CarMof Posted May 7, 2012 #1 Share Posted May 7, 2012 New to cruising. Booked for Baltic Treasures August 21/12. Other threads talk about hiring indy tours instead of using Oceania. Hate to sound stupid but please explain: cheaper? Reliable? Which to choose? How do you know one "old town tour" from the other? Any and all advice appreciated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paulchili Posted May 7, 2012 #2 Share Posted May 7, 2012 Welcome to CC, You can use your "search" button to search for similar topics (i.e. shore excursions) but this thread is a recent one and should be a good starting point: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1626536 This one is older but it is about Baltics: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1199215&highlight=shore+excursions Good luck with your search - post if you need more help :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bruin Steve Posted May 7, 2012 #3 Share Posted May 7, 2012 New to cruising. Booked for Baltic Treasures August 21/12. Other threads talk about hiring indy tours instead of using Oceania. Hate to sound stupid but please explain: cheaper? Reliable? Which to choose? How do you know one "old town tour" from the other?Any and all advice appreciated. Basically, you have a choice in how you tour any port during your port stop. Cruise lines offer excursions, but not everyone takes them... St. Petersburg might be one of the better examples of the differences. The typical cruise line offered shore excursion...or "shorex"...is a big bus tour with 30 or 40 other people...They can move fairly slow as 30 or 40 people get on and off the bus at every stop...And, often, it i hard to get close enough to your tour guide to hear them...AND, the itinerary has zero flexibility... In St. Petersburg, there are several private tour operators who are very good at what they do: SPB, Red October, Alla, Denrus to name a few(I've used both SPB and Red October in the past and can personally recommend them)...They will set up a tour for you for a small group...anywere from just you up to with several others...Optimum pricing and size is usually somewhere between 6 and 10--fits into one van, price comes out in the same ballpark as the ship's big bus tours. Bet place to join or puit together a group is on the "Roll Call" boards here on Cruise Critic...You can usually find others on your sailing with similar interests and touring style...and the tour company can put together an itinerary that considers any special requests or desires you or your group may have... Some ports have lots of private tour options, some have very few... Some ports, you can tour on your own if that style suits you (difficult to do in St. Petersbuirg, though)... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caribbeansun Posted May 7, 2012 #4 Share Posted May 7, 2012 cheaper? Almost always Reliable? Not always, you have to do some research but even then you can get a dud or someone that far exceeds expectations, we've had both but the same can be true of ship excursions. Which to choose? That's a tough one, you need to do your own research, talk/email those you think will be a fit and make a decision. Also, look and read referrals on the Ports of Call boards here at Cruise Critic How do you know one "old town tour" from the other? Start on the Ports of Call boards, ask lots of questions and read lots of threads using the search functionality. There's a ton of good information and a lot of people that would be happy to help you out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cbb Posted May 7, 2012 #5 Share Posted May 7, 2012 First, welcome to cruisecritic and especially to Oceania. I love O cruises and hope you have a wonderful voyage. It is a great itinerary. Secondly, since it is your first cruise, don't feel as if you must take a lot of independent tours. If you are the kind of person that loves to research and travel independently then by all means go for it, but since it is your first cruise going with some of the ship's excursions is a reasonable thing to do. We have enjoyed many of the O's excursions and haven't found them to be terribly slow. We've also appreciated the fact that Oceania has vetted the tour companies. Thirdly, I echo the threads that tell you to go to your "roll call" and find excursions that others have set up, especially for St Pete. Someone else has done all of the work and you will benefit! Happy sailing! c Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sitraveler Posted May 7, 2012 #6 Share Posted May 7, 2012 There are some folks, not CC people, who book a cruise and expect the cruiseship to provide every aspect of the voyage. Others start with a booking and begin a long relationship with the ports. We will research various sources for options and suggestions and start to arrange activities that are our choices, not the ships. There are benefits to each, but I think a 2 week cruise becomes a long term learning experience with the actual excursion being the cherry on the sundae. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bbwex Posted May 7, 2012 #7 Share Posted May 7, 2012 This is only my experience, but it might be helpful. We did almost exclusively private tours. We did do ship's tours in two places for just half day tours in Tallinn and Copenhagen, as we were told by friends who had been to both places that short tours would be good and then we could wander in both places. In Helsinki and Brugge we took no tour at all -- wandered in Helsinki, and followed a Rick Steves walking tour in Brugge. As for the private tours elsewhere. We used shoretrips.com in every private tour as they were a single-source for all of our tours. They are generally very reliable, and use other private companies in each port after they check them out. However, if you spend time on the Ports of Call section, you will also get lots of recommendations for private companies in each place. On an Alaska trip, I spent a good deal of time just reading the Alaska ports of call board, and you get the drift of which companies are the better ones. Then you can ask some pointed questions and pin down who you want to use. Private tours are generally cheaper if you have a small group. If there are just two of you, they are likely to be fairly expensive, but at 6 - 8 people, they are markedly cheaper than the ships' tours. The other things that private tours allow is: speed, flexibility and interaction with the guide. A small van will be much more nimble in traffic and be able to get around much more quickly, plus a smaller group tends to stay together and loading up the van takes mere seconds. As you read the various ports of call boards and talk with friends who might have been to the various ports, you will get suggestions for things not on any tour. On a private tour, you can add and subtract things, i.e. in St. Petersburg we added some subway stations and other non-typical stops, and in Berlin we stumbled upon the Pergamon Museum and saw antiquities from Mesopotamia that were one of the real highlights of the entire trip! In a small group, you will hear the guide all the time, and be able to talk with him/her and these guides are usually very knowledgeable, i.e. our guide in St. Petersburg not only knew the Russian history, but also gave a detailed explanation of many of the pieces of art in the Hermitage. My best suggestion is to spend a lot of time reading on the Ports of Call section to learn about the various ports and then the decision process gets a whole lot easier. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cbb Posted May 7, 2012 #8 Share Posted May 7, 2012 And I forgot to add, that in many of the ports on this particular itinerary one can forgo any organized tours. O docks in so many city centers that it is very easy to just walk off the ship and wander into town. This was our experience in Visby, Tallinn, Riga, Helsinki, and others and we could also use mass transit for Copenhagen, Stockholm, and Helsinki. Getting to Bruges can sometimes be "interesting" but once there it is easy to DIY. I think this itinerary is one of my favorites. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paulchili Posted May 7, 2012 #9 Share Posted May 7, 2012 Check out this web site: http://johnlawrencecd.com/ It's a CD of Baltic Ports as presented by John Lawrence, a port lecturer on a Princess cruise. We bought this CD some years ago and it was a great help - the best $20 you'll ever spend! BTW - It's called Baltic Treasures - just like your cruise! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LuAnn Posted May 7, 2012 #10 Share Posted May 7, 2012 Red October in St. Pete's and it was wondeful!! Our guide was Helen...and we had the best 2 days..under her wing...they provided the visa...she knew the route of the ship tour buses...so we went the other way..to avoid the crowds! We always take private tours...and think they are just the best way to go! But we are sometimes on our own...re we took a taxi to Bruges and found other passengers to come back to the ship after our walk out..I really think it depends on your comfort level of being somewhat "on your own" LuAnn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pacheco18 Posted May 8, 2012 #11 Share Posted May 8, 2012 I am a big fan of private tours. I avoid ship-sponsored excursions. There is plenty of disagreement about this on these boards. I suggest on your first cruise you try a little of both and form your own opinion. Do not organize the private tours yourself. Join up with "experienced private excursion organizers" on your roll call and go with them. My friend took her first cruise last year and that was my recommendation to her. She did exactly that -- a little of each. She will never do another ship-sponsored excursion again. You need to see the difference for yourself and decide what suits you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tansy Mews Posted May 8, 2012 #12 Share Posted May 8, 2012 New to cruising. Booked for Baltic Treasures August 21/12. Other threads talk about hiring indy tours instead of using Oceania. Hate to sound stupid but please explain: cheaper? Reliable? Which to choose? How do you know one "old town tour" from the other?Any and all advice appreciated. Just a point about St. Petersburg - you must have a visa if you go ashore on your own. If you take a ship's tour the visa is arranged for you. We are going with SPB tours and they arrange the visa. I am fairly confident that is the case with other companies as well. That is the only place on our itinerary that we have arranged a tour. It is cheaper than the shorter tours offered by Oceania. I noticed that SPB tries to help you create a group as well. Check out: http://www.spb-tours.com/formular2/index.php?c=spb Other companies mentioned might do this too. We are not experienced cruisers but we had good luck finding tour companions in the Caribbean through Cruise Critic Roll Call for our ship. The only caveat - you might like the security of a ship's cruise if you are going far such as Berlin. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bruin Steve Posted May 8, 2012 #13 Share Posted May 8, 2012 The only caveat - you might like the security of a ship's cruise if you are going far such as Berlin. We used SPB for our Berlin tour from Warnemunde... I was surprised just how organized and efficient that side of the operation was. They had several tours from our ship...we were all "collected" at the ship and brought to buses as a large group. The buses went to a meeting point in Berlin where each group was met by their guide and driver, then taken out for their individual tours in smaller vans. After the tour, we were all returned to the meeting point, into the big buses and back to Warnemunde. Small note--most of the SPB tours on our ship were very good...Ours had a small blip--the tour guide from hell...he lost our driver and had no cell phone and did not have the driver's cell phone number...Totally disorganized... So, if you do use SPB in Berlin, just tell them that IN NO WAY do you want "Terry"--the older British ex-pat --as a guide!!! Otherwise, I would recommend SPB--the tour we had with them in St. Petersburg was outstanding...All of the other SPB Berlin groups loved their tours and guides.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pacheco18 Posted May 8, 2012 #14 Share Posted May 8, 2012 We also used SPB for Berlin -- and had the greatest guide imaginable!!!! I recommend them highly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tansy Mews Posted May 9, 2012 #15 Share Posted May 9, 2012 Sorry, I wasn't clear - I really meant that you would want a tour when going far, rather than doing it yourself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roothy123 Posted May 13, 2012 #16 Share Posted May 13, 2012 Hi. We're taking the Baltic Treasures cruise after you get off the ship (i.e., August 21 from Copenhagen). For St. Petersburg, Alla Tours offers a 2 day tour for either $270 or $300, depending upon itinerary, and you do not have to get a group together yourself to get this rate. She uses a van, and agrees to go whether she gets 2 people on a given tour or 16. Things could turn out to be a little cramped in a van if she gets 16 people, but at least it doesn't cost an arm and a leg, and all you have to do is sign up for it, rather than form a group. In our case, according to the port site, we're the only cruise ship in St. P. all day on the two days we're there, so we'll probably find a bunch of Oceania cruisers on our tour! Oceania's tours are usually pretty good, but too expensive for my taste, and much too expensive in the Baltic, where things are not cheap to begin with! Therefore, we will do our own thing in most ports. We're taking the Alla Tour in St. P, taking the train to Berlin and doing Berlin on our own, and renting a car in Ronne. I'm leaning towards taking an Oceania excursion in Gdansk, mostly just because I haven't quite been able to put my finger on how best to get there and navigate around the city. In Talinn and Riga, many of the sights are within a 15 to 20 minute walk of the port, so I'll venture off on my own. In the other places, we're just doing our own thing, taking public transportation, walking, or cabbing. European public transportation is great, so it's easy to do things on your own if you're adventuresome. If you're not, you will probably want to do an excursion, whether it be Oceania's or another company's. As someone else mentioned, the "Ports" section is a good source for info, as is a popular trip advisor site for getting an idea of what people have done in the past and what private companies they've used. There are also Hop On Hop Off buses in a number of the ports we visit - Berlin, Helsinki, Copenhagen for starters. Have fun in the Baltic! I'll be following in your footsteps! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrHemlock Posted May 13, 2012 #17 Share Posted May 13, 2012 One point not yet made in this thread: If you are ashore on an Oceania-provided excursion that experiences difficulty in returning to the ship in time for sailing, the ship's departure is delayed until the excursion group has returned and boarded. Conversely, if you are with a private excursion group or wandering on your own and you fail to return by departure time, regardless of the reason, the ship will sail without you. Whipping out your cell phone (assuming it works there) and calling the ship to say you'll be late (assuming there's a number to call) won't hold the departure. It then becomes your responsibility to arrange transportation to the next scheduled port, including interim lodging there if the next port is more than a day away, in order to rejoin the cruise. Timing, expense and availability can be tricky from some ports to others depending upon where you are. We've never let that deter us from making our own arrangements which we prefer for all the reasons listed above. However, when doing so, we always plan our itinerary in order to arrive back at the dock 1-1/2 to 2 hours ahead of departure to allow for delays due to heavy traffic or other unexpected hiccups. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare LHT28 Posted May 13, 2012 #18 Share Posted May 13, 2012 One point not yet made in this thread: If you are ashore on an Oceania-provided excursion that experiences difficulty in returning to the ship in time for sailing, the ship's departure is delayed until the excursion group has returned and boarded. Conversely, if you are with a private excursion group or wandering on your own and you fail to return by departure time, regardless of the reason, the ship will sail without you. Whipping out your cell phone (assuming it works there) and calling the ship to say you'll be late (assuming there's a number to call) won't hold the departure. It then becomes your responsibility to arrange transportation to the next scheduled port, including interim lodging there if the next port is more than a day away, in order to rejoin the cruise. Timing, expense and availability can be tricky from some ports to others depending upon where you are. The phone number of the port agent is in the daily newsletter Most private guides are aware of the time it takes & yes things may happen like traffic problems But they are not going to jeopardize their reputation by not getting people back on time If you are on your own you are responsible to keep an eye on the time & get back to the ship before last call TAKE THE PORT AGENT info with you I have never seen Oceania leave anyone in port ...well once in Grand Turk a certain couple of passenger (names withheld to avoid embarrassment )were being called several times after they did not show up on time:D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roothy123 Posted May 13, 2012 #19 Share Posted May 13, 2012 Great advice from Dr. Hemlock and LHT28 regarding port agent numbers - and there is almost always a cell phone number included for the port agent! If I'm ever late getting back, I plan to run to the first person I see with a cell phone (I don't use mine abroad) and have them call! You can always stop by the reception desk to get an extra copy of the newsletter with this information. It also has the "on board" time, plus info about the city, which isn't a bad thing! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bannockburn Posted July 25, 2012 #20 Share Posted July 25, 2012 Hi! We are doing the moderate 2 day tour with SPB in ST petersburg as friends highly recommended it - contact them for reservations. It sounds great and at 190pp very good value for money. Pauline and Nigel (NZ) P.S Also looking for a few more people for the Warnemunde/Rostock tour with the same company (55pp) and sounds really interesting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Floridiana Posted July 25, 2012 #21 Share Posted July 25, 2012 Personally, we have never taken a private tour arranged beforehand. We have booked ship's tours, rented a car on our own, walked on our own and spontaneously picked up tours on shore. All our ship's tours were decent to excellent (one exception only in Antigua), many had small groups, small busses and excellent guides. The tours we picked up spontaneously on shore were good to excellent. (in Australia and New Zealand) Oceania offers tour packages we look at before we book or make our own arrangements. I think you should book a ship's tour if 1) The destination is far from port and a prompt return to the ship is not assured. (the city of Antigua in Guatemala) 2) The tour cannot be accomplished because reaching the destination is too complicated. (the Great Barrier Reef) 3) The tour operator sells only to the ship. (certain train rides in New Zealand) About 1) The ship will always wait for its own tours. That was 2 hours in Guatemala! But ships do not wait for passengers that are late and not on a ship sponsored tour. We have been on excellent tours offered by Princess, Azamara, Holland America and Oceania. On Barbados, Princess and Oceania offered identical tours. Small islands do have a limited number of reliable tour operators. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roberts2005 Posted July 25, 2012 #22 Share Posted July 25, 2012 Just a note on the choice. We just returned from Baltic Treasures and did all on our own, except for St Petersburgh where we use SPB. Met two couples who choose Oceania's one price of $1100 gets you all tours. There are surcharges for special tours. They felt they got good value. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roothy123 Posted July 25, 2012 #23 Share Posted July 25, 2012 Just a note on the choice. We just returned from Baltic Treasures and did all on our own, except for St Petersburgh where we use SPB. Met two couples who choose Oceania's one price of $1100 gets you all tours. There are surcharges for special tours. They felt they got good value. Bannockburn, just curious: That $190 price in SBP is a good one. Is that on a bus or smaller vehicle? Roberts2005, someone on another thread (but not an Oceania thread) mentioned that he/she thought all shuttles in Tallinn dropped off at the same place - somewhere close to Viru Gate. However, I've heard from an Oceania pax that they were dropped at Parnu and Estonia, which is closer to Toompea. If you took the shuttle there, can you tell me which location was true for you? It's no huge deal as they are both outside Old Town, but I'd like to know to simplify planning. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roberts2005 Posted July 25, 2012 #24 Share Posted July 25, 2012 Bannockburn, just curious: That $190 price in SBP is a good one. Is that on a bus or smaller vehicle? Roberts2005, someone on another thread (but not an Oceania thread) mentioned that he/she thought all shuttles in Tallinn dropped off at the same place - somewhere close to Viru Gate. However, I've heard from an Oceania pax that they were dropped at Parnu and Estonia, which is closer to Toompea. If you took the shuttle there, can you tell me which location was true for you? It's no huge deal as they are both outside Old Town, but I'd like to know to simplify planning. Sorry don't know the names you mentioned, but the shutt;e is close to the flower vendors and Mc Donalds Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roothy123 Posted July 25, 2012 #25 Share Posted July 25, 2012 Sorry don't know the names you mentioned, but the shutt;e is close to the flower vendors and Mc Donalds Thanks; that sounds like Viru Gate, so that's helpful info. Maybe the Parnu and Estonia shuttle stop wasn't the usual! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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