Who has done both Norway & Baltics?

[LeslieG]

I did the Norway sailing last month and really enjoyed it. I have the Baltic cruise booked for next year, but now I'm having second thoughts, as I read more about it. The cities are large and most of the tours seem to be museums, not really my favorite things. I'm actually thinking about doing Norway again next year instead. Can anyone who has done both make a good comparison? Thanks.

 

[aggiedog]

We did the Baltic cruise and LOVED it. Yes, they are all cities. We had 4 kids, ages 9-15, most of whom are not tolerant of endless museum tours. Our excursions:

Tallin - private food tasting walking tour of old town, arranged on our own. $60/person, 5 hours, 5 courses. Sooo good, our guide was wonderful and we got a really nice intro into old town and current day life in Estonia from our guide.
St. Petersburg -private tour arranged on our own. Museums and old buildings, dinner out in town at a really fun, casual restaurant, and the cat museum for dd. It's SPB, there's a lot of old buildings and museums, it is what it is.
Helsinki - half our group did the DCL speedboat tour, the other half the DCL reindeer excursion. We all had fun. We all missed seeing the actual town though. It was also the shortest port time of the cruise.
Stockholm - we did the DCL food market/Vasa/old town walking tour. We LOVED Stockholm, but all wished we'd booked a private tour or just struck out on our own. The DCL tour was very rushed. We went back into town immediately after getting off the tour bus. Stockholm is easy to navigate, most of the main tourist areas are near each other and it is a beautiful city. The people were over the top friendly.

I've not done Norway, so can't offer you a comparison, but from what I've read Norway is about being outside, the Baltic cruise is about the different cities and cultures. We definitely enjoyed the different cities and have decided we want to go back and spend time in Estonia and Stockholm on our own.

ETA - SPB was our least favorite port, for the fact that it seemed like so much old buildings and museums, all in various states of disrepair. The rest of the cities had much more personality, IMO. I think SPB would best be explored over several days, so you can hit the must do's and still have time to poke around.

 

[anonymousegirl]

I did 3 weeks Norway (not on a cruise) back in 2006 and I also did a Baltic cruise on Celebrity a few years ago, and am going again (on Azamara) next year.

The cities in Norway are on the small side with plenty of outdoor activities. As you saw, the Baltic cruise ports are larger cities. The big draw is of course, St. Petersburg and the most popular things to see are the churches, the famous Hermitage museum, and the royal palaces (Peterhof and Catherine's). Berlin is also great but it does involve long journeys both ways. I know that each port will have active choices but they wouldn't necessarily be adventure-type excursions. More likely biking or walking tours.

For me, I would do the Baltic as you have just done Norway and I like seeing new places. But then, I love museums and city life.

 

[Pens Fan]

Have you considered the Norway / Iceland / Scotland itineraries? The ports are small towns/cities and a lot of the excursions will be outdoor activities. You would be repeating Norway which you loved, but this way you would be adding new ports as well.

Just a thought.

 

[Four Swampers]

We just did Norway 6/6/15 and Baltic 6/13/15 B2B on Disney. I loved both cruises, but they were both very different. Norway is scenic beauty, rugged splendor, hiking, nature and the outdoors. The Baltic is more European cities, culture, history.

Our Baltic cruise had very little in the way of museums, with The Hermitage being a big exception to that. The Hermitage is so beautiful on its own that you don't have to be an art lover to appreciate it.

Tallinn: we walked around Old Town, enjoyed the medieval architecture and street layouts. Looked at churches, enjoyed hiking the streets. Had a great lunch at Olde Hansa restaurant.

St. Petersburg: guided tour. Peter and Paul Fortress, Yusupov Palace, St. Isaac's, Mariinsky Theater and an opera.

Finland: took a DCL tour. Bus ride out of the city to Porvoo. Again walked around the old quarter and enjoyed shops, chocolate shop.

Stockholm: palace tour, walked around Old Town (Gamla Stan), visited the Vasa Museum, which houses the Vasa, a 17th century warship that sank on its maiden voyage.

The Baltic excursions are similar to excursions in the Med, say Rome, Barcelona, Athens, Ephesus, but cooler and less dusty. The architectural style is also different, of course, but the basic idea of learning about culture, food, architecture, and cities remains the same.

 

[cedricandsophie]

We did the Baltic three years ago and norway this year. Loved both. But if you haven't done Baltic I suggest you try it.

Tallin is beautiful. Easy to walk. No reason to take tour

We did excursion at Petersburg to st Catherine's palace and the Hermitage. Beautiful. And s city tour which was excellent

Our cruise included Berlin...or the port outside. We paid for transfer to Berlin and then did the on and off bus around the city. Got off several times. Berlin is fascinating. It was a long ride but glad we did it.

Our cruise also included Stockholm. We did a cruise around the port and walked on our own. Lovely city.

Copenhagen is great too. On off bus stop is close to port. Great ride around city. Did Tivoli on our own. Very easy city to navigate.

I do love norway though. But unless the ports are different not sure there will much different to see. Also weather is iffy. We got lucky on the June 20 cruise. Weather was great when my husband and I did a norway cruise 20 Plus years ago on crystal it rained every day. The two of us are going back to Norway this winter though for a short cruise in search of northern lights. Starts in Tromso and heads north and the back to Tromso with snow mobile rides and dog sledding. Really looking forward to thst.

 

[michellekcm]

We did both this year. I loved Tallin and Stockholm, found Finland so-so, and St. Petersburg was ok. But, the caveat is, our kids were 2 and 6, so we were pretty restricted on excursions. Anything that involved sitting in a bus for more than about 45 minutes at a time, or more than about 3 hours tops, was out of contention for us. Norway gave us better options for the kids.

I suspect I would have enjoyed Finland significantly more on a different excursion. St. Petersburg, I'm not sure, if I could have seen the ballet I think that would have made it for me. I found people either really loved St. Petersburg or didn't like it much at all, it seemed polarising.

Tallin was gorgeous, and so easy to do by yourself. Oh, and we did the KGB museum there which was fascinating!

I ran out of time to do everything I wanted to in Stockholm too. The only "museum" we did was in Stockholm, and it was their outdoor museum. It was amazing, and I could have spent much more time there. The Abba museum was popular too.

 

[Flossbolna]

I did the 7-night Norway cruise this year and have been to all the ports on the Baltic cruises on land vacations in the past. I would say that at least Helsinki and Tallinn don't have more of a big city feel than Bergen. Warnemünde (depending on which itinerary you are looking at) is actually a small port town and Berlin is pretty far away. Stockholm is larger though, but is such a beautiful city, build on so many islands and if you don't want to bother with museums, I am sure you could just take a boat tour through the archipelago for example. In general, I think it really depends on what you want to make out of it. If you look into alternative excursions by private tour company, you are most likely going to find lots of other stuff besides museums. This whole region is known for its outdoor activities, so I am sure you can find kayak trips and stuff like that without any problem. And it is a very different landscape to Norway, less dramatic, but also very beautiful! St Petersburg is the only city that to me has that real big city vibe going (even though I was there in 1995, so obviously a lot has changed since then!!).

 

[Dramatic Muffin]

I haven't done either of those cruises, but I was in Ålesund, Norway two weeks ago and saw one of the Disney ships in port. We were super excited to see it. I wondered how people liked the Scandanavian cruise. I've done the Caribbean DCL cruises and loved them.

 

[SharonT]

We're hoping they put Finland / Sweden back on the list in the future!

 

[DISNEY FANTASY]

I have a very robust and complete trip report on the recent cruises to the Baltic.

http://torussiawithmickeybars.blogspot.co.uk/

It has navigators, photos, details of the private tours we undertook, saving lots of money and going to more places than cruise tours. I have up to date menus, and video and photos if the ship.

 

[SharonT]

I have a very robust and complete trip report on the recent cruises to the Baltic.

http://torussiawithmickeybars.blogspot.co.uk/

It has navigators, photos, details of the private tours we undertook, saving lots of money and going to more places than cruise tours. I have up to date menus, and video and photos if the ship.

Thanks!