The 2010 Baltic Thread--Cruise Tips and Planning

[cindy18]

Forgot to ask this in my last post: for people who have toured these cities on their own, can I ask about taxis BACK to the ship after you've finished sight seeing? Are they easy to find and use?

 

[jilljill]

Forgot to ask this in my last post: for people who have toured these cities on their own, can I ask about taxis BACK to the ship after you've finished sight seeing? Are they easy to find and use?

In Copenhagen we took our time walking back to the port, we didn't even pay any attention if there were any taxi's around.
In Tallinn we used the shuttle bus to go into and back from town. I think we paid $10/person for the round trip. The shuttle bus was provided by the port. It's about a 15 minute walk into town.
For Warnemunde you dock next to the train station which is right next to town. It's about the equivalant walk to going to Nassau if you've been there - maybe 5 minutes.

We haven't done Oslo or Stockholm.

 

[epcotrulz]

just booked our airfare -- $1200/per person round trip from BWI (Baltimore) to Heathrow

 

[OurDogCisco]

For Warnemunde you dock next to the train station which is right next to town. It's about the equivalant walk to going to Nassau if you've been there - maybe 5 minutes.

Can I ask what you did in Warnemunde? We are definitely leaning towards skipping Berlin and enjoying the ship and the local town there. I was hoping there would be at least some shopping and a local pub/bakery to visit. We love German Beer. Was it easy to get around? We thought maybe we could do a Disney excursion and then explore on our own afterwards or just explore on our own. The the DCL excursions excite us. Then, that evening we can enjoy a nice Palo dinner and maybe that morning actually do the sit down breakfast in one of the restaurants.

 

[bevgray]

Baltic prices are starting to show up under port adventures. Hope everyone has a great time. Wish I was still going. Sigh, back to my house building.

 

[OurDogCisco]

just booked our airfare -- $1200/per person round trip from BWI (Baltimore) to Heathrow

Yikes... that's what we paid for SFO to Heathrow back in August and I thought we got a bum deal but we had to purchase at that time because I was buging 2 with points and 2 with cash so, I wanted to make sure we were sitting together and on the same flight. This is actually only $200 more per person that I paid for our SFO to Barcelona tickets in 2007. I guess with the economy it could be worst.

 

[Hanover]

just booked our airfare -- $1200/per person round trip from BWI (Baltimore) to Heathrow

That's exactly what we paid from BWI to Heathrow for 3 adults/2 kids for our flight on 7/14/2010. We also paid $30 per person to get advanced seating to make sure we can all sit together.

 

[Andrew DEREK UK]

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

South Eastern is the local network rail service for Kent running out of London Bridge Victoria and Charing cross. It has interchange points with Eurostar at Ashford International, and Ebbsfleet. At both of these you can change between the two. Not all Eurostar trains serve both stops.

As for the ticket, I do not have details on that, might check at the weekend as my DD is being Picked up at Ebbsfleet by myself after a visit to DLP.

My guess if they have told you that its correct, and you just show the Eurostar ticket.

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.

Times I think will only be learnt courtesy of concierge people booking at 120 days for each cruise.

Berlin will be meeting at say 7.15am for getting on the train before it leaves at 7.50am. YOu can expect day lnog trips in all ports to leave first and near port arrival, its half day tours we do not know a guess it will ahve one am and one pm it fit.

 

[ktkspider]

South Eastern is the local network rail service for Kent running out of London Bridge Victoria and Charing cross. It has interchange points with Eurostar at Ashford International, and Ebbsfleet. At both of these you can change between the two. Not all Eurostar trains serve both stops.

As for the ticket, I do not have details on that, might check at the weekend as my DD is being Picked up at Ebbsfleet by myself after a visit to DLP.

My guess if they have told you that its correct, and you just show the Eurostar ticket.

thank you so much for your help! It is much appreciated!

 

[slg]

Has anyone used Silverline Travel? Or know of them? They gave me an excellent quote from Gatwick to Dover and would like a referral.

Andrew Derek? Anyone?

 

[Andrew DEREK UK]

Has anyone used Silverline Travel? Or know of them? They gave me an excellent quote from Gatwick to Dover and would like a referral.

Andrew Derek? Anyone?

Sorry never herd of them did an internet search there are two, one in Hackney East London, nice website, one in Canterbury, the website doesnt seem to have been updated recently. Both do airport transfers.

Hackney one is 'Cabwise' ie has an additional London safe cab approval.

 

[gydell]

Has anyone used Silverline Travel? Or know of them? They gave me an excellent quote from Gatwick to Dover and would like a referral.

Andrew Derek? Anyone?

We are also using them because they came recommended by the place we are staying in Dover.

 

[slg]

They are the ones in kent.

They did recommend that I book with someone else to go from London to Gatwick as they said they aren't very close to London and I would get a better rate with someone else.

 

[Andrew DEREK UK]

We are also using them because they came recommended by the place we are staying in Dover.

They are the ones in kent.

They did recommend that I book with someone else to go from London to Gatwick as they said they aren't very close to London and I would get a better rate with someone else.

Most likly why I do not know them, they are based in Canterbury..

 

[slg]

Gydell:

Are you using the ones out of Kent? Which hotel are you staying in in Dover? We are staying at the Churchill.

Which cruise are you on?

 

[jilljill]

Can I ask what you did in Warnemunde? We are definitely leaning towards skipping Berlin and enjoying the ship and the local town there. I was hoping there would be at least some shopping and a local pub/bakery to visit. We love German Beer. Was it easy to get around? We thought maybe we could do a Disney excursion and then explore on our own afterwards or just explore on our own. The the DCL excursions excite us. Then, that evening we can enjoy a nice Palo dinner and maybe that morning actually do the sit down breakfast in one of the restaurants.

For the exciting part of our morning, we did laundry on the ship.
Had an early lunch onboard and then got off and wandered around town. It's a very small, quaint seaside town that is super easy to walk around. Along the canal there's shops, restaurants, and pubs lining both sides. There's also the beer hut, as we like to call it, that had a small selection of local beers that DH is dying to go back to. We happened to be there on a day they were having a food festival along the port, lots of yummy food. The beach there is huge, we are hoping it's a nice day to enjoy it. We really enjoyed the nice laid back day we spent there and said we could very easily spend a week's vacation there.
The train station is right at the port, so if you want to explore Rostock or other areas in the vicinity it would be easy to do on your own.

Here's a pic of the 'beer hut', a fish stand along the canal, and the 'teapot building & lighthouse next to the beach:

 

[TammyAlphabet]

Thanks jilljill, this is exactly what we are planning to do in Warnemunde. Berlin is too far for my DD after doing Rome, and Florence rides. Thanks!

 

[gydell]

Gydell:

Are you using the ones out of Kent? Which hotel are you staying in in Dover? We are staying at the Churchill.

Which cruise are you on?

I think we are using the one from Kent. We are staying at the Loddington House. It was recommended on Tripadvisor. We are on the 1st Baltic.

 

[epcotrulz]

just read this over on MousePlanet . . .

"The Disney Cruise Line will not offer fireworks for the Pirates IN the Caribbean deck party during the 2010 Northern European Cruises"

anyone else heard this?? hopefully one of the ports will shoot off some fireworks for us like they did in Marseilles for the inagural Med??

 

[cindy18]

The 2nd Baltic cruise will have a day at sea on the 4th of July, and I had assumed (and hoped) we'd get fireworks then...