Vilies Daughter

We are new to Cruise Critic Roll Call, although we have been cruising for 5 or 6 years now. Have just booked cruises on Oceania Nautica 20 day from London on 30th July 2018, followed by back to back on Nautica from London on 19th August 2018, would appreciate some suggestions and help regarding shore excursions particularly on 19th August sailing as the ships shore excursions are a bit limited and a lot expensive. St. Petersburg in particular times don't allow to cover things we think we should do as we can't fit in morning and afternoon times they just clash. Please if I am writing in the right section (as a newbie don't really know) would love to hear from anyone who is maybe organising tours that would take an extra couple of Australian travelers.

In St Petersburg, check out Alla Tours. We used them last year for our 2 days in St Petersburg and also in Tallinn. In St Petersburg our group was 10 and in Tallinn we only had a group of 5.

Welcome to Cruise Critic, but this is not the place for your ROLL CALL. You need to go back to the main boards page, scroll down to ROLL CALLS, select your cruise line, then your ship. Look for a thread with the dates for your sailing. That's where you connect with other CC members who will be sailing with you. Also visit the Ports of Call boards for tour suggestions. EM

I would suggest that you look on the Ports of Call forum for ideas of independent tours at each of your ports. https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=19

Your roll call may also be a source of info, as your fellow cruisers discuss their plans, and perhaps organize their own tours.

Finally, TripAdvisor will have independent tours listed, along with reviews.

In future, when you start a new thread, please post a title, based on the subject. Otherwise it defaults to your name, and no one knows what the thread is about.

Hi, Jaqui & John, and welcome to Cruise Critic,

Firstly, your sailings are from Southampton.

Altho cruise lines list "London" rather than "Southampton", be aware that the two are about 65 miles apart.

For help on your ports-of-call from those not on your cruise it's important to quote the ports - we don't know the itineraries of all ships on all dates.

For those who can help, I believe the ports are

Southampton

PM 2 North Sea - Cruising

3 Edinburgh (Leith)

AM PM 4 Kirkwall, Orkney Islands

AM PM 5 Tórshavn

AM PM 6 Atlantic Ocean - Cruising

7-8 Akureyri

AM PM 9 Isafjörður

AM PM 10 Atlantic Ocean - Cruising

11 Prince Christian Sound

12 Paamiut

AM PM 13 Qaqortoq

AM PM 14 Atlantic Ocean - Cruising

15-16 Reykjavik

AM PM 17 Atlantic Ocean - Cruising

18 Londonderry

PM PM 19 Belfast

AM PM 20 Dublin

AM PM 21 English Channel - Cruising

22 Southampton

That cruise back-to-back with

1 Southampton

PM 1 North Sea - Cruising

2 Kristiansand, Norway

AM PM 3 Copenhagen

AM PM 4 Berlin (Warnemunde)

AM PM 5 Karlskrona

AM PM 6 Klaipeda

AM PM 7 Riga

AM PM 8 Tallinn

AM PM 9-11 St. Petersburg - Overnight onboard

AM PM 12 Helsinki

AM PM 13 Stockholm

AM 14 Fly Stockholm/UK

AM

For St Petersburg, like all cruise lines Oceania list a bewildering array of one-day and half-day excursions even though you're there for two days, and that makes it extremely difficult to choose and tie different excursions together. There's also a great deal of wasted time going back to the ship at the end of a morning tour & the back out again for an afternoon tour.

So take Heidi's suggestion & book with Alla - or any one of the dozen or so other accredited local tour operators, they all have excellent reputations..

They offer two-day tours, usually with a choice of a relaxing tour covering all of the main sights or a more-intensive tour which covers those main sights plus a few more.

Their tours are in 16-seat vans (minibuses), not the big buses used by cruise lines, so they're more personal, more friendly, and more flexible, and quick thro traffic & to load/unload passengers. They're also the same or lower cost compared to ships' excursions.

Beware of cruise lines' misleading information. Those independently-organised tours have exactly the same visa-free status as ships' tours. You do need to pre-book (though for most you don't pre-pay, or even quote your credit card details) because the tour ticket e-mailed to you gets you through immigration without a visa. Only those who want to go ashore DIY need a Russian visa.

Check out the Baltic forum https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=192 for details of those independent St Petersburg tour operators - and for stacks more info about your Baltic / Norwegian / Icelandic ports.

The British Isles & Western Europe forum https://boards.cruisecritic.co.uk/forumdisplay.php?s=&daysprune=-1&f=233 covers your other ports.

Oceania's cruises include ports off the beaten path, and yours are no exception.

So don't expect a wealth of knowledge on those ports.

All forums have a search box - type in the name of a port to limit the threads to those which mention that port - for Oceania's more-unusual ports that saves a lot of trawling through irrelevant threads.

Essiesmom has given you directions for your cruise RollCall, where you can seek tour-shares and chat to your up-coming cruise-mates.

I struggled with the Cruise Critic website when I first joined, and if you're as technologically-inept as me you'll struggle too.

But well worth preserving, there's oodles of useful info and plenty of helpful folk..

JB :)

I can say a few things about some of your ports.

St. Petersburg: We booked with TJ. Excellent company and we paid at the end of the 2 days. We returned to the ship at the end of the first day and were picked up again the following morning.You need to book some time before because they - like the other private operators - arrange for the 'cruise ship passenger' visa. When leaving the ship, you need to show your passport and the tour voucher to the immigration officer.

Klaipeda: This former Russian military port used to be off limits to the residents of Klaipeda. It's a small town with significance to Prussian and German history. We took a tour to the Kuronian spit and our kids took a Segway tour to the beach and an amber museum. We all enjoyed it.

Stockholm: If the ship docks in town where the large ferries dock, you can take one of the small harbor ferries to get around. If far outside, I would probably take a shuttle bus if Oceania provides it.

Berlin: It's not on the Baltic Sea and a long trip to get there. If you want to, it's better to stick with a ship's excursion. There are small and pleasant towns near the port, Warnemuende and Rostock.

Oceania Nautica Cruises July 30 2018 and August 19, 2018. Can I thank all those who are posting information, it is helping, I am trying to navigate am sure I will get there eventually. Yesterday I stumbled on a list of members for the Meet and Mingle, I am not sure if I managed to successfully add our names Jacqui & John ONeill to those lists, or how I actually found the list, am persevering,hope to find it and hopefully we are now on the lists.

Thanks all Jacqui:D

SPB tours are highly recommended.