The 2010 Baltic Thread--Cruise Tips and Planning

[Doingitagain]

How do we find out what times of the day the excursions are offered so we can see if we can fit in other things, or select morning vs afternoon?

 

[Doingitagain]

Has anyone been able to save activities (excursions) under their reservation?

 

[jilljill]

How do we find out what times of the day the excursions are offered so we can see if we can fit in other things, or select morning vs afternoon?

You need to wait until DCL releases that info and updates the website. At least they do say how long each excursion will last, so that will give you an idea if you can fit anything else into your day.

 

[TDC Nala]

Yeah I've heard the thing to do in St. Petersburg is a private tour, but I don't have a group, just my friend and me. Not sure if it jacks up the price on that sort of tour with only a party of two people, or if the tour company would place us with a larger group to keep the price down, or they just book a larger group on some of the tours. We don't really have a functional meet thread for the June 24th cruise so getting together with other DISboarders probably won't work.

 

[Andrew DEREK UK]

This is not necessarily true since places in StP stay open longer and is seems most of the tours involve a lot of driving around the city and not much in terms of touring inside places and have photo stops. Since sunset in StP won't be until around 11pm it will be very easy to tour around the city the first day and get in the photo op stops.
Also, the StP tours are very limited since you only go to 1 or 2 venues for each excursion. When we did our private tour in 2008 we hit 5 venues our first day there and that involved inside tours and city driving touring. Plus we were still back to the ship an hour early and added a shopping stop, a great benefit to doing a private tour there - besides not having to wait for 45 other people to all be on time.

What makes me feel this is on the 'A Night of Russian Ballet' it says,

Guests should note that due to the timing of this evening performance, it is recommended to use one of the Casual Dining options onboard the ship.

On the 8 hour trips this warning, is not shown, which implies, you are back for normal dinner.

 

[Andrew DEREK UK]

Has anyone been able to save activities (excursions) under their reservation?

Yes,

Note ensure 'cookies' are allowed for DCL website on your PC, (Internet options)

 

[OurDogCisco]

Yeah I've heard the thing to do in St. Petersburg is a private tour, but I don't have a group, just my friend and me. Not sure if it jacks up the price on that sort of tour with only a party of two people, or if the tour company would place us with a larger group to keep the price down, or they just book a larger group on some of the tours. We don't really have a functional meet thread for the June 24th cruise so getting together with other DISboarders probably won't work.

I think, the reason most people share on private tours is to bring down the cost. In the Med. it was priced per vehicle not per person. So, I'm not sure how Northern Baltics would work. We did a private tour in VilleFranche and we were charged by the vehicle. You would probably have to contact some of the private tour guides to find out what their policy is and if it would work for you.

 

[Andrew DEREK UK]

SIGNATURE TOURS BY DCL.

I know people ask questions on shore trips quite often on the main cruise forum, and often the response implies that you do not pay until your ship account is debited on embarkation of the cruise.

I do often point out on those threads, and would point out again here for clarity. That if you book a DCL Signature shore trip, you will pay in advance by credit card.

On my Mexico ones with DCL, I paid at my 90 days booking mark, nit sure if its still at the booking window, or on application but ensure you have funds available.

With far more signature trips in the Baltic, such as the DREAM, its good to know this.

We might see shore trip prices in two weeks time..

 

[Andrew DEREK UK]

Giving a *bump* as simular threads are being opened up.

 

[Andrew DEREK UK]

What is everyone booking?

This is my choice.

OSLO

Hadeland Glass Works, and Viking Ships OR, Oslo Highlights.

COPENHAGEN

Charming Copenhagen - Walk and Cruise, OR, City Highlights and Open Air History of Denmark.

WARNEMUNDE

Berlin Private Vehicles with Premium Train Service (application in with DCL concierge).

ST PETE'S

Private tour: Anastasia Travel Company .

Maybe; A Night of Russian Ballet.

TALLIN

Tallinn by Tram, OR, Tallinn Highlights.

STOCKHOLM

Historical Stockholm and Sigtuna, OR, City Hall, Royal Palace and Old Town.

 

[Andrew DEREK UK]

Some info.

In UK Newspaers today the following cruises are being sold on discount, for UK residents, but posted here for information:-

• Eastbound Transatlantic has been added, flights included.
• English Repo; Barcelona to Dover.
• Early /late Med trips.

Would imply these cruises are not selling well.

Never seen the Baltic cruises advertised, would imply sold very well.

 

[WeLoveABD]

Thanks for the suggestions re shore excursions! We (family of 4, with DD9 and DS16) are in the middle of discussing what shore excursions to take. The price is good to know, but really--we need the departure times so we can plan either one tour or two in a port stay. Any word when those details will be released? (The cruise rep didn't know but guessed in a few weeks). Also--a shout out to Disney to consider an ABD connection for the Baltic cruise--I know it was easier to do the med with ABD since there were already trips in the region and thus guides already trained. But what a great thing to have on the Baltic--set guides, planned excursions and the like. I love the Disney cruise ship, and on board stuff--but the excursions always leave me with a feeling of uncertainty and sometimes a little disappointed. Andrew--thanks for the posts over the past years; we've enjoyed and appreciated them!

 

[Andrew DEREK UK]

Thanks for the suggestions re shore excursions! We (family of 4, with DD9 and DS16) are in the middle of discussing what shore excursions to take. The price is good to know, but really--we need the departure times so we can plan either one tour or two in a port stay. Any word when those details will be released? (The cruise rep didn't know but guessed in a few weeks). Also--a shout out to Disney to consider an ABD connection for the Baltic cruise--I know it was easier to do the med with ABD since there were already trips in the region and thus guides already trained. But what a great thing to have on the Baltic--set guides, planned excursions and the like. I love the Disney cruise ship, and on board stuff--but the excursions always leave me with a feeling of uncertainty and sometimes a little disappointed. Andrew--thanks for the posts over the past years; we've enjoyed and appreciated them!

I was told that the ambition was to get prices up within two weeks, I have made some requests, and that was the promised timescale. Times, I have asked the question, I suspect, we will not know until the first people can book on the first Baltic cruise. But in many cases you can guarantee its near port arrival time.

IE Berlin, will be prompt, 12 hour trips one chartered train, and also the 8 hour trips In St Pete's will go of promptly. DCL doesnt want any risk of anyone missing the boat. Oslo some of the 6/7 night ones will have to go first. Same as Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen, as they have 'early entry'.

So really its the 2>3 hour ones that might have a AM and PM slot.

 

[Andrew DEREK UK]

Looking at the shore trips today a lot of the photos had changed leading me to look and think some new shore trips had been added.

Reviewing them they appear all the same bar a couple in Copenhagen like Canoeing that I do not remember first time, might have missed, but with new photos unsure...

Wonder if they are adding more as in some places there is limited choice.

I know on my Eastern in 2009, shore trips changed a lot, some added some going.

 

[Rogillio]

Some information that might be belful for Oslo. We spent two weeks in Norway on vacation a few years ago. We did everything "on our own".

This is from our vacation trip report:

We took the ferry to Bygdøy Peninsula where we walked to the Vikingskiphuset museet – the Viking Ship Museum in other words. It was incredible. The design of the clinker-built ships was beautiful, and looking at ships that were buried for 1,500 years or so, and the delicate, intricate carving that remained intact was awe-inspiring. I couldn’t believe they took to the ocean in these ships. They just didn’t look particularly sea-worthy to me. I’d wanted to see the Norwegian Folk Museum too, but it hadn’t opened by the time we were done with the Viking Ship Museum, so we hiked over to the Kon-Tiki museum. I have very fond memories of reading Thor Heyerdahl’s Reader’s Digest Condensed book, Kon-Tiki. It was a thrill to me to see the actual raft they sailed to the Easter Islands on.

An unplanned stop, but since it was this close to the Kon-Tiki museum, was the FRAM museum. This museum contained the polar exploration ship FRAM, used when Fridtjof Nansen sailed across the Arctic in 1893 – 96. Roald Amundsen used it too. I wish we’d taken pictures of the tiny cabins allotted to people. They must have been short and skinny people!


The point being, we did this all on our own...we bougth tickets for the shuttle across the harbor and paid at-the-door for the Viking Ship musuem, the Kon-Tiki and Fram musues. It was all w/i walking distance.....well, maybe a mile's worth of walking fom the little shuttle boat to the Vkikng musuem and back.

Akersus castle is also right there in the harbor and we bought tickets for that at the entrance. They had tours like every 20 minutes and we got out tickets and waited for the next tour. Pretty cool castle and nice tour.

This port is very doable 'on your own'. Everything that you'd most likely want to see is w/i walking distance of the port/harbor. If DCL parks where we saw other cruise ships parked, you will be able to see Akershus Castle from the ship. You can also see the Bygdøy Peninsula from the harbor.

If you rent a car in Oslo, here's another little tip from our trip report:

When we arrived back at our car, we discovered a 500K ($79.37) parking ticket. Man, oh man. It’s helpful to be able to read the signs! Evidently the word that proceeded “Parking” was “private”. We figured we’d just blow off the ticket but as we were driving back to the airport Casey read the rental agreement we’d signed that said specifically that we authorize credit card charges for any tickets we received + a handling fee for having Hertz deal with it so we fessed up and paid the ticket. I rationalized that it cost $30 to park in the city anyway so the $80 ticket was not was bad as it sounded. Ugh

We did not tour the Royal palace but did walk around the grounds...it was not very impressive....least not from the outside.

One final note, we use Frommer's travel books for all our travels and we found a quote in there that we laughed and repeated to each other often: “Oslo is one of the most expensive cities in Europe” We had pizza in Olso and wrote this: "...glasses of soft drinks (no refills either) were about $5 -6. The glasses were about 8-10 oz size to boot!" We'd lcould only augh and say "Cha-ching!! 'Oslo is one of the most expensive cities in Europe'".

~Mike

 

[Andrew DEREK UK]

Some information that might be belful for Oslo. We spent two weeks in Norway on vacation a few years ago. We did everything "on our own".

This is from our vacation trip report:

We took the ferry to Bygdøy Peninsula where we walked to the Vikingskiphuset museet – the Viking Ship Museum in other words. It was incredible. The design of the clinker-built ships was beautiful, and looking at ships that were buried for 1,500 years or so, and the delicate, intricate carving that remained intact was awe-inspiring. I couldn’t believe they took to the ocean in these ships. They just didn’t look particularly sea-worthy to me. I’d wanted to see the Norwegian Folk Museum too, but it hadn’t opened by the time we were done with the Viking Ship Museum, so we hiked over to the Kon-Tiki museum. I have very fond memories of reading Thor Heyerdahl’s Reader’s Digest Condensed book, Kon-Tiki. It was a thrill to me to see the actual raft they sailed to the Easter Islands on.

An unplanned stop, but since it was this close to the Kon-Tiki museum, was the FRAM museum. This museum contained the polar exploration ship FRAM, used when Fridtjof Nansen sailed across the Arctic in 1893 – 96. Roald Amundsen used it too. I wish we’d taken pictures of the tiny cabins allotted to people. They must have been short and skinny people!


The point being, we did this all on our own...we bougth tickets for the shuttle across the harbor and paid at-the-door for the Viking Ship musuem, the Kon-Tiki and Fram musues. It was all w/i walking distance.....well, maybe a mile's worth of walking fom the little shuttle boat to the Vkikng musuem and back.

Akersus castle is also right there in the harbor and we bought tickets for that at the entrance. They had tours like every 20 minutes and we got out tickets and waited for the next tour. Pretty cool castle and nice tour.

This port is very doable 'on your own'. Everything that you'd most likely want to see is w/i walking distance of the port/harbor. If DCL parks where we saw other cruise ships parked, you will be able to see Akershus Castle from the ship. You can also see the Bygdøy Peninsula from the harbor.

If you rent a car in Oslo, here's another little tip from our trip report:

When we arrived back at our car, we discovered a 500K ($79.37) parking ticket. Man, oh man. It’s helpful to be able to read the signs! Evidently the word that proceeded “Parking” was “private”. We figured we’d just blow off the ticket but as we were driving back to the airport Casey read the rental agreement we’d signed that said specifically that we authorize credit card charges for any tickets we received + a handling fee for having Hertz deal with it so we fessed up and paid the ticket. I rationalized that it cost $30 to park in the city anyway so the $80 ticket was not was bad as it sounded. Ugh

We did not tour the Royal palace but did walk around the grounds...it was not very impressive....least not from the outside.

One final note, we use Frommer's travel books for all our travels and we found a quote in there that we laughed and repeated to each other often: “Oslo is one of the most expensive cities in Europe” We had pizza in Olso and wrote this: "...glasses of soft drinks (no refills either) were about $5 -6. The glasses were about 8-10 oz size to boot!" We'd lcould only augh and say "Cha-ching!! 'Oslo is one of the most expensive cities in Europe'".

~Mike

Thank you for that Mike, its very helpful at this time, I am very interested in the Viking museum, and had worked out its close, but had slight reservations with the DCL trip linking in with the glass blowing factory, which is a decent run, and sounds like a tourist trap to flog you glass, cancels etc.

That trip has a three course meal in it, nice if you want to experience eating Norwegian food, but as the ship has so much food, why loose an hour doing it, and also pay, when you can fill up before/after.

Each to there own but interesting we could do Akersus castle as well,

Thinking hat is 'on'.

 

[MJGirl]

Mike ... One of the things that has interested me is an Oslo Fjord cruise. I found this website

Do you know if this is doable? Is Radhusbrygge 3 (pier 3) near where we dock?

 

[Andrew DEREK UK]

Mike ... One of the things that has interested me is an Oslo Fjord cruise. I found this website

Do you know if this is doable? Is Radhusbrygge 3 (pier 3) near where we dock?

I will let Mike answer, but one observation as I understand it, is the Magic will sail up. and back down the OsloFjord, so you will have a spectacular view form the ship anyway and be just repeating that in a less comfortable environment.

It says near 'City Hall' so is close as the DCL walking tour, 'walks' to that!!

The Oslo City Hop-on Hop-off Tour looks ok, with calls at the Viking museum.

 

[MJGirl]

Thanks Andrew... I didn't realize that the Magic would give us such a great viewing opportunity .. might just save my money.

 

[Andrew DEREK UK]

Thanks Andrew... I didn't realize that the Magic would give us such a great viewing opportunity .. might just save my money.

Yes, for at least an hour pre arrival and for at least an hour after departure, we sail Oslo-Fjord, spectacular views, if you have a verandah, just order room service sit and enjoy.

Or view Deck 4/9/10.

In my right hand signature/ticker, you will see in rotation a google map of Oslo and the approach.