Note: We have done our best to proof read the posts and have added pictures within each post to complete the blog. In addition, we have added more photos to the photo albums, and added a couple of new photo albums, specifically Sea Days and Greenock. Lastly, we have added a few videos, which can be selected in the rights side menu under Videos of the Trip, or at the…
We have decided to go on another Transatlantic Cruise with Princess Cruises on the Regal Princess ship. Ever since we did the Transatlantic Cruise that ended in Copenhagen in 2016, we have thought about trying to get back to see St. Petersburg, Russia. After we disembarked the ship in Copenhagen in 2016, the very next cruise itinerary for the Regal Princess was to visit St. Petersburg, and we had wished…
Here is the Itinerary for the trip. We are staying two nights prior to the cruise in Warnemunde, Germany. The destination stops for the cruise that are shown in parenthesis are the actual ports for the more popular cities to visit nearby, which are shown first in the itinerary destination listing. Trip Itinerary
It has been a while since we have posted anything about this trip, but we have been doing a lot of planning none the less. We have made our final payment, and now are just monitoring the flights in case there is a reduction in airfare pricing. We have until 45 days before our departure date of August 28 to make changes to our airfare without penalty. A reduction in…
We have put together general plans of what we want to do while in most of our ports of call for this trip. Several are fairly easy, and do not require us to go very far from the port, or, we are just staying in the port city. There are a few others that we will venture farther away from the actual port, so those always take more upfront planning…
We will be leaving three weeks from today to begin our journey to Europe to board the Regal Princess. We have been trying to do more research on what to do in some of the other ports where we will be spending more time away from the ship. These ports include Stockholm, Greenock and Cobh. in addition we have done a lot more planning on what we’re going to try…
This will be our last planning update before we leave about a week from today. We have put the final touches on most of our planning efforts, and have also made a few changes since the last update. The biggest change is that we decided to switch hotels from staying in Warnemunde, Germany to staying in Rostock, Germany for the two nights before we leave on our cruise. There were…
Our departure date for our trip finally arrived, and we woke up this morning at about 6:15 AM to get ready for the flights to Berlin, Germany. We did the final weighing of our luggage last night and both suitcases were about 46 -1/2 pounds, well below the 50 pound limit for the airlines. Mom picked us up promptly at 7:45 AM and I drove us to the airport in…
It was about a 25 minute bus ride from the airport to the Berlin train station and we arrived well before our 10:24 a.m. train departure time. We stopped at two different bakeries for something for breakfast and then waited on our train to arrive. We headed down to the platform and happened to notice that the train status sign had some warning on it, mostly in German with just…
We set our alarm for 6:15 AM, knowing we needed to get out early for the long day of sightseeing that we had planned for today. Unfortunately, for as nice of a day as we had with the weather yesterday, today’s forecast was not good, calling for cooler temperatures and a 90% chance of rain, It was showering when we got up, so we knew we were in for a…
Today is our last day in Rostock, Germany. Later this afternoon, we will board the Regal Princess and begin our Baltic and Transatlantic Cruise. We slept in a bit before getting all of our gear repacked into the suitcases. At least it appeared we would have some sunshine today after all of the rain yesterday. However, it was a little cooler and very windy. After we got everything packed,…
Today was a sea day, and it was nice to sleep in, especially since we had to move our clocks forward by an hour, robbing us of some sleep time. For the next four days, for the stops in Tallinn, St. Petersburg (2 days) and for Helsinki, we will be 7 hours ahead of normal time at home. We will eventually get the hour back after we leave Helsinki on…
Today we are visiting the town of Tallinn in Estonia. Tallinn is known for its old city area, still resembling a walled medieval town from the past. The port was within walking distance to the old town area, and the weather this morning was very sunny. We got off the ship about 8:00 AM and walked to the main gate entrance to the old town area. Since it was Sunday,…
The wake up call at 5:15 AM this morning was brutal, especially since we were still adjusting to the time change, plus the extra hour we lost two nights ago before the Sea Day. We wanted to be ready and down in the designated dining room so that we could get through Immigration, and make it out in time for our 8:00 AM tour departure. We are doing a small…
We were able to sleep in a little longer this morning, now knowing how the immigration process really worked. We also knew that it was supposed to be quicker today, the immigration officers were only going to confirm our passports matched us, and not have to process them through their computer station or print out the temporary visas. As has been the usual MO for every morning so far, I…
Greetings everyone. Today we are in Helsinki, Finland. We have been having trouble catching up on the blog because we have been so busy with port days. We are doing well. We had two fantastic days yesterday and the day before in St Petersburg, Russia. The two sunny days in a row was rare because they normally only have 65 sunny days a year in St Petersburg, at least that…
Today we are in Nynashamn, Sweden, a port near the city of Stockholm. Apparently, the Regal Princess is just a bit too large to actually dock in the city of Stockholm, mainly due to shallow water and tight navigating channels going through the surrounding islands to get to Stockholm directly. Therefore, we had to dock in Nynashamn instead. In Nynashamn, there is a special pier that unfolds and becomes the…
Today was a much welcome Sea Day after five long days in a row visiting ports. The weather was actually nice today as we head over to Copenhagen. Many of the people we have met on board so far are disembarking in Copenhagen, which was the start and now stop port for the 11 Day Baltic Cruise segment that started three days before we boarded in Warnemunde. We have met…
The port stop for today is Copenhagen, Denmark. We visited here for three days in 2016 at the end of a Ft. Lauderdale to Copenhagen Transatlantic cruise, so we picked out a couple of different things to do on this visit. The ship was already in port when we woke up, having a 5:00 AM scheduled arrival time. The plan for today was to visit the Frederiksborg Castle in Hillerod,…
Aarhus. Denmark is our port stop for today. The weather was mostly cloudy when we woke up at 6:30 AM. We slept in a little bit, we did not have much of a plan for Aarhus other than to try to go to Mass at 10:00 AM since it is Sunday. We had looked online for Catholic Churches in Aarhus, but for some reason, I had selected the main Cathedral…
Kristiansand, Norway is the port of call for today. We are not here for a long duration, all aboard is at 3:30 PM, and we sail at 4:00 PM. The scheduled arrival was 7:00 AM, but we decided to sleep in a little bit, and not get off the ship that early, even though it is a relatively short stop. After getting ready and eating breakfast in the room, we…
It was really nice to sleep in this morning on a sea day. It had been really rough last night, but we never have had a problem with the ship’s movement, especially when we are sleeping. I went out to get our regular breakfast, and we enjoyed it in the room before getting ready for the day. We had no plan for today other than to relax. We did have…
Today we are visiting Greenock, Scotland, but for much less time than was originally scheduled. We were able to sleep in this morning due to the delay in at Greenock caused by the electrical issue at Kristiansand, and strong headwinds during the voyage to Greenock. We were scheduled to arrive at 11:00 AM, but then the Captain came on the intercom system and informed us it had been revised to…
Today is our short stop in Dublin, Ireland. The ship apparently arrived on time at the channel to enter the port because we were awakened at about 3:30 AM by the vibration from the ship’s thrusters, turning the ship around so it could back into the berth, The vibrations lasted over 30 minutes as we tied up at the pier, and then they stopped. That noise was replaced by back-up…
The wake up call at 5:45 AM really came early this morning, but at least we had not stayed out too late last night, and got a good night’s sleep. After I got ready, I headed down to the International Café for our breakfast sandwiches and yogurt parfaits, we wanted a hearty breakfast for today’s adventure. Our plan was to be off the ship by 7:00 AM, and walk to…
Today was a very welcome day at sea after three straight port days, including the very long day in Cobh yesterday. We slept in, and also got the benefit of a change in time, moving the clocks back one hour last night as we slowly adjust to Eastern Standard Daylight Savings time while crossing the Atlantic. We are currently four hours ahead, having already made two previous adjustments as we…
Today was the second of five consecutive sea days we have crossing the Atlantic Ocean as we head to Halifax, Nova Scotia. Of course, we once again took the opportunity to sleep in, and we received another extra hour of time from setting the clocks back again last night. We are now just three hours ahead of the East Coast. I got ready and went downstairs to the International Café…
Today is day three of our five sea days crossing the Atlantic. We expected a nice night at sea, based on the Captain’s forecast from yesterday, along with the nice calm day we had yesterday. However, the seas continued to build through the evening, and it was fairly rough overnight, with winds of 30 knots and seas of 4.5 meters, per the Captain’s noon report today. We got ready, and…
We are now on our fourth sea day out of five as we head to Halifax, Nova Scotia. It was a partly sunny morning when we woke up at about 7:00 AM. Of course, waking up and getting up are two different things, so we slept in a little longer before we actually got up and started getting ready. Today we are going to the Enclave, which is part of…
As the Captain had forecasted yesterday in the noon weather update, this morning was foggy and windy, but with the wind coming from the stern instead of a head wind from the bow like we have had on all of the previous four sea days. Today is the last of the five sea days before we arrive in Halifax tomorrow. We had some periods of sunny weather yesterday, especially in…
After five days at sea, we stop in Halifax, Nova Scotia today. We arrived early due to the emergency medical evacuation that was required for the ill passenger. We had to anchor in the harbor until another cruise ship left this morning that was staying overnight in Halifax, and was occupying our spot at the pier. At about 7:00 AM, that ship had departed, and we moved from our anchorage…
Today is the last day at sea and the last day of the cruise before we arrive tomorrow in New York, our final destination. It was the best morning of the cruise in regard to the weather. It was sunny, the seas were calm, and the slight wind was from the stern, making it very nice outside. We got ready, and had yogurt parfaits in the room for breakfast, trying…
Sadly, our trip is over, and it is time to go home. We woke up on time at 6:15 AM and started getting ready. For one last time, I went for breakfast sandwiches at the International Café, and we ate breakfast as we finished getting ready. We finalized the luggage packing and took one final weight measurement, and both bags were right at the 50 pound limit. We had actually…