box lunches in st. petersburg, russia

[GAJE]

As many times as we have cruised, the question of box lunches has never come up. Can anyone tell me whether it is possible to order box lunches to take off the ship for private shore rxcursions?

Thanks!

[yogi2929]

Do not know what the rules are for Russian ports but I do know that you are not allowed to bring food off ships in the Carribbean and Mexico. To control the spread of pests.

 

The exception is prepackaged food. Might as well include a meal into your excursion.

[CDRMark]

While in St Petersburg we asked our guide service (DenRus) to arrange for us to have lunch with a Russian family. It was the highlight of the trip.

Waay better than a box lunch. If this is an option for you, I recommend it.

Cheers

Mark

[Krazy Kruizers]

No -- you will not be able to ask for a boxed lunch to be prepared to take off the ship for a private excursion.

On HAL excursions where it indicates that lunch is included, HAL makes arrangements with the company for them to prepare the food.

No one is allowed to take food off the ship anywhere unless it is already packaged -- and even in some ports that is not allowed.

[Copper10-8]

HAL DOES make box lunches - and they are put together on the ship by staff - but they only make them for certain ship shore excursions, in other words, not for private tours like you're asking about. The boxes usually include a piece of fruit, a granola bar, a Dutch roll called a 'krentenbol', a bag of potato chips and a bottle of water. We received then from staff in the show lounge when the ship was in Peenemunde, Germany (for the Berlin shorex) and in Alexandria, Egypt (for the Cairo shorex)

[GAJE]

That is kind of what I expected. Thanks so much for the feedback!

[catl331]

we would have liked a Dutch roll on our trip to Amalfi from the ship but we got WHITE bread and thin deli chicken. No one ate it. There wasn't time to stop for lunch or they couldn't come to an arrangement with a provider. We picked up piece of pizza and a beer in the town. We had a very nice lunch on our whole day trip in St Pete along with dancing and music and much vodka.

[bbwex]

We were in St. Petersburg this past summer. The private tour company will, no doubt, make stops for lunches each day. We ate one day at a small pie shop -- Russian "pies" are filled with meats (main course) fruits (desserts). etc. and were excellent. I forget the name of the shop but evidently it was one of many in a small chain in St. Petersburg if not also elsewhere. One day we ate at the restaurant at the Summer Palace, and though the service was slow, the food was good. One day we ate in the restaurant in the Hermitage, and they had pies, pizza and some other good selections. The guide does the translating for you and helps you order and pay (in our case, she paid in rubles, and we paid her back in dollars).

 

Some people on other tours opted for the meal in a Russian family's home. Some people had good experiences, others thought it was ghastly (filthy, uncertain food preparation) -- depends on who you are dining with.

 

While we did not eat hamburgers and fries, the food was quite good and not terribly exotic.

 

You can check with your tour company, but I am betting that they are going to stop for lunch. Also, if you are there for two or three days, it gets a bit tiring, so the break for lunch is quite welcome.