October Ms.

As you can read everyone has their own opinion on whether its worth it or not. We were on a Baltic Cruise two years ago and faced with the same question. As someone else pointed out - do you think you will have the opportunity or plan to take a longer trip to visit Berlin in the near future? I did not see that in my future plans any time soon - so we booked with several others a private tour with SPB and I was ready for a long miserable bus trip - but it was anything but. We enjoyed the trip and am so glad we did it. We got a great overview of Berlin, stopped at the usual spots - Berlin Wall, Checkpoint Charlie, and other notable places. We had a great lunch with a beer I still remember being the best I have ever had at restaurant that still had bullet holes, etc from the War. I am so glad we took the chance. Would I I like to go back for several days - of course. But the choice of a long bus ride for the overview vs. not seeing it maybe ever - do it! I however would not book through the ship - but I feel that way about all tours. Enjoy!

Funny - that's why I thought to respond here. My recommendation would be to book this through the ship. We were on a Celebrity cruise, and decided it was worth it for us. Little did we know it was Mercedes Benz Fashion Week in Berlin, accompanied by a great deal of street construction. The back-ups and delays were horrendous, and we ended up getting back to the ship almost 3 hours late! A few of the private tour groups were thrilled that we were so late because it saved their late return situations. As soon as our large Celebrity group was safely onboard, the ship set sail and the dining room served us a held-over dinner. We were lucky.

Yes, I realized that was what happened, but was trying to not point fingers by simply pointing out the the timestamp was later (therefore, it wasn't the original post). :o I get tired of all the finger pointing and contention on CC so I try to be a good online citizen who doesn't stir up trouble when it's so easy not to! :D It takes so very little to get a few vocal people all riled up!

Certainly, I didn't post to "point fingers", but I had been reading along in the thread and saw the confusion over the flow of the posts and comments. I, too, was trying to be "a good online citizen" by clarifying the situation. My post was not meant to be contentious in any way. Sorry if it was construed in that manner.

Also, the link the PP provided has a later time stamp than this one. Weird if it actually was a previous post...

 

Like you, I thought the PP was just trying to be helpful.

Q_C: The post with the later timestamp was actually the mepamgo (OP) repost to the P&O thread at the request of Mysticalmother. Langley Cruisers found the repost on the P&O thread, thinking it was OP's "lost" original, which it was not. Others then responded to Langley Cruisers, not realizing that was the repost, rather than the lost one. That's why the P&O post has later timestamp...it was not the one mepamgo was looking for.

Here is the exchange that led to the reposting:

Oh please, mepamgo, do come over to the P &O boards and repeat this post

MysticalMother. I will copy this there for you. I haven't cruise with them but will be willing to spread the message. Keep the faith. It's all good if you look at it this way.

Whew! Hope that clarifies. :)

We were in Newport for dinner last evening and watched QM2 sailing out of the harbor shortly before sunset...beautiful.

The Heptones

Esso Steel Band