First time cruise through Baltic and St Petersburg

I have no idea what to expect on my 9 day cruise in August. I'm going on the Norwegian getaway and seeing the tour excursion prices is shocking. A simple walking tour is $100.00! Any insight would be great as to seeing things on your own at the ports. Do they check your bag or luggage for alcohol? Can you sneak anything on the ship instead of having a huge bar bill? I read a private tour company in Russia is better... Please any advice, would be very appreciated.

Hi there

Done this cruise twice so I have quite a bit of insight! My email is grancayman at aol dot com,

Too much info to post on here!

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Stockholm,Copenhagen and Tallin can be definitely done without an NCL excursion.Usually you can get from the port to the city centre easily by public transport or by foot(Tallinn).

You should check out the Northern Europe and Baltics port of call forum. Lots of very good info:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=192

I have no idea what to expect on my 9 day cruise in August. I'm going on the Norwegian getaway and seeing the tour excursion prices is shocking. A simple walking tour is $100.00! Any insight would be great as to seeing things on your own at the ports. Do they check your bag or luggage for alcohol? Can you sneak anything on the ship instead of having a huge bar bill? I read a private tour company in Russia is better... Please any advice, would be very appreciated.

Any alcohol except wine will be confiscated, wine will cost you a corkage fee. Should have checked the excursion prices before signing up. Getaway is much bigger than previous Baltic ships, expect long delays

Hi Tandy5,

My family is sailing the Baltics on the Getaway in July, and I too was hit by "sticker shock" when I saw the prices for the excursions offered by NCL for this cruise.

After spending hours researching and reading advice and recommendations on the Baltic Board, I decided to book with Alla Tours for St. Petersburg, Berlin, and Stockholm. The cost savings for my family of 4 has been significant. Alla wins every time when you do a tour to tour comparison with NCL. Everything that I want to see on an NCL excursion is offered by Alla, with St. Petersburg being far more extensive with Alla. Their group tours are also quite a bit smaller than the ship excursions too. My dealings with them via email has been excellent as well, with a representative from Alla responding in less than 24 hours.

The Baltic Board is a great source of information, but for cost savings alone, this advice to book with an independent tour company rather than the ship's excursions has been the biggest cost saver.

Tallinn, Copenhagen and Helsinki can definitely be done without a tour.

Use the HOHO in Helsinki: go around once, get the lay of the land, and then start hopping on and off your second time around.

Copenhagen has great busses, wonderful walks along the waterfront and is easy to do on your own.

Tallinn is perfectly set up for a from the cruise waking tour. Recommend getting Rick Steve's guide for help with all the ports. His walking tour of Tallinn was spot on, easy to follow and a great way to spend a morning.

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Warnemunde (if you don't want to do Berlin is a easy walk). On a nice day, you can frolic in the Baltic, climb a lighthouse, see century old fishermen's homes and go to a store that has turned everything into Strawberries.

Stockholm has a HOHO bus and a HOHO but/boat combo I believe, but the HOHO bus was more expensive than Helsinki and since almost everything you stopped at had a fee, a little bit more expensive of a day. However, if you can manage to be in the old city square around noon, they do a changing of the guard on horseback that is wonderful to see and the shops around the square are fun to browse in.

We booked a private tour in Russia...depending on your party size, that may not be that much more than all of you on a group tour.

Good luck and happy planning.

I'm going on a Baltic cruise next month. I was originally booked on Getaway, but my travel buddy and I switched to a 14-night sailing on P&O Arcadia. It's an adult-only ship, and it has a covered pool, but there are four formal nights so very different from NCL. The big reason we switched is because we saved almost $900 on airfare by flying into London and sailing out of Southampton even as we are paying essentially the same price for a cruise that is five nights longer.

I've been using CC for much of my planning. I'm also using Rick Steves Northern European Cruise Ports, which you can download from that jungle website or buy in print. Between the two, I feel like I'm very prepared. We booked a 14-person two-day tour of St. Petersburg through the cruise line; otherwise I think we're going to DIY it.

Good luck, and happy sailing!

I have no idea what to expect on my 9 day cruise in August. I'm going on the Norwegian getaway and seeing the tour excursion prices is shocking. A simple walking tour is $100.00! Any insight would be great as to seeing things on your own at the ports. Do they check your bag or luggage for alcohol? Can you sneak anything on the ship instead of having a huge bar bill? I read a private tour company in Russia is better... Please any advice, would be very appreciated.

We were able to easily DIY all of the ports (with the exception of St. Petersburg) with our 3 year old son in tow, so you will be absolutely fine on your own.

Don't worry about the price of the shore excursions - public transportation is excellent in Copenhagen, Stockholm and Helsinki. In Tallinn, you can walk everywhere (and take a cab to the center of the city if you have a child in tow).

In St. Petersburg, there are several reputable, well established companies that will process your visa waiver for you and organize your transportation and tours. You are much better off with that than a ship tour, since they are capped at 16 people in a group and cost less. We took a private tour of just our family, and if you can afford that it will give you the flexibility to maximize your time in this spectacular city.

There is a free walking tour for Tallin. It meets at the front of the City Tourist Information Center. It is excellent and tips are the only compensation the guide receives. In Helsinki, we took the ferry to the Fotress of Suomenlinna. The ferry ride over to the islands was very enjoyable and we were able to book a tour in English. After the tour, we walked a bit and were able to watch the locals enjoying themselves on a lovely summer day.

Janice, would you recommend the Suomenlinna Fortress for teenagers? I am considering that and also a general excursion that includes the Rock Church and Sibelius monument.

we used TJ Travel for our 2 day St. Pete tour. they were phenomenal. we saw twice the stuff for half the cost. we also used them for our Tour in Tallin (they will do tours in all of the ports).

we did Copenhagen on our own. there is a free waking tour every day at City Hall. its a super clean, easy city to navigate.

we also didnt want to deal with the long trek to Berlin. so we booked the Mega Mecklenberg tour with Friends of Dave Tours. We had a blast!!!

helskini we did on our own with the Rick Steve's guide book. Stockholm we missed to to inability to dock (fog) but we intended to do the Abba Museum on our own and with the Rick Steves book.

I have no idea what to expect on my 9 day cruise in August. I'm going on the Norwegian getaway and seeing the tour excursion prices is shocking. A simple walking tour is $100.00! Any insight would be great as to seeing things on your own at the ports. Do they check your bag or luggage for alcohol? Can you sneak anything on the ship instead of having a huge bar bill? I read a private tour company in Russia is better... Please any advice, would be very appreciated.

We are also going in August, have you joined your roll call? That will give you an idea of what your shipmates are doing for tours. We are going August 23 on the Getaway, spending 3 days in Copenhagen prior to leaving. We are using Rick Steeves Copenhagen book and the HOHO system to tour there.

We decided to use TJ Tours for all of our port excursions. I know that we could have done Tallinn and Stockholm on our own, but decided the convenience of using one tour company for all the ports was how we wanted to do it...we are also going to Berlin with them despite the long ride there and back, since I have no idea if I will ever be back to the Baltics again.

I agree that the NCL tours are crazy expensive, but I think if you start pricing tours with other companies you will find a huge difference.

Question: was the beverage package not one of the options when you booked your cruise? I can't even imagine what our bar bill would be for 10 days!:o

We also used TJ Tours. Loved them! Very reasonable also.

Thank you so much for your helpful replies! To clarify, I have never been on a cruise, a friend I taught in China with a couple years ago booked it. We live in separate cities so, so we don't get together much. We traveled through Southeast Asia on our own, by reading travel forums, and word of mouth. I'm so impressed by the helpful responses I received ! Thank you so much. I have not done much research yet, But, I intend to read past threads and check into the tjs

We are also going in August, have you joined your roll call? That will give you an idea of what your shipmates are doing for tours. We are going August 23 on the Getaway, spending 3 days in Copenhagen prior to leaving. We are using Rick Steeves Copenhagen book and the HOHO system to tour there.

We decided to use TJ Tours for all of our port excursions. I know that we could have done Tallinn and Stockholm on our own, but decided the convenience of using one tour company for all the ports was how we wanted to do it...we are also going to Berlin with them despite the long ride there and back, since I have no idea if I will ever be back to the Baltics again.

I agree that the NCL tours are crazy expensive, but I think if you start pricing tours with other companies you will find a huge difference.

 

Question: was the beverage package not one of the options when you booked your cruise? I can't even imagine what our bar bill would be for 10 days!:o[/quote

No, I didn't book it and I didn't know a thing about it because I have never cruised before. Yeah, I'm worried about the bill. I

We are also going in August, have you joined your roll call? That will give you an idea of what your shipmates are doing for tours. We are going August 23 on the Getaway, spending 3 days in Copenhagen prior to leaving. We are using Rick Steeves Copenhagen book and the HOHO system to tour there.

We decided to use TJ Tours for all of our port excursions. I know that we could have done Tallinn and Stockholm on our own, but decided the convenience of using one tour company for all the ports was how we wanted to do it...we are also going to Berlin with them despite the long ride there and back, since I have no idea if I will ever be back to the Baltics again.

I agree that the NCL tours are crazy expensive, but I think if you start pricing tours with other companies you will find a huge difference.

 

Question: was the beverage package not one of the options when you booked your cruise? I can't even imagine what our bar bill would be for 10 days!:o[/quote

No, I didn't book it and I didn't know a thing about it because I have never cruised before. Yeah, I'm worried about the bill. I

I had no idea about roll call! Thanks! I'll join!

I used Rick Steve's in Italy, it was so precise and helped with time management !

I'm going on a Baltic cruise next month. I was originally booked on Getaway, but my travel buddy and I switched to a 14-night sailing on P&O Arcadia. It's an adult-only ship, and it has a covered pool, but there are four formal nights so very different from NCL. The big reason we switched is because we saved almost $900 on airfare by flying into London and sailing out of Southampton even as we are paying essentially the same price for a cruise that is five nights longer.

 

I've been using CC for much of my planning. I'm also using Rick Steves Northern European Cruise Ports, which you can download from that jungle website or buy in print. Between the two, I feel like I'm very prepared. We booked a 14-person two-day tour of St. Petersburg through the cruise line; otherwise I think we're going to DIY it.

 

Good luck, and happy sailing!

Hi

We did Baltic cruise on PO Arcadia we loved it, but we do love formal nights and dancing so suited us perfectly. The crew were lovely, the drinks unexpensive, the only ship excursion we did was in STP and well worth the money but not as expensive as NCL. In Stockhom a must to visit in my opinion I see the Vasa museum we got up early gotbthe first taxi boat, it it hop on off all day ticket fir little cost, we got to vasa just as it opened had at least hour in there almost alone before it started to busy up, then after several hours we keft and hopped on off taxi boat at various locations to see sights, whole trip about 40 Euro for two. The covered pool is great. Have a lovely time

Another company you might want to consider for shore excursions is Alla Tours. They do all of the ports on the Getaway's itinerary and you can pick and choose which ones you take. You get a discount on various ones if you also do their St Petersburg Tour. Definitely much much cheaper than the NCL tours, and I'm going on them with a group from my roll call.

I leave for this cruise in 14 days, so if there's anything particular you want to know - happy to try and make a note of it while I'm there.

In terms of the bar bill, you will almost certainly have received one or more of the free promotions when you booked. This doesn't always appear when booking but is then automatically given to you and will appear in your MyNCL account. Worth checking to see if the drinks package was what you were given. If not, just call NCL and ask if you can switch to that one (assuming you prefer it to whatever you got). I tend to alternate between free speciality dining or the drinks package depending on where I plan to eat. Definitely good value from them.

Another company you might want to consider for shore excursions is Alla Tours. They do all of the ports on the Getaway's itinerary and you can pick and choose which ones you take. You get a discount on various ones if you also do their St Petersburg Tour. Definitely much much cheaper than the NCL tours, and I'm going on them with a group from my roll call.

 

I leave for this cruise in 14 days, so if there's anything particular you want to know - happy to try and make a note of it while I'm there.

 

In terms of the bar bill, you will almost certainly have received one or more of the free promotions when you booked. This doesn't always appear when booking but is then automatically given to you and will appear in your MyNCL account. Worth checking to see if the drinks package was what you were given. If not, just call NCL and ask if you can switch to that one (assuming you prefer it to whatever you got). I tend to alternate between free speciality dining or the drinks package depending on where I plan to eat. Definitely good value from them.

Will you be going to Rostock by chance? I would love to hear experiences taking the train there.

Sent from my iPad using ForumsWill you be

We're doing the Baltic on the Getaway on June 3. We're doing a Stockholm tour with SPB, and had originally signed up with them for their 2-day St. Petersburg tour but switched to Best Guides, who are doing a custom 2-day for my husband and me, with an emphasis on World War II-related sites. SPB, Alla, TJ, Best Guides, Red October, Denrus...I've heard very, very good things about all of them.

Everywhere else, we'll do on our own.

Hi

We did Baltic cruise on PO Arcadia we loved it, but we do love formal nights and dancing so suited us perfectly. The crew were lovely, the drinks unexpensive, the only ship excursion we did was in STP and well worth the money but not as expensive as NCL. In Stockhom a must to visit in my opinion I see the Vasa museum we got up early gotbthe first taxi boat, it it hop on off all day ticket fir little cost, we got to vasa just as it opened had at least hour in there almost alone before it started to busy up, then after several hours we keft and hopped on off taxi boat at various locations to see sights, whole trip about 40 Euro for two. The covered pool is great. Have a lovely time

Thanks for the encouraging words about Arcadia. I was on P&O for the first time in December and the cruise was lovely. And knowing we are sailing on what was to be a HAL Vista class ship will have me feeling right at home.

And thanks for the Stockholm tips. Rick Steves recommends that water taxi. We will head straight to the Vasa. And then to the ABBA museum!

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Will you be going to Rostock by chance? I would love to hear experiences taking the train there.

 

Sent from my iPad using ForumsWill you be

Yes, we will be going on the train, although we go to Schwerin first to see the castle. I'll let you know how it goes.