Red October Tour-Boxed lunches? Not me!

[smvthecpa]

Will be on the Constellation in St Pete on August 2 & 3. About to book with Red October. They want an extra $15 per for boxed lunches.

Do I HAVE to buy the boxed lunch? Can I bring my own food off the ship, my own sandwich? can I just share one lunch between the 2 of us? Can I bring my own water?

[Andee]

When we toured with RO, we ate at restaurants. When they picked us up the first morning, they gave us the menus and we ordered in advance, so it was pretty quick. From the menu, the meals looked quite large, so we asked if four of us could share two lunches, and they said yes.

 

We carried our own water.

[mycruz]

we sailed on Princess last summer and brought lunch with us our first day. Some of us had brough zip lock bags and ordered sandwiches the night before and stored them in the refrigerator. Some went to the buffet at breakfast and took fruit, cheese, rolls and sliced meat. We also had our bottled water from the ship, some of our group even had brought a canned soft drink. It was great to not have to spend time stopping to eat, it probably allowed us one more site to see. As far as sharing a boxed lunch, I don't see why that would be a problem. Just remember, you will be going all day and very busy, you'll probably be hungry!

[Sniktaw]

We just returned from 14 day baltic on Oceania and they specifically said in the bulletin that it was not allowed to take ANY food off the ship per Russian laws. We did put a few snacks in our purses but I certainly would not risk taking a whole lunch based on the stern warning.

Carolyn

[RickT]

The cost is $10 per boxed lunch and as written it's this or a restaurant... you're not legally allowed to bring anything off the ship.

 

For those who have done the boxed lunches with Red October... any thoughts?

[Steamboatin]

Will be on the Constellation in St Pete on August 2 & 3. About to book with Red October. They want an extra $15 per for boxed lunches.

Do I HAVE to buy the boxed lunch? Can I bring my own food off the ship, my own sandwich? can I just share one lunch between the 2 of us? Can I bring my own water?

 

No

 

No

 

No

 

Yes

 

Yes

 

Now that answers your questions.

 

We just returned from a Baltic cruise on the Celebrity Constellation and toured St. Petersburg for 2 days with Red October.

 

The group of 38 of us split between 2 mini-buses elected to eat box lunches to save time for more touring. We enjoyed the extra touring time as we ate the box lunches while going between distant tour sites.

 

The box lunches we had consisted of the following:

 

1. A sandwich made from 3 half slices of bread. Between slice 1 and 2 was some meat and between slices 2 and 3 was lettuce and tomato. So splitting that sandwich would be extremely difficult, plus you would not be getting very much to eat if you did split it.

 

2. A piece of fruit. One day I had an apple with worm holes in it. The next day I had a banana that was 2 days over ripe where I could not eat it. Yes, the other person would have been glad to let you eat the entire piece of fruit without any thought or guilt of letting you eat the entire piece of fruit by yourself.

 

3. A package of cookies that either was bland and stale or perhaps just tasted that way. Yes, the other person would gladly give them to you to eat without even wanting to share them with you.

 

4. A normal bottle of water that was most enjoyable.

 

Otherwise the meal was fine.:D

 

Are you really that budget strapped that you cannot afford the money for the box lunch?

 

Remember just one thing. It is against the law to bring food into Russia. And do you really want to be caught breaking the law in Russia?

[swdke]

Will be on the Constellation in St Pete on August 2 & 3. About to book with Red October. They want an extra $15 per for boxed lunches.

Do I HAVE to buy the boxed lunch? Can I bring my own food off the ship, my own sandwich? can I just share one lunch between the 2 of us? Can I bring my own water?

 

No, you don't have to buy from them. We went with RO and packed our own food from the ship. I packed a small collapsable cooler, it's size was just enough for a few sandwiches and snacks. I kept it in the RO van while we visited the sites. Other's in our group did the same. We had decided we wanted to spend out time visiting the sights and not consume time with a restaurant, and figured we could eat better by taking ship food. I also brought zip lock bags to put ice in to keep the food cold. Napkins and silverware I brought from the ship. We also brought our own bottled water. It all worked out quite well.

[Cruiseiker]

Will be on the Constellation in St Pete on August 2 & 3. About to book with Red October. They want an extra $15 per for boxed lunches.

Do I HAVE to buy the boxed lunch? Can I bring my own food off the ship, my own sandwich? can I just share one lunch between the 2 of us? Can I bring my own water?

 

We just booked a tour with RO for September and told them we didn't want their boxed lunch.:rolleyes: It wasn't because of the extra cost, it was because we are carefull of what we eat, anywhere.

 

They, in turn, requested that we bring lunch from the ship for ourselves and the Driver and Guide.

 

I'm sure they wouldn't have "suggested" that if "it's against the law to bring food into Russia".:confused:

[PTC]

We just booked a tour with RO for September and told them we didn't want their boxed lunch.:rolleyes: It wasn't because of the extra cost, it was because we are carefull of what we eat, anywhere.

 

They, in turn, requested that we bring lunch from the ship for ourselves and the Driver and Guide.

 

I'm sure they wouldn't have "suggested" that if "it's against the law to bring food into Russia".:confused:

 

Totally wrong to even think to bring food ashore or that someone at RO would suggest that a passenger break the law to do so.

I would really hesitate to book with any tour company that suggests that a passenger do so and also bring food for the driver and guide .

 

Are you sure you understood what they were saying or did you suggest it in order to "save time".

 

 

 

PTC

[swdke]

Totally wrong to even think to bring food ashore or that someone at RO would suggest that a passenger break the law to do so.

I would really hesitate to book with any tour company that suggests that a passenger do so and also bring food for the driver and guide .

 

Are you sure you understood what they were saying or did you suggest it in order to "save time".

 

PTC

 

For our RO tour last summer, RO did ask us to bring food for our guide and driver since we would not be stopping lunch. We had no problem with taking food for the guide and driver and was happy to do so. I had the food in a small foldable cooler, kept in a back back. Nothing was checked, no one cared, and it all worked out just fine.

[Cruiseiker]

Totally wrong to even think to bring food ashore or that someone at RO would suggest that a passenger break the law to do so.

I would really hesitate to book with any tour company that suggests that a passenger do so and also bring food for the driver and guide .

 

Are you sure you understood what they were saying or did you suggest it in order to "save time".

 

 

Nope, opted out of the lunch and they replied that we need to have a lunch break so bring sandwiches,yaddda, yaddda, yadda........we didn't suggest it.

[Cruiseiker]

Totally wrong to even think to bring food ashore or that someone at RO would suggest that a passenger break the law to do so.

I would really hesitate to book with any tour company that suggests that a passenger do so and also bring food for the driver and guide .

 

Are you sure you understood what they were saying or did you suggest it in order to "save time".

 

 

 

PTC

 

 

Nope, opted out of the lunch and they replied that we need to have a lunch break so bring sandwiches,yaddda, yaddda, yadda........we didn't suggest it.

[PTC]

Nope, opted out of the lunch and they replied that we need to have a lunch break so bring sandwiches,yaddda, yaddda, yadda........we didn't suggest it.

 

yes, I would believe that your group was told that the guide and driver are entitled to take a lunch break even if your group didn't want to .

 

PTC

[shopgirl1964]

The cost is $10 per boxed lunch and as written it's this or a restaurant... you're not legally allowed to bring anything off the ship.

 

For those who have done the boxed lunches with Red October... any thoughts?

I was just there last week and honestly don't remember much about the box lunch. There were 2 pieces of fruit (both of acceptable freshness, a banana and an apple), a sandwich which was perfectly fine, a packet of cookies which were sort of shortbread-esque, and a bottle of water. I believe it was $10, not $15, and it suited my group not to have to pack anything up from the ship. It was effortless.

 

Meredith