Baltic Sea Cruise and teens

[Bella O]

Wondering if anyone who has btdt has an opinion as to whether such a cruise would be fun for a young teen (13 years old) We are considering a Baltic Capital cruise on NCL's Getaway. It's hard for me to get a good read on whether most ports would have something that would interest her, and while the ship will be great for her age group, we need to travel in mid-June...too early for swimming and water activites on board?

 

Would love to hear from folks that have brought their kids and whether it was a good experince. Thanks so much,

[Desdichado62]

What does she like (except for shopping? ;) )

[Bella O]

Yes, shopping is a given:)

[Sauer-kraut]

History, famous buildings, beaches, castles, medival cities..... what's not to keep a 13 year old entertained? Just realize its not a sun and surf type vacation, you'll be on the go the whole time.

 

St. Petersburg, Warnemunde, Tallin, they are all very interesting cities!

[kitkat343]

My son loved it, but he was three, so that isn't terribly useful. I think it does really depend upon your child's interests - my brother only enjoyed beach vacations, and taking him to Italy as a teenager was a waste but I loved it at that age. At 13, I would let your child take a part in planning a part of the trip, and see what they think about the vacation.

 

A lot of teenagers seemed to really like running through the fountains at Peterhof. The Seaplane Harbour museum in Tallinn was really interesting, with a lot of hands on activities, including a flight simulator, that I think a teenager might like. Tivoli Gardens is beautiful, and your teenager might like some of the rides (not sure if your child is too big for an amusement park; you'd know better than I would). If they like animals, the lemur exhibit in Skansen lets you walk inside the lemur habitat, and you can come really close to them. The whole aquarium is really well laid out with interesting exhibits, and easy to see after Vasa, which also might be interesting for a teenager - I don't know but my 3 year old was really fascinated by that. There is an internet cafe in the Hermitage, and Best Guides has a family tour in St. Petersburg where they will take the kids to the internet cafe when the kids start to get bored with the art to give the parents more time in the Hermitage.

[GradUT]

There is an internet cafe in the Hermitage, and Best Guides has a family tour in St. Petersburg where they will take the kids to the internet cafe when the kids start to get bored with the art to give the parents more time in the Hermitage.

 

Are you kidding me? That's ridiculous! If a teen doesn't have any interest in seeing the Hermitage, they don't have any business on a Baltic Sea cruise.

 

We did a Baltic Sea cruise last summer and while we did it without teens, there were certainly a lot of attractions which would have interested our kids when they were 13. However, before you invest the money and time that a Baltic Cruise takes, I would sit down with your daughter and a guidebook and see if the attractions in the ports-of-call would interest her. I think Rick Steves' "Northern European Cruise Ports" would be a good choice to read because it covers all the Baltic ports of call in one book. And he does a good job of mentioning attractions which are sometimes "off the beaten track".

[epixx]

We went with our 14 and 10 year olds on a Baltic cruise, and they loved it. Teen highlights:

St. Petersburg: fountains of Peterhof, Catherine's Palace and Amber room, metro ride, canal boat tour

Warnemunde: biking on the gorgeous bike path near the ocean, climbing the lighthouse tower

Helsinki: Seurasaari open air museum

Tallin: walking tour and climbing church tower

Amsterdam: Anne Frank house

Copenhagen: Tivoli (!!!), Danish Resistance Museum, canal boat ride

[Desdichado62]

For Stockholm, I think she might like the Abba museum.

[kitkat343]

There is an internet cafe in the Hermitage, and Best Guides has a family tour in St. Petersburg where they will take the kids to the internet cafe when the kids start to get bored with the art to give the parents more time in the Hermitage.

 

Are you kidding me? That's ridiculous! If a teen doesn't have any interest in seeing the Hermitage, they don't have any business on a Baltic Sea cruise

 

My son was three during our cruise, and he enjoyed looking at the art for about an hour at the Hermitage. I took him to the cafe when he started to wilt, and this gave his dad some extra time with the Impressionists (we'd already seen my favorite paintings earlier). From the Best Guides website, it appears they take the kids to see some art and then take them to the internet cafe so the parents have more time in the Hermitage. I didn't take their tour, so I don't know how much time the children spend with the art. The art/cafe split may be for children younger than teenagers, and I'd certainly hope a teenager would want to spend a reasonable amount of time looking at art in the Hermitage but it is nice to know there is a backup plan when you are traveling with kids. For me, the backup plan if touring had been a total disaster would have been to leave my son in the kids club on the ship. Obviously, I would have been very sad if it had come to that (and thankfully my son had a wonderful time and loved visiting all the cities we went to) but part of being able to actually book the vacation was knowing I had a backup plan in case the trip was a disaster, as travel with kids sometimes can be.

[ljandgb]

We took our 13yo last year. I think so much depends on the attitude. If your teen is inquisitive, is interested in other cultures, can appreciate something even though it is different from daily life, she'll do fine. If she lives for her instagram and texting her friends, doesn't see the need to see or understand the world, and finds any museum or castle boring, no one in your family will have a good time.

 

Most of our excursion we arranged ourselves. For us, we all like to try new foods. That worked well, as we all need to eat, right? We did a food walking tour of Tallinn. We did a ship excursion in Finland to see reindeer. Stockholm was a food market stop, the Vasa, and wandering old town. SPB was the Hermitage (which even I get tired of paintings after a couple of hours), Peterhof fountains, the Cat Museum (expressly added for dd - it is a rescue and retirement home for Hermitage mousers, you go in and pet cats), lunch at a fast food blini place, and dinner at a great (Russian) mom and pop style restaurant.

 

Dd enjoyed all of those things. She also enjoyed shopping for small trinkets for her friends.

 

ETA - we spent 3 days in Copenhagen prior to the cruise. Dd loved Tivoli, and trying street food from the many vendors. She's also a coffee drinker and loves to sit in cafes with her cappuccino and feel worldly. :)

Edited April 19, 2016 by ljandgb

[kitkat343]

Sorry - forgot to include your teenager would probably love Stolle, which has fast and tasty meat and desert pies. You can see their menu online here http://www.stolle.ru/en/menu/saint-petersburg , but the actual pies available will change depending on the day.

[Bella O]

These are fantastic suggestions and ideas! Thank you all for such great info, really helped me visualize things we could do to make everyone happy in our party. I guess I was thinking primarily of the churches/musuems, but it sounds like there are so many different experinces out there as well, getting so excited!

[ljandgb]

If your teen is a thrill seeker, while we were out petting reindeer, the rest of our family did a speedboat tour around the coast of Helsinki. They came back with some pretty good stories. Not much culture, but lots of adrenaline!

[Giantfan13]

Are you kidding me? That's ridiculous! If a teen doesn't have any interest in seeing the Hermitage, they don't have any business on a Baltic Sea cruise.

 

We did a Baltic Sea cruise last summer and while we did it without teens, there were certainly a lot of attractions which would have interested our kids when they were 13. However, before you invest the money and time that a Baltic Cruise takes, I would sit down with your daughter and a guidebook and see if the attractions in the ports-of-call would interest her. I think Rick Steves' "Northern European Cruise Ports" would be a good choice to read because it covers all the Baltic ports of call in one book. And he does a good job of mentioning attractions which are sometimes "off the beaten track".

 

 

Very well said and I agree completely.

 

Cheers

 

Len

[elaine5]

I would also have her watch some Rick Steves videos of places. We took kids 9-13 on Baltics. They all enjoyed it. Baltic was better than Med. b/c it was not so hot. Balance full day touring with 1/2 days. So, before a long St.P, we just walked around Tallin for a few hours the prior day. In one port, we did a bike tour, which she liked a lot. In Stockholm we went to the livrustkammaren (Royal Armoury). It was one of the best things we did. We took the HO-HO right from the port. It is in the main square in the cellar of the Royal Palace. Splendid costumes and glittering carriages tell stories of magnificent royal coronations, etc. Then, you can take a ho-ho boat tour of the harbour. We did not have enough time to go over to the Vassa, but the livrustkammaren was worth missing it. Also get a Eyewitness book (has great photos and explanations) to learn about stuff prior to going. That is how I got the idea for the livrustkammaren.

Edited April 21, 2016 by elaine5

[Travel R]

We are considering a Baltic cruise with our to be 17 and 12 year olds. Ya'll have provided me with some ideas to do at some of the ports.

 

All kids are different, so the more options available, the more choices we are able to make.

 

What a 3 year old like is a lot different than a 11/12 year old, which is different than a 16/17 year old - and on a family vacation, you have to find something that suits both of them, as well as us parents.

Edited June 10, 2016 by Travel R

[cheeseclan]

We just came back from the Baltic cruise on the Regal princess with our soon to be 18 year old. He has traveled all over the world with us since he was 9 months old.

He loved this cruise. We hit tons of museums and churches. His favorite things to see were the maritime museums throughout and the fortresses. Amazing what young minds can retain. When we got home he was able to give his parents a very detailed debriefing on the stops we did.

 

Don't get me wrong, he was always the youngest person on the tour. But that was great for him. The guides would talk to him and ask him questions and he had answers since he had studied quite a bit of this in school.

[Tiggertastic]

My son loved it, he was 15. There's tivoli gardens in Copenhagen and Stockholm. He did archery in Tallin, visited Skansen in Stockholm and liked to explore in st Petersburg. Then back on the ship he had grea things to do in the teen club on ncl

[GradUT]

--and on a family vacation, you have to find something that suits both of them, as well as us parents.

 

That's exactly right! Sometimes I think some parents get so concerned about finding things for the kids to see and do that they forget that it's a family vacation and that the parents should be seeing and doing things THEY want as well.

[Travel R]

That's exactly right! Sometimes I think some parents get so concerned about finding things for the kids to see and do that they forget that it's a family vacation and that the parents should be seeing and doing things THEY want as well.

 

On our previous cruises we went over all of the options (cruise excursions, private excursions, and DIY), then we discussed them as a family, and voted on what we wanted to do at each port. It worked out well. We will most likely do the same for this upcoming cruise. The key is also to do some research before the discussion so everyone will know what private tour and DIY options are available besides those offered by the cruise company [i am also very comfortable going DIY in most foreign ports.]. Cruise Critic is one of the best sources for my cruise research!

 

That being said, there were some excursions that us parents had to forego since they would not be apropos for kids, such as a wine tasting tour.

 

I am enjoying reading what other readers teens/tweens have been doing in the Baltic ports and it provides me with some ideas to then provide to my family - so Thanks to everyone that has posted!

Edited June 14, 2016 by Travel R

[DrivesLikeMario]

If your teens have had AP Art History or your college-aged son/daughter has had art appreciation, they would love the museums and architecture.

 

We took our young teens to the Musee D'Orsay and the Louvre and they still talk about them to this day.

 

In the British Museum, having my son with me was like having my own personal art guide! He knew so much about the works of art that it just amazed me. I wish I had taken him to the Hermitage! And no, art was not his "thing"; math was. Go figure. I sure learned a lot from him.

 

OP, get your daughter involved in picking the tours. Do a good mix of art, culture, adrenaline rush and historical stuff. You'll be expanding her horizons and it'll do nothing but good for her. ;)

[editor@cruisecritic]

Hi, Bella O -- and all. Have been posting quite a similar question over on the Crystal forum because I'm taking my nieces (12 and 15) along with me on a trip from Stockholm to Copenhagen via Helsinki and St. Petersburg. Love all the responses here about things to do from folks who've taken their teens on just this kind of trip. What's really interesting is that it's like with anyone -- it seems like there's plenty to do whatever the interests are.

 

My girls are interested in ballet in St. Pete, and learning about how people live in the ports where we're going. Tivoli is also a must-do as they love Disney. We're having fun planning the shore excursions and they've been involved, to a point, but I'm sort of finalizing everything. I'm also very careful to not overdo -- we're going to do a spa day one day in the middle of everything.

 

Love the tips, thanks so much. Will be reporting from the Crystal board about the destinations (trip starts June 21) as much as the ship so please feel free to jump in there, too. Here's a link to the thread: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2368177.

 

 

Carolyn

 

Carolyn Spencer Brown

Editor in Chief

Cruise Critic

 

Wondering if anyone who has btdt has an opinion as to whether such a cruise would be fun for a young teen (13 years old) We are considering a Baltic Capital cruise on NCL's Getaway. It's hard for me to get a good read on whether most ports would have something that would interest her, and while the ship will be great for her age group, we need to travel in mid-June...too early for swimming and water activites on board?

 

Would love to hear from folks that have brought their kids and whether it was a good experince. Thanks so much,

Edited June 16, 2016 by editor@cruisecritic

[Bella O]

Thanks for posting Carolyn! I will be heading over to that thread. My older two daughters danced for years growing up and both would like to see the Ballet in SPB. My eldest daughter lives in Moscow now, and a trip to the Bolsoi was a highlight of my visit to see her.

[ljandgb]

Many of the ballet performances offered in the summer in SPB are "tourist" shows, FYI. If you plan to go, ask your guide what quality of show you are seeing.

 

We saw the Paris Opera Ballet debut of Copellia at the Copenhagen Opera House in our 3 days prior to our cruise. It was simply amazing.

[Bella O]

I had heard that about SPB. We are spending a couple of days pre-cruise in Copenhagen and will do some research, thanks!