Best time to cruise northern Europe and Baltic

[midcape]

We would like to take this cruise in 2010 and would appreciate any suggestions as to the best time of year. Thanks.

Bill

[JennAngel9]

In our experience, I think it depends on your preferences. You are going to get the best (warmest) weather from late June through August, if I remember correctly. The weather is variable and can be quite cold at the beginning of the season (May). On the other hand, we did the first Baltic cruise of the year on Connie in 2008 (first week of May) and it was a fantastic experience because everything was uncrowded! Although many of the gardens, including Peterhof, had not been planted/were not in bloom. We got some nice days in the low 80s (in Oslo and Berlin), but also were miserably cold in Helsinki (probably below 60)-- everything else was in between, but we were told we had very nice weather for that time of year. When we visited the Hermitage, most rooms were nearly empty and there were no lines almost anywhere we went (exception being the Vasa museum). We were told that the Hermitage has people packed shoulder to shoulder at certain times of the year.

 

My point being that there is a trade-off between warm weather (mid summer peak season) and shoulder season, when you get fewer crowds, and probably better airfare.

[tjunmin]

My suggestion is July. We just returned from our Baltic cruise Aug 08-22 and the weather was not as warm as we expected, an opinion shared by many passengers on board. I should say we still had a wonderful cruise. There were crowds everywhere we went, but it was manageable.

 

Happy planning! :)

 

Thom

[PAMJP]

We sailed Connie this May, also first of the season leaving from Harwich 2nd May. Weather leaving Harwich was beautiful, Amsterdam wet/cloudy, Warnemunde rain am then warm lovely sunshine pm. Stockholm was sunny, Helsinki dry, St Petersburgh beautiful most of the day(Victory Day 9th May)even sat out and had a picnic, heavy rain late afternoon tho', Tallin cloudy/drizzle, Copenhagen day 1 sunny, day2 cloudy. Sea days mostly dry but some rain! This is truly a beautiful cruise, the places you visit are real gems and I would prefer to go this time of the year and hope for decent weather than go in the summer when everywhere is busier. I'm sure you'll enjoy whenever you go though.:)

[Steamboatin]

Personally we would recommend late May. The Spring flowers and trees are in full bloom through out the region. Very beautiful time of the year.

[leoandhugh]

This is the second post on this same subject that you now have on this board; I already answered on the first one. Sorry,but I find repeated posts annoying:)

[midcape]

Sorry for the duplicate posting. Chalk it up to inexperience. I couldn't find the first posting and figured it went into a black hole thus the second one. Ddin't mean to irritate anyone. (Still haven't found the first one)

[midcape]

I hadn't figured in the crowd factor. So..... tradeofs seem to be crowd, weather and price. Thanks to your response and others I have enough information to make the tradeoffs.

[JennAngel9]

In addition to crowd and weather, I would also factor in % of adults (mostly seniors) vs. "families" (with many kids). As others pointed out, you will have very few kids before the 2nd week of June, and that number will keep increasing through for the next 6 weeks or so, until right about this time of year, when it should taper off again.

[BarbaraB2]

Take your chances. We were there the first week in June, this year, and it was, on average, ten degrees colder than expected in most places (upper 50's). To add to the temperatures, we had frequent showers and rough seas crossing the North Sea. True, there were few children on the ship but the sites still had long lines. If I had to do it over, I would opt for mid June at the earliest and keep my fingers crossed for better weather.

[A Sixth?]

This is the second post on this same subject that you now have on this board; I already answered on the first one. Sorry,but I find repeated posts annoying:)

 

And I find Bold type positively awful. Please use the Carnival BB for such ugly fonts and styles ;):D

 

I just found this subject thread for the first time so I'm a happy reader. :cool:

[leoandhugh]

That's just too bad; next time just skip over my post. I happen to have poor eyesight and normal type is difficult for me to read what I have written:)

[A Sixth?]

That's just too bad; next time just skip over my post. I happen to have poor eyesight and normal type is difficult for me to read what I have written:)

 

 

:rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::p

 

Okay-Dokey. of course!

No Harm no prob.... I for one am happy to hear that the weather in the Scandinavian south waters is well into spring. :D