Florida 2019: 25th October - Magic Kingdom

Last May we went to Majorca, and as we were about to head through security at our home airport on the return trip I discovered I had lost the passports. Cue BA looking for our plane, and they turned out to have fallen out of my bag in the overhead bin, so we were able to go home after all.

So I was taking no chances at Magic Kingdom and had our precious Disney tickets in lanyard round my neck. We took the resort shuttle to Epcot (much cheaper than an Uber - just $1 tip each) and then got the monorail to Magic Kingdom. It was when we were heading for the ferry that I realised that the lanyard around my neck was empty.

Without a word of reproach Roderic ran back to the monorail (the train was still in the station) and explained our dilemma. The staff conducted a quick search and, blessed relief, found our tickets on the exit ramp where they'd fallen out of my lanyard.

The family now know me as the person who will lose the vitally important document, and will never trust me with anything again.

Anyway, we took the ferry to Magic Kingdom, which was indeed as magic as described, and worked our way round the park starting at Tomorrowland. We loved the Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor (although Ceri and Roderic worried they'd get chosen for audience participation) and managed to fit in quite a few rides and shows including Space Mountain, Splash Mountain, the Barnstormer (when I say "we" I mean everyone else - those three are too scary for me), the people mover, Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin (Roderic scored 272,000, I scored 7,000 - he's had a lot of practice playing computer games), Mickey's Philharmonic, and several others.

Roderic shows me how it's done

Hari meets Buzz Lightyear

Scary ride, thus I wasn't on it.

We'd tried to do this day on a budget. You're allowed to take your own food into Disney World, and we took sandwiches, crisps and cereal bars and made use of the drinking fountains when we were thirsty, but that didn't stop the children wanting Mickey burgers and it ended up still being quite an expensive day. In fact we spotted someone wearing a t-shirt proclaiming "Most expensive day of my life". It really is.

I got to try Dole Whip (it was nice, but not worth the hype) and we also went to Gaston's Tavern to try what are reputed to be the best cinnamon rolls around. We both felt Cinnabon are better.

The ride which really wasn't worth the time is the Carousel of Progress. It was only a third full, and it was overlong and somewhat dull. I think it's largely there as homage to Walt Disney, as it was his idea and he loved it, but I suspect it might not be there much longer. Still, if it rains or you need a fifteen minute sit-down in air conditioning it never has a queue.

Donald and Daisy Duck in the parade. The sky may look cloudy, but it was extremely hot - 30 degrees.

We enjoyed watching the parade which was really very impressive, but by 5pm we were exhausted. Our shuttle home wasn't until 7pm, so we took an Uber and cancelled our place on the shuttle when we got back to the resort.

Florida 2019: 22nd October - Typhoon Lagoon

Yesterday we did a quick straw poll of everyone's favourite Disney park, and it was a unanimous conclusion: Typhoon Lagoon.

You'd think with so many attractions, roller coasters, characters, shows, etc. that one of the theme parks - Epcot, Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom or Hollywood Studios - would have been the high point of our holiday, but in fact we all loved the day we spent at Typhoon Lagoon because it was truly relaxing, and a lot of fun.

We'd paid extra to have a Beachcomber Shack. This is a private cabana set in "Getaway Glen" to which only those with wristbands have access. It included a locker, towels and unlimited drinks for all of us, plus our own assistant, Marylou, who popped by several times during the day to check up on us and see if we needed anything.

We paid quite a lot ($200) for the privilege of the cabana, but I think it was worth it for that visit. There were six of us so the unlimited drinks alone would have come to $78, plus the cost of a locker. Also, the chances of us finding (and keeping) six sunbeds together were pretty slim, and we liked the idea of having somewhere we could retreat to and call our own. I don't think it would be worth it for a smaller party, however, or in high season when it's more expensive.

There are plenty of "rides" at Typhoon Lagoon. I'm scared of roller coasters, and generally don't like high or fast rides so I avoided the worst of them, but I loved all the ones called "falls". Mayday Falls, Keelhaul Falls, Gangplank Falls and Miss Adventure Falls - all raft rides. We all loved the lazy river (Castaway Creek) and there were times floating around in a tube in the sunshine when I felt the entire cost of our Florida holiday was worth it just for that moment of bliss. The wave pool was also fantastic.

When it came to lunchtime, full marks to wonderful Disney for their special menus. They have allergy free menus for every possible allergy, and this awesome vegan menu. I had the Impossible burger, and Roderic gave the bratwurst a try and said it was as good as a meat one.

We spent the whole day at Typhoon Lagoon, from opening (10.00) to closing (5.00) and would happily do so again. We plan to go back to Typhoon Lagoon before we leave. (Blizzard Beach is currently closed.)

Florida 2019: 23rd October - a rest day

My very sensible husband told me before we ever started going to Florida that he insisted on having a rest day between park days while on holiday. Park days are long and exhausting, he said, and so it was essential to have a day just chilling round the pool and the apartment in between.

Typhoon Lagoon wasn't really a tiring day, but nevertheless we decided that a day off was in order. We started by attending the owners breakfast at the main building on the resort. We'd be bribed into doing so when we checked in: we were promised a $75 Visa gift card if we spent just an hour at the breakfast speaking to one of their consultants about the planned upgrades to the resort.

Now, this isn't our first rodeo, and every other experience of these things has been terrible. The children remember them with horror too, as Gwen reminded me. They can go on for hours, and it's a pretty hard sell for more timeshare. But lured by the promise of $75 and free food, we decided to go for it.

It was actually not as bad as in the past. I think it helped that as Roderic and I were climbing the grand marble staircase with our VIP Owner Advisor, Johanna, she asked whether we had children. He replied, "We've left them back at the apartment because the little one isn't feeling too well so we really can only spare an hour." All true (Ceri had a bit of an upset stomach after our Typhoon Lagoon day - she's fully recovered now) but he didn't mention that the "little one" is 15 and the sister looking after her is almost 19.

The room where they do the breakfast/hard sell was also a lot quieter and emptier than I've seen it before, with maybe only a quarter of the tables filled with people being talked into timeshare. Johanna's English wasn't good and she struggled when she went off script. She asked if we had any questions, and I asked whether there were any plans to update or redecorate the apartments, since they were looking so outdated now, and she didn't understand my question and moved on to something back on her script instead.

We had the usual golf-buggy tour where she showed us where the new waterpark is being built (it'll be small but with two flumes and a lazy river) and the latest block of huge five-bedroom apartments, which is what she was trying to sell us. We said no, because we love our timeshare but we really don't need a bigger one, and that was that. One hour, and yes, we got our $75 Visa gift card.

I did learn, from the tour, that there are no plans to update the apartments because the newly built apartments are exactly the same. To my mind they look very outdated. The walls and ceilings are textured. The furniture is dark and heavy. The kitchen cupboards are brown wood. The overall look is from the late 1980s or early 1990s. As evidence I present the cutlery. Yes, it's a fish fork (who still has those?) in the Kings design which was very popular in 1988. I know this because in 1988 I was selling cutlery at Keddies in Southend.

We all discussed this, and wondered whether maybe American fashion in interior design is very different from UK fashion. Possibly because their homes are bigger they can get away with large and dark items of furniture, rather than the sleek, light, minimalist look preferred in the UK where houses tend to be necessarily small. (Having said that, I have just been looking up pictures of Westgate Lakes bedrooms rather than take a photo of our messy one and it looks as though some of them have already been updated with fresh white paint and new furniture.)

I've not really sold our timeshare very well I realise, but actually I do love it. It is big and spacious, well-designed, the beds are comfortable, and I have completely fallen in love with ceiling fans, balconies and open-plan layouts.

A bedroom like ours at Westgate Lakes.

The floor plan of our apartment. A two-bedroom apartment, plus a studio lockoff.

Florida 2019: 21st October - Animal Kingdom

Gwen loves Disney. She has spent the last few months watching You Tube videos, reading blogs, and generally getting all the insider tips on the best way to do Disney. What rides to do and which to skip, what food to eat, how to avoid the worst of the queues. So when she told us we had to be at Animal Kingdom before rope drop, we went with it, and arrived there around 7.30am, just as the sun was rising.

It meant we could pick up our tickets quickly and easily, but unfortunately didn't give us the desired result of avoiding the queues on the most popular rides due to extra magic hours - that hour before the park opens when Disney Resort guests get it to themselves. Gwen had known this, of course, but I hadn't factored it in. The queue for Avatar: Flight of Passage was already 75 minutes when we got into the park so we didn't bother.

Instead we went on Kilimanjaro safari since it had only a ten-minute queue (and cancelled our later fast passes for it) which we really enjoyed, and we saw all sorts of animals, including rather lovely lions. There were also two "walking safaris" which were well worth doing since there were, of course, no queues at all for those.

We had a fast pass booked for Kali River Rapids - my favourite Disney ride - but the ride broke down and it looked as though we might not get to do it. Happily it was fixed about an hour later, so we jumped on it, fully expecting to be soaked - and barely got wet. The queues quickly went up again to impossible lengths, so although we all wanted to go on it again we didn't want to face those wait times. We went to see It's Tough to be a Bug instead, and all enjoyed it.

We had lunch at a burger restaurant in Dinoland. (I'd enjoyed a Mickey pretzel earlier so only had Hari's chips.) The restaurant wasn't cheap ($52 for burger, chips and drink x 3) but it was very tasty, and there was a lovely condiments bar where you could add everything you could ever want to your burger including eight different sauces. They were also very slow serving us, so we got three complimentary brownies.

Pandora

We'd booked fast passes for Expedition Everest later in the afternoon, but over lunch Gwen and Harley texted to say that they were tired and wanted to go home, so we cancelled those, had a quick explore of Pandora - the one part of the park we hadn't done - and met up with Gwen and Harley to head back instead, arriving back at the resort around 2.30. Then Gwen, Harley, Ceri and I headed to the pool and the hot tub, returning to the apartment only minutes before a dramatic thunderstorm hit.

Pizza for tea, although Gwen and Harley ordered Panda Express but were a little disappointed it. It didn't live up to expectations. We were all pretty shattered even  after only half a day at the park - and all in bed by 9pm.

My tip for Animal Kingdom: Think of it as a safari park/zoo rather than a theme park. The easiest and most relaxing thing to do there is look at the animals, and there are plenty of them, everywhere. The shows are also good, but the queues for the rides tend to be rather long.

Florida 2019: 20th October - the Wonder of Walmart

As crazy as it sounds, one of the parts of our trips to Florida I most enjoy are the early-Sunday-morning visits to Walmart. We're still on UK time so often wake up around 3am, although on this trip it wasn't so bad - maybe 5.30. We've no food in the apartment, so Walmart really does have to be the first port of call during our holiday.

Harley with a huge American-style McDonald's breakfast and Romulan ale. Or something.

Due to not having a car our plan this time was to walk to the store (a mile away) and then get an Uber back. And in keeping with tradition, we have breakfast at the McDonald's there too. Roderic chose to run to the store (and back) but the rest of us walked.

I love the sheer variety of food here, and we felt that the quality had gone up and the prices had gone down since our last visit. We had no problems finding bread which didn't contain high fructose corn syrup (and it tasted much better than we remembered) and as ever there were lots of things we just can't get at home and were looking forward to trying. Breakfast cereals in particular are wonderful - my favourite Cinnamon Toast Crunch now comes in a churros version!

The view from our balcony

Gwen and I spent some time at the pool in the afternoon, then had a walk around the resort to see what other fun things were available, and the plan was to eat one of the pizzas we had bought for tea. But at 5pm, watching Downton Abbey, I was suddenly overcome with exhaustion and decided instead to go to bed. By 5.30 I was fast asleep (7 hours behind, remember, so my body clock thought it was past midnight) and according to my Fitbit I slept for almost ten hours. I needed it!

Florida 2019: 19th October 2019 - the longest day

Several weeks ago when Roderic and I were driving home on the M25 we passed (in the other direction, thankfully) two very long traffic jams. We commented to each other that if we were to encounter those when we were on our way to Heathrow to catch our flight to Florida we'd probably miss it. So on the spur of the moment I booked us three hotel rooms at the Heathrow Central Travelodge for the night of 18th October at the bargain price of £80 for all three.

So far, so great. The rooms were fine, we all arrived safely, and were set to meet in the hotel foyer at 5am to head for the airport parking. Unfortunately at 4.45am the hotel fire alarm went off. We all dutifully stomped down four flights of stairs and met up outside the hotel, Ceri still in her pyjamas.

Problem was, our schedule had us leaving the hotel at 5am, and our bags were inside. As time ticked by we started to worry, but finally the all-clear came, and we were allowed back into the hotel.

There were signs in the bathrooms telling people to close the bathroom door when they showered to avoid setting off the smoke alarms. Someone evidently didn't listen, and Ceri thinks she was behind the culprit on the stairwell heading back up. As hundreds of people stomped wearily back along the hotel corridor a chap wearing only boxer shorts leaned out of his door and shouted at us all, "Oi! Do you mind?" What, two hundred people padding quietly along a corridor at 5.30am woke you up but the fire alarm didn't?

We drove to the car park and dropped off the cars, then got the bus to Heathrow. Flight 1 was Heathrow to Dallas and took ten hours. Good films on the flight (I watched Aquaman, the new Men in Black, Yesterday and four episodes of Young Sheldon) and we loved Dallas airport. It was possibly the quietest airport I've ever been to, with lots of empty seating and very bored shop assistants.

Big gulp, cookie dough, and nachos. Not all for me. Note also a power socket that I couldn't charge my phone with as all the adaptors were in Roderic's suitcase.

We livened up the day of one of them by buying some traditional American food.  In my first ever visit to a seven-eleven I was overcome with joy at the sight of a nacho condiments bar, where you can not only have warm nachos but add to them whatever you want - salsa, guacamole, onions, jalapenos, and several other things I didn't recognise. Also, nacho cheese, on tap. It was awesome! Once I figured out how it worked.

The rest of the family got to try Popeye's chicken for the first time (they liked it) apart from Hari who went to McDonald's. While she was there I asked whether they had any vegetarian choices on the menu, for future reference (I had my nachos). No, they didn't. No veggie deluxe, no spicy veggie wrap, nothing. Nada. Hopefully that's not true of other places.

Before we left we'd crunched the numbers and decided not to hire a car on this trip but to use Ubers instead. So after after another two hour flight to Orlando we ordered two Ubers to take us (and all our luggage) to our accommodation. It was sooooo much easier than waiting in a long queue to get a car, fending off all the upgrade suggestions, and then poor Roderic trying to negotiate unfamiliar roads in an unfamiliar car in the dark after being awake for 24 hours.

We took a golf cart from reception to our accommodation. It was free, but now I'm plagued with doubt. Should I have tipped the driver? This tipping culture is a minefield. But what's 10% of zero?

In the golf cart. Looking surprisingly chipper for sleep-deprived folk. Apart from Ceri, who was very fed up by this point.

Westgate Lakes was even more beautiful and spacious than I remembered - more on that later - and we'd got a second wind by that point, so we actually unpacked before crashing into bed at around 11pm local time - 6am our body-clocks' time - 26 hours after waking up.

Our Baltic Cruise part 3: Tips for First-time Cruisers

This cruise on Norwegian Getaway was our first, and we didn't really know what to expect, despite my obsessive Googling in the weeks leading up to it. If you're about to book, or embark on, your first cruise, here's what we wish we'd known.

Tip 1 - think carefully about what you will and won't need in your overall package

We booked through an agent - the lovely Warwick van Reenen at Cruise.co.uk. This made things much easier as he was the expert and able to cut through some of the technical stuff and make sure we had all the right documents in one place (although in the end we didn't need any of them - everywhere just scanned our passports). He also knew what all the added extras are and built us a "package" to meet our needs. However, I maybe should have spent more time telling him about us. For example, he booked the Ultimate Beverage Package for us which meant all drinks, throughout the cruise, were free. (Well worth it when you know what the drinks prices are - I had some jealous looks from other guests when I just flashed my card and walked off with two diet Pepsis.) We don't drink alcohol though, so what we actually should have had was the soda package. Our package also included unlimited coffee and bottled water in our stateroom. We don't drink coffee either, and when we left we'd barely drunk half the bottled water left for us.

Similarly our package included three opportunities to dine at the speciality restaurants. While they were nice, they weren't so much better than the complimentary ones that we'd have missed out if we hadn't had that opportunity. And we had one hour's free wifi (for the entire cruise) which, despite my anxiety at being cut off from civilisation, we didn't use. We have free roaming on our mobiles, and were often close enough to land to get a data signal. I learned later that the wifi on board isn't very good.

Our package included flights and transfers, but the flights (with Norwegian) were from Gatwick. Our local airport also flies to Copenhagen and is only five miles away, so we could have saved a lot of travelling and parking costs if we'd booked our own flights. Also, the transfer (in a sleek black car with a besuited driver) was very luxurious, but a taxi would probably have been cheaper and would have left us free to detour via the Little Mermaid statue on our way to the ship. (Also for the return transfer NCL claimed that there were very few taxis in Copenhagen and that guests should buy an NCL airport transfer for the end of their cruise, but when we disembarked there were actually plenty of taxis.)

Finally our package included $75 each of onboard credit. With all our meals and drinks included I asked Warwick before we left what we'd spend our onboard credit on. "Anything you like", he replied. Well, nothing. I know many people bought tickets to shows or other entertainment, Norwegian's shore excursions, gambled it at the casino, spent it at the onboard Starbucks or shops, but we weren't interested in any of  the entertainment, we used the city sightseeing buses for shore excursions (much cheaper), we don't gamble, and didn't see any point in paying for Starbucks when the Garden Café was open 24/7 and served free cakes and sandwiches. By the end of the cruise we realised we had to use it or lose it, so I bought an overpriced dress from one of the shops, and we bought some cupcakes from the onboard bakery ($3 each and really not good) and a few souvenirs.

We got the gratuities included, which is good because I never understand when to tip, how much,  and when not to, but felt a bit mean leaving our lovely cabin steward Iwan with nothing more than the bottle of champagne he'd tried to leave us. (Having said that, it wasn't him cleaning our stateroom on the last morning, so I'm not sure he'd have got anything we left anyway.)

Tip 2 - always get a balcony room

To my surprise our very favourite thing to do on this cruise (even more than eating) was sitting or standing on the balcony watching the sea, the islands, the other ships, and occasionally the shore go by. It was so restful and therapeutic. We didn't have a big balcony (it only fitted two chairs and a small table) so on the next cruise we'd book a bigger one. The decks below had balconies big enough for sun loungers.

Tip 3 - take a lanyard

We had to always have our NCL cards with us. It was okay for hubby dearest who generally had pockets, but women's clothes don't often have pockets, so early on I spent $7.95 on a Norwegian Getaway lanyard. I have hundreds of old lanyards at home, so could have saved that money if I'd thought to bring one.

Tip 4 - take currency, and research what currency you'll need

Partly because I forgot to go to the Sainsbury's currency booth before we left we showed up in Denmark with no Danish Krona to tip our transfer driver (twice), and in Germany with no euros. Yes, there's currency exchange available on the ship but the rates they give you are terrible (€0.93 to the £ when Sainsbury's would have given us €1.10) so I spent the first hour in Warnemunde looking for a cashpoint (which gave us a rate of €1.04). We also totally failed to realise that the ship's currency was US$. Not that we needed any (see tip 1 above about onboard credit) but if you're reading this because you're going on an NCL cruise bear in mind you might also need dollars. We also didn't have Swedish Krona or roubles either, but luckily almost everywhere took cards.

Tip 5 - it'll cost more than you think

Everything onboard is extremely expensive and also your only option. There are also hidden extra costs such as a 20% gratuity on everything (including the cupcakes we bought from the bakery). If you've budgeted carefully for your cruise allow some wiggle room and don't spend up to your maximum because you may need more than you think.

Tip 6 - research where you're going

We really did this cruise for St. Petersburg, and it was amazing and well worth it. I also enjoyed Warnemunde, and Tallinn, but didn't really know what to look out for in Helsinki and didn't know whether Stockholm was worth making the effort for, given that we docked some distance away. I think if I'd spent more time reading up on the places we were going to I might have had a better idea of where to visit and appreciated it more.

Tip 7 - prepare for changes of plan

Our ship was supposed to dock at Stockholm but actually went to Nynasham. Reading reviews, it seems it's not uncommon for cruise ships to change itinerary mid-cruise, and in fact Getaway had had to cut short a cruise and go into dry dock only a couple of weeks before we boarded. Ports experience problems or get full, weather makes it necessary to change routes, and most of this is completely out of the cruise line's hands. Be aware that your holiday may not be exactly what was in the brochure. For us it didn't matter too much that we didn't get to Stockholm, but don't book an entire cruise based on one place you want to go to - it might not happen, and the cruise line is not obligated to compensate you.

We loved our first cruise, and are really hoping to do another one soon. But next time we might be more prepared.

For more tips, see this blog which I thought was very accurate.

Our Baltic Cruise Part 2: The Ship and the Food (AKA Vegetarian rant)

Norwegian Getaway is enormous. It would have to be – it holds almost 4,000 passengers, plus 1,600 crew. It has 21 restaurants and bars, 2 pools, a water park, a fitness suite, a spa, 4 hot tubs, a ropes course, a climbing wall, a bowling alley, theatre, casino, shops… you get the picture.

Our stateroom was room 10126 (which, appropriately for Star Trek fans, is located in the Ten Forward area) and it was lovely. A lot like a floating Premier Inn room, including a mini bar and coffee tray (which we had taken away so that we could have more desk space). The best bit was the balcony. It was small - just room for a couple of chairs - but we spent a lot of time on it just looking out at the sea.

Despite being a Norwegian Cruise Lines ship it was very American. Around two-thirds of the guests seemed to be American, and the onboard currency was dollars. Typical of America, everything costs extra. The restaurants where you have to pay (most of them are included, but not all) add a mandatory 20% tip to your bill, and many of the additional activities have a cost attached. (Everything free in America, for a small fee in America.) 

There was a lot of onboard entertainment, but that's really not our scene. Shows, dance classes, parties, family gameshows, art auctions... we didn't do any of it. In fact, we very carefully avoided public areas when these things were going on. The only thing I was remotely interested in was the behind the scenes tour, and that turned out to cost $79 per person (!)

There's a large casino in the middle of the ship. The reviews I checked out before we booked said that people are allowed to smoke in the casino and since it's open to above and below the smoke drifts and makes the whole ship stink. But maybe that rule had changed, or maybe we avoided it at the worst times, because I didn't notice any smoky smell. I also did my best to avoid the casino, though. I've never been comfortable around that sort of thing.

Where I am comfortable is in the pool, and the pool was wonderful. At least, the adults only one was - I didn't test the other pool. It wasn't that big (maybe 15 metres) but it was deep and warm! That quite surprised me, but it was only a degree or two cooler than the hot tubs. The water park was also pretty good, with five flumes at varying levels of speed and terror.

There's a pretty good gym (although the first treadmill I tried had a slipping belt) and a spa but, you guessed it, that costs extra, and $259 for a little over a week didn't seem like very good value to me.

The Food

The food also had a distinctly American slant, with pancakes, waffles, bacon and syrup always available at breakfast, as well as porridge (labelled oatmeal) and grits. At lunch and dinner desserts were all served with caramel sauce. Now, I like caramel sauce as much as the next person, but not on apple cobbler (crumble). Needless to say we had to open a tin of custard the minute we arrived home.

There are five complimentary restaurants on Norwegian Getaway:

The Garden is a buffet-style restaurant on deck 15 so with great sea views. The food is good, varied and plentiful and caters to everyone. There is always pizza, burgers, "Asian" (Chinese, Thai and Indian) and a carvery. We went here when we first got on board, and struggled to find a table. It gets very busy so it's best to go at quieter times. The downside with a buffet is that you don't get to talk much, as one of you is always off getting food while the other looks after the table.

I noticed early on that the vegetarian options were pretty limited, and also really badly labelled. The food labels were on coloured card, with brown for "not vegetarian" and green for "vegetarian", however they often got the colours wrong and I learned not to trust them. They also really didn't bother catering for vegetarians except as an afterthought. For example, there were always three soups available, but about half the time none of them were vegetarian.

Thank goodness for Indian food. There was a large Indian contingent on board, and since half of India is vegetarian, I was always able to get a vegetable curry and dahl. Including at breakfast time. It seems that in India they eat curry for every meal. (Yes, I did. Roti with creamed coconut and mango chutney one morning, if you must know.)

The Tropicana Room is a smart restaurant with silver-service-trained wait staff, and there were two vegetarian options among the starters and appetisers, but it isn't a big menu. There was also a live band playing as we ate.

Taste and Savor (sic)are pretty identical. A step down from The Tropicana Room, but still very elegant and usually with a vegetarian option, although I was very disappointed to note that on one occasion both the vegetarian starter and main options contained parmesan cheese. Parmesan is not vegetarian (it contains calf rennet) and I would really expect someone involved in catering on Norwegian Getaway to know that.

O'Sheehan's is the Irish Pub. Roderic told me that every city in the world has an Irish pub, and we did indeed see one everywhere we went, but O'Sheehan's is Getaway's. It did food 24/7, but is distinctive only in being the first restaurant I have been to anywhere that did not have a single vegetarian dish on the menu. I've been vegetarian for a little over a year and have never had a problem finding lovely things to eat in restaurants until this cruise.

There were also some speciality restaurants, where you had to pay extra to eat there. With these five free eateries to choose from, I didn't see the logic in going there, but the package we'd booked included the chance to eat at three of them for free, so we did. We chose Le Bistro (French, very nice), La Cucina (Italian, best vegetarian selection on the ship) and Cagney's Steakhouse.

So, Cagney's Steakhouse. I get that the clue is in the name, but again there was NOTHING vegetarian on the menu. My husband happens to love steak, and I didn't want him to miss out, which is why we decided to go there. (Another restaurant which didn't make the cut, La Churrascaria, also had nothing vegetarian on the menu.) I explained my plight to our "server" (like I said, American) but they had nothing to offer. No alternatives, not even a veggie burger. I ended up having onion rings, chips, mushrooms and corn. In other words, just the sides. Hubby dearest enjoyed his steak, but I think he felt guilty that we went to a lovely restaurant and there was nothing for me.

I wrote to Customer Services on my return about the lack of vegetarian options. I received a long reply which was somehow at the same time surprised (they'd never heard this complaint before), concerned (they will speak to the staff on the ship about appropriate labelling), and dismissive (I should have mentioned my particular dietary requirements during the booking process.) But I have also picked up a couple of brochures from British cruise companies since we got home, and noted that both make mention of their extensive vegetarian and vegan menus. I think my mistake was in choosing an American cruise line.

In the UK 8% of the population is vegetarian, and almost 2% is fully vegan. Every restaurant I have ever been to here includes a choice of three or four (and often many more) interesting and delicious vegetarian and vegan options, and these are often dishes which tempt carnivores too. On Getaway the vegetarian options, if they were present at all, were uninspired and generally heavily based on cheese. But it's an American ship and apparently only 3.2% of Americans are vegetarian and less than 1% are vegan. In America vegetarianism is still considered a "special dietary requirement" apparently, not a common and compassionate choice.

Our Baltic Cruise part 1: The Ports of call

That's our ship in the background
(the big one, not the pink flamingo)

On 7th June 2019 hubby dearest and I set off on our first cruise, a 9-day voyage round the Baltic which included two days in St. Petersburg. Hubby dearest lived there for two years (1992-1994) when he served as a missionary for our church, and loved it, and has been trying to persuade me to visit the city since we got married. Unfortunately he'd also told me some horror stories about Russia (he was there shortly after the end of communism) so I wasn't keen. Cruising there seemed a good option, and it was also his 50th birthday treat.

I'll do other posts about the ship, the food, tips for first-time cruisers, etc. but this one will focus on the ports we called at.

We flew into Copenhagen and took our transfer to the ship without any issues. Unfortunately the transfer arrangements made when we booked didn't allow any time for sightseeing in Copenhagen, and it looked like a lovely city. 

Warnemunde, Rostock, Germany

The official ship's tour from this port is Berlin, but it's quite a distance away and we'd decided beforehand not to bother (especially as the tour cost $500 each). If we want to see Berlin at  a later date we can fly there from our local airport in a little over an hour. Anyway, it turned out to be a good decision, because Warnemunde was lovely, and a great first port-of-call for first-time cruisers.

If you’re reading this because you’re about to do this cruise, my tip is to turn right out of the ship and head towards the station to get to Warnemunde town centre. You have to go under the railway line to get to the town, and we turned left and ending up going the long way round. (Ended the day with 20,000 steps recorded on our Fitbits, though.)

Warnemunde is a delightful town with some beautiful traditional German architecture, and a nice beach. The weather was perfect – warm and sunny but with a light breeze. Roderic went up the lighthouse tower (I’m scared of heights so I passed) and I enjoyed a few of the shops. 

Talinn, Estonia

There were five huge cruise ships in the harbour and it’s easy to see why Tallinn is a popular port. The old town behind its well-preserved medieval walls is within a km of the cruise terminal, and there’s a little souvenir market to pass through to get to it. As we soon discovered is true of every port (including Warnemunde), there were hop-on, hop-off city sightseeing tour buses waiting at the port and these are generally pretty good (with the exception of Helsinki) and much cheaper than the official ship's tours. We paid €25 each to do the hour-long tour on an open-top bus with an interesting commentary. We learned that even the combined colours of the independent Estonian flag had been banned at one point, and that Estonia had the “singing revolution” when people gathered for the traditional singing festival rose up to revolt. The country has a population of only 1.4 million, and only 1 million people speak Estonian – the rest speak Russian.

At the end of the tour Roderic opted to take another one, since two further tours were included in our ticket, and I walked to the old town which was very pretty, and did a bit of shopping.

St. Petersburg, Russia

In order to go to Russia you need a visa. These are quite expensive, but tourists on organised excursions don't need a visa, so we opted for that route. The ship's official tour was prohibitively expensive once again, but we had looked into this in advance and booked a two-day tour with SPB tours. We were late getting off the ship due to Norwegian's somewhat inefficient procedure. We were supposed to meet up with our tour guide at 8.30 but it was over an hour later that we were off the ship and all assembled. This meant we had missed our 10.05 tour time at the Hermitage, and the queues were now all the way around the building. (The Hermitage actually opens at 10.30 so we had special early access.) Our tour guide, Elena, got round this by joining with another SPB tours group near the front of the queue. In other words, we pushed in.

The Hermitage was incredibly busy, but it is also utterly stunning. It was the home of Catherine the Great, built to house her burgeoning art collection, so it's actually a collection of several (very large) buildings, since she built a new section every time she bought up a new collection. She was something of a hermit, or recluse, and wanted somewhere to shut herself away from the rest of the city, hence the name. She had 18,000 dresses, and by the time she died she had almost bankrupted Russia. 

We then visited the Church on the Spilled Blood. It was built on the site where, in March 1881, Tsar Alexander II was fatally wounded. He was much more popular than Catherine the Great, and so a great Russian Orthodox cathedral was erected on the site. The Russian Orthodox church doesn't allow crosses or paintings, which means the only type of decoration left is mosaic, so the whole interior is covered with mosaics.

Following lunch at an Italian restaurant, we went to Hare Island (St. Petersburg was originally 42 islands, and has over 300 bridges) and the Peter and Paul Fortress. This was originally intended to be the city, and strong walls were built, but by the time they were complete the city had already grown outside them, so instead the fort became a prison. It now houses the mint and another Russian Orthodox church where the Tsars and their families are buried. We saw the memorials to Tsar Nicholas II and his family - his wife, four daughters (including Anastasia on whom the Disney film is based) and his son. They were killed on the orders of Lenin in 1918 and their remains were found and identified 90 years later and brought to the church where their ancestors  were buried.

The second day in St. Petersburg started with a boat trip on the Neva river, and then a  visit to St. Petersburg's underground, the Metro. It's the deepest in the world (because St. Petersburg is built on a swamp) and is also very ornate. When it was built by the communists, they wanted to make each Metro station a "palace for the people" to rival the great palaces of the Tsars, so each Metro station has ornate columns and mosaics.

We then went to Peterhof, a palace built by Peter the Great to rival Versailles. We only did the exquisite gardens, but I now have no need at all to see Versailles. 

After lunch our final visit was to Catherine's palace in Pushkin, the summer residence of Catherine I where the famous Amber Room was located until it was stolen by the Nazis. Like many of the other places we'd been to, what we were seeing was the restoration of the original - half of the Amber Room had been recreated. Much of St. Petersburg was bombed during the war, and some restoration work is still going on, so some rooms were plain,  and others had already been plastered in gold leaf. Realising just how much of the city wasn't the original but a restoration was quite heartening in light of the Notre Dame Cathedral fire.

Helsinki, Finland

After St. Petersburg, anything was going to be something of a damp squib. We again took the city sightseeing bus tour, but it was quite expensive (€40) and was very dull. Fifteen minutes in we'd seen nothing more interesting that the biggest department store in Finland. We got off at the Rock Church (a church blasted out of a rock) but there wasn't very much to see there either so we got back on the bus to return to the ship. It seemed part of the problem was that the cruise terminal was actually halfway round the bus route. The official route started in the Market Square, and the interesting sites and commentary were from that point on. So if you're someone doing this cruise, bear in mind that the tour gets better. There's not much to see in the mile from the cruise terminal, but later there are  some really pretty art deco streets.

Nynasham, Sweden

Our final stop was supposed to be Stockholm, but the ship was diverted to the next port along, Nynasham. This can sometimes happen when ports are too busy, and the cruise line isn't legally obliged to compensate us for the missed stop. Because of the distance to Stockhold the city sightseeing buses were too expensive ($65 each) and we didn't have much time - the ship was leaving at 4.30, so we decided just to look round the town of Nynasham. We saw some pretty typical Swedish houses, but not much else, so headed back to our ship where the view from our balcony, of some of the islands off the coast, was beautiful.

It was the warmest day we'd had on the entire cruise, and everyone else had gone off to Stockholm, so we took advantage and spent the afternoon in the pool, hot tubs and waterpark, which we had to ourselves.

We concluded that the great thing about cruising it that you get  a "taster" of lots of places. Apart from two "at sea" days we woke up in a different place each morning, and had a day to explore.That's not long enough for many places (especially St. Petersburg) but it helps you get a feel for a place and figure where you need to return to. We're already planning to fly to Copenhagen for a long weekend, and take a train to Stockholm from there - it's only about £26 for the return journey.