Baltic mini-cruise (Stockholm and Tallinn) - Part 1

So the nerdy geek inside of me is a bit of a ship/ferry enthusiast. The girls in the office mock me about on a daily basis. I love being on a big ship out at sea, especially if it is a bit choppy/rough. I booked on to one of the 2 big Baltic ferry companies, TallinkSilja,  the other (and possibly the better) is Viking Line.  Now Silja once had a reputation for having amazing ships and amazing service but this reputation has taken a blow since its takeover by Tallink, it still has the big ships but most of the fleet is now Tallink and their ships may be big etc but are not as stylish.

Publicity shot of MS Victoria 1

So BA and my miles got me a round trip to Stockholm and I was booked on the MS Victoria for a round trip to Tallinn, my ideal cruise would have been a round trip to Helsinki on this beauty but the prices for 1 person travelling alone were too high.

So my ship was the smaller but newer MS Victoria 1. She isn't an ugly ship and is large but my gut instinct didn't feel good when I checked in at the terminal. It looked like a booze cruise crowd and I wasn't far wrong.

My cabin was on the entrance deck (5) and was in the middle of the ship on its left side. I had a window and a choice of 4 beds (2 bunks) so I chose a lower bunk and settled in.

MS Galaxy passing us in Stockholm harbour

Sailing through the Stockholm archipelago has to be one of the highlights of the trip, 30 minutes out of the harbour and we are sailing past little islands, little houses and other boats and ferries, it is very relaxing.

My cabin for 2 nights

I paid in advance for a seat in the "buffet" restaurant. It was a stampede. Maybe queues are a British thing, it certainly isn't a thing for the 50 Chinese tourists who pushed me aside plates and cutlery in hand.  I ate well and there was a good choice, not sure E31 was a good price for the quality but I tried it, filled my belly and explored the nightlife on the ship. The ship has a 2 deck lounge, showroom/theatre which was doing some sort of lottery/bingo for the passengers

The show lounge

then followed by some band who must have came 20th in Swedish XFactor.  I checked out the casino, lost E40 on the slot machines then headed to bed. I slept well, the sea was rough and the rolling of the ship helped me sleep and I woke up when we were 2 hours from Tallinn.

My review of this journey, is don't go on a weekend cruise, it is full of drunks and people you wouldn't want to be sitting in a resort bar with or on a resort beach next to so be warned.

September 21, 2015