Take lunch ashore for private tour.

[Bumpa]

Does Princess allow food to be taken ashore for lunch on private tours?

I have seen that people do it but is it allowed? RCCL didn't allow it in Panama.

[Ine]

Often it is not the cruiseline but it is against the rules of the country that you arrived in.

It can be a great experience eating food in another country, part of the holiday.

[Maggie55]

We just returned from a Baltic crusise aboard Constellation and wanted to take lunch from the ship in St. Petersburg but were told Russian authorities did not allow food to be brought into the country.

[Happy101]

We are on Insignia for the 8/3 Baltic cruise. Our tourguide in St. Petersburg, Russia, recommended taking a lunch from the ship on one day. She says it's done all the time.

[BaltiGator]

Makes no sense to me. You're in St. Petersburg for possibly the only 2-3 days of your entire life and you don't want to try somewhere local for lunch? So you save $5-10 and miss the experience?

[Compass Rose Monica]

Makes no sense to me. You're in St. Petersburg for possibly the only 2-3 days of your entire life and you don't want to try somewhere local for lunch? So you save $5-10 and miss the experience?

 

I have to agree with BaltiGator (Hi!) on this. Why would you pack a sandwich when you can try some wonderful Russian foods!? I was in Saint P. May 2005 and enjoyed these two places (copied from my web site):

 

Bliny Domik

8 Kolokol**** ul

The food was great! I ordered the chicken and mushroom bliny, along with a glass of red wine (for a total of $7.50). Others in my group enjoyed foods such as the salads, borscht, bliny with red caviar, and large tasty croquettes. All of the portions were large and everyone walked away happy with their choices. Our guide, from Saint Petersburg, was quite surprised at how good the restaurant was and said she would take future tourists there. Service was excellent. We were the only tourists in this small place. I would return here in a heartbeat!

 

 

Grand Hotel Europa

http://www.grand-hotel-europe.com/web/stpetersburg/grand_hotel_europe.jsp

Buffet lunch in the Sadko's restaurant of this fine hotel. We had an excellent Russian buffet lunch ($16) located on the busy Grand Nevsky Prospekt Street. Some of the items on the buffet included: cream of mushroom soup, hard boiled eggs, halved and topped with mayonnaise and red caviar, marinated mushrooms, eggplant, herring, smoked salmon, a beef type stew, dumplings, and a nice variety of desserts including bliny’s.

Also from my journal: we were taken to a wonderful food hall, Kuznechny Market, located on Kuznechny Pereulok 3. I was quite surprised at the quality of the food and the amount of food on display. There was packaged and fresh salmon, fruits and vegetables, fresh made cheese, honey, and large containers of red caviar – bulk food! This is a great place for someone to pick up foods for a picnic. Some of the sellers were passing out samples. I tried the pickled salmon, which was very good. I would recommend this place for any traveler to Saint Petersburg.

I hope you'll reconsider and dine in Saint Petersburg.

 

Monica :)

[Kumarrr]

Does Princess allow food to be taken ashore for lunch on private tours?

I have seen that people do it but is it allowed? RCCL didn't allow it in Panama.

Don't ask- don't tell.

We toured St. Petersburg with people on Celebrity's Baltic cruise in June, and one day they packed a great lunch for all of us. They didn't want to waste time trying to buy lunch. All the tour sites are mobbed with people, and getting something to eat is crazy. We did stop for a nice Russian dinner. Pack ziplock bags. There's always nice rolls, cheese, salmon, etc. at the breakfast buffet. No one checks backpacks going out.

[Kumarrr]

Does Princess allow food to be taken ashore for lunch on private tours?

I have seen that people do it but is it allowed? RCCL didn't allow it in Panama.

Don't ask- don't tell.

We toured St. Petersburg with people on Celebrity's Baltic cruise in June, and one day they packed a great lunch for all of us. They didn't want to waste time trying to buy lunch. All the tour sites are mobbed with people, and getting something to eat is crazy. We did stop for a nice Russian dinner. Pack ziplock bags. There's always nice rolls, cheese, salmon, etc. at the breakfast buffet. No one checks backpacks going out.

[Bumpa]

Thank you for all your suggestions. The port that I am interested in is NOT St. Petersburg. I just want to know if Princess OR the countries in the Baltic's allow food to be taken off the ship. I am going with a group that has opted to take lunch from the ship, the Star and would like to know the rules before I get there.

[Happy101]

Makes no sense to me. You're in St. Petersburg for possibly the only 2-3 days of your entire life and you don't want to try somewhere local for lunch? So you save $5-10 and miss the experience?

 

 

The reason we were encouraged to pack a lunch for one of the two days touring St. Petersburg was not to save $5-10 but to save time and get to see everything on our itinerary. We will stop for a restaurant lunch on the first day.

[Maggie55]

First of all you don't want to waste time with lunch as there is so much to see in St. Petersburg. Second of all the people on our cruise who ate in St. Petersbury said the food was not very good. Third one of the other people in our party actually checked with his doctor before going there and was advised not to eat there as it is not as pristine as we are accustomed to and definitely do not drink the water. Use only bottle water. On the other hand I'm sure the volka is fine.

[Westaussie]

The eight of us on tour, three weeks' ago, with RO were taken to very good restaurants on both days where the lunch which had been ordered after discussion with our guide that morning was ready for us on arrival so we did not 'waste' alot of time eating and the break was welcome.

 

I would be more worried about the health aspect of food taken from the ship and not kept cool, St. P was warm and the day were were in Stockholm it was in the high eighties.

[JodiBB]

Technically, you're not supposed to. On our trip with RCCL last year, we ordered room service the night before and got sandwiches. We left them in our fridge and the next morning, my husband put them in his backpack. We walked off the ship and no one bothered us or checked our bags.

[Globaliser]

Don't ask- don't tell.

You could look at it like this: US customs regulations prohibit the import of much food, to try to stop diseases spreading between countries. Would you be happy if some foreign tourists arrived on a cruise ship and just deliberately ignored those regulations, simply because they didn't feel like complying with them and felt there was some advantange for themselves in ignoring them?

[Sonrisa7]

Westaussie:

 

Could you tell me the names of the restaurants you went to with Red October? We're booked with them in August and I haven't decided on lunch yet.

[Westaussie]

Sonrisa7 - I'm sorry I didn't get the names of the restaurants but they were both good. Polina, our guide (who was excellent) asked us on the bus whether we would prefer beef, chicken or fish and then rang the restaurants with the choice numbers (there were eight of us). This way our three course meal was ready and waiting.

 

One restaurant was close to the Savior on the Spilled Blood Cathedral and the other not far from Yusupovs' Palace (both places are a must to visit).

 

I think any restaurant RO takes you to would be of good standard and near to where you are visiting.