When out traveling you get to see all kind of things, even in the most touristy shopping areas. Sunglasses most be a very common shopping item, but maybe not as wild crazy looking as those one, or what do you say? I love those funny ones!
Which ones would you choose? I probably would choose all three in the top row, wearing them matching my clothes that day. Yes, I’m that silly! Hi…hi…
©Lifecruiser Love Sunglasses
Finally I will come to an end of our long story about our Baltic Cruise we did recently with this summery about our experiences and what we learned from all this plus pros and cons with this kind of budget cruise deal we did jump upon.
Why did we go on this cruise between Stockholm – Tallinn – St Petersburg – Helsinki – Stockholm? It was not only because we got a budget deal with St Peter Line, no we also had other reasons as follow.
First of all I just have to mention that on this cruise we were really following in the vikings footsteps, because they did sail from Stockholm and up to St Petersburg through the same bay as we did cruise. That was perhaps reason number one to go.
Secondly, because we had heard so much about it. Honestly, perhaps not one of our most wanted travel destinations, but since we got this one chance to see both Tallinn and St Petersburg in the same cruise, we did jump on it since we might never go there otherwise.
The third reason was because I have personal relations to this part of the world. I have relatives living in Estonia and have heard so much about both Estonia and Russia from them, already many years ago when it was more closed countries. History always is so fascinating even if it’s kind of a bad history if you know what I mean, isn’t it?
You have already read about all our experiences during the cruise as well as the fact that we did escape from the cruise because of our bad experiences aboard and stayed in Helsinki before boarding another cruise ship instead. (If not: check the links in the end of the post to update yourself)
Pros: For the first time in history a Visa Free Cruise from Sweden to Russia started in April 2011. The new ferry line might be the most easy way of traveling to Saint Petersburg and be there within 72 hours without a visa. We also got to see authentic Russian shows of Music Hall cabaret aboard the ship, which was very good.
Cons: M/S Princess Anastasia is a very old ship and even though she is renovated, standard is very low and especially if you’re used to other bigger cruise lines. Our cabin was not very nice with dirty covers, flaking bathroom floor and moldy shower, despite the fact that we had upgraded to A-cabin. It’s also very noisy in the cabins.
Another couple got a water leakage from their cabin and had to change cabin because of it. A-Cabins at other budget cruise ships as Silja Symphony, is way over this standard! Even our B-cabin at Silja were so much better!
Would I recommend going with this cruise ship or even this cruise line? No. Even if you get a bargain price, I would recommend to wait and save your money, to go with any of the other better cruises instead. This ship is too worn out and when it comes to the cruise line, we also did think that they are bad at inform you right about things.
There is information you get, that is quite contradictive to each other, so IF you go: be sure to double check everything!
Didn’t we check up this cruise before we booked? Yes, we did, but it was not easy to find anything bad written about them when we did that check up.
What we have learned from this is that don’t jump on bargain deals too fast before thinking after if it’s for the right reasons you do it – and if you’re prepared to take the risk that it might not at all be what you thought it would be.
If you find any undone food objects in the cooked breakfast – do not eat them, they may come out later in unexpected and unwanted ways, keeping you locked up in the toilet all night without any sleep…
Also count on the fact that the food bill will become much, much more expensive than you thought, since you might not want to only eat the cheapest food at the budget places all the time for 4 days – and also: it’s way too easy to order Champagne… *giggles*
©Lifecruiser Love Cruises
Related Baltic cruise posts by Lifecruiser:
How we escaped from a cruise and ended up in jail… Part 1
How we escaped from a cruise and ended up in jail… Part 2
Our night in Katajanokka Jail
Baltic Cruise Stop Tallinn – UNESCO Cultural Heritage
Saint Petersburg Souvenirs
The Idiots Sightseeing of Saint Petersburg
Photo: Illusionary Window
Baltic Cruise Stop Helsinki
Last Cruise Leg Silja Symphony
We finally got return tickets and got aboard the last cruise leg Helsinki – Stockholm on our latest cruise trip, which surprisingly turned out to be with two different cruise ships and even cruise lines. We had another surprise on Silja Symphony too, which I’ll tell you more about.
As soon as we had installed ourselves in our cabin at the ship, we went to get a walk on deck, since it was such a lovely weather. Sun deck is never a wrong place to be when the sun is shining! Though before that, something fun happened…
When walking along the cabin corridor I noticed a man standing in the end of it, leaning on the wall, smiling and looking at us while we were walking towards him. I though it might be some kind of cabin crew or something since we were so close to the more luxury cabins, but coming closer to him I started to find his behavior more strange. He was looking at us in a way a crew member would probably not do and his smile got bigger and bigger….
When coming very close to him, about a meter or so we finally took a real look into his face and suddenly it came very clear: we know this man! Yes! It was a friend from our summer island, which we meet every summer when he and his family rent the fishing cottage from our farmer! Such a coincidence to meet at this cruise ship, right here, right now!
Even more of a coincidence were that he had been on a bus tour at the exact destinations as we had! How close we had been every day without knowing it…. Sometimes it’s so strange! Of course, as the well equipment guy he always is, he had something for us in the bag: yes, he has a tradition of making toasts with us, with whiskey! Skål x 3 for hubby, one for his belated birthday you see…. ha ha…
After that we went to the sundeck to get some… Champagne of course! Cheers my dears! Very suitable were that the theme at this cruise were: Fiesta! So we had Spanish music on the ship and very skilled Spanish dancers in the evening show – oh, how we enjoyed that!
We had a very pleasant cruise, the Baltic Sea were calm, the sunset were as nice as it can be… This time we arrived safe at home without any sea sickness! Hooray!
Though there was something that was not as it should: now hubby had got a terrible sore throat… oh, no, poor man! Was there no end on the bad things connected with our Baltic Cruise trip…? It really has been a mix of either very bad or very nice things on this whole cruise!
…and I can mention that me too got his cold when we arrived home, so we were sick for a whole week after coming home, hubby worse than me and he is still coughing.
I think he might need some more whiskey or what do you say? Ha ha…
You can see all Lifecruiser photos of Silja Symphony 2012 at Flickr.
Stay tuned to hear what we did learn from the cruise experience Stockholm – Tallinn – St Petersburg – Helsinki and what we really thought about it plus all the pros and cons…
©Lifecruiser Love Cruises
Related Baltic cruise posts by Lifecruiser:
How we escaped from a cruise and ended up in jail… Part 1
How we escaped from a cruise and ended up in jail… Part 2
Our night in Katajanokka Jail
Baltic Cruise Stop Tallinn – UNESCO Cultural Heritage
Saint Petersburg Souvenirs
The Idiots Sightseeing of Saint Petersburg
Photo: Illusionary Window
Baltic Cruise Stop Helsinki
