Experience: A Megastar was born!

Two years have flown by quickly; I remember when Tallink announced a newbuild for their Shuttle service in early 2015, and it feels like yesterday. Yet, somehow, a whole ship was designed, built and fine-tuned in that time. And she wasn't even rushed at all, which I saw first-hand when I embarked on her maiden voyage on the 29th of January. And I did not only do the first crossing; in fact, I was on board during her entire first day in service, a total of four crossings. In addition to Sverre, with whom I did the entire trip, I met tens of other ship enthusiasts as they also did her first sailings either from Tallinn or Helsinki, or both. In addition to the arrival of the Megastar, there was plenty of other things happening on the Tallinn-Helsinki route to be excited about, as well, such as the thoroughly refit Silja Europa, and the Rosella filling in for the Viking XPRS.

Experience: No(r)way!? Part 2 - How I lost my jawbone

This is the 2nd part of a trip report. First part can be found here.

I left the last part off at walking through Oslo with Sverre after the Color Fantasy cruise, having no clue where he was taking me. All sorts of scenarios were going through my head and I had settled on the guess that we were going to a hotel, though we could've just as well be simply taking a train back to Fredrikstad, or onward to somewhere else. For entertainment, I shared my wildest thought of "We could also be heading to the airport to fly somewhere?" with Sverre, who remained quiet...

Experience: Nightwish-cruise on the Baltic Princess (8-9.06.2015)

Nearly a month ago the ticker I had on the side of the blog ticked to zero as we packed our stuff, drove to Turku, met up with two more friends and cabinmates and headed to the Silja Line terminal. Arriving there well before the boarding time, we did the check-in and went to a nearby bar to wait.

We returned to the terminal and boarded as soon as it was possible and right after boarding headed to the buffet to claim our booked dinner. While we were standing in the line the ship departed, giving me a wonderful view of the Viking Grace.

Boarding a sold out cruise

Boarding II

These Nightwish & Silja Line balloons were all over the place

Leaving the Viking Grace behind

Bye Bye Beautiful

The selection was huge at the buffet and we spent hours eating all we could. I remember especially enjoying the sushi and the ice cream and having a hard time fitting everything I wanted into me.

After the dinner the men went to the cabin while Riikka and I went to grab spots at the Starlight palace for the gig. As the palace got crowded, I had to sneak out a few times to poke the men to come along, because otherwise they would have never squeezed through to get to us. Fortunately in the end I succeeded and soon enough after they joined us, the gig started. I can't complain about the setlist, it had everything I wanted. Afterall, the moment I was most looking forward to of the whole cruise was screaming "WE WERE HERE" at the end of The Greatest Show On Earth. At some point I tried to snap some photos of the band members and when nearing the good part of the mentioned song, I climbed on Matti's shoulders. It was a minute of almost constant eye contact with Marco Hietala, until I was put down again - apparently because a security guard told Matti to put me down.

And since I mentioned my own photos, here's the very best I got - it really wasn't easy to get a clear photo. 

If my memory's not failing me, this one was taken by Matti using my camera.

After the gig the party went on until very late hours when the Starlight palace was closed. Us girls then went to sleep, the men carried on partying in others' cabin parties. Subsequently we girls woke up for the Nightwish-quiz and Bingo the next morning. Alas, we didn't win a meet and greet for our cabin (The quiz was so easy, but there was a few tricky questions such as the amount of words in Ever Dream, and a question about the original singer of Over the Hills and Far Away caused a minor conflict), so we chose to have some fun at the Karaoke instead, after some hard but successful attempts to wake up the men. To my great disappointment there was only 8 Nightwish songs available in the karaoke list, as I had wanted to sing either Ever Dream of the Phantom of the Opera, yet neither were available. So I sang I wish I had an Angel instead. I also remember an outstanding performance of Slaying the Dreamer by a young girl. She did the screaming so well that it's a pity I can't find it on Youtube. 

Later on Marco, Troy and Floor performed an acoustic gig including the first ever live performance of Edema Ruh. Of our gang only Riikka attended it, the rest of us discouraged by the big crowds. Instead, we went shopping, rested some more and chilled in the Piano Bar. 

Afterwards, before our arrival to Turku I took a few photos of the ship and we went to chill on the sundeck, where I bumped into my friend Kalle Id (http://kships.blogspot.com/) who greeted me with the words "So, we did end up on the same cruise!".

Mandatory staircase photo

Quite a pleasant sight on a sold-out cruise

Finnclipper in the Turku archipelago

Mandatory funnel photo

After disembarking I was a bit bummed to discover that I still did not have a single one of those Tallinksilja & Nightwish balloons in my possession. Finally after asking some random people of the whereabouts of the balloon giver, they offered to give me one of theirs. You'll probably never read this, random strangers, but thanks a lot, you made me very happy!

Yay!
Coincidentally, the cruise marked exactly two years since my previous Nightwish gig in Tampere, where I got the bag signed.

Experience: Baltic Queen, aka How To Miss Your Departure

Last weekend I was in Helsinki again to meet some friends. It was initially supposed to be a daycruise but later on I turned it into a weekend trip, planning to return with the Baltic Queen.

I woke up early on Saturday morning to make it on the earliest departure of the day, on the Superstar. It was still dark as I boarded and it was quite difficult to get any good pictures as the ship backed out of the harbour. The crossing was, fortunately, quite smooth. Contrary to many stories I've heard the vibration wasn't remarkable, and the fact that the crossing took 30 minutes less than what I'm used to made all the difference, because it really felt quick. The ship wasn't very crowded either, but what did bother me along with a lot of people who answered my research poll was people sleeping on the couches, taking up a lot of space. For me, it wasn't the space that mattered so much as the spreading smell of socks. 

Baltic Queen next to us in Tallinn

The harbour as we left: Baltic Queen and Viking XPRS, the latter followed us in 30 minutes

Underway

Deck plan

Absolutely packed

La Dolce Vita Bar, extending through 3 decks in the front

Tallink turned 25 recently and the whole ship was decorated accordingly

This is how it really is

Large staircase

Superstar's sister Finlandia near Helsinki

Silja Serenade and Finlandia near Helsinki

Mandatory funnel picture

Silja Serenade near Helsinki

Disembarkation

Thou shalt not under any circumstances go beyond this sign

After getting off in Helsinki I had several hours to kill before an interview meeting. Walking around was quite unpleasant with a heavy backpack, therefore I chose to sit in Kamppi and get some work done instead. The meeting was also a great success but after it finished I was so tired that I called my friend and NW-cruise mate to pick me up and we went to the hotel. We were staying at GLO Hotel in the center of Espoo. It's a very nice place; I really recommend it if you're in Espoo or if you're willing to drive or take public transport from Helsinki.
Later that night we drove back to Helsinki to have a rather late dinner, which proved to be difficult in the center on a Saturday night. All the places were either packed, too noisy or had a long line at the door. After searching for over an hour we found a small pizzeria on a relatively quiet street near Kluuvi. 

The next day was spent mainly looking around stores and having a break at some cafe every now and then. I chose to have an early three course dinner at restaurant Kynsilaukka, mainly because it's one of a few places accepting Bitcoin payments. The menu was rather interesting, every dish was somehow made with garlic, including garlic beer, which was quite bitter and garlic ice cream, which must've been one of the most interesting dishes I've ever had, in addition to being quite delicious. 

Garlic ice ceam

In the evening we met up briefly with another NW-cruise mate; in the middle of the meeting I realized that I had miscalculated my time quite badly and hopelessly missed the Baltic Queen departure. Fortunately I was helped out and returned with the Finlandia on Monday morning. The weather was very windy and the ship was rolling heavily. I had many opportunities to take great photos of passing ships but due to the weather and the fact I was extremely tired I skipped it and had a nap instead, while listening to the Bingo game in Telakka bar.

Princess Maria in Helsinki

Mandatory funnel picture - the most notable exterior difference of the two sisters, besides the livery of course.

Another major difference between the two sisters is that bar Nosturi on the Finlandia is on two decks, not three like the Dolce Vita on the Superstar.

Otherwise, although the interiors are obviously quite different, it's easy to tell that Finlandia and Superstar are sisters. Here's the deck plans of the Finlandia for easy comparison. 

And to answer the question in the title - if you're already dense enough to actually wish to miss a departure, finding an excuse to do so or the necessary miscalculations shouldn't really be a problem. Loads of bad luck might sometimes also help.
I would like to thank Timo & Tove for meeting me and sharing memories, Riikka for making the time for a meeting despite your schedules, and also Matti for making most of this possible, keeping me company throughout my stay and saving me from thick trouble after the missed departure.

Maybe next time.

Royal Princess and the new cruise quay

Today has been a big day in many ways. For me it was special for the cruise ship calls. Today was the first call of the Empress who is the only ship doing turnarounds in Tallinn, and also Royal Princess. Built in 2013, she's the 10th largest cruise ship in the world and since today by far the largest to ever sail to Tallinn. Along with her first call there was a ceremonial opening of the new cruise quay at the port which I was lucky enough to attend.

Empress

When I arrived, the orchestra was playing and later some speeches were given - The Estonian Minister of Economics Urve Palo, Tallinn Deputy Mayor Taavi Aas, board member of Port of Tallinn Allan Kiil, and the manager of the Estonian branch of BMGS (the company who built the quay) Leho Alliksoo. They all stressed the importance of cruise tourism in Tallinn and good service and asked the philosophical question - who came first, the city or the harbour? - and reached the conclusion that it must have been the harbour. After the speeches, the symbolic knot was untangled and the harbour master and the captain of Royal Princess exchanged commemorative gifts. At the same time, the Royal Princess sounded her horn, which was the theme from Love Boat.

The ship and the orchestra

The minister and the ship

Leho Alliksoo and Allan Kiil

The two captains

The symbolic untangling of the knot

From the left: Captain of Royal Princess Dino Sagani, me, Harbour Master Ülo Kikas

Since new cruise quays aren't opened every day (the older one was opened 10 years ago), I'm very happy I could attend. I'm lucky to live in a city where the importance of cruise tourism is understood and I hope that the development will continue in the same direction. The call of the Royal Princess was only possible thanks to the new quay, which means that Tallinn is now ready to welcome some of the largest of cruise ships. 

Here's a video of the Love Boat theme and more photos of Royal Princess.

The horn came rather unexpected and I filmed it quite spontaneously, which is why this video isn't exactly widescreen or HD or anything.

Port side

Lifeboat 1