The 2010 Baltic Thread--Cruise Tips and Planning

[blackbird890]

This is my first time posting to this thread, but am looking very forward to this cruise. Traveling with our family of five, myself, DH, DS9, DS7 and DD2. Am looking into the possibility of a private tour in St. Petersburg and have appreciated all the excellent advice provided thus far.

One question. On the original documentation we received from Disney, the arrival at St. Petersburg is listed at 12:30 am. On the website and this thread it is now listed as 12:30 pm. I just want to confirm with certainty that we will only be in port for a day and a half?

Thanks so much!

Tina

 

[jilljill]

My cruise meets thread is very quiet. I'm really not interested in touring with someone's family as a solo - would rather go with a big group. My friend may not want to see the same things I do, so signing us both up for the same tour probably won't work too well, we need to be able to split up. So, ship's tours for us. I'll hold off and maybe will cave and do the canal tour just to get off the ship. What I'm hoping for is that the walking or shopping excursions will have some later times.

You can look on the private tour operator's websites to see if they will be offering larger group tours for your sailing. You can also check to see if there are several other families on your meets thread that want to 'group' together to get a lower price on a tour. Our last Baltics cruise we booked with 2 other families to lower our cost. If you organize a group of several families or couples that will benefit all of you.

 

[jilljill]

This is my first time posting to this thread, but am looking very forward to this cruise. Traveling with our family of five, myself, DH, DS9, DS7 and DD2. Am looking into the possibility of a private tour in St. Petersburg and have appreciated all the excellent advice provided thus far.

One question. On the original documentation we received from Disney, the arrival at St. Petersburg is listed at 12:30 am. On the website and this thread it is now listed as 12:30 pm. I just want to confirm with certainty that we will only be in port for a day and a half?

Thanks so much!

Tina

The original arrival time I saw was for 11:30am. So yes, we are only there 1½ days.

 

[TDC Nala]

There are maybe 4 people who post to our meet thread and one of them is me. I don't think the meet thread is an option.

 

[Andrew DEREK UK]

This is my first time posting to this thread, but am looking very forward to this cruise. Traveling with our family of five, myself, DH, DS9, DS7 and DD2. Am looking into the possibility of a private tour in St. Petersburg and have appreciated all the excellent advice provided thus far.

One question. On the original documentation we received from Disney, the arrival at St. Petersburg is listed at 12:30 am. On the website and this thread it is now listed as 12:30 pm. I just want to confirm with certainty that we will only be in port for a day and a half?

Thanks so much!

Tina

Current times are 12.30pm arrival ie half day (it was 11.30am) and leave 11pm Sunday, full day.

Things change due to expected tides, leaving time in Warnemunde to accommodate the train arrival, and I cant say DCL forgot about the one hour time change can I? from Germany to Russia.

 

[gydell]

This is my first time posting to this thread, but am looking very forward to this cruise. Traveling with our family of five, myself, DH, DS9, DS7 and DD2. Am looking into the possibility of a private tour in St. Petersburg and have appreciated all the excellent advice provided thus far.

One question. On the original documentation we received from Disney, the arrival at St. Petersburg is listed at 12:30 am. On the website and this thread it is now listed as 12:30 pm. I just want to confirm with certainty that we will only be in port for a day and a half?

Thanks so much!

Tina

Which cruise are you on?

There are maybe 4 people who post to our meet thread and one of them is me. I don't think the meet thread is an option.

Change to our cruise as we are chatting away - but NOTHING like Andrew's cruise!

 

[jilljill]

Change to our cruise as we are chatting away - but NOTHING like Andrew's cruise!

Are you trying to say the last Baltics cruise likes to chat?!?

 

[gydell]

Are you trying to say the last Baltics cruise likes to chat?!?

They're open 24/7. If I was on that cruise I would never be able to get a word in!

 

[jilljill]

They're open 24/7. If I was on that cruise I would never be able to get a word in!

Sure you would, our chatting has calmed down a bit. Somedays we only have 1 or 2 pages of posting.

 

[wickesy]

Can you share the dinner and entertainment guide that you received? Thanks!

On our cruise meets thread.....

http://disboards.com/showpost.php?p=35056249&postcount=1652

Andrew,

Do you know if this is just for your departure or is it likely to be the same for our sailing on 12th June as well?

 

[blackbird890]

We are on the July 6th sailing. Hoping this adventure will not be too daunting with a two year old in tow!

Tina

 

[Andrew DEREK UK]

There are maybe 4 people who post to our meet thread and one of them is me. I don't think the meet thread is an option.

Sorry to read that, I thought all of them were active...

Which cruise are you on?

Change to our cruise as we are chatting away - but NOTHING like Andrew's cruise!

I have read yours a bit and resisted posting, yours is active and very good, we are similar, there are a lot of us who have cruised together before, but its at an ok pace, not like the Panama crossing threads that were mad....

Go away for an hour and jumped 50 pages due to a pirate run. Thank god we do not do that.

Are you trying to say the last Baltics cruise likes to chat?!?

Well I know a Mod who does!!!!!!!

Sure you would, our chatting has calmed down a bit. Some days we only have 1 or 2 pages of posting.

We don't show you them all, just PM instead!!!!

Andrew,

Do you know if this is just for your departure or is it likely to be the same for our sailing on 12th June as well?

I think they are all similar, I was getting information from *elsewhere* other than DCL, on port times which was proved right recently, when DCL's website was showing the wrong times. As far as i know on ours the times are correct now.

One cruise is coming in late on its last day, due to tidal restrictions in the English channel. 9.30am???

 

[DW2DH&DS]

We are on the July 6th sailing. Hoping this adventure will not be too daunting with a two year old in tow!

Tina

woohoo!!!!! come to our meet thread!!!!

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1975441

 

[wickesy]

I think they are all similar, I was getting information from *elsewhere* other than DCL, on port times which was proved right recently, when DCL's website was showing the wrong times. As far as i know on ours the times are correct now.

Great, thanks Andrew.

 

[denise]

woohoo!!!!! come to our meet thread!!!!

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1975441

Welcome aboard!

Beth, You beat me to it! Yes, do join our thread. We are on facebook too....check us out....

 

[DW2DH&DS]

Welcome aboard!

Beth, You beat me to it! Yes, do join our thread. We are on facebook too....check us out....

oh yeah...facebook...duh!!! Type a search on FB for...

Disney Cruise Line: Northern European Capitals

not sure if i am aloud to post the link!!!! covering my butt!!!

 

[ktkspider]

We are traveling from Paris to Canterbury via the Eurostar before the cruise. I have learned that SouthEastern will honor Eurostar tickets to your final destination. Does anyone know how that works? Do I need to get the ticket from Ebbsfleet to Canterbury or just show the Eurostar ticket? Any help would be much appreciated.. Thanks

 

[2littlestitches]

I know the question on everyone's mind is how many excursions and/or times of excursions for St. Petersburg. Any clue if Disney will release this info, or will we have to just wait until the first Baltic Cruises can start booking excursions to find out? Has anyone asked DCL this question?

There is so much I want to do in this port, but trying to keep my expectations reasonable depending on the times that are available through DCL.

 

[gydell]

Sorry to read that, I thought all of them were active...


I have read yours a bit and resisted posting, yours is active and very good, we are similar, there are a lot of us who have cruised together before, but its at an ok pace, not like the Panama crossing threads that were mad....

Go away for an hour and jumped 50 pages due to a pirate run. Thank god we do not do that.








We don't show you them all, just PM instead!!!!

Our PC cruise thread is still active and it's been over for 18 months! You make friends that's for sure.

And yes we pm lots too but can't keep up with ya'll!

 

[cindy18]

Boy, I stay away from this thread for a few days and look at all the new posts!

TDC Nala, I'm on your cruise and I agree with you, our meet thread is unbelievably quiet. Not sure why.

Andrew, thanks SO MUCH for posting the dining rotation and schedule of meals. That helps tremendously.

On St. Pete, I've spent some time on the Cruise Critic boards about this and there seems to be consensus that there is a core group of great private tour guides. Denrus, Red October, Anastasia, and a few others that are smaller but really highly recommended. Everyone who has used any of those guides has RAVED about the experience. And all of them have a set 2-day itinerary for a group tour (and I think they can help put the groups together) that I think is really reasonably priced as well as private tours just for your family where you do specifically what you want. Now that the prices are up, it's clear to me that it will cost not that much more to go the private tour route than it would for us to cobble together a mix of tours from Disney, and it will mean we can see everything we really want to see for exactly as long as we want to. So for us it seems like a great plan. We're going to do a white nights tour since we'll be there at the end of June, where they take you out at around midnight, when the light is so unusual and cool. They can arrange for evening stuff as well as all the daytime stuff.

We've emailed a few different tour companies and they've written back. They offer similar, but not identical things, and the differences in tour companies and personalities/styles comes through in the email. I think you just find the one that works for you and then make a plan.

I don't know if all of this has already been discussed earlier on the thread, but it all just kind of clicked for us in the past few days and I wanted to share.