July 22, 2015 * 12-night Northern European Cruise!

[Florian]

For some reason, I haven't been getting alerts on this thread. I happened to check it, and there was about 4 or 5 new pages. So, welcome to all the new people. We are really looking forward to this cruise.




Florian, Welcome. One of my first patients, as a nursing student, had Duchenne's, and I presented a small paper on it for my class.

Thank you . It's amazing to find someone who even knows what Duchenne is, it is very not very well known. We even had a tricky time in our hospital (which is a HUGE specialised teaching hospital) when he transferred from paediatrics because at that time pretty much no-one survived to adulthood and the adult clinicians have never come across it and didn't know what they should be doing.

It helps though that I am a manager in the hospital so was able to tweak some of the doctors I know and they have made a fabulous effort (and expanded their knowledge at the same time).

I will say I think nurses are awesome, the nurses I work with are really pretty amazing people, especially in some of the specialities which require such dedication and fortitude.

 

[Florian]

Florian!

I've added your family to our Roll Call. This will certainly be a special cruise for all of you.

Thanks so much for all the helpful info you provided! It's great to have another UK and Baltic expert to help us with our planning!

Thank for the welcome. I should possibly point out on the roll call that we are technically DH1 + DH2 (and DH1 brother and mum)

 

[Florian]

A quick note for mobile phone users...

3 offers "feel at home" in Denmark, Sweden and Finland which means that you don't pay any additional costs to use your data, texts and minutes from your home (UK) contract.

For those not currently with 3 they do a one month contract with 600 minutes, as many texts as you wish and as much data as you wish for £25. With the month contract you could get it for the cruise and cancel immediately afterwards and just pay the £25. I don't know if non-UK residents can take out a contract but it might be worth an ask.

 

[Deb T.]

Thank for the welcome. I should possibly point out on the roll call that we are technically DH1 + DH2 (and DH1 brother and mum)

Oops! I'm really sorry for the assumption, my sincerest apologies! I will make the correction now!

 

[krisinparis]

Nice to see you on the boards Florian!

 

[ctnurse]

Thank you . It's amazing to find someone who even knows what Duchenne is, it is very not very well known. We even had a tricky time in our hospital (which is a HUGE specialised teaching hospital) when he transferred from paediatrics because at that time pretty much no-one survived to adulthood and the adult clinicians have never come across it and didn't know what they should be doing.

It helps though that I am a manager in the hospital so was able to tweak some of the doctors I know and they have made a fabulous effort (and expanded their knowledge at the same time).

I will say I think nurses are awesome, the nurses I work with are really pretty amazing people, especially in some of the specialities which require such dedication and fortitude.

I still remember my instructor telling me how" lucky" I was that we had a patient with Duchenne's, since it is so uncommon in adults.

Yes, I have to agree nurses are pretty awesome.

 

[DisneyConvert]

A quick note for mobile phone users...

3 offers "feel at home" in Denmark, Sweden and Finland which means that you don't pay any additional costs to use your data, texts and minutes from your home (UK) contract.

For those not currently with 3 they do a one month contract with 600 minutes, as many texts as you wish and as much data as you wish for £25. With the month contract you could get it for the cruise and cancel immediately afterwards and just pay the £25. I don't know if non-UK residents can take out a contract but it might be worth an ask.

More info on phone/text/data in England-Copenhagen-Sweden-Finland, etc. please!

I am on Verizon with an Android and would love to continue using my device for touring, directions, reservations and the occasional text and email off, and even on the ship.

Realizing that convenience has a price and DCL is not 4G, anyone have suggestions? Buying a European SIM card (and the appropriate 2 week plan)in London when we arrive appears to be the right step, yes?

 

[Florian]

More info on phone/text/data in England-Copenhagen-Sweden-Finland, etc. please!

I am on Verizon with an Android and would love to continue using my device for touring, directions, reservations and the occasional text and email off, and even on the ship.

Realizing that convenience has a price and DCL is not 4G, anyone have suggestions? Buying a European SIM card (and the appropriate 2 week plan)in London when we arrive appears to be the right step, yes?

So ....

There is not such thing as a "European" SIM, each country has its own companies and charges. So for example if you get a UK sim you will pay hefty charges to call anywhere other than the UK from another European country. So for example on Three if you can call the UK from Copenhagen for no additional cost as it is included in all their plans. On the same plan though calling from Copenhagen to the US will cost £0.16 per minute.

Thus if you are planning to call home to the US you will probably be better off with a US plan with roaming.

If however...

You can restrict yourself to using data only (by using iMessage, WhatsApp or Facebook for example instead of texting and FaceTime or Skype instead of calling) you can get a pretty decent deal by getting a UK SIM.

There is currently legislation going through in Europe to restrict how high the charges phone companies can be. Most companies are busy making as much money as possible before this comes in. Three on the other hand is bucking this trend and has thrown down the gauntlet of very good value pricing.

They have introduced "Feel At Home" which means that in the countries in the program you pay nothing extra to use your UK allowance in that country. For this cruise this includes Denmark, Sweden and Finland. Estonia has relatively modest charging. Russia is exceedingly expensive (though this is true from all UK providers).

If you go to a 3 store and get a free SIM and buy a £15 Add-on. This will give you unlimited data, 300 minutes and 3000 texts. In many regards the minutes and texts are irrelevant, but the data is worth it (apps don't care where you are thanks to the joys of the internet). Note in Feel At Home countries your data is capped at 25Gb (which is huge by mobile phone standards).

As an aside if you have more than one mobile phone in your party if you all have 3 contracts the texts and minutes can be used between each other for no additional charge (as they will effectively be considered to both be based in the UK).

Charges for the other 2 countries are:
Estonia
£0.19 per minute to make calls, £0.05 to receive calls, texts £0.06, data £0.20 per Mb. Receiving voicemail £0.19 per minute
Russia
£3 per minute to make calls, £1.25 per minute to receive calls, texts £0.50. Data £6 per Mb, recieving voice mail £3 per minute

I would note that UK phone providers can sometimes get funny if you are not UK resident and may not sell you a plan. You amy want to contact their customer support department beforehand. You are more likely to get a Pay As You Go SIM than a contract SIM

Getting a UK sim on pretty much any network without a plan is easy enough to do, but the charges are normally very high, the bargains are in the plans.

I hope this makes sense, let me know if it doesn't

 

[DISNEY FANTASY]

You can get all in European SIM cards in London and at airports. Most airlines sell them, and there are on sale in duty free shops, I would guess Dover terminal shop will sell them.

 

[owensamo]

We have AT&T and our phones aren't unlocked - a different SIM won't do us much good. DD and I plan to go into airplane mode and turn on Wifi, DH is going to add international calling and data to his plan for the month, since he needs to be available for work. He should have service wherever we go, and DD and I will just use free Wifi when we can find it for our Facebook and Instagram posts!

 

[Celestine]

We have AT&T and our phones aren't unlocked - a different SIM won't do us much good. DD and I plan to go into airplane mode and turn on Wifi, DH is going to add international calling and data to his plan for the month, since he needs to be available for work. He should have service wherever we go, and DD and I will just use free Wifi when we can find it for our Facebook and Instagram posts!

Quite a few ports have internet cafe's either in or very close to the port - just follow the DCL crew!

 

[DISNEY FANTASY]

We have AT&T and our phones aren't unlocked - a different SIM won't do us much good. DD and I plan to go into airplane mode and turn on Wifi, DH is going to add international calling and data to his plan for the month, since he needs to be available for work. He should have service wherever we go, and DD and I will just use free Wifi when we can find it for our Facebook and Instagram posts!

This is what I do, in Europe we have rules for our citizens so as one community the phone cos can't exploit us, my provider has an add on package for a set fee, I used one for my 12 night Med cruise, the only place it didn't cover was Turkey, and I posted a live blog on it.

 

[DISNEY FANTASY]

Quite a few ports have internet cafe's either in or very close to the port - just follow the DCL crew!

Good idea but you have to wait for them to get off as their not allowed first thing in port, we have to get the opportunity to get off first. I am sure in Copenhagen the shops opposite GS has an Internet terminal, the port of Tallinn had a good wifi connection for free, I used it from our verandah.

 

[Deb T.]

About ten years ago, we bought a really cheap cell phone in Hong Kong that we only use when we travel out of the US. On our 2010 Baltic cruise, we were able to buy a sim card in London for £10 that worked perfectly for the few short phone calls we made during the trip.

 

[DISNEY FANTASY]

Update from DCL to me at this time of posting;-

We do not receive the onboard schedule in advance to know which shows will be playing each evening or what activities will be hosted each day. These will be determined onboard in your Personal Navigator. However, we do know the three different dining rotations that will be offered for the sailing and we can a specific request to your reservation for you. The three rotations are as follows:

A - Animator's Palate, L - Lumiere's, C - Cariocas

• Rotation #1: LACLACLACLAC
• Rotation #2: ACLACLACLACL
• Rotation #3: CLACLACLACLA

Formal night for the sailing will be on Thursday July 23rd and Semi-Formal night will be on Saturday August 1st. There will not be a pirate night onboard this sailing. The second and fourth time you are at Animator's Palate is when we host our two interactive shows in the dining room no matter which rotation you are on.

OK revised my guess on menus and entertainment;-

• Wed Let the Magic Begin L A C Dover 4pm Let the Magic Begin
• Thur Formal ,Prince and Princess A C L North Sea Formal Twice Charmed
• Fri Taste of Denmark C L A Copenhagen 9am Guest Entertainer
• Sat Rotational L A C Copenhagen 4.45pm Guest Entertainer If AP "SHOW"
• Sun Rotational A C L Sea day Villains Tonight If AP "SHOW"
• Mon Rotational C L A Stockholm 8am>4.45pm Guest Entertainer If AP "SHOW"
• Tue Taste of Nordic/ Baltic. L A C Helsinki 10.30am>6pm Once upon a song
• Wed Taste of Russia A C L St Petersburg 9.30am Film night/Russian deck party
• Thur Masterchef C L A St Petersburg 6.15pm Guest Entertainer
• Fri Frozen L A C Tallinn 8am>12.45 DIsney Dreams *if AP Animation magic.
• Sat Semi Formal, Captains Gala A C L Sea day The Dream goes on.*if AP Animation magic.
• Sun Till we meet again C L A Sea day Remember the Magic*if AP Animation magic.
• Mon Breakfast CLA in Dover and disembark. 9.30 am ( official time quoted)

 

[Florian]

You can get all in European SIM cards in London and at airports. Most airlines sell them, and there are on sale in duty free shops, I would guess Dover terminal shop will sell them.

True enough, but it will be based in the country you buy it in, thus when you use it in another country you will be subject to the international charges of that carrier. So if you get a SIM in Dover (or indeed Heathrow) it will likely be UK based carrier.

This is what I do, in Europe we have rules for our citizens so as one community the phone cos can't exploit us, my provider has an add on package for a set fee, I used one for my 12 night Med cruise, the only place it didn't cover was Turkey, and I posted a live blog on it.

Absolutely true and the rules are getting tighter on what they can charge. Pretty much all UK providers do an add on for European countries and some do a package for other countries. I tend to use 3 because they have a tranche of European countries that are included without needing the add-on. You then only need the add-on for the time in countries not covered (on our cruise Tallinn, Estonia). Like on your Med cruise, Russia is not covered on the Baltic cruise (and our recent visit proved how jaw droppingly expensive using mobile phone in Russia can be).

 

[Florian]

Good idea but you have to wait for them to get off as their not allowed first thing in port, we have to get the opportunity to get off first. I am sure in Copenhagen the shops opposite GS has an Internet terminal, the port of Tallinn had a good wifi connection for free, I used it from our verandah.

I am a big fan of the wifi attitude in Talinn, the city provides it free and it is pretty good and reliable. We used it quite a bit when we visited.

It is available in quite a few locations in the city. Just join TallinnWIFI network and you are good to go.

 

[Florian]

In Copenhagen a lot of coffee shops and cafes offer free wifi, and the Copenhagen Visitor Centre (just over the road from Tivoli) has free wifi.

Stockholm is the same (with cafes etc), though the Stockholm Visitor centre is not as convenient as Copenhagen, about a 15 minute walk from Gamla Stan up Drottninggatan to Sergels Torg (you do need to ask staff for the access code though. Many hotels have wifi to which you can use in the lobby. You may have to ask for a code, but we found many quite nice about this though not strictly available for non hotel residents (sometimes getting a coffee there helps).

Helsinki has a city provided wifi, the network is called "Helsinki City Open WLAN". Hot spots are available in various locations, mostly around public buildings. You can also get 30 minutes free from the NextMesh wifi network in the city. The port has free wifi in the cruise terminal.

There was wifi on the trams, but that has sadly been stopped as it was interfering with onboard systems. IT has been promised that it will come back but so far there has been no sign of it.

St Petersburg is trickier, wifi is available in some cafes and bars, but you have to buy at least a drink and some still have a charge. We found MacDonalds usually have free wifi, though it can be a bit slow. Bizarrely one place that does have free wifi is the Peterhof park (network is called Obit) which is a tourism initiative between the Museum and the Obit Telecoms company. I am told the port has wifi but I know nothing about it.

 

[Deb T.]

In Copenhagen a lot of coffee shops and cafes offer free wifi, and the Copenhagen Visitor Centre (just over the road from Tivoli) has free wifi.

Stockholm is the same (with cafes etc), though the Stockholm Visitor centre is not as convenient as Copenhagen, about a 15 minute walk from Gamla Stan up Drottninggatan to Sergels Torg (you do need to ask staff for the access code though. Many hotels have wifi to which you can use in the lobby. You may have to ask for a code, but we found many quite nice about this though not strictly available for non hotel residents (sometimes getting a coffee there helps).

Helsinki has a city provided wifi, the network is called "Helsinki City Open WLAN". Hot spots are available in various locations, mostly around public buildings. You can also get 30 minutes free from the NextMesh wifi network in the city. The port has free wifi in the cruise terminal.

There was wifi on the trams, but that has sadly been stopped as it was interfering with onboard systems. IT has been promised that it will come back but so far there has been no sign of it.

St Petersburg is trickier, wifi is available in some cafes and bars, but you have to buy at least a drink and some still have a charge. We found MacDonalds usually have free wifi, though it can be a bit slow. Bizarrely one place that does have free wifi is the Peterhof park (network is called Obit) which is a tropism initiative between the Museum and the Obit Telecoms company. I am told the port has wifi but I know nothing about it.

Wow! LOTS of great info! Thanks so much for taking the time to post it all!!!

 

[awaghorn]

Update from DCL to me at this time of posting;-

We do not receive the onboard schedule in advance to know which shows will be playing each evening or what activities will be hosted each day. These will be determined onboard in your Personal Navigator. However, we do know the three different dining rotations that will be offered for the sailing and we can a specific request to your reservation for you. The three rotations are as follows:

A - Animator's Palate, L - Lumiere's, C - Cariocas

• Rotation #1: LACLACLACLAC
• Rotation #2: ACLACLACLACL
• Rotation #3: CLACLACLACLA

Formal night for the sailing will be on Thursday July 23rd and Semi-Formal night will be on Saturday August 1st. There will not be a pirate night onboard this sailing. The second and fourth time you are at Animator's Palate is when we host our two interactive shows in the dining room no matter which rotation you are on.

Thanks for sharing. Was this from shoreside concierge?

What is your thinking on the best rotation?