Questions about Grand Princess Baltic, we are sailing June 28

[adgtravel]

Can anyone tell me what nights are formal on the Grand? Did you try the alternative restaurants, how much did it cost? Does the ship have indoor pool, is it warm enough to swim? What was the weather like on your cruise? Does anyone wear capri pants or skorts? We want to see Copenhagen, Tallin, and Helsinki on our own, does the ship dock close enough to town to walk? Has anyone taken ship tours in St Pete, or any other port? If so, how were they? Can you use Euros or US$ in most cities? Is Tallin best city to buy Amber? Thanks for info! Anyone else sailing June 28?

[CruisinChris]

Lots of questions. I'm just back from the 5/19 so let's see:

 

FIrst formal night is the sea day between Copenhagen and Stockholm. Your second will be the sea day between Gydnia and Oslo.

 

We at Sabttinis the night we embarked on the ship. The cover charge is $20 pp. I thought the service was excellent as was the food. If you don't like seafood it might not be the best choice for you. We skipped the Desert Rose.

 

The ship has an pool with a retractable roof which was closed during our trip. I saw people swimming and hot tubbing in this area as well as outside. While our weather was very sunny it was not particularly warm, however the outside pool deck was fairly sheltered from the wind. It should be significantly warmer on your trip. Our days were in the low 50's nights colder. Windy, sunny, and late afternoon showers in St. Pete

 

Capris pants were worn - didn't see any skorts.

 

In Tallinn the ship docks close enough to walk. Not sure about Helsinki cause our time was shortened and we stayed on board. Copenhagen you can walk to the train or taxi into town. Too far to walk.

 

We took Red October tours in St. Pete and did Gdansk on your own through the ship. SInce all they basically did was provide transportation, we were satisfied with this option, especially since the local train is not reliable.

 

The only place you can use Euros is helsinki. You'll need local currency everywhere else (though dollars were accepted in St. Pete.) The Pursers desk kept telling people shops would accept dollars but they did not. It is easy to exchange money on the ship.

 

I would say Gdansk was the best place for Amber.

 

Cruisin' Chris

 

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[Hulagirl]

We are on the Grand July 8, so getting on when first poster is getting off.

 

Chris: Have a question about exchanging money on board. When we did the Med in 2001, Princess had an ATM type of money exchange machine. Put in one type of currency and got in return the currency of the next country. Did they have this on the Grand. I'm wondering when you said it was easy to exchange money on the ship. This worked wonderfully for us and it was only $1.25 per transaction, so we made sure to do it all at once.

 

Also, I see they still have the Desert Rose? Had heard rumor that it was going to be changed over to Sterling Steakhouse on the transit over, but sounds like it wasn't.

 

Why was the day in Helsinki cut short? Just curious about that.

 

We leave in a little over 3 weeks and looking forward to the trip. Going into Copenhagen 6 days early to sighsee and relax from the long flight. Sounds like you had a wonderful trip. Want to thank you ahead for all the great information you have been passing along. Helps so much for our upcoming trips.

 

So if you have time, I would love to know a little about the above.

 

Thanks so much.

 

Hulagirl

 

 

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[dlutz]

Chris,

 

We are also booked on the July 28 cruise and are currently working with RO and Denrus on tour choices. I would be interested in your experience with RO, what you saw, what you liked-didn't like, and any special requirements you had. We may have one person that is not very mobile or in a wheelchair. Any must see's in any of the ports? Thanks for your help.

[adgtravel]

Thank you Chris for the info! We have a slightly different schedule, we don't go to Oslo, but instead Berlin. No second sea day either, but anoter day in Copenhagen. Did the Grand have an ATM money exchange machine like the previous poster talked about? Thanks

[jebjab]

We were on the 05/19 Grand with Chris (Hi Chris).

 

RO was fantastic. Our guide was Irena who was the best along with our driver Igor. There were 8 in our group and we tailored RO itinerary to our liking. They are very accomodating. However these 2 days in St Pete are very hectic, and did not feel that we had enough time in the Hermitage which was very crowded even this early. Peterhof was fantastic as was the Church of the Savior of the Spilled Blood.

 

I would not recommend this tour for anybody not very mobile or in a wheelchair. My husband was having a health problem and could not join us the 2nd day, too difficult. Europe on a whole is not very handicap friendly, and especially these ports. Lots of stairs, not many ramps or elevators, cobblestone streets, and in general a lot of walking. Very challenging.

 

The Grand had an ATM money exchange machine, but you could also exchange money at the Purser's Desk. On the last day, I exchanged all my foreign currency into American money at the Pruser's Desk, although they didn't exchange Polish money.

 

We also went to Warnemunde, Germany instead of Oslo. This ship being too large, had to dock way out(which was the case in other ports)and take a shuttle into Warnemunde, which is a lovely seaside town.

 

We took a Princess tour in Stockholm, "The Best of Stockholm", which was very well done and enabled us to see a lot in such a short time. The tour also included lunch.

 

Judy

 

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[cannonball]

I'm just off the May 29th sailing and as far as using dollars we were able to use them not only in Russia but also in Tallinn and Gdansk. Tallinn is NOT cheap contrary to popular belief. Gdansk and St. Petersburg are much better places to shop.

 

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[FeegleGirl]

I have just been on the Grand Princess and found that you could pay in USD and Euros in most countries. In Gdansk I even paid part in dollars and part in euros for the same item. However, you will get a better deal if you pay in local currency. The best place to buy amber is Gdansk, especially in Mariacka street. You will get 20% off if you pay cash instead of using a card.

 

The walk from the ship into Tallin is just about 10 minutes and even shorter in Oslo. Copenhagen is a different matter though. It takes 10 minutes to walk to Norhavn station and from there it should take 10 minutes by train to the Central station. Once in the centre all the attractions are within walking distance, except maybe The Little Mermaid, which is not too far from the port.

In Helsinki you can either walk for about 30 minutes or take a shuttle provided by the port authorities. It costs $8 return, paid in cash to the driver. In Gdansk take the Princess tour called "Gdansk on your own" which is just a bus transfer. It takes around one hour from the port to Gdansk.

 

If you want to go on any of the Princess tours I recommend that you book in advance. Many of them were sold out before we boarded the ship, particularly the Grand Tour of St Petersburg. This one is better value than booking several separate tours, but you would be better off booking a tailor-made tour through a Russian travel agent. We wasted hours waiting for other people in our group to come back from wherever they had gone to (the restrooms and souvenir stands especially) and we didn't spend enough time at the Hermitage or Peterhof because of that.

[klauer]

Thanks to everyone for the information -- we are on the June 28 cruise also, and had some of the same questions.

[Hulagirl]

Thank you so much for the information about the ports and the money. Glad to hear they have the ATM currency converter on the ship. That helped when you just needed a small amount of local currency when on tour. We found there were just times it was easier to have local cash.

 

We booked the tours we wanted when it opened up on the web site. Wanted to make sure we got what we wanted. Remember that in the Med 3 years ago. So many things were booked up by the time of the cruise and it paid to book early.

 

Again, thank you for the great information. Really appreciate it.

 

Susan

 

 

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