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How do I find which specific ports we dock at on our Baltic Cruise


courtneyMC
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I'm sure this info is available somewhere but I can't seem to find it. We will be on Regal Princess in the Baltic this summer, and I know in some cities there is more than one port. I"m trying to get an idea of where we dock to determine which cities will require what in the way of transportation if we don't do an excursion and get an idea of how far different things are away even if we do get an excursion.

 

Our ports are Copenhagen, Oslo, Helsinki, Tallin, St. Petersburg, Warnemunde, and Stockholm

 

thanks!

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Find the port authority for each city and they should show it on their website. Also check out the journey planners using public transportation for each city.

This is an example for Stockholm http://www.portsofstockholm.com/vessel-calls/

http://www.visitstockholm.com/en/Good-to-know/Getting-around/Public-transportation/

 

I highly recommend a small group tour in St Petersburg as they sort out the visa for you. We did a 2 day Alla tour in St P and a walking tour in Tallinn.

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We did the De Luxe 2 day SPB tour in St Petersburg. The tour ticket acts as your visa, which you show at immigration as you disembark on both days. We paid $600 US Our conversion rate was excellent in July 2015, so this worked out to less than £90 p.p.p.day.

We didn't change any money into roubles, € & $ are readily welcomed. The only places that we wern't able to buy souvenirs was in the churches, as they only accept roubles.

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I'd use this interactive map from whatsinport.com to link to the port schedules for each of the ports. You should be able to identify which pier you're scheduled to come into, and the whatsinport.com will also give you links to maps:

 

https://martello.carto.com/viz/35925a0a-5c50-11e4-a4e6-0e4fddd5de28/embed_map

 

 

We were on this cruise last summer.

 

In Copenhagen, the ship was at Oceankaj, so you needed to use a bus or taxi to get into town (or, since we were departing from Copenhagen, from town).

 

In Oslo, you could walk into town (the ship docked right below Akerhus castle), but the highlights of the port were the museums on the Bygdoy pennisula (including the Viking ship museum) and the Vigeland sculpture park, so you'll want to figure out transportation (public, HoHo, excursion) to those.

 

Helsinki the ship came into the West Terminal, which was not within easy walk of the Market Square (about 3 km) and really, the town in Helsinki is not as interesting as the other ports (especially if you're coming from St. P). I'd work in a trip to Suomenlinna or Seurasaari Island, which we enjoyed.

 

Tallinn was very walkable from the port as was Warnemunde if you want to stay in Warnemunde. The train station that can take you to Rostock or Schwerin is right by the port in Warnemunde. Although honestly, I would have just stayed in Warnemunde and enjoyed the seaside town and the beach, especially since we were there on a Sunday and much of Rostock and Schwerin were closed. (We weren't interested in doing the several-hour commute to Berlin just for a drive-by of sights, especially as we were traveling with kids.)

 

St. Petersburg I'd recommend going with any of the companies recommended here for an organized excursion and you won't even need to worry about where you're docked or navigating.

 

Stockholm, the Regal Princess comes into Nynashamn, which is an inconvenient distance from Stockholm although there are connections including a HoHo that'll pick up there. The Vasa museum is very close to Skansen and the ABBA museum, if you're interested in those. Gamla Stan was okay but since we visited Stockholm late in the cruise, we were kind of old-town-and-palaced-out

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I'm sure this info is available somewhere but I can't seem to find it. We will be on Regal Princess in the Baltic this summer, and I know in some cities there is more than one port. I"m trying to get an idea of where we dock to determine which cities will require what in the way of transportation if we don't do an excursion and get an idea of how far different things are away even if we do get an excursion.

 

Our ports are Copenhagen, Oslo, Helsinki, Tallin, St. Petersburg, Warnemunde, and Stockholm

 

thanks!

On our own, we didn't need transportation to go around town in Oslo and Warnemunde. We took a bus in Tallinn due to my mobility issues but most passengers just had a walk to town. There was a bus in Helsinki just outside the port after the covered area housing vendor's stalls. You can buy a bus ticket in a shop by the tender port in Nynashamn. It is not practical to tour St. Petersburg on your own since you need to get your own visa. I suggest you take the ship's or private tour without worrying about the visa and make the most out of many sites to appreciate.

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When you know your port dates, you can lookup the port websites and most of them give you the berth as well as the port for your ship.

The easiest way I found to find the port websites was to start with http://cruiseportwiki.com/

From there follow the links to the port authority website. Most are in English fortunately.

 

I am on the Regal leaving Copenhagen on 22nd May and, if I believe the port authority for Stockholm, we are going to the port in town rather than Nynashamn. I hope this stays correct but I think I will have to be prepared for a change to Nynashamn.

The other Regal cruises seem to use Nynashamn.

You can also see how many other cruise ships are in port on the same day.

Jim

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Great ideas and suggestions for tours, etc. thank you.

 

But doesn't Princess post this information somewhere? If not, I can use some of the suggested websites to try to look it up, but it seems like the cruise line would document this somewhere- they must know where they're going to dock right?? For example, if we were taking a taxi from the airport to the ship we would need to know what address to give, so I feel like it's got to be easier to find via Princess than combing other websites looking for your ship?

 

can anyone point me to where you look in the princess site or in your paperwork or whatever?

 

thanks!

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I think you are overthinking this. For ports with multiple docks, the tour operators will find you. It's their business. Same thing with a taxi from the airport. Trust me, the taxi driver will know where to take you.

 

It's also possible they might not know where they are docking until the day of, when they are assigned a berth.

 

Again, don't worry, the tour operator will find you.

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Great ideas and suggestions for tours, etc. thank you.

 

But doesn't Princess post this information somewhere? If not, I can use some of the suggested websites to try to look it up, but it seems like the cruise line would document this somewhere- they must know where they're going to dock right?? For example, if we were taking a taxi from the airport to the ship we would need to know what address to give, so I feel like it's got to be easier to find via Princess than combing other websites looking for your ship?

 

can anyone point me to where you look in the princess site or in your paperwork or whatever?

 

thanks!

I have never found it on the Princess website. Often berths change and you really have to be prepared, when DIY, for that occurrence. The local tour operators and taxi drivers will know where you will be --that's part of their job......

If you would share dates we can be a little more specific.

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Great ideas and suggestions for tours, etc. thank you.

 

But doesn't Princess post this information somewhere? If not, I can use some of the suggested websites to try to look it up, but it seems like the cruise line would document this somewhere- they must know where they're going to dock right??

thanks!

Princess do have some (limited) information regarding departure ports.

http://www.princess.com/learn/excursions/departure_ports/

 

Even if they did supply decent details about the various ports, I would always do my own research to get a second opinion - and I find the research part of the fun, it's amazing what other things you find out about in the process.

 

If Princess supplied it all, we would start complaining when the berth changed and we hadn't noticed the changes. If you are using their excursions, they worry about it. If you are doing your own thing, you have to do the research.

 

Jim

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Get yourself a copy of Rick Steves' guide to Northern European cruise ports if you haven't already done so. He gives useful info on public transportation for all the possible docking locations in all the ports you'll be visting, so you'll be able to prepare yourself for all eventualities, even at the ports where there's more than one place the ship could dock such as (in your case) Copenhagen, Oslo and Stockholm.

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