St. Petersburg excursions--Insignia July 10 sailing

[pier]

We are taking the Baltic cruise on the Insignia that leaves Dover on July 10. We assumed that there would be many choices for excursions in St. Petersburg on July 19-21. There are a number of choices, but the ones we are interested in, with the exception of the Peterhof on July 20, are either on the 19th or the 21st. We wanted to see the Yusupov Palace, the Hermitage and gold room, Catherine Palace, the Big Choral Synagogue, and do the canal cruise and shopping. It's impossible to see it all with the way it has been scheduled. I called several tour companies--Denrus and Red October--but they are very expensive for just two people. Does the Insignia add additional tours? Has anyone run into this problem, and if so, how did you handle it? Any input would be appreciated.

[shedevil]

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=258457&page=1

 

Hi "Pier"

 

We are on the July 10th Insignia cruise. We booked through Red October for 3 full days due to the VISA requirements and the extensive list of things 2 of the members in our group wanted to see in a realtively short time. I thought the cost was sort of high but we are going to cover a lot of territory.

 

There are about 20 other folks going on this cruise (8 or 9 CC members and their families). You might want to post a message on the July 10th Insigina thread asking if you could join a fellow CC member's cruise.

 

Remember - if you are not on a Oceania Tour or scheduled with a private tour, you must make arrangements to get your VISA for Russia prior to sailing. St. Pete's is the only stop we make that you must have a VISA or letter of invitation from a tour company before they will let you leave the ship.

 

On the Oceania board, Terry booked a suggestion for a CC meet and greet in Horizons on the 10th from 7:30pm to 8:30pm.....so we can all say hi.:)

 

 

There is also a roll call thread for this cruise. You can just copy this url and paste it into the address line on your browser. http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=331091

 

Or visit the static Roll Call database which has 7 of our members showing on the roll call. This is address for the Roll Call database for Insignia.

http://www.cruisecritic.com/rollcall/index.cfm?Ship=337

 

See you on ship......

[pier]

Thanks, I'll give it a shot!

[JustDucky2]

We are taking the Baltic cruise on the Insignia that leaves Dover on July 10. We assumed that there would be many choices for excursions in St. Petersburg on July 19-21. There are a number of choices, but the ones we are interested in, with the exception of the Peterhof on July 20, are either on the 19th or the 21st. We wanted to see the Yusupov Palace, the Hermitage and gold room, Catherine Palace, the Big Choral Synagogue, and do the canal cruise and shopping. It's impossible to see it all with the way it has been scheduled. I called several tour companies--Denrus and Red October--but they are very expensive for just two people. Does the Insignia add additional tours? Has anyone run into this problem, and if so, how did you handle it? Any input would be appreciated.

 

Hi Pier,

If you would be interested in joining two couples from Insignia July 10 for a three day tour in St. Pete that has already been formed, we would be happy to include you. Please see my Roll Call message under Insignia July 10 or contact me directly by email (preferred).

 

John S

[pier]

We've contacted Alla and really like her proposal. Her tour is very comprehensive and quite reasonable for what she offers. We're hoping another couple on our sailing will contact her so she can put us together, which will cut the cost considerably.