Breakaway Baltics Cruisers--NCL Excursion List, please!

[Hearthosesteeldrumsplayin]

Can someone who is sailing the Baltics on the Breakaway please provide information on the NCL excursions and prices, please? We are sailing next May from Copenhagen for my daughter's college graduation. I have assigned her the task of exploring excursions. CC has port information and she can use that; however, since our final payment isn't until next year, we don't have any feel for what the ship offers and the pricing. Thanks in advance!

[notes21]

The Getaway is actually the NCL ship doing the Baltics this year, and then the Breakaway will take over next year. I'm scheduled for that cruise next summer as well. If you go to the NCL site without signing in, you can click shore excursions under Get Ready for your cruise. On that page you can pull down a port city under find the perfect excursion and see what is available right now for most of the cruises.

[Sauer-kraut]

Don't plan on doing any of the NCL excursions! You'll get off a lot cheaper if you arrange your own, even for the overnight in SPB. Have your daughter look at the PORTS OF CALL board for EUROPE there is a whole section of information on the Baltic Ports.

Also hook up with your roll call, you will often find people who have booked private tours and will share a van to bring prices down. Its a great way to save a lot of money! Europe is expensive.

[goldie099]

As a cruiser getting ready for my Baltics cruise on the Getaway in late June, I researched excursions, and I would say this: NCL's excursions are, to be frank, pretty disappointing, both in terms of cost and what they cover/get to while in port. Also, for most ports on this Baltics trip, you are literally IN the city, and public transportation is abundant and pretty easy to use, from my research.

 

If you want an excursion arranged for each port, I highly recommend checking into private companies that have excursions in all the ports (several commonly talked about on CC are Alla, SPB Tours, DenRus, TJ Travel, etc). I have found that their itineraries are better, the group size is smaller, and the cost is much lower. They have all come highly recommended from other posters here. I took a look at other cruise line's excursions, and while they are also overpriced, they seemed better than what NCL was offering in terms of content. Just my two cents!

[Hearthosesteeldrumsplayin]

Thanks for all the tips and tidbits! This should be a great cruise!

[Knighton]

I agree that you should try to do as much as possible on your own. I do have one suggestion, though. If NCL offers a day trip to Moscow from St. Petersburg you should do it. (We were on Celebrity, I don't know about NCL) It will be offered if it's an overnight in St. Petersburg, so you'd still have the second day to do a tour of St. Petersburg. Moscow was a once in a lifetime opportunity for us, and we were so glad we did it. Prices were about $600 per person-I know that's expensive, but keep in mind, you're flying to moscow and back so that's how they can do it in a day.

[rocklinmom]

We are on the GA there in July. There is no shorex to Moscow. I think they offer a great variety of choices and the prices are reasonable. We always do ship excursions but to each his own.

To give you an idea, as I am currently narrowing down our choices:

In Rostock- Schwerin Castle excursion $119 pp; Best of Rostock city tour $104 pp; Rostock by tram and river cruise $99pp.

In Helsinki- Suomenlinna Island Fortress $85 pp; Discover Helsinki city tour $75pp.

In St. Petersburg- Peterhof gardens by hydrofoil $129 pp; Cathedrals (all three) $129 pp; Through the Eyes of Russian People $115 pp; afternoon Neva River cruise $109 pp.

In Tallinn- Old town city walk $55 pp; Medieval Experience at Rakvere Castle with lunch $145 pp.

In Stockholm- Vasa museum $89 pp; Best of Stockholm city tour with Vasa $109 pp.

[Sauer-kraut]

We are on the GA there in July. There is no shorex to Moscow. I think they offer a great variety of choices and the prices are reasonable. We always do ship excursions but to each his own.

To give you an idea, as I am currently narrowing down our choices:

In Rostock- Schwerin Castle excursion $119 pp If you did this on your own you could get a train pass for up to 4 people for just over 20 euros. ; Best of Rostock city tour $104 pp This is just a few Euro train/tram ride from the port ; Rostock by tram and river cruise $99pp.

In Helsinki- Suomenlinna Island Fortress $85 pp; Discover Helsinki city tour $75pp.

In St. Petersburg- Peterhof gardens by hydrofoil $129 pp; Cathedrals (all three) $129 pp; Through the Eyes of Russian People $115 pp; afternoon Neva River cruise $109 pp.

In Tallinn- Old town city walk $55 pp This port is about a 15 minute walk to the old city center, there is a printable/downloadable self guided walking tour you can get off the Europe ports of call board under Baltic/Northern Europe board. So it is actually a FREE activity; Medieval Experience at Rakvere Castle with lunch $145 pp. There was at one time a "Lunch with a Local" program you might want to check if something like this is still offered, it will save a bundle.

In Stockholm- Vasa museum $89 pp; Best of Stockholm city tour with Vasa $109 pp.

 

 

See replies in Brown

Just for information on Rostock this is from TravelAnni's website (she is a local expert over on the Europe Board)

http://travelanni.webs.com/

The Rostock Historical Society offers walking tours in English starting at the Kröpeline Gate on days when cruise ships are in port. There is no need to book in advance. The walk, at a very leisurely pace, lasts about 1 hour,taking in the history of the city, main points of interest and a few places not in the guide books, outdoors only.

 

The young Guides speak good English and work full-time with the Historical Society.

The tours are available on request, between 11am and 4pm.

[kitkat343]

We easily did all the cities (except St. Petersburg) on our our own with a 3 year old, depending almost entirely on the excellent public transportation available. For our family, it was actually cheaper to use a private tour than to go on our own in St. Petersburg, since my 3 year old was free on our tour and we'd have needed to pay for a visa for him if we tried to explore St. Petersburg on our own. There are several well established tour companies in St. Petersburg who will put you in a group of 16 and arrange for a visa waiver so you will be able to leave the ship, and this is discussed in detail on the Baltic board. You can also arrange for a private tour for just your family, and the private companies are highly recommended over the ship tours since they have smaller buses that can more easily avoid traffic. Our group of 3 was able to skip all lines at the entrances to each attraction (the museums stagger the entrance of the large ship tours so the museums don't have a bottleneck inside. Smaller groups were immediately waived in. I'm not sure if a group of 16 still gets to skip the lines - you can check on the Baltic board)

 

My signature line describes how we planned our tours. Please note that we traveled 3 years ago, and the HOHO boats in Stockholm unfortunately no longer do the shuttle directly to Vasa prior to 10 am, and don't sell one ride tickets anymore.

 

Please note that any large ship may encounter weather issues which will render it unable to dock directly in Stockholm, and they will need to dock in Nynashamn. I don't know the exact size of your ship - I just know this is currently an issue for the Getaway. It is possible to travel to Stockholm from Nynashamn via public transportation, or the tour company you choose in St. Petersburg will give you a discounted rate if you add additional cities.