Baltic vs Asian cruise

[ryansmum]

Can anyone who has done both routes give any advice on which they'd recommend more & why?

 

We were pretty much decided on a Baltic trip for June 2013 on Celebrity Eclipse. We've never been on Celebrity before so were keen to try them. It is also cheaper than RCI Baltic with 2 more nights. We bought a future cruise certificate onboard Mariner earlier this month as summer leave at work not yet confirmed.

 

Now 2 cruises have come up on Mariner in May (Dubai to Singapore) and June (Singapore to Shanghai) which although more expensive look great. :confused:

 

We've not been to any of the Baltic or Asian ports before (apart from Dubai).

 

Any advice/input would be appreciated.

 

Lorraine

[suncityga]

Hard choice to make...

 

We did the Baltic in late May/early June this year and it was a fantastic cruise on Jewel of the Seas and we did Singapore to Shanghai in March 2011 on Legend of the Seas (plus a week land trip in China) and that was also fantastic cruise/trip. Both cruises were very port intensive and most of the ports of calls were new to us.

 

For us... the Baltic cruise offered us the opportunity to visit countries and historical locations that we had read and study for many years. The two days in St Petersburgh were the highlight of that cruise... its is an amazing city. The Asian Cruise was all about the experience of a less familiar culture and the allure of exotic places.... Singapore, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Beijing are all very special places with memories for a lifetime.

 

Although we normally cruise with Royal Caribbean, we cruised with Celebrity in South America in January 2012 and really enjoyed it. We thought their onboard service and food quality was much better that RCCL.

 

If you have any specific questions, please let me know. Hope you find the time to do both cruises.

[north29]

There is no easy answer, IMHO the best answer plan on doing both. We have done the Baltic, and are going on the Legend's Singapore to Dubai REPO cruise. The Baltic cruise was super, St Petersburg( SPECTACULAR), the other ports are great also, just make sure your cruise to the Baltic has at least two days in

St Petersburg. The Baltic was not our all time favorite cruise, it was a must do cruise for us.

Having said all that, we are cruise travelers, not real cruisers, well most of the time, and use cruises to see areas that we could never afford to see on a one country at a time basis. Also, we find places we want to return too often do.

[ryansmum]

Hard choice to make...

 

We did the Baltic in late May/early June this year and it was a fantastic cruise on Jewel of the Seas and we did Singapore to Shanghai in March 2011 on Legend of the Seas (plus a week land trip in China) and that was also fantastic cruise/trip. Both cruises were very port intensive and most of the ports of calls were new to us.

 

For us... the Baltic cruise offered us the opportunity to visit countries and historical locations that we had read and study for many years. The two days in St Petersburgh were the highlight of that cruise... its is an amazing city. The Asian Cruise was all about the experience of a less familiar culture and the allure of exotic places.... Singapore, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Beijing are all very special places with memories for a lifetime.

 

Although we normally cruise with Royal Caribbean, we cruised with Celebrity in South America in January 2012 and really enjoyed it. We thought their onboard service and food quality was much better that RCCL.

 

If you have any specific questions, please let me know. Hope you find the time to do both cruises.

 

Thanks for your reply.

 

Yeah it is a hard choice but nice kinda choice to have :). Both itineraries look great & totally different to anything we've done before. Can I ask what your weather was like on your Baltic cruise?

[ryansmum]

There is no easy answer, IMHO the best answer plan on doing both. We have done the Baltic, and are going on the Legend's Singapore to Dubai REPO cruise. The Baltic cruise was super, St Petersburg( SPECTACULAR), the other ports are great also, just make sure your cruise to the Baltic has at least two days in

St Petersburg. The Baltic was not our all time favorite cruise, it was a must do cruise for us.

Having said all that, we are cruise travelers, not real cruisers, well most of the time, and use cruises to see areas that we could never afford to see on a one country at a time basis. Also, we find places we want to return too often do.

 

Thanks for reply.

 

Yeah think we're gonna have to do both :cool:

 

The Baltic cruise does do the overnight in St Petersburg. Did you do a ship's tour here? I think cruising is a great way to see places that would be far too expensive to see on a land vacation.

 

Can I ask is your repo cruise now sold out? It is showing N/A on RCI UK website.

[suncityga]

Thanks for your reply.

 

Yeah it is a hard choice but nice kinda choice to have :). Both itineraries look great & totally different to anything we've done before. Can I ask what your weather was like on your Baltic cruise?

 

Our 12 night Baltic itinerary started in Harwich... then Copenhagen, Stockholm, Helsinki, St Petersburg (2 days), Tallinn, Gothenburg and then back to Harwich. Copenhagen was rainy and chilly, but most of the ports were mostly clear with temperatures ranging between 12 and 18 °C.

[momzcruzing]

They were both my favorite.... along with many others, eg the Holy Land, South America, Australia & India.

 

Try to get to all of them. My order is derived from which countries are the most politically unstable-- get to them first before they are potentially taken off port stops. We got into and out of Egypt just before the unrest started.

 

All have amazing "wonders of the world" that I could not go to my grave without marveling at. Standing infront of the Pyramids, the Great Wall, Ankor Wat, the Hermitage with chills that I am indeed here-- Priceless!!!

[ryansmum]

Our 12 night Baltic itinerary started in Harwich... then Copenhagen, Stockholm, Helsinki, St Petersburg (2 days), Tallinn, Gothenburg and then back to Harwich. Copenhagen was rainy and chilly, but most of the ports were mostly clear with temperatures ranging between 12 and 18 °C.

 

Yes the Celebrity one is nearly the same itinerary, it also has Bruges & Warnemunde & is 14 days. Price has gone up about £130 pp today :(. Hopefully I'll find out soon at work re holiday dates don't want it to go higher.

[ryansmum]

They were both my favorite.... along with many others, eg the Holy Land, South America, Australia & India.

 

Try to get to all of them. My order is derived from which countries are the most politically unstable-- get to them first before they are potentially taken off port stops. We got into and out of Egypt just before the unrest started.

 

All have amazing "wonders of the world" that I could not go to my grave without marveling at. Standing infront of the Pyramids, the Great Wall, Ankor Wat, the Hermitage with chills that I am indeed here-- Priceless!!!

 

Yes just going to have to do both of them then problem solved. ;)

 

We definitely want to try places we haven't visited so both these cruises fit the bill. Think we might do Baltic first as Asian temps look high in June.

[cynalan]

This is an impossible question to answer. It's like comparing apples to oranges. Without knowing your personal preferences, tastes and interests, how can one possible compare?

 

We've done both... the Baltic out of Dover on the Celebrity Constellation and Bangkok to Beijing on the Oceania Nautica. We enjoyed both immensely. Of the two, the Asian cruise offered exposure to a very different culture. In many of the locations we visited, there was little or no English spoken, most of the alphabets (excluding Viet Nam) were indecipherable to Westerners. Vive la difference!! New culture, foods, etc.

 

Europe will give you a comfortable feeling due to its familiarity. No doubt St. Petersburg will be a highlight given its history and spectacular museums.

 

If you have any specific questions, ask and I'll try to help.

[Ashland]

We have recently done the Baltic cruise out of Harwich..and it was my favorite over at least the western med...However I was considering an Asia cruise but opted to do a land tour only...and was I glad I did...We just returned from an almost 2 week China tour that went to Beijing, Xi'an, and Shanghai and feel that we would have missed so much of this country if only limited to specific port days and times on a cruise....Wasn't a hard choice for me...Asia=Land !!

[ryansmum]

This is an impossible question to answer. It's like comparing apples to oranges. Without knowing your personal preferences, tastes and interests, how can one possible compare?

 

We've done both... the Baltic out of Dover on the Celebrity Constellation and Bangkok to Beijing on the Oceania Nautica. We enjoyed both immensely. Of the two, the Asian cruise offered exposure to a very different culture. In many of the locations we visited, there was little or no English spoken, most of the alphabets (excluding Viet Nam) were indecipherable to Westerners. Vive la difference!! New culture, foods, etc.

 

Europe will give you a comfortable feeling due to its familiarity. No doubt St. Petersburg will be a highlight given its history and spectacular museums.

 

If you have any specific questions, ask and I'll try to help.

 

I'm sure we'd enjoy both & will now plan to do both. I think I was more excited about Asia itinerary as SO different from anything we've ever seen before. What time of year did you go to Asia?

 

Thanks for info.

[ryansmum]

We have recently done the Baltic cruise out of Harwich..and it was my favorite over at least the western med...However I was considering an Asia cruise but opted to do a land tour only...and was I glad I did...We just returned from an almost 2 week China tour that went to Beijing, Xi'an, and Shanghai and feel that we would have missed so much of this country if only limited to specific port days and times on a cruise....Wasn't a hard choice for me...Asia=Land !!

 

We're also looking at RCI out of Harwich but it's more expensive than Celebrity right now & is 2 nights less. :confused: It is Brilliance doing it next year which is one of our fave ships.

 

Think we'd prefer to do a cruise first of all in Asia as a taster & then we'd go back if we wanted to see more of particular places.

 

What time of year did you do your land tour?

[suncityga]

 

The Baltic cruise does do the overnight in St Petersburg. Did you do a ship's tour here? I think cruising is a great way to see places that would be far too expensive to see on a land vacation.

 

 

We would highly recommend doing a small group private tour on your two days in St Petersburg. There are many highly recommended private tour companies on Cruise Critic (see Baltic Forum)... we did the 2 Day Deluxe Tour with SPB Tours and they did a fantastic job. With a small group we had a lot more flexibility, access to the guide and the use of private audio head sets allowed the group more freedom of movement at the palaces and museums. They also handled the VISA paperwork.

 

Cruising is a great way to get an introduction to see many places... sometimes, we like to combine land tours as pre or post cruises. We did that in China for a week after ending our cruise in Shanghai.... and we may still go back to do a Yangtze River Cruise and another land tour.

[north29]

Thanks for reply.

 

Yeah think we're gonna have to do both :cool:

 

The Baltic cruise does do the overnight in St Petersburg. Did you do a ship's tour here? I think cruising is a great way to see places that would be far too expensive to see on a land vacation.

 

Can I ask is your repo cruise now sold out? It is showing N/A on RCI UK website.

 

In St Pburg we use DenRus, incidentally because of a couple from Brighton.

UK, and I will say that we had the best tour guide I have ever had anywhere, and they/she did some things to get us back to the ship on time, through rain and lots of unexpected traffic. It did not matter, the ships tours were at least two hours late. PS Food was included and the food and the restaurants fantastic.

 

The Singapore to Dubai repo cruise, from what I understand, had friends who dragged there heels in booking the cruise were begging for it but it was sold out or bought out by some company or whoever. This is from the Cruise Critic Roll call board. Some say the Singapore to Rome B2B on the Legend may still be available. No one seems to understand this, but the Dubai to Rome was not booking well, so to get more on that leg they, who ever, may offer the complete Singapore to Rome cruise.

[Ashland]

We're also looking at RCI out of Harwich but it's more expensive than Celebrity right now & is 2 nights less. :confused: It is Brilliance doing it next year which is one of our fave ships.

 

Think we'd prefer to do a cruise first of all in Asia as a taster & then we'd go back if we wanted to see more of particular places.

 

What time of year did you do your land tour?

We were very happy doing the 12 nights Baltic on RCI Jewel..had our favorite corner JS aft #1100 and booked a year out giving us the lowest price that ended up being offered on this particular itinerary & date (Aug 2010 $3506.12 pp inc.taxes and minus our C&A discount).

 

We just arrived back this week from our 2 week land trip to China..Had an amazing time and great weather..

[m_duck]

We sailed on the Jewel a couple of years ago on a Baltic cruise. It was a great cruise and as others have said really port intensive. We used SPB Tours in St Petersburg and they were great. We were lucky with the weather as for the majority of the time we were in shorts and t-shirts as it was hot, but i think we were lucky. All in all though one of my favourite cruises as I love history.

 

We sailed from Singapore this year on the Voyager for 5 days and really enjoyed it but it was a different cruise experience. The humidity, food and cultural differences made it a totally different cruise experience.

 

I think to really do the Asian cruise justice you need time ashore in maybe Hong Kong, Singapore etc ... as the food and culture are brilliant.

 

Not really very helpful advice .... just plan to do both.

[cynalan]

I'm sure we'd enjoy both & will now plan to do both. I think I was more excited about Asia itinerary as SO different from anything we've ever seen before. What time of year did you go to Asia?

 

We went to Asia in 2010 to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary. Our original plan was to do a 2-week land based holiday in China, but with the economy being depressed there were cruise offers available that were too good to refuse.

 

We left Toronto on March 30 and flew to London and met a friend for the day during our 16 hour layover. We then had a 15 hour flight to Bangkok where we spent a week with a private guide and driver. In Asia, labour is cheap the cost of personalized guides/drivers was not much more than going on a group tour yet worth every penny of the cost. We absolutely loved Bangkok. The city is vibrant with culture, food, history, and yes... the seedy side of life too.

 

On day 8 we boarded the Oceania Nautica for a 22-day cruise. We chose this ship, only 684 passengers, because it could fit into the heart of many of the cities we were visiting. For example, we boarded the Nautica right in Bangkok, whereas the Ruby Princess would have been at least a 2 hour drive.

 

Our ports of call included: Koh Samui (Thailand); Taipei; Ho Chi Minh City, Danang, and Halong Bay (Viet Nam); Nagasaki and Kagoshima (Japan); Seoul Korea; and Hong Kong, Shanghai and Beijing (China).

 

After the cruise we spent 9 days in China with a personal guide and driver (a must due to the language barrier), flying between each of the cities - 4 in Beijing, 2 in Xian to see the Terra Cotta Warriors, 2 in Guilin (amazing scenery) and finally back to Hong Kong for a day prior to our flight home.

 

So, we were gone from the last week of March to the first week of May. A couple of important notes:

 

1. The weather. We had 44 celsius (> 100 fahrenheit) humid weather in Bangkok and Seoul was the coldest -5 celsius (about 20 fahrenheit). Thus, packing was a challenge as we need clothing for all seasons.

 

2. If you fly in China, beware that the travel allowance is 1 bag, 20 kg per person. We had 5 and were way over the limit. Our first flight from Beijing to Jian cost $400 in excess weight. After that, we were initiated into the world of under the counter payments and Chinese graft - successfully, fortunately - saving ourselves more than $1000 in excessive baggage weight charges.

 

3. Labour is cheap. If you travel inland... do it on your own and arrange for a driver and guide. Worth every penny.

 

4. The food was phenomenal. Not the stuff you would expect to see in N. American asian restaurants. Yes - cat and dog were on the menu, though we did not partake.

 

Bottom line - if you love to experience new culture, food, amazing history and architecture, do the asian cruise. However, if you can swing it - do both!! You won't regret it.

[cynalan]

We would highly recommend doing a small group private tour on your two days in St Petersburg. There are many highly recommended private tour companies on Cruise Critic (see Baltic Forum)... we did the 2 Day Deluxe Tour with SPB Tours and they did a fantastic job. With a small group we had a lot more flexibility, access to the guide and the use of private audio head sets allowed the group more freedom of movement at the palaces and museums. They also handled the VISA paperwork.

 

Cruising is a great way to get an introduction to see many places... sometimes, we like to combine land tours as pre or post cruises. We did that in China for a week after ending our cruise in Shanghai.... and we may still go back to do a Yangtze River Cruise and another land tour.

 

I fully agree with the comment about private land tours in St. Petersburg. We were on the Celebrity Constellation (fantastic ship) and arranged our tour with a company called Denrus. The tour was fantastic. Here are a few reasons why I would recommend this over a tour from the cruise ship.

 

1. Quality of guides - our guide was a professor at the local university in art history. She had also lived overseas as writer for a magazine. Her knowledge of Russian history and art was formidable and impressive. We know this for sure as my wife has an MA in History and focused her studies on Russia.

 

2. The tour bus held 14 passengers as opposed to the 40 or so on the large tour buses.

 

3. The tour was longer than the cruiseship based tours for the day.

 

4. The cost was 2/3 of the ship tour.

 

5. if you travel independently, ie no ship tour or private tour, you must obtain a Russian visa. The cost is about $240 (for Canadians). If you are on an organized tour, your do not need one.

[ryansmum]

We sailed on the Jewel a couple of years ago on a Baltic cruise. It was a great cruise and as others have said really port intensive. We used SPB Tours in St Petersburg and they were great. We were lucky with the weather as for the majority of the time we were in shorts and t-shirts as it was hot, but i think we were lucky. All in all though one of my favourite cruises as I love history.

 

We sailed from Singapore this year on the Voyager for 5 days and really enjoyed it but it was a different cruise experience. The humidity, food and cultural differences made it a totally different cruise experience.

 

I think to really do the Asian cruise justice you need time ashore in maybe Hong Kong, Singapore etc ... as the food and culture are brilliant.

 

Not really very helpful advice .... just plan to do both.

 

Thanks for all info. Can I ask which month you visited Asia & what temperatures were?

 

Did you enjoy all the Baltic ports, a few of the reviews I've seen only really talk about St Petersburg?

[cynalan]

Did you enjoy all the Baltic ports, a few of the reviews I've seen only really talk about St Petersburg?

 

Here is my summary of the Baltic ports we visited:

 

Copenhagen - my favourite Scandinavian port of call. The cruise ship docs within walkable distance of the downtown area, not far from the Little Mermaid. An absolute must is to take the canal tour. Tivoli Gardens - first amusement park in Europe - was interesting. One of the downtown streets - Strogut - was great for strolling and shopping. Due to weather one of stops in Sweden was cancelled and we spent a second day her. Very happy this as it is a beautiful city.

 

Oslo - Not a lot to see or do here. The best part of the trip was travelling through the fjord on the way in. I got up at 5:00 a.m. to enjoy the time cruising through the fjord and it was time well spent. At times one could almost touch the rocky outcroppings. Oslo itself was rather non-descript. An easily walkable downtown area near where the ship docs. We actually chose to take the train to the winter Olympic site and enjoyed walking the nature trails.

 

Stockholm - I wish we had more time here. We barely scratched the surface of this city. Our most interesting experience was the ice bar. We had to don parkas in mid summer to drink our martinis in a room constructed of ice from ice glasses. We also took a city tour that left us wanting to see more. Alas, not enough time.

 

Helsinki - Not a lot to see other than the palace and surrounding park. We were actually rather bored here.

 

St. Petersburg - phenomenal city. Do the canal tour, Peterhof, Hermitage, church of the spilled blood, etc. We even took in a cultural show in the evening. Not nearly enough time to see and do everything that we wanted.

 

Tallinn - A surprising gem. This beautfiul Estonian city had a central medieval city behind stone walled untouched or spoiled by WW2. It had a great array of shops, boutiques, artist's studios, etc. A very pleasant surprise.

 

Warnemunde - We chose to take the train to Berlin. Although it was a 3 hour journey each direction, it was definitely worth it. Particularly interestin was learning how the cold war impacted residents of the city. It was also great to see the level of investment by what was W. Germany to help its poorer cousins rebound after the fall of the wall. There are still portions of the wall remaining as a monument to what was. Interestingly, there is an interlocking brick path that shows the course of the wall. The Reichtag was also a very interesting site to see.

[ryansmum]

We went to Asia in 2010 to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary. Our original plan was to do a 2-week land based holiday in China, but with the economy being depressed there were cruise offers available that were too good to refuse.

 

We left Toronto on March 30 and flew to London and met a friend for the day during our 16 hour layover. We then had a 15 hour flight to Bangkok where we spent a week with a private guide and driver. In Asia, labour is cheap the cost of personalized guides/drivers was not much more than going on a group tour yet worth every penny of the cost. We absolutely loved Bangkok. The city is vibrant with culture, food, history, and yes... the seedy side of life too.

 

On day 8 we boarded the Oceania Nautica for a 22-day cruise. We chose this ship, only 684 passengers, because it could fit into the heart of many of the cities we were visiting. For example, we boarded the Nautica right in Bangkok, whereas the Ruby Princess would have been at least a 2 hour drive.

 

Our ports of call included: Koh Samui (Thailand); Taipei; Ho Chi Minh City, Danang, and Halong Bay (Viet Nam); Nagasaki and Kagoshima (Japan); Seoul Korea; and Hong Kong, Shanghai and Beijing (China).

 

After the cruise we spent 9 days in China with a personal guide and driver (a must due to the language barrier), flying between each of the cities - 4 in Beijing, 2 in Xian to see the Terra Cotta Warriors, 2 in Guilin (amazing scenery) and finally back to Hong Kong for a day prior to our flight home.

 

So, we were gone from the last week of March to the first week of May. A couple of important notes:

 

1. The weather. We had 44 celsius (> 100 fahrenheit) humid weather in Bangkok and Seoul was the coldest -5 celsius (about 20 fahrenheit). Thus, packing was a challenge as we need clothing for all seasons.

 

2. If you fly in China, beware that the travel allowance is 1 bag, 20 kg per person. We had 5 and were way over the limit. Our first flight from Beijing to Jian cost $400 in excess weight. After that, we were initiated into the world of under the counter payments and Chinese graft - successfully, fortunately - saving ourselves more than $1000 in excessive baggage weight charges.

 

3. Labour is cheap. If you travel inland... do it on your own and arrange for a driver and guide. Worth every penny.

 

4. The food was phenomenal. Not the stuff you would expect to see in N. American asian restaurants. Yes - cat and dog were on the menu, though we did not partake.

 

Bottom line - if you love to experience new culture, food, amazing history and architecture, do the asian cruise. However, if you can swing it - do both!! You won't regret it.

 

Thanks so much for taking the time to post. Your experience sounds amazing. Thanks for all the tips, these baggage charges are such a rip off glad you were able to save paying some.

 

Cruising is such great value for money right now we just love it.

 

I must admit the Asian cruise probably excites me more as it's like nothing we've ever done before. We went to Dubai this year & it was quite different.

 

The cruise we're looking at doesn't include Thailand but I'll maybe look into adding it on as would love to visit on trip. What did you think of Hong Kong & Shanghai?

[colmat]

I vote for the Asia cruise !!! we are booked on it so you could jion us ;). If you do seriously look at it I would book a.s.a.p it has gone up several times since it was released and I think there are ony 30% of the cabins left.

[momzcruzing]

As suggested earlier, we do all cruises to very remote spots combined with private land guides both pre & post-cruise. This answers the "land only" question for Asia. We flew into Beijing a week pre-cruise, employing a private guide and flew to other cities, including Xian to see the Terra Cotta Warriors.

 

Post cruise we flew to Cambodia to experience Ankor Wat.

 

I figure as long as I am in the neighborhood, I might as well visit the sites. Private guides are the BEST value, amazing prices and service.

[Gail & Marty sailing away]

For us the Baltic was GREAT ..