August 13th, 2026
We made a little bit of a tactical error today. We have only been to Helsinki once and it was on a smaller ship so we docked close to town. Since we are on a larger ship that option was not available to us so we docked in an industrial port. We had booked a Segway tour off Viator that started at 11 and when we docked and got off and I went to see how far we had to go to get our tour it was a 1 hour walk. Luckily the port had a shuttle that you could take for 12 euros each so we bought 2 tickets and took the shuttle to town. From where the shuttle dropped us off it was a 15 minute to our tour so we made it in plenty of time.
There were 4 other people from our cruise ship on the tour so a total of 6 and our Spanish guide Christian. That is Christian on the left explaining something to the group and then us in front of the new huge
public library.
Some of the architecture on our tour. We went around a huge waterfront park and passed a lot of school children walking around.. Christian, our guide, is from Madrid and has been in Finland for a little over a year. He is ready to move on and really wants to come to the states but realizes that is probably not an option right now. He also talked about the high rate of depression in Finland due to the long dark winters. There is a high alcoholic rate and to combat that the government has imposed a 60% tax on all alcohol. He explained that Finland makes its own beer but most is not bought in Finland due to the high taxes. To counteract the high cost they take the ferry over to Estonia, 2 hours away, and buy alcohol for much cheaper, including the Finnish made beer and bring it back home.
After the tour we walked back down to the waterfront and looked at all the stalls selling crafts, food and drink. They have a swimming area right off the river with a cafe so we decided to have lunch there.
The complex has 2 heated swimming pools, one for laps and one just to swim in. They also have a sauna and a place where you can jump right in the sea to cool off. We watched a few people come out of the sauna and get into the sea but no one stayed in for a long time. Too cold. They also have a ferris wheel close to the harbor and one of the cars on the ferris wheel is a sauna. This country is serious about sauna!
After lunch we walked a bit more and then caught the shuttle back to the ship.
We spent the rest of the afternoon reading and relaxing. We had dinner in the Crown Grill. One of the perks of the Princess Premiere package is unlimited dining in any of the speciality restaurants.
Next port is Stockholm.