Jonza

Both options carry a risk. Risk of loss or pickpocketing for those who carry their original passport on their person. Risk of "small trouble and possibly also a fine" for those who leave their passports in the safe in the hotel/ship. Each person must decide what to do based on his/her own comfort level except, of course, when visiting Russia when the passport is a necessity.

Hotels and ships are very different in this matter. When you step off the ship without a passport you are entering a country without valid documents (unless the previous port was in the same country). Strictly speaking you are committing a crime entering a country without a passport though the likelihood of a targeted customs or border protection check on your ship is of course highly unlikely.

On what "small trouble and possibly a fine" means, I'll explain the Finnish system regarding this: If you were stopped at the border without a travel document you would be detained until your identity can be proven. Assuming your passport is in your cabin safe, the ship could get it to the officials in pretty short time. After this you would be fined for "minor national border crime" which typically caries a penalty of 15 day fines. Day fines are calculated with a formula from your monthly earnings with some reductions. 15 day fines ends up being about 1/4 of your monthly earnings. Other possibilities are denied entry or deportation, but those would not come to question in these cases where your passport quickly obtainable and you have the right to enter the country.

Now, we get to the loosey-goosey part. Beginning with Amsterdam, our second port, the cruise director would announce that immigration officials for the upcoming port require that all cruisers carry their passports (ORIGINALS! NOT COPIES!) with them when they exit the ship. We followed the cruise directors directions that first time, but we were never asked for the passports either leaving or returning to the ship. We only had to show the ship's ID card to enter the port area. We didn't complain, but apparently, lots of other people did. The port after Amsterdam, the cruise director again announced we needed to bring our passports with us, adding, "Folks I'm only reporting what the officials are telling us. I'm required to pass along these instructions." After a couple more port calls where we were again told to bring our passports -- never once having needed them -- we stopped bringing the originals and only brought copies. We never got into trouble because no one ever looked at anything beyond of ship's ID.

 

Bottom line: Be fully prepared in Russia. Expect some slight delays exiting the ship the first day visiting St. Petersburg. Use your judgement about your passport all other days despite what your cruise director may be announcing.

The Schengen zone, to which all the ports on a Baltic cruise except St. Petersburg belong, abolishes regular border controls. However by law you are required to have your passport with you when crossing a border so your cruise director is very correct to say that you are required to have it. I would compare the requirement to that of having a driver's license with you when driving a car: more than 99% of the time you don't really need it, but should you need it and not have it with you, you will be facing some small trouble and possibly also a fine.

Can we pay with a credit card?

At least in October when I was in Copenhagen you were able to pay with a card. For most of the lockers you just pay at machines. Actually I am not sure whether cash payment was even possible.

In general it is much more important that your credit/debit card is either Visa or Mastercard than then weather it is chip+pin. Visa and Mastercard are accepted virtually everywhere in Scandinavia and in many places elsewhere in Northern Europe. Amex and Diners are not as widely accepted.

Only places where you really need a credit/debit card with a are chip unmanned machines. Every manned establishment should be able to process a magnetic stripe payment technically. Store policies might prevent this, but this is not common. Just be prepared to prove your identity with an official photo ID such as your passport (not a photocopy) if paying with a magnetic stripe credit card. If you are trying to pay with your card and cannot prove your identity the store clerk can in the worst case scenario take your card away and will be awarded by the credit card company at your expense for doing so. Previously identification was asked for only large purchases, but as chip+pin is nowadays the standard, identification is asked relatively often if paying with a credit card without a pin.

Typically a chip+signature card will work fine in automated machines for small purchases (I have seen my chip+pin credit card defaulting to working without the pin in ticket machines in Germany for purchases of 50 or so euros).

My DW and I are going to taking a Baltic cruise next year that includes Amsterdam, Oslo, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Helsinki, St. Petersburg, Tallin, and Warnemunde (Berlin).

 

I know that the Dutch and Germans use Euros. How about the Scandinavian countries and Estonia?

 

Do the Russians use Euros or Rubles?

 

Trying to plan in advance for currency needs. Thanks for your help.

This really is something that you could google in two minutes and there are also several threads on the topic, but anyhow:

Amsterdam (EUR), Oslo (NOK), Copenhagen (DKK), Stockholm (SEK), Helsinki (EUR), St. Petersburg (RUB), Tallin(EUR), and Warnemunde (EUR).

In Scandinavia credit and debit cards are accepted almost everywhere so you more than likely will not need all local currencies.

Hi - I've been reading about tram tours in Helsinki, specifically Tram #4 (architecture) and Tram #9 (general tour of the city). These sound like a great, inexpensive way to see the city in our limited time at this port. Anyone have experience doing this? Do you know how we get from the cruise terminal (we are on the Silhouette) to these tram routes.

You can see the city by riding a tram. I have not read about any organized tram tours, but there is a brochure for the 2/3 loop (https://www.hsl.fi/sites/default/files/uploads/3b3t_esite_en_12.8.2013.pdf) and some suggested sites for lines 4 and 6 (http://www.visithelsinki.fi/en/whats-on/sightseeing-trips-and-guidances/travel-around-the-city-by-tram).

The Silhouette will dock at quay LMA in West Harbor about 400 meter walk from tram 9 terminus (follow a line on the ground). You can see maps of all the lines here: http://linjakartta.reittiopas.fi/en/

Thanks for the follow up. Reading the English home page, I got the precise location of the stage so your new link was very helpful. But this new knowlege creates a new question.

 

Kappeli restaurant appears to stop its lunch service during the summer. The message on the lunch web page says there will be a summer break until 10 August. The cafe appears to remain open through summer lunch, but it also seems to be located closer to Market Square than to the Esplanade stage. Am I understanding the restaurant's web site?

 

Are there places benches or chairs placed on the Esplanade for concert listeners? If not, what are our options?

 

Again, thanks.

Here is a google maps satellite image of the place: https://www.google.com/maps/place/Espan+lava,+Pohjoisesplanadi+1,+00130+Helsinki,+Suomi/@60.1675453,24.9504175,141m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m2!3m1!1s0x46920bcf21029681:0x7d687859db70ba74!6m1!1e1

There are a couple of rows of benches right in front of the stage. On the other side of the pedestrian walkway is restaurant Kappeli's terrace. The terrace has both restaurant and cafe/bar areas.

To my understanding they are definitely not closed. During summer holiday season they are just not offering a separate (and cheaper) lunch menu as there are both less workers coming to eat lunch from nearby offices and an abundance of less price sensitive one time customers such as tourists. They are offering their normal á la carte list also during lunch time.

Thanks. I clicked on the link and got the dreaded 404 error message. After doing another search to see if there was a replacement working URL, I went back to the URL you provided. Even though I was still getting the 404 Error Message, I clicked on the "Events" link. Happily, that worked and I was able to use the calendar successfully. I now know that on our day in Helsinki, we have a choice of the same concert offered at two times during the day.

 

The Esplanade Sibelius concerts are free in contrast to the other Sibelius concert taking place daily at the Helsinki Music Center.

Ah, sorry. Now double checked the URL and apparently their english front page is at http://www.espanlava.fi/en/home

The stage has a website: http://www.espanlava.fi/en/

Is the number for Belgium a misprint, or is something causing an aberration in the statistic? Brussels is one of only two cities where we had a pickpocket attempt in all our trips to Europe (the other was Rome), but we never felt unsafe at any time...it was just an odd occurrence on a quiet Sunday morning entering underground station. We probably looked like easy targets and no one was around.

Pickpockets are the biggest threat in Northern Europe and you should be aware of you surroundings. Violent crime is pretty rare and the statistical likelihood of being robbed is typically lower than in the U.S.. According to UN statistics the U.S. had 107.8 robberies per 100,000 people in 2013. Along a Baltic cruise Sweden has 87.4, Russia 64.5, Germany 57.1, Denmark 56.8, Estonia 37.0, Norway 33.1, and Finland 28.1. Going a little west: England and Wales have a 101.5, France 193.9, Belgium 1,616.0 and the Netherlands 78.1. So only France and Belgium have higher robbery rates than the U.S. (https://data.unodc.org/) In general I would say normal caution you would exercise in any big city is in place, but there is no reason to be scared of being robbed.

The stabbing in Stockholm was widely in the news also in the neighboring countries. Here's an article in English: http://www.thelocal.se/20150605/multiple-stabbing-in-major-stockholm-square From Swedish sources I found that at least one of the suspects had mental problems and the victims were chosen at random. Both victims were released from the hospital on the following day.

Can you buy the 8Euro public transport day passes (with cash) on the buses, or only a regular ticket?

Yes. More info: https://www.hsl.fi/en/tickets-and-fares

There are two HoHo bus operators in Helsinki: CityTour and Strömma. CityTour uses red buses and also uses the REDBuses brand in some of their marketing. Strömma runs green buses under the Open Top Tours brand. As far as i know there are no blue HoHo:s, but pretty much all the public buses are blue.

There are no HoHo boats in Helsinki, but both HoHo bus companies sell a ticket combining the bus with a sightseeing boat ride lasting approximately 1.5 hours.

Here are some details:

CityTour - REDBuses - red

• Website: http://www.citytour.fi/
  
• Price for HoHo bus: 25 € (kids 0-14 free)
  
• Price for HoHo bus + boat tour: 35 €
  
• Frequency of buses: 10-16 every 30 minutes
  
• Frequency of boats: 11-19 once per hour
  

Strömma - Open Top Tours - green

• Website: http://www.stromma.fi/en/
  
• Price for HoHo bus: 27 € (kids 0-6 free, 7-16 13 €)
  
• Price for HoHo bus + boat tour: 39 €
  
• Frequency of buses: 10-16 every 30-45 minutes
  
• Frequency of boats: 10:30-18:30 once per hour
  

Basically the offers are very similar. The HoHo buses run to pretty much the same attractions, but take slightly different routes (maps available on websites). Strömma has also the map of the boat route on their website where CityTour does not. CityTour has an optional buffet on their boat where as Strömma has a small cafe.

I did not see a tram at the port, so I can't speak on this. Can you buy tickets on board or do you have to buy them before hand? I really did not plan Helsinki as well as our other ports. I just knew we would be tired. I am not a fan in general of hop on hop off buses, but this one was great for Helsinki and fit our needs perfectly.

All in all if you are not opposed to walking a few hundred meters from the ship to a public transport stop and are wiling to do a little planing ahead of time (or have mobile data to use route planning apps as you go) you will save time and money. If you know what you want to see, public transport offers more frequent and direct point to point connections compared to hop on hop off buses. The public transport day pass is currently 8€ and HoHos are about 20€. HoHo saves you walk from the ship and some time planning so it really is up to one's preferences which one is the better choice.

Appreciate the info on the Hop on Hop Off Bus-we will try one

 

Question:

My husband 78 has some difficult walking long distances without stopping and resting a little

We arrive West Harbor in Helsinki Sat May 30th at 10 am and would like to go straight to

the Rock Church---what best way to go? Can we hire a Taxi for 4 hours? What would cost?

Should we do the taxi to the Rock Church and take our time walking down (rather then up)

Is there a walking map to use if we decide to walk down at our own pace without getting lost

and still seeing as much as possible?

If there are areas to stop get a coffee or something every 1/2 mile we will do fine

Would it be a scenic walk or should we get a tram down?

First I want to make sure you are not mixing up Helsinki and Tallinn as you are referring to walking up and down. The Rock Church is on a small hill, but the hill is small compared to the distance between downtown core and the church and the ship. In Tallinn you can really take a taxi to the top of the hill and walk down through the old town back towards the ship.

I see that on May 30th at that time you will be arriving on Celebrity Silhouette and you will berth at LMA. It is on the Jätkäsaari side of West Harbor and the immediate area around the ship is not interesting. Jätkäsaari used to be a cargo port until 2010 and is now turning into a new part of the city. Closest public transport stops from LMA require you to walk about 600 meters on pretty much flat asphalt with nothing of interest along the walk. As your husband has difficulty walking, I would conserve energy here and take either a HoHo or a taxi. Both are available at the berth.

As for getting straight to the Rock Church, taxi is likely the fastest. HoHos go there relatively soon after LMA and the red CityTour buses use a significantly shorter route along this section than the green Open Top Tours (see Ultima Thule's post #646 for the maps). Current prices for HoHos seem to be 27€ for green and 25€ for red. A taxi from LMA to the Rock Church should cost about 11€. Do not take a taxi for four hours unless you can pre-arrage a set fee. Taxis in Finland charge 44.60€ per hour if they are waiting for you, stuck in traffic, driving very slowly etc. that makes the hourly charge to be higher than the per km charge. So taking a taxi for four hours in downtown Helsinki would end up costing about 200€.

I am not aware of any particular walking map, but ships typically give out maps and nearly everyone speaks English well enough to give you directions. I made a Google map to show the walking distances to trams from LMA as well as a few points of interest: https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=zJxEiO0V-p2w.kDOxdhvRXwu8

If you do not want to walk, I would recommend taking either the HoHo or taking a taxi from the berth to the Rock Church and then using public transport to get around and either take a taxi back to the ship or if you have strength left walk from the tram 9 terminus at Länsiterminaali back to your ship.

We are going on a Baltics sail in May - pretty much the usual ports - if you have done this, what did you do about the different currencies? I'll start by saying I'm thinking we won't really spend much in the different ports - we are not shoppers - but we may want a few snacks or esp. to do HOHO's. Do HOHO's usually take credit cards? E's? (in Istanbul the HOHO wanted E's!) Is it possible to use E's at times for small purchases? (now I know there will be some currency conversion, not in my favor but as ATM's have started adding more fees, often like $5 for even a small amount withdrawal, it might be just as favorable to pay a bit more in E's and not have to withdraw money).

 

Anyways looking for tips from those that have done this itinerary.

I haven’t done the itinerary, but live in Helsinki and have been to Tallinn, Stockholm, Copenhagen, and Berlin in the past year and St. Petersburg a couple of years ago.

In Finland, Sweden, and Denmark credit/debit card adoption rates are very high and making even small purchases (say a 2e coffee) with a card is normal. Visa and MasterCard are accepted practically everywhere, but other credit cards may not be accepted in smaller establishments. Your average market stall vendor will have a credit card machine, but some small vendors such as ice cream stalls might be cash only. HOHOs do take credit cards. Public buses in Helsinki and Copenhagen take cash only and at least in Helsinki no banknotes larger than 20e. In Stockholm bus drivers do not sell tickets. Tallinn is very similar to Helsinki, Stockholm, and Copenhagen in credit card acceptance. In Denmark it is normal for restaurants to charge the credit card transaction fee from the customer, so it costs a little more to pay with a credit vs. debit or cash.

In Germany cash is used much more and you might stumble upon places that do not take credit cards at all or have minimums on card purchases.

In St. Petersburg unless you have a visa and touring by yourself, your payments will likely be taken care of by your tour guide and your shopping opportunities will be at places that accept credit cards.

I see that you are cruising on the Silhouette so you will only have four different currencies along your route. Euro (EUR) is the currency in Amsterdam, Warnemünde, Helsinki, and Tallinn; the Swedish Crown (SEK) in Stockholm, the Danish Crown (DKK) in Copenhagen, and in St. Peterburg the Russian Ruble (RUB).

Both the SEK and DKK are strong and stable currencies so EUR or USD would not typically be accepted. A very tourist oriented place such as a HOHO or an airport store might accept, but typically at a bad exchange rate. I would be very surprised if you were able to find a place in Stockholm or Copenhagen that accepted EUR or USD, but did not also take credit cards.

I would say that you will do just fine with Euros and a credit card.

That is an excellent question. I would have thought as long as the ship is docked, who cares if and when you get on and off, but I forgot about immigration. I would assume they do not have people on duty 24/7. If you can't get a definite answer here, I would try and contact some one in ?Stockholm, or even your cruise line. They would probably know best if you can disembark earlier than they want you to.

Northern Europe has been all chip and pin for a few years now. Credit and debit cards are very widely accepted and typically used also for small purchases (coffee etc.). Visa and MasterCard are always accepted, Amex and Diners are much less common especially in smaller establishments.

Unmanned kiosks typically accept Chip & PIN only and possibly also cash.

Every manned Chip & Pin terminal I have come across has also a swipe slot for magstrip cards. They are still regularly used for older store loyalty cards etc. However especially in establishments not frequented by masses of tourists your card may very well be the first non-chip card the attendant has come across so they may not know/remember how to deal with them. Just be sure to have an official photo ID as merchants may ask for ID if the PIN is not used.

Have to admit, as a confirmed independent traveler, the long trek to Berlin has caused me some concern. Cruisers routinely do this on their own using either the train or a rental car (its fun to drive on the autobahn). But we have always preached having a "Plan B" in case something goes wrong and this can be a real problem on the Baltic Cruises. Most of our Plan Bs involve catching-up to the ship the following day, but this can be difficult to impossible if the next port is St Petersburg.

Connections between the Baltic ports are in general easy and frequent. Because of the visa regulations in St. Petersburg, getting there without your ship is easy only if you have a your own visa. The visa waiver rules concerning cruise ships and ferries require you to arrive and leave the same way and take part in a sightseeing program offered by one of the approved companies. The other port that is a bit harder if you miss your ship is Warnemünde as you would need to get either back to Berlin or to Hamburg if you wanted to fly to your next port.

Warnemünde is rarely if ever the port before St. Petersburg. They are just too far apart. Considering that Warnemünde departures are typically very late, you would need two consecutive sea days to reach St. Petersburg.

Regarding the IDs: In all daily patterns etc. I have seen posted here, passport is always listed as a required document for going ashore in the Baltic ports. I have seen a couple of cruisers here wondering that when they were in addition reminded to take their passports ashore in Tallinn that they were checked coming back to the ship and not going ashore. That in fact was the standard Schengen exit check as the ship was leaving for St. Petersburg.

I do not agree that the requirements would be just theoretical, but the likelihood of such check is very low and in case of a full border control the ship will most likely be able to remind you to take your passport ashore in case of a risk profiling based customs check, such advance notification would be sort of against the point of such checks.

In the recent years I have flown several times inside the Schengen zone without having show any kind of ID at the airports and occasionally have had to show ID to security control. And traveled several times on Baltic ferries and cruise ferries and have been asked for ID once by Swedish customs as I must have been around the same age and gender as one of their targets.

To sum it up I would say that the likelihood of you having to show your passport without your ship having separately reminded you to take it ashore is extremely low. On the other hand you are not going to be going to the beach and you are in pretty safe cities so storing your passport safely on your person would not be hard at all.

As for tendering: Disney Magic is scheduled in Stockholm at either Frihamnen or Stadsgården (http://www.portsofstockholm.com/vessel-calls/) depending on the cruise so no tendering there.

Leaving aside SPB, at all other ports where the ship is berthed you should have no difficulty getting off the ship as soon as an announcement that the local authority has cleared it for disembarkation. There may be a bit of a line for the first ten minutes, then it should run like clockwork. Other than SPB I don't know of any Baltic port where you're required to take ashore more than your cruise card (plus possibly photo-ID).

In this respect it's all very similar to your Polynesian cruise.

I don't know of any Baltic tender ports (ship moors off-shore & passengers are ferried ashore by boats) but these could take longer, and priority for first tenders goes to those on ship-sponsored tours.

List your ports for confirmation.

In practice it works like this, but by law you are required to carry a valid travel document to enter a country. However these are checked. The key here is the Schengen agreement which allows for border control free travel within the Schengen zone. It does not remove the requirement to carry valid travel documents (Passport or the EU National Identity Card). There will not normally be border controls when passing from a Schengen country to another. When exiting or entering the zone there should by default be border controls, but these may be omitted for cruise ships if they are evaluated to be low risk. These checks are currently typically omitted. On a Baltic cruise you could face these in the ports before and after St. Petersburg and for cruises originating in the UK in the first Schengen port after and the first before. In addition to border controls, there are customs controls that can also happen inside the Schengen zone to fight the movement of illegal goods. These are pretty common on Baltic cruise ferry and ferry traffic. These do not typically affect all passengers, but if you happen to fit the general age and gender of someone who they have profiled to be targeted by a customs check, you may be asked for ID, and failing to produce a valid travel document would delay your travel and could result in a fine.

As for tendering, Stockholm has one downtown tender location called “BOJ1 FÖRTÖJNING PÅ STRÖMMEN”. Also all the Nynäshamn calls are tenders.

The site says that the season starts in May, but seems to offer no bookings just yet. I would check again in a month or so.

Folks, for Stockholm, it's not possible to give anyone else advice on sightseeing options, including HOHO options, if you don't first specify which ship you sailed and where your ship docked. Skeppsbron is right in old town so one can just walk everywhere. Stadsgården is right across the harbor from the old town with easy and direct access to the HOHO boat that does the loop. But if your ship docks at Frihamnen or Värtahamnen, you are practically in the suburbs with few good transportation options.

I would say that you paint a bit too gloomy picture of the location of Frihamnen and Värtahamnen. They are about 3km northeast from downtown Stockholm. By land both are actually closer to Vasa Museum than Stadsgården. I would say that Nynäshamn is the only port with complicated logistics in Stockholm.

The Port of Helsinki has published the berth list for this summer: http://www.portofhelsinki.fi/passengers/expected_cruise_ships

Note that there are two lists. The first one for South Harbor (small ships) and the second one for West Harbor (large ships).

Harriet according to trip advisor it is not a hostel and you have your own bathroom in your room. You don't share bedrooms with anyone. Just thought someone might be personally familiar with the hotel.