The night before the trip, disaster struck when my spouse's phone stopped working. Nowadays, you can't survive without a phone. Everything is on the phone, for example train tickets and ship check-in. Luckily, he had an old spare phone, but it was still time consuming and stressful.
I was afraid in advance that we would be late for the ship. The train is scheduled to arrive in Helsinki at 3:40 PM, and the ship's check-in ends at 4:30 PM. If the train had been late, we could have missed the boat. But otherwise, it's perfect because you can get straight to the ship and don't have to wait in the rush for boarding to begin.
Before, we could only do these Stockholm cruises if someone (i.e. my mother) was there to take care of the cats. That's why we only did two Helsinki-Stockholm cruises. One in an A-cabin and the other in a Commodore. So we hadn't been in a Deluxe cabin before. They are only on deck 11, which is the top cabin deck.
I always want a sea view cabin. I don't understand those who want to look out onto the promenade.
Luckily, there weren't many people at the grandma's outing at the beginning of the week, even during the Christmas season. The Christmas dinner buffet had "rosolli" again and lovely beetroot whipped cream. I had been wondering for a long time whether I should drink alcohol so that I could eat breakfast and have the energy to stroll in Stockholm. In the end, I had two glasses of white wine at the buffet, and one Caipiroska at the nightclub. Then I woke up at 3 am with my heart pounding.
It's been a long time since I've seen a show on a cruise. There were two of them both nights, and there was no hope that I would have had the energy to watch the later one. Before, the shows could also be seen on the ship's TV in the cabin, too bad that's no longer the case.
It was also a shame that there weren't any nice Absolute vodkas in the ship's bars. I've been dreaming of Wild Berri for a long time, and now some Haring has also arrived. They were in the store, but why would I buy a pig in a poke? The most surprising thing is why Swedish liquor stores don't sell Absolute vodkas.
Luckily, the egg butter for the special breakfast was better than at Victoria. And the selection also included a cheese omelet, good but of course salty.
In Stockholm, we visited the liquor museum, which I had wanted to go to since my last trip to Stockholm, so maybe 11 years? The Spritmuseum was rather small and perhaps not entirely worth the price. The most interesting thing was the True Crime exhibition, and of course everything related to Absolut vodka.
The day in Stockholm was tough and afterwards I was really tired and my body felt like it had been hit by a train.
The ship was only at sea after dark, so we only went out on deck to take pictures when the ship was in Stockholm harbor.
Also, when leaving the ship, there was only 49 minutes to catch the train. Luckily, the ship wasn't late. The train was pretty full, which was a shame when I'm used to the last shift of the evening where there's no one.
On the way home, we saw a blimp. And in Kuopio, of course, I had problems on the rush hour bus when the card reader showed a red light and I thought the payment didn't go through. So I showed my bus card again and the payment went through twice. It's so annoying that it would be a place for crying out loud again. If I don't know how to act on the bus, I shouldn't go there.
I didn't even hope that my suitcase would fit spare shoes, or other boots. Of course, I would have another, gigantic bag, but I really wouldn't take it on a two-night trip. I had the usual foldable ballerinas for use on the ship, but they're now so worn out that I had to throw them away. I don't really know where I could get new ones cheaply, except from Temu.
I thought in advance about which woolen jacket to wear, the shorter one or the longer one. Luckily I wore the longer one because even though it was only a little bit cold, I was still cold sometimes without pants. Whether it is summer or winter, I am always cold. What can you do when I always want to wear a dress or a skirt on these trips.
The cabin temperature could be put to 25 degrees, and it was amazing that I didn't need any woolen socks at all. The first night, I even had to lower the cabin temperature. At home, I've been freezing at "only" 22 degrees.
Ever since Stinky (from Moomin) was canceled at a New York exhibition, I've been obsessed with getting Stinky-themed stuff. Justice for Stinky! I got Stinky socks from the ship. A shirt with a picture of Stinky and Moominpappa making moonshine was nice too. Somehow it feels like that isn't a children's shirt.
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