Brilliance, Regal Princess or Zuiderdam for Baltic Cruise?

[Scarlette]

 

 

11 Night Regal Princess out of Copenhagen

12 Night HAL Zuiderdam out of Copenhagen

12 Night Brilliance of the Seas out of Amsterdam

 

I posted this on the Princess board, but thought I would post here as well.  We have already been on the Brilliance sister ship Serenade of the seas.   We would consider Brilliance if it is the better itinerary because we really love our cruise on the Serenade.  But would definitely try a new ship if it had the better itinerary.

 

This Baltic cruise this summer as a college graduation gift for my son.  There will be our family of 5 with adult children in their early 20s.

 

Are there some ports that are not to be missed?  Which is the better itinerary the end of June?

 

 

 

 

[RSLeesburg]

I actually like the HAL itinerary the best.  You get Berlin (Warnemunde) and Stockholm, and one extra night.  Although the Princess itinerary gets you Oslo.  Are the times in St Petersburg the same for all three?  I have heard that you want as much time in port there as there is so much to see.  

[Scarlette]

Yes, that is why I am torn.  We have been loyal to royal, but I liked the Berlin stop, but Princess has the Oslo stop.

 

Is there one ship that is better/newer/have more engaging activities for the 20-somethings to do on our cruising days? 

[vinob]

We did the Baltic on Royal Princess about 3 years go and were quite impressed with the ship and the service, whilst we have cruised with other lines this was our first with Princess and we were not disappointed. You must do St Petersburg absolutely not to be missed.  We did our 2 day tour with a private company which was about half the price of the Princess tour for St Petersburg, everything went like clockwork and the beauty of it was that we were on a mini bus only 18 of us, so much easier to hear what the guide was saying and easier to move through the crowds in the Hermitage, also you didn't have to pay for the tour until the morning of the 2nd day. They also gave a guarantee to get you back to the ship on time on the last day, couldn't fault the company.  We did Tallinn on our own, but in hindsight I wish we had booked a private tour for the history of Tallinn.  We did our thing for Stockholm, we got the train into Stockholm and used local transport in Stockholm itself.  There was a hop on hop off bus for Stockholm at Nyhasham, which I imagine would be there every day there is a large sip in.   If you want I will look back for the company we used in St Petersburg, but I'm sure it was something like TJ travel. 

[RSLeesburg]

So, two choices.  Royal was offering a 14 day Baltic/Northern Europe on Indy or Explorer out of Southampton.  Cannot remember the itinerary but don’t think it is offered that many times, and it is expensive - at least the suites were priced very high.  Also NCL has Getaway or Escape doing a 9 day out of Copenhagen.  It is newer and has more, and its itinerary is not bad - but not as good as the longer cruises.  

 

Good luck - I was pricing these out for 2020, but I think my wife wants to do land tour with Tauck 

[kochleffel]

I wouldn't give too much weight to the so-called Berlin stop, because Warnemünde is quite a distance from Berlin and your time there will be limited by the long bus or train journey.

 

If other things were equal, I'd choose the Amsterdam itinerary, but that's only because it's easier to fly to Amsterdam from where I live than to Copenhagen.

[Scarlette]

2 hours ago, kochleffel said:

I wouldn't give too much weight to the so-called Berlin stop, because Warnemünde is quite a distance from Berlin and your time there will be limited by the long bus or train journey.

 

If other things were equal, I'd choose the Amsterdam itinerary, but that's only because it's easier to fly to Amsterdam from where I live than to Copenhagen.

Thanks for the reminder,  I now remember reading Warnemunde was a good distance away from Berlin.

Edited April 2, 2019 by Scarlette