Baltic Cruise Excursions?

[mevs904]

We will be on the August 6 Regal Baltic cruise and just received an email from Princess indicating that we can begin booking excursions for the cruise.  We’re excited by the variety of choices, but wondered if some CC posters who have taken this cruise could offer some thoughts.  We realize that our choice of sites to visit will primarily be based on our interests, but would love to hear some thoughts on people’s “must dos” and also on when an independent excursion vendor might be preferable to Princess.  (We are seriously considering Alla in St. Petersburg.)  Also, we understand that in some ports we will be docking a distance from the cities that we visit.  Are there any recommendations for those ports?  Are there ports where we can see a lot without an excursion?  We have already decided that we will not do the excursion to Berlin and will probably go to Rostock.  Any thoughts are appreciated.  Thanks!

[skynight]

20 minutes ago, mevs904 said:

We will be on the August 6 Regal Baltic cruise and just received an email from Princess indicating that we can begin booking excursions for the cruise.  We’re excited by the variety of choices, but wondered if some CC posters who have taken this cruise could offer some thoughts.  We realize that our choice of sites to visit will primarily be based on our interests, but would love to hear some thoughts on people’s “must dos” and also on when an independent excursion vendor might be preferable to Princess.  (We are seriously considering Alla in St. Petersburg.)  Also, we understand that in some ports we will be docking a distance from the cities that we visit.  Are there any recommendations for those ports?  Are there ports where we can see a lot without an excursion?  We have already decided that we will not do the excursion to Berlin and will probably go to Rostock.  Any thoughts are appreciated.  Thanks!

In Warnemunde we took a private walking tour through the small town and then over to Rostock by train. We had to change trains at one point. We then walked around Rostock, stopped for brats and beer and then took a ferry back. I think we arranged it through SPB tours. It was nice. There are two different piers in Warnemunde. One is right next to the railroad tracks and basically in town. The other is across the harbor with more difficult access to the towns of Warnemunde and Rostock.

In Tallinn we also booked a walking tour with SPB. It was nice. You can do Tallinn on your own. The main old town is up on the hill from the bus stop.

[mevs904]

Great information, sky night!  Just the kind of feedback that I was hoping for.   Thanks so much!

[MrsJJ]

We used T J Tours this past summer, they were great. We got into Catherine's Palace before the general tourist crowd. Small group tour, we would highly recommend them. 

[sandyoftheseas]

We booked with SPB and enjoyed all the tours we did with them. You can get on your Roll Call and get others to join your tour and split the cost. Also with SPB you can sign up for tours in several ports using their website and get discounts.  My favorite places were Catherine's Palace and the small town of Estonia.  

[paul929207]

We used Alla in July in St. Petersburg. They were great and half cost of Princess

[Tedferg]

In Copenhagen we stayed at Admiral - contact Hotel directly and ask about discount - we got a very good price pre and post cruise.  Close to Nyhaven. Taxi from airport and to cruise port vert reasonable. In Copenhagen do the canal tour start in Nyhaven.  We used SPB for Berlin from Warnemunde and in St Petersburg. Talin is definitely DYI. Oslo and Helsinki HOHO bus. Stockholm we did the harbor boat cruise - went in to Vasa (?) museum  good but wish we had done ABBA.

 

Did not need any local currencies. Euro or Credit Card - even for ice cream 🙂

 

Edited November 9, 2018 by Tedferg

[claudiniusmaximus]

Not sure how committed you are to Rostock but having just come back from Berlin it’s an amazing city. Very unique - really no where in the world like it considering it’s Cold War history. 

[plastered505]

We booked all of our excursions through SPB Tours and were thrilled with the results. Small groups of less than 20, except for the Berlin tour. Excellent guides. We saw everything we wanted to see, saved substantial $$ vs the ship's tours and got to see and do more because of the small group size instead of the huge motor coach tours. I

 

If you haven't done so already, join the roll call for your cruise and sift through the postings. We were able to book all of our SPB tours through an member of the Roll Call and got a discount.

 

You're going on a great cruise.

[Micahs Grandad]

55 minutes ago, plastered505 said:

We booked all of our excursions through SPB Tours and were thrilled with the results. Small groups of less than 20, except for the Berlin tour. Excellent guides. We saw everything we wanted to see, saved substantial $$ vs the ship's tours and got to see and do more because of the small group size instead of the huge motor coach tours. I

 

If you haven't done so already, join the roll call for your cruise and sift through the postings. We were able to book all of our SPB tours through an member of the Roll Call and got a discount.

 

You're going on a great cruise.

We did about 5 tours thru SPB two years ago and they were outstanding even added a visit to the St Petersburgh Synagogue at the last minute.

[FollowingTheSun]

Last year we booked Alla for St Petersburg and did our own thing for the rest. We didn't go into Berlin and had a lovely day in Warnemunde on the Fathers Day holiday.

 

WE will do the same next year.

 

[mevs904]

This has all been wonderful information.  Thank you, everyone.  Tedferg, thank you for the suggestion of the Admiral.  I hadN’t mentioned it, but we were planning on spending several days in Copenhagen after the cruise and the Admiral sounds like an excellent possibility.

[KittyloverCA]

The Baltic region has great tours that are better value than ships tours. In Germany we did friends of Dave, a good way to spend the day in a not super exciting area since we didn’t want to go to Berlin. In retrospect we could have stayed local and enjoyed the ship more

 

copenhagen we did on our own but had a few days. Tallin we did in our own, as well as Helsinki.  Stockholm we did a ships tour which was not great. The shining star was TJ in SPB, a private tour. Outstanding

Edited November 12, 2018 by KittyloverCA

[kaisatsu]

Oslo is pretty easy to tour on your own. Unfortunately it looks like a very early port call (7:00-14:00?), which puts some limitations on museum visits. I would use those early hours to catch the Tram 12 up to Vigelands Sculpture Park.

 

Then take the bus 20 & 30 (changing at Olav Kyrres plass) to one or two of the Bygdøy museums. The open-air Folk Museum is a favorite and includes an iconic wooden stage church. The remains of the burial ships in the Viking Ship Museum are unique to Oslo. And the Fram polar exploration museum (home to the ship Amundsen used as the base for his South Pole expedition) is often a pleasant surprise for those who visit. After a few museum visits, the 30 bus will take you right back to the Rådhus (city hall) by the main cruise pier.

[Giantfan13]

The choice is yours, but do NOT book any ship's excursions for any of the ports. You CAN do them all on your own, or, has been said, decide which tour company you might want to use in St Petersburg (again, DO NOT book this with Princess) and any of those companies will give you a better rate the more ports you add on. It makes it easy.

 

But again, if you are even thinking about doing any of these ports on your own, I don't just say it, but they are all easy to do and you will see everything. Buy, or go to the library and take out, Rick Steve's book on cruising the Baltics and you will be good to go. All the money you can save can be put to much better use. Again, unless you are set on only doing a tour, at least look into doing these ports on your own. When and if you have any questions, there are so many helpful people here, from all the ports you will visit, that they bend over backwards to help cruisers enjoy their city and will give you all the info you might ever need.

Think about it.

 

Cheers

'Len

[Lagerta]

Although most of the Baltic ports are pretty easy to do on your own, I prefer knowing what I am looking at, so we booked tours in most of them, and they were fantastic. They can actually give you some free time after the tour to wander independently, it is just the matter of planning. The only exception is St Petersburg, where you need to be with your guide all the time, but there is so much to see that we felt we needed our guide to the very end of the tour. Whether you choose guided or independent touring, I am sure it will be better than taking a ship's tour with a large group, where you hardly see half of the things.

We took a tour to Berlin and loved it. However, I know people who thought it was not worth driving for 3 hours one way, and toured Warnemunde and Rostok. They said these are lovely towns.

Enjoy your cruise!

[mskaufman]

We booked SPB in Berlin and St. Petersburg. They did a nice job.  Tallinn and Copenhagen were DIY. 

[angie7911922]

We used Anastasia's Travel in St. Petersburg and Berlin. The local travel companies usually have better prices in than the ships do. We learned a lot and had a great time. The guides were so knowledgeable and they made everything so easy for me. I just had to show up. 

[Alamu]

Hi cansas, St. Petersburg highly intrigues me. What did you particularly like about it?

I can't narrow my favorite travel experiences down to one, but here are a few:

- heading to Trump Bay USVI with our young kids at dawn and being the only ones on the beach
- after an education saturated by French culture, fulfilling my dream of walking the streets of Paris
- seeing bald eagles when our cruise ship docked in Juneau, Alaska
- enjoying the breathtaking views on our first drive through Joshua Tree Nat'l Park

[Clay Clayton]

We stayed four days in Copenhagen precruise at Hotel Bethel-highly recommend. We loved the canal tour we did there that came with our HoHo bus ticket. We used the bus for our transportation, one if the lines offers a deal-buy 24 hours and they give you 72.  Not sure why they don’t just sell it as a three day pass but who am I to complain!

 

In Warndemunde we diy-ed it via train to Schoenberg where we had a great wander through the lovely town, a delish German lunch and toured the castle. The train was easy with a change in Rostock. If you have more than one going on the train in Germany be sure to buy the regional pass-first person pays full price, each additional was 4 euro!

 

In Tallin we had planned on grabbing a taxi to the top of the old town and then walking downhill back to the ship. Alas, it was pouring rain so we took the HoHo instead. Due to the weather, didn’t get to see much or enjoy the town as I had hoped.  Maybe we will get back someday. 

 

In St Pete, we joined with other rollcall members and booked a two day tour with Hey Russia!   Everyone was pleased with the tour and the guide we had. They even. made some on the fly changes based on our requests.  Be prepared to be very tired.  SP is overwhelming and all the sights very crowded-and we were there in late September. 

 

In Helsinki we did the HoHo through ship as it was less expensive than purchasing online.  We enjoyed touring the whole route and then returning for stops at the Rock Church and the market downtown. 

 

Unfortunately, we missed Stockholm due to weather but frankly after four port days in a row (two of them killer ones) I was glad to have an extra sea day!

 

Have a great cruise!

[mevs904]

Thanks so much Clay!  Your response was full of great information.  We will definitely check out the HOHO offers in the various cities as well as the senior discounts.  We will also be looking to book a 2 day SP tour with an independent tour company.  

[KittyloverCA]

Another good option for Copenhagen is the Copenhagen card if you are there a couple of days. We really enjoyed it there, so I’m glad we had a couple of days there

[Clay Clayton]

10 hours ago, mevs904 said:

Thanks so much Clay!  Your response was full of great information.  We will definitely check out the HOHO offers in the various cities as well as the senior discounts.  We will also be looking to book a 2 day SP tour with an independent tour company.  

You’re welcome, just paying it forward!  I realized after I posted I had the castle we visited from Warndemunde wrong...it is Schwerin. Sorry about that!

Edited February 6, 2019 by Clay Clayton

[Twitch05]

We are planning our St Petersburg excursions and after lots of research have booked with Alla tours... I'll be back with pictures and a proper review after but so far the information from them, insight already into their local knowledge and why they have put specific itineraries together and the ease of booking has been very reassuring. 

[mevs904]

20 hours ago, KittyloverCA said:

Another good option for Copenhagen is the Copenhagen card if you are there a couple of days. We really enjoyed it there, so I’m glad we had a couple of days there

 

Thank you!  We’ll be staying in Copenhagen for three nights after the cruise.  This is very helpful.