Celebrity Silhouette Amsterdam to Stockholm June 7, 2016

[CruisersSFO]

Hello LGBT Cruisers!

 

My spouse and I have booked this cruise and can't WAIT until we sail! Two days in Copenhagen, three days in St. Petersburg and two days in Stockholm! All almost during the summer solstice. And on a Solstice-class ship, to boot! (Yes, we know the actual summer solstice isn't until June 22nd, but LOVE this itinerary anyway!)

 

Looking to meet other LGBT and LGBT-friendly shipmates who would like to book some private excursions in:

 

1) Berlin (Warnemunde)

2) St. Petersburg (possibly with a side trip to Moscow by fast train?)

3) Helsinki

4) Stockholm

 

I've been to Copenhagen several times with my job, and it's an easy city to explore on your own, but would be interested in perhaps setting up something interesting there as well!

 

This is our third Celebrity cruise and our first time on the Silhouette! Looking forward to planning for this incredible Baltic adventure!

 

Until then,

Thomas & Adrian

[CruisersSFO]

WooHoo!

[walester]

Hello Fellow Cruisers!

 

Bill & Gary from NYC/Hawaii here. We'll be sailing on the Silhouette Baltic Cruise as well. It's our second Celebrity cruise, and we're cautiously excited. If it goes as well as our first cruise (Eastern Mediterranean/Celebrity Constellation in September 2015), it should be a terrific trip. Looking forward to meeting others as well.

 

Thomas & Adrian, we'd be interested in joining you/others for some private excursions, especially St. Petersburg. Let us know.

 

Cheers!

[CruisersSFO]

This is our third Celebrity cruise! We sailed Celebrity Equinox on an Eastern Mediterranean cruise (last-minute upgrade to a suite - amazing!) in 2011, and Celebrity Millennium SouthEast Asia (fabulous!) in 2013!

 

For Russia - if you want to do independent excursions (such as what we are thinking of), you MUST have a Russian visa in your passport. You can get it from several places, but we've used VisaExpress.net over the years for expedited visas, and plan to use them for our Russian visas. You CANNOT do independent excursions in St. Petersburg without a Russian visa in your passport (our travel agent has already made this very clear to us). The group visa supplied by Celebrity does NOT allow for independent travel.

 

What are you thinking of in St. Petersburg, besides the usual? Does a side trip to Moscow via fast-train interest you? The Kremlin, Red Square, St. Basil's, etc.?

 

We are SO looking forward to this cruise. We've always enjoyed our cruises on Celebrity, and so far they have customers for life!

 

Sail on!

 

Thom & Adrian

[walester]

Hi Thom & Adrian,

 

SouthEast Asia, wow, that sounds terrific!

 

We met fellow gay cruisers who had done this itinerary before and they recommended using one of the independent tour companies (like SBP Tours or Alla Tours) to arrange a tour. You can get a private customized tour or join an existing small group (up to 16 people or so), and they handle the responsibility of getting a visa as well as the logistics of getting into some of the sites that usually have long waiting lines. A private tour with one of those agencies is what we were considering. Given the current environment in Russia, I don’t think we’re up to do a truly independent excursion, but we don’t want to do the ones offered by Celebrity either. Your thoughts?

 

As for Moscow, I’ve been there twice (for work), and Gary would rather spend the three days in St. Petersburg. FYI, apparently the Kremlin is closed on Thursdays, so none of the local tours are offering Day 2 in Russia as a day to Moscow.

 

If you want to talk off line, we can reached at walester at wal.net. Looking forward to hearing your thoughts.

 

Cheers!

 

Bill & Gary

[CruisersSFO]

Hello -

 

Here is another tour company recommended to us:

 

https://www.toursbylocals.com/TBL/WebObjects/ToursByLocals.woa/1/wo/VCRGQFZJG2Xn1OhR9bHck0/10.27.7.3.13.5.5.1.22.1

 

We have decided to skip the whole Moscow thing, too. I (Thom) have been many times on business. My sister, a former AAA travel agent, has been to St. Petersburg says there is so much to see in St. Petersburg that three days will still keep us busy!

 

As we live in San Francisco, we might get our Tourist Visas prior to leaving the U.S. There is a Russian Consulate in downtown San Francisco so it only takes 10 days and is $193 for a 3-day multiple-entry tourist visa. My experience has been that the 'Visa Upon Arrival' doesn't always go smoothly. We did a cruise to Vietnam a couple of years ago and obtained our visas prior to leaving the U.S. SO glad we did as the visas available upon arrival took 4-5 HOURS to complete, and we had been off the ship and on our way immediately.

 

I am in touch with Tours By Locals already, and will check out these other two. Have you been in contact with anyone other LGBT cruisers yet for this sailing?

 

Hope all is well. Can't WAIT for June to arrive!

 

Cheerio,

Thom & Adrian

Edited January 31, 2016 by CruisersSFO