Baltic Cruise with 20 Year Old Son

[flannbarr]

My wife and I are going to Scotland for the British Open in July 2022 (7/10-7/17). We are trying to add a Baltic cruise before the Scotland trip.

 

The cruises that work in our timeframe are Royal Caribbean's Voyager of the Seas for 7 nights or Enchanted Princess for 11 nights. We primarily sail on Royal Caribbean but have sailed on Princess twice.

 

The Scotland portion of the trip is just my wife and me and 4 other couples. We are considering having our 20 year old join us on the cruise before Scotland and then he would fly home to Florida while we go to Scotland.

 

I am wondering what the ages of those sailing the Baltic will likely be on Princess and if our son may be bored or not. He is not a history buff but enjoys cruises.

 

Thank you in advance for your thoughts.

[Steelers36]

24 minutes ago, flannbarr said:

My wife and I are going to Scotland for the British Open in July 2022 (7/10-7/17). We are trying to add a Baltic cruise before the Scotland trip.

 

The cruises that work in our timeframe are Royal Caribbean's Voyager of the Seas for 7 nights or Enchanted Princess for 11 nights. We primarily sail on Royal Caribbean but have sailed on Princess twice.

 

The Scotland portion of the trip is just my wife and me and 4 other couples. We are considering having our 20 year old join us on the cruise before Scotland and then he would fly home to Florida while we go to Scotland.

 

I am wondering what the ages of those sailing the Baltic will likely be on Princess and if our son may be bored or not. He is not a history buff but enjoys cruises.

 

Thank you in advance for your thoughts.

I couldn't begin to suggest an age range, but it is summer time and families are traveling together.  We did see youth on our Princess Baltic cruise, but I wouldn't say tons of them.  The full 11-night trip will be more enriching.  You will have two days in St Petersburg which is necessary to see a lot of attractions.  A chunk of the voyage is fairly port intensive, but we really enjoyed the experience.  Had great experience with private tour providers. 

 

[Grillfish]

Our 12 night Baltic cruise on Celebrity was port intensive, during early May and low # of children/youths.  However, it's one of our best cruises from a culture, historical and geographical perspectives.  Just the 2 nights alone in Sp. Petersburg (which we used TJ Travel and were awesome!) was amazing.

 

I was so tired at the end of the day from ports, I slept like a baby, so can't tell you what it was like after the early show time,

Edited June 21, 2021 by Grillfish

[mjmalino]

We did a 14 night Baltic cruise in 2016, our kids were 18 and 17. My older son had a blast with his group and my younger son made a had a group in the teen center that he would meet up with there, then they would leave and do other things at night. I can't tell you how many, but there was a decent number. Also, just as an FYI, on the cruises in and out of London (not sure if that is what you are looking at) the majority of the people are from the UK and they will lower the drinking age to 18.

[MamaFej]

We did the Baltic in July of 2016. There was a HUGE group of recent high (secondary?) school grads from the UK. They made very good use of their beverage packages. There was also a multi-generational group from Minnesota, many of whom were in their 20s. A couple of the young men "adopted" me and decided to buy me drinks a few nights in Club 6 (or something like that - whatever the night club was called on the Regal). Hubby is an early to bed kind of guy, and they either felt sorry for me, or were just having some fun with an old (49) lady, and gathering anecdotes to tell their friends later.

In any event, while most were in the 50+ crowd, there were definitely plenty of fun younger people on board. If your son enjoys cruises, I imagine he will enjoy this one, and be thankful to you for including him in part of your trip. 

[mevs904]

Well, we were on the August 2019 Regal Baltic cruise and it was fantastic.  However, we don’t remember seeing a lot of younger passengers.  The cruise was by far, the richest one that we had ever taken in terms of experiences and culture and was, by far, our favorite Princess cruise.  Since it was so port intensive we saw a lot less typical cruise activities such as swimming, drinking,  and hanging out by the pool.  I agree with the previous poster who praised the non-Princess excursions.  They had fewer than half of the number of people on the Princess tours and were half of the price.  Their tour guides were excellent. We chose Alla Tours and because we booked their 2 day St. Petersburg tour they gave us discounts on their tours in Stockholm, Helsinki, and Estonia.  Hopefully your son would enjoy these also.  Good luck in your decision making.

[ontheweb]

7 hours ago, mevs904 said:

Well, we were on the August 2019 Regal Baltic cruise and it was fantastic.  However, we don’t remember seeing a lot of younger passengers.  The cruise was by far, the richest one that we had ever taken in terms of experiences and culture and was, by far, our favorite Princess cruise.  Since it was so port intensive we saw a lot less typical cruise activities such as swimming, drinking,  and hanging out by the pool.  I agree with the previous poster who praised the non-Princess excursions.  They had fewer than half of the number of people on the Princess tours and were half of the price.  Their tour guides were excellent. We chose Alla Tours and because we booked their 2 day St. Petersburg tour they gave us discounts on their tours in Stockholm, Helsinki, and Estonia.  Hopefully your son would enjoy these also.  Good luck in your decision making.

Our Star Princess Baltic cruise was in 2007. We also used Alla in St. Petersburg. That was before Alla and other tour providers had tours in other ports. But we did not find we really needed any tours whether Princess or private in those other ports. In Talinn, Estonia, for example we had the Rick Steeves' Scandanavia book with us and just followed his detailed walking tour.

 

One suggestion I would make is check your roll call. There may be someone looking to have others join their private tour. Or in our case, we were the ones who suggested a tour; we ended up with a group of 10.

[mevs904]

We also did not use a tour in Tallinn.  It was walkable and enjoyable.  As far as the other cities are concerned several of the attractions required some kind of transportation to get to them, for example, the Vasa Museum, the Vineland Sculpture Park, Rostock and the Schwerin Castle, etc.  It would have been challenging to get to these places on your own.  If you just stayed in the port or town area you would miss a lot.  Also, in Sweden the Regal ports at Nynashamn,  several miles from Stockholm.  Our table mates chose to tour independently there and very nearly missed the ship at the end of day due to ground transportation confusion.  They were fortunate that the ship waited over 30 minutes for them and a few other passengers.  We also used the Rick Steves book, but in the case of this itinerary I would be very cautious about sightseeing on your own.

[ontheweb]

32 minutes ago, mevs904 said:

We also did not use a tour in Tallinn.  It was walkable and enjoyable.  As far as the other cities are concerned several of the attractions required some kind of transportation to get to them, for example, the Vasa Museum, the Vineland Sculpture Park, Rostock and the Schwerin Castle, etc.  It would have been challenging to get to these places on your own.  If you just stayed in the port or town area you would miss a lot.  Also, in Sweden the Regal ports at Nynashamn,  several miles from Stockholm.  Our table mates chose to tour independently there and very nearly missed the ship at the end of day due to ground transportation confusion.  They were fortunate that the ship waited over 30 minutes for them and a few other passengers.  We also used the Rick Steves book, but in the case of this itinerary I would be very cautious about sightseeing on your own.

I remember walking to the Vasa in Stockholm and basically no line as we basically got there as it was opening. I think we docked nearby, but I could be mistaken as 2007 (a cruise for our 30th anniversary) was a long time ago. As for the Sculpture park in Oslo, the bus service is very efficient, and at every stop had the approximate time to wait for each bus. We even got to the Munch Museum with no problem even though it was out of the way and IIRC on no excursions. All the ports seem very good at handing out maps and helping all of us to plot out what we wish to see.

Edited June 22, 2021 by ontheweb

[mevs904]

It sounds like you had a very successful trip.  As I mentioned in my previous post, unless things have changed in the last couple of years, the Regal ports many miles away from Stockholm proper.  There were passengers who chose to get to the train station and catch a train into Stockholm.

[ontheweb]

19 hours ago, mevs904 said:

It sounds like you had a very successful trip.  As I mentioned in my previous post, unless things have changed in the last couple of years, the Regal ports many miles away from Stockholm proper.  There were passengers who chose to get to the train station and catch a train into Stockholm.

Yes, it was a very successful trip. We have had several cruises since then (August 2007, although for some reason the review says July), but I still consider it our best cruise.

 

I actually wrote my one and only cc cruise review about it. Being from 2007, it is somewhat dated, but in case you are interested:

 

Star Princess Cruise Ship: Review, Photos & Departure Ports on Cruise Critic

[Steelers36]

21 hours ago, mevs904 said:

the Schwerin Castle

If you tend to be adventurous, there is a car rental outlet right across from the dock.  We and our friends shared a rental vehicle and drove to/from Schwerin Castle (used a different route each way).  It was a very nice trip on a nice sunny day.  Light traffic.  No problem at all.

 

[Essiesmom]

Rick Steves now has a book for Scandinavia and Northern Europe Cruise Ports which might be of use for those who want to diy.  It might also be useful in helping a young adult decide if the trip might be for him.  EM

[CineGraphic]

Your son will love the Baltic, and seeing the beautiful young women from Scandinavia and Russia.

He'll be so distracted, it won't matter if there are other kids on board!

[ontheweb]

1 hour ago, Essiesmom said:

Rick Steves now has a book for Scandinavia and Northern Europe Cruise Ports which might be of use for those who want to diy.  It might also be useful in helping a young adult decide if the trip might be for him.  EM

We, back in 2007, bought very inexpensively a used copy of his Scandanavia book. The only difference in an old copy is entry prices for places will be more expensive than the book says. Attractions will be the same. Things like restaurants and hotels may very well change, but since you are on a cruise ship, this is not up to date information you need to know. 

[fluffybunny22]

We are doing this itinerary next year with our 19 year old. It was supposed to be his graduation present last year. The one upside of sailing from Europe is he gets the alcoholic beverage package because we booked the Princess Plus package. He doesn't really have much of an opinion on where we travel so we just go with what interests us. 

[MamaFej]

14 hours ago, CineGraphic said:

Your son will love the Baltic, and seeing the beautiful young women from Scandinavia and Russia.

He'll be so distracted, it won't matter if there are other kids on board!

And if handsome young men are his thing, instead of (or in addition to) beautiful young women, he will love that, too. 

[CineGraphic]

5 hours ago, MamaFej said:

And if handsome young men are his thing, instead of (or in addition to) beautiful young women, he will love that, too. 

 

I was going to add that as well, lol!

 

[Esprit]

I dislike Royal Caribbean but for the sake of your son's enjoyment I am very reluctantly not recommending Princess.

 

Older people go on Baltic cruises for the diverse cultures and the cooler weather and Princess will have fewer youngsters on board I'm sure.

Edited June 24, 2021 by Esprit