Anyone Back From HAL Amsterdam Baltics?

[teacherman]

We are on Hal Amsterdam Baltic cruise August 2. Just wondering if anyone has returned from this and could provide some information.

In Stockholm, Helsinki, Tallin, and Visby how far are you docked from town? Is it close enought to walk or are their shuttle busses or public busses at the docks? Did anyone do the 2-day Value Tour with DenRus? How many formal nights, which nights, and do most people "dress-up"? Did anyone do the folkloric evening in St. Petersburg with HAL? Was it worth it? These are specifics, but any info is appreciated? Thanks to all who respond.

[ucipass1]

I"ll take the June/22 Baltic Cruise on HAL Amsterdam. I thought about writing a review as I have never done this much research about a trip. I'll also go with Denrus.

 

AA

[cckt]

"From June 30th to July 15th, 2005 my wife, Janet and I traveled from Toronto to Northern Europe where we toured the Baltic Countries by sea on the MS Rotterdam."

 

for some answers to your questions, click on link to the above cruise review:

 

http://www.getscript.com/baltic/index.html

[luvzcruzn]

Hi - I went on the HAL cruise to the Baltic in June and will try to answer your questions. First, You can walk to the main city/town in Stockholm although it's a fairly good walk. Took us about 30 minutes each way. Visby is an easy walk. As for Helsinki and Tallin, you need to take a bus but they are convient and, as I recall, they are either free or quite cheap.

 

As for St. Petersburg, we went with DenRus and it was the highlight of the trip. I highly, highly recommend them. Pleasant and personalized service. Our trip went off without a hitch and was much better than the overpriced cattle call that everyone else dealt with. We didn't go to the Folkloric show, we were always too tired. But people who did said they really enjoyed it very much.

 

There were two formal nites. I don't remember when the first one was (we didn't go), but I think it was the 3rd or 4th nite of the cruise. As I recall, the 2nd one was on Monday of week 2. As I understand it, formal nites change and are announced at the time you board. Some people dressed up very formally but others didn't. My husband wore a suit with shirt and tie (no tux) and I wore a nice pantsuit... no cocktail dress or gown. We did not feel out of place.

 

It's a wonderful cruise. Be prepared to be exhausted but it's worth it. Have a GREAT time!!

[Guest LetMeGo]

In Helsinki the Amsterdam and Rotterdam dock in different ports, so you might not rely on all HAL spesific advices on (public) transportation.

 

From the West Terminal (where Amsterdam is scheduled to dock August 6th) there is no public transport to the city between 9:30 and 4 pm.

You can catch the 15A bus 1/4 mile away from the pier, and buy a one day ticket for 6€. The same ticket can be used on the trams and Suomenlinna ferry, and is your cheapest option for touring unless you plan to go to a lot of museums.

 

The actual pier isn't more than one and a half mile from the city centre, but it can be a bit tricky to find your way without a good map, as there are no directions as far as I can recall... The bus will take some fifteen minutes in the morning traffic, and drop you off at the central railway station.

 

Here's a link to the public transport journey planner detailing the route.

[Marialivia]

Hi! (Tried to send this response earlier -- sorry if I'm duplicating now.) Starting with the easiest first: VISBY was a place we adored -- we were there for a short time (had to be back aboard by 12:30 pm). Definitely walkable, enjoyably so. This was the only stop that required a tender, and the Tourist Info Center is right across from the tender stop. They provided us with a large map, marking off sites of interest and excellent directions. Directly across the road was a privately owned little "tram," which took us around the outside perimeter of the walled town for $7 (US) -- delightful! Then we used our map to find our way through the small, charming, somewhat hilly town. We loved this place, and I'd like to think I'd get back there someday.

TALLINN; About a 20 or 25-minute walk from ship. Very hot and humid when we were there, and no shade on the route to/from the town. Be prepared to walk uphill on cobblestones! BUT the place is absolutely enchanting! Since the old town is pedestrian anyway, a bus couldn't take you there. There's lots to see there, and we had a delightful lunch in the town square by the Guild Hall. After a long day there, we decided to take half-day tours of the other ports and then stay in the city on our own for the afternoon -- in our case, a very wise decision.

 

STOCKHOLM: The ship's tour included a visit to the Vasa Museum, an absolute MUST. Also, we would not have seen so much of Stockholm if we had not taken this trip. The tour bus dropped us off at the place where the ship's shuttle operated, and that's the way we later went back to the ship. Saw the Changing of the Guard at the old palace -- hot and crowded and not really impressive. Old Town very touristy in terms of one tacky souvenir shop after another -- disappointing after Tallinn.

HELSINKI: Again, we were happy we opted for a half-day tour. Learned a lot and saw a great deal of this beautiful city that we'd never see on our own. Stopped for mid-morning break in a coffee shop within a gorgeous park. Left us at the shuttle stop and then we walked the lovely Esplanadi through downtown, visited the open air market, and had lunch in a unique restaurant. This appears to be a city in which the inhabitants enjoy simply BEING!

We had already booked tours online for St. Petersburg.

FOLKLORIC: This was an outing suggested by my travel buddy and one about which I was not particularly excited. BUT much to my surprise, it was simply amazing and not to be missed! The singers and dancers were topnotch, and the great variety of costumes was dazzling. The theater was lovely and VERY comfortable, and there was a great rapport between performers and audience. There was such a long standing ovation they could hardly leave the stage! By the way, the shopping in the lobby was the BEST we saw in St. Pete, but we didn't have enough time at intermission to take full advantage. Later at other locations we saw the same items at much higher prices. When I considered Josef Stalin, the Cold War, the threat of nuclear war, etc., it brought tears to my eyes to realize I was watching these young, talented, very likable Russians. Go for it!

ML:D

On our itinerary, we had only one full sea day. This was the second day aboard, which was the first formal night. The second formal night, which we missed because we had scheduled dinner at the Pinnacle (compliments of the TA) -- I believe it was the 8th day of the cruise.

In my opinion, everyone looked really nice every night at dinner, not just on formal night, where women wore very dressy gowns OR very tailored pantsuits or "church dresses" (so-called). I saw very few tuxedos on the men. The nights other than formal were described as "casual," but no one was truly casual as that term is usually meant.

[teacherman]

Marialivia- most people write and say that, with the exception of St Petersburg, all of these ports are easy to do on your own. I was just wondering why you say you would not have seen much if you had not been on the ship's half-day tours? It sounds like you had an enjoyable trip. We are really looking forward to this one. Thanks for the info.

[Marialivia]

Teacherman, this was our info too, gleaned from these boards and elsewhere, that all the ports except St. Pete were definitely walkable, and we planned our trip accordingly, booking tours online for St. Pete only. The morning tours we later chose to book through the ship took us much further than our feet would have taken us -- through the downtown but also to areas further out. For example, in Helsinki we visited a beautiful park with some breathtaking sights and a lovely restaurant where we had our "coffee break" (outdoors) and went through some lovely residential areas. I suppose it's possible to use one of the "hop-on-off" buses, but in view of the humid weather and the comments of fellow cruisers, we opted for the tours. We could say the same for Stockholm, except that we would have liked more time in the Vasa Museum, as the exhibits are fascinating. The guides were marvelously informative and entertaining, and although I had done an enormous amount of research beforehand, I learned so much more from them. We found it an ideal way to see more of the outlying areas as well as the areas we could walk to.

ML:D

[workerbees]

First of all I would recommend going to Copenhagen at least two days before the cruise. There are some wonderful sights as was listed by Steve on this website. Rosenborg Castle and Treasury (amazing crown jewels) Tivoli Gardens, Christianborg Palace (only certain times for English tour.) A good guide for the entire Baltic tour is Rick Steve's, Scandinavia. I would also highly recommend the Marriott and not the First Vesterbro Hotel.

 

Tallin

 

This is an easy town to do on your own. We did the city tour with a sweet young girl named Age who spoke halting English but got the job done. We found the shopping to be limited. We saw the same things in every shop with some interesting antique exceptions. This was the one place where a young man tried to pick out pockets but didn't succeed.

 

St. Petersburg

 

We used DenRus. We had Elena as our guide and Dmitry was the driver. It was just the two of us.

 

In two days:

 

City tour (Bronze horseman, Nevsky Prospect, Rostral Columns etc.)

St. Nickolas Cathedral

Catherine palace in Pushkin (Amber room)

Hermitage with special visit to the Gold Room (There are two, this was the one with more of the personal items of the royal families.)

Peter and Paul Fortress and Cathedral

Peterhof (enroute rode the subway which is incredible)

Montplaisir (Peter the Great's favorite residence right on the water with a lovely walk back towards the main palace so we were able to see all the trick fountains and many others.) We did not see the main palace because they said it was similar to Catherine's.

Church of Spilled Blood

St. Isaac's Cathedral (fantastic)

 

Throughout these two days we could stop and take pictures whenever we wanted, alter our itinerary etc. We also had plenty of time for lunch at Stolle and Opneht and of course shopping. We never waited in line, Elena would quietly and unobtrusively get us to the front and in. This was especially invaluable at Catherine's palace which was unbelievably crowded.

 

Worth every penny. We also did not have air conditioning (this is optional and less) and it was very pleasant.

 

Helsinki

 

We opted to go to Lapland where it was sunny and glorious and it was raining in Helsinki. We thoroughly enjoyed the boat ride and the reindeer farm, ceremony, lunch and dance. Santa's village was a very short stop (thank goodness) but my son enjoyed the card from Santa and there was a silver shop with lovely silver charms and other locally designed jewelry. Also some wonderful hand carved birch cups (Kuksa.)

 

Stockholm

 

We did the city tour. It was fine for an overview but going through this palace after St. Petersburg was a letdown. The city hall was Ok for a quick 5 minutes (instead of the hour we spent) to see where the Nobel prize is given but otherwise.... We could've spent hours at the Vasa. It is an almost intact warship from the 17th century. We found a great buffet place in Gamla Stan (Old Town) called Grillska Huset right off the square where the Nobel Museum is. We also found great shops here right on the same street as the restaurant. We could've used more shopping time.

 

Definitely do this on your own.

 

Visby

 

We did the "Roses and Ruins" tour with a retired colonel of the Swedish army. They took us to a beautiful cliff for pictures of the ship and the sea. This town is quaint with a great deal of history and botanical gardens. Great local craft and gallery shops and bars/cafes.

We stopped at the Balegarten (all white looking place with a fountain and many umbrellas) and had some of the local beer, Wisby, delicious.

 

Berlin

 

A long day for a very brief look at Berlin. Rostock may be a better option. It depends on if you'll ever be back.

 

Arhus

 

In the morning we went in and did our own thing. The shops and cafes close at 2:00 on Saturdays so an afternoon tour is a good option. We had lunch at a cafe called Drudenfuss, great open faced ham and cheese and Carlsberg on draft, very friendly too.

 

The best part of the tour was Den Gamle By, the European version of Williamsburg with all the houses coming from all over Denmark but they're much older which is all the more amazing. Cute little shops, not a lot of time.

 

You could definitely do this on your own. Cab stands are all over the city. It's too far to walk back to the ship. There's a bus tour that will take you all over through TI but the ship also has buses running back and forth to town.

 

Sorry I got so long winded....hope it helps...

 

AA Love

[workerbees]

We did the HA "Gala evening at Yusupov palace." It was wonderful, more like a medley of hits from four singers from the St. Petersburg Opera Company. You get a tour of the palace including details of the attempted murder of Rasputin. You're served caviar and champagne - well worth the effort after a busy day in St. Petersburg.

[shopgirl1964]

I'm just back from the above cruise - it was great. We had the following transport/walking experiences...

 

Tallin: We walked to town from the ship, it took about 10 or 15 minutes and not at all strenuous. The ship offered a shuttle but since the buses cannot get into the town (small old streets), it would only cut about half the walking time out. We did Rick Steves' walking tour (from his Scandinavia 2006 book) and felt like we got a great tour.

 

St. Petersburg: We went on 2 day tour with Red October, covered same places outlined on Denrus itinerary. They picked us up at immigration, it could not have been easier. This was my favorite stop - very different from anyplace else. Having a smaller group (there were 5 of us) made it very easy to get into places, even crowded ones. It was very tiring to cover so much ground, but it was great. I heard wonderful things about the opera gala excursion at Yusapov's palace and although I wish I had gone, I am afraid I would have fallen asleep sitting up.

 

Helsinki: The city provided a free bus shuttle from the dock to the center of town and back (sorry but I don't know where we docked exactly), and there were tourist information personnel meeting the bus, providing maps, etc. We walked around on our own, some of my friends did the ship's walking tour, which was a 4 mile loop.

 

Stockholm: We took the ship's shuttle for $5 each way. Some of my other friends opted for the hop on, hop off sightseeing boat shuttle, which actually left from the same dock where the ship was. I would recommend that, it's different and would be enjoyable on a pretty day. We took a ferry over to the Vasa (excellent), cruised through the Nordic Museum across the street (need to get the audio tour if you do this, most exhibits do not have English), then returned on the ferry to walk through the Old Town (where we did Rick Steve's walking tour again).

 

Visby: Charming little town with lots of churches, I thought it would be more like Tallin but it was very different. We were there on Sunday morning, the ship anchored in the harbor and tendered us in. We walked all around the town, which was very manageable. We also took the $7 golf cart tourist train which hauled us around the outer walls and returned us to the dock.

 

Warnemunde: We went to Berlin on the ship's tour, which was a little crazy. The meet time was 6:30 am, it was 7:30 am when we got on the (ancient unairconditioned) train, and it took a solid 3 hours to get there. We had signed up for the Highlights with the Pergamon Museum, but we were there on Monday, and the Pergamon is always closed on Mondays.

 

The Baltic itinerary that HAL does starts on either Wednesday or Sunday and makes the same loop all summer, so this mix up made me a little cross, because surely HAL knew ahead of time and I thought they should have yanked this tour option. Instead, they offered to switch us (which was kind of empty offer, since all of the tours had sold out, so there was no room to move) and then substituted an interactive private museum, History of Berlin, which was not very enjoyable. In fact, we ducked out and walked up and down the street instead. However, the rest of the tour was great and I felt like we saw a good bit of the city, more than I expected. We did not get back to the ship until 9:00 p.m. (after return ride in same unairconditioned train!)

 

Arhus: We walked through the town and up to the folk museum, which was charming. It started raining when we left and was pouring by the time we made it back to the boat. The ship docked practically in town, so I thought it was an easy walk.

 

This was such a great cruise, I could easily see doing it again and just choosing different activities in the ports. I hope you have a wonderful time!

 

Shopgirl1964

[teacherman]

Sounds as though you had a great cruise. 3 questions: 1) where did you catch the ferry to the Vasa museum? 2) Did you get any "hassel" from HAL or anyone regarding getting off the ship in St Petersburg (we are also with RO and are supposed to meet them at 7:30) 3) did you feel that you were "rushing" through the ports in order to make it back to the ship on time?

[shopgirl1964]

Hello!

 

1. We caught the ferry for the Vasa from the waterfront in Stockholm. The shuttle dropped us off in front of the opera house, we went into town a few streets to an ATM, and came back down to the waterfront to the right of the opera house (as you face it). You will see the boats and people milling around. There are quite a few ferry options, but we were directed to the sightseeing ferry booth. I think the entire hop on, hop off loop is 100k, but we just bought one leg (round trip for 30k). You buy the ticket from the bright yellow booth and the ferry comes next to it, every 10 or 15 minutes. The ride is quite short, and the ferry drops you off right next to the Vasa. When you leave the ferry, go to the left around the building to the front door of the museum.

 

2. The Red October question is near and dear to my heart, as I was sure we would run into problems. I spent a lot of time searching this boards and worrying for no good reason. Beginning the night before, HAL makes announcements every 15 minutes (or so it seems) that you will not be allowed off the ship without a visa in your passport, yadda yadda yadda. It was a huge, I mean HUGE, non event. Our group met at 7:00 a.m. and the announcement that the ship was cleared came at about 7:15. We walked down and off the ship with no problem, no one from HAL saying anything other than "have a nice day". There were probably 2 or 3 RO groups and a few other independents leaving at the same time. The Russian passport control personnel weren't even overly interested in our R.O. tour tickets (which I liken to Starbucks free drink coupons, they certainly didn't look official to me). It was no different or scarier than any other passport control experience.

 

3. We never felt rushed to get back to the ship. Most of the ports we did in 4 or 5 hours, with the exception of Russia, Berlin and Stockholm. We started early, at 9 or 10, and were usually back at the ship no later than 2 or 3. However, I was with my mother, and neither one of us are big shoppers or eaters, so we were sightseeing the whole time.

 

Hope this helps.

Shopgirl1964