VO Stockholm Question

[duquephart]

43 minutes ago, deec said:

earlier in this thread I did mention the changing of the guard...it was GREAT....much of it done on horseback...best changing of guard we have seen anywhere!  Stockholm definitely is a place to spend extra time.  We also did the "ICE BAR" and were underwhelmed!  We stayed in OLD Town and it was fun just walking about!!!

 

Thanks. How much time would anyone suggest is enough to spend at the Vasa Museum? Our plan for the day before embarkation is to visit Vasa first thing in the morning and then make it to the palace by 1:15 for the changing, Does this sound doable? Then we'd have the rest of the afternoon to wander about and find some place for dinner.

[Heidi13]

1 hour ago, duquephart said:

 

Thanks. How much time would anyone suggest is enough to spend at the Vasa Museum? Our plan for the day before embarkation is to visit Vasa first thing in the morning and then make it to the palace by 1:15 for the changing, Does this sound doable? Then we'd have the rest of the afternoon to wander about and find some place for dinner.

 

We had about 90 mins at the Vasa Museum and it could have been more to see all decks. I could easily have spent 3 hrs browsing the information.

[duquephart]

46 minutes ago, Heidi13 said:

 

We had about 90 mins at the Vasa Museum and it could have been more to see all decks. I could easily have spent 3 hrs browsing the information.

 

If we make the "changing" a "must do" and feel like we shorted ourselves at the Vasa in so doing we could always return to Vasa on the morning of sail out day. We've only got 480+ days to figure this all out. 😊

 

[Heidi13]

3 minutes ago, duquephart said:

 

If we make the "changing" a "must do" and feel like we shorted ourselves at the Vasa in so doing we could always return to Vasa on the morning of sail out day. We've only got 480+ days to figure this all out. 😊

 

Haven't watch the Swedish version, but have watched Buckingham Palace a few times and Monaco once. They are definitely worth watching, if you have the opportunity, but I find it best to get there early to get a good view.

[SoccerMom#3]

4 hours ago, duquephart said:

 

Thanks. How much time would anyone suggest is enough to spend at the Vasa Museum? Our plan for the day before embarkation is to visit Vasa first thing in the morning and then make it to the palace by 1:15 for the changing, Does this sound doable? Then we'd have the rest of the afternoon to wander about and find some place for dinner.

I think your plan is doable.  It doesn't take too long to get from the Vasa Museum to the palace to see the changing of the guard especially if get the Stockholm Hop On/Hop off bus ticket that includes the ferry.  And as you said, you have the next day to go back to Vasa if you want.

[duquephart]

6 hours ago, deec said:

earlier in this thread I did mention the changing of the guard...it was GREAT....much of it done on horseback...best changing of guard we have seen anywhere!  Stockholm definitely is a place to spend extra time.  We also did the "ICE BAR" and were underwhelmed!  We stayed in OLD Town and it was fun just walking about!!!

 

Thanks! Others have said to get there early. Care to suggest how early?

[knoxclone]

We enjoyed the Nobel museum very much, we had not planned to visit, stumbled upon it and am glad we did!  We probably spent 2 hours there, could have spent longer...but they wanted to close 🙂. 

[janetcbl]

A contrary response to this thread.....I was a tour guide for years with programs that included Stockholm. Opinion from group members: spend  little time at the changing of the guard (“England is better”) and “hours at the Vasa” . Every group complained that not enough time was spent at Vasa.....and there are still exhibits that I have never seen. There is a small ferry that goes between Slussen Gamla Stan  (location of the Palace) and Djurgarden (location of the Vasa).

[duquephart]

17 minutes ago, janetcbl said:

A contrary response to this thread.....I was a tour guide for years with programs that included Stockholm. Opinion from group members: spend  little time at the changing of the guard (“England is better”) and “hours at the Vasa” . Every group complained that not enough time was spent at Vasa.....and there are still exhibits that I have never seen. There is a small ferry that goes between Slussen Gamla Stan  (location of the Palace) and Djurgarden (location of the Vasa).

 

How much time was spent at the Vasa? Care to weigh in on how much time is adequate?

[janetcbl]

2 hours ago, duquephart said:

 

How much time was spent at the Vasa? Care to weigh in on how much time is adequate?

Most of the time the group was given two hours in the late morning, including the introductory movie. Because the group’s afternoon was “Free”, many ate lunch in the cafe (good food!) and then spent more time in the exhibits after lunch.  I’d say the average time was anywhere from 2 to 5 hours, depending on interest. If you are interested, look up the history of the recovery of the Vasa...really fascinating!

[duquephart]

17 minutes ago, janetcbl said:

Most of the time the group was given two hours in the late morning, including the introductory movie. Because the group’s afternoon was “Free”, many ate lunch in the cafe (good food!) and then spent more time in the exhibits after lunch.  I’d say the average time was anywhere from 2 to 5 hours, depending on interest. If you are interested, look up the history of the recovery of the Vasa...really fascinating!

 

Does spending ~ three hours at Vasa then heading toward the palace at noon or so sound like a reasonable plan to you? I've read much about the Vasa - sounds like the Swedes should have consulted the Norwegians in regard to ship building!😊

[BluebonnetTexan]

We learned several things on our Viking Homelands trip. 1) Whatever time you plan to spend in Stockholm is not enough! 2) Be sure to check if for local special events and holidays which might impact what is open and when. 

We arrived two days before embarkation - we bought the 3-day Stockholm Pass and managed to do the HOHO loop the afternoon we arrived to get oriented. We realized the week before we left that Sweden's National Day was the day we were to embark the ship, so that impacted what was going to be open and we adjusted our plans to take advantage. The next day we took the first morning boat to Drottningholm Palace (using our Pass) and then did the Under The Bridges Tour in the afternoon to see more of Stockholm from the water. Viking does a similar Drottningholm Palace tour, but we paid less for the whole 3-day pass than Viking charges for that one tour. It was easy DIY. On the embarkation day, we checked out of our hotel early, checked our luggage, and caught an early ferry (or maybe the HOHO boat) I don't recall which now to arrive at the Vasa when it opened. We were able to get on an early English tour and then spent at least another hour there - we were probably there about 3 hours. You don't want to miss it. We went back to our hotel at that point and took a taxi with our bags to the ship, got checked in then headed to the Royal Palace which was open for free due to it being Swedish National Day. We did miss the changing of the guard, so can't comment on that, but there is so much to see around Stockholm. We wandered around Gamla Stan the rest of the day, including the Nobel Museum, which I also highly recommend. You can definitely spend hours there, too, if you like that kind of thing. We had two in our group ready to go after about 30 minutes, and the other two could have stayed all day!  On the morning of departure we took the ferry across to Skansen Open Air Museum. As it was the day after the holiday, the ferry schedule was not running as often as other days, so again be aware of these types of issues when getting between sites. Our foursome was so-so on the Skansen, but I think it was because a lot of the buildings were not open yet after the prior evening's festivities. At any rate, there were still several things we had tentatively on our to-do list, so we want to go back to Stockholm! We ultimately opted for doing several things well, instead of shortchanging one place to get to the next. And, we got our money's worth out of the Stockholm Pass, of course YMMV.  

[janetcbl]

21 hours ago, duquephart said:

 

Does spending ~ three hours at Vasa then heading toward the palace at noon or so sound like a reasonable plan to you? I've read much about the Vasa - sounds like the Swedes should have consulted the Norwegians in regard to ship building!😊

Yes! Take the ferry and it is easy to do. Agree with your comment about ship building😁.