St Petersburg

[ak1004]

6 minutes ago, MWINT said:

I do take your point about the overall experience having been diminished but I am not sure what cancellation options we have. I assume we can can if we are prepared to take the hit on our  deposit but we have a sizeable deposit paid due to precious covid cancellations. 

 

Well, I don't know what your cancellation policy is - isn't the final payment usually 3 months before the cruise?

 

Also, technically you can claim that this is not the cruise you booked anymore as the most important part has been removed.

[exlondoner]

14 hours ago, MWINT said:

We have our our revised itinerary for 19 June voyage. Stockholm instead of St Petersburg: 

 

 

This does look a lovely itinerary. Just sad for people who haven't been to St. P. But I would certainly enjoy it.

[exlondoner]

8 hours ago, MWINT said:

I do take your point about the overall experience having been diminished but I am not sure what cancellation options we have. I assume we can can if we are prepared to take the hit on our  deposit but we have a sizeable deposit paid due to precious covid cancellations. 

 

Why would you cancel? It's a great cruise with lots of interesting places.

[exlondoner]

10 hours ago, sogne said:

The FCO  have advised against travel to Russia so Cunard have no choice but to comply since no UK citizen will be insured if going against FCO advice.

 

And realistically, how many people would want to set foot in Russia at present?

[Victoria2]

28 minutes ago, exlondoner said:

 

And realistically, how many people would want to set foot in Russia at present?

Certainly not us. I hope most passengers will carry on with a revised itinerary and in  defiant mode, to show the very small number of people who might be remotely interested, 'we' will not cave in to having yet another holiday cancelled or deferred because of something  we are totally against in the first place.

[MWINT]

1 hour ago, exlondoner said:

 

Why would you cancel? It's a great cruise with lots of interesting places.

Thats a great point. Having been nowhere for a few years somewhere, cancelling does seem shortsighted. 

[majortom10]

Personally dont think any cruise ships will go be going to St Petersburg for a few years in the future.

[Host Hattie]

I don't want to have to close this thread so please keep your comments Cruise and Cunard related.

Thank you

[3rdGenCunarder]

14 hours ago, ak1004 said:

 

Well, I don't know what your cancellation policy is - isn't the final payment usually 3 months before the cruise?

 

Also, technically you can claim that this is not the cruise you booked anymore as the most important part has been removed.

 

Final payment for most Cunard cruises is 4 months out. And no, you can't claim it isn't the cruise you booked. The "fine print" always says that itineraries are subject to change. Losing the St P stop is regarded as a big change by many passengers, but it's only one port out of many, and it's covered by that "fine print."

 

 

[Lanky Lad]

The UK Government is advising against non-essential travel to Russia, so Cunard can't go now even if they wanted to.

[jimbo1683]

On 2/25/2022 at 9:56 PM, ak1004 said:

There is not much to see on Baltic cruises except for St. Petersburg. And there is much to see in St. Petersburg than the palaces. The guide in Helsinki admitted that there is really nothing to see in Helsinki after we visited St. Petersburg.

 

According to this logic, cruise lines must cancel all visits to Qatar, China, Saudi Arabia, and few dozens other countries.

 

Hypocrisy at its best.

 

Not much to see on a Baltic cruise? Oh my.

[ak1004]

1 hour ago, jimbo1683 said:

Not much to see on a Baltic cruise? Oh my.

 

This is what we felt when we did this cruise. We wouldn't do it without St. Petersburg. 

[jimbo1683]

21 hours ago, ak1004 said:

 

This is what we felt when we did this cruise. We wouldn't do it without St. Petersburg. 

Its a shame you felt that way, you definitely didn't see enough, or see the right places then. Ive been to so many places on the baltic, beautiful part of the world - Helsinki, Tallinn, Stockholm, Gotland, the cost of northern Germany

[ak1004]

2 minutes ago, jimbo1683 said:

Its a shame you felt that way, you definitely didn't see enough, or see the right places then. Ive been to so many places on the baltic, beautiful part of the world - Helsinki, Tallinn, Stockholm, Gotland, the cost of northern Germany

 

Yea.. Tallin is nice, you can cover most of it in 3 hours. Helsinki really not much to see, and the tour guide himself admitted it. Stockholm? Again, nice. But none of them comes even close to St. Petersburg, and not worth it as a standalone cruise. 

 

There are many nice places in the world. But people don't take this cruise because of Tallin or Helsinki.

[jimbo1683]

Just now, ak1004 said:

 

Yea.. Tallin is nice, you can cover most of it in 3 hours. Helsinki really not much to see, and the tour guide himself admitted it. Stockholm? Again, nice. But none of them comes even close to St. Petersburg, and not worth it as a standalone cruise. 

 

There are many nice places in the world. But people don't take this cruise because of Tallin or Helsinki.

Ok, I disagree but personally I wouldn't have taken the cruise even before the current war because I have no desire to go to St Petersburg, so each to their own.

[majortom10]

1 hour ago, ak1004 said:

 

Yea.. Tallin is nice, you can cover most of it in 3 hours. Helsinki really not much to see, and the tour guide himself admitted it. Stockholm? Again, nice. But none of them comes even close to St. Petersburg, and not worth it as a standalone cruise. 

 

There are many nice places in the world. But people don't take this cruise because of Tallin or Helsinki.

I disagree we have done Baltics and loved ports of call Tallinn, Gdansk and Warnemunde and also always enjoy Helsinki and Stockholm. St Petersburg is so false with beautiful buildings i.e. Hermitage and Peterhof but at the cost of majority of people in Russia living in very poor conditions. Never felt comfortable in St P and last time we went we stayed onboard for 2 days.

[Cruise NH]

On 3/10/2022 at 5:50 PM, majortom10 said:

I disagree we have done Baltics and loved ports of call Tallinn, Gdansk and Warnemunde and also always enjoy Helsinki and Stockholm. St Petersburg is so false with beautiful buildings i.e. Hermitage and Peterhof but at the cost of majority of people in Russia living in very poor conditions. Never felt comfortable in St P and last time we went we stayed onboard for 2 days.

I have to agree with this assessment.  We really wanted to see St Petersburg and did enjoy it but it’s a bit like going to Disney, lots of facades.  We had more luck getting  our guide in china to speak freely then we did in Russia.  It’s one of those places that you ooh and ahh about when you’re there but when you look back on it you realize it wasn’t that great.

 

We loved Stockholm and Copenhagen.  Helsinki isn’t too exciting but take an excursion into the countryside and you’ll love it.

[ak1004]

To some people, Hermitage is one of the most impressive museums in the world, Petergoff and Pushkin are among the most beautiful palaces, Mariinsky Ballet is among the top Ballets in the world etc.

 

To others it's nothing special.

 

But I'm glad that in our next visit to St Petersburg it will be less crowded. Easier to get Ballet tickets, less lines in Hermitage, cheaper hotel prices.