Baltic cruise September 2021 yes or no?

[VMax1700]

We are booked on Rotterdam in September 2021 calling to Stockholm, Talinn,  Copenhagen, Helsinki,  Arhus, St Petersburg, Kiel, Warnemunde and Amsterdam.

Any CC members in those ports or indeed in those countries - what is your 'gut' feeling?  Will cruisers be welcome?  Will your country be open to tourists?  Will we be free to roam the ports or will it be 'bubble excursions' arranged by the cruise ship?  Our political leaders say that it will be July/August before we can travel outside the country, but the European Green Travel passport may change their minds!

[hallasm]

It does not seem that many dare to predict the future.  I think it will be possible to travel within/to Europe if vaccinated with a vaccine approved in the EU.  
There is also a high probability that there are cruises from Amsterdam, but I doubt that visits to St.  Petersburg will be possible in 2021. If St.  Petersburg is high on the list I would wait until 2022.

[VMax1700]

3 hours ago, hallasm said:

It does not seem that many dare to predict the future.  I think it will be possible to travel within/to Europe if vaccinated with a vaccine approved in the EU.  
There is also a high probability that there are cruises from Amsterdam, but I doubt that visits to St.  Petersburg will be possible in 2021. If St.  Petersburg is high on the list I would wait until 2022.

Thank you for your insight.

At the moment I am inclined to agree with you.  The EU Green Vax 'passport' will give us access to Holland, Germany, Estonia, Sweden and Denmark.  We would still be interested in the cruise, but missing St Petersburg would put a big hole in the itinerary.  

[hallasm]

I think other cruise lines like Norwegian and RCCL already has cancelled Baltic cruises in 2021 from Copenhagen. Only MSC and Silversea are announcing Baltic cruises from Copenhagen.

[dogs4fun]

Right - NCL and RCL (among others) have cancelled their 2021 Baltic cruises. All save one of the X cruises have been cancelled. I am confident that our August  Baltic cruise (X) will be cancelled - our final payment is tomorrow and I intend to cancel. I am not interested in a Baltic cruise that doesn’t visit St. Petersburg nor am I interested in mandated ship tours.  

Hope things improve in 2022.

[cruisingxpert]

Oceania Cruises announced on Apr 28th that their first cruise since the pandemic started will be Marina from Copenhagen to Stockholm on August 29th 2021 with 2 days in St Petersburg and I booked it so I do hope it will goOceania Cruises 10-days from Copenhagen, Denmark to Stockholm, Sweden.html

[dogs4fun]

Good luck @cruisingxpert - I truly hope that your cruise comes to fruition. We just cancelled our August 23rd cruise on the Reflection. There are far too many unanswered questions about the quality of the experience in Europe this year (that includes both river and ocean cruises). Will Russia be open to foreign visitors? How about the other ports of call - what venues will be fully open?

For most Baltic cruisers, a visit to Saint Petersburg is the crown jewel in the itinerary.

Despite the availability of the Sputnik V vaccine, Russia currently has only 7% of its population vaccinated, is experiencing a great deal of vaccine reluctance, and Covid 19 infections are roughly the same as during the peak of the outbreak last May (twice as many deaths). It is with these facts in mind that we cancelled. We are worried that X would cancel the visit to Saint Petersburg and/or mandate shore excursions through the ship. The latter is almost a certainty and is a deal breaker for us.

 

[CruiserBruce]

On 5/10/2021 at 6:54 AM, dogs4fun said:

Good luck @cruisingxpert - I truly hope that your cruise comes to fruition. We just cancelled our August 23rd cruise on the Reflection. There are far too many unanswered questions about the quality of the experience in Europe this year (that includes both river and ocean cruises). Will Russia be open to foreign visitors? How about the other ports of call - what venues will be fully open?

For most Baltic cruisers, a visit to Saint Petersburg is the crown jewel in the itinerary.

Despite the availability of the Sputnik V vaccine, Russia currently has only 7% of its population vaccinated, is experiencing a great deal of vaccine reluctance, and Covid 19 infections are roughly the same as during the peak of the outbreak last May (twice as many deaths). It is with these facts in mind that we cancelled. We are worried that X would cancel the visit to Saint Petersburg and/or mandate shore excursions through the ship. The latter is almost a certainty and is a deal breaker for us.

 

And...Russia is having severe vaccine production issues. The Sputnik vaccine is unique in that its second dose IS NOT the same as the first dose. Russia gave a bunch of first doses to Mexico, now can't produce the required number of second doses.