Princess tours in Gdansk

[phdiva]

I'm trying to decide between Princess' "Malbork Castle and Gdansk City Tour" for $79 pp (we'll probably go off on our own in Gdansk and catch up with the group at the designated meeting spot) or "Gdansk on Your Own" for $23 pp. I love castles/fortresses, but am afraid we're going to have "castle fatigue" with Suomenlina in Helsinki, the P&P Fortress in St. Petersburg, Akersus Fortress in Oslo, and Frederiksborg Slot and Kronborg Slot in Denmark after the cruise. On the other hand, we're not big "shoppers" and I can't imagine spending all day in Gdansk.

 

Any advice?

[Deloresgardella]

We are on the same sailing as you. We are going on the Malbrook and Gdansk tour. I figured that way we will see a little of the country side. I love going outside of the cities some. We are only taking a couple short tours in St Petersburg just to be able to get off the ship without a visa and doing a little shopping. We have both toured that city before, were there for three days. a beautiful city but very crowed.

[dog]

Can you give us some feedback on the Princess Malbork Castle/Gdansk tour?

 

Thanks,

dog

[phdiva]

sure ... I know this is too late to help Dog, but it might be of interest to others. I recommend the Malbork Castle and Gdansk City Tour, although I think I would have been equally happy with the Gdansk on Your Own tour.

 

Our first stop was Gdansk, where we had a (surprisingly informative) guided tour of St. Mary's Church. We then had some free time to wander around and shop - most people made a bee-line to the restroom facilities, but we wandered around and, when we came back, the line had somewhat diminished. I bought a glass and amber vase for about $50 at the store where the restroom was. I'm much happier with the vase than the $200 necklace that I got in Tallin (the chain broke after about six months :mad:)

 

I could have spent more time in Gdansk, but it was time to board the bus for the castle. I slept on the bus ride to the castle, but I don't think it was because the guide was boring. We toured the castle (very interesting if you like middle-ages history), were herded into the dining area where we were served lunch (I can't remember what was served, but I wasn't impressed). There was a student group of some sort playing music (it was rather unobtrusive and nondescript). Then we all hung out waiting for the rest of our group to finish eating and visiting the gift shop.

 

As I said, I'm glad we did it, but would have been equally happy hanging out in Gdansk all day.

 

Hope this helps someone!

 

-J

[rosapdx]

My DH and I did the Gdansk on Your Own when on the Star Princess in Sept 2007. The guide on the bus was very personable and the ride was pleasant and informative. We were taken to a shop just inside the city gate for rest rooms and a presentation on how identify real amber. The shop had beautiful items but it was pricey. After that, we were told to meet back at a certain time for the return ride. The guide was available in the vicinity of the shop whenever we walked by.

 

We picked up a map at the tourist information center and spent the time in Gdansk wandering around. We wished we had more time since there were a couple of museums we wanted to see. I think we arrived rather early in Gdansk and at first not many things were open. We did have a nice lunch and some excellent Polish beer. The people were wonderful!

 

Traffic was awful, truly awful on the return trip but we still stopped at the Solidarity Memorial for pictures. We returned to the ship late, as did all of the other buses, due to the traffic. The guide was on his cell phone frequently during the return trip. (The ship was waiting for us.)

 

Fellow CCers took the train and that worked out well for them and it was much cheaper. They used information available on this board to figure out what trains, etc.