I'm on Homelands NOW Stockholm to Bergen and loving it!

[id4elizabeth]

Did the Malbork Castle optional excursion on the Maiden and thoroughly enjoyed it. As I recall it was about an hour and a half bus ride each way. The Castle is marvelous - the largest brick medieval castle in Europe. You could almost hear the Knights and their horses come clattering in over the cobblestones. Not too strenuous a walk either, although there were several flights of stairs. Note: you do not see anything other than the castle - that is you do not go walking in any nearby towns - all your touring time is taken up with the castle. You do have some free time at the end to browse a couple of gift shops inside the castle, and/or get a coffee/tea in a cafe also inside the castle. There is also an excellent amber exhibit there.

[t&c_traveling]

That is great. The castle looks amazing

[Fuss]

We did the " In the Footsteps of Sibelius" in Helsinki-- included a short concert. Very much enjoyed it.. Also did Old Town and ice Bar in Stockholm. Great guide

We will do Stutthof Concentration Camp in Poland tomorrow.

[t&c_traveling]

id4elizabeth - how many people where on the tour?

[id4elizabeth]

As I recall about 25 to 30 - not too bad. The bus was not at all full, and there was only one bus. I think most folks went to Gdansk.

[CharTrav]

So how much time is added for the "tender ports" shuttling folks from the ship to the port? Per the latest itinerary I have for Bergen to Stockholm in 2016, the only tender ports are StPetersburg and Flamm. Should I expect others?

 

To Roothy123: coffee beverages such as coffee milk, shakes, etc are fairly unique to Rhode Island and southeastern Mass. RI is home to Eclipse and Autocrat coffee syrup.

[Fuss]

On our itinerary, we have no tender ports. St Petersburg port is huge-- there were up to 5-6 ships in at once. Have not been to Flam yet-- we are scheduled to dock there -- I hope that holds but will see. Looking over all our ports, if there were to be a tender port it would be Flam, but again, we are scheduled to dock. It may be too soon to know the 2016 schedule for that.

[t&c_traveling]

Fuss - can you let us know if you do have to tender in any of your ports please. I know id4elizabeth mentioned that they didn't tender at all. But just curious if you have any.

[sunrocket]

Where is the storage space in a Deluxe Veranda cabin. It is difficult to

tell by the cabin diagram.

Thank you

[roothy123]

So how much time is added for the "tender ports" shuttling folks from the ship to the port? Per the latest itinerary I have for Bergen to Stockholm in 2016, the only tender ports are StPetersburg and Flamm. Should I expect others?

 

To Roothy123: coffee beverages such as coffee milk, shakes, etc are fairly unique to Rhode Island and southeastern Mass. RI is home to Eclipse and Autocrat coffee syrup.

 

I've never seen any ocean cruise ship scheduled to tender in St. Petersburg - that sounds a bit weird to me, although cruising has gotten so popular with so many ships out there that anything's possible. Also, since Viking River Cruises already goes to St. Petersburg, I suppose it's possible they have made special arrangements with the port. I may have the port website for St. P, and if so, I'll look to see if the port has made an assignment for Star yet.

 

The time involved in tendering can vary a lot, as it depends upon how far out the ship has to anchor, when the ship has decided to run the first shuttle, and things like that. Also, in few ports (Santorini for example) the cruise lines are required to use the port's tenders - usually a good thing as they're often larger, but having to rely on someone else can always complicate things. I've been told that off Easter Island (as an extreme example) the ride itself is long and tendering can take up to 2 hours before everyone gets to the island. However, I assumed that was partly because EVERYONE wants to go off there, and with a large cruise ship, not everyone will be taken ashore immediately. Most cruise lines try to get the independent people off about the same time as the people on ship's excursions, but some make the independents wait until crush time for the ship's excursions is over. From what I've read, generally for all cruises that have gone out since April, Viking has let the indy folks with the excursion folks, but of course, that means you may be waiting for a tender boat with a long line of people. In many cases, though, if you're not in a hurry, you can just wait until the rush is over and then go off at your leisure. In general (but not on Viking, as I haven't been yet), I've experienced probably the shortest ride was nor more than 10 minutes and the longest 20. That, however, is from the time the tender/life boat left, and doesn't include waiting for the ship doors to open, for the boat to fill, and for the boat to leave. Usually what will happen is that once the ship is anchored somewhere offshore, a boat will be lowered to the water, a door down low on the ship will be opened with a platform that reaches out a little way into the water, and a couple crew members will drive the boat to shore to determine where they can drop people. They'll normally leave a sign, often a setup with water, and one or more crew members to assist with tie up, helping people out, etc. Then when the boat gets back, the excursions folks will be radioed to say it's OK to start sending people to the boat for transport. SO - long story short is that all this can take some time, although NORMALLY in the past it has been about a half hour to 45 minutes from when anchor goes down to when I've made it ashore as an independent traveler, on ships about the size or a little smaller/larger than Star. However, as I've said, it varies from port to port, and weather can be a factor as well. I generally don't do too many private tours, but when I have, I'll told them the ship's scheduled arrival time and then suggested that I might meet the guide maybe 45 minutes later. Reputable guides, however, WILL monitor your ship's arrival and if need be, take things from there. They won't leave you. As to time on the water, I've never been on a ride that took more than 10 or 15 minutes, but I've been told there are some. One in Norway (but not a place Viking goes) the ride was about 5 minutes. We were there in no time.

 

The above does not apply specifically to Viking, but I've read a lot of the posts, particularly early on as the first itinerary Viking ran was the one I'll be on later this year. I remember reading that tendering in Pula, Croatia was a nightmare, but Pula is only on a few itineraries, so most likely the experience there is of little interest to most people. I think it was also the very first time Viking had tendered at all, so I imagine it was rough because of that. It is a place in which few cruise ships visit, and where I believe they anchor way out, which didn't help things. Ferries, however, are allowed to go right into the dock, but ferries are a different beast.

 

Tendering isn't a big issue for most people, but obviously, it does add a little more time to the process of getting where you need to go! Coming back, the cruise lines I've used ran tenders every 30 minutes or more frequently.

[CharTrav]

Thanks Roothy for the detailed response! Guess I simply need to wait until the 'real' itinerary is published vice the nominal one I got after I made our final payment. A lot can change in a year for sure esp since the itinerary I got was created while (before?) the first Viking Homelands had even weighed anchor.

[traveltwin]

Perfect day today. Random thoughts. No doubt the gorgeous weather and smooth smooth seas have an effect., but we had a lovely tour, included, to Gdansk. I'm struck by how hard the crew work and how patient and helpful they are. Someone a while back said that they immediately stopped the included gratuity when they boarded. and this seems a pity. We see some of the folk who make our trip so pleasant -- and they do work hard. But there are also the behind the scenes ones. It seems mean spirited and selfish not to give money to support all of them. If we can afford such a trio surely we can afford to give something back.

[Ingra Tor]

This message was posted in wrong place

Edited July 4, 2015 by Ingra Tor
Posted in wrong place.

[Ingra Tor]

Folks, I sit here with tears in my eyes. I'm a solo traveler heading out in October for Istanbul. I have become overwhelmed by the endless list of complaints, valid or not, and felt like I was making a mistake. You all have really been encouraging and I thank you. I am interested in seeing a photo of people actually boarding the ship at a port but I can't find one. Maybe someone can steer me in the right direction. I need to see how steep the ramp is. Have a great trip all!

 

Dear Staying Afloat,

We did the Homelands in June so we were at different ports.

The steepest ramp we had was at St Petersburg.

Had the tide been 1 foot higher the lower door would have been used.

There were lots of staff on the ramp and at the bottom of it to help us on or off wether we needed help or not.

The ramps are provided by the ports so may not always be the same length.

I am trying to add photo!

We had a great cruise and have booked for "Into the midnight Sun " for next year.

[Vineyard View]

Our itinerary showed an anchor in SPB, but we did not tender there.

Maiden voyage did not get to go into Flam so can't comment there, but DH and I took Norway in Nutshell into Flam and there is a dock there - that said it is a small place so I don't know.

Edited July 4, 2015 by Vineyard View

[id4elizabeth]

SPB actually has a huge ocean cruise port, much of which is brand new, with new terminal buildings. Would be extremely unlikely you'd tender there.

[t&c_traveling]

Has anyone tendered in Flam

[roothy123]

Perfect day today. Random thoughts. No doubt the gorgeous weather and smooth smooth seas have an effect., but we had a lovely tour, included, to Gdansk. I'm struck by how hard the crew work and how patient and helpful they are. Someone a while back said that they immediately stopped the included gratuity when they boarded. and this seems a pity. We see some of the folk who make our trip so pleasant -- and they do work hard. But there are also the behind the scenes ones. It seems mean spirited and selfish not to give money to support all of them. If we can afford such a trio surely we can afford to give something back.

 

Great post. I agree 100% with this. Some people get on board and because they don't drink, use the spa or this or that, they prefer to tip individually and have the tip taken off their bill. They may have good intentions, but there are plenty of people behind the scenes who are affected by this decision. Those people deserve a tip, too.

[roothy123]

Our itinerary showed an anchor in SPB, but we did not tender there.

Maiden voyage did not get to go into Flam �� so can't comment there, but DH and I took Norway in Nutshell into Flam and there is a dock there - that said it is a small place so I don't know.

 

There was a similar situation for our itinerary. I think early on someone on our cruise reported an anchor next to Athens. I found that incredibly suspect, and wondered if the anchor was printing in the wrong place. We visit Santorini the day before Athens, and there was no anchor for that day. All ships (except ferries) tender in Santorini, so I figured the anchor was in the wrong place.

 

I thought I had kept the St. Petersburg port website URL, but now all I can find are my notes about what other ships were there when we were there. A little later I'll google to see if I can find a Flam port website.

[Fuss]

Here is the website for port arrival in Flam for 2015.

http://aurlandhavn.no/cruise-2/ship-arrivals-2015/

Looks like the Star consistently docks in Flam

[roothy123]

Thanks, fuss! I started to google, but got sidetracked on cruise port webcams. Here's one for Flam port: http://www.***********/cruise-port-webcams/europe/flam-norway.php

 

Love that website - get to preview port areas!

[roothy123]

Oh, CC made mincemeat out of that URL. I'll try this: www dot cruisin dot me slash cruise dash port dash webcams slash europe slash flam dash norway dot php

 

"dot" means a period and slash is a slash mark (/). No spaces anywhere, no caps.

Edited July 4, 2015 by roothy123

[cassandra44]

Winds were very strong...even blew the coffee out of my spouse's cup...but we still were able to dock in Flam!

Very attractive entrance via a very long fjord and the exit (where we had sunshine) was really spectacular.One of the highlights of the cruise.

We sat on the back deck on 7 and sampled an aquavit while cruising the fjord. Highly recommended.

[Fuss]

It's over:(. Just boarded flight in Keflavik after post cruise extension to Iceland!