baltic sea roughness question - need to book on front or back of royal princess

We've sailed with princess before, and been very happy with our previous cruises. I am researching a baltic voyage and it appears that the Royal Princess was built without a midship staircase, which leads to lots of problems with everyone trying to use the elevators. We would be traveling with our toddler, and he loves shore excursions but has limited patience for waiting. We had previously always booked mishap cabins, but are wondering if someone could let us know if sailing the baltic is calm enough that we can book the front or rear of the ship. Thanks so much!

We sailed the Baltic 3 years go and had very smooth seas every day but 1.

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There is absolutely no way to predict what the seas will be. They can be rough, or calm, any day of the year. It is all about the weather. Remember, you are on a ship at sea, and you should expect it to move. Calm is a blessing. You should be prepared for either calm or rough.

While the ship may not have a mid ship staircase, it will have many staircases. So waiting is not required.

usually very calm in the summer months.

our 12 day it was like glass every day.

I would go aft if you cannot get midships

The forward cabins always have more motion

There is no way to tell what the seas will be like

I will say that the Baltic Sea is definitely more calm than Skagerak and the North Sea for a Norwegian Cruise.

As has been said, USUALLY, in the summer months, the seas are generally calm. That said, no one can predict if a storm comes up, or you hit a rough patch, but, again, for the most part, expect fairly calm seas thru out.

Here is a short video of us outside for a suns et. This is as rough as the seas got thru out our entire trip. it was windy and cool as we went mid to late August, but we enjoyed marvelous weather our entire cruise.

http://s834.photobucket.com/user/Giantfan13/media/baltics/europemaster501.mp4.html

Cheers

Len

It was also like glass for our entire cruise.

Our Baltic days were very calm. However our day crossing the North Sea from the UK was quite rough. But well within the standards of "to-be-expected" seas.

Please be aware that going with the Royal Princess will mean that you WILL miss the sailing through the Stockholm archipelago.

Thanks Desdichado62. I was aware of this, and I have serious reservations about Princess' choice not to dock directly in Stockholm, especially since I will be traveling with a child. So far, he has been very good on excursions but it is really comforting to know we are usually close and can bring him back immediately if he is having a rough day (we always book private tours to have flexibility and to make sure we don't ruin anyone else's experience). Royal Caribbean had a cruise with a great itinerary - 3 days in st petersburg, and starting in Copenhagen and ending in Stockholm, but unfortunately it only runs once next year and it conflicts with a family wedding. At this point, I am trying to decide if we should wait and see if we have better options in future years, if we should take the Royal Princess, or if we should take NCL's shorter Baltic trip.

Thanks Desdichado62. I was aware of this, and I have serious reservations about Princess' choice not to dock directly in Stockholm, especially since I will be traveling with a child. So far, he has been very good on excursions but it is really comforting to know we are usually close and can bring him back immediately if he is having a rough day (we always book private tours to have flexibility and to make sure we don't ruin anyone else's experience). Royal Caribbean had a cruise with a great itinerary - 3 days in st petersburg, and starting in Copenhagen and ending in Stockholm, but unfortunately it only runs once next year and it conflicts with a family wedding. At this point, I am trying to decide if we should wait and see if we have better options in future years, if we should take the Royal Princess, or if we should take NCL's shorter Baltic trip.

Hi Kitkat,

We have done the Baltic with RCCL a couple of times. The Baltic was calm on both sailings.

Have you considered an RCCL Baltic cruise from Harwich instead of Copenhagen. This will give you a choice of dates.

Just a suggestion you may already have considered this and had to reject the idea for other reasons.

Regards

Selswck