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.

End of peak, start of another

By now, the cruise season is long over, but I'm still yet to share some happenings from before and after it ended; besides the long journey I had in August which I reported very thoroughly, I have been lucky to attend and photograph many interesting events and visiting ships.
For example, early in September there was an event, during which Port of Tallinn was offering bus excursions to the harbour of Muuga. The bus took us to the entrance of the harbor where we had to pass through radiation detectors and get back on the bus. Although I would've liked to walk to look around beyond the places where the bus took us, the transport was still needed because the distances there are really long. From the bus windows I saw many different buildings with various purposes.

Ammonium fertilizer storage, built to minimize the damage in case of explosion by directing the force upwards

Cranes. One of these can still be seen in the passenger harbour in the center of Tallinn as a remain of it's former purpose as a cargo harbour.

Oil storage tanks

Logs...

Grain conveyor..

... and storage building, which can be seen from very far away.

container terminal

coal terminal, currently not in use

View from farther away. The guide's talk about all of the facilities being directly linked to the piers made me wish to actualy see a pier, but that was unfortunately not possible. The harbour is large and very efficient and it could apparently serve many more ships than it's currently serving. 

In addition to that, about a week ago three warships and a submarine from the Netherlands visited the passenger harbour and two of the warships were briefly opened to all visitors. The security at the harbour was surprisingly strict, all the visitors were taken to the ships by bus; before boarding Amsterdam, the largest of the ships, visitors had to leave their bags and movement on board was allowed in only one set direction.

Evertsen

Equipment

Another ship, the Zeeland, was berthed alongside; Victoria on the background.

Star backing out...

... and turning around

Tanker Viimsi leaving the harbour after bunkering Victoria

Busy day

Tug life

Corridor on the Evertsen

From the Netherlands. Helicopter deck on the Amsterdam. On the right the single crane in the harbour, which I mentioned earlier.

Viking XPRS arriving

No zoom; great way to see a bulbous bow in action.

Friendly crew

the submarine Bruinvis

In the meanwhile, Silja Europa sailed to her final destination in Australia. After my previous post about her she sailed to Naantali for a refit and briefly returned to Tallinn, sporting a new Bridgemans livery. I last saw her on the 11th of September while volunteering on a sailboat named Lulu. I planned on taking pictures of her, but as soon as we got close enough, thick fog rolled in. The next evening she set sail towards Australia and arrived at Barrow Island on the 24th of October.

Photo from www.laivakuvat.com

Now for the news. In late September, Tallink and my favourite band Nightwish announced that two Nightwish cruises will take place in June 2015, on board the Baltic Princess, starting from Turku. Now, anyone who knows me even a little should understand why missing that was simply not an option. The major obstacle was the fact that booking opened up in early October, with earlier booking advantage to members of Club One and some mysterious Nightwish fanclub, of which no one I know had heard anything. Fearing that the tickets would sell out before I manage to get the funds to book myself a cabin, I put up an announcement on the Finnish Nightwish forum looking for cabin mates using my Club One advantage. Although it turned out that I wasn't getting the advantage code due to being a member of the Estonian Club One and not the Finnish one, it was still successful. Three people contacted me within a reasonable time willing to join, I got the code from a Finnish friend (Thanks Olli), the negotiations went very smoothly and I booked the cruise within the advantage time. I have already met two of my cruise mates face to face and I consider them new friends. I have also added a countdown ticker to the blog. 

Twenty years back

Imagine it's 1994. You're about to depart from Tallinn on board a fancy, unsinkable ship with a great symbolic value. Perhaps you're very excited, perhaps a bit sad to be leaving. Are you going to work, to visit friends, on a vacation, maybe to attend an event? Maybe you just closely missed the departure due to some frustrating inconvenience. Or you just boarded and found everything you'd expect to find - restaurants, stores, a night club. Are you stunned by the beauty of the ship or is it something so usual you don't even notice it?

The ship departs, hours pass. What are you doing now? Are you enjoying the show in the nightclub? Or perhaps in your warm cabin bed resting after a long hard day, maybe a few drinks at the bar? Maybe you're doing your job just like the rest of the crew? The weather is stormy and the ship rolls heavily, the sun decks are closed and even if they weren't, they're definitely not the place you want to be right now. Even without the help of a drink or two it's hard to walk straight. Perhaps the rolling worries  you, or are you so used to life on the sea that no little storm scares you?

Suddenly the ship lists heavily. You fall out of your bed, you find it very difficult to not fall over wherever you're standing. The chair you're sitting on slides away, taking you along. Maybe you do fall over, maybe you manage to grab something and hold on. People around you, as well as yourself, realize that something is wrong. People are screaming and trying to run, some are apathetic, some are doing everything to prevent others from escaping. Many are injured, you might be as well. Water is pouring from toilets, wetting the floors and feeding the panic. The list keeps getting worse, you try hard to make your way upstairs, which gets more and more difficult by the minute. Maybe you're stuck in your cabin with nothing to use to climb up and out of the door, and you realize that your only option is to go down with the ship. 

Perhaps you're one of the lucky ones to make it on the sun deck. It's cold and windy, the waves are very high and you see that you have to climb over the railing and stand on the side of the ship - the ship has turned to her side. You notice people launching liferafts. Maybe you'll be lucky enough to join them, maybe not. Do you jump in the freezing water right away or try to stay with the ship for as long as you can? The ship blasts her final horn; it's a long, long blast. Before it ends, her funnel sinks in the sea. You see lights from liferafts and other ships and a guy flashing his camera. You're standing on the bottom of the glorious cruiseferry who will pull you down with her, probably for good, if you don't leave her right away. 

Now you're floating in the freezing water, swimming, looking for a liferaft or something to hold on to. Maybe you're already in a liferaft. The waves are making it difficult to see what's going on around you, throwing you around so that it's hard to get anywhere. There's a lot of water in your liferaft from the heavy waves, mixed with some vomit from the severely seasick people in your liferaft, probably including yourself. The beautiful cruiseferry that brought you here is nowhere to be found. Maybe you witnessed her final minutes from your raft, maybe you were too busy saving your own life. 

The first ships have arrived on the scene. You see one guy climbing up a ladder on the side of an enormous white Silja Line cruiseferry. At this point you're probably too sick, tired, weak, frozen, injured to do anything. Maybe you're lucky to be one of the first to be picked up by a helicopter, maybe you've had to wait for so long and you see the sky slowly getting lighter as a new day dawns. Are you even alive? 

Even when you're finally being pulled up towards a helicopter, you're still not safe. What if the rescue equipment of the helicopter lets you down and you fall straight back into the freezing water? Maybe you're once again lucky to be safely on the helicopter. Maybe it takes you to one of the nearby cruiseferries, maybe straight to the shore. You're being taken care of and constantly bombarded with questions while finally starting to grasp what has just happened. Eventually you learn that you were one of a few to survive.

Maybe you missed the fateful departure or never even intended to be there. You woke up in the morning from your comfortable bed to hear the news. Is it some kind of a joke? Surely it can't be real?

Unfortunately, it was all real exactly 20 years ago, when the glorious cruiseferry Estonia, a symbol of the regained independence of the namesake country, was tragically lost at sea along with the majority of her passengers, becoming a synonym of the worst peacetime disaster to occur in the Baltic Sea.

1980 - 1994

The disaster led to many changes in ship safety and the order of handling such situations. Most Estonians lost someone or knew someone who lost someone that night.

It occurred nearly two years before I came to this world and I'm not the result of any incredible survivals; no one I'm related to was lost either. Still, even years later the event has affected me deeply. I've read countless stories, watched hours and hours of related videos and movies, which enabled me to write this post in the first place; whenever I travel, I feel completely secure boarding my ship, I trust it fully. I'm sure the people boarding the Estonia before her final departure were mostly feeling the same. Of all the horrible shipwrecks, this one happened to a ship of my favourite kind, a Baltic Sea cruiseferry, a descendant of Finnjet. I don't even want to know what I would've felt, had I lived that night.

May the souls of the 852 people who were lost with the ship rest in peace. 

Experience: Gabriella + final days

This is the 5th part of a trip report; The whole story can be found under the tag I Must Travel Otherwise I'll Die 2014; First part can be read here.

Shortly after my arrival in Kirkkonummi I met my friend Victor who hosted me for the next few days. It was quite a nice change from the big cities, being a very nice remote forest place. Most of the time there was relaxation at it's best with not much to do besides probably the best sauna I've ever had. One day was almost entirely spent in Serena.

Remote forest place

Inside Serena - the yellow tube slide was the best!

The weather wasn't exactly what it had been a few weeks before, but still bearable enough to go outside as well...

... so we did.

On the penultimate day of my trip I moved back to Helsinki and met up once again with Tuulia to spend some time in the city walking around, doing some little shopping and a really nice lunch. Later in the evening I had one last walk and the next morning I had to wake up early to catch Gabriella back home. Despite the efforts, it was a very close call; I made it to the harbour about 10 minutes before the departure and I was one of the very last to board.

Astor in Helsinki

Silja Serenade, same place

Balmoral, Brilliance of the Seas and a bit of MSC Poesia in the West Harbour

Underway

Mandatory funnel picture

Not-so mandatory mast picture

Linda Line's fast catamaran Karolin approaching...

... some minutes later, the Finnish Border Guard's patrol ship Turva followed. She's the first patrol vessel in the world powered by LNG and the 2nd such ship to enter service in Finland, first being the Viking Grace.

Under the bridge. I quite enjoyed the colouring of the sundeck. 

Ella's Italian-American Restaurant

The fun club on the Gabriella was almost exactly the same as the fun club on her sister Amorella

Staircase art on the remote deck 11

Met the Finlandia closer to Tallinn

Quite a contrast between the weather in Helsinki (left) and the weather in Tallinn (right)

Soon after we entered the wall of thick fog surrounding Tallinn, Baltic Queen appeared, heading to Helsinki. She had replaced the Silja Europa some weeks before.

The weather in Tallinn really was bad; Gabriella's windows are not the clearest thing in the world either. Superstar departing and Marina.

Europa at the "Baby pier"

Marco Polo and Marina

Costa Fortuna coming in about 20 hours early again; the itinerary was probably changed after the cruise ship schedules were published.

Viking XPRS after freeing her spot for Gabriella.

The movement was necessary, because the gangways over the pier to the right are being rebuilt, therefore Viking XPRS had to free her spot for the short time Gabriella needed it.

But hey, who needs gangways anyway, right?

This crossing also marks that I've travelled on every Viking Line ship currently in service. My favourite is definitely the Viking Grace; I may write a separate post about the company when the time is right. I'd also like to give a million thanks to Tuulia, Inkeri, Nelly, Marcus, Steven, Victor and everyone else who made this trip what it was, including every single one of the wonderful people I first met during the trip. If any of you happen to be reading this by any chance, I encourage you to contact me. I wouldn't trade this amazing experience for anything at all and I really hope I can return to some of the cities I visited and ships I sailed very soon.