Entries about boats

As people who pack the most into their travels, our travel personality is unique to us. Your ravel personality should be unique to you as well. While some people are looking for a chance to unwind and relax with a cocktail on the beach, others may want to spend hours on end in a museum. For us, we like to get in with the locals, see the sights and get a good taste of what a region’s culture really is.

Many cruise ships do not allow for this kind of activity as they have private islands, special resorts or hotels and trains booked for their passengers and require tendering into port as the ship is too large to dock at a pier. Tendering involves being ferried from your cruise ship to the dock on a smaller boat further reducing your time in port.

For this trip there will be two other couples traveling with us including our parents who will be celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary on the trip. With many variables coming into play, the decision was narrowed down to a European cruise. Would we want a river cruise or a sea cruise? River cruises typically allow for less time in port and that is not something that any of us wanted. So, we were able to narrow it down to either a Mediterranean cruise or a Baltic cruise. There are several other options available, but based on where we had already been, these two options seemed closest to what we were wanting.

Our final decision was to go with the Baltic Capitals cruise with Celebrity because it involved a port intensive itinerary that allowed for multiple days in some of the top cities on the cruise.

Here is a look at the Baltic Capitals itinerary.

Date Port/City Activity
Day 1 Stockholm, Sweden => Docked All Day
Day 2 Stockholm, Sweden => Docked - Depart at 3:00PM
Day 3 Helsinki, Finland => Dock at 10:00AM - Depart at 5:00PM
Day 4 St. Petersburg, Russia => Dock at 7:00AM
Day 5 St. Petersburg, Russia => Docked All day
Day 6 St. Petersburg, Russia =>Docked - Depart at 6:00PM
Day 7 Muuga (Tallinn), Estonia => Dock at 7:00AM - Depart at 5:00PM
Day 8 At Sea
Day 9 Warnemunde, Germany => Dock at 7:00AM - Depart at 9:30PM
Day 10 Copenhagen, Denmark => Dock at 12:00PM
Day 11 Copenhagen, Denmark => Docked - Depart at 3:00PM
Day 12 At Sea
Day 13 Amsterdam, Netherlands => Dock at 6:00AM

With overnight stays in Stockholm, St. Petersburg and Copenhagen, amount of time in with the locals is maximized, while the travel is taken care of at night while enjoying the comfort of a 4-star hotel. Further, each of these ports is large enough that tendering is not required and only in Russia are we required to take a tour. We’ll get to that a little bit later in this series.

When it came time to book the cruise, there were several possible companies that once we began talking to, each offered to sweeten the pot with more extras to have us purchase the trip through them. One word of advice, never settle for just one quote, much like buying a car, take your time, be informed and shop around for several rates and offers. Once you narrow it down to the top three vendors, let them know and request their best and final offer. Make sure that you are able to add more perks on if they become available later through the cruise line.

We chose to go with Costco Travel (www.costcotravel.com Visit Costco Travel Here). Why? They provided all of the best perks from Celebrity, plus added a few extras that surpassed the other offers and rates from the other travel agents. Our package ended up with a Pre-paid gratuities, a classic drink package, and $300 on-board credit all provided by Celebrity. Costco Travel more than doubled the on-board credit plus provided the best price for the cruise.

Coming up, we’ll talk about the ports that we’ll be visiting, the ship we'll be on and offer some tips for preparing for a port intensive cruise.

Suddenly we look up and the calendar says its the middle of June. Oh my, where has time gone? As we finish the preparations for our European journey, it is time to make the final reservations on airbnb, check all of our needs, and start pulling the traveling pack together.

Yes, we have the hybrid Caribee Skymaster 70. The exact pack, filled with 30+ lbs., that we have been walking about two miles a day with to prepare for the upcoming adventure. As we talked about before, the pack offers the best of both worlds with a combination backpack and rolling bag. Sure, we most likely will not be having to carry it on our back for 2 miles, but taking a line from the Boy Scouts, we are going to "be prepared."

Along with the whole travel planning that has been going on since last year, plans for some special happenings on this trip have been in the works as well. Celebrating ten years of marriage, Terri and I have a couples massage booked in the Hungarian baths, a dinner on-top of the tower in Vienna, and a night on a private boat in Croatia. Part of the fun of this adventure has been finding some things to do that would not be on our regular list of activities here at home.

We also have several cathedrals on the list. For anyone going to Europe and wanting to let the imagination soar ahead of time, I highly recommend reading Pillars of the Earth, by Ken Follett.

The book shares some of the design elements used to build these magnificent structures, with a thrilling storyline that will capture the mind of the reader.

Many more thrilling items fill our agenda, as well as plenty of time to explore areas and get to know the locals as well. How's that packing coming you ask? Well the bags are full and we are under our 44lbs. limit. Have we forgot anything, hopefully not, thanks to the travellerspoint.com packing list. Yes, it is extensive, but it is good.

We have been months in the planning stages and now the trip is upon us, we look forward to sharing our journey with you over the next couple of weeks. Keep watching here for our story and pictures and we will try to update it regularly. Please leave us your feedback and comments, we want to hear from you!

Signing off until we hop on board that plane,

~Terri and Darren