Viking Homelands cruise of Baltic
#1
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Viking Homelands cruise of Baltic
Has anyone been on this cruise?? We go July 1, starting in Bergen, Norway and ending in Stockholm, Sweden, spending 2 days in St. Petersburg. Would appreciate any information/suggestions, etc. previous cruisers may have.
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We did this cruise in June of '15 and enjoyed it immensely! We were on the Viking Star, a magnificent ship. Modern, Scandinavian decor with excellent dining. There were two "specialty" restaurants, one of which (Asian Fusion, as I recall) that I did not particularly enjoy, but my wife did. The other upscale choice was more of a steak place and I did enjoy it.
The main dining room (called the World Cafe) was excellent with "walk-up service." It served all three meals daily.
The included beverages were a nice touch.
The excursions were a bit of a mixture; there is an included daily choice, that is fairly generic, but then there are other fee-based excursions that are available. One roadblock that I recall is that when you are booking from home, you can only book as a couple, and not individually. This caused us a problem because I wanted to visit a concentration camp in Poland; my wife had no interest in this trip. However, when we got to the ship, we could book individual excursions, so I went with the WWII (Stutthof??) option while she visited a quaint port town of Gdansk.
Tallinn, Estonia was fascinating, but crowded. St. Petersburg is a jewel, and because we had been there previously, we limited our excursions to the Hermitage and a canal cruise, as I recall. We did not go out to the sea side palaces of Catherine the Great and Peterhof.
This is sketchy, because I am doing this from memory. Oslo, Bergen, Stockholm & Copenhagen were all delightful.
I think that you will enjoy the trip.
The main dining room (called the World Cafe) was excellent with "walk-up service." It served all three meals daily.
The included beverages were a nice touch.
The excursions were a bit of a mixture; there is an included daily choice, that is fairly generic, but then there are other fee-based excursions that are available. One roadblock that I recall is that when you are booking from home, you can only book as a couple, and not individually. This caused us a problem because I wanted to visit a concentration camp in Poland; my wife had no interest in this trip. However, when we got to the ship, we could book individual excursions, so I went with the WWII (Stutthof??) option while she visited a quaint port town of Gdansk.
Tallinn, Estonia was fascinating, but crowded. St. Petersburg is a jewel, and because we had been there previously, we limited our excursions to the Hermitage and a canal cruise, as I recall. We did not go out to the sea side palaces of Catherine the Great and Peterhof.
This is sketchy, because I am doing this from memory. Oslo, Bergen, Stockholm & Copenhagen were all delightful.
I think that you will enjoy the trip.
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I, too, have signed up to take this cruise in May. They just announced the excursions. I believed the advertising and thought they included good excursions...wrong!!! The things you want to see in the ports are all extra. I have been on SilverSea and the port excursions are fine. Not here!! I need to plan to take paid ($110-200) excursions in each port. What is the point of going to St. Petersburg and not going into the Hermitage? Live and learn.
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One thing to add about SPB and that is about the Russian visa issue. You can't get off unless you have a Russian visa which to get by yourself is expensive and complicated. However if you get a tour through the ship or a Russian tourist company of which there are many good ones then this suffices for your visa.
We did this cruise in 2007. The SPB excursion was around $350.00 for two full days which included entrance fees and two lunches. We hit all the major attractions too. It was a busy two days but unforgettable as well.
We did this cruise in 2007. The SPB excursion was around $350.00 for two full days which included entrance fees and two lunches. We hit all the major attractions too. It was a busy two days but unforgettable as well.
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jgg
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Feb 9th, 2017 04:48 PM