Booked! Baltic on the Eurodam with wrap around aft

[detroit70]

After spending days on Cruise Critic and other sites, researching the itinerary, the ports, and opinions on aft vs. non-aft, I'm excited to be able to write that we have booked our 5th HAL cruise since our first one in 2011. If all goes well, we'll sail from Copenhagen on May 23rd for the 12 day Baltic Adventure on the Eurodam in cabin 7132, a wrap around aft.

 

We really debated the aft cabin because of the varying opinions on the forums about extra balcony space vs. distance to just about everything else on the ship, but this morning DH said "Let's go for it" and it's now booked.

 

This will be our second Eurodam cruise after two on the Oosterdam to Alaska, and one last summer on the Rotterdam to Norway. We found we definitely prefer the larger ships--strictly matter of personal preference, I know, and are especially looking forward to trying the Tamarind which we missed on the last cruise as DH spent the night of our reservation in the ship hospital with pneumonia.

 

Finally, the reason for this post: although, as I've said, I've spent lots of time on various forums researching this, I'm always grateful for any additional ideas or suggestions or critiques from those of you willing to share. We're especially interested in suggestions about the ports including excursions or how to do the port on our own (with the exception of St. Petersburg which we understand is best done with excursions.) Other ports include Copenhagen, Helsinki, Stockholm, Talinn, Warnamunde and Kiel.

 

Thanks so much!

[RuthC]

When you mentioned that St. Petersburg is best done with excursions, I didn't know if you meant HAL excursions, or private.

Private is the way to go. So long as you are using one of the companies frequently mentioned on CC, such as Red October, Alla, DenRus, etc., then you will be fine. The company will take care of the needed visa.

On my first cruise there I went with Red October. We saw every single thing on every single HAL tour. Everything! :D

We didn't have to wait in lines to enter the various sites, just head on in. In the Hermitage, we were in a small group, standing immediately next to our guide, so we could see the item while it was being discussed, as well as ask questions. The HAL tours nearby had 25-30 people all jammed around items; the folks in the back could see the item while the guide moved on to the next.

It may have cost more, but was well worth the extra money.

[paganwoman]

We just went on this cruise last June. Had a wonderful time. You will enjoy the Eurodam. The only shore excursions we did was in St Petersburg (HAL's Hermitage and Cathedrals tours-one each day)and the Stockholm's water and city tour also by HAL (which I highly recommend) The other citys we did on our own and managed to see what we wanted to. There is a very good walking tour of Tallin online (just google it) and I think I also printed one off for Kiel. Bring layers as one day might be cool and rainy and the next bright and sunny. We arrived a few days before to see Copenhagen and enjoyed every port we went to.

[travelnnana]

Did this in August - we chose SPB tours and think they are the most professional of the independents - Im still working on my share site but here is the link

https://haleurodambalticta2013.shutterfly.com/

You will love your cruise

[Marigold252]

When you mentioned that St. Petersburg is best done with excursions, I didn't know if you meant HAL excursions, or private.

Private is the way to go. So long as you are using one of the companies frequently mentioned on CC, such as Red October, Alla, DenRus, etc., then you will be fine. The company will take care of the needed visa.

On my first cruise there I went with Red October. We saw every single thing on every single HAL tour. Everything! :D

We didn't have to wait in lines to enter the various sites, just head on in. In the Hermitage, we were in a small group, standing immediately next to our guide, so we could see the item while it was being discussed, as well as ask questions. The HAL tours nearby had 25-30 people all jammed around items; the folks in the back could see the item while the guide moved on to the next.

It may have cost more, but was well worth the extra money.

 

We used Alla for tours in Tallin, St.Petersburg, Helsinki, Stockholm, and Warnemund to Berlin. I highly recommend them especially for St.Petersburg as you see so much more in your two days than you could with the HAL tours and there were only 15 in our group. In both Helsinki and Stockholm we stayed in the city when the tours were over and walked back to the ship at our own pace. We did Kiel on our own. Tallin is easy to do on your own also. We stayed in Copenhagen two days prior and two days after the cruise and did them on our own, walking and the HoHo canal boat. They also have a HoHo bus. We used taxis to and from the airport, hotel and ship. We LOVED this trip! Have fun!

 

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Forums mobile app

[Vict0riann]

One thing, if I remember rightly, in St. Petersburg on the HAL tour was that (they told us) the Hermitage opened early just for us - so there were no little kids roaming around picking pockets! Once it opened up to everyone it was very crowded, but at least we had had a couple of hours of it on our own - with hundreds of other passengers, of course. (We were on Westerdam for the Baltic, but my all-time favourite ship is Eurodam!) Enjoy your cruise!

[julia]

After spending days on Cruise Critic and other sites, researching the itinerary, the ports, and opinions on aft vs. non-aft, I'm excited to be able to write that we have booked our 5th HAL cruise since our first one in 2011. If all goes well, we'll sail from Copenhagen on May 23rd for the 12 day Baltic Adventure on the Eurodam in cabin 7132, a wrap around aft.

 

We really debated the aft cabin because of the varying opinions on the forums about extra balcony space vs. distance to just about everything else on the ship, but this morning DH said "Let's go for it" and it's now booked.

 

This will be our second Eurodam cruise after two on the Oosterdam to Alaska, and one last summer on the Rotterdam to Norway. We found we definitely prefer the larger ships--strictly matter of personal preference, I know, and are especially looking forward to trying the Tamarind which we missed on the last cruise as DH spent the night of our reservation in the ship hospital with pneumonia.

 

Finally, the reason for this post: although, as I've said, I've spent lots of time on various forums researching this, I'm always grateful for any additional ideas or suggestions or critiques from those of you willing to share. We're especially interested in suggestions about the ports including excursions or how to do the port on our own (with the exception of St. Petersburg which we understand is best done with excursions.) Other ports include Copenhagen, Helsinki, Stockholm, Talinn, Warnamunde and Kiel.

 

Thanks so much!

 

 

Your cabin sounds lovely, and we will be (somewhat) neighbors on this cruise! :)

Please click on this link if you'd like to join the roll call for this sailing... http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1925617

Edited November 5, 2013 by julia
spelling

[rajkr74]

We did this cruise this year in May and loved it. Used Alla tours in St. Petersburg and highly recommend them!

 

Tallin--We walked into town on our own, easy.

Helsinki-Researched public transportation on the bus and tram for 7 Euros.(?) Bus stop is a block from dock.

Stockholm--Hop on Hop off boat near dock for aprox. under $20 USD. Very easy to get around the city. Must see--the Vasa ship Museum.

Kiel--Researched and took train to Lubeck an hour+ away with 13 other CC members.

 

We spent 4 days ahead of the cruise in Copenhagen and bought the Copenhagen card which got us in most of the museums and all the city transportation.

 

Here is a link to pictures of our cruise on Microsoft Skydrive.

 

https://skydrive.live.com/?cid=07afc87cdf2f6dca&sc=photos#cid=07AFC87CDF2F6DCA&id=7AFC87CDF2F6DCA%215608&sc=photos

 

Just click one of the albums then click the first photo to start the slide show. When done go to the top right and click the "view folder" to get back to the slideshow. Then click the "2013 Baltic Cruise" tab a the top of the page to get back to the 5 albums.

[rajkr74]

We also found a Poster named Danish Viking on CC who was a GREAT resource for Copenhagen. Here is the link to his CC thread:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1772831

 

He provided a wealth of info on the town.

[Lovely other]

confused as to why you think it is absolutely necessary to take guided tours in st petersburg? :confused:

[RuthC]

confused as to why you think it is absolutely necessary to take guided tours in st petersburg? :confused:

Since it's pretty much impossible to go off on your own in St. Petersburg, the only choices are a private tour, or a HAL tour.

To DIY, one would need a Russian visa, which is expensive and can be difficult to get. Then, there's the problem of getting out of the port area and into town. It's a long walk to the gate, and there won't be a line of taxis waiting once you get there.

On a private or HAL tour, you will have a group visa obtained by the tour leader. The transportation will be waiting right there when you clear Immigration.

In the opinion of many, myself included, a private tour is a much greater value for the money than a HAL tour.

[rajkr74]

Ruth is correct that it is hard to go on your own in St. Petersburg and the new cruise ship dock is quite far away from anything.

 

We found that our private tour with Alla got us to everything we wanted to see. We could not find any combination of HAL tours that got us to the places that Alla took us to and it was cheaper. They were very responsive to e-mail questions and very easy to work with. The bus we were on had only 14-16 people on it and the guide was very good. We also were given receivers with earphones that we could hear her talk into her microphone. This allowed you to be many feet away and still hear her commentary.

[kazu]

We just got back from the Baltics a few months ago.

 

After a lot of researching, I opted to go with Alla, we were able to basically form our own groups with our roll call (very active) but it's not necessary at all :D We actually did Alla's 5 city tour.

 

St. Petersburg for two days (fabulous) and several of us also did the Folkloric show (great).

 

For Warnemunde - many went to Berlin and a few of us did the Rostock and Schwerin tour (same price basically).

 

Great walking tour in Tallin, and tours in Stockholm and Helsinki.

 

we had been to the Baltics before but this time we saw much more thanks to Alla and her team.

 

I did a live thread if you want to take a look in case it may help http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1845046

 

The Kiel Canal was great.

 

I think you are in for a fantastic time and experience:)

[Lovely other]

The cost of a visa for me is £50 which I don't find too bad. It's pretty simple to get too but maybe it's a lot more complicated for Americans.

 

The idea of a guided tour makes my blood run cold ...i shall diy it and report back on my adventures. Having worked my way around 35 different countries on my own and lived in a variety of countries I'm quite adept at finding my way around places.

[rajkr74]

The cost of a visa for me is £50 which I don't find too bad. It's pretty simple to get too but maybe it's a lot more complicated for Americans.

 

The idea of a guided tour makes my blood run cold ...i shall diy it and report back on my adventures. Having worked my way around 35 different countries on my own and lived in a variety of countries I'm quite adept at finding my way around places.

 

We have never been there before so this was the simplest way thru any language, visa and transportation hassles. Alla does offer private tours that you might want to look at. We had one cruiser that used to work there in SP and Alla arranged to stop and have a taxi pick him up to visit his old work place. He met us later on our tour. Very flexible and accommodating.

 

I don't doubt your ability and desire to go on your own but let us know how it worked out, I'm interested, thanks.