Oceana Baltic Cruise

[Msmew]

We are pondering a cruise in the Baltic on Oceana Marina next August. Any insights? We've cruised RCCL and Celebrity - is Oceana worth the extra cost? Recommendations on concierge verandas? Excursions? Thanks!!

[LHT28]

There are several threads here discussing the same topic

Only you can decide if OCEANIA is worth the extra $$ for you

 

Many people here must think they are worth the $$ ;)

I would read through some of the threads

 

Lyn

[globevest]

We did Copenhagen to Stockholm Baltic cruise on Marina this past June. It was the second best cruise we have had. Black sea cruise was best IMHO.

The two days in Saint Petersburg was exhausting but wonderful. This is the port on which you need to do the most research about excursions. Private would be best and worth the money. The ballet one evening is a must.

 

Helsinki, Copenhagen and Stockholm are all worth guided tours. Tallinn and Riga can be walked. Both cities are small and compact. Gdansk can be done without a guide if you are just interested in the old town.

 

Enjoy your cruise.

[JudyA.]

Hi Globevest - we are booked on the Black Sea cruise next July...I am having a hard time find out if there are taxi's at the dock in Trabzon (we would like to go to the monastery, just not on a ship excursion) and what there is to do in Batumi & Sinop. Can you please advise me?? I would really appreciate it.

 

MsMew: Oceania has the best ships, IMHO. Category B2 is the best category cabin for the money. The concierge level cabins are EXACTLY the same, only one deck higher up. I don't think the concierge level cabins provide anything worth the extra money for the category, but then I've never actually booked a concierge level cabin so I am not speaking from experience.

 

I like the size of the Oceania ships, not too big. Because of the smaller passenger load, you can dine in the main dining room whenever you like (not set times) and you eat with different folks each night. That was my main pet peeve about sailing with RCCL and Celebrity...I couldn't stand having a set time for dinner and eating the with SAME PEOPLE EVERY NIGHT. That got boring pretty quick.

 

I almost never do the ship excursions as I think private excursions are better AND less expensive since you don't have to see everything with two busloads of people and you can arrange your tour exactly what YOU want to do. The ROLL CALL boards here are very helpful in finding other couples to share your excursions and the cost.

 

We did the Baltic cruise in 2007, and it was great...although it rained a lot (obviously not Oceania's fault) and we got visas for our stay in St. Petersburg.

[lalique]

We did Oceania's Baltic cruise in July 2009 and it was wonderful. Do private tours and you will see so much more and get in places faster . We used Alla Tours for our 3 days in St. Petersburg and it was fabulous. You can get a small group together from your roll call. We were travelling with friends so we had our own group of 6 and it was perfect.

[phlewt]

Just returned from a Baltic Cruise on Insignia. We used private tours in St Pete and Amsterdam and did our own thing in most of the other ports. You may view a slide show of our cruise at http://youtu.be/QQrbF8LdrTc . . . it might give you some idea of the things you might see and do.

[globevest]

Hello JudyA,

Sorry I missed your response until today. Let's see if I can help. We did a Oceania excursion at Trabzon and we were very satisfied. I did not notice if there were taxis at the dock but when we got to the Monastary there were taxis there (a few) so I suspect they were available at the port. The Monastary is one of the most photogenic places I have seen. Not a place to miss. Also included on the excursion was a very nice lunch at a hotel on a cliff overlooking the sea. We then visited Atta Turks house which was historically very interesting.

 

We walked around Sinop. You dock alongside the town There are taxis but I am not sure where you could go. We did not visit Batumi. That must be new on the schedule.

Enjoy your cruise. I am sure you will.

[JudyA.]

Thanks Globevest! I appreciate your taking the time to answer. I know we will have a great time.

[Paulchili]

We visited Batumi several years ago. Unless things have changed significantly (very unlikely), they do not have the infrastructure for tourism yet and thus independent tours would be unlikely. However, the ship offered several interesting enough tours conducted by very enthusiastic locals; the sights, however, are very limited.

It is what it is - a different kind of a place.

[bornfreenowexpensive]

Thanks Phlewt. We are doing a similar trip next year. I loved your slides.

[JudyA.]

Thanks PaulChili - I guess I'll wait to see what Oceania offers and not plan too hard for that port of call.

[Smbruner]

Great tips - we're booked on the Baltic June 2012 on the Nautica - I can't wait!

[spindrift]

Can you all tell me where you docked in St. Petersburg? Were you out at the commerical docks or in town. I was on Silver Seas quite a few years ago with my Mother and were right in town. Fabulous location. Since my husband had not been, we will be on "O's" Nautica Sept. 2012.

[Paulchili]

Can you all tell me where you docked in St. Petersburg? Were you out at the commerical docks or in town. I was on Silver Seas quite a few years ago with my Mother and were right in town. Fabulous location. Since my husband had not been, we will be on "O's" Nautica Sept. 2012.

 

In 2006 we also docked right in town on the (?)Regatta. Marina could be a different story.

[Mura]

Can you all tell me where you docked in St. Petersburg? Were you out at the commerical docks or in town. I was on Silver Seas quite a few years ago with my Mother and were right in town. Fabulous location. Since my husband had not been, we will be on "O's" Nautica Sept. 2012.

 

Where they docked on their cruise may have NOTHING at all to do with where you dock. As I recall there are three ports. (We were there in May 2001 so I can be wrong here.)

 

However, we were due to dock at one port -- where our guide was waiting to meet us.

 

Only there was a very last minute change and we went into another port. That meant we missed our guide on the first day. That wasn't so awful because some crewmen gave us a lift to the Hermitage and we spent the day there. (Back then we were just us two with a guide and so we had our own visas.)

 

But it's probably of no use to you to know where some other sailing docked. You might dock at the same place, you might well NOT.

 

Mura

[phlewt]

On our recent Baltic cruise on Insignia, we docked at the nearly new cruise port. We did see a couple of cruise ships docked a bit nearer to the city, but I'm not sure there would be any advantage to being there. Most of the passengers have booked their excursions with either Oceania or with private companies who supply guides and transportation. You just about need some sort of transportation if you want to get around and see the sights.

[BlewWater]

Here's a page that has the daily "Currents" bulletins from a recent Baltic Sea cruise. Although it's from the Insignia, it should still give you an idea of what an Oceania cruise to that region entails.

 

http://www.1mpages.com/CruiseDailyBulletins.html#OceaniaInsignia

 

There are also Preview Menus, Port Guides, and other things posted.

[CintiPam]

We did a 10-day Baltic Treasures cruise on Marina in June and thought the ports and ship were fantastic. We did all of the ports on our own, using Rick Steves' excellent guidebook information for our sightseeing, except that I arranged for two private tours, both with SPB-Tours, a very professionally run outfit often recommended on the Northern Europe & Baltics forum here: (1) a 16-person excursion to Berlin from Warnemunde that I organized from our roll call and (2) a four-person private tour for our two days in St. Petersburg.

 

Here is the link to my review of Marina from this cruise:

http://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=85957.

[CanadianTom]

Is it worth the extra cost. Funny you should ask. I spoke to a friend who just returned from 2 week baltic cruise with princess. We compared notes. Here are some of the comparisons.

 

Ports. Oceania was the hands down winner. Why?

 

Helsinki, oceania docked right downtown by the market, princess docked 20 min. ride from downtown.

 

Copenhagen: oceania docked right by little mermaid statue princess didn't, then a walk around the palace and into town centre

 

St. Petersburg: Oceania docked 500 yards from the Hermitage, princess docked 20 minute taxi ride away

 

Warenmunder(sp?): Oceania docked right at the town and beach. princess canceled port because Keale(sp?) canal crossing was too rough??? they spent the day at sea.

 

Amsterdam: Oceania docked beside the train station downtown, I can't remember where he said princess docked.

 

One of the best ports was Visby: Oceania went there, princess didn't

 

Just getting on and off the ship in port, close to where you want to go and with only 680 max. cruisers is worth the extra. Princess had 2500 cruisers.

 

There were other thing but these were the biggies.