Baltic cruise- roll call excursion vs private company

[dana r.]

Is there any difference or advantage to joining a excursion that's been set up by fellow cruise passengers on this site's rollcall vs joining an established company which has a similar excursion planned?

 

I was planning on using non-roll call company for another excursion for another stop and I just realized I could save some money if I used the same company for multiple excursions.

 

But, I'm concerned about how that would work if I booked something not from the roll call- are all the passengers for the excursion from the same cruise line or will they bring in passengers from the various cruises and ships?

 

If you have to bring in passengers from different cruises, won't there be a lag for that because you have to wait for all those passengers as the various cruises come into port at different times?

 

And, does anybody have any recommendations for a tour company that would give strong tours at the various Baltic ports and not just St Petersburg? When people review the various choices for tour groups, they usually focus only on how the guide for St Petersburg was and not for all various Baltic port stops.

[sippican]

Is there any difference or advantage to joining a excursion that's been set up by fellow cruise passengers on this site's rollcall vs joining an established company which has a similar excursion planned?

 

I was planning on using non-roll call company for another excursion for another stop and I just realized I could save some money if I used the same company for multiple excursions.

 

But, I'm concerned about how that would work if I booked something not from the roll call- are all the passengers for the excursion from the same cruise line or will they bring in passengers from the various cruises and ships?

 

If you have to bring in passengers from different cruises, won't there be a lag for that because you have to wait for all those passengers as the various cruises come into port at different times?

 

And, does anybody have any recommendations for a tour company that would give strong tours at the various Baltic ports and not just St Petersburg? When people review the various choices for tour groups, they usually focus only on how the guide for St Petersburg was and not for all various Baltic port stops.

 

Welcome to Cruise Critic.

Usually the larger private tour companies pick up groups form one ship only, but there may be instances where groups are combined if the ships have similar schedules. The tours arranged from Roll Calls are frequently with the popular private tour companies you could book on your own. Since most of them are very expensive unless you book a minimum number, the Roll Calls are a popular way to get a small gourp tour, frequently tailored to your preferences, while keeping the costs down. I have personally arranged private tours, as well as joined ones posted on Roll Calls. We much prefer to see places this way rather than on ship's tours.

SPB offers tours in other Baltic ports, and I'm sure other posters will chime in with suggestions too.

[John Bull]

For some ships, it's not possible to book "seats on bus", you'd have to create or join a RollCall group of up to fifteen, with higher prices if the group size is below the 8 to 10 mark.

But for larger ships you have the choice - first thing to do is register your interest with two or three of the local operators to verify that.

 

Booking as part of a group via the RollCall has pros & cons.

The cons:

Beware that the cruiser setting it up may be wanting to add just 2 to 4 to their own large group of family/friends (think of similar situations with shared dining tables) so you might be inconvenient but financially-necessary outsiders.

Also beware the organiser may have their own agenda & might feel they have the right to make small changes to itinerary or timings at sights - I see that as fair enough, organiser's perks, but still perhaps a disadvantage.

If some from a RollCall group drop out last-minute you may be faced with higher rates for the consequently smaller group.

The pros.

All will be from your ship (but that would very probably be the case with direct seat-on-bus bookings)

You know who'll be in your van - you can get together aboard, ensure everyone's on time, & go ashore mob-handed - no hold-up waiting for anyone who's missing. Same is possibly true of seat-in-bus, but you'd need e-mail addresses from the operator well in advance and there might be resistance to a self-appointed chieftain.

 

I doubt there's any financial advantage either way, but I may be wrong.

 

I got together a RollCall group for my visit, I had no choice. Alla added others who'd enquired direct & gave me their contact details. It worked out extremely well - in fact between us, Alla & I split the eventual total of 20 between two vans, each member able to choose their preference between Grand & Comfort tours & all at the standard prices. But as organiser it was more worrying than I'd have preferred.

Given the options, I'd prefer to book seats-on-bus direct with the operator. So much simpler & more reliable.

And both ways are significantly better than ship's tours.

But that's just my opinion. ;)

 

Other Baltic ports are easy to DIY, so we didn't book multi tours

 

JB :)

Edited March 28, 2015 by John Bull

[Giantfan13]

Like John, I also was a sort of organizer on our roll call. I didn't 'push' people to join anything, but several inquired as to what we were doing and pretty soon we had a large group who all wanted to do basically the same thing. Like John, we were split up between 2 buses, about 16 on each bus.

 

We also chose to do all the other ports on our own, as that is just the way we like it. From what I have heard from all who did tours in other ports, they all came back with glowing reviews. We happen to have used SPB Tours and were completely satisfied with them and would recommend them to anyone who asked.

 

Cheers

 

Len

[Sauer-kraut]

I had organized a small tour for me and my 2 traveling companions and we needed a 4th to make it a good deal. When I mentioned this on the roll call there were about 5 more people who wanted to join in and I contacted the operator and we got a van instead. What the tour advantage was we could see more (I got to see what I had wanted to see) we were not with a large group of busses and we had a lovely local lunch for cheaper than the Shorex without lunch.

 

I would say if you want to do a private tour go for it, but even if you keep the group small you save money and still have a better experience, IMO, than with a large group.

[Rosethorn40]

I signed up with Alla Tours under their group rate, which means DH and I didn't have to find others on our sailing willing to go with us. I think many of the major tour operators offer discounts on tours in the other Baltic ports IF you book your St. Petersburg tour with them.

 

Example after choosing my Saint Petersburg tour, I then picked one in Stockholm that was normally priced at $140pp, but was discounted to $95. Our Rostock & Schwerin was discounted from $145 to $105, and so on.

[CrazyJess]

Hi! Roll Calls are just great. They helped many tourists to get fantastic tours and save money at the same time. More over some companies give special discounts for groups formed on Roll Calls. You shall check it with your tour operator. They call it - discounts for cruise critic members. We are coming with a child of 5 and we decided we need a private tour in St. Petersburg. We also booked a group tour to Berlin (Classical Berlin) with the same company Best Guides and got 40 US $ discount PP. I just dream to see Berlin but private tour is too expensive. Just not reasonable. Hope Nic will manage a full day group tour…

Good luck!

Jess :)