Northern European cruise experience?

[PHamrick]

We are hoping to do a summer 2018 itinerary that includes places like St. Petersburg, Russia, Norway, Finland, etc. Has anyone been on one of these?

We have a placeholder cruise for Disney, but our school year doesn't get out until late July. RCCL seems to run these cruises more frequently throughout the summer, so we may have to switch over. Any info at all would be appreciated. Also, are there any links to the Daily Compass for those cruises? Thanks!!!

 

[KashasMom]

We did the 13 Night Ultimate Scandinavia/Russia on the Serenade of the Seas in July 2016. We spent a night pre-cruise in Stockholm and a night post-cruise in Copenhagen. With only 1 sea day were were always on the go! It was an AMAZING cruise and I highly recommend it. We booked all of our own excursions privately - sometimes in a group from Cruise Critic. The highlight was 3 full days in St. Petersburg. We booked 16 months in advance and got an super deal! It was a longer cruise than DCL offered and we had a balcony for about 1/3 of what it would have cost for an inside on Disney. I'd be happy to share any info - let me know.

Our cruise itinerary was:

Stockholm
Stockholm
Helsinki
St. Petersburg
St. Petersburg
St. Petersburg
Tallinn
Riga
Klaipedia
Cruising
Warnemunde/Rostock
Fredericia
Copenhagen
Copenhagen

 

[PHamrick]

We did the 13 Night Ultimate Scandinavia/Russia on the Serenade of the Seas in July 2016. We spent a night pre-cruise in Stockholm and a night post-cruise in Copenhagen. With only 1 sea day were were always on the go! It was an AMAZING cruise and I highly recommend it. We booked all of our own excursions privately - sometimes in a group from Cruise Critic. The highlight was 3 full days in St. Petersburg. We booked 16 months in advance and got an super deal! It was a longer cruise than DCL offered and we had a balcony for about 1/3 of what it would have cost for an inside on Disney. I'd be happy to share any info - let me know.

Our cruise itinerary was:

Stockholm
Stockholm
Helsinki
St. Petersburg
St. Petersburg
St. Petersburg
Tallinn
Riga
Klaipedia
Cruising
Warnemunde/Rostock
Fredericia
Copenhagen
Copenhagen

That sounds like an AMAZING cruise. Yeah, I really want to cruise on Disney and we did a placeholder on our last cruise, but the costs for the European cruises may not be worth it. Did you have kids with you? We'd have at least two families with two kids each for a total of 4 kids (ages 7-11) and maybe more. I'd love to know everything about the cruise!

 

[KashasMom]

It was my husband, myself, and our 7 year old daughter. There weren't too many kids on this cruise but at least yours will have each other. My daughter is a great traveler and we did a ton of walking - lots of walking tours, a couple of boat tours, a train trip in Germany, took our tour van on the ferry in Lithuania - all great stuff and new experiences. One of the best things we did was to have dinner with a Russian family in at their house in St. Petersburg. There were about 6-8 of us from the ship. The wife made a delicious dinner and the vodka shots flowed. They had a teenage daughter and she hung out with my daughter watching an animated movie. Just a really nice night.

I definitely don't think it's worth going on DCL for this type of cruise. We were on the go so much (happily by choice) that we could have been on a tug boat and not noticed! We actually ate in the dinner buffet every night because we were just so tired.

I started a review - my first one on Cruise Critic and had such hassles that I never finished but you can get an idea of the planning and the first few days of the cruise. You can take a look - http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2389843. I really do need to go back and finish it!

I'll add in the rest of the information for you - about the places not included in the review.

 

[ldo]

RCCL is not out for Europe 2018 yet. We did N Europe with Russia in 2010 with kids 9-13 and liked it a lot. It was much less than DCL. We love DCL, but would not hesitate to take RCCL again to N. Europe. My kids, 8,9, loved the kids clubs. They are open 9-12, 2-5, 7-10ish on seas days and all day on port days. DS stayed in kids club one day instead of going into Tallin. It was nice to have that option. We always go early do 1 week on land, not necessarily from where the cruise departs. We just take a cheap European flight. RCCL should be out in March/April for 2018.

 

[FairestOfThemAll37]

I've done a Northern European cruise on Celebrity.

I'm not sure where you're from, but it's chilly in those places even in summer! Definitely dress in layers.

If you've not spent a lot of time that far North, the light will mess with you. We went right around the solstice and it barely got dark. It was easy to undersleep and get tired because you would look outside and think "oh, it's like 6-7pm" and it would be 11pm.

If your itinerary allows for an excursion to Moscow, do it and don't think twice. Moscow is a really amazing city and the highlight of that cruise.

 

[NancyIL]

My daughter and I were on an 11-night Ultimate Scandinavia-Russia cruise on Legend of the Seas in July 2014. For our 3 days in Russia, we had a 2-day tour of St. Petersburg on days 1 and 3, and an all-day tour of Moscow by train on day 2. All of this was arranged with Alla Tours: http://alla-tour.com/

I have also done a 12-night Arctic Circle cruise in Norway on RCI. I enjoy my Disney cruises, but for value on port-intensive cruises - I usually sail with Royal Caribbean.

 

[PHamrick]

Has anyone been on Vision of the Seas? It's sailing an 11 night Baltic cruise that I'm interested in this summer. I somewhat assume it will be the ship that does the 11 night Baltic next summer too. I'm hoping to do that itinerary with my family and several others summer of 2018. I know it's a smaller/older ship, but is all the criticism justified?

 

[NancyIL]

Has anyone been on Vision of the Seas? It's sailing an 11 night Baltic cruise that I'm interested in this summer. I somewhat assume it will be the ship that does the 11 night Baltic next summer too. I'm hoping to do that itinerary with my family and several others summer of 2018. I know it's a smaller/older ship, but is all the criticism justified?

I haven't been on Vision on the Seas, but I've sailed on sister ships Splendour, Grandeur, and Legend. I enjoy RCI's smaller/older ships, as I cruise for the itinerary and not the bells and whistles on the newer mega ships.

Note that Serenade of the Seas also does Baltic cruises in 2017 - including 11 and 13-night Ultimate Scandinavia-Russia. RCI's Radiance-class ships are a bit larger and newer than its Vision-class ships.

11-night: https://secure.royalcaribbean.com/c...d=314806565&loyaltyTier=D&sailDate=06/14/2017

13-night: https://secure.royalcaribbean.com/c...d=314806565&loyaltyTier=D&sailDate=07/30/2017

 

[KashasMom]

Our cruise was on the Serenade of the Seas. The ship was very nice and I'd sail on her again.

 

[krisces]

Hi! I am doing the Vision of the Seas cruise you are interested in, this August! I agree with the previous poster.... such a port intensive cruise did not merit the cost of DCL. For around $6,500, we were able to upgrade to a Junior Suite for the three of us. Granted, you need to buy a drink package etc.... but we could not justify the DCL sailing this summer, which was over $12k for the three of us, with a balcony (and I had a first tier booking and the onboard discount!).
Vision is an older ship and is about the size of the Magic/Wonder, which we prefer. Also, with this type of itinerary, I don't need to surf or rock climb, I hope I can get out of bed after two days walking around St. Petersburg!

Anyway, I am happy to give you an update when I get back. If you see a deal on the one you are interested, I would book it and hold it. Our cruise is pretty full!

Check Cruise Critic for the latest reviews. Most folks like this ship!