to a prison for 4000 people most of whom where there for trying to escape to the west. He hopped back on the bus and headed to the train station and climbed aboard the waiting train waiting to depart…and waiting and waiting and waiting. There was an announcement in German and all the locals got off. Apparently the track was broken and the train wasn’t going back to the ship any time soon. We were told there was a way to catch a combination of busses but a group of us stranded NCL pax decided to just share cabs. Once my little group was ready there were no more cabs. We waited a bit, I tried to have the hotel next door call one, a cab from Berlin (yes someone took a cab from Berlin) showed up but wasn’t licensed to take us. Finally, a cab did arrive and drop off a young lady at the station. We climbed in and I  said “We need to go to the cruise ship…Train is Kaput”. Her eyes widened and she rolled down the window and yelled something in German to the young lady she just dropped off. It turns out it was her daughter and she was taking that same train. So she had her climb into the cab and split the fare with us.

 

Rostock

48925954637_f80695179b_o_d.jpg

48925954597_2ee72d9419_o_d.jpg

48925954637_f80695179b_o_d.jpg

48925758866_61b8202457_o_d.jpg

 

It was unseasonably cold everywhere went and Warnemunde was no exception. Once back on the ship my wife felt a cold coming on so we headed straight to the Thermal Spa (something we managed to do every day). My routine was to hit the therapy pool, then the sauna, then after a quick shower back to the therapy pool and then a lounger. I really loved the sauna…especially when I might have a drink too many the night before.

 

We didn’t have plans for dinner so we went up to the Haven Concierge to see if she could get us into Ocean Blue…she was able to get us a 7:30 reservation. I had the seafood medley or whatever it is called. It was quite good and I think my wife had surf and turf with lobster? Honestly this was a very long night for me so my memory is a little fuzzy. Suffice it to say I used the sauna the next day.

 

After dinner we did howl at the moon until they closed. It is probably not for everyone but I really enjoyed the dueling pianos. I would always try to request songs that would get the crowd involved. They played an Eagles song (which I didn't request) and added "which Jeff Lebowski would hate" 🙂We walked back to the cabin and my wife hit the sack while I pulled out my bam bam Kam 31 jersey, grabbed my laptop, and headed down to O’Sheehans. I had asked upon arrival whether or not they had NFL (no) so I knew I had to watch on my laptop. The Seahawks were playing the Rams which was a huge game and as luck would have it Amazon Prime was streaming it. Not sure if I knew this prior but the ships internet VPNs back through Miami so Amazon Prime thinks you are in Miami 😊.

 

So I set up at the bar and maybe my favorite bartender on the ship (between him, Patrick, and Daniel it is hard to choose) plugged in my laptop for me. I can't remember his name (please tell me if you know...he was pretty big and I think from Greneda). A family from Boston and their son who now lives in Berlin sat with me to watch the game. The parents ended up going to bed around half time but their son stayed until the very end which I really appreciated 😊. The game started at about 3AM and O’Sheehans shut down around 4 (I thought it was 24x7) but they left us with sufficient cans of Guinness to get us through the game. It was an amazing game…back and forth with some amazing plays (Russell Wilson had a TD pass that will probably be THE play of the year). Around 5:30 in the morning the Rams lined up for a very makeable game winning field goal with one of the best kickers in the league…and he missed!!! So here I am jumping up and down in victory in an empty O’Sheehans save for the two of us. It was definitely worth it 🙂. The picture quality of the game was perfect but I am guessing not a lot of people were using the internet at that time.

 

48925221708_ac710dfd5c_o_d.jpg

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Day 3 at Sea

 

After getting in at 6am I was very thankful today was a sea day. My wife woke up at some ungodly early hour (I think it was 9am) and went for breakfast and the spa but returned at about 1030 to roust me from bed in time for our 11am CC meet and greet at Syd Norman's followed by the wine show at noon.

 

The meet and greet was nice (we were a fee minutes late). I think 50 people signed up and while not everyone showed there was still a pretty good crowd a big thank you to flygirlnursemama who put it together 🙂 .

 

One nice benefit of the Haven is being escorted to shows and excursions ahead of the crowds so after the meet and greet we went up the Haven Lounge to be taken to Wine Lovers The Musical via the service elevator. 

 

We were seated up front with another Haven couple whom we would see throughout the week (we ended up having dinner together on the next to last night). In case you couldn't figure it from the 8 bottles we brought, my wife and I are really into wine (in fact she works pours wine in a tasting room on Sundays for a local winery). With that in mind the musical was pretty good. It was sort of half wine tasting half dinner theater. They made light of the quirkiness of wine connoisseurs and wine newbies while taking everyone through the tasting flights. 

 

After the show we went to the Thermal Spa where I was able to Sauna out the Guinness from the night before. It was pretty crowded but not quite standing room only because they don't sell day passes on Sea days (the next day was another story). I hung out on a lounger reading for a bit until William Warwick zeroed in on an art thief with the help of said thief's wife.

 

My wife suggested that we book a tour for Tallinn so after the Spa I went up to the Haven to see what was available. We ended up choosing the walking tour through old town and applied our $50 daily credit (this was the only tour we booked through NCL). 

 

I had prebooked all of our specialty meals but in the end I think we changed them all except for the last night Teppanyaki. We actually used a meal credit for the wine show so we cancelled our Cagneys reservation and ate at the Haven which was again fantastic. We had a bottle of wine brought up (a 2012 Obelisco Electrum which was excellent) and decanted.

 

48932621846_2fa926675e_o_d.jpg

 

Next up was the Not So Newlywed Game. On our first NCL cruise a couple of years ago we put our names in the hat but weren't picked (thank god). This version was a little tamer (the didn't ask which of your wife's friends you would most like to sleep with) but it was still embarrassingly funny and all 3 couples were good sports.

 

We just hung out in the haven bar after that and chatted with our fellow Haveners (Havenites?). I was pretty tired (and had plenty enough to drink by then) from the night before so when it closed a little after 11 we went to bed to get ready for our morning excursion meeting time back at the Haven.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Day 4 Tallinn

 

We booked an excursion through NCL so we were told to meet at the Haven lounge way too early n the morning. It was pretty darn cold the entire week so I never saw anyone in the Haven Courtyard area (except for a few who braved the hot tub) but they still set up tea and coffee outside. I don’t usually drink coffee but I very much appreciated several cups of breakfast tea. The concierge saw us and stuck a #35 on our jackets and after what seemed like would have been good extra sleep time we were escorted down through the employee elevators and off the ship.

 

We met our tour group just outside the ship and we escorted to our bus which would take us into town. It was a walking tour through old town as well as Kadriorg Palace. Our tour guild was a retired school and I thought she did a great job but when we got to old town a few people insisted they explore on their own and just meet us back at the bus. Why book a tour if you are just going to go on your own? The tour guide provided a little history as well as a perspective on the soviet times. I let her know I was Latvian since we shared much of the same history. Interestingly, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania have completely different languages (not like French, Italian, and Spanish are different but like not even close different). We eventually made our way back to the bus (the tour was about 3 ½ hours total) and the off on their own group was waiting for us. When we got back to the ship I tipped her 10 euros (do people usually tip their foreign tour guides?).

 

I was smiling in my mind

48944537746_aafda4aa56_o_d.jpg

48943991878_2c1aaa96d0_o_d.jpg

48944537816_96292817ae_o_d.jpg

48944538006_61e3c80360_o_d.jpg

Can you find the ship? (hint...it is near the water)

48944733872_a7da3e5b06_o_d.jpg

 

Have I mentioned that it was freaking cold? When we got back to the ship we made a bee line to the Thermal Spa. Initially when we went to the spa we just changed in the locker room but taking a cue from one of our Spa Suite neighbors we changed in our room and wore the fancy “Haven” bathrobes for the walk from cabin to thermal spa. When we got there it was crowded but not completely full. I had a webex meeting at 5PM so my time was cut a little short but when I got up to leave there were several people standing around ready to pounce on any open loungers. My wife said it got really noisy and even more crowded after I left. We were later talking with a couple in the Haven lounge and took one of the ceramic heated loungers that looked abandoned (had a crumpled used towel on it). About 15 minutes later a lady started yelling at him for taking her lounger and that we her towel. He pointed to the sign saying reserving loungers is not allowed and that it had been 15 minutes at which point she threw her cup of water on him and left…and then came back with another cup of water and threw that on him as well. Security was called and the water incident was an accident (both times I guess). The whole mess (overcrowding and noise) was apparently due to NCL selling a bunch of day passes for the Spa since it was a port day. The problem is that it was a short port day and I don’t know if I have mentioned this or not but it was freaking cold. Fortunately I never saw the Spa above capacity after that (maybe NCL learned their lesson).

 

After the Spa we showered and got a little dressed up (I was instructed not to wear a shirt with any kind of logo on it) because we had 8:30 reservations to Cirque Dreams and Steam. We headed up to the Haven lounge and had a couple of drinks before being escorted down to the Illusionarium. While we were waiting we had a bottle of wine sent up from Prime Meridian to have with dinner. We were seated front row center and sitting next to me was our next door neighbor…unfortunately he was alone because his wife wasn’t feeling well. The show was good with several different acrobatic feats but various performers. It wasn’t perfect (there were a few mistakes) but it was very enjoyable. The food was ok…not as good as the Haven restaurant.

48944839222_65ace03156_o_d.jpg

 

After the show we went to the comedy show at headliners. There was a huge line when we got there (not sure if the Haven could have had us skip the line or not) but we were still able to get a table. The comedian was OK, I chuckled a few times but even for a cruise ship comedian I was expecting a little more. He made a Native American related joke which wasn’t terribly funny and didn’t sit too well with my wife. We were pretty much ready for bed after that…especially since tomorrow was St Petersburg and the beginning of our exhausting two day grand tour.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Day 5 St Petersburg

 

Usually I obsessively plan out our trips but life interrupted and I really slacked off for this on. Fortunately most of the CC roll call weren’t such slackers so I took the consensus advice and booked Alla Tours 2 day grand tour for SPB…mentioning CC even got a small discount. It ended up being $270 each for an incredibly packed two days. I considered this a huge bargain…especially compared to what NCL charged for similar and lesser itineraries.

 

Our meet time was 8:30am so the Haven Concierge said to meet at 7:45 to be escorted down. I had thought Haven got expedited customs but all we really got was a quicker elevator off the ship. Maybe there was a queue holding people on the ship? We just had to get into line for passport control like everyone else. Things seemed to go pretty quickly until it was my turn. The Russian border agent took my passport and swiped it and then looked at his screen and then stared me down for a while, made a few key strokes and then stared me down again. I used to travel a crapload for work and my pervious passport had about 250 stamps but that slowed quite a bit a couple of years ago and this passport is a year old and only has about 10 stamps….and I had never been to Russia before. I can't imagine they would know about all of my previous travel? Would they care? But he looked through each page, typed some more, wrote something down, and then finally stamped my passport and let me go. The only oddity about my US passport is my obviously Latvian legal name and that I was born in Germany. Anyway, I finally made it through to my wife who by then was wondering where in the F’ I was.

 

We quickly found Alla Tours and they gave us a sticker for our specific group. Our tour guide was Svetlana and she was truly outstanding. Once we were all assembled (16 of us…we were a full tour) we marched out to a large Mercedes mini-bus. It was Sunday and apparently the Hermitage is closed on Monday so we mixed up our itinerary a little…we were supposed to do Peterhof today and the Hermitage tomorrow but we started with the Hermitage. On our way Svetlana pointed out the sites and gave some history. A huge benefit with the tour was not only paid entry into all of the stops but expedited entry as well. When we left the Hermitage you could see the general admission line which wrapped around the block. The museum is pretty amazing and gives a little insight into Russian history and culture. The Russian ruling class had so much money they almost didn’t know what to do with it all and squired huge art collections to try to emulate the cultures like which they most wanted to be…you can see that in their architecture and palaces as well. When you see this over the top opulence and read about how miserable life was for almost everyone else a revolution was probably inevitable. Also, unlike Latvia other former USSR states, property seized was not returned to the previous owners. Svetlana explained that there were no good records so even if they wanted to the task of returning property would have been impossible. She said half of Russia claims that their family owned a palace 😊.

 

The Hermitage was amazing but our tour was a little rushed and really only focused on the Dutch masters (which was amazing) but we only had 2 ½ hours and touring the entire museum would take at least an entire day. The day also included a ride on the St Petersburg Subway and a ride on the longest escalator in the world, a traditional Russian lunch, a tour of Catherine’s palace and the Amber room, and the Church of the Spilled Blood. It was definitely a full day but we were drained when we got back to the ship…especially my wife whose cold had progressed a couple of notches.

48949739688_4c3e85e985_o_d.jpg

48950280251_9f7566c407_o_d.jpg

48950280286_8a14477a18_o_d.jpg

48950280356_539080ba46_o_d.jpg

48950483282_11a11af0a6_o_d.jpg

48950483362_2e7e5f5b0d_o_d.jpg

48950280536_d8db953138_o_d.jpg

48950483527_da8d6f5a1b_o_d.jpg

48950280646_16bf8cb9ea_o_d.jpg

 

When we got back we hit the Thermal Spa and then I *think* we went to the Captain’s cocktail party to which I guess we got an invite as a Haven guest. Anyway, we met most of the ships officers and mingled with some of our fellow guests. We had dinner at the Haven and chatted with another Seattle couple we had running into everywhere we went 😊. They mentioned that on their Tallinn tour a couple of ladies missed the bus back to the boat and had to walk several kilometers back. They ended up being sisters and on our two day SPB tour and definitely determined to not be separated from the group this time.

 

After dinner my wife took a bath in our suite while I went in search of cold medicine. Someone mentioned that Nyquil could be had in the ship store for the bargain price of $19. The only problem was that we were in port and during this cruise the marketplace was a small section in duty free and closed during ports. I gave my wife the bad news and did what anyone in my position would do…left her to her bath and went up to the Haven bar for a drink. I ran into our fellow Seattle friends at the bar and mentioned my failed quest. Fortunately they had brought all manner of pharmaceutical just in case including 3 different types of night time cold medicine as well as a CBD bath balm. I delivered the much needed medicine to my wife and tucked her into bed and then went back up to the haven bar. Our Haven experience was great but I didn’t really take much advantage of the services like the butler and concierge but I really did enjoy the Haven areas and Haven restaurants and getting to know several fellow have guests.

 

The haven bar closed a little after 11 which is probably a good thing since we had another early meet time for SPB day 2. My wife wasn’t sure she was going to be able to make it but we decided to make that call in the morning.

Edited by fastpitchdad
  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hoping for more of your review soon! My mom and stepdad plus my aunt and uncles were on this sailing. It was my mom's first ever NCL cruise and they loved it. My mom got to visit with our very first exchange student we hosted back in the early 90's. They met her in Finland I believe and they took them all around. My mother is very loud so you may have met her. I am assuming my uncle spent a lot of time at Syd's Pourhouse. 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Day 6 Saint Petersburg

 

We woke up for our early morning meeting time but I was half expecting (maybe more than half) that my wife wouldn’t be able to do it. She willed herself out of bed and we made it to the Haven in time to be escorted downstairs. Her thinking was that we probably wouldn’t come back to SPB so toughen up buttercup. Our tour guide told us the previous day that the trip through customers would be quicker this time but I still took longer than everyone else and got a stare down from a different agent. I am really curious as to what their little screen says about me. When I walked outside we say our minibus drive by so we walked over to meet it and not too much late everyone was on board and we were ready to go. At this point my wife realized that she left he phone in the cabin so it was up to me to take all of the pictures.

 

We had to kill a little time before our boat ride so our first stop was a photo op near the Hermitage and the Summer Palace. My wife spotted a Starbucks across the street so we went there and as luck would have it they had some old style Russia Mugs which we bought (we should have bought them all). We have a pretty big collection of these discontinued mugs from our travels (and my business travel) so she was pretty excited to add this to our collection. Another couple on the tour went to a different Starbucks (yes, they had two within walking distance) but only found the new style mugs. When we showed them ours they almost got off the bus and ran to get one (later they actually regretted not doing so). Our first tour of the say was a boat ride through the rivers and canals.

 

The boat was open air on top with seats inside (that was not any warmer than the outside) but they had a large pile of blankets which we made use of. There were three different Alla Tours on the boat so our tour guide led the tour for everyone. It was nice and scenic and interesting and I fell fast asleep (I wasn’t the only one). After the boat we visited St Isaacs Cathedral where much of the royalty is buried followed by a tour of Yusupov Palace where Rasputin was killed. After that we were taken to a large tourist shop to shop and then pick up our lunches to eat on the way to Peterhof. The store had every Russian tchotchke you could imagine from a shirtless Putin calendar to Russian leader nesting dolls. We bought a deck of playing cards which showed Soviet era posters as well as some Christmas ornaments. When we paid they asked for our tour bus number so my wife thinks the tour group must get a kickback.

 

When we boarded the bus we were handed large sack lunches which consisted of a chicken caesar wrap, a cheese sandwich of some sort, two sweet perogis (peroshki?...it is Perogi in Latvian), and a piece of chocolate and a piece of gum. We all ate as we took the hour long bus ride out to Peterhof. We didn’t tour the inside of the palace because it is apparently similar yet not as impressive as Catherine’s palace which we toured the day before. Rather, we toured the gardens and the fountains. As we were preparing to leave the bus our tour guide Svetlana said we would be walking for about an hour and half all outside so remember to bring your jackets (because it was freaking cold). My wife didn’t like the thought of walking around in the damp cold for 90 mins so she stayed on the bus. Peterhof reminded me of what someone with limitless money would build after visiting Versailles (which I think is pretty much what happened). The fountains and grounds were pretty amazing with all sorts of different types of fountains including trick fountains that spray unsuspecting visitors who choose to sit on the wrong bench or walk down the wrong path.  I took lots and lots of pictures. After the walk we were back on the bus heading to the port. The packed two day tour was exhausting but I am glad that we did it. I don’t know if we will ever return to SPB but I am happy knowing that we saw most of the major sights. We made it back to the port a little after 4pm. I highly recommend Alla Tours for SPB...it was a great tour and a great value. 

 

I had a pretty critical conference call at 6PM (and a prep call at 4:30 which I took standing outside of customs) so until about 7PM I was in full on work mode (and missed another sail away). My wife hung out in the Thermal Spa where I eventually met her. We watched deal of no deal (the person ended up going all the way to their case and won $50)  and then had a late dinner at the haven. The Haven might seem like an unnecessary extravagance but it really made a difference for us on this trip.

 

My wife then went back and took another bath in our corner tub followed by bed with aid from the cold medicine to generously given to us the night before. I went to the Haven for a couple of drinks and then played some craps (successfully so) and had a couple more drinks (probably one toke over the line) before returning to bed. Just as I was falling asleep my phone buzzed and wanted me to change my password which I did just to shut it up. When I woke up I couldn’t remember what I had changed it to. After several tries it decided to factory reset itself taking with it all of my recent photos . Later that day I remembered what the password was (it made me change from 6 digits to 8 digits) but it was too late. So I have no photos from this day since mine were lost and my wife forgot her cell phone but here is a random picture of Peterhof from Flickr.

 

15062053116_ab1c8e0eb3_c_d.jpg

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 10/24/2019 at 6:20 PM, eowyn13 said:

Is there an option to take an elevator instead of the “longest elevator in the world”?

 

I didn't see one. I even asked what happens when it breaks down (like Wheaton Station in DC always does) and she said it doesn't. There are people on site to make sure it always works otherwise they would have a major problem at this busy station. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Day 7 Helsinki

 

I used to go to Helsinki a lot…3 or 4 times a year for about 5 years. My wife came with me once back in 2007 for her first trip to Europe and our first trip away from our 3 kids. I was working on a pretty big project/deal with Nokia at the time so she was on her own quite a bit and had a difficult time. The Fins are wonderful people when you get to the know them but they can be a little shy to outsiders. Anyway she toured the city (bought a Helsinki card) on her own but about day 5 she was at her wits end and missing our kids and wanted to fly home early. Fortunately that evening we were meeting my counterpart at Nokia and his wife for dinner in Tampere. We had a wonderful time and it really saved our trip (I was finished with work at that point so we spent a couple of more days being tourists in Helsinki). She would continue to often travel with me on business trips after this but with much better results because I would try to plan better and subsequent trips away from the kids were easier. So this stop in Helsinki we really just planned to meet my former Nokia friend for lunch (unfortunately his wife couldn’t make it).

 

My wife woke up early and headed into town to find a coffee shop. She was still sick but feeling quite a bit better. I had to bring my phone back to life and reinstall and setup all of my apps (including dual sign in work apps) so I joined her about an hour later. We had a little bit of time to kill so we walked to a couple of Starbucks unsuccessfully looking for old style mugs (we have a Finland but I think we broke the Helsinki). Our Friend Harri met us at a very local place called Pompier https://pompier.fi/albertinkatu/ . It was kind of a buffet where you paid a single fee for lunch with two options…either soup and salad or soup salad and entrees. We chose the latter. The seating as all shared tables so we took the first 3 seats together that we could find. The food was really good (the Salmon soup was amazing) and the ambiance was a lot of fun. The restaurant was in an old fire brigade clubhouse with lots of old pictures of Helsinki firemen. It was great to see Harri again after so many years (we are Facebook friends but in person is always better 😊 ) but we had such a good time we forgot to take pictures!!! After lunch we said our goodbyes (he had to get back to Tampere) and then  walked around a bit before catching an Uber back to the ship.

 

Once back on the ship we hit the Thermal Spa for some reading and relaxation (William Warwick was still closing in on the art thief). My wife realized that we forgot to take pictures so she took advantage of the large picture windows in the SPA to snap a bunch before we sailed away.

 

48978094591_ecbe58c12c_o_d.jpg

48978275932_0720c244fc_o_d.jpg

48977540483_9eb5178986_o_d.jpg

48978277127_392e7c3f7f_o_d.jpg

 

 

After the spa they were having some kind of Russian Bazar Event so I followed my wife around for about 45 minutes as she looked at all the stuff we already saw at the tourist shop in Saint Petersburg. I honestly can’t remember if she bought anything or not. We had dinner reservations at Le Bistro so went back to get ready (change from sweats and a t shirt to jeans and a polo shirt). While my wife was still getting ready I went down and got a bottle of wine (2013 Hightower Red Mountain Reserve) and asked the hostess to put it in a decanter so it would be ready when we sat down. This request took several attempts to explain and in the end our waiter ended up bringing the unopened bottle to us after we sat down. It ended up being fine…that is what freestyle cruising is about…just roll with it. Dinner was great. So far Le Bistro has been our best meal across three different ships. Just as we finished our main courses and ordered deserts and Carajillos I got a text from my boss asking me to join a call for a couple of minutes. I figured it had to be really good news or really bad news…fortunately it was the former but the couple of minutes ended being about fifteen so I returned to a very unhappy wife . Leaving her alone at the table was bad enough but it had also caused us to miss the start of Rock Trivia. After apologizing profusely I slurped up some melted ice cream and quickly drank my tepid carajillo.

 

48978093856_00528f9322_o_d.jpg

 

After dinner we went to Headliners for some more dueling pianos. They played several of our requests although my wife requested Fernando because one of the Piano Players was wearing an ABBA shirt but he played a different ABBA song instead. We would revisit that later in the cruise. At home my radio is usually on the Lithium channel but I always tried to request upbeat songs that could involve the crowd (one that night was Crocodile Rock and I had requested Build Me Up Buttercup earlier in the week). After a couple of hours we were contemplating leaving when someone requested a Pink Floyd song. I like Pink Floyd but at that point in the evening it would have probably brought us down so we headed back to the cabin where fortunately my wife’s cold wasn’t bothering her as much 😊.

Edited by fastpitchdad
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Day 8 Stockholm (or at least the same country as Stockholm)

 

Upthread I mentioned that I usually obsessively research our trips. We did Disneyworld several times when the kids were younger and I would have the park strategy, fast pass strategy, and Disney meal plan strategy figured out months in advance…I even made breakfast reservations based on how much closer we could be to a certain ride when the park opened. Maybe I was too busy or maybe I am just getting lazier in my old age but I did almost no prep for this cruise. So when we arrived in Nynashamn I had no idea that we were so far away from Stockholm.

 

We had kind of a late night and thus slept in a bit…much later than we would have had we known Stockholm was more than an hour away. We had planned on taking the Hop on Hop off bus so thinking we were in the city like we were in Helsinki, I walked up to the concierge and asked if it were easier to buy hop on bus tix here or in town. She tried to get us on the bus still in the parking lot but it was full. So we got dressed and had breakfast and then walked towards town. There are a couple of lines on the trail taking you to either the middle of town or to the train station. We intended to go to the train station and ride into Stockholm but figured we would check out the town first. The town was farther away than we thought (and really far from the train station).

48986526406_84fe46764a_k_d.jpg

 

We finally arrived to the small town which encompassed about two blocks square and I needed to use the restroom. We asked inside a pharmacy about a restroom and she suggested to go to the library at the edge of town (2 blocks away). When we got there the bathroom was locked but we found a local club playing Petanque which is kind of like Bocce Ball. We watched for a while until my wife nodded towards the bathroom key hanging on the wall.  I made good use of the key and returned to watch the final shots and a rousing victory for one of the teams (the members of all four teams were at least in their 80s). One of the ladies said something to us in Swedish that sounded friendly but we had no idea what she said so we did the international symbol for complete lack of understanding and just smiled and nodded. We ended up seeing them later in town where she pointed at us and said something to her husband.

 

Now that the match was over we decided to check out the rest of the town still trying to decide if we wanted to walk over to the train station and head into Stockholm. It was past noon at this point and google said it would take us an hour and twenty minutes to get there so we agreed to come back to Stockholm (I have to go to Latvia several times in the next year so we can stopover) and see what we missed. We ended up eating lunch at a local restaurant and both ordered that Swedish delicacy Lasagna Bolognaise…it was actually pretty good.  After lunch we did some shopping and either the exchange rate was better than I thought or the town had some pretty good bargains and some amazing bakeries. We also bought a magnet (we buy magnets and starbucks mugs) at the little shop near the boat and were back on board a little after 2:30.

 

48985961643_5d438f6377_k_d.jpg

48985975943_34f4c490a8_o_d.jpg

 

We of course hit the Thermal Spa again which was never over crowded like it was after Tallinn. I am going to give NCL the benefit of the doubt and say they learned their lesson that day. The young William Warwick solved the crime (sort of) but as Jeffery Archer is apt to do there was a cliff hanger leading to the next book (I need to reread the Clifton Chronicles book to figure out where he was introduced into that Universe). We sort of got the Therma Spa included in our room (although we had purchased it when we were still in a guaranteed balcony and applied the fees to the upgrade) but to me it is totally worth buying and we will do so on every cruise in the future. It is just so relaxing. If the Haven is a ship within in a ship then the thermal spa is an Oasis within an Ocean (does that work?…was going to say Desert but that didn’t make sense. Anyway, you know what I mean 😊 ). At the Thermal Spa we saw one of the couples we met in the Haven and agreed to meet later for dinner at the Haven Restaurant. When leaving the Spa my wife confirmed her fire and ice manicure (and pedicure?) for later that evening.

 

After the Spa we had a little bit of time to kill before dinner so we listened to Zenhits play Bob Marley covers. They asked for requests at the end so I of course asked for a song they played before we arrived (3 little birds) but they played a verse for me.

 

We had a nice haven dinner but it was surprisingly slow. I had one more webex I had to join at 7:30 and my wife had her fire and ice at the SPA so we ended up having to skip desert and sort of eat and run on our dinner companions.

 

48986734307_5ec766606c_k_d.jpg

 

After our appointments my wife and I met at O’Sheehan’s where we discovered that they have a full size air hockey table. When my wife and I met many (many) years ago in college we used to play a lot of air hockey so we find it difficult to pass a table without giving it a try. I built a pretty good lead and then always gave it away but hung on in the end. There was also a pool table as well but after the intense air hockey match we needed to walk around and cool off a little.

 

Our first selfie many many years ago during our air hockey salad days

48985981898_aec8d52fea_o_d.jpg

 

We went to the Prime Meridian Bar and played some cribbage and finished off our wine. We drank six bottles wine on the cruise (we had two in Latvia) but I missed one in this report 🤔. There is a standing bridge table outside of LeBistro which I thought was interesting but we had no idea how to play bridge and were of little help to the couple hoping for a game.

48985977233_d8f110f566_o_d.jpg

 

After I was soundly beaten at cribbage we headed up to the Haven to see the many people with whom we became friends with during the week. When the bar closed we headed back to the cabin. My wife was feeling better but not completely over her cold. Previewing tomorrow’s day at sea it looked like we were going to enjoy several different tastings 😊.

Edited by fastpitchdad
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Day 9 At Sea

 

48998404071_640b54055a_k_d.jpg

 

The last day of the Cruise we sailed back to Copenhagen. We woke up a little bit late and missed the Haven Breakfast so we just ate at OSheehan’s which is reliably OK for breakfast (2nd time we had breakfast there this week). There was Trivia going on the Atrium but they wouldn’t let us eat at the rail and watch. Trivia was either absurdly easy (like where is Sydney Opera House) or insanely difficult (who was man of the match in the 1984 cricket world championships). We didn’t win. Someone (or someone’s phone) got the cricket question right.

 

48997865468_0743312aff_k_d.jpg

 

After breakfast we visited the Thermal Spa for the final time on this cruise (downloaded a new book…the One Man by Andrew Gross). We met another couple earlier in the trip and he was reading A Gentleman In Moscow which I loved and had finished just prior to Archer’s Nothing Ventured. We had a good discussion around that. The book is brilliantly written…really amazing writing. And the story sets up a lot during the first half and really takes off in the latter half. We ran into the couple later at the Prime Meridian bar. Kind of cool to meet other books randomly on a cruise when you had recently read the same book. We wistfully said goodbye to the spa and hit the Haven Restaurant for lunch ahead of the first of three tastings we had planned for the day.

48998628437_73278234ac_o_d.jpg

 

We had not had lunch at the Haven for whatever reason but it was, perhaps unsurprisingly, really good. I have the Prime Rib Sandwich with Lobster Bisque and my wife had a burger that was equally as good. Next time we sail in the Haven We are definitely going to have more than one Haven lunch during the trip.

 

Our first tasting was a black glass wine tasting at Le Bistro.  We did something similar on the Pearl last year which we enjoyed but this one was much better. Only three of us signed up so the Sommelier really took his time to explain the intricacies of wine tasting. First we tasted some wine in regular glasses and with tasting notes and varietal information and then we tasted three new wines in black glasses. For each wine we had to decide red or white (pretty easy), varietal, and location (old or new world). In the end I think my wife won but she works in the industry. All three of us had a great time. When it was over he sent us on our way with a very full glass of whichever wine we enjoyed the most.

 

48997862048_f2aac0b563_k_d.jpg

 

Next up was a Mojito tasting at the Sugarcane Bar. We had a little bit of time so we shared a table with a Scottish couple to wait and talked about Brexit, Champions League, Outlander, and our 2020 cruise around the British Isles. We had actually intended to play cribbage but the conversation was good so we never even looked at the first deal cards.

48997861193_6b8c10aac7_k_d.jpg

 

When the tasting started an entire group (large family) was seated at the bar and they were all wearing Seahawks gear. I had to find out there story (I was actually wearing a University of Washington shirt at the time). They were from Seattle and it was the Patriarchs birthday and he wanted everyone dressed in their Seahawks shirts and jerseys. I told them I wish we had met earlier in the week because we could have watched the game together prior to the previous sea day. The tasting was a lot of fun. She explained how different types of rum was made, the history of the mojito, and of course how each of the Mojitos was made. After the first tasting they picked four men and four women for a contest (my wife was chosen). The contest was to choose one of 8 large shot glasses that contained either water or rum and the members of the other team (it was men vs women) had to guess what it was after the player drank it. My wife was first and slammed it down. All four men guess water but they were wrong! The women ended up winning…she said the women always won.

 

Following the Mojito tasting we headed to Ocean Blue for a Macallan tasting of their cruise ship only Quest, Terra, and Enigma single malts. The same bartender who ran the Mojito tasting also did the Macallan tasting assisted by Haven bartender Patrick. The Scotches were all pair with different types of chocolates and nuts. She explained how to drink Whisky. We first sipped the whisky straight, and then with a pipette of water, and then after eating to food pairing. Again, the tasting was very well done and Patrick let us know that we could order the same Macallan flight in the haven bar (which we later did). All three tastings were quite different but we thoroughly enjoyed them all.

 

This didn’t happen today but I forgot about it and it was interesting. Earlier in the week my wife left her bathing suit in the Thermal Spa locker room and when she asked about they told her to check the lost and found (which is at the main customer service on deck 7). When she did they looked through their book and told her that they didn’t have it. There had been a bathing suit turned in but someone already claimed it. We went back to the Spa and the person who found it remembered taking it down to lost and found so we walked with us back to deck 7, went into the back, and found the bathing suit. It had been filed under costume rather than bathing suit. So the moral of the story is to look through the book at everything turned in around the right time and check for alternate listings.

 

That evening we had dinner reservations at Teppanyaki. We had done it both on our Venice cruise and our Alaska cruise and enjoyed it each time although on the pearl it was pretty loud. I was kind of worried it would be even louder on a bigger ship. The noise wasn’t much of an issue but our chef was clearly new and wasn’t terribly good. The shrimp was over cooked, the meat was undercooked (actually just sort of incorrectly cooked), and the taste seemed a little off. Plus our table was kind of boring. We were also out of wine so I just had house sake which pretty much tasted like house sake from any local sushi place 😊. I think we will probably give Teppanyaki another shot but were this our first experience we probably wouldn’t have done it again (Moderno was terribly disappointing the first time we tried it and have not tried it since).

 

48998612497_4a5c37b7d6_k_d.jpg

 

After dinner we went back up to the Haven lounge and had our Macallan flight. Everyone in the bar was drinking Louis the 13th. One of the guests bought everyone in the glass but we were a few minutes too late. The bottle was getting low and Daniel said that whoever buys the last shot gets to keep the bottle (apparently worth $500). It still had about $750 worth of cognac so I passed. We chatted for a while with the people we had met during the week and then headed down for one last Howl at The Moon.

 

48998614052_f304ec957e_k_d.jpg

 

Howl At The Moon was our favorite show of the week so it seemed apropos to finish the week with them. During the first show that we attended we didn’t bring any tip money but they played some of our songs and we had a great time. The second time all I had was a 20 Euro note which I gave to the lead howler with the request of Build Me Up Buttercup and mentioning this was also for the previous night which we very much enjoyed. He mentioned that it was one of his favorite songs to play and he played it immediately. So tonight we stayed until the end. There was another nod to Jeff Lebowski and his disdain for the Eagles and then for the last song of the night he thanked everyone for something to the shows and played Build Me Up Buttercup 😊.

 

 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Day 10+ the Voyage Home

 

We left our large bags outside the door the night before with the intent to leave the ship as late as possible. We were told that if you wanted a cab we had to be off the boat by 8AM but talking with another couple in the Haven bar the night before their strategy was to leave as late as possible and get a cab dropping off a passenger getting ready to embark. So we figured we would sleep in which worked until an announcement was carried inside the cabin at about 8AM. I am not sure if it was a mistake or not…it was just to announce a tag color to disembark. So shortly thereafter we rolled out of bed and got ready for the day.

 

We made our way to the Haven in time to grab something to eat and then wait until we were ready to leave. We exchanged information with two of the couples we met. As we talked the subject of a cab came up when someone suggested that we download the Danicab app. I wish I had known about this before. Not only were we able to skip the massive cab line when we left the ship but the fixed rate was more than a third less than what we paid to get to the port. So my suggestion for future Balitc Cruisers…download and register the Danicab app before you arrive. Around 10:00am or so we walked off the ship. Our bags were waiting for us in the priority area and our Danicab arrived a few minutes later to take us back to the Bella Sky Marriott.

 

We had two nights in Copenhagen after the cruise before heading back home to Sammamish. We checked back into the Bella Sky and they gave us the same room we had during the beginning of our trip (2120)…except that it wasn’t quite ready. They gave us some vouchers for coffee and tea for the wait which ended up being not too long. After we got to our room we walked to the Metro and rode into town to find something to eat and visit the lego store. We ate at this cool collection of restaurants created from ship containers and then ended up buying some cheese and bread and Iberian ham to take back to the room and enjoy with one of the two complimentary bottles of sparkling wine we brought back from the ship.

48998732662_3d8800ca98_k_d.jpg

 

The Bella Sky has a pretty cool sky bar and one of the Haven Seattle couples were staying here as well so we agreed to meet there later that evening. The sky bar is nice and comfortable with the great view but maybe it was the exchange rate but the drinks were really expensive. We had a couple of glasses of wine with our new friends and then called it an early night…we were all pretty tired. They had an early flight the next morning (although not quite as early as our Sunday flight).

 

48998742777_41241997e5_o_d.jpg

 

The next day we explored Copenhagen again. We visited some of the areas we had already seen (like Christiania) and some we hadn’t. I could definitely happily live in Copenhagen. We ate fish and chips from a fish market in the boat near the harbor and then had some drinks and played cards in an old pub during the Denmark Sweden Euro qualifying match (Denmark won 1-0).

 

Someone's garden in Christiania

48998731682_dcdb0cea84_k_d.jpg

48997982663_013f92e687_k_d.jpg

48998531391_48925e6347_o_d.jpg

48997992608_b7dc5180f0_o_d.jpg

48998741197_da31ce6d19_o_d.jpg

48997991973_f546920160_o_d.jpg

48997992318_06176c7870_o_d.jpg

 

After the pub we went shopping a little more and bought a little more food and headed back to the hotel. Our flight the next morning as at 6:15am so I preordered a 4:15 cab using my Danicab app. My wife was still shaking off her cold so she took a bath in our hotel room (it had a nice large tun…although not as nice or large as our Spa Suite tub 😊 ) while I cut the cheese (bad dad joke), bread, and Iberian ham periodically delivering some finished product to my wife and her bath.

 

3:30AM came early. We showered, packed, and made our way down to the lobby to wait for our cab at around 4:05am. Just then a group of girls came through the lobby yelling at each other (they clearly were partying all night) shortly followed by a couple of guys. They moved the argument outside but even though I couldn’t understand a single word they said it was pretty clear that one of the girls didn’t appreciate how one of the other girls was interacting with one of the guys. When our cab arrived they were still arguing. Our driver apologized on behalf of the country of Denmark for having that be our last memory of Copenhagen on this trip.

 

We checked in without issue. I was worried our bags were going to be too heavy (we have a larger allowance when checking in at Delta) but they ended up being fine. I asked about upgrade availability for CDG to YVR (we were flying CPH-CDG-YVR-SEA) but was told I would have to figure that out when we got to Paris. We had lounge access in CPH but it wasn’t open yet so we sat at a coffee shop nearby and watched as people continuously walked past the people waiting for the lounge to open and to try to open the locked door. The lounge finally opened at 5am and upon check in we were ushered to a nearly empty section. I think the lounge had two halves…essentially one for priority pass and one for status/business class access.

 

We arrived in Paris on time but we had two hours to navigate through customs, re-clear security, and walk to our gate area. It was a bit of a process but we eventually made it to the Air France lounge airside to our gate. I asked the customer service agent in the lounge about potential upgrades to business class from our tortuous premium economy seats. She started typing and typing and typing…I was sweating and sweating and sweating (it was a long walk and we did it rather briskly). Eventually she said they did have some seats and it would be 309 euros each. I handed her my credit card as fast as I could. She started typing some more (by now it was getting precariously close to the gate taking over control of the flight) and then said “oh, we have a problem”. I thought “oh crap, the gate has taken control of the flight”. But she continued “I don’t have two seats together” to which my wife said, “we have been married for 24 years…we don’t need to sit together”. I was given the seat behind my wife. By the time the whole process was completed it was almost time to board. The flight was great…good crew, good food, and I slept for about seven hours.

 

48998743302_06f1454aff_o_d.jpg

 

We arrived in Vancouver at about 10AM local time…just in time for the Seahawk game. My hope was that I could watch most of the game while waiting near our gate. The only problem was that we had a medical issue on our flight. Except it was so much of a medical issue as a completely drunk disorderly person issue. The crew ended up having to restrain him to his seat and contact authorities in Vancouver to meet him at the plane. This situation caused us to have to park the plan away from the terminal and disembark to a bus which would take us to international arrivals. Apparently it was a different arrival hall than we would have been taken and it ended up being terribly confusing. Nobody could tell us if we needed to collect our bags and clear US customs (you clear US customs in YVR prior to heading to the US). The answer ended up being yes and then no. We probably wasted 30 minutes trying to figure it out. We then had to run and clear security again and then US customers (thankfully they had global entry…in fact our global entry card also got us into a priority screening line). I have flown millions of miles much of which was international and this whole process was still incredibly confusing to me. I had never known a situation where your bags are cleared to a US destination without ever having to collect them and take them through US Customs.

 

We ended up finally getting to the gate a few minutes before boarding. I was following the Seahawks and Browns on my phone but was able to bring up the video feed as we waited by the gate. I ended up being the last one to board so I could keep watching the game via WiFi. My wife rolled her eyes and boarded with Sky Priority. When I boarded I downloaded the TuneIn App and found the game on Vancouver Radio. When we hit 10K feet I logged into the internet and the app through I was still in Vancouver and let me listen to the Seahawks hanging on to beat the Browns 😊.

 

We arrived in Seattle nearly three weeks after we had left. We had a fantastic time. Latvia and everything that meant to me was wonderful, Copenhagen was beautiful, and the cruise was everything we hoped it would be and more. Our next cruise will be for our 25th Anniversary next August for 12 days on the Star exploring the British Isles.

 

If anyone has any questions about the Latvia, Copenhagen, or the cruise or our experience on the Getaway or in a Haven Spa Suite please feel free to ask.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 10/19/2019 at 4:11 PM, fastpitchdad said:

Copenhagen was beautiful. I have a friend who used to live there so he wrote up a list of things for us to do and sites to see (I can forward the email if anyone is interested).

 

I would love it if you could send this to me - crkathy@comcast.net

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Please sign in to comment

You will be able to leave a comment after signing in



Sign In Now
 Share

  • Forum Jump
    • Categories
      • Welcome to Cruise Critic
      • New Cruisers
      • Cruise Lines “A – O”
      • Cruise Lines “P – Z”
      • River Cruising
      • ROLL CALLS
      • Digital Photography & Cruise Technology
      • Special Interest Cruising
      • Cruise Discussion Topics
      • UK Cruising
      • Australia & New Zealand Cruisers
      • Canadian Cruisers
      • North American Homeports
      • Ports of Call
      • Cruise Conversations
×
×
  • Create New...