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

Our cruise will have two days in Saint Petersburg. It's funny you mentioned that shopping excursion because I thought that looked like a great option for one of our two days! Did you know of anyone who did it? I'm leaning toward Anastasia Tours for one of the days to see the things farther out of the city, then the shopping excursion for the things right in town. What do you think?
 
Our cruise will have two days in Saint Petersburg. It's funny you mentioned that shopping excursion because I thought that looked like a great option for one of our two days! Did you know of anyone who did it? I'm leaning toward Anastasia Tours for one of the days to see the things farther out of the city, then the shopping excursion for the things right in town. What do you think?

I'd have thought that would be perfect ... now having see the main sights I'd think you could get to them easily. I think I just suddenly thought, we're here one day ... do we really only just want to be on shore for 2/3 hours? With two days I would do it definitely
 


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As you can see the Helsinki day was a late start, with all ashore predicted as 11.45am. If you're interested, Palo brunch was available that morning even though I believe it's usually only available on sea days. We had other ideas though and had booked a character breakfast for that morning.

It started well and we were seated very efficiently -although there was only two of us we were at a table for six
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It was the classic character breakfast

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and I couldn't resist some mickey waffles

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I don't know if you can picture the restaurant space in Animator's Palate, but if you divide the room into four quarters, we were sat in the top right corner. No one else was seated any where near us everyone was in the bottom right quarter ... and the restaurant began to fill the bottom left quarter and then the top left quarter. You can see from the picture above no one was near us. We'd long finished our food and the characters were in the bottom left quarter at that point. On a changeover of characters a CM from the cruise staff team apologised and said the characters have to follow a specific route and we would see them eventually

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here is Mickey walking though, you can see people have started to fill up the top left quarter. We'd been here about 30 minutes at this point ... the characters still had half the restaurant to cover, and the people coming in were being seated in the empty spaces you can see in this picture. After about 45 minutes we decided to leave ... we're adults, we don't HAVE to have a photo with the characters, but I was disappointed with this. Our waiter tried to persuade us to stay, but I really couldn't be bothered :( maybe it was just the mood I was in. I considered asking the CM on the door who was allocating tables why he'd placed us where he had, but I thought I'd just come over as an over-entitled grown woman who wasn't prepared to wait!

I think we ended up heading up to Cove Café and watching us sail into Helsinki.

We docked at the port which is south west of the city (apparently small ships can dock in the more central port). We decided to hang around, have an early lunch and the use the shuttle bus into town. It was cold that day .. no one was hanging around on deck except the poor lifeguards

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This was the view back out to sea

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The skies were bluer than we'd been led to expect, but once again the forecast was rain!

By the time the shuttle bus had dropped us off in the town centre it had brightened up considerably

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we had a walk around the shops in the area before heading to find the Senate Square. I loved this display of Moomin merchandise. I'd loved reading the Moomin books as a child
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Walking down to the square was a lovely park/garden in the middle of the road

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At the end of the street we could have turned right to look at the harbour (which I wish I had because apparently the King of Norway and the King of Sweden were both in town and had arrived by Royal Yacht), but we turned left to Senate Sqaure

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It was a beautiful square, the Lutheran Cathedral

To the right the Senate
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and to the left the University Library
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See that black cloud in the left hand corner of the photo of the cathedral? It started to rain, then the rain turned to hail stones! The hail was so large it hurt when it hit you! We dived into the first coffee shop we saw and sat the storm out
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once it died down (it continued to drizzle) we went back to the square and went round the cathedral. We walked back up to the bus meeting point and headed back to the ship. At the show that evening Lesley (Cruise Director) said we'd had all seasons in one day, including crunchy rain, and she was right!
 


I've never heard of the Moomin books! For what age are they appropriate? Maybe I'll find some for my kids to read before we leave. Thanks for the update!

I'm also hoping the weather is better in August...how much sunlight did you have?
 
Thursday evening was Tangled ... so I was excited. We finally rejoined our tablemates in the MDR and met the final couple. The one couple continued to arrived when the felt like it, up to 45 minutes after service began which held things up for everyone.

Again I have no pictures of dinner, sorry!

We then went to see Tangled. This was a new addition since our last cruise and I liked it very much - we got there as the door opened to get a good seat and it was standing room only by the time the show started.

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Afterwards we went to O'Gills for the Snuggly Duckling - and were given our Thugo game on the way in (after we'd said the secret password ;) )

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It was a really fun way to spend 30 minutes or so ... I'll not spoil the details, but again I'd say get there early for a seat, it filled up!

We went back to the room for layers (I ended up with two sweatshirts on under my jacket) and headed up to a very chilly deck for what was becoming a pizza ritual!
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And that was the Helsinki day.
 
I've never heard of the Moomin books! For what age are they appropriate? Maybe I'll find some for my kids to read before we leave. Thanks for the update!

I'm also hoping the weather is better in August...how much sunlight did you have?
Days were really long ....it wasn't dark at 11pm! Weather is all the luck of the draw in northern Europe, I should know living in the UK. Today it's been around 80 degrees, but it was pouring with rain earlier in the week! My friend had done a cruise to the same ports about two weeks earlier .... she'd had rain in Copenhagen and Stockholm (where we had sun) and beautiful weather in the ports we'd had rain!

Moomins are for younger children but those of us who grew up with them still love them! They have a cult following http://www.themoominshop.com/
 
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So it was Friday already and the last port! We'd been lucky enough to spend a week in Stockholm last July and had seen many of the sights. I'd loved the city so much, and was really looking forward to seeing it again.

I knew the archipelago was supposed to be amazing so when I woke up I made a real effort to get up on deck before we docked! We were close but not there yet and we passed some beautiful scenery
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As we approached the city I could make out many familiar landmarks

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Yet again Disney had laid on shuttle buses, but we had different ideas ... we were confident we could walk into town, and looking at the traffic (there were lots of roadworks around) I'm glad we did. There was a blue line painted on the pavement which you followed to the main road (there was also a hop on hop off boat and bus stop line too). It took just over 20 minutes for us to reach Gamla Stan (the old town).

We walked up through the old town to the city centre, did some shopping (I'd dragged H into a store called Lindex in Tallin, Helskinki (multiple branches) in search of a top I'd seen online - well the first Lindex we went into had just one left ... in my size, in the sale - I was so pleased!). We then headed to a Fjallraven shop to get H a belt.
 
As we came to the end of the street where the shop was I could hear music playing ... it was the parade heading to the changing of the guards at the palace. This happens at noon every week day, and is well worth a watch if you're in the area ... this was about 11.50am and I realised therefore where these soldiers were headed

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we then headed back towards the old town, via the Kungstragarden - a park close to the water ... I had no idea but there was a major food and drink festival happening so we wandered for a little bit, listened to the music and tasted some freebies

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we headed back over the water to the old town

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As I said, we'd done many of the sights last summer, Vasa, Nordic Museum, Nobel Museum, City Hall, Grona Lund, the hop on hop off boat (thoroughly recommended!), a panoramic tour, the science museum, the military museum, the Palace, but we hadn't been to the Royal Armoury ...

It's under the Palace and was well worth the visit

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There was a whole interactive dress up and be a knight/get in your carriage section for younger children too

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The carriages were impressive ... and this final one was a Royal Sledge!

We came out of the museum just as the changing of the guard was finishing so saw the parade close up again - I videoed it, but I have no idea how to post a video!

We then headed to an ice cream store we found last year - This was delicious - marzipan ice cream
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I'd exchanged around £20 into local currency for each port, the two ice creams cost around £5, we then went and bought some Swedish treats in a small supermarket in the square in Gamla Stan. We then headed to a bakery for fresh cinnamon buns ... Half way back to the ship I panicked that we'd not be allowed to take on the buns as they were not packaged ... so we ate one each on the walk back to the ship ... that day we did 31,615 steps and I clocked up 163 exercise minutes on my fitbut so we clearly walked our way around Stockholm! Anyway, we got the final bun back on board with no problems so I had the last one as a late night snack that night!
 
back on board for a late lunch .

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my one and only burger of the trip, I really enjoyed it!

Then we grabbed a couple of loungers and I enjoyed today's special ice cream flavour - blueberry

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It had been cold the last few days and it was just lovely to sit in the sun and enjoy the day ... this was the one day the pools were full!

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wasn't really sunbathing weather but nice enough just to lay back and relax!

We then went and did our Anna's chocolate chase hunt ... I remembered most of the clues from the last cruise but couldn't remember the symbols!

Around 5 we went inside as I was on a mission ... I wanted a photo with chip and dale! however we spotted Daisy watching the Frozen maypole dancing from deck 4

when she spotted me she gave me a big hug!

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We headed up to deck 5 to meet the chipmunks ... they were up to their usual tricks and were a great meet and greet

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And I discovered I had a few extra pictures I wasn't expecting - moral of the story don't ask a CM to take pictures on your phone!

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We ran outside then to catch the sail through the archipelago

first from deck 4

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Then from deck 10

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I realised then it was almost 6 o'clock so we just ran down to dinner ...

dinner that night was in Lumiere's - we were lucky we were at a table next to the windows so we could see the archipelago as we sailed out ... it was really cool to watch so many islands just outside our window! As we were the second couple to arrive we positioned ourselves so we could see out ... our 45 mins late tablemates had to sit with their backs to the window!

Dinner that night was the Frozen menu ... I just have desert pictures, but H says that her Olaf dome was the best pudding of the trip, the apple cake wasn't as good as I remembered itIMG_2369.jpg IMG_2370.jpg

We then headed up on deck for the Freezing the night away deck party ...

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There was no space up on deck 10 (my preferred spot for people watching!) so we headed down to deck 9

I loved the cruise staff's costumes ...

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The party was well attended, and the little ones seemed to love Elsa coming out and singing at the end. I thought it was curious that Disney were pushing the sale of light up wands and spinners, given as you can see it was broad daylight at 8pm!

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Once the deck party reached it's finale we headed down to the theatre for the show
 
tI was quite excited to see that it was a concert by a Broadway star, Richard Creighton who had apparently appeared in a number of Disney shows..

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It was not as well attended as some of the production shows, but the theatre filled up by the time it started.

He started with a medley from Mary Poppins, then introduced himself. Maybe I'm in the minority, but I don't really want second rate impressions/comedy in-between the songs. We gave it one more song and then left ... I've never walked out of something like this before, but I just wasn't in the mood and wasn't finding him funny. I was also a little taken aback that he appeared 20 years older than the photos that had been advertising the show!

We ended up back on deck, still sailing through the islands, and watching the sun set

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grabbed a hot drink from deck 9 and ate my cinnamon bun from Stockholm.

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So this was it, the last sea day :( which meant it was the last day :(

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I honestly don't really remember what we did do/when we did it (other than pack during the afternoon)

I popped my head into anyone can cook but didn't stay

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Saw them setting up for Jack's diaper dash

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Found our Chocolate Chase prizes in our cabin (yay for real chocolate not rice krispies that aren't vegetarian!)

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We went to see the Disney Nature Made in China film in the afternoon and then packed :(

I wandered taking shots of the ship as I realise I hadn't taken many

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Can you see the future cruises desk queue in the shot above? It just got longer and longer ... I booked a placeholder in the end, we're not sure if we'll sail again within the two years but I wanted to keep my options open. Europe for next year isn't good for me and my work dates, and the following summer the placeholder is likely to expire before I can sail - and the airfare to sail in the USA is somewhat prohibitive :(
 
I did some shopping, bought a top, thankfully tried it on, realised it was too big and swapped it (that seemed more complex than it needed to be) and headed to our final dinner in Animators which was the drawing show.

Our table didn't have the best view of the screens but we still managed to see our drawings appear. H had the worst meal of the cruise that night, the sweet and sour tofu and said she really didn't like it. Desert was better - I had the sweet temptations (which I know I'd heard reports had been discontinued?) which was ok, but not spectacular

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Eating in Animator's made me realise I'd forgotten to buy a butter knife ... I'd seen them in the store on the first day and kept meaning to get one, so we dashed off to buy one and then went to see the show, Disney Dreams ... I do like this, it's the only show I've watched on all four cruises.

We controversially (first time for us!) skipped Till We Meet Again ... H was hungry after pushing her pizza around so we had one last late night pizza on deck and wandered the ship

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There was an MSC ship out at sea all lit up but I don't think my pictures do it justice ... it looked very pretty

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And that was that, we had put our cases out at 6pm, so we had nothing left to sort out that night ... eventually we headed to bed - we'd already said we wouldn't do breakfast the following morning (6.45am!) as our flight wasn't until 4.20pm and we were trying not to rush anything!
 
so it was the final morning :( the one good thing about having to get your luggage out the night before is you're not frantically packing on the final morning!

We had breakfast in Cabana's which wasn't at all busy, and strolled off the ship around 8am. There was no queue, no need to disembark by group (in fairness I've only cruised in Europe and this has been my experience on all of them - just leave when you want - I'm sure not having to deal with customs has a major impact on that). Grabbed our luggage in the terminal and walked straight into a cab.

We had a dilemma that morning, as I'd said, our flight wasn't due to leave until 4.20pm, and it was forecast to rain all day. In the end we got a cab to the train station in the city centre and got the train back to the airport. We'd researched that there were luggage lockers at the airport (our budget airline doesn't usually allow you to check luggage in way in advance (Paris for example has a 2 hour before limit). So we stashed the luggage in two lockers and walked to the National Aquarium of Denmark - approximately a 20 minute walk away. We could have caught a free shuttle bus there, but the aquarium didn't open till 10am and it was only just got 9am at this point!

The aquarium looked great on it's website https://denblaaplanet.dk/en/ and it was a very impressive building from outside

We wandered through the exhibits which included sections based on rivers, the rainforest and the ocean

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This made me smile in a fish tank ...

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We had a drink and a cookie in the café which overlooked the water. It was really pleasant setting and had an outdoor play area for children, but it was really raining!

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We caught the bus back to the airport around 12 noon, checked our bags in, and discovered our flight was delayed ... so we ended up hanging round the airport for the next six hours :(

When we arrived home the queue for immigration was over 30 minutes - but at least our cases were waiting for us! Car was in the meet and greet car park and we got home at 9.30pm UK time. Getting up for work the following morning was not fun!
 

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