TRIP OVERVIEW: What Was my 17 Day Euro Trip Including the MSC Poesia 10 Day Baltic Sea Cruise Really Like?
I am still amazed that this casino status match jackpot paid out so well (and continues to do so)…and this was the first of the comped cruises that I would take. I wasn’t too sure what to expect since I had only been on one cruise prior to this but I was really excited for this itinerary. Plus how bad could it really be since it was a comp cruise – if nothing else, the price was right…
Before I dive in here’s some related MSC POESIA posts (this post covers the itinerary with links to any related posts ie port stops and also gives insights about my thought process for planning/travel hacking + some beautiful tips to help you plan for smoother trips)
- Wanna learn more about how I got this comp cruise in the first place? Read about my casino status match jackpot here
- Since there’s always a debate about if this type of travel is really “free”, read what my free MSC comp cruise really costs to help you see what true costs of these comp cruises are
- MSC Poesia trip report covers what I spent (cash, miles and points) and additional savings (beyond the flight/hotel savings from using miles/points)
- Review of the MSC POESIA for more info on the ship and my experience sailing aboard it.
- Read What I Wish I Knew Before Booking a MSC cruise
- How I elevated the trip further by status matching to MSC Diamond (aka one of my fave strategies to travel better)
ITINERARY
Days 1-2: New York City
Beautiful tip ~ consider repositioning if your heart is set on a business class award flight. Sometimes the best deal for award flights ESPECIALLY when booking biz or first class involves you booking a flight from a city that isn’t your hometown. If you are flying to Europe, taking a flight from the east coast will normally have more business award availability. This is why it’s referred to as repositioning ~ in my case, flying from Denver to NYC (putting myself in place) for my flight outta JFK.
I had to reposition myself with one downside of booking a Singapore Airlines (SQ) using SQ miles is that they don’t add on partner flights. As with the carry on thing, if I have to fly out of another city, I plan for things going wrong ie the possibilities of thunderstorms and derecho delays/cancellations and will normally fly in a day before. Reason being that since I booked the tickets separately, neither airline has a responsibility to get me from NYC to FRA if that first flight is delayed. If the flights had been on one itinerary, then I could have depended on the airlines to help re-book me.
Travel hacking pays off here in a few ways: Not only would I be able to fly business class over to Europe, I was able to save money by using points for my NYC hotel. I flew into LaGuardia as I could use my United Travel bank funds (IYKYK-more travel hacking) but also that I would be using less points for my hotel with the bonus of the hotel being in Flushing (yummy and affordable eats!) + easy commute for my friends to come have dinner with me.
Day 3: Travel Day/Berlin Germany
Worth it to fly SQ business class even if it meant that I had to connect thru FRA to BER. I briefly considered taking rail between the two cities but it was cheaper to fly, I didn’t want to lose SQ miles and was not sure how my knee would hold up.
Lindner Hotel Berlin Ku’damm: I really liked this hotel and was lucky to have booked it before Hyatt changed their award chart and this went up a category. One possible con is that this is located in the Ku’damm district (which is great if you are a shopper) but does add some time when you are commuting to other parts of the city.
I am hoping to do a write up on how to navigate Berlin and the different ways to get around the vast city but in the meantime, here’s a beautiful tip to remember to validate your rail tickets! On the S-Bahn and subway platforms, you stamp them at the yellow or red boxes and inside buses or trams. A ticket that is not stamped is not valid – seriously, take my advice as this is an expensive lesson when you are found out during ticket inspections...a 60 euros type of expensive lesson – and there are not exceptions made for tourists (FYI this is common in many parts of the world – you have been warned!)
Days 4-6: Berlin, Germany
Beautiful tip: flexibility + urgency are needed when booking award flights ~ ideally I would have flown in a day or two later but I took the award flight that was available when SQ released their promo fare to guarantee my flight.
Day 7: Berlin/Warnemunde port, Germany: Embark MSC Poesia
Day 8: Gdańsk/Gdynia port, Poland
What a lovely start to the cruise – here’s how we spent the day in Gdańsk including a visit to the remarkable WWII museum (very apropos since this was where the war started!)
Day 9: Klaipeda, Lithuania
Day 10: Riga, Latvia
Day 11: Tallinn, Estonia
Day 12: Helsinki, Finland
Days 13-14: Stockholm, Sweden
Day 15: at Sea
Day 16: Copenhagen, Denmark
Day 17: Copenhagen, Denmark/Travel Day
CPH-PHL (AA Flagship Biz): 1 system wide upgrade (SWU) + $506 spend. I was able to apply a SWU to a basic economy ticket at booking! Having AA elite status made this easier as it was a very knowledgeable agent that forced things thru on the back end. Also being Executive Platinum meant that I could enter the first class lounges at LHR and may have a new favorite airport lounge.
