Baltic Cruise Report Constellation May 06

[RickT]

Rick T,

 

Try:

 

http://www.alla-tour.com/

 

 

 

 

Alan

 

Thanks... not sure why google and yahoo aren't picking it up...

[Kumarrr]

We docked on Gdynia, Poland.

Save money, and take the shuttle into town. Simply ask the young, English-speaking assistants on the shuttle bus how to take a commuter train into Gdansk. It cost about $1.20. It was a short walk to the train station in Gdynia (about 10 minutes), we purchased tickets, and were into the old city of Gdansk BEFORE the ship's tours. The people at our table on the cruise always laughed to see us at many of the same places the ship's tours visited-- and we did it at a great saving of $$.

Suggestion: Going to Gdansk--- stay on the train until the last Gdansk stop. Easy!

Return trip: Make sure you write down the name of the station you left from in Gdynia. You will notice 5 or 6 stops, all starting with Gdynia--- you need to remember the particular Gdynia station. (I don't remember right now.)

The walk around the Old Town is easy, and people are very helpful!

[cadreamer]

I was surprised you could not find Alla on Google so I just Googled "alla-tour" and Alla came up as the very first link. So, Rick, I'm not sure what happened when you tried but I am glad you got the information you requested. I have written many favorable things about her in the past on these boards and can highly reocmmend her to you. We used her services last summer and were very, very impressed.

[jstducky]

Lyn:

 

Thanks so much for your review. I am considering using Alla, and I am glad to hear that you recommend her so highly.

 

I have one question. You mentioned that you had box lunches on both days of our tour that you had in the mini bus to save time.

 

My question is: did you bring the boxed lunches from the ship or did Alla provide them for you?

 

Thanks!

[ltdedorc]

Our tour on the first day consisted of Catherine’s Palace, the Hermitage, Church on the Spilled Blood and Peter & Paul Fortress. The traffic in St Petersburg is horrendous, a case of ‘who dares wins’ at the junctions. The traffic lights at these intersections seem to impede the flow rather than help it and all drivers block off the junctions. We saw 4 accidents in the 2 days we were there. When we started out we did not think that we would be able to get to see everything we wanted because of the traffic and we began to realise that perhaps we had asked far too much of Alla. We had wanted to see everything we could and this was a demanding schedule usually done in 3 days and we were asking for this all in just 2 days, Alla did a superb job!! On both days we had a packed lunch on the mini-bus so that we could pack everything in.

 

Catherine’s palace is wonderful and the Amber Room exquisite. They have done a fantastic job in reconstruction. On to the Hermitage where you could really spend a whole lifetime just wandering amongst all the treasures, we only had a couple of hours but saw da Vinci’s, Rembrandts, Matisse etc besides the gloriously decorated stairwells, ballrooms and throne rooms. We had also booked the Gold Room, they say ‘room’ but this is one room after another of exquisite treasures and we felt worth the extra admission charge. Alla was not allowed to carry out this part of the tour, we were given a Russian guide who gave us a tour in English but with a very thick Russian accent which was at times difficult to understand and she could not understand questions in English, she just smiled a lot, but nevertheless it was an amazing tour. The Church on the Spilled Blood was wonderful and is being very well restored to its former glory.

 

Then onto the Peter & Paul Fortress and Cathedral...AOur minibus set off to the Peter & Paul Fortress and Cathedral, this was different in that it is not as awe inspiring as the other sights we saw and needs some care and attention, parts of the walls are crumbling and there is no marble, just a paint effect on the walls. The tombs are of course marble and stone but overall, and others we spoke to agreed, if we had to drop something from the tour this would have been the one to miss out. However, having said that we are glad that we went and had the comparison to make.

 

Alla then took us on to a Pub/Restaurant which brewed its own beer...

 

Lyn

 

Lyn,

 

We're going to the Baltics in 2007 and are thinking about hiring Alla to do a customized 2-day tour similar to your May 6, 2006 one. Alla has advised that to do a Hermitage Gold Room (1 additional hr with a Hermitage gudie), something "should be either excluded from the itinerary or we’ll have to cut short excursion either in The Hermitage or in other venues."

 

Did you shorten your 2 1/2 hour Hermitage tour or shortened your stay at Church of Savior on the Spilled Blood and/or Peter & Paul Fortress and Cathedral? If so, did you feel you had ample time at either site? It does sound like we could exclude or minimize the time we stay at the Fortess to make up some of or all of the Gold Room time.

 

Thanks...Harvey:)

[Lyn Mc]

Hi

 

Thanks for your comments on my review. You will not be disappointed if you do choose Alla's Tours they really are fantastic and very hard to beat in the personality stakes! Everyone of the 24 passengers on our tour could not praise the tour/guides highly enough. It is a very tough two days and we did try to pack everything in. Alla did say that normally our chosen tour would be a 3 day one and it gave her a real headache trying to accommodate our wishes. However, Alla, Anna and their drivers did a fantastic job for us.

 

With regard to your question on lunches - some passengers took their own lunches and others had those provided by Alla (I can't remember the exact charge for a lunch but it was under $10). We ordered sandwiches from the ship and wrapped them in foil and took those with some fruit and muffins and Cadbury's chocolate that we brought with us from home. We also took a couple of bottles/cans for drinks. Everyone seemed to enjoy their lunch whichever they chose but it really saved time eating en route. Now that the G8 summit is over and the roadworks should be finished the roads could perhaps be a little better but I doubt it will improve that much. I am sure there may be recent posts that mention the traffic situation in St Petersburg but I have been away from the boards for a while so would need to catch up on that.

 

 

Harvey, the Gold Room was worth it, but Alla is right, we had to shorten our stay at the Hermitage to accommodate it. Given the choice again I would still take the Gold Room but others said they would rather have seen more of the Hermitage itself. Our (husband and I) personal take on this, now that we have seen a few of the sites in St Petersburg, is that we could have missed off the Peter & Paul Fortress/Cathedral. If we had made a list from 1 to 10 - this would have been at the bottom. So, your thoughts about cutting short your stay at this particular venue would coincide with ours - this is not to say that others would agree but in our experience when we talked about venues after out trip quite a high % did agree with us but not everyone!!

 

Hope this helps. Have a great trip and if you need any further advice please let me know.

 

Lyn

[jstducky]

Lyn - thanks so much! i am really leaning towards taking Alla's tour now. i contacted both RO and Alla a few months back when I first booked my cruise. While I got prompt responses from both, I actually received a follow up email from Alla the other day to see if I had any questions or anything she could help with. I liked the fact that she took the time to follow up with me. As in she is a small shop that really cares about her customers.

 

Thank you for answer my lunch question. Sounds like we couldn't go wrong either way we decided to do lunch.

 

Thanks again. You're review was extremely helpful.

[insidecabin]

We too found the Alla tour fantastic, we hade been to St.P before but only did two short trips from the ship but this time we got to see so much more.

 

One thing to consider is are you likely to go back. If you can/are cruising a lot the baltics may come back onto the list after few years so you could consider some sites for the next time.

 

There is no way to do it all in two days so some comprimise is needed and the smaller sized groups do mean you can move around a lot quicker.

 

I think adding the gold room is worth while since you are only seeing a small part of the Hermitage anyway(full day required at least)

 

IIRC some of the group did the P&P fortress late then went on for drinks/dinner and got back oround 8:30pm certainly worth considering that option if you are not planning the opera or some other late event.

[highworth]

Great review Lyn....we have booked Alla for next June for a 2 day tour. Any chance you could make a 1-10 list in order of preference of sites you saw? Also from Insidecabin if you have time. It would be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks,

Pat

[SF]

Pat,

 

We to are thinking of booking Alla for June what was required to book with her......did you have to leave a deposit?

[highworth]

Hi ST,

No...we didn't have to put a deposit in fact she said we didn't even have to decide on exactly what tour or what we wanted to see at this point.

When is your cruise and on what ship?

Pat d

[SF]

Hi Pat,

 

Thanks for replying. Just for the record it's SF, not ST, but that's not a problem. We are sailing on the Constellation June 2nd. How about you, when is your trip? There's so much to plan for but that's half the fun. Looks like we're going to book with Alla also. She's been very receptive to my emails and the itinerary planned sounds nice.

 

What are the important or best choices to see at the Hermitage? Which painting should we definitely not miss? I know we're scheduled for the Winter Palace.

Any help deciding would be appreciated.

[highworth]

Hi SF...I realised it was incorrect as soon as I hit the send button!!! We will be getting on right after you...the Constellation June 16th. We learnt from the Med cruise that you can't hit everything and really see it well, so its important to pick out just a certain amount and really enjoy it...and then hopefully get back some other time to pick up the rest. Thats why I'm hopeful we can get some hints from those who have already done the cruise on what thier favourite spots were...although I know its different for different people..

Take care,

pat

[SF]

Pat,

 

I agree, it's so hard deciding what's priority since you know it's impossible to see everything. How many are in your group? I'm trying to decide if we'll have enough time to include Yusupov's Palace. I know I definitely want to go to Catherine's Palace plus Peterhof and the Grand Palace. We're also trying to include some shopping time but there doesn't seem to be enough hours to do everything. What are your main interests to see?

 

Lyn,

 

We're thinking of visiting Yusupov's Palace and may need to eliminate something from our itinerary. Is it really worth seeing? Our itinerary is similar to yours minus the metro stop and the local food market and we decided to take the hydrofoil back from Peterhof. I'm trying to get a visit to Northway and Yusupov's added but don't know if there will be time since we also want to stop at the Choral Synagogue. So much to see, so little time. What's your opinion about adding Yusupov's in place of something else?

[Lyn Mc]

Hi Pat and SF

 

You have picked an excellent tour guide and will have a fantastic time in St Petersburg, I hope the weather will be as good for you as it was for us, it made touring the Peterhof gardens etc a wonderful experience.

 

OK, you have asked for a top '10', I really could not split some of them but if I was really pushed this is it - now please remember that this is my personal choice and others (and perhaps yourselves after your own trips) will disagree wildly. I think it will also depend on whereabouts in your tour itinerary you see each site because as you see more and more wonderful things, your brain is being inundated by all this history, gold, colour and treasures, etc and it does become difficult to remember where one wonderful site started and others ended - anyway here goes:

 

1. Peterhof gardens and Grand Palace (although the staff here are the most ferocious of all the sites we visited - don't even get near to a wall!!)

 

2. St Isaac's Cathedral - took my breath away for a while

 

3. Catherine's Palace, Pushkin - this was our first real site and therefore memories are much easier to keep

 

4. Hermitage / Gold Room - could have stayed here for much longer

 

5. The Metro ride - absolutely amazing and would not have missed this 'add-on'

 

6. Yusupovs Palace - tour started with what looked like just another 'grand' house but it became so much more and my husband would rate this higher in his list then I have in mine.

 

7. Church of The Spilled Blood - this was still being refurbished when we were there but is another beautiful site to visit

 

8. Peter & Paul Fortress & Catherdral - didn't see much of the Fortress at all - parked up and went straight into the Cathedral - needs some attention but it was perhaps good to see the contrast

 

9. The food market - it was interesting and some of the group shopped but you do need roubles, they do not take dollars.

 

Our shopping trip to Northway was great, if you don't buy (especially the Matroushka dolls) at that shop you will regret it - we did - the ship's prices were not even close! Some people had said that Tallin's prices would be better - we did not find this but maybe we just didn't find the right shop although we went into nearly all of them!!

 

I Hope this helps you and I would love to hear back from you next year to see if your 'top 10' is anything like mine!!

 

Lyn Mc

[SF]

Lyn Mc:

 

Thank you so much for your "top 10 list". We are excited about visiting St. Petersburg, especially after reading your review and others. We will be touring with Alla on a custom tour. Even though it is a lot more expensive than doing a value tour we feel we'll get to see more plus the exact places we want. June seems so far off but I'd be happy to give our "2¢ worth" when we return.:)

 

Another question if you don't mind.

I was wondering....did you enjoy visiting both Catherine's Palace and the Grand Palace at Peterhof? The reason I'm asking is I was told they are both designed by the same architect and very similar. We have a choice to do Monplaisire palace instead of the Grand but I'm still opting for the Grand but I don't want to see the same things. What's your opinion on this? Did you find them too similar?

[SF]

Lyn Mc:

 

One more question,

 

Just found out we'll have to decide between seeing the Grand Palace or Yusupovs Palace. Which would you choose if you're already going to Catherine's Palace? Why?

 

Would appreciate any other opinions from those that have visited both.

[highworth]

SF.......have you made any decision regarding Berlin? Thats the one other place that I feal we need something organized rather than going it alone..

Pat

[SF]

We're not going to Berlin but opted to stay in Warnemunde and Rostock. There seems to be a lot to see in both those places and since we haven't been there before I'm sure it will be nice. The cruise is really port intensive and since we'll have two full days in St. Petersburg we didn't want another 12 hr. day. Have to leave something for next time.;)

 

What are your plans for Berlin? What itinerary are you doing for St. Petersburg with Alla?

[Lyn Mc]

Hi SF

 

We enjoyed both Catherines and the Grand Palace at Peterhof. We too were told that we ought to see the Montplaisir Palace instead to give us a contrast but chose the Grand Palace in the end. Yes the two are very similar but both have wonderful rooms/exhibits. I doubt you would be disappointed whichever you choose.

 

You state you have a choice between Grand Palace or Yusapov's - does this mean you have to miss out Peterhof altogether or you will just see the gardens and not the Grand Palace?

 

Given the choice between Peterhof Gardens and the Grand Palace which are on the same site and Yusapov's (in the City) there is no contest -Peterhof wins hands down. However if you are visiting the Gardens and the choice is just between the Grand Palace and Yusopov's I would definately go with Yusapov's. Again I must stress that this is my own personal opinion (my husband would agree, he thought Yusapovs was a definate 'must see'), others will have their own thoughts. The Yusapov tour starts quite slowly and modestly and you do not relaise how big this place actually is but you go on and on, room after room of wonderful exhibits and there is the Rasputin episode all mixed in with this. There is the most wonderful theatre within its walls. You certainly get value for money with this tour.

 

Your choice of staying in Warnemunde and Rostock is a good one and certainly less tiring. We caught the train into Rostock and toured for a while, wonderful square and german beer. Warnemunde is a lovely seaside town, better when the sun shines, was very showery whilst we we there, but thoroughly enjoyed it and their send off is definately something to be on deck/balcony for!!

 

Hope this helps.

 

Lyn Mc

[SF]

Lyn Mc:

 

Thanks so much for the indepth answer to my questions. Your explanations and opinions really helped. We definitely want to see the gardens at Peterhof but we may have to give up viewing the interior to the Grand Palace if we want to see Yusapov's Palace and still stay on schedule. There is another option where we could see both Yusapov's and the Grand Palace with the gardens plus all the other sights but that would be one of the "strenuous tours" and we wouldn't get back to the ship until 7:30PM. I'm kind of concerned that would exhaust us especially since we'd have another full day plus two more ports right after St. Petersburg. Any opinions on that....how long was your first day tour?

 

I read that the train station to get to Rostock is within walking distance to the ship. How long of a walk was is? Can we just purchase our tickets there and will they accept credit cards or is local money needed? I also read that they have a ticket that includes all buses, trams, etc.... this way you can hop a tram while in Rostock. Did you make use of this type of ticket?

 

Thanks again for all your help, it's really appreciated and makes planning our trip easier.:)

[insidecabin]

IN St,P with the out of town locations it is worth seeing everything, I think they do these early in the day(morning) over two days to avoid the queues by getting early entrance this probably costs more but saves a lot of time.

 

With warnemunde shortish walk(<5 mins) to the station and the fare is not much a few eur so you will probably have some since this is needed for a few ports on baltic trips.

 

http://cruise-chat.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/1261017441/m/7761038542

[Lyn Mc]

Hi SF

 

Phil is right, you should see all you can in St P. I agree it is very exhausting but worth it. We were up very early before 6.00 a.m. (your also need to take into account the clocks going forward 3 times before St P) and we got back around 8.30 p.m. the first day and left at 8.00 a.m. and got back around 4.30 p.m. the second day.

 

Train station at Warnemunde is a few minutes from where the ship docks. Our ticket cost just over 3 euros - you need the cash. This ticket will give you all day on the train, trams 5 & 6, buses and ferry. The train took around 20 minutes to Rostock and we made our way to the Centre by foot. However, we realised after that we could have gone down the stairs and taken trams 5 or 6 to the Centre, which we did in reverse later that day.

 

Lyn

[SF]

I agree, we'll want to see as much of St. Petersburg as possible so we decided to spend the extra and do a private tour. We've confirmed our tour and we'll be doing a city tour, the Hermitage, Peter and Paul Fortress, St. Isaac Cathedral, Church Of The Spilled Blood, Catherine's Palace plus also seeing the fountain park at Petershof but we opted to view only the outside of the Grand Palace since we want to do Yusupov's Palace. We won't have enough time to do both the Grand Palace interior and Yusupov so we went with Yusupov's since it's different. At least we're going to see the exterior of the Grand Palace. Since we also want to do some shopping plus see some other sights like Nevsky prospect and the bronze horseman, Rostral Columns etc and take an interior tour of Choral Synagogue our time is limited. We are returning to the city by hydrofoil so like others have said that will give us another perspective. With our itinerary we won't be returning until late on the first day which is fine. I heard they have open seating for dinner during those days.

 

Thanks for letting me know I'll need cash for the train to Rostock. We are really looking for to this trip.

 

Did you also visit Helsingborg, Sweden?