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Do ships have "folklore" shows in Russia? Please advise.


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I was reading an older thread that indicated some ships have a local Russian troupe come on ship and do folklore show. I am currently registered to do evening folklore show with SPB Tours. I am looking forward to the performance- but am a little concerned about the long tiring day that it entails (9 hours of tour then 3.5 hours additional evening program). Then up and at it again for 8 more hours of touring. Will be on Vision of the Seas. Does anyone know if they will have a "folklore show"? Thank you for any helpful advise.

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I was reading an older thread that indicated some ships have a local Russian troupe come on ship and do folklore show. I am currently registered to do evening folklore show with SPB Tours. I am looking forward to the performance- but am a little concerned about the long tiring day that it entails (9 hours of tour then 3.5 hours additional evening program). Then up and at it again for 8 more hours of touring. Will be on Vision of the Seas. Does anyone know if they will have a "folklore show"? Thank you for any helpful advise.

Of the ships I was on, Celebrity, NCL, Oceania & Princess, folklore performances were offered by each ship on our first night in port. I have not visited the Baltics on RCCL but I would wager that they also include a folk performance. Hopefully, a member who has cruised on RCCL will chime in.

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Guest Nellsmom58

We were in SPB last summer, and the folklore show is an excursion. They do not come on board. I would highly recommend you go on the excursion folklore show because it is wonderful!

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Guest Nellsmom58
We were in SPB last summer, and the folklore show is an excursion. They do not come on board. I would highly recommend you go on the excursion folklore show because it is wonderful!

 

 

 

Btw, we also did the two full days of touring and tacked on the evening folklore show in addition to the two full days. We used another tour company, but the daily itinerary is the same as SPB tours. We were very glad we did the show even after the first full day because it was so good. You'll be tired, but happy you did it all!

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Most of the ships do have a folk variety show but they are somewhat limited in cast and musicians. The most popular show is "Feel Yourself Russian" in Nikolus Palace. It is not very big so unless any wanting to see it, they should have reservations well before arrival. It is a fun light night of entertainment, although it has little to do with St Petersburg.Ballet opera or classical music is the "folk music" of St Petersburg. There are two performances in high season, the first one is pretty early so you might not have time to return to the ship to change, but the later one starts about 9pm and would allow returning to the ship for dinner, or staying out in the city to dine in one of the 11,000 nice restaurants that have opened in the last 15 years. There are a number of Jazz restaurants where the food and decor are very nice, such as 48 Chairs (yes, that is the name), or for real jazz fans, JFC Jazz club is a small jazz club that is for real fans, DownBeat Magazine rated it as one of the top 30 clubs in the world, not fancy but very authentic and excellent shows.

There are several season folkloric shows, the ships usually contract with those since they are cheaper and hold more people in a seating. Tickets or Feel Yourself Russian are about $45. It is going to be a better show than what the ship has. Some pretty talented singers, and especially dancers. There is a buffet at intermission that is included with the ticket price.

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Guest Nellsmom58

"Feel Yourself Russian" is what we saw as an extension of our two days tour with our tour company. They arranged for us to be picked up by another driver, who drove us to a restaurant of our choice and waited until we were finished with our meal, then took us to the show and got our tickets for us, which were prearranged. He met us after the show and drove us back to the ship. Super easy if you arrange it all through your tour company.

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St Petersburg is quite well known as a center of ballet and has several excellent ballet companies and facilities. When we are in this port on a cruise, we will always do our homework looking (online) to see what ballets are being performed. We then contact our tour company (we prefer TJ Tours, but others such as Alla are similar) and ask if they can arrange for us to attend the ballet we choose. Last August we were able to see an excellent performance of Swan Lake (a favorite often performed in St Petersburg). This was a real full length ballet with orchestra and world class dancers. Our tour company send a car/driver to pick us up at the ship and take us to the ballet and they brought us back after the performance. The cruise line (in our case it was HAL) also offered an evening excursion to the same ballet....but they did this at a significantly higher cost then our private tour company.

 

Hank

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Guest Nellsmom58

I agree with Hank, TJ Tours does a fantastic job making it easy to see whatever evening tour you want, as we had folks going to the folk show, the Faberge Museum, or the ballet, with a small meal or snack in between, without all the hassle of returning to port, which is quite a distance from city center.

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I recently visited Russia on June 21-23, 2017 on RCI's Serenade OTS. They did indeed feature local folk dancers as the ship's onboard entertainment on the 1st of two nights in St. Petersburg. It was an excellent performance of Russian dancing and folk music.

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Thank you all for information. I am looKing forward to the trip and especially the SPB tours. I am excited about the folklore show and my husband will do whatever I decide. We discussed at length the evening options and agreed on the folklore show. This was over 6 months ago. I had hoped my heel would have resolved by now. I am still dealing with heel spur and Achilles tendonitis so I thought I should review my options. I appreciate the support and information all have provided.

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St Petersburg is quite well known as a center of ballet and has several excellent ballet companies and facilities. When we are in this port on a cruise, we will always do our homework looking (online) to see what ballets are being performed. We then contact our tour company (we prefer TJ Tours, but others such as Alla are similar) and ask if they can arrange for us to attend the ballet we choose. Last August we were able to see an excellent performance of Swan Lake (a favorite often performed in St Petersburg). This was a real full length ballet with orchestra and world class dancers. Our tour company send a car/driver to pick us up at the ship and take us to the ballet and they brought us back after the performance. The cruise line (in our case it was HAL) also offered an evening excursion to the same ballet....but they did this at a significantly higher cost then our private tour company.

 

 

 

Hank

 

 

 

Hank, were you on the Northern Europe cruise on princess last August?

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

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We just got off the Regal Princess on July 5th after a Baltic Cruise. Yes, they did have a Russian Folk show the 1st night in port and it was EXCELLENT. Really enjoyed it. They also had a folk show the evening we were in Oslo; however, it was just mediocre.

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We just got off the Regal Princess on July 5th after a Baltic Cruise. Yes, they did have a Russian Folk show the 1st night in port and it was EXCELLENT. Really enjoyed it. They also had a folk show the evening we were in Oslo; however, it was just mediocre.

 

We will be on the Regal next month and trying to decide if we want to tack on an evening folk show with Alla tours.

 

The ship one sounds great but how long is it? I heard someplace it was very short.

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There is a "Russian Folklore" show provided on NCL for their current Getaway itinerary.

 

Knowing that they were going to have the show on board the ship, I figured we would be tired, so no need to spend money on another evening excursion for which we might be half-asleep

 

My mama always told me not to say anything bad, so I will only say that the show was "okay" at times. People did walk out during the show, but I am sure that it was because they had prior engagements that they needed to attend. Then again, maybe I was tired and unable to appreciate or give the show its fair share.

 

During that day we heard a group of street performers while in Saint Petersburg that were excellent - my DW made a point to tell me that the troupe they had performing on the ship were not quite up to their level.

 

Maybe if some context to the songs and dances were added, it would have meant something and would have held our attention. Or maybe add the telling of tales of Russian Folklore.

Edited by Travel R
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Will be on Vision of the Seas. Does anyone know if they will have a "folklore show"? Thank you for any helpful advise.

 

We were on Vision last month and there was a Russian Folklore show in the theatre the first night in St Petersburg. The folks in our day tour who stayed on board and went to the show all said they loved it.

 

It was also broadcast on the TV every hour or so for the following two days in case you missed it (which we had, we had scheduled an evening tour in the city).

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There is a "Russian Folklore" show provided on NCL for their current Getaway itinerary.

 

Knowing that they were going to have the show on board the ship, I figured we would be tired, so no need to spend money on another evening excursion for which we might be half-asleep

 

My mama always told me not to say anything bad, so I will only say that the show was "okay" at times. People did walk out during the show, but I am sure that it was because they had prior engagements that they needed to attend. Then again, maybe I was tired and unable to appreciate or give the show its fair share.

 

During that day we heard a group of street performers while in Saint Petersburg that were excellent - my DW made a point to tell me that the troupe they had performing on the ship were not quite up to their level.

 

Maybe if some context to the songs and dances were added, it would have meant something and would have held our attention. Or maybe add the telling of tales of Russian Folklore.

 

I saw this show on the Getaway and the theatre was full. (I was a little late and stood at the back). Since it had been a tiring first day, it was enough for me as it lasted for about 45 minutes.

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