norhel

Thanks for your comments.

We've been to Stockholm and Copenhagen many times before, so there were gonna use our card.

I'm probably also gonna use my card as much as possible at the rest of the places and have a few euro's in cash.

Hey everyone.

Just wondering how common it is to pay by credit card in Warnemunde, Tallinn, Helsinki and St. Petersburg?

I'm going on a cruise there later this year, and I'm looking into if I need to bring any cash or not? I usually only buy some chocolate in the ports.

Thanks

Mine gives me the option to Pay In Full and Pay Other Amount. Pay In Full is selected by default, you simply have to change the selection.

For me that is in Norway, I don't have that option. Sice the OP is ftom Toronto, I suspect different rules apply.

Double post.

I am trying to make a partial payment for our 2018 .... the online payment seems to only give me the option to pay in full.

 

Is there a way around this?

 

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Try calling them. I have done that to pay now and then

Hi Norhel, did you find out more? We are also departing on a cruise from Copenhagen in august and were planning on parking our car at the port.

 

Thanks.

I don't ask both the port authority and the company that's responsible for the development in the area if the car park is crowded and safe. And it's apparently camera surveillance there, usually not crowded and usually safe to park there. And there had been no incidents there in 2016. But they couldn't guarantee anything as one of them said.

Thanks for your comments everyone.

Hey everyone.

Just a few questions. I've looked at https://www.ncl.com/no/en/about-us/terms-conditions so I know that we can cancel up to 31 days and only loose the deposit if we really have to cancel our cruise next year.

But I was wondering, if we do pay out booking partially pay (as is more than the deposit) for the cruise now, and the rest a couple of months before the cruise, what's NCL's policy if there for example is a bigger price drop that we want use? I've think I've seen someplace that if the booking is fully paid NCL don't can't do anything about price drops? Or do they not honor price drops?

Thanks.

We were all done about 15 minutes after the posted arrival time.

 

We were quite near the front of the queue though. I'd imagine it could be longer if you arrived later.

 

Obviously, if you are on a tour then you can only leave when the last person has arrived. I'd expect that to take a while.

Not too bad for you then.

I think we just have to take things as it happens.

There were lots of people round us on the lines for immigration.

Can I ask how long the lines was? How long did you wait?

You have plenty of time before your cruise, I would suggest at least having a look at what the private companies in St Petersburg offer you. All of the major companies will arrange the Russian visa for you as part of the price of the tour (and that price will likely be much lower than what NCL is asking). The cruise lines try very hard to make you believe that they are the only ones that can get a visa for you, but that is completely false.

 

One thing that the ship does have control over, however, is who gets off the ship first in St Petersburg, and they understandably give priority to people who have bought their tours. So that's one advantage of sticking with the ship's excursions, and for a ship as large as the Getaway, it could mean that the ship's tours get underway an hour or more before everyone on independent tours finally gets off the ship. On the other hand, the independent tour operators are well aware of this, and they are good at working around it. (Keep in mind that the ship overnights in St Petersburg, and many tours are spread over both days, so that leaves plenty of room for flexibility.)

We don't want to deal with private tour operators.

For us, that's not something to discuss, to be honest.

I am 100% sure that there are some good benefits to use private companies.

You'd rather spend more money to be in a larger group and spend more time in line?

 

 

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We don't have any problems by being in a bus group, and with all the ships tours we've taken in the years we've been cruising, we haven't had any problems with waiting in line.

There's a lot of info in my signature line, plus the Baltic board is really active and knowledgable if you have any questions that haven't been answered here. One thing to consider - you get priority disembarkation in St. Petersburg if you stay in a suite (if you can afford it that might save you time on the first day in long custom lines). The private tours are much less expensive than the ship tours, and you can avoid the crowds. We booked a private tour for just our family, and it was a wonderful experience. There are a number of very well respected tour companies that have been established for many years, and you will be safe booking with them (Alla, SPB and others). We were waived right past the lines of cruise ship passengers at all the major museums. There is a thread on the Baltic board about difficulties and long lines at Catherine's Palace in 2016 (we went during a previous year so I can't comment). The smaller tours were able to bypass the lines.

 

Also, please note that Stockholm is amazing, but there will be a ton of people trying to disembark at the earliest possible time. This makes it a bit difficult to get breakfast, since the buffet will be really crowded (or it was on the Star; maybe the larger ships can handle this better). If you can, consider disembarking as early as possible and going straight to Vasa (the HOHO boats will take you directly there.) Vasa limits the number of visitors to protect the ship, so if you get there later in the morning you might have to wait outside until people leave. It was empty first thing in the morning, and got crowded fast. People on the baltic board reported that it is empty again late in the afternoon (I don't personally have any experience with this, but did find that to be the case with NYC museums.)

 

Tallin is fabulous, and walking around the old town is amazing. Lennusadam Seaplane Harbour was surprisingly good and had really interesting hands on military exhibits, including a plane simulation you could fly.

 

It's a wonderful itinerary and a great trip!

Thanks for the tip. I'll have a look at your reviews.

We have been to Stockholm many times before, so we won't stress that much to get off. At least we won't make any big plans there.

Regarding St. Petersburg, we'll stick to the ships tours. We like that better.

We found a couple of tours through NCL that seems to fit us.

Thanks for the input everyone.

At the moment I think we'll stick to the ships tour.

http://www.cmport.com/business2012/cruise-ships-44/passenger-information

 

I'm not sure if the above link will help, as it mentions only parking at the Freeport dock location, which may be a ways from Oceankaj. However, if nothing else, there is a phone number given, so perhaps you can call and ask them some question.

 

(This was from the cmport.com website, which also shows where each cruise ship is assigned to dock.)

Thanks for the link. It's a good though.

I did look at a map now, and it's 7 minutes between those two.

I did send an email to the port authority and Visit Copenhagen on Thursday with the same question, but I haven't got answers yet.

Thanks for the reply.

Appreciate it.

Just a another quick question.

When we booked, we got the ultimate drink package included.

I see that soda and beers is included in that package, but non-alcoholic daiquiri's aren't mention. I assume that non-alcoholic also is included in that package?

Hey everyone. :)

Just looking to get some feedback.

A couple of days back we booked for the Norwegian Getaway to the Baltic Capitals in September next year. I've been doing som research online and on CC, and the ships looks nice. I just have a few questions that I hope someone can answer.

First off all, what do you people think of the ship and the itinerary (Warnemunde, Tallin, St. Petersburg, Helsinki and Stockholm. On and off in Copenhagen.) We'we been to Copenhagen and Stockholm many times before, so we are familiar there, and one time at Warnemunde. What do people think of Tallin, St. Petersburg and Helsinki?

We've booked tours through NCL in St. Petersburg, and my understanding is that as long as we have booked tours through them, visas for Russia is included in the tour? Am I understanding that correct?

Have anyone parked their car near the Oceankaj port in Copenhagen?

I see that there is a public car par there. We are planning to drive down to Copenhagen from Norway.

And is it so that there is a bowling alley in O'Sheehans?

And that it's no more Carlo's Bakery on board?

Thanks in advance for the help :)

Hello everyone.

We are going on a cruise from Copenhagen in September next year, and are planning to drive down to Copenhagen and park our car near the port. As it looks like now, the ship is gonna dock at Oceankaj. I've seen that there is a public car park around 200 meters from the terminal. Just wondering if anyone has any experience parking there when going on a cruise? Is it a safe place to park? Or do people have any other recommendations for parking our car?

The cruise is for 10 days.

Thanks.

Your friends and family can call (888) 724-7447 or (321) 953-9003 from outside US.

It cost 7.95 USD per minute for them to call, in addition to any long distance fees.

Nice report so far :-)

7) A Weird Question: Should we pack a small stapler into our bag so we can staple our luggage tags onto our bags once we get them in baggage claim? I would staple them before but I am worried that they would get lost or ripped off in transit.

You could also get luggage tags when you check in at the port.

You could not use your device as a WiFi hotspot because your device would not be getting internet from cellular.

I have a Samsung Galaxy S4, and I did manage to use my phone as a hotspot.

I did have WiFi on, and used bluetoot to give internet to my tablet (I did it just to test when I cancelled my sim card subscription for my tablet).

I'd be surprised if you couldn't. I've been able to use FB Messenger on all of our cruises, without VOOM.

Good to know. Thanx for the info.

I did in fact buy the Voom Surf for one device yeasterday. I thought it was a good offer with the 30% off and compared to the old package (1000 NOK with the new package vs 2000 NOK for the old package) and seeing that gold members usually get 10% off on bord.

Although no one has reported actual performance on the SURF (cheapest) package, it is likely you can use a texting app and many others that don't need a lot of speed. On a real Voom ship (only 6 as of now), even the SURF package speed is likely to be faster than on all of the non Voom equipped ships.

Thank you for your thoughts.

I did see somewhere that someone said that with the cheapest package you can't send a text through Facebook Messenger. Is that true or not?