How Will The Russia /Ukraine Situation Impact Europe Travels

[ski ww]

There are other ports of call in the Baltic without stopping in Russia. Although we also enjoyed our over night in St Pete's the Hermitage, lots of history. The same in the Black Sea, we had some ports of call cancelled in 2014 when Russia took over the Crimea. So glad we got to see these places before all the troubles & unrest that's going on in the world right now. As if we don't have enough problems what with covid. Hope saner heads prevail and this insanity is soon behind us.   

[trivia addict]

Big difference between visiting Germany and Russia currently. 
The German dictator is gone thanks to our own brave Greatest Generation, and Germany is now a democratic nation that has renounced its *** regime.

The thug that rules Russia imprisons and poisons his own countrymen and is trying to stop democracy in the rest of the world.

Yes, I would cruise to Germany but no longer to Russia.

[KirkNC]

14 hours ago, Oceansaway17 said:

and even much much longer before the IOC ever gives another Olympics to Russia.

 

I am so glad I got to see St Pete's back in 2018 even for just one day.  Hermitage was great.

Yes we lucky went to St Petersburg twice and even took the train to Moscow for a day trip.  Probably never see it again.

[ontheweb]

1 hour ago, trivia addict said:

Big difference between visiting Germany and Russia currently. 
The German dictator is gone thanks to our own brave Greatest Generation, and Germany is now a democratic nation that has renounced its *** regime.

The thug that rules Russia imprisons and poisons his own countrymen and is trying to stop democracy in the rest of the world.

Yes, I would cruise to Germany but no longer to Russia.

When I first posted and mentioned not going to Germany, I was responding to someone who used the word PERMANENTLY not going to St. Petersburg. We should all hope that someday Russia in not ruled by the present regime or one like it.

[ontheweb]

46 minutes ago, KirkNC said:

Yes we lucky went to St Petersburg twice and even took the train to Moscow for a day trip.  Probably never see it again.

We are lucky we went once to St. Petersburg on what I consider our best cruise on which we celebrated our 30th wedding anniversary.

 

We also will probably never see it again. If we did, I think we could spend a whole day in the Hermitage. I know my art teacher DW might even want to spend both days there as we have seen the other sights, and I do not think you could see all of the Hermitage in even 2 days.

[KirkNC]

8 minutes ago, ontheweb said:

We are lucky we went once to St. Petersburg on what I consider our best cruise on which we celebrated our 30th wedding anniversary.

 

We also will probably never see it again. If we did, I think we could spend a whole day in the Hermitage. I know my art teacher DW might even want to spend both days there as we have seen the other sights, and I do not think you could see all of the Hermitage in even 2 days.

Hermitage is unbelievable but when we were there it was incredibly crowded.

[ontheweb]

9 minutes ago, KirkNC said:

Hermitage is unbelievable but when we were there it was incredibly crowded.

I do not remember is as incredibly crowded as it can handle so many being so huge.

[tjcox9]

I find myself fortunate to have visited the Baltic three times including St Petersburg and enjoyed each visit immensely, but it has been off my radar for travel for several years. We were also able to do two Black Sea cruises prior to the Crimean takeover some years back. That is too bad as we found Sevastapol to be a fascinating port. There are so many places we have visited that are now on the no go list. 🥺

[KirkNC]

1 hour ago, tjcox9 said:

I find myself fortunate to have visited the Baltic three times including St Petersburg and enjoyed each visit immensely, but it has been off my radar for travel for several years. We were also able to do two Black Sea cruises prior to the Crimean takeover some years back. That is too bad as we found Sevastapol to be a fascinating port. There are so many places we have visited that are now on the no go list. 🥺

We have an Azamara cruise scheduled for summer 2023 that was the full Monty of the Black Sea.  Included Ukraine, Russia, Georgia and northern Turkey.  I am sure that cruise will either be canceled or gutted.

[ontheweb]

3 hours ago, KirkNC said:

Hermitage is unbelievable but when we were there it was incredibly crowded.

IIRC, we had an hour scheduled there on our Alla tour. DW wanted to add an hour taking away the time for lunch. The rest of the group did not approve of that. (Alla was open to changes as long as the group all agreed.) Maybe out of respect for me who put together the group after asking in our roll call, there was a compromise of taking 1/2 hour off of lunch and adding it to the Hermitage time.

 

Actually, now that I think of it years later, DW was not so unreasonable. You can have lunch every day, but getting to the Hermitage is by far not a daily occurrence. Skipping lunch one day was not going to really harm anyone. 

[tjcox9]

48 minutes ago, KirkNC said:

We have an Azamara cruise scheduled for summer 2023 that was the full Monty of the Black Sea.  Included Ukraine, Russia, Georgia and northern Turkey.  I am sure that cruise will either be canceled or gutted.

When I looked at all the Black Sea cruises booked for this year, it appeared that Azamara had more than any other line. When we did the two, one HAL, one Princess small ship, we covered it all with no repetition. Trabzon Turkey and the monastery was amazing, Batumi just trying to get its' tourist act together, Odessa, Yalta, Sevastapol, and others. Hopefully, things will get ironed out by then (not likely IMHO) and you'll be able to make the trip. 

 

[Cruising-along]

26 minutes ago, ontheweb said:

Skipping lunch one day was not going to really harm anyone. 

Unless you're Diabetic....

I usually bring along a snack for those days that a tour doesn't stop for lunch -- but unless someone knows ahead of time that lunch will be skipped, that really isn't fair to those who need to eat at certain times.  

[mainelycruising]

On 2/24/2022 at 9:47 PM, victory2020 said:

Carnival & I believe Princess did it a number of years ago. I remember having to pay it.

I seem to recall that passengers were told that if the price of a barrel exceeded $70, a surcharge could be added to the cost of the cruise. This was 15 or so years ago.

[Oceansaway17]

5 hours ago, KirkNC said:

Yes we lucky went to St Petersburg twice and even took the train to Moscow for a day trip.  Probably never see it again.

which did you like better St Pete's or Moscow?

[KirkNC]

Just now, Oceansaway17 said:

which did you like better St Pete's or Moscow?

We have spent more time in SP, it’s seemed to have more to do so I would go with SP.  In Moscow we just saw the Kremlin and area around it.  Still worth a trip but SP is more European.

[Oceansaway17]

1 minute ago, KirkNC said:

We have spent more time in SP, it’s seemed to have more to do so I would go with SP.  In Moscow we just saw the Kremlin and area around it.  Still worth a trip but SP is more European.

I guessed you would say St Pete's

If I ever go back I want to see Catherine's palace. I was happy to get inside the Hermitage and St Issac's Cathedreal which was just as good as Hermitage.

[ontheweb]

3 hours ago, Cruising-along said:

Unless you're Diabetic....

I usually bring along a snack for those days that a tour doesn't stop for lunch -- but unless someone knows ahead of time that lunch will be skipped, that really isn't fair to those who need to eat at certain times.  

This was all settled by back and forth e-mails with the group participants and Alla, the tour company owner. If lunch was to have been skipped, it would have been known well in advance.

[Cruising-along]

18 minutes ago, ontheweb said:

This was all settled by back and forth e-mails with the group participants and Alla, the tour company owner. If lunch was to have been skipped, it would have been known well in advance.

Thank you for explaining.

[Smiley27]

I hope all cruiseships will cancel Skt.Petersburg and find alternative destinations in The Baltics. I do realize that many cruisers would like to go to than Russian port, but probably not in these days. Having been there on our Very first cruise ever, I say, have it on a later bucket list, but for now, enjoy all the other beautiful ports in the Baltic.

speaking for myself; I cannot wait to go to the Baltics again, but have not really wanted any of the cruises that spend 2-3 days in Skt. petersburg…..so for me, Iam looking forward to seeing What the ships new itenaries will be for this summer….and am ready to book a Baltic cruise.

[HappyInVan]

Now, it gets real...

 

"US embassy warns Americans in Russia should consider leaving "immediately"

 

https://www.cnn.com/europe/live-news/ukraine-russia-news-02-27-22/h_2b0d72fbc883369631a53c1571890a3c

 

 

[Smiley27]

It is a terrible situation!!

I feel for the people in Ukraine……and the people in Russia for having Putin, who makes me think of another bad European man 80 years ago.

 

that said, I thought this was a board about changing itenaries in the Baltics

 

 

[HappyInVan]

7 hours ago, Smiley27 said:

that said, I thought this was a board about changing itenaries in the Baltics

 

 

Actually, Turkey has just committed itself by restricting the movement of Russian warships. So, Eastern Mediterranean is in play. How will the Russians respond?

 

[terrydtx]

We canceled our Oceania Baltic cruise not out of safety concerns, but because St Petersburg was our primary reason to have booked the cruise 2 years ago. NCL holdings, who owns Oceania, was the first major cruise line to cancel St Petersburg for this year. We are not sure we will ever try to book another Baltic cruise because we are so disgusted by Russia's illegal aggression and the leaders of Russia are now all war criminals, I never want to spend one penny in Russia.

 

Our only other very minor concern, we have is that our Greek cruise on the Oosterdam overnights in Istanbul and Istanbul sits at the entrance to the Black Sea, but so far, no incidents have been reported. Turkey is a Nato country and from what I have heard they are not allowing Russian war ships to enter the Black Sea.

 

We are very concerned for the fantastic Ukrainian crew members we have met on cruises, and our hearts go out to them. 

[Walfam]

On 2/26/2022 at 7:05 AM, KirkNC said:

Hermitage is unbelievable but when we were there it was incredibly crowded.

 The Hermitage  was quite crowded over twenty years ago when I cruised there on the Maasdam.

Edited February 28, 2022 by Walfam

[KirkNC]

37 minutes ago, Walfam said:

 The Hermitage  was quite crowded over twenty years ago when I cruised there on the Maasdam.

Once we got inside it was bearable but the entrance area was packed!