Getaway in Archipelago

[flexsmom]

Greetings from the Getaway - we dock in Stockholm in about 2 hours and are cruising through the islands of the archipelago - sun up brightly and it is absolutely unbelievable how we are weaving through! I'll try to post pix later (likely much later)!

 

 

 

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[easyboy]

Thanks for checking in. Looking forward to your pics.

 

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[flexsmom]

Update - the HoHo busses and boats ARE running early due to the ship being here. We're on the boat which is doing direct service to the Vasa and to the Royal Palace until 10am when the full service begins. There is a Tourist Info booth right off the ship to purchase tickets. You can also purchase them at the boat which would be good if you are later getting off the ship as the line was growing long. Just follow the red line off the ship to the hoho dock.

 

 

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[flexsmom]

Oh - and the docking process was unbelievable. The ship rotated 180 in the channel and it was incredibly tight - quite the feat.

 

 

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[Steff79]

Cool, i'm happy for you.

 

 

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[karoo]

Just wondering- who is the captain for this cruise?

 

 

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[Seminole1975]

Wonderful!

 

 

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[Seminole1975]

So there are HOHO boats as well as buses?

 

 

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[flexsmom]

The captain's last name is Gustavson - not sure I spelled that right.

 

Yes, here in Stockholm there's a HoHo boat and a bus. I'd read that the bus can get stuck in traffic. The boat was perfect. Can do a ticket for one or the other, or a combo. We took the boat to the Vasa, visited that until 10:30, then walked to the ABBA Museum, did that, caught the HoHo boat around again past our ship (just one stop) and on three more stops to the Old Town and Palace Area. The whole loop is fairly quick and efficient for having only 7-7 1/2 hours in port.

 

 

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[rocklinmom]

So glad to hear that GA was able to dock in Stockholm! We are on the July 18th cruise that is supposed to dock there as well.

[hun]

Yayyyyyyy thank you for posting! Enjoy! [emoji5]

We're also on a later sailing currently scheduled for Stockholm and have been so curious!

 

 

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[300dtc]

Sounds like weather needs to be perfect for this to happen..so here's to great weather for the rest of the cruise year!

 

 

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[Highpeaklad]

So glad to hear that GA was able to dock in Stockholm! We are on the July 18th cruise that is supposed to dock there as well.

 

 

Me too. Just note that we are due to be in a different dock so won't be so handy for the boats. Assuming we make it there.

[ttnc4me]

Leaving through Archipelago as I type. An absolute gorgeous day!

 

We did the HOHO buses and while traffic wasn't horrible, the bus schedule was! We waited 40 minutes at one stop (17) and 30 at another (21). Luckily we skipped some stops that weren't of interest but there's no way we would have squeezed in a long museum stop in addition to 21 bus stops.

The city is beautiful and so glad we made it!!

[pr0pel]

Please share any touring plans for Stockholm. I was thinking of buying a tour but everyone is saying how easy it is to your yourselves.

[kitkat343]

pr0pel

 

The public transportation in Stockholm is excellent, and we easily travelled across the city by ourselves with our 3 year old in tow. There are many highlights to Stockholm, so you will need to decide what attractions are most important to you. The Vasa is the most popular museum in Scandinavia, and quite impressive. However, they do limit the number of visitors allowed in the museum at one time to protect the ship. It is quite spectacular to be there when the museum is empty, so if you are planning to go that could be your priority immediately upon disembarkation (an alternative according to previous forum posters in the Baltic forum might be to go later in the day. I don't know if this works at the Vassa since we went there first thing in the morning, but in NYC the museums tend to be empty during the week after 3 pm, after the school field trips are gone. But you'll need to take the time of your ship's departure into consideration if you are planning on traveling there later).

 

If you are docking directly in Stockholm, the archipelago is gorgeous, so please make sure to be outside either as you sail into Stockholm, or as your ship departs. Please also note that because the ship has to pass through the archipelago slowly, your day in Stockholm may be a bit shorter than you would like. This may also lead to extra crowds in the buffet and at disembarkation as most passengers are trying to get off the ship quickly.

 

A poster on the Baltic forum had previously stated earlier this year (and the websites for both Red sightseeing and Stromma currently indicate) that the HOHO boat shuttle service directly to Vasa prior to 10 am is no longer running. However, if the above poster was able to take one this season, that's great news and I'm really glad that they've reinstated this shuttle service. The entrance to the HOHO boat is only a 1 minute walk from pier S167, so I would imagine they would have signs or people at the point of disembarkation to attract customers if they are running early in the morning. But you might want to contact them directly to ask if it is running (they emailed me in May that the answer was no, but I hope they've changed their minds since it is a great service).

In 2014, Stromma sold one ride tickets directly to Vasa, and that was a great deal. The HOHO boat is a very pleasant, enjoyable ride and there will be a ton of people getting on the boat at S167, so you won't need to wait. The boat took us to Vasa right after it opened, and we enjoyed some very pleasant time in the museum when it was empty and we could easily navigate and explore. As we were about to leave, the museum became really crowded.

According to their website, it appears they now only sell all day tickets so you will need to decide if an all day HOHO boat ticket this is worth it. The HOHO boats run less comprehensive routes than the HOHO buses, although you can buy a combination ticket. I've never really used HOHO buses, since my concern was always the amount of time you might need to wait for one (a poster above seemed to have not had a lot of luck with this in Stockholm) so I don't know if they are a good option. You have a shorter day in Stockholm, so you really don't want to be spending a lot of time waiting for transportation.

The public transportation options were fabulous - we went to the information desk at each museum and asked them how to get to the next one. We took buses, a tram and the subway across the city fairly easily and did not wait long for any of our transport.

If you chose to go to Skansen, please note that it is huge and there are different entrances (and different transportation options for the different entrances) so you might want to plan out ahead of time exactly where within Skansen if you choose to go there. We emailed them ahead of time, and they told us exactly what tram (or possibly bus - I don't remember) stop we needed to catch from Vasa.

There is a lot of information about independent excursions in the review I wrote in my signature line, but some of it is out of date since we sailed in the summer of 2014.

I usually start with the ship tour, and copy anything that looks interesting from there, and double check on trip advisor to see if there is anything interesting in a city that the ship tours don't visit. Vasa and Galma Stan are the two attractions that most visitors try to see, and beyond that there are a lot of great options for you to choose from based upon your personal interests.

Oh, and if you are reading my review please note that in Stockholm the stockholm card we used is no longer sold - there is a different museum entrance card. The stockholm card was really expensive but worth it since we visited a lot of expensive museums, and I'm guessing the new cards are the same way so just calculate if it is worth purchasing after you decide which museums you want to visit.

[pr0pel]

kitkat343, thank you so much for your detailed post. Since we're from NYC as well, public transportation is not an issue and I take your word for it that we can easily travel to the various spots. If we can take the HOHO's, then that will save us a few hundred $. Thanks again, it was very helpful and will assist us in planning.

[ttnc4me]

pr0pel, likely you or anyone who decides to use public transportation, it is an option if you plan well far in advance.

 

Unfortunately, we did not and without exact locations, museums, and sites to see, it was extremely overwhelming to try to decipher the bus routes going on streets and destinations named with 16 letter words that all seem to run together at times.

 

I believe that if you know exactly where you want to go and how to get there in advance, it is 100% doable on public transportation. For us, the HOHO buses were a good option because of their concrete designated meeting points and highlighted points of interest.

 

That said, it is unfortunate that the day in Stockholm is so short as on the ship's posted itinerary, the following sea day is highlighted as the Archipelago journey. For those not docking at S167, the extra hour of travel in each direction is valuable visiting time. I feel like we got a good taste of the city but even though there are many ports around the world that have felt a bit rushed, this one seemed more so than most.

[kitkat343]

We just kind of winged it - stopping at the information desk of each museum to ask how to get to the next location and got lucky since we were visiting a series of popular museums. But if you want to plan it ahead of time (which is a much better plan anyway) google maps should give you directions, and you can email the museums ahead of time to double check how they would recommend you travel. Also, if you post on the Baltic board or TripAdvisor forums people there may be able to help you plan in advance.

 

Oh, and the previous poster reminded me - it was really helpful everywhere on this trip to have a printed sheet of paper with our plans. People in helsinki spoke excellent English, but did not know what I meant when I asked about the rock church or tried to pronounce it. When I showed them the paper, they lit up and gave us directions.

 

Also, please see what 24 hour public transportation passes are offered when you sail and if it would be possible to get them ahead of time - the Ti right next to the dock was understandably swamped right at disembarkation. A few years ago they were offered as part of the 24 hour museum card, but I believe they are now sold separately from those cards.

Edited June 29, 2017 by kitkat343