Live from the Second Baltic

[Andrew DEREK UK]

You guys are the best, really!

So we're home. We had a stupidly easy travel day (why can't traveling TO your vacation be as easy as traveling FROM your vacation), and stopping off in Canterbury on the way was a really good idea. The Cathedral is as amazing as I had remembered, and DH and the DDs really were taken with it. We had lunch in a lovely tea shop called The Moat Tea Rooms, which I recommend if anyone is making the trip, and then headed to Heathrow. No traffic, easy check-in, flight took off right away and landed 35 minutes EARLY at JFK, not a long wait at customs or baggage claim, and no traffic whatsoever heading home from the airport. Absurd (but I think the city is quiet because of the holiday just ended). The heat is extraordinary (the city set a record yesterday at 103 degrees F), and we are missing the weather in the UK and all over Northern Europe almost as much as we miss everything about the cruise.

Very happy for those on the cruise that's now at sea heading to Oslo, and for you guys counting down to the 18th, you know it's going to be amazing. Andrew, I'll be watching for you on Facebook, and watching the boards for anyone posting on the Baltics. Being on this website right now makes me feel closer to the ship and the wonderful vacation we just had.

Once again thank you, I cannot even try to come anywhere near your comprehensive report, and we have a lot crammed in, I have had some last minute *issues* that have caused a lot of my time to be taken up.

I will update at a point but every port is a day long tour, so little time but with DD;s new camera I bet we will have thousands of photos.

Your a star.

 

[pensfan8771]

aww man that sucks your trip report will not be on here because I love following the Baltic ones that were directly on here!

 

[Andrew DEREK UK]

aww man that sucks your trip report will not be on here because I love following the Baltic ones that were directly on here!

If you PM me I will give you my FB details.

They all have been very good and as you say nice to follow, Wicksey and Cindy have done a fantastic job as if you are there with them, and you don't put all the calories on.

 

[cindy18]

Once again thank you, I cannot even try to come anywhere near your comprehensive report, and we have a lot crammed in, I have had some last minute *issues* that have caused a lot of my time to be taken up.

I will update at a point but every port is a day long tour, so little time but with DD;s new camera I bet we will have thousands of photos.

Your a star.

Hope your last minute issues are not too serious and will only make you appreciate the vacation time when it comes.

Our final tally on pictures was about 1500. DH spent some time this afternoon uploading them all and we'll begin going through them this evening. Brent mentioned on the last night that he had spoken with someone who had averaged about 1,500 photos A DAY. Can you imagine????

 

[cindy18]

Hello and Thank you for your report, you did a great job and was very informative. I enjoyed it very much. So, I have a question for you... Our flight leaves Heathrow at 4pm and I would love to do something before heading to the airport. If we went to Canterbury, would we have enough time for a 4pm flight? and if so what would be the best way of getting there? We have transportation from the port to Heathrow but maybe they can drop us off short or something... I don't even know where Canterbury is, I will check it out though. Tell me your thoughts.
Kay

Well, I think the answer depends mostly on how early you can get off the ship and how much time you want to spend in Canterbury. Canterbury is not far from Dover and really not that out of the way towards Heathrow. It took us about 45 minutes, maybe less, to get from Dover to Canterbury and about 90 minutes (our driver drove VERY fast and we were lucky with the traffic) to get from Canterbury to Heathrow. So for a 4 pm flight, I would say you would need to get to Heathrow no later than 2 and maybe even earlier, depending on how you feel about these things. We spent about 2 1/2 hours in Canterbury, exploring the Cathedral in some detail and wondering the streets before spending a leisurely hour or so at lunch. But you don't have to spend that long. So I think if you work backwards from when you need to get to Heathrow, you should be able to make it work. We asked our driver to drive us to Canterbury and wait for us and then take us to Heathrow. Of course it cost more that way than going straight from Dover to Heathrow, but we felt it was worth it.

Hope that helps.

 

[MrsScooby]

Our final tally on pictures was about 1500. DH spent some time this afternoon uploading them all and we'll begin going through them this evening. Brent mentioned on the last night that he had spoken with someone who had averaged about 1,500 photos A DAY. Can you imagine????

Glad you're home safe and can't wait to see the pictures

And no can't imagine 1500 photos a day
I'll settle for the 1500 per trip

 

[wickesy]

They all have been very good and as you say nice to follow, Wicksey and Cindy have done a fantastic job as if you are there with them, and you don't put all the calories on.

Thanks Andrew. I'm just about to send you a PM as I would love to follow along with you on your cruise.

 

[cindy18]

Glad you're home safe and can't wait to see the pictures

And no can't imagine 1500 photos a day
I'll settle for the 1500 per trip

I know!!! I don't know how there is time to take 1500 pictures a day!!!

DH is thinking to put a slideshow together and post it on flickr. If he does, I will post the link.

 

[MrsScooby]

I know!!! I don't know how there is time to take 1500 pictures a day!!!

DH is thinking to put a slideshow together and post it on flickr. If he does, I will post the link.

If they had a camera that took pictures really fast they could get to 1500 a day-maybe they have a professional grade camera

For me with my slooow camera I'd have to glue it to my face to reach that many

Slide show would be great

Someone posted theirs to our PC repo cruise (using a Phil Collins song -can't remember the title-"I'm on my way"?) and it came out great. Had everyone all teary.

 

[scrapycruiser]

Does anyone remember the hours of the Russian gift shop by the pier ?

 

[cindy18]

Does anyone remember the hours of the Russian gift shop by the pier ?

Can't help you with that one. Didn't even notice one!

OK, so here is a link to a slideshow. DH distilled 1500 photos down to 70. For full effect, turn up the volume on your computer speakers. I think he really captured it.

http://web.me.com/mshaiken/Home_Videos/Baltic_Cruise.html

 

[Cousin Orville]

That was a great slide show! Thanks for sharing it.

 

[scrapycruiser]

Can't help you with that one. Didn't even notice one!

OK, so here is a link to a slideshow. DH distilled 1500 photos down to 70. For full effect, turn up the volume on your computer speakers. I think he really captured it.

http://web.me.com/mshaiken/Home_Videos/Baltic_Cruise.html

What a beautiful slide show ! Thanks for sharing and thanks again for taking the time to blog your cruise !! Outstanding !!

 

[Caropooh]

Can't help you with that one. Didn't even notice one!

OK, so here is a link to a slideshow. DH distilled 1500 photos down to 70. For full effect, turn up the volume on your computer speakers. I think he really captured it.

http://web.me.com/mshaiken/Home_Videos/Baltic_Cruise.html

That was beautiful! Thanks from me also for sharing your trip so wonderfully! I can't believe next week at this time I'll be in London!

 

[buck4568]

Does anyone remember the hours of the Russian gift shop by the pier ?

I do recall a small shop at St. Petersburg terminal and all I can tell you is that we returmed after 7:00pm both days and it was open on at least one of those days. I can visualize the woman standing at the stores door as we returned to the terminal!

 

[buck4568]

That was a great slide show! Thanks for sharing it.

Great job by DH on that! We met briefly at the Internet Cafe and did not get a chanch to chat again but I did enjoy your posts as we traveled!

 

[MrsScooby]

Can't help you with that one. Didn't even notice one!

OK, so here is a link to a slideshow. DH distilled 1500 photos down to 70. For full effect, turn up the volume on your computer speakers. I think he really captured it.

http://web.me.com/mshaiken/Home_Videos/Baltic_Cruise.html

Wow, that was wonderful
So funny..I know you frequently mentioned how nice the weather was but I wasn't fully able to appreciate that until I saw your photos.

Great job putting that slide show together-absolutely loved it
Hoping we manage to do something like that.

Packing soon and trying to decide how to balance the clothes to meet both warmer and colder weather

So not going to miss these 100 degree days

 

[MrsScooby]

I do recall a small shop at St. Petersburg terminal and all I can tell you is that we returmed after 7:00pm both days and it was open on at least one of those days. I can visualize the woman standing at the stores door as we returned to the terminal!

Cool That's good to know

 

[cindy18]

Great job by DH on that! We met briefly at the Internet Cafe and did not get a chanch to chat again but I did enjoy your posts as we traveled!

I remember posting on the boards and meeting you and finding out who you were! Great moment. Loved seeing people from our meet thread around the ship all the time. Made it feel more like home.

 

[lzj21428]

Great slideshow Cindy. Still kicking myself for missing the meet. I'm sure that I saw you and your family around the ship. Just got home last night from an extra two days in London, so need to get our pics downloaded. It will be fun to look through them all.