Swindonpete

Hi all Does anyone know when P&O will release their 2023 cruises? It’s just that we are looking to move a 2021 cruise to 2023 as we already have plans for 2022 cruises booked. Any info appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Thanks crystalspin - very helpful info.

Hi - Has anyone got any comments / insights into the Best Deck on Acardia for Balcony Deluxe cabin please? Any really good positioned cabins too?

Thanks

Pete

I recommend www. redsun-tours...The young lady who started it was our guide when we were there, she is superb, sorts visas, entry to all venues (Hermitage /gardens etc) tailors the tour around what you want, EXTREMELY good prices (half the ships), can also do the Ballet and /or Folklore show in the evenings if wanted. I also have her private email address if you want a private tour ie car or minibus. just message me if you want it.

Thanks for this info. We will look at our options but will get back to you if we decide to go independent as what you did sounds v good.

I'd recommend choosing a tour that takes you inside the Church on the Spilled Blood. The outside is impressive enough, but the inside is simply mind-blowing.

Thanks - it's on our list and incl in a tour we've booked. Many thanks

Stockholm hop on hop off bus and then hop on hop off boat we’re great. Taking us to sights such as the ABBA museum, the palace and the Vasa museum. tJ travel tour in Tallinn and St Petersburg were worth recommending whilst in Helsinki we did the bus to town then grabbed a ferry over to the fortress as a spur of the moment thing, absolutely loved it.

 

 

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Thanks v much.

Stockholm hop on hop off bus and then hop on hop off boat we’re great. Taking us to sights such as the ABBA museum, the palace and the Vasa museum. tJ travel tour in Tallinn and St Petersburg were worth recommending whilst in Helsinki we did the bus to town then grabbed a ferry over to the fortress as a spur of the moment thing, absolutely loved it.

 

 

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Thanks v much for this reassurance and about the HH and the insight into how you tackled these lovely places. We have a lot of pleasant discussions ahead hear to firm up on what we will do in each place. Certainly take the advice about an organised tour in St P.

Okey the one in the top is the best, and so on. I pasted the numbers if you need to call and book a cab

 

 

 

 

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Great - thanks again.

Welcome to Stockholm, my home town! It’s a lovely summer city.

NCL usually docks in Nynäshamn (far away) and RCCL in the city.

The public transport is easy to use and probally a better choice then HOHO buses, but that depends on what you want to see!

If you want to use taxi, go with the big companies; taxi stockholm, taxi kurir or sverige taxi, there are a lot of independent cab drivers that are very overpriced, just let me know if you want to see the logos, to avoid copycats.

Ask me anything, I ll do my best to help!

Thanks for this, we are looking forward to visiting your lovely city. Reliable and fair taxi logos would be great thanks v much.

'Zuiderdam' is too big to dock right in the city center of Travemunde, thus 'Skandinavienkai' is where the ship will dock, as in 2017 and 2016. On the first image of this news report, you can see where smaller cruise ships can dock, you may recognize a ship with yellow funnel beyond the skyscraper in the heart of Travemunde.

 

I strongly recommend to take cash for visits in Germany, there is no guarantee that you can pay anything with CC, if so at a ticket machine, and more and more elsewhere, your PIN is required.

 

The best way to get from Travemunde to Lubeck and back with public transport is by train (RB), but there are slowly bus connections as well (BUS). There is a train station right across the pier, but I don't know, whether you will be allowed to just walk over to it. Ticket costs €3.20 per trip, trains depart every hour. From Lubeck central station, everything is in walkable distance, but there is also bus service.

Thanks very much for this detailed information - very helpful. I will take more euros with me now as was going to use CC, will come in useful elsewhere too. Thanks again.

Thanks for this reassurance. Much appreciated.

Sounds great! Thank you, much appreciated.

If you know your starting and ending point then Google maps has the option to search the planned route by public transport.

Thanks for this. Great idea will give it a try here before we sail!

Thanks all for the advice / information - very helpful & much appreciated.

For Stockholm:

 

Here is the route Strömma's HoHo buses use.

 

https://www.stromma.se/globalassets/sweden/stockholm/product_maps/hopon-hopoff_bus/hoho_map_2017_high-oct.jpg

 

Red sightseeing's route:

https://www.redsightseeing.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/Stockholm-early-summer-2017.png

 

Most cruisers will do Vasa+Old Town and for them the HoHo buses would be a very bad choice.

The HH buses aren't as frequent as the public transport and the HH also don't use the same direct route

as the public transport.

 

 

From Vasa you can walk 5 min across Djurgårdsbron and travel with bus #76 which have a departure every 15 minutes.

From Vasa you can also walk 5-10 min to Allmänna gränd and go with Djurgårdsfärjan which departs every 15 minutes

and where the capacity is 300 passengers / departure.

Thanks for this detailed info - very helpful to us for our trip.

HOHO busses are good to take you to places - not so good when it comes to getting back to the ship on time - especially in very busy places like (for example) Barcelona. I will never now plan on getting HOHO buses to bring me back to the ship.

The more I look into this the more I agree with you -thanks v much, very helpful.

HoHo buses are generally a very poor choice when choosing method of transport.Expensive,slow and they

also do their loops which rarely takes you straight from A to B.

Thanks for this - understand the logic as we would not want to look at everything at every stop & so understand your point.

There are HOHO buses, but honestly the public transportation is excellent in all of the cities you've mentioned (except Tallinn, which doesn't really need it). HOHO buses are not recommended in Tallinn if you are planning on spending most of your time in the Old town, because they are restricted in where they can go. If everyone in your party is physically fit, you should just walk. If anyone has limited mobility, take a cab or pedicab to the top of Toompea Hill and walk down (do bear in mind that Tallinn is usually the day before St. Petersburg, so you might not want to push it here). If you can't walk down, there are pedicab tours that will take you all over the Old Town.

 

In Helsinki depending on where you dock, you might be a bit further away from the main town. We took a cab to Market Square because our cruise line (NCL) didn't run shuttles to town. You should take a shuttle if it is available, but otherwise you'll be fine with a cab. The 2/3 tram is the sightseeing tram in Helsinki and it will take you where most tourists want to go.

 

In Stockholm, if you dock at 167 Stadsgarden, there are HOHO boats that will hopefully run directly to Vassa as soon as you dock (you need to email he companies to confirm since early morning service is sometimes stopped by the companies). It was worth it when I went 4 years ago since they used to have a one ride ticket, but now they'd require you to buy an all day ticket and I honestly don't know if it's worth it since we didn't have any trouble using the amazing public transportation system in stockholm, and we had a 3 year old in tow. There have been previous threads about using public transport to Vasa, and you can search for them when you know where you dock. I would guess public transportation would be faster than HOHO buses/boats, but I honestly don't know since I've never taken many HOHO transportation.

Thanks for taking the time to give me this helpful insight - very useful as first timers in this part of the world. Thank you.

We were on a Baltic cruise in 2016 and docked at Nynashamn. It didn't take a 1/2 hour to walk the "seawalk". It is a bit of a walk but maybe 10-15 minutes tops.

Hope this helps.

<<<Karen>>>

Thanks Karen - very helpful we are fairly quick walkers too!

Google is your friend for this! Search for the websites for each named port and you should find a schedule detailing which ship is going to dock in which place.

 

 

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Many thanks - I'm onto it!

Hi All, please can anyone tell me which docks / berths do p and o usually use for Stockholm, Helsinki and Copenhagen? Or please can anyone tell me how to find out? Many thanks

You will need to know what port in Stockholm your ship arrives. I'm arriving on NCL to Nynashamn and it is 60 km to Stockholm. We actually have to disembark on what is called a seawalk and the port info says it takes 1/2 hour just to have everyone walk from ship to land. ugh It is an 1 hour+ train ride to Stockholm

 

There seems to be Hop On/Off at all the ports you've mentioned.

Thanks v much. Going to have to find out where our ship will dock.

+1 for the Rick Steves Guide. He will mention things on his walking tour in each city that the HO/HO guides won’t. (E.g. An ancient rune stone in Stockholm and the former KGB headquarters in Tallinn.).

 

In Stockholm, we took a good “pay what you want” guided walking tour for a couple of hours—mentioned in the Rick Steves book.

Going to get ourselves a Rick Steves guide! Thanks very much.

We were on a Baltic cruise in 2016 and docked at Nynashamn. It didn't take a 1/2 hour to walk the "seawalk". It is a bit of a walk but maybe 10-15 minutes tops.

Hope this helps.

<<<Karen>>>

Karen - thanks v helpful info. We need to pin down where our ship will dock.

Have you tried "Rick Steves Northern European Cruise Ports" book? So much information for all the ports in there. DH and I used the book in 2015, we took the ships shuttle to Helsinki and walked down the Esplanade to the Market at the port. Had some wonderful salmon soup and those little fishy"s that they cook up. Walked around the booths to see what was for sale and generally just wandered. Tallinn is an easy walk from the dock follow Rick Steves instructions and you are good to go. Stockholm depends where you are docking so you need to figure that out. If Nyashamn it won't be fun because it takes about a little over an hour either by train or shuttle to get to actual Stockholm. We were lucky we docked at Frihamnen and just followed Rick Steves instructions on how to get in by bus. Of course we took the wrong bus because we weren't paying attention, but figured it out finally. Added some adventure to our day. Go to the library and check out a copy of Rick Steves book or head to the book store and buy a copy, it's worth every penny. Have a great cruise, we are doing a second (shorter one to the Baltics) to bring our daughters and their significant others this May. Linda

Thanks Linda, very helpful information. Much appreciated.