Shore Excursions for those with mobility issues

We are doing Oceania, Stockholm to Amsterdam, in July. Recently, my spouse has been having lots of pain due to stenosis in the lumbar region. He is having a cortisone shot a week before we fly to Stockholm and we hope he has a great result. However, it is likely that he will be using a cane or walker for all or part of the cruise.

I have canceled a few shore excursions that had a primary walking component, and added a few that would likely be alright for him. I think I'm all set in Helsinki, St. Petersburg, and Gdansk.

Any suggestions for Tallin, Klaipeda, Warnemunde, Copenhagen and Bruges?

Thanks!

Talinn is tough because honestly it's a lot of walking with cobblestones through a beautiful city. There are a couple of options - one is to take a taxi to the top of Tompea hill and walk down. If that's too much, then there are pedicabs available for hire that will take you on a tour for as long as you'd like. Or there is a small tourist train that goes through the historic streets. We did that for our three year old, but it was really quite a lovely ride, as was the pedicab.

There were some pedicabs at the port when we returned to the ship in the afternoon; however, the pedicabs were not yet available at 9 am when we left the ship. This may have been due to the fact that we arrived in Tallinn on their Independence day, and there were limited closures. In the main square, we found a pedicab, and we were able to take a very enjoyable 15 minute pedicab tour through the charming city. Since our son loves trains, we also rode on a tourist train that departs from Kullassepa street whenever it is full and makes a 20 minute loop around the city. We were fortunate to sit in the very back, since we had a great spot to take photographs from the back of the train. We ate a delicious lunch at Gloria ( http://www.gloria.ee) , a charming historic restaurant with excellent duck and fish.

In St. Petersburg I hope you are at least on a private tour. It would be a lot more, but we found the private tour for just our family to be worth it since we could control the itinerary, and stop whenever our 3 year old started to hit his limit. We were able to see all of the major attractions in two days because we paced it for our son, and were very glad we did that. Whether that is necessary for you really depends on your husband's level of pain and stamina.

Also, please get a letter from your dr. to submit to the disability office to see if they can help your husband with disembarkment in St. Petersburg - I don't think it would be a good idea if he has to wait an hour on customs lines. There's no guarantee they will help, but it's worth asking.

My review in my signature line is primarily aimed at families, but there is also some information to try to limit walking since with kids that's also a good idea. I hope he feels better and you have a great cruise.

I love the idea of a letter from his doctor. That's certainly worth a try. I cringe at the accounts of the time spent in disembarkment in St. Petersburg.

I bet we could even get a taxi driver to show us some of the sights in Tallin, and the pedicab is an equally good idea. Thank you so much. I will check out the listing on that restaurant as well.

I have limited mobility and took a manual wheelchair on our Baltic cruise. In Stockholm we bought a pass for public transport and went everywhere by bus, ferry and tram, including the Vasa Museum. It was very easy to get around and everybody, especially the bus drivers, were very helpful.

In Tallin we took a taxi to the top of Toompea Hill and walked down. Very disabled unfriendly.

In Copenhagen we did the HOHO bus which departed from beside our ship.

Bruges we've been to a couple of times on a land holiday. Fairly accessible for an original medieval city. It even has dropped kerbs. Lovely city.

In SPB we did the two day Comfort Tour with Alla Tours. They were fantastic and the only thing I couldn't manage was the ride on the subway.

I'm sure he will be fine. It's a fantastic cruise and we are returning this year.

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Warnemunde has a nice level promenade, you will have to navigate steps through the train station (which is right near the docks). Have you looked into taking the train to Schwerin or Ludwigslust? Perhaps the Molli Train might be enjoyable and you won't have to do much walking.

I walked the town of Wismar and it was very interesting with the Brick Gothic architecture, however, the cobbles absolutely killed my knees.

Ack! duplicate

What about taking a travel scooter for when he gets tired

something like Travel scoot it folds up for transport

Sorry - I should have mentioned that some of the old city of Tallinn is closed to cars, so that’s why I made the pedicab/small train recommendation. Hopefully someone who knows more about this will be able to advise you on whether a cab tour is recommended since I don’t know exactly how much of the old town of Tallinn allows cars. If no one posts here, you can try to post a question on the Tallinn forum on TripAdvisor or see if there is a ti who can help you (the tourism people were really helpful by email in Norway).

We are scheduled for the Comfort Tour with Alla in SPB. Good to hear that Londontowner had success with that. I had wondered about taxis in Old Town, Tallin. I suspect they aren't allowed; but pedicab is a nice option.

Keep the ideas coming, please.

Sny

We took a taxi to the top of Toompea and walked down. I was in a manual wheelchair and it was fairly steep. In the main square we took the little land train. We then went through the town and stopped and had a drink in a bar.

It really was hard work and tbh marred our opinion of Tallin. We have been in much older cities that are more disabled friendly.

We are going back to the Baltic this summer and have found acruise that doesn't go to Tallin.

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I'd advise you to pay attention to the cruise line's activity rating. We were on "moderate" activities and they involved quite a bit of walking, much on cobblestone streets and buses with a few steps to get in and out of. The most difficult was the canal cruises in Copenhagen and Ghent which we really enjoyed but you had to walk over a small gap and go down a few steps to get in the boats. The boat captains did offer their hand to help passengers but it was a struggle for a few people on our tour who used a cane.

If you do plenty of research it really does enhance your holiday when you have mobility issues. Apart from CC I use Tripadvisor, SageTraveling, local tourist office websites, Streetview, YouTube, Google, local tour operators etc. There's plenty of info so as not to get nasty surprises.

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KitKat243 - you mention a doctor's note to help get through the long line disembarking at SPB. Have you seen anyone use such a letter successfully? What does the letter need to say? What is the disability office?

I have read that the pedicabs are not legal in the old town. Does anyone have current info on this please?

I have limited mobility and took a manual wheelchair on our Baltic cruise. In Stockholm we bought a pass for public transport and went everywhere by bus, ferry and tram, including the Vasa Museum. It was very easy to get around and everybody, especially the bus drivers, were very helpful.

 

In Tallin we took a taxi to the top of Toompea Hill and walked down. Very disabled unfriendly.

 

In Copenhagen we did the HOHO bus which departed from beside our ship.

 

Bruges we've been to a couple of times on a land holiday. Fairly accessible for an original medieval city. It even has dropped kerbs. Lovely city.

 

In SPB we did the two day Comfort Tour with Alla Tours. They were fantastic and the only thing I couldn't manage was the ride on the subway.

 

I'm sure he will be fine. It's a fantastic cruise and we are returning this year.

 

 

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Hello, can you explain why you were unable to do the subway in St. Petersburg?

Thanks, Kari

Hello, can you explain why you were unable to do the subway in St. Petersburg?

 

Thanks, Kari

Well, I don't know about the particular instance to which you are referring, but the subway stations are very deep, there are not operable lifts at all stations, and there is no way a person in a wheelchair or scooter could navigate the escalators.

Well, I don't know about the particular instance to which you are referring, but the subway stations are very deep, there are not operable lifts at all stations, and there is no way a person in a wheelchair or scooter could navigate the escalators.

Thanks. My Alla Tours contact said we could add the stop and there were lifts. I’ll trust that they’ll get us to one that has a lift or my husband will have to wait for the rest of us if he can’t get down.

Thanks. My Alla Tours contact said we could add the stop and there were lifts. I’ll trust that they’ll get us to one that has a lift or my husband will have to wait for the rest of us if he can’t get down.

I'm not an expert on St. Petersburg, but in NYC, there are some accessible subway stations with elevators. You can call a number to see which stations elevators are currently working (so you don't get stuck at your destination since they break a lot). If alla thinks it can be done, I'm sure they know what they are doing.

I have read that the pedicabs are not legal in the old town. Does anyone have current info on this please?

It was 4 years ago, but cars are banned in part of old town. We used a pedicab to get around, and it worked quite well. You might want to start a post with this question to get more recent info or try the Tallinn forum of tripadvisor for confirmation.

KitKat243 - you mention a doctor's note to help get through the long line disembarking at SPB. Have you seen anyone use such a letter successfully? What does the letter need to say? What is the disability office?

My husband was injured in Copenhagen, so I actually went to guest services on the ship and they helped me (we also had a 3.5 year old so it was a bit overwhelming). The large, mainstream cruise lines all have disability offices you can call or email ahead of time. I couldn't find any information on Oceana having a disability office online, since it's a smaller line but I'd start by using their general contact info on their website to ask them if it is possible to arrange this ahead of time. If not, you can try to arrange it on the ship. If both are unsuccessful, then I'd consider trying to start your tour later on day one and earlier on day 2 to avoid the crowds (the lines are only really bad on the start of day 1 when they are carefully examining everyone's paperwork. On subsequent entries they just glance at your stamp quickly and waive you through. We had a private tour for just our family, so we'd have been able to move the time of our tour easily. That could be harder if you are on a 16 person tour unless there are other groups that have already requested a later start time on day one to avoid the crowds, which makes sense since you don't miss any overall time.