Baltic excursions through Voyager?

[poss]

I'd be very interested in hearing from past cruisers on this ship/route. What shore excursions did you particularly like? Which had you wished you'd done? which were not so great? I'm particularly interested in hearing about excursions through Voyager tour desk (seems a whole lot easier). Did any of you do the formal ballet evening in St Petersburg? Also curious to know whether folks had difficulty getting space on the tours they wanted. i.e. were things already full by the time you tried to sign up? We'll be first time cruisers (July), so are a little unsure about all this. I'm also very interested to know if anyone took a separate boat tour through the archipelagos around Stockholm. Unfortunately, we'll be finishing the cruise in Stockholm, so I'm afraid we'll miss that whole splendid sight (we'll be asleep!) Many thanks!

[mimie]

Poss,

The only Voyager excursion we did was one day trip to Moscow. It was definitely worth it.

 

Otherwise, we did everything on our own.

Stockholm - Stockholm museum pass and local transportation (wish we would have done the hop on/hop off bus. We did a canal tour which was included in the museum pass. Our ship sailed out of Stockholm so we had an incredible sail away.

 

Helsinki - Hop on/hop off bus

 

St. Petersburg - 2 days with Red October with another wonderful couple we meet on this board. No evening ballet or performance for us. We had full days.

 

Tallin - easy to do on your own. The shuttle bus from the ship to the town offered a free guide to do a walking tour. We were exhausted from touring Russia, so we just explored on our own.

 

Copenhagen - hop on/hop off bus.

 

It is a great trip and a lovely ship. We are almost at capacity and it never felt crowded. Have a great time!

[jhp]

Main port to really think about now is St. Petersburg, and I agree with Mimi, get Red October for a private tour, it really makes a difference. The others, you have time to plan.

[japiscopo]

I also agree with Mimie. It's very easy to do all ports on the Baltic cruise on your own except for St. Pete. We used Red October for 2 full days in St. Petersburg and then on the 3rd day, we used the free shuttle from the Voyager that drops you off at the Grand Europe Hotel, to walk the Nevsky Prospect. We went into some stores and also were able to see some churches which are located on this street. It was great to be able to walk around ourselves in a city that is very difficult to tour on your own. If you would like to read my journal from the cruise, go to the Baltic message board, and look for New!! Baltic Cruise Review-part 1.

 

Mary Lou

[curiouscruiser]

We did all our tours through the ship - it was the Navigator in our case. We booked private guides through them as well and were quite pleased. (We got visas so we didn't always have to be in a group.) The ballet was fine but hot as hot could be, and was crowded as all cruise ship passengers do the same night. The other excursions seemed to be just Radisson people other then the Hermitage which was also quite crowded. We enjoyed our private tour the most as we could linger at stops that we were more interested in. As to the other stops, Tallinn is easy to do on your own. Copenhagen and Stockholm are as well. We liked the ship's tour in Helsinki as the spots visited were a bit farther apart - again the concert at the stone church was not just RSSC cruisers but others as well which made it more crowded.

[CarlsbadSally]

Which sailing in July? We are on the July 2 sailing and looking for someone to share private excursion.

[poss]

Carlsbadsally: We're on the July 16 sailing (wish we were starting in Stockholm rather than Copenhagen!)

 

Everyone: thanks very much for in-put!

[TedC]

In Copenhagen we followed advice from Rick Steve's travel book and took a canal cruise. For the seven of us it cost about what we would've paid for one person on the ship tour. We also did our own walking tour.

 

We also did Tivoli on or own; the three children and two of the adults had never been there. The ship was scheduled to be there until 11 p.m., but that was changed to a 6 p.m. departure, thus the kids missed the magic of Tivoli at night.

 

Tallinn is also very doable on foot by yourself with a guide book. In Helsinki we took a tour boat from the harbor. From a previous visit we knew the natives always buy a bag of fresh peas in their shells from the nearby market as a snack on the boat - heck of a lot healthier than potato chips! When in Helsinki...

 

In St. Petersburg the five who never had been there before went to the Summer Palace with all the fountains and also Catherine's Palace, the fortress etc on a ship tour. Consider Red October or another such group, especially if you can add others to the excursion. We revisited the Hermitage - don't miss the Impressionists on the top floor. Our favorite Monet, the Lady in the Garden, is there.