hi everyone - finally stopping in after getting home this week. We stayed in Dover for a couple days & only left London on Wed. I still keep wondering where Cornwall & Eric are with my dinner
We had a great time - it was wonderful to meet everyone after chatting for so long. Thanks Lisa for setting up brunch it was yummy!
We had a really good trip - I'm still kicking myself over not taking the upgrade (cat 9 - to whatever cat is on Deck 7 with a balcony for $750) they only had adjoining rooms which I find really noisy - although after hearing the Sessions piano player every night I'm not so sure they're that noisy!!! We did love Danny our stateroom attendent, although funny you guys mentioned soap - I was wondering if they were running short on bars, since he replaced the green bar once & never again.
The ship looked great IMO & I loved that it wasn't tooooo crowded. The only thing I would have wished for was a sea day between Russia & Helsinki/Sweden. I think we were all a little crabby by the time we got to Stockholm.
I'm sorry to hear about issues with excursions etc. All of ours were good for the most part. I know even Disney can't control the weather, but those boat rides where there were no windows were crazy hot & very miserable.
I am super glad we did the private tour in St. Pete - I feel we got to see so much more than we would have with
DCL. I would have skipped the evening boat ride - it really didn't 'fit' what I had in mind as shopping & boat ride. The guide showed us an apartment complex yard with a Wizard of Oz theme & some guy's place who is trying to start a Beatles museum. We then walked back to Nevsky & he took us to 1 shop. Like I said a little odd, but the next day our guide took us to a nice souvenier palce & Bryce got his real Russian hat (muskrat) I have to say my little one drove me nuts because after we were back on the ship he decided he wanted a Russian hat - luckily we got one at the DCL Russian bazzar.
My only other thing, as someone else mentioned is there were alot of not so nice teens on-board (maybe rowdy is a better word?) Bryce got frustrated in the Stack because they'd try doing an activity & so many of the kids weren't listening they couldn't get anything done. I also ran into a few in the Rainforest room. I went in & there were 4 teens taking up 3 of the stone loungers. They were very loud yakking & laughing - very UN-relaxing experience. I said something to the lady at the desk & she made a comment about how they had been told several times to quiet down. Then she looked at my card & said at least you still have another day to come in (I was on day 2 of a 3 day pass). I'm sorry but if they had to be told several times to quiet down then they should have been asked to leave.
Also - yes there was a character breakfast - ours was Fri morning. I'm assuming they were Fri & Sat (the last 2 at sea days) Our dining room team Cornwall & Eric
love: they were excellent) made sure we knew when it was, they were good about telling us when there were dining changes & made suggestions on what to do for our St. Pete days.
One more thing - loved the movies, really enjoyed Prince of Persia & Sorcerer's Apprentice. Thought TS3 was OK - so many people said how good it was & I personally thought TS2 was better. Scary thing talking about slipping - some woman slipped down the stairs & reallt turned her ankle.
Ok - really the last thing - the guy doing the talks on Russia, Germany, Stockholm was very interesting. His talks were very informational - I thought he should have been in the WD theater instead of the BV since there were so many people there. He did a special talk for the teens in the Stack on Germany & the wall - Bryce enjoyed it immensly
Sadly we couldn't make a decision on our next cruise so we didn't rebook on-board - I know that will come back to haunt us! But hopefully when we do sail again we'll meet up with some of you again.