Best Cruise Experience: Baltic Countries and Russia

In 2015 we went for a European Baltic nations cruise with Royal Caribbean—by far the best cruise experience we ever had. This was all around a wonderful experience learning about different cultures. It was almost like a cultural immersion experience even though we were only in each country for a day or two.

We decided to begin our journey from Sweden. We flew from Denver to London and onto Stockholm. Stockholm is a wonderful city—an old city for sure. We decided to check out the city after our cruise, so we stayed at an airport hotel overnight before beginning our cruise the following morning. I saw an interesting thing on the way to the hotel from the airport. There was an old airplane sitting at the end of a runway near the hanger with the name of some restaurant. I asked our cab driver and interestingly enough, someone converted an old airplane into a restaurant! How cool is that?

Show Reservations

Cruises have some of the best entertainment programs for all ages. Some of these shows tend to be very popular. I have a habit of booking these shows as soon as we make our cruise reservations—months in advance. This way you are assured a seat and in case you decide not to attend, no harm is done. One thing you should be aware of while making show reservations is your shore excursions. Make sure you at least have an idea as to when and where you will be out of the ship for shore excursions. That way, you are not booking shows while you are out of the ship or too close to the time when you are coming back from your excursions.

Anyway, the following day, we were ready to cruise on. After check-in and security, we boarded our ship. It was a massive ship. Between the guests and the crew, there were more than 7,000 people on board! It is a floating city. We were all excited to check out our suite. It was a splendid place with a king-size bed for my wife and me, a living room, a nice balcony, and bunk beds for the kids.

Prepaid Tips

Most cruises require prepaid tips nowadays if you want the ability to book dinner reservations in advance or something like that. I appreciate the concept but I am a strong believer in tips based on service and tips in cash. Another reason tips should be in cash is that even if you have prepaid your tips, the attendants expect you to give tips at the end of the trip anyway. So, I have made a habit of tipping in cash at the end of the trip or in restaurants after each meal. This assures that tip is given to who provides the service and not equally distributed without regards to the level of service. If you have prepaid tips in your reservations, go to customer service once you board the ship and they will be able to remove tips from your booking. You can then apply that money towards onboard expenses or have them refund it to you in the form of your original payment.

After we settled down in our room, we decided to venture out and explore the ship. They had a grand welcome party on the first night and we had reservations for the dinner and a show. It was a very nice start to our trip. After a day or so at sea, we ended up in Helsinki, Finland. We had a full day in Helsinki. The cruise ship docked in an industrial area in Helsinki. Quite frankly, you feel disappointed when you disembark. But after a couple of blocks of walking, we could see the real Helsinki. Helsinki is a modern city. We saw some amazing sculptures on our way downtown! We wanted to see the famous Rock Church (Temppeliaukio Church); it is well known because it is built directly on solid rock. It was quite peaceful inside and we enjoyed the serenity of the place—well at least my wife and I did. The kids did not actually care for it much.

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After a wonderful day in Helsinki, we were off to the boat and it was time to continue to St. Petersburg. This was the highlight of our tour. There is so much to write about Russia and St. Petersburg that I have decided to dedicate an entire blog to that, so we will discuss the experience in the next blog.

I Scream, You Scream, We All Scream…

We came back towards downtown and saw this place we had to go to… it was a Magnum ice cream sandwich shop. They made customized ice cream sandwiches. The line begins with two or three base ice cream options. After that, it was options galore! We got to choose from over 30 different toppings and at the end, we ended up with an ice cream sandwich that was fit for dinner. Literally, it had 1,000 calories in one bar!

Once we departed Russia, we continued our journey to a couple of lesser-known countries. The first stop was Tallinn, Estonia. The cruise port is very close to Tallinn Old Town. Because both kids were tired from all the walking in St. Petersburg, they decided to just hang in the ship for the day. My wife and I decided to check out the town. The walk from the cruise port to the Old Town was less than 10 minutes. We decided to stroll through town and check out a couple of cathedrals in town. Next, we went to see one of the defensive towers of medieval times called Kiek in de Kök. Calling this a defensive tower would be a joke in today’s world. But, I guess it worked in those days before there were guns. We were soon ready to head back to the ship and enjoy a nice show on ice that evening.

The following day, we arrived in Riga, Latvia. Again, a nice small city with a rich history. All of us decided to check out the city. This cruise port was near Old Town Riga—less than a 10 minutes walk. The walk is beautiful, as we were surrounded by the water and restaurants. Old Town Riga is a bustling place due to all the tourists from different cruise lines. I found it an excellent place to people-watch. We started to just walk around town and soon stumbled across a photography studio. We went in and they said they would dress people up in medieval dresses and then place them next to a Viking ship or something like that. We decided to try it out. We chose a little more modern era. They dressed us up and took our picture next to a Rolls-Royce. I thought the picture turned out okay, but my wife did not like it so we are not posting it here😊. After the photoshoot, we continued our stroll backward towards the Old Town. There were so many chocolate shops on this one street so we had to check those out. They truly had some of the best gourmet truffles I have tried. I had a blast! Did not need dinner that evening.

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We were coming towards the end of our cruise trip. After a couple of days at sea, we were back in Stockholm. We decided to stay in the city since we were going to explore Stockholm. We stayed at a Hilton on the riverfront. It was a charming little place. Everyone was excited for sightseeing in Stockholm. We began with the Royal Palace. It is humongous! It is funny sometimes how you find little nuggets of information from different places and it sticks with you. In the Royal Palace, I learned that the different royalties of Europe used to marry other royalties. After the Royal Palace, we went to visit the Noble Prize Museum next door. It was certainly filled with a lot of information and my son really enjoyed the experience. The next day, we decided to check out the famous Djurgarden and the Vasa Museum. Both locations are within walking distance of each other so it was good to cover them together. That afternoon, we went to check out the famous Ericsson Globe. We took the tour to the top of the spherical arena via a gondola. It is certainly an experience but for some reason, I did not find it impressive. One of those things I guess.

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London Cabbie

It was time to go back home, so we flew from Stockholm to London the following day. Our flight back to Denver was not until a day later, so we stayed at an airport Hilton. We landed in London around 10 pm. For some reason, there were no taxis available—I guess there were taxis, but no driver wanted to take a fare that was less than 2 km away. No Uber either. Finally, we found a cab driver. He said he would take us, but he would charge £50 instead of using the meter. We did not have a choice, so I agreed. We reached our hotel and got out of the cab and I asked if he would take US dollars. He said he would not so I told him to wait so I could get British pounds from the front desk. I went to the front desk and got some change. I paid him £50 and he said it was going to cost us £80 now. I asked him why—he said it was too close to the airport and fare to the city would have got him £80. I reminded him that we had agreed on £50 even though the meter would have been half that. He would not budge. That was a bizarre experience!

We finally took a direct flight from London back to Denver the following morning. It was one of the best trips we had as a family. I have not talked about our experience in St. Petersburg, Russia, but I will cover that in the next blog. Now that the COVID restrictions are loosening up, enjoy traveling! As always, please participate with your comments below.