Berlin or Copenhagen

I am full of questions this evening. Dudette and I are planning a Baltic cruise for the spring/summer of 2016. In looking at Princess's website it would appear that with the same cruise on the Regal people have the option of embarking in Berlin or Copenhagen. It's a blank piece of canvas for us so would be interesting in hearing what other people have done and why? With travelling that far I think we would like to spend a few extra days in the embarkation port city....which do people think is more interesting?

Been to both. Much more to see in Berlin and would advise going a few days early.You would board the ship in Wernemunde and it is a very charming resort town (we spent two days there).

While the cruise information may say that you "embark" in Berlin, you actually embark in Warnemuende, which is a 3-hour train ride from Berlin.

Both Copenhagen and Berlin have enough sights to keep you busy for a few extra days. Berlin will definitely have more to see and do--more than you can see or do in a week. (I used to live there.) Copenhagen, on the other hand can be seen well in 2 - 3 days, but if you have more time there are some great day trips--e.g. Roskilde or Helsingor.

If one of your options is to embark in Copenhagen and have one port day in Berlin, I would NOT choose that option. What that actually entails is that the ship arrives in Warnemuende and if you want to visit Berlin, you have a 3-hour ride there in the morning, a 3-hour ride back in the afternoon/evening and no more than 4 or 5 hours to spend in Berlin itself.

We have been to both. We stayed six days in Berlin so much history there. We were busy everyday and still did not see everything. Loved Berlin hope one day to go back. If you go check out the Rassison Blu Hotel wonderful hotel. We were on the Royal Princess last year and also stayed on for the TA was a great cruise.

Betty

Definitely Berlin. It's a vibrant city and there is so much to see. I've been to Copenhagen several times and I like the city very much but it's much more sedate. Besides, Berlin is much more affordable.

Just returned from this cruise on the Regal. We took the princess land tour from Budapest before joining the cruise. It was a great tour. The trouble I see with joining cruise in Berlin is the distance to ship. But the cruise is a good one for sure no matter where you pick it up.

Well, you have to think about logistics. With Copenhagen the airport, city center and cruise terminal are reasonably close by. With Berlin it's a 3 hour train to the port of embarkation of Warnemunde; then it's a 3-hours train trip back to Berlin and/or to the airport. I would think Berlin would have a lot of history and things to see; Copenhagen not as much although it's a lovely city. You have to look at your overall schedule, budget, time, etc. and weigh the pro/cons. You reasonably can see Copenhagen in a day; but if you do embark in Copenhagen you can take an all day train trip to Berlin and back to Warnemunde as a Princess' shore tour. It's a long day tour and your time in Berlin is limited. So, I guess if Berlin is on your bucket list and you have the time then I would do a pre-cruise there as long as you understand that the port is a 3-hours away.

All great information and will make our decision much easier. Thanks for responding to the OP.

Thanks everyone, looks like Berlin/Warnemunde is what we should be looking at. The one logistical I see we may have to deal with is getting from Warnemunde to Berlin to catch a 1 stop flight from Berlin back to Vancouver, it looks as though we may have to spend a night post cruise in Berlin but will continue to research that aspect.

You're right about restricted flight options same day PD, but personally I'd recommend splitting your extra days into before and after the cruise anyway. Berlin is not just chock full of sights, but still has quite a differentiation between the old East and West sections.

Stay in one area before and one after the cruise, so that you can visit things more efficiently - I know you have difficulty using some transit methods with Dudette, so even though Berlin has a tremendous public rail network you'll probably end up using taxis more than most folks would.

And I can't recommend Vau restaurant enough - both for service and quality. If you do go and enjoy it, one of their previous chefs is now Vancouver at Bauhaus (Uwe Boll's new place - fortunately he seems to be taking less of a role in the running of the resto than he does with his godawful movies...)

Thanks everyone, looks like Berlin/Warnemunde is what we should be looking at. The one logistical I see we may have to deal with is getting from Warnemunde to Berlin to catch a 1 stop flight from Berlin back to Vancouver, it looks as though we may have to spend a night post cruise in Berlin but will continue to research that aspect.

We just booked the same cruise for the end of June and thought about the same thing. We will be flying from LAX, so i figured we would get a few days in Germany before going out to Warnemunende. Can fly to Berlin or Frankfurt. We wanted to go to Bruge in Brussels. That is our Frankfurt option. Will see what airfare does.

I didn't want to waste 6 hours on a train or bus for a shore excursion. This seems like a better option to me.

Welcome to the roll call dardan, we will look forward to meeting you in May. In the meantime I hope you will become an active participant in the roll call.

The two cities are very different....Berlin has great museums and history. Copenhagen is much smaller, friendlier,a great walking city,and charming and with the great transportation system, it is easy to get to sights outside the city. I have spent time in both; love Copenhagen and would return to Berlin only for the museums. Only my opinion....in reality I would try to visit both.

Been to both and also been on the Baltic cruise (a favorite!). There is so much to see and do in Berlin. That would be my choice. Remember you will have to get transportation to Warnemunde to board the ship. Visit the roll call for your cruise.

We stayed in Copenhagen pre and post cruise. It's a lovely city and very easy to get around. One of our favorite excursions was in Warnemunde with Dave Natale http://dna-tours.de/tours.html From Copenhagen we went by train to Kronborg, for the day, http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/696

We chose not to go to Berlin.

I was stationed in West Berlin for 5 years, and have Danish relatives that live near Copenhagen. Due the airfare costs I would seriously try to go to both. There is no way to do either place in an afternoon. You will just end up paying airfare again to go back to do what you missed

I agree that you need much more time to see all the sights of Berlin. We spent a day pre and one post in Copenhagen. Could have used more time and we loved the relaxed atmosphere, cafes,shopping etc. But after being in Berlin for only 7 hours, we'd go there again easily for a week. We love that city too.

Our tour guide suggested we look at some of the smaller hotels just north of museum island for well located places to stay on our land trip.

We really enjoyed our Baltic cruise on Princess although we chose not to tour to Berlin from Warnemunde - we felt three hours each way in a non air conditioned train more than we were prepared for - also we felt Berlin needed longer as a visit. We toured round Warnemunde and had a great day locally.

Copenhagen is a great city and can occupy three or four days.

If you are flying back to Vancouver from Copenhagen we found Icelandair great as we could fly out at 2pm and still arrive in Vancouver that night.