Experience: Cruising with style, part 1 (Finlandia, Superstar)

Not long ago, starting on the 30th of January, I took a trip involving several cruiseferries of the sweet home Baltic Sea; or should I say my best friend Sverre took the trip and kindly invited me to join. For me it started with taking a bus to Helsinki to meet up with him; we spent the first day walking and sightseeing in and near central Helsinki. In the evening we met up with some more people (Timo Selkälä, Kalle Id, Mikko Pätäri) from our solid group of friends to have a dinner in Domo, a small, and quiet Japanese restaurant. The same cannot be said about our group as we were clearly the jolliest and loudest ones that night, however that's really not easy to avoid with such great people around.

Experience: Finlandia vol. 2

As promised in my last post, I'll tell more about the Finlandia now. I had a mini vacation in Finland, which involved taking her there and back. A bit of additional excitement was added when we boarded with a car, which is something I had never done before, and during the return trip I had a look at the changes that were made.

Finlandia was some 15-20 minutes late arriving in Tallinn before our boarding, which made us wonder. Her arrival to Helsinki afterwards, however, was on time. She was going full speed and rolling quite heavily.

Viking XPRS shortly before freeing her spot for Finlandia

Finlandia slowly coming in

Suspicious dents I

Suspicious dents II

Feed me, master!

Yum!

Full speed ahead

Although the crossing speed was even faster due to the delay, it didn't feel even close to as quick as on the Star or the Superstar.

Star backing into Helsinki West harbour, seen from the cardeck

Nice close view during disembarkation

Suspicious dents explained?

Before the return journey I saw a sign in the terminal explaining that the schedules are temporarily changed due to gangway repair works in Port of Tallinn. I felt a bit silly for not having thought of that reason earlier; some time ago Finlandia's freshly completed (finally, two years after her arrival) gangway collapsed shortly before being attached to the Viking XPRS (who was using it due to stormy weather), killing one worker. The collapsed part has been removed and the spot remains unusable until fixed, leaving Finlandia "homeless" once more - as if it was a curse. 

Baltic Queen coming in some 30 minutes early

Us departing, caught by Jani Nousiainen from Baltic Queen

Turning around

Star coming in 

Harbour view as we left

Before

After

The changes on board were smaller than I expected, but still noticeable and the ship really seemed better. Bar Nosturi is still on just two decks, but the store underneath that occupies the third deck of the big window was made significantly larger and more efficient, putting everything one would expect to find in a ship store in one place. Before the refit there was a separate cosmetics & perfume store on deck 8; now it's a food store selling seemingly gourmet stuff, called the Pop Up Shop.

Another nice addition is a new bar, named Paja, in a somewhat remote location on the port side of the ship. It almost went unnoticed; before the refit there were meeting rooms.

Despite being somewhat remote, it was still packed along with the rest of the ship on the Friday evening departure.

Speaking of meeting rooms, those were moved to deck 6 and there's now quite many of them in an area that was formerly just cabins. On the packed Friday evening departure, those rooms were nicely adapted into a huge playing area for kids.

The new information desk, moved into a separate room opposite to the big store as well as its former self. My intervention there was not nearly as rude as the crew members' faces suggest. 

To my great disappointment, the ex-pool was completely removed from the sundeck, making it feel empty and bleak.

One does not simply get lost on the Finlandia - Another feature I like a lot remained in tact, as expected. 

As well as the neat selfie-mirror

Meanwhile on the side of the ship

Not that speedy this time

While approaching Tallinn and waiting for XPRS to clear her spot for us, I took some more photos of the departing ferries, which means that I managed to photograph every Tallinn-Helsinki ferry during one crossing.

Among others, the Superstar.

The visibility was quite awful and this turned out the best I got of Sea Wind. She has been moving cargo between Tallinn and Vuosaari since early January. 

Viking XPRS 

That's what happens when you eat too many cars

Finlandia's cursed spot, which she's totally not using. During the return journey, which was a little longer because of the lack of a usable harbour spot, the announcements on board called this "technical difficulties".

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.