Baltic Cruise leave Southampton May 16, 2020

[ftmill]

For anyone who has done the cruise before (or going next year) what excursions do you recommend?

[1025cruise]

You might want to check the ports of call forums for the ports for your cruise.

[dolittle]

Many are easy to D.I.Y. hope you are overnighting in S.P.B in Russia it is best go with private there are many and all come highly recomedned  bu people on this site. It would help to know were you are going.

[dabear]

• We did a Baltic cruise on Eclipse one year ago . we found the highlights to be in SPB where we strongly recommend  an independent tour operator . We took a 2 day deluxe tour with Alla tours although there are 2 other popular tour operators with a max of up to 16 persons (see trip advisor). It's difficult to dyo as things are spread out and non group visas are expensive. Our other favorite port was Tallin, Estonia which you can do on your own. The old town center in a walled city is not far from the port. It's important to find out where your ship docks in Stockholm as some locations are about 2 hours from the center of town. fortunately our cruise docked in town.

Edited December 5, 2019 by dabear

[ipeeinthepool]

We also highly recommend using private tour operators especially in St Petersburg.  We used SPB-tours dot com, be careful not to use the fake SPBtours dot com.   We used SPB-tours in SPB and Stockholm and were very pleased with both tours.  The private tours are much smaller groups, cheaper and often get cuts to the front of the line.

[ftmill]

17 hours ago, 1025cruise said:

You might want to check the ports of call forums for the ports for your cruise.

Thank you for your quick response.  Where do I find the ports of call forum for my cruise.  Celebrity Silhouette May 16, 2020 out of Southampton Uk

[ftmill]

17 hours ago, ipeeinthepool said:

We also highly recommend using private tour operators especially in St Petersburg.  We used SPB-tours dot com, be careful not to use the fake SPBtours dot com.   We used SPB-tours in SPB and Stockholm and were very pleased with both tours.  The private tours are much smaller groups, cheaper and often get cuts to the front of the line.

Thank you.  I booked Anastasia Travel before I saw this.  fingers crossed.

 

[ftmill]

17 hours ago, dabear said:

• We did a Baltic cruise on Eclipse one year ago . we found the highlights to be in SPB where we strongly recommend  an independent tour operator . We took a 2 day deluxe tour with Alla tours although there are 2 other popular tour operators with a max of up to 16 persons (see trip advisor). It's difficult to dyo as things are spread out and non group visas are expensive. Our other favorite port was Tallin, Estonia which you can do on your own. The old town center in a walled city is not far from the port. It's important to find out where your ship docks in Stockholm as some locations are about 2 hours from the center of town. fortunately our cruise docked in town.

I took your advise and checked TripAdvisor and booked Anastasia for SPB.  I am looking at the SPB tours for Sweden.

 

[XuGator]

It seems like a lot of people recommend private tours in St Petersburg.  Is this still the recommendation even after the US closed their consulate office in March of 2018 in SPB? It seems a little more worrisome to be on an independent tour if something were to go wrong. We definitely don't want to have to travel to Moscow if our private operator was late getting us back or if something happened. We generally always book independent tours but its seems a littler riskier here. Does everyone think its still pretty safe to do so? Thanks

[dabear]

EuGator: we were in SPG in July, 2018 and had no problem with our highly rated tour operator. All the TO know they must be prompt and return you to the ship on time so I wouldn't worry. Also we were in SPG during the World Cup , so it was very crowded. Still no problem.

Edited December 5, 2019 by dabear

[XuGator]

30 minutes ago, dabear said:

EuGator: we were in SPG in July, 2018 and had no problem with our highly rated tour operator. All the TO know they must be prompt and return you to the ship on time so I wouldn't worry. Also we were in SPG during the World Cup , so it was very crowded. Still no problem.

Great - thanks for the insight. This is the only port we were thinking that it might be best to stick to the ship excursion. This helps put us at ease.

[dabear]

FYI, in 2018, Russia with the cruise companies,help to give them an advantage, made a policy that ships' tours participants exit the ship before private tours pax. It did delay our meeting up the the tour operator the first day of the 2 day tour (not the second day) , but bottom line, had no overall effect as we still saw every stop on the itinerary. You may want to follow up to see if this is still the procedure.

[XuGator]

Thanks dabear - that is good to know as well.

[upwarduk]

I We visited St Petersburg on Eclipse in 2015 and did our 2 day Deluxe tour via SPB who were wonderful. Our tour guide Luba asked us what time the ship departed on the morning of the 2nd day. She guaranteed that we would be back at the ship at least one hour before we sailed.

In 2018 we sailed on Silhouette. As I wanted to visit the inside of Peterhof, I booked our tour via Celebrity. As it happened, Silhouette was denied entry into St Petersburg, due to high winds. Our money was refunded to our account that evening.

I had also read that ship’s tours would be the first to be allowed to disembark, due to congestion in the port. The larger buses were allowed entry before the smaller vans. However, I’m not sure if this was just for the World Cup period. You certainly need to read the Northern European ports board, for more recent experiences.

 

https://boards.cruisecritic.co.uk/forum/116-northern-europe-amp-baltic-sea/

Edited December 5, 2019 by upwarduk

[ftmill]

Yes we are overnighting on the silhouette in Russia.  We are adverse to big tour buses so we are going with the Anastasia

tours because they have smaller vans and they put folks together.  We are only two and do not want a private tour.  Thank you all for your input.

PS  I on a tour recently where the ships' tour bus did not return on time and after waiting 1 hour we left. 🤐

The tour drove the passengers  to the next port

[Bretty]

As many ha e said, for tours in SPB there are a few private tour operators that come highly recommended. I’m also on this cruise and likely to take a small group tour with one of the companies.

 

The remaining ports can actually be done DIY if you’re the type of traveller who likes independence. My partner and I do, and we especially dislike large bus tours! The other ports all seem quite straightforward to access and see the main attractions independently.

 

Whatever you choose, here’s the link to the roll call for this cruise in case you want to join in.

https://www.cruisecritic.co.uk/rollcalls/celebrity-silhouette-may-16-2020/