B1 cabin and St. Petersburg

[Pearl64]

My husband and I just booked a Baltic cruise for next summer. We wanted a balcony near mid ship and possibly port side. We are the first cabin port side after the obstructed view oceanview cabins towards the back of the ship(6048). I tried to check the decks above and below and didn't see anything that might be a problem. Do any of you who have been on the Regatta know of any problems with this cabin and if there are can we change cabins without incurring an additional cost?

 

When my TA called to make the reservation, the Oceania rep said we would need a visa in St. Petersburg unless we took Oceania's tour. I am thinking this is correct, but what they didn't say was we could book our own tour who would also provide the necessary visas. Is my thinking correct? I know the cruise is a long ways off but I will need all of that time to research and get my ducks in order.

 

This is our first Oceania cruise. From what I have read here we have made a good choice.

 

Pearl

[LAexNY]

The Oceania rep is lying. They do this to push their own overpriced excursions. There are several accredited tour companies in SPB who offer to get you a blanket visa if you take their tour. Some are Alla Tours, DenRus and Anastasia. The visa cost is included in the tour price. The only reason you would need to get your own personal visa would be if you wanted to go out on your own. With the blanket visa, you have to stay with your tour guide.

If you go to the Oceania Regatta Roll Calls, try 9/5/09 Regatta for example, you will see many posts about this.

 

As far as cabin changes, there should be no fee to switch to another cabin in the same category.

[sunnies]

Pearl,

 

Which Baltic cruise have you booked?

[Sharicruz]

Pearl,

 

Stateroom #6048 is a very nice location. If you do decide to change locations and stay in the same category, there should not be any additional charge.

 

Shari

Sharicruz

[StanandJim]

The Oceania rep is lying. They do this to push their own overpriced excursions.

 

That kind of rough talk is really not necessary, or productive.

:mad:

Oceania is quite correct to tell passengers that if they do not use the ships' tours (which offer blanket visa protection) then one must make ones own visa arrangements.

 

IF those arrangements should happen to be that you book with a Russian tour company which also offers a blanket visa then so be it.

 

There are, however, a great many other visa options, for example, the passenger may be of an independant mindset and wish to get a personal visa so that they can tour on their own.

 

At the time of booking there are a multitude of options and variations which must be considered. For goodness sake, Travel Agents were INVENTED because so many of us find the booking process overwhelming.

Bringing in the additional complication of discussing ALL visa options would be a mistake.

 

And don't forget that a large segment of our shipmates insist on booking the ships tours regarless of the cost or quality. They want the convenience and the sense of security that an Oceania tour will entail.

They dont know, or care, about the deatails, they just want to say that they were THERE.

 

You cannot fight city hall.

 

After all, McDonalds is not the best quality or the least expensive restaurant in the world, but it IS the most popular

[Pearl64]

Thanks everyone for the quick responses. I think we will stick with our original cabin--sounds as if there are no major problems. I am glad to hear that my thoughts were correct about St. Petersburg tours. Sunnies, we are on the Scandinavian Splendor leaving Tilbury on August 19 of 2010. I will post on the roll call probably later tonight.

 

Pearl

[rcbcaz]

Pearl, My husband and I will be on the Regatta on Sept 5 in room 6048. We sailed on the Insignia, which I'm sure is very similar, 2 years ago in room 6051 which is directly across on the other side of the ship. The location was perfect. We were very pleased and I'm sure you will be too.

Carol

[Pearl64]

Thank you rcbcaz! It is good to know that it is not a bad room. We are looking forward to the cruise.

 

Pearl

[calvin81]

We were in 6062 on Insignia in June 2009 and loved the location. No noise and convenient to everything. I was excited when I saw your post as we booked the Baltic cruise in July 2010, but you are on a different cruise :(. I thought it was too early to go on the roll call, but I will have to post there. We are interested in doing a private tour in St. Petersburg. I have spent a lot of time looking at the port section of this forum and have learned a lot there. I would do a search for "St. Petersburg" and you will find lots to read!

[mamabear1625]

Hi Pearl! We took the Baltic cruise on the Regatta this past summer (June 29th sailing) and we went with independent tour company SPB Tours for the three days in St. Pete (Victoria is the owner and a fantastic businesswoman!) - we went with two other couples and our three day tour (including a super guide with almost perfect English and driver) was $870 US each couple. All visa arrangements were done ahead of time and all confirmations and visa copies sent by e-mail. It was really great.

When you leave the ship in St. Petersburg, you have to first go through a customs office -- they check your visa and give you a red card which you must return to them at the end of the day, and then the next morning you do the same thing. It is the only port where this type of screening happens.

Victoria is very accomodating and we saw all the highlights of St. Pete over the three days in a very interesting way, her itiineraries are well-thought out so you can accompish a lot in the three days. She also was able to do a bit of juggling as two of the three couples wanted to spend 6 hours at the Hermitage, while the other couple wanted to go to War Memorial at that time - Luba knew about this ahead of time, and sorted it all out so we were all accomodated. Very professional. And, I have to say it was so great to jump into our 13 passenger van with Luba (our guide) and Nikolai (our driver) ready for us each morning, while watching the others filing along to the very large busses for the Oceania tours.

As a note, we also used this company for a trip to Berlin from Warnemunde and it was also very well planned and we had a super guide (an American who had lived in Berlin for 10 years, a graduate student in German history!)

For al the other ports, we did them on our own, with lots of research ahead of time to figure out what we wanted to see, and then taxi or transit or walk to the town, with our maps.

If you want any further information, please don't hesitate to contact me.

[Druke I]

We were in 6051 on Pacific Princess, which is a twin to Insignia. Nice quiet cabin, with no noise issues.

 

We've been on Regatta and Nautica, but stayed in a C-1 (oceanview) on Deck 4. No noise issues there either, although there were some complaints from those immediately adjacent to the Purser's Office. Apparently the office door closes with a resounding thud.

[left handed knitter]

You do need a visa BUT the tour operator you book thru will help you get it. We used a company called RED OCTOBER and it was fabulous.

[DOJO466]

No problem with Cabin 6048..close to stairs and elevators (no noise at all) and the view from balcony will be just fine. We are in 6050 for our T/A in March 2010.

As for St Pete tours..we went with Alla..an excellent choice total cost including 2 lunches was $937 per couple. At first I balked at this price but it turned out to be well worth the expense. As Mamabear stated, it was such a pleasure to just board our van upon disembarking and what we were really thrilled with was the fact that no matter where we went our van was waiting for us just as we exited, especially when we took an underground tour and were picked up after we alighted the station. Make sure your tour takes you to the underground..it's beautiful, built in the 50's after WWII and immaculate..can't take pics however. You will love your Baltic trip. I want to go:(

[Pearl64]

Thank you all: mamabear1625, Druke 1, left handed knitter; and DOJO466! I have contacted several of the SPB companies and will try to sort them all out. I am glad to hear about the prices as I had found the ship's prices to be 3 times that amount. I think the smaller group will be better as well. I would just like some more people other than my husband and and myself to be on this tour! I have posted it on our roll call but it is probably too early to get commitment from folks. I thank you for the suggestion of the underground as we want to see the daily life of SPB. I have heard back from Alla and not too sure about SPB tours. I have saved everything and will need to print out the responses so I can do a plus and minus chart of each one.

 

I do have one quick question--how expensive is SPB compared to the other Baltic ports? Just trying to get a handle on how much money to figure for each port especially with all of the currencies involved.

 

Again, can't wait until next August.

Pearl

[mamabear1625]

Hi Pearl: as you probably know, Europe is very expensive overall compared to North America.

And of course, it does depend upon how much you want to buy in each port! Stockhom was the most expensive for gifts, I thought, but they had really nice things. Also, the handmade sweaters in Tallinn were gorgeous and very reasonable.

We found public transit and taxis to be very reasonable -- be careful in Stockholm, though, we got ripped off by a taxi driver going back to the ship - our fault, though as there are signs when you get off the ship telling you how much to expect to pay -- my hubby missed the sign and didn't realize until we got back that he had charged us 100 krona extra.

As for food -- we tended to have a good breakfast on board before sightseeing all day and if we did get hungry, just have a coffee and small sandwich in port. In most of the ports this will cost you about $15 per person which is more than we pay in N.A. Oceania is very accommodating regarding meal times -- the outdoor BBQ where you can get a custom made burger including yummy chicken and fish burgers is open until around 3:30 or 4 each afternoon so dependent on when you get back to the ship, you can sometimes make that. Also, there always is 24 hour room service.

However, in two ports we did decide to eat lunch -- Copenhagen (bad choice, we couldn't believe how outrageously expensive it was) - normal lunch fare, i.e. pasta, salad and coffee in a decent restaurant was about $70-$100 for two!

However, Brugges was a wonderful surprise. We had heard about the famous Belgian mussels and fries lunch, so decided to try it -- it was awesome and reasonable -- available at most of the outdoor cafes in the Old Town, lots of fun, and good to wash down with a Belgian beer (or two!).

My travel agent's advice always makes me laugh -- take half as many clothes as you think you need, and twice as much money and you'll be in good shape!

[Pearl64]

Thank you mamabear! We toured England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales so we are somewhat used to the higher prices. We just doubled everything. On our recent Alaska cruise my husband and I had two bowls of oatmeal and two cups of coffee with no refills for $20.00 and that was in the good ole USA.That is one reason we chose a cruise so we didn't have to deal with all that exchange nonsense and knew where our bed and some meals were. I am glad for the heads up on Copehagen and the cab! We usually don't use cabs but we did in London when we couldn't find our way back to the hotel and had walked about an hour. We were really close but the cab could have charged any amount and we would have paid it. It is funny about Tallin. A former student of mine now lives in Tallin and she bought some of my daughter's sweaters at my yard sale. Sweaters might be a real option. We tend to travel like you--big breakfast and then just snack to tie us over until dinner. We ate lots of scones and sticky toffee pudding in Britain and even lost weight (probably due to all the walking).

 

Thanks again for your response.

Pearl

[bbwex]

If you use a private tour company -- which I highly recommend -- they will make all of the visa arrangements automatically. When you disembark, you will need to show the authorities your passport AND your tour ticket. The tour company will usually email a confirmation email and a separate ticket -- one for each day. You simply need that day's ticket and your passport.

 

BTW, the immigration officer will put a little piece of paper in with your passport as he gives it back to you, and you give that little piece of paper back to them as you return to the ship.

 

As a note, if you do a private tour, ask to see a few of the more impressive subway stations -- we went into one, rode to another and returned. They are very impressive. Also if you like caviar, ask to go to the Grand Europe Hotel.

 

I cannot say enough about the private tour in St. Petersburg. There are lots of companies, I never heard anything bad about any of them while we were there. We use Shore Trips (who use TJ Tours), others were using Red October, Alla and the others. They are all well organized and make it a pleasure.

[newfirsttimer]

We used Alla Tours this past summer in St. Petersburg and they were wonderful. Great guide and driver, small mini van, we had 12 people just perfect to see the sights without waiting. Never had to wait for anything. Had a wonderful sit down luncheon at a Greek restaurant of all things on one day and a 'boxed lunch' on the other which was delicious as well. Very accomodating people, Alla herself comes to meet everyone. We did the Complete Tour and saw everything we wanted. They will also arrange for the evening Ballet or Folkloric show as well. Great price, at least $100 less than the ship's tour and we saw more. I highly recommend them. Check out their web site alla-tours dot com