Anyone been on RCCL's excursion Panoramic St Petersburg PZ93?

We are traveling on the Serenade of the Seas (May 27 2017) and I am looking at a shore excursion suitable for my husband in St Petersburg (he uses a walker or cane but cannot walk far without resting). The tour Panoramic St Petersburg PZ93 is rated mild and says, "Guests must be able to walk about 600 feet over cobblestone surfaces". To those who have taken this tour:

Question 1: Does this mean walking 600 feet at one time or walking 600 feet over the course of the tour?

Question 2: Can a collapsible walker be brought on this tour and stowed on the bus somewhere?

I emailed RCCL's accessible shore excursion folks but have not received a response.

We are traveling on the Serenade of the Seas (May 27 2017) and I am looking at a shore excursion suitable for my husband in St Petersburg (he uses a walker or cane but cannot walk far without resting). The tour Panoramic St Petersburg PZ93 is rated mild and says, "Guests must be able to walk about 600 feet over cobblestone surfaces". To those who have taken this tour:

 

 

 

Question 1: Does this mean walking 600 feet at one time or walking 600 feet over the course of the tour?

 

 

 

Question 2: Can a collapsible walker be brought on this tour and stowed on the bus somewhere?

 

I emailed RCCL's accessible shore excursion folks but have not received a response.

When it comes to St. Petersburg I would highly recommend a private tour company. I found they were quite responsive and I'm sure they would be able to accommodate your husband. There are several that come highly recommended on this board - so I would definitely check with them. Enjoy the cruise - I did it this past summer and loved it.

I travel with my Mom and my Aunt frequently, one has Parkinson's and some moderate mobility issues because of it, and the other suffers from occasional dizziness and some balance issues. On cruises I usually book them on the tours that have the term Panoramic in the title, as they tend to be solely bus tours, or mostly bus tours with a shopping stop along the way. They usually have some stops along the way for photo ops, and sometimes these are just where people stay onboard the bus and take photos, and sometimes they allow the folks who want to pop off and snap a quick photo the option.

What I have found to generally be the case with the walking and the stairs is this: there is usually a long walk to get from the ship itself to the tour bus at the start, and then a long walk back again at the end of the tour, the stairs are usually just getting on and off the bus. Then it is just sitting on the bus.

Even if I am doing something else that day, I will usually help them get to the bus, but sometimes not. They are always fine with the walk there and back, although occasionally winded. The participants who tends to sign up for these tours are generally of the same mobility as them, so they all walk back to the ship together, at about the same pace.

I travel with my Mom and my Aunt frequently, one has Parkinson's and some moderate mobility issues because of it, and the other suffers from occasional dizziness and some balance issues. On cruises I usually book them on the tours that have the term Panoramic in the title, as they tend to be solely bus tours, or mostly bus tours with a shopping stop along the way. They usually have some stops along the way for photo ops, and sometimes these are just where people stay onboard the bus and take photos, and sometimes they allow the folks who want to pop off and snap a quick photo the option.

 

What I have found to generally be the case with the walking and the stairs is this: there is usually a long walk to get from the ship itself to the tour bus at the start, and then a long walk back again at the end of the tour, the stairs are usually just getting on and off the bus. Then it is just sitting on the bus.

 

Even if I am doing something else that day, I will usually help them get to the bus, but sometimes not. They are always fine with the walk there and back, although occasionally winded. The participants who tends to sign up for these tours are generally of the same mobility as them, so they all walk back to the ship together, at about the same pace.

Thank you for your response. I finally did hear back from NCCL and they described "panoramic" tours as: "designed for guests that are able to walk short distances, can negotiate the steps of a motor coach and/or travel with a standard size manual collapsible wheelchair that can fit in the motor coach luggage compartment. Be advised that most tours are conducted on motor coach. Please note that most motor coach steps are approximately 8- 12 inches high; the first step being as high as 18 inches from the ground." Another thing is my husband can't be on an all-day tour and the panoramic one offered by NCCL in SPB is 4 hours. So I think we'll book this tour.

I looked at visiting St. Petersburg as a once in a lifetime opportunity, and that's why I chose to book a private tour for just my family with a private tour operator. We brought our 3.5 year old with us, and a private tour enabled us to maximize his ability to see everything in St. Petersburg. The tour van was small since there were just 3 of us, and it came very close to each of the attractions, minimizing the amount of walking we needed to do. We were able to choose exactly what we wanted to do (no souvenir stands) and skip the lesser parts of attractions so we were able to bring our child to see everything. There are several well known, well established tour companies that have provided tours in St. Petersburg for years, and their business would be destroyed if they ever got anyone back to the ship late so you can be comfortable taking a private tour. Also, if you are worried about time on a private tour you can be extremely conservative about how early you request a return to the ship.

Returning late from a private tour was something I was worried about on another cruise in Guatemala. Since there aren't many cruises that visit Livingston, Guatemala, the one tour company I was most interested in had been late returning to the ship on a past tour. Thankfully, the people on that tour didn't miss the boat but were understandably very upset and posted on cruise critic to warn others. I was worried, but realized since it was a private tour I could just keep an eye on the time and be very conservative about when we should go back. Everything worked out great and they had no issues about when we wanted to return - they were happy to bring us back whenever we wanted.

From the description it looks as if the RCCL tour is effectively a Ho-Ho without a huge amount of hopping on and off. I know it's only $50, but it's does seem a bit of a waste of a possibly once in a lifetime experience of SPB...

If the cost of a private tour is prohibitive I'd look at a vanilla tour with one of the highly rated tour companies mentioned both here and over on Trip Advisor. On our - tbh extensive 2-day tour with TJ Travel - two couples definitely began to flag and so stayed on our a/c Mercedes mini-bus while the rest of us went a wandering...

I have limited mobility and took a manual wheelchair to SPB. I explained my situation to Alla Tours and they sent me a detailed description of their tour which included distances, number of steps etc.

We booked the 2 day Comfort Tour with them and it was excellent. We were in a new, comfortable mini bus. The driver always stopped and picked up in the most convenient places for me and stored the wheelchair under the bus in the luggage boot.

The guide ensured we entered places by a wheelchair ramp, usually skipping queues and avoiding standing around.

There is plenty of information on people not so able bodied wishing to visit SPB, so just search through the threads.

I agree with recommendations for a private tour-contact several and explain your requirements and see what their responses are-will be much better than a limited 4 hour ships excursion seeing this beautiful city through windows of a bus

we did a private tour over 2 days for myself daughter and husband who had limited mobility due to needing a hip replacement

we asked for a shortened day meeting 10 am instead of 8 therefore missing the queues at immigration and saw a lot being able to be driven in a minivan along canals and right up to the key sites

our private tour ended up being cheaper than if had taken ships tours