olivercat

Are you going to be in Saint Petersburg for one day or two? I realize that what is being discussed is a Princess excursion but I would like to make a strong recommendation for a private, small group excursion ( and so will many others). When my husband and I did the Baltic Heritage cruise on the Crown Princess in 2017, we did the two-day tour with SPB, but added an evening package at the end of the first day, giving us a private driver for 3 hours. We chose to go to the Faberge museum and then for a walk on Nevsky Prospekt, but we were free to choose what we did. We were than taken back to the ship, arriving back around 9:30 PM. We even managed to have dinner in one of the MDR because they had extended hours and open seating that evening.

On Magdalena Island there is a wide gravel/dirt path to walk on, marked off with stakes and string to prevent you from wandering off the path. Some of the penguins burrows are literally inches away from the path, so you are very close to them. As well, the penguins walk where they choose so some do venture onto the path. You will see thousands of penguins on this excursion! The gray, fluffy babies are the cutest!

We were on a Baltic Heritage cruise on the Crown Princess in July 2017 and had Traditional Dining, late seating at a table for 10. One couple had chosen not to bring formal wear and did not join us on the formal nights. My husband wore a dark suit but the other men wore full formal dress with either a black or white tuxedo jacket. My impression is that passengers on European itineraries, particularly those originating in Southampton, do dress up more for formal nights than on other itineraries.

We also did this cruise in July. I recommend consulting the Ports of Call boards, especially to learn about experiences with various private tour companies. The only port for which we used a formal packaged tour was Saint-Petersburg: we did the SPB 2-day Deluxe Tour which was intense, but fantastic and great value compared to what was offered by Princess. Both SPB and Alla, another highly rated company, offer discounts to Cruise Critic members/groups: check your Roll Call to see if someone has already formed a group. We also used the Princess transport to Gdansk with exploration on our own, because of the distance involved and the relatively short time in port. The distance/timing factor would definitely come into play if you plan to go to Berlin from Warmemunde- not sure I would rely on public transsport although you can read about people taking the train.

When planning for the other ports, I started off by reading the descriptions of the Princess tours to see what they prioritized, then I read the pertinent chapters in the Rick Steves book, augmented by information on the Web from the different cities' tourist bureaux. Copenhagen, Stockholm and Helsinki are quite big cities and you have to make choices because you can't see all of them in one day. They are also very walkable, have great (but not cheap) public transit and bike-share systems.

We thoroughly enjoyed this cruise, including the days at sea, the ones at the beginning giving us time to finalize our preparations for the ports later on, and the ones at the end giving us a chance to rest and relax on the way back to Southampton.

I would also agree with the suggestion of adding some time at the beginning or end to spend in London, or elsewhere in the UK. We flew in on the morning of the embarkation day and took the National Express bus from Heathrow to Southampton (long but inexpensive and pretty painless), but stayed for an additional week in England at the end of the cruise (we called it the "vacation from our vacation"). Enjoy your planning!

My husband and I took part in the Chef's Table on the Crown Princess in July. We boarded a bit before 1 PM and I called the DINE line immediately, just before going to lunch in the MDR. I think they must have held two dinners as we were at least 18 people at the briefing with the Maitre d'Hôtel on the first sea day, and there were only 10 of our dinner on the second sea day. The cost was $95, or $75 if you did not drink wine. It was an experience I'd always wanted to try, and it was spectacular, but the quantity of food was so excessive that I'm not sure I would want to do it again. What I would sign up for would be another galley tour with champagne and hors d'oeuvres, plus the meeting with the Executive Chef. The five items we were served in the galley were all about the average size of a regular menu appetizer so I was already full before we arrived in the dining room...and were served multiple other courses.

My husband and I were on the Crown Baltic Heritage cruise July 8-22 and had Traditional dining in Botticelli, at a table for 10. As time went on, we all made more and more requests to "customize" our meals- it actually became a source of humour between us and our wait staff, but never a problem. That being said, on the final formal night, three of the men wanted to have both lobster tails and Beef Wellington, and our waitress explained that the galley would only let her put in the orders sequentially; she couldn't serve more than 10 main courses for the 10 of us at one time. We were having a festive evening, and were in no hurry, and it was absolutely not a bother for us to wait while the men had their lobster before we all moved on to our main courses. The only time I remember receiving more than one dish at a time was on the final evening when my husband and I chose desserts from the Always Available menu, which we wanted more than the Baked Alaska- but we were served the Baked Alaska as well. I felt a bit guilty about leaving a good part of each dessert (the cheesecake wasn't nearly as good as I remembered) but it wasn't the first time I didn't "clean my plate" - and that certainly wasn't a pre-requisite to being served your next course.