Missed ports in Baltics

So I've noticed that in certain areas certain ports seem more likely to be missed vs others.

For example, we went on cruise at the end of the 2010 Mediterranean cruise season and missed Monaco. The cruise after us also missed Monaco (both reportedly due to high winds).

I've tried searching without having much luck.

Anyone know of specific ports that are more likely to be missed in the Baltics? If so, does it tend to happen at the beginning of the cruise season, the end, anytime?

We were on a Baltic cruise in mid-July 2013. We missed Riga, Latvia due to high winds.

Can't tell you if the time of year plays a roll in how often ports are missed but it might be a good theory.

I don't believe any of the Baltic ports have a bad reputation for reliability. :)

Partly because there are no major cruises in winter (the Gulf of Finland regularly ices over), partly because there are no significant tender ports.

I'm aware of one RCI ship which missed St Petersburg due to high winds - captain unwilling to risk the ship in the narrow channel through the newish causeway (the St Petersburg Dam) - a flood-prevention construction which links the Russian shore on the south to the Finnish shore on the north.

That must have been a real downer because St Pete's is the jewel in any Baltic cruise. But it's rare.

BTW, that channel through the causeway is alongside the little island of Kotlin, the scene of the Kronstadt Rebellion.

The town of Kronstadt, which occupies most of the island, was the base of the main Russian fleet when St Pete's was the capital. In 1921 the sailors stationed there, who had played a major part in the Russian Revolution of 1917, rebelled against the new Bolshevik government - check out the history, it's gruesome but fascinating.

Because of the causeway, ships now have to pass through the very narrow channel right alongside the old fortifications (& some scrapped Soviet ships if they're still there) - you get a grandstand view from your ship.

https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en&ll=60.011859,29.652443&spn=0.000172,0.15398&t=m&z=13&layer=c&cbll=60.011859,29.652443&cbp=12,0,,0,0&photoid=po-94627232

It's about an hour out of St Pete's - most ships enter at daft o'clock in the morning (though in daylight), but return through it around dinner-time. Most of the sights are on the north side - try not to miss it.

JB :)

One of the best indicators of which ports might be missed is those that use tenders. While it is possible to miss one where the ship is docking, it is far less likely.

Stockholm can be quite troublesome in windy conditions due to the many narrow passages during the sail in through the archipelago.

This mean that sometimes ship cannot get into Stockholm and ships that are already in can't leave.

Hopefully there won't be any high winds in midsummer then!! Think positive! :D

We once missed a Norwegian port because the Pilots went on a one-day strike. I only mention this because trying to plan for unforeseen circumstances does not often work. My advice is find the cruise and itinerary that best fits your needs/wants and book it :)

Hank

I would say that the Baltic ports are pretty reliable. Storms are not common during the summer cruise season and it takes a pretty big one to cause problems.

Cruise ferries run between Helsinki, Stockholm, Tallinn and St. Petersburg (and other places around the Baltic Sea) daily around the year. Yearly there are very few storms that would make docking impossible and those practically never happen during summer. Largest of these cruise ferries are about the same width and 2/3 in length of the largest cruise ships visiting the Baltic Sea and therefore somewhat more storm resilient.

Strong winds may cause problems in the Stockholm archipelago as Desdichado62 mentioned. In Helsinki the South Harbor is accessible only through a very narrow strait which is troublesome during strong winds. An exceptionally strong west wind may result in St. Petersburg closing the causeway strait gates to prevent flooding in the city, which prevents ships from arriving or leaving. This has happened at least twice since October.

I'm aware of one RCI ship which missed St Petersburg due to high winds - captain unwilling to risk the ship in the narrow channel through the newish causeway (the St Petersburg Dam) - a flood-prevention construction which links the Russian shore on the south to the Finnish shore on the north.

So I've noticed that in certain areas certain ports seem more likely to be missed vs others.

For example, we went on cruise at the end of the 2010 Mediterranean cruise season and missed Monaco. The cruise after us also missed Monaco (both reportedly due to high winds).

 

I've tried searching without having much luck.

 

Anyone know of specific ports that are more likely to be missed in the Baltics? If so, does it tend to happen at the beginning of the cruise season, the end, anytime?

As all the others have said, it is very rare that a port will be missed on a Baltic Cruise. Just the same as any other cruise, plane flight, even bus ride, you cannot foresee unusual things, but they are the high exception and not the rule.

That should be the least of your worries.

Enjoy your cruise.

Cheers

Len

I'm not too worried about it. We're actually already booked on RCL and have been for months.

I was asking because we're doing most ports on our own. As I plan things for the trip there are things I can book tickets for ahead of time. I wondered if there was any place where this would be unwise because of a higher possibility of missing the port...If so, I would just wait and buy tickets when we arrive.

Sounds like for the most part it's relatively low risk so I'll just continue to plan as I was. :)

 

The causeway runs from Russia to Russia not Finland. The northern end of the causeway is some 30 km from downtown St. Peterburg and over 150 km from the Finnish border.

Oooops, quite right :o

My presumption was based on that 1921 Kronstadt Rebellion. It was winter-time and the sailors had to defend Kronstadt against the Bolsheviks attacking across the ice from the south. When they were overwhelmed, some escaped northwards across the ice to Finland.

I've just checked some historical maps.

In 1921 the land north of Kronstadt was indeed in Finland.

So I was right. :)

But wrong by the small matter of 93 years :D

JB :)

ps. Agdgrl - most (all?) tour operators in SPB don't require money, or even a card number, with booking. You pay when you're there.

As mentioned above it has occasionally happened that a ship has not made it in to Stockholm through the archipelago due to high winds. But that has not meant that the passengers miss Stockholm altogether. Instead the ship has docked in Nynäshamn, a small town south of Stockholm. Transfer from Nynäshamn to Stockholm is around one hour, so there will still be an opportunity to visit Stockholm.

Of course it is a disadvantage to have to transfer to Stockholm, and to miss the sail in through the archipelago, but this is not something that happens often during the cruise season.

Sounds like for the most part it's relatively low risk so I'll just continue to plan as I was

Lindsey

A wise move.

If we can be of any help, please do not hesitate to ask.

Cheers

Len

We missed Stockholm due to high winds, as did another ship two weeks before us. While we did eventually anchor off Nynashamn, we did so more than three hours later than our original Stockholm arrival time. Then we had to wait several hours for a tender, then take the bus Celebrity kindly provided to Stockholm. I guess we technically didn't "miss" Stockholm, but our touring plans were impossible.

We missed Stockholm due to high winds, as did another ship two weeks before us. While we did eventually anchor off Nynashamn, we did so more than three hours later than our original Stockholm arrival time. Then we had to wait several hours for a tender, then take the bus Celebrity kindly provided to Stockholm. I guess we technically didn't "miss" Stockholm, but our touring plans were impossible.

I fully agree that going to Nynäshamn instead of Stockholm is a huge disadvantage. Waiting for tenders and then having to transfer to Stockholm means little time to see the city. I just wanted to say that if it is impossible to go through the archipelago due to high winds you would usually not miss the port completely. But as you say, it would definitely upset your plans for the day.

This kind of high winds will not happen often during the cruise season so it is not a big risk. And a missed port is always something that can happen anywhere in the world. Worse in my mind is that some cruise llines schedule to go to Nynäshamn instead of Stockholm. It is sort of ceating their passengers.

It was during the second half of July. Weird, we had good weather in most ports, but Stockholm's weather was lousy. Still, I feel lucky we got to see the city, if only for an hour.

Is it possible to get somewhere a weather forecast for the cruise dates? I mean a reliable one. Does anyone know?

NO.

The meteorologist can hardly predict tomorrow's weather let alone the weather for 5-6-7-8 months forward.

The longest available forecasts is for the next 10 days but in general those are not that reliable.

Also see this thread: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1891929 and these search results: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/search.php?searchid=48037356

Is it possible to get somewhere a weather forecast for the cruise dates? I mean a reliable one. Does anyone know?

That made me laugh. We are just outside of NYC. On Monday they said we were to get 1-3 inches of snow on Tuesday. We got 12-15 instead. OOPS

What you can do is get average temperatures, like anywhere else. Of course that has nothing to do with the actual temps when you are there, but you can get a general idea.

Here are a couple of sites, maybe to help you.

http://www.wunderground.com/history/airport/ESSB/2014/6/22/MonthlyHistory.html#calendar

http://www.baltic.com/weather

Cheers

Len

Thanks, Len!

I know it's a funny question about the weather, we all know how "reliable" forecasts are:D

The sites are quite useful, especially I liked the second one, at least I will know some averages for the trip - not so bad:)

Just pack layers cansas.piligrim and you won't go wrong :)

I found the threads quite useful, thank you! What I was talking about is not 5 month forward forecast but the one we could get right before the trip just to be prepared. Anyway, it's kind of unpredictable thing, I agree:)

If anyone can suggest one for Norway that's reasonably accurate the day before, I'd love the link!

I often joke that Norway exists so that meteorologists can continue to get PhDs. I don't think they'll ever figure the weather patterns out here. It's quite common that the forecast in the morning is wrong about the weather in the afternoon.

Luckily, varying weights of layers with a good rain/wind shell can get you through just about anything!

I found that http://www.yr.no/place/Norway/Nordland/Flakstad/Lofoten/ (I chose one town but you can navigate to others) worked fairly well in the short term. Long term predictions for our trip were all wrong no matter what site I went to.

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I found that http://www.yr.no/place/Norway/Nordland/Flakstad/Lofoten/ (I chose one town but you can navigate to others) worked fairly well in the short term. Long term predictions for our trip were all wrong no matter what site I went to.

Yr is better than most, but they still get it wrong quite often. :(

...Either that or they just tell us what we want to hear, even if it's not always true! :p

I found the threads quite useful, thank you! What I was talking about is not 5 month forward forecast but the one we could get right before the trip just to be prepared. Anyway, it's kind of unpredictable thing, I agree:)

SMHI (Statens Meteorologiska och Hydrologiska Institut) is the one look at for Stockholm.

http://www.smhi.se/vadret/vadret-i-sverige/land/fiveDaysForecast.do?geonameid=2673730&redirect=false

Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter found them to be the most accurate or perhaps the least inaccurate forecast service for Sweden.

IIRC their reliability was 53% with yr.no being second with 51%.

So I think combing them would be a good idea.

Our ship missed Helsingor due to heavy wave action (it is a tender port). We were actually thrilled because the ship returned instead to Copenhagen and we were able to visit museums that had been closed several days earlier when it was Denmark's independence day.

I think it is just down to luck really and perhaps even the size of the ship.

Two years past in September, I cruised to the Norwegian Fjords and as it was the start of the month didn't even think about bad weather. I was a novice, lol.

We were on a smaller ship (Cruise & Maritime's Marco Polo) and we sailed through a Force 9 gale. We berthed in Oslo pretty much at time expected but when we got back to the ship for the "all aboard" time we then discovered that we would not be sailing to our next port in Sweden but would stay in Oslo overnight as the forecast was that force 10 was anticipated that night. It had been pretty hair raising the night before so no complaint from me as safety comes first. On the other hand I was happy that I had no ill effects during the sail, lol. However, the larger ships were able to continue sailing that night so the decision is taken by the captain taking all factors into account, including the size and age of the ship.

At the end of November I went to Portugal and the Canaries from Dover with Fred Olsen and it was very soon after the St Jude storm and the subsequent one. The ship was late docking both due to weather and an emergency medical evacuation. Therefore, we were late departing Dover. We never made up the time and instead of getting to Funchal, Madeira early morning as scheduled, it was early evening when we docked. The decision was then taken to miss the next port so that we could have the next day in Funchal. I had booked a package of tours through Cruising Excursions on this occasion and this to my mind was two missed tours through failing to port or failing to port on time. Their guarantee was then put to the test and I am happy to say that they did refund me for the two missed tours. So, it would be worth looking up their offerings for your itineraries before purchasing tours from the ships. I have used them twice now with no difficulties. Last year for the Norwegian Spirit's itinerary and in November 2013 for Fred Olsen's Braemar