Viking Homelands Cruise on Viking Star Train to Berlin

[CEV426]

I am also trying to plan our Viking's Homeland day in Berlin. I just want to use the included train ride to Berlin and meet up with a private guide there. I am gathering that upon leaving the train, the group get on a bus for an orientation tour of the city for about and hour and drop off near Hilton.

 

Is it unreasonable to not get on the bus and have a guide meet at the train station? Would we be missing a lot on the bus tour?

 

I also read somewhere here that the return trip to Warnemunde is from a different train station. Is this true? The arrival train station is Ostbanhof?

Is the afternoon meeting point neat the Hilton also and then bus to train.

 

I am usually quite adept in planning the logistics of independent touring, but I am not getting very far with questioning Viking about particulars such as times. :o

[VT-HokieCruiser]

Cindy,

We wanted to "stretch our legs" a little in Berlin and not have the full day spent on the train and then a bus and then the train. We have arranged for a private tour through Brewer's Berlin Tours. BBT recommended we take the train (as, we have already paid for it!) and then the bus overview on Viking's included tour. BBT will then meet us where the Viking bus drops us off, we will have 3-4 hours of a walking tour, and then the tour guide will take us to either the Viking bus pick-up point or to the train station. In order for BBT to schedule times and pick-up/drop-off points, they needed the tour specifics from Viking. This is what I received from Viking, although they said it may be "tweaked" once the first Homeland tours of 2018 begin.

 

8:15AM

departure time:

Tour starts at 8:15am - 5minute walk to the train station. Around 8:30am the train willdepart. All passengers will be on the same train rides. It is a 3hour transfer time to Berlin. So they’ll arrive around 11:00am - 11:30am. Thenthey’ll get a 1.5 hour panoramic drive of Berlin and they’ll be dropped off atGendarmenmarkt for their free time which is about 4 hours (12:30pm – 1:00pm

).They’ll be picked up at the same location at around 4:30pm - 5:00pm for atransfer back to the train station and to the ship.

Arrival train station in Berlin isBerlin Ostbahnhof (

Koppenstrasse 3

)

Departure train station in Berlinis

Berlin Gesundbrunnen ( Badstr. 1 - 3

)

I hope this information helps you with your tour decisions.

 

 

Connie

[FAUSTIND]

Cindy,

Hopefully this will help, but if not, I apologize. My wife and I went on the Viking Homelands Ocean Cruise May 6-20, 2017. Originally, we were planning to take the free train into Berlin, see the highlights, and return. As you indicate, it is difficult at best to get any information out of Viking ahead of time. I can tell you that on our cruise, the train back from Berlin was late and held up the ship from departing the port. We did not hear any positive reports from anyone who took the train to Berlin. What we finally decided to do was to go to our cruise's Roll Call and to put together a small group (minimum of 10 people to make up a tour group) to go with TJ Travel (https://st-petersburg-tours.ru/). It is a very highly rated tour company on tripadvisor and cruisecritic and it was a great value for us. The owner is Tatiana and she and her staff correspond very well via email. You can contact her via info@st-petersburg-tours.ru. Once you have a group established, you can work out a deal with Tatiana depending upon the ports you want to utilize their services. We took a small group (10 people) in Berlin for $89/person. A large bus picked us up at the port right after we docked and it was a 5 hour ride into Berlin. Our guide in Berlin was an expat from the U.S. (Boris Coronado) and he was fantastic. We saw all the highlights and then some over approximately 4.5 to 5 hours in Berlin. Then we had a 5 hour bus ride back to the ship. We arrived back well ahead of the departure time. We also used TJ Travel for our 2 days in St. Petersburg. I think our group was either 12 or 16 people, but again it was much smaller and less expensive than the Viking tours, and because it was a smaller group with very knowledgeable tour guides, we were able to maneuver ahead of the larger tour groups and get in and out more quickly. The two days in St. Petersburg cost us $240 per passenger. Again, you can work out a deal with Tatiana depending upon what ports you want to visit. We found it well worth the cost in both cities. Hope this helped, but I'm sorry if I really didn't answer your question.

[soundcruiser]

Hi, Cindy, Your idea sounds like a good one. I'm hoping emptynesters38 will see this, as they did exactly what you are planning. You can talk to the Viking tour guide on the train, who should know the afternoon departure station. This past September we arrived at Ostbanhof and departed from, IIRC, Nordbanhof. The bus dropped us off/picked us up at the Hilton across from Gendarmenmarkt. We took the bus tour and found it to be helpful, as we explored on our own after that and enjoyed getting a "lay of the land" first. But a private guide would be able to take you everywhere the bus did, plus add in places that especially interest you. My husband and I used the 100 bus (great public transportation in Berlin!) to get around quickly, and enjoyed strolling the streets on our own,getting a flavor of both the east and west sides of Berlin.

[soundcruiser]

Cindy - seeing Connie's post, I think we also departed from Gesundbrunnen. So much to remember!! And our train took about 3 hours each way - a lovely experience from start to finish. Viking provided snacks on both legs, and our Viking tour guide was available for questions along the way.

[Nippy Sweetie]

OMG! 15 hours! That sounds just awful. We're not bothered about ticking off the 'sights'. Think we'll stay on the boat or go for a wander round Warnemunde. Thanks for info!

[roothy123]

It's not for everyone, but if you're willing to rent a car, this is what we did: Rented a car in Warnemunde right near where the ship docked, drove to an S-Bahn train station (like commuter rail) & parked. It was a station that was just outside of Berlin. Then we took the train (quick journey) to a station that was near one part of the Wall. We then went to the Brandenburg Gate and the Reichstag. I had pre-booked tickets to go in and up in the Reichstag building. I think we also went to another place I wanted to see (arty), but I forget the name of it. It probably wouldn't appeal to most folks, though. We had thought about going to Checkpoint Charlie, but of course, it's very touristy, and in the end we had little interest in seeing it. We jumped on the subway or train, picked up the car, stopped on the way for a snack, and got back to Warnemunde before it got dark.

 

My pictures are toward the beginning of this gallery (no need to sign it, just go):http://www.pbase.com/roothy123/baltic_cruise_&page=all

 

There was a train (not arranged by Oceania, but a regularly scheduled one) from Warnemunde that went to Berlin in a reasonable amount of time. However, it was at 7 AM, and there was no way we could make that, so we did the car rental thing. We actually got tired before spending the whole day in Berlin, so came back. My husband relaxed while I explored Warnemunde.