Do I apply for Visa for St. Petersburg stay?

[Alldee]

Hi Alldee, we are booked on The Cloud ex Copenhagen 10/7/12.I have not decided on anything yet. I am waiting to see what Silver Sea are offering in their tours which should be on their website 5th March. I have been in touch with Alla Tours and we are very interested in their 3 day tour US$420pp which includes visas. We are not going to get our own Russian Visa as they are AUD $200 each. Also Megfla has mentioned SPH tours a 2 day tour, will look at that one also. Which part of the UK are you from. We will be in Hazelmere, Surrey fohttp://cruiseforums.cruisecritic.com/images/icons/icon9.gifr 9 days prior to the cruise. Then we fly BA to Copenhagen on 1st July as we are doing the 7day cruise with Silver Whisper leaving 2 July. Where are you staying the night of the 9th July? I am still looking at accommodation for that night but thinking about Plaza Hotel. I will try and send you a test email through yahoo, if you could let me know if you receive it.:)

 

Have not received your email I have looked into tours, and my husband and I fancy either Red October or Alla. I think we would prefer the two-day tours, and particularly the ones with early admission to the Hermitage - which I believe can be very packed later on in the day. I don't think we will wait until 5 March to decide, as we are pretty definite that we want a private tour. We thought maybe a FREE tour on the third day if anything appeals!!

[weintime]

Hi Alldee, So pleased that you enjoyed Australia, did you visit "The Sunshine Coast" ? I quite like the Alla Tours as they have a fixed price regardless of numbers but with a max of 16 anyway. They also have costs on their website for 4 pax for a 2 day tour of $420. No lunches are included. Also see that they will give 5% discount if we arrange our own group.

I notice that Red October Tours have quite a some extra charges on theirs eg hydrofoil is extra.

Perhaps we could post a Roll Call to see if anyone else is interested. I have booked Adina Apts for night of 9th July. Also, we will be in Windermere mid June visiting Alma & Roger Monk, we met them on "The Wind" in May 2011, it certainly is a small world! Are you doing the free Virtuoso Tour in Tallin?

Have you done many Silver Sea Cruises, last year was our first and we just loved it.

Georgina

[Alldee]

Hi Georgina

 

We visited Cairns - but went on the Kuranda Railway ride - it was fantastic. In 2006 we visited Australia independently and stayed in Port Douglas, which is what took us back to Australia on a cruise! We cruised the Whitsundays this time, and the barrier reef (which we visited in 2006 by ourselves) We then went south to Brisbane on the cruise, and HATED Surfers Paradise - where we were 'dumped' for 3 1/2 hours by the tour bus! The beach there was beautiful, but that is where it ended!

 

This will be our 4th Silversea cruise - we love it too! We were on Wind first, then Shadow twice, so this is our first time on Cloud. Pity we are sailing before the refurb!

 

Fancy you coming to Windermere! I don't know the people you are visiting. We are only 10-15 minutes from Windermere! We have met many friends on cruises from Sydney, Blue Mountains, California, Florida etc. When on our last cruise we were picked up from the ship by some people we met in Alaska - who live in Sydney - and they took us out for the day, to include a BBQ at their wonderful apartment in Sydney. It was so lovely to see them again. There were a lot of Australians on the first cruise (we did back to back) and they were mostly visiting family in Sydney for Christmas.

 

Yes, I agree about the tour costs. Red October do seem to add them on, whereas Alla are inclusive. Good idea to start a roll call - I will leave that to you (and make myself known when I read it!!

 

I hope we can get together at some point. Our cabin number on the Cloud is 621 - if all else fails!!

 

Dee