Pre-Trip Report: Our 20th Anniversary Baltic Adventure! About This Page:

[cubfancolleen]

This is my first attempt at a trip report. I so enjoy reading other’s reports, but fear mine won’t be nearly as entertaining. I hope I will have some funny (in a good way!) things to share about the trip itself; the pre-trip isn’t anything that will have you ROFL.

We are cruising the Disney Magic, June 24-July 6, on the Northern Europe itinerary. Travelers are me, my DH, DS (13 yrs) and DD (10 yrs). The occasion is our 20th wedding anniversary. We actually started thinking about this trip a couple of years ago, and initially were talking about the trans-Atlantic crossing. We LOVE DCL, and thought how perfect it would be to have that many at-sea days to just relax. But then DCL listed the 2010 sailings and two things happened: we realized the TAC was too early to take the kids, and they announced that they would be doing Northern Europe, in addition to the Med. HOORAY! DH’s background is Norwegian on his mom’s side, and he’s always wanted to go. So with the chance of a day in Oslo, and better dates, it was set! We booked the trip in October of 2008 – LOTS of time to plan and save!

Because we both travel for work, we were happy to have enough frequent flier miles for two of our four tickets to London (and still had enough to get some of our tickets to DW this past January!). Those were booked the first day we could do them – something like 350 days out? DH joked that he at least knew he and DS would be cruising! I kept watching and waiting for a good deal on the other two tickets, but no such luck, so finally bit the bullet and purchased for $1000/each in December. Glad I did, as since then, the same flights have never been more than a couple dollars less, but at times as high as $1400 each! So much for thinking we could fly for $600 each. 

Then it was on to the planning! We are flying out of Washington DC on June 22nd, landing in London the 23rd, which is our actual 20th anniversary. We decided to head directly to Dover upon our arrival, to give some time to take in the sights there before getting on board the Magic the 24th. Doing some internet research, I found what I hope will be a nice bed & breakfast to spend the night of the 23rd. They offered a family suite, and it is just next to Dover Castle. Just realized I don’t have my travel binder here – so will need to add in the name later, sorry!

We have an estate car picking us up from Heathrow, taking us to our hotel to dump our bags (it will still be morning, as our flight arrives at 6:20 am!), and then we plan on spending the bulk of the day exploring Dover Castle. I’ve found lots of great information about the castle on line, and it sounds like they’ve recently made a number of additions/renovations to make things a bit more interactive. I for one am excited about going through some of the tunnels under the castle to see what they used during the wars. We’ll also be looking for a liquor store to pick up some wine and perhaps liquor to bring on board (don’t want to pack that from the States – I had visions of all my cruise-wear being stained a lovely deep red from broken wine bottles!).

Dinner will be in Dover somewhere (open to suggestions for anyone who knows the area). It will be our anniversary dinner, but I am not expecting a lot of romance, given that we’ll be with the kids. We are saving the romantic dinner for Palo! Then off to bed, if we can sleep, and breakfast (included) at the inn before heading to the cruise terminal in time for the 10 am opening!

NEXT: Port excursion plans

[cubfancolleen]

So, port adventures…
We are fairly seasoned travelers, and we know that we like to set our own pace. For organized tours, sometimes that means we’d like to skip over things and sometimes that means we’d love to spend a lot more time than allowed. We decided that for many of the ports, we’d do our own thing. But even with that, we were anxious for DCL to list the port adventures. Seemed like it was taking FOREVER! (or maybe that’s only because I have never been accused of being patient?!)

First stop (after a full day at sea) will be Oslo. We have friends who’ve been and raved about the sculpture gardens, featuring the work of famous Norwegian artist Gustav Vigeland. DCL is offering a half day tour that includes time at Vigeland Park, as well as a stop at the Olympic ski jump that is supposed to offer an amazing view down into Oslo. So, we did sign on for that one. The plan is to do that in the morning and then spend the afternoon wandering Oslo, with our Rick Steves’ guide in hand. (As a side note, I’ve found his book on Scandinavia to be one of the most helpful guides out there. We also have a DK guide to London, St. Pete, and a “Top 10” for Copenhagen – also by DK.) I assume we’ll end up back in Norway at some point – probably when the kids are out of the house – for a longer stay. This will just be to whet our appetite. The nice thing about the Baltic ports, is that it seems that you are able to walk to many of the sights from the cruise dock – no need to drive into town. We are also using some of the details from the port adventures listing to come up with our own walking tours.

Next up, Copenhagen. Here, too, we’re opting to go solo. DCL had a detailed description of a walking tour that started and ended at the pier, so we are essentially planning to follow that, with Tivoli Gardens as an added feature. It was tempting to do one of the DCL trips to Tivoli, since it gave you EMH basically! But we decided there was a lot more in Copenhagen that we want to see. But we also cannot pass up a chance to see the park that inspired Walt Disney all those years ago. We will do an admission ticket to the park, and then let each of the kids pick a ride for us to try. From the pictures, it looks as though Tivoli would be an amazing sight after dark! There are all kinds of fairy lights and lanterns all through the park. But of course in late June, there won’t be any sign of darkness before we have to be back on board. A reason to visit again in the fall, perhaps!?

Warnemunde, Germany is the third stop on the cruise. This is billed as the gateway to Berlin. The problem is, it’s still 3 hours to Berlin from Warnemunde. DD is one of those “are we there yet” kind of travelers when we are in a car, sometimes asking the question within minutes of leaving the driveway!! So after some debating, we decided that the theme of this trip is relaxing, and as much as we can avoid putting ourselves under any stress, we will do so. So, no trip to Berlin for us. We are doing the DCL trip to Rostock, and then plan on wandering around Warnemunde, and maybe even spending some time on the beach there. The information we’ve found on it sounds like it might be fairly picturesque. And if not, we can always enjoy the quiet of the ship with so many off seeing Berlin!

After a full day at sea, we are then on to St. Petersburg for two days!

[chezp]

Wonderful plans! I am so jealous, as I would love to have done one of the Disney Baltic cruises, but sadly the money wasn't there for us to do it...

[jagmom08]

Sounds like fun plans.

[Colexis Mom]

What great plans! I'm so excited for you!

[sueh818]

Great plans. I'm so glad you're going to do a trip report. I'm really excited to hear about the Baltic itenerary. Have a great trip!

[pamcarey]

Your plans sound amazing! I can't wait to read all about it!

[cubfancolleen]

St. Petersburg
I have traveled to Russia before, but only to Moscow (and also to the Republic of Georgia, which I certainly recommend if you ever have the chance!), so I was THRILLED to hear that DCL would be making a stop in St. Petersburg, and relieved that it would be more than just a day. There is SO much to see there! I also realized that there was no way to find a port adventure that did everything I wanted to do, and if we were going to do multiple PA’s, we’d end up wasting a lot of time going back & forth to the ship. So, I decided St. Petersburg would be one place that we hire a private guide. I did a lot of research to figure out what the “must sees” for us would be, and then gave that list to the guide company we’re using and asked them to price it out. This will certainly be the most expensive stop on our cruise, but we didn’t want to feel that we didn’t make the most of this opportunity of being in St. Petersburg. We were happy to find out that we would not need visas for this stop in Russia, as long as we use an official travel guide. DCL had made it seem like they would be obtaining visas for people using their port adventures, and I had thought I’d just go to the Russian Embassy (we live outside Washington DC) to get our visas. But then I realized they were $95/person. Ouch. In talking to the travel guide, I learned that cruise ships are sort of exempt from Russian visas. If you want to do your own thing, you need a visa. (Having been to Russia before, that’s one place I can’t imagine exploring on your own. The fact that signs are all in Cyrillic, makes it hard to even guess what they may say. I can make attempts at deciphering French, or Spanish, but they’re using the Roman alphabet) If you use a guide, you have a form to fill out, and then you attach a copy of your passport to it. You give that to the customs control when you leave the ship – and the guide has to meet you right at the dock. You also have to tell them when you’ll be back to the ship that afternoon/evening, and cannot come back later than you say (you can come back earlier). That was the final sell for us in going with a private guide – we can do more, for probably a bit less than doing 2 or 3 port adventures, and we didn’t need a visa!

So, our guide will meet us at the dock at 12:30 the day we dock, and we will tour into the early evening that day, and then the whole day the following day. We’re going to Catherine’s Palace, the Hermitage, Peterof gardens & fountains, Church of the Spilled Blood, St. Isaac’s Cathedral, a craft market, and lots more (I’ll give full blow by blow details in my actual trip report, promise!). We would have loved to have done the Royal Ball at Catherine’s Palace, but at $400/person, that would be more than we’re spending on 2 days of private tours, without including the expense of tux rentals for the boys, more appropriate gowns for the girls, etc. We’re going to see the palace during the day, and maybe we’ll take a spin across the dance floor for good measure!

[pamcarey]

Sounds like the private guide is definitely the way to go!

[cubfancolleen]

Following St. Petersburg, we’ll have a day in Tallinn, Estonia, then Stockholm, Sweden, and then 2 final days at sea before the return to Dover (wait, how is it that the cruise is over, already?!?).
We are doing “our own thing” in both Tallinn and Stockholm. In Tallinn, we’ve found lots of good guidebooks, and some walking tours that sound good. After two days in St. Petersburg with less control over our schedules, we think it will be nice to just explore Tallinn at our own pace. We are most interested in seeing the old city area, within the walls. I’m still trying to decide whether or not to invest in the Tallinn Card – that gets you in to lots of the sights. But since we’re only there the one day, I don’t know if it would pay for itself, or just leave us feeling required to cram in as much as possible!

In Stockholm, the plan is to get a ticket for the “hop on, hop off” boat. That will take us to Gamla Stan (old town), and then to the area where the Vassa is (the oldest boat), and finally to Skansen. I am really enjoying the current trip report “Not So Scandalous Scandinavia” as it’s giving me a taste of things to come! Sounds like we could spend most of a day in Skansen if we wanted to – this is an open air museum, with buildings that were moved there from all over Sweden, showing the history of the country. Hope that makes sense? I’ve been to similar parks in China, and in the Republic of Georgia, and found them to be really interesting. In the summer, they also apparently have roaming actors as characters from times past. Sounds fun!

I should have mentioned we do have sea day plans too! We’ll be doing Palo brunch (where are the elastic waist pants?!) one of the days at sea, and dinner at Palo another night. That will be our official romantic anniversary dinner. I can already taste the warm chocolate soufflé with vanilla bean sauce…..mmmmmmmmm Sorry! Went into a chocolate reverie for a moment there!

I cannot decide on the spa part, though, and currently have 2 villas booked. The first is a couples one, and the second is a single. My DH is not a spa kind of guy, but he would love to hang out on the verandah, lazing on the Roman bed. So the plan is to check in on embarkation day to see if he’d be allowed to hang out with me if I did the single treatment. There is no question as to whether or not I will be having a spa treatment. YES!!

When we return to Dover on July 6 (and we get a 2 hour reprieve before being tossed off the ship, thanks to the tide schedule that day – YEAH!), we’ll once again be met by a car service, and they will whisk us off to London. We’re staying in London through the 9th, and I am getting a little worried, as those days are the least planned of the trip – and we really are all on our own then!

We are staying at the Park Inn Hyde Park. It is across the street from Kensington Gardens/Hyde Park, and a close walk to a tube station. We’ll arrive in London early afternoon the 6th, and I think we’ll just wander around Hyde Park/Kensington that day. We may try to take in tea at the Orangery at Kensington that afternoon. We have tickets to go on the London Eye on the 7th (they are open tickets – we can ride any time that day), and tickets to see the London Symphony Orchestra play Beethoven’s 9th at St. Paul’s Cathedral on July 8th – part of the City of London Festival. How cool is that?!? And it’s a multi-tasker’s dream – we can see St. Paul’s, and take in a concert, all at the same time! My kids are both familiar with that piece, so I think it will be something they’ll enjoy as well.

Other than that, our London plans are still wide open. Oh, can’t forget, DS & DH want (they’d say NEED) to tour Stamford Bridge – the soccer stadium for Chelsea. Yes, they are soccer football!) fanatics! DS has been told he cannot wear his “Yanks are Coming” tshirt while in London. DH has already been in touch with DCL to see if they’ll be showing World Cup games on board. Yikes! Should have realized the timing of our trip with the Cup!

Someone recently said we MUST go to Madame Toussaud’s. Anyone out there with thoughts, comments, on that? I’ve also heard good things about the Big Red Bus tours. I have less than 20 days to figure that out, as plans need to be complete before we fly to London.

So, that’s about it on our plans so far. I’d love to hear from others who are going on the same sailing – or those of you on the inaugural cruise to the Baltic on June 12th. Anyone from London, or those who’ve been to London, weigh in a must-sees!

I will address packing in the next week or two (once I’ve figured it all out!)

[cubfancolleen]

Originally Posted by pamcarey

Sounds like the private guide is definitely the way to go!

Yeah, that seemed to give the most bang for the buck. It's over $1200 for the 4 of us, but that includes our admission to all the places, the driver, car, English-speaking guide, and the knowledge that we'll be seeing most of what we want to see.

[chezp]

Some great plans!

Hmmm... Madame Tussard's, not somewhere that grabs me to be honest. It is a LOT of money and I know it's a very popular tourist attraction, but we just didn't feel it was worth the money.

We love the historic side of London and the museums - the Natural History, V & A, the Science Museum (all Knightsbridge/Kensington area) and the British Museum are all worth a visit.

[cubfancolleen]

Originally Posted by chezp

Hmmm... Madame Tussard's, not somewhere that grabs me to be honest. It is a LOT of money and I know it's a very popular tourist attraction, but we just didn't feel it was worth the money.

Yeah, that was my initial feeling - wax museum, kind of tacky, not my thing. We'll see. I think there are other things that probably fall higher on my list. I'm almost in a state of paralysis though, trying to figure out how to fit London in to 2 full and 2 partial days! We leave at 4:30 pm the 9th, so really don't actually have much time there. And London is HUGE!
We have taken changing of the guards off the list - we were told you have to get there hours ahead of time, and can't see much anyway.
There is a website, LondonTown.com | The Number One Internet Site for London England - London hotel and event review that we've found pretty helpful in terms of descriptions, maps, etc. Don't know if anyone else has found that a good site?
We have also decided that, much like the Tallinn Card, we're forgoing the London Pass for sightseeing. You do get in to lots of attractions for free, but not sure we'd fit in enough to make it worthwhile.

[Colexis Mom]

Great plans!

[pamcarey]

Awesome plans!