Baltic cruise help
 

We are sailing on the Eurodam May 31 from copenhagen. I have many questions.
1) what weather should we pack for?
2) what currency should we bring?
3) is English spoken in most of these places?
4) what should we expect in Russia? Is the water safe etc?
5) do you have any tips?
Thanks in advance

1. www.weather.com
2. I use my debit card or my credit card, hit the ATM for local currency.
3. What places?
4. I'd drink bottled water
5. Ask more specific questions

Weather is of course unpredictable. We actually have snow on the ground today in Chicago! We did the Baltic in mid June or close to your time a d it was basically fine except for a lousy day in Helsinki.

You can get by with English in the Baltic.

In Russia expect the unexpected and slightly weird. When we got off the ship a band on the pier began playing "New York, New York." and later another band in a park saw us tourists and played the US Navy anthem "Anchors Away." I would stick to bottled beverages and as CC fraud in Russia is a big problem I used cash.

What do you plan to do for tours?

We have tours planned in St Petersburg, Berlin, and Stockholm and kiel DIY in Helsinki and Tallinn

1) Weather - high 70 low 50 expect some wind and rain
2) Euros & USD for sure. Depending on ports, you may want to add Danes and Swedes. For shopping, you can get by with Euros in most Baltic ports and USD in Russia. Taxi and bus accepts local currency. We used Euros all over. Not all shops will take Euros but most in tourist area will. Fraud is a big problem, no credit card for me. No ATM either as fee is too high. Must use only 4 digit pin in Europe.
3) English is "understood" in most tourist area, except Russia. The security staff doesn't speak at all. They just smiles and nods. Very tempted to smile and call them names and see if they still smile and nod. :)
4) Bottle water always when travel, even in US, let alone foreign countries. Tour company should supply them.
5) Yes. We all want 25% tips. :D

OK. Actually Stockholm is easy for a DIY as well but that of course depends on what you prefer. This should be a most memorable cruise. Its up there with the best we have ever done though I have to give the Holy Land a slight edge.

We did something similar last summer with Royal Caribbean and really enjoyed it.

Money: Aside from the fact that my mom wanted to collect change from all of the different counties, we would never have had to visit an ATM. We used our (PIN-less) credit cards for everything from cabs to restaurants.

Language: None of us spoke more than a couple of words of any language and we did fine. My mom is Finnish-American and initially everyone spoke Swedish/Finnish/etc. to her, but switched to English upon her English reply.

Water: The only place we bothered to drink bottled water was Russia.

Tours: We only did tours in Russia. The rest of the time we researched the area ourselves. My favorite destination was Tallin. What an unexpected surprise!

Tips: If you plan to visit the Vasa Museum in Stockholm, if possible, get there when it opens. The line to get in during the afternoon was a couple hundred people long, but we walked right in the following morning when it opened. We had the people practically to ourselves for an hour or more. (Recommended!)

We also really enjoyed the touristy boat ride through the canals and harbor area in Copenhagen.

And be mentally prepared for some expensive coffees/lunches off the ship! As you probably know, Scandinavia is expensive. (Don't dwell on the costs; just enjoy the experience.)

For the first time on vacation I packed blue jeans and I was glad I did. I got a lot of use out of them in August.

Have fun!

We must have been lucky as there were no lines to the Vasa when we arrived in the late morning. Right behind it is a water ferry to Gamla Stan.

Thanks!