The 2010 Baltic Thread--Cruise Tips and Planning

[aurorafan65]

I hate to ask this since I know I read it somewhere (not sure if it was this thread or not) but are all the cities within walking distance. Most of what we're looking at are city tours which IMO we could do on our own.
Also do the ports will have independent tour people at the docks. For example when you stop in Cozumel in addition to the pre-booked tours, there are plenty of people hawking tours when you get to the end of the pier. (not sure if I'd trust them, but I'm wondering)

tia

 

[mehaul]

I just discovered that Stockholm has a card the same way London does......I need to crunch some numbers but looks like may be a good way to do on own.....someone probably already mentioned this.

I updated it with 2010s prices. The card just went up in price.
www.magicalbalticcruise.com/stockholm-card-analysis.html

 

[jilljill]

I updated it with 2010s prices. The card just went up in price.
www.magicalbalticcruise.com/stockholm-card-analysis.html

Hope you odn't mind that I was looking around your website. You might want to update your Copenhagen section to say the Little Mermaid statue will not be in town this summer. She's going to China for a few months. There will be an exact artist replica on display at Tivoli Gardens. The info is listed on the Tivoli Gardens website.

 

[mehaul]

Hope you odn't mind that I was looking around your website. You might want to update your Copenhagen section to say the Little Mermaid statue will not be in town this summer. She's going to China for a few months. There will be an exact artist replica on display at Tivoli Gardens. The info is listed on the Tivoli Gardens website.

It's funny you mention that, because I posted that was a possibility in Oct 08.I guess I show read my own posts.

mehaul
Earning My Ears


Join Date: Oct 2008
Location: Chicago
Posts: 66

Ariel Might Be Missing

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I think I would hold off on putting Ariel in any names for the cruise since she may be missing

FYI - posted on the city home page

"The symbol of Copenhagen The Little Mermaid is one of the biggest tourist attractions in Copenhagen, and for many visitors the symbol of Copenhagen and Denmark. 70 billion people are expected to visit the EXPO Shanghai from 1 May - 31 October 2010, and whether The Little Mermaid will be there for everyone to see is up to the City of Copenhagen. The city's lord mayor is positive about the idea of sending the famous lady on a seven-month holiday to China. While she is away, visitors to Copenhagen will be able to experience a Chinese reinterpretation of her at Langelinie. "

 

[carolmb]

Carol:

Good idea about the Rick Steve's book. We just got a Baltic Cruise travel planning book from Thomas Cook, but it wasn't great. We've also been told to get our hands on John Lawrence's DVD on the Baltics, but every time I go to his website and try to buy it, it kicks me to a Paypal page that doesn't have anything to do with him, which is very frustrating.

Can I ask what you're thinking about for Berlin?

We have booked a private tour for Berlin with SPB tours. We are also using them for St. Petersburg.

 

[cindy18]

We have booked a private tour for Berlin with SPB tours. We are also using them for St. Petersburg.

When I woke up this morning, I had an email from them telling me that someone else had booked with them, which I thought was impressive and proactive of them. They said they are getting requests about Berlin from our cruise often now, and I think their plan is for all of us from the same cruise (up to a certain number, anyway) to tour with them together, which brings the price down considerably every time you had a new person. SPB wanted to make sure we understood that, which again I thought was good of them. They certainly are the most reasonably priced of any Berlin tour we've found, and they sound as though they have thought of every contingency they can think of in terms of making sure we get back to the boat on time!

 

[carolmb]

When I woke up this morning, I had an email from them telling me that someone else had booked with them, which I thought was impressive and proactive of them. They said they are getting requests about Berlin from our cruise often now, and I think their plan is for all of us from the same cruise (up to a certain number, anyway) to tour with them together, which brings the price down considerably every time you had a new person. SPB wanted to make sure we understood that, which again I thought was good of them. They certainly are the most reasonably priced of any Berlin tour we've found, and they sound as though they have thought of every contingency they can think of in terms of making sure we get back to the boat on time!

When I booked with them I told them that we would like to share our tours. They have been very good about asking us prior to adding more people to our group so that we have the final decision. They added us to anonther family for Berlin for a total of 8. For our tour in StP, they added to us and we have a total of 12. I feel very comfortable using them.

 

[cindy18]

When I booked with them I told them that we would like to share our tours. They have been very good about asking us prior to adding more people to our group so that we have the final decision. They added us to anonther family for Berlin for a total of 8. For our tour in StP, they added to us and we have a total of 12. I feel very comfortable using them.

Yes, they seem really on the ball and definitely to know what they are doing. We're going to use Masha in St. Petersburg because her tour was slightly more personalized, as was her style, and it appealed to us. But we're very interested in them for Berlin. We're still having a little back and forth in the family about the comfort of traveling into Berlin with Disney (so that if there's a problem on the return, the ship will wait), but if we get over that, I suspect we will use SPB.

 

[MrsScooby]

Yes, they seem really on the ball and definitely to know what they are doing. We're going to use Masha in St. Petersburg because her tour was slightly more personalized, as was her style, and it appealed to us. But we're very interested in them for Berlin. We're still having a little back and forth in the family about the comfort of traveling into Berlin with Disney (so that if there's a problem on the return, the ship will wait), but if we get over that, I suspect we will use SPB.

We also went back and forth agonizing about a private Berlin tour. I like the Berlin Walks tour group as I have ben emailing them since last year and they also got very good reviews on Tripadvisor.

One thing to consider...if there is traffic on the autoban it will hold up the DCL buses as well as the private tour buses. The lady from Berlin Walks has told me they monitor the traffic to make sure they leave Berlin with plenty of time to make it back to port.

So unless the van breaks down (which I have to ask her what they do about that), we should have no trouble getting back to port on time. We just have to be vigilant about the time which would have been the case with a DCL tour as well.

We went through the various options for this port and this was the best one for us.

 

[cindy18]

I'll check out the Berlin Walks tour.

When I asked SPB Tours about what happens if their van breaks down on the way back to Warnemunde from Berlin, they said that they have a guarantee from the van company to provide a new van within 30 minutes, regardless of where the breakdown occurs along the route. I think it has to be something like that, because if they wound up causing clients to miss the cruise departure from port, they would probably be out of business as soon as word got out.

 

[MrsScooby]

I'll check out the Berlin Walks tour.

When I asked SPB Tours about what happens if their van breaks down on the way back to Warnemunde from Berlin, they said that they have a guarantee from the van company to provide a new van within 30 minutes, regardless of where the breakdown occurs along the route. I think it has to be something like that, because if they wound up causing clients to miss the cruise departure from port, they would probably be out of business as soon as word got out.

Yeah I agree
And I could live with that kind of contingency plan.

 

[goingsouth]

We also booked Berlin on our own with Berlin Walks.

I worry about almost everything...and yet I feel
comfortable enough to book with them.

At the end of the sightseeing day, they offer 1/2 hour to "get cake".
We're going to skip the cake (who needs more food?!)
and head back to the ship..giving us a little extra time.


joanne

 

[cindy18]

We also booked Berlin on our own with Berlin Walks.

I worry about almost everything...and yet I feel
comfortable enough to book with them.

At the end of the sightseeing day, they offer 1/2 hour to "get cake".
We're going to skip the cake (who needs more food?!)
and head back to the ship..giving us a little extra time.


joanne

I liked their website a lot. It is very well thought through and nicely set up. I noticed the offer of cake and coffee before the car ride back to Warnemunde. Nice touch, but probably we won't have the time. I've emailed them describing our family and what we want to see in Berlin. We'll see what they come back with.

We also did a Google Map driving direction request from Warnemunde to Berlin. The direct route, according to Google, takes 2 hours 20 minutes.

 

[sbell111]

Hope you odn't mind that I was looking around your website. You might want to update your Copenhagen section to say the Little Mermaid statue will not be in town this summer. She's going to China for a few months. There will be an exact artist replica on display at Tivoli Gardens. The info is listed on the Tivoli Gardens website.

The way I look at it, the statue that normally sits at the harbor is a copy, so the original copy at Tivoli is 'good enough'.

 

[jilljill]

The way I look at it, the statue that normally sits at the harbor is a copy, so the original copy at Tivoli is 'good enough'.

Good way of looking at it. But she is really small. I'll have to put her pic on my photobucket acct. and then post it on here at some point. She was my avatar for a while.

 

[mardonna]

When I woke up this morning, I had an email from them telling me that someone else had booked with them, which I thought was impressive and proactive of them. They said they are getting requests about Berlin from our cruise often now, and I think their plan is for all of us from the same cruise (up to a certain number, anyway) to tour with them together, which brings the price down considerably every time you had a new person. SPB wanted to make sure we understood that, which again I thought was good of them. They certainly are the most reasonably priced of any Berlin tour we've found, and they sound as though they have thought of every contingency they can think of in terms of making sure we get back to the boat on time!

I inquired with Viktoria yesterday about berlin.....when are you traveling?

 

[cindy18]

I think we're on the same cruise, no?

 

[mardonna]

I think we're on the same cruise, no?

We are a group of 7......but only 3 of us going to berlin.....Myself, my 9 year old daughter and a close family friend......my husband is staying back and doing something with our 5 year old twns more local.....and baby will be in nursery....we didn't think we could take the chnace of all of us going and then leaving baby in nursery being so far away......

not sure if you are interested in sharing.......we have never been there so were planning on doing an overview your but have not reviewed all the info yet.....I am also using them in SBP but we want to be with just our group because 5 year old twins are unpredictable....and wouldn't want to ruin anyone experience.

Marlo

 

[cindy18]

We are a group of 7......but only 3 of us going to berlin.....Myself, my 9 year old daughter and a close family friend......my husband is staying back and doing something with our 5 year old twns more local.....and baby will be in nursery....we didn't think we could take the chnace of all of us going and then leaving baby in nursery being so far away......

not sure if you are interested in sharing.......we have never been there so were planning on doing an overview your but have not reviewed all the info yet.....I am also using them in SBP but we want to be with just our group because 5 year old twins are unpredictable....and wouldn't want to ruin anyone experience.

Marlo

Just sent you a PM.

 

[Andrew DEREK UK]

Berlin with DCL

Wow!

Take a drink.


Sit down.


Cheapest range

• 1>3 people $1449> $1749.
• 1>6 people $1749>$2499
• 1>16 people $2849>$5099

Thoose are with train,

- with car only all the way.

$950>$2099.

All range depends on number of people.