soundcruiser

Viking Oceans' Viking Homelands cruise has an itinerary you might like. It covers fjords in southern Norway as well as several Baltic ports, including St. Petersburg ; in fact, we had similar criteria to yours when we were selecting a cruise. We sail on the Homelands cruise this September! I'll be interested to hear what you decide!

Thanks so much, Desdichado!

Desdichado62, is it realistic to think we can walk, with our small wheeled carry-on bags, from the Slussen Hilton to our cruise ship at S160 in light of all the construction? Google Maps shows a route but I don't know if they take construction into account.

Desdichado62, thanks so much for the map! I've been searching for something like this and here it is! You are such an asset for us cruisin' folk!!

Roothy, thanks for taking the time to compile this valuable list of helps! We will be on VH in September for our first Viking cruise - this just makes me more excited to board!

Did you get to visit St. Mary's Basilica, JiminyC_fan? That sounds like a great tour!

Have a wonderful cruise, Jiminy. I'll be waiting with baited breath for your thoughts on the cruise!

Thanks, Terrier 1! That's what I thought - and good to know that Norled was responsive to your questions.

JiminyC_fan, if you go here, and scroll to the map at the bottom of the page, you can see the harbor where the cruise ships dock on either side of the "U" it makes. Both Rodne and Norled dock in that same area on Skagenkaien - it looks like probably a 10-15 minute walk at most from one side of the harbor to the other, even if you dock on the other side of the harbor on Strandkaien. I loved the photos this website has of the town of Stavanger! It looks just beautiful.

In looking into this for our September 3 VH cruise, I found that Norled (norled.no/en/fjordcruise/lysefjord-Pulpit-Rock-Cruise) has a similar cruise at 12:15, returning at 15:45. Don't think it stops, but they get water from the waterfall and feed the mountain goats.They have a promotional video at https://wn.com/pulpit_rock_cruise_at_the_lysefjord, so you can see the boat, etc. Looks like it might be a solution to the tight scheduling with Rodne? Has anyone in the Viking "family" used Norled?

We'll be on the Sea September 3 out of Stockholm - almost exactly a year after your wonderful trip!:)

Thanks for this, Dauntless! Those are great posts that clearly show the differences between the two lovely "high points!" I went on to look at some of her other posts on places we'll visit on our September Homelands cruise - very helpful even if you don't have kids!

Ziki,

We're on that same Homelands sailing-I hope you'll come along with us! We can watch out for each other while we're having a wonderful adventure!

The jazz cruise is showing in our My Viking Journey for the 9/3/17 Viking Homelands sailing. I wonder if it was accidentally omitted in yours? You could ask the folks at tellus@vikingcruises.com for clarification. Hope you have a wonderful cruise!

Thanks so much, Dauntless and CharTrav! I hope we don't have a "pinata experience!" LOL! Although my college German fluency is, shall we say, several train stations short of that level now, I can still read/speak at a level that *should* keep us out of too much trouble. Getting dropped off at Gendarmenmarkt would put us just a few blocks from both Checkpoint Charlie and Unter den Linden, so, barring some especially large construction projects ( appreciate the warning!), we should be able to see most of what we want in the time allotted. It even looks like we could hop on the purple U-Bahn line to get between places if we feel short of time. Knowing that we don't have to figure out how to do it all starting from the Ostbanhof eases my mind considerably!

Hi, CharTrav and Dauntless,

We'll be on the Homelands cruise in September. This may have been covered elsewhere, but, for the included "on your own" excursion, is there bus transportation included to get closer to the main "tourist areas" such as the Reichstag? Ostbanhof is quite a ways from there! I'm just wondering if we need to figure out public transportation (bus, the U) options, or if it's possible to get off the train closer to those areas, maybe at the Hakescher Markt. You have mentioned the bus, but I'm not sure if that is a chartered bus or one you caught at Ostbanhof.

Thanks so much for sharing all the details with us - I'm amazed at how many folks are willing to take time to help others have a wonderful adventure!

Thanks for your help, Saint Greg!

We will be in NO for a convention Oct. 25- Nov. 1. We're thinking of staying in the Warehouse district. Hotwire is showing a 4*, 80% recommended resort boutique hotel with free internet for $168, and a 3-1/2* 90% recommended boutique for $147. Any thoughts as to what they are? Thanks!

To add to the upsell data base, we were offered our first upsell yesterday for our cruise on the Volendam

tomorrow! HAL emailed our TA, who called and emailed us. From our main deck OV, we were offered a category A-BC Vista Suite for $199 pp or Neptune SA or SB for $349 pp. We snagged the Vista as we have invested a little too heavily in excursions to justify the Neptune! We are so thankful for the Upsell Fairy!

Sarah - we are taking our very first cruise ( hubby, 18 y.o. son, and I) on the Volendam this month, and I have devoured every morsel of your wonderfully written review! Thanks so much for taking the time to share.

Best wishes for a great cruise, Ruth! You certainly deserve it after all the wisdom you share with us here! We will be boarding the Volendam on Aug. 27 for our very first cruise! Glad to know you'll be getting her warmed up for us!

This is fabulous! As is this whole thread! Really perks up a gray day in the Pacific Northwest! Thanks for all your humor, folks!

Thanks, Ruth! At least we can give it a try!

I don't mean to hijack this thread, but a question occurred to me. We'll be on the Volendam next month - similar enough to the Amsterdam that I imagine similar counsel would apply - my question is, can you hear the rangers' talk (when we're in Glacier Bay) on the aft decks?

soundcruiser - Volendam - 27 August 14 - 7 day Alaska