Just back from the Baltic Cruise - lessons learned...

[aggiedog]

We got back late last night from the May 30 sailing. We had a wonderful time. There was our family of 6 (kids ages 15, 15, 12, 9), and my parents (ages 72, 74.)

Things I would do differently or for sure do again, or just random thoughts:

Private tours in each of the ports are better than DCL excursions by far. We did private in Tallinn and St. Petersburg and they were far, far superior to the DCL excursions. Primarily because you could see more of the cities, with more local flavor and knowledge. Our guides for each city were great, and we could change plans on the fly, stop for a rest, etc, no problem. For Helsinki, half the family did the DCL reindeer tour, the other half the speed boat. I'm glad I did the reindeer, for the simple reason of seeing them, but we saw none of the city. The other group enjoyed the speed boat, but for the cost, they saw even less of Helskinki. We did the DCL Ostermalhallen (sp?) food market tour in Stockholm. We spent the majority of time on the bus gridlocked in traffic. We literally had 20 minutes at the market and the Vasa. If you needed to use the restroom, then you really didn't get to see anything. A private tour there could have maneuvered traffic better than a big bus and we wouldn't have been so pressed for time to get back to the ship so they could do the second tour that afternoon.

Bring warm clothes. For this Texas family, the Baltic was COLD. I'd've brought more long sleeve shirts and few different sweaters or hoodies.

The verandah was nice, but it was not sit outside and sip coffee sort of weather for us. I could have skipped it and just done a port hole if money had been a serious issue (spend it on private excursions instead.)

Our 5B cabin was just fine. We were in 6062 and 6058, right off the elevators. I was worried about the noise, but there was basically none. The rooms seem to be very well sound insulated.

Our servers were fantastic. We really had a good time with them.

The Frozen party was cute. Would I write home about it? Probably not. There's only so much hyperactive singing and dancing this mom can take.

The pool was COLD. The pool deck was cold. My 9yo ds swam every day. He is insane. I was up there bundled up in blankets. 15yo dd swam once, to say she did the slide. She said the slide was fine, but getting up out of the water at the end was frigid.

My older 3 girls loved the kids clubs. My youngest, 9 yo ds, liked it ok, but he refuses to join in for activities. He did meet several other boys in the clubs though, that he ran the ship with - bouncing from club to arcade to pool.

The coffee on board is terrible. And paying for a cappuccino? After what we paid for the cruise? It galled me but I did it since I was desperate.

The food was good. We didn't do Palo, but the MDR's were just fine. Not always stellar, but never bad, and I liked the regional selections as I'm a big fish eater.

That's all I can think of for now. Feel free to ask questions.

 

[DISNEY FANTASY]

Private tours in each of the ports are better than DCL excursions by far. We did private in Tallinn and St. Petersburg and they were far, far superior to the DCL excursions. Primarily because you could see more of the cities

fully agree.

 

[ctnurse]

Thank you for sharing.

We have booked all non DCL excursions for all the reasons that you have listed. We booked an OV, because I don't think that we would enjoy the verandah with the cooler weather.

I can't wait to eat ALL the seafood when onboard. I am landlocked and good seafood is expensive and hard to get. I also agree about the horrible coffee, DH and I *made* friends with the CM at Cove Cafe, since we were there at least daily.

Did you notice the wine list? Was it different than what is on the Caribbean Sailings?

 

[ctnurse]

I forgot to ask. What company did you use for you excursions?

 

[aggiedog]

In Tallinn we did a food tour:

http://www.foodsightseeing.ee/en Our guide, Kurtu, was fabulous. She discussed at length the political and social changes in Estonia, including her family's experience with the Russian occupation. She was a teen when they regained independence, so had first person experience there as well.

In SPB we used TJ Travel. We had a guide and driver from 9:30-ish until dinner at 8:00pm when our guide left us and the driver sat outside the restaurant. It was seamless. We drove a bit and some some sights in SPB, spent a few hours at the Hermitage, had lunch at a Russian fast food joint (Tepomok), went to a "Cat museum" for dd (home of retired hermitage mousers and some rescue cats), took the Hydrofoil to Peterhof fountains, went out for coffee, then had dinner at Teplo. I would have liked to squeeze either the Faberge museum or the Impressionist section (a separate location and entrance fee) of the Hermitage but knew my kids would not be up for it. Dinner was fabulous. I'd highly recommend it, but you need reservations pretty far in advance.

 

[aggiedog]

Sorry, I've never been on DCL before, so can't comment on the wine list. It was decent from what I remember. We are not huge wine drinkers. They did have local beers, including a tasty Icelandic white ale with orange and coriander.

 

[closetmickey]

Thanks!

2 questions- is Tepomok worth requesting in our private tour? I was thinking that my 3DDs would like to see "Russian Fast Food" but then I decided we should just go with the flow for lunch in our tour.

Can you share a few more details regarding the high speed boat? We have that booked as well.

Thank you!

 

[aggiedog]

Tepemok is the Russian version of McDonalds. Fast and cheap. Decent food. Lots of odd things. If your kids are ok with a bit of uncertainty in what they are actually getting, it's a fun experience. There is an English menu but there are some translation issues ("bacon" is actually ham, etc.) The pelmini (small meat dumplings) were very good. We could have gotten a double portion easily. The salads were tiny (older dd was disappointed). The blini came in many varieties, some with identifiable fillings, some not so much.

You can google it under "Teremok" which is the English translation apparently.

Dh, 3 kids, and my dad did the high speed boat tour. The upside was it was apparently hair-raisingly fun, in a "I'm terrified I'm going to fling out of the boat, my snot is flying into the person behind me, but hey, I have a huge flotation device on so it should be ok" sort of way. My dad said his prostrate may never be the same. You don't quite sit, but kind of straddle a large padded fat bar with a back. The down side was that we were in port from 12:00 to 5:00. Their excursion met at 2:15, so not enough time to comfortable go to town before, and not enough time after. The excursion was drive to the boat launch, ride the boat, stop at an island for sausage, then back to the launch and the ship. They basically saw none of Helsinki, which bummed all the older folks out (9yo ds could have cared less.) For the cost, dh and my dad both said they'd rather have done a more inclusive tour of the city.

 

[aggiedog]

One more random thought: The navigator app was only marginally useful. Chatting was next to impossible as there was up to an hour delay between sending and receiving. It was also oddly difficult to even set up chatting. We had to go to guest services to have them help. You need to input your name exactly like their computer system has it, but some of us had our middle names attached to our first names, with no capitalization. Some of the information, particularly disembarkation, was specific only to Barcelona (??). I found it easier to just carry the folded up Navigator schedule in my pocket. The wave phones were bulky and hard to hear if there was any background noise. I found myself wishing I'd just brought a dry erase board for the door so the kids could check in for messages during the day.