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

Of the past and the future

Although it's now more than two weeks since Discovery called and many ships have visited, I haven't seen any, mostly because either the timing or the weather or both have been rather awful. I have been making plans, which I like to do a lot. Still, I haven't made any long-term travelling plans whatsoever, and at this point I'm not able to. But I have determined that I'll be taking advanced practical sailing courses in late June, which is just as exciting, if not more.

The Eckerö Line interview I briefly mentioned in my last post went very well. I was warmly welcomed by the head of the Estonian branch Katrin Sirk, who told me many interesting things about the history of the route and the company, showed me potentially useful sources and gave me a big book about the company. I'd like to point her out as a great example on how to be nice to people, not to mention that I'm very grateful.

Today the results were released of a study on the non-financial results of different companies; an article I read about it focused on Finnish customer satisfaction with the major ferry operators on the Gulf of Finland. It turned out that Eckerö Line has the highest customer satisfaction rate. In the light of this news I'm glad that I'll be finally giving them a first try in less than two weeks. In fact, I'll spend a weekend in Helsinki and use Finlandia for both crossings.

Soon!

As you probably will have noticed by now I've made a Facebook page to accompany this blog. Hopefully it'll make my blog easier to follow for you and easier for me to keep you updated on new posts and the things that don't make it to my blog posts. Either way, if you like what I do, show it by dropping a like to this page. 

The cruise season is on!

Today I'm very happy to announce that I've successfully survived the long winter and that today was the first cruise ship call in my hometown. This year it was MV Discovery, a small cruise ship built in 1971, now operated by Cruise & Maritime Voyages. She carries about 600 passengers and half as much crew.

Welcome to Tallinn, Discovery!

A bunch of lucky people

Obviously 600 passengers won't make a huge change, but when many ships add up to make 5000-10000 people, it's quite easy to notice the city more crowded than usually, especially the Old Town. This year it will benefit me directly, and I'm quite excited about the first call of Royal Princess on the 17th of May. In addition to the fact that she carries some 4000 passengers, she will be by far the largest ship I've ever laid my eyes upon. But I've already written about what I'm looking forward to. 

The sad part is that the next ship will not call until next Tuesday, and then after that, the following Saturday. That gives plenty of time for me to get impatient.  Fortunately cruise ships will call almost daily afterwards. 

I'd also like to enlighten you on what I've been doing in the meanwhile - after all, it has been almost a month since my last post. Most of it concerns my little research. I've been gathering materials, sending out e-mails and it finally seems to be going somewhere. I have the first interview meeting tomorrow, and I'd be lying if I said I'm not excited. I had the poll translated to Finnish as well, so, here I go again:

Help me a great deal by answering my poll here. 

In addition to that, I think you have noticed by now that the look and feel of my blog has changed significantly. It has been this way for many weeks now. I've had the same layout since the very beginning and the time felt right for some changes. 

Generally, my head is generating awesome ideas for the upcoming season faster than I can write them down, and I'm getting more impatient about the future every minute. If everything goes as planned, I'll have a lot to share with you. And yeah, I'm looking forward to that. 

What the future brings

Just in case it needs to be clarified, my last post was a first of April joke. I am not moving to Australia and definitely not quitting what I do, and this blog will continue as it is for a long time to come. ☺

To top off a really good day I've had so far, today Port of Tallinn released their cruise ship schedule. I can't say I haven't been waiting for it, checking their website daily, and now it finally feels reasonable to start making some more serious plans for the upcoming season. 

Look at the planned cruise ship calls in Tallinn here

This year's schedule is quite interesting too, compared to 2013. There are very many absolute must-see ships for me, here's some of them.

Aidamar

For obvious reasons.

(to those who don't know, she's my favourite cruise ship.)

First call 19. May

Royal Princess

www.1000kreuzfahrten.de

Launched in 2013 (which I've been around for long enough to remember), she is the 10th largest cruise ship in the world. She will be by far the largest ship to ever have visited Tallinn, breaking the record held by Celebrity Eclipse.

First call 17. May

Mein Schiff 1&2

Mein Schiff 2 - commons.wikimedia.org

Mein Schiff 1 called three times last year and I feel like I completely missed out (although I didn't), and this year I might just fill up that gap. Admit it, they're beautiful.

First call 8. June (Mein Schiff 2) & 29. June (Mein Schiff 1, first and only)

Gann

home.kpn.nl

An arctic cruiser lookalike training ship in Tallinn? 

Interesting.

First & only call 6. July

Azores

oceanliner-pictures.com

When I wrote this post about her less than a year ago, I would have never even imagined that she would be coming this way, because her future was uncertain. I've followed her ever since, and she's the one I'm most excited about. It would be a crime to miss out on such an impressive piece of pure history.

First call 19. May, second and last call 3. July.

[April fools] New page

It's now been more than a year I've been into ships, and I've had some great times.

Visiting some beautiful ships, like Victoria, ...

...Silja Europa, ...

... Cinderella

Seeing my favourite ship up close

Enjoying vast amounts of ship goods

Learning all about the maintenance of big ships

Learning to operate small ships

Finding out about the possibilities to pursue a marine career

And with all that, I'm starting to feel like it's time to move on. I've had so much to do with the sea recently that it's starting to feel like too much. 

The whole ship thing is probably not for me after all - it all feels a bit too difficult, too.. masculine. And heck, even if I would continue in the same field, it's not like I'll ever get to do everything I want to anyway. 

Therefore I've decided to move towards a whole new direction from now on. I'll be packing my bags, wiping off the dust of Europe and moving to Australia in the next month or so. Although Australia is also a good place to continue a ship life, that will not be the case, because recently I've been much more interested in fashion, especially that of Australia. 

This blog will, therefore, become a fashion and beauty blog from now on. Exciting times ahead!

Experience: to my beloved city on my beloved ship

On Friday I did something I've done many times before - a daycruise to Helsinki on Viking XPRS. As I have mentioned I booked the trip hardly a week before and I never really found a moment to plan my stay. I found myself wondering what to do only about an hour before the departure, but as it always seems to be with Helsinki, I had no problems keeping myself entertained at all. I guess I can add that to my long list of reasons why I love Helsinki to bits.

I'll start with Viking XPRS. While planning my first five or so trips on her, I did indeed check and consider other offers, but I've always just ended up choosing her, completely unintentionally. I never had any special reasons to pick her, especially since I started with her before I was even into ships. It has always been about the price-quality ratio, age restrictions (if you're under 16 you have to ask mommy or someone relevant to travel, that's about it really) and perfect locations in both cities. 

And now it's come to this - I'm starting to understand why some people develop a kind of an emotional bond with one specific vessel, even if she's not so remarkable in any way. It feels quite different when you know exactly what's around the corner, where you can find power plugs and where you most certainly will not find them, the direction of the ship at any given time, the tiny imperfections in her livery, the sound of the ship engine in different situations, etc.

Now that I was back on her for the first time after her recent docking, and as expected, not much was changed. Along with her shiny new Estonian flag came a new crew, slight changes in livery which I already discussed, and I found the ship looking much fresher both on the outside and inside, and the ship store rearranged. Still the same Viking XPRS I know. 

Yeah, she's Estonian alright.

Ships in the morning - Viking XPRS, Superstar, Silja Europa

Met Star about halfway..

.. and Finlandia close to Helsinki.

An army of angry bloodthirsty Villes. I assume they haven't been fed this morning, or maybe I've been calling them cute too much.

Some days before the trip I was playing around with the idea of bringing my bike along to make moving around Helsinki easier. I contacted Viking Line and found out that bringing a bike along will cost 5€ a crossing, obviously I would've had to change my booking, and show up at the car check-in. The latter was the only part of it I found somewhat thrilling, and considering the rapidly and unpredictably changing weather conditions and a rather limited budget, I dropped the idea. I didn't have to regret it, because during my first hour in Helsinki it was raining. I'll surely do a biking trip some other time, but this time I took a one-day transport ticket instead. Not only did it cost less than bringing a bike, but it was also much more beneficial - at one point, I found myself hanging around in Itäkeskus, then near the West Harbour, then in the center again, then Suomenlinna, then Hakaniemi, and so on. I can now proudly say that I've had my transport ticket checked in Helsinki as well. I hardly noticed it until the lady actually asked to see my ticket. I wish they were as cultured here in Tallinn too.

A kiddie train in Itis (a shopping mall in Itäkeskus)

A really nice building at Abrahaminkatu.

Going to very different places and areas in one day, many of them completely new to me, made the day feel so much longer, more eventful and successful. I've determined that, when travelling, I'm a day person - I tend to run out of energy and things to do just about at the time the sun sets. Therefore it's much more beneficial for me to cruise in summer, in addition to many other reasons. This time my trip was at the time of equinox, so I only returned to the port to wait for the ship about two hours early, which isn't bad at all. 

Princess Maria and Finlandia at the West Harbour

Another view of Princess Maria

Suomenlinna II

I have been to Suomenlinna three times now, and all of those times, unfortunately, have been during winter season. I probably wouldn't even have bothered this time, but Suomenlinna just happens to be the birthplace of some of the greatest ship photos of Helsinki (even though, as I've mentioned a ton of times, the whole city is packed with great photo spots). The last time I was there a year ago I had no intention of taking ship photos, and the timing wasn't so good either. When going to Suomenlinna, I've always been served by the ferry Suomenlinna II, but this time I had Suokki instead. There was hardly any difference between them, especially in the exterior, but the interior of Suokki seemed much older, probably because everything is made of wood. On ferries that small and with crossings taking only 15 minutes, differences don't really matter though. 

The best of all photo spots

Silja Serenade in the morning

passing by Gabriella

Both Stockholm ferries in one picture

Silja Serenade departing Helsinki

Approaching Kustaanmiekka strait

Gabriella doing the same thing about 30 minutes later

Going..

.. and gone.

Also, I almost forgot to mention that tomorrow, one year will have passed since the creation and the first post of this blog. Surprisingly for myself, I haven't changed much in it ever since and I've been quite successful so far, which means that I probably will keep going in the same direction. I'm always open for ideas, suggestions and questions, though. ☺

Estonian Maritime Academy II

Today the doors were open at the Estonian Maritime Academy again. Obviously, I was there. Again.

This year it was very different compared to last year. Since the academy will be united with Tallinn University of Technology, the event connected the whole university and instead of the long lecture, there was a fair-like thingy, where I could learn about all the opportunities they offer. I didn't really expect that, and thus turned up right at the beginning. Most of the time I spent chatting with the nice people at the Maritime Academy stand, tying some knots, learning more about the future of the institution etc. Had I known that the event was going to be different, I would've turned up later though - I ended up having to find something to do until the bus took us to the building of the academy. 

This little guy was lurking around at the fair, smiling and waving to people. When one of the cadets blocked his camera, he lowered the iPad on top (at least I think it was an iPad or smth?) and we had a little laugh. When I wanted to take a picture of him, I felt a strange temptation to tap him on the shoulder. I'm not quite sure if he was really cool, or a little bit creepy - especially when he stared at me for like a minute. 

After the fair, as I mentioned, we were taken to the building of the Academy and shown the bridge simulators. Last year they still had some programming bugs and the rooms smelled like restoration works. This year the simulator was well improved with many different real ships and areas available, and it still smelled like restoration works. I got to drive a coast guard patrol boat out of the harbour - after crashing it into a pier. ☺

On the bridge of Silja Festival, in icy waters, near a burning tanker.

All in all, I had a lot of fun. Now I only have one year left to reconsider, which I probably won't, because I've already had a year to do it and I still haven't.

In the meanwhile

It's been about a month since my last update, and although it may seem like I haven't done much, that's not the case. I've done some little shipspotting, mainly with the goal to get some proper photos of the regulars. Some more, like Victoria I for example, have gone through a docking.  I have started some serious work on my school research about the history of passenger ship traffic between Tallinn and Helsinki since 1965. To make conclusions about the current situation, I have opened up a poll - if you haven't answered yet, I'd greatly appreciate if you did so here.

Do you like Silja Europa? 

Or perhaps Superstar?

I'm also quite proud of myself, because I've got a job in the meanwhile - quite a nice one, in fact. The people there are really nice, the work itself is fun, the atmosphere is awesome and getting paid for it is like a really sweet extra that comes with it. So, should any of you find yourself in Tallinn - or if you live here - head over to Olde Hansa the medieval restaurant and have a taste of delicious almonds made at the spot. You may even find me right there. Maybe. ☺

But the greatest news of them all is that I'm going to Helsinki again on Friday. It will be the first day cruise I'll be doing alone, also I'll get to see if anything at all has changed on Viking XPRS during and after her recent docking. It's also by far the most spontaneous trip I've ever had - I booked it two days ago after seeing a sweet offer of 15€ per face for a day cruise, with the condition of at least one minor in the company. Nothing was said about any adults though, and I'm in my last 6 months of minority now. Lucky.