Baltic cruises
 

Hello all-

We did our first cruise last summer - Venice to Athens, 7 nights on the Silversea Silver Spirit. Needless to say, we were hooked.

We wish to do a 7-10 day cruise from Copenhagen to Stockholm (or reverse) with a few nights in St Petersburg. Silversea seems to be the only one to have released dates yet for summer 2012. Other options, however, seem to be Seabourn, Oceania, Regent.

Curious to know experienced traveller thoughts about the other lines. Oceania seems to be 3 extra nights (and extra ports) for about the same money. Curious to know how you feel they compare. It seems that they do not include liquor but I cannot imagine that adds up to more than $500 for the week so if that's the only issue, it seems moot.

Appreciate any thoughts or feedback. Thanks.

Not sure if the Seabourn Baltic schedules are out yet, but do consider them. I have found them less expensive than SS I doubt anything would induce me to switch. I am a loyal cruiser (truth in advertising). Many friends enjoy both lines, and choose according to the itinerary.

We did a Baltic cruise on the Oceania Regatta in June 2009. We chose this particular itinerary because it spent an extra day in St. Petersburg over most of the other cruises we saw, and because we had been on two earlier cruises with Oceania. We enjoyed the cruise very much, but did not use any of the ship's tours and instead arranged private guides with other passengers which we arranged through roll calls on CruiseCritic.com.
Booze is not included on Oceania, but they have a somewhat liberal policy about allowing you to bring on board your own liquor and drink it in your cabin. Although we have never been on SilverSeas, we know Oceania is a step up from Royal Caribbean and comparable lines. We enjoyed the size of the Oceania ships we were on, which all hold around 700 passengers.

Silversea and Seabourn (and to a slightly lesser extent Regent) are true luxury lines, with larger cabins, higher levels of personal service, and dining options with most onboard expenses included. Oceania and Azamara (their direct competitors) are the half step down Deluxe lines, with a notable difference being the standard cabin size and onboard inclusions. However, they're also smaller ship lines (the new Oceania Marina being an exception, and we're not yet sure where she will be in summer 2012), focusing on itinerary, and their itineraries also include 3 days in St. Petersburg on most Baltic itineraries.

I think in addition to time in St. Petersburg, when considering a Baltic cruise, be sure you have a couple days, either as part of the cruise or if it's an embarkation/debarkation port then pre- or post-cruise in Stockholm. A single day there is also a huge shame in my opinion.

Oceania is not Silversea on many levels...... Cabin size and quality is not the same & grats are extra on Oceania just to name a few.

We just did a Baltic Cruise in May (2010) on RCCL Jewel of the Seas out of Harwich, England & had a great time. Very nice ship. Ports were Cop., St. Pete (2 days), Tallin, Stockholm, & Gothesburg. In St. Pete we (6 of us) had hired a private driver & guide for 2 days before we left the US through redoctober.us & had a fantastic time & significantly better than the mass tours through the ship (the company has a US office in NY). Be aware, unless you are on a ship's tour or another tour with a licensed company (Red October qualifies) you cannot go off the ship into St. Pete unless you have a Russian visa ($150).

Whichever cruise line you choose, it's really worth it to spend an extra night in St. Petersburg. So much to see, so little time.

All the major cruise lines have ships in the Baltic. We did Celebrity a few years back.

Take the time to look at the different routes/ports and decide which one you prefer. If you are looking at 2012 you have lots of time, take a look at the 2011 schedule, most likely 2012 will be similar.

When I wrote "extra night", it means 3 nights, instead of the usual 2. Not every cruise offers this.

As the original poster, thought I'd give you kind people an update. In the end, we booked Silversea Silver Whisper because it departed from St Petersburg. Almost everyone we know (and some of you posters) stressed that you never have enough time in St Petersburg so it seemed starting there would solve the problem.

We flew BA First Class (God bless points and the 2-4-1 certificate!) into Moscow and spent three nights at the Park Hyatt. Wow. Took the high-speed train to St Petersburg and had two days of touring. The third morning we toured and in the afternoon we boarded the ship. The fourth day we toured again and the ship sailed at 7 PM.

The only downside is that this itinerary did not include Talinn and we would have loved to see it but having the extra time in St Petersburg - and making it easy therefore to include Moscow) clinched it.

As for the ship, another wonderful Silversea experience. Comfortable suites, a lovely bath with two sinks and a stall shower (in addition to the bath tub - does anyone really take baths?!), wonderful food, wine and liquor and superbly gracious service. Best way to sum it up is that we loved it so much that we took advantage of the discount and booked our next cruise for July 2013.

Thanks again for all who responded.

Thank you OP for the update. We have been on a Baltic cruise with Crystal starting from Stockholm and its itinerary included 3days/2 nights in St. Petersburg .. we enjoyed our cruise. -- the way you planned your Russian visit has me thinking ... :)

seabourn pride july 27 only $500/nt per couple (baltic)

seabourn (original ships) i would do again, silversea i would not

Do not do the Regent
 

Took the Baltic Cruise July 22 - 29 Seven Seas Suite. Butler great. Booze and Champagnein room great. All inclusive great but:

The cruise was not up to snuff. It was like watching the Rockettes with several dancers' kicks just off. Or a symphony where several players are a beat off. Many "small" errors that added up.

1. Daily TV program of main restaurant's dinner menu. Did not change until noon. So if you got up in the morning and wanted to plan where to eat with friends, the menu was yesterdays.

2. Prime Seven and Signature "full", but every night multiple tables empty.

3. Three free white wines and three reds every night. BUT not told nor written what they were (or that there were three unless you asked). They came by and served the cheapest of the bunch. Several of the wine stewards did not drink and had no idea how to explain the wines althought the head sommilier was great.

4. The room service menu was very limited. Unlike other cruise lines where the prime suites could order room service off any menu in the ship or something not on the menu, not allowed on the Voyager. For example, could not order banana fosters in the room or in advance at any restaurant.

5. The TV program on the ports did not include just the ports being visited, but all the ports in the Regent inventory. Thus, unless you spent hours, could not learn about the local ports.

6. On visiting the ports, there were no maps available at the point of disembarktion. In fact the staff there were only security and had no idea. Later to find out that the maps and a local were available on a different floor. Not announced.

7. At the Italiam restaurnant, typical mulicouse menu (antipasta, pasta, meat... The waiter did not tell you that you could have the pasta dish as the entre with a full size dish instead of the small multi-dish size.

8. The menus were limited. The restauant hours were limited with no "late" food venue other than room service (ie if you went to a show or the casino, you could not get something to eat without going to your room).

9. At the main restaurant, if you were in a small party, the head waiter did not oversea and at several times wrong or forgotten dishes were served.

10. The pool bar closed early and there was no where to get a bloody mary in the mornings.

11. The ship's doc had no "surgical" back ground and the ship had no way for her to communicate with one. eg One passenger cut her leg at a port several days prior to the cruse and had staples (stiches) in. The ship's doctor wanted to "kick her off" and put her on iv antibiotics unnecessarily. The passenger saw a surgeon in port who said the ship's doctor was a xxxxx.

12. Warnemunde, Germany has one of the prettiest beaches in Europe. It was not included in one of the outings nor descriptions of the the port. Several of us took a taxi to it and enjoyed the sun with many Germans on holiday. It was great.

In conclusion: no comparison to the Cunard and even worse than the RC and Disney (except for the included drinks). I would not repeat.

What's the best time of the year to take these cruises? Has anyone taken one during the winter and how different is it?

None of the main cruise lines are going to have the option in the winter. Their ships are elsewhere at the time. There may be smaller, locally oriented cruise lines that do, but probably not quite the same trips.

Yes, way too cold in the winter... Most "sail" June, July, August. We just booked Seabourn for June 2013. We can hardly wait!!!

You'd need to find an icebreaker.

It's possible during the winter but almost imposible with American cruise lines. There are daily departures also during the winter with Scandinavian cruise lines...

these are technically ferries but are huge ships with indoor atriums. They are the model for the RCCL ships that you see today. I have been on them for business reasons and are a reasonable option

http://www.tallinksilja.com/en/

Baltic cruise
 

If you are at all interested, National Geographic/Lindblad does a cruise aboard their ship, Explorer. I did the cruise last year and we had the opportunity to have Mikhail Gorbachev speak to us in a small auditorium. And, coming aboard the ship, Lech Walesa talked with us with his arm on the bar for about an hour. Each person also had the opportunity to have their picture taken with him. Though extra, you can attend a performance by the Bolshoi ballet.

I thought the itinerary was great and you might want to check it out. Great ship and a wonderful group of people.

Just came back from an August Baltic cruise on Princess.
Best cruise ever-the cities are amazing. However, i agree that if you can afford a more luxury cruise line that gives you 2 nights and 3 days in St. Petersburg,book it!
If you cannot,book a cruise that has you in St. Petersburg on a Saturday and Sunday. Why? Traffic! There is none on weekends! St. Petersburg is also a city to definitely use a local tour company. We went with SPB tours and had a group of 4! The other couple we toured with was on a SilverSea ship but it was no problem with pickup and dropoff with our small size group. We paid $150 less than the megabus ship tour and had valet service at all of our sites with our own driver and guide-we could leave our valuables in the van which was locked and the driver stayed in sight at all times-very nice considering the huge numbers of pickpockets at sites. We saw and did more in less time than those who opted for ships tours. Our guide was amazing,her name was Maria, and our driver was Max-so dear. The owner of this company-Vikortia- makes a point of meeting all of her customers at the port to make sure we had a great visit! She entrusts her 2 gorgeous children to Max to drive them around so we knew we were in excellent hands.
We got in extra early at the Hermitage and with our tiny group we slipped past the huge groups of 30+ and were often the first people let into rooms at the Hermitage. They also took us to really great small local restaurants for authentic Russian lunches and no lines there either.
I would say that the cruise line itself is less important than the itinerary.
Do not miss Tallinn,Estonia-what a jewel of a city. And if you can spend as much time in Stockholm as possible do that too.
I hope to take my daughter back but will most likely NOT choose Princess as they had a very short time in Stockholm. Celebrity had better itineraries out of the London area than Princess. I agree that the cruises that start/end in Copenhagen/Stockholm are a great idea-like Seabourn or SilverSea. The couple who were on SilverSea did not seem to think their food was that great though.I was also disappointed with Princess food on this cruise compared to other cruises with them. I wonder if there is just a problem with food suppliers in that part of the world?

One more thing,
Do not worry about needing a visa if you use a local tour company in St. Petersburg. Getting through customs there was a breeze as long as you ignore the sourpuss agents!
All local tour companies will provide you with a tour ticket(via email that you print and bring with you) that has their official company stamp on it, so then all you need is your passport and the immigration card that your ship gives you in your stateroom.
I found it easier to go through customs in St. Petersburg than going through airport security!
Don't believe any scare tactics or intimidations by the cruise lines that you can't see St.Petersburg unless you book a ship tour. Total lie and bogus.

The food likely isn't coming from that part of the world, and who knows where it's being shipped in from. Might be less true on some of the smaller lines, but certainly with Princess, it's largely loaded in from shipping containers. (There's a part of me that loves watching them load this stuff in, it's astounding the volume of supplies that they have to bring in. It can also be real amusing when the local workers aren't necessarily the most competent people in the world, watched that in Trinidad.)

BTW, which ship were you on?

Also good to hear opinions on one of the local companies. I'm going to have to start working out some of my plans for next summer on this trip.