St. Petersburg and Berlin

I want to book the NCL Getaway Baltics for Oct. 2017 from Copenhagen. It is in Berlin from 7:30am to 10pm and St. Petersburg from 8am to 8pm. I know that's not enough time in each place but what would you recommend for private tours for those days. What should we not miss? Is it easier to do NCL tours because of visas?

Thanks,

Tony

I want to book the NCL Getaway Baltics for Oct. 2017 from Copenhagen. It is in Berlin from 7:30am to 10pm and St. Petersburg from 8am to 8pm. I know that's not enough time in each place but what would you recommend for private tours for those days. What should we not miss? Is it easier to do NCL tours because of visas?

Thanks,

Tony

A couple things. First, your cruise will not be stopping in Berlin. It will be docked in Warnemunde, which is about 2 1/2 - 3 hours away from Berlin, depending on your mode of transport. So deduct about 6 hours from your day if you choose to go into Berlin. If that's acceptable, then continue on with your Berlin planning. Otherwise, there is quite a bit to do much closer to Warnemunde, such as visiting Schwerin Castle. I would research this decision first and then start looking at options for accomplishing the one you wish to do.

I see you live in Canada. For US passport holders, there is no real difference in doing an NCL tour or one you arrange with a 3rd party tour company in these 2 ports. I suspect that is the same for Canadian passport holders, but hopefully someone can confirm that. Russia, does not require US citizens to obtain visa paperwork on their own when visiting on a cruise ship AND when you have arranged for tours from one of several licensed tour companies (Alla, Denrus, etc. -- read about them all on this forum). The tour company arranges the necessary Visa paperwork. If you don't wish to contract with a tour company in Russia, you will need to obtain your own Visa paperwork. Hopefully, Canadians experience the same.

Having said all that, I think most people would recommend hiring a 3rd party tour company in St. Petersburg if you can. They generally are less expensive than the NCL excursions. They tend to take less people on each bus as well. In Warnemunde, personally, if going to Berlin, I would probably myself take an NCL exclusion such as the "Berlin On Your Own" because of the 3 hour drive back and forth. I would like the extra security of using a ship excursion in case there were travel delays. But there are reputable companies that do the same trip. Doing things locally in Warnemunde also can possibly be done on your own and/or using the public train system.

If NCL is telling you that you have to do a ship's excurison in order to avoid having to get a Russian visa, they are telling you a BIG, FAT LIE. You can book with any St. Petersburg tour company and they will arrange for the visa for you. (The most recommended companies are SPB, Alla and TJ Travel, but there are many others that are good.) I strongly recommend NOT going on a ship's excursion because the groups are so large. The above-mentioned companies offer group tours with 12 - 16 people max in the group or you can always pay extra for a private tour.

Also, for Berlin, I would not book one of the ship's excursions because it will be crowded. There are plenty of companies that offer tours of Berlin for cruise ship passengers. (SPB is the first that comes to mind, but there are many others.) This is going to be one LONG day, so be prepared. And, having lived in Berlin for several years, I would say that the museums and the Reichstag should not be missed, but your interests may differ.

Finally, I have to admit that I can't imagine doing a Baltic cruise and spending only 12 hours in St. Petersburg. That will give you enough time to see many of the sites in the city, but you will miss out on Catherine's Palace, Peterhof and a hydrofoil ride on the Neva River. Is there any other cruise that you can afford that offers 2 days in St. Petersburg?

(Note: I did not notice that you were not a US citizen, but like MeHeartCruising says, I don't think it will matter regarding your Russian visa. Any of the companies that I mentioned above will be able to tell you if they cannot get a visa for you.)

I'm not aware of any NCL cruise that doesn't overnight in St Petersburg.

The NCL website seems to be down at the moment, so I can't check if there is a variation with just a one day visit, but you may want to just check that one.

If NCL is telling you that you have to do a ship's excurison in order to avoid having to get a Russian visa, they are telling you a BIG, FAT LIE.

In fairness to NCL, when we did the Baltics this year, they were very clear that a private tour gets round needing visas. It was mentioned a few times onboard (on the St Petersburg port talk for example).

In my experience, and based on comments here, NCL seem better than some other companies on this point.

I want to book the NCL Getaway Baltics for Oct. 2017 from Copenhagen. It is in Berlin from 7:30am to 10pm and St. Petersburg from 8am to 8pm. I know that's not enough time in each place but what would you recommend for private tours for those days. What should we not miss? Is it easier to do NCL tours because of visas?

Thanks,

Tony

We were on a Princess Baltic cruise last month. As has been mentioned, you'll lose 5 - 6 hours on transfers to Berlin from / to Warnemunde. We actually took a Berlin on your own tour on a Princess-organised train and had about 5 1/2 hours there and given that we'd planned in advance what we could realistically see and do were quite happy.

For St Petersburg I'd argue that if you can't go wrong with one of the top-rated and usual suspects listed on both this forum and over on Trip Advisor. If you're after the 'vanilla' experience (we were), the local tour companies usually organise parties with a maximum of 12 in a fully-aircon Merc mini-bus. We used TJ travel (and would again) and had Canadians, Aussies, my adopted countrymen as well as us Brits. Just fwd your passport details to which ever tour company you select and they'll organise the paperwork.

We have not done a Baltic cruise, but we have one planned for next year. We have been doing a lot of research on both of these ports, and I agree with all of the above re: taking a private tour rather than a ship's tour for both ports.

One thing that I have found in my research is that there are a number of very good reputable companies that do tours in BOTH St. Pete and Berlin/Warnemunde. If you book the same company for both ports, they usually give a little discount.

Every little bit helps!

:)

PS - all of the St. Pete tour companies have 1, 2 and 3 day options, depending on what you want to do and how much time you have there.

Thanks for all the suggestions, very helpful. The cruise I'm looking at is the one right before the TA, so it only does one day in St. Petersburg. We're thinking of maybe doing some nights pre-cruise in Berlin, then train to Copenhagen, so maybe we stay in Warnemunde on the port call.

Very interested in Berlin and anything relating to WW2. Did Normandy pre-cruise a few years ago, Imperial War museum in London last year and New Orleans D Day museum a few years ago. So Berlin should round out the experience.

Love the idea of visiting Russia, we were booked to go in 1980 for the Olympics when the boycott thwarted our plans.

Thanks for the ideas, my planning is only just beginning, lots to look forward to.

Tony

...Very interested in Berlin and anything relating to WW2. Did Normandy pre-cruise a few years ago, Imperial War museum in London last year and New Orleans D Day museum a few years ago. So Berlin should round out the experience...

Would recommend the following:

The memorial to the murdered Jews of Europe

Topography of Terror (just around the corner from Checkpoint Charlie - which tbh can be skipped over)

The Soviet war memorial in Treptow Park

:) We did it last year, on Celebrity. Berlin is a 3 hr train ride, in each direction, from Warnemunde.

We did 2 days in St. Petersburg. Absolutely, use a private tour company. Visas are included. The terminal is new and efficient. Finding your guide and bus is simple. Groups are smaller, and even private tours are not too expensive. We used SPB, but many others are equally good. Our guide was a dead ringer for Cameron Diaz..........easy to find in a crowd and easy to follow ;). We had a private tour for a group of 8.

Enjoy.

The cruise I'm looking at is the one right before the TA, so it only does one day in St. Petersburg.

 

When we were in St Petersburg, we just did a one day tour, as we thought one day would keep our sons interest better, and it is amazing what you can do.

You obviously need to make some decisions, and we dropped a couple of things that are quite popular (Hermitage and the inside of Peterhof for example), but saw an incredible amount in just one day.

As we put the itinerary together ourselves, we had a tour just for ourselves and I'm sure a group tour wouldn't get around quite as much stuff, and may spend some time in places which weren't your first choice, but I'm sure you can find something pretty good.

Depending on budget, I would consider arranging something privately as you only have one day. The amount we paid was not a lot less than others paid for a 2 day group tour, so it will be more than a standard one day tour, but given your situation I think it would be the best way of getting the most out of St Petersburg.

I would completely agree with KeithJenner - we did a two day private tour since we didn't want our 3.5 year old to ruin anyone else's visit, and were able to accomplish so much in just one day. We visited Catherine's Palace, Peterhof, the Church of the Spilled Blood, saw the subway, took a canal ride and visited St. Peter's Square. The only thing I really wanted to do on the second day was the Hermitage, and if I only had one day in St. Petersburg I'd have skipped the canal and subway and done that instead. The second day also included Peter and Paul fortress, and St. Isaac's church but most of my favorite things were all on the first day. Because we had a small child, we skipped the lesser parts of the museums (after a few rooms Catherine's Palace becomes a bit repetitive, and skipping a few in the middle is good if you are under a time crunch). I'd just do a lot of research so you know exactly what you want to see in St. Petersburg, and know exactly which pieces of art you want to see in the Hermitage and with a private tour it might be possible to see the absolute highlights if you plan well.