The 2010 Baltic Thread--Cruise Tips and Planning

[MrsScooby]

We are on the 6/24 sailing

We have tentative hotels in London (before and after) but nothing else yet.



time to spend time on the computer

I would pick the port most important you and start there. For us it was St Petersburg-we went with a private tour with Anastasia, but there are other companies that are good as well. Joining up with another family on your cruise thread will save you alot of money too.

Our typical plan when flying eastbound is to catch a nap on the plane and then be relatively active on that first day, getting to bed at nine or ten that evening. This resets my internal clock relatively painlessly.

Ahhhh
You've got what works for you

My family doesn't always sleep well on long plane rides and with this being our first trip to Europe I'm being conservative with my first day plans.

 

[jilljill]

This may have already come up but has anyone hear of London Tours? We will be arriving Friday a.m. and want to do a 1/2 day tour and The City, Crown Jewels, Tower, St. Paul's & River Cruise in London they offer starts at 12:30 p.m. so it works. I would appreciate any insight. Thanks.

You're arriving on a friday morning from PA and intend to go on a half day tour starting at 12:30 pm the same day?
You don't think you might be a bit jet lagged

I'm keeping my first day with minimal walking as I don't know how we'll feel (London Eye and river cruise were recommended to me as easy first day activities)

I've heard from others that you want to have something planned as you don't want to sleep the day away, but that certain things are easier than others.

Starting at 12:30 is a bit late in my book, but it depends on what time your flight lands.
Last time we flew over, our flight landed at 6:15 and by 10:30 we were checked into our hotel near Victoria Train Station and out the door to start touring for the day. We went by tube into the city and our friends met us at our hotel and we even exchanged gifts with them before heading out. We finally made it back to the hotel at 9:45 that night. We walked everywhere and only took the tube back to our hotel from Covent Garden so their kids could ride the tube that day. We went to B'ham Palace to watch the changing of the guards, walked thru a couple of parks and over the Millenium Bridge and back, did the London Eye, and a few other places.

We also don't sleep well on planes, but know that once we sit for a while the day we arrive it's hard to get going again. We've always found it easier to not think about lack of sleep and just keep going. We've been doing that kind of pace the day we arrive in England since our DD was 2.
Don't be afraid to keep going your first day, but we do find it's easy if we don't plan much and just do things depending on the weather.

 

[Disney Lover Linda]

Our flight leaves around 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, so we will flying overnight. I'm hoping we will sleep some because Friday is the only day we have to explore London. We've never been there so even a short tour will be great. I'm the nervous type about planning that's way I chose the 12.30 tour. I really wanted the one DCL was offering but they start at 8:15 a.m. and I doubt we would be in the hotel that quick. We are at the Park Plaza near the Westminster bridge so some of the attractions are close and I hope to check in and go. If we sit down we may not get back up!

 

[ch10dad]

There are many options. Try insuremytrip.com

I don't know for sure about Disney, but we were told when going on another cruise line we could buy the insurance up to the day before. I would call them and ask though.

 

[sbell111]

Don't be afraid to keep going your first day, but we do find it's easy if we don't plan much and just do things depending on the weather.

Our plan is to hit the HOHO bus. That way, we will get to see pretty much whatever we want and not feel compelled to get off and tour those things that we've done many times before (like changing of the guard). Of course, I am also going to have to figure out where to buy 'nappies'...

 

[sshaw10060]

What is the difference between the Card and Pass?

Hello
Those who have already purchased your Oslo Card not Pass, could you provide the website. The one from an earlier post only shows the Pass.
Also, how far is it to the Visitor's Centre to turn in your voucher?
Thanks,
Heidi

I believe the Oslo Pass and Card are one and the same. They provide use of transportation and admittance to museums etc. I have not been able to purchase an actual pass online just a voucher. The Magic will be docking right in the heart of the city, so it should be easy. My understanding is that there is a tourist information center right at the dock which opens when ships are in port.

Here is a map with everything of interest in Oslo marked from a poster on Cruise Critic: http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=103318672313698172346.000448b3e58484b276430&ll=59.909513,10.733385&spn=0.027928,0.062485&z=14

 

[Cptjackandcrew]

There are many options. Try insuremytrip.com

I purchased our insurance through Access America. They were half the price and much more comprehensive.

 

[Cptjackandcrew]

I don't know for sure about Disney, but we were told when going on another cruise line we could buy the insurance up to the day before. I would call them and ask though.

I replied to wrong post, so I'll try this again.
I purchased our insurance through Access America. It was about half of Disney's price and more comprehensive.

 

[denise]

I still have to do that too... thanks for reminding me....

 

[cindy18]

90 day booking window just opened for the 2nd cruise. Worked more smoothly than I was expecting. Things seemed available, including Palo and the spa treatments, at decent times on the at sea days. Whew! Now I can sleep peacefully!!!

 

[slg]

Gydell and all the others who responded about Silverline.

Thanks so much for the response. I feel better knowing there are others using them. If those are using them on an early cruise can let us know if they worked out, that would be great!

I am so disappointed right now. I just got a schedule change on both my arriving and departing flights. We now arrive at 7:50 am, which is not even midnight PST, which means we won't have slept a wink! And we depart at 10:10 am, which means airport by 7 am. Ugh, ugh, ugh.

Question about the Berlin DCL excursions. If they say train or bus, how do they decide who gets what? Is it the first x number to book get the train and then if there's no room, the rest get the bus, or do you think its just random? I really want to take the train, our family is train crazy!

 

[cindy18]

There was a lot of back and forth on this thread awhile back on that very issue, and on how you knew whether you were on the train or might wind up on the bus. I think what we decided was that the excursions that are train only get first dibs on the train, and if there are too many people on those excursions and the train is full, then the remaining excursions will use a bus. It's a special charter train, and presumably there is a limit on the number of cars the train can have, and thus a limit on the number of people the train can hold. Not sure you know whether you got the train or the bus until it's time for the excursion.

 

[jilljill]

There was a lot of back and forth on this thread awhile back on that very issue, and on how you knew whether you were on the train or might wind up on the bus. I think what we decided was that the excursions that are train only get first dibs on the train, and if there are too many people on those excursions and the train is full, then the remaining excursions will use a bus. It's a special charter train, and presumably there is a limit on the number of cars the train can have, and thus a limit on the number of people the train can hold. Not sure you know whether you got the train or the bus until it's time for the excursion.

We were in Warnemunde on cruise 2 years ago and the cruiseline had the train company bring in extra train cars after they sold so many excursions after the cruise had set sail. My GUESS is that it will depend on the train company if they can add more train cars or not - if so then all will go by train and if not they will add buses as needed. There were over 1500 people on our ship that went into Berlin for the day and they all went by train on some sort of ship's excursion.

 

[TDC Nala]

I'm not sure I care whether I am on a train or a bus. Is there any reason I should care one way or the other?

 

[sbell111]

Here is a map with everything of interest in Oslo marked from a poster on Cruise Critic: http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=103318672313698172346.000448b3e58484b276430&ll=59.909513,10.733385&spn=0.027928,0.062485&z=14

Thanks for that. I wonder if there is a way to convert these POI into .LOC or .GPX so they can be easily dumped into a GPSr. I bet that there is an easy way to do it, I just need to figure it out.

I am so disappointed right now. I just got a schedule change on both my arriving and departing flights. We now arrive at 7:50 am, which is not even midnight PST, which means we won't have slept a wink! And we depart at 10:10 am, which means airport by 7 am. Ugh, ugh, ugh.

I typically try to stay up late a few days before the trip. That way, I have no trouble taking a nice nap on the plane. Then, I am 'half rested' before I arrive and can stay up until a reasonable bed time. A full nights sleep at my destination and I am refreshed and have my internal clock synced to the new time zone.

Question about the Berlin DCL excursions. If they say train or bus, how do they decide who gets what? Is it the first x number to book get the train and then if there's no room, the rest get the bus, or do you think its just random? I really want to take the train, our family is train crazy!

I bet that the plan is for everyone to go by train and that the bus verbiage only exists to cover DCL if the train can't run.

I'm not sure I care whether I am on a train or a bus. Is there any reason I should care one way or the other?

Trains probably get you there faster and allow for you to more easily stretch your legs.

 

[sbell111]

Thanks for that. I wonder if there is a way to convert these POI into .LOC or .GPX so they can be easily dumped into a GPSr. I bet that there is an easy way to do it, I just need to figure it out.

I may be the only one that cares about this issue, but the way to convert google maps placemarks to be usable in your GPSrs is to do the following:

1. Right click on the "View in Google Earth" link
2. Select "Copy Shortcut" (IE) or "Copy Link Location" (FF)
3. Paste the URL from step 2 to the address bar, change the "output=nl" at the end to "output=kml", and press Enter, which starts a file download.
4. Save the KML file to a convenient location
5. Upload the KML file to GSAK. (If you don't use GSAK and you manage personal POI on your GPSr, you need to get GSAK. Go to GSAK.net for free software. (I think it costs something like eight bucks if you end up really liking it. Otherwise, you'll have to deal with a nag screen.)
6. Within GSAK, you can easily export the files in a format that your GPSr uses or upload them directly to your GPSr.

 

[denise]

looking over insuremytrip.com
there are so many to pick from...I have NEVER gotten insurance before.....
any suggestions? What company have you picked?

 

[dietcokefan]

I think we are going to attempt to do Tivoli Gardens on our own. Does anyone have experience or suggestions on ease of getting there from the ship? We are a party of 8 and one elderly "grandma" who has some difficulty walking with arthritic knees, so we won't be able to walk it down there as we want to save her knees for the gardens and park!

TIA

 

[dietcokefan]

looking over insuremytrip.com
there are so many to pick from...I have NEVER gotten insurance before.....
any suggestions? What company have you picked?

We have always done ours through Access America, they are always helpful with choosing the approriate coverage. We've never had a claim, but have always insured through them.

 

[jilljill]

I think we are going to attempt to do Tivoli Gardens on our own. Does anyone have experience or suggestions on ease of getting there from the ship? We are a party of 8 and one elderly "grandma" who has some difficulty walking with arthritic knees, so we won't be able to walk it down there as we want to save her knees for the gardens and park!

TIA

I think the easiest will be bus or 2 taxis. Last time we walked up there, and it takes about 20 minutes....too far for your traveling 'grandma'.
At least our walk back was 20 minutes, it took us about 35 to get up there since we took a wrong turn and ended up at the US Embassy. I have to say they gave us a nice map/guide book which we will take back with us this trip.