Just Back From the Baltics If you have any ???

[bobnjeff]

We just are getting back to normal after the cruise on May 10th. Loved all of the ports. Can't say I care much for the NCL Jewel this was our 2nd sailing on her with the 1st being last Sept on the transatlantic. The service on board is the worst of any ship I have sailed on. So I thought I would spread a little advice about the cruise. I will write a full review soon.

 

Beware if you are taking a private tour in St. Petersburg. Getting off is an ordeal. We got in line on deck 5 center at 7:30 and didn't get through customs until 9. NCL trys to blame it on the Russian customs but.....They are no worse then US custom in fact they didn't finger print us as the US now does, it seemed to me to be largely NCL's fault for selling too many tours at the same time to try to get them all off the ship at once. they told us the ship was sold out but for one room but a large number of singles were on board putting the head count at 2300 with nearly 2000 on NCL tours. At one point the Hotel manager tried to get those of us on private tours to get out of the line. We were on the pier at that point and some did but we got them back in line. And then NCL was telling their tour guests to cut in line. We were in the customs building nearly done after almost two hours of standing and me with a cane due to a broken foot. NCL was telling them their bus would leave without them. Total mess. NCL needs to get their act together. Stagger their tours. Make sure their tour guests fill out their forms correctly so they do not slow the lines. And why is it the only place to eat breakfast on these days was the buffet. The Tsars Palace did not open until 7:30???? For who since by that time most everyone was in line trying to get off the ship. Even the so called 24 hour restaurant the Blue Lagoon was not open we got there at 6 and they told us they didn't open until 6:30. So much for open 24 hours!!! And with two staff persons trying to serve coffee and juice to hundreds. What a total mess.

 

So be careful and enjoy. If you haven't yet booked tours in St. Petersburg try Den Rus. We did their value tour and it was the best. It is only $295 they covered everything with the best tour guides. We had wonderful meals included with wine and champagne. No need to deal with packed restaurants we just walked in and were seated and treated to great food in very nice restaurants. We heard the horror stories from some on the NCL tours so do your home work and you will have a great time.

[numberguy]

BobnJeff

 

I'm interested in reading your full review, because the Baltics cruise is the next NCL cruise we're taking, but not until 2011. Unless an NCL cruise pops up that we want to take--we're on our first non-NCL (RCI) cruise this December. My partner really wants to go on the Baltics cruise, so that's the next one on NCL.

 

--Michael

[iflyrc5]

We are doing the Baltic on the SUN in June 2010. Can you go into more detail about the process for getting off the ship and your Denrus tour in St. Petersburg. Also - did you use NCL tour in other ports or private one's and were there any issues in these other ports getting off the ship?

 

One last question (for now) What did you do about purchases in the various countries since there are various currencies involved.

 

Thanks,

[Hunding]

bobnjeff

 

Look forward to your complete review. We sail on the Jewel in five weeks. We, too, have scheduled with DenRus in St. Petersburg and Berlin. Curious: Were you comfortable in your cabin, and did you reserve tours in any other ports (or go off on your own)? Any "pluses" you can mention?

 

Thanks.

[Carnac767]

Looking forward to your complete review, as well. We did NCL excursions both days in St. Petersburg and they were terrific--no horror stories to report. Of course, that was a year and a half ago.

[Carnac767]

I have to add a plug here for Rick Steves' "Guide to Scandinavia." We used his self-guided walking tours in the book to walk about Tallinn, Helsinki, and Copenhagen. They were great.

[mypleasure]

Very interesting. I would really like a full review of your cruise as we are seriously thinking of doing this one next summer.

 

Jean

[Griller]

We were on the same cruise and it WAS bad for many people trying to get off on the first day, specially if you had a private tour. We did not do a tour the first day but saw the chaos.

 

SPB gave us an excellent tour on the second day, just 6 of us in a 15 seat van, with Elena who speaks good informative English twice as fast as I can. Nine solid hours of culture with, by our choice, no lunchbreak. Yes its hard work but worth it. $175. Did Hermitage (3 hours), Peter and Paul Fortess and Cathedral, Church on Spilled Blood, Yusupov Palace, Aurora Battleship, general city sightseeing.

 

The second day we were just about first off at about 7.30am, took one minute and we were on the dockside, gone through immigration, looking for our guide. Immigration problems were fixed, whatever they had been.

 

Do not miss the Yusupov Palace, and make sure the guide takes you down to the basement rooms where Rasputin was murdered, its fascinating.

 

Unlike Bob and Jeff, nice reasonable guys whose opinion I do of course respect, we thought the Jewel had great service etc, our 5th time on Jewel in just over a year. Its not Crystal, or $500 a day each and we take that into consideration. Not everything was perfect but it was generally excellent for us. I am so sorry it wasn't good for Bob and Jeff. A lot of small bad things can make a big difference to how anybody feels a cruise has been, and the chaos the first day was not a small thing either, and could perhaps have been handled somewhat better by the ship but we'll never know the reasons why it all went wrong. Anyway I doubt it will happen again.

 

 

It's worth pointing out that service in the restaurants was affected by having fewer crew in them, those crew were sent to the buffet as everything was being served to passengers in the buffet for the first half of the cruise to absolutely eradicate the previous cruise's noro outbreak which was caused by passengers coming on the ship with noro on the previous cruise.

 

The noro outbreak was well handled and was the first on Jewel for about a year, the crew hygiene on Jewel is excellent, its the rogue passengers who are the problem.

 

 

 

Even the entertainment staff were to be seen sanitising and cleaning late at night in the big effort the Hotel Director made to clear up this problem, and he succeeded thank goodness. You've never seen so much cleaning going on in your life. It wore out the crew and must have affected service levels generally.

 

 

 

Enjoy Jewel and St Pete if you are on Jewel and this itinerary!

 

Jewel is comfortable, well maintained and clean, as well as fast and stable in poor sea conditions, should you encounter any.

[G-Funk]

At one point the Hotel manager tried to get those of us on private tours to get out of the line. We were on the pier at that point and some did but we got them back in line. And then NCL was telling their tour guests to cut in line.

 

Nice move NCL!!

[Hunding]

griller

 

Thanks. I am considerably encouraged. And, bobnjeff, definitely want to read your review.

[surroundedbyboys]

Hi BobnJeff- will be on this cruise 3 weeks from today....

We are going with Denrus. I'm curious- had the ship already been cleared and the doors opened when you got in line at 7:30? (Our itinerary shows an 8:00am arrival). I'm just wondering if there were others in line in front of you that were able to get off immediately when they opened the doors up...so would it be better to get in line even earlier than 7:30 to be among the first ones off? Our instructions from Denrus are: As soon as you hear the Russian Navy Brass Band melodies through your cabin window, it means the ship is cleared (Clearance procedure takes usually 15 minutes) and we are ready to start. Please, try to be among the first at the ship gangway not to be delayed by the ship tours crowd.

[Hawks11]

Looking forward to your complete review, as well. We did NCL excursions both days in St. Petersburg and they were terrific--no horror stories to report. Of course, that was a year and a half ago.

I will look forward to any opinions about this trip as I will be sailing in the Jewel commencing 9th July. DenRus tours look good and I am also waiting a reply from Red October with suggestions. As there are four of us we will probably be looking to share as it doesn't as yet compute with their trips. I am also looking for a reasonable deal as the £1 is not looking too good at present.

I have sailed on NCL Pearl and Jade and rate them in that order.

[cpdad]

I will look forward to any opinions about this trip as I will be sailing in the Jewel commencing 9th July. DenRus tours look good and I am also waiting a reply from Red October with suggestions. As there are four of us we will probably be looking to share as it doesn't as yet compute with their trips. I am also looking for a reasonable deal as the £1 is not looking too good at present.

I have sailed on NCL Pearl and Jade and rate them in that order.

We also took the DenRus tour and it was great. Be aware that any two-day tour you book, with any travel company, will be a whirlwind tour. You will suffer from information overload - there is so much to pack into two days. Also, at least on the DenRus tour, participants often have to move at a relatively fast pace. So, the mobility-impaired may have to work extra hard to keep-up with the group.

[Carnac767]

It was our experience on St. Petersburg excursions that all of the tour groups were rushed through many of the exhibits. It didn't matter if you were on a ship's excursion or a private one. It wasn't the fault of the tour guides, however. The docents, particularly in the Hermitage and Peterhof, were the ones hustling everyone through. Our guide in Peterhof was frequently growled at because we refused to move as fast as the docents demanded . . . not for the amount of money we paid.

[SallyUK]

We did this itinerary last year on the Jewel.

 

Just wanted to add because it didn't appear in the Freestyle Daily and we found out about it by accident, it is really worth going up on deck to see the ship sail under the Oresund Bridge. Its the longest bridge in Europe and one heck of an engineering feat. As you approach, you wonder how the ship will fit underneath it. As we were going under, trucks were going over the bridge and tooting us with their horns. The bridge runs between Sweden and Denmark.

 

Edited to add:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oresund_Bridge

[Hunding]

SallyUK

 

We sail under the Oresund just before docking in Copenhagen, yes?

[Hunding]

griller

 

Good question from iflyrc5: How did you handle/negotiate the various currencies needed on the voyage?

[sinclaj]

Thanks all for more information on the Baltics cruise. We're going in August and I can't wait. I'm thinking of using NCL tours for St. Petersburg because my DH only wants to tour one day and the second day I may be on my own. I know it will be crowded and lots of waiting, but I think I am willing to handle it, just to see what I can see.

 

Keep the information coming:)

Judy

[Carnac767]

griller

 

Good question from iflyrc5: How did you handle/negotiate the various currencies needed on the voyage?

 

I used the ATMs in each country (other than Russia) to get enough local currency for the day. In Russia everywhere we went accepted U.S. currency or Euros.

[dinoman]

I'm sailing on Jewel to the Baltics next month. I also booked the Denrus valued tour for our 2 days in St Petersburg. I'm a bit concern about the chao in disembarking at StP, I hope I do not have to sleep by the gate in order to be the first in line! ;)

[Giantfan13]

WE are sailing the Jewel, mid August. Is this 'trouble' thru customs something new, where they just have to iron the kinks out, or is this something that is a continuing thing, all the time???

[cpdad]

WE are sailing the Jewel, mid August. Is this 'trouble' thru customs something new, where they just have to iron the kinks out, or is this something that is a continuing thing, all the time???

Our tour guide from DenRus thought the chaos on May16th (Day 1 at St. Petersburg) was largely due to a new Russian immigration procedure. The guide was hopeful that the procedure would become more familiar to the immigration agents over time and things would move more quickly in the near future. Of course, there is no way of predicting how many immigration agents will process your cruise in August. On May 16th, there were four agents and that was woefully inadequate. As others have mentioned, the long lines were seen only on day 1; on day 2 we were able to walk through immigration with no delay.

[cpdad]

I'm sailing on Jewel to the Baltics next month. I also booked the Denrus valued tour for our 2 days in St Petersburg. I'm a bit concern about the chao in disembarking at StP, I hope I do not have to sleep by the gate in order to be the first in line! ;)

Don't bother sleeping by the gate :D Even if you are the first passenger off the ship, you will wait on your tour bus until the rest of the passengers show up. Denrus hopes that the new immigration procedures will be more routine by the time you sail next month and things may move more quickly.

[PokerDave]

We are on the May 11th Baltic in 2010. How was the weather for you?

[Griller]

We are on the May 11th Baltic in 2010. How was the weather for you?

 

Very pleasantly warm, only Stockholm was a little cloudy and damp in the morning but even that cleared up by lunchtime.