Just got back from Jewel of the Seas 12-night Scandi/Russia Cruise

[windjamming]

Just got back- will write a proper review when everything's a little more organized but happy to answer any questions about the itin or the ship. In short, I loved loved LOVED it - 4 days at sea, 6 ports (Oslo, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Helsinki,, St. Petersburg, Tallinn), 2 days in St. Petersburg.

[Lovincruisin1321]

Just got back- will write a proper review when everything's a little more organized but happy to answer any questions about the itin or the ship. In short, I loved loved LOVED it - 4 days at sea, 6 ports (Oslo, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Helsinki,, St. Petersburg, Tallinn), 2 days in St. Petersburg.

My husband and I are taking the Jewel next August. Did you also do the precruise to Paris/London? We are also doing that.

 

I would love to know about all your excursions. How was RCI's excursions. I've been posting about taking Red October.

[sumguy1]

We did the same cruise last July too, and I want to comment only on the itinerary. We LOVED it too.. 1 see day in the beginning to put you in the mood of cruising ,, another see day in between ports to relax.. and finally, 2 see days at the end to get some rest after such a port intensive cruise.

[windjamming]

My husband and I are taking the Jewel next August. Did you also do the precruise to Paris/London? We are also doing that.

 

I would love to know about all your excursions. How was RCI's excursions. I've been posting about taking Red October.

 

Hi Lovincruisin1321, you chose a great itinerary, and I echo sumguy1's comments about the perfect blend of sea and port days on the cruise. We did not do Paris/London precruise, but I think it would be a good idea, especially to acclimate yourselves to the time zone.

 

Since this was our first time to all of the ports we ended up taking RCI excursions in the mornings and then going into the cities ourselves later in the day. We will probably do hop-on, hop-off buses next time now that we have more of a sense of the cities.

 

Oslo- Oslo Highlights. The Vigeland Sculpture Park and the Holmenkollen Ski Jump were definitely worth seeing, and we also got a quick tour around the downtown.

 

Copenhagen- Walk and Cruise. A very lovely, scenic walk along the harbor and the downtown area coupled with a (covered) boatride back to the ship. This is one excursion to try to wait until the last minute to book, as it can be miserable with bad weather.

 

Stockholm- Old Town and Nobel. It rained during most of the excursion so the getting-on-and-off-of-buses process was drippy and a little bothersome. Nice tour but I think of all the excursions we went on this could have been done the easiest on our own.

 

Helsinki- Highlights and Architecture. I LOVED Helsinki and this excursion especially. We took about a 30 minute bus ride out to Hvittrask, which is the house designed by architect Eliel Saarinen. The trip was followed by stops at some of the key buildings in Helsinki.

 

St. P- We did 3 RCI excursions here, starting with the City Highlights and Pushkin (Catherine's Palace) on the first day to get our bearings and then went to the Hermitage and 3 cathedrals on the second day. I'd heard good things about the Red October 2-day tours too, so I don't think you can go wrong with either choice.

 

Tallinn- Highlights. With this excursion we were able to get out to the Song Grounds, which isn't easily done (I don't think) on your own. The Old/Lower Town areas are easily walkable from the ship.

 

I'll write more about these excursions in my review but that's what I have off the top of my head for now.

 

Hope this helps! You're going to have a great time !!

[JodiBB]

We did this cruise last summer too! It IS a great holiday and a beautiful ship! We stayed 3 nights pre-cruise in London and did it all on our own. We bought London Passes, which got us on the Tube/busses for 3 days + more attractions than we could shake a stick at....we probably saved ourselves $100 pp easy over those 3 days (which is difficult to do in London) just by having the pass.

[sumguy1]

We did London and Venice precruise on our own, Paris post cruise on our own, and during cruise did all ports on our own EXCEPT St Petersburg. The Blatic countries are sooo rich, and they have good resourceful websites of everything including transportation and even cruise port schedule and that helped us plan for everything. If you want to take excursions, better check the attractions first so you know what to choose and what you like best.

 

http://www.visitoslo.com/attractions-and-sights.49105.en.html

 

http://www.visitcopenhagen.com/tourist/what_to_see_and_do/sights_and_attractions/top_10_sights

 

http://www.stockholmtown.com/Default.aspx?epslanguage=EN

 

http://www.hel2.fi/tourism/en/ohjelmaa_kohteet.asp?kieli=en&ASPKATEGORIA=1&a=0&page=1&aspword=Ntop[/url]

 

http://www.tourism.tallinn.ee/

 

One thing though I have to mention, and I hope that doesnt upset the french people. I have to say that Paris was the least favorite city of all the cities we visited in this long trip. We encountered several unfortunate incidents in Paris only. They definitely have serious issues with immigration, and you better stick with the 5 star services wherever you go in Paris. Paris itself is beautiful, and doing things on your own in Paris could end up being not the best thing to do in such a great trip.

[Lovincruisin1321]

Hi Lovincruisin1321, you chose a great itinerary, and I echo sumguy1's comments about the perfect blend of sea and port days on the cruise. We did not do Paris/London precruise, but I think it would be a good idea, especially to acclimate yourselves to the time zone.

 

Since this was our first time to all of the ports we ended up taking RCI excursions in the mornings and then going into the cities ourselves later in the day. We will probably do hop-on, hop-off buses next time now that we have more of a sense of the cities.

 

Oslo- Oslo Highlights. The Vigeland Sculpture Park and the Holmenkollen Ski Jump were definitely worth seeing, and we also got a quick tour around the downtown.

 

Copenhagen- Walk and Cruise. A very lovely, scenic walk along the harbor and the downtown area coupled with a (covered) boatride back to the ship. This is one excursion to try to wait until the last minute to book, as it can be miserable with bad weather.

 

Stockholm- Old Town and Nobel. It rained during most of the excursion so the getting-on-and-off-of-buses process was drippy and a little bothersome. Nice tour but I think of all the excursions we went on this could have been done the easiest on our own.

 

Helsinki- Highlights and Architecture. I LOVED Helsinki and this excursion especially. We took about a 30 minute bus ride out to Hvittrask, which is the house designed by architect Eliel Saarinen. The trip was followed by stops at some of the key buildings in Helsinki.

 

St. P- We did 3 RCI excursions here, starting with the City Highlights and Pushkin (Catherine's Palace) on the first day to get our bearings and then went to the Hermitage and 3 cathedrals on the second day. I'd heard good things about the Red October 2-day tours too, so I don't think you can go wrong with either choice.

 

Tallinn- Highlights. With this excursion we were able to get out to the Song Grounds, which isn't easily done (I don't think) on your own. The Old/Lower Town areas are easily walkable from the ship.

 

I'll write more about these excursions in my review but that's what I have off the top of my head for now.

 

Hope this helps! You're going to have a great time !!

That was great info. I just showed my husband the info on Helsinki because he is an architect. Let me know when you write your review. My e-mail is in my profile.

[windjamming]

My review is up:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?p=7677188#post7677188