Just back from first Baltic cruise.......any questions?

[Angeshall]

I've been a big lurker on the Dis over the years and feel that's it's now time to give something back!

We arrived back this afternoon from the first Baltic cruise. It was an amazing trip and we are all feeling very tired! We are a family of 4 (DH, DD7, DD2) and we were in 11B (sideways) on deck 5.

I have all the Navigators, which I will scan (when I'm back in work on Monday) and will upload them.

So.......any questions......ask away.

 

[DISNEY FANTASY]

Did you get into St Petersburg early or on time? Did you do DCL tour there or private and if a private tour how was it?

How was the weather.

 

[Angeshall]

Yes, was on time, I think about 6.30am/7am (ish). We had a tour booked (via DCL) St.Pete's Intro, which met at 9am. It was crazy busy for breakfast, so we went to Lumiere's as we had the time.

This main issue was with immigration. It took us 30 mins to get through (we're from the UK). It was taking some of the American passengers much longer. The frustrating thing was that there is nothing that you can do about it!!!

Hopefully, it will get better as the season progresses.

 

[DISNEY FANTASY]

Yes, was on time, I think about 6.30am/7am (ish). We had a tour booked (via DCL) St.Pete's Intro, which met at 9am. It was crazy busy for breakfast, so we went to Lumiere's as we had the time.

This main issue was with immigration. It took us 30 mins to get through (we're from the UK). It was taking some of the American passengers much longer. The frustrating thing was that there is nothing that you can do about it!!!

Hopefully, it will get better as the season progresses.

Interesting on the immigration, last time I was there it was a breeze, a minute or two, we were on a private tour and just showed our papers and through.

(UK as well)

Lat time in St Petes in 2010 we were in an hour before the advertised time I would have liked that this time as well.

Did you dock here?

 

[Angeshall]

Our head server told us that an American family she had spoke to had been kept waiting so long that they decided to head back to the ship!!

Brent mentioned the night before St.Pete's that they didn't know what to expect, with the Russian authorities given that it was the first cruise of the season.

Our meeting point was in D Lounge and we were kept there until 9.30am, because the lines for the earlier tours hadn't progressed through immigration.

It was just a bit of an inconvenience, St.Pete's was totally amazing and we only seen a fraction on what the city has to offer!

 

[DISNEY FANTASY]

Our head server told us that an American family she had spoke to had been kept waiting so long that they decided to head back to the ship!!

Brent mentioned the night before St.Pete's that they didn't know what to expect, with the Russian authorities given that it was the first cruise of the season.

Our meeting point was in D Lounge and we were kept there until 9.30am, because the lines for the earlier tours hadn't progressed through immigration.

It was just a bit of an inconvenience, St.Pete's was totally amazing and we only seen a fraction on what the city has to offer!

Thank you for that information, yes hopefully they will clear it up, I will get off fast. Wonderful city.

How was the weather?

 

[closetmickey]

Welcome home! Can't wait to see your navigators- leaving Wednesday!!

Did any of the ports have free shuttles into town?

 

[Angeshall]

Weather........

On the whole it was ok. Sunny days, if a bit windy (very windy in Helsinki). Temps around 16/17 degrees. Temp was only 12 in Helsinki and it had been raining in the morning.

 

[DISNEY FANTASY]

Welcome home! Can't wait to see your navigators- leaving Wednesday!!

Did any of the ports have free shuttles into town?

Whilst not gone this year Helsinki did last time. Tallinn doesn't need one the city is very close.

Copenhagen and Stockholm the 7 and 12 night cruises are docking in different places.

My 12 night docks closer to the cities than the 7 nights.

 

[DISNEY FANTASY]

Weather........

On the whole it was ok. Sunny days, if a bit windy (very windy in Helsinki). Temps around 16/17 degrees. Temp was only 12 in Helsinki and it had been raining in the morning.

Thank you.

What did you do in St Petes? Hermitage? Catherines Palace? Amber room? Peterhof? St Isaacs? Savior on the split blood?

 

[Angeshall]

All the ports has free shuttles, with the exception of St. Pete's. The shuttles were great, excellent buses (all had seat belts) and we only waited a few minutes for the return bus. No issues. All the ports were a a little too far to walk to get you into the centre.

In Stockholm there was a HoHo boat that you can catch directly from the port, which looked interesting.

 

[Angeshall]

The DLC tour that we did was good excellent for us (having a toddler to contend with!). It was simply a tour of the city with with photo opportunities at different locations. We stopped at The sphinx on the embankment, Hermitage, Church of the Resurrection (Spilt Blood Church) and St.Nicholas' church.

 

[DISNEY FANTASY]

The DLC tour that we did was good excellent for us (having a toddler to contend with!). It was simply a tour of the city with with photo opportunities at different locations. We stopped at The sphinx on the embankment, Hermitage, Church of the Resurrection (Spilt Blood Church) and St.Nicholas' church.

Sounds good.

 

[Angeshall]

Yep, that looks like where we docked. You could see a new stadium being built for the 2018 World Cup.

 

[DISNEY FANTASY]

Yep, that looks like where we docked. You could see a new stadium being built for the 2018 World Cup.

That would be good, it was a lot of reclaimed and unused land there.

Thank you.

 

[CaliforniaGirl09]

Welcome back! We're headed out in a few weeks for the B2B 11 Night Iceland/Norway and the 12 Night Baltics--can't wait. What was your favorite part of the trip? Favorite Port Adventure? How was the frozen party? Thanks so much, love hearing impressions!

 

[DISNEY FANTASY]

Welcome back! We're headed out in a few weeks for the B2B 11 Night Iceland/Norway and the 12 Night Baltics--can't wait. What was your favorite part of the trip? Favorite Port Adventure? How was the frozen party? Thanks so much, love hearing impressions!

Not to hijack the thread, but as you are on a 12 night and in view of the comments on border control I think it is even more important to consider a Private Tour in St Petersburg. I have the following booked and its far cheaper for my family than DCL tours and as you can see we are doing far more than possible with DCL.

No coming and going from the ship between day and night tours.



http://anastasia.travel/

 

[Angeshall]

Welcome back! We're headed out in a few weeks for the B2B 11 Night Iceland/Norway and the 12 Night Baltics--can't wait. What was your favorite part of the trip? Favorite Port Adventure? How was the frozen party? Thanks so much, love hearing impressions!

Favourite part - this is going to sound cheesy, but spending quality time with my daughters. I work long hours, so time together is so important.

We only did one DLC PA, in St.Pete's. The rest of the ports we did on our own, Stockholm is beautiful, we visited the Vasa museum (amazing).

The Frozen deck part was, in my opinion just ok. My DD liked it better than the Pirate party, but she doesn't like Captain Hook, so has found it a bit scary in the past. The was also no buffet!!!!!!! They served canapés in Fathoms, but this was only for over 18's, so I was a little disappointed. This is just my opinion, other people will absolutely love it.

 

[CaliforniaGirl09]

Favourite part - this is going to sound cheesy, but spending quality time with my daughters. I work long hours, so time together is so important.

We only did one DLC PA, in St.Pete's. The rest of the ports we did on our own, Stockholm is beautiful, we visited the Vasa museum (amazing).

The Frozen deck part was, in my opinion just ok. My DD liked it better than the Pirate party, but she doesn't like Captain Hook, so has found it a bit scary in the past. The was also no buffet!!!!!!! They served canapés in Fathoms, but this was only for over 18's, so I was a little disappointed. This is just my opinion, other people will absolutely love it.

Awesome! Not cheesy at all. That's usually my favorite part as well Thanks so much for the reply. We are so looking forward to it. I have fairly low expectations of all those kind of deck parties, so hopefully that will help, LOL.

DisneyFantasy, we're actually doing the ABD Add-on for the Baltics cruise, so I suspect we'll be well taken care of!

 

[DISNEY FANTASY]

Awesome! Not cheesy at all. That's usually my favorite part as well Thanks so much for the reply. We are so looking forward to it. I have fairly low expectations of all those kind of deck parties, so hopefully that will help, LOL.

DisneyFantasy, we're actually doing the ABD Add-on for the Baltics cruise, so I suspect we'll be well taken care of!

ABD will do that.