May 2013 Baltic & Norwegian Fjords recap!

[hksilverfox]

2013 Baltic and Norwegian Fjords

 

This is a brief recap on some of the ports and the activities we enjoyed on our recent two week cruise on Vision of the Seas.

 

On arrival in Copenhagen we stayed over night at the Crowne Plaza and took the free shuttle to the hotel. Go to the information desk and there is a small ipad type box you press to call the shuttle. You need to walk about 150 meters to the pick up spot which has a small sign with the hotel name on it. About 10 minutes to the hotel. We purchased tickets at the hotel to take the train into town. It cost 30 kroner and was valid for 24 hours. We walked to the train and went to town. From the hotel it is about a 5 minute walk (about 500 meters) and it took 20 minutes from the time we left the hotel till we were standing in Nyhaven (sp?) square. It was very easy and straight forward. The next day we took a taxi from the hotel to the port. It took about 25 minutes and cost 315 kroner and the taxi accepted Amex. Getting on the ship was relatively straight forward and took about 30 minutes from taxi drop off till we were on board.

 

Tallinn - it is about 15 minutes to walk to the old town over relatively flat ground but once inside the town it is quite hilly and cobblestones. It is a lovely town to walk and you can pick up a map when you get off the ship at the info booth. We wandered around for about three hours and covered a good part of the town including stopping at one of the old towers that has been restored where you can try on all this old armour and get some funny photos!

 

St. Petersburg - we had spent two full days here a couple of years ago and so we decided to do the ships walking tour so we could get off and go for a stroll. We met in the theatre and got off the ship 30 minutes before we were to depart. It took nearly an hour to get everyone through the immigration point and on to the bus. It was a gentle walking tour with a 30 min stop at a souvenir shop for a bathroom break. There are two toilets and you need to line up so get that out of the way first before window shopping in the store as it could take 15 to 20 minutes. The tour was a nice refresher. Many of the people we met on the ship were on full day tours arranged independently or through the ship. Most of them enjoyed the day out but were very frustrated. There are three main bridges in St. Pete's and one of them is closed for renovation leaving a snarled mess of the traffic. We heard many stories of people being stuck in traffic for two hours and therefor missing out on some of their tours. The mandatory stops for 30 minutes at the souvenir shops took place but you only had 15 minutes in the Renaissance rooms at the Hermitage for example! I was unable to find out when the bridge will be finished as it is already 6 months behind. Just a heads up for those going on long tours. Make sure you have some rubles if you want to buy things like coffee or soda. US $ seemed to be accepted at some places but not too many from what I saw.

 

Helsinki - we are docked quite a way from town and RCI provides a shuttle bus to town at a cost of $10 I believe. However, the Hop on Hop off bus stops right beside the shuttle and costs about 25 euro payable by credit card. It covers most of the highlights that you would want to visit in the city including the rock church which is free to enter. The bus runs about every 30 minutes giving you plenty of time to enjoy those places where you want to stop. Considerably cheaper than any of the ship tours and you got to see so much more. A complete loop if you stay on the bus is about 1.5 hours.

 

Stockholm - again we decided to have a lazy day as we had been here before and went for a wander off the ship. Not much in the area of the port and it is a long way into town. The RCI shuttle is $15. I think their is a HoHo bus that stops at the dock but not sure on that. Free Wifi was available inside the terminal but was slow and inconsistent. Many people thought this was their favorite stop of all of them and the tour that walks the roof tops seemed to get good reviews.

 

Copenhagen - turn round day as we are staying on for the next tour to Norway. They held a meeting the day before for consecutive cruisers that lasted about 20 mins and covered most questions. Breakfast was available until 0830 and about 0945 we were called to the lounge to exchange sea pass cards. Took 5 minutes and was seamless. We then got off the ship and once again a HoHo bus was right there. There are two companies, one is solid colors and one is two tone. We took the two tone one and waited a long time for the bus to come. It seems that the solid color bus company has more busses and would try that one next time. Once again we enjoyed seeing the sights even though we have been here several times. It cost 25 euros and it would take about 2 hours to go all the way round. There is free wifi on the bus if you need to catch up on emails as it takes about 20 minutes to get into town. Once back at the dock there is a little souvenir shop there and if you walk to the front door he has an Internet password you can use to get on line. Just look for all the crew members standing around with iPads etc.

 

Vision of the Seas - few comments on the ship. They held a Diamond member and above lounge in the Viking Crown lounge every night from 1700 - 2030 and you could order nearly any drink you wanted except frozen ones, complimentary. Some ships only offer beer and wine and apparently it depends on who is calling the shots but all ours were complimentary. A small selection of appies were also available to nibble on. The guests were mostly Americans (1000+), UK (150+), Canadians (100+), and 60+ other nationalities making up the rest. For Diamond and above breakfast was usually 0800 - 1000 in the dining room with a special area set aside for them and you could order special coffees, latte, cappuccino etc. with no charge. They also had another area for suite guests. We were in cabin 8592, a junior suite on the back deck. It seemed smaller than previous JS we had been in but had a large balcony, approximately 12 feet wide by 18 feet deep. Beware if you are over 6 feet tall when you get in the shower as you will hit your head on the ceiling! This should change with the dry dock in the fall when new bathrooms are on the agenda.

 

We stayed on the ship for the next week around the fjords of Norway.

 

Allesund - we entered the fjord at about 0700 and were docked by 0815 to a beautiful sunny day with hardly a cloud anywhere. We were on a cruise critic organized tour on the little blue and white sightseeing bus/train. The normal price is 150 Knock, about $25, and we received a 20% discount for the group of 25 people. It lasted about an hour with the highlight taking us up to the lookout! It is a small town and you can easily wander around in a couple of hours. There is also a HoHo bus that stops at the pier but I do not know the cost.

 

Gairanger - one of the most beautifull places we have ever been and definitely the highlight of our trip! We took the HoHo sightseeing bus from the pier, cost 200 nok I believe and it lasted about 11/4 hours. It takes you to the two main lookouts over the fjord and waits there about 10 minutes at each stop for photos, plenty of time. The scenery is spectacular and the road winds it way up and down the switchbacks on both ends. Get in line early if you want to be upstairs (recommended) and be lucky enough to get near the front. Several of the ships tours did basically the same trip with perhaps a little extra thrown in but they were considerably more expensive. One of the coffee shops in town has Internet but I think you need to buy a coffee. The ship Internet does not work for about 48 hours once you start going into the fjords. The sail in (about 5 am) and out of the fjord are spectacular especially if you have good weather like we did! A glass of wine on the balcony/deck was great and not to be missed!

 

Flam - one of our cruise critic members was on the ball early and had put together a group well ahead of time to do the railway and was well worth it. We had most of one car reserved for us and enjoyed the trip, again at considerably less cost than the ships tour. If you are going contact the railway ahead of time and see what you can do. We had a group of 35 and it cost us 342 Nok each. On the way back down to Flam a bunch of us got off the train about 4km from the station and walked back along the river. It was well worth doing, over good paths and slightly downhill the whole way. You just need to ask the conductor if they will make the stop for you. Try to sit on the right side as you go up and then swap with someone on the other side on the way back. Again a lovely sail out of the fjord!

 

Bergen - we took the HoHo bus from in front of the pier and it lasted about 1 hour to go the whole loop. I would recommend taking the bus and getting off at the furnicular railway, takes about 8 minutes to the top, then coming back down and getting back on the bus for the rest of the loop to the ship. We jumped off, went back on board (had lunch and bathroom break) then reboarded the bus into town to the fish market, about 8 - 10 minutes and wandered around. We found a lovely coffee shop called Aura up one of the walking streets and they had good Internet service complimentary. You can also access the Internet at the information booth in the fish market area for free. We walked back to the ship which took about 20 minutes. From what I heard from others we saw about as much as they did on some of the tours.

 

Copenhagen - disembarkation time. We were in group 38 (own arrangements) getting off and they called us at 0850 as advertised. Left the ship at 0900, our bags were there waiting and we got into the taxi line. It took us about 20 minutes to get a cab but there seemed to be plenty as it was Saturday. During the week it can take a lot longer. We headed to the airport, which took about 20 - 25 minutes, and cost about 470 Kroner, about $80. There were three of us and the ship transfer would have been $37 each. The airport was very busy but the lineups were handled quickly and efficiently by SAS.

 

It was a wonderful two weeks and we were very lucky with the weather only seeing a bit of rain on a couple of days. The temperature was in the 15C to 20C range and on several days was plenty warm enough to be out on our balcony getting some sun in our swim suits!

 

I hope that you might get a few pointers on the ports and enjoy the trip as much as we did!:)

[drarill]

Great review!! Thanks for sharing!!:):)

[baggal]

Great review. A fjords cruise is definitely on my bucket list!

[hksilverfox]

Thanks! It was definitely on ours and we are really glad we did it!

[drummerdavebmth]

Wow.......sounds like you had an amazing time!

 

Thanks for sharing - I've recently done the fjords (in the process of reviewing), but I'd love to do the Baltics one day :)

[Elvis1209]

Great review. A fjords cruise is definitely on my bucket list!

Did a Fiords cruise last August. It was my first "non-palm tree" cruise! Never have I seen more beautiful scenery! You'll love it!

 

Elvis