Would like information for Baltic cruise from Stockholm to Copenhagen w/Riga, Helsinki, Tallinn, Visby, Ronne, Aarhaus

[KittyCruz]

15 minutes ago, Hezu said:

There is no true old town in Helsinki, at least in same sense as there is in Stockholm and Tallinn for example. There is city district called Vanhakaupunki (Old Town) on the west side of the mouth of river Vantaa where Helsinki was originally founded in 1550. In its current form, there is barely any signs of history from those early days of Helsinki. The city was later moved further south into the area where there is the current city centre, although for long Helsinki was tiny city and only started to grow in late 18th century and the majority of the buildings in central Helsinki date from 19th century or later.

Since I reside in Helsinki, I have only vague ideas on what sort of tours the cruise companies offer, but if you prefer to wander around by yourself rather than go with a tour group, it is quite viable choice to skip tours. There is quite extensive network of public transportation (see HSL website for more information) and nearly all people understand English, although some random persons stopped on a street might be slightly hesitant with their foreign language skills.

@hezu many thanks!  I want to see the Sibelius monument but other than that we really don't have an agenda (unless you know if there are any museums in Helsinki that might have work of  Kyllikki Salmenhaara) 

I appreciate the help

[Stuart Suss]

Hello Hezu,

 

I would like to learn about the Winter War of 1939-1940 between Finland and the Soviet Union.  Our cruise ship visits Helsinki on Saturday, August 6. Is there a museum to visit that has information about this war?

 

 

[DragonOfTheSeas]

4 hours ago, Desdichado62 said:

 

I posted some info in this thread

 

Yes, you gave some excellent information.  To make it easier to see I am pasting in Desdichado62  comments for the other thread below.

 

 

*******************************************************************

 

Posted February 27 (edited) from Desdichado62

 

I have never been there during Medeltidsveckan but expect it to be very crowded.
Distance is about 1.2 km (1200 meters) from the cruise terminal.

 

Did read the Q/A now and there will be day passes as well but I can't really find any information about it or where/how to buy it. They say their website that many of the events can get fully booked to booking in advance is recommended.

 

Possible at the visitors centre at  https://www.google.com/maps?q=Paviljongsplan  is somewhere where you can buy tickets.

 

https://www.google.se/maps/dir/''/''/@57.6346636,18.2884839,301m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m14!4m13!1m5!1m1!1s0x46f7af2fe04fd6c3:0x4b4956f3edeb71c9!2m2!1d18.2746758!2d57.6294917!1m5!1m1!1s0x46f7af9768339fb7:0xf9e45fe4d53f18a5!2m2!1d18.2880674!2d57.6349066!3e2

**********************************************************

In a later post:

The visitors centre is located on the southern end of Paviljongplan.

Edited February 27 by Desdichado62

 

 

Thank you for your help. 

 

[Apel]

18 hours ago, KittyCruz said:

Stockholm  - are taxis there good or should we plan to take bus or trains.  (were doing the vasa through RC but want to hit the ABBA museum and see some more specific sights around the city)

Taxis in Stockholm are good, but expensive. The local public transport system on the other hand is also very good and in comparison rather cheap.

[Hezu]

18 hours ago, KittyCruz said:

@hezu many thanks!  I want to see the Sibelius monument but other than that we really don't have an agenda (unless you know if there are any museums in Helsinki that might have work of  Kyllikki Salmenhaara)

That name didn't ring a bell for me outright, but after little googling I learned what she has done and apparently she designed some items for Arabia, which means that Iittala & Arabia Design Centre and its Design Museum Arabia might have some, but I cannot be absolutely sure about that. At least there is ceramic and glass items designed by many well-known Finnish designers.

[Hezu]

18 hours ago, Stuart Suss said:

Hello Hezu,

 

I would like to learn about the Winter War of 1939-1940 between Finland and the Soviet Union.  Our cruise ship visits Helsinki on Saturday, August 6. Is there a museum to visit that has information about this war?

Military museum in Suomenlinna offers information about Finnish military history and that certainly includes Winter war (and the related Continuation war). The sea fortress Suomenlinna is worth a visit even if one does not visit the museums there. However, worth a note that since most people have Saturdays off from work, that might lure also quite many locals there, although perhaps not into museums.

[KittyCruz]

3 hours ago, Hezu said:

That name didn't ring a bell for me outright, but after little googling I learned what she has done and apparently she designed some items for Arabia, which means that Iittala & Arabia Design Centre and its Design Museum Arabia might have some, but I cannot be absolutely sure about that. At least there is ceramic and glass items designed by many well-known Finnish designers.

@Hezu

 

My field of study was ceramics so I think Littala & Arabia Design Center looks like a good choice for us.

 

Kiitos 

 

 

[DragonOfTheSeas]

We booked ours flights on United Airlines using the Royal Caribbean Air2Sea program.  A month ago, our outbound flights were cancelled.  We just got our new schedule.

 

There is good news and bad news.  The good news is we are upgraded to business class. We are thrilled with the upgrade. The bad news is that we have a flight through Munich with a short layover. [1 hour 15 minutes]

 

I have two questions.   Will we go through customs/border patrol in our first Schengen area airport [Munich] or where we eventually land [Stockholm]?  

 

We have never passed through the Munich airport. Is 1 hr. 15 minutes enough time to clear customs in Munich if we need to do that?   We flew through Frankfurt on our flight to Rome a few years ago and all we had to do at a customs check point was hold up our open passport. 

 

One thing in our favor is that we are in row 6 so we will be off the plane before almost all of the other people on the flight.  I am not sure if it makes a difference, but our first flight is United and the second is operated by Lufthansa.  

 

TIA

Edited June 3, 2022 by DragonOfTheSeas

[Desdichado62]

Border control should be where you first enter Schengen which is Munich in this case.

[DragonOfTheSeas]

1 hour ago, Desdichado62 said:

Border control should be where you first enter Schengen which is Munich in this case.

Thank you--that begs the question if 1 hr. and 15 minutes is enough time to negotiate this.  I hope someone from a non-Schengen country that has flown through Munich can reply. 

 

DH and I have discussed it and we are willing to take the chance we will not be able to make our connection.  Having a business class ticket for an overnight transatlantic flight is a big plus. 

[ljandgb]

If I remember correctly (it was a while ago, so maybe I'm wrong,) I transferred thru Munich to Italy several years ago.  We barely made our connection due to 1.) it was a very long distance between gates after passport control, which wove zig zag thru all kids of commercial shops, 2.) the departure gate was to a bus which brought us to a plane on the tarmac.  The bus left quite a bit earlier from the gate than we were expecting, and I did not see a second bus arrive later.  Moral of the story - do not dawdle, do not stop to use the restroom or shop.  Get to the gate and make sure you have time to do anything else first.

[DragonOfTheSeas]

3 hours ago, ljandgb said:

If I remember correctly (it was a while ago, so maybe I'm wrong,) I transferred thru Munich to Italy several years ago.  . . .  Get to the gate and make sure you have time to do anything else first.

Thank you, this is good advice. 

 

I know we will be in Terminal 2.  I read that all of the Star Alliance flights use this terminal. [I hope that is still correct] We fly in on United and out on Lufthansa. They are both Star Alliance, so we should not need to change terminals. Also, our luggage will be tagged through to Stockholm.  

 

We will take your advice and go right to the next gate as soon as we exit the plane.

 

 

[Desdichado62]

11 hours ago, DragonOfTheSeas said:

Thank you, this is good advice. 

 

I know we will be in Terminal 2.  I read that all of the Star Alliance flights use this terminal. [I hope that is still correct] We fly in on United and out on Lufthansa. They are both Star Alliance, so we should not need to change terminals. Also, our luggage will be tagged through to Stockholm.  

 

We will take your advice and go right to the next gate as soon as we exit the plane.

 

 

 

A quick check tells that both Lufthansa and United uses T2.  Lufthansa's Stockholm flights seems to be using G and K gates while United seems to be using the H gates.

 

https://www.munich-airport.com/_b/0000000000000006574457bb5ce79589/airport-guide.pdf

[Hezu]

1 hour ago, Desdichado62 said:

 

A quick check tells that both Lufthansa and United uses T2.  Lufthansa's Stockholm flights seems to be using G and K gates while United seems to be using the H gates.

Never been in Munich myself, but I presume H gates are for flights from/to non-Schengen countries (like USA), while G and K are gates for intra-Schengen area flights. And passport control will occur when you move from non-Schengen side to Schengen side of the airport (or vice versa).

And remember that if it is airlines that mess up your flight schedule, they have to arrange you new transportation to your destination if the original connection does not work. And given that both Lufthansa and SAS offer several flights between Munich and Stockholm, you will most likely accomodated on a later flight if your flight to Munich arrives significantly late. And if there is a delay you may be eligible for compensation or at least for duty of care (food, communitions, possibly accomodation if there is need to wait overnight). The magic word here is EC261. But if your first flight arrives on time (or possibly even bit early), you don't have to worry about these things.

[DragonOfTheSeas]

6 hours ago, Desdichado62 said:

 

A quick check tells that both Lufthansa and United uses T2.  Lufthansa's Stockholm flights seems to be using G and K gates while United seems to be using the H gates.

 

https://www.munich-airport.com/_b/0000000000000006574457bb5ce79589/airport-guide.pdf

Thank you for the link to the airport brochure.  I found other maps while searching, but none of them were as detailed as these.  I am a person that likes to use maps.  

 

I checked on United Airlines site where last night's flight came in.  It was H-8 and the Stockholm flight this morning left from K-4.  After studying these maps I feel that is doable. 

 

As I mentioned we will be in Row 6 so we will get to passport control before many of the others on our flight.  We will go directly to the bus from there.

 

Thank you for your help!

 

[DragonOfTheSeas]

5 hours ago, Hezu said:

The magic word here is EC261. But if your first flight arrives on time (or possibly even bit early), you don't have to worry about these things.

Thank you for your reply. I have often heard about the EU consumer protections.  However, I thought since we booked with United Airlines this would not pertain to us.  However, I used your reference and looked up the details.  

 

Here is the link for anyone else interested in finding out more information.

 

Everything you need to know about EC 261 and European air travel rights - Elliott Advocacy

 

 

 

[lionheart]

Reading I see in Stockholm no dress code for churches

for Helsinki and Tallin are shirts ok or do you have to wear long pants?

[DragonOfTheSeas]

Adam7392 posted on another thread [targeted at current Voyager cruisers] regarding our overnight port stop in Riga, Latvia:

 

Sailing Voyager next month, just noticed on cruisemapper you are stuck in some port in Riga miles from anywhere, I was expecting you to dock right near the center.  Can someone let me know what the options are for getting into Riga.  Hoping RC are putting on a free bus running often and late.

 

I posted on the roll call for the current cruise to see if I can get any information.  

 

Has anyone had this same experience.  Was there transportation available in the evening? TIA

[Stuart Suss]

From what I see,

https://www.cruisemapper.com/ports/riga-port-53 

the August 3 docking location of Voyager of the Seas is at a central location, within walking distance of the center of town.

[adam7392]

4 hours ago, Stuart Suss said:

From what I see,

https://www.cruisemapper.com/ports/riga-port-53 

the August 3 docking location of Voyager of the Seas is at a central location, within walking distance of the center of town.

That site shows Riga Passenger Port in the picture which is part of the Port of Riga.  The port starts from the estuary down to Riga.  It then lists all ships visiting Port of Riga though not specifically Riga Passenger Port

 

This site lists cruise ship movements in the Port of Riga and you'll see all Voyager vists are listed as KRS which is the KS port or Krievu Sala

https://rop.lv/sites/default/files/2022-06/Kruiza kugu saraksts_07.06_eng.pdf

 

About half way down this site you'll see a map showing the KS port in relation to the other ports and Riga

https://rop.lv/sites/default/files/2022-05/Riga – cruise destination_0.pdf

 

and this site shows all the various ports making up Riga port, KS is the 8th green dot from the bottom of the map on the left bank.  Click that to get a lovely high definition 360 degree view of the delights of KS port.  We'll have 2 days to take in the views of the magnificent warehouses, pipes, loading cranes and coal piles.  Those on higher decks with a pair of binoculars will be lucky enough to see Riga in the far distance.

https://rop.lv/en/map

[Stuart Suss]

Thank you, Adam.

 

This is documented information. Royal Caribbean's passengers now have the bad news and some time to prepare for it.

 

I have emailed the port authority and the tourist center and asked about municipally provided shuttle buses. It is not prudent for us to rely upon Royal Caribbean for free or for frequent shuttles.

 

Unfortunately, my email was sent late in the afternoon, Riga time.  I may not receive a response until business hours on Monday.  

[AdventureKenandCar]

Is there a possibility that this remote docking is a one-off?  Maybe there was an overbooking conflict at the central port?  After all, this is the first Voyager trip to Riga this season. Perhaps future cruises will dock closer to Old Town?

[adam7392]

53 minutes ago, AdventureKenandCar said:

Is there a possibility that this remote docking is a one-off?  Maybe there was an overbooking conflict at the central port?  After all, this is the first Voyager trip to Riga this season. Perhaps future cruises will dock closer to Old Town?

I suspect not, the link I gave above for the ship movements shows all Voyager visits at that dock.  Also I had previously seen that the max length for the central dock was somewhat less than Voyagers length

 

[adam7392]

1 hour ago, Stuart Suss said:

I have emailed the port authority and the tourist center and asked about municipally provided shuttle buses. It is not prudent for us to rely upon Royal Caribbean for free or for frequent shuttles.

 

 

Good idea.  I've also emailed RC to ask what the arrangements are.  Will report back if/when I get an answer

 

[joan&jen]

Info I found about Riga ports from cruisemapper;

On July 20, 2018, the port received its ever-largest cruise liner - RCI-Royal Caribbean's Serenade of the Seas (length 293 m / 961 ft). The boat moored right into downtown, which became possible after cleaning works (riverbed sediments) conducted in the Approach Channel and the Turning Basin (near Vansu Bridge). Previously, such larger ships were moored at KS Terminal Pier (Krievu Island), where water depth and turning basin's size are proper. After cleaning the sediments, the swinging basin's diameter was extended from 380 to 400 m (1312 ft) which is the max possible in regard to the existing port infrastructure. These works (done by Rohde Nielsen AS) included over 111000 m3 of excavated soil that was used for construction works in Kudziņsala.
 

So why can’t Voyager dock there?