The 3rd Baltic - July 6 - 18... a trip report group effort

[nzdisneymom]

We had a long weekend in St. Augustine and were computer-free, so I'm just now getting back to our trip report. Where were we? Oh yes - Copenhagen night. I stopped just after dinner ...

After dinner, we had a full laundry basket, so we did some laundry and settled back to watch the scenery. DS14 came in around 10 p.m. and told us that the Ocean Quest CMs were talking about a bridge we were going under at some point in the night, so I called Guest Services to find out about it. It was the bridge that connects Denmark and Sweden - I remember seeing a webcast when the Oasis went under and it was spectacular. They were expecting us to pass under around 11:30 but by the time I called, the ETA was 12:10 AM. So we did what anyone who wasn't going into Berlin the next day should do - and that was order milk and cookies from room service and wait up! It was so worth the shorter sleep we got as we were not having to get up so early for Berlin the next morning. What was wonderful was that our return under the bridge was in the early evening and it was truly spectacular - but more about that in a few days!

Saturday, July 10th - Germany day. When we sailed the Med, we had several long days of excursions and while the boys are older for this trip, we knew they wouldn't last for St. Petersburg if we wore them out before then - so even with a day and a half at sea between Germany and Russia, we trusted our instincts and planned a partial day for the Warnemunde area. Plus the clocks had been going forward nearly every night so we were losing an hour and knew it would catch up with us soon.

Our excursion was the Molli Steam train - we took a bus to Bad Doberan which has a middle ages monastery / abbey that was absolutely beautiful both inside and out. The stained glass windows were a work of art. Then we met the train in the town, rode about 20 minutes through the countryside where we rejoined our bus to go to a seaside village whose name escapes me. We had a wonderful dessert at a hotel and then roamed for an hour. We walked to the beach and out to the end of the pier to get a good look at the Baltic Sea.

We returned to the ship, had lunch, sent the kids off to play and then ventured out in search of wifi in town but never found any for free. But we did walk to the beach - we were going to stick our feet in the water but the beach was so crowded we never left the path. there was a festival of sorts going on so the town was crowded. I had expected Warnemunde to be my favorite port as a sleepy seaside / fishing village, but it was hopping and crowded. We had a hard time finding a shop with the souvenirs we wanted (thimble and spoon from every country) but finally did.

The ship was half empty even by dinner time. We skipped dinner and saw the Prince of Persia which we really enjoyed. It was in the Walt Disney Theater. Got pictures with Mickey and Minnie in their Germany costumes - part of my collection, you know.

The trains were late getting back from Berlin so we left later than expected - but what a sailaway! We had to go further into the port to turn the ship around and as we were leaving, the town had fireworks and we were escorted out by boats blowing their horns and throngs of people lining the sides of the water. I believe that the fireworks were part of the festival / activities they had for the day, but the cruise director said later on that the town had delayed sending the fireworks off until we were leaving. It was a great party atmosphere - I'm just sorry that those who were so late and exhausted from Berlin missed it.

Next up - another Sea Day!

 

[Deb T.]

Warnemunde is a northern German port, and we had decided to do an all-day excursion to see historic Berlin. The Magic docked directly across the street from the train station so it was quite convenient to walk across the street and board the train for our 3-hour trip. We set an early Mickey Mouse wake-up call for 5:45am, dressed, and grabbed a way-too-early breakfast at Topsiders, which was a good thing since the snack box offered on the train wasn't very appetizing, and it was nearly 2pm before we stopped for lunch! We check in for our “Berlin Discovery” excursion at 6:30am in the Walt Disney Theatre.

The train was clean and each car was divided into several different types of passenger compartments. Fortunately, it was specially chartered for DCL guests so it went directly to Berlin without stopping for passengers at any of the train stations along the way, although it did have to slow down and stop from time to time as trains were switching tracks quite often. The trains were not air conditioned, so it got a little warm and stuffy as the ride went on (but nothing compared to our sweltering ride back!). We lucked into our own little compartment that had five seats – two facing forward and three facing backward. They provided a snack box that had bread with some sort of garlic spread, “Capri-Sonne” (the German version of an orange flavored Capri Sun), a tasty chocolate wafer bar, an apple, and water.

In Berlin, we were directed to our bus for our tour. The first stop on the tour was the East Side Gallery, the 1km stretch of the actual remaining Berlin Wall that stood as a barrier between East and West Berlin from August 13, 1961 to November 9, 1989. The Berlin Wall had literally been erected overnight (after months of denial from officials that any such thing would happen) in order to keep any more East Berliners from defecting to West Berlin. Many families were split, and a lot of people became separated from their jobs on the other side of the wall. In 2009, artists from all over the world were invited to paint murals in honor of the 20th year anniversary of the wall coming down. The paintings are extremely varied with each artists’ interpretation of the wall’s past, present, and future. We spent about ten minutes there snapping photos and touching the wall. One of DH’s favorite photos from the trip was an impromptu shot of just both of our hands touching the wall together.

We then headed off to explore the area around Checkpoint Charlie. This was the checkpoint between the Soviet and American sectors of Berlin and the scene of the famous standoff between Russian and US tanks. (A bit of fascinating history here regarding the standoff: ten Soviet tanks stopped just short of the checkpoint on the Soviet side of the wall as US tanks also approached and stopped an equal distance from it on the American side. From 5pm on October, 27, 1961 until 11am the next day, the respective troops faced each other. As per standing orders, both groups of tanks were loaded with live munitions and both groups had orders to fire if fired upon! Finally, Khrushchev and Kennedy agreed to reduce tensions by withdrawing the tanks. Kennedy's offer was to go easy on Berlin in the future in return for the Soviets removing their tanks first and the Soviets agreed. Slowly, a Soviet tank moved about 5 meters backward first; then an American tank followed suit. One by one, the tanks withdrew until the standoff ended.) Today, this important relic of the cold war is surrounded by a busy city street with no wall in sight. However, you only need to look downward, because bricks have been placed in the streets, sidewalks, and ground all over Berlin to indicate where the wall once stood.

We reboarded the bus for the Brandenburg Gate and had about fifteen minutes for photos. We then walked to The Reichstag, Germany’s very impressive parliament building. Back on the bus, we were driven past a Holocaust Memorial of 2,711 different sized concrete blocks to represent those killed. We also drove past assorted government buildings, a shopping mall, and the remnants of the 19th century Kaiser Wilhelm Gedachtnis church that was bombed during the war. Only the church tower remains and still has pock marks from bomb damage. We finally ended up at a hotel for our authentic German lunch that consisted of a salad, pork chops in a nice brown gravy, meatballs on sauerkraut, broccoli and carrots, mashed potatoes, and boiled potatoes (all served in large metal pans family-style), a glass of coke (no refills), and a slice of apple strudel for dessert. The food was excellent, and we ate heartily!

Before setting us free for some shopping on our own, our tour guide gave each of us a half-sheet of paper that had details written in German that would help us make our way back to the ship in case we became lost, which I thought was great! DH and I first went to take a look at the bombed church tower and then went over to the little indoor mall to try to keep cool. We still had some time to kill, so we ended up walking back toward our designated meeting spot and bought a coke from a little café.

Soon, our bus pulled up and we all loaded back on to head back to the train station. Traffic was thick, so the bus stopped along a street quite a ways from the train depot. The guide ushered us out of the bus and just pointed and said to head “in that direction”, so there was quite a bit of confusion as to where we were supposed to go. We soon found people with signs and made it to our train, but weren’t as lucky this time to have our little compartment to ourselves for the sweltering ride back to port because three adults decided they wanted to sit in our section, too. We were once again supplied with a snack box, but this time it contained a meat sandwich (not refrigerated) and runny yogurt. Cold drinks were for purchase only, and we were provided with a bottle of warm water to share with everyone in the compartment.

We headed straight for the drink station to rehydrate immediately upon boarding the ship, and then also grabbed a little snack (pizza and french fries). Tonight’s “show” was a special movie viewing of Prince of Persia, so it was not a big disappointment when we missed it because we knew we could watch it at home.

We took some time to cool down a little bit in our cabin before heading to Parrot Cay for our Island Theme dinner. During dinner, the captain announced that the second chartered train was delayed (all trains had, in fact, stopped!) and our 8:30pm departure would be held for the 500 wayward passengers (including two of our tablemates) before heading out, which worked to our advantage because leaving port was very, very fun (and we would have missed it otherwise while in the middle of dinner)!

The port was full of cruise ships, and the maneuvering space was small, so the captain announced we would be sailing a mile farther into Germany until we reached an area where he could turn the ship around before heading back out to the open sea. The decks were packed with fellow cruisers and many of our ship’s officers, all out to watch our departure. All sizes of personal watercraft were zipping alongside our ship (sometimes really, really close!), tons of people were waving from the docks and shoreline, fireworks were going off just to the starboard side of us, and the captain was sounding our “When You Wish Upon a Star” horn often! At first, we thought the fireworks weren’t for us – that they were actually in celebration of the World Cup 3rd place competition taking place that evening - but as NZDisneyMom said, our Cruise Director (Peter) announced later that the town had indeed delayed the fireworks until our departure! Thanks, Germany!

Although most of our Baltic ports were having record high temperatures, and this day was long and hot, DH and I are still very glad we chose to go to Berlin. (Of course, we had the advantage of no children with us on this trip. ) Although we were just toddlers when the wall went up, DH and I vividly remember the excitement of the Berlin Wall coming down, so it was pretty amazing to us that we were standing there, touching it!

Adults had the option of making Flubber in the Oceaneer Lab at 10:45pm, but we were just too wiped out to go. Tonight the clocks went forward again - our 7th time zone in the last 8 days - no wonder we're exhausted! Tomorrow was a much needed sea day.....

 

[nzdisneymom]

Sunday - July 11th - a day at sea. A day to sleep in. At least that's what half of my family did. DS12 got up at 8:15 as he needed the restroom and then didn't want to climb back up on the bunk. Every time we've sailed, he's had the top bunk, but I think by the time we sail Alaska, that will be the last time for him. We'll be going to two cabins. DH and DS14 slept til after 10:30 a.m.

I got a load of laundry done. Surprisingly, there wasn't a crowd in the laundry room that early. I only had the one load as we'd just done one the day before. Splitting it into lights and darks really made things more manageable for us this trip.

I decided that since we had dinner at Lumiere's for this night that I would collect all three meals there for the day. So I took myself to breakfast and was seated next to CarolAnnC and Crissup and their family. I'm glad I was because Carol mentioned the shopping guide talk which I hadn't seen on the Navigator yet.

Earlier in the week I had looked for a cruise ship Mickey in the gift shop but they were out. One of the CMs (Fortunate, I think his name was, or something similar) told me that he expected they would be getting some in at Warnemunde and if so, he would set one aside for me and let me know. And sure enough, they did, so after the laundry was all done, I went to "do my errands." It's so funny to me that I have errands to run while onboard the ship -- currency exchange, checking the account for accuracy, picking up items at the gift shop, sorting our pictures at Shutters, picking up DVC pins from Deck 4 (on this day, they had Bay Lake Tower ones, so I made sure to let DS12 know he should pop up and get one - and later in the day we got another one for DS14 who slept through it all).

The shopping talk was in the Promenade Lounge and was well attended. Aimee did a great job of letting us know what to expect in St. Petersburg and what to look for - a lot was what she'd already shared with me at the desk but it was good to learn more about it and be refreshed and ready for Monday.

DH met me for lunch at Lumiere's and then we walked around. For lunch I ordered spaghetti off the kids' menu and it was really good.

Because we hadn't gotten dessert with lunch, we went by the soft-serve ice cream machine where DH and DS14 had been many times - but it was my first time this trip. While we were there, we watched a kid lick his hand full-on before grabbing the syrup bottle. Ugh. I told DH that's why they have the wipes there - so you can get one to use between your hand and where other people have not been sanitary. We told the boys later what we'd seen and after that, I think they more often than not used the handwipes not only to clean their hands but to serve their ice cream.

This was the day they had the Amber Show and I ended up purchasing a bracelet for myself. It's a multi-colored one and beautiful.

By this point in the trip, the desk was getting piled up with papers and trinkets and a load of FE gifts, so I spent some time clearing those up while DH enjoyed reading on the verandah. We took a walk and ended up on Deck 4 starboard, just sitting, and I dozed off. I like that it's no smoking during the day out there so we could enjoy either side of the ship depending on which way the sun was streaming in. DH eventually left and I napped for about another half hour.

It was Villian's Night, so I had us all dress for dinner - as in I wore the only skirt I took with me for the only time the whole trip, and I laid out pants and collared shirts for the boys to wear (with a note telling them to change for dinner - and they did without complaint!). I was glad to dress up because my new bracelet went perfectly with my outfit. Minnie was also in her formal attire so I wanted to look nice for my picture with her!

Dinner was in Lumiere's for our second night there. It ws one of our favorite meals and we had a lot of fun with each other, too. DH had the turkey, I had steak, the boys had their usual (fruit for DS14 and mac/cheese/chicken for DS12).

After dinner, I filled out the landing cards for Russia. DH went to see Alice in Wonderland in 3D in the Buena Vista theater while I met DS12 for the Villians Tonight show. After the show, I hung around until time for the Villians Ball which was fun to watch from Deck 4. I saw the Queen of Hearts (who is my inner villian) so I got my picture made with her.

Milk and cookies from room service and a lesson in how not to scald yourself in the shower. Our shower nozzle had gotten adjusted so that only the hot water was coming out even when the water running into the tub was cold - one of the boys showed us how to fix it. I guess when it got cleaned that day, it got pushed in. Whew.

Moved our clocks up another hour putting us 8 hours ahead of home but after this, it will all go backwards again. St. Petersburg tomorrow with an early beginning to arrive time but not all ashore until after lunch.

 

[Deb T.]

We spent a very relaxing day at sea. Between the gentle movement of the ship, the complete silence compliments of a little pair of earplugs, and exhaustion from the last three days of port exploration, I slept in until 12:30pm! DH, however, was up early and attended the 11am Russia Port Shopping Talk in the Promenade Lounge where he learned all about the history of Faberge eggs, Russia’s lacquered boxes, and gradually fell in love with nested Matryoshka dolls… a large maroon set to be exact. DH was very impressed to learn the detail is so precise that sometimes they use only one strand of human hair to paint with!

DH came back to the cabin and we headed up to Topsiders for lunch. When we returned to our cabin, I learned we won 1st runner up for Fabumouse's Decorated Door contest! The prize was a tiny white beer stein magnet that said “Berlin” on the front that I absolutely love! Thanks, Fabumouse!

We mostly just relaxed on our verandah, reading and dozing. I talked DH into going to the Buena Vista Theatre for the 3:30pm showing of The Last Song with Miley Cyrus, which we enjoyed.

The Villians Tonight! Show is relatively new, so I was eager to see it for the first time. My impression was that it was just okay. It’s hard not to compare it to the old Hercules show, which we thought was hilarious and wish DCL would bring it back. Then we headed to Rockin’ Bar D to watch Andy Ford’s Comedy Workshop (family cabaret). Tonight’s dinner theme was also Villians Tonight and our rotation had us back in Lumiere's. I had the crispy cheese ravioli for an appetizer, which was really good. At 10:15pm, there was a Villain’s Ball in the Lobby Atrium that DH wanted to watch for a little while before going to the adult cabaret show featuring the hip hop comedy of Alfred and Seymour in the Walt Disney Theatre. They were also on our '08 Mexican Riviera cruise and the two shows seemed to be mostly the same. Clocks were set forward again (for the final time this cruise).

 

[DMMarla07860]

We spent a very relaxing day at sea. Between the gentle movement of the ship, the complete silence compliments of a little pair of earplugs, and exhaustion from the last three days of port exploration, I slept in until 12:30pm! DH, however, was up early and attended the 11am Russia Port Shopping Talk in the Promenade Lounge where he learned all about the history of Faberge eggs, Russia’s lacquered boxes, and gradually fell in love with nested Matryoshka dolls… a large maroon set to be exact. DH was very impressed to learn the detail is so precise that sometimes they use only one strand of human hair to paint with!

DH came back to the cabin and we headed up to Topsiders for lunch. When we returned to our cabin, I learned we won 1st runner up for Fabumouse's Decorated Door contest! The prize was a tiny white beer stein magnet that said “Berlin” on the front that I absolutely love! Thanks, Fabumouse!

We mostly just relaxed on our verandah, reading and dozing. I talked DH into going to the Buena Vista Theatre for the 3:30pm showing of The Last Song with Miley Cyrus, which we enjoyed.

The Villians Tonight! Show is relatively new, so I was eager to see it for the first time. My impression was that it was just okay. It’s hard not to compare it to the old Hercules show, which we thought was hilarious and wish DCL would bring it back. Then we headed to Rockin’ Bar D to watch Andy Ford’s Comedy Workshop (family cabaret). Tonight’s dinner theme was also Villians Tonight and our rotation had us back in Lumiere's. I had the crispy cheese ravioli for an appetizer, which was really good. At 10:15pm, there was a Villain’s Ball in the Lobby Atrium that DH wanted to watch for a little while before going to the adult cabaret show featuring the hip hop comedy of Alfred and Seymour in the Walt Disney Theatre. They were also on our '08 Mexican Riviera cruise and the two shows seemed to be mostly the same. Clocks were set forward again (for the final time this cruise).

hey, loving all this trip report from all you guys

You mention Alfred and Seymour were on love those guys(got to hang out with them on my back-2-back in 2009. You mention they were on the Mexican Riviera Cruise and we were on the same one, are you sure about that? I had to look back at navigators I still have from that cruise and didn't see the names anywhere in them, so if they were on I missed them and don't know how that happened, baltic sounds like it was a amazing trip

 

[Deb T.]

hey, loving all this trip report from all you guys

You mention Alfred and Seymour were on love those guys(got to hang out with them on my back-2-back in 2009. You mention they were on the Mexican Riviera Cruise and we were on the same one, are you sure about that? I had to look back at navigators I still have from that cruise and didn't see the names anywhere in them, so if they were on I missed them and don't know how that happened, baltic sounds like it was a amazing trip

Thanks for the compliment! I know you were originally booked on this cruise, too, and wish you could have sailed with us.

Hmmmm, now I'm not too sure about when we saw Alfred and Seymour... maybe they were on my '07 Med cruise then? Those are the only two longer cruises we've done, and we definitely saw them on one of them.

 

[Señor DonDuck]

Whew, finally all caught up. Great read, everyone!

 

[DMMarla07860]

Thanks for the compliment! I know you were originally booked on this cruise, too, and wish you could have sailed with us.

Hmmmm, now I'm not too sure about when we saw Alfred and Seymour... maybe they were on my '07 Med cruise then? Those are the only two longer cruises we've done, and we definitely saw them on one of them.

haha, maybe they were on in 2008, I just know I looked at the navigators from that 2008 cruise and remember we were on the same cruise and in the navigators didn't see there names, either way I'm still jealous you got to see them on the Baltic cruise, I love hangging out with him when they are on the ship. We hung out with Alfred till like 2:30am the one night last cruise in march

 

[nzdisneymom]

We mostly just relaxed on our verandah, reading and dozing. I talked DH into going to the Buena Vista Theatre for the 3:30pm showing of The Last Song with Miley Cyrus, which we enjoyed.

The Villians Tonight! Show is relatively new, so I was eager to see it for the first time. My impression was that it was just okay. It’s hard not to compare it to the old Hercules show, which we thought was hilarious and wish DCL would bring it back.

I saw The Last Song in the theater when it came out, but none of my guys wanted to see it. I had thought I would see it again on the ship but never made it. One thing is that they gave us the movie schedule for only half the cruise at a time so you didin't know what might play for the duration and what might be a one- or two-time showing.

I didn't write about my impressions of Villians Tonight - but I will say that I got a bit dozy - I didn't like Hades that much - he was too Jay-Leno-ish for my taste. However, I thought Cruella and Maleficient were magnificent.

 

[nzdisneymom]

So Monday dawned bright and early and it was St. Petersburg day! I woke before 8 a.m. and was excited to look out the verandah to see where we were. And because I was up early, I decided to do yet another load of laundry (this time the dark basket was full) because it was going to be 89-degrees that day - and the next day even more - and I knew the boys would run out of shorts for Wednesday if I didn't do it then. So I got that started and went out for breakfast and then to the top deck to watch for a while.

We sailed very very slowly by Czar Island which is used as a naval academy. I didn't know that so I had a bit of a fright when the first thing I saw in the morning was a naval vessel sailing near us with soldiers and guns and such. It was a bit more than I anticipated As it turned out, it was just a training mission. We had to sail slowly through the water as it was very shallow with lots of silt. We had two pilots who had boarded to help guide us in.

St. Petersburg is developing their passenger port in hopes of having as many as seven ships able to berth. As it is, the smaller vessels can pull right up in through the river and port in the heart of St. Petersburg. That must be very cool. The port we were at was out in the middle of nowhere.

We docked around 11:30 so everyone was getting a quick lunch before going to meet their tour groups or preparing to disembark to meet their private guides. You had to be on an excursion or have a Visa to leave the ship. Getting through immigration was a lengthy process as everyone had to present their landing card and passport. DCL did a pretty good job of sending the excursions out in small waves, but I guess the individuals who had Visas all tried to leave at the same time, so immigration lines got quite backed up. But there was plenty of time and the buses all waited for everyone to get through. And we got stamps in our passports.

I'll write more about what we did in St. Petersburg next but need to go for tonight.

 

[nzdisneymom]

Our first excursion was the Shopping Experience in St. Petersburg. Deb T. and her DH were on the same excursion so we got on the same bus so we'd be able to visit while riding into town.

The ride into town took about half an hour or so and traffic was pretty heavy, but it gave us a chance to see the area. Our tour guide narrated our trip into the city and gave us some history. It was very cool when our DS14 realized that the Leningrad of some of his computer games is St. Petersburg - and when he saw some of the historical buildings live and in person that are in his games, that made the trip worth it (as if it wasn't already).

The excursion dropped us at St. Isaac's Square. There were several other tour buses there - and since there were several coming just for our excursion, you can imagine how busy the area was. And there was just the one souvenir shop right there that they dropped us off at. They had given us maps and the guide told us how to take a taxi if we wanted to or how far it might be to walk to some of the other guaranteed shops on our shopping maps. We opted to just do our souvenir shopping quickly and then explore the immediate area - the Church of our savior of Spilled Blood was less than ten minute walk away (really, a ten minute stroll) so we walked up there and then crossed over the canal and walked back to Nevsky Prospeckt just to see. We had about 45 minutes to just hang out in the square until time to get back on the bus. We were happy with the treasures we bought.

The ride back was about the same time, same amount of traffic and we got back to the port about 5:15 but it took about 20 minutes to get through immigration - we had to present the "other half" of our landing cards and our passports again - but now that they were stamped, future outings wouldn't take so long. Several other excursions had returned by then, too.

Our dinner time was 5:00 this day as we had an evening excursion scheduled too. It was nice that the CMs greeted us with cool wet washcloths before we even got on the ship, so we were all able to wipe off our faces and clean our hands before getting on so we just went straight to dinner. And even though we were late getting there, the dining staff did a great job of getting everyone served quickly. DS14 skipped dinner with us and grabbed some food from Deck 9 and then went to play a bit at Ocean Quest.

Our evening excursion was the Canal Boat tour. We saw lots of people dressed up for both the Ball and the Ballet - and we were glad to not be going out dressed up with is so hot. Reports are that it was miserable without a/c in the venues, so we were glad to be outside for the canal boat tour. Although the air was really still so we didn't get the breeze you might expect. Either way, though, it was neat to see the area - the bus took the same route to the city but there was no traffic, so the half-hour trip from the afternoon took about 15 minutes.

The canal boat had Russian Folk Singers on for our entertainment, and they served champagne and/or soft drinks. The boys and I had a coke and we saved one of the bottles for a souvenir Our guide narrated the tour but it was hard to hear her even sitting right by the speaker. There weren't enough chairs for sitting outside so we brought a few more up. I think one or two people sat in the bottom. I wanted to sit out top so I could get some good pictures NOT through the glass

I'm not sure we were supposed to have a souvenir stop on this excursion, but our guide had us stop at one of the shops. She had been on an afternoon tour and said the same thing many guests were saying - too many people in one shop with all the tours at the same place. So we and another group were at this one - but we got there first and it wasn't busy at all - so we were able to look around some more. Didn't buy anything though.

We got back to the ship and through immigration in no time at all - it was about 10:30 by then. DH and I went to Pluto's for a bite to eat - which was really crazy because it felt like dinner time and was still so light out that your body didn't know when to sleep or when to eat.

The boys went out to do their thing for a bit but knew they needed to be back because we had an early walke up call for our second day in St. Petersburg.

 

[nzdisneymom]

Here's the link to pictures we've posted at Facebook for St. Petersburg.

I'd better get crackin' if I don't want to still be writing our trip report by the time we go to Alaska in June

Our second day in St. Petersburg started early, meeting at 8:00 which meant a short night's sleep for us. It was to be hot again, so shorts and t-shirts were in order... we had packed thinking that London and Germany would be our warmest days but it turned out that St. Petersburg was probably the hottest - or at least the most oppressive because there wasn't much of a breeze. Thank goodness for working a/c on the bus!

Immigration was easy as most people had been through the day before and we could see where DCL was sending people out in small groups. This was the day we met in the Walt Disney Theater for our excursion - there were a lot of people heading out. We did the City Highlights and Hermitage.

Our tour started off nearly identical to the two we did the day before, but seeing it all in the morning light and with morning traffic was different than the glut of afternoon traffic or the evening light... and a different tour guide gave us more information about what we were seeing. I was beginning to feel like I could find my way from town back to the port if I had to

We had a few photo stops in the morning. We let the boys stay on the bus if they wanted to (and they slept, but they had seen it the day before). I didn't get off at all the stops, either, but Gary did to get the pictures. I think my favorite was back at the Church of Our Savior on Spilled Blood - just seeing it in a different lighting made it look different. On our canal boat tour in the evening, we'd been near the Aurora Cruiser but the sun behind it made our pictures not very good, so we were happy to have a photo stop there, too. And some of the statues we had only gotten through the bus windows the day before (with or without a glare). And we got way more detailed information about the things we were seeing.

Our morning break was at a third souvenir store and it was the best of the three - larger, nicer, easier to manuever around. They have us stop there to use the restroom, too, and this was the first time in ages that I saw the line for the men's room was longer than the women's Our guide told us there were a record 10,000 cruise ship passengers in town that day. We found a thimble for DS14 that is more in line with his collection style than the one we'd found before - but we had learned on previous trips to not pass up a souvenir in case you don't find it again (or have a chance to even look again).

We had lunch with two other groups at Sadko which was across from one of the theaters (the green one). Long tables. We had learned in the Med that you want to get off the bus quickly and be at least in the "middle of the pack" if you want to keep your family seated together. I will say that our tour group did a wonderful job in adjusting themselves so that I think every family got to sit together and not have to split up. We did not have that experience in Rome in 2007. The salad, soup, and bread were good, the weird chicken dish was undercooked so we didn't eat it (pink rubbery chicken inside some weird breaded and fried thing) and the dessert was a delicious apple cake. It got hot and loud in the restaurant, but there was plenty of water with some extra water bottles we were able to take with us.

We went back to the Hermitage which is housed in the 1,000 room Winter Palace. It was very crowded and hot and I would not have wanted to try to see it on our own that day. But we had a wonderful guide, headsets, and off we went. The guide did a great job of moving us through to see the highlights and tell us information about the rooms and the works of art. The works of art were amazing. We saw works from Rembrandt, daVinci, Renoir, Matiss, vanGogh, Michaelangelo. But the rooms themselves were as much a work of art as anything on display. My favorite piece on display was the sculpture of Voltaire.

We returned to the ship after the tour, hot and tired! We had plenty of time before dinner for a rest and to freshen up and then off we went to Parrot Cay for our first time there! Leo, our server, pretended he couldn't talk. The kids thought that was hliarious when they realized he had tricked us.

After dinner, I was back trading Rubles for Pounds, doing another load of laundry, and warding off a headache. DH and DS14 went to see Toy Story 3 in the Walt Disney Theater while DS12 was at Ocean Quest. I had the cabin to myself for a few hours and it was nice to have some "me" time. After that many days traveling and staying in hotels and ship cabins, it's nice to have some time without someone right by you

DS12 came in looking for a pair of swim trunks for the OQ Swim Party at the Mickey Pool. Good thing I had packed them even after he had said no, he didn't want to take them

We didn't leave St. Petersburg until late that night - Our cabin was port side, so we watched as the last buses came back. Because we are just a wee bit forward of the aft gangway, we can see the other guests reboarding the ship - and how fun to see some DIS friends! Once everyone was back on board, they pulled in the gangway quickly. We went up to Deck 10 for sailing away and see the sun actually set - although it didn't get dark for a long time.

DS14 stayed out late playing Dodgeball with the Out and About program - I think it was the Quest kids vs. the Stack kids. So DS12 was in a bit earlier and was fast asleep before his brother got back. And we got to set the clocks back an hour - so that was nice.

Tomorrow is Helsinki - my favorite day because... well, you'll have to read my next post to find out.

 

[Deb T.]

I was excited about going to Russia because it would be our second communist country visit in just nine months since we were in China last October/November! As NZDisneyMom said, Russia requires a visitor’s visa to enter the country, so you either had to acquire one on your own through the Russian Embassy in the U.S. prior to arriving or sign up for DCL excursions. We opted to sign up for the DCL excursions because we also felt safer being on one. DH was up early (by 8:30am) and out on deck 10 to watch our slow and careful approach into the shallow waters of St. Petersburg. He snapped lots of photos and video, including a Russian warship and several submarines. St. Petersburg was founded in 1703 and built on a series of islands with approximately 60 rivers and canals. There are 400+ bridges that criss-cross all over the city, so it's very interesting to navigate both in water and on land.

Due to customs regulations, our onboard gift shops all had to close by 10:30am this morning and would remain closed for the next 2-1/2 days (a total of 55 hours), until well after we departed Helsinki. (All aboard in Helsinki was 4:45pm and the shops didn't reopen until 5:30pm that evening. Very inconvenient.) We docked in port around 11am and our first excursion was the “St. Petersburg Shopping Experience” ($29pp) at 1:15pm. We ate lunch at Topsiders and then had to check in at Studio Sea by 1pm. I looked for NZDisneyMom and her family since I knew we were on the same excursion and that if we checked in together we’d be assigned to the same bus. It was required that each person had the following items in order to check in and debark today and tomorrow: passport, Russian Landing Card, Key to the World card, and Port Adventure Ticket.

Soon, we were led off the ship and through immigration where we encountered extremely long, slow moving lines with curt and expressionless officials. We had already filled out the required 2-part “Russian Landing Card” per person and handed those over with our passports. They stamped our passports and half of the landing card and kept the other half of the landing card. DH and I headed to our already nearly full bus and saved seats in the back so NZDisneyMom and her family could sit near us. Temperatures were already in the mid-90s as St. Petersburg was experiencing record-breaking temperatures like the rest of the Baltic countries.

My first impression of the city was that it was very clean. Traffic was very thick and we ended up with much less time to browse and shop than I had planned on, less than 90 minutes. We were dropped off at the Onegin Store in the center of the city, only to learn that the other "approved" stores were miles away and would require a taxi on our own to reach, and it would be rare to find an English-speaking taxi driver.

I’m not sure exactly when it happened (either during the onboard shopping presentation or in this little store), but DH became completely enamored with Matryoshka dolls! These hand painted wooden Russian dolls are also known as "nested dolls" because they start with one doll that you pop open to find another doll inside, then another inside of that one, etc. DH couldn't get enough of them! We spent every available second of our shopping time trying to decide which and how many of these charming souvenirs to purchase. DH picked out 3-part dolls for all his co-workers and I picked out some for family and friends. For myself, I chose a small 10-part blue doll that starts at about 3" tall and ends up so tiny that you need a magnifying glass to see the details! I also bought a 3-part Christmas tree that contained a Santa and then a snowman. Then, a small metal decorated (pill box type) hinged "egg" on a stand (based on an actual Faberge egg) caught my eye, so I ended up purchasing that, too.

Back at the port, the customs lines were still long and slow moving. This time, they took the second half of our landing cards and stamped our passports again. (Soooooo excited about those Russian country stamps!!!) Russian performers were onboard and performed a variety of ethnic dances and songs at the Goofy Pool Stage that we were able to watch on TV in the comfort of our stateroom. We went to the 6:45 stage show, featuring the hip-hop comedy of Alfred and Seymour, who we’d also seen while on a previous cruise.

No "All Aboard" time tonight since the ship was docking here overnight! However, as mentioned before, you couldn't get off the ship unless you had a Russian visa. So close and yet so far....

The White Nights are amazing ~ one of the highlight experiences of this cruise for me! It never really gets dark in the summertime, and midnight feels like around 4pm. It really messes with your psyche, though! It would be around 11pm, and we didn't have the sensation that it was bedtime because it seemed like it was late afternoon! I heard that at midnight there were people lounging on deck 9, reading without needing any lighting!

 

[Deb T.]

It was another downright hot day in the Baltics. There were four other large cruise ships docked near us, totaling a reportedly 10,000 passengers all ready to descend upon the city! We opted for the “Walking Tour of St. Petersburg” excursion ($49pp) and had to meet in Studio Sea by 8am. So, we were up early for our yummy breakfast buffet in Topsiders today!

Since our passports were already stamped, we didn’t need another landing card but we still had to go through the long immigration process. Our narrated walking tour was enjoyable and we saw most if the major sites in a short time. The highlight for us was seeing the impressive Church of Our Savior on Spilled Blood. This ornate cathedral was built over the site where Emperor Alexander II was assassinated in March, 1881. It is constructed of typical Russian architecture, capped with several very colorful “onion” domes. While on the bus going to and from our tour drop off point, we passed by the Hermitage Museum (a striking white building with light blue trim) that displays 2 million exhibits from the likes of Rembrandt, Renoir, di Vinci, van Gogh, and Matisse.

I was thrilled when the bus unexpectedly stopped at a different gift shop than from yesterday! The Bazar Shop (yes, spelled with just one z) had a wider variety of Matryoshka dolls, so DH was in heaven again. I have to admit that we did find a couple of more styles of the dolls that we liked a lot and purchased. One particularly cute set was 3-parts: a snowman with a nested smaller snowman and then a little Christmas tree inside of that!

As soon as we reboarded the ship, we headed straight to the laundry room while most of the passengers were still in port and were able to snag two washers, then went up to Topsiders for lunch. Today they had the most delicious “gingerbread cupcake” in the dessert bar! It looked more like a dark gingerbread sandwich, with a little bit of whipped cream in the center. Well, being the whipped cream lovin’ gal that I am, I asked a nearby server if they had any extra whipped cream around to add to my "cupcake". (At breakfast, there is always a large bowl of whipped cream set out.) He said he would check with the chef if I wanted… oh yes, I wanted! After a bit, he returned to tell me they were getting some for me and someone would bring it to our table. Even though it was warm, we were sitting outside (our favorite place to be!), but under the shade. A few minutes later, Levi, a very tall man dressed in all white cook clothing came out to deliver a big bowl full of the wonderful confection, and I was as grateful as he seemed pleased! I was afraid that the poor guy had probably been pulled from his regular duties just to whip up a special request for a pesky guest, but he truly looked very pleased to be providing it for me. Later, we would learn how very special this really was... or should I say, how very special HE was!!! (Stay tuned to find out!) After lunch, we finished our laundry and relaxed on our verandah. Ahhhhhhhhhhhh.

We skipped the "Walt Disney Theatre Movie Special" that was billed as tonight's "stage show". It was Toy Story 3 in 3-D, which we'd seen (read: cried through) the week it opened. The dinner theme tonight was "Master Chef Dinner", which we enjoyed. At 10:30pm, we went to the adult cabaret comedy show by Andy Ford in Rockin' Bar D. Then we checked our email in the Internet Cafe. We also stopped by Guest Services to check our onboard account for accuracy. Boy do things add up quickly... especially all those DCL excursions!

All aboard was 11pm. Clocks were turned back an hour tonight… hooray! We can start catching up on sleep tonight!

We really underestimated the beauty and charm of Russia, and regretted not booking more extensive excursions. So, if we ever have the opportunity to return to St. Petersburg, we would definitely spend time at St. Catherine’s Palace and see the breathtaking fountains and gardens at Peterhof. We are hoping that DCL will go back to the Baltics in 2012!

 

[nzdisneymom]

So most cruises are 7-nights, so normally we would've been leaving the ship on the morning of our 2nd day in St. Petersburg, so it was especially nice to be still onboard come Wednesday, July 14th, as we arrived in Helsinki!

Before I forget, here's the link to our Helsinki pictures posted on Facebook.

I was awake before we got into port, and as I mentioned, our cabin is just over the Aft gangway, so I was looking out just around 8 a.m. and happened to see the Pilot boat approaching the ship - how weird is it to see a man walk off the side of his boat and disappear into the side of your ship!

There were seagulls EVERYWHERE as we approached Helsinki - more than we had seen all trip.

So why was I most excited about Helsinki and consider it my favorite day? Because this was the day that my third cousin was coming to the port to meet us! We hadn't met before but had connected online several years ago because of geneaology - our great grandparents were siblings. We picked this itinerary for DCL rather than the one that went to Tallinin because my grandmother was a Finn and I'm 1/4. When we made our plans, I let my cousin know we would be there - so he took the day off work and was able to spend time with us - his wife took a long lunch to meet us, and they have a sweet adorable 2 yr old son.

So we had arranged for him to meet us at the port and he gave us his mobile number. We didn't have international calling from our phone, but I kept his number in our iPod Touch because I figured I could always find a phone to use. He wasn't there when we disembarked but we did get off the ship a bit early. We were talking with a woman and her children who are big Disney fans and had come to the port to see the ship (and hopefully see some characters) and she offered to let me use her phone to call to let him know where we were. He got there a few minutes later. While we were waiting, Captain John came out, so I introduced our new friends to him and took their picture. He told them what to do to get a visit - and while the ship wasn't going to be in Helsinki again, Tallinin was just 2 hours away, so she was going to see about getting an onboard visit when the Magic made her last stop there. I sure hope she was able to - they were so very nice. I had a couple of extra DVC hats in my bag so I gave them to her kids as a thank you for use of the phone - and because I love to spread some Disney magic!

So we took the shuttle bus into town and my cousin led us through the main part of the city as we got acquainted and he pointed things out to us. We were scheduled for an afternoon bus tour so I had sent him the description so he could plan other things for us - and when he asked a few weeks before we were there what we'd like to do, I said we needed to be sure to get souvenirs and it would be nice to have a local lunch. We went nearly directly to the perfect souvenir shop just across from Senate Square - I had told him what items we wanted and they had them - souvenir shopping done in five minutes flat!

We walked around the town for a bit and then it was time to meet his wife for lunch - we ate at a wonderfully nice restaurant that wasn't busy at all - somewhere they like to go for special occasions. The food was delicious. DH had a salmon soup while I had a shrimp caesar salad that was so fresh and delicious. The boys only had chocolate cake (LOL).

After lunch we parted ways and took the shuttle back to the ship. The boys got some lunch onboard and then DS12 went to Ocean Quest. I fell asleep for a bit and thankfully the boy was back on time and woke me up so we wouldn't be late for our afternoon excursion.

We did the Panoramic Helsinki tour which was mostly seeing the city and surrounding area from a bus. We went back to one of the areas we had been that morning and of course the boys had nodded off on the way there - which was ok because they had seen it earlier in the day. We saw several churches, the ferry terminal / port, the city, the Olympic Stadium, lots of saunas, the Rock Church, and the 600-pipe sculpture which has a name and I never remember it. We saw Santa's MiniMarket and a McDonald's. I saw a young man driving his car with a Florida State Seminoles shirt on (Go Noles!). We saw where people take their rugs out to beat them clean and make a big party out of it.

We got back to the port not too long before all-aboard, and the woman and her children from the morning had come back to see more characters. It was nice to see them and I wish I had thought to get some sort of treat from the ship for them just in case they were there (she had said they were likely coming back). We talked to them for a bit before going back inside the fence - and they were all smiles so I think they thought it was cool that we remembered them from the morning.

The port had a wonderful gift shop set up - large selection, several check-outs - it was like three or four shops kinda all together. I had already spent all of my Euros so I wasn't going to get anything else but we wanted to look, and we decided we could use the credit card if we found something - then I saw they also took US$$ and I had been making sure to take some US$$ with me to each port for "extra" in case I needed it (or like for this day, to tip the tour guide as I had spent the last of our Euro on lunch). I had enough US$$ to pay for what I selected - mostly several bags of candies. We have a candy dish at work and someone who works at our building is Finn so I thought it would be nice to have some Finnish candy for the candy dish.

We boarded the ship but all the buses weren't back yet, so we went up to our cabin to watch for a bit - the woman and her children saw us on our verandah and we all waved. Then we went up to Deck 10 and continued our waving back and forth - it was fun and her daughter took pictures of us waving

This night was Pirate Night in Lumieres, so we went to dinner. I like the Pirate menu the best although I'm not sure I could tell you now what it was I had for dinner - I just remember thinking that again. We took a walk around the ship afterwards, got our DVC pirate tattoos, looked at our pictures in Shutters, got my picture with Minnie in her Pirate outfit, saw some fellow DISers and chatted for a bit, and then caught up our blog for the day.

We went to the Pirate party mostly because I wanted a crepe. It was different this time as there weren't fireworks because of sea regulations in the Baltic (pollution, etc.) and it was daylight still - well, getting a little less bright than full daylight, but still not dark like usual. It was also really windy so Mickey didn't "fly", but I actually enjoyed the party part better because it was easy to see. We did need our windbreakers as the wind was strong. DS14 found us on Deck 10 while DS12 roamed through Deck 9 and we kept an eye on him on the Big Screen.

The crepes were yummy as always and I got a plateful of fajita fixings that we ended up taking back to the cabin. The boys wanted to stay out for one more Ocean Quest thing and since the clocks went back another hour this night, we let them even though we had a really early call for Stockholm the next morning.

 

[marlaymike]

 

[Deb T.]

[Fast forward 2 years and 7 months later... I was just reading through this trip report in advance of our next Baltic sailing in 2015 and realized that we never finished it! Oooops! I guess life got in the way. As the old saying goes, better late than never, so I'll do my best to finish out the trip report now.]

Our Helsinki day...

We pulled into port just after 8am. Helsinki broke a 76-year record of 93.5 degrees the day before, but today there was a slight breeze to help keep us comfortable.

Our tour was “Porvoo and Helsinki Highlights” (159pp) and we had to meet in the Walt Disney Theatre by 9:45am. We started out at Rock Church, a church built inside a large rock that has acoustics so perfect that concerts are often held there. Then we stopped at Sibelius Park and Monument. The Monument is one of Helsinki’s landmarks – a sculpture that consists of 600 acid-proof stainless steel pipes of different diameters that took four years to weld together. It was unveiled on September 7, 1967, to honor their national composer, Jean Sibelius. We took a fun pic of DH standing with his head inside one of the pipes. We then drove into the counryside to Kiala Manor, an old distillery building built in the 1880's. We ate lunch here and then had time to explore the grounds. The bus also stopped at Senate Square and then we walked downhill two blocks to an open air market (like a flea market) near a boat dock to see if there were any souvenirs we couldn’t live without (there weren’t) or any foods we’d want to sample. DH was intrigued by several of the unrecognizable food items, but still not brave enough to try any of them in the end. So at the appointed time, we headed back to the bus for the short ride back to the ship.

All aboard was at 3pm, so we had some down time before dinner. Celebrating “Pirates IN the Caribbean” was very weird since it was still daylight outside due to the White Nights! Baltic maritime rules prohibit fireworks, which we greatly missed, but honestly it was too light out to have enjoyed them fully. Sunset was at 10:31 pm, though it still never got very dark outside. It was now very windy, so Mickey couldn’t rappel down to "fight the pirates and save the ship" tonight. The Pirate Buffet was more sparse than on any of our other cruises – no nachos, just turkey legs, crepes, fajitas, and one table of desserts.

 

[Deb T.]

This turned out to be DH’s favorite port. He was up bright and early (before 6:30am) to photo and video our very peaceful arrival into port after the ship’s captain and local pilots had navigated us through all the archipelagos during the last three hours.

Our DCL tour was “Stockholm and Vasa” ($59pp), and we had to meet in the Promenade Lounge at 9am. We started our tour at “The Balcony”, where you can stand and see a panorama view of eight of the 14 islands that make up the city of Stockholm. Then, we walked around Old Town for a little while, which had very narrow cobblestone streets. Workers were busy restoring the area from the Royal Wedding that was held there less than a month earlier (on Saturday, June 19). Delivery trucks were also vying for space as they attempted to make their way through the crowded narrow streets.

The Vasa is an old Swedish Royal warship that sank in the harbor on August 10, 1628, as it started out on what would have been its maiden voyage. It was built too top heavy from two decks of cannons. Unfortunately, fifty sailors drowned because they didn't know how to swim. Through the years, the wood-eating sea worm had never found its way into the port area, so the ship remained 95% intact. It was raised in 1969 and now sits in a part-preserved part-restored state in a museum that was erected around the huge ship. In addition to the ship itself, there were models of how the ship would have looked when it set sail and exhibits of artifacts that were found on the ship and even models of how the sailors might have looked based on bones that were found when the ship was raised. We were surprised to see a group of ten East Carolina University (in North Carolina) grad students onboard the VASA doing a research project. We were able to talk with them for a while, asking lots of questions about their work and their time in Stockholm.

Due to tidal issues, all aboard was moved from 4pm to 2:45pm, which really didn’t give us enough time to enjoy this beautiful town.
Once onboard, we went to Deck 4 portside to watch people return to the ship prior to sail away. Nzdisneymom and her DH joined us just as Stitch, Goofy, and Pluto appeared! All three characters played around with us for quite a while… silly antics that included shuffleboard and photo ops.

We ordered the “All Hands on Deck” cheese, cracker, and grape platter and drinks from Room Service and then relaxed on our verandah while a local guide from the Archipelago Preservation Society narrated our passage through the fjorden. (He was broadcast on the ArielVision screen by the pools and also on cabin TV's.) Stockholm is well inland, so the trip back out to the sea involved over 2 hours of sailing through the archipelago of beautiful inlets and past numerous islands with cute little summer homes and forests and cliffs. There were some really narrow sections that we went through - I was completely amazed how our large ship eased past it all to reach the open sea.

The show tonight was ‘Walt Disney: The Dream Lives On’, a big production show looking at the history of Walt Disney and his films through pictures, video and song and dance numbers. Dinner was in Animator's Palette, and the theme was "Flavors of Scandinavia".

 

[Deb T.]

We slept in a bit and then skipped our assigned seating of "Mickey's Island Jam Character Breakfast" in Parrot Cay at 9:45am because we had an 11am Palo Brunch booked. We were seated next to a window and then given the “tour” of the offerings. One large round table held seafood and meats, another table had assorted cheeses and fruit, another had breads and danish, and the last table had dessert. Several entrée-type dishes were available (mostly containing seafood), as well as personal pizzas and Egg’s Benedict made to order. Amazing, as usual!

We relaxed the rest of the day and enjoyed some onboard activities such as Disney's Art of Entertaining: Dazzling Desserts in Studio Sea, an "Authentic Russian Bazaar" in Preludes (that had a very limited selection and was overpriced compared to what we found in St. Petersburg's gift shops), and another DVC Presentation.

Our Galley Tour was scheduled for 2:45pm and we had to meet just outside of the side entrance to Lumiere’s. We were all led inside and given a quick introduction, and then turned over to my good friend, Levi (the whipped cream guy), who is an officer (high ranking enough to have a private outside cabin!) and in charge of all of Deck 9 dining! I then remembered that he was the one who also led us through our galley tour on our 2007 Mediterranean cruise! He’s actually been on the Magic since 1999! His tour was lively, entertaining, and informative, and we loved being in the backstage areas again! Afterward, when it was brought to his attention by another guest that we didn’t receive the customary piping hot chocolate chip cookie during the tour, he went back into the galley and brought out a plateful for each of us! I love Levi!

I did quite a bit of packing today so we could enjoy our last day of the cruise at sea tomorrow.

Tonight's show was Disney Dreams but since we've already seen it several times, we skipped it in favor of relaxing in our cabin until dinner instead.

This evening, we sailed under the Øresund suspension bridge that connects Denmark and Sweden. The ten mile link serves both cars and trains, with a tunnel beneath the sea, an artificial island, and a five-mile long bridge. Almost everyone onboard was up on the top decks to watch, including most of the crew! I was surprised to see that the officers seemed as fascinated as we were! We watched with nzdisneymom and her DH, taking photos of each other as we approached the bridge. It was an amazing experience! It was said that we had just 6' of clearance but it really looked as though we would scrape the bottom of the bridge! I know I wasn't the only one holding my breath! Cindy made us all laugh when she said that this is why we'd all been fed so well during the cruise, so that we all weighed enough to pull the ship down lower to clear the bridge.

Dinner was the semi-formal Captain’s Gala. At 11:15pm, they set up a special "Gala Buffet" in Lumiere's that consisted of an amazing array of desserts!

 

[Deb T.]

Well, what do you know… after 12 days of a sweltering record breaking heat wave, today was downright cold, with very strong winds, and even a rain shower. Murphy’s Law, since this would have been our best relaxing day.

We decided to use some of our OBC to play the Final Jackpot round of Bingo, so off to Rockin’ Bar D we went at 10:30am. I fell victim to the “best deal” of 72 cards for $100 on the electronic gadget that does everything for you except yell out BINGO if you are lucky enough to win. Of course, we didn’t win, but the staff did a good job of making it fun, so we chalked it up to an entertainment expense.

The show tonight was "Remember the Magic: A Final Farewell" and dinner was "Til We Meet Again". We took photos with our fun tablemates and exchanged little gifts. We also took photos with our servers: Head Server Mario, Server Raphael, and Sweet Tea Extraordinaire Hector, and passed out the tip envelopes. We watched the Until We Meet Again Farewell show in the atrium, but ended up skipping the final Pub Night show since we need to be off the ship and on our way to Heathrow as soon as it receives customs clearance in the morning.

We thoroughly enjoyed this cruise. DCL did a fabulous job of creating just the right ambiance throughout the ship. The music playing in the hallways was a little different each day and specific to the port we were in. The characters wore a variety of costumes, depending on the port, including Mickey and Minnie wearing Scandinavian outfits while we were docked in Norway, Lederhosen in Germany, and traditional Russian outfits while in Russia. The characters could often be seen randomly roaming the decks, interacting with guests. DCL also did a good job of leaving little “time change” cards with our daily Navigators at turn-down service every night to remind us to change our watches, which was critical for making the "all aboard" times in port. The menus were also themed to our different ports, with a wide variety of authentic local cuisine. [If I was writing this part of the TR back in 2010, I would have noted that we hope to go back to the Baltics again on DCL in the future... but it is 2014 and we're booked to sail next summer! Woohoo!]