Baltic cruise on NCL Getaway with kids - suggestions on ports of call please!

Hello,

Our family, which includes 3 adults (Grandma is joining us) and 3 children (8, 10 and 13) are very excited to be part of the NCL Getaway cruise in the Baltic sea in July 2017! But I realize that there is a lot of planning to do...!

I would like to get some advices on a few destinations and things to do that would be interesting for the kids.

Here is our itinerary:

• Departure from Copenhagen
  
• Rostock - we would like to go to Berlin - the NCL excursions are VERY expensive... any suggestions?
  
• Helsinki - anything fun to do with the kids? What is the best way to get to the city from the port (I believe we will be docked at the West Harbour/Hernesaari dock....)
  
• St-Petersburg - any recommendation on a private tour? We will be there for 2 days...
  
• Tallinn - I believe this is doable by walking in the city by ourselves... anything we should not miss?
  
• Stockholm - big city... lot to see, but not too much time to spend (8 to 4)... any suggestions to make it fun for the kids?
  
• Copenhagen on the return - what would be the best way to get to the airport for us when we get back - bare in mind that we will be 6 with luggages....
  

Any help / advices / suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks a lot!

I'm very interested to hear what advice you receive from others.

I'm a family of 4 adults and 2 young kids (aged 4.5yrs and 2.5yrs) also sailing on the NCL Getaway at the end of July 17. I'm currently emailing various companies to arrange a private 2 day tour for St Petersburg suitable for young children.

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For Rostock, check with whatever tour guide you choose in SPB. They might have a good offer for

Berlin if you choose the same for Berlin and SPB.

Berlin is a LONG journey from the port of Warnemunde. You might want to stay a bit more local if your energy levels are low, being such a port intensive cruise you might want to schedule some down time.

There is a really neat steam train called the Molli Train that the younger set will enjoy, do a search on here for it there was a great review by someone last year. Also, the beach at Warnemunde is really nice so if you have hot weather this might be a good place to spend some time.

Travelanni, who is a resident expert on this board has set up a wonderful website for recommendations on what to see in the area and how to use public transport to get around. http://travelanni.webs.com/

We traveled with a 3 year old, so this might not be quite as helpful for you.

Copenhagen is a lovely city. We were very happy with our stay at the Radisson Blu Royal, located near Tivoli Gardens. The rooms facing Tivoli Gardens have a wonderful view of the Tivoli Gardens fireworks on Saturday nights in the summer. We were jet lagged, but loved the show. Our room (505, a family room) was very large by European standards and had an excellent view of Tivoli Gardens and the train station (my son loved watching the trains go by). There was some limited noise from the street below, but I am a very light sleeper and was not disturbed by it.

Families should note that for part of the summer in 2014, the Tivoli hotel offered activities for children. If you are interested, please follow up with the hotel directly to see if they are planning to offer services again in 2015, and which dates they will be available. We chose the Radisson Blu because our cruise was in late August, after the end of the children's program at the Tivoli hotel.

In Copenhagen. we greatly enjoyed our canal cruise. It can get chilly on the water, so you might want to check the weather report to ensure you pick a good time to take a canal cruise. The Netto Badene boats are now included in the Copenhagen card (along with all public transportation and most museum admissions). They depart every 20 minutes, and the least crowded boats are usually found at Holmen's Church in front of Christianborg palace. The Netto schedule is available at: http://www.havnerundfart.dk/canaltours . We found them to be quite comfortable and lovely on a warm summer day (they use open top boats in August, so the ride might not be as pleasant in the rain or cold).

Our son also greatly enjoyed visiting Tivoli Gardens, which is especially lovely at twilight when the grounds and attractions are lit up. For families flying to Copenhagen, you might want to bring your children to Tivoli Gardens during their first night of the trip. My son was able to stay up to a normal bedtime on Central European time because he was so excited by all the rides. He immediately adjusted to the time change from Eastern Standard Time in the US, and really only had trouble with the time change back at the end of the cruise. We were underwhelmed by the Copenhagen Experimentarium, since we arrived when it opened and were surprised to see that some of the exhibits were missing crucial components which rendered them unusable, and the museum itself is not located near any public transportation.

In Germany, you might want to consider the Schwerin castle if you are not docking on a Monday. Or the Molli Steam Train is a nice day (but nothing like Berlin if your family can handle the travel).

Since my son really loves trains, we decided to spend the day visiting the Moli steam train. You can get a sense of what the Moli is like here:

Bad Doberan has several charming cafes with outdoor seating, where you can enjoy an ice cream and watch as the Moli train passes inches from your table. Due to the rain, we ate at Cafe Zikke, which was off the main street in Bad Doberan and had more indoor seating than the restaurants on the main street. The flammkuchen was excellent (the waitress described these as savory tarts, and it was similar to a pizza). Overall, it was a lovely and enjoyable day, but had we not been traveling with our son we probably would have chosen a cruise that arrived in Germany on a day other than a Monday so we could visit the Schwerin castle and tour historic Wismar.

The town of Warnem?nde is a lovely seaside village that is very pleasant to walk around. We had an excellent seafood dinner at Twee Linden, which is within walking distance of the port:

( http://www.yelp.de/biz/twee-linden-warnem?nde )

Tallinn was one of our favorite stops, and we really loved exploring its spectacularly preserved medieval center. Please note that this lovely city may be challenging for travelers with disabilities or families that use prams, since cars are not allowed in parts of the medieval center, and the cobblestones will make a stroller or wheelchair use difficult. Because my son has limited mobility without a stroller, our plan had been to take a pedicab around the city. There were some pedicabs at the port when we returned to the ship in the afternoon; however, the pedicabs were not yet available at 9 am when we left the ship. Instead, we took a cab to the top of Toompea Hill (this is where the lovely Alexander Nevsky Cathedral is located) and then walked down. Our son was able to climb the city walls (although the passage is very narrow and steep), and there were gorgeous views. In the main square, we found a pedicab, and we were able to take a very enjoyable 15 minute pedicab tour through the charming city. Since our son loves trains, we also rode on a tourist train that departs from Kullassepa street whenever it is full and makes a 20 minute loop around the city. We were fortunate to sit in the very back, since we had a great spot to take photographs from the back of the train. We ate a delicious lunch at Gloria ( http://www.gloria.ee) , a charming historic restaurant with excellent duck and fish.

We also greatly enjoyed our visit to the Lennusadam SeaPlane Harbor Museum in Tallinn.

( http://www.lennusadam.eu/et/ ) . The sea plane name is a bit of a misnomer, since it is more of a general military museum with a lot of fascinating hands on exhibits, including a submarine you can explore and a flight simulator inside of a plane (my 3 year old really loved making the plane crash into the trees). Kids also love the simulated weapons and radio controlled boats at the museum. There is also an icebreaker ship outside that you can explore. It was a really interesting museum, and a highly enjoyable way to conclude your day in Tallinn for both adults and children.

Disembarkation in St. Petersburg is a bit challenging, since most of the passengers are trying to get off the ship early. We started early, and beat almost all the NCL lines, but it still took 30 minutes to clear Russian customs. The Russian custom agents are very meticulous on the first day, carefully checking each guests' visa papers prior to stamping passports. They are much faster on subsequent entries to Russia, and therefore the custom lines move much faster. You might want to consider either booking a suite on NCL that will grant you priority disembarkation off the ship, choosing a cruise line you have elite status with if they will give you priority disembarkation, or starting your tour later on the first day after most of the crowds have dissipated (we contacted a number of private tour guides in St. Petersburg, and Alla had recommended starting at 10 am to miss the crowds. You can still start your tour early on the second day when customs is much calmer).

I would strongly encourage families to consider booking a private tour so you have maximum flexibility over your schedule, and can return to the ship early if necessary. Our son was absolutely entranced by St. Petersburg, so thankfully we did not need to return to the cruise ship early. However, we greatly appreciated having a private tour since our tour guide could see that we had a limited amount of time to spend in palaces and museums before our 3 year old needed to move on, and she worked very hard to move us around crowds so we were able to see the highlights of each attraction quickly. The private tour also gave us the flexibility to customize our tour (we were originally scheduled to take a canal tour on the second day, but the weather was so nice the first day we were able to switch around the schedule and take the canal tour on the first day). I booked this cruise 4 weeks before we left, so I didn't know about Best Guides, and it has been highly recommended by families on this board.

St Petersburg is spectacular, and has so many highlights that cruisers should carefully research to determine which attractions would be most enjoyable during your brief visit.

Early entrance to the Hermitage was quite helpful; the museum was nearly empty when we arrived and quite full by the time we left. Please note that early entrance does not necessarily mean that all the exhibits are open early; some of the wings were closed until the museum's normal opening hours of 10:30 am. You should carefully plan ahead of time which art pieces you'd like to focus on prior to arrival since the collection is extremely impressive in both quantity and quality.

We greatly enjoyed our lunch at Stolle; their menu is available online in English at http://www.stolle.ru/en/adresa . Please note that not all of their pies on the menu are available everyday, and they will tell you the daily selection upon arrival.

My son really loved many of the attractions in St. Petersburg - he loved the historic train stations, and was very impressed that the trains arrive every two minutes. He loved the fountains in Peterhof, especially the trick fountains that soak guests when they run through. If you want to jump in the fountains, you might want to bring a change of clothes, since the trick fountain is not near the entrance and your children might be a bit uncomfortable walking to the exit in wet clothes if it is cold out. Our son happily changed into his bathing suit, and loved getting sprayed by the trick fountain (there is a man sitting on the bench who soaks the visitors. He kindly took it easy on our three year old for the first 4 visits he made in the fountain and only soaked him on his fifth trip into the fountain). The hydrofoil from St. Petersburg is more expensive, but can get you to Peterhof more quickly than driving.

Please note the following closures in St. Petersburg prior to selecting a sailing date:

The Hermitage and the palace at Peterhof are closed on Mondays (please note that the fountains at Peterhof are open on Mondays even though the palace is closed)

The Russian Museum and Tsarskoye Selo (Catherine's Palace) are closed Tuesdays

St. Issac's and the Church on Spilled Blood are closed Wednesday (other religious sites may also be closed, on Wednesdays so please check this ahead of time if you are interested).

In Helsinki, we took a cab to the Market Square. There, we boarded the 2/3 tram, which will lead you directly to most of the town's tourist destinations. A map of for tourists using the 2 or 3 tram is available here: https://www.hsl.fi/sites/default/files/uploads/helsinki_sightseeing.pdf . An all day transportation pass (8 euros in summer 2014) will also allow you to take the public Suomenlinna ferry. Temppeliaukio (rock church) was very interesting, and the seafood in the stalls near market square is excellent (there are also supposed to be very good marketplaces in other parts of Helsinki, and you might want to research those if you enjoy market stalls with food and locally crafted goods). The lovely Lutheran Cathedral, the charming Esplanade park and the ferris wheel are also near Market Square, making this a highly manageable city once you reach the city center.

If you are interested in visiting Suomenlinna, the public HKL ferries leave from Kauppatori (market square) 3 times per hour. JT lines runs ferries from Kauppatori to Kings Gate, and their schedule is available at http://www.jt-line.fi. The JT lines cost 7 euros round trip, and 4.5 euros one way. The distance between the drop off point for the public ferry and King's gate (JT lines drop off point) is approximately 1.5 km, so some tourists will take the public ferry to Suomenlinna, walk across the island to King's gate and then take JT lines back to save time. Or you can save money by taking the public ferry both ways.

Stockholm was another of our favorite cities on this cruise. The archipelago is gorgeous, so please make sure to be outside either as you sail into Stockholm, or as your ship departs. Please also note that because the ship has to pass through the archipelago slowly, your day in Stockholm may be a bit shorter than you would like. This may also lead to extra crowds in the buffet and at disembarkation as most passengers are trying to get off the ship quickly.

An absolute highlight of this gorgeous city is the Vasa Museum. The Vasa Museum is one of the most popular museums in Scandinavia, and it can get quite crowded later in the day. The HOHO boats will travel directly from the cruise ship pier to Vasa until 10 am, and after 10 am they will resume a normal loop around the city when the other attractions open. In the summer of 2014, Stromma sold a one ride ticket on their HOHO boats for 50 SEK. It did not appear from their website that they were still doing this in the summer of 2016, so you should check for this summer if they still offer one way transportation. Or you can purchase an all day pass from either Stromma or Red Sightseeing for either their HOHO boats or buses or both. Public transportation in Stockholm was quite frequent and easily took us between tourist attractions later in the day.

We were quite happy with the Stromma HOHO boat as it quickly got us to the Vasa museum before it became crowded, and the view on the boat was very pleasant. Please note that there is also a very interesting movie that explains the history of the Vasa in English in the small theater (the movie in the large theater is in Swedish with English subtitles). The Vasa ship is fascinating, and we greatly enjoyed our visit.

There are a lot of great ways to spend your time in Stockholm, and like St. Petersburg, you will need to research which attractions would be best for you. My family loves animals, so the open lemur exhibit at Skansen was a huge hit. You can't touch or feed the lemurs, but we were lucky and one of them let us sit very close to him and we got some great pictures. The lemur exhibit is located inside of the aquarium in Skansen (the aquarium requires a separate admissions fee from Skansen, but both admissions are included with a Stockholm card). The aquarium is located close to the main entrance of Skansen, which is not the entrance closest to Vasa but there is a tram that we took between the two attractions. Many of the traditional buildings in Sweden were relocated to Skansen so tourists can see what life used to be like, and there are candle making and sewing demonstrations. There is also a zoo with native animals. We skipped everything in Skansen but the aquarium due to time constraints, but you should choose which attractions would be best for you. Tourists who love animals should choose Skansen, since their exhibits in the aquarium are all very well designed to let you get very close to the animals.

Our next stop was a temporary hands on Viking exhibit at Historiska (the history museum). During the summer of 2014 they ran a Viking experience for children, in which children can dress up in armor, bake Viking bread in a coal fire, participate in Viking games and crafts and shoot arrows. Their website is (http://www.historiska.se/home/ ) and you may want to contact them to see if they will continue this exhibition next summer. We were very fortunate to visit Stockholm on the last day the exhibit was open, and my son really liked playing with weapons and baking Viking bread. Cruisers on tight time constraints should arrive later than when this exhibit is scheduled to start since some of the exhibits take awhile to set up and not everything was open until 12:30 (the exhibit was scheduled to start at 12, and the main museum opens at 10). Galma Stan was beautiful, and we greatly enjoyed walking around this lovely neighborhood.

Our son greatly loved this cruise, and I hope your family has a wonderful time too!

Keefu,

This is the webpage for the tour group recommended here for children.http://www.bestguides-spb.com/children-page.html As I said above, I can't personally vouch for this company, since I booked my cruise only 4 weeks out and didn't find out about them in advance. Best of luck to you!

A few suggestions:

1. Get your hands on a copy of "Rick Steves' Northern European Cruise Ports". This book is full of info on what is (and isn't) worth seeing or worth spending your money on. He also has DIY walking tours in each city. And he tells you the various ways of getting from the port to and around the city.

2. Rent a car and drive to Berlin. If you are comfortable seeing the sights on your own, it will be more affordable than paying for tours. I used to live in Berlin and driving there is not difficult. It's better than most large American cities.

3. Instead of going to Berlin, go to Warnemuende. It's a lovely seaside town. We rented bikes (about 9 Euros) and rode along the very scenic bike path that follows the ocean. Then you can grab some lunch and head to the beach for the rest of the day.

• Helsinki - anything fun to do with the kids? What is the best way to get to the city from the port (I believe we will be docked at the West Harbour/Hernesaari dock...
  

Norwegian Getaway will dock at LMA on the J?tk?saari side of West Harbour. Tram 9 has a stop about 400 meters from the berth. All day transit tickets cost 9 ? for adults and 4.50 ? for kids. There will likely also be a ships shuttle to downtown. There are likely taxis, but for six people you need either two or a van, which are not as widely available.

Kitkat343 gave a great overview and without more detail on what your kids are interested in I cannot recommend anything more specific. There is also a generic Helsinki info thread that covers some additional topics.

The previous posters did a great job of sharing. We did this cruise two years ago and are doing it again this summer. We just felt that we missed so much the first time. Here are my thoughts:

Copenhagen - definitely Tivoli at night. It is like a small Disney World. The rides were fun. We had a great time. There are good little restaurants in the park. Copenhagen is a beautiful city with quite a few parks.

Rostock - We used SPB tours to go to Berlin. It is a long ride, but we slept. The ride itself is interesting. SPB tours is very accommodating. They could probably tailor the tour to your family. There is a lot of WW2 history in Berlin. If your children are not familiar, Berlin may be just a city with some old buildings.

Helsinki - We took the hop-on-hop-off bus. I loved Helsinki, but I do not know what would appeal to children. You might have to do your homework on this.

St. Petersburg - Again, we used SPB. We took the hydrofoil which was a lot of fun. The subway was interesting. The Hermitage was very crowded. I am not sure what appeal this would have for your children. The art is beautiful, but that place is packed.

Tallin - This city is fun to just walk around. My kids went on a stair climb up the tower of a church. It wore them out. It was very tight at the top. This could be fun for the kids.

Copenhagen - we took two taxi's back to the airport. I do not remember the price.

Here is a post to look at for some more info.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2437570

Make special note of post #5 about Russia in miniature.

sightcrr

We did this cruise 2 years ago with our daughter who was then 12. We picked a couple of things specifically for her.

In Helsinki we did kayaking after getting the tram in (right from the port to the main railway station). Switched to another tram to do a tour of the city to see the main sights before the kayaking. You could also do paddle boarding. We booked it direct with the company and it was pretty reasonable prices. There is also an adventure park there with rides which we passed on the tram.

In Stockholm we did the Abba museum which she had great fun in singing along, dancing on the stage ( all occasions which you could download later using your ticket - register your attempts as you go along. We did the boat to the old town to watch the changing of the guards. We prebooked the museum.

In Germany we stayed locally in Warnemude - we did think about hiring bikes but in the end we walked around , went up the lighthouse, went on the beach etc and enjoyed a great relaxing day.

Tallinn we walked around after getting a little road train into the town. The train gave us a little tour on the way in. One big advantage is that it can go right into the old town which the Hoho buses can't do. It is an easy city to walk around and we walked back to the ship.

Copenhagen we walked everywhere (got a walking tour from the tourist office sent to me after emailing them) . We included going to Tivoli and doing a canal tour.

Still Petersburg we joined up with others from our roll call and did a 2 day tour with TJ tours - it was a lot of sightseeing but there were fun elements as well. There were a few children in each of the groups and we had regular stops.

It is a full on cruise but our daughter really enjoyed it and would do it again quite happily.

Experimentarium in Copenhagen has just reopened after 2 years of renovation and expansion so its just like brand new.

The Blue Planet is said to be the biggest Aquarius in Northern Europe and is very interesting.

Copenhagen Zoo is also a hit with the childrens.

If they can't get enough of Tivoli then visit the worlds oldest amusement park Bakken just 20 minutes north of Copenhagen in the deer gardens.

We will be doing a Baltic cruise in May and we have booked a private tour with Best Guides, they were more reasonable in price and are willing to work with us. We are a mom and dad with 3 young adult kids, a son-in-law and a 9 month old we wanted the flexibility to choose where we want to go and as we aren't huge into art etc, we can just move on as we briefly look at things and if baby is not cooperating we won't be bothering others.

In Berlin we had considered using them again it is $105 per adult and $85 for the baby, we thought she may not be required to be in a car seat if we were traveling on a bus, but was informed today that yes she will have to be !

I am not sure what to do now as we did want to go to Berlin but I don't want to torture the grandbaby being in a carseat for 6 hours roundtrip! (At this point she's not fond of her carseat)

Is taking the train to Berlin a possibility? Or splitting up and having some people in your group visit the Schwerin castle and you go to Berlin?

Is taking the train to Berlin a possibility??

I think it's possible but I would love someone to give detailed step by step instructions!

We are considering doing that with our family and our 9 month old grandbaby! (And yes I know it's a long way!)

Anita: You should try to find your NCL Rollcall here. Your shipmates will share everything about their tours there. You should receive lots of info.

I didn't research Berlin since we considered it too overwhelming an amount of travel for our 3 year old, but there is a cruise critic member named Travelanni who set up a website to help cruise passengers navigate the stop in Germany. Here is a link to the travel to Berlin:

http://travelanni.webs.com/berlin.htm

You can also email the other major cruise tour operators in St. Petersburg (SPB, ALLA) to see if any of them use large buses to transport people to Berlin. Other posters may have experience on these tours, and if any of them have taken a large bus to Berlin hopefully they will let you know. The smaller buses probably would require car seats, but the larger ones (like the ones the cruise ship uses) probably wouldn't require them.

Does the 9 month old child nap? I'm just a little concerned you might get all the way to Berlin and he or she is going to need to sleep and that won't be possible (or maybe you can rent a room at a hostel during the day?) Or maybe - and this wouldn't be much fun - but some children can sleep on buses or subways, and perhaps one parent can ride on that with the baby while he or she naps?

When my son napped and I went on cruises, I spent half the day touring and then took him back to the ship to let him sleep. My son had a small nap in St. Petersburg on the way back from Catherine's Palace and was so entranced by the city he was fine. The second day ended earlier, and he just napped when he returned to the ship. But when he was 2 we took our only ship excursion (because the Panama Canal authority wouldn't let us off the ship independently) and it was a disaster. Princess didn't tell us we wouldn't be able to reboard the ship in time for our son's nap, and we were trapped in the port for two hours with a screaming toddler who needed to sleep.

It much depends of interest of course. Two suggestions for Helsinki:

Tropicario.

http://www.tropicario.com/eng_index.html

Sea Life.

https://www2.visitsealife.com/helsinki/en/

And for Berlin:

Loxx

http://www.berlinforallthefamily.com/activities/loxxminiaturweltenberlin

I researched Best Guides and they have an APB tour, geared for children.

We have older children and we reluctantly did not book Berlin, due to the long ride, to Berlin. I know it's a must visit, but I know my grandkids and they would not enjoy a 3 hour ride to Berlin.

Just my humble opinion. Check your NCL roll call for some more info..

Anita: You should try to find your NCL Rollcall here. Your shipmates will share everything about their tours there. You should receive lots of info.

Thanks! I did join the roll call!

Thanks everyone for the info! This is great!

Finally, we decided not to go to Berlin... too much travel for the kids... I will look into the Mollie train option as well as a walk in Warnemunde and maybe, if time permits, a stop at the beach!

I believe our ship is berthing in Rotstock (not at the cruise center in Warnemunde).... is it easy to get to public transportation when we onboard? Anyone can give me advices on this?

Thanks again!

We traveled with a 3 year old, so this might not be quite as helpful for you.

kitkat343, thank you so much for spending time in sharing your itinerary with us. I will be travelling to Baltic on NCL Getaway end of August with a 2.5 and a 4 year old. Your post gave me so much idea on what to do with our young kids. A lot of people said Baltic cruise would be boring for the kids as they don't know how to appreciate the culture, but after reading your post, I am confident that our trip will be enjoyable for both the kids and parents.

Just some minor advices for Stockholm, there are two possible berth locations for the NCL Getaway and only one of them have the HoHo boat.

However I don't think they sell single one stop tickets anymore (I am not sure though). However there is a ferry you can use though.

As for things to see, Vasa is already mentioned but there is also Junibacken and Skansen who should be of interest for kids (and adults for the latter). Junibacken is very expensive though http://www.junibacken.se/en/

Hello,

 

Our family, which includes 3 adults (Grandma is joining us) and 3 children (8, 10 and 13) are very excited to be part of the NCL Getaway cruise in the Baltic sea in July 2017! But I realize that there is a lot of planning to do...!

 

I would like to get some advices on a few destinations and things to do that would be interesting for the kids.

 

Here is our itinerary:

 

• Departure from Copenhagen
  
• Rostock - we would like to go to Berlin - the NCL excursions are VERY expensive... any suggestions?
  
• Helsinki - anything fun to do with the kids? What is the best way to get to the city from the port (I believe we will be docked at the West Harbour/Hernesaari dock....)
  
• St-Petersburg - any recommendation on a private tour? We will be there for 2 days...
  
• Tallinn - I believe this is doable by walking in the city by ourselves... anything we should not miss?
  
• Stockholm - big city... lot to see, but not too much time to spend (8 to 4)... any suggestions to make it fun for the kids?
  
• Copenhagen on the return - what would be the best way to get to the airport for us when we get back - bare in mind that we will be 6 with luggages....
  

Any help / advices / suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

 

Thanks a lot!

So much to see, busy cruise but well worth it. St Petersburg, 2 day tour with TJ Travel - private air conditioned bus, extremely good guide Victoria (great English and expert at getting our group through crowds). Very busy two days, kids may get bored with the museums - they are quite intensive. We did the Folk Show at night (as opposed to the Vodka Tour) - very enjoyable, kids will like it (they did have vodka at intermission). They also do tours at other ports. Tallinn, we did a 4 hour walking and cycling tour with Marty from Traveller Tours (http://www.traveller.ee/), very good guide with great English, cycling felt safe. They do a variety of tours other than cycling. Stockholm is great - the ABBA museum will be fun for kids as well as adults, interactive singing & dancing etc. Vasa Museum is good for all ages (http://www.vasamuseet.se/). The changing of the guard at the Palace is great - the band plays some modern music which will appeal to the kids (get there a bit early to get a good spot, it gets busy). Helsinki - we took the cruise line transfer into the city - bit of a line up to get back to the ship but we were on time, no problems. We did a cycle tour with Helsinki by Bikes, very good, great look around the city starting at the markets. Afterwards we went up to the Ateljee Bar in the Hotel Torni - excellent views of the city. Copenhagen, we did a free walking tour, informative and enjoyable. Cant help with transport after the cruise as ours ended in England. Enjoy