Northern Europe

Hi all,

Looking at a cruise next summer for Northern Europe (done with Caribbean...). Not that particular on ports, but would like to include St. Petersburg. Looking on-line, most departure ports are Copenhagen, Berlin & Warnemunde. For the German departure ports, is there a difference as to which airport you fly into? Not really concerned about departure airport as that could be anywhere. Also, any feedback on N European cruises would be greatly appreciated. Currently looking at Princess or MSC...

Thank you in advance

Suggest you take a look at the HAL Prinsendam departing Rome on May 6, 2015 or departing Amsterdam May 20, 2015.

Scott & Karen

Hi all,

Looking at a cruise next summer for Northern Europe (done with Caribbean...). Not that particular on ports, but would like to include St. Petersburg. Looking on-line, most departure ports are Copenhagen, Berlin & Warnemunde. For the German departure ports, is there a difference as to which airport you fly into? Not really concerned about departure airport as that could be anywhere. Also, any feedback on N European cruises would be greatly appreciated. Currently looking at Princess or MSC...

Thank you in advance

Just about every cruise line sails the Baltic, and they virtually all include St Petersburg.

Nobody sails from Berlin...it doesn't have a port. The common port for Berlin is Warnemunde, which is 3 hours away by train.

Copenhagen is a common starting point. Stockholm, Rotterdam/Amsterdam and Warnemunde less so, but still used. Or you could sail from Britain as well.

Come over to the Northern Europe section of Cruise Critic, here:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=192

for lots of info.

Northern is great we went from London I would tell anyone to go for at least 12 days and to make sure you do an overnight in Saint Petersburg so you will have 2 full days . We did private excursions in Russia and D.I.Y. the rest ,if you are going to do ship excursions in every port it will add up very quickly . The boards on this site can be alot of help also in Europe it is all about the ports not the ship.

Thanks all!

Celebrity Eclipse has a 14 night Scandinavia and Russia.

Our favorite Northern Europe/Baltic was a 12 nighter on RCI Jewel out of Harwich...a departure port you might want to consider as that can easily give you a few days pre or post cruise in London.

I would also get with a cruise travel specialist.

As CruiserBruce noted almost every cruise line offers such a cruise so rather than starting with just a few choices start with a complete list and a TA can help you with this.

Keith

I would recommend a cruise line that calls at Oslo, not all cruises do. To miss Frogner Park with the sculptures and the Viking ship museum would be a shame.

Below is the link to our trip story. We combined a river cruiise with the Baltic cruise so we only had to cross the pond once each way.

http://stevekathytravels.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/europe2010.pdf

We are always happy to answer questions

We are going on the Celebrity Silhouette May 3, 13 days next year.

We are going to spend a coupledays in Antwerp, then 5 days in the Netherlands before cruising from Amsterdam. Its tulip season, so we will love those days in the Netherlands.

After the cruise we are going to Berlin and Prague by train.

We are using FF miles and the best deal was in and out of Frankfurt for $5.38 each way - that is not a typo. We have frequntly searched cities within 200 miles of our destination in Europe (another example is Milan instead of Rome) to save hundreds in airport taxes when using free FF miles.

We use the european rail system - frequently you can get deeply discounted rates by booking online about 60 days in advance of travel on national rail systems - our N Europe fare will be booked on bahn.de

so my advice is if you can extend your trip by a few days look at other cities besides your port city for air fare rates, and consider taking a train for intercity transportation. Especially if you travel light...lots of luggage would be a limiting factor.

Have done the Baltic itinerary twice on Celebrity (14-night, roundtrip Dover) and would do it again in a heartbeat. Very port intensive cruise but every port is a gem and with the exception of St. Petersburg, easily doable on one's own. Would recommend using Den-Rus or Red October in St. P (have used both) rather than taking ship excursion. The local tour agents accompany smaller groups and seem to avoid lines that ship tours can't or don't always circumvent. They will also customize tours to your preferences. An overnight in Copenhagen is a plus if you care to see Tivoli Gardens at night - a far cry from Disney parks but something to see. As others have noted, Warnemunde is the closest port to Berlin but I'm not quite sure it's set up to function as a departure port for a mainstream cruise line Baltic cruise.

Hi all,

Looking at a cruise next summer for Northern Europe (done with Caribbean...). Not that particular on ports, but would like to include St. Petersburg. Looking on-line, most departure ports are Copenhagen, Berlin & Warnemunde. For the German departure ports, is there a difference as to which airport you fly into? Not really concerned about departure airport as that could be anywhere. Also, any feedback on N European cruises would be greatly appreciated. Currently looking at Princess or MSC...

Thank you in advance

As an avid cruiser did you see the delight of a full overnight in St. Petersburg offered by the Eurodam (a highly acclaimed and magnificant I loved :)) in June! Round trip from Copenhagen (great for a pre-cruise night!) the itinerary is perfection:

ITINERARY

DAY DATE PORT ARRIVE DEPART MonJun1Copenhagen, Denmark 4:00pmTueJun2Kiel, Germany 7:00am5:00pmWedJun3At SeaThuJun4Tallinn, Estonia 8:00am4:00pmFriJun5St. Petersburg, Russia 7:00amSatJun6St. Petersburg, Russia 6:00pmSunJun7Helsinki, Finland 8:00am5:00pmMonJun8Stockholm, Sweden 10:00amTueJun9Stockholm, Sweden 4:00pmWedJun10At SeaThuJun11Berlin (Warnemunde), Germany 6:00am8:00pmFriJun12Copenhagen, Denmark 11:00amSatJun13Copenhagen, Denmark Disembark

Be sure to ge your Visas in order! This is a not to be missed overall value with a Tradition of Excellence.

Our friends at Cuise Critic have exceptional port info for Copenhagen pre-cruise. Enjoy planning your holiday!