Certainly not on the med cruises I've been on - can only imagine the Baltic in summer would be the same. They tend to gravitate together, and we certainly didn't see much of our son after the evening meal.
Gill
Gill
We have a 16 going on 17 year old daughter, and were on a Baltic cruise first fortnight in July last year. She was not with us on this occasion, would have been bored to tears, and we do not recall seeing any teenagers! Sorry, but that is the truth.
I agree regarding previous comment about Med, but the Baltic is totally different.
I agree regarding previous comment about Med, but the Baltic is totally different.
OK, thanks. Can't say as that bothers me but it might her. She'll just have to accompany us and pick up a bit of culture for a change!
If you're going to Stavanger she might appreciate a helicopter trip from the pier to view the fjords, and Copenhagen has the Tivoli Gardens which could well appeal. There were quite a few teenagers on our cruise, I found the teamed up with each other even though there weren't that many of them.
Tickets arrived yesterday and we're really excited now. Even my daughter is looking forward to it, despite her friends telling her that the seas will be rough and it will be snowing everywhere - teenagers!
I've read the reviews but if anyone has any other tips or snippets of information about cruising in the Baltic I'd love to hear from them!
I've read the reviews but if anyone has any other tips or snippets of information about cruising in the Baltic I'd love to hear from them!
Danger Man,
I don't know if you are a member of cruisecritic, but if you go to "boards dot cruisecritic dot com" (I'm afraid I can't post links yet), and go to the Europe section (about half way down buried among all the Caribbean Islands!), they have a Northern Europe thread in there which is full of very informative posts and reviews.
There are also some very interesting perspectives in "europeportreviews dot com".
It seems the big difference between the Baltics and the Med is while many Med ports are based in container terminals and inaccessible to town centres without a shuttle, the Baltic ports seem to be more condusive to walking or catching public transport to and from the ship.
I look forward to hearing about your experiences, my family and I are doing the Baltics on Carnival Liberty next year.
I don't know if you are a member of cruisecritic, but if you go to "boards dot cruisecritic dot com" (I'm afraid I can't post links yet), and go to the Europe section (about half way down buried among all the Caribbean Islands!), they have a Northern Europe thread in there which is full of very informative posts and reviews.
There are also some very interesting perspectives in "europeportreviews dot com".
It seems the big difference between the Baltics and the Med is while many Med ports are based in container terminals and inaccessible to town centres without a shuttle, the Baltic ports seem to be more condusive to walking or catching public transport to and from the ship.
I look forward to hearing about your experiences, my family and I are doing the Baltics on Carnival Liberty next year.
donalk - thanks very much for this. I will have a look at the sites you have suggested and see what I can find from there.
The one thing I would do is decide if you want to do ST.P properly or not.
Maxing out the full two days with a private small group tour will be money well spent if you don't think you will be back in the area for a while.
On our first visit we just did one ships tour and regretted it, read up and did the full two days the next trip, fantastic.
We used Alla( http://www.alla-tour.com/ ) but there are others.
Maxing out the full two days with a private small group tour will be money well spent if you don't think you will be back in the area for a while.
On our first visit we just did one ships tour and regretted it, read up and did the full two days the next trip, fantastic.
We used Alla( http://www.alla-tour.com/ ) but there are others.
If you look at cruise critic roll call for the dates of your cruise there are often several people who want to join up with others to do a tour. This would be in small groups such as 4/6/8 etc. It can work out much less expensive than the Ships Tours and people often have specific things that they want to see. Suggest looking at the board. To post on the board you need to join but it is a simple task.
Then go on and look at Roll Call and then click on to your Cruise Company and this will take you to the link for the date of your cruise.
Might just be worth a look and it may give you some ideas even if you decide not to use any of the tour companies etc.
I agree that St.P is not somewhere you are going to be every other day so well worth taking in as much as you can. Wonderful city and I had a wonderful Guide.
Sue
Then go on and look at Roll Call and then click on to your Cruise Company and this will take you to the link for the date of your cruise.
Might just be worth a look and it may give you some ideas even if you decide not to use any of the tour companies etc.
I agree that St.P is not somewhere you are going to be every other day so well worth taking in as much as you can. Wonderful city and I had a wonderful Guide.
Sue
donalk
Are you sure you can't post links yet? I am pretty sure you have made enough posts. Can you try again for me please?
luci
Are you sure you can't post links yet? I am pretty sure you have made enough posts. Can you try again for me please?
luci
Thanks Luci, although I'm still listed as a "new member", I've just realised this is my 25th post, and I suspect from viewing other posts that this is a milestone.
http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=192
If this has worked, that is the direct link to the CC Northern Europe page. Following on from Windjammer's comment earlier, at least half the posts in this thread are about private tours in St Petersburg.
http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=192
If this has worked, that is the direct link to the CC Northern Europe page. Following on from Windjammer's comment earlier, at least half the posts in this thread are about private tours in St Petersburg.
luci HT Mod wrote:donalk
Are you sure you can't post links yet? I am pretty sure you have made enough posts. Can you try again for me please?
luci :wave
One thing with links you can just type/copy them in as long as they follow some rules
"www.xxx.yyy.abc" (quotes to suppress the conversion the www is the magic bit)
or
x://xxx.yyy.abc (normally INVALID URL the :// is the magic bit with anything before or after)
Will come out as a link so copy paste from the browser address bar will usualy just work.
If not highlight and use the "URL" button in the edit panel
Don't forget "preview" is your friend to check if a post will look right.
The point was that new members are not allowed to use the PM system or to post links until they have made a certain number of posts. This is to try and prevent spamming of the forums.
donalk thought that he still wasn't allowed to post links and that's why I posted.
Agree, Preview is very handy to check if you post is as you'd like it.
luci
donalk thought that he still wasn't allowed to post links and that's why I posted.
Agree, Preview is very handy to check if you post is as you'd like it.
luci
We did a Baltic Cruise from Dover - Oslo, Copenhagen, Tallinn, St Petersburg, Gadansk and Rugen (Germany) home through the Kiel Canal.
We had a wonderful time - but we were a rather "mature" crowd on board and I certainly did not see any teenagers, nor many people under 45.
There were plenty of choices for people in that older age group to do, but as much as we enjoyed the whole experience and would do the same cruise again we advised our 35 year old daughter and her husband against that one.
I think Thomsons may attract a younger clientele than Fred Olsen Cruises so your daughter will hopefully find people closer to her own age. Have a great time!
We had a wonderful time - but we were a rather "mature" crowd on board and I certainly did not see any teenagers, nor many people under 45.
There were plenty of choices for people in that older age group to do, but as much as we enjoyed the whole experience and would do the same cruise again we advised our 35 year old daughter and her husband against that one.
I think Thomsons may attract a younger clientele than Fred Olsen Cruises so your daughter will hopefully find people closer to her own age. Have a great time!
We are going on the cruise departing 05 Aug. We have a daughter (14) who has cruised with us to the Med and thoroughly enjoyed it, she is also looking forward to the Caribbean one we've booked for next April. But she is not looking forward to this one. She is convinced that the weather will be poor, there'll be too much culture ("museums and cathedrals") and that there'll be a distinct lack of teenagers on board.
We've bought guide books to involve her in planning our days ashore which has helped somewhat in building a little enthusiasm. Stockholm seems to be winning in our tally of places to see (ignoring St. Petersburg where we will rely on the ship's excursions).
We've bought guide books to involve her in planning our days ashore which has helped somewhat in building a little enthusiasm. Stockholm seems to be winning in our tally of places to see (ignoring St. Petersburg where we will rely on the ship's excursions).
As for weather - we departed around 30th August and generally speaking the weather was very good. As you are going during the school holidays there is a better chance that othere teenagers will be on board. We did the ST.P. escorted tours - expensive but they were worth it and we avoided the worst of the queues. A lot depends on the cruise line - we chose Fred Olsen because we like smaller ships and it sailed from Dover - and our children call us wrinklies anyway!
Luckeebe wrote:We are going on the cruise departing 05 Aug. We have a daughter (14) who has cruised with us to the Med and thoroughly enjoyed it, she is also looking forward to the Caribbean one we've booked for next April. But she is not looking forward to this one. She is convinced that the weather will be poor, there'll be too much culture ("museums and cathedrals") and that there'll be a distinct lack of teenagers on board.
We've bought guide books to involve her in planning our days ashore which has helped somewhat in building a little enthusiasm. Stockholm seems to be winning in our tally of places to see (ignoring St. Petersburg where we will rely on the ship's excursions).
Is it the Thomson Baltic Capitals cruise from Harwich on 5th August?
We are booked on this cruise with our soon to be 14 year old son and our 15 year old daughter. They seem to think we have booked this holiday as a punishment, so it would be reassuring to know if there will be other moody/surly/uncooperative teenagers aboard!
Hi Hera
Yes we are on the Thomson Celebration 5th Aug, it's encouraging that there will be some other teenagers around and that we are not the only "awful" parents for inflicting such a holiday!
I suppose there is one positive standpoint, that I'm clinging to - it won't take much to exceed their expectations!
Yes we are on the Thomson Celebration 5th Aug, it's encouraging that there will be some other teenagers around and that we are not the only "awful" parents for inflicting such a holiday!
I suppose there is one positive standpoint, that I'm clinging to - it won't take much to exceed their expectations!
This is encouraging news! My 14 year old son and 17 year old daughter will have some company after all. Actually, my son is looking forward to it; it's my daughter who has been very dubious. We will be doing DIY excursions for most of the stops, apart from St Petersburg and possibly Denmark as I understand Copenhagen is about 90 minutes away from the port.
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