St. Petersburg -potential substitutions?

[lionheart]

On a 10 day cruise and if the two day St. Petersburg is cancelled thoughts on potential replacements?

 

maybe a overnight in Copenhagen and or Stockholm, Lithuania?  Speculation but curious on thoughts 

thanks 

[rj59]

Other Baltic cruises stop in Poland, Lithuania, and Oslo. The most likely would be Warnemunde, since they can make lots of money selling train trips to Berlin, and then overnighting would allow visiting Rostock and other nearer spots. Overnighting in Stockholm is also a good option, since the 7-night Royal cruises start from there, right next to the Old Town, and it also offers more excursion sales, since there's so much to do there. Leaving the next day would also allow a full daytime trip through the Stockholm Archipelago, which is my favorite sailing in the world. I was really looking forward to it in June 2020, but it was not to be. You can comfort yourself with all the excursion money you'll save by not going to Russia, since they don't let you explore on your own without a visa. 

[CatLadyFemme]

Am following this too. We are on Voyager May 22nd with a day long stop in St Petersburg and am also wondering what they might replace it with.

[xxHadleyxx]

We're also booked on a 10 night and guessing the overnight in St Petersburg will be dropped.  I think adding Warnemunde is the most likely given that it's been an RCI port fairly often in recent years.   Possibly Gdansk, Poland (which I'd prefer) as they've got a pier that can handle bigger ships.

Edited February 23, 2022 by xxHadleyxx

[Shiraus82]

We're doing a 7 night in June and have an overnight in St Petersburg. Personally I would pick anything over that and would gladly skip the stop. Not a fan of Russia. Our cruise stops at Kotka (Finland) instead of Helsinki due to port congestion. Also stopping at Visby (Sweden) which is what I'm excited about. Never been there.

[Saab4444]

At least in the past Warnemuende was not possible for Voyager Class and bigger as they are too wide for the channel. 

[grapau27]

Copenhagen is a wonderful city that we have stayed in 4 times including sailing from Copenhagen on Serenade for our Baltic cruise with a pre cruise overnight stay in Copenhagen.

There is lots to see in Copenhagen and would be my first choice.

Other choices would be Gdansk Poland or Latvia.

Graham.

 

[xxHadleyxx]

1 hour ago, Saab4444 said:

At least in the past Warnemuende was not possible for Voyager Class and bigger as they are too wide for the channel. 

Ah, that's possible.  I think we've been there on radiance class ships.

 

They might throw Aarhus, Denmark in to the 10 nights which embark from Copenhagen.   That seems to be a common port for RCI. I'd much rather Gdansk or Graham.

[Saab4444]

50 minutes ago, grapau27 said:

Copenhagen is a wonderful city that we have stayed in 4 times including sailing from Copenhagen on Serenade for our Baltic cruise with a pre cruise overnight stay in Copenhagen.

There is lots to see in Copenhagen and would be my first choice.

Other choices would be Gdansk Poland or Latvia.

Graham.

 

The first cruises start in Copenhagen anyway. If you refer to the cruises later in Summer from Stockholm then Copenhagen is not possible as it is too far away.   

[irishgal432]

We have an 11 night in August.  Would be happy with any ports since I haven't been to any.  I just want to be able to go.

[jacobtsf]

Following this thread. I also have the 11 night in August. I will definitely be a little sad if we lose St Petersburg, especially since we already Amsterdam (where our cruise was originally supposed to depart from back in 2020), but like Irishgal above I just really want to trip to happen and will be excited for the ports we do get to visit. 

[lionheart]

The one ten day Royal cruise ends in Copenhagen but no time there unless stay and is in Stockholm the day it leaves 

 

easy to add in a overnight stay in either or both as the ports are quite large especially Copenhagen 

 

 

[Sweetsue5680]

7 minutes ago, lionheart said:

The one ten day Royal cruise ends in Copenhagen but no time there unless stay and is in Stockholm the day it leaves 

 

easy to add in a overnight stay in either or both as the ports are quite large especially Copenhagen 

 

 

We are on the June 5th 10 night round trip from Copenhagen and will be arriving several days in advance. I’d love more time in Stockholm or any of the other ports if we don’t go to St. Petersburg.

[mil76]

We're booked on the June 15th 11 day going from Copenhagen to Stockholm.  We already have 2 sea days for the Riga-Stockholm leg at the end, so if they wanted to get into Stockholm a day early and let us use the ship as a floating hotel they could have already done that.  With St. Petersburg in the middle of the cruise its going to be hard to sub other ports without shifting every other stop.

 

We have never done the Baltics so we're excited to see the new ports.  But if they cancel St. Petersburg, 5 sea days on an 11 night "port intensive" cruise in non-tropical weather does not seem very appealing.

 

The other issue is that the 30 day final payment expires at the end of May, so we're expected to make final 90 days out, which is coming up in the next 3 weeks.  I know we can still cancel up to 48 hours in advance, but my "Cruising with Confidence" is pretty low on this one.

[Ourusualbeach]

3 hours ago, irishgal432 said:

We have an 11 night in August.  Would be happy with any ports since I haven't been to any.  I just want to be able to go.

That's how I feel.

[Ourusualbeach]

19 minutes ago, mil76 said:

We're booked on the June 15th 11 day going from Copenhagen to Stockholm.  We already have 2 sea days for the Riga-Stockholm leg at the end, so if they wanted to get into Stockholm a day early and let us use the ship as a floating hotel they could have already done that.  With St. Petersburg in the middle of the cruise its going to be hard to sub other ports without shifting every other stop.

 

We have never done the Baltics so we're excited to see the new ports.  But if they cancel St. Petersburg, 5 sea days on an 11 night "port intensive" cruise in non-tropical weather does not seem very appealing.

 

The other issue is that the 30 day final payment expires at the end of May, so we're expected to make final 90 days out, which is coming up in the next 3 weeks.  I know we can still cancel up to 48 hours in advance, but my "Cruising with Confidence" is pretty low on this one.

Junes final payments were just extended.  June is now 60 days prior to final

[DragonOfTheSeas]

Our final payment is 90 days for a July 31 Voyager of the Seas cruise.  So, payment is due around the 1st of May. We feel by then we will have some idea if Covid is still going down and SPB is open to visitors/or not.  Of course, the Ukraine situation makes all bets off. 

[radarcruiser]

We cancelled our Voyager 10 night just before final payment and moved to a Celebrity Med cruise.  Missing St Petersburg was too much of a risk for us.

[lionheart]

2 hours ago, DragonOfTheSeas said:

Our final payment is 90 days for a July 31 Voyager of the Seas cruise.  So, payment is due around the 1st of May. We feel by then we will have some idea if Covid is still going down and SPB is open to visitors/or not.  Of course, the Ukraine situation makes all bets off. 

Same 

[Cruise Wonderland]

If the visit to St Petersburg has to be cancelled, then it is not only the matter of Royal Caribbean. All cruise lines will be affected and many ships have to find substitution at the same time. It is really difficult to predict which other ports will be available since they already have busy traffic in the summer high season. It depends on how early Royal Caribbean can secure the berth.

 

As I remember, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Helsinki have more piers available for cruise ships. Tallinn can probably accommodate 4 ships only and Warnemunde has only 3-4 berths. Not sure about other lesser visited ports in Poland (Gydnia), Lithuania (Klaipėda), Latvia (Riga), etc...

[lionheart]

15 minutes ago, Cruise Wonderland said:

If the visit to St Petersburg has to be cancelled, then it is not only the matter of Royal Caribbean. All cruise lines will be affected and many ships have to find substitution at the same time. It is really difficult to predict which other ports will be available since they already have busy traffic in the summer high season. It depends on how early Royal Caribbean can secure the berth.

 

As I remember, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Helsinki have more piers available for cruise ships. Tallinn can probably accommodate 4 ships only and Warnemunde has only 3-4 berths. Not sure about other lesser visited ports in Poland (Gydnia), Lithuania (Klaipėda), Latvia (Riga), etc...

One Royal 10 cruise july to august begins in Stockholm and ends in  Copenhagen. Since neither ports the ships is overnight than would think that is possible to add 

[mil76]

Just logged on to the mobile app since we are going on Navigator next week, and the title for our June 15th Voyager cruise is now blanked out when it used to say "11 Night Scandinavia and Russia Cruise", and if you click on it it says "We're working on the fun - Check back later for more details".  The same cruise on the Royal website hasn't changed though and lists St Petersburg on the itinerary and is still bookable.  Tried to load other Voyager cruises going to Russia on the mobile app and they all load the ship screen with no details.  Looked at a couple June cruises on ships not going to Russia and they all loaded the itineraries.

 

Might just be an update to the mobile app, but the timing makes it kinda suspicious.

[CatLadyFemme]

1 hour ago, mil76 said:

Just logged on to the mobile app since we are going on Navigator next week, and the title for our June 15th Voyager cruise is now blanked out when it used to say "11 Night Scandinavia and Russia Cruise", and if you click on it it says "We're working on the fun - Check back later for more details".  The same cruise on the Royal website hasn't changed though and lists St Petersburg on the itinerary and is still bookable.  Tried to load other Voyager cruises going to Russia on the mobile app and they all load the ship screen with no details.  Looked at a couple June cruises on ships not going to Russia and they all loaded the itineraries.

 

Might just be an update to the mobile app, but the timing makes it kinda suspicious.

We still have this but obvious don’t know how long!

[ONECRUISER]

23 minutes ago, CatLadyFemme said:

We still have this but obvious don’t know how long!

Same here, done now and don't see happening for long time now. Was planning stop there in 2023, dont see that happening even then

[Coralc]

What a shame. We always miss all of these interesting places. We didn't get one of the Cuba sailings booked before they were removed. And now it looks like St. Petersburg will not be an option for some unknowable amount of time.