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Getaway going to Europe in 2017

Golfin55

By Golfin55,
in Norwegian Cruise Line

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casofilia

casofilia

Posted
Posted
Cruising the Baltic capitals on a big ship should be interesting.

 

Having done it last year on a small ship it could be more than interesting!!! :eek:

 

I wonder how some ports will cope with double the number of pax arriving from 1 ship; notably Tallinn; especially if there are other ships in port at the same time.

 

The major sites that everyone wants to visit in St Petersburg are crowded at the best of times, how much worse will they get?

 

Sorry but not for me.

 

Mike

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KeithJenner "Live from...." Rare

KeithJenner

Posted
Posted
Having done it last year on a small ship it could be more than interesting!!! :eek:

 

I wonder how some ports will cope with double the number of pax arriving from 1 ship; notably Tallinn; especially if there are other ships in port at the same time.

 

The major sites that everyone wants to visit in St Petersburg are crowded at the best of times, how much worse will they get?

 

Sorry but not for me.

 

Mike

 

To be honest, I can't see a couple of thousand extra people making much difference to the major sites in St Petersburg.

 

The price will have a bit of an impact as well. I'm doing the Baltics for the second time this Summer, and the main reason why I haven't done it more often is the price. We like to have an easy week on a big ship each year and our go to is the Epic in the Med. If the Getaway was a comparable price then I could see us doing that instead. We wouldn't be getting off the ship all that much though, and certainly not in St Petersburg, when you take into account the cost of visiting that city.

 

I suspect that, if the prices are reasonable, a higher proportion of people will stay onboard, so the impact may not be as much as the extra 2,000 people.

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dctravelinggirl

dctravelinggirl

Posted
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I'm happy to see that the Getaway will be doing the Baltics route in Summer 2017. I've been toying with the idea of a Baltics cruise for next summer, but it would be solo, so unless I could get one of the few studios on the RCL ship, I probably wouldn't go.

 

I'm admittedly not familiar with the ports in the Baltic region, but with Getaway being a larger ship, I wonder if that means it will have to dock further away from the main port? Or maybe there's really only one main port in these places, and it's big enough for the Getaway.

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KeithJenner "Live from...." Rare

KeithJenner

Posted
Posted (edited)
I'm admittedly not familiar with the ports in the Baltic region, but with Getaway being a larger ship, I wonder if that means it will have to dock further away from the main port? Or maybe there's really only one main port in these places, and it's big enough for the Getaway.

 

 

To be honest, that has already happened. When I did the Baltics in 2003, we docked within easy walking distance of the centre of Copenhagen, Stockholm, Tallinn and Oslo as well as having the Kiel Canal transit. Now, Kiel Canal and Oslo have dropped off the itinerary and in Copenhagen and Stockholm NCL dock a little way out.

 

Tallinn is now the only port on this route where it is easy to get into the city centre without using transport of some sort.

 

The size difference between the Star and the Getaway shouldn't make any difference. All the docks they use are big enough to handle big ships.

 

Most of the places have multiple ports, but other than in Stockholm, the cruise ships already tend to use the ones which are pretty well the furthest out. Stockholm has a port which is occasionally used which is a very long way out, but you are very unlucky if you end up there. I'd hope that the Getaway wouldn't be sent there any more than usual.

Edited by KeithJenner
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robin13

robin13

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Posted

Waiting very patiently for the 15th as I really want to book a Baltic cruise for 2017. I travel solo and will be curious how much the studio cabins will be for this cruise. I did a studio cabin last May on the Epic for only $500! Cheapest solo cabin ever but the damn airfare to Barcelona was $1200. I now have enough miles to fly so the airfare will not be a problem.

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dctravelinggirl

dctravelinggirl

Posted
Posted
To be honest, that has already happened. When I did the Baltics in 2003, we docked within easy walking distance of the centre of Copenhagen, Stockholm, Tallinn and Oslo as well as having the Kiel Canal transit. Now, Kiel Canal and Oslo have dropped off the itinerary and in Copenhagen and Stockholm NCL dock a little way out.

 

Tallinn is now the only port on this route where it is easy to get into the city centre without using transport of some sort.

 

The size difference between the Star and the Getaway shouldn't make any difference. All the docks they use are big enough to handle big ships.

 

Most of the places have multiple ports, but other than in Stockholm, the cruise ships already tend to use the ones which are pretty well the furthest out. Stockholm has a port which is occasionally used which is a very long way out, but you are very unlucky if you end up there. I'd hope that the Getaway wouldn't be sent there any more than usual.

Thanks for the info Keith. I just recently started cruising and the idea of a cruise outside of the Caribbean intrigues me, but once I started doing some research, I realized how far away some of the destinations are from where they dock. The Baltics cruises seemed like the cities were closer to the ports versus, say, some of the Mediterranean cruises. It's good to know that I shouldn't count on walking off the ship most places and straight into town.
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KeithJenner "Live from...." Rare

KeithJenner

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Thanks for the info Keith. I just recently started cruising and the idea of a cruise outside of the Caribbean intrigues me, but once I started doing some research, I realized how far away some of the destinations are from where they dock. The Baltics cruises seemed like the cities were closer to the ports versus, say, some of the Mediterranean cruises. It's good to know that I shouldn't count on walking off the ship most places and straight into town.

 

 

They are certainly closer to the cities than some Med ports (Rome, Florence and Athens spring to mind. In places like Copenhagen, Stockholm and Helsinki you are probably talking a 15 minute ride into town.

 

The big problem with this itinerary is St Petersburg. You need visas, and they are an effort to get unless you join a tour. Our budget for St Petersburg is a few times more than all the other ports put together this year.

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Sauer-kraut

Sauer-kraut

Posted
Posted

 

The big problem with this itinerary is St Petersburg. You need visas, and they are an effort to get unless you join a tour. Our budget for St Petersburg is a few times more than all the other ports put together this year.

 

Any of the tour companies will get the visa for you, so there really isn't a hassle involved whether you book through the ship or privately.

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JPEvans

JPEvans

Posted
Posted
Waiting very patiently for the 15th as I really want to book a Baltic cruise for 2017. I travel solo and will be curious how much the studio cabins will be for this cruise. I did a studio cabin last May on the Epic for only $500! Cheapest solo cabin ever but the damn airfare to Barcelona was $1200. I now have enough miles to fly so the airfare will not be a problem.

 

I sailed a transatlantic from Barcelona a few years ago. I found a cheaper

Flight to Madrid. Spent three nights up there and took the high speed train

To Barcelona the morning of the cruise, that train was an experience in

It's self. I also took the train to Seville for the day while I was in Madrid.

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KeithJenner "Live from...." Rare

KeithJenner

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Posted
Any of the tour companies will get the visa for you, so there really isn't a hassle involved whether you book through the ship or privately.

 

 

Which is exactly what I said.

 

It does mean that you have to do a tour, unless you want to get the visa yourself. This makes it an expensive port to visit.

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