MsSommelier Posted March 24, 2017 #1 Share Posted March 24, 2017 We are booked on the Europa for the Baltic (Hamburg-Hamburg Aug 27 this year). I was wondering if anyone had experience with the shore excursions there? Normally, we book privately but it is too soon to see Hapag-Lloyd's offerings, so I can't compare. If anyone has been, did you use the cruise line's shore excursions or did you book your own? Many thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Floridiana Posted March 24, 2017 #2 Share Posted March 24, 2017 Are you ok with the guides speaking German? If yes, you can book with the ship. We booked our excursions with Europa 2 on our Australia and Asia cruise and had German speaking guides in Cairns and Bali. The likelihood of German speakers in the Baltic is much higher. On our Baltic cruise with Mein Schiff 4, we booked 2 tours privately (Easy Gdansk Tours) and TJ in St. Petersburg, both excellent and in English. We booked 2 different ship tours in Klaipeda. Our "children" booked the Segway tour offered by the ship, husband and I took the ship's bus tour to the Curonian Spit, guide spoke fluent German. We did our own thing in Tallinn and Stockholm. The town had a shuttle bus in Tallinn. In Stockholm the ship was docked on a downtown pier next to a city shuttle boat. If it is far out, you are probably better off booking a tour or shuttle if offered. When the harbor master took away Europa's good pier in Brisbane and relegated the ship to the far away coal pier, HL offered a frequent and free shuttle bus to the city. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cathaana Posted March 24, 2017 #3 Share Posted March 24, 2017 I did pretty much the same cruise a few years ago and was very happy with nearly all our excursions. In Stockholm we did the Vasa museum plus city tour (4 hrs, 79E) and in Tallinn the Medieval City walk (4 hrs, 29E). A historical city walk in Riga (amazing, 4hrs, 39E) and Marienburg/Gdansk tour in Gdansk (also amazing, 8hrs, 125E). In St. Petersburg the city tour with the Catherine's palace and Peter-Paul (amazing, 9hrs, 129E), another full day tour doing parcs, St. Isaak cathedral and a canal tour that was also great but had a somewhat annoying tour guide (9hs, 159E) and, the absolute highlight, an exclusive evening in the Hermitage (private concert and tour after-hours, 3.5hrs, 195E). They also offered tickets to the ballet on the other evening but we were exhausted to do that, too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cathaana Posted March 25, 2017 #4 Share Posted March 25, 2017 (edited) Forgot to add that with all the St Petersburg tours we would get into the sights before they opened for the public. You can read my review of the cruise here (in German): https://web.archive.org/web/20130707212902/http://reisen.ciao.de/MS_EUROPA_Schiff__Test_8935667 Edited March 25, 2017 by cathaana Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
English Voyager Posted March 25, 2017 #5 Share Posted March 25, 2017 Forgot to add that with all the St Petersburg tours we would get into the sights before they opened for the public. You can read my review of the cruise here (in German): https://web.archive.org/web/20130707212902/http://reisen.ciao.de/MS_EUROPA_Schiff__Test_8935667 St. Petersburg is one of my favourite cities. My first visit was in 2003 when the city was celebrating it's 300th anniversary. I was cruising with Celebrity, and their excursion to the Peterhof Palace included a tour of the Palace before it opened to the public, time afterwards to walk through the gardens, followed by an excellent lunch in the Peterhof Restaurant. The following year, we were in the city with Seabourn when, because of it's size, the Pride was given permission to dock directly opposite The Hermitage. The third, and final, visit the following year included the final Sunday in July when the city celebrates 'Navy Day' and the twin Rostral Columns are especially lit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vistaman Posted March 25, 2017 #6 Share Posted March 25, 2017 i do not know about other nationalities but with the present regime in Russia it is impossible to get personal visa when visiting by cruiseship. ( i obtained several visa with the communist regime , and under Jeltsin as well ) i like to do visiting on my own but for St petersburg i strongly do recommend to do the excursions organised by the ship. the excursion by hapag are very well organised. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MsSommelier Posted March 26, 2017 Author #7 Share Posted March 26, 2017 Thank you everyone for all the feedback. Although it is my second language, I am fluent in German and my husband is German, so language is not a problem. We were very happy with the shore excursions from H-L Europa in Norway. They were expensive, but then, Norway is an expensive country. It sounds like H-L's excursions in the Baltic could be a very good option for us. Now I just have to wait until they post them for booking! We have not been to any of the ports of call and are especially looking forward to St. Petersburg. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vistaman Posted March 26, 2017 #8 Share Posted March 26, 2017 i 'll do the short cruise with the gastro-event just before your cruise. exception made for st petersburg - i think in all the towns the ship is docking very close to the city centers; but in scandinavian countries taxi's are expensive. and in Copenhagen Hapag was offering a shuttle last time. i do advice to take some local currencies as well for non € countries and maybe some $ for Russia. Sometimes they do not want € . maybe it changed once again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Floridiana Posted March 26, 2017 #9 Share Posted March 26, 2017 i do not know about other nationalities but with the present regime in Russia it is impossible to get personal visa when visiting by cruiseship. ( i obtained several visa with the communist regime , and under Jeltsin as well ) i like to do visiting on my own but for St petersburg i strongly do recommend to do the excursions organised by the ship. the excursion by hapag are very well organised. You don't need to join a large cruise tour in St.Petersburg. If you pre Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Floridiana Posted March 26, 2017 #10 Share Posted March 26, 2017 If you pre Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Floridiana Posted March 26, 2017 #11 Share Posted March 26, 2017 Second attempt to answer .. ;-( The immigration officer in St. Petersburg asks for your passport AND the paperwork arranged by your tour company. You cannot wander around on your own. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MsSommelier Posted March 28, 2017 Author #12 Share Posted March 28, 2017 Vistaman, Good idea but unfortunately by the time I looked into it (over a month ago), it was already sold out. I think that one must go like hot cakes. Floridana, thank you, I did some research on my own also, and it seemed pretty clear that one cannot go alone around St Petersburg and that one needs a guide. In any event, we thought the best way to see the city would be a guided tour -- was just trying to decide if I should privately book a guide (seems to be a lot of good options on Trip Advisor) or whether to go with H-L. Based on the comments here, it sounds like H-L tours would be a very good choice for us. I wrote them an email (actually 2) , asking about the visa situation for American citizens (ie., do they take care of it or do I need to do something). Still haven't had a response.... I have a question about the H-L Club but I'll open a new thread. Thanks all! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
English Voyager Posted March 28, 2017 #13 Share Posted March 28, 2017 Is it correct to state that a cruise ship passenger who wishes to explore independently, for example, St.Petersburg cannot obtain an individual visa from the Russian Embassy, or Consulate, in their home country? The published advice from the UK Government would appear to indicate otherwise: https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/russia/entry-requirements Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vistaman Posted March 28, 2017 #14 Share Posted March 28, 2017 by cruiseship it seems impossible - i was denied one a few years ago and last year friends of mine as well it seems something else if you book a hotel . in 1989 i was walking on my own with a visa - it was an overnight i still remember i had to show my papers several times a day ( they were able to catch you by the kind of - western - clothes you were wearing ) - had the same in former GDR Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Floridiana Posted March 28, 2017 #15 Share Posted March 28, 2017 We had booked a private tour for our family with TJ. Our guide spoke excellent English and did a great job. We travel on US passports. TJ needed our passport information to get the "excursion visa" weeks before the cruise. The ship kept our passports in the other Baltic ports because they were not Schengen passports. There were a few other families with US passports. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MsSommelier Posted May 25, 2017 Author #16 Share Posted May 25, 2017 H-L posted their shore excursions online a couple weeks ago and thanks to all the input here, I went ahead and booked excursions through the ship for St Petersburg and Danzig. We chose the full day with Catherine's Palace and Peter-Paul, with the private tour of the Hermitage and concert in the evening that same day. I was assured the tours were coordinated so that we could fit both in. Then we have another full day that includes a canal tour and St Isaacs cathedral (which I think are the tours you did, Cathaana -- BTW, forgot to mention it earlier, but I enjoyed reading your review). We also booked a full day in Danzig with Marienburg. For the rest, I think we will do on our own, since having a German speaking tour guide is not necessary and I think the other ports should be pretty easy to 'navigate'. We also booked another cruise already - a B2B from Acapulco to Tahiti and Tahiti to Melbourne - Jan 6 to Feb 15 next year. Couldn't pass up the idea of escaping the winter here in Germany and the itinerary interested us. I hope, being a warm weather cruise, that maybe the Europa crowd will 'lighten up' a little on the formal wear? I don't think I'm bringing my ball gowns! Given this additional booking, I believe the Club will pay off for us, since we will have credit from our Baltic trip to use on our January cruise. Then, as I think English Voyager said, we can use credits from leg 1 for leg 2 for the B2B. Does that sound right? We enjoy our wine (and our sparkling mineral water) at meals so I can imagine the beverage bill will add up on a 43 day cruise :-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cathaana Posted May 26, 2017 #17 Share Posted May 26, 2017 Sounds exactly like the excursions we did. :D Even though I haven't given up my 'no more HL for us'-stance, I am very envious of your trip(s). And no need for ball gowns even on formal nights, a cocktail dress should be good enough. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vistaman Posted May 27, 2017 #18 Share Posted May 27, 2017 msSommelier, excursions on your own in Poland are not so difficult at all - i was quite a few times in Gdynia ( for Danzig ) i went to see that old navy ship and a few churches - one with a monumental organ. also in the center there is a department store with an immense choice of wodka's at very good prices please do not finish all the nice bottles on ms Europa :D my first on her is only 2 days with the Beste event where a lot of wines are offered - this year the champagne Bollinger is announced i join Europa 2 next week Saturday - must polish up my German language ... enjoy your long voyage on ms Europa Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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