Many Places to See

We always plan a trip based on WHERE we want to go. Sometimes it doesn't really matter whether it's a large or small group trip, but I do prefer less people when we're on a TOUR. We get to see places that large groups can't always get to and get to spend more time at places. When we decided to take this trip, we knew we'd have MANY people on the ship but would be able to do/see a lot on our own when we disembark from the ship.

I was surprised at the savings by taking this trip through Grand Circle, including two nights in London, one of my favorite cities to visit. The flight isn't very long so jet lag won't be much of a problem It will be good to not have to "rush" to the port to get on the ship as soon as arriving. Breakfast is always included and there's a dinner in London included, too. 

We're staying at the Lancaster London Hotel, in a great location near Hyde Park and an Underground station nearby. We'll see London "on our own" since we're familiar with it. There is a "city tour" included but we'll probably ignore that one. Instead, day passes for transportation are best idea. There are many places to see that are FREE. Our plans for London are undecided at this time, but I know we will be busy. I'm looking forward to seeing some of the life-sized fiberglass elephants that are on display in the city for a charity campaign organized by Elephant Family, with the intention of highlighting the plight of the Asian elephant. There has been a 90% decrease of them in the past 100 years. There will be an auction to raise funds for 20 conservation charities in the UK (similar to one held in Catskill, NY each year for their cats) and small ones are being sold in some stores in London. (I want one!) Of course, I'm planning to take MANY pictures of the ones I see.

Another advantage of going with GCT is that they include the transfers to/from Dover where the ship is docked. I know we could arrange this on our own but it's nice to not have to. We will board the Norwegian Sun sometime late morning/early afternoon. Our inside cabin is on a lower deck for our 12 nights on the ship. The itinerary includes stops in Copenhagen (Denmark), Warnemunde (Germany), Tallinn (Estonia), St. Petersburg (Russia), Helsinki (Finland), and Stockholm (Sweden). The only place we are spending more than one day is in St.Petersburg. We are getting visas so won't have to take expensive shore excursions. Without the visas, we wouldn't be able to get off the ship. (More about that in a future post.) We will spend 4 days cruising (North Sea and Baltic Sea) in between the city stops. 


I'm planning to add to this blog daily but won't post it every day. It's too expensive to use the Internet on the ship. (They don't give any discounts even if you have your own netbook/laptop!) We'll check for Internet cafes when we are in ports.