r0xyyyy

Hi all,

My boyfriend and I are taking the Royal Caribbean's Legend of the Seas cruise across the Baltic Sea during the last week of May. Our arrival/departure city is Copenhagen, Denmark, and we stop for a day each in Stockholm, Sweden, Tallinn, Estonia, Helsinski, Finland and St. Petersburg, Russia. Though I've been given some opinions, I wanted to reach out to the trusty Fodors community.

I won this cruise through work and, in addition, we will be receiving and extra $500 credit for my boyfriend and I to share on either on-board expenses or toward Royal Caribbean's shore excursions offered. My boyfriend and I are pretty certain that we are going to pass on purchasing the excursions in Stockholm, Tallinn and Helsinksi, as I'm told that those "Old Towns" are easy to cover on foot and on our own. Question about those three cities - any good lunch recommendations? We're not looking to spend an insane amount of money, but obviously want great quality and good service. I'm a "foodie" at heart, so restaurant recommendations are important to me. Also, any suggestions of what to see and what to visit in those cities? I was informed that in Stockholm, we should go to the Gröna Lund amusement park and the Skansen open-air museum/zoo. Any other suggestions for Helsinski or Tallinn? Or will it be just as worth it to meander around?

My biggest concern right now is St. Petersburg. It's the one city that I'm most excited to visit, but also the one that concerns me the most, regarding safety and language barrier. The shore excursion that Royal Caribbean offers there is as follows: $165 each (so we'd spend $330 of the $500 credit), 9-hour guided tour visiting Winter Palace, all of Hermitage, St. Isaac's Square - lunch included - then we'd take a ride over the Neva River, visiting the Paul and Peter Fortress and Cathedral, passing by the Artillery Museum and Log Cabin of Peter the Great. Given my concerns noted above and everything included in this excursion, do any of you feel as though it's worth it or not worth it? And why or why not? If we chose NOT to purchase this excursion, my boyfriend and I would have to get Russian visas anyway, to travel on our own, right?

Has anyone else done this cruise before? Are there any other suggestions, insights or tips that you could provide? Anything would be appreciated!

Reme

I've not done the cruise, but general experience is that it I better and cheaper to hire a local guide. I'm not sure about visas then, but a guide can tell you. I know that I have seen several recommendations in these posts for guides in St Petersburg. Sometime cruise lines have good tours but are generally quite expensive. Beware the "shopping opportunity" in the tour description as it usually translates into one third to one half of the tour looking at tee shirts.

Betsy

Congrats on your win! Get yourself over to cruisecritic.com, a huge website with tons of information about cruising. Find the Royal Caribbean board here:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=83

Find your "roll call" here. The roll call has posts by people who will be on your actual sailing. Some have probably already figured out how best to do StP.

http://cruisecritic.com/rollcalls?cruise_line_id=32

We're doing the same itinerary on Celebrity in May and are joining others on our roll call for a private tour in StP. Unless you go on a tour, you will have to negotiate obtaining your own visa, which is difficult. There are about four major tour providers who all get great reviews.

I find Cruise Critic invaluable in planning.

Bon Voyage
Betsy

Eschew

Roxy, you may find trip reports here helpful. The TR below stopped at all your ports.

http://www.fodors.com/community/crui...se-in-june.cfm

HappyTrvlr

In Stockholm visit Vasa Museum and Gamla Stan(old town.) i didn't think Grona Lund looked very impressive and it was only open weekends in Sept when we were there. Skaansen is next to the amusement park and the wonderful Vasa Museum a short walk from there.
Your St. Petersburg tour sounds like a good idea with limited time and not having to purchase a visa.
The only place I would recommend in addition is Peter the Great's summer palace, beautiful waterfront Peterhof.

moosey

Hi, we did the same itinerary on Silverseas last year. I agree with Happy Trvlr on the Stockholm recommendations. Skansen was beautiful and hard to believe there was so much nature to take in right there. Gamla Stan was nice to just wander.

In Helsinki, we really just walked around - there was a walking tour guide/map that I received from the visitors center when I was there for work probably five years ago, and it had several options - I am sure you can find something similar. We went off the beaten path a bit to a working fishing harbor that was pretty neat. But we also walked along the Esplanade and went to Stockmann, the big department store, (which is actually where we had lunch - not sure it would impress a foodie but the pastries were very nice!)

In Tallinn, we also just walked around, and we did a tour of the old church. We got bored kind of quickly there, but the church was neat. We got lost on our self-guided walking tour, but the town is so small, we found our way back to the main drag easily and just decided to stop trying the walking tour (the streets are really winding, and while my sense of direction is terrible, my husband is usually better). Our lunch there was at a place with a pig on the sign (unfortunately I forget the name) and probably pretty authentic if that is something you are looking for. I had read about the popular beverage "kvass" which is sort of like flat cola. This restaurant offered a vegetarian kvass soup, so I gave it a shot. It was literally a bowl of cold cola with chunks of potatos and some kind of fish. In the vegetarian soup. We still laugh about it. My husband and son split a giant sausage platter- I think it was called the meat fest. They are both huge carnivores but even they were put off by some of the food!

Definitely do a guided tour in St Petersburg. There is just so much to see, and the city is huge as well. We went with TJ Travel on a group tour for two days and a private tour for a half day. The main reason we did not do the ship itinerary was it was a larger group (TJ was 11 people) and actually more expensive - but yours seems reasonably priced, so I would just compare. I can't say enough good things about TJ, but I read plenty of favorable reviews of other companies too. Betsy has given you some great links. Also, you should price the visas - there is some kind of surcharge I recall (we considered doing this on our own) such that it is really almost the same price as your cruise tour, which I assume includes a "tour visa" (you have to stay with the guide).

Have fun!!

Eschew

Hidden gem of St. Petersburg: the subway stations.

zwho

Hi we are taking the cruise in July. We also signed up with TJ's for a highlights tour. Smaller group, more sights, less money then going with the ships excursion. TJ's will get you your Visas, all included in the price. We are also on our own in Stockholm, & Tallin. I think Helsinki seems very easy to do on our own, but the people I'm traveling with are looking at a ship's excursion. Have fun.

AWOLF

Hi! There's something very new in ST Petersburg that just got opened recently. It's a Faberge museum - one of it's kind. It may be difficult to fit in your tight cruise tour schedule but just to let you know. We've been there and it's realy great! More here http://www.maxibalttours.com/faberge-museum.html these people helped us with the tour

ira

Hi r0xyyyy,

For St P, Alla Tours has gotten good reviews at www.cruisecritic.com.

http://www.alla-tour.com/

LTravieso

Hello! I am taking a cruise in July 20th going to same routes (but departing from Stockholm).. How did your trip go? Do you recommend doing Scandinavia on your won or should we explore a shore excursion? We booked St Petersburg with TJ Travel for two days. But i am in the fence about the other ports. Any feedback is greatly appreciated. THank you! Laura