Scandinavia, Russia

[curlygirl101]

I am looking for a cruise to Scandinavia and Russia without any days at sea.  Suggestions please.   Thank you in advance for your help.

[CruiserBruce]

Realistically, not sure it is possible to do that area without a sea day. Or if it were possible, you might find high fuel costs (due to high speed runs) and short days in port.

[paul929207]

I never heard of one on that route.

 

[klfrodo]

Will need to re-evaluate your expectations

[Essiesmom]

The only way to 'cruise/visit' Scandinavia and Russia by ship is to patch together a route using the high speed overnight ferries.  Lots of ferry lines in the Baltic.  Sleep overnight on the ferry and tour during the day.  Suggest you go here:

https://www.cruisetimetables.com/

 

and choose a major Baltic port, such as St. Petersburg, and the time you would like to sail.  I chose June, and found Viking Ocean has cruises with a minimum of sea days and several port overnights;  Phoenix Reisen Albatros has a cruise with only one sea day.  I didn't follow the entire month...  EM

 

[Extra Kim]

A ferry cruise from Sweden to Helsinki, Tallinn or Riga will take 40hours including 8 hours in port. 

I think that the high speed ferry between Helsinki and Tallinn will take only a few hours.

[sverigecruiser]

8 hours ago, CruiserBruce said:

Realistically, not sure it is possible to do that area without a sea day. Or if it were possible, you might find high fuel costs (due to high speed runs) and short days in port.

 

It's absolutely possible to do such a cruise but I don't think that there are any real cruises without seadays on the Baltic sea.

[Krazy Kruizers]

Looks like you are going to have to do ferry cruises and land trips to get what you want.

[Velvetwater]

It may be possible to do a train tour of Baltic places if you fly to one of the major cities an start there.

 

 

[John Bull]

Most cruises to the Baltic or Norwegian fjords are port-intensive and include just one sea-day.

I'm not keen on sea-days, we travel for the destinations and most of our travelling is by air and by road-trip rather than by cruise ship.

But one sea-day in a 10 to 14-day cruise is no great hardship - in fact it's an opportunity to take a break and get myself together for the next ports.

 

Using ferries instead makes absolutely no sense at all - some routes will be daytime anyway, on overnite routes most cabins are tiny tiny boxes with two bunk-beds, arrival & departure times will be all over the shop, you'll spend an awful lot of time packing & unpacking and schlepping luggage.

And what are you going to do with your luggage when you want to sight-see?  If you tour by ferry you will become Cruise Critic's expert on the Baltic cities' left-luggage facilities and taxi fares. 

 

Two places in the world that are made for cruising are the Caribbean - lots of islands, all worth a day but few worth longer .......................................................................................................................................................................................................

and the Baltic  - a huge pond with glorious and varied capital cities on every shore, but a bit of a nightmare to comprehensively tour by road or by rail or by air. Or by ferry  

 

One sea-day - or even two or three - is a small price to pay for the convenience of travelling by cruise ship.

There are stax of cruise lines, stax of itineraries.

As per Essiesmom's post, figure which ports you want to visit & check how long the ship is in port - with the odd exception like Tallinn, a half-day in port is pretty pointless.  

Some are in St Petersburg for only one day (totally inadequate), most are in for two days & some for three.

And carefully check the port for Stockholm - Stadsgarten (spelling?) is ideal and Frihamnen is OK, but try to avoid Nyneshamn because it's an hour from Stockholm and more importantly ships porting at Nyneshamn don't have the wonderful sail-in through the archipelago of islands

 

JB 

Edited January 1, 2019 by John Bull

[Extra Kim]

6 minutes ago, John Bull said:

And carefully check the port for Stockholm - Stadsgarten (spelling?) is ideal and Frihamnen is OK, but try to avoid Nyneshamn because it's an hour from Stockholm and more importantly ships porting at Nyneshamn don't have the wonderful sail-in through the archipelago of islands

 

JB 

Stadsgården
Frihamnen
Nynäshamn

[hallasm]

Few Baltic cruises out of Stockholm doesn't have sea days - here are just few examples.

1. Baltic Sea Cruise with Oceania Marina - 10 days from Copenhagen to Stockholm, departure 29/08/2020
2. Baltic Sea Cruise with Seven Seas Explorer - 10 days from Copenhagen to Stockholm, departure 30/06/2020
3. Sweden, Finland, Russia, Estonia with Costa Magica - 7 days from/to Stockholm, departure 18/05/2019 (several cruises)

[Extra Kim]

24 minutes ago, Velvetwater said:

It may be possible to do a train tour of Baltic places if you fly to one of the major cities an start there.

 

 

Well I would say, no. Sure you CAN use a train, but the only place where a train would be logical is between the south part of Sweden and Denmark. 
Copenhagen - Stockholm would take 5 - 5½hrs by train.
Copenhagen - Oslo 7 - 7½hrs.
Stockholm - Oslo 6hrs.

[Velvetwater]

22 hours ago, Extra Kim said:

Well I would say, no. Sure you CAN use a train, but the only place where a train would be logical is between the south part of Sweden and Denmark. 
Copenhagen - Stockholm would take 5 - 5½hrs by train.
Copenhagen - Oslo 7 - 7½hrs.
Stockholm - Oslo 6hrs.

 

Yep, but no sea days of course.  😉

 

There is also there rather fabulous rail and sea routes that are easy access from Germany and your good country to Poland,Lithuania,Latvia and up to Estonia and Russia. Ferries are mostly overnight so essentially no sea days either.

 

Besides...my husband and I love long train journeys and have plans to do the trans-Siberian route to Bejing in the near future.

 

If anyone wants to pack a lot in this great continent then train travel really is a good option.

[John Bull]

23 hours ago, Extra Kim said:

Stadsgården
Frihamnen
Nynäshamn

 

Hi Kim,

 

I only spelled one right out of three.

That's not very good - pure laziness, couldn't be bothered to look 'em up. 

 

 Gott nytt år

(if that's wrong, I blame Google )

 

JB 

[Extra Kim]

8 hours ago, John Bull said:

 

Hi Kim,

 

I only spelled one right out of three.

That's not very good - pure laziness, couldn't be bothered to look 'em up. 

 

 Gott nytt år

(if that's wrong, I blame Google )

 

JB 

The swedish language is hard, but it's nothing compared to the finish language 😳

Happy new year to you too!