Cruise on the Liner "Princess Anastasia"
Traveled together with my sister from 09/29/2011. to 03.10. 2011 on the route St. Petersburg-Helsinki-Stockholm-Tallinn-St. Petersburg. I liked the cruise very much, we were delighted)) The tours were bought through a travel agency. Now in order:
1. Cabin: We didn't get class "A", we had to take class "B". The same as "A", only without a window. The cabins are clean and have everything you need, except for a hair dryer, take it with you. Bed linen from IKEA. However, we only spent the night there, because. got up very early to go to the city.
2. Cuisine: We immediately took breakfast and dinner for all days, which we did not regret. The food was very good and tasty, the choice of dishes is very diverse. People who did not take this service from travel agencies either paid every time they came to this restaurant, or ate in bars and cafes, which are very numerous on board, and spent even more money on it than we did.
3. There is a duty-free shop, a sauna, a swimming pool, restaurants, cafes, a bar, a disco, a children's room, a cinema on the liner. In short, no one will be bored. It should only be noted that prices in these establishments are 20-30% higher than what we are used to seeing in the city.
4. Staff: The staff is very responsive and polite, they will help and prompt if necessary.
5. Money: all prices on board are in euros.
6. Helsinki: arrived in the city at 08.00 in the morning, stood for 1.5 hours at customs, in other matters, as when leaving St. Petersburg. Since there are a lot of people - 2400 people. We walked around the city on our own, without a guide. The city is not big. The liner stopped right in the center of the city. There are shopping centers, a market with souvenirs and cafes nearby, everywhere you can pay by card, and not just in cash euros. We walked along the pier, visited the Assumption Cathedral, since it is nearby and you can walk on foot.
7. Stockholm: I say right away - this city impressed me the most, and I would very much like to visit it again, the contrast with Helsinki is very noticeable. Here, too, you can pay by card everywhere, or better buy Swedish kronor in advance - at least on the subway (40 kroner is a ticket for an hour in any public transport). Here we spent the whole day, which turned out to be oh so little to see at least 30% of interesting places. The old town is amazing!! ! We had a paid excursion there for a whole hour, the guide was wonderful, interesting to listen to. There are many souvenir shops, and the prices were a pleasant surprise, for example - I bought myself a leather, chic bag - 1600 with our money. And, of course, for lovers of the H&M store - there is expanse here, in the central square there are as many as 4 of them and all on 3 floors. In general, stunned!!!
8. Tallinn: We arrived here at 11.30 am. Near the pier - the old town, walk 10 minutes. It's also very nice, I love it. There are many souvenir shops, though the prices here are 2 or even 3 times higher compared to Stockholm. But again, 1 day in Tallinn is not enough!! ! Here we also had an excursion - for 2 hours, after an hour we faded away, because. time is short, and the guide gave a lot of unnecessary information. But managed to take a walk and buy gifts. Usually they write a lot about the Estonian customs . . which is slow, etc. I will say this, the Estonians are really slow, BUT . . we came to the liner not at 16.00, but at 15.00 and went through customs without a queue.
9. The next day at 08.00 we were already in St. Petersburg. Now TIP!!!! ! If you don’t have to rush to work in the morning, do as we did: wait on the ship until 10.00 until the main flow of tourists subsides, pass the Russian customs, and you will calmly go through it almost without a queue in 5 minutes, but if you are in a hurry, you will have another 1 stand in line with everyone outside for an hour, and you'll be lucky if the weather is good.
10. And one MINUS - all windows and portholes are very dirty . . and apparently for a long time))