Regent Seven Seas - Voyager

I discussed this Baltic Cruise line in a previous post. I have been on a few different cruise lines, and it's not just the destinations, you need to take into account your preferences on the size of the ship, the typical traveller on board, family cruises, culture immersion cruises, luxury, age-appropriate, etc.

On this particular cruise, we decided to see if we could visit the ship's galley.  With our request granted, a group of approximately 20 people assembled to go the ships galley. The head chef took us on the tour through the galley and explained the mechanics of storing, cooking and serving the 700 passengers on board to the standard they need to meet.

The amount of bread baked daily is astronomical; fresh food is brought on board at every stop and usually consists of whatever is the local fare.  There are descriptions and pictures of how each plate is cooked and presented. The head chef comes in at 5 pm to do a run through, and all items on the menu are prepared and submitted for inspection. If all is satisfactory, then the staff get ready for the passengers selections. Before each meal goes out it must be like the picture, or they must start again and at the end of the night explain as to why their plates weren't up to par.

On board our particular ship we had a young but capable Swedish Captain. He was seen around the vessel often and was readily available. Our cabin being approximately three suites from the bridge made it more likely to bump into the captain, which we did. He was a delight to chat with and had a great sense of humour.

I would recommend that you choose your cruise line carefully as it can make the difference between a good cruise holiday and an excellent cruise holiday.  If you're interested, my new book on 'Who What Wear of Cruising' is to be released end of February. In it, I discuss cruise lines, dress regulations, ship terminology and tips on getting the most of your cruise. Please email me for more details at tanyalococo@gmail.com

Stockholm, Sweden

Stockholm is the capital of Sweden and has nearly 1 million people living in the CBD. Sweden is made up of 14 islands. I have visited Stockholm before but albeit quite some time ago. It left the 'I must return' impression on me, and I have finally managed to make it back.
Cruising towards Stockholm you encounter so many beautiful properties on the waters edge, I remained on my balcony a considerable amount of time enjoying the views as we cruised towards the port in Stockholm.

As I enjoyed the Steig Larsson books starting with 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo', this is set in his version of Stockholm. I took the ship's organised tour of his Stockholm, and we went to the south side. It's different from the CBD and has some stunning picturesque areas where if I had the time I would sit and meditate or just take in the beautiful city across the water. Of course, many of the areas he spoke about are a mixture of real and fictional, to enhance his storyline, but there are places, street addresses and coffee shops that you can visit that are real and mentioned in his books.

The Scandinavian way of decorating buildings is very obvious in Stockholm with all their colour and characteristic architecture. I've always enjoyed the Scandinavian style of functional, cleverly designed minimalist furniture; this reflects in the way they design their buildings too.  With this particular cruise we were crisscrossing the Baltic sea, and unfortunately, we had only a quick visit, and so Stockholm remains on my 'must return to' list.

It would have been my preference to have a longer stay in Stockholm even overnight like a few of the other cruise lines do and fewer destinations to be able to immerse yourself in the culture of each particular stop. I'd truly like to explore more of Sweden and its islands to get a better sense of this land, culture and its people. I'd suggest a tour of Scandinavia on its own, probably self-driven to see a different side of it and also get to more than just the capital cities, A trip like I did in Italy and wrote about at the beginning of this blog.