Mickey Mouse in St. P-burg

[momma4v3]

As you can see we traveled with "The Mouse" many times to many different places. As a previous poster stated, I never saw him leave the ship except on Disney's island.

When we were on the Panama Canal cruise, Mickey and other characters did go to local children's hospitals to visit. I did not see them leave the ship but the cruise director did tell us about these visits. Apparently they do these visits at all the newer ports.

I have never encountered any of the characters on any of our Disney excursions.

 

Linda

[MarkSeattle]

I find this thread somewhat amusing. I can assure you that Mickey Mouse was alive and well in Russia before the cold war ended. I spent the summer of 88, mostly in Moscow, but also some time in Leningrad, Riga, and Vilnius.

 

Possession of Western currency by Russians was illegal, you traded USD on the black market for 10x what you could get at the official exchange rate. Marlboro cigarettes were worth more than gold, and I saw Mickey Mouse stickers on a KGB car, some sets of ears and even t-shirts back then.

 

Western mass media, culture, etc. was more of a novelty and harder to come by, but it was everywhere from Lenin's tomb to the Hermitage... I still have a bottle of Pepsi and Fanta from that summer.

 

I think the Nestle's sign was around back then, the Arbatsky region was my favorite place to hang out, I'd walk over after taking the subway to Red Square every day, but the pictures of the renovated GUM blew me away.

 

I'd *really* hate to see a Starbucks in the Hermitage though :)

[TLCOhio]

THANKS, Mark, for the added historic angles from your earlier visits to Russia! Things are always changing and evolving, which is what makes traveling so much fun and very interesting.

 

Enjoy! Terry in Ohio