It's called the Baltic for a reason - a Northern Europe trip report 2017 - complete 6/18

We were on the Magic in the Bahamas in April of this year. It's fun to see how quickly they turn everything around for new itineraries! I hope they still have the Frozen stuff when we cruise next summer; I think it's fun for Northern Europe. Deck 4 is always "my" spot, so I like hearing other people appreciate it, too :) I'm enjoying your report!
 
I am actually planning a carribbean cruise but accidentally saw and now follow your TR out of curiosity as I'm estonian and Tallinn is my home town, though I've lived in Oslo for the past 12 years the city and specially the old town still holds a warm place in my heart❤️ I'm glad you liked the Lennusadam museum and that it was sunny the day you were there as every city is so much nicer in sunshine.
Btw The sign with names Moon and Klaus were referring to the restaurants in the area (not to the Moon but it's a funny assumption lol). Moon (pron: sth like "morn") means poppy (the red flower) in estonian and this is a really good affordable restaurant based on russian comfort food with a nice gourmet touch owned by one of the best younger chefs of Estonia. Really recommend that and also the cafe/restaurant Klaus in the area - good quality/price ratio and cool outdoor and indoor sitting there!
 
I am actually planning a carribbean cruise but accidentally saw and now follow your TR out of curiosity as I'm estonian and Tallinn is my home town, though I've lived in Oslo for the past 12 years the city and specially the old town still holds a warm place in my heart❤️ I'm glad you liked the Lennusadam museum and that it was sunny the day you were there as every city is so much nicer in sunshine.
Btw The sign with names Moon and Klaus were referring to the restaurants in the area (not to the Moon but it's a funny assumption lol). Moon (pron: sth like "morn") means poppy (the red flower) in estonian and this is a really good affordable restaurant based on russian comfort food with a nice gourmet touch owned by one of the best younger chefs of Estonia. Really recommend that and also the cafe/restaurant Klaus in the area - good quality/price ratio and cool outdoor and indoor sitting there!


We are taking this cruise next year! Do you have any suggestions for visiting Tallinn? There are 12+ of us going in ages from 7 to 70. Some wanted to visit the KGB museum and some wanted to paint marzipan. What should we eat? What are the not-to-be-missed places to go or things to try? Can we make it to Kadriorg Park? How far is that from the city center of Tallinn and is it worth it to go to when we are on a tight time frame in Tallinn? It looks like we might have about 7 hours total in Tallinn. Everything looks so beautiful, I'm having trouble narrowing it down...Thank you!
 


I am actually planning a carribbean cruise but accidentally saw and now follow your TR out of curiosity as I'm estonian and Tallinn is my home town, though I've lived in Oslo for the past 12 years the city and specially the old town still holds a warm place in my heart❤️ I'm glad you liked the Lennusadam museum and that it was sunny the day you were there as every city is so much nicer in sunshine.
Btw The sign with names Moon and Klaus were referring to the restaurants in the area (not to the Moon but it's a funny assumption lol). Moon (pron: sth like "morn") means poppy (the red flower) in estonian and this is a really good affordable restaurant based on russian comfort food with a nice gourmet touch owned by one of the best younger chefs of Estonia. Really recommend that and also the cafe/restaurant Klaus in the area - good quality/price ratio and cool outdoor and indoor sitting there!
That makes so much more sense ... I think because the sign post also said New York I thought it was a novelty sign! We loved Tallinn, and you are right a sunny day makes everything better! We had the best weather in Tallinn and Stockholm and probably felt those days were most enjoyable!
 
IMG_2007.jpg

scan-page-001.jpg

scan 05-page-001.jpg

I'm still not doing very well with my navigators ... oh well, I know someone else has put a link to pdf copies on another report so if you want better quality you can find them there!

So, this was the day many people were most excited about. I have to say I was one of them. This also marked our foray into excursion territory. If you recall, I said four cruises, no excursion. I know many people swear that a private tour is the only way to do it, and you MUST book with Anastasia, or whatever company they used. I do think it comes down to personal preference (and budget). This was not a cheap cruise and adding $500 in one day for two people is a major factor for many people. So, we had planned to book Disney's shopping excursion. This to all intents and purposes seems to be a way around the visa rule (you can only disembark without a visa if you are booked onto a tour operators tour - NOT a Disney tour, but you must have a tour ticket with a registered operator). So the shopping tour drives you into the city centre, drops you for 2 hours then takes you back. The info says something like 'at all times your coach will be waiting for you' and it costs just $30. But we'd have been back on the boat by lunch time (and all aboard was 11.30pm). And we were in Russia ... so then we booked the evening canal boat tour too ... then I worried that immigration would be a major pain and why were we getting off twice - so as we were then paying almost $100 each and I thought is this best value? So, to cut and long story short we ended up on the Adults Only City Highlights and Hermitage tour. $153 each, 3 hour bus tour of highlights with stop offs for photos at key places, lunch in a city centre restaurant and the Hermitage.

I started to worry at the weekend when the weather forecast said heavy rain all day for St Petersburg, so woke up with fingers crossed the weather would be better than that ...but glad that if the worst weather appeared we'd be indoors a lot of the time.

So, I wake up before 6am conscious of the early start. Jump in the shower so that I'm dressed before 6.30am and the room service order. By 6.55am I'm worrying that maybe I didn't put the order out or maybe it hadn't been collected. Open the door and our breakfast is coming down the corridor with a very apologetic CM. Apparently half the ship had had the same idea! I tipped him and we sat down to eat ...

IMG_2032.jpg

cereal for H, pastries for me (but I ordered two because I didn't trust her not to want one when she saw them). Notice anything? yup ... no milk for the cereal. Luckily we had extra pastries and we were in a hurry (meeting at 7.35am) so we thought nothing of it. 10 minutes later we had a phone call from room service asking was our order complete. I've only ordered from them once before and I don't remember this happening then so I have no idea if they had worked out they'd forgotten something or it was just courtesy? Anyway, I told them milk was missing but not to worry about it as we were heading out.

We arrived at Fathoms about 5 minutes early and were asked to queue outside the lifts. This was to allow the previous tours to leave Fathoms by the other door. We registered and got our stickers. Turned out there were 3 groups for this tour. Immigration was actually a breeze, very efficient, no queue and all done in 5 minutes - I got excited and photographed
my passport stamp ...
IMG_2034.jpg

(apologies for the blurry stamp!). It was about 8am at that point.

So the first thing our tour guide explained was that contrary to the description we were heading to the Hermitage in the morning and touring in the afternoon. But our slot was 9.30am (apparently it opens to the public at 10.30am so this got us in before the crowds) so we'd do one photo stop before. This was much better from a point of not spending the whole morning on a bus! The drive from the port to the city centre took about 30 minutes and our guide pointed out recent regeneration like the soccer stadium built for the next world cup.

First stop was St Isaac's Cathedral ... we'd only been out of the bus a few minutes and it started to pour!

IMG_2040.jpg

IMG_2041.jpg


We'd been warned to keep personal belongings safe and the option was always to leave things on the bus. At every place we stopped there were street sellers trying to sell souvenirs but they weren't intrusive and never bothered us.

I think the sudden downpour meant everyone climbed back on the bus more quickly than anticipated so we toured the city for a bit before heading to the Hermitage. We did pass a paddle of power with the St Petersburg walking tour group - they looked thoroughly soaked with some miserable looking children. I can see the weather would not have helped that tour.
 
We had to queue outside the Hermitage for a short while, there were other tour groups arriving. Our guide was very efficient at making sure were got in at the right time, and got us past another cruise group whose slot was after ours. She explained clearly about the cloakrooms and how to use them, gave us our tickets and we were in! (you're not allowed any large bags or outer coats inside, but the cloakroom was efficient and free, if crowded).

We started on the main staircase and toured the Winter Palace

IMG_2055.jpg IMG_2056.jpg IMG_2058.jpg IMG_2059.jpg IMG_2062.jpg
IMG_2064.jpg IMG_2068.jpg IMG_2070.jpg

I won't bore you with the hundreds of pictures I took, but these are some of the highlights of the palace. We then moved on to the art work in the Hermitage
 


Our guide was really good and made sure we saw the highlights, she doubled back a few times to ensure we saw things at the optimum time to avoid crowds. She was also extremely knowledgeable.

IMG_2073.jpg

This was an iconic piece, an extremely elaborate clock.

We saw works by Leonardo Da Vinci, Rembrandt, Reubens, Titian and many more

IMG_2080.jpg IMG_2081.jpg IMG_2082.jpg IMG_2083.jpg

IMG_2086.jpg IMG_2087.jpg IMG_2096.jpg

we finished the visit in the Chapel

IMG_2100.jpg IMG_2101.jpg

we were shown out via the restrooms and the gift shops. We were given 20 minutes to shop and asked to meet back at the main staircase at 12 noon. We'd been in the museum two and a half hours in total. We collected our coats on the way out and reboarded the bus. We'd changed a small amount of currency (£20) into rubles, but its worth knowing that everywhere we went in Russia accepted Euros too.
 
We are taking this cruise next year! Do you have any suggestions for visiting Tallinn? There are 12+ of us going in ages from 7 to 70. Some wanted to visit the KGB museum and some wanted to paint marzipan. What should we eat? What are the not-to-be-missed places to go or things to try? Can we make it to Kadriorg Park? How far is that from the city center of Tallinn and is it worth it to go to when we are on a tight time frame in Tallinn? It looks like we might have about 7 hours total in Tallinn. Everything looks so beautiful, I'm having trouble narrowing it down...Thank you!

Hi PHamrick! Of course 7 hours is a very limited time but the must in Tallinn really is the medieval old town. To wander in the streets of the lower part and go up to the Toompea Hill for the views takes it's time. I went to high school in the old town and for me everything there is nostalgic and memorable of course. As an experience the Olde Hansa restaurant with it's medieval theme is fun, otherwise I don't recommend any of the venues on the main square (Raekoja plats). On street called Rataskaevu there's several good eats (Väike rataskaevu 16, Vegan restaurant V, Restaurant Aed). On Vene street on theother side of Raekoja plats there's the Tchaikovsky restaurant and I just got e-mail from one of my favorites in old town - Art Priori restaurant that they will have a more affrodable lunch summer terrace open (address Olevimägi 7). Regarding the KGB museum - it's in my to do list but I still haven't been. Be aware the it's not really a museum. It's a hotel room (rooms?) redone to the exhibition as this hotel (now called Sokos Viru) was one of the most "wired" in the Soviet era as one of the few used by "western" tourists/politicians etc. For history buffs there's a very interesting museum called The Occupation Museum on the edge of the old town but this really needs more time than you have. When the weather is good I definitely recommend taking an Uber (very easy and the same app as in US works well in Tallinn as well) to Kadriorg Park to see the beautiful summer palace that was built but never actually used by the Czar's wife Katarina. The beautiful rose garden and park is not a really long way from the port but you don't have time to waste and Uber really is affordable and reliable in Estonia. I now use it every time i'm there. No need to tip in Estonia either so you don't need any cash (as you might need for some taxies). In the park there's a very good cafe/bakery Katharinenthal. Their macaroons, cakes and pastries are some of the nicest in Tallinn and with warm weather the outdoor sitting is very nice. If time you could take a walk to the song festival grounds close by as this is historically a very important venue for estonians and a unique architecture excample. Every 5th year the choir song festival takes place there and on these grounds the independance movement from the Soviet in 1988 started (Documentary Singing Revolution for the history fans about the event is on youtube as well I guess). Oh.. and I really don't know much about the marzipan thing.. It's funny it's presented as something VERY tallinnish or estonian but it really isn't. I know the cafe in old town (Maiasmokk) has some history with marzipan (being the first produsers maybe?) but I personally don't know much about it and it's been the theme of their marketing just some last 10 years. We used to hang in the cafe a lot when in high school but then marzipan never really was a topic there.. lol :)
Oh and sorry it was not my goal taking over the thread. You are welcome to PM me if any questions :)
 
Hi janiebubble! I was wondering if you did any of the following activities on board:

Princess Gathering (what day was it on, which princesses were there?)
Frozen Gathering (what day was it on, who was there?)
Anything on the Tangled day? Did you do something called Spot-a-Thug?
Did you do any Trivia games?
Anna's chocolate scavenger hunt?
Any shows?

thank you so much! I'm getting so many great ideas from this!
 
Hi janiebubble! I was wondering if you did any of the following activities on board:

Princess Gathering (what day was it on, which princesses were there?)
Frozen Gathering (what day was it on, who was there?)
Anything on the Tangled day? Did you do something called Spot-a-Thug?
Did you do any Trivia games?
Anna's chocolate scavenger hunt?
Any shows?

thank you so much! I'm getting so many great ideas from this!

we didn't do the princess gathering, it was definitely happening on both sea days, I saw Cinderella, Tiana and Rapunzel around the ship so I guess they were the princesses. We did Frozen on the first sea day (see post above) it was Anna, Elsa and Olaf, one photo opp with all three together.

Tangled day we didn't do spot a thug but I saw lots of stressed looking parents with children trying to find the thugs on deck! We did the adult snuggly duckling and played Thugo, one of my highlights of the trip.
We only did the one trivia game, we did try to play a second but O'Gills was full!
We did do Anna's chocolate chase, the clues were exactly the same as two years ago!

Shows, we did Twice Charmed, Tangled and Disney Dreams - we skipped the first night to see Moana, didn't fancy the magician act, and the St Petersburg Night was Pirates of the Caribbean instead of a show. We tried the Stars Set Sail concert but walked out ...
 
we didn't do the princess gathering, it was definitely happening on both sea days, I saw Cinderella, Tiana and Rapunzel around the ship so I guess they were the princesses. We did Frozen on the first sea day (see post above) it was Anna, Elsa and Olaf, one photo opp with all three together.

Tangled day we didn't do spot a thug but I saw lots of stressed looking parents with children trying to find the thugs on deck! We did the adult snuggly duckling and played Thugo, one of my highlights of the trip.
We only did the one trivia game, we did try to play a second but O'Gills was full!
We did do Anna's chocolate chase, the clues were exactly the same as two years ago!

Shows, we did Twice Charmed, Tangled and Disney Dreams - we skipped the first night to see Moana, didn't fancy the magician act, and the St Petersburg Night was Pirates of the Caribbean instead of a show. We tried the Stars Set Sail concert but walked out ...

Thanks for the reply! I'm intrigued by Thugo. I'll wait for the rest of your trip report to have my curiosity satisfied! Thanks!!
 
I'm sorry to keep bugging you! As way of explanation, this will be the biggest trip my family has undertaken to date: six countries in two weeks with a 7 year old and 9 year old! I've also talked three other families into joining us so I feel a little (self-imposed) pressure to make it awesome for them.

Anyway, I was wondering what the silver gift looked like? Do you have a picture of it or some semblance of how big it is? Thanks!
 
I'm sorry to keep bugging you! As way of explanation, this will be the biggest trip my family has undertaken to date: six countries in two weeks with a 7 year old and 9 year old! I've also talked three other families into joining us so I feel a little (self-imposed) pressure to make it awesome for them.

Anyway, I was wondering what the silver gift looked like? Do you have a picture of it or some semblance of how big it is? Thanks!

you're not bugging me at all! I'm glad to know someone is reading it! I know how you feel about making trips awesome, last cruise we took extended family with us and I felt a similar pressure ... when they were seasick on day one I felt responsible!

The silver gift was the same as last years Mediterranean cruises, I don't have picture, but I'll find it and take one, it's a standard backpack size
 
I was on this cruise, too - our first cruise! We loved it and have already booked a cruise for 2018; we are hooked!

I'm glad you're doing a trip report because I agree that I couldn't find many before our trip... I thought about doing one but I mostly just took pictures of my four-year-old daughter, so it probably wouldn't be that helpful! :rolleyes1

@Skyegirl1999 ... Just curious if you found there to be much to do for little kids on this cruise... did you take your daughter with you when you were in port? I'm looking at this cruise or something similar for next year. My son and daughter will be 5 (almost 6).
 
so back on the coach and off to lunch. We had no idea what or where we would be eating ... it just said lunch was provided. We were taken here http://litcafe.su/index.php?id=19 the Literary Café on Nevsky Prospect.

I ended up engrossed in conversation with our tablemates, one of whom actually worked for Disney so I didn't take good pictures ... all I managed was the table ready set for our starters

IMG_2102.jpg


This guy on the window sill next to me

IMG_2103.jpg

and the outside ...

IMG_2106.jpg


which was next to a Burger King!


IMG_2107.jpg

The restaurant was on the corner of one of the famous canals

IMG_2109.jpg

So if you're wondering what you get fed when you get 'traditional Russian food' ... we were served the salad you can see in the picture, followed by pancakes, sour cream and fish roe, then a borscht beetroot soup, followed by beef stroganoff with mashed potato and finally apple strudel and ice cream. This was served with the water you can see in the picture, a glass of Russian 'champagne' and a shot of vodka (which brought tears to many eyes!). It was a lot of food! Lunch took about 90 minutes door to door. We then got back on the coach and were taken to see some more sights

IMG_2118.jpg

That's the Hermitage from the other side of the river

IMG_2120.jpg

as you can see the rain had let up but it was still very grey and overcast.

We were then taken to what was described as a 'safe place to spend money'(!) in other words the gift shop that either the tour company owned or was getting a kick back from. She told us we had 40 minutes ... we were back on the bus in less than 20 (and I only took that long because I wanted to use the restroom!). We bought a small snow globe for 4 euro and a magnet for 1 euro.

Back on the bus to our final stop

IMG_2129.jpg

The Church of the Spilled Blood .... the weather did mean it wasn't a spectacularly bright as when it's seen in the sun, but still an amazing sight

IMG_2158.jpg

I instagrammed this hence the filters!

We arrived back at the port at around 5.30pm .. and were back on board by 5.45pm. There were some shopping options at the port but we didn't stop and look. You have to go back through passport control and you get another stamp!
 
@Skyegirl1999 ... Just curious if you found there to be much to do for little kids on this cruise... did you take your daughter with you when you were in port? I'm looking at this cruise or something similar for next year. My son and daughter will be 5 (almost 6).

My daughter is 6 now and will be 7 on the cruise. I've found a bunch of things she will like to do in port: feeding reindeer, running around parks, getting photos done in medieval outfits, outdoor museums, etc. I'd be happy to share what I've found so far. We haven't gone on the trip yet obviously, but it could give you an idea! Happy planning!
 
Remember I said we'd had no milk for the cereal that morning?

Well these were waiting for us in our room with an apology from the room service team

IMG_2159.jpg


We were too late for dinner and to be honest had eaten a five course meal that afternoon so we decided to head up to deck nine for some pool side snacks. However when we got upstairs we realised Cabanas was open as a buffet (this was listed on the navigator 4.45pm-7.45pm) and so we decided to grab something there.

The main show tonight was a showing of Pirates of the Caribbean.. confession time I've never watched any of the other Pirates films ... and anyway, it clashed with Beauty and the Beast in the Buena Vista ... I had saved this to watch on the cruise too ... we really, really enjoyed it. We took a drink down to the theatre from the drink station and I also may have taken some ice cream ...

IMG_2162.jpg

That's an insulated hot drink cup full of ice cream!

The film finished around 10.30pm and we went up on deck for pizza. As you can see it was still really light

IMG_2164.jpg

We were shattered after a long day and went to bed looking forward to Helsinki the following day
 
@Skyegirl1999 ... Just curious if you found there to be much to do for little kids on this cruise... did you take your daughter with you when you were in port? I'm looking at this cruise or something similar for next year. My son and daughter will be 5 (almost 6).
Hi! We took her everywhere except Helsinki. (We had a 13-hour private tour in St. Petersburg the day before, and she was not interested in looking at anymore art or churches the next day! She stayed on the ship in the Kids Club that day.) She had fun and enjoyed much of the sightseeing - I will mention that we borrowed a friend's toddler carrier and were able to wear her on our back, which definitely helped us do more without fatiguing her.

We spent three days in Copenhagen, and that's very kid-friendly - tons to do with her. Tallinn was fine; she stayed out with me for about three hours and we just walked around, no excursions. St. P's she did EVERYTHING; she was a trooper (we did our tour through Anastasia travel). Stockholm had way more to do than I realized; we spent most of the day at Skansen (sp?) open-air museum and she LOVED that.

So overall, she liked enough of the sightseeing to make it worthwhile for her, and it was awesome to have the cruise activities to break up the tourist days. We thought it was a great way to introduce her to Europe in a kid-friendly way. Hope that helps!
 

GET A DISNEY VACATION QUOTE

Dreams Unlimited Travel is committed to providing you with the very best vacation planning experience possible. Our Vacation Planners are experts and will share their honest advice to help you have a magical vacation.

Let us help you with your next Disney Vacation!














Top