ljrlaw

It's at the furthest terminal B when you get to the port. We just got off of her 3 weeks ago. Tell your taxi driver Terminal B.

Will do-thanks!

Just arrived in Athens today from Toronto-jet lagged and confused about Princess info re port-taking a taxi tomorrow from central Athens-port info email says:

Cruise Passenger Terminal B (Kanellos)

Port gate E12

Akti Xaveriou, Lions Gate

Piraeus

Xaveri Pier-Cruise Terminal A

Akti Miaouli 10

Gate 11

Piraeus

Is this one port location? Or am I to choose from two locations? Any help would be appreciated! Thanks,

Thank you for the detailed, informative review! We are doing this cruise in February 2018, and really appreciate your excursion advice, particularly since our excursions are not yet posted for reservation. We have only ever cruised with Princess and Royal Caribbean, so your dining and facilities information is particularly helpful-I will revisit this review several times before February!

Perhaps you could pose the same question to Travelanni who has a thread in the Northern Europe ports section of Cruise critic. She lives in Northern Germany and has a wealth of information, including train travel advice. She will likely know if the Interconnex train is still operating. Otherwise, we found the changing of trains at Rostock, on our way back to Berlin, pretty easy. Good luck!

We were on the Royal Princess last summer, and embarked at Warnemunde on July 20/14. Since we were staying in Berlin both pre and post cruise, we took the train from Berlin directly to Warnemunde that morning-approximately a 3.5 hour journey in total, with a stop in Rostock, and some stops along the way. We bought our tickets on board-it was an "Interconnex" train, not one of the DeutschBahn trains. We arrived at the ship in the early afternoon-simple walk on, no lines, as there were few others embarking at this port, and most of the passengers were out sightseeing for the day. We travelled back to Berlin by train at the end of our cruise-bought tickets at the Warnemunde station, and changed trains in Rostock-still around a 4 hour trip in all. This is a must-do cruise-we enjoyed every minute of it!

Hi Bama Boy-you will enjoy your Baltic Cruise-we are still talking about it! I looked at the journal I kept during our trip last summer, and we were at breakfast by 7am the day we disembarked at Warnemunde. We took the "walk off" option, so we were off the ship by shortly after 8am, and walked to the train station where we bought tickets straight through to Berlin. We took the SBahn train to Rostock (about 10-15 minutes) then changed trains at Rostock to another platform to get the train to Berlin. We boarded at 10:20am, and the train left at 10:44 am. Hope this helps!

Ljrlaw

Nisky-I would echo jdm's comments. I can't tell you how full the ship was when we cruised-it was busy, but getting a lounge chair by the pool, or getting a table for two for dinner at 8:30pm was not a problem.

Getting through customs at St Petersburg was easy, and didn't take long, but we were on a Princess excursion both days, and that may have given us some priority. Coming back on the ship was not an issue, there were no lines. Stockholm was a tender, but the process was fairly quick, and since we had booked the Princess bus into the city, we again may have had some priority.

You will love this itinerary, but it is very busy, so give yourself time to relax on board, and sleep in on the sea days! And bring along some sun screen, water, and a hat-the temperatures were well above 85 degrees Fahrenheit when we were on excursions. I hope you have a wonderful time!

We are just back from the Royal Baltics cruise-we had cabin #M208-fairly close to the front of the ship-and we had cabins above us-there were a few cabins in the very front of the Lido deck. Given that you had the pool area right above, a move was probably prudent!

Hi Lanwood-the Royal Princess is too large to port in Stockholm, so we tendered at Nynasham, and purchased the "Stockholm on your own" excursion which got us a bus into and out of Stockholm-it's about a 40 minute trip.

Hi Betty-Berlin was very hot and sunny while we were there, both before and after our cruise. I found an air-conditioned hotel room to be a necessity, as the subways and museums are not air-conditioned.

We did not do any organized tours, except a hop-on/hop-off tour to get a sense of the city. We had pre-booked a tour of the Reichstag, the parliament building, which was very interesting, and free-but you must reserve a tour on the website-totally worthwhile. We also visited the German History Museum, the Neues Museum to see the bust of Nefertiti, Checkpoint Charlie, and the Topography of Terror. We found the Rick Steves' book "Snapshot Berlin" to be very useful.

For restaurants we went to the Prater beergarden, which was a lot of fun, especially as it was Friday night that we went, and the after work crowd was there enjoying the summer evening. We ate at the sit-down restaurant, but there is take-out food and beer, that you can consume at a picnic table. The next night we went to "Renger Pratzch" which I would highly recommend-we had a pork dinner that was very good. We also ate at a couple of restaurants in the Gendarmenmarkt square area-there are many places to eat there, and we had a german dinner one night, and then a pizza/pasta dinner two doors down the next night.

I'm sure you will have a wonderful time in Berlin-we certainly did!

We are just back from the Royal Princess Baltic cruise out of Warnemunde, Germany. Pre-cruise we stayed at the Motel One Ku'damm, on Kantstrasse. It is very close to the Zoologischer U-Bahn station and the hop-on bus stop is within a couple of blocks. It is very modern with a reasonably priced, good breakfast. Post-cruise we stayed at the NH Hotel Mitte, at the corner of Leipzig and Friedrichstrasse-a block from Checkpoint Charlie, two blocks from the Gendarmenmarkt, and Potsdamer Platz. The Stadtmitte U-Bahn is just around the corner. It is more of a business hotel with a lot of conference rooms, but we found it to be very conveniently located. The breakfast was very expensive (18-22 euros per person) but there are many small cafes, and a Starbucks nearby.

We chose two different hotels to be in the former West Berlin with the first one, and in the former East Berlin for the second one. Since I had learned through Cruise Critic that last summer was especially hot in Berlin, finding an air-conditioned hotel was a priority. When we were there last week, the temperature was over 30 Celsius (90 Fahrenheit) and with the subways and museums not being air-conditioned, our hotel rooms were an oasis of cool! You will love Berlin, we enjoyed every minute of the 5 days we spent there!

Thanks so much for your great review! I really enjoyed following Florence throughout northern Europe.

We were on the same itinerary out of Warnemunde July 20-31/14. I can advise that we did do the Vasa museum in Stockholm on our own, and while the line-up outside looked huge, we had been forewarned by Rick Steves in his "Northern European Cruise Ports" guide book "not to panic" as the line moved quite quickly. He was right, and we were in the museum in about 10 minutes. We took the English language tour that was provided on an hourly (and possibly more often) basis, and found the museum and the ship fascinating. We used the hop-on/hop-off boat in Stockholm to get to the Vasa, and then to Gamla Stan.

My husband and I have just returned from our Baltics cruise on the Royal Princess. We started from Warnemunde on July 20/14, after spending two days in Berlin, and travelled to the port by train. We returned to Berlin on July 31/14 and stayed there until August 3/14.

We enjoyed the cruise very much, found the pace to be a little tiring, but certainly doable. We booked Princess excursions in St Petersburg, and the Princess shuttle from our port in Nynasham (Sweden) to Stockholm, but otherwise travelled independently by using hop-on/hop-off buses and boats, or walking. I wasn't interested in the Aarhus stop, and only travelled to the port terminal that day to use the wifi. As it was our last day before disembarking in Warnemunde, we used the day to relax around the pool.

We booked the cruise when the "3 for free" promotion was offered in the summer of 2013. We had a reduced deposit, $100 each on-board credit , and a dinner in the Crown Grille. About 2 weeks before we sailed, we were notified of an upgrade from a balcony cabin to a mini-suite. We stayed on the Marina deck, room M208-quite close to the front of the ship. The upgrade was a real bonus, giving us extra room in the cabin and the bathroom.

Our weather was exceptionally warm, and sunny-a contrast to the cruise before ours, according to some of the reviews I've read. We spent a lot of time by the central pool, and while it was busy, there were always lounge chairs available. I do think the pools are rather small for the size of the ship, and there is no aft pool, so I wonder how crowded the pool areas get when the Royal is in the Caribbean.

I would highly recommend a stay in Berlin to anyone contemplating this cruise in the future-we found it a very reasonably priced city, easy to navigate using public transit, and rich in history.

I am happy to answer any questions about the cruise-I found the CC forums very helpful in planning our cruise, and enjoyed hearing about other cruisers' experiences before my trip, and after. I thought it was high time I stopped "lurking" and offered my own thoughts!

Received the Tallinn walking tour, Paula-thank you!

I would greatly appreciate receiving this tour. Please e-mail to dmalcolm8@cogeco.ca -happy to forward it on, as well! Thanks!

We will be catching the Royal Princess in Warnemunde on July 20/14, and staying in Berlin before and after. I would strongly suggest that you go to the thread "NE Germany" by Travelanni and pose your question there. I did send in a query similar to yours, and Anni's reply suggests the train from Berlin to Rostock, and then a taxi to Warnemunde as our (large) luggage may present a challenge to a train transfer. In 2014 there is a promotion for weekend train travel that costs a total of 44 Euro-for a group up to 5 people, I believe. It's called the "Schones Wochenende" promotion, and Anni suggested it. Good luck, and enjoy your cruise next year!

Thanks, Anni-your advice is greatly appreciated!:)

Hi Anni

My husband and I are on the Royal Princess Baltic cruise departing from Warnemunde on Sunday, July 20/14. We are staying in Berlin pre and post cruise. I have asked our travel agent to look into trains to and from the port. She suggested taking a cab from Rostock to the port-but your advice on other posts has been to take the train from Rostock to Warnemunde-what are your thoughts? Also, since we are travelling on a Sunday, should we reserve our seats on the trip from Berlin? Finally, is there any price reduction for buying our train tickets for both pre and post cruise travel well in advance? Thanks for your help!