NCL Star Baltics 2014 questions

[alise007]

Hello,

 

We sail the Star on July 30. I was wondering if they offered the laundry special mid week and if so do you recall what day/turn around time?

 

Trying to determine packing options to open up some space for souvenirs :)

 

We sailed the Dawn Boston to Quebec Sept 2012 with our kids and have an idea of what to expect for the most part!

 

Wasn't sure if there have been any major menu changes or offerings we can expect or has the food been unchanged for Room Service, Blue Lagoon etc....?! With the kids we tend to do the buffet but at least a few times we will take them early for dinner then drop them off to the kids club so we can have date nights!!! The dinners take too long to keep them from being bored and starving which isn't fair to them. They would much rather be off playing and I can't blame them! The kids club was their favorite thing last time.

 

How many kids are usually on the summer Baltic sailings? School will be out for the European kids by our sailing. I am sure they will have some but not as many as the sunny locales. My kids can speak Deutsch and English after living in Germany this past year. We have traveled extensively in Europe the past 12 months. My 6 yr old daughter is going to be ecstatic when she sees The Church of Spilled Blood onion tops!

 

Would appreciate any help! I have never planned a trip this big in 2 weeks!!!! Trying to scramble and find a pocket/door organizer since we are cramming into an inside. The pickings are slim here :)

[jrbeccles]

We did this cruise last year and it was great. You are in for a treat, and the Star was a fine ship.

There were not too many kids on board, but we went in early June before school was out in Europe.

Food has not changed - still standard NCL options. Buffet was good.

Mid week laundry was efficient and "cheap". I think it was like $25 for all you could cram into a decent size bag. Delivered back next day.

Only advice I would give is get a great tour guide for St Petersburg, and also Helsinki and Stockholm. Very important or you will miss out on many things.

We stayed a few days before hand in Copenhagen so we explored that on our own. Tallinn easy, as is German stop - no needs for guides there.

[alise007]

Thanks,

 

We arrive Tuesday by train late Tuesday and plan to take a HOHO Wednesday morning just to get a feel for the city. I noticed for one of the bus companies- Red Bus I think it is...says if you use them in 3 of the cities the 4th one is free. SO will probably use them for Tallin, Helsinki and Stockholm as soon as we can in the morning and then decide if there is something we "must" see more in depth before getting back on board.

 

I am in contact with a few tour operators in SPB. We have already spent a long weekend in Berlin so will probably just wander around Rostock or maybe find the beach.

 

We are spending Friday night in Copenhagen before train back home on Saturday late morning. Will have most of the day Friday and possibly hit up Tivoli Gardens since they are open late that night!

[OzCanuck]

We were on the June 6th Baltics - my brief review here:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2059784

 

Laundry day was Estonia stop, I beileve - $27.95 for all you can fit in the bag. Roll it up, pack it tight. We were in a two bedroom with our 2.75 yr old toddler and we were traveling with a non-suite couple. Their reports from the buffet in the morning made me happy we had Cagney's.

 

The menus had changed since our last NCL cruise in January. We are vegetarian so we don't notice much other than the vego items. There were quite a few kids on our sailing but definitely low season as there were nowhere near what I've seen on other cruises. We didn't go to any of the 'guppy' events - been there, done that, not interested.

 

We used SPB in SPB and they bought a new toddler car seat just for us. If your kids like anything to do with railways, make sure you have your SPB itinerary include Varschavsky Railway station... it is amazing. Here is our little guy scrambling along past a missile launcher:

 

 

 

 

Blue Lagoon menu was the same as always (and so was the service, if you know what I mean). Let me know if you have any other questions..

[ann1bell]

 

Rick Steves does not recommend the hoho bus in Tallinn. Neither do I. I just returned from the Baltic and simply walked to the old town. It is an easy 15 minute walk. The hoho bus cannot get into the old city and is really only useful if you are going to the outskirts of Tallinn.

 

The noon free walking tour which begins daily by the TI office was quite good.

[Sauer-kraut]

Have you scrambled on over to the Baltic Ports of Call boards? TONS of information over there. Also how to get around the local area if you are not visiting Berlin. There is a PDF of the walking tour of Tallinn you can print out and take with you.

[jdvmd]

We did this trip two years ago on the Sun with our teen, who was 14 at the time, and we were in an inside. We had a lot of kids on this cruise. Seemed mostly to be German and Italians. We used SpB tours in all of the cities and would definitely use them again for this itinerary.

 

Have fun.

[rocklinmom]

OzCanuck, we are thinking of investing in one last cruise with our kids next summer and this is the cruise it would be. We just did the Grand Med and I would love to see the Baltics. Our kids will be 17 (almost graduating), 15, and 11 by then. We of course underestimated the costs of our Spirit cruise and I know Scandinavia is expensive, but in the long run would you recommend this itinerary, and the Star? Is it worth the splurge?

[alise007]

Thanks for the tip on Tallinn and the walking tour!

 

I have checked out the port info but to be honest other than St Petersburg I am just along for the ride! Hubby is really interested in Stockholm but we barely have 5 hrs in port if we are lucky. So we just want to get a good overview and history of each city. IF we have time for more he can decide what is most interesting to him or do some research on his own!

 

I have had about 50 vacation days this year and we have driven to all of our destinations with a lot of packing/unpacking/repacking and I do 90% of the planning/organizing. So I am looking forward to a low effort trip for the 1st time in a long time :) and No driving, cooking, cleaning and best of all Kids Club! We do not have a babysitter here so hubby and I haven't had a date night in a YEAR. We are ready for a break.

 

At least my kids can communicate with the German kids but I hope it isn't HUNDREDS of kids!!

[jemz1949]

Looking forward to this cruise in Sept 2014. When does the summer vacation for children end in Europe?

[dexddd]

OzCanuck, we are thinking of investing in one last cruise with our kids next summer and this is the cruise it would be. We just did the Grand Med and I would love to see the Baltics. Our kids will be 17 (almost graduating), 15, and 11 by then. We of course underestimated the costs of our Spirit cruise and I know Scandinavia is expensive, but in the long run would you recommend this itinerary, and the Star? Is it worth the splurge?

 

I know you didn't ask me, but going to chime in. We did this when it was a 12 day back in 2010 on the Sun (been on Star twice) and by all means if you can make it happen, do so. Russia alone was great (did with a small group of maybe 16 total - not cheap but we didn't have to wait in any long lines like the rest of the folks on the organized tours and we could hear our guide). Plus we did a private tour with 3 other people in a van to Berlin - another amazing experience.

 

Our kids were younger than yours but really enjoyed it. There are still many things they talk about including seeing the Vasa in Stockholm at the museum.

[dexddd]

Looking forward to this cruise in Sept 2014. When does the summer vacation for children end in Europe?

 

I can't say for sure, but we went mid-June 2010 and there were 50 kids total on the ship. The overall mix was quite varied - some U.S., Europeans, Asians, and Australians.

[rocklinmom]

Thank you for chiming in dexddd! :-)

That is good to know that your kids still talk about your Baltic cruise. I am still trying to figure out how we would pay for it (sigh).

 

 

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[Smerancourt]

We just got back from this cruise on the 12th. The laundry special was 27.99 for a decent size paper bag to stuff. They offered it on the first sea day, the day after Germany, and it was returned the first night we were in St. Petersburg (about 24 hour turn-around).

 

I would also NOT recommend the HOHO bus in Tallinn. You'll miss the cutesy part of the Old Town on a bus because the streets are just too narrow for the bus to pass through. It's an easy walk from the ship. We did the red HOHO bus in Helsinki and were impressed with the frequency and the amount of stops we were able to make. Not sure if I would recommend the HOHO bus in Stockholm; we did the HOHO boat there because the route of the bus looked too long for our short time in port. Got the first boat from the pier and were at the Vasa just in time for it's 8:30am opening. Had the place nearly to ourselves for the first 45 minutes.

 

It didn't seem like there were many kids on our ship, but not having kids ourselves, we weren't really looking for them :)

[OzCanuck]

OzCanuck, we are thinking of investing in one last cruise with our kids next summer and this is the cruise it would be. We just did the Grand Med and I would love to see the Baltics. Our kids will be 17 (almost graduating), 15, and 11 by then. We of course underestimated the costs of our Spirit cruise and I know Scandinavia is expensive, but in the long run would you recommend this itinerary, and the Star? Is it worth the splurge?

 

Sorry - missed this direct question! For us it was definitely worth the splurge, and it was for sure the most expensive cruise we've done with NCL. It is a very easy way to see a part of the world that you would probably not make an individual trip to see - you get a flavour for each of the cities, and of course St. Petersburg is the jewel and I absolutely don't regret spending the money.

 

As a "family" trip, obviously with us it was "easy" with a 2-yr old. I'm not sure how the teens and tween would handle the history and ports - but if they have even a little maturity, they can certainly take a lot away from all of the ports. I'm sure you could make a guess based on how they handled the Grand Med.

 

The Star itself is a solid middle-sized cruise ship, slightly showing its age through wear and tear and lack of "modern" amenities. But really apart from the two sea days, it really is just a place to eat and sleep on this itinerary..

[rocklinmom]

Thank you OzCanuck! :-)

Still trying to figure out if we can do this cruise.

 

 

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