To Berlin or not to Berlin?

We hired Karin H. via Tours By Locals

 

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I am currently in the process of hiring Karin H. from tours by locals....

It's a coincidence that I also see her recommend here. Good to know. :p

I had exactly the same query on Celebrity last year. Do we Don’t we. We did a walking tour with Friends of Dave through Warrnemunde and Wismark on our Celebrity stop. It rained all day and was extremely wet and flooding in Berlin so not a great option for those people. And a very long day travel as well. And this was in mid Summer!

Viking has made it even easier by using a train to Berlin. We used buses before and it was a long ride .

 

 

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A follow up- I wouldn’t miss it for the world- take one of the river cruises thru Berlin . Great entertainment and then in some a good meal .

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We aren’t going to Berlin (again) but are thinking about the Viking excursion the Schwerin Castle. Has anyone done that? What did you think of it? Can we do it on our own?

Does anyone recall or have the schedule from Viking for the trip to Berlin?  The included “Berlin Your Way” shows 6:30AM-6:30PM. 

Any my specifics regarding train schedules?  I’d just like to plan departure and arrival times to determine exactly how much time we have in the city.  I’m guessing we have maybe 4 hours, but I’d like to be a bit more precise. 

Thanks in advance. 

We hired a private tour quite which was great. But the traffic returning to the ship was well over the 3 hr. I would never hire privately with such a long return. We made it back to the ship in time but quite a worry. We did hire private in St. Petersburg as well. 

7 hours ago, CrookedRidges said:

Does anyone recall or have the schedule from Viking for the trip to Berlin?  The included “Berlin Your Way” shows 6:30AM-6:30PM. 

 

Any my specifics regarding train schedules?  I’d just like to plan departure and arrival times to determine exactly how much time we have in the city.  I’m guessing we have maybe 4 hours, but I’d like to be a bit more precise. 

 

Thanks in advance. 

 

 

It's 12 hours total.  3 hours each way, 1.5 hour panorama tour and then about 4.5 hr on your own.  Some did have guides meet them at the train station and then rejoined up for the trip back.  We left around 8 am and returned about 8 pm.  We had Chef's Table that evening and were told to just come by when we returned as 65 % of the ship was going to Berlin, they would adjust schedule accordingly.  If this is your one chance, go.  Our own your own time was lost so I would suggest finding a guide or a tour or going with Viking alternative.  Now I would suggest the trip with the lunch on the Spree.  4.5 hr is not a lot of time if you don't have your bearings and if they are constantly moving you, you are going to see destinations without the worry of having to shuffle around and then meet up with the group.  They do leave Berlin from a different station.    

Since we had never been to Berlin and were leery of trying to get around on our own, we splurged on the Viking "Historic Berlin" optional tour and loved it!  No worries about getting back to the ship on time, etc.  The tour guide was great and we saw lots of historic sites.  The included lunch was quite good.

We used TJ’s tour picked us up at dock in a small bus, they guarantee to get you back to ship on time or pay to get you to next port. We got a group together on our roll call and got a CC discount. It’s a long day just be prepared but we saw a lot in the 4.5 hours as our guide zipped us around.  We also used TJ for St Petersburg with group on the roll call and got a very reasonable 2 day mini bus tour.  If you are only going once, it’s worth it.

As others have said it is a long day - at least 12 hours 6 of which are spent on the train to Berlin (3 hrs. each way).  So with a lunch stop it is a short day in the city.  If you haven't been its worth going but I was disappointed as I had been to Berlin several years ago and felt the tour missed several of the key sights.  We had hoped to do a private tour but there were enough folks from our sailing who were interested so we had to do the Viking tour.

Thanks for the feedback.  I wanted to see specific times in order to make reservations while in Berlin for some sites.  I'm going to post this in case this helps someone else... We called Viking to get specifics on the excursion and here's what we were told yesterday.

Duration:- 12 hours

• Tour starts at 6:30 AM with a 5-minute walk to the train station.
• Train departs at approximately 6:45 AM.  
• The train transfer is approximately 3 hours. 
• Arrive in Berlin at approximately 10 AM.    Berlin Ostbahnhof (Koppenstrasse 3).
• Guests will have a 1 1/2 hour panoramic drive through Berlin. 
• The drop-off point is: Gendarmenmarkt.
• Free time for guests following drop-off is about 4 hours. 
• Pick-up location: At Berlin Gendarmenmarkt (Badstr 1-3) at approximately 3:30 PM.
• Transfer back to the train station and to the ship: approximately 2 1/2 hours. 
• Board ship: approximately 6:00 PM before sail away.

These times are different than when I went in 2017 and perhaps they have adjusted the schedule based on feedback.  We did not have any free time in Berlin and we had specific stops at the American war memorial museum, the Brandenburg Gate and Checkpoint Charlie.  We were very late getting back - close to 9 pm (delays based on the train having to pull over for other higher priority trains) but because there were four busloads of passengers on the train there was no problem with the ship waiting for us! 

2 hours ago, CrookedRidges said:

Thanks for the feedback.  I wanted to see specific times in order to make reservations while in Berlin for some sites.  I'm going to post this in case this helps someone else... We called Viking to get specifics on the excursion and here's what we were told yesterday.

 

Duration:- 12 hours

• Tour starts at 6:30 AM with a 5-minute walk to the train station.
• Train departs at approximately 6:45 AM.  
• The train transfer is approximately 3 hours. 
• Arrive in Berlin at approximately 10 AM.    Berlin Ostbahnhof (Koppenstrasse 3).
• Guests will have a 1 1/2 hour panoramic drive through Berlin. 
• The drop-off point is: Gendarmenmarkt.
• Free time for guests following drop-off is about 4 hours. 
• Pick-up location: At Berlin Gendarmenmarkt (Badstr 1-3) at approximately 3:30 PM.
• Transfer back to the train station and to the ship: approximately 2 1/2 hours. 
• Board ship: approximately 6:00 PM before sail away.

Thanks for posting this info.  It's helpful to know where and when our free time in Berlin will be.

On 4/7/2019 at 8:00 AM, CrookedRidges said:

Does anyone recall or have the schedule from Viking for the trip to Berlin?  The included “Berlin Your Way” shows 6:30AM-6:30PM. 

 

Any my specifics regarding train schedules?  I’d just like to plan departure and arrival times to determine exactly how much time we have in the city.  I’m guessing we have maybe 4 hours, but I’d like to be a bit more precise. 

 

Thanks in advance. 

 

 

here is a link to the daily page for Warnemünde when we did Viking Homelands in 2016. Shows when everybody was to gather for each excursion. Even tho folks going to Berlin gather onboard at different times all go on the same train (Viking hires a train just for them). It just makes it easier to stagger moving folks off the ship. 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ly3envwfp7ubiwy/07 - 30Jul16 - Warnemunde (Berlin).pdf?dl=0. In terms of when you arrive in Berlin and return, going by the pictures we took, we arrived in Berlin's Ostbanhof at 9:30, reboarded the train at 3:15, returned to Warnemünde at 6:20 and were in line to reboard the ship by 6:30. Greeted as others have said by a good chunk of the crew with glasses of champagne and bouncy music. Note that folks who did places like Sachenshausen were on the train with everybody else; the train simply stopped to let them off and stopped on the way back to pick them up. 

Thanks for posting @CharTrav

In the FWIW reservations are required (FREE) to see the German Bundestag.  https://www.bundestag.de/en/visittheBundestag/dome/registration-245686 in case anyone wants to book a reservation while in Berlin.

Thanks again,

Keith

11 minutes ago, CrookedRidges said:

Thanks for posting @CharTrav

 

In the FWIW reservations are required (FREE) to see the German Bundestag.  https://www.bundestag.de/en/visittheBundestag/dome/registration-245686 in case anyone wants to book a reservation while in Berlin.

 

Thanks again,

 

Keith

Yes - I've done that but not while I was on a Viking trip. Attended a week long conference in Berlin and four of us did that on Friday afternoon after the conference was over. Well worth it. Need to provide your passport info and such. We did the tour in the Dome.

We also took the included trip to Berlin last summer and enjoyed it.  We did not hire a guide but I researched and planned a walk focusing on the wall.  We are in our late 60's.  We started with lunch and then took our time.  We certainly missed lots of the city but loved what we did see!

On Homelands last year we sprang for the tour that included lunch at the Reichstag.  VERY memorable and worth the money.  We hadn't been to Berlin previously.