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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
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Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Best time of the year for a Baltic cruise?
DH and I are considering a Baltic cruise this summer/late spring/early fall. We would like nice weather, but not too hot or too cold. We also rather not go in August when all of Europe is on vacation because I am not a fan of the crowds.
We live in Barcelona right now so we have flexibility on the port of departure/arrival.
So when should we go? What cruise line would you recommend?
Re: Best time of the year for a Baltic cruise?
Hello! My husband and I are going on a Baltic cruise in May. It is kind of the shoulder season, so it was a bit cheaper (the main reason we chose May!). It is my understanding that it will still be rather cold, but not as crowded. I would be mindful of your timing/departure port - if it is Southhampton, you may catch Olympic prices and crowds!
My husband and I chose Princess, mainly for the itinerary. We have traveled on Princess, RCCL, and Carnival and I would recommend Princess and RCCL. Carnival wasn't my cup of tea!
I'm going to try this for a third time... The nest is eating my posts. We did the Baltics in July of 2010. It was an abnormally warm summer in Northern Europe, but it was never hot compared to what we are used to in the south or in other parts of Europe we visited in summer. It was quite delightful weather wise.
As for ships, please look closely at the itineraries. Some of the ports are not actually in the cities. For instance, there is one in Stockholm that is about 45-60 min away from the city and many ships stop there. Holland America who we used on this trip used the actual Stockholm port which made it easy for us. This also allowed us to sail through the Archipelago which is stunning. So, pay close attention to where the ship actually stops. So many of the ports can be explored on your own, so it is nice to be able to get right off the ship and be in the center of things.
Also, I recommend an itinerary with an overnight in St. Petersburg because there is so much to see/do.
Holland America was fabulous for this trip. There is a link below to my blog that highlights each of the ports we visited. I'm happy to answer any questions you have. This was a dream come true trip for me and I'd go back in a heartbeat, but there is a big world out there to see....
July typically has the best chances of good weather. In August the tourist season is actually winding down in Northern Europe and Scandinavia, so July is actually our most crowded month. Most of Norway takes vacation in July (not sure about the other Scandinavian countries), and because the weather can actually be warm at that time of year, it's when most visitors descend on the area.
We did a Baltic cruise in June and found the weather to be a bit cool, but nothing we weren't used to or able to handle. And the crowds weren't bad. However, the crowds probably never get as bad up here as they do in places like Italy and Paris that are on so many people's must-see lists.
For cruiseline, definitely check into the ports. I agree that an overnight in SPB is a very good idea. Stockholm is the port to check for docking location, because the sail-in has a great reputation for scenery, and some of the cruiselines dock farther out and miss this. Searching the CruiseCritic Northern Europe forum is a great place to check into this, because it comes up a lot. Also, figure out which (if any) ports you really want to visit. The cruiselines all visit different ports, and some have very short port calls. If you want a primarily English-speaking passenger makeup, I'd avoid MSC and Costa. They cater to a very multinational crowd, but I feel that the service suffers a bit in exchange. The main Baltic embarkation ports are the UK, Amsterdam, and Copenhagen, and cruises departing from some of the smaller ports may have a much larger local crowd. For example, RCCL's cruises from Oslo have a few English speakers, but there is typically a large Norwegian majority.
Most of the ports are very easy to explore on your own without ship's tours. For SPB, book independent tours through the vendors rec'd on the CC forum - it will save you a bundle and give you a lot more flexibility over the ship's tours. And no, you don't need a visa in advance if you book with an independent operator, because they'll cover you with a blanket group visa. We got together with some people from our CC Roll Call who were on the same ship and got to do a small completely custom tour that was great!
I would suggest signing up (even with a dummy email) on the vacationstogo.com website to use their search function. You can limit the searches to include ports you really want to visit, and they list all of the cruises individually instead of grouping cruises with the same itinerary into one entry (even though different sailing dates tend to have different prices). I find that this makes it much easier to compare all the options.