Evening Tours in St. Petersburg?

[Over&Over Faithfull...]

Anyone been on any? Would you recommend?

 

Looking at the 'Russian Experience' tour with TJ tours, basically they take you for a walk, worthwhile?

 

How did folk find the turn around time from tour during the day to tour at night?

 

So many questions! Thanks!! :D

[spirit rev]

Last summer we did the Russian Folklore Show. It was an excellent, high energy show. On could easily understand the story line being told during the performance. At intermission the performers were selling various things related to the show - tables set up. They also serve appetizer type food with drinks at intermission at no charge.

[4774Papa]

We did Russia on a Vantage river cruise and two night shows in SPB. Both were excellent.

 

We saw Swan Lake at the Marinsky Ballet, it was the best Swan Lake I have seen.

 

Also, we saw the folklore show called the Russian Army Show that was excellent.

[Got2Cruise]

There was a free folk lore show on our ship, NCL.

 

We did the Spb (Vika) Fun Vodka Tour. Included a canal tour with folk music entertainment, fun conversation, and lots of vodka, some chocolate and some shopping. We had an entire bus full of CC folks. Everyone enjoyed it. Vika gave us a nice discount. After two years, it is one of our fondest memories of our cruise to the Baltic states.

[RJ2002]

Last summer we did the Russian Folklore Show. It was an excellent, high energy show. On could easily understand the story line being told during the performance. At intermission the performers were selling various things related to the show - tables set up. They also serve appetizer type food with drinks at intermission at no charge.

 

We did this for our evening option as well. I must admit I was a little skeptical at first, but it turned out to be a very entertaining, professional performance. Two large troupes of dancers and an orchestra playing local instruments live.

 

The appetizer buffet will probably be enough to get you by until you return to the ship where you can get a more substantial meal. The free drinks include alcoholic beverages! ;)

Edited February 20, 2014 by RJ2002

[WyomingCruiser]

We have booked a night canal trip with Guide Guru for our cruise in June. It is from midnight to 2:30 AM! But because of the time of year, it doesn't get dark until then..I guess seeing the drawing of the bridges is pretty amazing...

 

 

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[Br00klyn102]

There was a free folk lore show on our ship, NCL.

 

We did the Spb (Vika) Fun Vodka Tour. Included a canal tour with folk music entertainment, fun conversation, and lots of vodka, some chocolate and some shopping. We had an entire bus full of CC folks. Everyone enjoyed it. Vika gave us a nice discount. After two years, it is one of our fondest memories of our cruise to the Baltic states.

 

Excellent! So glad to hear a positive review.

 

Did you do one of their day tours as well?

 

It seems that after a very long tour day, not many are interested in doing another tour later that night which is understandable.

 

Haven't had much success in getting others interested, hoping that they find enough to partake!

[Got2Cruise]

Excellent! So glad to hear a positive review.

 

Did you do one of their day tours as well?

 

It seems that after a very long tour day, not many are interested in doing another tour later that night which is understandable.

 

Haven't had much success in getting others interested, hoping that they find enough to partake!

 

Yes, we did what they called two years ago the "moderate" tour. We saw everything that the deluxe tour had except Rasputin's house, and the canal trip, and there were no meals included. It ended up to be 4 or 5 vans of ten for our sailing from Cruise critic using Vika. Many used her for Berlin also. We didn't go to Berlin, we stayed in Warnemunde. (I think vans of ten are the perfect size group, but I don't know how things are priced now)

 

As I said, it was called the FUN vodka tour, it is for having fun, nothing more. No more history lessons for the time being. Everyone drank vodka, even the guide, and the musicians. The vodka started out on the bus. :D

 

I believe the moderate tour returned at 4:30. We then returned to our cabin to freshen up and went directly down to the dining room, and told the waiter we had to be finished by 6:00 or whatever time it was. The dining room was fine getting you out of there, we had 3 courses, no problem.

[Br00klyn102]

Yes, we did what they called two years ago the "moderate" tour. We saw everything that the deluxe tour had except Rasputin's house, and the canal trip, and there were no meals included. It ended up to be 4 or 5 vans of ten for our sailing from Cruise critic using Vika. Many used her for Berlin also. We didn't go to Berlin, we stayed in Warnemunde. (I think vans of ten are the perfect size group, but I don't know how things are priced now)

 

As I said, it was called the FUN vodka tour, it is for having fun, nothing more. No more history lessons for the time being. Everyone drank vodka, even the guide, and the musicians. The vodka started out on the bus. :D

 

I believe the moderate tour returned at 4:30. We then returned to our cabin to freshen up and went directly down to the dining room, and told the waiter we had to be finished by 6:00 or whatever time it was. The dining room was fine getting you out of there, we had 3 courses, no problem.

 

Awesome, thank you so much!

 

I think the tour is now called "Russian Treasures" which is kind of the inbetween, we are supposed to be done by 5, and then have to meet back up again for the Fun Vodka Tour (still called that) at 7. So enough time to get back on the ship freshen up and then head back out.

 

Was there any trouble getting off and on the ship again?

[Got2Cruise]

Awesome, thank you so much!

 

I think the tour is now called "Russian Treasures" which is kind of the inbetween, we are supposed to be done by 5, and then have to meet back up again for the Fun Vodka Tour (still called that) at 7. So enough time to get back on the ship freshen up and then head back out.

 

Was there any trouble getting off and on the ship again?

 

No trouble at all getting off the ship after the first morning. And we didn't have trouble the first morning either. It is just very congested, like going through security at the airport. What we did do is meet our group at a designated spot and time on the ship. We also learned from previous cruises how the procedure went. On our ship they used the gangplank near the forward elevators of the ship. So we rode the elevator down to the gangplank and walked off. Every year it is different, it is best to wait for what others report happened. Plus Vika will know about it.

 

Vika loves loves Cruise Critic folks. She is married to a German and spends most of her life in Germany. She wants to please the customer and she will help you if you ask.

[muti]

Anyone been on any? Would you recommend?

 

Looking at the 'Russian Experience' tour with TJ tours, basically they take you for a walk, worthwhile?

 

How did folk find the turn around time from tour during the day to tour at night?

 

So many questions! Thanks!! :D

 

We did the "Russian Experience and Vodka Tasting" with TJ Tours. It was more fun than I expected. Fortunately, for us, we were there in May (a couple of years ago) during St. Petersburg's birthday celebration. The streets were closed at night and there was a major party atmosphere all night. It was fantastic.

 

We got back to the ship around 6:30 from the day tour, ran onboard got a piece of pizza, refreshed ourselves in the cabin and then were off to meet the evening group for the 7:00 tour -- it was wonderful. We only had 10 people in our group which made it even better. One of the couples was celebrating their wedding anniversary -- what a wonderful way to celebrate such a special event.

[ussminnow]

We did the Russian Experience with TJ Tours in late August 2013 and it was the highlight of our St. Petersburg visit. We loved the fact that our guide, Ina, (who was friendly, knowledgeable, down-to-earth and had a good sense of humor) left the first part of the evening entirely up to us, after being on a very scheduled and structured tour during the day. So we got to do whatever we wanted, which in our case was (based on what we wanted and the other family we were with requested) to visit a local market, shop at a souvenir place off the beaten path, go to a beer garden, pop into a popular chocolate shop, check out the "main drag" in town, and basically experience a Friday night as a Russian would! After that we went to a cafe where a musician was playing the saxophone and had our vodka tasting in a private room. The owner of the cafe presented each vodka to us and our guide translated for her. So it didn't feel touristy at all. We had a great time! We thought about doing the canal tour but we were told that it was basically the same tour/path that you take during the day when you do the canal tour. So although it sounded like fun and the people we read about on Cruise Critic who did it really enjoyed it, we opted to stay in town to check out the scene there. But from the posts I read about the evening vodka canal cruise, everyone had a good time.

 

We had no problem at all getting back out for our tour; at that point there were no lines so we just walked right up and it was very quick. We did have time to get back to the ship and change, snag a quick bite and then go back out, despite the fact that our day tour was a little late returning. It was a quick turnaround but we managed fine.

 

As far as being too tired, I can't speak for others since we tend to try to max out our experiences in new places to see as much as we can, but we weren't tired at all and found that the experience energized us. We were so glad we did it and also felt like we got a better sense of the local, modern culture that we didn't get from the day tours. Also, we got back by 11pm which gave us plenty of time for a good night 's sleep.

 

Enjoy... Whatever you choose will be fun, I am sure, but I do say go out and experience what you can while you're there because it is a unique place and the memories are worth it!