Thread: Pt 1 Baltic Ports 6th May Cruise on Constellation

I will leave Part 1 here, there is so much of it that I keep over-running the character allowance. If you want to read on I will post the rest of this in the cruise review section.

Thanks,
Lyn


We were on the first Baltics Cruise of the season in 2006 on the Constellation. We did not take any ships tours and did our own thing in all the ports.

You may know from other reports that Celebrity now charge for the shuttle buses, $5 or 6$ one way, depending on the port. We never took these, there were also quite a high number of other passengers who either walked or took a taxi with others. Can’t remember taxis at Tallin or Oslo definitely not at St Petersburg but you are virtually in the town at these two and the shuttle was complimentary at Tallin anyway. The daily told you to get your tickets for the shuttle buses from the excursion desk but I don’t know if you could actually pay if you felt tired and would like to get the shuttle back from town in any port. Perhaps someone else could answer that one.

We had a balcony cabin on the starboard side of the ship for this trip. Although the balcony wasn’t that important for this trip, it was lovely to have the view and the door open on occasion so that we could hear the sea. If I did this trip again and the weather was the same, I would chose the port side, it definitely got more of the sun during the day and did slightly better with the views when we docked (and it was about 50/50 each side).

We docked on time (if not earlier) at every port and were usually given the all clear within 15 mins – Except Russia.

Gdynia – 7.00 a.m. to 12.30 p.m. (docked starboard side)
Shuttle Buses available to Gdynia ($5 each way) and Gadansk (~$28 round trip) I don’t know if Gdynia is in any other Baltic itinerary this season but it is a beautiful little seaside town. We chose not to go to Gadansk as we only had a few hours and thought that we would be looking at our watches all morning. We had done some research and found out that Gdynia was a sea-side town with a beach and harbour. The weather was wonderful with bright sunshine. So we got off the ship at around 8.00 a.m. and walked into Gdynia took around 15 mins. Once out of the port area (never the most picturesque sites), the main street in the centre of town is being redeveloped and large sections of the pavement (sidewalk) is being dug up as is some of the road. However, if you take any side street to the left this will eventually lead you to the harbour and a beautiful walk via the ‘Błyskawica’ which is an old world war II destroyer (now a museum) and also a beautiful tall-ship the ‘Dar Pomorza’ both moored here. You then come to the beach, people were out having fun and sunbathing. We walked back into town via a beautiful park-like walkway with a fountain in the centre and toured the shops and streets and made our way back to the ship. There were some stalls set up by locals mainly selling amber jewellery, so we collected some juice from the drinks table set up by Celebrity and browsed around. We then boarded the ship around 11.50 a.m. and sat on our balcony with a drink for a while in the sunshine and watched all the tours come back. They all seemed to come back together at around 12.15 p.m. and this caused the longest lines to get back onto the ship and we were late leaving. We were glad that we had chosen our little excursion and really enjoyed our first port of call.

Stockholm – 9.30 to 5.30 p.m. (docked starboard side)
Shuttle Buses available ($5 each way). This was our favourite port after St. Petersburg. You must get up early though when the Ship goes through the Swedish Archipelago, over 20,000 islands, the views are terrific. We were up at 5.30 p.m. and took plenty of photographs, some of the houses are amazing and only used in Summer, I don’t know how they find their way around this maze of islands.

The Swedish people are very attractive and the streets so clean. We walked into Gamla Stan (Old Town). This took around 20 mins, 10 mins at the side of a busy road, veer right over the bridge and another 10 minutes along the side of the river, not a bad walk at all. We wanted to see City Hall and arrived there around 10.45 a.m. However, we had missed the 10.00 a.m. public tour and the next one was not until 12.00 (noon). So we walked around the outside by the river and then headed back to town to have a beer (small beer cost around 4 euros). We headed to the Palace for the changing of the guard which is quite impressive and then walked around the town which is beautiful with lots of bridges, parks and squares and had lunch at a lovely café off the main streets. We then decided on a canal trip (16 euros). We have decided that we liked Stockholm so much and we still have quite a bit to see so we are planning on taking a trip (Ryanair do a cheap flight) for a long weekend and come again and see some of the sights we missed i.e. City Hall and Vasa Museum, etc.


Helsinki – 9.00 a.m. to 6.00 p.m. (docked port side)
Sun was still shining, not a cloud in sight and around 9.30 a.m. we got the HoHo bus which stopped right next to the Ship (at the Taxi rank). This was 22 euros each and worth it as the Shuttle was $6 each way. People who walked said that it was a comfortable 30 mins walk to the Centre. We went to the Rock Church and then bought some postcards and stamps across the street. Sat down on the benches, wrote the postcards out and posted them (they did arrive back before we did – just!). We then caught the bus to the Olympic Stadium. On the way to the stadium, one of the stops was the Sibelius monument but we could see this very well from the bus so did not get off at this stop. By today’s standards the stadium is very small but it is interesting none the less. We had a drink there and then caught the bus to the flea market – this is one stop you can do without! We then caught the bus and got off at the Ship for lunch. We then caught it again at 2.30 p.m. and went to the Cathedral, this is a most impressive site and a great photo opportunity as is Uspenski Cathedral which is also beautiful. We then went shopping at the outdoor market in Market Square and found some very nice pictures and souvenirs. We made our way back to the bus stop but by 4.30 p.m. the HoHo bus had not reached us and the traffic was beginning to build up. We could have walked it back to the ship comfortably but decided to get a taxi. You cannot hail a taxi in Helsinki, you need to go to the taxi rank. A very nice young local man showed us the way to the nearest rank (just across the road outside the station) and we got back to the ship well before 5.00 p.m. (cost was 12 euros).

St Petersburg onwards is in the Cruise Review Section

wow! thanks for the detailed information!

I am taking a 10 day HAL cruise to the Baltics next summer and this is exactly the kind of info I am looking for.

I am glad to hear that the shuttles weren't really necessary and that walking into town was a doable option.

What kind of souveniers can I expect to be able to purchase in each port?

Also, what did you do about currency exchange? Did you try to exchange currency for each country or just use Euros, or.....?

Hi jstducky

Souveniers are different for each of us I think. What someone thinks is wonderful, some others think is tacky, but Matroushka dolls, wooden toys, faberge type egg pendants and ornaments in St Petersburg were the best we had seen for the price. Amber and silver jewellery was available at every stop as were fur hats, etc together with the army hats with badges etc. You could get fridge magnets and key rings from everywhere. We were told that the market in Tallin was the best price for knitwear but as this was not on my list I didn't take much notice of the prices. Local artists were also selling watercolours etc at nearly all of the ports and you could also buy local illustrated guidebooks etc.

All these are also available on the ship but the prices are of course somewhat higher and there is not the choice.

The amount of currency you need will depend a lot on whether you are doing your own thing or going on ships tours. We used local currency on our trips but credit cards when shopping. You can get most of the currencies from the ship but not the zloty (poland) and estonia kroon (Tallin).

We purchased our currency on board ship. NOTE: You cannot charge this to your shipboard account you have to take dollars/pounds etc to the onboard bank and exchange actual notes!! They will also exchange back notes but not coins.

However, having said all this we would not do this again the ships exchange rate is not that good and we lost out big time. We would use the local ATM's they are plentiful and only a small charge from your bank. There are banks that don't charge you and I would recommend looking into this if you are planning a trip could save you quite a bit on a Baltics cruise.

In Russia they will take dollars but the market and some small stall holders only take roubles but our tour guide helped us out there and we repaid her in dollars. In Tallin they took euros but the change came back in estonian kroons, we gave all our leftover coins from all the ports to our room stewardess.

Hope this helps.

Lyn

Lyn!

That was great advice. Thanks.

I am going to the Med this summer and Baltic next summer. My plan with currency exchange is to go with ATM's. Fortunately in the Med, everywhere but out stop in Turkey is Euros. Too bad most of the Baltic nations aren't using Euros. Exchanging of so much currency just gets tiresome!

Thanks for the suggestions on the souveniers. I like the idea of getting illustrated guide books and local watercolors. I've looked into the nesting dolls and I will definitely get some of those.

This is probably a really weird and stupid question, but I am a big collector of shot glasses. I just don't know if this is a popular tourist item in Europe or not. Any idea?

Thanks again, this has been a huge help!