A quick overview of the first four Baltic ports (including Berlin via Warnemunde) July 8-22, 2023

[Dr. Peds]

This is a quick and dirty set of impressions of the nine ports we visited on our July 8-22, 2023 cruise on the Sky Princess,  I will hit each port in the order we visited them:  We took shore excursions in six ports and visited three ports independently without any excursion. This post includes the first four ports, two of which we tackled on our own.

 

Gdansk, Poland:  Ship docks several miles away in the coastal city of Gdynia.  We took an excursion that included a short city walking tour, a visit to St. Mary's church, and a visit to the shipyards including a memorial to workers lost in the strike and the Solidarity Museum.  Very, very interesting city and tour.  Museum was crowded but our guided tour of the museum still went OK.

 

Visby, Sweden:  We did this port on our own,  The distance from the dock to the old town area is very understated in terms of both length and difficulty of the walk.  I will spare the details but am glad to answer if readers have questions.  Ultimately, the walk took me about 30 minutes out and another 20 minutes back (I found another logical route back to the ship that eased both the distance and the rigor of the walk.  They herd you out of the pier to climb a daunting overpass with many stairs on each side and then follow that with a rigorous walk involving many uphill and downhill sections that is also crowded}. My parents gave up the journey about 10 minutes into it,  It was just too hard and too long a walk for them given their ages.  I made it to the edge of the historic old town but didn't go all the way in (that would have added another 1/2 to 1 mile to the hike).  There was a shuttle into town, but it was relatively costly for a simple shuttle or on/off bus.  We should have taken the shuttle, LOL.  There were enough interesting sites in the walled city that it was still worth visiting.

 

Tallinn, Estonia:  We did this port on our own,  The walk from the ship to the port entrance was fairly lengthy at this port, but not unreasonable.  We did get a roundtrip shuttle run by the port that cost 10 euros for the roundtrip.  Because reaching the upper town of Tallinn involves a rigorous climb including cobblestone streets and slanted walkways, this can be a tough port for those who have ANY trouble walking, climbing, or maintaining one's balance.  That said, the lower town is quite interesting and does not include the climbs but does still require navigating cobblestones.  There were shore excursions to a few interesting sites outside the town center, but this is a city that we thoroughly enjoyed on our own (my 90+ yo  dad chose to sit this one out and that was a smart choice).

 

Helsinki, Finland:  Shore excursion was a harbor cruise combined with a city tour and a visit to the Sibelius memorial,  The harbor cruise was a great way to access viewing a wider range of sites including the famous fortress guarding one of the harbor accesses.  You also get to see an early submarine that is dry docked near the fort.  The city tour was basic but good.  We got about 20 minutes to shop at a market in the downtown harbor after we finished our cruise and before our city tour.  Wish we could have spent longer there.  I was a great city market to visit.  The rest of the tour was fine and did a good job of showing the sights of Helsinki.  Very effective introduction to an interesting city.

 

My next post will include Stockholm, Berlin, Aarhus, Copenhagen, and Kristiansand (Norway)

 

 

[FlaMommy75]

Thanks so much for posting a detailed review and I look forward to hearing about your next ports. We are sailing out of Berlin ( Warnemunde) June 2024 and have a similar itinerary so this is super helpful 🙂 

[emeraldlake]

We are planning this cruise for next year.  Can you list the names of the excursions if they were Princess excursions.  Thanks.