"Good trip marred by a rude attendant and chaotic entry and exit procedures"
I live in Sydney Australia and a friend recommended this trip when I was in Helsinki. I travelled between Helsinki and Tallinn on 31 August 2014 with Tallink. I bought business class tickets which cost an extra 100 euros.
We were told to be at the Terminal at least an hour before departure. I had expected airport-like security checks but there were none. No one even checked our passports.
The trip to Tallinn was quite good. The business class lounge wasn’t very crowded, so I chose a table by the window but you couldn’t see much as there were life boats above and below. There was food in the buffet but I was turned off by the smell of sausages. Food and booze were unlimited, so people were having champagnes and beers even at 10:30 in the morning. The attendants were professional and did their job fine.
I was glad to be able to charge my phone because there were plenty of power points available.
Two hours passed quickly as we had wifi and I was reading a book on my iPad. I managed to get a bit of food before they closed down the buffet.
Disembarking was horrendous. It was just heaps of people in a bottle neck waiting around, but it was worse coming back (see later).
I spent about 3 hours in Tallinn which was good but too short. Again I got to the gate about an hour before departure. This waiting time turned out to be quite unpleasant.
There was a huge crowd when I reached the Tallinn D terminal waiting to get in. There was no queue. It was horrible. Lots of young people with trolleys of beer and cider (5/6 cases of 24 packs) took up a lot of space. Business class passengers didn't get priority to board as you would on an aeroplane, but people who bought wine/liquor in the liquor store got to the front of the line instead of having to queue like the rest of us.
We came back on the ship Star (came on the Superstar) -- the business lounge was much better, with large windows and a nice view. I ate a big meal as soon as I sat down. The food was good -- salmon, both smoked and cooked, the sweetest little cooked prawns (with shells), spare ribs, chicken wings, salad… I also managed to eat some cheese and crackers before we got off at 6:30pm.
After I had settled in my seat I was shocked when one of the attendants (blonde, tall) suddenly said loudly to me that she didn't see my ticket. I looked at her and didn’t know what she meant. She repeated loudly that she didn’t remember seeing my ticket. I said someone else did, and the other blonde attendant, the more petit one, confirmed that she had seen my ticket. (They are very vigilant about checking your ticket to get into the Business Class lounge, so I was surprised by this questioning). I was furious -- she only had to ask to see my ticket and I would have shown it to her -- shouting out so loudly so everyone in the lounge could hear must have meant to humiliate me (and being the only Chinese/Asian person there I felt this could be racially motivated). She didn't apologise afterwards. I'm writing this in the hope that Tallink will do something about their customer service.
Disembarking was worse this time. People were coming down from two staircases, from the lift, from everywhere, and we had no place to go. It was a long wait -- I was disgusted by the huge number of people with trolleys of booze and relieved when I left the Terminal.
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Overall Rating:
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General:
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Catering:
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Cleanliness:
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Staff:
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Punctuality:
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Recommended?
Yes
Reviewed by Janet who travelled with Tallink Silja Line on Tallink Superstar
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