Day 9: Helsinki, Finland

Got off the ship around 9am and walked to the tram stop which was located about 200m to the right of the cruise terminal. Got on tram #9 and bought 1 day tickets from the driver €8/€4 adult/child. Bus driver does not take notes bigger than €20. We were first in line to pay but after us, there were several people trying to pay and it took about 10 minutes for everyone to finish paying. This was the only stop where passengers paid the driver for their tickets.

Got off on Kaisaniemi stop and walked to Senate Square and Helsinki Cathedral. Walked to Uspenski Cathedral, walked back down to Market Square (Kaupatori), then to the Esplanade. Tried to locate wi-fi spots on Esplanade to find places to eat. Using FourSquare app, finally decided on a cafe named La Torrefazione around the corner from Stockmann department store. As it was a Sunday, most of the shops and restaurants open at noon.

Helsinki Cathedral 

Senate Square 

Uspenski Cathedral 

Market Square Food Stand 

Esplanade 

Reindeer Ciabatta Sandwich, €6.80 

Inside La Torrefazione 

Tram 3T

After lunch, took tram 3T to Kauppakorkeakoulut stop and walked to the Rock Church.

Temppeliaukio Church (Rock Church)

After Rock Church, took tram 3T around the city to Rautatieasema stop (there were several Princess passengers who were doing the same thing we are) and walked across the street to City Center shopping mall. There is free wi-fi inside the mall but the bathrooms cost €1 to get in. Took tram 9 back to the ship around 3pm.

Day 10: Stockholm, Sweden

Got off the ship around 8am and proceeded to the Frihamnen cruise terminal to buy our 24 hour bus tickets. Cost was 115/70 SEK adult/child and credit cards were accepted. Took bus #76 to Djurgårdsbron station and walked about 300m to the Vasa museum. There was already a long line at the museum. We didn't realize there were actually two lines to the museum: the right one for group excursions and the left one (much shorter) for individuals.

In case you wanted to take a taxi 

Outside the cruise terminal

Kiosk next to the Frihamnen bus stop. As we bought our tickets inside the cruise terminal, I couldn't tell if this kiosk takes credit cards. 

Inside Vasa Museum 

Outside the Vasa Museum 

View from the bridge going towards Vasa Museum

Around 10am, took the same #76 bus to Slottsbacken stop in Gamla Stan.

Nobel Museum 

Mårten Trotzigs Gränd, narrowest street in Stockholm 

Gamla Stan street with no tourists. Very rare.

Around 11:30am, started standing behind the ropes for the changing of the guard ceremony.

The ceremony started around 12:10pm. We decided to leave around 12:30pm to catch the bus #76 back to the ship. Please note that public bathrooms around the royal palace require local coins to get in. On-board time was 1:30pm. I heard a lot of people complain that the time in Stockholm was too short and maybe the ship should have skipped Helsinki instead. While I agree that the time was definitely too short in Stockholm, I wouldn't have wanted to miss Helsinki to see more of Stockholm. Leaving Stockholm early was just unavoidable in order to make it back to Copenhagen in time.

Scenic cruising leaving Stockholm from 2pm - 4pm:

Day 11: At sea, Disembarkation

We neglected to turn in our disembarkation request forms and were assigned to a group scheduled to disembark at 10:15am. We have an 11:30am flight so there was no way we could disembark at that assigned time. We went to passenger services and requested to have our assigned time changed to 7:30am. There was no problem at all changing our assigned time.

Spent most of the day playing trivia. One at 11am, the second at 4:30pm, and the final cruise trivia at 8pm. Did not come close to winning any of them. I guess we need to study harder on completely unimportant facts like the composer Wagner's first name (Richard) and Michelangelo's last name (Buonarotti). We were however the only team to know the lightest metal (Lithium) since my 13-year old son participated in an academic decathlon and the subject matter was the periodic table. That was the highlight of his cruise (aside from his first beer).

During our last dinner, we passed by the Great Belt Bridge around 9pm:

Our last breakfast at the buffet at 6am was the only day we ate there that wasn't crowded. Went down to Explorer's lounge at 7:30am and disembarked the ship thereafter. Collected our luggage and waited for a taxi. Well, that's not exactly true - we didn't wait for a taxi. OK, maybe we waited 10 seconds since there was a couple in front us. I can't speak for later groups, but there was no waiting at all for a taxi, and we had to get one that accommodated 5 passengers.

Taxi costed 420 DKK and dropped us off at terminal 3. We had no idea where to check-in so we asked a security personnel and was told to walk to terminal 2 since our flight was with Delta. I believe terminal 3 is for SAS and terminal 2 is for other international airlines. Even though we checked in online, we still had to wait in line so many times to finally board our plane: 1) luggage drop, 2) security, 3) passport control, 4) boarding lounge. So allow yourself plenty of time.

Just before entering the gate, a final reminder that we are leaving Copenhagen:

That's it! (other than the long flight back to Los Angeles via New York/JFK)

Day 6: Tallinn, Estonia

Got off the ship around 10am. We took the Princess shuttle to town which costs $10 r/t for adults and $25 r/t for a family of 4. We walked past the cruise terminal towards the sightseeing buses on the right side, not realizing the shuttle buses were parked on the left side just after crossing the bridge. The shuttle dropped us off at Mere Puiestee which was about a block from the Viru gate, one of the main pedestrian entrances into old town.

Viru Gate

Walked to Town Hall square, visited Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, bought chocolates at the Kalev store, visited the City Museum, walked down Katariina käik.

Alexander Nevsky Cathedral 

One of the viewing towers 

Kalev Store/Cafe 

Katariina käik

Around 2pm, decided to take shuttle back to the ship. After eating lunch at the buffet, walked back down to the cruise terminal to take advantage of the free Wi-Fi which was very fast compared to the internet service on the ship. We signed up for the $99 internet package for 200 minutes plus 20 extra minutes for signing up on the first day. But with the internet being so slow, the 220 total minutes get used up really fast. Even taking advantage of free wi-fi on certain ports, we actually used almost of our total minutes by the end of the cruise.

Day 7: St. Petersburg, Russia

This is the port that seemed to cause a lot of distress among several people. Some people were late for their tours because they did not allow enough time to get through immigration while others were upset that they had to wait. Seriously folks, there are 3,000+ passengers trying to get off the ship and it takes some time to get past immigration and passport control.

For disembarkation procedures, This is what the Patter said:

• Passengers on a Princess Organized Tour: please meet at the time and location on your ticket.
• Independent Passengers (either with independent tour or in possession of a valid visa): From 6:45am, when you and your complete party are ready to go ashore, please proceed to the Michelangelo Dining Room Deck 5. Immigration will be conducted shoreside and will take several minutes for each person. Please remain in the comfort of the Michelangelo Dining Room in order to prevent lines and waiting times at the immigration booths as well as congestion at the gangways.

So, if your independent tour is scheduled to start at 7:30am, please don't go down at 7:20am and expect to make it. And for Princess organized tours, if you can't be at the scheduled time and location on your ticket, then you have other problems. Also, some people seem to fail to understand the phrase "complete party are ready to go ashore". I've heard a couple of people go down to deck 5 and when asked if their complete party is ready, they reply "they're coming" and get upset at the crew member for not giving them a number. Well, if they're coming, it means they're not here, and if they're not here, then your complete party is not ready, and if your complete party is not ready, then you don't get a number.

I've also heard in some quarters that people seem to think that Princess holds passengers on independent tours to accommodate those that are on Princess tours. That is simply not true. Passengers on independent tours start disembarking at 6:45am. They're just grouped in batches to prevent long lines at immigration. Honestly, I can't think of a better system to solve a difficult situation. Maybe the only thing that Princess can add is a warning in the Patter that waiting times may exceed half-hour or so.

For ourselves, we booked the two-day standard group excursion with TJ Travel. Price is $250 per adult and $215 per child. Our excursion was scheduled to start at 8am. Went down to Michelangelo Dining room on deck 5 around 7:20am and was assigned group #13. At 7:20am, they were calling group #7. Waited about 30 minutes before our group got called. Waited another 20 minutes in line at immigration and passport control. Finally got to our tour bus around 8:10am and we were the last to arrive in our group of 11 people.

8:30am - 10am: Drove around the city and stopped at a couple of places: Saint Isaac's Square and St. Nicholas Maritime Cathedral

St. Isaac's Square

St. Nicholas Maritime Cathedral

10am - 10:30am: Hydrofoil ride to Peterhof

10:30am - 12pm: Peterhof Upper Gardens and Lower Fountain park

If Russian cops look like these, I probably wouldn't mind getting arrested.

12pm - 1pm: Traditional Russian lunch at Romance Cafe (included with our tour):

1pm - 2pm: Drive to Pushkin city
2pm - 3pm: Inside tour of Catherine Palace and the Amber Room. Sorry, no photos of the amber room as picture taking is not allowed in this room. The palace itself was magnificent.

You need to wear these slippers to get inside the palace

Catherine Palace. About 200m long

3pm - 4pm: Drive back to St. Petersburg; subway ride. Our origin station looked a little outdated but the destination looked very nice with marble columns and walls.

Took the subway from this station

Subway turnstiles

Inside the subway station

Got off on this station. Admiralty square 

In case you went all the way to St. Petersburg to get a Big Mac, you'd be happy to know the golden arches are not in Cyrillic and easily recognizable.

4 - 4:30pm: Shopping at Troyka store. A lot of tour buses were stopped here. It seems to be a popular shopping destination for tour groups.

5pm: Back at ship. Long line to enter cruise terminal. About 30 minutes wait.

We opted not to go on any of the evening excursions offered by the tour company. It has been a long day with a lot of walking. We watched instead the Russion folk show aboard the ship which was actually pretty good.