Baltic Cruise 1218/10July,2012 Cloud, Group for St Petersburg Tour

[weintime]

I am looking for other interested Silver Cloud passengers departing Copenhagen on 10th July, 2012 to try and organise our own tour group for St Petersburg 13-16 July,2012. I have been looking at Alla Tours 2/3 day tours or 2day Deluxe with SPB. Would anyone else like to join us on either of these, or any other suggestions are welcome.:)

[Alldee]

I am looking for other interested Silver Cloud passengers departing Copenhagen on 10th July, 2012 to try and organise our own tour group for St Petersburg 13-16 July,2012. I have been looking at Alla Tours 2/3 day tours or 2day Deluxe with SPB. Would anyone else like to join us on either of these, or any other suggestions are welcome.:)
Hi weintime, sorry to take so long to make contact - we have been away! Yes, Allen and I would love to join you - preferably the two day tour, but we would do the three day if others wanted to. Not long now! Dee

[Shoeman1]

There were 5 of us and we used Anastasia. Our guide and driver were just top of the line; our guide was employed at the Hermitage, a real +. Her English was flawless, and the driver went out of his way to say a few words.

There were others on our cruise that used Alla, and they were pleased.

Do spend time planning your days in St. Petersburg so your company can plan the time well. We wanted to spend time at Yuspov's Palace, a bit off track and well worth the time. Do have lunch at one of the many restaurants in the city and if you have time plan to see the Impressionist Collection in the Hermitage.

It is a fascinating country and I know you will relish the time spent.

[Alldee]

Thank you for your input, and for your good advice.

[Alldee]

I am looking for other interested Silver Cloud passengers departing Copenhagen on 10th July, 2012 to try and organise our own tour group for St Petersburg 13-16 July,2012. I have been looking at Alla Tours 2/3 day tours or 2day Deluxe with SPB. Would anyone else like to join us on either of these, or any other suggestions are welcome.:)

Hello again!

Allen and I were wondering whether you had made any decisions about tours in St Petersburg yet. I have looked at the message board, but haven't seen any more interested parties!

Dee

[weintime]

Hi Dee,
I guess that no one else is interested. At the present time I am waiting until Monday 12th March when SS will post their shore excursions on the website. I will have a look at them, but I think that Chris and I are very keen on the 3day Alla Tour at US$420pp. I also answered the roll call the kiwiflyer posted, he is also on our trip, however he has not mentioned the SP tours yet. If they were interested then we could have 6 of us....but not sure how the costing would go....perhaps if we could make a decision after Monday if that would suit. Georgina:)

[Alldee]

Hi Georgina

Yes that's fine, we will make contact again after Monday 12th. I think Allen and I would be happy to do the three day tour, although we had thought two days at first. Is the price you quoted per person if there are four of us for the three days? It would seem reasonable if so. Dee

[weintime]

Dee,
No the price is US$420pp based on a max of 16 people...would have to ask Alla what the price is for 4 or 6 otherwise we would have to book on their normal tour which will have a max of 16 people but on the cruise critic websites I notice that most have only between 12-14 people which is still good I think.
Will talk again on Monday 12th March.
Regards,
/Georgina

[Alldee]

Georgina, I see! I was looking at the group tour which says $420pp irrespective of how many turn up! As you say, 12-14 would be fine anyway - we would still visit the same places. I suppose the private tours allow you to choose where you go, but on reading the 3 day tour from Alla, they seem to go everywhere we would want to anyway. Dee

[Alldee]

Hi Georgina

Yes that's fine, we will make contact again after Monday 12th. I think Allen and I would be happy to do the three day tour, although we had thought two days at first. Is the price you quoted per person if there are four of us for the three days? It would seem reasonable if so. Dee

Georgina

I see that the tours are on the board now. After seeing them we are more than certain that we want to take the Alla tours! Perhaps we would also wish to use Alla in some of the other ports too.

Dee

[weintime]

Hi Dee.
Just read the SS tours, we will be definitely booking the Alla 3 day tour of St Petersburg, as their tour groups are small & they get very good reviews on tripadvisor.
We will also be booking the Berlin tour with SS as it is a 12.5hr tour and we would not like to risk using Alla in case the bus was late and the ship sailed without us!!!
We are also going to book the SS tour of Amsterdam, the cruise of the canals and Anne Frank's house.
I think the other ports we will do by ourselves with Hop on Hop off buses, also we have a Venetian tour of Tallin included.
Do you get a $1,000 shipboard credit towards your shore excursions?
Regards,
Georgina:)

[Alldee]

Hi Georgina

We will book the Alla Tour too, but I'm not sure about Berlin as I am not a good traveller and it is a long drive! I think we will do the rest of the places ourselves, as you say, on a hop-on-off bus. We plan to look how far from the city centres we are docked in each city before making a decision though. Yes, we do get $1000 shipboard credit, which is a good help! Look forward to meeting up with you - we will have to arrange a drink in the bar! Regards Dee

[Alldee]

Have just booked the Alla tours for the 3 days in SP. All very slick and easy! One thing I thought about was I didn't know your names to ask to be on the same bus! We are Allen and Dee Brown - just in case you wanted to mention it to them when you book!!

Dee

[weintime]

Dee Hi,
I have emailed Alla today to clarify a couple of questions re the 3 day tour and ask what info they require from us to make the booking. When I email back I will mention that it would be nice to be on the same bus as you.
We will certainly have a drink at the bar... we will look forward to it.
SS does provide courtesy buses if the dock is too far from the towns.
Also in Hamburg Chris is interested in going to the "Miniatur Wunderland", perhaps you might like to "google" it and have a look. Chris has read about it some time ago and I notice that it is rated as No1 attraction in Hamburg.
The on board credit is certainly good, if you don't spend it on tours the perfume on board is at a better price than the duty free shops and there is some nice clothing there also. You can also go to Le Champagne Restaurant for a cost of $30pp plus the cost of a bottle of wine...we had "Italian" theme night, 6 courses but no wine paring, however we did have the full degustational menu "Bordeaux" 6course with the wine paring as a gift from our travel agent. It costs $200pp normally, it was very nice but would not spend that ourselves as the normal restaurant meals on SS are brilliant anyway. I was not greatly impressed by some of the tours on offer, I feel that the canals of Amsterdam are a must. I also want to do a water tour in Stockholm.
Keep in contact and we look forward to meeting you both in 119 days time.
Appreciate if you could organise some good weather for the Lakes District for 25-27June as we will be visiting our friends in Windermere then. Where are you staying in Copenhagen pre cruise?
Georgina:)

[weintime]

Dee, have booked 3day Alla tour of SP and have requested that we be in the same tour bus.
Regards, Georgina:)

[Alldee]

Georgina, hi, we have been thinking about the tours for a couple of days, and have come up with these decisions! We will not do the Berlin tour, as I feel that the journey is very long with not much time at the other end - other than riding around yet more, and as I said, I am an awful traveller! We have booked the four city package with Alla now; this includes the 3 day SP as before, plus Helsinki, Tallinn and Stockholm tours. The total cost of the package is $640 and we feel that this is good value. We would like to do the Miniatur Wunderland in Hamburg - it looks fun! Do you think we will be able to access this with the Hop-on-Off bus? We will do Rostock, Riga and Amsterdam on our own as they seem to be very walkable cities.

We are staying at the Radisson Blu in Copenhagen - 2 nights pre-cruise. Where are you staying?

Will do my best to get the weather right for you in June - it is one of the loveliest times, but the Lake District is very unpredictable!! Where else are you visiting on your trip?

Regards, Dee

[weintime]

Dee,
We are staying at the Imperial Hotel 1July. Then 2 July, we cruise on "The Whisper" for 7 nights to Norway, arriving back in CPH on 9th July then we stay at the Adina Apartments, which is over near the "Little Mermaid", as I want to do our washing before the big trip on "The Cloud" therefore, I needed an apartment with a washing machine and dryer. There is a laundry on the ship however, I did not want to waste any of my 7 days in the laundry!
We will be flying into LHR on 21st June, will then go to Hazelmere, Surrey where my brother lives. We also have friends in Reading, who we will call in & see on the way back from Windermere. We have been to LHR before in 1997 when my brother was married, we went to Stonehenge on 27th June 1997 and the temperature was 4 degrees!!! I will do some research on the way to get to the Miniatur Wunderland in Hamburg. I am really looking forward to 23day onboard ship....last year we did 6weeks driving Italy, after 2 weeks in the Greek Islands when we disembarked "The Wind" in Athens. It was a great trip, but a little exhausting, driving in Southern Italy was an experience that I think we could have done without! That is a great price for the Alla Tours. What cabin are you in on "The Cloud" ?
Regards,
Georgina

[Alldee]

Georgina

You are certainly in travel mode! Your week on the Whisper sounds a lovely start to the cruising experience - we have not been on her yet. We have done Wind and Shadow, and soon Cloud so I guess Whisper must be somewhere in the future! We were on the Shadow in Australia and New Zealand over Christmas and New Year and had a wonderful time. We have been to Australia twice now, once before not on a cruise, and I was so, so happy to be going back! We love it.

Tomorrow we are going to Barbados for a couple of weeks. We have a friend who owns a luxury apartment at Paynes Bay on the west coast, and he is kind enough to let us rent it at half price (we couldn't stretch to full price!!!!) It will be a lovely relaxing time, where we walk the beach, read, watch the sunsets from our balcony and choose somewhere nice to eat! No doubt I will be on a diet when we get back - ready for the cruise 'eating experience'!! Have you been on the Cloud before? Our cabin is 631. Where are you? Good idea to get the washing done before getting on the Cloud. We looked at the Adina Apartments ourselves, but felt we didn't really need the facilities.

Can't wait for some sunshine!

Regards, Dee

[weintime]

Dee,
Your trip to Paynes Bay sounds great. We have not been on "The Cloud" before, I was disappointed to see that the put back the refurb til October from May....never mind. We are in "steerage" cabin 431, we could not justify the addition $3,000pp for the mid ship veranda as nice as it would have been. We will have to spend our time up on deck to enjoy the wonderful views, although the window in vista are very large.I needed to be mid ship as I dont have good sea legs!As we wanted to do 2 cruises and have the airfares from OZ, very expensive when you live "down under"! We have a "terrace room on "The Whisper" for the Norway cruise. My diet starts next week, I have 5kg to lose in 3mths in preparation for the amazing food on SS, last cruise on SS I put on 3kg on 9 days.....so am a little concerned seeing we will have total of 23days with SS. I think I will be in the gym occasionally. I see that you have booked Tallinn with Alla, do you not book your SS cruise through a Virtuoso Agent,as they have a Virtuoso Voyager Club Shore Event tour of Tallin for 6hrs including lunch. It is a complimentary tour offered by Virtuoso, we have a choice of this or additional $150pp shipboard credit. This is in addition to the $1000 offered by SS. I am so pleased that you liked Australia, next time you will have to come to our beautiful Sunshine Coast here at Maroochydore. Go onto Google Earth and have a look.So much better than Surfers Paradise!!!!.....Gold Coast is so over rated....I can say this as I was born there!
Georgina:)