Anyone cruised the Baltics with Norwegian???

Hi fellow Norwegian cruisers.

Have cruised in the Eastern Med twice with Norwegian on the Spirit and the Jade in the past 4 years and looking for a different cruise.

Just wondering other cruisers thoughts of the Baltics compared to the Mediterrean.

Love the Med, however starting to run out of ports I haven't visited. Have been researching the Baltics which looks interesting.

Please help us decide.

Cheers Bob and Christine ( Downunder ).

Hi there, Yes we were in the same situation and really loved the med as well but have now booked the baltics for next year and so looking forward to it. I have been reading the post cruise reviews from a recent cruise and they sound amazing. We're also from down under. Bite the bulletin.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Hi fellow Norwegian cruisers.

 

Have cruised in the Eastern Med twice with Norwegian on the Spirit and the Jade in the past 4 years and looking for a different cruise.

Just wondering other cruisers thoughts of the Baltics compared to the Mediterrean.

Love the Med, however starting to run out of ports I haven't visited. Have been researching the Baltics which looks interesting.

Please help us decide.

 

Cheers Bob and Christine ( Downunder ).

We usually go on cruises where the weather is warm, since we live above the Arctic Circle ourselves. But a few years ago we wanted to do a summer cruise in Europe with (to us) NEW ports, and ended up booking the 9 days Baltic cruise instead (we had then done the Eastern Med and the Western Med plus the Caribbean several times each). And we never regretted - beautiful ports on the Baltic cruise itinerary. The weather might not be as stable as in the Mediterranean, but the itinerary weighs up for that big time. It was interesting to see St. Petersburg, but to us the nicest ports on that cruise was actually Copenhagen, Stockholm and Tallinn.

We were on the Star to the Baltics, and it was a lovely cruise. The Baltics are really port intensive, so you might want to choose a cruise based upon price, or if you have status with a line that will give you priority disembarkation in St. Petersburg. My review of the cruise is linked below in my signature line.

We can't compare because we haven't cruised the Mediterranean (yet) - but cruised the Baltics on the Star last summer. I never dreamed I'd ever go to Russia! We were on the Jewel one year and met several couples who had taken a lot of cruises - so I started asking them all what their favorite cruise was - all three said The Baltics - so we booked it. It was awesome.

We visited Berlin, which if I had to do again, I'd stay closer to the port, but never being to Germany - we had to go to Berlin once. St. Petersburg was very interesting, but my favorite port was Talinn.

Try it!!

Hi Bob and Christine,

We cruised the Baltic's in the Star in 2013. We had an aft suite because I had traveled on business between Stockholm and Helsinki and the Archipelago is stunning and I wanted my wife to see it. In fact we had dinner on the balcony as we cruised out of Stockholm.

Our images from the trip are on http://www.flickr.com/photos/magickpyggie/sets which will give you some idea of the views. We prefer the Jade and found the Star lacking a bit, but that was our opinion, just spoiled by the Jade I guess. It's a great adventure.

Very bests

John and Joan

We did the Baltics the other year and it was beautiful. There were only small drawbacks for us. Like another poster said, we found the Star lacking, but others love it. So I guess that's subjective. Also, that was 2 years ago and its been dry-docked since then. So take that how you will..

When you go in to St Petersburg, you may need a visa or you have to stick with your tour. Its super strict. At least for Americans anyway.

Also, unless you like serious amounts of art, stay away from the hermitage. Because of the staying with the tour thing, we were in a place we couldn't get out of for 5 hours. The excursions desk led us to believe it was a palace type place, not an art museum. (The description was vague, so we asked.) Out of 14 people on the tour, 12 were misled by the girl at the desk and all of us wanted to leave. However, we were allowed to look out a small window. :p

We had no problems in any of the other countries. Tallinn was our favorite city for sure!

If you get the chance, do the rooftop tour in Stockholm. You probably wont find anything like it again! :)

We sailed the Baltics and it was, without any shadow of doubt, the best cruise we ever did. Every single port was fantastic with much to see and visit. I do wish they would add another day and add Gdansk to this itinerary though.

The ports are just brilliant. Regarding St Petersburg, that was the most amazing city. Now just to clear up the visa thing for you. If you book your St Petersburg tours through the ship the ship will get you a visa so no problem. If you book a private excursion with one of the tour companies they too will deal with your visa. If you were to choose to go ashore alone and think you can just wander then think again. You will have to jump through so many hoops before you leave the country you live in to get that visa that you will be spinning. This applies to just about every country in the world not just America. And for what? The sights are quite spread out and not really walkable so you will need to find transport. This will be hard and the locals don't speak English, only the ones who work in the tourist places and tourist shops might speak a little. You would also miss having someone to explain things to you. You really do have to book a tour in this city.

It is also worth saying that the ship is not really that big a part of the equation here. This cruise is port intensive and very, very, tiring indeed. It would be pointless to put a big fancy ship with bells and whistles on an itinerary such as this. They are best reserved for the weekly boring milk runs to carribean islands where the ship is needed to be more of a resort. If you are going to see these amazing places then the Star is plenty good enough. If you are sailing for the ship then it is probably better to choose the ship you want and go wherever it goes when you want to travel.

Weather wise it may be a lot cooler and wetter than you expect in the early part of the season and again at the back end. The months of June, July and August can have some incredibly warm and sunny days and some days not so good.

You will not be disappointed by this cruise.

We are booking the 14 day that goes to Iceland. Not really interested in giving tourist dollars to Russia. The trip looks amazing, and am just waiting for the june 1 promotion to kick in. Glad to hear it was great. Thanks

We did the BTB 9 day and 14 day in Sept 2014 on the Star. With the exception of being in a L2 hurricane, we enjoyed both. If you do the 9 day, recommend you consider SPB Tours for your tours. Also suggest that you consider spending a couple of extra days in Copenhagen.

We looked at NCL for our Baltic cruise next year but they couldn't match the itineraries we found elsewhere. 9 days was just too short and made it far too port intensive for me. I want to have some time to relax. We found a sailing on RC that is 12 days and has 4 sea days mixed in to regroup. The downside is they don't go to Stockholm and I really wanted to see that city but not enough to give up sea days. I wish NCL had more itineraries because their offers are usually enticing with free specialty dining, drink packages, etc.

I would echo the recommendation for SBP tours - great tour company at very reasonable prices.

The only cruise I enjoyed more than the Baltics on the Star was the Eastern Med on the Jade.

Our Star experience: http://rayandtraci.blogspot.com/2013/09/sailing-in-scandinavia.html

We did the Baltics five years ago..... I was so tired of hearing my husband talk about going to Russia every day since ( so it seemed). Last year we did a Med cruise and now he talks about that one all the time.

They are both port intensive and amazing and different. For sure you won't regret it.

I would cheerfully go back again. Our favorite port was Tallinn and we did not do anything beyond walk around and enjoy the town.

The ship is not important on this trip. We were in the haven and did not use it at all. You are off the ship almost all day.

Thankyou all you guys that have contributed to our questions.

We appreciate the information immensely.

Cheers Bob & Christine.

We just did the Baltics cruise on May 11th. The weather was still cool, but no crowds in the port cities and the cruise fares were fantastic. We do prefer the Jade to the Star, but the Star does look pretty good after the recent refurbishment and dry dock updates. For tours, we used TJ Tours and found them well run and easy to work with. Our guide in St. Petersburg was great.