Norwegian Star- Baltic capitals June12-21 report.

Prior to my trip, I have searched and used CC extensively for planning my trips. Thanks to your help, my vacation was almost perfect, and I would like to report it.

On June 10, our extended family used SAS to go from SFO-CPH. Our flight was on time. Food and drink were plentiful. Once we landed in CPH, it was already June 11. We quickly went through passport control. Everything went smoothly. Once getting our luggage, I got 1 3zone clip card for the train for 10 adults in my party. Total cost was 200dkk. I used the ticket window, and they took USD, Euro, Dkk, credit card. We got off at Central Station to walk to our hotel (Omena-near Tivoli). We went down to train track 2. Central Station was not announced as Central Station on the train. It was called Kobenhavn H.

Once settled in our hotel, we went over Central Station for some DKK. Exchange rates were clearly posted, however, fee was not. We went though several exchange places, and their rates were not the same. After that we went to Nyhavn, took the Canal tour.

On June 12, we just visited the Castle and National Museum. Most places did not open until 10 or 11 am. At 12pm, we checked out of our hotel and took a taxi to port. Because Omena has no reception, we had to go to Central to catch a taxi. It cost around 175 dkk to get to Norwegian Star port.

I'd love to hear more about your trip! We will be aboard the Star at the end of July! Can't wait!

June 12: Check in the Star was very quick and easy. Our room was ready at 12pm. We saw lots of people making dinner reservation, however, we assumed with free style we did not need to reserve. By dinner time, we tried to go to the main dining room (Aqua and Versailles), but none was available. We ended up eating at the buffet.

June 13: we booked with SPB for all 5 ports. I highly recommend them. On this day, we went to Berlin. It took 3 hours driving to get to Berlin. SPB provided us with plenty of water, however, be prepared to have some euros or 1 dollar bills because restroom in Europe usually cost 0.5 Euro or $1. They had attendant at most restroom. Berlin was very interesting, and I am glad that I went. On June 13, it was very sunny and hot in Berlin, yet when we got back to the ship in Warndemun, it was pouring. So definitely bring your umbrellas, raincoats, hats

and wear layers. Our day was very long 8am-8pm.

June 14: Sea day. We slept a lot this day because of jet lag. Our kids tried out the water slide and kid club, but they did not like any of those. This itinerary for some reason did not have as many kids as other cruise that I had taken.

June 15: Talinn. We again use SPB, Talinn is pretty small. There was a lot of walking for this port. We got back to the boat around 2pm

Thanks for the reports so far. Looking forward to more from you.

I am curious about one thing though. We have sailed NCL many times because we love their free style dining option, eat whenever you want. In all that time, we have never heard of them taking reservations for any of the dining rooms?. Usually the reservations were for the specialty restaurants. That is the purpose, eat whenever you want. Is this something new on NCL?

Cheers

Len

Thank you for the report and look forward to more.

Keith

Thanks for your report!! Looking forward to more!!:):)

Thanks for the reports so far. Looking forward to more from you.

 

I am curious about one thing though. We have sailed NCL many times because we love their free style dining option, eat whenever you want. In all that time, we have never heard of them taking reservations for any of the dining rooms?. Usually the reservations were for the specialty restaurants. That is the purpose, eat whenever you want. Is this something new on NCL?

 

Cheers

 

Len

Honestly, I don't really know. Last year, on the Epic (West med. cruise), they did not take any reservation. However, on the Star, they did.

June 15: St Petersburg-day 1. The Star did not clear custom till 9am. For people who used the ship tour, Star had the forward gangway for them. For private groups like us, we were stuck on the boat for an hour. Once got out, passport control took another hour. We did not meet up with SPB until 11am. However, our tour guide was very understanding. She provided us with water. She took us right away to Hemitage, then to Spill blood, then lunch. After lunch, we went to Peter and Paul fortress. It was nice to have a guide because she took care of all the tickets, begged to the officer at Hemitage so we could go inside. It was very crowded and hectic in front of Hemitage. She also took us to the free restroom stop :) We finally got back around 530pm.

June 16: st Petersburg day 2: everything went much more smoothly. Passport control took 5 minutes. We started out with the Canal ride. Then we went to Catherine Palace. Right after that we went to Peterhof and it became raining very hard. Our guide took us to a local place for lunch. SHe was very nice to exchange rubles for us. As the rain died down, we went in Peterhof. Our kids loved it. According to them, that was the highlight of our trip.

Thanks for the report!

Darn it. I wish you would have just gone down the forward elevators yourself. They can't stop you. That is what we did when we were on the Sun, the sister ship 2 years ago. Meet your group on the ship, then all go down together.

June 15: St Petersburg-day 1. The Star did not clear custom till 9am. For people who used the ship tour, Star had the forward gangway for them. For private groups like us, we were stuck on the boat for an hour. Once got out, passport control took another hour. We did not meet up with SPB until 11am. However, our tour guide was very understanding. She provided us with water. She took us right away to Hemitage, then to Spill blood, then lunch. After lunch, we went to Peter and Paul fortress. It was nice to have a guide because she took care of all the tickets, begged to the officer at Hemitage so we could go inside. It was very crowded and hectic in front of Hemitage. She also took us to the free restroom stop :) We finally got back around 530pm.

We are also using SPB Tours for most of the cities. (Sailing on the July 9th departure of the NCL Star).

I am surprised to hear that the ship kept you on board longer since you were using a private tour. I thought that was not happening.

Thanks for your review- we are sailing on the Star in August and have booked SPB tours for Berlin, SPB and Stockholm. What was your experience of Stockholm with them? Also I'd be interested in knowing if NCL put on a Russian themed show whilst in SPB? What times were the shows? Did you find the that the venues for breakfast were excessively busy on port days? I'm considering using room service on those days. Thanks in anticipation of a response :)

for June 17 (the second day in St Petersburg), there was a local Russian folk dancing and singing show on board around 5pm.

June 18: Helsinki. THis is my least favorite port. The church in the rock was closed in the morning. We were on a tour bus driving around Helsinki. We got back to the boat around 12pm.

June 19: Stockholm. SPB took us to Vasa first, then to City Hall, then we got 2 free hours in old town. We chose to buy tickets to go to the Royal palace. 2 hours did not allow us enough time to see all 4 areas of the Royal palace. We should have skipped it and not wasted money on the tickets. We went back at 2 pm. Personally, I love Stockholm. I wished we had more time in Stockhohm. There were so many sights to see and so many things to do, but the Star left port at 5pm, and all aboard was at 4pm.

June 20: sea day. They had activities and shows throughout the day.

June 21: disembark: everything went smoothly. Taxi from the port to airport cost 370dkk.

Curious which August sailing you are on. I'm on 8/23 and we also booked with SPB for the same 3 cities.

Thanks for your review- we are sailing on the Star in August and have booked SPB tours for Berlin, SPB and Stockholm. What was your experience of Stockholm with them? Also I'd be interested in knowing if NCL put on a Russian themed show whilst in SPB? What times were the shows? Did you find the that the venues for breakfast were excessively busy on port days? I'm considering using room service on those days. Thanks in anticipation of a response :)

Thanks for your review- we are sailing on the Star in August and have booked SPB tours for Berlin, SPB and Stockholm. What was your experience of Stockholm with them? Also I'd be interested in knowing if NCL put on a Russian themed show whilst in SPB? What times were the shows? Did you find the that the venues for breakfast were excessively busy on port days? I'm considering using room service on those days. Thanks in anticipation of a response :)

Ncl put 2 local shows on the boat. One was in Warnermund (we missed it because we did not make it back until 830pm). The second show was in St Petersberg. Both shows were at around 430-5pm.

We had breakfast in Versailles and the buffet. The first day of St Petersburg and the last day were busy. I was jet-lagged, so I tended to get up very early. I went to breakfast very early. I never had any problem.

Our NCL sailing, which was on the Jewel when she was doing the Baltics, we also has a Russian folk group on board before dialing on our second day. The show was about 2 hours before we sailed as the performers had to be off the ship before we sailed. We happen to get back from our tour just as the show started and we were able to see most of it. it was excellent.

Cheers

Len

Thanks for the review! Can I ask how old your kids are? I'm considering this next year when my DD is 4 and I'm concerned that she won't have enough to entertain her, both onboard and in the ports.

Thanks for the review! Can I ask how old your kids are? I'm considering this next year when my DD is 4 and I'm concerned that she won't have enough to entertain her, both onboard and in the ports.

They had several magic, acrobat and juggling shows. However, kid club and the water slide were not very interesting to them. Upper deck could be windy and cold. Compared to my last year Med. cruise, this cruise did not have many kids. My kids are 9 and 13. They liked Copenhagen, St Petersburg and Stockholm. However, they would prefer Orlando, Cancun or Hawaii.

I took them to beach/Disney destination when they were younger. It is now my time :)

Thanks for the reports so far. Looking forward to more from you.

 

I am curious about one thing though. We have sailed NCL many times because we love their free style dining option, eat whenever you want. In all that time, we have never heard of them taking reservations for any of the dining rooms?. Usually the reservations were for the specialty restaurants. That is the purpose, eat whenever you want. Is this something new on NCL?

 

Cheers

 

Len

We were on the Star May 7-16. I think there was a LARGE group that had one of the dining rooms at least reserved at about 5:30 so I heard a lot of complaints from early diners about not being able to get in to the dining rooms. Other than that I really wasn't aware that we could make reservations nor did we really care to. Of course we tend to be late eaters (7:00 at the earliest, likely closer to 8:00). We never had any problem eating when we wanted to. We love the freestyle concept and couldn't imagine going back to a ship where we had to eat at an assigned time.

June 15: St Petersburg-day 1. The Star did not clear custom till 9am. For people who used the ship tour, Star had the forward gangway for them. For private groups like us, we were stuck on the boat for an hour. Once got out, passport control took another hour. We did not meet up with SPB until 11am. However, our tour guide was very understanding. She provided us with water. She took us right away to Hemitage, then to Spill blood, then lunch. After lunch, we went to Peter and Paul fortress. It was nice to have a guide because she took care of all the tickets, begged to the officer at Hemitage so we could go inside. It was very crowded and hectic in front of Hemitage. She also took us to the free restroom stop :) We finally got back around 530pm.

June 16: st Petersburg day 2: everything went much more smoothly. Passport control took 5 minutes. We started out with the Canal ride. Then we went to Catherine Palace. Right after that we went to Peterhof and it became raining very hard. Our guide took us to a local place for lunch. SHe was very nice to exchange rubles for us. As the rain died down, we went in Peterhof. Our kids loved it. According to them, that was the highlight of our trip.

Getting off the ship was also a brutal experience for us on May 11. I think my husband I were literally the last passengers off at about 10 am. The others still in line were crew. However, I know they weren't giving special treatment to ship tours because the people in front of us in line were with a ship's tour. Of course it's possible that they made a change after our experience to get the ship tour people off earlier.

Thanks for your review- we are sailing on the Star in August and have booked SPB tours for Berlin, SPB and Stockholm. What was your experience of Stockholm with them? Also I'd be interested in knowing if NCL put on a Russian themed show whilst in SPB? What times were the shows? Did you find the that the venues for breakfast were excessively busy on port days? I'm considering using room service on those days. Thanks in anticipation of a response :)

We were on the Star in early May. We used SPB in Berlin and SP but not Stockholm. We did all other ports ourselves. I don't think there was a Russian-themed show. As for breakfast, the buffet is always pretty busy. I would suggest room service or run up to the buffet and grab a plate full of food and bring it back to your cabin. That's what we did. We ate at the Versailles one morning but it is more time-consuming so wouldn't recommend it if you need to be off the ship early. I think we ate there in Stockholm because we weren't in a hurry because Vasa didn't open until 10 in May.

Do you have any advice on transportation around the port? Exactly which port does the Star use? Did you find that luggage on public transportation was a problem?

Curious which August sailing you are on. I'm on 8/23 and we also booked with SPB for the same 3 cities.

Hi there! We'll be sailing on 5th August, so if I get chance and I'm brave enough I'll try to post a review when I get back; I really think I should try as I really appreciate the information gathered from the reviews posted by others on CC.:)

Getting off the ship was also a brutal experience for us on May 11. I think my husband I were literally the last passengers off at about 10 am. The others still in line were crew. However, I know they weren't giving special treatment to ship tours because the people in front of us in line were with a ship's tour. Of course it's possible that they made a change after our experience to get the ship tour people off earlier.

Any tips about getting off he ship sooner? Also thankyou for your response about regarding breakfast :) What did you think of your SPB and Berlin trips?

For us, Versailles also had the option of morning buffet which was quite nice. We had no problem with luggages on the train. We put out our luggages the night before. We just walked off the boat and found our luggages neatly stacked with the proper colored tags.

In St Petersburg, there was a Russian theme show at 445pm-545pm. A lot of people missed it.

I booked with SPB tour for all 5 ports. If I only went with St Peterburg and Berlin, I could have saved $100. However, I think $100 is definitely worth it for the Stockholm, Helsinki and Talinn. They provided excellent guides and entry tickets to Vasa and Stockholm city hall. Overall, I recommend booking with them with all ports.

I did hesitate about Berlin because it was so far from the port, however, I am glad that I went. Berlin made me understand my highschool world history more.

From day 2-8, our group of 17 alway made reservation with either Versailles or Aqua. They did allow reservation for the same day. I personally don't care for Aqua.