[Fwd: Baltic Sea Cruise on The Millennium]
nicole
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Subject: Baltic Sea Cruise on The Millennium
Date: Wed, 09 Aug 2000 09:10:40 -0700
From: scapel <joereynold...@prodigy.net.invalid>
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Baltic Sea Cruise Aboard the GTS Millennium
Flew out of Jackson, Ms July 10,2000 connecting in Atlanta
aboard Delta Airlines and only one hour late leaving Atlanta.
Arriving Amsterdam, Netherlands at about 11:15 AM we took a blue
and white bus from Schiphol Airport into town. Alternate
arrangements would have been the train to the Central Station
and a cab to the Grand Hotel. A cab from the Airport was quite
expensive from what I have read. We had to walk with the
luggage about one block since the bus did not let us off in
front of the hotel. We met up with our friends from Blackpool,
England and spent a wonderful time touring together. They are
the ones that encouraged us to take this trip and it is the
fourth time we have traveled together, after meeting on an
Orient Cruise in 1997.
The Grand Westin Demure Hotel-Amsterdam was originally created
as a convent in the 15th century before being converted by the
city governors in 1578 to a lodging for princes and great
lords’, aptly called the Princes’ Court. The building served as
the headquarters of the Amsterdam Admiralty for most of the 17th
and 18th centuries, before becoming Amsterdam’s City Hall from
1808 to 1988. The following year, work started to transform the
monumental City Hall into the five-star deluxe hotel it is
today. The hotel is situated in the historic city-center, just a
stone’s throw away from Dam Square and the Royal Palace and
about 30 minutes from the Airport.
In Amsterdam we visited Anne Frank Huis, and a Modern Art
Museum, and walked around the town visiting Dam Square and
walked through the RLD. Took a Canal Boat tour, which I would
recommend.
For dining, Alberto’s is an excellent restaurant in walking
distance Argentina beef restaurant, but also had a very good
fish soup so we dined there twice.
One night we had a very nice dinner at The Oriental City
Restaurant on the corner of Damstraat and Oudezids-Voorburgwal,
which was only a half block from the hotel. Café Roux in the
Grand Hotel is run under the direction of renowned chef Albert
Roux. The food was excellent and I understand that a relative
Michel Roux possibly his brother is the director of the
restaurant services aboard the Millennium.
Tour out of Amsterdam to the North and visited a pottery
factory, a cheese factory and a boat tour over some water where
reclaiming of land is occurring. Apparently it takes years to do
this. First a dyke is built and then salt water is replaced with
fresh water. After the lake bed has had fresh water for a long
enough period to remove the salt from the bed, the water is
pumped out and the land is used to plant crops. If the salt is
left in the bed, nothing would grow. The land is about 6 meters
below sea level.
July 15,2000
Boarded Celebrity Cruise Line’s Millennium early at 1:30 PM
after a short cab ride of about 10 min from the Grand Hotel.
This was to be the second voyage of GTS Millennium. It was
originally the third but the first was cancelled.
The ship is a magnificent product at 91,000 GRT and propelled by
two electric Mermaid pods (4 fixed blades for each) She has
three bow thrusters at 2350 KW each.
The ship is gas turbine driven. Marine diesel fuel is burned and
the exhaust gasses are used to drive a high pressure turbine at
9500 rpm and power turbine at 3600 rpm. Turbines turn generators
to produce electric power to propel the Mermaid pods and
everything else on the ship.
Exhaust gasses are also used to boil water to steam and produce
heat and hot water in a constant circulating system so that the
showers have immediate hot water.
The ship has 10 elevators that are the fastest I have seen on a
ship. Amidships, two of the four glass elevators are outside of
the ship to give a very impressive view as well as a different
sensation as the elevator goes up and you watch the waves go up
or down.
In the ports we visited I would say thousands of people were on
the banks to watch us. The ship must be an impressive sight
sailing in or out of port.
The bow has a heliport for any emergencies.
We had a stern cabin with 271 sq.ft. cabin and a 242 sq.ft
veranda. We brought a clothes line along and hung clothes out to
dry we had so much room. Don’t ask why you pay this much for a
cabin and then wash your own clothes. It must be deep seated do
it yourself instincts.
The restaurant has the two level eating arrangement with the
central stairs and the ceiling to floor glass behind the
captain’s table. A beautiful Venetian scene is electrically
controlled to shade as well as the large round side windows.
The show room has three levels of seats all with unobstructed
views. The entertainment was first class productions, a good
comedian, and wonderful dancers and singers. Brooks Aaron
concert pianist and Renato Pignalero tenor singer were
excellent. Theo only bummer was David Polydor the quick change
artist and Magician, with a French like impressionist
performance. We did miss about two shows which were reported to
be excellent. Telephone response time and guest services
response time is excellent. The people do what they promise.
The Olympic Restaurant is only 134 person capacity and must have
a reservation to eat. Reservations are taken in this A La Carte
French Restaurant limited to six persons at a time. Only one
reservation per couple at $12/per person. The food is excellent.
The wall paneling is the same paneling that was taken from the
restaurant aboard the RMS Olympic. Following the loss of her
sister ship “Titanic” the RMS Olympic (1911-1935) was brought to
Belfast for renovation consisting of an outer hull. The ship was
advertised as a ship within a ship. One of the renovations was
to expand the A La Carte restaurant and bring it up to par with
the lost Titanic. Craftsmen were imported from Palestine to
carve and guild the paneling. An expended Café Pariesiene
restaurant was created in which passengers could dine while
viewing the ocean. This had never been seen before on an ocean
liner. The RMS Olympic was scraped in 1935 and the paneling from
the RMS Olympic's A la Carte Restaurant was purchased by a man
and installed in his house. Celebrity found the house and
bought it, then removed the paneling sent it to France and had
it installed in the Olympic restaurant aboard the Millennium.
The restaurant has high-class service and high-class prices with
a glass of wine about $15 to $90. Bottles were also expensive.
We had a $40 bottle which has the 15% service charge added as do
all drinks on cruise ships now. The Waldorf pudding for desert
was excellent and the recipe is the same one that was served
aboard the RMS Olympic in 1912.
July 16,2000
Day at sea allowed us to tour the ship and see the wonderful
indoor heated pool with jets and hydrotherapy for many people at
once along with two separate hot tubs. A sauna was available for
general use for men and women separately.
The outdoor pool had two hot tubs associated with it. The
windows around this outdoor pool could be opened to the air. The
center of course was open with an upper sun deck overlooking the
outdoor pool.
Deck 3 was guest relations, the bank and shore excursions. Deck
4 was the lower entrance to the main dining room, the rendezvous
lounge, the platinum bar and the café-o lait bar with chocolates
and the champagne bar with caviar. The Fortunes Casino and
several private meeting rooms were available and the lower
entrance to the Celebrity Showroom were also on Deck 4. On Deck
5 were the upper entrance to the main dining room aft and the
upper entrance to the Celebrity Showroom forward. A long
emporium of shops and photo gallery also available. Deck 6 had
the Penthouse suites and the Royal suites.
Deck 7,8,9, were cabins. Deck 10 was the outdoor pool and indoor
pool and spa forward and the Ocean grill and café aft. Deck 11
forward was the Cosmos lounge forward and the children’s game
room aft.
There was a flower shop located aft also with a tower.
July 17,2000
Oslo, Norway’s capital since 1299 is located at the end of Oslo
Fjord. . Since our friends had booked a tour we also booked a
tour after coming aboard using the TV located in the room. I
think the cost was slightly higher than pre-booking, but we only
booked two. (Oslo and Stockholm). The booking by the TV was easy
and the tickets delivered to the room.
We took the Oslo city sightseeing ships tour and visited The
Vigeland Sculpture Park created by Gustav Vigeland. A 55-foot
Monolith with 121 nude stone figures climbing on top of each
other representing the struggle for life. There were 150
sculptures of stone and bronze in the park.
We passed in front of the building where the Nobel peace prize
candidates stay during the ceremony of selection.
We went to the Holmenkollen Ski Jump where the first jump was
built in 1892. There is a splendid view of the Oslo Fjord and
City of Oslo.
We visited the Viking Ship Museum housing three authentic long
ships dating from the Viking era that had been excavated from
the mud banks of the Oslo Fjord.
July 18,2000
A day at sea.
July 19,2000
Stockholm, Sweden. We were up early for the long scenic Fjord
approach to Stockholm harbor. Our second scheduled ships tour
visited the Vasa Museum, which is built around the 17th century
sailing ship that sank in the harbor as soon as she was
launched. Without proper ballast and top heavy she went over and
sank in 1628. She was discovered in 1956 and salvaged in 1961.
Three Cannons were found on her deck. Some say she was a cargo
ship, but she had gun turrets just like a Man of War .
The Vasa Museum was more impressive than either my wife or I had
expected. It was worth the visit, but could easily have been
seen without a ships tour. Gamla Stan, the old city of
Stockholm was narrow cobble stone streets. Saw the change of
guard at the palace and got one of the guards to return a salute
on video.
July 20,2000
Helsinki, Finland
Coming into the harbor noticed the construction of the
Carnival’s new ship “Spirit” in the shipyard.
Elected to just take the shuttle into town, but as soon as we
got off the bus, we were greeted by a salesman selling a local
city tour from an old English double deck bus. We thus took this
tour at $20/person that was half the ships shore excursion and
saw the same thing.
We saw the Sibelius monument (only a bunch of pipes welded
together), not much, The Rock Church which was formed by
blasting through 100 feet of solid granite and topped with a
copper dome. We also drove past many government buildings, and
the Olympic stadium with a statue of the Flying Finn in front.
We got a good geographical map study of the city with this tour
and thus did some nice walking touring after we got off the bus
to Uspenski Cathedral, the Market Square, and the Presidential
Palace.
July 21, 2000 Friday and July 22, 2000 Saturday
St. Petersburg, Russia. Our traveling couple along with
ourselves had planned ahead and each had a Russian Visa. We had
mad previous arrangements for two full days of tours in and
around St.Petersburg not connected with the ship’s shore tour
office. Our English friends had found the company called Nota
Bene Co. Ltd. Manager Nikita A. Zonin e-
mail “k...@travel.spb.ru"
“www.travel.spb.ru"
Address is: Russia, St.Petersburg Griboedova, 34 office 323
Tel.(812) 939-06098 tel/fax (812) 313-87-37.
Our Russian Visas cost $70/person through the Russian Embassy in
NY. The Celebrity Visa service was more expensive as was the
Russian tourist agency. Nota Bene usually requires a deposit
but we did not make one somehow. If a deposit is made it could
be lost if the ship for some reason did not make the port. I
think the Nota Bene company should refund the deposit if the
ship did not make the port, but this should be agreed upon.
A one-day tour in St.Petersburg through the shore excursion
office was $148 pr person. For two days we paid $470 which was
$117per person plus $70/person visa equal $187/person for the
two days, as opposed to the $296/person for two days via the
ship’s shore excursion. An additional plus is that with just
four people a driver and an English-speaking guide, we were able
to see more with much better personal attention. For an
additional $22.50/person we attended a wonderful folk show in an
old 1800’s building that was beautiful inside and we had
champagne ,caviar ,vodka and juices and cokes during the
intermission, which was not furnished by the ship’s folk show
tour. I think we also saw the better Russian Folk show Friday
night. Our fee included our transportation in our Red Van. We
could easily have shared this with another couple had we known
in advance, which could have possibly decreased the price per
person.
On our tours we visited the outside of St.Isaac’s Cathedral, and
the Church of the Spilled Blood . We visited the Hermitage
entering through a back door without any crowd and hit all three
Hermitage buildings at a record pace including the Winter
Palace. We made the visit to Pushkin previously known as the
Czar’s Village (Tsarkoe Selo – mentioned in book Nickolas and
Alexandria) . We visited Pavlovsk palace and grounds and were
also able to visit Peter and Paul Fortress and the Peter and
Paul Cathedral with the tombs of the Czars. In the back are
stones on the wall for Nicholas II, his wife Alexandria and the
children Olga, Tatiana, Maria , Anastasia and Alexi (the
hemophiliac). The other Czars have large tombstones in the
church but Nicholas II and his family were originally not
welcomed to be buried in the church. Later the bones were moved
into the church and wall stones placed in the back of the
church. The last of the Romanov’s who died in France in 1992
is also buried in the church.
I would certainly recommend the above method for visiting
St.Petersburg, not only because it was cheaper but because the
convenience of not having a bus load of people and more personal
attention from a guide for four people.
The ships charge for the Russian Folk spectacular was $55 per
person as compared to our $22.50 per person.
We were also taken to a very nice shop that the four of us were
the only ones shopping at the time. Prices were very good and
they took USD or Charge Card.
July 23,2000
Tallinn, Estonia. We took the shuttle which dropped us at the
side of the Viru Hotel and we walked through the town using the
Lonely Planet guide and maps as recommended by Pam Kane. The
maps and directions were very accurate. There is much walking to
see this town even with a shore excursion from the ship. Many
nice places to sit and eat lunch and watch the people that are
watching you.
July 24,2000
Gdynia,Poland to visit Gdansk, Poland
We teamed up with two ladies traveling together to rent a cab at
$20/hr and used it for 2hr 50 min which was cheaper than the
ship. The ships shuttle just takes you to downtown Gdynia not
to Gdansk. Gdansk was well worth a visit
July 25,2000
Rostock, Germany
We took the train from Warnemunde, Germany which is the port
town for Rostock paying about 6 DEM (about $3.00)/person for a
day ticket which entitled you to use the trams in the city of
Rostock. This is a good deal and easy to do. The biggest problem
is figuring out how much it cost and where to put the money.
Some representatives were available to help us here. Once in
Rostock (don’t get confused and get off the train too soon on
the way to Rostock). Once in Rostock the information desk in the
train station tells you to get off at the third stop (Nier Mkt)
after you get on the Tram, and you are in the center of town.
The train did not have city stops posted in the train like the
London Tube and we almost got off when it read Rostock. A map
obtained before you get on the train shows all the stops before
Rostock. There about 5 of them.
July 27,2000
Copenhagen, Denmark.
We took the shuttle into town and used the Lonely Planet guide
to tour and make our way back to the ship and the little
mermaid. My wife got kind of tired with me following the
guidebook. We did stop in some department stores along the
route, and while she walked around the stores I sat and rested.
July 28
Day at sea.
July 29, 2000
Back in Amsterdam and to the airport where we were 2 hours late
for takeoff. We missed our connecting flight in Atlanta at 3:30
PM but made a 5:20 PM flight. Delta’s overseas flight seats had
less room then their Atlanta to Jackson flight. I think I would
try another airline for overseas next time because of the little
amount of space between the seats.
All in all this was a wonderful trip, and shore excursions are
doable by yourself but better with another couple for cab ride
sharing but you can usually find someone at the dock looking for
the same thing you are. Only thing is prior preparation for
St.Petersburg, Russia. They check your passport every time you
come off the ship. In Poland we had to give up our passports
prior to arrival and got them back as soon as we cleared Poland.
This was required and was easier than the Russian thing where we
had to show them each time we went off the ship. Lonely Planet
for Scandinavian countries is recommended reading and very
helpful touring on your own.
Signed,
Joe Reynolds
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