To Russia on Serenity – June 6 - 8

After a VERY slow and stately sail (at 7 knots) from Tallinn, we arrived in St Petersburg, Russia very early Monday morning. When we were here in 1996 we were docked in the industrial harbour and a favourite balcony game was playing “guess which ship will sink first” and “look at the pretty colours floating on the water”! Since then the Russian government has built a beautiful new port facility that can accommodate as many as six large cruise ships at a time. There were five ships docked when we arrived, which when combined with the three ships docked “in town” near the Hermitage, made for a busy day.


As we had been here before we decided early on to “do things differently” this time. One of those different things was the 18 hour day trip to Moscow on Tuesday, so we started off slowly on Monday with an afternoon tour to Peterhof, the Summer Palace of Peter the Great. The advantage to this is we got to sleep in and then have breakfast served in our cabin by Neil, our Butler. Such a relaxing way to start the day.

Promptly at 1:45 we set off on the bus expecting an hour’s drive to Peterhof. And five minutes later, after a brisk 200 yard drive, we got off the bus and boarded a hydrofoil for the 20 minute ride to Peterhof! Our guide told us along the way that to drive would take “one hour there, but two hours back. If we were lucky!”, so this was definitely “the better way”! As the name would imply, Peterhof was the summer palace built in 1710 by Peter the Great, who succeeded (we think) Ivan the Terrible as Tsar of Russia in 1703. We think. The line of succession and the timeline gets very confused and gives us a headache. We can’t remember now if Peter the Great was succeeded by Peter the Merely Okay, or was it Catherine the First, or Catherine the Second, whose real name was Martha and who was the Polish Cleaning Lady. As we said, it gets very confusing. Anyway, as you can see from the pictures, it is a very beautiful place, especially considering it was virtually destroyed during WW 2!!!

Monica outside Peterhof Palace, complete with RadioGuide receiver and 'ears on'

Dinner with Jane that evening was really nice, good food and conversation. She has the same sense of humour as we do so there was quite a bit of laughing going on…

We would say that Tuesday morning dawned “sunny and bright”, but since the bus left the ship at 5:30AM, after five hours sleep the night before, neither of us (or anyone else on the bus actually) is really sure whether the sun was shining or not!!! It was so early even the native St Petersburgers (?) were not out of bed yet, so it was a quick ride to the train station where we boarded the high speed train for Moscow. Even at an average speed of 200 KMH, four hours is a l-o-n-g time on a train in seats that don’t recline even a bit! It was, however, an interesting experience and the scenery along the way varied from flat to flatter, with occasional flat areas and lakes thrown in for a change of pace. The odd time we would run past a little “village” of what looked like weekend cottages with gardens. One of our tour guides explained that these are dachas, very small houses where the city-dwellers could go for the weekend and holidays.

Russian countryside and a larger home

Unlike many cities, the Moscow train station is not “downtown” so we really didn’t realize we had arrived until the train stopped. Then the fun started. There were six groups from the ship, numbering about 200 people, give or take a bit, all being shepherded through the very busy Moscow Station by our Moscow guides. Whoever coined the phrase “controlling tourists is like herding cats” must have had cruiseship passengers in mind! Fortunately we had one of the Shorex people as our ship escort and a head guide who we think took lessons at the “Joseph Stalin School of Tourist Guiding” so amazingly we all made it to the buses without losing anyone! After being introduced to Mikhail, our individual bus guide, we set off. For a coffee break! We had been sitting on a train half asleep for four hours! We’re not sure if the break was for the guides or us!

The first stop on our tour was a walk through Red Square, the very HEART of the Evil Empire (in the immortal words of Ronald Reagan)! We really weren’t sure what to expect, but this wasn’t it. The first thing our guide did was set us straight on the name. The original Muscovites called this the “beautiful square” and the Old Russian word for “beautiful” is “krasny”, which for reasons unknown, in “New Russian” came to mean “red”. So the name Red Square had NOTHING to do with Communism. Such a disappointment. Another myth shattered! In reality, Red Square is an enormously wide boulevard, with The Kremlin on one side and the GUM Department Store on the other and St Basil’s Cathedral one on end. About in the middle along the Kremlin Wall is Lenin’s Tomb. From what we could see of it, this is an impressive red (what else?) marble structure, but unfortunately we couldn’t see much as it was covered in (wait for it) SCAFFOLDING! So what else is new for us?? But not just any scaffolding, but scaffolding for a stage for a rock concert. By Shakira of all people! As Larry said “for a Cold War kid with memories of Walter Cronkite reporting on May Day Parades, of rockets and tanks on Red Square while the grey, grim Politburo watched from atop Lenin’s Tomb” a Shakira concert seemed somehow sacrilegious!!!! As an aside, we were travelling with another couple from our table and Brian served in the US Air Force in Germany before 1992. Larry asked what his thoughts were after seeing Red Square. His comment was “if I had known it looked like this I would have been a lot less worried.”

Red Square - the red building is the Russian Historical Library and the long one on the right is the GUM (formerly government workers only) Department Store

Lenin's Tomb

The famous St. Basil's Cathedral

From Red Square, our next stop was THE KREMLIN!!! And another lesson in Russian. The word “kremlin” actually means “palace” in Old Russian. As our guide put it, there are kremlins all over Russia! Entering through the main gate the first building you see is the former headquarters of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. This is a squat, grey concrete and glass building that fairly screams “COMMUNIST ERA” and in fact looks terribly out of place. Our guide, who has been a guide going back to the days of Communism, even commented that building it in the grounds of the Kremlin was probably not a very good idea. Over the next three hours we toured all around and through the various buildings. Surprisingly all but a couple are open to the public, and even more surprising, are the SEVEN churches inside the grounds! While they were used as museums during the Communist era, they were not destroyed (as so many were) and are once again active congregations. Our final stop in the Kremlin was the Armoury Museum, the only building in the Kremlin complex that still has a Red Star on top.

The only building where we could take photos inside was the Kremlin Palace, which was the Moscow home of the Tsars and rulers going back into the 15th Century.

Clocktower on the Kremlin wall

The building housing the offices of the President and Prime Minister

One of the older churches within the Kremlin

Inside the Kremlin Palace

After leaving the Kremlin we were taken to The Writer’s Club, one of Moscow’s best restaurants, for dinner. Let’s just say that after that meal we are really glad they didn’t take us to Moscow’s WORST restaurant, and leave it at that. We then returned to the train for the four hour trip back to St Petersburg, getting back to our cabin shortly after sunset at 12:30 AM!

A long day, hard on the feet (didn’t have a pedometer so we’re not quite sure how far we walked) and the backside (in the train) but worth it to see what the Russian city that had the worst reputation for the longest time is truly like. And really, it is just like any other big city, but with more old buildings. Yes, we did see at least one McDonald’s, a Subway and any number of western clothing and shoe stores…So it isn’t as different any more as you might think. Actually we both commented that it looked just like any other large city we have ever visited. Except for the Cyrillic alphabet names on all the buildings, of course! Still haven’t figured out if the character that looks like this, 3, is an R or an S or maybe something else entirely. We just know it is NOT a number!

Our last day in St. Petersburg was spent at two locations of the Hermitage. We were very fortunate that Crystal is able to arrange some tours that are not usually open for cruise ship tours – this one was to the Repository, the location of much of the climate controlled storage of items not on display. It is also where much of the lab and restoration work on these pieces is done. There is quite a plan for expanding the Repository to include administration for the 3 million items they have, and they are funding it in part by holding tours, mainly for school children and a few other groups.

Unfortunately, we were not allowed to take photos inside of the Repository since it is under high security and some of the items are not even catalogued yet. Most of what is on display in the Repository is of Russian origin, while the Hermitage showcases western European artwork. We saw 15th and 16th century icons from Russian Orthodox churches, statues, paintings and sculptures from the 18th century to present day, and even a sultan’s tent that had been presented to Catherine the Great. The tent is quite interesting, as it had been given to the Tsarina but since she had no space to put it up, it was folded and put into storage – where it stayed for about 300 years. The Repository has it on display over top of a glass roof and walls so you can actually stand inside of it. A truly interesting exhibit.

After the morning tour, it was off to lunch in a restaurant by the river, close to the Admiralty Building. The menu was very similar to what we had had for dinner in Moscow, but a little more substantial. It seems that the Russian cuisine served to tourists is a little short on inventiveness… Who knew there was such a thing as Chicken Stroganoff??

After lunch, we arrived at the Hermitage Museum just in time for our 2:30 timeslot. With quite a number of ships in port, you can imagine how busy it was at the tour group entrance. We had thought that 2 hours wouldn’t be enough to see all the exhibits on the list, but, as we discovered, it was basically the same tour we had done on our previous visit with a couple of minor changes: Some of the priceless artworks are now a little better protected (i.e. all the Rembrandts are now behind special glass) and the little old ladies who provided “security” in all the rooms were a little younger and better dressed. And wearing shoes instead of bedroom slippers!

We haven’t mentioned the plainclothes security force yet, although we noticed it in every room of every museum we were in. One of our tour guides told us that, since in Russia the old age pension is a flat sum per person, not based on time worked or income level, many people have to work an extra job to augment it so they can live above the poverty line. And since there are very many more women in Russia than men (about 13 to 1), there are a lot of widowed ladies who need the money, hence they are working in the museums, making sure that the tourists don’t break the rules – or the exhibits.

At the end of the tour, we headed back to the ship and our first dinner at Silk Road. After the show we spent a little while in the Sunset Lounge where the sun finally went down after 11:00 (we even got photos) then headed for bed. After all, our morning of kayaking was coming up in Helsinki!

A Day at Sea and Return to Tallinn

Yesterday (Saturday) was the first of our two days at sea for this first leg of the cruise. Of course, it ended up no less busy than any other day. Three lectures were lined up, all of them interesting, but Monica’s spa appointment conflicted with the astronomer’s first presentation. We’ll have to see if we can pick it up later on the TV.


Since there were major upgrades done to a few areas of the ship during the drydock two weeks ago, here are a few photos of the new stuff:

Pool Deck new furniture, same as Symphony

Looking through the end window of the 'new' Apropos

Penthouse Stateroom from the verandah side

From the entrance way

It was also formal night and the Captain’s Welcome Aboard Cocktail Party. Unfortunately, Captain Glenn couldn’t give his usual greeting – earlier in the afternoon, we noticed that we had sped up considerably from the 8.2 knots we needed to travel to get to Tallinn on time. That was because we were suddenly doing the full 22 knots to get there earlier to offload a medical emergency. We had received the okay to dock earlier and stay overnight, so we arrived at the pilot station just about the time the captain would have been making his speech. In the end, they cleared the whole ship early, giving the passengers permission to go ashore and visit town in the evening. (By the way, the person who had to be evacuated is now okay.)

We didn’t leave the ship. It was formal night, and the Crystal Ensemble was performing one of our favourite production shows, Million Dollar Musicals. So we dropped into the Avenue Saloon after the show and ended up sitting with Jane, the Crystal Society Hostess, for a little while. She has invited us to dinner with her at Prego on Monday.

This morning, we had our walking tour In the Footsteps of Peter the Great. Along with a visit to the old town, we also went to his original cottage and the palace he built for his wife, Catherine I. The building containing the Estonian President’s home and offices stands right between the two, and is surrounded by parkland that used to be the estate Peter the Great bought (yes, bought, not took) when he first came to Tallinn.

Peter the Great's original cottage outside Tallinn

Catherine's Palace that Peter built for his wife

And to finish it all off, we noticed these sheep grazing just off the pier, and couldn't resist the photo op.


Returning to the ship, we prepared for our crazy-busy evening. Captain’s Quarters for cocktails at 5:15, followed by the show at 7:00, the Cruise Critic cocktail party and 7:45 and dinner at Prego (yes, we’ll be there two days in a row!) at 8:30. We’re actually looking forward to the next three days in St Petersburg to get some “rest”!!!

Stockholm and the Swedish Countryside

As expected, we woke early after our first night on board. Even with getting some rest on the plane, it had been a long day and we weren’t quite past our jet lag. So, even though we had set the alarm for 6:30 in the morning to be ready for an 8:45 tour, we found ourselves awake not long after 5:30 and at breakfast at 7:00.


Pretty much all of the regular Lido and Pool guys are here and were more than glad to see us. And they all asked how everyone is at home, in between making sure there was absolutely nothing else they could do for us.

Our tour today took us into Stockholm from the port, where we passed some of the important buildings, including the Royal Palace, where, according to our guide, Crown Princess Victoria’s wedding last year drew 500,000 people to watch the ‘balcony scene’. That’s not a bad turnout when you consider that the population of greater Stockholm is only 1.2 million.

Our first stop was Sigtuna, a town dating back to 980 AD (a number none of us is likely to forget given the number of times one of our tour group had asked about it and confused it with 1980), and the first Christian capital of Sweden. It still holds the ruins of the first church, and still standing is the Church of St. Mary that was erected around 1200.

It is a picturesque town, and not only for tourists. It is not very far from the main airport for Stockholm at Arlanda, and many people working at the airport live in the area. They must be extremely well-paid, though, since the house prices we saw in the real estate office windows seemed almost ridiculous even given the current exchange rate is 6 Krone per Dollar.

After leaving Sigtuna, we headed for our lunch and visit to Skolkloster Palace. This palace is quite large and was built by a very wealthy nobleman (not royalty) on the shores of Lake Malaren as a summer home, one of 11 he had all over Europe. It seems he had one too many houses, since he apparently only ever stayed here for 30 days all together before he died. In fact, when his descendents donated the building, contents and grounds to the Swedish government they made quite an archaeological find – it seems that there was one very large unfinished room upstairs that was still under constructions when he died. The workmen, believing that they would no longer be paid, left all their tools in the middle of their work and walked out. The family had locked the door on this room and never mentioned it again – for about 300 years. So when the Swedish cultural authorities came to look over the place, they found this room exactly as it had been left, so they knew precisely what kinds of tools and building methods were being used on the building. By this time, of course, a lot of repair was needed, so they were able to do these exactly the same way as the original building was done.

Unfortunately, although there was a lot to see, including a very complete armoury (rifles, pistols and even suits of armour and chain mail), there were no photos allowed inside the building, so we had to be content with a few shots of the outside.

The old convent on the grounds

The view up Lake Malaren

It was a nice day out seeing the Swedish countryside. We got back to our stateroom in time to change for dinner and find an invitation to visit the Crystal Society hostess, Jane, at her desk. By the time we finished talking to her, we had already started out sail out from the harbour. Stockholm itself is 13 connected islands, and the whole archipelago is about 1,100 of them. The sail in and sail out are among the most picturesque in the world and take just about 5 hours to complete. Here are a few photos:

After dinner we went to the Welcome Aboard show and had our first chance to talk to Rick Spath, the Cruise Director. He sends his regards to everybody, too. Later in the evening, we also met Captain Glenn who was quite pleased to see us again and happy that we will be staying on for the North Cape trip as well.

Tomorrow’s a sea day – spa appointments and lectures. Since we only have two sea days, there’s a lot to be crammed in. More on that tomorrow.

A Very Long Day 1…

The first day of every cruise adventure is a long one, and this was no exception. We left the house at 4:30 Wednesday afternoon (10:30 Stockholm time) and as we type it is 9:30 Thursday evening Stockholm time. After a busy day, we’ve unpacked, unwound and are sitting on our balcony with a glass of wine – well, some of us have a glass of wine – watching the sun set over the port of Stockholm. According to Reflections, the sun will set at 9:58 tonight; of course, it will rise again at 3:41 in the morning, so there WILL apparently be some night tonight. The nights are starting out short, and will get shorter as we go along.


Our flight to London was uneventful, although different from usual. Because we were on the late flight, we were served a buffet dinner in the Business Class Lounge before boarding to allow us more time for sleeping. Nice idea. The flight is just under 7 hours, and we managed to spend about 3 of them in some sort of sleepy state. Our second flight, from London to Stockholm, took about 2 hours and was also quite nice. It was amazing to see just how narrow the separation between the North Sea and the Baltic really is. No more than a few miles (at least from 39,000 feet up). We landed at 4:00 this afternoon and once all the luggage was collected, boarded the bus for our 45 minute drive to the port.

Once on board, the rush started up again. We got into our stateroom in time for our Butler, Neil, to come and introduce himself, followed almost immediately by our cabin stewardess, Vesna, and then the luggage. Our doorbell doesn’t ring anywhere near this much at home! While we were unpacking (after 5:00) we realized that it wasn’t open seating dinner but regular seatings, and our dinner was at 6:00. So we stuffed our clothes in the closet and the drawers and ran off to the Dining Room.

Our tablemates are all very nice; one couple from California, and the other from Virginia. If we have a fourth couple, we didn’t see them today…We’re the most seasoned Crystal cruisers at our table. It looks like it will be a good group and we should have some fun.

As to staff we’ve seen so far (and of course, we haven’t been to the Lido or the Pool yet), there’s Victor (the Food and Beverage Manager) Natalia (bartender in the Avenue Saloon), Giuseppe (the Maitre d’ in the Dining Room), and, although we haven’t talked to him yet, we’ve caught a glimpse of Lorinc (former bartender, now sommelier). We have seen Raymond from the pool deck in his ‘other job’ serving canapés in the bars before dinner, so we’re sure that by tomorrow breakfast, all the Lido guys will be looking for us.

Well, it’s been a long day (or two) and we’ve got an 8:45 tour in the morning. We’re signing off now and hitting the hay. Not only do we have an all-day tour, but we lose an hour of sleep tomorrow night. Good thing Saturday is a sea day…

Gearing Up for the 30th Anniversary Cruise - Baltic and North Cape

We're back again, in the midst of packing for another adventure.  This one will be in celebration of our 30th anniversary (May 30).  We'll be gone for 26 days in June on back-to-back cruises with Crystal Serenity.  So along with packing for weather ranging from 4 degrees to 25 degrees C according to the latest weather forecasts, we've also had to finish the gardening and make sure a number of other things are taken care of.
It looks like everything's on track so far.

Of course, we can't start a trip without Thomas's input, and we got some flack the last time that the photo didn't have him anywhere near a suitcase, so - here's the latest:

We'll be leaving on June 1 and getting back on June 27.  As usual, we'll post to the blog as often as we can, although we'll be quite busy on the Baltic leg with only 2 sea days out of 11 and lots to see in all of our ports of call.  According to Crystal, we'll be incommunicado for a few days during the North Cape voyage, due to the position of the ship vs. communication satellites, but there will be fair warning before that happens.

We're getting really excited about this trip, especially as Serenity has just gone through a major drydock that included upgrading a lot of the decor in the staterooms and shops.  She just left Hamburg yesterday on her way to Stockholm, where we'll join her on June 2.

As usual, we hope you'll enjoy following along with us.

Day 11 Irie, You’re in Jamaica, mon!

After a sea-day to recuperate from the previous 3 port days, during which the most strenuous activity was Monica and Barb participating in the Princess Cruises ‘On Deck for the Cure’ 5K breast cancer walk (that’s 9 times around the Promenade Deck, if anyone’s interested), we’re ready for our stop in Ocho Rios.


The last time we were in Ocho Rios was almost 20 years ago, Norm counted back to 31 years and Barb has never been here before. So, needless to say, it was like a brand new stop for all of us given the extent of changes that have been made over the years due to the increasing number of cruise ships.

Our tour visited three attractions: Shaw Park Gardens, a beach resort and Dunn’s River Falls. Although we had different guides at each attraction and they did, as almost all guides do, ask for tips at the end of the tours, they were not quite as ‘in your face’ as we had expected given our previous experiences. There are always people selling things, especially at Dunn’s River Falls, but even they were not too annoyingly intrusive.

Shaw Park Gardens had originally been built as a high-class hotel in the 1950s, but because of the layout - the property is a bit hilly and the trek between the hotel building and its pool was quite steep - it didn’t take. It is really too bad, as the pool is fed by a bubbling stream at the bottom of a waterfall and drains into another small fall as the stream continues below. It is also surrounded by beautiful plants and some very, very old trees; one of the Banyan trees has been standing for over 100 years.

After about an hour touring through the Gardens, we headed for the beach.  The resort we went to is the Shaw Park Beach Resort and Spa, about a ten minute drive from the Gardens and in a relatively secluded cove outside of town. We had two hours to laze on the beach, take a swim and grab a bite for lunch.

We spent about a half-hour in the water at the beach



...and we can't forget Norm's 'beer tour' - he liked this one the best!


After that, we headed for the highlight of the tour, Dunn’s River Falls. Norm and Barb had decided early on that they were going to climb the falls. Norm had done this about 30 years ago and wanted to do it again. We ended up being ‘the paparazzi’, taking photos not only for ourselves and Norm and Barb, but also for one of the other ladies on the tour who had no-one to take photos for her. It took them about 45 minutes to climb from the beach to the top - here are some photos to show their accomplishment.

We got back to the ship about 15 minutes before ‘all passengers aboard’ and finished the afternoon with some relaxing around the pool.

Sunday’s add-on: Since today is the last sea day and ‘packing day’, we haven’t got much planned. We did, however, manage another 5K walk around the Promenade Deck, and wondered if we were actually on two ships instead of one. One side of the ship was wet and cool, and the other was dry and a little warm, even though there was a steady breeze all around. Is this Mother Nature getting us ready for the frigid cold back home??? We’ll be flying back to Buffalo tomorrow and driving home on Tuesday morning.

Thanks for traveling along with us on this cruise; we hope you’ve enjoyed the reports and the photos. Next up is in June to the Baltic and Norwegian Fjords. See you then!

Day 9: Introduction to Eco-touring

Puerto Limon, Costa Rica - not much of a town but then many of the places on the Caribbean side of this small country aren’t geared to resort-style tourism. For that, you need to go to the Pacific side. Because of the dense rain forest here, this is the place for the active eco-tourist - zip-lining, deep sea fishing, snorkeling and scuba diving, kayaking and rafting are the big activities on the east coast.


And today was the day that Norm and Barb have been looking forward to (with a hint of trepidation, perhaps). We had pre-booked the Grade 2 White Water Rafting tour with some understanding from our side of what Grade 2 meant - rapids, a few rocks here and there, but no flying off small waterfalls like we did in New Zealand. So we figured it would be safe enough.

After an hour’s bus ride into the interior where there are many rivers coming down out of the central mountains (and volcanoes) we reached the ‘base camp’ where the tour company has showers, change rooms and a lunch buffet for afterwards. Since the requirements for the tour were bathing suits or clothes that can get soaked and rubber-soled water shoes (we all have Tevas), once everyone got changed we were off again to the launch point, where we were fitted with the rest of our gear - helmets, life jackets and paddles.

The worst part of the trip was actually getting to the rafts. The riverbed is quite rocky and we had to trek about 50 yards, across small boulders and a branch of the river, to the boats. This required a little ‘fancy footwork’ over wet, slick and often submerged rocks. And did we mention the water wasn’t exactly warm?

Once that was done and everyone had taken places in the rafts, the fun really began. We hadn’t gone more than 100 yards downstream, in a fairly swift current, before our guide sent us into the first three-foot waves and we were soaked! At least it gave us all a chance to get over our initial uncertainty about the water and the waves and get settled into the rhythm of taking paddling orders. It’s hard to be nervous when there is water flying in every direction at the same time!! Yes, we have video that includes Barb, she of the ‘non-stop giggles’, and Norm, ‘I know we’re heading for a big wave when everybody screams’. While not as intense as the Grade 5 rapids from our New Zealand experience a couple of years ago, there were enough bumps and twists and unexpected turns, not to mention soakings too numerous to mention, to keep us all busy! And very wet! Unfortunately, we don’t have any video of the raft-to-raft waterfights - we were too busy spraying the other guys!

We traveled about 7 miles down the river, hitting a few more rapids with crashing 3-foot waves (hey, they look even bigger from a small boat!) and even doing a 360 in one spot! Of course, each time we heard new rapids up ahead, Larry would tell the rest of the team that it was the sound of the 15, or 20, or 30, or 40, or 50 foot waterfall coming up. That had a couple of the older ladies in our raft giving him the evil eye the first couple of times until they caught on. Then it became the running joke of the trip.

All too quickly for Norm and Barb (well, Barb at least), we soon reached the landing point and the trek back through “the jungle” to our waiting bus. Once we got back to the base camp to change, we were served a typical Costa Rican lunch which was very tasty. Then we had the ride back to the ship, where we had to stop at the port building to buy that staple for our kitchen - Costa Rican Britt Coffee. We had just opened up our last package from last time not long before we left on this cruise. Now we’re good for another couple of years! Once back onboard Barb couldn’t wait to get to a computer to e-mail “her boys” that they had actually done it and had the pictures to prove it!

All in all a great day and another new adventure to add to the list.