Baltic Cruise

[12B@C]

We are interested in a cruise of the Baltic Sea including St. Petersburg. Does anyone have a recommendation about cruise lines and itinerary?

 

Our preference is a rather small ship and casual attire when possible. What about shore excursions? Any suggestions are appreciated.

[LHT28]

Our preference is a rather small ship and casual attire when possible. What about shore excursions? Any suggestions are appreciated.

 

What is your definition of "small ship"?

 

How casual?

 

Most will have formal nights.

[Normandie-BCN]

Small + casual = Oceania Cruises

[suron]

We would highly recommend Star Princess. We were on this ship in August 2005 for the Baltic Cruise which sailed R/T to Copenhagen. If you are interested I have posted a review which can be found via the following link

 

www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=12469

 

Another member of our Roll Call for that sailing has also posted a review under the name of sunprincess and she has also posted lots of super photos of the trip.

 

Unless you travel with one of the very informal shipping lines I think you will find that most itineraries have some degree of formal night celebration. Still it is entirely up to the individual as to whether or not they participate. For us this is part of our enjoyment in our cruising ventures but not all people share this opinion. Although Star Princess is not a small ship we never felt part of a huge crowd - there were always places to find peace and quiet and there was so much to do on board. Each port of call had so much to offer and it was difficult to choose what to do and obviously the things we did whilst ashore may not have been everyone's choice but we we very happy with the shore excursions we opted for. Some people do venture off on their own but we feel that should any hold-ups occur (traffic jams, breakdowns etc) then the ship will wait for the organised trips to return whereas they may not be so keen to wait for the private tour operators! We had experience of late arrival back at the quay when in St. Petersberg in fact - 10 coaches were delayed!!

 

You will not be disappointed in this itinerary but it is very hectic - you will need a holiday to recover but the wonderful sights make it all worthwhile.

 

Could I suggest that once you decide on when, where and with whom you will be travelling you consider joining a Roll Call. We found it so helpful both for the Baltic Trip and also the Alaskan cruise we did this May. Some of our fellow Roll Call members are still in touch and we hope to link up with one or two of them on our Norwegian Fjords cruise planned for July on Grand Princess.

 

Good Luck with your plans

Regards from Suron in Bristol, England

[aprildream]

The Norwegian Dream sails out of Dover starting in May 2007 for the summer. It's a smaller, older ship but reasonable prices. NCL has no set formal attire requirements. Its "freestyle" with dining times and attire so casual is in. You do have the option of dress up though. It stays in St. Petersburg 2 days. There are a few here that are doing the re-positioning cruise out of Houston on the Dream and then to the Baltics for the 5/5/07 cruise on the same ship 2 days later. If you want glitz and glamour, soaring glass elevators and climbing walls the Dream is not for youthough.

[suron]

Just realised I did not give you a link to the photos of the Baltic Cruise

 

You will find them on

http://community.webshots.com/user/sunprincess8

 

Hope this and the review mentioned earlier will give you a good insight into cruising in the Baltics.

 

Regards from Suron :) :)

[KiranK]

We are sailing on Oceania May 17 from Rome to Stockholm, spending 2 days in St Petersburg. My first Oceania cruise but from everything I hear, I plan on having a great time. Also, when I booked it they were having free air fare and two for one.

[Al_Frescoe]

I would avoid Princess for the simple reason that you will miss the fantastic Stockholm archipelago. If I were cruising the Baltic I think I would go for Oceania (on my wish list) or Celebrity. I have cruised on the NCL Dream also and although she is a bit older, I had a great time, and she does the Kiel canal as well.

 

Whatever you do, have a wonderful time.

 

Skål

 

Al

[12B@C]

After reading some of your suggestions, I contacted our travel agent with our first choice being the Oceania line. It seems that such a ship with less than 700 passengers and no formal attire requirements is just what we were thinking about. Anything smaller might be too slow and the larger ships are too crowded when docking in ports.

 

We also like the idea of ending in Stockholm so we can explore more of Scandinavia from there. My wife is from Norwegian descent and we would like to see the places around Bergen, Norway. Perhaps a train trip would be fun.

 

Thank you again for you inputs. I will study the postings more about the various ports of call. Perhaps an independent tour in St. Petersburg might be in order.