Out of All Your Cruises Taken How Do You Rank the Baltic?

We've done many cruises but the Baltic is one I'm hoping for soon in the near future.

 

Does the Baltic (including St Petersburg) rank high on your cruises from the past?

It was our 4th cruise after Western Med, Eastern Med and Transatlantic. My husband wanted to do it, but I really was not excited.

I loved it! Such different architecture from the Med! Stockholm/Gdansk/Amsterdam/ St Petersburg were all amazing.

We have taken a few cruises since, but our next cruise is Amsterdam to Lisbon. Must spend more time in Amsterdam!

I've got maybe 10 Caribbean (Western/Eastern/Southern) under my belt. One 7 day Mexican Riviera cruise, One 12 day Med cruise out of Venice, visiting Greece and Kusadasi Turkey and just returned from a 12 day Baltics cruise out of Amsterdam.

 

Best ever has to be my 1st. Nothing ever beats your first at anything in life.

2nd would be the Med cruise

Then a couple of the Caribbean cruises

Then the Baltics

 

For me, the Caribbean is for sun, fun, beaches, and party

Med cruise was really interesting to me for the ancient mythology. Homers Odessey, Ancient Greece, the Venetian wars, etc

Baltics just didn't hold too much for me. The recent past 100 years of history, the medieval past and the architecture was fascinating but down on my personal lists

 

 

This is just my personal opinion. I'm sure others would rank differently.

It was the 18th out of our 21 total cruises. We love Europe, so this was an extension of that interest, with a little different world. As we have been back to Europe twice since, and planning our next Europe trip for 2020 (and probably again in 2022), a Baltic cruise didn't deter us AT ALL!

 

SPB is particularly interesting, and wish we could wonder a little more freely there. If you go, fine tune what you want to see there, and plan your touring accordingly. For example, the Hermitage could easily be an all day event, but without special arrangements with a private tour vendor, unlikely you even spend 3 hours there.

#1 - S.E. Asia with Celebrity out of Singapore.

#2 - Baltic Sea with Holland America, 2 days in SPB with private tour company.

#1 SouthAmerica/Amazon on original Royal Princess.

#2 Baltic on Millie

#3 Pacific Rim Star Princess inaugural.

All cruises are booked for different reasons: some for itinerary, some for convenience, some for price. Only one booked for the ship. EM

Been at sea or cruising for 40+ years, so not too many regions we haven't visited. Did the Baltic last summer and it was spectacular, especially SPB & Tallinn.

 

Suggest getting a local tour company for both ports, rather than ship tours. When booking, look for minimum 2 days in SPB, preferably 3 days.

Have traveled extensively but our Baltic cruise including SPB, Tallin, Helsinki, Finland, Iceland, Greenland ranks in the top 5 if not in the top 3. Did private tours exclusively if we did not tour on our own.

The first time we did the Baltic it was about our 4th or 5th cruise. Back then it was Leningrad.

We loved the Baltic so much we went back a couple more times.

For the top of my list I'm torn between S E Asia and the Baltic.

For us, those two beat the Caribbean, the Med, the Middle-East, South America and Aus / South Pacific.

 

And the Baltic is best-visited by cruise ship because by land or air or ferries it's complicated, convoluted, inconvenient and expensive to visit so many countries. St Petersburg too is easiest visited by cruise ship (yes, I agree with Heidi - choose a cruise with at least two days there).

 

We've cruised the Med, but find it better to do road-trips there because of the limited time that ships are in port.

 

Like others on this thread, this is just MHO as always.

 

JB :)

We cruise exclusively from Southampton, so I cannot comment about Caribbean cruises or such like. However, for us, the Baltics itinerary has been our favourite (have done Fjords, Iceland, round Britain, Med and Canaries) and one we hope to repeat.

My Baltics cruise would rank above the (many) Caribbean, Alaska and Bermuda cruises I've done. However, it would rank below the 8 Mediterranean cruises and SE Asia cruise.

 

So, about middle of the pack for me.

We have been all over the world on cruises and land trips. We loved our Baltic cruise! Definitely recommend it.

Our Baltic cruise was our 4th out of now 12 cruises. It still ranks as my favorite.

 

As everyone else has mentioned St; Petersburg is fantastic. Talinn would have been a surprise except we had read so much good stuff about it. The only problem with Stockholm was that there was too much to do. Our cruise unlike most had Oslo, and we really enjoyed that port.

#1 Alaska -beauty and relaxing

#2 Baltics - I love history

We sailed the Baltic and the only port we found interesting was Leningrad. Would not do the Baltic again.

You won't regret taking a Baltic Cruise that includes St. Petersburg.

So happy we did. No desire to return ... but extremely happy we have been. :)

It was our second worst. First was the Amazon River. Not sure what I was expecting on that one. Maybe jaguars peering out of the jungle. Whatever.

 

The Baltic was just boring, I thought. Maybe we chose the wrong tours. And to make matters worse I had a bad cold. So bad we didn't go on the second day of the St. Petersburg tour. I can't think of a single thing that was memorable.

Middle of the pack for me. Nowhere near as good as the Med or Middle East, but much more interesting than anywhere out of North America IMO. Glad I did it once but once was enough.

I would put it among the top 10 places we have been, especially if you include Copenhagen in the itinerary. Contrary to others, I didn't enjoy SBP that much but Mrs Ldubs did. Tallinn is a jewel. I would do it again.

It was our second worst. First was the Amazon River. Not sure what I was expecting on that one. Maybe jaguars peering out of the jungle. Whatever.

 

The Baltic was just boring, I thought. Maybe we chose the wrong tours. And to make matters worse I had a bad cold. So bad we didn't go on the second day of the St. Petersburg tour. I can't think of a single thing that was memorable.

 

 

Can you tell me more about your Amazon River Cruise?

Can you tell me more about your Amazon River Cruise?

It was mostly just sailing down a muddy river with visually impenetrable foilage on both sides. The highlight was seeing a pink river dolphin and fishing for piranhas. And I ended up with bacterial diarrhea from eating at a barge based buffet. Either that or using the restroom where if you looked down into the toilet you saw the river flowing

beneath you.

 

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For most cruise lines the Baltics are very Port intensive, one every day. The cities were all different and some very old world, especially Tallin. 2 days in St Petersburg is a must. Of my 28 cruises this was near the top of the list. Research before you go so you know whether you can do ports on your own or if you prefer a ship’s tour. Many are walkable or will have a shuttle to city centre.

 

 

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We did a Baltic cruise several years ago. My only disappointment is that there was nowhere near enough time in any one port, so the following year we did a 17 day land tour to the same area(s). Much preferred that, but the cruise gave us a "taste" of what was in store.

Loved everything about the Baltic’s. Very interesting. St Petersburg, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Tallinn, Helsinki, all have a rich and interesting history. You go on this cruise to experience different parts of the world and enrich your life. There is no ten star wow besides St Petersburg where you need to get a small group tour together but it’s easy enough, but very enjoyable and worthwhile.