Where Princess Ship Docks in Stockholm

[starskyfan]

I’ve seen lots of posts on this question of where the ship docks, but I still can’t figure one thing out. The address I have for most Princess Ships is S167 Stadsgarden, and others have mentioned this several times. But can anyone tell me where this is in relation to the HOHO Boat Stops? Would it be closest to the 6th stop F (way at the end of the pier near that drawbridge) or is it closer to the 7th stop G over near Gamla Stan Island near the Katarina Lift. I’m trying to devise my plan of attack and knowing which stop it is closest too would be helpful. Also, how many minutes of a walk to the closest stop? Thanks in advance, I really appreciate any info you can provide! Brenda

[traveler525]

Hi Brenda

 

The HOHO Boats (both companies) stop right where you exit the ship. You just get off and turn left (at least one did last year).

 

If I had to do it all over again, I would not use the HOHO boats. It is fine if you want to see the city by water, but it does take up a lot of time going from one stop to another.

[starskyfan]

Thanks, that shows what I know. I didn’t realize there were two HOHO boats. It’s helpful to know we are close to the boats, but I’m still confused on location. If it’s closest to the Gamla Stan island then I figured we could end our day there and just walk right back to the ship easily. If it’s not, then we either have a long walk or a long boat ride back to the ship.

I haven’t been able to find how long it takes to get all the way around, but I see your point about it wasting time. What’s worse is that most people recommend going straight to the Vasa museum to beat the rush, but then we have to cover the same ground to get back to where most of the other attractions are on Gamla Stan. I’m finding Stockholm to be very challenging to plan out. What’s nice is we are doing 2 cruises b2b so we’ll get another day in Stockholm and on that day we will just go in proper order and see whatever we missed the first time.

Thanks again,

Brenda

[traveler525]

Brenda,

 

Oh how nice to have another day in Stockholm, that is one port I would say we would love to have had more time.

 

Yes, the HOHO did one stop and then headed to Vasa without the other stops at the beginning of the day. It still took a while. But then the boat resumed its normal run and it took a while to get where you next wanted to be. It is a bit of a walk from Old Town back to the ship, if you plan on that plan on extra time (but....if I recall correctly you have to do the entire circuit from Old Town on a HOHO to get back to the ship so that may take longer:rolleyes:. Maybe someone who actually walked back could give you an estimate of time. The HOHO boat ride back probably took a good 45 minutes to get back).

 

One lesson I learned: forget about saving a couple dollars, if we only have one day in port (well, less than a day since we left I think at 6) go for the most time efficient way :-). I had a list of places to see and we did see most of it but not as much time in each place as I would have liked.

 

Debbie

[starskyfan]

I have a hunch two days in Stockholm won’t be enough either. I already want to go back and haven’t even gotten there yet. I thought about saving the Vasa museum for the 2nd day, but we are the only ship in port on the first day, and there are 3 the next time, plus we considered doing an excursion out to Drottningholm Palace on the 2nd day, and there won’t be much time for anything else if we do that. I guess we’ll just do what we can and hope for the best. One reason we decided to do b2b cruises is we were tired of always wishing we had one more day in port, but I think that will happen no matter how many days we get. :)

Oh, while I’m thinking of if, I just read up on the new 2010 Stockholm card and it says the HOBO boats are now included in the price. That is good news. With the card I suppose we can always take a regular bus back to the ship if we can figure out the system. We always have the hardest time with buses though so that’s why I thought the boat or walking were our best bets.

Brenda

[Giantfan13]

I have said it several times already, but we found Stockholm to be the real jewel in our itinerary. Yes, St Petersburg is fantastic, and Tallin is great, but we just enjoyed our time in Stockholm the best. if there was ONE city we could go back to, it would be Stockholm. Our time in Stockholm was the shortest than in any other port. many on our cruise wished we could have taken some of the time from Helsinki and moved it to Stockholm

 

We are not really museum people. We will look, take a few pictures and move on. We also decided to go to the Vasa Museum first. Since our time was short, our plan was to see the Vasa, take a few pictures and move on. When we got to the Museum, the movie had just started about how they found the Vasa and how they brought it to the surface etc. After seeing this movie, I WAS HOOKED. We ended up spending almost 2 hours there, and I enjoyed EVERY single minute of it. I was just fascinated by this ship, by everything about her.

Just some words of warning. It is VERY low light in the entire building which makes picture taking a real challenge. There are 3 levels to view from and you do get different perspectives from each level. they do have tours that explain everything and they are free. We didn't do a tour, but we found ourselves listening in on many of them as we toured around. Just great stuff.

I am including a short video of the Vasa and the museum so you can get an idea of how it really is.

(Do make sure you view the 1/2 hour movie that they show. it explains so much)

 

Getting around is not that difficult. We did the HoHo bus from Vasa to the Palace to see the Changing of the guard everyday at 12:00. From there it is a short walk to Gamla Stan, the 'old city' which we just fell in love with. We stopped into this pastry shop and had these 1 million calorie chocolate creme something or other. if I close my eyes, I can still taste it. Yum.

 

Where ever you dock, you will enjoy Stockholm. Just a magnificent city

 

The video of the Vasa

http://s834.photobucket.com/albums/zz267/Giantfan13/baltics/?action=view&current=europemaster1357.flv

 

Crossing the bridge from the Vasa back to town

http://i834.photobucket.com/albums/zz267/Giantfan13/baltics/europemaster1235.jpg

 

Another short video of the front of the royal palace and some of the guards out front

http://s834.photobucket.com/albums/zz267/Giantfan13/baltics/?action=view&current=europemaster1363.flv

 

Entering Gamla Satn--narrow cobblestone streets and just tons of great little shops

Notice our favorite, the 7/11. Swedish Slurpees

http://i834.photobucket.com/albums/zz267/Giantfan13/baltics/europemaster1275.jpg

 

Looking inside a little Italian restaurant in gamla stan. Notice the paintings on the ceiling

http://i834.photobucket.com/albums/zz267/Giantfan13/baltics/europe1288.jpg

 

The waterfront area on a magnificent day

http://i834.photobucket.com/albums/zz267/Giantfan13/baltics/europemaster1318.jpg

 

Cheers

 

Len

[traveler525]

Here is the response I received from some friends who walked backed to the ship from Gamla Stan:

 

" It seemed like it took forever to walk back from Gamla Stan to the ship. (We thought we were lost at the time since we didn't see the blue line until right near the ship....) But, probably the walk was 30 minutes. You should know though that we missed the actual path going back to the boat and at some point, we ran out of sidewalk and were walking on the shoulder of the road. Not our finest navigational moment! "

 

Hope this helps!

 

Debbie

[starskyfan]

Thanks Len for everything you posted. It all looks and sounds wonderful. I’m glad you told me not to miss the movie, because we aren’t really museum people either and I doubt we would have wasted a half hour with it otherwise. We sort of expect to be in and out of their real quick….we will see! I hope we have good weather like you had. Photos were awesome! Brenda

[starskyfan]

Here is the response I received from some friends who walked backed to the ship from Gamla Stan:

 

" It seemed like it took forever to walk back from Gamla Stan to the ship. (We thought we were lost at the time since we didn't see the blue line until right near the ship....) But, probably the walk was 30 minutes. You should know though that we missed the actual path going back to the boat and at some point, we ran out of sidewalk and were walking on the shoulder of the road. Not our finest navigational moment! "

 

Hope this helps!

 

Debbie

 

Thanks Debbie, this was really helpful. In doing more research I found a page that shows 8 stops on the HOHO boat, and the extra one added specifically says it’s near the cruise ships, kind of in the middle of that long stretch. A 30 minute walk doesn’t sound so bad, but after walking 5 hours already I’m sure it can seem like forever. I expect my bad knee to be in lot of pain after this trip is over. And yes, I see from google maps it looks a little confusing to get on the right path to the ship. I’m sure we’ll end up on the shoulder of the road as well! Brenda

[Giantfan13]

Thanks Len for everything you posted. It all looks and sounds wonderful. I’m glad you told me not to miss the movie, because we aren’t really museum people either and I doubt we would have wasted a half hour with it otherwise. We sort of expect to be in and out of their real quick….we will see! I hope we have good weather like you had. Photos were awesome! Brenda

 

Glad I could help Brenda. You will love Stockholm. guaranteed

 

Cheers

 

Len

[traveler525]

Here's hoping you have a fabulous time Brenda! (I know you will!)

 

Debbie