Having great difficulty narrowing down between 2 cruises

[Stellamom]

Hello.

 

We are booked on a 14 day Baltic cruise on the Island Princess for next June. I am debating canceling this cruise and booking on the Carnival Pride for a 12 day cruise. I am torn between the ports. The Island Princess spends 2 days in Stockholm, where the pride only spends 1 day there. Another difference is the Pride goes to Helsinki, where the Island Princess goes to Bornholm (which I read was underwhelming) and Visby. Can anyone offer me any advice? I also wonder if the sea weather will be warm enough for the pools on board. We are traveling with our 12 year old son, and if it is too cold to swim, it will be looooonnnnngggg days at sea!

[ontheweb]

4 hours ago, Stellamom said:

Hello.

 

We are booked on a 14 day Baltic cruise on the Island Princess for next June. I am debating canceling this cruise and booking on the Carnival Pride for a 12 day cruise. I am torn between the ports. The Island Princess spends 2 days in Stockholm, where the pride only spends 1 day there. Another difference is the Pride goes to Helsinki, where the Island Princess goes to Bornholm (which I read was underwhelming) and Visby. Can anyone offer me any advice? I also wonder if the sea weather will be warm enough for the pools on board. We are traveling with our 12 year old son, and if it is too cold to swim, it will be looooonnnnngggg days at sea!

Stockholm was the one port on our Baltic cruise in which there was not nearly enough time to do the things we wanted to do. Another day would have been wonderful.

 

Weather is unpredictable. I will say on our cruise (August 2007) it was warm. Even St. Petersburgh had temperatures in the high 80s.

[hallasm]

Personally, I would keep the Island Princess  cruise. There is plenty to see in Stockholm for two days.  
Both Bornholm and Visby are new destinations that will be developed further.  They are two small destinations, but with a little planning, both Bornholm and Visby are interesting destinations.  

Personally, I am not enthusiastic about Helsinki.

[ontheweb]

12 hours ago, hallasm said:

Personally, I would keep the Island Princess  cruise. There is plenty to see in Stockholm for two days.  
Both Bornholm and Visby are new destinations that will be developed further.  They are two small destinations, but with a little planning, both Bornholm and Visby are interesting destinations.  

Personally, I am not enthusiastic about Helsinki.

I can't comment on those new ports, but I do agree that Helsinki was a port that we found less fascinating than the others on the cruise.

 

To @Stellamom, I hope whichever cruise you pick has Tallinn, Estonia. That is truly a gem, a fascinating port.

[Stellamom]

Yes, Tallin is included. 
 

thanks!

[ljandgb]

We did the Baltic the first week of June.  It was cool on deck and the lifeguards wore what looked like north sea fisherman gear. That did not stop my 10yo son from swimming at all.

 

We enjoyed Helsinki, due to the excursions we did. A few of us went to feed reindeer at a sanctuary.  The rest did a high speed boat ride out to a nearby island.  The boat riders had some wild stories, and I thoroughly enjoyed the reindeer.

 

I agree Stockholm could easily use 2 days.  It's a beautiful city, easy to navigate, and has plenty to see that even a young boy would enjoy.  My son likes to try new food and we went to the food hall downtown.  The vendors were incredibly nice, and we came away with a true smorgasbord of goodies to sample.

[ontheweb]

18 minutes ago, Stellamom said:

Yes, Tallin is included. 
 

thanks!

In Tallinn we followed a Rick Steves tour out of his Scandanavia book we had bought used on Amazon.

 

One suggestion for Stockholm is the Vasa Museum. I think a 12 year old as well as adults would enjoy it. The Vasa was a ship that basically sunk as soon as it left the harbor. Everything has been preserved. I am sure you can google Vasa and get more specific information, but let me just say it was fascinating.

[Ulsteinvik]

The Pride isn't going directly to Stockholm. It goes to Nynäshamn with distance about 50 minutes to Stockholm.

[hallasm]

48 minutes ago, Ulsteinvik said:

The Pride isn't going directly to Stockholm

Important information - sailing the Stockholm Archipelago was one of the highlights- in addition to the distance into Stockholm it’s another reason to keep the Island Princess  cruise. 

[Scottishclover]

We did a Baltic Cruise in July with 2 older teens and had 2 days in Stockholm. We could have spent much longer there. Lots to do and plenty to appeal to your 12 year old, especially on Djurgarden. By the way, crew members told me that Grona Lund is much better than Tivoli in Copenhagen for rides, if your son is into that. It would make a great night time excursion in Stockholm as it’s open late.

 

The first stop on our cruise was Bornholm. I think a lot of people found it underwhelming but we liked it. We took a bus up to Hammershus Castle and explored. The main town was filled with Danish holidaymakers and gave us a great impression of local life. I think Bornholm, and I imagine Visby too, offer a nice change of pace from the cities on a Baltic cruise. I certainly wouldn’t rule out a cruise because of these ports. 

 

I know a lot of people don’t think Helsinki compares with other cities on a Baltic cruise and it probably doesn’t in terms of things to see and do, but it was actually my daughter’s favourite stop. She said it had a cool vibe.  You could rent electric scooters everywhere to get about, which I’m sure any 12 year old would love.
 

Something to consider: Everyone  says that a Baltic Cruise is all about the ports and I would say that’s normally true, but there’s a balance to be had if you are travelling with children. The ship really does matter in that case. You will know how much activity your son needs. I’m not sure any 12 year old ever thinks it’s too cold to swim 😂 There were quite a few children on our cruise and the pool was well used.

 

Im sure you will have a great time, no matter what high cruise you pick. 
 

 

[DragonOfTheSeas]

We went on a Baltic cruise this summer [included all of the ports mentioned].  We had 4.5 days in Stockholm and did not see all we wanted.  We originally booked only had 3.5 days there pre-cruise, but when St Petersburg was dropped from our trip our cruise overnighted in Stockholm for one day before embarkation.  We were bummed by that . . . but, there was so much to do there we ended up happy with that.  

 

If you have 2 days I would suggest spending one day in Gamla Stan [old town] and 1 day on Djurgarden--the park with many museums. [We especially liked the Vasa Museum and the Viking Museum].  I am not sure how you would decide what to see in one very short port day. You would lose ~2 hours of your port time getting into and out of the city from a port stop in Nynäshamn. I agree the sail out in the Stockholm archipelago is an "excursion" worth seeing.

 

I agree Tallin was a high point.  Helsinki was not my favorite. [JMHO] On Bornholm you need to book an excursion.  There is not much in the city of Ronne to do.  I like Visby.  It has an interesting original city wall [and is very walkable--mostly uphill].  

 

After touring Tallin and Visby your 12-year-old will be too tired to swim. LOL 😄

 

Have a great cruise. 

 

[bearette]

We did a Baltic with 10 year old twins this past summer. They had a heat wave with record temperatures, we were hoping for cool weather so you never know. If you Google the ports and the things to do , and do a separate search with things to do with kids you may find your answer. 

 

Where do they leave from? Week g some pre or post cruise we days may help your decision.

[Heartgrove]

I think you would enjoy the Island Princess with the overnite in Stockholm more. We did a Baltic cruise in 2017 that docked overnight in Stockholm at Masthamnen which was perfect for getting around the city. We also stopped at Helsinki which was very enjoyable. Tallin is not to be missed!

[ontheweb]

37 minutes ago, Heartgrove said:

I think you would enjoy the Island Princess with the overnite in Stockholm more. We did a Baltic cruise in 2017 that docked overnight in Stockholm at Masthamnen which was perfect for getting around the city. We also stopped at Helsinki which was very enjoyable. Tallin is not to be missed!

We would have loved an overnight in Stockholm, so much to do there! OTOH, we had an overnight in St. Petersburg, and it is a shame that no one will be going there.

 

And of course I agree on Tallinn.

[janetcbl]

On 11/3/2022 at 8:16 AM, Ulsteinvik said:

The Pride isn't going directly to Stockholm. It goes to Nynäshamn with distance about 50 minutes to Stockholm.

Nynashamn instead of Stockholm would be a dealbreaker for me. 

[BluebonnetTexan]

Here’s another vote for spending as much time in Stockholm as possible. We had 3.5 days before our cruise departed and would have loved even more time. Vasa Museum should definitely be #1 on your list there. Lots there that I think I 12-year-old would enjoy.
We also loved Tallinn and Gdańsk. Helsinki was I think the least favorite port of all we experienced on our Baltic trip. But, I’m glad we went to see how it compared to Stockholm, Saint Petersburg, Oslo, and Copenhagen.