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VASA Museum: transportation? Tips for a successful visit?


Pet Nit Noy
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I know there's a 98 page thread about Stockholm with nearly 2,000 posts, but I'm finding that thread overwhelming. I'm hoping this thread will become a resource for exchanging information that's specific to the VASA museum.

 

My husband and I will soon be visiting Stockholm. We arrive at 9:00 AM and depart at 5:00 PM (on board at 4:00 PM). We want to make the VASA museum our first stop. What options do we have for getting to the museum? The easiest option? The fastest option? (Other readers may be interested in the most cost effective option.)

 

Is the 17-minute film a useful introduction or is there too much overlap with the information in the recorded or live tour?

 

Are the 11:30/1:30/3:30 English language tours worthwhile? How large a group do these tours tend to attract?

 

The web site mentions MP3 recorded tours. Are these tours worthwhile? Do owe need to provide our own MP3 players or are they loaned out by the museum?

 

Since the guided tour lasts only 25 minutes, has anyone taken both the person-led tour and used the MP3 player, too? You thoughts?

 

Any other recommendations for having a successful visit to the museum?

 

Thanks.

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Stockholm.jpg

 

 

I think transportation depends on where your ship docks.

 

We docked in stadsgarden and took the first HoHo-Boat. It's first stop was the VASA museum (directly). We were among the first visitors. We had previously downloaded the mp3-Tour on our Iphones and took the tour by ourselves. That was a great option and it was the cheapest aswell. The guided tours started arriving, when we left.

 

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After that we hopped back on the boat and took the rest of the tour.

 

IMG_2903.JPG

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Early arrival to the Vasa Museum is optimal if you don't enjoy crowds. If you arrive later, the guided tours are excellent and will give you a depth of understanding. If you enjoy more independent touring the MP3 may be more to your liking. The ship and its history have more significance than can be learned from a quick walk through museum visit.

The Vasa Museum has a nice café with snacks, pastries and lunch fare. We enjoyed lunch here after our museum visit.

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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 stadsgarden 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. 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 is excellent, and easily took us between tourist attractions later in the day so you might want to just purchase a one way ticket. A Stockholm card will cover admission to Vasa and all public transportation. If you are planning on visiting a lot of expensive museums in Stockholm, you might want to purchase a stockholm card (it is available at the TI desk right on the dock in stadsgarden)

 

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.

 

We left the museum prior to the tours starting, so I don't know if the movie duplicates the tours, but we did find the movie quite interesting. The small theatre offers the movie in English (the movie in the large theater is in Swedish with English subtitles).

 

It was a very fascinating and well designed museum and we felt we got a lot out of our self guided tour.

 

In general, the reviews seemed to feel that Stockholm was one of the favorite cities and there isn't enough time there. It seemed everyone was worried about this possibility, and an early breakfast was very crowded on my ship. If you are on a large ship, you might want to consider room service or an alternate venue to the buffet.

Edited by kitkat343
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Is the 17-minute film a useful introduction or is there too much overlap with the information in the recorded or live tour?

 

Are the 11:30/1:30/3:30 English language tours worthwhile? How large a group do these tours tend to attract?

 

Any other recommendations for having a successful visit to the museum?

 

Thanks.

The 17 minute film is well worth seeing so as soon as you get inside the museum find out when it's next showing and head down to the theatre a couple of minutes before the start. It doesn't matter if you have walked around the ship and seen some of the exhibits before you watch the film.

 

I went on the English language tour and that is good too but there is so much to see in Stockholm that I wouldn't compromise the rest of your day waiting for it. If fits with your schedule then go along, but the museum and subject is easy to understand, with lots of accessible info if you can't do that tour.

 

There's a video of my time in the museum in The Baltics link in my signature below. All the best, Tony P.S. There was very good wi-fi in the museum.

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If you are going in blind, about the Vasa and what it is all about, then the movie is a MUST see. We simply found the movie fascinating and really gave us an insight into what all the 'fuss' is about, the Vasa.

 

We also opted to tour on our own, but we did listen in on some of the other tours as they went out the museum.

 

You didn't say when you are cruising to Stockholm. Before June 1, Vasa opens at 10AM, but after that it opens at 8:30 AM. If you ship docks early enough and you a e there for the 8:30 opening, I would try and be there as early as possible.

 

Cheers

 

Len

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Is the 17-minute film a useful introduction or is there too much overlap with the information in the recorded or live tour?

 

Are the 11:30/1:30/3:30 English language tours worthwhile? How large a group do these tours tend to attract?

 

In my experience the groups use to be something between 10 and 25 persons.

Having visited the museum several times and having tried both Swedish and English tours I wouldn't say that the film and the tour overlap too much. The quality of the guided tour of course depends on the guide. A long time ago back in the old Vasa museum I once had very nice and informative guide, and on later visits the guided tours have never again really reached her high standard. I guess the guides also changes the content of the tour a bit too according to the what audience the have (adults or children etc.)

 

Of course while while both the film and the tours are nice, there really isn't anything there that you cannot find out yourself if you spend an hour or so on YouTube (of course you can listed to the MP3 recordings at home as well). So with a bit of research and preparation at home you can save the time on the museum.

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We took the bus to the Vasa museum and I think we arrived abot 10am. We heard an announcement saying a guided tour was about to start in English which we joined. I think we were about 10 people on the tour which we found interesting. I don't remember seeing a film, but then we wouldn't have spent all day inside the museum. I actually enjoyed it much more than I had thought I would.

 

However, there is so much to see it would be a shame not to see more of Stockholm. We had an overnight on our cruise, but we still didn't manage to see everything. We really enjoyed this port of call.

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I will be on he Brilliance of the Seas on the July 17th voyage. How do you find out what pier you will dock out, so you can plan in advance what type of transportation?

 

I love the idea of being able to take a ferry to Vasa.

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Early arrival to the Vasa Museum is optimal if you don't enjoy crowds. If you arrive later, the guided tours are excellent and will give you a depth of understanding. If you enjoy more independent touring the MP3 may be more to your liking. The ship and its history have more significance than can be learned from a quick walk through museum visit.

 

The Vasa Museum has a nice café with snacks, pastries and lunch fare. We enjoyed lunch here after our museum visit.

 

 

Thank you, after a little searching, I figured out how to download and save the tour to my phone!

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You didn't say when you are cruising to Stockholm. Before June 1, Vasa opens at 10AM, but after that it opens at 8:30 AM. If you ship docks early enough and you a e there for the 8:30 opening, I would try and be there as early as possible.

 

Thanks. We'll be visiting Stockholm after June 1 although we aren't scheduled to dock until somewhat later than the summer opening hours.

 

Does anyone know where Oceania's smaller "R" class Oceania ships dock? (Marina and Riviera are somewhat larger ships so the answer may be different.)

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Does anyone know where Oceania's smaller "R" class Oceania ships dock?

The only one I found was Nautica:

12 July - V523 Värtahamnen

20 Aug - V523 Värtahamnen

2 Sep - F650 Frihamnen

 

That would be bus 76 to Vasa.

Edited by Ultima Thule
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The only one I found was Nautica... V523 Värtahamnen... That would be bus 76 to Vasa.

 

Thank you. Even plugging in the specific name of the vessel and the specific port, I can't get the "Vessel Calls Port of Stockholm" to work on my computer.

Your information really rescues me. Thank you.

 

Is Vartahammen a port where passengers can walk off the ship and reach city streets to take the 76 bus to VASA. Or, will we need to take a port shuttle within the port area?

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Thank you. Even plugging in the specific name of the vessel and the specific port, I can't get the "Vessel Calls Port of Stockholm" to work on my computer.

Your information really rescues me. Thank you.

 

Is Vartahammen a port where passengers can walk off the ship and reach city streets to take the 76 bus to VASA. Or, will we need to take a port shuttle within the port area?

 

No you will disembark into a terminal from where it is a short walk to the bus stop for the public buses.

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Would you mind sharing the steps you've taken to download the mp4?

 

http://www.vasamuseet.se/en/visit/mp3-guide/

 

If you want to download directly to your phone you you need to use the full website and not the mobile version.

 

Then just press each link and you should be asked if you want to play them or download them.

However this might be different depending on phone model, webbrowser and operating system (Android, Windows 8, iOS).

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I have an iphone 5C, so I went into the AppStore on my phone and searched "Downloader" and then I was able to create a file which I name Vasa Museum, and I downloaded each file, and I put my phone in airplane mode and I can still listen to them!

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