Please tell me about your Baltic cruise

[ISABELLA]

We are thinking of taking 10 days Baltic cruise on Star Princess. We've done 12 days Barcelona- Venice cruise on Star almost 2 years ago and it was wonderful.

Please share your comments, DOs and Don'ts.

Thank you

[CruisinChris]

as you probably know, Princess offers two Baltic itineraries. I've done the route that includes Warnemunde and the overnight in Copenhagen. I chose this itinerary because the duration of some of the port calls were longer than on the other itinerary. Disembarkation was also very easy since the ship cleared immigration the day before disembarkation (because of the overnight).

 

Overall, this is a great itinerary. Highlights included visiting Stockholm, Tallin, St. Petersburg. and, surprisingly, Warnemunde. Tips: In Sweden the ship docks in Nynashamn, about 1 hour outside Stockholm. This is a tender port (no issues with tendering). It is an easy walk to the train station where you can take the train directly into Stockholm and walk to all the sights. You can buy your train tickets online before you go which makes life very easy. There are detailed instructions on doing this and how to get to the train station on the Baltics board.

 

Copenhagen is a delightful city and easy to get around on foot. I highly recommend taking a canal boat (not the narrated one). You can hop on hop off at various stops and it's a great way to see the city.

 

In St. Petersburg you can see far more of the sights if you arrange for a private guide. I highly recommend Red October (see the Baltics boards). They will customize a tour for you and you can make arrangements through your roll call to share the tour with others to defray the cost. They will also arrange your tourist visa. This is a remarkable city with a spectacular heritage.

 

Tallinn, like St. Petersburg, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and is a great walkable mideval town. Easy walk to and from ship.

 

Warnemunde was a delightful surprise. It's a beautiful seaside resort with a fab beach and lots of little restaurants and shops. You can also take the train into Rostock which also a really neat town.

[Druke I]

Well, for openers, we wanted to go on a small ship, and through the Kiel Canal, a very pretty part of Germany, so excluded Princess from our plans.

 

In '05, we found that both Prinsendam of HAL, and Regatta of Oceania fit the bill. Oceania was offering a two-for-one and free air package, so we jumped on that.

 

Regatta is a sister ship to Tahitian Princess and Pacific Princess (new).

 

We had a 14 night itinerary, starting in Stockholm, then to Tallin, then St. Petersburg with two nights there, Helsinki, a sea day, Gdansk, Copenhagen, Rostock, Kiel Canal, Amsterdam, Bruges, Dover.

 

The Baltic is a great place to visit, very port intensive - but again, we wanted to go through the Kiel Canal, so chose Oceania, which we highly recommend.

 

Isn't it wonderful we have so many choices?

[dcl1710]

Isabella - you will love this cruise. We did the Star in August. If you go to the Star's review in CC you will find 3 reviews from the August trip. Suron and Sunprincess loved this trip as well. One suggestion: book another vacation for after this because you will need one!

[OhioDogLover]

We were also on the Star last August and did the more port intensive itinerary. I agree with the recommendation for Red October. Make sure you see the most you can while you are in Russia. We obtained a guide for Tallinn through the chamber of commerce or tourist board (or something like that) website and she was fantastic. Try to make sure you see the changing of the guard in Sweden; it was fun. The trip to Berlin by train was extremely tiring and expensive, but so interesting that it made up for the incovenience. Try to get to Tivoli in Copenhagen. It is also interesting. See the Rock Church in Finland. As you can tell, our only regret was that we ran out of time. Have a great trip!

[meselibibob]

We did the Star Princess Baltic last July; the itinerary which included Germany. It was fantastic. Out of 20 crusies, this raked as our #2; only behind the Med. A suggestion for the flight. If IcelandAir flys from your city, consider booking a flight on your own. It was so much cheaper than the Princess air and we found this airline to be wonderful. We could not believe all the meals we were served. The flight attendants even served warm rolls from linen napkin covered wicker baskets. We arrived in Copenhagen the day before the ship departed and explored this fantastic city on our own. We did book the two-day ship's tour in St. Petersburg and were very pleased. Every city was exceptional. Gdnask, Poland was unbelievable. You will not be sorry you booked this cruise. The Star is gorgeous. Everything was close to perfect. Have fun!!!

[Denverite]

I agree with all the other posters--we were on the Star in July (and did a precruise to Budapest, Vienna and Prague, with an overnight in Amsterdam). Definitely recommend a private guide for St. Petersburg (we used DenRus but Red October also gets rave reviews). We also booked a private guide for Berlin--they picked our group of 4 up in a Mercedes mini-van and we were in Berlin in about 1-1/2 hr--had a great lunch at the rooftop restaurant at the Reichstag with views of Berlin below. Gdansk is very easy to do on your own with either Princess transportation or cab--it was one of our favorite cities. This was by far an excellent itinerary, very port-intensive trip and busy. Highly recommend it!

[JordanF]

We took the Star in the Baltic last June. It was an awesome trip. We took the ship's tours in Sweden, Russia and Berlin. They were all very good. The Baltic Ports message boards on Cruise Critic were very helpful--there are lots of reviews and tips to be had.

[sunprincess]

Isabella,

 

The Star Baltic Cruise is awesome. Port intensive & exhausting, but, excellent. I posted a review here after my August cruise, along with a few other CC members on our cruise. This will be helpful to you.

http://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=12514

 

Also, below with my webshots link you can preview several albums of photos from the cruise.

I highly recommend it ;)

[mek]

We did the Grand a year ago in June. It was a wonderful trip, but be prepared for cool/cold/rainy weather if you travel early in the season. We did have two beautiful days - in St Petersburg - the highlight of our trip. We used Denrus and they were wonderful. I am a Russian history buff and they did a custom itinerary for me that was perfect. A private tour is the ONLY way to see SP.

[mycruz]

We enjoyed our Baltic cruise so much this past summer. We went with Red October and joined 4 other couples for our St. Petersburg tour. We were very happy with the cruise and have met some very nice fellow cruise mates that we still keep in touch with. The only city that we did with Princess was Oslo, since we were not in port very long and there was so much we wanted to see. I recommend getting Rick Steves books, I ordered ours through Amazon and really research what you want to see and do. Many of the cities have walking tours in his books. I found these very helpful. I would also recommend ordering John Lawrence's DVD on the Baltics as part of your research. We saved so much time and was able to tour on our own because of the research, not to mention money saved! In Helsinki we picked up a HOHO in the city and had a great tour. Gdansk and Tallin were great shopping cities, I was able to do a lot of Christmas shopping while in these cities. As the previous poster mentioned, check out the Baltics boards, you will learn a lot! Have a great trip.

[juliejoe]

I would also recommend ordering John Lawrence's DVD on the Baltics as part of your research.

 

Where can I order John Lawrence's DVD? We sailed the Baltics in 2004 and he was our CD. I have his book on St. Petersburg and would enjoy his DVD. I'm assuming it is his port talks - terrific for this itinerary.

 

Julie

[rkdahl]

Where can I order John Lawrence's DVD?

 

I ordered it and it's a very good overview of each of the areas the Star Princess visits in the Baltics. Here's the link:

http://www.johnlawrencecd.com/

[johnlcruise]

We enjoyed our Baltic cruise so much this past summer. We went with Red October and joined 4 other couples for our St. Petersburg tour.

 

In St. Petersburg we also went tr Red October..Great tour guide and they got us tr the lines and never had to wait. It sure beats the ship tours.

You will get a more in depth tour if you book independent and go tr a company like Red October for your St. Petersburg stop.

[ISABELLA]

Thank you all for great reviews and suggestions. We booked on Star sailing

5/25/06 and will be flying a day or two earlier to Copenhagen. So much to do and not too much time. I like to book my own air and the hotel. And after that- look into what to see and how to see it. I like to visit places somewhat prepared. We love "Grand" class ships and already sailed on Star from Barcelona to Venice 2 years ago. And I am thrilled that John Lawrence is CD on Star. We sailed with him over 10 years ago. He is one of the best CD we had sailed with over 28 cruises.

Thank you all again.

[jnc411]

Bump: some great information on this thread, just looking for more. Daughter and friends are planning this in July. Thanks all

Cori

[toothgirl]

Hi Cori,

If you're planning your trip for july, then make sure it's the beginning of July. Then you still get to experience the White Nights, meaning it doesn't get dark during the night for more then 2 hours. And the 24-th of June is the Midsummer day here, and then we only get a few hours of twilight here, and it's only dark for maybe 30 min, the sunset is past 11 pm and the sunrise is around 2:30 am. Midsummer day is celebrated in Sweden, Finland and Estonia...people light bonfires, and dance and party through the night.

Best regards,

Kristin (from Tallinn):)

 

if oyu have questions you can e-mail me at kristinrast@hotmail.com

[cs1]

Could someone please give me the name of a driver/guide for an excursion to Berlin?

 

Also, we are thinking that since time is limited on our visit to Stockholm, it would be best to tender off of the ship and have a driver/guide waiting to take us into the city rather than make our way to the train station and then wait for the train. Does anyone know of such a guide?

 

We are booked on the Star in July.

Thanks

[jimneycrkit]

There are a few cabs at the pier for Stockholm but if you take the first tender in in athe am and catch the first train, you will get there rather quickly. the trains leave everyhalf hour. You just have to make sure you are on the 2 ;10 train back. Plus it is a very long drive and would cost a fortune if you took a cab or hired a driver. Plus the train ride is the best part anyway. The country side is absolutly amazing and the trains are very nice.

 

This will be John Lawrences last year doing the Baltics as he is retiring.He made our whole trip and his shore excursion talks were fantastic.

 

In Tallin we took the shuttle into town very early in the am and walked around without anyone in town. I have no tourists in my pictures. I bought my sweater there for 50.00 US and have received so many comments about it. Inside the sweater is the name of the women who made it and the town sewn in it. I got it at the little outdoor market. Most of the ladies there only take cash in US but I found one that took credit cards.It is the best made sweater i have ever gotten. This sweater would easily have sold for over 100 at home or in another country.

 

In almost all the countries we used HOHO buses or took the small shuttle from the pier and did it on our own. In St Petersburg we used Red Oct and loved it. We had a terrific 2 day tour for a really great price.

 

In Oslo since the ship litterally docks right in the town next to the castle you can easily walk over to the ferry and go over to the Museums. Its fun to walk thru the neighborhoods and see the houses. Wish I lived there.

 

We did the Gdansk route and just took a bus to town from the ship and walked around the city and shopped.

 

This is very tiring trip but well worth it. We spent a couple of days in Copenhagen and took the train out to Helsingnor and Hillerod to see the castles out there. Fredericksborg castle was my favoite out of all the castles and the day we were there we had the castle to ourselves completely. The security guards gave us a tour because we were the only ones there. we went to Tivoli and enjoyed that and it was National Dog day the day we went. The Queen came out the Bless the dogs. Everyone was allowed to bring their dogs to the park that day and it looked like the Westminister Dog show there were so many. We also did a canal tour which is a must do and ate in a small restaurant and ate smorgesbord sandwiches.

 

Helsinki we just took the shuttle and walked around the town. if you like to shop stop by Stockmans dept store it is amazing. the grocery store in the basement is terrific. make sure you have some of the local mushroom soup somewhere it is the best I have ever had, in fact we went to back to Stockmans after we had eaten and bought some of their wild dried mushrooms to bring home to make soup.

[Brian Raine]

Isabella, A Baltic cruise will whet your appetite for a trip to the North Cape Norway, where the sun shines 24 hours in summer. My only criticism of the larger ships going into the Baltic is they have to berth out of the way(Oslo being the exception). St Petersburg is a long ride from the berth to the city.The smaller cruise ships go right into the centre. We have been twice by cruiser and have been within sight of Nevsky Propsect from where we berthed.Stockholm is another place where smaller ships can go to within walking distance of the city centre.

There are several companies operating out of the UK who use smaller (older) more intimate ships which are ideal for the Baltic cruise.Having done the "Big" ones ie Diamond /Sapphire Princess, I can tell you small can be beautiful in the cruise business.