Regal Princess Baltic Cruise Day 8 - St. Petersburg (Day 2)

This is only our second cruise where we've had an overnight stay in a port, the first being Venice at the start of the Grand Mediterranean cruise. Which interestingly enough, was also on the Regal Princess. Aside from the uncomfortableness of having trivia in a venue designed like Princess Live with small mostly immoveable seats and no tables, the Regal still remains one of my favorite Princess ships. I'd like to say that like the old children's song, "second verse same as the first" when describing our second day in St. Petersburg but thankfully it wasn't since I don't think I could have done that Moscow excursion two days in a row! The bulk of the people we got to know and chat with as regular trivia players chose Princess' 2 day St. Petersburg excursion.

Knowing our main focus for our time in St. Petersburg was going to be the previous day's excursion into Moscow, we specifically chose an afternoon only excursion for this second day so we could sleep in. While we only shared the port with a Regent ship yesterday (at least that I was there to see), today we were joined by a full lot with two TUI ships, the Aida Mar, the Viking Star, the Oceania Marina, and the Norwegian Getaway. The Oceania Marina decided to follow us from Tallinn logically enough but the last time I saw the Norwegian Getaway was in Miami back in the spring while we took a harbor boat tour pre-cruise. Either that ship is stalking us or it's a subliminal message telling me that I'll eventually try an NCL ship!

Rainy Miami April 2017 (left), Sunny Baltic September 2017 (below):

We slept in too late this morning to have breakfast in Sabatini's so opted for a quick trip to the buffet. Wasn't a fan of the scrambled eggs as they were more like scrambled egg soup. After working out our brains at morning trivia, we headed off the boat a little earlier than necessary for our afternoon tour partly because we wanted ample time to deal with immigration again and we also wanted to browse the little merchandise stands in the port building. I don't know if it was because this was the 2nd day we were docked but our tour actually met on the dock rather than having to wait in a lounge and be escorted off like we were yesterday. Immigration turned out to be a breeze with no real wait so we took our time browsing the shops until we settled on a painted Christmas ornament set to bring home for our airport ride giving neighbor. We asked the saleslady about the cost and she automatically wanted to convert the price into US dollars. Was quite surprised when Dad told her we actually had gotten rubles to spend. Dad didn't want to risk cutting our time too close by running the purchases back up to the ship so we toted the bag on the tour with us. Thankfully, like most tours they let you leave belongings safely on the bus. 

Today's tour was also through Princess - Hermitage and Gold Room. The tickets stated that we'd get a city tour in the process but the two young female guides spent the entire 30 minute drive over to the Hermitage trying to figure out how to make the headsets work. They split up our bus 2/3rds full in half and each guide escorted half of us around the museum. Our guide was very knowledgeable and did well with keeping the group moving along and together which wasn't an easy task given how many of my fellow passengers kept electing to wander off. She had made a big point of being done by 5PM when we started so we could get back on the bus in time to drive back to the ship as our all aboard time was 5:30PM. By the time we reached the Gold Room at the end of our guide escorted tour, we met up with an expert employed by the museum. Of course we ended up with the expert who wanted to give a monologue about every single item and several of us were ready to drop in yet another overheated museum. We were told the expert could only speak Russian and our guide had to translate so every story took twice as long to tell. At one point, one of our tour mates asked the expert how much one of the items cost. The "I only speak Russian" magically disappeared as the expert laughed and joked to our guide in English, "This is a museum, not a store!" 

As the clock ticked closer to 5PM, several people in our group were waning and hoped that our guide would soon wrap things up. Unfortunately though, she instead seemed unable and unwilling to interrupt the expert to bid goodbye so we had to stick around and wait until we covered every single item within each case. No "here's a bunch of spoons the queen used" shortcuts here! As a result, our guide had to rush everyone all the way back to the front which wasn't an easy task given some of our less able bodied passengers and less than compliant "I'm still gonna look at everything and stop for pictures" passengers. The rest of us would have to stop every so often to let everyone else catch up and our guide had to insist that no one even try to go shopping when we passed by the souvenir shop. The crowds were still packed solid outside the entrance and we had to wait for so long just to cross the busy street that by the time we got over to our bus, the other guide said her group had been sitting on the bus waiting for the last 20 minutes! The guides tried to joke that we now had more time to enjoy St. Petersburg because the ship left without us. Thankfully everyone seemed to understand she was joking or I think we might have had a bus mutiny on our hands at that point. She quickly added that it wasn't true and that the Princess rep had been calling her every 5 minutes wanting to know where we were. Another day of having the ship held and us being the last people back on board. At least I've never been a pier runner!

Thankfully immigration was essentially empty except for our bus worth of passengers so we moved through quickly. Dad's stall guy only asked for his passport but it took me a couple minutes to figure out mine kept asking for my cruise card too. Finally back on board we stopped on the way to our cabin at the Princess Live Café/Bar. It bills itself as a café too because they have coffee and tea making machines and occasionally some baked goods. After gulping down a soda each to try and cool down, Dad ordered a virgin dirty banana and I ordered a virgin Miami Vice. Dad's drink came out really chunky looking and the bartender had to shake it out of the blender little by little. Mine came out looking like pink Pepto Bismol rather than the two toned pour down each side of the glass.

Dad said to me later that his tasted really icy and watered down. Mine tasted okay, just didn't look like you'd expect for a Miami Vice. Later in the cruise Dad brought up how his drink tonight tasted too icy and the same bartender's response was "well it depends on how you make it." Shouldn't you make it the same every time as a bartender? We tried another bartender at the Wheelhouse bar another evening with almost the same drinks and they were perfect. 

As we headed back to our cabin just after 6PM, we spotted our cabin steward Ronaldo in the hallway. Dad wanted to give him the heads up that we planned to stay in the rest of the evening and there was no need to turn down our room. He replied "I've already done it because I thought you guys just went down to an early dinner!" He was surprised when we explained that we'd only just now gotten back on board. 

By this time after the super long Moscow day and today's draining tour, we felt like we had jet lag all over again. Once back inside our cabin we dumped all our stuff and ordered room service. One of the perks of having a suite on Princess is that you can order from both the main dining room menu and the regular cabin room service menu. 

Nothing on the above main dining room menu really appealed to me except that I was curious about tonight's Princess Gourmet Beef Burger topping of blue crab, asparagus, and hollandaise sauce. We also ordered club and turkey sandwiches with chips and cookies and cake slices for dessert. We thought to ask for glasses of milk and stored them in the cabin fridge so Dad could enjoy them with his desserts later. We ordered ice water to wash down our dinner. I've also learned to make sure I ask for the specifics I may want as well like ketchup for my fries. I spent an evening on my first cruise wandering a closing down buffet begging a crew member to get me some ketchup so I could enjoy my room service hot dog. I was surprised that the woman who answered the room service call didn't bother to ask how many were eating or how well done I wanted my burger. Once the food came, we did end up with 3 sets of silverware and left one set on the shelf so we could have some on hand when we brought snacks back to the cabin on future days. As it turned out, Ronaldo actually took our extra silverware when he cleaned the cabin the next morning. Next visit we had to the buffet we grabbed an extra napkin's worth of silverware and hid it in a drawer in the cabin!

Given the wind, chill, and darkness outside, we happily dined on our coffee table while watching a movie on our cabin TV.

My burger however was medium rare so I mostly just ate the toppings. I must say though, Princess could make a side dish out of the blue crab, asparagus, and sauce alone and have a hit on their hands!

The sandwiches were the perfect comfort food for our tired bodies and we were really impressed that the chips were fresh and crunchy!

As we ate, we kept hearing what sounded like someone messing around with our cabin door. The first time I heard it, I looked toward the door thinking Ronaldo was about to come in but he never did. Second time I looked over at Dad and he looked just as confused. By the third time, I finally got up and peeked out the little peephole. Not seeing anyone I opened the door to look around and Ronaldo rushed up to explain that he'd spotted a couple trying to unlock our door because they thought this was their cabin! Turns out they had the same corner cabin on the opposite side of the ship and they were soon set on the right path by Ronaldo. I accidentally tried to enter the wrong cabin once on a cruise but we soon realized we'd mixed up the numbers and were thankfully saved the embarrassment of having the correct occupant throw open the door and scare us!

By now we had started a second movie but with full bellies and the comforts of our cabin for the rest of the evening, we soon started feeling sleepy. We got ready for bed and I brought my cake dessert into the bedroom side of our suite so I could relax. Only drawback was that despite being still in the same cabin, the movie only keeps your place if you resume watching it on the same TV. We started the bedroom TV fast forwarding until we got to the point of the movie where we left off but all it took was a few minutes of being under the covers and I watched the rest of that movie through closed eyelids.

Regal Princess Baltic Cruise Day 7 - St. Petersburg (Moscow)

Notice how much wider spaced the text is in these patters for our overnight stay in St. Petersburg. They severely limited the amount of activities planned as they didn't expect many people to stay onboard. 

With a 6:15AM excursion meeting time there was no opportunity today to photograph the dinner menus much less think about what items might be on them to try as we were off the ship before dawn and back after 1AM the next day. Today we participated in perhaps our priciest ship excursion, "Moscow in a Day." 

We had to start so early because it was a four hour train ride into Moscow. We once again had a Princess contracted guide who met us at the ship and rode with us via bus to the train station. There were about 3 other younger female guides in addition to ours and each guide had their own bus worth of passengers. On the plus side, heading out so early meant we had very little wait dealing with immigration and they had a woman there whose sole job was to keep the lines moving directing people into the stalls as soon as one became available. Passport checked, visa filled out and printed and we were on our way in minutes.

We got to the train station so early that we had to wait inside the terminal for over an hour. And of course our whole bus full was so nervous about sticking to the guide that we all stood there in a big clump watching the clock on the wall. Our guide pointed out that our train to Moscow (Mockba) would be the one listed on the signs leaving at 8:42AM and since it was so chilly we would be waiting inside by the doors. 

Many of our tour mates were already in the mood to shop and started admiring the display contents at the central counter nearby. I was a little confused as to why this one section seemed to be offering cat food cans until I looked closer...

...and realized it was cans of souvenir candy!

And if you're a traveler who seeks out the most American sounding foods, it seems Russia was most proud of both their kinds of "Subways":

Finally around 8:20AM our train was assigned a platform and our guide told us which specific car number and seat range to choose. This train setup was a little nicer in that the seats were more like business class airplane seats. The ones that were four seats facing each other had a full table in between.

Breakfast was served rather quickly. Today's menu featured a full liter size water bottle per person, a tray of what seemed to be a mix of quiche and hash browns (left) and a fruit Danish/popover (right). What fruit it was, we couldn't decide whether it was pineapple or apple but both were tastier than I expected for a train ride. 

Later in the morning tea or coffee was offered and they passed out these packages of  some sort of berry filled fruit pastry. Not wanting to push my luck with a full day of touring ahead, I stowed these in my backpack in case I got hungry later. They stayed there until I was so desperate at dinnertime that I pulled one out to try. Fig Newtons they weren't!

After a small nap thanks to a satisfied belly, we met our main guide for the day on the train platform in Moscow. She proceeded to escort us to St. Basil's Cathedral, Red Square, and the Gum department store/mall (pronounced Goom) before letting us wander on our own for about an hour. After succeeding in Dad's quest to find a Moscow specific T-shirt, Dad had to try the ice cream stands set up throughout Gum. Our guide had said they charge 50 Rubles but when Dad bought a chocolate ice cream cone, the guy insisted it was 100 Rubles. Dad liked the ice cream though and agreed with the guide that it tasted very rich.

Important to stay hydrated on a long tour even though it was cool outside. We bought this bottle to share from a street vendor who also had a cooler of frozen treats. We figured out with the conversion that this bottle cost us about $2-3 USD.

Once the group came back together, we walked over to the Metropol Hotel for tea time where all of our bus groups were attending at the same time. By the time I made it through the ladies' room line, the 15-20 seats they provided for a group of at least 100 of us were gone and so was most of the baked goods. I did get to partake of some more water and literally the last few cookies I could gather from various trays around the room.

Don't know what that fruitcake looking slice is but I didn't even want to try it.

Several tables but the chairs didn't even fill the perimeter of the room. 

Thankfully our next stop of The Kremlin meant a bus ride because I was certainly lacking in the sugar rush energy department by now. That is definitely one site not for those who can't walk long distances! Cannons, broken bells, and many church buildings later, we finally were led into the super overheated Armory where our guide led our group (and every other person in town it seemed) to each and every artifact and display with a story to go along with it. Finally, at the end she led us to the top floor where Dad had been waiting to see the display of Faberge Eggs. 

Finally as the sun was barely starting to set, our guide had us walk all the way back to the street level where our buses were parked. We stood there at the end of the line of buses hoping each bus we saw pull up was ours for the longest time until finally word got passed along between the groups that our bus driver was actually way back at the front of the line waiting for us! 

This time, we arrived at the train station and it was super busy with large tour groups and sports teams waiting. Our guide gave us a time to be back and sent us off to wander. One small convenience store style shop was open and many gravitated to that but Dad and I went to check out the vending machines. Dad bought a Twix bar and was surprised that it came out frozen. A lot of the non junk food items were labeled in Russian so we joked with another couple about who was brazen enough to try one of the mystery packages. 

Coming from Maryland, I found it funny that it took coming to Russia to find crab chips! (Thank goodness for the picture on the bag.)

Or if you were the more adventurous type, you could even buy these tubes marketed under the name "space food."

For the train ride home, we rode on a bigger train than this morning and thus it took longer to get any food service. They came around with a bar cart offering everyone their choice of free drinks but if you ordered anything other than the cans of beer, they gave you only a small cup worth. An hour of waiting to get anything served, I was afraid to finish off my cup full of Sprite because I had a feeling it was all we were going to get.

Dad went with the can of beer while my cup of soda was half the size.

Another hour or so passes and finally we get served our pre-packaged meal. As shared by fellow cruisers online, we knew the main dish for dinner was going to be salmon so Dad packed some cookies from the ship and our leftover M&Ms from Copenhagen in my backpack to make sure he met all his non seafood food groups. The salmon seemed to be in a sort of barbeque sauce. Our "salad" was a few greens with chunks of hard boiled egg, salmon lox style twists, and cold potato lengthwise slices. Don't think I'll think of "potato salad" quite the same way again. The bread was tough and even tearing off a piece to try left us chewing forever. The saving grace of the tray was a slice of cheesecake. Another 30 minutes to an hour later they brought the bar cart around again. Dad offered to pay in order to get a full bottle of water and the train staff was so shocked that someone could want more than one little cup full. They offered to give him the last half of a liter water bottle they'd been pouring from and we split it between ourselves.

Our train arrival back at the St. Petersburg station was delayed by almost an hour. A crew member who'd chosen to take our tour after working the overnight shift, spent the whole day today on her feet in the hot buildings, and had alcohol with her dinner, promptly stood up to stretch her legs and collapsed. Those with her were quick enough to grab her and lower her to the floor before she had the chance to hit her head on anything. Once on the floor, she had a seizure. After several train staff ran through our car to check on the poor woman in the neighboring car, someone finally thought to ask the passengers for anyone medically trained since the train staff just gathered around staring at her. One of the passengers was a nurse so she stepped up and made sure the woman was stable and would be okay to wait until we got to St. Petersburg again before seeking further medical treatment. This whole time of uncertainty, the train would slow down and speed back up after a while only to slow down again. Dad and I both felt that it would have been better, especially if there was more of an urgent medical crisis, to hightail it back to St. Petersburg faster rather than slowing down just in case she needed to be offloaded in some small town along the way. 

Once we did return, our contracted escort guide was helping the sick crew member so we all tried to stay close to one of the other guides who was standing around on the platform. Finally our guide came out onto the platform and instructed us all in her group to go around the large group standing there which meant walking along the far edge of the platform in the dark. She had given her sign for us to help spot her to one of the tall men in our group and he led us all back to the train station and out to our waiting bus. A few minutes of catching our breath on the bus and our guide returned to us expressing her gratefulness at how organized a group we were.

We finally made it back to the ship at 1AM where of course, there was no line to get back through immigration which was great since they had only two stalls open. A quick pit stop to our cabin once back on board to drop our things and we weighed our only two real "dinner" options at this hour - room service and the International Café. Opted for the International Café and it turned into a sort of reunion as many of our tour mates chose the same option. We spent the next 30-40 minutes filling our stomachs with sandwiches and the sodas that a kind bar waitress who had been chatting with the IC staff was able to scrounge up from somewhere. Finally, we dragged our bodies back up to our cabin and settled into bed by 2AM, almost a full 24 hours since we woke up to get ready for this tour!

Regal Princess Baltic Cruise Day 6 - Tallinn

First, I'd like to apologize for anyone my Dad talked to about our activities today as he keeps referring to the city of Tallinn, Estonia as Tulum. He also referred to plans for our earlier Celebrity Equinox cruise's visit to Mexico by saying he'd already seen Chicken Itzee. Ahh, it's not just kids that say the darndest things!

In preparation for today's ship excursion, we looked up the tour description the night before and realized our tour of the old and new towns would cover the equivalent of 2 football fields in walking and 200 steps to climb. We always manage to have the best of intentions in planning but once on the cruise, there always seems to be that one tour we are just too worn out to attend. Instead, we elected to save our energy for the long day to come once we arrived in St. Petersburg.

With no where to rush this morning, we headed to breakfast in Sabatini's. Dad's go to for breakfast on Princess Cruises is the bagel with lox. No little foil packets of cream cheese for Sabatini's:

Photo courtesy of Dad who apparently fancies the aerial view when I hand him the camera for food pictures.

Another fruit plate to start my day. This is the general presentation when you order a fruit plate but they were happy to make Dad a plate of just melon fruits as well.

It only took my whole traveling history but finally, I have found someone who made fried eggs the way I like them at home! I like the yolks in my fried eggs to be all but hard boiled and this morning when I tried to explain it, the waiter replies "Oh you want eggs over medium then?" I never knew there was a version other than over easy! My quirky food preferences have an official term now, I feel so validated! :) Also a note about the bacon - we learned after several days of bacon so crisp it probably stood up on its own in the pan and screamed "Enough!", that we could actually request less crisp bacon. 

This isn't food related but I just found it funny that as we ate our breakfast this morning after we'd officially docked, our window view was soon obscured by the crew washing the outside windows. Perfectly fine with that of course, even enjoying when the host walked by and thought it was raining. What got the biggest chuckle from me though was when we saw what the crew was using to wash these windows. Million dollar company and Princess Cruises uses...

A paintbrush duct taped to a pole!

We walked over to the window to get the rest of the view and discovered several boxes of trash had been offloaded, most notably a large box of what looked like perfectly good pots and pans?

After some brunch time trivia we decided to head out and see what was of interest close to the port. Our nearest neighbor was the Costa Pacifica and the two large ships made quite the pair docked next to each other:

A short walk around the Old Town was soon enough for us especially as the large tour group crowds arrived. Some afternoon trivia and relaxing filled the rest of the time until dinner.

I had to try tonight's Princess Gourmet Beef Burger. Was fairly good but not something I'd go out of my way to get.

It was a full night of ordering from the always available menu as tonight I also had the appetizer portion of the famous fettucine alfredo. Both Dad and I were a little confused though by what looks like they'd already added the pepper in the kitchen whether we wanted it or not. The waiter still came over with the grinder and offered "fresh pepper." We never ordered the entrée sized portion this cruise so I can't offer any thoughts to the debate of whether the parmesan basket that normally cradles the noodles was still offered. Usually when you order just the appetizer portion, you don't get the parmesan basket but I've had previous cruises where I got it anyway. Other times I've ordered the entrée size it's been hit or miss as well so I guess it's more up to that voyage's chef than Princess' policy.

Now on to dessert - another night missing a Norman Love Chocolates specialty dessert:

Found a love for these dessert soufflés dining mostly in specialty restaurants on the Celebrity Equinox so I really wanted to try tonight's Orange Grand Marnier Soufflé. Didn't taste a single hint of orange anything but it was still tasty in a bread pudding sort of way.