tidygirl

We have cruised many times on Royal and twice on NCL. This year we did the Oasis (without young adult kids) and the Getaway - the Baltics with kids.

We only eat at the buffets and both are pretty comparable this time NCL maybe a tad better!

We enjoyed both ships very much!

For us the entertainment has went downhill in the last 10 yrs or so on NCL, Carnival and RCL. They used to have variety, family friendly shows and now it's basically music shows and Broadway type shows which get old for 7-9 nights! One thing they all should go back to.

The one thing I didn't like on the Getaway was they didn't have an inside pool area, unless you paid $200 pp to use the Haven! For the Baltics that was bad since it was cold!

We were in St Petersburg end of May on Norwegian. They didn't question about who we had our tour through (it was private) and it took us 45 mins to get through customs the first day. Second day breezed right through!

We did the Baltic cruise May 25th used public transportation in Denmark to get to the airport (8 of us were travelling together) if need more exact details let me know.

Russia- Used Best Guides for 2 day tour Very happy with them and they were better priced.

Also it took us 45 minutes the 1st day to get through immigrations! Second day breezed right through.

We could have used Best Guides for Wandemunde to go into Berlin for around $125 pp for all day, but we were travelling with a 9 month old and being in a carseat for 6 hrs would have been torture for her.

I would have been nervous trying the public trains for that big distance!

All ports besides Russia we did on our own.

We had a 2 o'clock flight and had over 3 hours wait but would not risk a 10 o'clock flight! Don't most flights require you to be 2 hrs before hand and 3 international?

We were on the May 25th sailing ,but we're fortunate to have good weather. Most of the time we do sail for ports, though it is nice to have a good ship to come home to! I definitely think the Getaway isn't a good ship for colder climates unless they would make an indoor pool and jacuzzi available for ALL cruisers! About froze in the jacuzzi one night we braved it.:eek:

We used Best Guides the end of May. Much cheaper than ship excursions and with us being a small group our guide got us around much quicker and catered to what we were interested in! Very happy with their services!

I couldn't;t find a price on his website for private tours. Do you know what he charges? We just want to do the chocolate factory, cable cars and visit a school for donations.

Sorry we have been out of country so just catching up.

I believe it was $51 pp

Average temperature for us was 50s but a couple days it did get a little warmer. Sea days got quite windy and chilly. We were fortunate with weather and only had some rain part of the day in Helsinki.

We didn't see too many kids.

We were on the same cruise.

Yes there was a Russian show and they did singing , dancing and an act with a dummy.

Gothenburg was a nightmare! The port did provide a free shuttle to the port gate, but the workers kept sending us back and forth between different buses not knowing where it was. We ended up at the gate where there is a city bus stop but was told that was only for workers in the port. Not sure if that was true or not,but a bus did let a group of us on his city bus and took us to a different stop. It took 1 1/2 hrs to get to the city center. Our goal was to go to the Archipelago's and by the time we got to one we had a whole hour!:eek:. In 2018 they are supposed to have a new port in the city center which would make it much better.

We used Best Guides and was pleased with their services.

Debating doing this cruise end of September but not sure if the weather will be warm enough for water activities ? As we are an active early 50 yr old couple can we find other stuff to do to keep busy?

We also would be driving from western Pa and wondered if its real difficult to get to the port,? Where did you park? Cost?

My 2 cents. Hubby and I did Oasis last fall, Conquest in March and just of the Getaway yesterday on the Baltic cruise. Our family of 8 were all impressed with the Getaway its definitely more on the line of the Oasis. Ate at the buffet for all meals on the ship. We thought it was very good and afraid the scales will prove it!

Entertainment - you do need to reserve the Million Dollar Quartet, and Burn the floor, also there was a comedy show we missed as I didn't know we could reserve it. I'm not sure if it was because we were in the Baltic but the 1 sea day the family was bored and at night with repeat shows we had a couple boring evenings.

The rope course, water slides were nice but only saw 1 pool for ALL the people to use and 6 jacuzzis so that may be a big pain in the Caribbean.

The Conquest in my opinion doesn't compare! We went on that for different ports and cheaper in price but buffet at dinner was VERY limited and was disappointing. Hubby doesn't even want me to check Carnival any more even if its cheaper!

I guess you and the wife will have to decide whether the ship or ports are more important.

Just curious if you're flying from Toronto to Florida have you checked the prices from Buffalo? A lady told me it can be expensive flying from Toronto.

Just off the getaway and I saw french and thousand island.

We are flying to Iceland tomorrow and will be renting a 9 seater van for 3 days. Cost will be $1000. They seem to have decent reviews so we will see? Remember to take pictures and that food is supposed to be expensive so we may have too go hungry till the cruise.

We are actually on our way to NYC flying tomorrow to Iceland then on to Denmark Wed. Doing the Baltic Cruise. We are not too picky so not sure we could give you good answers, but you can see if I have the answers after that.

I did hear on the news about a possible ban, just not sure when it will come into effect or when? We will be travelling to Iceland and on to Denmark and am wondering whether to take my tablet?

I can survive without it, but it makes it easier for me to journal my trip details directly onto my tablet than writing it and then doing it all again when I get home.

I did see we could leave luggage at the station but as I'm paying for 7 people it'll cost me around $70-80 USD and we won't be leaving it but for a few hours.i figured if we could leave it at the port we could save the money and the hassle of checking it in at the station.

Does anyone know the earliest you can drop off luggage if we wanted to bring ours early and go back into town to sightsee?

Does anyone know the earliest we could drop our luggage off if we wanted to drop off and go back into town to sightsee?

We will be on a Baltic cruise end of May and I plan to wear whatever I wear during the day also at night. I do plan on bringing a couple of dress up outfits for pics, but if i bring a different outfit for 9 nights I'll really be overpacked!

We have cruised with Norwegian 1 time and are booked on the Getaway ( the Baltic) the end of May.

We have been on Royal and Carnival. I'd rate Norwegian right under Royal I would say the food including the buffet was pretty comparable (my young adult son gained 12# mostly from the pretzel bread:eek:) We thought the shows were decent too.

I chose Norwegian for our next trip as 3/4 guest cruise free so our 2 adult children will stay with us and the grandbaby with our daughter and her hubby.

They only had to pay the daily service charge and port fees saving me a boat load of money!

My husband always thoroughly checks the safe. But discovered a place he didn't realize was in there stuff could get lodged into ,thus discovering the passport. So Im sure other things can get lost in there too.

We actually found someone's passport in the safe this past Saturday, I did look on Facebook to see if I could personally get their passport to him. Since the last time he had posted was 6 years ago I left it at the desk.

I wonder how the man got through customs?

We were on the Conquest leaving Sun. March 26th headed to Grand Turk and the Seas were rough! It didn't help that we were as far forward as we could be. I didn't throw up but didn't feel well all day (1st time in 15 cruises! )

Many people were sick that day.

So if you were sailing then it wasn't the ship!

True!

When you are healthy "or seem to be" and paying for 4 to 6 people $500- 700 is alot of money! But with aging parents and things you don't expect the peace of mind is worth it!

Just off the Conquest we didn't mind it . Negatives buffet at night lacking in selection, nightly shows all music or dance which get boring for us, would prefer some variety shows!

Not sure if you are talking Royal Caribbean Freedom?

Definitely more activities if you like rock walls, flowrider and better shows, buffet at night more options.

We chose the Conquest this time for the cost and the ports as we cruise for the ports most of the time not the ship!