Baltic Cruise May 19, 2017 Review II New and Improved!

[upwarduk]

If you go to select dining about the same time each night, they will hold your same table for you if you wish.

Excellent advice, especially if you have a food intolerance, as you get the same waiters, who get to know your needs.

 

We will be doing the Baltics next June. I will be looking back on your review as I plan the cruise excursions.

We are booked for 23/06/18 on Silhouette from Southampton, so will be bookmarking this review. I have already made notes!

Thank you.

[luvtravel88]

Glad to help guys and thank you for your kind words!!

I'm retired as well so have plenty of time to do research, but for me planning is a lot of the fun and I love the anticipation. If you'd like to know specific tour company's we used, I'd be glad to share. As far as their quality, I would take all of them again.

Kim

[upwarduk]

Glad to help guys and thank you for your kind words!!

 

I'm retired as well so have plenty of time to do research, but for me planning is a lot of the fun and I love the anticipation. If you'd like to know specific tour company's we used, I'd be glad to share. As far as their quality, I would take all of them again.

 

Kim

 

 

 

Yes please for the tour company you used. I'm looking for a different itinerary from 2015, so want to explore all options.

 

 

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[rosie#1]

Thank you for the review. What is your opinion on having a group of 16 people on a St. Petersburg /Moscow tour?

[luvtravel88]

Yes please for the tour company you used. I'm looking for a different itinerary from 2015, so want to explore all options.

 

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Hi Jackie,

Which country/port are you interested in knowing the tour company we used?

Kim

[luvtravel88]

Thank you for the review. What is your opinion on having a group of 16 people on a St. Petersburg /Moscow tour?

 

 

Having a group of 16 was fantastic! We were small enough that there wasn't much lag time. We were able to get quickly off and on our van. We were large enough that we had a separate driver and guide, which I think is safer.

Another great thing is that it's enough people on the tour that it makes the price reasonable, but few enough that you can see and be close to your guide.

 

We were given audio boxes and ear plugs on our first day, which we kept for all three days. This was great, as we were able to hear our guides without having to be right next to them.

 

We met up on the ship each morning so we would all be pretty much together as we went through Immigration. There's nothing worse than being ready to go and having to wait on someone.

Kim

[upwarduk]

Hi Jackie,

 

Which country/port are you interested in knowing the tour company we used?

 

Kim

 

 

 

St Petersburg as we can't DIY there.

I've re read you explanation of how you went through immigration and notice you mentioned Alla tours.

Sorry I missed that.

Were you able to use them in any other cities and if yes, when did you pay?

 

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Edited July 27, 2017 by upwarduk

[luvtravel88]

St Petersburg as we can't DIY there.

I've re read you explanation of how you went through immigration and notice you mentioned Alla tours.

Sorry I missed that.

Were you able to use them in any other cities and if yes, when did you pay?

 

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Hi Jackie,

We used Alla in Russia, Helsinki and Tallinn. You paid at the end of your first day in Russia. They took us to a large souvenir shop and had a table toward the back. We toured in Helsinki before Russia, but we paid for all 3 tours in Russia.

 

 

Alla was very great about communicating with me. I was one of the tour leaders for the 2 capital tour and they make it very easy for others to join a private group. We had 16 until 2 weeks before we left, and a couple had to cancel their trip due to health reasons. They cancelled with Alla, no problem, and Alla contacted me to let me know they had added a couple from our ship into our tour. They gave that couple my info to contact me so I could give them our meet up place and times.

 

We used SPB in Oslo and they did a really good job as well. We hadn't prepaid with them, which you can do, and I had planned to pay on the day. They changed their rules right before we left and they would no longer accept a credit card on the day, cash only. Well of course I only had a credit card. We didn't discover this miscommunication until the end of the tour when I mentioned that I still needed to pay. They were very gracious about it and invoiced me through email and we paid it as soon as we got home.

[MacThespian]

There were many people dressed in traditional Dutch costumes for the ceremony and we found this quite beautiful.

 

Not trying to be too pedantic, but I hope this was a typo; in Oslo, they'd be dressed in Norwegian costumes, not Dutch ones--and the photo does show typical Norwegian costumes. Note that the style of the national costume can vary significantly from area to area in Norway. (This includes the jewelry that is part of the costume in each area.)

[upwarduk]

We used SPB in Oslo and they did a really good job as well. We hadn't prepaid with them, which you can do, and I had planned to pay on the day. They changed their rules right before we left and they would no longer accept a credit card on the day, cash only.

 

 

Thanks.

That's useful information as we used SPB last time and paid by C.C on the day.

[luvtravel88]

Not trying to be too pedantic, but I hope this was a typo; in Oslo, they'd be dressed in Norwegian costumes, not Dutch ones--and the photo does show typical Norwegian costumes. Note that the style of the national costume can vary significantly from area to area in Norway. (This includes the jewelry that is part of the costume in each area.)

 

You are so right!!! That was an error on my part. I will certainly change it in my own travel log. Thanks for catching it.

And honestly, it was hard for me to keep up with the different wording of the areas we visited, and of course we moved almost every day. We had Dutch, Danish, Finnish, Norwegian, Swedish, Russian, German, and Estonian.

Kim

[MacThespian]

You are so right!!! That was an error on my part. I will certainly change it in my own travel log. Thanks for catching it.

And honestly, it was hard for me to keep up with the different wording of the areas we visited, and of course we moved almost every day. We had Dutch, Danish, Finnish, Norwegian, Swedish, Russian, German, and Estonian.

Kim

No problem. It's a great cruise, and I enjoyed the review.

[Islander500]

Hi Jackie,

We used Alla in Russia, Helsinki and Tallinn. You paid at the end of your first day in Russia. They took us to a large souvenir shop and had a table toward the back. We toured in Helsinki before Russia, but we paid for all 3 tours in Russia.

 

 

Alla was very great about communicating with me. I was one of the tour leaders for the 2 capital tour and they make it very easy for others to join a private group. We had 16 until 2 weeks before we left, and a couple had to cancel their trip due to health reasons. They cancelled with Alla, no problem, and Alla contacted me to let me know they had added a couple from our ship into our tour. They gave that couple my info to contact me so I could give them our meet up place and times.

 

We used SPB in Oslo and they did a really good job as well. We hadn't prepaid with them, which you can do, and I had planned to pay on the day. They changed their rules right before we left and they would no longer accept a credit card on the day, cash only. Well of course I only had a credit card. We didn't discover this miscommunication until the end of the tour when I mentioned that I still needed to pay. They were very gracious about it and invoiced me through email and we paid it as soon as we got home.

 

Kim - I note that you paid for all of your Alla Tours in Russia. How did you pay? I'm concerned about carrying that much cash. Did you pay via credit card, in Rubles, how?

 

Thanks much.

[luvtravel88]

Kim - I note that you paid for all of your Alla Tours in Russia. How did you pay? I'm concerned about carrying that much cash. Did you pay via credit card, in Rubles, how?

 

Thanks much.

 

We paid with a credit card.

We did take some rubles with us and were glad we did. We decided to get ice cream at GUMS in Moscow and they only accepted rubles. We were the only ones in our group that had any, so we paid for everyone's ice cream and they paid us back in euros. It seems there were a couple of other places that we needed some ruble coins to use the bathroom.

 

You can purchase several types of currency at kiosks in large American airports as well as most International airports, but none of the ones we went to sold rubles, so you would need your bank to get them for you. The ship also doesn't have them.

 

 

The problem we had was that our bank gave us 5000 rubles notes, which are worth about $100. We wanted smaller denomination notes and had to wait until we got to Russia to buy something so we could get change.

Kim

[misprint]

Thank you so much for your review, I really enjoyed reading it especially as I am going to the Baltics on Silhouette next year.

[dazey]

[

We have several tours planned through SPB tours. Will the tour company tell you who else from your ship is on the tour so we can meet before leaving the ship?

[luvtravel88]

[

We have several tours planned through SPB tours. Will the tour company tell you who else from your ship is on the tour so we can meet before leaving the ship?

 

I don't know. Alla didn't tell us who was in our tour. Our tour had a VERY active Roll Call and we had someone on our trip keep very organized spreadsheets on the Roll Call for each port of call.

 

When someone would decide to take a tour with any particular company, they would make it a private tour and then would have the Organizer on the Roll Call, put their private tour on the spreadsheet for it's port of call. Often within a day or two, the tour would have filled up.

And the way that would work is that whoever wanted to take a tour, would go to the tour company itself and sign up for, My(Kim's) tour, or whoever the leader of the tour was. They would then either contact me directly by email or post on the CC that they had joined the tour and they would let the Keeper of the Spreadsheet know they had joined the tour, so she could add them to that list.

The Keeper of the Spreadsheets also had made a master list of who was on our Roll Call. She had their CC handle, their first names, their reside area, their cabin number, their dining time, their pre and/or post cruise hotel and anything else someone wanted to have them add. This was a fantastic resource and would allow you to make plans with others, such as sharing a taxi or getting together for dinner. It also had cabin numbers so if you needed to contact someone by phone on the ship, you easily could.

I have to say, I was so impressed with these spreadsheets that I have become the Keeper of the Spreadsheets for a cruise that we're doing Sept. 2018 and already have about 15 couples that have signed up. If you look below my name, you will see the start of the tour share lists for this cruise. We don't have anyone that has organized any tours yet as it's still a bit too early, but there is the start of the master list.

 

 

As the leader of 3 tours on this most recent trip, I made a list of the participants for each trip, then requested private email addresses in a post. I then emailed everyone the place and time for a meet up for our tours, and if I didn't already have it, I asked for their cabin number. On the ship, I called each tour participant to remind them of the time and place of meet up, the night before our tour. I usually just left a message. Most people called back to say they got the message and thanks for the reminder.

(OK OCD rearing it's ugly head!)

 

I have to say, I don't know if we were lucky with the people on our groups or if it was from my planning, but everyone was always at the meet up and on time for each tour.

 

Well Dazey, this was a very long answer to your very short question!!:D

 

Kim

[Campbell soup]

Thanks for your review! Karen

[cruisin lady ca]

Thank you for your review. We are sailing on Eclipse on July 1 - and will be enjoying our time in some of the ports you visited. I loved your photos and can't wait to see the sights in person.

 

Like you, we are touring STP with Alla and are also using Alla in Stockholm. We opted to do a Celebrity excursion in Berlin since it is a long day - and a very long trip from the port to Berlin and back again. I decided that I'd prefer to make the trip by train instead of bus - and ensure we don't miss the ship by taking the Celebrity excursion instead of a private tour.

 

I had to laugh when you mentioned receiving 5000 ruble notes from your bank. I am in the same boat! I am curious about the cost of items in Russia. For example, what was the cost of an ice cream?