HELSINKI's overnight ferry - more like a CRUISE?!

I’m sharing my solo travel review of the overnight Viking Line ferry from Helsinki, Finland to Stockholm, Sweden.
Timestamps:
00:00 Introduction
00:22 Living as a digital nomad
01:07 Never been on an overnight ferry before
01:25 Montage of ferry
02:03 Boarding the ferry
02:29 Free upgrade!
03:06 Private balcony suite on the Captain’s Deck
03:21 Live music and entertainment
03:33 Food options
03:56 Wifi review
04:23 Nighttime on the ferry
04:38 Morning on the ferry
04:56 Tax-Free shop
05:52 Viking Line overall review
06:05 Closing montage
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Here at The True Voyager, I share about my personal experience of selling everything and leaving my corporate 9-5 to travel the world and live as a digital nomad. I help inspire people to find their passion, do what they love, and pursue the life of their dreams.

[@-tsvk-]

The wifi signal on these ships are usually at their best in the public common spaces. The structure of the ships (sheet metal) isolates/dampens the wifi signals so well that the base stations don't reach very far, so it's very wishful thinking to expect all cabins to have wifi service.

[@thetruevoyager]

Thanks for sharing! I'm not informed at all on this topic.

[@blechtic]

Also, the ship does travel quite far from the shores. There isn't going to be a tight network of 5G cellphone towers out there to provide high-speed connections to and from the outside world. I don't know what the ship has there for their connections but, if it's a satellite connection, getting enough bandwidth for even a fraction of the people to stream content on would presumably be fairly expensive.

[@thetruevoyager]

@@blechtic I am learning so much about this. I really had no idea. Never been on a ship before so assumed there would be good WiFi the whole way.

[@blechtic]

@@thetruevoyager Yep. It's a big Faraday cage away from fixed infrastructure. It's also a fairly cheap cruise ferry, both a party boat and a RORO for trucking, so they are unlikely to put repeaters in every cabin or pay a lot for connectivity out into the rest of the world. (It's still potentially a couple of thousand people.) That is worlds apart from the big round-the-world cruise ships, that can probably absorb the costs with their ticket prices. 2G has/had a long range and you could get bars further away from towers but the trade-off there is less bandwidth. The later the generation, the smaller the cell size and tower range. I don't see anyone paying very much for the network to be built out there and where would you put the towers? A simple repeater you might be able to fit in a navigation buoy, if you can figure out how to power it, but I think a cellphone tower would be a bit too much, especially for the low elevation. You might have some towers built on some of the rocky islets, though, built for various reasons but I doubt Netflix bandwidth is their first concern. TV and radio work because they are one-way and also because of the frequencies they use. Long-wave radio comms obviously work (HAM radio and the like) and I think some of them bounce from one of the atmospheric layers which is why they can have a huge range. Basically, the longer the range, the more bandwidth or the higher the frequency, the more power you need for the mere transmission. And at some point we sort of step into the realm of cooking. There's a reason you're not supposed to stand in front of radars.

[@MsBestPilotEver]

I have found that phone reception is better than wifi in rooms until leaving Maarianhamina, but only if you are on the Finland's shore side rooms.

[@tanjanikola9489]

Good old Gabby!. I have made the trip across many times either to work in Stockholm or just to watch some great bands playing. Popular bands are more likely to play outside of the summer season, when there are fewer holiday passengers. Silja Line ferries are worth checking out. They really look like cruise liners, but from Helsinki to Stockholm Silja tends to be more expensive. The lack of Wifi signal is obvious on open water, but most of that time one would be asleep. Also it is a good time to explore the ship and the programme that is on offer, and perhaps read a book instead. Regular travellers just prepare for the couple of hours of not having a signal (the rest of the time they will be partying, eating, shopping or sleeping anyway).

[@thetruevoyager]

Wow I was completely uninformed about the wifi on ships - I've never been on a ship for more than a few hours so this is all news to me. That's awesome that good bands play the ferries on the off-season - I'll have to check out Silja next time. Thanks for watching

[@user-lv6rn9cf8m]

I was in my 20s when I learnt the difference between ferries and cruise ships. When I started selling Royal Carribean lol Swedes/Finns always say "lets take a cruise to Finland/Sweden". We aren't really aware of these huge ships you call cruise ships. For us this is it. I mean honestly, I regard these ships as kind of a hybrid. They serve both functions. Most people use them for a cruise style experience, but for others it's purely traveling from a to b. Gabriella is one of the smaller ships though, the bigger ones are even more "cruise style". Generally the older ships - more cars. Newer ships - more restaurants and stuff.

[@Zee6rider]

What the difference?

[@user-lv6rn9cf8m]

@@Zee6rider Ferries are for travel (and shipping). Simpler. You have your cabin and not much else. Not very much to do really. Often has car decks for cars and trucks. Cruise ships - for the experience of being on a cruise. Often very luxurious. Focus on leisure and entertainment. Can have indoor malls, cinemas, swimming pools, lots of restaurants, bars, dancing... No car deck...

[@thetruevoyager]

This is so interesting! Even for a smaller ship I was very impressed with the amenities. Thanks for watching!

[@mikrokupu]

For many, the big Baltic Sea ferries are "party boats" but these are an important part of the transport system also. Beside passengers, the ferries carry a lot of cargo and vehicles.

[@matuklon]

What an experience! Reminds me of my trip from Umeå, Sweden to Vaasa, Finland last year with Wasaline. It was a short daytime cruise, but looked very similar inside (and WiFi was good).

[@thetruevoyager]

Oh interesting! I'll have to check out Wasaline too. Thanks for watching!

[@emwee6097]

Well, according to their website, 'The Wi-Fi service is not intended for streaming or other bandwidth-intensive purposes.'" Thanks for the nice video!!

[@thetruevoyager]

I must have missed the fine print. Thanks for watching!

[@just42tube]

You seem to have the wrong idea about wifi technologies. Open waters and northern latitude have about nothing to do with your connectivity issues. Wifi is a local area wireless technology. The quality depends on how it's built within the ship.

[@mikrokupu]

A ferry ride to Stockholm was often the highlight of my summer holiday as a kid :) Silja Line was the more fancy one and still is. Nowadays it's often cheaper to fly but kids still love the ferries. These days the sea route to Tallinn has more passengers, that's just a 2,5h ride but the ferries still are very comfortable "mini cruisers"

[@villemartikainen9394]

The stink was caused probably by some air pressure fluctuations in the ship's sewer pipes, which sometimes causes the water in waterlocks to drain and leak the smell out. When the ship was in the harbor and its sewage tanks were pumped empty, that might have caused it.

[@phillipleboa5251]

HI !!! NEW SUBSCRIBER HERE. LOVE THE VIDEO !! REGARDS, FROM SOUTH AFRICA.

[@thetruevoyager]

Aw, so glad you liked the video! Thanks for watching and for subscribing. Cheers!

[@ArchieArpeggio]

I usually use Viking Line aswell, but i travel mostly from Turku to Stockholm and back. It is 11 hours and if i remember right that takes 17 hours to go over sea from Helsinki. But if you have time and that doesn´t bother that´s not bas option either. I have used also Silja Line few times that propably is Tallink-Silja these days. But i prefer Viking Line better.

[@postoffice146]

They should reduce speed between Stockholm and Helsinki because when staying up till morning hours it's not nice at all to wake up early.

[@lisamonalisahikes]

Hi👋 found you at Beautiful Life Sage thought I’d check out your channel and support you. I have a hiking traveling channel myself. Thanks for sharing ❤

[@thetruevoyager]

Hey Lisa! Yay, thanks for checking out my channel! I'll take a peek and subscribe to yours, too. Beautiful Life Sage's comment section has been such a great way to meet other sweet people on a similar journey. I'm so glad you said hi!

[@lisamonalisahikes]

@@thetruevoyager I really like your style/content of videos. I am working on getting better in front of camera.

[@thetruevoyager]

@@lisamonalisahikes Thank you Lisa! Honestly I've made so much improvement since my first video 5 weeks ago - I already feel so much more comfortable in front of the camera. It's been really motivating to keep making videos and improve just a little bit with each upload :)

[@thetruevoyager]

@@lisamonalisahikes Hey Lisa, I actually created a free Facebook community for new content creators who have small channels and want to learn and grow together. There's only 2 of us right now haha, but I'm hoping more folks will join so that we can support each other on this journey! Here's the link if you're interested: facebook.com/share/f7923Z95fbsgoYt7/

[@haliputti]

Well, theres isnt so much cell towers in the ocean, isnt there?

[@user-lv6rn9cf8m]

You usually have coverage for your phone all the way over though, like the Swedish net overlaps the Finnish one.

[@Atte902]

​​@@user-lv6rn9cf8m😂 no you don't.