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| Celebrity Apex - Baltic Cruise Copyright Andy Richards 2022 - All Rights Reserved |
BY AUGUST of 2022, it was pretty obvious that we were out of the pandemic, and well on the way back to normal. To be sure, the service industries, including the cruise industry had taken a big hit. Ships were still understaffed, and often the staff was inexperienced. But for the most part, our own experience was very good. Even when inexperienced our takeaway was that they worked hard and had a good attitude (or at least they put a good "face" on). There were isolated incidents where the inexperience came through, but they weren't the norm. At the same time, the economics of things were evident. Food quality in some cases seemed to have slid and portions were curtailed. In some cases, the bar staff was inexperienced and even occasionally uninformed. But again, in our experience, this was not the norm. After all, we were on vacation, which should probably motivate us to relax and roll with it.
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| Celebrity Apex - Amsterdam, Netherlands Copyright Andy Richards 2022 - All Rights Reserved |
FROM LATE 2019 on, we had experienced a series of disappointing cancellations. I want to be careful not to sound whiny or entitled here. We were, after all, suddenly thrust into a worldwide pandemic which not only caused panic and instability, but many deaths and serious sickness. The disappointment was that it happened, and we had to postpone plans along with many others in order put more important things on the table. But this is a blog about cruising and should be fun, so it is about time to stop talking about pandemics and talk about cruising.
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| Celebrity Apex - The Baltic Copyright Andy Richards 2022 - All Rights Reserved |
WE HAD scheduled a cruise in The Canary Islands due to sail sometime in 2020, which was cancelled. We booked forward to another cruise, which was in turn cancelled. This went on for several cruises until one finally went. This one was to the Baltic Sea. After sailing in the British Channel in late 2021 and the Caribbean in January of 2022, we were excited to be back in Europe and back on Celebrity Again - this time the Celebrity Edge. And we were excited about the itinerary. Perhaps the highlight of this cruise was the planned overnight stop in St. Petersburg, Russia.
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| Nothern Passage - Amsterdam, Netherlands Copyright Andy Richards 2022 - All Rights Reserved |
STRATEGICALLY LOCATED on the eastern tip of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic at the mouth of the Neva River, St. Petersburg (a/k/s Petrograd), population approximately 1 million, is the second largest city in Russia and the largest city on the Baltic. Previously the site of a Swedish fortress captured by Peter in order to acquire a seaport in the Baltic, the city was founded by Tsar Peter the Great in the early 18th century when he built the Peter and Paul Fortress. The capital city and seat of the Tsar until 1918, St. Petersburg (as well as Tsar Peter) is widely credited with the establishment of the Modern Russian Empire and has long been thought of as the cultural center of Russia. It was only following the Bolshevik Revolution in October 1917, that the newly empowered Bolsheviks moved the capital to its current location in Moscow. After Lenin's death in 1924, St. Petersburg was actually renamed to and remained Leningrad until after the dissolution of the USSR. Peter was a huge fan of western civilization, and strove to "westernize" St. Petersburg, in the mode of the great classical buildings of western Europe. He also strove to "westernize" the Russian military, and St. Petersburg became a military (and especially naval) stronghold of Russia. From the photographs I have seen, the city has incredible, colorful and classically designed architecture. I was, to say the least, "geeked" about visiting and photographing this incredible city. And then Putin invaded the Ukraine. All bets were off. Rightfully, cruise lines and tour groups pulled out of all of their scheduled visits to St. Petersburg. More disappointment. 😞
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| River Cruise Boat - Amsterdam Cruise Terminal Copyright Andy Richards 2022 - All Rights Reserved |
ABOUT HALF of the passengers scheduled for this cruise followed suit and cancelled their participation on the cruise. It seemed I wasn't the only one who looked at St. Petersburg as the highlight of the cruise. But we were weary of cancelled cruises and the disappointments of one after another falling through. Besides, there were 6 other ports of call to be considered. It wasn't, after all, a "St. Petersburg Cruise." It was a Baltic Cruise. And truth be told, if Celebrity had not cancelled St. Petersburg, we would have cancelled. I cannot in good conscience spend money or in any way support that regime, though my heart goes out to the millions of innocent Russians who are pawns in his ego trip. One of the 6 stops, of course, was a new substitute stop. While it wasn't going to hold a candle to St. Petersburg, it turned out to be a nice stop. We stayed on. And we are very glad we did. It was a wonderful cruise.
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| Canal - Amsterdam, Netherlands Copyright Andy Richards 2022 - All Rights Reserved |
THE POINT of departure was Amsterdam. We had been to Amsterdam just once before, for just a day. It was the termination of a cruise that had started in Dublin, Ireland and ended in Amsterdam. We saw enough of Amsterdam that day to know we wanted to spend more time there. So this cruise, we arrived 3 days early. We stayed in the Movenpick Hotel, literally next door to the cruise terminal. We did that mainly for convenience on the morning of embarkation. But we soon learned that it had been a pretty good choice for convenience of getting around the city. We were a relatively short walk away from the main train terminal, where trains and trams all came together. There was a tram stock just across the street from our motel. So, using a 3-day pass, we came and went as we pleased. We had a couple of nice tours of the city. The highlight was probably a morning walking tour of the Jewish Quarter, and afternoon tour of the Ann Frank house and museum. If you have the chance, I highly recommend you do both those things. Amsterdam is also a very picturesque city, with great canals, flowers and architecture. There are great little pubs and restaurants everywhere. I only missed two things on my list: the Heineken Brewery and the windmills. The windmills would come just a year later. I am still planning on the brewery one day. 😋
WE HAD a mid-morning boarding time the next morning after our long day of tours (Celebrity now boards passengers by appointment and gives you "windows." All of my recent boardings have been efficient and flawless, so they must have something there). So, rather than go back out to find a place to eat, we decided to go down to the hotel's restaurant and get a burger. We were seated at an area where there were a number of side-by-side, two person tables. We struck up a conversation with a couple ladies who were boarding a river cruise the next day, and during that conversation, the people one table down overheard that we were boarding the Apex. It turns out they were too. We ultimately met up with them the next day, and during the course of the cruise, we became well-acquainted with Mike and Elaine. You will hear more about them over the next couple posts. 😁
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| Northern Passage - Amsterdam, Netherlands Copyright Andy Richards 2022 - All Rights Reserved |
OUR SAIL-AWAY brought a beautiful, sunny afternoon. This was another cruise where we were destined to meet new people and make some great new friends. Prior to the cruise, I "met" a woman on the Facebook Page that had been established for this cruise. It turns out that they live in the community just a couple miles north of us. We made arrangements to have dinner one night a couple weeks before we left, to meet Jim and Flo and know we would both know at least one other couple on the ship. Of course, we immediately ran into them as we went up on deck for the sail-away. We also ran into Mike and Elaine and introductions were made. We were having so much fun socializing that I completely missed what may have been one of the best photographic opportunities of the trip: the sail through the north passage to the North Sea. Maybe another cruise (though it appears quite likely that cruise ships will no longer be embarking from Amsterdam - at least not Celebrity in the near future. Another topic for another time, but Rotterdam now appears to be the port of choice for Celebrity). I did catch one or two shots. Our first stop would be in Warnemunde, Germany, after a day at sea.
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