On the GA Baltics cruise right now (July 18th sailing)

Good morning from St Petersburg! We are halfway through our Baltics cruise. The Getaway is a huge ship but lots of fun and great staff and crew. It took us a day or two to learn the layout but now it's easy to get around. Hints so far: 1) bring a magnetic strip gift card or shopping card to use in your cabin power slot. You have to put your keycard in the slot to have power in your cabin. If you bring a dummy one you don't risk locking your keycard in your cabin on your way out. 2) push the elevator up/down call buttons on both sides of the elevator banks. Makes the wait shorter. 3) if eating in the buffet, both sides repeat all food options, but a few different ones can pop up on only one side. Don't miss the crepe station at dinner time! 4) if you need foreign currency onboard, go to the Onboard Credit desk. Check their opening hours in the daily bulletin. Exchange rate is okay and very convenient.

Our ports so far have been Rostock Germany (we went to Schwerin Castle, which was an hour and a half each way). Beautiful castle and got free time in the town; and we also went to Helsinki. That was a cool city (watch for the giant naked peeing man fountain). We rode the ferry out to Suomenlinna Fortress, which was a nice walk and lucked out with sun.

Will be leaving on our SPB excursion after lunch. The morning crowds are still going through customs (expect long waits) and if on an excursion you have to go through customs first and then meet your tour bus so we will be allowing an hour to get to our bus. There was a line hundreds of people deep waiting to get off the ship this morning at 7am when I went for my morning mocha at the Atrium Cafe. Glad I booked afternoon excursions!

Food has been great (we just do main dining rooms & buffet) and if you can't find something to eat here you are too picky. Entertainment also great so far (Silas the cruise director is fabulous and very handsome) and the Bingo crew cracks us up. Even if we haven't won anything yet. Don't miss their version of Dancing with the Stars...it's hilarious! Also the Jeopardy game and Deal or no Deal. Get to the atrium early for seats...there aren't many and some people camp out there all day.

Passengers are of all nationalities. Announcements are repeated in multiple languages. It's truly an international experience from the moment you get onboard.

That's all for now...need to join the masses in the buffet. I can try to answer questions for people who will be on this cruise soon.

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Glad to hear you are having fun!!

Hi all!

I did this cruise May 25 & had a great time. Schwerin was beautiful as was Warnemunde & of course SPB the jewel of the whole cruise! Oh yeah the lines the first day at SPB were long, allow at least 45 minutes to get through it to meet your tour on time.

Have to agree about the entertainment in the atrium & getting there early. Dancing with the Stars is always a hoot.

Was Jose, the solo host, in it this time? He will go to any lengths to win!!

Have a great time.

~ Jo ~ :)

Oh yes Jose was in it, that guy is hilarious! He acted out a scene from Titanic and stripped down to his underwear and a Superman Tshirt during the finale.

We have our second day here in SPB today. What I learned yesterday: 1) either do an afternoon excursion like we did or else allow an hour to get through customs and meet your tour bus (there were fights in the morning with families from certain countries cutting in front of other passengers), 2) take an umbrella or wear a jacket with hood because it can rain suddenly (even had lightning), 3) use your tour's shopping stop to use the restroom (WC) for free and also these shops take euros or US dollars.

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Those are pretty good tips! Hope you enjoy the rest of your cruise!

After visiting Tallinn today, I would advise future cruisers here that the town is pretty far from the ship. I would estimate a 25 minute walk at least. It's also not that easy to see which way to go, as the roads around the port go various directions. You can see the old town from the ship so you know which way to go, but we rode on a bus (on the old town walking tour excursion) and I couldn't keep track of which streets would go back to the ship. I'm sure you could just follow all the other tourists though. It was very crowded here today, the cobblestone streets were packed. Watched two people trip and roll an ankle.

In the end I was glad that I booked the excursion. Original plan was to DIY this port. At the end our guide gave us the option to stay in town and walk back to the ship or ride back. We were hot and tired so went back but at least half the group stayed in town. The guide showed them which direction to walk back to the ship on their own.

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Good feedback. I have been trying to decide. What tour company did you use?

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I always use the NCL ones. Prices are not much higher or less sometimes. And each of our excursions has been at least 15 minutes late back to the ship (traffic) so glad to know they wait for us.

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Another note on the NCL excursions: the busses don't have restrooms on them, so when the guide shows you free ones use them. Also don't take your earbuds out (in Russia) because its super crowded and the guides hustle. Watch their number signs that they hold up. Someone on one of ours took out his earbuds and got completely lost. Another NCL guide found him and brought him back to our bus.

Each of ours has had about 30 people on it. Lots of room on the bus. Also busses are air-conditioned but only when moving.

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So last note on our excursions...we are currently sitting in traffic on a bus in Stockholm headed back to the ship. We are in a sea of busses and cars. We are twenty minutes late already.

But the Vasa museum was cool!

And for anyone booking NCL excursions to the Vasa...I had booked the Vasa Museum afternoon excursion before our cruise. Tickets were in our cabin when we boarded. Two days before Stockholm I got a phone message in the cabin saying that the excursion was cancelled due to lack of interest. They left the message when the shorex desk was closed until that evening. So I went there then and they said it was an online only excursion (whatever that means, it was on my NCL cruise booking page) and not enough others booked it onboard. Not surprising since it wasn't on the list of Stockholm excursions onboard, which I noticed there and showed them. They were clueless. I said put us in another excursion that goes to the Vasa for the same price. Luckily there were five spots in this excursion.

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Good feedback. I have been trying to decide. What tour company did you use?

 

 

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TJ Travel can do all of your excursions. We used them for Tallin an St. Petersburg. We saw way more for much cheaper than anyone on the ship excursions saw.

We also opted to avoid the insanity of a 4+ hour train ride to Berlin and booked with Friends of Dave Tours. we did the Mighty Mecklenberg tour and it was worth every penny.

While I still have cell service (sailing out the Swedish archipelago right now) I want to add that while leaving Stockholm today several people almost missed the ship. An NCL shore excursion bus was about ten minutes late past all aboard time so a bunch of people made it fine. Then at almost twenty minutes past all aboard, with the gangway being disassembled, there was the infamous paging on the ship intercom for a husband and wife, then at the very end we saw them running to the ship. It appears they were running from a bus stop on the outer street. Everything was cheering as they climbed onboard.

So yes you can be late to sail away...plan accordingly.

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Waking up back in Copenhagen. Sad to get off the Getaway but ready for some time here and definitely ready to go home to California tomorrow. It's probably hotter than Hades there though but I miss my kitty!

Overall this has been a great cruise. I would recommend it for the itinerary, cruise staff, and food (hope my pants fit today). It wasn't perfect, as no cruise is, but worth the time I spent planning it. And the money (ugh).

We did have really loud Brazilian (I think?) neighbors whose kids yelled and shook our floor jumping every time they were in their cabin and until midnight each night. Must be cultural for them and with the language barrier we couldn't ask them to keep it down. I am sleep-deprived for sure and not for a good reason.

Also, as a lifelong cruiser, the GA is so big it rarely feels like I'm on a ship. Nice and stable for those who get seasick though. I just missed the slight rocking, wavy motion, etc. And it can be crowded and loud so think Disneyland at sea.

I think if we do another cruise we will stick to the regular size ships. But this was absolutely a Baltic journey to remember!!

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Last note...in a long taxi line now at the port. We are five people and if you are more than five the line at 9am is long. If you are four people or less, the line was quick. So no worries if you want to do a taxi AND are one to four people. If you are like us, there will be a wait.

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Hello, it is 4am here in California and thanks to jet lag I am wide awake. If anyone has any questions about our Getaway Baltics cruise, ask away!

Hello, it is 4am here in California and thanks to jet lag I am wide awake. If anyone has any questions about our Getaway Baltics cruise, ask away!

Welcome back to the heat....:')

I'll be getting of the Getaway in Sept, traveling in a group of 5. Was the wait for a taxi minivan very long? How long was the actual wait time. Was it organized, with dispatch separating people or just a free for all? Trying to catch a 11:00AM flight, wanted to see if a taxi mini van would work for us.

Thank you for your review. We are considering a cruise on the Getaway. To be honest, I've seen posts on my cruise line of choice from people who say they would never cruise NCL again. I'm not too sure if we will book.

My question is about your comment about the ship being crowded and noisy. How crowded and noisy? Are there spots on the ship to get away from the crowds and noise? How is it in the atrium area?

Thank you for your review. We are considering a cruise on the Getaway. To be honest, I've seen posts on my cruise line of choice from people who say they would never cruise NCL again. I'm not too sure if we will book.

 

My question is about your comment about the ship being crowded and noisy. How crowded and noisy? Are there spots on the ship to get away from the crowds and noise? How is it in the atrium area?

Everyone is different so you can't base your future judgement on people's past experiences. Only you will know if you like cruising on NCL or not and you may get 2 different experiences on 2 different sailings. With that said, my first cruise was on NCL 10 years ago and I have only ever sailed NCL since .. so to each his own. As for the Getaway, since the Breakaway is the sister ship, my family prefers the mega ships after sailing the Dawn and Gem. The atrium is loud during events and since it's in the middle of the ship, is quite busy when there's an activity but when there isn't, there is plenty of seating and enjoyable to relax and people watch. If you want a quiet area, go to the library -- it is always quiet there. There are also loungers in a lot of public places where people walk and is very quiet as well. And BTW, we will be on the Getaway on this itinerary in 3 weeks, woohoo.

Lovevacadays, yes it's true that crowded and noisy means different things to different people. I think it was just the sheer number of passengers and at times getting through areas of the ship was not easy. But it was vacation, so no biggie. I am an early riser, and the sun rises at around 4:30am on this itinerary, so I loved wandering through the ship early in the morning (around 7am) when it was quiet. If you sleep later, you can definitely check the library and card room (which are located behind the atrium) for quieter areas. Also the Waterfront area is nice, weather permitting of course.

A tip for watching atrium shows, and there are lots of great ones like Deal or No Deal, The Perfect Couple, and of course the Dancing with the Stars competition: if the chairs are full, go up a deck to the bar chairs in O'Sheehan's. We sat there a lot and looked down on the shows, with an unobstructed view.

Glide Path, so you will be just like us (need a taxi minivan for 5)...our total wait was a half hour. There is a very helpful dispatcher who separates people into two taxi lines based on group size. He also asked people where they were headed and if they were trying to catch a flight or not, then made recommendations. Several groups opted to walk to the bus stop instead of waiting for a taxi. I would definitely tell him that you are trying to catch an 11am flight. The airport is about a twenty minute to half hour drive from the port, depending on traffic. The day we docked, both Getaway and Regal Princess were disembarking and the streets were packed.

I also noticed a few people who had prebooked car services. The drivers were in suits and parked alongside the curb next to our taxi line. I don't know the names of the services, but you could also look into that if you want.

Thank you for your review. We are considering a cruise on the Getaway. To be honest, I've seen posts on my cruise line of choice from people who say they would never cruise NCL again. I'm not too sure if we will book.

 

My question is about your comment about the ship being crowded and noisy. How crowded and noisy? Are there spots on the ship to get away from the crowds and noise? How is it in the atrium area?

The Haven-Check it out on NCL website and CC. It is a "ship within a ship". In my experience, it was quiet and peaceful. Of course, you pay extra for the experience, but on this megaship very much worth it IMHO.

Welcome back to the heat....:')

I'll be getting of the Getaway in Sept, traveling in a group of 5. Was the wait for a taxi minivan very long? How long was the actual wait time. Was it organized, with dispatch separating people or just a free for all? Trying to catch a 11:00AM flight, wanted to see if a taxi mini van would work for us.

We got off the ship at about 8:45 and only waited about 10 minutes for them to get a taxi for 5. The guys at the port assign them. It was very organized. There were two people assigning taxis. My only concern with your 11:00 am flight is that there was some traffic in Copenhagen and it is about a 20-30 minute cab ride. I would get off the ship as soon as possible. The nice thing is that there are two terminals at Oceankaj and, remember, only about half the people are getting off the ship.

Thank you for your review. We are considering a cruise on the Getaway. To be honest, I've seen posts on my cruise line of choice from people who say they would never cruise NCL again. I'm not too sure if we will book.

 

My question is about your comment about the ship being crowded and noisy. How crowded and noisy? Are there spots on the ship to get away from the crowds and noise? How is it in the atrium area?

I was on the same cruise. It did not seem too crowded or noisy. There were always places on the top deck which were pretty quiet. This was my fourth NCL cruise, so I am pretty happy with them.

Thank you for your review. We are considering a cruise on the Getaway. To be honest, I've seen posts on my cruise line of choice from people who say they would never cruise NCL again. I'm not too sure if we will book.

 

My question is about your comment about the ship being crowded and noisy. How crowded and noisy? Are there spots on the ship to get away from the crowds and noise? How is it in the atrium area?

This was our first NCL cruise, but we only cruised RCI for a number of years until we decided to go out of our comfort zone and try others. We tried Carnival two years ago, and did not enjoy it as much, and just tried NCL, and we enjoyed it. One thing I have found is that there are cheerleaders on the threads for each of the various lines, and they will tell you that they only like XYZ Cruise Line. However, you will never know until you try it yourself. I would happily book a cruise on either NCL or RCI again. I know that some time in the future we will be doing an Alaska cruise - and it will probably be time for us to look at Princess or Holland America.

As to it being crowded -- we found the buffet overly noisy and crowded. The Atrium was as well. For other food venues - either arrive during the earlier or later hours to avoid the crowds. Unfortunately the weather did dot agree with us for our cruise, so the pool area was always pretty empty.

Rocklinmom and NCruiser2012, thank you both for your advice and insight. The private transfer options between the cruise port and airport are around $230- to $300 for party of 5 :loudcry: Just trying to save some money and see a taximini van would work out for a 11AM flight or not