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It's Baltic : No Putin us off!


Ray

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Forgive me father for i have sinned! It's been 4 yrs since my last cruise! 

It's hard to believe not only how quickly the past 4 yrs have past but also that its 4 yrs since i first stepped onto a cruiseship (Freedom of the Seas)

Back then while driving to the cruiseport in San Juan i was logged on to a hotel booking site as i had no idea if my wife would actually board given her fear of water, so i may have needed a room on dry land for 7 nights. 

Fast forward 2 yrs and a week sailing the Caribbean with stops in the ABC islands ( Bucket List) was all booked and we were counting down the days! Then the world went into lockdown so no 50th birthday cruise for my better half.

Rebooked for March this year and included NYC for St Patricks day ( Bucket list) due to excessive testing requirements that got cancelled also! 

So another bucket list item was booked..Baltic Cruise that visits St Petersburg.....( yes my middle name is lucky pmsl ) 

We could have cancelled this cruise but as the title of this thread states there is no putin us off! 

So we travel from Aberdeen to Copenhagen tomorrow, overnight stay in Copenhagen then board ship on Sunday. Have added 3 nights in Copenhagen at the end of cruise for some well earned retail therapy.

Flights

Booked flights with British Airways and included hotels for before and after cruise. Far better deal doing this than doing it separately.

Testing 

No tests required for flying to Denmark only needed to board ship. We used boots for our tests today. 1 point to be aware of if using them you need to register with a 2nd party then go back onto boots website to put card details in, its only after you do this that you get to see available times. When i done it only 2 time slots were available 2 hrs apart. Test results back in less than an hour.

Cabin 

After last cruise she who must be obeyed mentioned that she would like a balcony on our next cruise so thats what i booked. 

However....................Royal Up email 4 days ago offering upgrades for x amount! Now im Scottish and parting with money can be difficult if its not seen as being worthwhile! So i weighed up the Pro's and Cons then decided to put in a cheeky bid for Jr and Grand suites. 

Cabin now a Jr suite and my wife has no idea! The tight Scotsman in me vanished when i thought about the smile on my wife's face after what has been a very difficult 2 yrs for her.

Ports of Call

Stockholm with overnight stay, Tallinn and Helsinki. Would have liked another port instead of an overnight in Stockholm to replace St Petersburg but its a cruise and thats whats important.

Excursions

Just going to use shanks pony and see what happens. Only thing my wife has said is that WE WILL be visiting the Abba Museum in Stockholm. I did say to her " if you change your mind " im ok with that! But no shes determined to go and has informed me that i have to dress up in Abba Gear if its available! Not sure that short blue dress Agnetha wore will look as good on me but hey will give anything a try once.

Wasn't going to do a blog but thought it may be helpfull for those cruising from Copenhagen in the coming months if they want to know anything 

Anyway best go get some shut eye taxi booked arriving in 6hrs 

 

 

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4 hours ago, Ampurp85 said:

I am glad you both are negative and also so positive about parting with some of your coins😛

Looking forward to this, what ship is this sailing on?

Voyager of the seas. 

Yeah it was an easy decision in the end! Use it on an upgrade or leave it for my wife to use on shopping! As much as i love clothes shopping we have differing ideas on the maximum amount of time you can spend in 1 shop. 

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Yesterday's flights got off to a bad start, basic schoolboy error....Dont use autofill on flight booking in screen if you haven't updated passport information lol this caused a bit of inconvenience when checking in at airport.

short flight down to London then 3 hr wait to head to Copenhagen. 

Arriving at Copenhagen at airport once you exit head for your mode of transport into city. Train took about 10 mins and cost roughly €10 for two tickets. Copenhagen Central station is the 3rd stop. 

 

 

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Runninng a day or 2 behind with this..

Copenhagen for anyone who hasn't been here, what a great place it is! 

Its also very strange.

We booked the Andersen Hotel in the city centre for 1 night prior to cruise, its roughly a 2 minute walk from the train station. 

While sitting outside our hotel my wife nipped inside to get a wine glass, in the 60 seconds she was gone i was propositioned for sex!!!

Would you like sex darling? I didn't get the price she charges as she walked away when i told her how much i was charging her!!! You want sex darling ok but im charging you for the privilege lol couldn't resist telling my wife when she came back out!! Her reply was ...what i was only gone less than a minute! 

Not sure rules on prostitution in Copenhagen but woke up at 5am, it was daylight and lets just say things were happening in between parked cars while people just strolled bye! 

Area has a number of sex clubs and shops, While this didnt bother us it may offend others 

 

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Getting to cruise terminal 

Taxi from city centre to cruiseport is roughly 250 - 300 Dkk 

Other options are available but be warned if taking the metro there is a walk involved from station to ship, it doesnt look that far on a map we took taxi and past a few couples  struggling to drag their luggage over cobbled streets. 

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Sail away was pretty uneventful. 

1st day/night think we broke even for drinks package. Not for the night but for the whole week 🤣 

Checked app and it showed 30 drinks purchased for the 2 of us! 

Day 2 a sea day up at 6 for a coffee and a walk left my wife in bed suffering. 

First impressions were correct ship is pretty empty, no ques anywhere. Staff all wearing masks and constantly cleaning.

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Ok firstly apologies for not keeping this up to date but i was on holiday and having fun! 

Back home now after an eventful and very tiring vacation. 

Copenhagen is a Fantastic place! 

For those arriving at airport i have mentioned easiest way to get from Airport to city, if you decide to take taxi cost is between 250-300 DKK.

Ticket machines for train at Airport are easy however at City train station its a bit more confusing so i would recommend heading directly to the ticket office where they will help you out easily. 

Hop on Hop off bus costs $35 for 72hrs great way to see city if feet get sore for walking around the shops. Little mermaid stop is also the change over for cruiseport shuttle however this doesnt start until 2pm and runs hourly until 5pm, it is aimed more for cruiseships that visit port for the day.

When heading home we arrived at Airport 3hrs before our flight and had to que for most of that time! There has been a lot of negative press especially in UK regarding ques at airports etc all i can say from experience at both Copenhagen and Heathrow is that a lot of the ques are brought about due to passengers not adhering to the rules! Yes airlines reduced staff due to covid but that doesnt mean you can now take 3 cases onboard as cabin luggage or liguids more than the 100ml allowed.

Ques are caused by breaches in rules by passengers at security who then argue for 10 mins as they have to dispose of excess liguids or get bags checked in. You've just said you fly XYZ airline every month so it's not your 1st rodeo!! So why do you think these rules dont apply to you? 

Once we finally got into the duty free area after a long wait behind man with 3 cases as cabin luggage we only had time to enter 1 shop before we had to board. 

For Non Eu citizens ( this includes brits ) remember to get all your receipts from your shopping to claim back Vat, items purchased in Sweden and 1 other country which i cannot remember can be dealt with here also. So for cruises that stop in sweden remember to get tax free receipts and just show them at Copenhagen Airport.

 

 

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Stockholm 

Beautiful City but logisticaly a nightmare to walk around due to it being made up of 14 islands. You may be on Island 1 which is a par 4 distance away across the water from island 4 but theres no bridge or means of direct transport so you have to travel through another 3 islands to get there. 

Best bit of advice i could give for those wanting to explore on their own is jump on the Hop on Hop off bus at cruiseport..again $35 but it will make getting about so much easier. 

Old town is very nice but like other tourist areas around the world you are going to pay a lot more for food and drink here! Moving a few side streets back off the main square prices drop and even more so when you head to next island

Also make sure you are back to ship in plenty time 😂

 

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Tallinn 

Cruiseport is about a 15 min walk to the Old Town. Really nice small side streets, town square, cafes bars and the shops are pretty good also. Outside the walled city you will find lots to do and explore.

Uber from Old town to cruiseport cost about €4 

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Helsinki 

Should have stayed on ship lol

There are 2 cruise ports opposite each other, 1 has a tram system which takes you right into city centre the other which our ship docked doesn't .

RC offers a shuttle to City $10 pp E/W. Hop on Hop off bus available at port also Uber which is roughly $10 ( obviously Uber prices fluctuate) decided as per usual to just walk into town as it was only about an hours walk and you get to see things you normally wouldn't......not a good idea when its raining!!

You can only get tram if you have ticket and finding a ticket office or shop can be difficult when its raining and you are trying to keep your phone dry. 

So decided to get an Uber! Pick up point check, drop off point check confirm....sorry we do not accept your payment method ( paypal ) so i entered card details still didnt accept! Tried numerous times with varying uber cars and nothing worked, in the end i went to cash point to get some paper money to only find out cash payment wasnt an option on Uber in Helsinki. In the end just jumped in a taxi back to port. 1 bit of advice i would give to anyone walking into city if its a nice day is to walk along waterside towards Helsinki wheel, our cab took this way back and its very picturesque.

A lot of passengers headed back to ship early due to weather.

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Its funny how i started this cruise with a basic schoolboy error and i finished it with another..however this one could have been more serious.

I mentioned how we basically just queued for 3 hours at Copenhagen Airport on way home and only had time to pop into 1 shop in Duty Free. This shop was for myself as i saw a sweater i wanted much to my wifes dismay. 

Due to being rushed i left my flight bag in the fitting room and did not notice until i actually sat down on the Aircraft. Realising what i had done i informed cabin crew straight away of the situation. I informed them that i wasnt worried about the bag, i didnt want flight delayed as it was my own fault and we were basically away to take off at any minute, i just wanted someone to get my bag and destroy the contents ( prescription medicine in it ) i explained that the last thing i wanted was a child finding pills and thinking they were sweets so if someone get find bag and just destroy. Ground crew came on and informed me that they couldnt get me my bag back and if i wanted it i would have to disembark and get a later flight. This wasnt what i asked so i informed ground crew that i wasnt delaying flight i just wanted someone to destroy contents of my bag

So i buckled up and waited for take off when suddenly air stewardess appears with my bag! To say i was shocked was an understatement and even more so when she told me she had talked with the pilot and informed him that my only concern was the bag was found and destroyed to prevent possible harm coming to others, the pilot was that unhappy with ground crew he actually got off plane and retrieved bag himself..BA flight 815 i salute you 👏 

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Thank you for posting.  Very few Baltic posts on this site.  We leave on June 26 out of Stockholm, our ship is essentially an Uber, 5 ports in 6 days. (Visby, Kotka, Tallinn, Riga and Klapeidia, Lithuania)  Not what we originally signed up for 4 years ago, but wife and I are of the opinion that we can have fun anywhere.....can always find a pub open.

Still nervous about the whole thing being derailed by a q-tip, but we will control what we can.  

Glad you had a good time.  Again, thanks for posting.  

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