REVIEW of the STAR PRINCESS BALTIC May 25

[grabbit97]

1..5/23

Our Plane Took Off At 10 Pm On Sas Airlines. Smooth Flight All The Way, Taking Ambien Was A Good Idea, We Slept For 4 Hours, And Felt Rested Upon Arriving In Copenhagen. We Claimed Our Bags And Took The Train To The Hotel Du Nord. We Walked About 2 Blocks To The Hotel. The Hotel Du Nord Is So Centrally Located We Would Recommend It Highly. Two Blocks From The Train Station, Two Blocks From The Tivoli And Transportation, Bus Or Train, Made It An Ideal Place To Stay. We Walked To City Square. We Waited A Long Time-for. A Table At A Restaurant That Was Recommended By Rick Steves, But The Man Was Very Rude And Ignored Us When We Refused To Take A Table By The Door, That He Told Us It Would Be An Hour Wait, After 10 Minutes We Left, And Wandered Around Until We Found A Delightful Restaurant About 2 Blocks Away.

Finally Ate At City Rock Cafe. We Had A Seafood Plate That Was Very Good. Tired, We Walked Back To The Hotel Du Nord And Fell Asleep Exhausted.

 

5/24 Copenhagen, Denmark

Day 2

Breakfast Buffet Was Delightful, More Than Adequate At The Hotel Du Nord (stay Here, It Was Great, Large Rooms And Excellent Service.. Even Free Internet In Each Room).

We Took A Local Bus To Rosenborg Castle. We Were Suppose To Meet Richard Dressed Up As Hans Christian Andersen But He Never Showed. We Decided To Take The Tour Ourselves Of The Rosenborg Castle. Very Easy To Do. We Saw The

Treasury Room And. Castle And Walked Thru Castle Garden To Nyhavn -caught The Netto Canal Boat Tour Which Was Wonderful, 30.00 Danish Krowns (1/2 Price Of The Other Tour Boat And Then Had Lunch On Nyhavn With Judy & Jerry. I Had A Great Onion Soup And Chicken Salad. It Was Raining And A Bit On The Cool Side So We Ate Inside. There Are Many Lovely Outdoor Restaurants On The Nyhavn And If You Had A Chance, Do Enjoy Eating On The Canal.

Dinner Was Across Street From Hotel Du Nord - Had Weinersnitzel & Beef Stew / Baked Potato

Tired From The Day's Activities, We Went To Bed.

 

5/25 Mel's Birthday - Took Bus 26 To Little Mermaid. Walked Along Water To Palace. Saw Changing Of Guards. Ate Lunch On Nyhaven Outside Until It Started To Rain. Moved Inside And Finished Lunch. Had Salmon & Chicken Salad. Pilsner Beer To Drink.

Back To Hotel To Take Taxi To Cruise Terminal. Boarded Star Princess At 3 Pm And Found Room-b520 Baja Deck Inside Room Nice Location. Sandra Is Our Room Steward. Spent Most Of Day Learning Ship And Relaxing.

Dinner At 7 In Portofino Restaurant. Table Of 8. Had Chocolate Birthday Bag For Dessert For Mel's Birthday. Didn't Like Waiter. Will Move To Another Table Tomorrow Night.

 

5/26 At Sea. Spent Most Of Day Relaxing. Tonight Is Formal Night. Changed Tables To 166 Jeff & Sherwin. Personal Choice Dining. Had Another B.d. Chocolate Bag For Mel's B.d.

Saw Entertainment.

 

5/27 Stockholm Sweden

 

After Breakfast We Boarded Bus With Judy & Jerry For Our 8 Hour Tour Of Vasa Museum - City Tour. After The Museum We Were Taken To A Smorgsbord For A Swedish Lunch. Many Types Of Herring Were On The Buffet As Well As Swedish Meatballs. After Lunch, We Took A 2 Hour Boat Ride Viewing Stockholm.

Dinner At 6:30 Followed By Entertainment. Good Day

 

5/28 Helsinki Finland

 

Today We Do Helsinki On Our Own. We Had Breakfast Up In The Horizon Court Which Is A Buffet. After Breakfast We Headed Out On Our Own. We Caught A Bus That Took Us To The Market Place. There We Saw The "wedding Cake" Church And The "rock" Church. We Took A Ferry Over To The Old Fort Which Was On An Island And Then Came Back To Do Some Shopping In The Market Place. We Bought Matthew A Tshirt From Helsinki And Headed Back On The Bus To The Ship.

Tonight After Dinner, We Enjoyed Some More Of The Ship's Entertainment.

 

5/29 Saint Petersburg

 

Alla... Wow What An Experience... We Booked Her On The Internet And Prayed She Would Turn Out.. Wow, Did She Ever... A Great Experience.

We Met Alla Outside The Ship At 9 Am. We Had To Provide The Visa That She Had Emailed Us And A Copy Of Our Passport And Our Passport For The Russian Immigration. After A Successful Pass Thru Their Immigration, We Found Alla. She Had A 15 Passenger Van Waiting For Us.

Our First Stop Was Catherine's Palace, Which We Were Not Suppose To See, But She Managed To Get Us Tickets. Catherine's Palace Is Closed The Last Tuesday Of The Month And Every Monday. Today Is Monday. The Price Of The Tour Went Up A Bit, But It Was Well Worth Ther Entrance To The Palace. After Touring The Palace, We Went To The Metro, Which Was Closed, So We Then Went To A Local Grocery Store Where We Saw How Food Was Sold In Russia. Each Stall Is Owned By A Private Person, And Sells A Different Thing. One Will Sell Fruit, Others Will Sell Cheese, Meat, Vegetables.. Etc. Very Interesting. The Meat Department Has The Raw Bones Laying On A Palate In The Middle Of The Aisle. The People Did Not Wear Gloves When Cutting Up The Meat. We Found That Strange... Yet The Market Itself Was Very Clean.

We Ate Lunch In The Van, Some Tasty "pancake" As She Called It With Chicken And A Cucumber Sauce In It. In The Afternoon We Went To "st Issac's" Church. After The Church, We Went To A Russian Restaurant For Dinner. We Had A Great Mushroom Soup, Followed By A Not So Good Veal Dish. After Dinner, We Went To A Russian Folklore Show. Very Good. Enjoyed It. Raining Outside, We Ran To The Van Which Took Us Back To The Ship. Day One In Saint Petersburg Was Great.

 

5/30 Saint Petersburg, Russia Day 2

 

Alla Met Us Outside At 8 Am, After Breakfast. First Stop Was The Choral Synogogue Built In 1890's. Next We Went To Peterhof's Palace To See The Grounds And Palace Of Peter The Great. The Grounds Are Magnificent. The Waterfall Is Fed By Gravity, From A River 14 Miles Away. No Pumps, All Natural, By Gravity Alone. After Spending 2 Hours Touring The Peterhof, We Headed To A Local Shopping Store, Eating Our Lunch In The Van Once More, This Time A "pancake" Filled With Ground Meat And Pickle Sauce.. Very Tasty Again. We Shopped At A Store Called Northway, And Found Some Black Laquer Boxes That We Gave As Gifts And Kept A Couple Ourselves. We Stopped At Yusikov's Palace Where Rassputan Was Killed. Our Last Stop Was The "hermitage" Which Was A Beautiful Museum. We Were There About 2 Hours, Doing A Whirlwind Tour And Just Touched Upon Some Of The Paintings. Davinci, Rembrandt To Name A Few. We Passed By Peter And Paul's Cathedral.

Our Trip Back To The Ship Was Interesting.. A Big Traffic Jam Caused The Ship To Be An Hour Late Leaving Russia. Our Van Was An Hour Late, And We Were All Nervous That We Would Not Make The Ship. We Were Not The Only "late" People.. 20 Princess Cruise Tour Buses Were Also Late... So We Relaxed Knowing We Would Not Be The Only Ones That Would Be Late.

On Board At 6:15, We Went To Dinner, Folllowed By The Entertainment Offered That Evening. We Were Very Tired.. But Happy. Alla Made The Tour Of Russia True Success.

$351 Per Person Was Well Worth It.

 

5/31 Tallinn, Estonia

 

Today We Are In Estonia For 1/2 A Day. Tallinn We Did On Our Own. After Breakfast, We Walked Off The Ship, Caught The Ship's Shuttle Bus For $4.00 A Person Which Took Us Into Town. We Walked Up The Cobblestone Streets To The Church On The Hill. We Stopped Into A Souvenir Shop And Bought 2 Glass Dogs, One For Us And One For Sheri And Aaron.

We Stopped To Buy An Ice Cream Cone At Mcdonald's But They Would Only Take Local Currency So We Continued Walking About For A Little While. We Took A Taxi Back To The Ship (my Knee Was Hurting) And At 1 Pm The Ship Sailed For Gdansk Poland.

Dinner At 6:30 Followed Again By The Entertainment On The Ship.

 

6/1 Gdansk, Poland

 

Today We Ate Breakfast Up In The Horizon Court And Got Ready To Take Our All Day Tour Of Poland.

We Met The Tour Outside At 9 And Boarded The Bus Heading To The Malborg Midevil Castle. The Castle Was Built In The 1300's . Very Glad We Had A Chance To See This Castle. After This We Were Taken To A Restaurant For An Authentic Polish Lunch. We Were Served Beef Soup With An Egg In It..followed By A Rolled Beef Dish With Carrots And Cabbage Salad And Buckwheat. For Dessert We Were Served What Looked Like A Jelly Filled Donut. Beer, Water, And Coffee Were Also Served.

After Lunch We Went To The Old Town Of Gdansk Where We Were Taken To A Church, And Got Bored With The Guide And Left To Do Some Exploring Of The Town On Our Own.. Meeting The Bus In One Hour. We Bought A Ice Cream For 40 Cents And Walked Down The Street Towards The Bus. A Nice Day Was Had By All.. The Guide We Had In Gdansk Was Not As Good As Others We Have Had On Past Tours, But She Was Knowledgable.

Dinner And Entertainment, Followed By Sleep, And Tomorrow At Sea.. Yea.. A Rest Day!!!

 

6/2 At Sea

 

Today We Ate Breakfast A Bit Later, Followed By A Show Given By The Dining Room Staff, The Matre D's Showed Some Cooking Techniques Followed By A Tour Of The Galley. The Lines Were So Long That We Bailed Out Of The Tour And Went To The Internet, Followed By Lunch And Some Relaxation During The Day. Tonight Was Formal Night. Lobster Was Served.. Yum.

We Went To The Entertainment Followed By Sleep.

 

6/3 Oslo, Norway

 

Today We Are Here For 1/2 A Day And Chose A Tour Of The Viking Museum Followed By The Ski Jump And The Sculpture Park.

After Breakfast, We Boarded The Bus And Headed To The Ski Jump Before The Crowds Arrived. Our Guide Was A Japanese Born Dane... She Was Delightful And Very Knowledgable. I Went Inside To Find Out How Much A Diet Coke Was In Their Coffee Shop, $5.00 She Says, And I Said "thanks" And Walked Out.

Next Came The Sculpture Park. The Walk From One End To The Other Was A 1/2 Mile, So I Got Out, And Saw The Oblisk, And Got Back On The Bus, While Others Walked To The Other End Of The Park, The Bus Drove There, And I Stayed With The Bus... Meeting The Others At The Opposite End. The Day Was Sunny And I Sat On A Bench Waiting, Enjoying The Nice Weather. After The Park, We Headed For The "viking" Museum To See The Ships Used 1000 Years Ago By The Vikings.

We Returned To The Ship At 12:30 And Mel Went To The Resistance Museum While I Went Upstairs And Packed.

The Rest Of Today Was Spend Relaxing And Packing.. 10 Days Have Gone By, Hard To Believe.

Dinner For The Last Night Was Prime Rib, Excellent. The Entertainment Tonight Was Fair, So We Opted To Check Our Email, But The Internet Had Been Shut Down. Off To Bed, After Doing Some Final Packing.

 

6/4 Copenhagen, Denmark

 

We Awoke At 7, Showered And Met The Others For Breakfast Upstairs In The Horizon Food Court. We Are Traveling Independently So We Did Not Have To Get Off The Ship Until 9:45, Altho We Did Get Off At 8:30. Disembarkation Went Very Smoothly, We Found Our Luggage, And Caught A Taxi To The Airport. No Problems At All. The Taxi Was 40.00 Which Included The Tip In Their Fee.

We Checked Our Bags, And Headed For The Sas Business Lounge Where We Spent The Next 5 Hours Reading And Using The Internet Before Boarding The Plane At 3:30. The Plane Was Late Taking Off, We Were Only About 40 Minutes Late Arriving Into Chicago.

 

Conclusions...

The Baltic Is A Great Cruise. Very Port Intensive But Well Worth The Time Spent Getting Little Sleep. The Star Princess Is A Great Ship. The Service In The Room By Sandra, And The Service In The Dining Room By Jeff And Sherwin Were Wonderful. The Food Was Good.. The Entrees Were Ok, The Soups Were Not Very Good, The Appetizers And Salads Were Very Good. On Prime Rib Night (1st And Last Nights), The King Crab Leg Night And The Lobster Night, Were Outstanding. The Beef We Found Was Not Very Good. Their Fish Was Like By All That Had It.

The Entertainment On The Whole Was Very Good. The Singers Were Good.

The Casino Is Small, And The Slot Machines Stingy... Not Many People In There Most Of The Time, Probably Due To The Fact We Had To Get To Bed Most Nights As There Were So Many Ports To Visit, No One Stayed Up Very Late.

The Internet Was Spotty, 35 Cents Per Minute And Many Were Very Upset, Couldn't Connect. We Had Free Internet Being Platinum Members (sailing With Princess Over 5x) So We Just Waited For The Connections (not Having To Pay) .. Nice Perk We Had To Admit. Wifi Was 35 Cents A Minute So We Did Not Use That.. Given Free Internet On Their Computers.

Embarkation Went Smoothly, And Disembarkation Was Just As Smooth.

We Give The Star Princess 4 Stars Out Of Five...

A Good Time Was Had By All.

[Deloresgardella]

Thanks so much for the great review. We are going on the same cruise in Sept. Will be in Copenhagen for three pre-cruise. Really looking forward to it.

[tclowe]

Thank you very much for posting. I enjoyed your trip down memory lane. So many different countries and foods to experience. Hope our trip in August goes as smoothly.

[Juliadlf]

Thank you grabbit97 for posting your review.

 

Julia

[edste]

What a wonderful review. Thank you so much. We're taking the same trip Aug 07 on the Star. Pre cruise we'll be staying in Copenhagen for 3 days.Edna

[mmmmm]

Thanks, Grabbit! We'll be on the same cruise July 4 and have booked Alla to tour St Petersburg. I wanted to ask more about how the folk show was, when it started and ended, and if you thought it was worth passing up whatever else you might have been doing. Also, did you go in Peterhof, or just see the outside? She has recommended we just see the fountains, since it is similar to Catherine's, so I wondered what you thought. Is there anything you would change about your tour with her? Thanks!

[easy22]

there were national holidays on both sides of our cruise in May so Copenhagen was CLOSED. even the grocery stores were closed and some restaurants. so we made lemonade. very easy to take the train to Roskilde only 20 min. it's the ancient capital of Denmark and 39 kings and queens are buried in the cathedral there. also there is a viking museum where you can try on costumes of the period and take pictures. that was fun. on weekends and holidays you can sail replica viking ships for only $8 per hour and that was a blast! 16 people and a captain, of course. you row out of the port then catch the wind with the handmade sail that looks like a wool blanket. was one of our best memories of the trip.

 

then the second day, we got the train to Helsingor to see Kronborg castle. it is about 40 min train ride. when you get off, you can see the castle just a short walk away. after that, we took the ferry to Helsingborg, Sweden just two miles away. only a 20 minute trip. it was sunny and we sat up on top and got great pictures of the castle and the two towns. beer was only $2 on board and they had open faced sandwiches for sale as well. was quite a picnic/party atmosphere. the Swedes all come to Denmark to buy cheaper liquor. the Swedish side is much more european looking. they have a castle and a magnificent cathedral there. shopping was good there. Swedish shops were open. Danish side was closed. had lunch after we returned to the Danish side at an outdoor cafe. 3 open faced sandwiches and a beer for only $9!!! that was a bargain for sure. and we had one of the famous ice cream cones with chocolate balls on top. they were delicious. you must have one.

 

we did go in Tivoli but it's not our type of place. the tulips were beautiful and the lights at night were lovely. we only spent about an hour there. never did get to see Stroget open but it is a lovely street to walk along and there are outdoor cafes all over the place and musicians and entertainers. much cheaper than Nyhaven but you can't beat Nyhaven for atmosphere that's for sure. you can drink on the street in Denmark so we bought 2 beers at a minimart in Nyhaven for only $4 total and sat down and drank them at the harbor. the beers were $10 each for draft beer or more if you get it at a cafe.

 

we had a really great meal and, rare in Copenhagen, reasonably priced at Sahil right on the canal. Pakistani restaurant. if you like Indian food, you'll love this place. not a tourist place. only locals were in there except for us. it was a recommendation from some locals we met walking back from Nyhaven to the Marriott. by the way, the Marriott is a wonderful place to stay. the beds were sooooo appreciated and those pillows!

we were so tired both nights we were there that the beds meant a lot to us. also the location is great. right around the corner from Tivoli and the train station. there is a lovely patio on the canal to sit and have free morning coffee and watch the boats go by. we got there at 7:15 am the day we disembarked the ship and they were kind enough to let us check into our room immediately as there was one cleaned and available. he did mention that this was a rare thing but we sure appreciated that we were the lucky ones to get in.

 

don't be afraid to jump on the trains and go places on your own. they are clean and efficient, run frequently so you can come back when you wish and people speak English. the ticket sellers were very helpful in giving good directions as to which track to wait at. don't forget to stamp your ticket before you get on the train! if we had had one more day, we would have gone to Fredericksborg on our own as well.

 

be prepared for sticker shock at all of these countries except Poland and Estonia. they told us Oslo is second only to Toyko as the most expensive city in the world and we believed it.

 

Let me kow if you'd like information on any other ports.

 

Linda

[grabbit97]

Thanks, Grabbit! We'll be on the same cruise July 4 and have booked Alla to tour St Petersburg. I wanted to ask more about how the folk show was, when it started and ended, and if you thought it was worth passing up whatever else you might have been doing. Also, did you go in Peterhof, or just see the outside? She has recommended we just see the fountains, since it is similar to Catherine's, so I wondered what you thought. Is there anything you would change about your tour with her? Thanks!

 

THE FOLK SHOW WAS OK, WOULD I GO AGAIN, "NO"....WE WENT TO THE PETERHOF, THE GARDENS ARE MAGNIFICENT, WAS IT WORTH GOING INSIDE THE PETERHOF "NO", BUT DO GO SEE THE GARDENS. TIS A MUST TO GO SEE "CATHERINE'S PALACE" AND DO GO TO A "LOCAL GROCERY STORE" TO SEE HOW THEY SHOP... ALSO, HAVE ALLA TAKE YOU TO THE "NORTHWAY" STORE, FABULOUS BARGAINS ON THEIR LAQUER BOXES AND NESTING DOLLS", ALSO BUY THE NESTING DOLLS OUTSIDE OF THE HERMITAGE, GOOD PRICE, 5 SMALL ONES FOR 10.00 OR 3 LARGE ONES FOR 10.00.

ALLA WAS GREAT... HAVE HER GET YOU "PANCAKE" SANDWICHES TO EAT IN THE VAN, SAVES TIME, THE CHICKEN ONES WERE BETTER THAN THE BEEF!!!

HOPE THIS HELPS..

NAT

[dottiedef]

Yes,easy22----Please more on the other ports. We will be in Copenhagen July1-4 before the July 4th sailing. You certainly helped in our planning. We are staying at the Square. Do you remember seeing it? Hope it is as nice as it sounds. What did you do in the other ports? We are going with DenRus in St P. Hope our experience is as good as yours.

[Crazy4Cruz'n]

Thanks for a great review grabbit97! We go on July 14th - looking forward to it. Thanks for the great info. :)

[grabbit97]

Yes,easy22----Please more on the other ports. We will be in Copenhagen July1-4 before the July 4th sailing. You certainly helped in our planning. We are staying at the Square. Do you remember seeing it? Hope it is as nice as it sounds. What did you do in the other ports? We are going with DenRus in St P. Hope our experience is as good as yours.

 

 

Yes I remember seeing the Square hotel, it was just as it is pictured in photos on the internet... Did go inside tho, we stayed at the HOTEL DUNORD, and it was fabulous.....800Kroner (124.00) a night.. good deal... I think I pretty much told what we did in the other ports in my review... anyone have any other ????

We used ALLA and she was bar none, the best!!!

Nat