Family of 8 on Norwegian Star - first time cruisers

We are a family of 8 and will be taking the Norwegian Star Cruise this August. This is our first time on a cruise and there are three generations. Two folks who are 60 as well as a 6 year old child.

While looking at the day excursion options, I have been a little overwhelmed and am hoping to get some advice. Should we do a cruise or private tour?

Berlin (Warnemunde) - same day excursion

Tallin, Estonia - same day excursion

St. Petersburg - two days excursion

Looking for specific recommendations for operators.

Thanks in advance!

If you look down the board, there are several recommendations for vendors (Alla, for example). You want to find one that operates in more than one of your ports...several cover Berlin as well as St Petersburg. That will get you a discount. Don't know if Tallin is covered by those vendors.

We are a family of 8 and will be taking the Norwegian Star Cruise this August. This is our first time on a cruise and there are three generations. Two folks who are 60 as well as a 6 year old child.

 

While looking at the day excursion options, I have been a little overwhelmed and am hoping to get some advice. Should we do a cruise or private tour?

 

Berlin (Warnemunde) - same day excursion

Tallin, Estonia - same day excursion

St. Petersburg - two days excursion

 

Looking for specific recommendations for operators.

 

Thanks in advance!

I have used Alla Tours (http://alla-tour.com/tours/) and her tours are excellent, prices are much more affordable than those of your cruise line, groups are much smaller than cruise ship tours and the itineraries are more comprehensive. All around, a much better experience than tours booked with NCL. Alla operates in St. Petersburg, Tallinn, Berlin (warnemunde), Copenhagen, Stockholm, Helsinki, Riga, Klaipeda & Amsterdam. There are other tour operators as well but I have no experience with any of them. You probably can't go wrong booking with any of the highly regarded tour operators in St. Petersburg.

Alla Tours has a toll free number to call for information: 1-800-317-7060

Perhaps calling will alleviate some of your concerns as a first time cruiser - we were all first timers at one time. :)

St. Petersburg - book a private tour for the 8 of you. It is worth it.

There are a number of reputable St. Petersburg based tour companies. Any of them will do a customized tour for you. If you haven't booked yet, start contacting some and see what they will be able to set up for you, pick the one you like the best.

Book private tours for every port. We were also a family of 8 for our Baltic cruise (2 grandparents, 2 parents, 4 kids ages 9-15) With that many people it is significantly cost effective to get fully private tours. You'll have maximum flexibility both in tailoring tours to fit your group, and on the ground (if someone needs a potty stop, or just 30 minutes to sit and enjoy the scenery with some coffee and ice cream.)

We used Tripadvisor and went with companies with many reviews, who were prompt in communication with us. It worked out wonderfully. For the cruise, I brought a sheet with every contact name, number, and email for every port just in case, but only needed it once when our guide in Tallinn was delayed in traffic.

We used TJ Tours for SPB and had an exhausting but wonderful day, hitting all the highlights and ending with dinner in a "homestyle" Russian restaurant. We did a food walking tour in Tallinn. Our guide there was amazing, and we had a great day of interesting food, wonderful history, and first hand experiences of both the soviet occupation and liberation.

We did two ship excursions since I was hedging our bets prior to the cruise. We unanimously decided the private tours were significantly better and we should have gone private everywhere.

Please try to schedule down time, or don't plan a full day at one of the ports, you will be exhausted! This is a pretty intense cruise and trying to do it all/see it all will just leave you feeling you rushed through the cruise.

If you do book private tours you can schedule around the youngster's attention span, if they are getting antsy or tired you can return to the ship or move on to a different attraction rather quickly and avoid meltdowns.

We took our 3 year old on this cruise two years ago. A private tour in St. Petersburg was worth every penny, as we were able to skip through the lesser rooms in Catherine's Palace and maneuver around larger groups, and skip to the front of the line at every attraction and customize the itinerary to our son's interests. Since we were able to stop and feed him whenever he got whiney or overwhelmed, we actually made it through a huge swath in SPB and completed all of the Comfort tour (with the subway and canal added on since he loved those things). I didn't find out about this operator ahead of time, but they have been recommended in this forum before for families: http://www.bestguides-spb.com/children-page.html

All of the other cities (except possibly Berlin) were easily done on our own, since public transportation is excellent. We didn't visit Berlin since we were worried about how our 3 year old would handle the trip and time change, and instead visited the Mollie Steam train, which he loved. My signature below includes a lot of information for children on this cruise. Also, my son loved the kids club on the Star and never wanted to leave.

Tallinn can be done very easily on your own, but you will want to conserve your energy since this is the day before St. Petersburg. Try to hire a cab or pedicab to take you to the top of Toompea Hill, and walk down or take a pedicab tour of the city. There is also a tourist train that your son will love, and takes you around the charming streets. If you sit in the very back, you can get some great pictures.

1. A guided tour of St. Petersburg is a must. Because you are traveling with a 6-year-old, I highly recommend a private tour just for your family. If you search these threads, you can find recommendations for tour groups that are recommended by those who traveled with young children.

2. Doing a guided tour of Tallinn is not necessary and it would be expensive for a group of 8. I suggest you get a copy of Rick Steves' Northern European Cruiseports which has an excellent self -guided walking tour of Tallinn (and other Baltic ports as well). This would give you the flexibility of spending as much or as little time in Tallinn as you can manage with a 6-year-old.

3. What are you planning for your stop in Warnemuende? Do you want to stay there, go to Berlin or go somewhere else like Schwerin or Luebeck? I think a tour to Berlin would be a VERY long day for a 6-year-old. I'd look to going to the beach at Warnemuende or taking the train to Schwerin or Luebeck--both of which are very nice towns and are both much closer than Berlin. (We went to Luebeck during our stop in Kiel and REALLY liked it.)

...This is our first time on a cruise...Should we do a cruise or private tour?

I think this needs to be your first decision and then you can plan accordingly. As first time cruisers, the entire process will be unfamiliar to you and there are a lot of moving parts. So a cruise excursion can greatly simplify the vacation process for you. I have been on several good cruise excursions. When I don't have time to properly plan myself or I really want to place all risk on the cruise line (and not on me!) then I pick a cruise excursion. But when I do, I know in advance that I will be on a large bus with 45-50 other people and that means the possibility of delays due to people that I cannot control. You also will not get as much 1-on-1 attention on the tour itself. BUT... the ship will wait for your entire bus if there were a delay in returning to the ship. Low risk.

On my first cruise, which was a 13 night Mediterranean cruise with many stops, I used a ship excursion at every port. I was not at all disappointed with the results. It was my first time in Europe. It was amazing and I didn't have to plan much.

However, since then, I have evolved as a traveler and am fully comfortable now doing the research and booking of my own shore excursions in most ports. I will sometimes use a 3rd party company if there is a well known one out there and the price is good. On occasion, I will even still use a ship excursion if it simplifies my life -- even at a higher price.

Most on this board will seem to direct you to do-it-yourself or via non-ship tours of some sort. That's generally what I do now. But I would also suggest it might NOT be what is right for you as first time cruisers with the demographics you have in your group. Only you can decide. If going on your own will stress you out, then don't do it.

In the end, examine each port on its own and decide what to do in that port. Your final choices might actually be a mixture of approaches.

Enjoy cruising and your vacation!

We are a family of 8 and will be taking the Norwegian Star Cruise this August. This is our first time on a cruise and there are three generations. Two folks who are 60 as well as a 6 year old child.

 

While looking at the day excursion options, I have been a little overwhelmed and am hoping to get some advice. Should we do a cruise or private tour?

 

Berlin (Warnemunde) - same day excursion

Tallin, Estonia - same day excursion

St. Petersburg - two days excursion

 

Looking for specific recommendations for operators.

 

Thanks in advance!

First of all welcome to Cruise Critic and the great world of cruising. Your choice of first cruise is a great one. cruising the Baltics was like a dream come true, you will simply love it.

We also used NCL when we cruised, though on the Jewel out of Dover. There is one thing that many first time cruisers share is that they are afraid if they go off the ship on their own, like a private tour, they might miss the ship. Let me reassure you that ALL the private tour companies in St Petersburg have great reputations and as long as I have been on these boards, well over 6 years, I have never heard of anyone even coming close to missing their ship. Any company that allowed that to happen, wouldn't be in business very much longer.

Depending upon how adventurous you or your family) are, most of the ports you will visit can be done on your own (DIY), very easily, and if you have any questions we have posters from basically every city you visit that will answer all your questions and give advice to you. We ALL have been there and we are still here to help others, so you would never go out alone.

When we toured we used SPB Tours. https://www.spb-tours.com/. As of last week the #1 rated tour company in St Petersburg on Trip Advisor. Many here have used them, as well as many of the other well know companies in St Petersburg. You can't go wrong if you stay with any of the 5-6 major players there. But we can't tell you which one to choose. You would need to contact a few of them and see who YOU fell most comfortable with. Depending on how you want to see St Petersburg, they offer fast paced tour and slower paced one. Obviously you wont wee as much with the slower paced ones, but that is a choice you have to make. They all, also, so tours in the other ports and the more tours you book, the cheaper the price, but that's your decision.

Read thru some of these pages and you will find a wealth of info and if you have any questions we are all here to help.

Just one piece of advice, no matter how much the cruise line wants you to do a ship's tour, DON'T. Do a private tour and you will save a huge amount of money and you will love it much more. That is the only way to see St Petersburg.

Cheers

Len

Thank you everyone for the insightful guidance!

We are a family of 8 and will be taking the Norwegian Star Cruise this August. This is our first time on a cruise and there are three generations. Two folks who are 60 as well as a 6 year old child.

 

While looking at the day excursion options, I have been a little overwhelmed and am hoping to get some advice. Should we do a cruise or private tour?

 

Berlin (Warnemunde) - same day excursion

Tallin, Estonia - same day excursion

St. Petersburg - two days excursion

 

Looking for specific recommendations for operators.

 

Thanks in advance!

Always book a private tour. Only then will you have the flexibility you want and need with a multi-generational group. Plus, YOU are in charge of what you do and how long you do it. :D

We are a family of 8 and will be taking the Norwegian Star Cruise this August. This is our first time on a cruise and there are three generations. Two folks who are 60 as well as a 6 year old child.

Have fun planning your excursions....private is the only way to go, but you must research the guides on CC or TripAdvisor.

Also look for your cruise roll call under the NCL CC roll section. You can "meet" other passengers on your cruise before you sail.

We are doing our first Baltic cruise in early August and I have been busy trying to get my right knee ready to walk in Tallinn and all the other ports!

Happy cruising and save travels