Baltic Cruise

[Kookysaluki]

We are booked on the Baltic cruise in August and it is time to choose shore excursions.  In St. Petersburg we are planning on "Evening with the Tsars" and would also like to see St. Catherine's Palace.  For those of you who have taken this cruise- would you recommend St Catherines as a sperate tour or will we be able to tour it during the "Evening of the Tsars"?  Thank you for your time.

[UUNetBill]

5 minutes ago, Kookysaluki said:

We are booked on the Baltic cruise in August and it is time to choose shore excursions.  In St. Petersburg we are planning on "Evening with the Tsars" and would also like to see St. Catherine's Palace.  For those of you who have taken this cruise- would you recommend St Catherines as a sperate tour or will we be able to tour it during the "Evening of the Tsars"?  Thank you for your time.

We liked the Evening with the Tsars so much we took it again the second time we went to StP.  One plus:  you get to see the palace with no crowds.  Case in point...the Amber Room is usually jam-packed and photography isn’t allowed.  On this tour, we had one of the babushkas shoot a photo of us in an empty Amber Room.  The dinner is okay, but the vodka is delicious.  This was one of our favorite tours.

 

 

[thomastoo]

I second the opinion of UUNetBill. We did the "Evening with the Tsars" in August 2017 and it was very very enjoyable. The fact that you can see the palace with no crowds is great. In contrast we did the Peter's palace tour during the day and the crowds were so large that we hated the experience.

[1982CruzStart]

We are on a Baltic cruise this August as well.  Not sure if it is the same one as the OP/TS. 

According to the information i have we have access to Catherine's palace on a day that it is normally closed.  The tour operator for Regent is able to get us access to it on this day so i am hoping this means there will be smaller crowds. The evening with the Tsars offered is $199 pp USD which puts it over 250 pp for us so i am going back and forth on whether it is worth it or to just take the regular tour that gets us into the Amber room. 

[Belfast Taxman]

If the OP is on the cruise out of Stockholm on the 28th August, then please have a look at our roll call on the forum and sign up for Meet and Mingle.

[irishwitchy]

We are doing a similar cruise in early July and I was looking at this Excursion also or the ballet.   Thoughts?   Has anyone done the full day tour to Moscow?  

[ronrick1943]

I haven't done a tour off a cruise---however Moscow is something to see.  I spend a full week in Moscow and always something to do and see.

[Hambagahle]

We visited Catherine's Palace when it was closed to the public - and that is definitely the way to go!  Our guide, 3 of us and the Asst Director of the museum plus the cleaners...  I do not see how you can appreciate the Amber Room if it is full of people.  It is not big...and is just wonderful.  If doing the "Evening with the Czars" means you can see it with only a few others in the room - do it!!

[coljack]

Evening with the Czars is one of the two best tours we have ever taken on numerous cruises with RSS.  Do not miss it.  The Amber Room at your leisure is reason enough, but Catherine's Palace is amazing and there are other features that make this a tremendous experience.  Even the Russian restaurant after for dinner was a fun experience, even if it will never come close to a Michelin star.

[mrstanley]

We did the Regent excursion to Moscow on our August 2019 cruise. We were divided into two groups with 2 guides per group. It was very organized. Lots of walking ....I’m not kidding! No elevator in the buildings in the Kremlin. Not able to take pictures in there. It was a very long day but we are glad we went. Everyone was exhausted and slept late the next morning. 

[GOARMY]

Not sure if TS is booked on the mid, or late August Explorer segment, both of which encompass St Petersburg.  

 

Perspective from doing this year's Explorer, BTB, Stockholm-Southampton; Southampton-Southampton segments--   

 

While at St. Pete, we stayed in St. Pete, having done the Moscow excursion element several years ago.  At St. Pete--it was Sunday evening enjoying the complete "Swan Lake" ballet.  Delightful early pre-ballet Russian-themed dinner onboard; quick bus ride to downtown venue; then post ballet buffet back aboard at La Veranda.  A night--and early next-day morning--to remember.  

 

Our other St. Pete tour was at The Fabulous Faberge Museum.  That was a mid-morning three hour tour.  Wish it had been one more hour.  So-much eye candy to take in.  Guides accompanying us during all phases of both excursions were knowledgeable, personable--and tolerant as I conversed with them in my now-limited remembrance of Russian.    

 

If--if your segment includes Bruges (Zeebrugge), Belgium:  Consider the 7-hour Ypres, in Flanders Fields.  Poignant tour of key WWI battlefield sites, cemeteries, monuments, and a Museum.  "In Flanders Fields the poppies grow. . . .row by row. .  ."

 

--------

 

Now--on the DOWN SIDE.  Appears both of those Explorer segments includes Helsinki.  Should you consider a tour:  consider avoiding "Helsinki By Sea and Fortress Island". That was a paid-excursion.  Waste of money.  Local Guide was disjointed, hard-to-understand, and constantly rushing us on, and off ferry boats needed to get to and from venues.  FAGETABOUDIT, as one might opine in Brooklyn.  Wife and I--together with several others--abandoned that tour; caught a bus, and returned to Explorer.   

 

I registered my concerns concerning this tour immediately.   So did others.   Therefore, it may have been "yanked" as to a current offering.   If it is still there, even if "included" at no-extra charge, save your time and try something else. 

 

Hope the above assists in the decision-making process.   

 

GOARMY!

 

 

[1982CruzStart]

12 hours ago, GOARMY said:

Not sure if TS is booked on the mid, or late August Explorer segment, both of which encompass St Petersburg.  

 

Perspective from doing this year's Explorer, BTB, Stockholm-Southampton; Southampton-Southampton segments--   

 

While at St. Pete, we stayed in St. Pete, having done the Moscow excursion element several years ago.  At St. Pete--it was Sunday evening enjoying the complete "Swan Lake" ballet.  Delightful early pre-ballet Russian-themed dinner onboard; quick bus ride to downtown venue; then post ballet buffet back aboard at La Veranda.  A night--and early next-day morning--to remember.  

 

Our other St. Pete tour was at The Fabulous Faberge Museum.  That was a mid-morning three hour tour.  Wish it had been one more hour.  So-much eye candy to take in.  Guides accompanying us during all phases of both excursions were knowledgeable, personable--and tolerant as I conversed with them in my now-limited remembrance of Russian.    

 

If--if your segment includes Bruges (Zeebrugge), Belgium:  Consider the 7-hour Ypres, in Flanders Fields.  Poignant tour of key WWI battlefield sites, cemeteries, monuments, and a Museum.  "In Flanders Fields the poppies grow. . . .row by row. .  ."

 

--------

 

Now--on the DOWN SIDE.  Appears both of those Explorer segments includes Helsinki.  Should you consider a tour:  consider avoiding "Helsinki By Sea and Fortress Island". That was a paid-excursion.  Waste of money.  Local Guide was disjointed, hard-to-understand, and constantly rushing us on, and off ferry boats needed to get to and from venues.  FAGETABOUDIT, as one might opine in Brooklyn.  Wife and I--together with several others--abandoned that tour; caught a bus, and returned to Explorer.   

 

I registered my concerns concerning this tour immediately.   So did others.   Therefore, it may have been "yanked" as to a current offering.   If it is still there, even if "included" at no-extra charge, save your time and try something else. 

 

Hope the above assists in the decision-making process.   

 

GOARMY!

 

 

thanks for the helpful information. 

[coljack]

Re:  Helsinki tours.  If you are able to do a lot of walking, the Helsinki walking tour was terrific.  But it covered several miles.

[daetchief]

In Helsinki, depending on the day of the week and/or time of the day  - my LW and I had great luck when we opted to take the tour bus [no specific excursion] to the city center.   Very close by there was a craft fair going on, quite a few of the local Finnish and a number of food trucks / stands with local selections.  Close by was even what looked like a converted train station that had many quality vendors with both cooked and take-away delicacies. 

We didn't have to walk too much, there were a bunch of comfortable seating options and it was a great way to experience the local culture.

Edited December 24, 2019 by daetchief

[UUNetBill]

On 12/20/2019 at 11:11 PM, irishwitchy said:

We are doing a similar cruise in early July and I was looking at this Excursion also or the ballet.   Thoughts?   Has anyone done the full day tour to Moscow?  

We did the Moscow day tour via Sapsan on our second trip to StP (first time we were there the Moscow tour was a charter flight that I’d heard bad things about).  The Sapsan is smooth and comfortable, but it’s still a VERY long day.  Unless you have a compelling reason to go to Moscow, I’d say there’s enough in StP to keep you occupied for three days.  Having said that, though, the Moscow trip was incredible.  Incredible but exhausting.  We left somewhere around 6:00 AM as I recall and didn’t get back on board until past 1:00 AM.  It caused everyone else in my group to pass on the Faberge museum the next morning at 9:00 AM.  I was the only one who went and I loved it.  But I was wrecked most of the day.

 

You’ll need to balance the long day against your desire to see Moscow.  My advice?  Stay in StP the three days and come back to Russia again to see Moscow.   😁👍

 

On 12/22/2019 at 11:34 PM, GOARMY said:

Should you consider a tour:  consider avoiding "Helsinki By Sea and Fortress Island". That was a paid-excursion.  Waste of money.  Local Guide was disjointed, hard-to-understand, and constantly rushing us on, and off ferry boats needed to get to and from venues.  FAGETABOUDIT, as one might opine in Brooklyn.  Wife and I--together with several others--abandoned that tour; caught a bus, and returned to Explorer.

Ha!  We bailed on that one, too.  Agree completely about being a waste of time and money.  

 

I feel that Helsinki can be enjoyed easily by just walking around, or at least taking a quick highlights tour and then walking around.

[irishwitchy]

Thank you for the additional info on Moscow and Helsinki.   We are going to do the whole day in Moscow, because we don’t really see that happening again in our travel plans.  However, the next day,  we don’t do anything until noon!   As for Helsinki,  the bad sea and fortress tour is still an option.   We had no plans to do that,  if I’m on a cruise,  I’m not a big fan of another boat ride!   

[Kookysaluki]

Thank you all for your input- especially your photo Bill!  Rang in the New Year by booking shore excursions- very grateful for the wealth of knowledge on this forum.