Tallink Victoria I - Aalsten

We took Helsinki to Talinn, Talinn to Stockholm, and Stockholm to Helsinki. Each was on a different ship and provided a different experience. Helsinki to Talinn is a quick trip of just a couple of hours. We went around mid day and it was fine. From Talinn to Stockholm we were on the Victoria. We had an interior cabin. It was smaller than expected and even with just 2 people in the room we struggled to find space for our luggage. There were 4 beds in the room in bunk bed arrangement. I think the beds were narrower than a twin bed. Very flat pillows. It was ok for a single night. We had our own bathroom, but it was tiny not even any separation between the shower and the toilet. From Stockholm to Helsinki we were on the Symphony. It's a much larger ship with an entire deck of shops and restaurants. We went with the cheaper interior rooms again. This time, that put us below the car decks, and it smelled like it. Our room was larger but I just kept wondering what I was breathing. There was also more noise from the ship engine which didn't bother me but did bother some others in our group. Very flat pillows again. Luckily, for most of our waking hours there were interesting things to see as we passed through the archipelagos around Stockholm and Helsinki so we didn't spend much time in our cabin.

CRAPHOLE -the most befitting G rated description. Came to our cabin, it had a rotten apple under bed in plain sight-that tells you how long the apple was there without cleaning crew picking up. All surfaces where covered in food crumbs and bathroom had particles of something. Called info desk. It took 1/2 hour for a stalin looking lady to show up. She entered the cabin without knocking, without hello, how are you or kiss-my-ass, said cabin looked fine, why are we complaining. I pointed to rotten apple still on the floor and all the dirty surfaces. She turned around and left without goodbye, I 'll be back or kiss-my-ass. Showed up again without knocking, picked up apple, sprayed the surfaces with bottle hand marked H2O using the safe rag for nightstand, sink, toilet shower with light spritzing of water. I told her it 's not enough to clean the bathroom with water. She said she didn 't clean this cabin in the first place so it was not her job and left with goodbye but this time with kiss-my-ass look. This craziness aside, very outdated ship, Surprised it passes any kind of inspection, including heath safety. Take Viking instead, but if you absolutely must, bring plenty of antibacterial wipes to do your own surface cleaning since clearly, bathrooms are not cleaned between passengers. Also, eat before boarding and hold iff to eat after. If bathrooms rooms not cleaned and such lazy/daisy attitude to unclean cabin/bathroom, I have suspicions that food safety is not followed and/or hands are not washed.

We took our first trip to Helsinki and made it special with a ferry ride from Stockholm. Well worth it! Yes, it is a touristy and even cheesy kind of thing to do, but if you don't do this kind of thing once in a while, what do you do with yourself? Take a chance on a ferry ride. This one had a fairly decent selection of restaurants. Great for kids and adults. We loved it.

We had an erasmus group of 96 go to Stockholm and take a ferry to Tallinn. The buffet was to die for! Very excellent food! The nightlife was fun, but I think it would have been alot more boring if we had a smaller group. The security were absolute jerks! I understand that they have a job to do, but they could have been a little more relaxed. I got in trouble just for opening my door, by myself, with no alcoholic beverages of any kind and the security started yelling at me to respect the quiet times and was pointing to the rules on the wall. I must say, this slightly put a rift in my opinion of the ferry, But we had alot of fun regardless of how cranky the security was.

Cruise ships are exciting, aren 't they? You never know what kind of romantic shenanigans and slapstick adventures you run into on the high seas, especially if they involve Charo and Gopher. Oh, wait a minute, I 'm having an acid trip and flashing back to The Love Boat circa 1977. No, the Victoria was big but no Pacific Princess, and I didn 't see the Landers sisters anywhere near the swimming pool. Just a lot of hirsute Estonians in the communal hot tub. This was the overnight cruise Jamie W. and I took from Talinn, the capital of Estonia (yes, Estonia to Stockholm. We already had a similar experience on the Silja Line Serenade from Stockholm to Helsinki, so we knew the routine pretty well by this point in our Scandinavian maritime vacation. The cabin was A class again and this time a bit roomier, a nice surprise since we got tired of falling into the toilet after taking a shower (photo: [hidden link] . There was no central promenade which took up a lot of space on several floors of the previous boat. No, the restaurants and shops were mostly on two of the decks, and you still had to make a reservation in advance to get dinner at a reasonable hour. We shared a rather middling dinner in the central dining room starting with the €13 Mussels Mariniere (photo: [hidden link] and the €11 Caesar Salad with Free Range Chicken (photo: [hidden link] . Not bad but our main entrees consisted of the chewy €19 BBQ Pork Ribs with French Fries (photo: [hidden link] and the rubbery €21 Flank Steak with Potato Purée (photo: [hidden link] . None of these dishes appeared to reflect the chef 's finest hour. However, our mutually bloated feeling meant we weren 't about to embarrass ourselves in the disco where drunken Europeans of all stripes had already taken over with brio early in the trip (photo: [hidden link] . The morning brought new hope with the complimentary Breakfast Buffet offering quite a selection of Nordic specialties like smoked salmon and a lot of sausages (photo: [hidden link] . However, the best part of the trip was coming upon the Stockholm Archipelago where the picturesque sight of all the islands meant we were nearing our final destination (photo: [hidden link] . This was a far cry from the dense fog we were escaping when we left Stockholm for Helsinki and couldn 't tell where we were headed. Oh look, I think I see Doc and Isaac with the Landers sisters. FOOD 3 stars...wouldn 't really come for the food if that 's what draws you to a cruise AMBIANCE 3 stars...dated but functional SERVICE 3 stars...barely present...where 's Julie McCoy when you need her? TOTAL 3 stars...really the only way to get from Talinn to Stockholm