BALTIC CRUISE shore excursions in a wheelchair

[torty]

We are booked on the Star Princess Baltic Cruise in August and would very much appreciate hearing from anyone who can give advice for a wheelchair user particularly concerning the various ports of call. We plan to use a private guide/driver in St Petersburg but will probably go it alone at the other destinations and would be grateful for advice from anyone with experience of using a wheelchair in places such as Tallin where it appears there are cobbled streets.

[DEL67]

We went on a Baltic cruise a few years ago. We went to roundtrip from Stockholm to St Petersburg, Stockholm, Tallin and Visby. At that time my husband could walk a few steps with a walker, but primarily used a wheelchair (power aboard ship, manual ashore). Getting on a bus was difficult for him, but possible with help.

 

We spent overnight in Stockholm. On the first day, after our arrival, we took a taxi to the Vasa Museum. The museum which is built around a Viking ship was very accessible and interesting. The next morning we visited the old part of the city including the castle. As with many areas in the Baltic, the old city is paved with cobblestones. I quickly learned that going backwards was the only way to keep the front wheels of my husband’s chairs from getting stuck. Luckily I had my daughter to act as look-out. The castle was accessible via a small elevator. After leaving the castle, we walked across to the shopping section and window shopped before returning to the ship.

 

From Stockholm we went to Tallin which had the largest cobblestones of any of the ports. My daughter wanted to go to a flea market at the outskirts of the city that she had read about so we took a taxi there. The flea market was a waste, but as we were leaving we found an English speaking taxi driver willing to take us on a city tour for $40 - a great deal considering we were charged $20 to get to the flea market. We enjoyed the tour, Tallin is a lovely city, but definitely not accessible.

 

Our next port, St Petersburg was difficult, but the high point of our trip. We were unaware of private transportation as an option, if one existed at that time, and visas were very expensive so we went on three, half day ship excursions: the Hermitage, Peterhof and a city/fortress tour. The Hermitage was accessible except for entering/exiting. There were two sets of steps (about 15 steps all together) with no hand rails at the entrance. I thought my husband would not be able to go, but he was determined to so my daughter and I supported him up the steps while another passenger brought up his wheelchair. Once inside, there were tiny elevators available to take us from floor to floor. There were about 12 steps at the exit, again with no handrail. When I asked a guard if someone could help me "bump" my husband's wheelchair down the steps, he went outside, found two Russians on the street who were willing to help. Waiting on the street for the rest of the tour members was fascinating both because of a military exercise that was going on in the square across the street and the myriad of street vendors with everything form pens to napking rings to military hats.

 

Peterhof was another issue. We did not visit the "palace" because all the rooms of interest were up a full set of stairs. We did go down to the gardens though, which we enjoyed even though we had go around to take a road down to them rather than the stairs.

 

The city tour and fortress were fairly accessible and very interesting, especially the church in the Fortress.. The only part of the tour that was not accessible was visit to an old ship.

 

Our next port was Helsinki. There we visited several of museums and walked around town. Then it started to rain so we returned to the ship.

 

My husband chose not to go ashore in Visby because it was a tender port. We walked around the walled city which was fascinating; however, this required traversing the very steep hill on which the town was built.

 

Please contact me if you would like more information.