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.

How to kill time before a trip, the my way.

I'm quite certain I already have shared this "Five stages of travel" graph once, at some point, somewhere; afterall, if I had to choose any picture to describe my life, this would most certainly be it, because while there is a lot more to my life, this is what occupies the largest space in my brain. Though one rather important part missing from the picture would be waiting. Of course, having daily duties to attend to, such as school, helps a lot with making time fly faster. But nonetheless, more than once I've found myself anxiously waiting for a trip with a few too many completely free and unplanned days to get over with first. And how would a travel addict solve such a situation? Of course, by booking a quick mini-trip.

Experience: A wave of Baltic Sea ferry madness

In Mid-March, I took another Baltic trip with Sverre, with the two main purposes being to catch the first voyages of the returned Silja Europa, and to celebrate his birthday. We met up in Tallinn; I took a bus from Turku and then Tallink's Superstar to Tallinn. During the two hour crossing I didn't have time for much more than to watch the departure, have a breakfast, and finally, upon arrival to Tallinn, have a nice close first look at the Silja Europa for the first time since 2014, when she left for Australia to serve as floating accommodation for a bit more than a year. In the terminal I was greeted by Sverre and we checked in the nearby hotel Euroopa. The same evening we had a nice dinner in Olde Hansa, my old workplace.

Experience: Cruising with style, part 2 (Mariella)

Part 1 here

Mariella coming to get us

We reached the Katajanokka terminal just in time to check-in and board the Mariella. For me, it was the first "proper" sailing on her, as I had only crossed on her once from Tallinn to Helsinki in August 2014. She has since been refreshed a bit and now I got to do a full cruise on her. It was here that the amazing cabin luck that followed us for the rest of the trip started - we had booked a suite, and of the six suites on board, we were given the only one that has a total of 8 windows on the port side, giving a wonderful view and allowing us to keep an eye out for other ships at almost all times.

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.

Gymnaestrada camp Day 11 - Final goodbyes and homecoming

Click here to read from the very beginning (Day 1)

The very final day started with a half asleep goodbye hug to Carolina and Lucia who were leaving to catch their flight, and then after some more sleep and plenty of time to rise and shine we had the final lunch at Chapman at midday. Despite having been seriously overfed during the camp, I ate a lot because the food was unusually delicious.

Gymnaestrada camp Day 10 - Wrapping up the Gymnaestrada

When we took our last 9:40 morning ferry to Helsinki, I was still quite unsure of where I would be working. I was supposed to go to Messukeskus but I was much  more willing to go to Get Together Area instead, and fortunately, just minutes before the said groups split, I was able to exchange with Atoumata and thus I got what I wanted. This time the shift was especially easy - a few patrols, cleaning up a cliff, a tea break, a few more patrols with Oskar, a lunch, and as we were having lunch Elina and Helena came up to us and said that we've been doing some g'job, and released us as a reward. Once again it was me, Oskar and a few hours of free time in Helsinki, which we chose to spend looking around in stores, as usually. After the free time we all gathered at Get Together Area to go watch the Gymnaestrada closing ceremony.

Gymnaestrada camp Day 9 - Going on an adventure or two

As it turned out, the permission to wake up and go to work an hour later than before was permanent, so we had to be out in time for the 9:40 ferry again. Our hostel was near the harbour and the walk wasn't long, however during our stay they seemed to be in the middle of some works with most likely rain water gutters, so there was something resembling a small moat surrounding the building. So on day 9, just about time, I tripped into it as we were on our way out, hit my right knee and got a lovely bruise to add to the carpet burn from the gymnastics day I already had on the same foot. Nevertheless, it didn't bother me much and we carried on to the boat and our workplaces.

Gymnaestrada camp Day 8 - Nothing special, keep scrolling

A week had passed since our arrival when we were all very happy to wake up a whole hour later and catch the ferry at 9:40. Therefore we arrived at our areas, mine still in Töölö, a whole hour later and our shift was shorter.

Gymnaestrada camp Day 7 - Midnight Sun

The first half of the 7th day was quite the usual, except for the fact that our usual 8:40 ferry departure was served by Tor instead of the usual Suokki; to me it was the first and so far the last time on board. I was working in Töölö once again, however since every single corner of all the areas was in tip top condition it meant there really wasn't anything at all to do.

Gymnaestrada camp Day 6 - Doing our own gymnastics

Following the usual somewhat difficult wakeup and rush to the 8:40 ferry, we were divided into three groups, because the Töölö practice fields had been put into use and the presence of the environmental team was now required there as well. I was, in fact, initially placed there and only spent the first two days in Messukeskus because the area was not in use. So this time I went along with the Get Together Area group, since both the areas are next to the Olympic Stadium.

Gymnaestrada camp Day 5 - Knee deep in cream sauce

On the 2nd workday we had to wake up even more brutally early and make it to the ferry that left at 8:40. Otherwise everything was much like on the day before - we were divided in two groups once again, one heading to Get Together Area and the other, including me, to Messukeskus. The 2nd day was slightly easier because many people remembered the order of things and there was much less hassle. However the participants' lunch that day included some really creamy sauce, which meant that the few times I had to deal with the biowaste bins made some terrible stains on my working uniform.

Gymnaestrada camp Day 4 - Gymnaestrada!

Finally, after we had already been there several days, got to know each other well and adapted to the lifestyle, it was time to get to work. The wakeup was super early on my scale, with the optional breakfast at 8 and the ferry leaving at 9:10. On the first two days only two of the three areas were in use, therefore we were divided in two groups and we headed off to our areas.

Gymnaestrada camp Day 3 - Expanding our range

The third day was the first brutally early wakeup and breakfast, after which were given even more details about our voluntary work. We were a part of the environmental team, which would probably be the politically correct way to call the trash team. We were divided between three working areas, and our main task was to make sure that people do the recycling right and that the areas are clean and tidy.

Gymnaestrada camp Day 2 - The Suomenlinna day

The 2nd day started with a guided tour in Suomenlinna. After the tour we were given a first introduction to our voluntary work and we also received our uniforms, which of course called for a group photo. After that we were given some free time which I spent walking with Sonja from Finland and Oskar from Poland, as well as watching Gabriella sail in from Tallinn.

Gymnaestrada camp Day 1 - Arrival and settling down

Recently I had the honour to volunteer at the World Gymnaestrada, which is a major gymnastics event organized every 4 years. This time it was in Helsinki. To be more precise, I participated in a special international camp organized by the Finnish Summer High School Association (Kesälukioseura), which included volunteering at the event, among many other fun activities.

The 10 days at the camp were most likely the most fun I've ever had in my entire life. Considering that I got there because I came 2nd at the Finnish olympiad for Estonian high school students in spring and a Kesälukioseura scholarship was one of the prizes, I felt quite over-rewarded. We lived in Suomenlinna the entire time, which means that during the camp I got a nice dose of everything I love - international and lively environment, ships, Helsinki, busy schedules, gymnastics and so on. I will be publishing one post per day for every day spent there for the next 11 days, adding one song for each day.

Day 1, 09. July

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: Silja Symphony (21-23.12.2014)

Some days ago I finally had the chance to cruise on another #1 of my bucket list, the Silja Symphony. I was accompanied by my dear mother who had cruised on her in 1993, just two years after she started service and barely a month after she lost her status of the world's largest cruiseferry to Silja Europa. My mother wanted to return ever since, since the cruise was for her the first trip out of the former Soviet Union and she was awestruck. For me the Silja Symphony (along with her sister the Silja Serenade) was the only ship on the Northern Baltic Sea that had the chance to impress me as much as the Viking Grace did.

10 points to whoever spotted that this is, in fact, Silja Serenade. After the recent dockings the most notable exterior difference between the two sisters is the seal on the funnels - on the Silja Symphony he is smiling while on the Serenade he isn't. 

For us the trip started with crossing to Helsinki on the good old Viking XPRS. We spent most of the time in the Dance Pavilion, since it's quite remote, dark and also silent, at least in the morning. I ended up running to the Blue Deli a lot and I couldn't help but notice the music in the Viking's Inn pub - all the world famous Christmas songs in Finnish.

After getting off in Helsinki the first thing we did was walk to the South terminal where the Silja Symphony was already waiting. Although she wasn't leaving anytime soon we needed to leave behind our horribly imbalanced suitcase which was a pure pain to carry along (resulting in me swearing and cursing at it countless times as it flipped over again). After dropping it off we climbed the high hill right outside the terminal to take some photos.

On the other side of the hill we found the German church where a service was just about to finish; we heard the organ play and just as we got outside again the church bells started ringing. Later on we met up with Matti, went to Kynsilaukka restaurant again and walked around a bit. Since the ship was leaving already at 5 in the evening we didn't actually have that much time and therefore we had to return to the terminal soon. The check-in lines were quite long and I didn't see any check-in machines either. After a while of waiting we finally got our boarding cards and Matti waved us off.

German Church

Morning view of Katajanokka

Mikael Agricola Church which was, unfortunately, closed.

St. Henry's Cathedral

Organ of St. Henry's Cathedral

Embarkation, at last!

The first wow - I had imagined the promenade to be lower and more narrow. 

Deck plans

Mandatory funnel photo

Leaving Helsinki behind on the darkest day of the year

Promenade from above. Our cabin was on deck 10, which is the 2nd highest on the promenade.

Atlantis Palace

Stairs from the promenade to the Grande Buffet

Rear end of the promenade

Rear end of the ship

Grande Buffet outside...

... and inside

Mandatory staircase photo

Corridor

First thing two women like us would do on Silja Symphony - shopping, shopping, shopping! My first advice for those cruising on her in the future: Plan a budget at least twice as big as the initial cruise fare for the ship alone!

A map showing the ship's location on the route - actually working, unlike that on the Silja Europa when she was on the Tallinn-Helsinki route.

A very handy addition, also.

Most of our first evening was spent shopping and spying on the cabins across the promenade. In fact, I believe that promenade is probably the best cabin class one can have on the Symphony, because the perks of seeing the life on the promenade and the nearby cabins add a whole new value to the cruise. When it comes to the price, promenade cabins are the step between inside cabins (which there aren't so many) and window cabins; I definitely suggest going promenade.

Although we woke up early next morning (especially me, messing up the hours once again!), getting out of the ship took us almost until midday. First of all I had to spot the outbound Turku ships in the thick fog, then have some breakfast in the Grande Buffet and get ready. 

Baltic Princess in the mist

A small ferry connecting two islands in the Stockholm archipelago

Viking Grace, who almost went unnoticed; fortunately, she blew her fog horn like a good ferry and I noticed her when she was in 10 o'clock direction from me.

Victoria I in Stockholm. This view immediately reminded me of my cruise on her a bit over a year ago when I was standing on the side deck just like that, looking at the Silja Symphony right there. 

The selection in the Grande Buffet was quite satisfactory and finding a seat was never a problem, although it was evident that the crowds passing through every morning are huge. The crew was working hard too - the dishes disappeared moments after the customer left, almost like magic. 

In Stockholm the shopping spree continued - it took me less than an hour to get rid of the little SEK I had exchanged for the shore leave; after that we switched to window-shopping, which resulted in getting quite a collection of business cards from different stores. Also did some walking and sightseeing, but since the weather wasn't the best, we returned to the ship about an hour before the departure, if not more.

Stockholm christmas market

Some Stockholm findings - excluding the chips, which were from the ship's store.

 By the time the ship departed I was already in the ship's spa. I had thought that there is no way a ship spa located on the upper decks with huge panorama windows can leave me unimpressed, but alas, I found one. The lack of directing signs left me very confused, there were way too few showers and the locker room was very narrow. The three pools seemed quite fine for a cruiseferry spa and I actually felt some envy looking at the kiddie pool which had a fun slide, but what did disturb me was the relatively freezing water in the pools. Although I put up with cold very well, I'd still expect the bubbling bath to feel warm, not slightly cold that took some time to get used to. The scenery was quite nice, but that's about it, I'd say. The price, fortunately, wasn't sky high either; I got what I paid for. Later in the evening I felt like participating in the karaoke, which took place in the New York Club & Lounge above the spa on a whole separate deck around the funnel, which could maybe be called the 13th deck, although it was marked with a star instead of the numeration. After the karaoke the party started in the same place, although the majority of the crowd was at Atlantis Palace, it was still quite nice.

At some  point during the karaoke event we called in Mariehamn, arriving just as Mariella was leaving, side by side with the Rosella who spends her nights in Mariehamn.

Me and Harri the Seal who also seemed to have a long night out. In addition to him, Santa Claus and Moomintroll were on board.

The next morning we also woke up early, went for the breakfast and tried to get off the ship as late as possible. It was cold in Helsinki and the contrast felt huge - we went from fat spoiled pigs with spa access, fine food, candy, alcohol and cosmetics, a great view from the cabin window and entertainment programmes we were too lazy to attend to shivering girls with no home. First of all we dropped off the annoying suitcase (this time I just counted the times it flipped over to stay calm - until I lost count at around 10) and sat in the terminal cafe for much over an hour watching the snowploughs at work. Afterwards we went for a walk and stepped in a few small seemingly 2nd hand boutiques, where the shopping spree unexpectedly continued. We returned to Katajanokka over two hours before our departure, did the check in and sat down to wait. During the return journey we were far too tired to do anything, spending most of the time sitting apathetically at the Dance Pavillion.

Disembark

To sum up, Silja Symphony is a great choice definitely worth her price. The feel on board was quite glamorous, the shopping and partying possibilities are great. I also found the ship easy to navigate (as long as you get the side of the promenade right), although it was very easy to confuse the direction of the ship while on board. To me an extra cherry on the cake was the fact that the ship is almost entirely symmetrical, built up and designed very rationally. Before cruising on her she looked much smaller on the outside, but after seeing the interior her actual size hit me and now she seems much larger on the outside, too. Compared to another great ferry, the Viking Grace, she is definitely much more majestic; the interior design on the other hand is well overshadowed by that of the Grace, not to even mention the spa. The overall impression was great though; I could've easily lived on board for longer, she would work quite well as a cruise ship. I definitely recommend her to everyone, especially the promenade cabin, and I'm quite certain I'll be cruising again on either her or the Serenade soon.