Lirica to the Baltic - August

[ourcruise2009]

We have just booked a balcony room on Bellini deck for the Aug 5 cruise to the Baltic & am looking for some advice on excursions, particularly St Petersburg. Is it worth trying to travel independently? If not can anyone reccomend either a local company or should we stick with MSC.

Also is there anything worth taking as we have read some people suggest taking your own coffee mug !!

I believe the other stops Amsterdam, Bremerhaven, Gothenburg, Tallin & Copenhagen are quite easy to travel around on our own.

As this is only our 2nd cruise any help from the more experienced would be greatly appreciated.

[AmoMondo]

Hi Ourcruise2009

 

First of all you won't need to take a coffee mug or large glasses. As you are from the UK and not the US you will find the size to be what you are used to at home.

 

The balcony cabins on the Lirica are very nice as they are really mini suites. Thereis masses of storage space including a walk in wardrobe, 2 sheleved floor to ceiling cupboards, a 7 or 8 drawer unit in the wardrobe and loads more storage. Don't take bathrobes - they supply them in the cat 11 cabins. You also have a fair amount of storage in the bathroom and you will have a bath with a shower over it. I presume that you are departing from the UK and won't be flying to get there so take as much as you want with you - you'll have more than enough room to store it all away. Suitcases fit easily under the bed to get them out of the way.

If you like reading, take your own books as the library doesn't have a great selection of books in English.

I've twice been in this category of cabin on this ship, so feel free to ask any other questions. I'll be happy to help

 

You can't do St Petersberg on your own, unless you apply for a visa before you go on the cruise. I really would not recommend that. The ship docks in a very big industrial port quite a distance from all the main sights. MSC does have quite a range of tours including the hermitage, and various other places. You'll be able to see them under the shore excursion section on their UK website. There are 2 other companies that you can use - one is called Red October and I'm sorry but I can't remeber the name of the other. If you go to the ports of Call section and then Europe on the boards here you can either post a thread asking for help arranging your own tour or use the search function to search for other threads about St Peterberg.

[ourcruise2009]

Hello AmoMondo,

 

Thanks for the quick response - very helpful. I will take advantage of your kind offer to ask more questions.

 

1. As I said we have only been on 1 cruise before - a Med cruise May this year on the Independance of the Seas so only 1 currency involved. The Baltic cruise will have 5 different currencies. Do the ships carry stocks of each currency or is it advisable to take some of each from the UK?

 

2. We couldn't take any drinks at all onto the IOS - do MSC have the same policy?

 

Thanks once again

[AmoMondo]

Hi Again

 

Yes the ship does have supplies of the local currency. I can't tell you what their rates are like because I brought small supplies of my own with me. Whilst a lot of the prots are happy to take Euros, I found at one port when I was looking for a taxi to take me in to town that the Euro proce he initially quoted was more expensive than the price in local currency after i told him I wanted to pay in Kroner.

 

Officially MSC's policy is no food or drink can be brought onboard. On the 2 or 3 occasions that I have bought alcohol ashore, I was prepared to have it confiscated and returned at the end of the cruise. However on each occasion I got it through security without an issue. The last time was in May when both my cousin and I had each bought bottles of Limoncello in Sorrento and they were in carrier bags with huge writing on them advertising the brand of Limoncello we'd bought - so very obviously booze. I think if you aren't over doing it, you will probably be able to bring it onboard.

[ourcruise2009]

Hello Again,

 

Thanks for responding again. We are now looking at the various options for excursions.

1 last question if you don't mind, is it true you can spend US Dollars in St Petersburg & Euros in Tallin?

 

Thanks again - your replies have been a great help.

[AmoMondo]

Hello Again,

 

Thanks for responding again. We are now looking at the various options for excursions.

1 last question if you don't mind, is it true you can spend US Dollars in St Petersburg & Euros in Tallin?

 

Thanks again - your replies have been a great help.

 

I've heard that both are true but don't have personal experience of either as I sprained my ankle and tore ligaments in my knee when we were in Stockholm and could not get off at these 2 prots as I could only hobble. My sister law is half Ukrainian and half russian and I know from what she has told me that russians will accept any hard currency with US dollars being a paticular favourite

[sbhdmh]

We also just booked the Lirica for the August 5 departure from Dover. We were not fortunate enough to get a balcony - instead we have an ocean view on the same deck as the balcony staterooms.

 

We are looking at arranging a private tour in St. Petersburg. There are a lot of threads about different tour operators there. If I understand correctly several people from the cruise can form a group and arrange a tour at a significant savings over the MSC shore excursion. We can also avoid the cost of a personal visa. (We would instead be covered by the "blanket visa" provided by the licensed tour operator.)

 

I set up a thread under the roll call section so hopefully others from this sailing will also post.

 

Looking forward to a wonderful trip.

[ourcruise2009]

Hi Again

 

Just a mail to say thanks very much for your help AmoMondo - we think we are going to go with Denus in St Petersburg.

 

We will post the results of our searching on the roll call shortly.

 

Thanks again

[Otaku]

Hi,

we're a family of 3 who has also booked a cruise on MSC Lirica departing from Dover on Aug 5. We did quite a thorough research on 2-day guided tours in St. Petersburg, examining and comparing the prices, sightseeings offered and reviews, for at least 6 different companies, incl. Red October and DenRus. In the end, DenRus and Anastasia seemed to offer the best deals, however when we contacted DenRus they said they could not accommodate tours from our ship due to the 'conflict of interest', as they're the official partner of this cruise line. So we're planning to go with Anastasia. As it is apparently cheaper to have a larger group, we were wondering if someone from our ship would like to join us for a "comfort tour" in St. Petersburg with this company.

By the way, we will also be staying on Bellini deck, so we all going to be neighbors!

[sbhdmh]

Welcome - our little group just got 50% larger! Please join our thread on the MSC Roll Call section. We have been working on putting together a group visit via a private guide. Adding 3 more may exceed the size limit of our van but we can certainly check with the guides to see if a larger vehicle might be a possibility if everyone is interested.

[Otaku]

Thanks for a prompt response sbhdmh!

We're new to this website, so how do we join your thread on the MSC Roll Call section?

We'd love to be part of your group on St. Pete's tour if the vehicle size would allow.

By the way, where you're from? We are from Toronto, Canada, but originally from Moscow, Russia, so Russian is our first language which may come handy during the tour in case of any unforeseen situations.

Cheers,

Vladimir, Julia and our teenage daughter Dasha

[Mr & Mrs Canada]

We recommend a private tour in St Petersburg. That’s what we did in June 2009, and based on what we heard from people taking the ship’s tours, we are convinced we made the right choice. It is expensive, but I think the ship’s tours are expensive too. But the private tour is, well, private, so you get to ask questions and have a more personable tour. You also avoid lines, go where you want, and spend zero time waiting for the other 40 people on a ship's tour. As for the cost, hey, you’re only going once(?) so you may as well ‘go big’. We used Alla Tour and would recommend them. They have a web site (search them on Google). We also read many good reviews of DenRus and Red Oktober Tours. Check the web, do your research, and take your pick.

 

We’ve never arrived in Amsterdam by ship, so we cannot comment on where you dock, but Amsterdam is eminently ‘do-able’ on your own. Canal cruises are a nice way to see the city – very relaxing. If you like art galleries, Amsterdam has many. We’ve never been to Bremerhaven or Gothenburg so we can’t help you there. Tallinn is very easily done on foot and on your own. The walk from the port to the old town is perhaps 20 minutes. There will be taxis at the dock as well, but we ate so much on the cruise we walked whenever we could. You can read up on Tallinn on the web, and get a walking map at the local tourist office (or on the ship). Tallinn is absolutely gorgeous (the old medieval part). Copenhagen (old city centre) is also easily walked around, although you may need a taxi if you dock at the ‘far’ harbour. Even the closer harbour (close to the mermaid statue) can still be a healthy walk to the Tivoli. Amsterdam taxis take credit cards, so cash is not a problem.

 

We had no problem bringing a few bottles of wine on board the MSC Opera. Their prices on board aren’t too bad, they have a very drinkable table wine for 8 Euro per half-litre. As for cash, why not use ATMs or credit cards? That’s what we do, and we find it much more convenient.

[ourcruise2009]

Hi,

 

Thanks for the response, you have answered most of our questions in 1 hit.

 

We have since our 1st post been in contact with 2 other families & sorted out a private guide for St Petersburg.

 

We are really looking forward to our 1st ever visit to the Baltic area - thanks once again for your post.

 

Ron & Liz

[brennab]

Hi we also are taking the same cruise from Dover, this is probably our 11th Cruise. Yes all the other stops are easy to do on your own . St Petersburg being the exception as you need a visa. Independent tours work out cheaper than the ship. DENRUS -check this out. We are a couple with a child ,she is good and would be happy to share a custom tour with you if you wish. http://www.denrus.ru should take you to their site. They sort out visas etc

[brennab]

Hi

Have you managed to find someone to join your tour ? Not long to go now. We are also a family of 3 . our girl is 7 and half. We will be ahppy to join you if you wish as my girl gets on with teenage girls and will be good company for each other.

 

Thanks

[lemmey]

We have just booked a balcony room on Bellini deck for the Aug 5 cruise to the Baltic & am looking for some advice on excursions, particularly St Petersburg. Is it worth trying to travel independently? If not can anyone reccomend either a local company or should we stick with MSC.

Also is there anything worth taking as we have read some people suggest taking your own coffee mug !!

I believe the other stops Amsterdam, Bremerhaven, Gothenburg, Tallin & Copenhagen are quite easy to travel around on our own.

As this is only our 2nd cruise any help from the more experienced would be greatly appreciated.

we went on same cruise july 14th we joined up with other passengers on same cruise through MSC roll call and arrange our ST Petersburg trip through a local agent in Russia. it was brilliant and worked out a lot cheaper. tours on ship are very expensive.