right then guys i am at the viking line ferry terminal in helsinki
and uh i'm waiting for the ferry to take me back to tallinn it's going to be the viking line
express or xprs as they've shortened it too
and it's not in yet i'm going to check in and then when i get on board i'll show you around
yeah so you've got to be a bit careful here because viking line actually uses the terminal
across the city called skatuddens terminal whereas eckero line who i came over with use
Länsiterminaali terminal 2 which is in a completely different part of the city and
a good 45 minutes away i reckon using public transport
but you can get to both ports quite easily by using the helsinki tram system
and it doesn't look much from the outside does it but once you're inside it's it's a
really big and bright space as you can see it's very red and white uh to go with the
viking line brand obviously and there are the usual check-in desks and automated machines
ticket office information desk and departure boards
and i paid 16 euros for my foot passenger sailing this evening which i thought was pretty good it
was actually three euros cheaper than the eckero line ferry i'd come over on earlier in the day
once i got my ticket i headed up the escalator towards gate 2
which would be our point of departure this evening
just around this corner are the automatic barriers then there's a small but comfortable waiting room
and now this was pretty handy another escalator taking foot passengers
up to the gangway where by now our ship had arrived
the ms viking xprs cost 130 million euros to build and began service on this route back in 2008
it can carry up to two and a half thousand passengers and 240 cars
now service speed of this vessel is about 25 knots and that means it can complete the journey
in about two and a half hours you can already get an idea of the size
of the ship can you as we board our vessel it's pretty big i would say
i normally head straight out onto deck to see the boat leave port but i was really hungry by
this point so breaking with tradition i thought i'd head for the blue deli restaurant first on
deck 8 and get something to eat and i must say the food was absolutely fantastic there was lots
of choice and you basically just helped yourself to whatever you wanted and put it all on a big
plate and then you paid the money according to the weight of the food on the plate i only paid
about 15 euros for all this so after that i headed all the way up to deck 10 to try and walk the food
off and check on the weather because it'd been pretty miserable for most of the day to be honest
and after going through the automatic doors up here you have this bar area
similar to the eckero line ship i was on earlier
there's lots of outside seating here and i would imagine this whole bar area would be
properly open in the summer when the weather's nicer and obviously the ship is a lot busier
we were well underway at this point heading out past the myriad of fascinating islands
just offshore and it's well worth sailing out of here in the daylight hours so you can enjoy
this part of the journey the scenery even on a dull day like this is simply breathtaking
i ended up at the stern of the boat and it was pretty windy at this point so um
you couldn't really hear what i was saying but i just simply could not miss this
absolute highlight of the trip as we navigated through the Kustaanmiekka strait
between the pretty islands of Suomenlinna and Vallisaari
i know they've probably done this thousands of times but look how tight it is to get through
this gap um Suomenlinna by the way is the one on the left just over my shoulder there it's
actually a unesco listed world heritage site it's got an 18th century sea fortress loads of museums
it's even got its own brewery you can get there by ferry from helsinki if you're ever out this way
right so after watching that spectacular sail through the islands
i dropped down onto the sun deck on deck 8 which also has plenty of seating by the way
but again the outside bar here was closed but i can imagine in the summer
in normal times there would be live entertainment on this small stage here
now i had a peer inside at the buffet restaurant and it was still very quiet in there wasn't it
it's good to see the recycling points here in front of this odd thing with the door advertising
gin i'm not sure what this was to be honest if you've got any idea please let me know
as we look back towards finland um note that although it was built in finland this ship
actually sails under the estonian flag but it didn't always the vessel was reflagged in 2014
basically to save money as wages and social costs in estonia are around 40% lower than finland
it was pretty cold on deck so i went back inside and ended up in club
x which was on deck 7 now ordinarily there would be shows on the stage here but
not today unfortunately again the bar was closed
and people i think we're just using the area to relax in the chairs here were nice and comfortable
now right next door to that was the music pub vikings inn and that was a bit more lively uh
there was a chap in here an english guy actually performing well-known classics on the acoustic
guitar to a small but appreciative audience it was probably about right there really for
this evening sailing i would say and the bar was open which was a plus point i would be
heading back here after i'd taken you guys on a brief two of some of the other ship's features
so through the 'corridor of fruit machines' you end up pretty much in the middle of the ship and
it's surprising how much quieter it is here only a few metres away from the pub area now there's
plenty of information on the walls including deck plans so you can get your bearings oh i love
these pictures of the old viking line ferries that adorn the stairwells nice touches really
and still on deck 7 there's a great view here looking out onto the sea
although the arcade games do seem a little bit of a strange placement
anyway i headed towards the information desk past more gambling machines and the wall of
the huge shopping world on my left well here was shopping world and the shopping trolleys outside
again which says to me this is another massive shop on a ferry well i didn't go
in this time instead i headed back up to deck 8 as there was still some of the ship to explore
i went back past the blue deli restaurant and along this side of the vessel
past the appealing roberts coffee shop to the wine and dine casual and buffet area
as i'd already eaten this was one step too far for me i'm afraid so i decided to retire
gracefully back to the vikings pub where i enjoyed a lovely glass of wine whilst listening to the
acoustic music guy bashing out well-known covers such as brown-eyed girl and layla
well my journey was nearly over so i decided to head out onto deck for one last time
to catch the bright lights of the estonian capital tallinn
this was a really memorable approach to a beautiful city
well guys we are just coming into tallinn and i've got to say this was a great boat
head and shoulders above the previous boat I was on going out to helsinki earlier on today
in-fact it's up there with the stena Estrid not quite sure it's
as good maybe it is what do you think please leave me a comment below i'll be interested to
hear your thoughts but yeah in my opinion this was a great boat and it had everything on it
and price wise as well it was pretty good wasn't it so i'm going to um hopefully get
through customers uh passport control once again on this journey and get back to the hotel room
thank you very much for watching hope you've enjoyed it and i will see you again soon cheers
for now