Sheila's Ports of Call Guides: The Beautiful Baltics, Part 5: Scenic St. Petersburg

St. Petersburg, Russia, can be the highlight of any Baltic cruise, especially if your ship will dock there overnight. There is so much to see in this city with its rich history, culture, art, and architecture, that even two days isn't enough. Our ship was docked there for two full days so we got to experience quite a bit, though our schedule was definitely go, go, go with no time to just relax and enjoy, which I would have liked. If you are an American visiting St. Petersburg on a cruise ship, it is highly advised that you book excursions with a licensed tour operator rather than trying to visit on your own, especially due to safety issues and the need for Visas. There are many tour operators to choose from, and you can go with a large group on a big bus, a small group in a van, or hire a driver and guide to take you around in a private car. Whatever you are looking for, there are tour operators out there to help you, and it's really your best bet.

There appears to be a bit of misinformation floating around, though, concerning cruise line excursions versus private tours and when you can get off the ship. Apparently, some cruise passengers have been told that they had to wait for those on cruise line excursions to disembark the ship before those on private tours could, and this is simply not true. You are allowed to get off the ship at the same time as everyone else, regardless of how or with whom you booked your excursions. So if someone tries to sell you a cruise line excursion based on the fact that you will get off the ship first, don't listen to them. On our cruise, we were given forms in our stateroom to fill out, stating the name of our tour operator and the time our tour began, and we were then assigned a disembarkation time so that we could meet our tour operator at the right time. It was a piece of cake getting off the ship but there was quite a line to get through immigration control, so keep that in mind when you want to disembark.

While we would really have preferred to hire a private driver and guide for our two days in St. Petersburg, our budget would not all for that, so we decided to go with a small group tour that would hit the highlights. I booked us into an existing group of 7 people for the 2-day “A Tour” (the least strenuous) through SPB Tours, and it worked out to be $220 per person – not bad at all but perhaps not the best choice in the long run due to the schedule we had to keep, but definitely within our budget and we ended up with a very nice group. While I enjoyed St. Petersburg and found it to be quite fascinating, I had several issues with our tour: 1) our tour guide, Elena, was very bossy and since she was always concerned about time and sticking to the schedule she was at times rude; 2) we were promised time to shop for souvenirs but I thought we would have flexibility and choice of where to shop; instead, we were only allowed to shop at three different stores to which we were taken, and all offered the same (and in my opinion) overpriced merchandise; and 3) I felt that we spent too much time in certain areas and only had photo stops for others that I would have liked to experience from the inside. The third point probably could have been remedied had I selected a tour with more flexibility, but the only real way to truly be flexible is to hire a private guide and driver, so if that is what you are looking for, be sure to budget for it when you book your cruise!

Our tour began at 9:00 am when we were driven through the city on an orientation tour. We stopped along the Neva river to get a few photos of St. Isaac’s Cathedral and then went to the square where we could get better photos for a few minutes. The Cathedral is really quite a sight with its gleaming onion domes and I would have liked to see it from the inside but unfortunately we didn’t have time. There were quite a few kiosks in the square offering souvenirs, but we were quickly ushered back into the van so that we could continue with our tour. Here is a photo of St. Isaac's Cathedral:



From St. Isaac's Square we headed out to Peterhof Palace to tour the lower gardens. The Palace is often referred to as the "Russian Versailles" and the whole grounds are huge and you could probably spend an entire day there seeing the palace and everything. There are many fountains but the most spectacular area is right at the bottom of the palace, called the Grand Cascade. We got there just in time to see the fountains all begin to flow along with music at 11:00 am. It really was a beautiful experience and the fountains really are cool because they are not operated by pumps! Here's me and my friend, Brenda, in front of the Grand Cascade:



After watching the Grand Cascade fountains for a bit, we spent at least another 90 minutes walking around the lower gardens; and while it really was beautiful, after a while it stopped being really interesting to me and I think I would have preferred to tour part of the Palace, but that wasn't part of our tour. As we headed back to the van we stopped at a little Blini stand near the entrance to the grounds to have lunch. Blini are like crepes and I had one filled with chicken and mushrooms (delicious!) and one filled with apple (pretty good) and they cost only about 3 or 4 USD, so they were very inexpensive and pretty filling as well. We hopped back in the van and then spent at least an hour working our way through traffic to get to Catherine’s Palace in Pushkin.

Catherine's Palace is really pretty spectacular and we had a pretty complete tour of the inside of the palace. However, I wasn't able to enjoy the palace as much as I had hoped because I was recovering from spinal surgery after a car accident, and by this point in the day my back was aching so badly that I could barely walk. The most memorable rooms of the palace for me were the grand ballroom, with its walls of gold and the beautifully painted ceiling, and the Amber Room, whose walls were covered in all shades of genuine amber, and amber was even used to create picture frames and other architectural/design details. Photography was allowed in all the rooms we visited except for the Amber Room, which is really too bad; here's a photo of the palace exterior, though:



On the way back to the ship we stopped for souvenirs at one shop and we arrived back at the ship at about 5:30 pm. This was problematic for us because we had booked tickets through SPB Tours for the ballet that evening and we had to be back at the van at 6:10, so we didn't have much time to change clothes or eat dinner. I ran upstairs to the grille on the pool deck to get hamburgers and fries for us and then rushed back down to our stateroom to change clothes, and then I ate my burger in the van on the way. We were going to see "Sleeping Beauty" at the historic Mariinsky Theatre, but I had no idea that with four acts and three intermissions, the entire ballet would last four hours!

This was my first time at the ballet, and what an experience it was, seeing "Sleeping Beauty" in a grand historic theater in St. Petersburg, Russia! We had nice seats in a box at the back of the main floor, which was slightly raised so that we could see clearly above all the heads in front of us. Unfortunately, the stiff upright dining-room type chairs that we had to sit on wreaked havoc on my back and neck, and within a few minutes my shoulders were aching as badly as my lower back had been during the day, so I ended up feeling miserable and I didn't get to really savor the experience as I had hoped, but I really will treasure it always.

Day 2 began at 8:40 am when we took another drive through the city, where we stopped for about 5 minutes to take photos of the Church on Spilled Blood. I would really have liked to go inside that cathedral because it is so ornate with all the different mosaic tiles and colors, but we didn’t have time. Here's a photo of the incredible Church on Spilled Blood:



We then walked briefly through an indoor Farmer’s Market (why I don’t know, as we couldn’t buy anything there to take back on the ship with us) that sold fresh fish, meats, and produce; and then we took a subway ride for one stop and then back to show us how nicely the subway stations are designed. Next we drove the Peter and Paul Fortress to see the inside of Sts. Peter and Paul Cathedral, which is the oldest cathedral in St. Petersburg. Actually, I wasn't feeling well enough to visit the cathedral so my roommate and I stayed in the van to rest because we were in for a lot of walking later in the day. We then stopped for a very quick lunch at a local pierogi restaurant and then went to another shop for souvenirs. I had bought everything I had intended to buy the day before, so when I told our tour guide, Elena, that I wasn’t planning on buying anything, she quite rudely ordered me back to the van. I did not appreciate being told what to do, and unfortunately everyone in the group began grumbling about our guide as the day wore on.

We then made our way to the world-famous Hermitage Museum and spent the remainder of the afternoon there. I enjoy art museums for the most part, but I like to go to the exhibits that interest me and don't really care to wander around too much. It's just the way I am and what I like to do, and I've done that in the Louvre, the Uffizi, the Accademia, and even the Vatican, and I feel that I have enjoyed them all in my own way. Since I had been concerned about the amount of time we were going to be at the Hermitage from the beginning, I spoke with our tour operator and I was told that we could go off on our own in the museum if we wanted, so that we could see what was important to us. However, Elena did not like that idea and was visibly upset when we requested to go off on our own, and due to the enormous crowds in the place and the sheer size and confusing layout, we felt compelled to stay with her as she led us from room to room. We spent about two hours at the museum and I would have liked to have spent more time on the Impressionists on the third floor, but those artists were not emphasized on our tour. Overall, I must say that the Hermitage is certainly impressive and I am glad I got to visit it, but it just wasn't my cup of tea. Here's a shot of Leonardo DaVinci's Madonna and Child on display at the Hermitage:



Afterwards, we drove to another souvenir shop near St. Isaac’s Square to shop one final time for souvenirs, and the day was over at about 4:00 when we were dropped off at the port. Sine I just wasn't feeling well enough to really enjoy St. Petersburg, I would love to go back there again and be able to really take it all in. The tour we took was certainly worthwhile and everyone seemed to really enjoy it, and it did give us a good overview of the city and the most important sights; however, its pace was just too intense for me due to my physical condition and I believe I would have enjoyed this historic city much more had I had more time to relax. Overall, St. Petersburg is a really cool city and I think you'll find it as fascinating and scenic as I did.

Sheila's Ports of Call Guides: The Beautiful Baltics, Part 4: Cute Copenhagen

As Danny Kaye sang in the movie "Hans Christian Andersen", "Wonderful, wonderful Copenhagen for me!", all I can say is I totally agree. I absolutely LOVED Copenhagen, and it is one of the cutest, most picturesque, and friendly towns I have ever visited. It truly is special.

We got off our ship quite early on our day in Copenhagen, so nothing was really open for a while after we arrived in town. It is very easy to get into Copenhagen; you can take the public bus #26 which literally picks you up right at Langelinie Pier after you get off the ship; or you can take a very enjoyable walk along the waterfront into town. It was such a nice day when we arrived in Copenhagen so we decided to walk into town.

Not too far from Langelinie Pier along the waterfront, is The Little Mermaid statue, which was erected in honor of Hans Christian Andersen. Now usually the statue, which is quite small, sits on a few rocks right along the water, but when we were in Copenhagen, Her Mermaidness was actually on display in Shanghai for the World Expo 2010. Instead, there was a digital video screen in her place on the rocks with a live feed of The Little Mermaid statue in Shanghai. Here is a picture:



It was a little disappointing not being able to see the actual statue, because "The Little Mermaid" was always one of my favorite stories when I was a kid so it would have been cool to see her, but I knew in advance that she wouldn't be there. While there is an identical twin of the statue in Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen, we didn't have time during our stay there to go see it. Nevertheless, it was still interesting to see the display there in her place.

As we continued our walk into town, we veered off the path along the waterfront and wound up walking along a path that led to St. Alban's Church, as seen here:



How beautiful is that? After admiring the beautiful surroundings for a moment, we continued on our way to Amalienborg Palace, which is set in a beautiful square with four different palaces in it and a statue of Frederick V in the center. There are Palace Guards standing near little red booths along the square and you can catch the Changing of the Guard ceremony there at noon. Here is a photo of me with the square behind me, where you can see the statue of Frederick V and the beautiful Marble Church in the distance.



We made our way back to the path along the waterfront and continued until we got to a street called Sankt Annae Plads, where we turned right; then turned left onto Toldbodgade, which led us to Nyhavn, which is a picturesque 17th century waterfront area with lots of beautiful boats in the canal and lots of shops and cafes lining the streets along it.



We were going to take a boat tour, which you can catch from Nyhavn, but it was relatively early in the morning when we were at Nyhavn and a little cool and windy, so we decided it would be best to save the boat tour for the afternoon instead. From Nyhavn, we walked to the Kongens Nytorv, which is the largest square in Copenhagen and has many historic buildings, including the Royal Danish Theater and what is now the French Embassy. We continued walking down Kongens Nytorv and, after encountering a little difficulty, we found our way to the Stroget, which is a very famous series of pedestrian-only connected streets with tons of shopping (including high-end clothing and typical souvenir shops) and restaurants (including McDonald's and Burger King). Now, it turns out that if we had crossed to the other side of the Kongens Nytorv square and followed that around, we would have found the beginning of the Stroget; but as such, we ended up catching it at about the middle, at a street called Amagertorv. Nevertheless, we found the Stroget, and as it was still early and not a lot of places were open, we sat down and had coffee and a danish at an outdoor cafe.

We then spent several hours walking along the Stroget shopping for souvenirs and other items (most of the souvenir shops were located closer to the City Hall end of the street as opposed to the middle). If you ever decide to walk along the Stroget, note that there aren't really any public WC's around, or at least any that we noticed; so, if you need to go, try going to the McDonald's, where their restrooms are located upstairs. (The combination to the locked door is 1-2-3, or at least that's what it was when we were there, thanks to a young lady who so kindly shared that information with us!) The Stroget will end at City Hall Square, with the entrance to Tivoli Gardens across the street:



Upon entering City Hall Square, we turned left, then turned right onto Stormgade, where we passed the National Museum and then continued down the street until we came to the canal, where we saw Christianborg Palace:



By this time, it was mid-afternoon so we headed along the canal to Gammel Strand, which is a square and street with very pretty 18th and 19th century houses. It was from here that we boarded a boat for a canal tour that took us past parts of Copenhgen that we never would have seen otherwise, including the beautiful Christianshaven district. Here are some photos I took during the canal boat tour:






One tip if you plan to take the #26 bus back to Langelinie Pier from town: you need exact change for the bus! We had used credit and/or debit cards for all of our purchases in town during the day and did not want to have to take out cash just for the few DKK bus fare, so when we purchased our tickets for the canal boat tour, the nice lady in the booth charged our credit cards not only for the tour tickets, but for the cost of the bus fare and gave the change to us to use on the bus! It worked out great and saved us from having to find an ATM to get more money than we needed (and pay the exchange rate and fees on top of that!).

We walked to the other side of the canal from Gammel Strand and got the #26 bus -- make sure it says Langelinie Pier on the front display before you board -- and it was a pretty quick ride back to the pier. The bus lets you off right at the pier, and since it was late in the afternoon when we got back, all the shops along the pier were open so we took a few minutes to browse through those. There were quite a variety of shops there, including outlet stores and many souvenir shops.

Everyone we encountered during our wonderful day in Copenhagen was very friendly and everyone spoke English, so there were no communication issues. While the town is easy to navigate on foot, make sure that you have a good map so that you can find your way, and have an idea of what you'd like to see so you can plan out a route for yourself. If you will only be in Copenhagen for a few hours like I was, you'll need to choose what's most important to you to see, but a great way to get an overview of the beautiful buildings, canals, boats, and skyline of Copenhagen is by a canal boat tour.

Copenhagen is truly a great place to visit and I can't wait to go back there and spend more time; but right now I can say definitively how much I love this cute town!

Sheila's Ports of Call Guides: The Beautiful Baltics, Part 3: Happy Helsinki

I have to admit that I was less excited about seeing Helsinki than I was Stockholm and the other Baltic ports of call on my recent cruise, and I get the feeling that this is a common reaction. Helsinki is a nice town, seemingly quiet and peaceful, with friendly people, but it just doesn't seem to hold the true dramatic appeal that many of the other Baltic ports do.

One recommendation that I can make right off the bat for Helsinki is if you are going to be exploring on your own, get a good map, especially if you use your cruise line's shuttle service into town. You need to take some form of transportation from your cruise ship dock into town, unless you're up for quite a walk and you have lots of time. Our cruise line offered a roundtrip shuttle from the dock into town for 8 Euros per person, and since that was less expensive than the cost of a taxi, we took the shuttle. The problems began, however, when the shuttle let us off in the middle of town and we had no idea of where to go and what to see from there. Luckily, I had downloaded an interactive map on my iPhone for this city because the map I had from the cruise ship plus the confusing location where the shuttle left us made it difficult to navigate at first. I had to ask the driver to locate us on the map and to point us in the right direction because I had no idea where we were as we were on some side street that I couldn’t identify.

Once I figured out where we were, though, the city was pretty easy to navigate on foot. Turns out we were about a block away from a large, beautiful park called Esplanade Park, which seemed to be the focal point of the city because people were out there relaxing, people watching, and picnicing all day. The park had beautiful lawn areas and landscaping with flowers and trees, and there were statues in the ceter commemorating important people and events in Helsinki's history. There were streets bordering both the north and south sides of the long park, and these streets had upscale shopping and cafes with outdoor seating, so it really seemed like that whole area was the place to be in Helsinki, and people seemed relaxed and happy. Here is a picture of part of the park:



Once you have walked along the park, it turns out that if you continue to follow either of the streets lining the park straight for a couple of blocks, you will end up at the downtown pier area. This area hosts a daily Farmer's Market where they sell food, ice cream, beverages, produce, meats, and souvenirs. There are many orange-colored tents there and many things to buy and look at, so it's an interesting place to spend some time. All of the sellers that we encountered at the Farmer's Market spoke English, and they were all very friendly and eager to talk about how much they loved their city. Some sellers there took credit cards, but it turns out that if you need to get cash for shopping, there is a bank in a gray building on Etelaespanadi (the street on the south side of Esplanade Park) to the west of the Farmer's Market area.



Once you have walked through the farmer’s market you can continue down Pohjoiesplanadi (the street on the north side of the park) towards the Russian Orthodox Cathedral, the Uspenski Cathedral, which is visible from there. This beautiful church with its red-brown brick, green roof, and gleaming gold onion domes sits on a hill about 2 or 3 blocks walk from the Farmer's Market area.



We didn't go in the Uspenski Cathedral but we walked around that area and had a snack at a nice quiet café along the waterfront behind the church. Afterwards, we went back west along Alexandersgatan until we came upon Senate Square and the Lutheran Cathedral. The gleaming white cathedral with its giant green dome is set in the center of a square that houses not only the Senate building but (I believe) the University of Helsinki. Unfortunately, the cathedral is situated at the top of about 50 steps or so, and with our being so tired, we didn’t go in, but apparently it is quite beautiful inside.



There is a nice souvenir shop across the street from the cathedral, and if you walk straight south from the Cathedral you will come up to Esplanade Park again. From there, we walked back west and over to our shuttle stop, but not before we stopped in a store where I bought a new pair of shoes.

Overall, Helsinki is a nice town but it doesn’t have the appeal or attractions that Stockholm or other Baltic ports have; however, if the weather is nice and you don’t feel like doing a ton of grueling sightseeing, the park and waterfront area is a very nice place to shop, have a bite to eat, and watch the happy people of Helsinki!

Sheila's Ports of Call Guides: The Beautiful Baltics, Part 2: Spectacular Stockholm

If you arrive in Stockholm by cruise ship and dock at Frihamnen Pier, there are a couple of ways to get into town from there. Some cruise lines offer a shuttle service; ours did, and it dropped you off at the Opera House, which was still a few blocks walk to Gamla Stan, the Old Town. You can also take a taxi, but they are expensive. The least expensive alternative is to take the public bus. You can take the #76 bus into town, and you catch the bus at a stop outside Frihamnen Pier. How do you find the bus stop? You follow the blue line that is painted on the street and it will lead you directly to it! One key point you need to know if you want to take the bus into town: BUY YOUR BUS TICKETS FIRST! If you decide to just get off the ship and follow other people walking to the bus stop, you will end up VERY disappointed because you cannot buy bus tickets from the driver; you must buy them in advance.

You can buy your bus tickets inside the port building which you walk through right after you get off the ship. You can buy single tickets, return tickets (one ride there and back), or all-day tickets, which are good for multiple rides on and off throughout the day. Since we didn't plan on taking the bus more than just getting to Gamla Stan and back, we bought only return tickets, and they were still less expensive than the cruise line's shuttle (and they got us closer to Gamla Stan). It is quite a walk to the bus stop outside the Frihamnen port area – probably about a mile — but certainly doable in 15 to 20 minutes, so keep that in mind if you can't walk well. The buses can be crowded and are not air conditioned (at least they weren’t when I was there) so keep that in mind if you are traveling in warm weather. Board the bus through the front door and show your ticket to the driver. Once you are on the bus, notice the electronic displays which tell you the next stop coming up and watch for your stop. When your stop is approaching, press one of the red buttons on the bus to request a stop, and you may have to press another button in front of the bus door to get it to open.

We took the #76 bus from outside the port area to Kungstradgarden, which is a short walk to Gamla Stan (Old Town) so we could get cash at an ATM, and it was about 3 blocks straight and across a bridge to Gamla Stan. If you don't need to get cash first and want to go right to Gamla Stan, you can take the bus to the Slottsbacken stop. Kungstradgarden is a very nice part of town, very modern, and it is in stark contrast to the Gamla Stan. If you get off at Kunstradgarden like we did, you follow that street (Kungstradgardsgatan) in the direction the bus was going and you will eventually come to a bridge; you can see the Royal Palace from there so it’s easy to find your way. The picture below is a view of the Royal Palace from across the bridge on Kungstradgardsgatan.



If you get to the Royal Palace before noon on a weekday you can see the changing of the guard ceremony, which is pretty cool. You need to walk around to the side of the palace and enter the courtyard there in order to see the ceremony so don’t get confused if you can’t find how to enter the palace grounds. The Palace is not a grand, spectacular building, but it is very large and stately looking and you can tour the Royal Apartments and other areas for a fee. Here is a photo from the ceremony:



I had planned to follow a walking tour that I had downloaded from the Internet but we decided to just walk around and go where we wanted. We ended up on a major thoroughfare, Vasterlanggatan, that had tons of shops and cafes, so it was very nice, and with the weather being sunny and in the mid-70s, it was really a wonderful day. We did some shopping in the myriad of shops (souvenir and otherwise) but as we weren’t very hungry, we decided to wait until we got back on the ship to have lunch. As we worked our way back up through Gamla Stan to the bus stop, we came across the Nobel Museum and took a few pictures but we did not go in. Stockholm is really a great city and everyone we encountered was very friendly and spoke English, so communication was not a problem at all.

There are many other sights to see in Stockholm, like the Skansen (open-air museum) and the Vasa Museum (a 17th century warship recovered from the ocean after sinking on her maiden voyage), and you can see these by taking a ferry from Gamla Stan; or by the #76 bus to the Djurgarden stop.

To catch the #76 bus back to Frihamnen from Gamla Stan, you walk to the Royal Palace, cross the street, and walk about a block down to your right and the stop is in the middle section of the street. The ride back to Frihamnen is relatively short, and once you get off the bus, you follow the lines on the pavement back to the pier.

Another option for getting around town and sightseeing in Stockholm is the Hop On/Hop Off ("HOHO") bus and/or boat. You can catch the HOHO bus right at the Frihamnen Pier and it will take you all around Stockholm, including Gamla Stan; but it is a much more expensive option, and I think you can get around from sight to sight pretty easily by either taking buses and ferries or walking. Plus, if you walk or use public transportation to get from place to place, you get more of a feel for the city than you would if you just sat on a sightseeing bus. I thought that taking the #76 bus was very easy and I would recommmend it to all of my cruise clients who would like to see Stockholm on their own while in port.

All in all, Stockholm is a very cool city: it has an interesting contrast between old and new; interesting things to see; great shopping; and very friendly people. In one word, I'd say Stockholm is SPECTACULAR!

Sheila's Ports of Call Guides: The Beautiful Baltics, Part 1: Wonderful Warnemunde

Warnemunde, Germany (pronounced "Var-nah-moon-duh") is the port of call for Berlin, which is about 3 hours away by bus. There are many excursions available to Berlin, and most last all day since it takes so long to get there. If you don't want to venture that far into Germany, there are other places to see that are closer, like Schwerin, for instance; and if you don't feel like going far at all you can take a very short train ride to Rostock, or you can just hang out in Warnemunde. I would be willing to bet that most passengers on our cruise went to Berlin, because the ship seemed quite empty until the late evening, and then you saw many people walking around looking absolutely exhausted.

My travel companion and I didn’t want to take the long trip to Berlin this time so we decided to go somewhere a little closer. One of the great things about the port in Warnemunde is that the train station is a very short walk from when you get off the ship. In the photo above to the left you can see a line of people walking from the ship to the train station. We took the train from Warnemunde to Rostock, and then from there bought tickets to Schwerin (pronounced "Shway-reen") so we could go to see the castle there. I wasn't sure how long the train ride would be to Rostock and I asked a lady sitting near us how far the Rostock station was, but she didn't speak English. Nevertheless, we arrived at Rostock safely by watching the signs as we arrived at each station.

We arrived at Rostock station on the lower level and had to go upstairs in order to find someone who spoke English and who could help us buy our tickets to Schwerin because I had trouble figuring out which train we needed to take from the signs on the lower level. The lady at the DB Service Point counter was very nice and we got our tickets promptly. Once we bought our tickets to Schwerin Mitte station, which is the closest train station to the castle, we had a bit of a wait so we walked around the immediate area of the station, but there really isn’t much there other than a pharmacy and a few other shops.

The photo on the below on the left is the front of the Rostock train station.

The train to Shwerin Mitte station took about an hour, and it turns out that the cars have a digital display telling you the next stop so it really is easy to navigate. I was a little worried about how exactly to get to the castle after we arrived at Shwerin Mitte, but it actually turned out to be a piece of cake.

After you get off the train, you take the stairs up to the street level and turn right. Ahead of you is a shopping center called Schlosspark Center, and if you walk in that direction, you eventually will cross a parking lot and you can enter the mall from there. Once inside the mall, you turn to the right and walk all the way down to the end. When you exit the mall doors at the street level, you will face a street called Schlossstrasse that leads directly to the castle. You walk straight down that street for about a mile and the castle is right there. You turn right at the castle and walk around to the side to the entrance. Entrance fee is 6 euro per person and an audiogude is another 2 euro. There were a fair number of rooms to see but most had no furniture, or the furniture that was there was not authentic. Overall the castle was interesting to see but not a major attraction and it does not compare with other castles in Germany, such as Linderhoff or Neuschwanstein.


After touring the castle we started heading back to the train station, but as the train to Rostock is every two hours, we had more than 90 minutes to kill before the next train, so we explored. We found a lot of stores on streets right off the Schlossstrasse, so we shopped a little and then we found a great little café in which to have lunch. We had pork medallions, fried potato dumplings stuffed with sour cream and cheese, and salad. It was delicious and it was a nice way to relax and soak up some German atmosphere. Our waitress did not speak English so we had to gesture and point, although she did understand us enough to give us a menu translated with English, and luckily we had Euros on hand because the restaurant did not accept credit cards.

To get back to the train station, you go back down the same street from the castle, enter the mall, go all the way down to the other end, turn left, and take the elevators to the top floor of the parking structure. Exit the elevator, then find a gate leading to the sidewalk. Follow the sidewalk until you can turn right and you will see the train station. At the station, look at the platforms below and you should be able to see on which track the train back to Rostock will be arriving. As I said earlier, the train back to Rostock from Schwerin Mitte station only runs every two hours, so you need to plan your day accordingly if you want to visit Schwerin by train. The ride back to Rostock was pleasant, and this time when we arrived at the station, we easily found the right track for the train back to Warnemunde. When you arrive back in Warnemunde, you can take the tunnel that goes under the tracks and keep going straight and that will lead to you to the port area, where you turn right and you should see your ship docked there.

Another couple of notes about our day: it was mid-May when we were in port and the temperatures were in the high 40s/low 50s, so if you visit this area around that time of year, be prepared and dress in layers. Also, we did not encounter many people who spoke English outside of shops and attractions, so communication could be a problem if you don't speak German.

Overall, my travel companion and I had a great time on our adventure to Shwerin and we thoroughly enjoyed our day. I've heard from other travelers that Rostock is a nice place to hang out and sightsee, and I think next time I go to Warnemunde I will do that; but for now, I consider Warnemunde to be quite wonderful.

Introducing Sheila's Personal Ports of Call Guides: "The Beautiful Baltics" Begins Tomorrow

Introducing my new blog series: Sheila's Personal Ports of Call Guides!

Because I am a Cruise Specialist and it is my job to help my clients book the right cruise for them, I thought it might be helpful to my clients if, from now on, I share information about the ports of call that I visit whenever I cruise. Of course, there is plenty of information about different ports of call all over the internet, but maybe the information that I provide, based upon my personal experiences, could give my clients a better idea of what really to expect when they visit a particular port of call.

So, beginning tomorrow, I will post the first blog in my series entitled "The Beautiful Baltics". See you then, and thanks for reading!

Celebrity Constellation Cruise Review: The Constellation is Stellar, But Not Quite Out of This World

I recently returned from a 12-night Baltic/Russia cruise on the Celebrity Constellation, which departed from Amsterdam on May 16, 2010. I was quite impressed with the Constellation and I think she is a very, very nice ship. She had just come out of a 15 day or so drydock, during which she was “Solsticized” by adding several new restaurants/dining venues, a Martini Bar, the Cellar Masters wine tasting area, and replacing carpets and furnishings in public areas and staterooms. I wanted to try the new Tuscan Grille restaurant but as my traveling companion has a very sensitive stomach when it comes to garlic, it was not recommended that we dine there. I also don’t drink much so I did not try the Martini Bar or Cellar Masters, although I did bring a bottle of wine onboard in my luggage and my roommate and I split the cost of a stateroom bar setup (Bacardi Rum and Diet Coke).

A note on the stateroom bar setup: they will only deliver six cans of soda to go with an entire bottle of rum (or whatever liquor you choose), so if you don’t like your drinks very strong, you may have to pay for additional mixers. We asked our room steward for some pineapple juice to use as a mixer, and he brought us one small container of it, but after that the bar manager told us we couldn’t have any more. However, later that evening our room steward brought us a huge can of pineapple juice, stating that he got it from a friend in the galley. With the large number of drinks we were able to make from that bottle of rum, the $80.00 we paid was well worth it, but if you ever order a bar setup, keep in mind that if you don’t have a nice room steward you may end up having to buy additional mixers.

The layout of the ship is pretty easy to remember: entertainment is forward (Celebrity Theater, Reflections lounge, etc.) and dining is aft. There is a nice thalasaotherapy pool on deck 10 in a very nice glass-roof enclosed area and use of the pool is free. I have encountered similar pools on other cruise lines and they charge for use of their thalassotherapy pool, so I really applaud Celebrity for offering theirs for free and in such a nice setting. The main pool is on deck 10 midship and while it seemed to be a pretty decent pool, it didn't get much use on this cruise because it was just too darn cold. The library had a really nice selection of books, which you could check out anytime on the honor system, and one thing I really enjoyed about the ship was that there were plenty of cozy places to sit and do your own thing, whether it be snuggle with your mate, enjoy a drink, or simply read and enjoy quiet. In addition to the great layout of the ship, the service was excellent, with crew member we encountered being very friendly and attentive, especially our room steward and our waiter.

Our inside stateroom was a small but larger than I expected for an inside stateroom, and it had ample storage and closet space for the two of us. The bathroom was small but still larger than the one we had with a balcony stateroom on the Celebrity Mercury. The twin bed was comfortable and our steward did a good job of keeping our room tidy. I had never sailed in an inside stateroom before, and, to tell the truth, I was quite concerned about feeling claustrophobic in such a small room, especially when dark. However, I was able to overcome those concerns by bringing a small battery-operated fan and by using an iPhone app that looks and acts like a nightstand clock to provide some light in the room. Another important note about inside staterooms: it's really easy to lose track of what time it is since there's no natural light coming in! It is very easy to oversleep in the morning since you have no idea whether it’s night or day so having a lighted clock that you can easily see is pretty much a necessity.

The Constellation’s food was excellent in the main dining room. Every day offered completely new and different selections, and they ranged from typical American fare to more exotic Moroccan and Indian dishes. The always available dinner selections included a New York Strip steak, which was a very nice steak compared to what has been offered as steak on other cruises. Dishes were always cooked as ordered and were presented very nicely, and portion size was just right. The buffet, unfortunately, left a lot to be desired, save for the make your own pasta and Asian stir-fry stations in the late afternoons/early evenings. Also, because these stations took a lot of time to make food for one person, they should be moved away from the actual buffet line to prevent “traffic jams”. I’m not a big fan of buffets to begin with, but this one was pretty typical uninspired buffet fare that was best visited when you just wanted a snack when other venues were not available.

The room service menu was decent, offering mostly sandwiches, but the burgers were very tasty and service was relatively prompt. The room service breakfast menu offered mostly cold items but you could select from either plain scrambled eggs (which were often runny) or a plain omelet (which had no taste) and hot sides such as bacon or sausage, and it was always delivered either slightly before or right at our requested time. Room service orders could be ordered by phone or on the interactive TV (or by hanging the breakfast card on your door). You could also order from the main dining room’s menu for dinner, although I did this one night and had to wait over an hour for delivery.

The grill near the pool offered the typical burgers and fries, but unlike the burgers offered at the grill on other ships, these were awesome! The grill also offered chicken sandwiches and the like, as well as those all-important French fries, which were quite good. Another highlight was the ice cream station by the buffet, which was open every afternoon. The selection was always good and included ice cream as well as sorbet, plus candy toppings; and it beat the alternative of paying $3 for a scoop at the gelato bar on deck 5. Overall, the food on the Constellation was really good and I was impressed.

The one real negative about this cruise was the entertainment, or lack thereof. Our cruise director was neither entertaining nor funny, and unfortunately, this was my second time on a Celebrity cruise with a bad cruise director. I have been on many other cruises where the cruise director was a really fun guy: great to be around, funny, and very entertaining in his own right. The right cruise director can really make the entertainment onboard even more special, and I am beginning to wonder if I’ve just been unlucky with my Celebrity cruises, or if this is a problem with Celebrity. The problem with the entertainment, however, extended beyond the bad cruise director on this cruise. The Celebrity singers and dancers were mediocre at best, and unfortunately, they took up several evenings’ entertainment with their production shows. After watching their poor performance during the first night's show, I decided that an evening spent watching one of the limited TV channels in my stateroom would be more entertaining than watching the singers and dancers, so I did not bother attending any of the production shows. Several other nights were performances by singers that I’d never heard of, and, since they had not been introduced during the first nght’s Welcome Aboard Show, nobody else knew who they were either or what to expect. The other nights had some sort of comedy/juggling/acrobatics, but the shows were really nothing worth writing home about, unfortunately.

Daytime entertainment on sea days consisted mainly of trivia, sports-related contests, bingo, and the like. There were also other activities offered as part of Celebrity’s “Life” program, but most of them did not hold much interest for me and most required additional fees. While I certainly appreciate what Celebrity is trying to do here by enriching guests’ experiences onboard, I feel that they could include a lot of these activities without charging additional fees.

I would also like to note that the limited variety and quality of the entertainment onboard could be due to the clientele and the itinerary for this cruise. This was a 12-night cruise to the Baltics in mid-May, so you would expect the average age of passengers onboard to be higher since older people would have not only the disposable income but the time to travel for that long. Also, this was a very port-intensive itinerary with about 5 ports in a row (including overnight in St. Petersburg) without a sea day and the other sea days being at the beginning and the end of the cruise. With this cruise being so port-intensive, many passengers were very tired out at the end of each day, so it is possible that Celebrity felt it didn't need to really beef-up the evening's entertainment as they figured the shows wouldn't be very popular. This could also explain the lack of anything really extraordinary entertainment-wise on sea days as well, because I'm sure many passengers didn't feel like doing much on those days in order to recuperate from being in port!

One other brief point I would like to make about the Constellation is that I really do appreciate Celebrity's attempts to keep their older ships up to date, and the concept of "Solsticizing" is a good one. However, it seemed to me that the bulk of the new venues/improvements added during the dry dock were new ways for passengers to spend more money onboard (the new restaurants carry cover charges, the wine cellar and martini bar offer expensive drinks, etc.). I can't fault Celebrity for wanting to increase their bottom line, but I personally felt like I was constantly being bombarded to spend, Spend, SPEND, and for me that doesn't lead to a very relaxing vacation.

So, all in all, I think the Constellation is a very nice ship: she offers great food, great service, great accommodations and many beautiful, modern, and cozy venues, but the disappointing and uninspired entertainment made this cruise a little less stellar than I had hoped.