Norwegian Star - Stockholm Excursions

[FairlyNewCruiser17]

Hello, I will be sailing on the Norwegian Star in August 2015 - Baltic cruise. Just wondering if anyone who has done the Baltic cruise in the past on the Norwegian Star has any suggestions on which excursion to do in Stockholm. I am particularly looking to spend my time visiting Old Town and Vasa museum. There have been many reviews for different tours that not enough time was available at Vasa. Do you think it would be better to do the Hop on Hop off tour and visit Vasa on my own (any issue with entrance wait times)?

 

Thank you, FairlyNewCruiser.

[aussie cruzer]

Take the public bus to Vasa....very easy to do on your own.

 

Hop on hop off boat departs next to Vasa museum into town.

[PokerDave]

This is what we did a few years ago on the Sun. You'd want to validate the same would work from the Star.

 

Day 9 – Stockholm

 

This is another port where where I wish that others had already been there so I would have been more prepared. The Sun doesn’t go into Stockholm, but puts down anchor at Nynashamn and tenders to that dock. Tenders that I have done in the past are a pain in the rear, but these were particularly so. The reason is that Nynashamn is an hour away from Stockholm. So once you tender, you have to get transportation to Stockholm. Things don’t open there until 10am, so the bulk of tours seemed to all leave at 9am. The cheapest NCL offering was “Stockholm on your own” which was $59 per person and included just a bus ride into Stockholm and a return bus ride. For $89 per person they would take you to the Vassa museum, then drop you off in town for 3 hours on your own.

 

This would have been my first NCL excursion, and I actually went to the stardust lounge where the tours meet and talked to the folks about what they still had available. While there a lady (not NCL lady) mentioned there was an information center and busses easily available when you get off the ship. So we said fine, we’ll wing it. Well, as it turns out, there is nothing but a line-up of 20+ tour busses for different tours when you arrive at the dock, and it is a 15 minute walk to get to the info center. Fortunately two of the busses there were brand new two story Blue and Yellow Hop-on Hop-off busses. I had thought there was no way the ho-ho folks would come out an hour to get you, but they do. It was 8:20 and they weren’t going to leave until 9:00am so we had a bit of a wait, but for $60 each we got access to the two different ho-ho lines in Stockholm as well as the ho-ho Boats they have there. My advice here is to get off the boat at 8:20’ish, meet the guy as you head towards the busses that has a yellow or yellow and blue striped shirt, and buy your ho-ho tickets and see Stockholm this way. Worked very well for us and the ho-hos here were the newest and most organized in any of the cities.

 

In Stockholm, we did the Vassa museum. Start here with the 30 minute movie (English version starts on the hour), then do a (free) guided tour which starts over by the gift shop at 11:30, 1:30, 3:30. So if it works, plan to catch the 11am movie.

Next we hopped back on and went to the tower and went up to the 28th floor and had lunch and took pictures. Very nice restaurant, looked like business lunch clientele mostly rather than tourists. After that we hopped back on and went to the royal palace, saw a changing of the guard, walked around Gamla Stan (old town) which is behind the royal palace. By then it was time to make our way back to the #1 stop for our 3pm return bus to the Nynashamn port. This all worked really well, and for the cost of being bussed and dumped into Stockholm by NCL.

[PokerDave]

And I did quite a long write up for the rest of our Baltics cruise. Link:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1200058

[gauchotex]

When I was on the Star a few weeks back I did the "Vasa, Ice Bar and Old Town" tour through NCL.

 

I will say that I did this mostly because I wanted to do the Ice Bar and NCL had a "guaranteed time" option, vs. doing on my own.

 

If I were to go back to Stockholm I'd definitely do the Hop on, hop off bus instead. The tours were too large and I wish i had spent more time in the Old Town, and also got to experience other parts that looked really great. Because of the tour timing we didn't get to see the change of the guard, that sounded really great too.

 

Enjoy!

[Swertengbata]

Just do the hop on hop off boat. It's 20 euros per person. From 8 am to 10 boat( it don't matter if it's the red or the green one) it will go straight to Vasa museum. After 10 am, boat will resume the normal route.

 

This is what we did last week: got on the HOHo boat at 0820 got in at VAsa around 0830 stayed there until 1000. As soon as we got out of Vasa the HOhO boat was at the dock.

 

We didnt spend a lot of time at Old towns as we wanted to catch the changing of the guards at the Royal Palace. Spend some time at the Royal palace and went back staright to the ship.

[Tjazz]

We just were in Stockholm yesterday. We did the HoHo boat too, and it was the perfect way to enter the city. We did the same route as Swertengbata above. It is such a short port day. You cannot take the boat back to the ship, so you must take the bus, which was very very sardine-like crowded. Just be prepared. There were two other ships in port. The Hairy Pig restaurant in Gamla Stan was an incredible find.

 

To get the tickets for the hoho bus/boat, head through the cruise terminal and through the doors to the right of the gift store.

[fjordhest]

Yes, I agree about everything - the HoHo boat to the Vasa; the changing of the guard, and the exceptional Hairy Pig restaurant in Gamla Stan. Be sure to watch the movie at the Vasa.

[FairlyNewCruiser17]

Hello everyone, thanks for your replies and suggestions. I will definitely be visiting the Vasa museum.

[fabnfortysomething]

Hello everyone, thanks for your replies and suggestions. I will definitely be visiting the Vasa museum.

 

you are new to cruise critic so suggest you find home page and the at first glance overwhelming choices of forums!

 

find the ports of call several paragraphs down from cruise line forums and the Europe then sub forum Baltics will give you loads of information to help your planning

[Panorama_Sue]

Hi FairlyNewCruiser17,

 

I just returned from the Star's Aug. 10th sailing to the Baltic. It was a great cruise with a very ambitious itinerary. Enjoy!

 

We took the city bus (#76) into town and it dropped us off an easy five minute walk to the Vasa Museum. We arrived there before 9:00 am and got right in. The museum and the ship are incredible -- not to be missed. By getting there early, we avoided the crowds. The line to get in was very long when we left the museum at 10:30.

 

Sue