Tandy5

We are thinking of sleeping at a hotel in St. Petersburg while we are at port there overnight. Has anyone ever done this? We will be on the Norwegian Getaway and there June 7 and 8. Prior to purchasing our visas we were told we would need only a single entry visa for St. Petersburg since the ship is docked in St. Petersburg. We are also planning a post cruise visit to Moscow so we need a second entry into Russia. Unfortunately the cruise line was wrong in their advice to me, and since we only have double entry visas for Russia, we were thinking we might just stay overnight in a hotel there. Has anyone ever done this?

I'm going on that same tour Aug 6 th! We are touring eastern countries after our cruise!

I used Rick Steve's in Italy, it was so precise and helped with time management !

We are also going in August, have you joined your roll call? That will give you an idea of what your shipmates are doing for tours. We are going August 23 on the Getaway, spending 3 days in Copenhagen prior to leaving. We are using Rick Steeves Copenhagen book and the HOHO system to tour there.

We decided to use TJ Tours for all of our port excursions. I know that we could have done Tallinn and Stockholm on our own, but decided the convenience of using one tour company for all the ports was how we wanted to do it...we are also going to Berlin with them despite the long ride there and back, since I have no idea if I will ever be back to the Baltics again.

I agree that the NCL tours are crazy expensive, but I think if you start pricing tours with other companies you will find a huge difference.

 

Question: was the beverage package not one of the options when you booked your cruise? I can't even imagine what our bar bill would be for 10 days!:o[/quote

No, I didn't book it and I didn't know a thing about it because I have never cruised before. Yeah, I'm worried about the bill. I

I had no idea about roll call! Thanks! I'll join!

We are also going in August, have you joined your roll call? That will give you an idea of what your shipmates are doing for tours. We are going August 23 on the Getaway, spending 3 days in Copenhagen prior to leaving. We are using Rick Steeves Copenhagen book and the HOHO system to tour there.

We decided to use TJ Tours for all of our port excursions. I know that we could have done Tallinn and Stockholm on our own, but decided the convenience of using one tour company for all the ports was how we wanted to do it...we are also going to Berlin with them despite the long ride there and back, since I have no idea if I will ever be back to the Baltics again.

I agree that the NCL tours are crazy expensive, but I think if you start pricing tours with other companies you will find a huge difference.

 

Question: was the beverage package not one of the options when you booked your cruise? I can't even imagine what our bar bill would be for 10 days!:o[/quote

No, I didn't book it and I didn't know a thing about it because I have never cruised before. Yeah, I'm worried about the bill. I

Thank you so much for your helpful replies! To clarify, I have never been on a cruise, a friend I taught in China with a couple years ago booked it. We live in separate cities so, so we don't get together much. We traveled through Southeast Asia on our own, by reading travel forums, and word of mouth. I'm so impressed by the helpful responses I received ! Thank you so much. I have not done much research yet, But, I intend to read past threads and check into the tjs

I have no idea what to expect on my 9 day cruise in August. I'm going on the Norwegian getaway and seeing the tour excursion prices is shocking. A simple walking tour is $100.00! Any insight would be great as to seeing things on your own at the ports. Do they check your bag or luggage for alcohol? Can you sneak anything on the ship instead of having a huge bar bill? I read a private tour company in Russia is better... Please any advice, would be very appreciated.