Redux: Emperors and Palaces

[Kane]

Here's a recap of our recent Aug 03 "Emperors & Palaces" Copenhagen-Stockholm Baltic voyage, which was great! Had a chance to meet and dine with a few "Cruise Critics" ... which was also great.

We decided to use air miles to get to Copenhagen and decided to fly in a day early on the possibility that there might be an airline hiccup. The hiccup did occur at JFK and we missed our connection from BRU to CPH but did arrive in the evening … we would have missed the sailing had we not flown early.

 

We walked over to Tivoli for a late dinner. As we were heading back to the hotel we noticed an announcement about the 11:00 PM show and decided to stay and were glad we did … giant puppets of the Hans Christian Anderson tales with fireworks at the end.

 

In the morning we took the canal tour, which was good, and had a chance to see the Insignia docked very near, next to the Little Mermaid. Instead of a cab, we took the subway two stops and strolled to the ship. Embarkation was a snap with no mob scene in the Insignia lounge instead of on the dock.

 

Boarding Insignia was a bit eerie. We had been on the Regatta last November and, the Insignia its sister-ship, it seemed as if we had never left the Regatta. Is this a clever psychological stratagem utilized by Oceania to make a total of 24 days of cruising seem 9-months long? I didn’t make a detailed comparison but the only difference that affected me was that the early morning coffee and pastries in Horizons was on a counter at the aft end of the lounge instead of a table along the window.

 

Oh, the other changes were the cabanas at the forward end of the 11th deck. Unless they are popular on Med (or other) voyages, “O” should consider making them “go away” … I only saw 2 instances of occupation on my many visits up there. The main activity observed was the daily set-up/stowage by crew members … the revenue probably didn’t come close to covering personnel costs and they just get in the way of other “non-cabana” passengers wanting to view sail-in/sail-away.

 

That’s enough ship description. It was superior and has been hashed-over enough in the past and will continue to be discussed in other threads.

 

The crew, as on the Regatta, was also superior. Friendliness and service appears to be an integral part of “O”. This is most likely a policy of Joe Watters, the chairman, who happened to be on-board and made a very nice presentation at the initial gathering in the Insignia lounge. He, in fact, is as personable and approachable as he appeared in his formal presentation. He regularly mixed and mingled with the guests at all public gatherings and is one of those individuals that can remember names.

 

He and his wife Virgina, the Insignia “Godmother”, also joined the thundering herd on “O” tours. He was late re-boarding at the Cruiser Aurora stop in St. Petersburg … I wanted to tell him that it wasn’t the same type of “cruiser” and not competition for the Insignia, but maybe there are plans to mount 8” guns on the “O” fleet.

 

For those considering future Baltic cruises, it’s my opinion that the “counter-clockwise” voyage is the better one to choose … we lucked-out on this. Visiting Riga, Gdansk, and Warnemunde at the end would be a bit anti-climatic. These ports, although interesting, are a bit light on “pizzazz”.

 

In Warnemunde we bailed-out on our plan to take the train to Lubeck and visited Rostock and the boardwalk at Warnemunde instead, which is a popular area where Germans come to vacate. There were a lot of tempting sidewalk food stands (bratwurst and schnitzel) but we opted for lunch on-board at the Terrace Café … the pasta was excellent, and the price was right.

 

We normally avoid ship tours but elected to take the “O” tour of Gdansk because my pre-cruise research indicated getting to town was difficult. It turned out to be a good move as, because of weather, the ship docked in Gydnia instead … the sea state didn’t seem high to me but, as an indication, there were barf bags stacked in many locations throughout the ship. The tour was o.k., that’s all. One interesting observation was the difference in the offerings of food by the sidewalk vendors along the “long dock”, which were kielbasa and pig’s knuckles (I would have thought the knuckles would be in Warnemunde). Interesting thing learned, and not on the Letterman show: Amber … does it float?

 

Riga, Visby, and Tallinn were all within easy walking distance from the dock, and each increasing in interest moving toward St. Petersburg. One interesting side-trip was to the Rocca al Mare open air museum of Estonian farm and other architecture outside of Tallinn. My Estonian language abilities are “somewhat lacking”, but deduced we were to take the #7 tram. While trying to figure out the ticket machine, a local gent escorted us to the tram and gave us two tickets. The kindness of the Estonians did not end there for, as we were to discover, Rocca al Mare is also the name of a shopping center where another Estonian found us wandering around looking for the museum entrance and drove us there a few kilometers away. This made our visit to Tallinn.

 

St. Petersburg was, of course, the highlight of the voyage. After several attempts at joining a group with Denrus and Red October, we gave up and decided on ship tours. The complicating factor was that the Insignia was to moor at the English Dock, which is not serviced except for custom private tours. As it turned out we moored at the commercial pier and the outside group tours would have been possible.

 

The ship tours turned out to be very good with excellent guides. They were made much better by the fact that the guides used transmitters with headsets for each of us. The narration was perfectly audible, regardless of the number of other groups in the vicinity.

 

Our first guide, Tatiana, was a master at moving a large group through the multiple and varied venues. Catherine’s palace was more than I had expected … intentionally larger and more ornate than Versailles in Paris. Church of the Resurrection (Spilled Blood) was spectacular, but the Russians need to spend a few Rubles so that a photo can be taken without the telephone wires in the way.

 

Friends warned us that the Hermitage would be a mob scene, so we were pleasantly surprised when “O” got us there early before the crowds. Our guide Anna, a Russian history teacher, explained that she would move the group through the five buildings with special stops at the significant masterpieces. This worked out extremely well as the tour was done at a reasonable pace with emphasis on the significant works of art and architecture. Tatiana and Anna were knowledgeable and excellent professional guides.

 

Helsinki was a good wind-down port. We took the ferry to Suomenlinna, the fortification island at the strategic entrance to the harbor, seen on the tricky morning sail-in. The ferry dock was located very near the ship’s mooring. We were glad we did this a.s.a.p. because we walked the island before the mob arrived … we were back on board having lunch watching the fully-packed ferries headed out.

 

From our prior Regatta cruise, we were expecting a disembarkation mob scene. To our surprise, the Stockholm departure was well organized and scheduled with multiple time slots of mini-mobs. Stockholm … another story for another time.