After our excellent adventures in Copenhagen, it was already time to board our cruise, the Norwegian Getaway. This would actually be our second time on this particular ship, having previously taken a trip through the US Virgin Islands on this vessel back in 2014 (before I started this blog).
That being said, this would be our first time cruising in the Baltic region, and we were (as usual) some of the first ones to arrive to the port to check in.
Once onboard, we first ran some “chores” (changing one dinner reservation and one show reservation, upgrading to the premium plus beverage package, and getting a hole punched in our key cards so it could be attached to our lanyards) and then settled into a leisurely lunch in one of the main dining rooms. Lunch was utterly acceptable, and by the time we were done, the announcement had come that our rooms were ready.
This cruise, we were staying in the “Spa Suites” which are essentially balcony cabins that skimp a bit on the balcony in favor of larger bathrooms. They also come with access to the Spa’s Thermal Suites, which we thoroughly enjoyed on our sea days.
Now, for some thoughts about the cruise in general. This was our 5th cruise overall, and our 3rd with Norwegian (2nd on this particular ship). Compared to past cruises, Norwegian did some things better and some things worse.
For example, we were largely pleased with the food on this cruise. We ate mainly at the specialty restaurants in the evenings, or went to the buffet if we were too tired to get all dolled up. We only ate at the main dining rooms once for dinner, twice for breakfast, and once for lunch — all experiences there were also good.
That being said, Margaritaville (an upcharge restaurant) was a complete and utter disaster. The waiter barely spoke English, the food was the same as the buffet, and they had had to pull a bartender over from another bar, meaning he didn’t know any of the drink recipes. We complained to guest services and asked (multiple times) for a refund — to no avail. It was a complete rip off; they need to rip out this restaurant in the next dry dock and get rid of it entirely.
We were also very pleased with the entertainment. We went to see Cirque Dream and Steam and Burn the Floor, and both productions were excellent. The cruise staff (one in particular was a dead ringer for Mateo from the tv show Superstore) were energetic and fun. However, we found most of the bartending staff (except for the wonderful fellas in the Atrium bar) to be pretty dull.
But really, this trip was about the itinerary. And our first stop was a full day in the German seaside village of Warnemunde.
We had considered taking the train into Berlin this day, but not wanting to spend 6+ total hours on a train, we opted to stay closer to port instead. After admiring the impressive sand sculptures near the cruise terminal, we headed to the local train station to grab a cheap ride to nearby Rostock.
Upon arrival in Rostock, we headed out by foot to peruse a few of the more notable attractions in town, and really…found the town pretty dead. We’d recommend skipping it.
So, having found Rostock to be kind of a dud, we grabbed the train back to Warnemunde for a traditional German lunch along the Alter Strom, or waterfront area.
Then, after lunch, we worked our way up and down the quaint row of shops, restaurants and bars, trying the local wares:
After reboarding the ship, our next stop was the similarly quaint stop of Tallinn, Estonia. While the majority of our cruise fellows headed directly into the “Old Town” tourist trap of Estonia’s city center, we decided to take advantage of Estonia’s legendary nature scene.
We booked the Jägala Waterfall and Historic Harju County Tour through Prangli Travel and were met by our young and rather dashing private guide right outside the cruise port. He also served as our driver, and took us straight out of the city to some of the country’s oldest sights; first up was the Saha Chapel, built sometime in the 11th century, but likely used as a site of Pagan worship even before then.
And what was perhaps most remarkable? We had the site all to ourselves. Our guide even took us up the tiny, winding, bird-poop covered stairs to the very top of the roof to see the rafters. (The roof is clearly not original; in the 11th century it would have been made of straw.)
After taking our time at the chapel, our guide showed us to some 9th century viking graves before heading over to the Jägala Waterfall and other nearby sites.
After spending the morning checking out the countryside, we’d built up quite the appetite, and so we headed to the Ruhe Restaurant, a suggestion from our excellent guide. There, we got to enjoy peaceful beaches and an absolutely fabulous lunch — it may have been our best meal of the whole trip, actually (and spoiler alert, we event went to Noma later in this trip… yes, that Noma).
After our tour concluded, our guide dropped us in the old town, so we still go to see a bit of that area as well. But we ended up turning in pretty early as the next day was to bring us to Russia, where we didn’t want to miss a minute. Stay tuned!
