Northern European Cruise anyone?

[Tara1979]

Hello,
I've been on 3 Disney cruises and they are the best thing ever! But we've only been on the Dream and Fantasy and they only go to the Caribbean. So my husband and I were thinking of taking the Magic next summer to Northern Europe. It seems not many people do because most posts and questions are about the Caribbean cruises. So has anyone out there done the Disney cruise that starts in Denmark and ends in England with all the stops along Northern Europe? Specifically am wondering how safe you felt at the stop in St.Petersburg, Russia and Estonia? What are the excursions like in the different countries? I'd love to hear details if you've done it. Thanks!

 

[alexandmaddie]

I think what you're really asking about is a Northern European cruise in the Baltic Sea.

We did this cruise in 2015 and felt completely safe in both St. Petersburg and in Tallin. It was a great cruise and I highly recommend it! We did an Adventures by Disney cruise add on, so our excursion choices were different than what is normally offered.

 

[o&smom]

We also did this cruise in 2015 with DS 11 and DD 5. We all had a great time and enjoyed all of the ports. We did a shorter day excursion with the kids in St Petersburg with the kids to see the Church on the Spilled Blood, do a little shopping, and enjoy some Russian treats like beef stroganoff, vodka, and a caviar tasting for our son who fell in love with it on our first Disney cruise when he had just turned 7. (Thanks Disney!) My husband and I left the kids in the kid's club and enjoyed a private tour and concert in the Hermitage with Disney in the evening. We felt very safe both times.

 

[linetbo]

We did this cruise in July, St Petersburg was my favorite port and excursion, we did a private excursion, and Tallin was my second favorite tour. Stockholm it's beautiful but our tour was not good. And Helsinki waso just good, not awesome as St Petersburg and Tallin.

 

[Tara1979]

Nice to hear some people have done the cruise I was referring too. Any issues with language in port or you find most spoke English? It seems like such a great opportunity to see so many places in such a short time.

 

[michellekcm]

We did it last year. We loved Tallin and Stockholm. St Petersburg was probably our least favourite, but take into account we had young children (2 and 6) so our port adventure choices were limited. Having said that, we did enjoy seeing a small bit of Russia.

We had no language issues anywhere.

We felt safe in most places. We were warned on our tour bus to be careful of pickpockets in St Petersburg. Unfortunately one group on our tour were pickpocketed and they lost money. Luckily the thieves returned the passports to the tour guide just as we were about to drive off, as the people hadn't even noticed they (and their money) were missing. We didn't ever feel physically unsafe though.

 

[kiford]

Did this last year too. Amazing trip. Loved every port. St. Petersburg was awesome. I had the Hermitage on my bucket list and fully expected to be disappointed by it. I was absolutely blown away and would love another chance at it. Loved Stockholm and particularly sailing out through the archipelago - we spent hours with friends on deck looking at all of the islands and the houses on them. Berlin was fantastic - we will definitely visit again. Tallin was my least favourite only because it was so small. But when I say my least favourite, it's like asking what is your least favourite of a bunch of amazing chocolates. I really enjoyed it, had an amazing tour, saw great views, wonderful architecture and history but it just couldn't compare to the Hermitage for me, the castles we saw in Denmark, the architecture in Finland, etc. Still a great place to visit.

Any issues with language in port or you find most spoke English?

Somewhat depends on where you are. Many people in the Nordic countries speak English extremely well and in Germany most people learn English in school for at least a year or two. Tour guides in all countries were very fluent, even in Russia.

I would highly recommend this particular cruise. I hadn't been terribly interested in any of the ports other than St. Petersburg (for the Hermitage) but it's turned out to be one of the best cruises we've been on. I'd do it again (and probably will) and may even spend some time in those cities on a non-cruise holiday. My father loved Copenhagen when he visited a few years ago and I have to concur with him. Just one of those cities where you feel at home right away.

 

[Tara1979]

Did this last year too. Amazing trip. Loved every port. St. Petersburg was awesome. I had the Hermitage on my bucket list and fully expected to be disappointed by it. I was absolutely blown away and would love another chance at it. Loved Stockholm and particularly sailing out through the archipelago - we spent hours with friends on deck looking at all of the islands and the houses on them. Berlin was fantastic - we will definitely visit again. Tallin was my least favourite only because it was so small. But when I say my least favourite, it's like asking what is your least favourite of a bunch of amazing chocolates. I really enjoyed it, had an amazing tour, saw great views, wonderful architecture and history but it just couldn't compare to the Hermitage for me, the castles we saw in Denmark, the architecture in Finland, etc. Still a great place to visit.



Somewhat depends on where you are. Many people in the Nordic countries speak English extremely well and in Germany most people learn English in school for at least a year or two. Tour guides in all countries were very fluent, even in Russia.

I would highly recommend this particular cruise. I hadn't been terribly interested in any of the ports other than St. Petersburg (for the Hermitage) but it's turned out to be one of the best cruises we've been on. I'd do it again (and probably will) and may even spend some time in those cities on a non-cruise holiday. My father loved Copenhagen when he visited a few years ago and I have to concur with him. Just one of those cities where you feel at home right away.

Loved hearing how much you enjoyed the whole cruise. Thanks for sharing!

 

[ldo]

there are some good reviews for "DCL Baltics cruise" if you search to give you an idea of what you'll see.

 

[Love2Cruz]

I would like to do this itinerary one day, with stops in St. Petersburg and Germany being must do's. I did a land trip to Frankfurt many years ago and fell in love with Germany. A perk would be Amersterdam too...but not sure I'd find that perfect itinerary.

 

[aggiedog]

We did this cruise last year, with a week traveling in Iceland and Copenhagen prior. It was fantastic. Language was basically never an issue. Tours are very easy to arrange on your own via a bit of research on tripadvisor and emailing companies. We felt completely safe everywhere we went. We were warned about pick pockets in SPB, but common sense is all you really need to avoid problems there. Tallinn was actually our favorite port.

 

[Deb T.]

We enjoyed our Northern Baltic Capitals cruise in 2010 so much that we did it again in 2015. The first time, we did organized excursions in every port. The second time, we walked throughout each city, exploring and sightseeing (except for St. Petersburg because of their visa requirement). Never felt scared or nervous, but we are also very cautious and took precautions such as always carrying our passports and extra cash in "hidden wallets."

 

[KDG]

Do it! We did this cruise this past July 2016 and it was fantastic. Loved St. Petersburg-arrange a private tour with Anastasia Tours. Their tours are completely customizable. Loved Tallin-do a self guided tour with Rick Steves' guide book. The Stockholm archipelago was gorgeous-wished we had binoculars. Didn't get to spend much time in Helsinki. We were disappointed in our Disney tour there. If we went again, we'd get around on our own.

We felt safe everywhere and had no language barriers except in Russia. Our guides spoke wonderful English. Again, DO IT!

 

[mouthdoc]

We (myself, DW, DD20, DD18) did this itinerary last year. I highly recommend it. St. Petersburg was the big draw, but we found Copenhagen, Stockholm, Helsinki, Tallinn more enjoyable. We only did tours in St. Petersburg, as stated above due to the visa issue. The remainder were planned using mainly Rick Steve's guidebook, he has a good one: Northern European Cruise Ports. We had a blast walking around all the above cities, picked out sites and restaurants we wanted to visit. Felt completely safe. English is spoken by almost all in the tourist areas. All ports are easy to navigate on foot, free shuttles to the city center are available when needed. I would highly recommend this cruise, especially as you have cruised with Disney before. I recommend at least one full day in Copenhagen before or after if possible.

 

[MPS516]

The Magic is a fabulous ship and the itinerary is amount the best DCL sails. We did private tours in most ports and the 2 days in St Petersburg and the area were dry full, rest well before getting there. We did Tallinn on our own and were very comfortable and not even the first concern over safety. We do DCL specifically in areas we may have concerns about safety, they are very good at scouting ports. On one of our Panama Canal trips they modified itinerary to substitute a port given the original port area had reportedly had some tourist hold up on other cruise line tours. We have 2 girls and never had anyone approach them or try to get them to purchase anything, unlike several of the Caribbean ports. While English was understood in most tourist places, we did run into some people who did not speak English but out tour guides were always at hand to ensure we understood them and they us. Absolutely fantastic trip and we would do it again in a heartbeat.