Emerald Princess -Scandinavia

[bigpaluka]

Anyone been on this cruise lately, going in July 2013?

Thoughts?

Staying one extra night on the front end, in Copenhagen.

[amazinglife]

We did this cruise in June and I must say it was one of our favorite cruises ever. None of the ports disappointed and 2 days in St. Petersburg was wonderful. I would suggest you use SPB tours. Viktoria was very professional and prompt with any questions I had. I organized a group on our roll call. Everyone was very pleased. The Emerald was great so much so we are boarding her again in 11 days time. :)

[Anniesails]

Took this cruise this past September, Awesome experience. Love the ship but the itinerary was excellent. Would strongly recommend John Lawrence's DVD on the Ports, he is an ex Cruise Director and attends some of these voyages, he is so knowledgeable, knowing so much about the Ports ahead made choosing excursions easy. This cruise is very port intensive so rest up before hand. You don't need to worry about the evening show at St Catherines or the Ballet in St Petersburg as they import a Cossack dance team to the ship which was quite enjoyable. Enjoy this wonderful cruise.

[TracieABD]

I did this cruise 4 years ago on the Crown. I loved it! I came in a day early to CPH and had a great time...

 

Best of luck in planning.:)

[DrivesLikeMario]

This is top on my DH's Cruises To Do List. Still debating whether to do it next summer or not. Only thing that holds me back is the money. The shore excursions can get pricey (especially in St. Pete's with the private tours for 2 days) and the bus. class air. Looks like a neat itinerary though.

[rasybanks]

We also did this cruise in September (last of the season) and it was fabulous. It is port intensive and you need to be ready for this. We had been to several of the Scandinavian ports before so had an advantage.

I will second the idea of booking St. Petersburg with SPB tours. They are beyond great. In fact they also run a special where you can book them for 5 ports, if not mistaken. Several on our cruise took all 5 and were not disappointed.

Do not let Princess intimidate you into taking their tour. A private tour in St. Pete is better as the group is smaller and gets around better.

Have fun with the planning and read on other threads what people are doing. Join the roll call for your dates and have fun.

Sharon

[ChattTenn]

We did this past August and it was one of our best with so many places to visit and so much to see. We went to Copenhagen 3 days before the cruise and got to see some sight of the city. We bought John Lawrence's DVD it has a ton of information and tips and would be great if we got it before the cruise.

 

Happy cruising

[patrickmoran]

We did this cruise in September with Rasybanks. Great cruise!

I organized tours for 3 cities, St Pete, Berlin, and Tallininn with SPB Tours. All were excellent. There are several great tour companies and prices are pretty comparable. Check the Ports of Call boards. Used the Roll Call to find cruisers interested in joining us.

We did the Hop On Hop Off bus in Oslo and toured the Viking Ship Museum and Fram Museum. Liked the latter better.

Walked to tram in Helsinki, bought the day pass and toured using the Tram #3. Download the MP3 or iPod tour guide from Helsinki's public transportation company.

We did a Princess walking tour of old Stockholm and the Palace. It was OK

For recommendations:

1. Go to Berlin. Don't be put off by the 3 hr train or bus ride each way. Tour was worthwhile.

2. Take a guided walking tour of Tallinn. Great little city. Have the elk soup sold in the City Hall with an Estonian beer and pastry- mmmm.

3. Get Rick Steves book Scandanavia.

[caribill]

We bought John Lawrence's DVD it has a ton of information and tips and would be great if we got it before the cruise.

 

 

Buy it in advance at http://johnlawrencecd.com/

[caribill]

I would suggest you use SPB tours.

 

We used Denrus for our two day tour. Highly recommend.

 

http://www.denrus.ru/valueex/1completespb.html

[seacruise9]

Hi,

 

We cruised aboard the Emerald Princess to Scandinavia and Russia this past July and had a wonderful time. We enjoyed two nights in Copenhagen prior to the cruise at the Radisson Blu Royal Hotel (perfect location). The cruise is port intensive, but the ports are excellent. The highlights for us were an extensive two-day tour in St. Petersburg (Hermitage, St. Catherine Palace, Peterhof Palace, etc.) and a trip to Berlin from Warnemunde. We saw an incredible amount of interesting places during this cruise.

 

Have a great cruise!

 

Chuck

[clmom]

Anyone been on this cruise lately, going in July 2013?

Thoughts?

Staying one extra night on the front end, in Copenhagen.

YES! We just did this cruise this past June. Loved every minute of it!! I strongly suggest booking a private tour in St. P. We used Alla Tours with great success.

[azbirdmom]

We did this itinerary two years ago on the Star and it was one of our all time favorite trips. We arrived 2 nights in advance in CPH and stayed at the Marriott. We went with Alex's tours in St Petersburg and had a wonderful time but heard from others that they were equally pleased with Alla and DenRus. We did not do Princess excursions in any of the other ports and found it easy to tour on our own. English speakers were easy to find and we found friendly people in every port. We also got the John Lawrence DVD in advance and also were lucky enough to have him as our Port Lecturer. There's no doubt that we will do this itinerary again one day.

[scanditaly]

I thought that if you wanted to do a private tour in St. Pet. then you had to get a special tourist visa? But if you just went with the Princess tour, then they arranged it for you.

 

We ( mom and daughter) will be aboard next June on the Emerald. Looking into CPH hotels presently.

[Grammyluvs]

I thought that if you wanted to do a private tour in St. Pet. then you had to get a special tourist visa? But if you just went with the Princess tour, then they arranged it for you.

 

We ( mom and daughter) will be aboard next June on the Emerald. Looking into CPH hotels presently.

 

If you use private tour companies, they will provide visas.

[Infi]

Most of the ports can easily be done on your own. Get a copy of Rick Steves' Scandinavia, lots of helpful tips in there. Copenhagen is a nice city, clean and easy to navigate, but not much to do as some other European cities. Maybe this was my fault as we stayed there for 6 days prior to the cruise, but we ran out of things to do very quickly. A visit to Tivoli (amusement park in the middle of the city) is fun and an enjoyable way to spend the day. The canal cruise around the city is also pleasant, and very inexpensive...about $4pp. If you stay in CPH, be prepared - the food is VERY expensive and pretty poor quality. You can easily expect to pay around $12-15 for lunch and more for dinner. Try to get a hotel that serves you breakfast, and it will save you some money.

 

I second all the recommendations of SPB tours. They are top notch. We spoke with many on the ship who took Princess tours and they barely saw a quarter of what we saw. It can be pricey, but it's more than worth it. Get a group going on your roll call and it should bring the cost down. St. Petersburg is easily the highlight of this cruise, enjoy.

[pppatpc2]

We did this trip on the Emerald in August this year and it was very nice. Alot of cities off the bucket list. We took the ship's tour in St. Petersburg and it was very nice. I know most people suggest private tours, but I don't like to worry about the variables. With the ship tour, you get what you expect. I agree to skip the night options in St. Petersburg, it is a full day and everyone that went to Catherine's Palace or the ballet was sorry, they were too tired to enjoy it.

 

All the other ports we did on our own. We did not go into Berlin, we took the ferry to Rostock but did not find it worth the effort so we went back to Warnemunde and thoroughly enjoyed that. Tallinn was beautiful and very different. Helsinki I could have done without, not much there. Stockholm was our favorite, but too little time in port to fully enjoy it.

 

We stayed 3 days pre-cruise in Copenhagen at the Marriott and enjoyed that. The hotel is right on the hop on-hop off boat line, very convenient. I also agree

Tivoli should not be missed.

[caribill]

I thought that if you wanted to do a private tour in St. Pet. then you had to get a special tourist visa? But if you just went with the Princess tour, then they arranged it for you.

 

 

 

Pre-cruise and even during the cruise Princess will have wording that suggests if you are not on a Princess tour you will not be allowed off the ship without a visa.

 

As a previous post pointed out, all the private touring companies will take care of this for you. They will e-mail a ticket to you in advance of the cruise. You just need to present this ticket with your passport at the Russian immigration booth.

 

And, when lining up for the immigration booth, you can ignore the signs that say Princess tours only. The immigration people do not care whose tour you are on. The signs are Princess signs, not Russian signs.

 

The only time you need to get a visa in advance is if you will be touring on your own, a normally difficult task since there is no public transportation (cabs, busses) at the port and if you did have a cab, you would likely not have a driver who spoke your language.

[scanditaly]

Pre-cruise and even during the cruise Princess will have wording that suggests if you are not on a Princess tour you will not be allowed off the ship without a visa.

 

As a previous post pointed out, all the private touring companies will take care of this for you. They will e-mail a ticket to you in advance of the cruise. You just need to present this ticket with your passport at the Russian immigration booth.

 

And, when lining up for the immigration booth, you can ignore the signs that say Princess tours only. The immigration people do not care whose tour you are on. The signs are Princess signs, not Russian signs.

 

The only time you need to get a visa in advance is if you will be touring on your own, a normally difficult task since there is no public transportation (cabs, busses) at the port and if you did have a cab, you would likely not have a driver who spoke your language.

 

Thanks a whole bunch to both of you for letting me know about the VISA thing. One less thing to worry about.

[TheBestIsYetToCome]

The port call in Stockholm is much, much too short (and it's hard to make good use out of the very early arrival), but the consolation prize is a spectacular sailout. Be sure to save some energy to take in the scenery that afternoon -- John will narrate for a short time. The sailout from St. Petersburg is interesting, too, might try to time a window table in the dining room on the starboard side of the ship. Enjoy!

[clmom]

Thanks a whole bunch to both of you for letting me know about the VISA thing. One less thing to worry about.

A couple more thoughts/tips about the St. P. port....

1. There are several time changes on this itinerary, one of them being St. P. We had to leave 3 people, after waiting nearly an hour, on our Alla private tour, because they forgot to change their clocks. They did eventually catch up to us but had to pay a taxi fare to do it. We had a good laugh at the end of the day when we were late getting back to the ship and these particular guests were frantic because they had booked an evening outing and had barely enough time to change their clothes and eat. When they complained, our guide very calmly and graciously apologized, "we are late now because we had to wait so long this morning for a late party".

2. DO NOT allow Princess personnel to herd you, if you are on a private tour (not Princess) into the "waiting area". They will lead you to believe you HAVE to follow their directions. This is NOT true. Russian immigration does not care who gets off first, middle or last. They only care that you have the proper documentation.

3. There is A LOT of walking on this itinerary. A LOT! One of the added benefits to a private tour vs Princess is you are in a small, usually 16 passenger vans. These smaller vans can get into tight spaces for parking....getting you closer to the sights....less walking.. Also, good to remember in any group tour...you only go as fast as the slowest person.

[bigpaluka]

Keep the good advice coming.

Private tours instead of Princess tours?

[Alaskanb]

Keep the good advice coming.

Private tours instead of Princess tours?

We are also planning this tour --for the June 3 sailing next year. We are using Alla in St Petersburg --they have a reasonable set priced comfort tour that includes lunch both days. Friends of Dave has interesting tours in Warnemunde if you do not want to go to Berlin--we are doing their Hansa tour. The other ports will be on our own --with Rick Steve's Scandinavia guide book and CC advice. Check out our roll call :)

[caribill]

We had a good laugh at the end of the day when we were late getting back to the ship and these particular guests were frantic because they had booked an evening outing and had barely enough time to change their clothes and eat.

 

If you do book an evening excursion, wear the clothes all day that you want for the evening and take your evening excursion ticket with you when you go out for the day excursion.

 

If you are late returning from your day excursion, you may not have enough time to line up for Russian emigration to get back to the ship, change clothes, line up for Russian immigration to get off the ship.

 

If you have enough time to get back on board and eat dinner, great. But if not, you can still make your evening excursion.

[Stelladoro]

We loved our Baltic cruise on the Emerald Princess in late May/11. There were lots of empty cabins and as a result, we received an upgrade at time of checkin. Nice way to start a cruise!

Since weather is somewhat unpredicable in the Baltic, pack for for sunny, warm and cool, rainy days.

We requested city maps from Copenhagen, Oslo,Helsinki and Tallinn tourist boards (online) and received these within a few days, free of charge. Great service!

Except for St. Petersburg and Warnemunde, we did all the other ports on our own. Very easy to do. Wish we had more time in Stockholm. We only had time to see the Vassa Museum and Gamla Stan (Old town), as the ship left in Mid afternoon. The sail through the archipeligo is beautiful.

St. Petersburg is certainly not to be missed and booking with SPB was easy.

We chose to see Berlin on our own, as part of a pre-cruise land trip. Spent three days there and thoroughly enjoyed it.