Springtime Gardens & Charms, 23rd April 2011

I came home from my exercise class feeling a bit down, I don't know why. As I walked in the door my OH was just on his way out, he said... do you fancy a cruise? Did I ever! Where to? Was my relpy. Ultimately St Petersburg... details on the desk I'll leave it to you. I have always wanted to visit St Petersburg but as OH won't fly it seemed out of the question. My first call was to James at Iglu, we have used Iglu twice in the past so I knew I could rely on him to organise everything. I have been on Marco Polo twice before so knew what to expect. I booked an inside cabin but got an up grade to a deluxe outside, very nice. This happened on our last cruise and we ended up sailing off up the Thames estuary with our luggage nowhere to be seen, once again I am left pondering whether I am going to have to wash my undies every night, but it was quickly resolved. Our cabin was lovely, plenty of storage space and I spent many happy hours leaning on my huge window ledge watching the world go by. Our cabin steward, an eastern European lad was absolutely brilliant, nothing was too much trouble. We ate in the Waldorf for formal dining and in Marco's bistro at other times. At this price I know I am not going to get gourmet dining i.e lobster thermidor but what we did get was well cooked and plentiful, varied chioces and well presented. Excursions, on this trip we only booked two, one in Russia because if you don't travel on the ships visa you need to get one of your own, and that can be tricky. The Border Guards are a hard faced lot, he kept looking at my passport, looking at a screen, then back at my passport, all the time eyeing me up, I began to wonder what he knew about me that I didn't. Eventually he let me in!! I must point out that Cruise and Maritime use guides who really know thier subject and our guide for Petersburg and the Catherine Palace was fantastic. In Rostock we had a student who really knew his city and made the visit so enjoyable. on our last cruise we even had a guide who was an engineer on the ship when she was known as the Alexander Pushkin. We visited most of the Baltic capitals, after Petersburg, Tallinn was the best. Entertainment, the entertainers on board are all classically trained musicians and dancers and with the limited facilities available on board present wonderful entertainments. The cruise director Richard Sykes is one in a million, I have seen quotes on other cruise sites that P&O or Cunard ought to poach him, keep your mitts off!! He is brilliant and the staff entertainers i.e Cait and James are fantastic. The classical duo Carmen are great, Olga on violin and Tetyana on piano, for one so young Tetyana is a brilliant pianist and will go far. I must mention that on our last cruise we went to the Arctic Circle to see the Northern Lights, which we saw in spades, but got caugt in the worst storm seen in the Norwegian Sea for a decade, windows were crashing in all around us but the theatre company played on and in the Captains Bar Olga gamefully played the piano, eventhough her first intsrument is the violin, her stool kept sliding and when her hand needed to be at one end of the keyboard her stool was at the other, true Titanic spirit. I must comment about hygiene, the staff are demons with the gel sprays all over the ship. The crew are a happy, cheerful crowd who will do what they can to make your trip as pleasant as possible, look out for Elvis and Sindi in the Captains Bar (I will never forget Sindi's face when a Scotsman in full rig walked past and I commented... I hope it isn't windy on deck, they don't wear anything under the kilt, her eyes were like saucers!!) And I must mention a deck hand, I don't know his name, but he has been there on all three cruises, polishing and scrubbing anything and everything in sight. Whatever ungodly hour I got up in the morning and went on deck for a ciggie he was there...good morning madam, did you have a good night? To which I replied... yes thank you and ran like hell, I remembered the old army adage... if it moves salute it if it stands still polish it. I have enjoyed my cruises on Marco Polo, consider them great value and wouldn't hesitate to sail with them again, using Iglu to do all the organising because they are great.