A Baltic boating adventure TRIP REPORT COMPLETED 11/19 About This Page:

[chezp]

Originally Posted by SuperDave

Your pizza looked very good and must have been fun to create one! It figures the sun comes out when your departing!

Doesn't it just?

Nice photos of departure in the port and of Tallinn. I can't believe how busy of a port it is!

I know - that shocked us too.

[chezp]

Originally Posted by DrDolphin

Sorry to hear the curry was too hot for you to enjoy. I have yet to find curry that I link (and so many of them have coconut milk so I can't eat it). 0500 for breakfast?? yep - its gonna be some long days!!

Oh yes, it was tough, but worth it!

[chezp]

Saturday 11 June – part one: “You don’t want to know”

Typically, we both had the worst night’s sleep so far this cruise, and at the start of three busy and early days. When I went to bed, I seemed to be wide awake, which is never a good sign, as then I lie there and worry about the fact I can’t sleep, as that impacts on my chronic fatigue.

I did eventually get off to sleep, and then I woke up thinking maybe it was close to 6:00am. I could tell Mark was awake, so I asked him what time it was and his response? “You don’t want to know”. Oh great! It turned out it was 3:00am. I tried to go back to sleep again, but I next woke up at 4:45am. Ugh!

Finally, I woke up and it was 5:50am, so I figured I’d better get up, as the alarm on the phone would be going off shortly afterwards. I think part of the problem was we were just relying on my phone for an alarm call, and I always worry that maybe it won’t work. We should’ve had a back-up. Part of the problem was also that, believe or not, I was nervous about our next port of call. Part of it is never having visited Russia, part of it was knowing we had to clear immigration, and part of it was we were using an independent tour company, something we’ve never done on a cruise before. I’m sure it’ll all be fine, but my brain obviously wasn’t feeling that.

We got ready and I headed outside on to the balcony to see what the view was like. Well, Russia was already in sight!



I have no idea what I was expecting, but it all looked… well, normal outside! That sounds very silly to say, but I just thought there would be more signs of communism. I guess that’s a lifetime back now. It certainly looked very modern in places. At this stage, it didn’t look as if there were any other cruise ships in port, which surprised me, but then again, we could only see one side of the port at this side.

When we headed up to the Oceanview Café, we found we weren’t alone – there were a couple of other ships in port, as you can see from this shot when we returned to our room.



We think this is the Emerald Princess that we’ve been following around the last few days. The other ship is the P&O one that we last saw in Southampton, and I suspect it’s the second day here for this one, as most Baltic cruises are 12 nights, rather than our 14 night one. I’m sure it would’ve left the same day as us, as cruise lines don’t like to have their ships in port for too long, and it was definitely in port on Sunday.

We were surprised how quiet it was in the Oceanview Café. I was expecting it to be packed out, as presumably nearly everyone would be getting off the ship today to explore Saint Petersburg, and I figured most of the tours would start early on. Maybe not or maybe people just went elsewhere for breakfast.

The nerves were still kicking in, and I didn’t eat much, just some French toast and some fruit. I think I’ll be a lot better once we’re off the boat, and in the safe keeping of SPB Tours.

We headed back to our room, and got some more photos of the city. It’s got a large beach, as you can see, and we did think that some of the concrete high rises may date from the communist era, but it was clear that, just like Tallinn, this is a growing city, with more high rises being built, and cranes on the horizon just like so many cities around the world. You should see how many cranes are around the London skyline these days.

We headed back inside to finish getting ready, and to wait for the all ashore announcement. It was very hard to know how to time it, as we were due to meet our tour company at 8:00am, and they ask you to be as on time as you can, but it’s hard, when you could have a 30-40 minute wait to clear immigration.

Eventually, we grew bored of sitting in the room. I tried to pass the time reading my St. Petersburg guidebook, and explaining to Mark the sights we’d be seeing today, but I think both of us just wanted to get going. We made our way down to the lobby, and my goodness, the line to disembark already snaked around and around and around, and they hadn’t even given the announcement we could go ashore yet.



Thankfully, when they did, it cleared fairly quickly, and I reckon we were off in about 10 minutes.



They only let about 50 – 100 people go at a time to keep delays at passport control to a minimum. In truth, that wasn’t too awful either. I think that was maybe a 10 minute wait? I know that by the time we cleared it, it was literally about 8:00am, the time we were supposed to be meeting, so I was very pleased with that, as we were nearly on time.

Next: like a little kid with candy

[chezp]

Don't worry if there isn't an update from me first thing tomorrow, as we're away for the weekend. If I get a chance and the hotel has Wi-Fi, I'll get an update done early, otherwise it will be a bit later than usual.

[DMA]

I can see where you'd be a bit anxious getting off the ship in Russia! Not something you do every day! Wow, I can't believe that line to disembark! Up till now, you've been very selective in your picture-taking so it appears that there weren't too many others on board. Now it's clear that is not the case! :

[SuperDave]

Too bad you weren't able to sleep much but I it was nerves about Russia as well as excitement too! Glad you were able to clear immigration in good time!

[Pris]

I understand exactly what you mean when you say you thought it would look different somehow. I was thinking the same thing as I looked at your pictures. We've used non-cruise line tours several times and never had any problem. They do know who is coming and what time the ship clears customs, etc. They've always patiently (more or less) waited for everyone to show up. Of course, like you, we are overly cautious and are often among the first to arrive.

[chezp]

Originally Posted by DMA

I can see where you'd be a bit anxious getting off the ship in Russia! Not something you do every day!

Definitely not!

Wow, I can't believe that line to disembark! Up till now, you've been very selective in your picture-taking so it appears that there weren't too many others on board. Now it's clear that is not the case! :

Most of the time we didn't see that many people. As far as I know, we sailed full, but like most cruises, you tend to only see lots of people at sailaway. As we were running around and ended up being in our room for sailaway, we didn't see any crowds then. This was a bit of a shock, I will admit - this was definitely the most people we'd seen since the terminal and of course I totally forgot to take any photos in the terminal when we boarded.

[chezp]

Originally Posted by Pris

I understand exactly what you mean when you say you thought it would look different somehow. I was thinking the same thing as I looked at your pictures.

Funny isn't it, how you have perceptions like that?

We've used non-cruise line tours several times and never had any problem. They do know who is coming and what time the ship clears customs, etc. They've always patiently (more or less) waited for everyone to show up. Of course, like you, we are overly cautious and are often among the first to arrive.

It was the first time on any of our cruises and we've now done eight with Disney and one with P&O before this one that we've not used the cruise line for an excursion. A couple of times we've walked into places on our own, which I'm fine with, but we had no experience with doing this before. Having done it once, I would definitely do it again.

[cubfancolleen]

More and more, we do tend to look at our own tour options - I think that was the case for 2 of 3 ports in Alaska - as long as we know the time won't be cut too finely.
I'm sure you eventually saw more examples of Communist architecture. I found both Moscow & St. Petersburg to have a fair number of those ugly concrete block apartment buildings, that look much like the old housing projects from Chicago - but somehow uglier...

[xwewhisper]

So exciting to be arriving in a new country! Sorry about the lack of sleep


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[disney_duke]

The night before sounded rough, but I'd probably be in the same boat as you. Oh, haha, pun.
I forgot you have to clear immigration on-site there, so to speak. Whew - good thing it didn't take too long!

[Cam22]

Glad you were able to capture photos of Old Town as you sailed away. Beautiful! I totally understand how you were feeling disembarking in Russia. I love to do new things, but they also make me initially apprehensive as I'm not sure what to expect. I'm really excited about your updates for the next 3 days.

[KMB733]

Sorry to hear you didn't sleep well the night before. But how exciting that you've made it to Russia!!

[Colexis Mom]

Great pictures leaving Tallinn and of Russia! It sounds like it's going to be an exciting day!!