Baltic Cruise with Celebrity by Kris Levy (May 2017)

Celebrity Silhouette

12 day Baltic Cruise

May 5-19, 2017

 

This was my first Celebrity Cruise and I am confident in saying that it was one of the best. The ship itself was absolutely beautiful, with a lot of attention to detail and a feeling of openness. All of the crew was outstanding, and always had a smile on their faces. We stayed in a balcony cabin and I have to say that it was very roomy and the balcony was larger than other ships that I have been on.

There are several specialty dining restaurants on board that are definitely worth the extra fee. We went to the Tuscan Grill, Lawn club, Qsine, and Murano’s where you can experience lobster that is prepared table side by your server.

There are a lot of things to do on board, you can play bocce ball on the Lawn at the Lawn Club, Celebrity ilounge, the Aqua Spa, or go to the Martini Bar like we did every night. Excellent shows, karaoke, bingo, silent disco, casino, a hideaway where you can just chill from the world and totally unplug. You can really be as busy as you want to be or hide out in the library.

The ports of call that we visited on this cruise were Warnemunde, Tallin, St. Petersburg, Helsinki, Stockholm, and Copenhagen and it was round trip from Amsterdam.

Amsterdam– We decided to go in a day early so that we could visit the Keukenhof Gardens because they are only open for 6 weeks and we happen to catch it in the middle. The gardens are so beautiful and they are a must see.

Warnemunde (Berlin)- Is actually a small port village where you can take a bus to Berlin which takes 3 hours each way. We decided not to go with the ships shore excursion and went with SPB Tour instead because the groups were a lot smaller and less expensive. We also used them for St. Petersburg for the same reason.

We had about 17 in our group and we had a wonderful tour guide Jim who was from Minnesota.

The sites that we visited were Olympic Stadium, victory column, Reichstag, Brandenburg Gate, Holocaust Memorial, Site of Hitlor’s Bunker, Berlin Wall, Potsdamer Platz (lunch German Sausages), Gendarmenmarkt, and Check Point Charlie.

All in all it was a long day but well worth it.

Tallin– This is a charming little city, with cobble stoned streets and unusual buildings. The ship docks about 20 minute walk from the city center or you can by a shuttle ticket from the ship. They had extensive array of souvenir stalls and hand made items that you could at a very good price. It’s good to make your way up toward the fort and the Russian Church for a wonderful view of the town.

St. Petersburg– Again we used SPB Tours and we had a wonderful and brilliant tour guide named Maria. We had 2 wonderful sunny days but windy, which is unusual because they only have 50 sunny days out of the year.

The sites that we visited were Peterhof’s Palace, Winter Palace, Hermitage, Isaac’s Cathedral, Church of Spilled Blood, Catherine’s Summer Palace, Winter Palace, and we also visited the subway, had 2 Russian lunches and 2 canal boat rides. It was a long 2 days but absolutely worth it!

Helsinki– We decided to use the ships shuttle into town and we were surprised how much we liked Helsinki. We just walked around near the main harbor area and park. We worked our way to the outdoor market and stopped for an ice cream at one of the outdoor food stalls… neat little city.

Stockholm– The approach to Stockholm, as the ship sails through hundreds of small islands for 4 hours, is spectacular, so make sure you’re up on the observations deck, or balcony at least an hour before the ship is due to dock. Again we decided to take the shuttle and walk around Old Town which was a great place to sightsee and people watch, we also went to the Royal Palace.

Copenhagen- We had a complimentary excursion with Distinctive Voyages by Travel Leaders for 3 hours. The tour consisted of the Little Mermaid and a Canal boat ride through the city. I wished that we had enough time to visit Tivoli Gardens but maybe next time.

All in all we had a wonderful time and I can’t wait to go on another Celebrity cruise again.

 

Kris Levy

East Greenwich