Today's port was just a stone's throw away from St. Petersburg as it only took us about 12 hours to arrive at Helsinki, Finland. Each cruising region of the world is going to feature the same core group of excursions meaning you could be doing the same type of tour just in a different city. In the Caribbean, there's always going to be beach day or snorkeling tours. In Alaska, you could probably find a visit to a glacier and a dog sled race in every town. When it comes to Europe, especially the British Isles, you could spend the entire voyage going from one church or castle tour to the next. When it comes to the Baltic, the same applies with the addition that there's probably going to be a Viking ship museum mixed in. So when we saw amongst the same ole choices in Helsinki a shining standout excursion known as the "Highlights and Fazer Chocolate Visitor Centre" whose description ended with "free samples to take home at the end of the tour" we pounced on the chance to do something fun and different.
This morning we planned it out to make it to Sabatini's for breakfast shortly before they closed so that we could put something more substantial than chocolate in our bellies to start the day. We got seated right away but then sat for ages waiting for someone to come take our order. Finally, the shining star of the wait staff, Christine, came over and remembered our preference for orange juice instead of coffee. Soon after delivering it, she took our order. It wasn't until she walked away and verbally relayed the order to another waiter that we realized Christine wasn't supposed to be the one to wait on our table today.
Breakfast took a turn for the better as they had my powdered custard filled donuts I'd been waiting all year to enjoy:
To keep things quick and simple given our slow service today, I ordered scrambled eggs and a bagel with cream cheese. What I expected was a moderate pile of scrambled eggs. Instead I get this little structure:
At home, I like to use ketchup on my scrambled eggs or omelets. I'm also the one who puts ketchup on their macaroni and cheese. I'll pause here for the collective gasp of grossness that comes from most people's reactions when they learn that fact about me. I do draw the line though on putting ketchup on my mashed potatoes like a high school friend would. She'd always explain, "you put ketchup on your fries don't you? And what are fries made out of?" So when you ask for ketchup from someone who took the time to pile your eggs into a tower form, you don't just get handed the Heinz bottle. No that's not fancy enough:
And a bagel with cream cheese balls so dainty they added a garnish:
After breakfast, we headed off to our tour. Our guide spent his days not just working for the tour company providing our tour today but he travels the world being a tour guide for group trips. He was very nice and it was interesting to hear about his upcoming trips. Since part of this tour included city highlights, we first went to a square and parked the bus next to the prime minister's office. In Helsinki, it's actually a soldier's job to guard the prime minister's car as it sits parked outside.
It was interesting to see a statue nearby that not only has bullet holes in it from the Cold War but to learn that they intentionally leave it that way as a reminder of their history even if it wasn't the happiest of times. There are loads of monuments and statues all over this world that memorialize a time or a person who looking back now wasn't the greatest. A great wise quote says "Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it." Please take the time to learn and educate yourselves so that we can all go forth in our lives and make this crazy and sometimes scary world a better place.
With a relatively small group who signed up for this tour today, everyone pretty much followed our guide's time limits and made it to the bus in time to spare. We had to travel a little bit out of town to get to the Fazer Chocolate Centre but the time passed quickly. Once we arrived and got to partake of a pit stop, our guide made sure our tour with the Fazer employee started right away so we'd have optimal time at the end. Our tour started in a freestanding biodome right inside the center where they grow their own ingredients:
This giant bunny sculpture and the little egg behind him were to showcase the hollow chocolate eggs filled with small toys that Fazer only puts out around Easter time.
We enjoyed a short video explaining the life story of Karl Fazer, the man who started the company. The center had water stations throughout the area inviting you to fill little cups from their filtered tap water and that was definitely a welcome relief.
Our Fazer guide told us about how the company has branched out to include healthier foods and works with the community to provide school lunches. They also offer a culinary program and showed us some things the program participants made from Fazer products:
After checking out a hands on interactive display about how they braid dough to make breads and pastries, we were invited to use virtual reality goggles to view the factory itself.
We also could walk amongst several stands holding the various ingredients used at the factory. Air holes were punched into the top so you could lean over and smell them.
I don't know if it's just my warped mind but this particular ingredient seems more fitted for an episode of Law & Order: SVU:
Like a kid who knew about "that house" on Halloween that gave out full size candy bars, you could also partake of these huge bins of normal size bars. Several of us took to these larger bins in hopes of finding one that would tell us what we just ate in the tiny versions but they didn't always have the same looking label.
A Princess photographer came along on our excursion today and helped himself to a chocolate bar with chili peppers. Too bad I wasn't taking video as his reaction was worthy of America's Funniest Home Videos. Or would that be Finland's Funniest Home Videos?
We bid our goodbyes and thanks to the Fazer tour guide and entered the gift shop after a quick return to the water station. Even our regular tour guide, who comes to this center frequently during the Baltic season, walked around the gift shop with arms loaded of candy he wanted to purchase. Curious to know what kind of dental plan the Fazer company offers! The gift shop had the usual packages put together as pre-wrapped gifts like box sets and shrink wrapped mugs full of the smaller candies. The bulk of the shop was filled with the company's products in all shapes and sizes whether you wanted a small sampler box, a large box, or even chocolate bars as big and long as your arm!
Several of the candy flavors were unique like this one made to look like firewood:
A little touch of the USA, a taste of Miami by way of Helsinki:
For the more adult palette:
While the kids could enjoy Fazer's partnership with Rovio's Angry Birds:
Fazer's answer to Oreos - the chocolate wafer is a little softer but the crème inside was lighter.
And you could also purchase your fill of the non candy products like biscuit baking loaves and bread infused with vegetables into the dough:
With the help of our guide who enlisted the help of a Fazer shop employee, Dad found a package of plain black licorice he wanted to try. While I'm not usually a chocolate lover, there are two combinations that will get me every time, chocolate mint and the pairing of white and milk chocolate. Found a slightly bigger box for sharing of the chocolate mint variety I enjoyed in the samples and spotted what we'd probably call "king size" here in the USA at the last minute of a bar that had white chocolate as a top layer and milk chocolate on the bottom. With a bottle of flavored water to split, it all cost us around $9. And since I was chocolate-d out by the time we got back to the ship, it didn't cost me any poundage either on the scale once back home!
After we'd made our purchases at the gift shop, our Fazer guide met us at the door to hand over our free samples to take home. When I read the free sample note in the description, I pictured a little bag of a couple miniature pieces or even just one "fun size" bar. We were very pleasantly surprised when the guide handed us a full shopping bag containing a loaf of the vegetable bread, a pack of the chiclet style gum, a king size bar of their signature chocolate and almonds flavor, a box of the Domino cookies, and a bag of sour alphabet labeled marshmallows. One of the perks of traveling with someone - Dad happily accepted my chocolate with almonds bar in exchange for his sour marshmallow candy.
The atmosphere on the bus as we left the center was much more subdued as everyone was sugar crashing by then. We took the scenic route back which included a drive by of the currently being renovated Olympic stadium. It's become almost a thing for me while cruising to keep encountering things that are Olympic related wherever we are visiting. One last quick photo stop was given at the Sibelius monument.
The woman who won the contest to design the monument was made to include the composer in her design so she added a metal version of his face off to the side after the fact. Guess Sibelius was upset that he didn't get any chocolate?
Once back at the port, we walked through the large tent of shops in hopes of satisfying Dad's quest to find reindeer jerky. He'd remembered being served it on a flight many moons ago and enjoyed it. While most of the shops focused on clothing and furs, one shop had a small selection of local eats. We purchased the closest to reindeer jerky we've found thus far - Reindeer meat made into potato chips. I didn't want to try it but Dad said it wasn't good.
Once back on board we hit the buffet for a quick lunch before heading down to afternoon trivia. Stopped into the Internet Café to check email and had the perfect view of several pier runners getting back at the last minute.
Tonight was another formal night and we decided to give the other side of the Club Class dining room a second chance in hopes of improvement. Unfortunately, we still had super slow service again tonight and vowed to always ask to sit on the side by the entrance for the rest of the cruise.
Dad went with his usual melon plate for an appetizer and I decided to try escargot for the first time. I know it's a dish that most cruisers rave about and I try to have at least one dish I'd otherwise never try each cruise.
I thought there was at least a soft breadstick that came with this to help soak up the sauce? I was pleasantly surprised that the escargot did not taste slimy or crunchy but I felt it could have used some more flavoring.
I also tried what they called the Tian of Crab, Scallop, and Shrimp:
This instead was like I expected for the escargot - cold and slimy! Gave up after a couple bites.
Dad chose the Red Wine Braised Beef Short Ribs for his entrée but what came was basically a bowl of fat and gristle. Chef July noticed Dad picking at the meat and offered to get the Filet of Beef Wellington instead. Dad agreed and we watched Chef July instruct our assistant waiter to take the ribs dish back and get a medium cooked Beef Wellington. The assistant waiter soon comes back with the Beef Wellington but when Dad cuts into it, it's rare! Chef July turned back after greeting another table, took one look at Dad's dish, muttered no, no, no, and took it back to the kitchen himself. After a while, he finally returns and brings Dad a perfectly cooked to order medium Beef Wellington. I suppose if you want something done right, do it yourself even applies on cruise ships!
I decided to go with the chef special tonight described as a Lobster Thermidor thinking that finally I'd get the nice big lobster!
Nope, turns out it was just a fancy way of saying "we cut up the same ole lobster tail's meat and left it swimming in butter spooned back into the shell." Tasty and Chef July did offer to make me another but by now with the slow service I didn't want to bother waiting. Our wait staff was so lacking tonight that Chef July himself finally had to step up and take our dessert order for us. Thankfully he relayed it to one of the new waiters they'd pulled over to deal with the busier dining time and this waiter was back quickly with the right orders.
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| This is the dessert drinks menu that was on the left side of every dessert menu. |
The Floating Islands in Vanilla Sauce may have to go down in the history books as the weirdest dessert item from Princess Cruises. I ordered it for the first time last cruise and it was like someone took a big bowl and let 4 of those marshmallow peeps melt under a heat lamp.
Dad went with the Chocolate Journeys dessert choice - Chocolate Pistachio Dome with Almond and Pistachio Nougatine. He said it was good.
While tempted to try the Volcano from the children's menu - an ice cream sundae with the works - I was a little tired of the sweet foods for today and opted for the regular Create Your Own Sundae option. A scoop each of vanilla and chocolate ice cream with chocolate syrup:
The wavy lines where most of the chocolate sauce landed is piped out whipped cream and it seems the rest of the chocolate syrup meant for the whole ship was poured into my personal bowl. By now we were running close to being late for our evening plans thanks to tonight's slow service so after a couple icy bites I gave up trying to eat anymore.
After checking out the sparsely attended "Body Language" (aka charades) game, we hit up the Wheelhouse Bar in hopes of finding a better quality of our favorite virgin mixed drinks. I ordered a virgin mudslide and Dad went with a virgin dirty banana so the bartender joked "So basically two chocolate milkshakes just one has banana?" While the bartender made our drinks, which turned out so much better, we chatted up Deputy Cruise Director Marcus while he downed what he claimed was a virgin martini at the bar.
Ended our evening back in Princess Live with our drinks watching Marcus, Fab, and Veronica participate in the Liars Club. Since we had drinks, we chose the seats in the back that feature bar seating. Because of this, we ended up sitting next to Fab's dad who could not have laughed harder at watching his son dance around trying to put on pantyhose for his definition of one of the words. Told Fab later that his Dad had claimed not to know him and Fab just nodded and said "yeah that sounds like my dad." I know a lot of people are baffled when cruisers care about following what ships their favorite cruise directors or activity staff move around to but to a lot of us, it's like seeing old friends you didn't expect to run into ever again when you find someone you knew from a previous cruise. I've been fortunate to see Armando twice (Grand Med and Panama Canal) and now Fab from one of my very first Princess cruises.
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