trasportaion by rail: warnemunde to berlin

Hi, First of all, there is no direct train from Warnemünde to Berlin. You take the S-Bahn (light rail) first to Rostock, pretty frequent connections, ca, every 15 mins. The S-Bahn ride is 20 mins to Rostock Hbf,
. From there you catch the Regional Express train to Berlin Hbf (main station), either direct or changing once in Schwerin, formerly Mecklenburg-Schwerin. That's just under three hours. That Rostock Hbf has a lot of stairs, seemed more than other Ger stations. No, I don't believe you need reservations for Rostock-Berlin Hbf. on a RE train. Although I've not taken that particular route, I took Rostock-Hamburg Hbf on a Saturday evening last summer and the car I was in still had seats available.

They're all regional trains and you cannot make seat reservations. If you want to assure you can enjoy the journey from the upper deck while seated go for a first class ticket. 2nd class also has upper decks but it can get quite packed and noisy - during the regular commute hours and on Fridays (all day).

I really don't like raining on anyone's itinerary parade, so consider this just something to think about. Seeing Berlin from a cruise stop in Warnemunde involves a lot of transportation, probably upwards of two hours each way. Berlin is a very big city with many major sights, not really something that can be toured well in a day (in your case a day minus better than four hours of transportation). You can really only hope to see one (maybe two smaller) sights quickly before you need to catch your train back to your ship - which may be fine if that's all you want to see. I'd suggest seeing Berlin when you have at least a few days to really see it. For the cruise stop, try Lubeck. Lubeck is a great medieval city, part of the Hanseatic league, and a UNESCO World Heritage Sight. It's closer and more compact, which makes it a good day-trip choice from Warnemunde.

Any ideas on how to get to Lubeck from the port in Warnemuende?

@ Janet: There is no direct way from Warnemünde to Lübeck. One of two ways, S-Bahn (light rail) to Rostock first, then transfer at Bad Kleinen, then the train to Lübeck Hbf. The other way: S-Bahn to Güstow, then the train to Lübeck Hbf. This route is a bit more circuitious.