heliwoman

For the canal tour, yes it must have been around 8 on Friday. Was there a guy with glasses running to each bridge with a goofy grin?

Yes - there was a guy. Daria, our guide, said that most of the tour groups do not like him and his cohorts as people become focused on them and not the sights. Plus they show up at the end of the cruise looking for money for their "performance". Luckily for us, he had to stop to stretch so we were already on our vehicle going to the Hermitage when he showed up.

I'd post a picture but I don't have the pics on a website :(

My family was on this cruise as well. I would just add a couple of things:

1) it was HOT. Everyone in our group had packed for cooler weather and ended up buying more clothes and attempting to use the laundry service. My brother's family had horrible service with laundry - they kept forgetting to pick up the bag and then then wouldn't return it until after 6. The funny thing is that we all choose the Baltics because of the cooler weather. And hot would be ok if there was a/c or plenty of fans to keep you cool but since this is not normal temperatures most places didn't have them.

2) For disembartation in STP: knowing of the sign up, I went to the box office at 12:15 on embarkation day and signed up all 5 families. It turns out I really didn't need to do this as they don't check your id against the groups. Just show up on deck 6 by O'Sheeans and then when they call for group A & B, just enter the theatre. All of that stress of making sure we were in group A for nothing.

3) KittyCat - I wonder if we were on the same canal tour in STP? We were on around 8 am on Friday. Also, what time were you at Stolle on Thursday? We went there too after Catherine's place. We also did Escape the Big Top - my family thought it was going to be easy peasy and lame but they couldn't figure it out - hah.

I wonder if we're in each other's background pictures on the grounds? :)

Just got back from the Breakaway and we did TJ Travels for STP. We had 21 people in our family and they were fantastic. The vehicle was a mini bus - plenty of room for everyone. The kids were ecstatic as there was WIFI on the bus. The tour guide, Daria, was wonderful. I highly recommend her - easy to understand; willing to stop and go were we wanted (ie more time at Peteroff and the water fountains). Bottom line: do a private tour.

So as an FYI for those considering this: if your stop is on a Monday, this tour DOES include inside access to Schwerin Castle, even though it is closed to the public. It was actually quite manageable to explore then b/c the grounds were not crowded nor the inside (which was good given how out it was).

There's been a few posted. You might want to search a few pages back or do a search on breakaway.

Thanks for all of the info everyone. The one member of the group decided on a flat dollar rate. I agreed to it so as not start off the trip on the wrong foot but plan on giving additional, especially if the service is as good as I've read.

We tipped 10% to our guide and 5% to our driver - that was the recommended amount so that is what we tipped.

That is what was suggested to us as well and I don't have a problem with that. As I mentioned, one member of my group is convinced that it's too much money to be giving as a tip to either driver or guide since the total cost of the tour is substantial (due to the # of people). Just curious what others have done.

Question for those who have done private tours in St. Petersburg: Did you tip the guide and driver? and if you did, what % did you tip? We are doing a private tour for 21 of us so the total cost is not inexpensive (but still FAR less than doing a ship's excursion). I thought that giving the guide 10% and the driver 5% was reasonable but one member of the group is saying that is way too much money to give, given how little people make in that region. Thoughts?

I checked online for my cruise on Dec. 21, 2018 on the Star and the internet packages is greyed out showing 0. Is this something that will show up once final payment is complete (which is next month)?

Wonder this same thing so I called and was told 60 days prior to departure do the internet packages show up. And sure enough it did.

Thanks for sharing that. I find it interesting that the NCL rep who the cruise was booked at told us that we had to have the waiver signed. In the end it doesn't matter much as our dd doesn't like either much. Of course she could prove us wrong on the boat - lol.

You got bad info. That's not true.

Interesting. So you're saying she can walk up to any bar and order a drink?

Waivers are not required for 18 and above on European cruises.

We're sailing on the Baltics in 2 weeks and was told that if our 19 yo wanted to drink we had to sign a waiver for just beer & wine. She doesn't like either of those so it didn't matter so we went with the pop package for her.

Thanks for sharing. Just curious: was the ropes course open much?

Thanks for sharing! My family & I will be on this ship in less than 2 weeks. Just curious about the disembarkation (spelling is off I know) in St Petersburg. I know you were with an NCL tour so were you able to just walk off the ship and meet the group outside of immigration? or did you all have to meet up inside?

Sunday was not the sea day but our day in Germany which was day 2. After a 13 hour trip to Berlin, we were just tired and so tried first thing in the morning to book. I think the notice to book came with the daily left each evening. If I were you, I would try to book it earlier. They have to have it up and ready when they distribute the info to cabin. You might get lucky and get a jump on every one else.

Thanks! I plan to do this when we get on the boat. I've read elsewhere that you can also sign up via the kiosks and will try that when we get on board.

On our cruise, they opened reservations for the groups on Sunday and we were in SPB On Wed and Thursday. We waited til Mon morning to reserve and ended up in group E and didn’t get to meet our guide until 10:30.

Was Sunday your sea day? so day 3?

Thanks for responding so quickly. Another question for you regarding STP: from other posts it looks like they "tell" you about the group sign up via the dailies on day 3 or 4. Do you think that you could have signed up for this on day 1 if you had known about it?

Thanks for the review. I have a question regarding getting off the ship in STP. Did you HAVE to go through the theater to exit the ship to immigration? And how strict were they in checking that you were entering during your assigned group time? Meaning, if you were assigned group D, did they check your id when entering or could you have gone in during group B? Thanks!

Does anyone know or recall the ages for this? We have a large group starting as young as 4. Not sure that she would want to be there but she is good at puzzles..

Thank you for sending. In looking through this I do have a question: was there an "escape" room on the Breakaway? I've read on other threads that there is one but I don't see anything mentioned in the dailies. Do you recall if there is?

Please disregard - I found it. Of course in my attempt to delete the original post I somehow "reported" it to the board. LOL

ForestG - thanks for the quick reply. I missed it on the dailies as it was not highlighted as a "special" event. Just buried in the list of activities for the day. Thank goodness for these boards as I now know to sign up for it up on embarking.

Thanks for your quick posting. Couple of questions:

Regarding getting off the ship in STP - how diligently were they checking that you went through the theater to disembark? if they were diligent did they also check to see that you were registered for group A, B or C? I've heard mixed reviews on this process. Tempted to just walk off as we have a private tour.

How did the transfer to Stockholm go? Were you eligible for the free transport? Any issues with the train?

Lastly do you know if there's an "escape" room on this ship?

Thanks!

Thank you for sending. In looking through this I do have a question: was there an "escape" room on the Breakaway? I've read on other threads that there is one but I don't see anything mentioned in the dailies. Do you recall if there is?

Thank you so much for your prompt response! Much appreciated.

A couple more questions:

1) you wouldn't happen to know where in the airport I can purchase the CPH card do you? Coming in on SAS and it looks like it normally arrives at Gate 3, C28 - C33.

2) when you say airport train (the airport train (Øresundstog towards the airport or Sweden)) are you referring to the S line? Looking at my map I see the M2 line and then it just says S. About how much would it be per person on this? Trying to figure out the best time to start the CPH card or if I should get the 72 hour one.

So looking forward to this trip.

And I was close on the spelling. :D