Trip Report - Crown Princess Baltics

[lchen818]

Here is my cruise report for our trip on the Crown Princess that left Copenhagen on June 19th. Please excuse the typos and grammatical error for I haven’t had time to proof read this before I posted it.

 

Copenhagen

 

We (My wife, our 13-year old daughter, our 7-year old son, and I) flew from LA on American to London Heathrow and transferred to SAS to Copenhagen. Our flight into Heathrow was late by more than 45 minutes due to the air traffic congestion over London and we barely made our connection on SAS. Unfortunately, our luggage did not. It finally arrived at our hotel about 6 hours after we did. This is the main reason why I always try to arrive at our embarkation port at least a day before.

 

We arrived at the airport in the late afternoon and took the train to the Grand Central Station (København H) It took about 12 minutes and our hotel, the SAS Royal, was right across the street from the station and the Tivoli. The SAS Royal was a very convenient while slightly dated hotel. It was one of the few that could accommodate 4 people in a room (we booked a family suite). I strongly recommend against the hotel restaurant – avoid at all cost.

 

My impression of Copenhagen: everything was so incredibly expensive. Our average dinner tab was around US$300 for the four of us, with no alcohol, while the quality of the food was way below expectation. It made the food quality on the Crown Princess seem like that of a 3 Michelin star restaurant. To be fair, it might have been because we didn’t pick the right restaurants. I would recommend against eating at any of the Tivoli restaurant the same way I would not recommend any restaurants inside Disneyland. However, we did have great coffee and pastries from the Lagkagehuset (the main store is in Christianhavn) that is right across the street from the Tivoli and next to the TI.

 

During the next couple of days, we bought a freedom ticket that allowed us to use the HOHO bus and DFDS HOHO boats and river tours for two days. The bus was very convenient; but, be aware that the HOHO boats operate only about once an hour – so plan your time appropriately. We visited the Christianborg Palace and the Rosenburg Palace, which were both interesting. The Tivoli was kind of a dud and an $8 ticket was required to go in. Nyhavn was worth about a 10 minute stroll while the Strøget was a nice hour of window shopping walk.

 

We had originally booked a Hamlet Castle tour thru Alcatraz tour on-line on a Wednesday; but it turned out that is the only day of the week the local tour operator does not do the Hamlet castle. I have emailed Alcatraz tours for a refund a couple of times but have yet to receive a response.

 

We boarded the ship at around 5pm with no lines and the muster drill was at 5:30PM. There was no muster drill the next morning for those that embarked after 5:30.

 

The Crown Princess

 

This is an enormous ship and is very similar to the Golden Princess. It is a deck or two taller than the Golden Princess. The kids camps (Fun Zone) is located on the 16th deck near the stern as opposed to the Golden Princess, which had it near the bow. This was a smart move since there is a less movement near the stern and this reduce the chances of motion sickness by the kids.

 

The Baltic Sea is a little rougher than I had expected and we did experience more noticeable rolls of the ship than we did in Alaska. The food was decent as usual. As other cruise reports had mentioned, the International Café is a great hidden secret; most people initially think everything there costs extra. Actually, only the Gelato and Tapas were at a very modest charge but definitely well worth it. It served some of best salads, cookies, quiches, and sandwiches we had tasted on our trip. Skip the afternoon tea at the dining room and savor some tasty treat here instead. The buffet at the Horizon Court is average. The Café Caribe, just aft of the Horizon Court, makes a fair attempt to serve some international fair but was often less than spectacular.

 

My recommendation to the future cruisers: pack some sandwiches from the International Café or room service for the shore excursions the next day. It will save you lots of money and, more importantly, time from looking for a place for lunch while there would be very little time to visit the various site to begin with.

 

The food in the main dining room was very good (one will not find a better mass-produced banquet-type food service anywhere) and service was excellent; however, we did notice that the Asian and Latino staff was generally much more attentive than the European staff. Some of the European staff had an attitude issue. Don’t miss the Chef’s Gala evening when lobsters, jumbo prawn, pheasants, and prime ribs are served. The nightly soufflés were superb by any standard.

 

The John Lawrence port lectures, which are held in the theater and available on the stateroom TV repeatedly, are very helpful.

 

Another note for the first time cruisers: you will be required to have your luggage packed and left outside your cabin the evening before disembarkation. You will need a small duffle or hand-held luggage to hold your essentials for the next morning.

 

Stockholm

We arrived at 10AM and we were one of the first to get off. The ship docked at the very end of the pier (south of the Viking terminal) and it is not an easy walk to the city center. I estimate it would have taken at least 25 to 30 minutes and I don’t recommend it. There was a HOHO boat dock at next to the ship and a boat arrived shortly after 10AM to pick up the cruise passengers. The HOHO bus was also there waiting for us. One thing to beware of with the HOHO bus: it will pick you up at the pier but I don’t think it will drop off passengers back at the dock since it is not a regular stop. We opted for the US$13 round trip shuttle bus that dropped us off at the Opera house. (My advice for the future cruisers: line up by the stair wells on the 4 floor about 9:45 AM to get off the ship at early as possible since there was a very bad human traffic jam at the shuttle bus and non-princess excursion tour gate.) If you have 3 or more people, it may be cheaper to take the taxi that is just outside of the gate.

 

Unbeknownst to us, it was the Mid Summer Festival in Scandinavia for that weekend and the city was deserted by the locals and all the stored were closed.

 

We walked to the City Hall from the Opera and barely made the 11AM English tour (the next one was at 12PM). After the City Hall, we walked to Nybroplan to catch the Djurgården ferry to visit the Vasa museum. TheVasa was very impressive but we had very limit time since we had to go visit the Royal Palace afterwards. The walk from Nybroplan to the Palace was an easy one. We visited the Palace ground and the town square before returning to the Opera to catch the shuttle back to the ship. We would have liked a lot more time in port. We definitely felt very rushed even when everything went exactly according to our schedule.

 

Helsinki

We arrived on Helsinki on Sunday, June 22. Once again, the town was almost completely deserted by the locals due to the Mid Summer festival and it was a Sunday. The Market Square, which was supposed to have many local vendors, was empty. We took the number 16 bus a short block away from the ship to the Market Square (Kauppatori). A 24-hour ticket may be purchased from the bus driver for 6 Euros; kids under 8 ride for free. This ticket can also be used for the Tram and the HKL ferry to the Suomenlinna Fortress also at the Market Squre. Be sure the get the bus schedule (next to the driver) before getting off the bus. To catch bus 16 back to the ship, there are bus stops across the square about 100 yards on either side. We took the 3T tram around town to various different sites. 3T goes around town in a top heavy figure 8. The 3B tram goes the opposite direction. The Stockmann department store was a popular shopping destination for both the locals and the tourist; however, I found it very similar to any major department stores in the US or UK. Not worth spending too much time there unless there is nothing else to do (although my wife will probably disagree). The Suomenlinna Fortress is a very nice park and had a beautiful view around the island. There is a map near the dock that indicated there would a ferry dock on the other end of the island at King’s Gate. Be aware that the HKL ferry does not stop there; there is another privately operated ferry that makes three stops on the island (the front, next to the TI/museum, and at King’s gate. It costs about US$3 per person but it may be worth it if you don’t want to walk all the way back to the other end of the island again.

 

*** Please note the laundry room will be closed at 22:00 on this day until the ship leaves St. Petersburg so plan your laundry schedules accordingly.

 

St. Petersburg

This was definitely the highlight of our trip. We booked an “extreme tour” with Alla Tour. As it had been mentioned by many others, Princess Cruise did everything they can to coerce the passengers to join one of the Princess excursions. We got off the ship at 7:05 by simply walking off without going to lounge first as the announcement the night before had dictated. There was a ships staff who asked if we were on a tour and I simply waved the tickets for a Princess excursion we had booked for Gdansk (the only one we booked) and kept walking. The immigration line at 07:05 for the non-Princess excursion was very short and it took less than 5 minutes. However, it quickly grew much longer by about 07:30. Not to worry tough; if you had booked an Alla tour, they will definitely wait for you. We waited for a few people for about 45 minutes. It was much easier for the second day as there was no lines when we got off.

 

It appeared Alla and DenRus were the most popular independent tours. We were extremely happy with our guide Angie. We visited many sites (the Catherine’s Palace, Peterhof, St. Nicholas Church, St Isaac’s Cathedral, the Church of Spilled Blood, St. Peter and Paul Cathedral, and Yusupov’s palace) and she did an awesome job as our tour guide. We also took a hydrofoil boat ride from Peterhop back into town which saved us about an hour of van ride in traffic. One of the biggest benefits was that Angie was able to get us into the Hermitage at 09:00 about an hour prior to the normal opening time. We ended up being the very first group into the amazing museum. This was extremely fortunate because by about 10:15, the palace was filled with thousands of people and it was extremely crowded and would have been impossible to see many of the things Angie had shown us. By the time we were leaving at about 11:15, there were hundreds, if not thousands of people waiting in line to get in; many of them were with other group tours. St. Petersburg was much more beautiful than I had ever expected and the people were all extremely nice. My wife mentioned that St. Petersburg has the most beautiful girls she has ever seen. I didn’t notice at all of course ;-)

 

Note to shoppers: even though they may appear to be pricey, it turned out that St. Petersburg had the best prices on the Faberge eggs (copies of course), the Russian nestling dolls, amber, etc. The same things are sold on-board the ship for about 25% more and about 50% more in Tallinn.

 

Tallinn

We arrived in Tallinn at 07:00. The John Laurence’s port talk/video said that the taxi would be available about 300 to 400 yards off of the dock and the $5 (one-way) shuttle bus would take us to the town center. It turned out that the taxis were available right at the end of the dock (next to the shuttle buses) and the shuttle bus only took us to about ½ mile away from the dock at the outside of the old town – a distance that we could have easily walked. For about US$10, a taxi would take you to the Pink Palace in Upper Town.

 

Tallinn is a very pretty medieval town and there were many souvenir shops throughout Old town and street merchants at the City Hall Square. The prices there, however, seemed much more expensive then Stockholm and St. Petersburg. We had just enough time to walk around the Old Town using the Rick Steve’s walking tour before making the short walk back to the ship.

 

Gdansk

We arrived in Gdynia at 09:00. This was the only port that we booked a Princess tour since we weren’t able to book the private guide we wanted. Took the Gdansk sample tour. This was basically a bus ride through Gdynia, where we docked, via Sopot (did not stop or see the beach) and stopped in Old Town Gdansk, where our guide with a very strong accent gave us an hour-long walking tour and set us free to roam about Old Town. Poland is a very poor country and it showed. Pickpockets are rampant so be very careful with you belongings. There were some churches and small museums; but, by this point we were kind of “churched-out” and decided to simply stroll around for the next 2 hours and found a very nice café called Pellowski. It offered what we thought was the best selection of pastries and coffee in Old Town. It has a clean bathroom and it accepts US$. We ate some Rurki (Rurka for singular), which was a delicious local treat that resembled a long wafer cigar filled with custard like cheese. There were also many vendors selling a popular soft-served ice cream that was served up to a 15” tall. The price of coffee and ice cream seemed to get cheaper the farther in we walked.

 

Oslo

We docked in Olso at 07:00 right next to the Akerhus Fortress and it was a very short walk to the tram station. The TI next to the ship was opened as soon as we docked. The Oslo pass for 179 Kr was a great bargain since it allowed us to go on the buses, trams, the Bygdøynes ferries, and most of all of the museums we went to. Our first stop was the Vigeland Sculpture Park/Frogner Park (Vigelandsparken) via the #12 tram towards Majorstuen since it was open 24 hours a day. We were the one of the first to get there and were able to take some unobstructed photos before the flood of tour buses got there. Our kids found the biggest and best jungle gym they have ever seen right after we entered the park and they had a lot of fun there. After some photographs, it was time to head toward the Central Train Station and started on our walking ala Rick Steve’s tour book. Again, we found a great pastry shop next to the Parliament building on Karl Johann Gate, called United Bakery. We then took the ferry in front of the City Hall to the Fram and Kon Tiki Museums. We didn’t quite have the time to visit the Viking ship and Folk museums on Bygdøynes. On our way back to the ship we stopped by the Nobel Peace Center. It may be worth a quick visit if you have the Oslo pass, otherwise, it is not really worth the 50 Kr (I think) entry fee. The café at the center did offer excellent lattes and espressos (the coffee on the ship is pretty weak) and it comes with very tasty free self-serve pastries. (You probably guessed by now that we have a thing for pastries J ).

 

Disembarkation

Our ship docked at 05:00 we got off the ship at 07:30. We saw no line of any kind at the taxi station. There were plenty of station wagon and van type cabs waiting. We booked the Princess transfer to the airport for $49 each because we didn’t know better. The bus took us to an off-site check-in area to pickup our luggage, check in, and then we had to take another bus to the airport. It added an additional 45 to 60 minutes to the process. In addition, Princess made everyone arrive at the airport at least 4 hours in advance of the flight time, which was unnecessary. We also had some bad luck with the check-in agent that we had (not sure if he worked for SAS or Princess), who refused to transfer our luggage inter-line in London since we were flying SAS to Heathrow and AA back to LA. He made us having to go thru immigration and customs in London to pickup our luggage then recheck-in again with AA. None of the immigration officers, AA and other airline agents had ever heard of such a thing. We originally had a 3-hour layover in London; but, with a 45-minute delay on the SAS flight and the immigration, luggage, and recheck-in in London, we almost missed our AA connection.

 

In summary, with the exception of our air travel experience, it was a very nice trip. With the exception of St Peterburg and Gdansk, I’d recommend getting the Rick Steve’s Scandinavia tour book and do it on your own. Local transportations at most of these ports are so easy and Rick Steve’s book gives great narratives for the sites in each of the cities.

 

Feel free to ask me any questions, I will do my best to respond as soon as I can.

[jlr2482]

Thank you so much for your wonderfully detailed report. I took lots of notes, and feel even more prepared my my own trip in a little over 2 weeks. Thanks again for taking the time to report in.

[Yumagal]

Thanks so much for your great trip report. Did you get local currency before you left home and if so how much did you get? I've read that there is no ATM machine onboard. True?

[TLCOhio]

THANKS! Very helpful background info. Might follow-up later with more detailed questions. Clearly time was a pressing issue in most of the port stops. In addition to St. Petersburg, what else did you LOVE most, biggest surprise, things you would do differently, skip, made sure you did from what others told you? Terry in Ohio

[lchen818]

Thanks so much for your great trip report. Did you get local currency before you left home and if so how much did you get? I've read that there is no ATM machine onboard. True?

 

 

I saw ATM's everywhere in each of cities; so, I'd recommend you get some local currencies that way since it will probably get you the best exchange rates. We didn't really need any local currencies in Stockholm and Tallinn since there was so little time spent there and we used credit cards in the souvenir shops. Nor did we in St. Petersburg since we were with the Alla tour with all fees paid for and the shops the took us all took US$ and credit cards; we tipped the driver and the guide in US$ as well. We got some Zloties in Gdansk; but, it turned out we could have used US$. Many of the stores take US$. I got a small amount of Norwegian Kroners in Oslo at one of the many ATMs for coffee and pastries. We did get ample Danish Kroners at the Copenhagen airport because we spent a couple of days there and some smaller shops will not take foreign credit cards or will change an extra 5%. All of the shuttle buses waiting at the docks will accept US$.

 

There are a couple of currency exchange machines on the ship but they gave terrible rates.

[lchen818]

THANKS! Very helpful background info. Might follow-up later with more detailed questions. Clearly time was a pressing issue in most of the port stops. In addition to St. Petersburg, what else did you LOVE most, biggest surprise, things you would do differently, skip, made sure you did from what others told you? Terry in Ohio

In addition to St. Petersburg, we really enjoyed Copenhagen. It is definitely worth spending a couple of extra days there. I would have liked to have done the Hamlet Castle tour. The Tivoli Garden was a real letdown, though. It is nice park with some carnival rides and bunch of severely over-priced restaurants. It would be the first place to skip if you are short on time.

 

The Suomenlinna Fortress in Helsinki was nice surprise as well. Rick Steve's review of the island made it seemed very boring. We though it was a very nice park-like environment with some great sceneries on the backside of the island. It is nice place to visit if you have a couple of hours to spare.

[TLCOhio]

In addition to St. Petersburg, we really enjoyed Copenhagen. It is definitely worth spending a couple of extra days there. I would have liked to have done the Hamlet Castle tour. The Tivoli Garden was a real letdown, though. It is nice park with some carnival rides and bunch of severely over-priced restaurants. It would be the first place to skip if you are short on time. The Suomenlinna Fortress in Helsinki was nice surprise as well. Rick Steve's review of the island made it seemed very boring. We though it was a very nice park-like environment with some great sceneries on the backside of the island. It is nice place to visit if you have a couple of hours to spare.

 

THANKS! Sounds like prices were not quite as good as we would hope for in Tallinn. What was it that you liked so much in Copenhagen? The feel for the city, people, certain places? What sites and sights there did you like most? In St. Petersburg, you hit exactly and all of the top highlights we will see July 31-Aug. 1. Which of these top attractions in Russia most interested and amazed you the largest degree and why? Other St. Petersburg most loved stops and spots. . . or tips? Appreciate the help. Terry in Ohio

[lchen818]

THANKS! Sounds like prices were not quite as good as we would hope for in Tallinn. What was it that you liked so much in Copenhagen? The feel for the city, people, certain places? What sites and sights there did you like most? In St. Petersburg, you hit exactly and all of the top highlights we will see July 31-Aug. 1. Which of these top attractions in Russia most interested and amazed you the largest degree and why? Other St. Petersburg most loved stops and spots. . . or tips? Appreciate the help. Terry in Ohio

We liked CPH because of all the beautiful people who are really nice and friendly. We also like the overall energy of the city. It is a little more metropolitan than the others. The only downside is the high prices.

 

It is very difficult to pick one top attraction in S. P.; we like them all. However, The Hermitage stood out as the most beautiful palace/museum we have ever seen. It makes Versailles look like a rundown garage.

[sunsetme]

I'm in the 818 too!

what would you suggest for clothing? did you see jeans at all?

was it cold--compared to so cal it will be winter weather.

I am dreading bad connections and lost luggage as well. you handled that well. Was SAS helpful in getting your luggage to you or did you have to return to the airport?

thanks

[TLCOhio]

The Hermitage stood out as the most beautiful palace/museum we have ever seen. It makes Versailles look like a rundown garage.

 

Great build up for the Hermitage! Versailles is pretty nice and huge. In fact, its spectacular. We'll see if it matches your high praise. THANKS! Terry in Ohio

[hylasgirl]

Great build up for the Hermitage! Versailles is pretty nice and huge. In fact, its spectacular. We'll see if it matches your high praise. THANKS! Terry in Ohio

 

Yea, I will be looking forward to seeing that as well.... I absolutely LOVE Versailles!

[lchen818]

I'm in the 818 too!

what would you suggest for clothing? did you see jeans at all?

was it cold--compared to so cal it will be winter weather.

I am dreading bad connections and lost luggage as well. you handled that well. Was SAS helpful in getting your luggage to you or did you have to return to the airport?

thanks

Be sure to layer your clothing. We were pretty lucky with the weather and only encounter a couple of very brief showers. Bring an umbrella because the weather can change suddenly. There were days which had no clouds in the morning and storm clouds would form by mid-day and then clear up soon after. It was in the mid-50's in the morning and got up to low 70's in some places. However, you warm up quickly once you start walking around with a backpack on. Many people wore jeans, as did we, on port days even to the main dinning rooms.

Not everyone wore tux and dinner dresses on the formal nights. Many men wore suits or sports jackets and many ladies wore simple everyday dresses or slacks and blouses.

 

SAS did arrange to ship our luggage to our hotel, which in hindsight had relieved us from dragging our luggage onto the train for the ride into the City.

 

By the way, SAS charges for everything on the plane including 20 Kronners (about US$4) for a small bottle of water. Some flight attendance seemed embarrassed by that would sometimes not take your money if you acted astounded.

 

I would recommend scheduling at least a 3 hour layover if you plan to transfer from another airline en-route to minimize the stress of any unforeseen delays, which seems almost guaranteed to happen.

[Yumagal]

Thanks! I was wondering why there were so many posts about currency, ATMs, credit cards etc. We lived in Germany for 5 years in the 90s and even back then there were ATMs everywhere and credit cards were accepted at most places so I was having a hard time believing that it wouldn't be the same in the Baltics.

[texascruiser66]

Here is my cruise report for our trip on the Crown Princess that left Copenhagen on June 19th. Please excuse the typos and grammatical error for I haven’t had time to proof read this before I posted it.

 

Copenhagen

 

We (My wife, our 13-year old daughter, our 7-year old son, and I) flew from LA on American to London Heathrow and transferred to SAS to Copenhagen. Our flight into Heathrow was late by more than 45 minutes due to the air traffic congestion over London and we barely made our connection on SAS. Unfortunately, our luggage did not. It finally arrived at our hotel about 6 hours after we did. This is the main reason why I always try to arrive at our embarkation port at least a day before.

 

We arrived at the airport in the late afternoon and took the train to the Grand Central Station (København H) It took about 12 minutes and our hotel, the SAS Royal, was right across the street from the station and the Tivoli. The SAS Royal was a very convenient while slightly dated hotel. It was one of the few that could accommodate 4 people in a room (we booked a family suite). I strongly recommend against the hotel restaurant – avoid at all cost.

 

My impression of Copenhagen: everything was so incredibly expensive. Our average dinner tab was around US$300 for the four of us, with no alcohol, while the quality of the food was way below expectation. It made the food quality on the Crown Princess seem like that of a 3 Michelin star restaurant. To be fair, it might have been because we didn’t pick the right restaurants. I would recommend against eating at any of the Tivoli restaurant the same way I would not recommend any restaurants inside Disneyland. However, we did have great coffee and pastries from the Lagkagehuset (the main store is in Christianhavn) that is right across the street from the Tivoli and next to the TI.

 

During the next couple of days, we bought a freedom ticket that allowed us to use the HOHO bus and DFDS HOHO boats and river tours for two days. The bus was very convenient; but, be aware that the HOHO boats operate only about once an hour – so plan your time appropriately. We visited the Christianborg Palace and the Rosenburg Palace, which were both interesting. The Tivoli was kind of a dud and an $8 ticket was required to go in. Nyhavn was worth about a 10 minute stroll while the Strøget was a nice hour of window shopping walk.

 

We had originally booked a Hamlet Castle tour thru Alcatraz tour on-line on a Wednesday; but it turned out that is the only day of the week the local tour operator does not do the Hamlet castle. I have emailed Alcatraz tours for a refund a couple of times but have yet to receive a response.

 

We boarded the ship at around 5pm with no lines and the muster drill was at 5:30PM. There was no muster drill the next morning for those that embarked after 5:30.

 

The Crown Princess

 

This is an enormous ship and is very similar to the Golden Princess. It is a deck or two taller than the Golden Princess. The kids camps (Fun Zone) is located on the 16th deck near the stern as opposed to the Golden Princess, which had it near the bow. This was a smart move since there is a less movement near the stern and this reduce the chances of motion sickness by the kids.

 

The Baltic Sea is a little rougher than I had expected and we did experience more noticeable rolls of the ship than we did in Alaska. The food was decent as usual. As other cruise reports had mentioned, the International Café is a great hidden secret; most people initially think everything there costs extra. Actually, only the Gelato and Tapas were at a very modest charge but definitely well worth it. It served some of best salads, cookies, quiches, and sandwiches we had tasted on our trip. Skip the afternoon tea at the dining room and savor some tasty treat here instead. The buffet at the Horizon Court is average. The Café Caribe, just aft of the Horizon Court, makes a fair attempt to serve some international fair but was often less than spectacular.

 

My recommendation to the future cruisers: pack some sandwiches from the International Café or room service for the shore excursions the next day. It will save you lots of money and, more importantly, time from looking for a place for lunch while there would be very little time to visit the various site to begin with.

 

The food in the main dining room was very good (one will not find a better mass-produced banquet-type food service anywhere) and service was excellent; however, we did notice that the Asian and Latino staff was generally much more attentive than the European staff. Some of the European staff had an attitude issue. Don’t miss the Chef’s Gala evening when lobsters, jumbo prawn, pheasants, and prime ribs are served. The nightly soufflés were superb by any standard.

 

The John Lawrence port lectures, which are held in the theater and available on the stateroom TV repeatedly, are very helpful.

 

Another note for the first time cruisers: you will be required to have your luggage packed and left outside your cabin the evening before disembarkation. You will need a small duffle or hand-held luggage to hold your essentials for the next morning.

 

Stockholm

 

We arrived at 10AM and we were one of the first to get off. The ship docked at the very end of the pier (south of the Viking terminal) and it is not an easy walk to the city center. I estimate it would have taken at least 25 to 30 minutes and I don’t recommend it. There was a HOHO boat dock at next to the ship and a boat arrived shortly after 10AM to pick up the cruise passengers. The HOHO bus was also there waiting for us. One thing to beware of with the HOHO bus: it will pick you up at the pier but I don’t think it will drop off passengers back at the dock since it is not a regular stop. We opted for the US$13 round trip shuttle bus that dropped us off at the Opera house. (My advice for the future cruisers: line up by the stair wells on the 4 floor about 9:45 AM to get off the ship at early as possible since there was a very bad human traffic jam at the shuttle bus and non-princess excursion tour gate.) If you have 3 or more people, it may be cheaper to take the taxi that is just outside of the gate.

 

Unbeknownst to us, it was the Mid Summer Festival in Scandinavia for that weekend and the city was deserted by the locals and all the stored were closed.

 

We walked to the City Hall from the Opera and barely made the 11AM English tour (the next one was at 12PM). After the City Hall, we walked to Nybroplan to catch the Djurgården ferry to visit the Vasa museum. TheVasa was very impressive but we had very limit time since we had to go visit the Royal Palace afterwards. The walk from Nybroplan to the Palace was an easy one. We visited the Palace ground and the town square before returning to the Opera to catch the shuttle back to the ship. We would have liked a lot more time in port. We definitely felt very rushed even when everything went exactly according to our schedule.

 

Helsinki

 

We arrived on Helsinki on Sunday, June 22. Once again, the town was almost completely deserted by the locals due to the Mid Summer festival and it was a Sunday. The Market Square, which was supposed to have many local vendors, was empty. We took the number 16 bus a short block away from the ship to the Market Square (Kauppatori). A 24-hour ticket may be purchased from the bus driver for 6 Euros; kids under 8 ride for free. This ticket can also be used for the Tram and the HKL ferry to the Suomenlinna Fortress also at the Market Squre. Be sure the get the bus schedule (next to the driver) before getting off the bus. To catch bus 16 back to the ship, there are bus stops across the square about 100 yards on either side. We took the 3T tram around town to various different sites. 3T goes around town in a top heavy figure 8. The 3B tram goes the opposite direction. The Stockmann department store was a popular shopping destination for both the locals and the tourist; however, I found it very similar to any major department stores in the US or UK. Not worth spending too much time there unless there is nothing else to do (although my wife will probably disagree). The Suomenlinna Fortress is a very nice park and had a beautiful view around the island. There is a map near the dock that indicated there would a ferry dock on the other end of the island at King’s Gate. Be aware that the HKL ferry does not stop there; there is another privately operated ferry that makes three stops on the island (the front, next to the TI/museum, and at King’s gate. It costs about US$3 per person but it may be worth it if you don’t want to walk all the way back to the other end of the island again.

 

*** Please note the laundry room will be closed at 22:00 on this day until the ship leaves St. Petersburg so plan your laundry schedules accordingly.

 

St. Petersburg

 

This was definitely the highlight of our trip. We booked an “extreme tour” with Alla Tour. As it had been mentioned by many others, Princess Cruise did everything they can to coerce the passengers to join one of the Princess excursions. We got off the ship at 7:05 by simply walking off without going to lounge first as the announcement the night before had dictated. There was a ships staff who asked if we were on a tour and I simply waved the tickets for a Princess excursion we had booked for Gdansk (the only one we booked) and kept walking. The immigration line at 07:05 for the non-Princess excursion was very short and it took less than 5 minutes. However, it quickly grew much longer by about 07:30. Not to worry tough; if you had booked an Alla tour, they will definitely wait for you. We waited for a few people for about 45 minutes. It was much easier for the second day as there was no lines when we got off.

 

It appeared Alla and DenRus were the most popular independent tours. We were extremely happy with our guide Angie. We visited many sites (the Catherine’s Palace, Peterhof, St. Nicholas Church, St Isaac’s Cathedral, the Church of Spilled Blood, St. Peter and Paul Cathedral, and Yusupov’s palace) and she did an awesome job as our tour guide. We also took a hydrofoil boat ride from Peterhop back into town which saved us about an hour of van ride in traffic. One of the biggest benefits was that Angie was able to get us into the Hermitage at 09:00 about an hour prior to the normal opening time. We ended up being the very first group into the amazing museum. This was extremely fortunate because by about 10:15, the palace was filled with thousands of people and it was extremely crowded and would have been impossible to see many of the things Angie had shown us. By the time we were leaving at about 11:15, there were hundreds, if not thousands of people waiting in line to get in; many of them were with other group tours. St. Petersburg was much more beautiful than I had ever expected and the people were all extremely nice. My wife mentioned that St. Petersburg has the most beautiful girls she has ever seen. I didn’t notice at all of course ;-)

 

Note to shoppers: even though they may appear to be pricey, it turned out that St. Petersburg had the best prices on the Faberge eggs (copies of course), the Russian nestling dolls, amber, etc. The same things are sold on-board the ship for about 25% more and about 50% more in Tallinn.

 

Tallinn

 

We arrived in Tallinn at 07:00. The John Laurence’s port talk/video said that the taxi would be available about 300 to 400 yards off of the dock and the $5 (one-way) shuttle bus would take us to the town center. It turned out that the taxis were available right at the end of the dock (next to the shuttle buses) and the shuttle bus only took us to about ½ mile away from the dock at the outside of the old town – a distance that we could have easily walked. For about US$10, a taxi would take you to the Pink Palace in Upper Town.

 

Tallinn is a very pretty medieval town and there were many souvenir shops throughout Old town and street merchants at the City Hall Square. The prices there, however, seemed much more expensive then Stockholm and St. Petersburg. We had just enough time to walk around the Old Town using the Rick Steve’s walking tour before making the short walk back to the ship.

 

Gdansk

 

We arrived in Gdynia at 09:00. This was the only port that we booked a Princess tour since we weren’t able to book the private guide we wanted. Took the Gdansk sample tour. This was basically a bus ride through Gdynia, where we docked, via Sopot (did not stop or see the beach) and stopped in Old Town Gdansk, where our guide with a very strong accent gave us an hour-long walking tour and set us free to roam about Old Town. Poland is a very poor country and it showed. Pickpockets are rampant so be very careful with you belongings. There were some churches and small museums; but, by this point we were kind of “churched-out” and decided to simply stroll around for the next 2 hours and found a very nice café called Pellowski. It offered what we thought was the best selection of pastries and coffee in Old Town. It has a clean bathroom and it accepts US$. We ate some Rurki (Rurka for singular), which was a delicious local treat that resembled a long wafer cigar filled with custard like cheese. There were also many vendors selling a popular soft-served ice cream that was served up to a 15” tall. The price of coffee and ice cream seemed to get cheaper the farther in we walked.

 

Oslo

 

We docked in Olso at 07:00 right next to the Akerhus Fortress and it was a very short walk to the tram station. The TI next to the ship was opened as soon as we docked. The Oslo pass for 179 Kr was a great bargain since it allowed us to go on the buses, trams, the Bygdøynes ferries, and most of all of the museums we went to. Our first stop was the Vigeland Sculpture Park/Frogner Park (Vigelandsparken) via the #12 tram towards Majorstuen since it was open 24 hours a day. We were the one of the first to get there and were able to take some unobstructed photos before the flood of tour buses got there. Our kids found the biggest and best jungle gym they have ever seen right after we entered the park and they had a lot of fun there. After some photographs, it was time to head toward the Central Train Station and started on our walking ala Rick Steve’s tour book. Again, we found a great pastry shop next to the Parliament building on Karl Johann Gate, called United Bakery. We then took the ferry in front of the City Hall to the Fram and Kon Tiki Museums. We didn’t quite have the time to visit the Viking ship and Folk museums on Bygdøynes. On our way back to the ship we stopped by the Nobel Peace Center. It may be worth a quick visit if you have the Oslo pass, otherwise, it is not really worth the 50 Kr (I think) entry fee. The café at the center did offer excellent lattes and espressos (the coffee on the ship is pretty weak) and it comes with very tasty free self-serve pastries. (You probably guessed by now that we have a thing for pastries J ).

 

Disembarkation

 

Our ship docked at 05:00 we got off the ship at 07:30. We saw no line of any kind at the taxi station. There were plenty of station wagon and van type cabs waiting. We booked the Princess transfer to the airport for $49 each because we didn’t know better. The bus took us to an off-site check-in area to pickup our luggage, check in, and then we had to take another bus to the airport. It added an additional 45 to 60 minutes to the process. In addition, Princess made everyone arrive at the airport at least 4 hours in advance of the flight time, which was unnecessary. We also had some bad luck with the check-in agent that we had (not sure if he worked for SAS or Princess), who refused to transfer our luggage inter-line in London since we were flying SAS to Heathrow and AA back to LA. He made us having to go thru immigration and customs in London to pickup our luggage then recheck-in again with AA. None of the immigration officers, AA and other airline agents had ever heard of such a thing. We originally had a 3-hour layover in London; but, with a 45-minute delay on the SAS flight and the immigration, luggage, and recheck-in in London, we almost missed our AA connection.

 

In summary, with the exception of our air travel experience, it was a very nice trip. With the exception of St Peterburg and Gdansk, I’d recommend getting the Rick Steve’s Scandinavia tour book and do it on your own. Local transportations at most of these ports are so easy and Rick Steve’s book gives great narratives for the sites in each of the cities.

 

Feel free to ask me any questions, I will do my best to respond as soon as I can.

Thank you for the informative narrative. Could you tell me about the weather? Does is rain every day? We need to plan our clothing and have no idea what to take. Thanks.

[MercedMike]

Those of you heading for the Baltic might like to Check out our review and pics at http://www.elite.net/~thehalls/baltic.html

 

I will mostly reiterate the things said in this posting above. It is a wonderful cruise! The Hermitage is literally unbelievable. You can only get a tiny taste of it in the few hours allotted. I do recommend the Gold Room if you are interested in Scythian and Sarmatian objects.

 

We were warned to expect variable, cold, and possibly rainy weather. But we were very lucky to have warm sunshiny days in most ports. Our first day in St P started out with a light drizzle but that stopped by midmorning, and the next day was beautiful sunshine. There are only 40 sunny days a year in St P and we used up one and a half -- hope there are some left for you!;)

 

Prices are high everyplace. There is some beauriful amber, and lovely Faberge egg repros, but be prepared to pay a high price for it. Even an ice cream cone or a beer is expensive!

 

have a GREAT cruise!

[ontheweb]

Great trip report, I really enjoyed reading it.

 

We did a similar cruise last summer on the Star Princess, same ports, just the opposite order. We also used Alla for our St. Petersburg tours. We also did all the other ports except Gdansk (Gdynia) on our own.

 

Just a few observations that others might find helpful:

 

On dining in Copenhagen--- Both Rick Steves and Fodors recommended the buffet at the Riz Raz restaurant as the best bargain in Copenhagen. I heartily agree.

 

On getting to your private tour in St. Petersburg. You mentioned waiting 45 minutes for some of your others on the tour. We (there were 10 of us who met on our roll call) set a time to meet, so we all disembarked together. We just marched off as soon as thwe ship was cleared by Russian customs.

 

On John Lawrence---what a wonderful cruise director. Do not miss his lectures on the upcoming port. I thought I read somewhere that he had now retired. I guess that was either a rumor, or he changed his mind.

 

On laundry---due to water restrictions, there was no self serve or ship laundry for us either while in Russia. I do not remember an annopuncement until we were in St. Petersburg. Due to our "opposite" itinerary, Helsinki was the port after St. Petersburg and it was later in the cruise. Everyone seemed to be doing laundry that day. I described it in my review as LAUNDRY HELL.

 

In case anyone is interested my complete review is found at:

 

http://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=33517

[diannedri]

We have friends who disembarked at 8:00 and there was NO line. I had read (appearantly along with hundreds of others!) that there is a long line from 8:00- 9:30 so.... since our flight was at 2:00, we were assigned a 9:45 disembarkation time. Well... almost everyone disembarked around that time, even though it appeared in the Patter as if all were given times that were about 15 min apart with 9:45 the last time.

Lines at 9:45 wrapped around the tent 4 times!! We ended up walking out of the tent and down to the end of the parking/tent area and hailed a taxi that was about to enter the Princess parking/tent area. Simple, no wait! At the airport, we ran into people who said it took them 2 hrs to get a taxi!!

[Pia1913]

Thanks for the great report. We'll be in CPH on Sept. 5th before boarding the Crown on the 7th.

 

We spent almost a week in CPH 14 years ago and at that time were unimpressed with Tivoli. Good to hear we shouldn't bother this time. :)

 

Pia

[lchen818]

Thank you for the informative narrative. Could you tell me about the weather? Does is rain every day? We need to plan our clothing and have no idea what to take. Thanks.

The weather was very pleasant, which ranged between mid 50's in the morning to high 60's and even low 70's in the afternoon. We were very fortunate and only experience a couple of very short showers. Be sure to pack layered clothing and bring along an umbrella. I was told (and did experience) that the weather can change very rapidly in the Baltic.