Impressions of the Baltic Cruise

[mek]

If you are into history, you need to see the Alaxander Palace that is near the Catherine Palace in Tsarsko Selo,(Pushkin.) It was the primary residence of the last Imperial Family and was where their captivity began when the revloution started. This is not a restored palace and needs much work, but it is where an important part of history took place.

[lmg1230]

Re: Transfer to airport

We are travelling on Emerald Princess which is to dock at 5am. Princess informed us that they could not guarantee that we would make a 10:30am flight. There was discussion of this in another thread and many seem to have made earlier flights out of Copenhagen but we opted to stay the extra day so that we wouldn't feel stressed about missing our flight home.

[desertminky]

I agree completely. Normally, I would be tempted to use a Princess tour in a country where I'm unfamiliar with the language but there are several excellent, and very experienced, tour operators in St. Petersburg. We used SPB Tours for both St. Petersburg and Berlin, and they were incredible. Definitely as good as the better-known tour operators plus they also book tours for Berlin (where our tour guide was an American married to a German and living there) so you only need one contact for both ports. I can't say enough about them. The owner, Viktoria Rother, checked up on us throughout the day to make sure things were going well in St. P, and her husband did the same in Berlin. Very hands-on and concerned to make sure everything goes right. Our tour guide took us to little, out-of the way places for lunch which was "real" Russian food, delicious and very inexpensive; a relatively quick stop and we were back on the road.

 

We used SPB Tours as well, a tour of two people. Amazingly, it was much much less than taking the Princess excursions would have been. We actually saved money AND saw much more in a more relaxing atmosphere. We loved Viktoria and she gave us so much history and current event information it was invaluable. Plus there were no lines, which is always a concern to me! Enjoy St. Petersburg, the most beautiful city I have seen.

[Starlaker]

The book I read is titled "Catherine the Great" and was written by Zoe Oldenbourg. Copyright 1965. I have had it for years and reread it before going to Russia. The History Channel had a series on last year, "Russia under the Tsars" (or something like that) that was excellent. We told our friends about it and they got the CD from their public library. All of that really helped me keep track when our tour guide was telling us about the history of Russia. Fascinating.

[Starlaker]

I just looked it up on Amazon and the name of the video is "Russia Land of the Tsars". They also have the Oldenbourg book on Catherine. What I really liked about it is that it is a Biography mostly concerned with how Catherine came to the throne based on her diaries and memoirs. A good read with lots of history thrown in.

[mk0520]

Thanks for all the valuable information. I'm off to the Library. Although our cruise is not until September, its so much fun to start preparing by reading books that pertain to the countries we will be visiting. St. Petersburg sounds fascinating!!

[pinay]

thank you for the wonderful stories and memories tha u have shared. Truly it has build up more excitement for my husband and myself. Your sharing has given us more insights about thi Balic Cruise. We are going to sail May 16,.2009. We will be in Denmark May 14 and go around copenhagen taking the bus hop on hop off and ake the canal cruise if u have some more thought pls let me know. Again thank u for the nice impression of the Baltic Cruise. More power to you.

[Tep]

We booked an independent 2-day tour for just the two of us and we had a Mercedes, a driver, and a private guide at our disposal for the entire time.

 

How much did you pay for this private tour? Tnx

[Roses2]

I am sure that our rate was based on the Ruble exchange rate last year, so with the decline of the Ruble it may be less this year.

The total package for the two days, including tips to the driver and guide was about $1,680.

Considering we did almost all other ports on our own, our total shore tour costs were only a bit more than on other 10-day cruises

[pinay]

Hello thank you for all the tips you gave us it made our decision regarding excursions easier. May I ask how much is the transport card in Helsinki? Do they accept credit card for the ransport card or cash? What about the taxi ride in Talinn how much did it cost you? Thank you vey much for your help

[G&B]

I will also cast a vote for Red October. We had a fantastic tour on our Baltic Cruise last spring.

Everyone seems to mention the cost of everything in Copenhagen, but if you are holders of the Choice Privileges Card issued through Comfort Inns you can stay there for free, as we did. We chose the Hotel Twentyseven, which is only a few blocks from the train station, and we walked to most all of the sights from there. The rooms were very clean and modern and best of all they have a free breakfast with fresh bakery goods and some of the best cheeses I have ever tasted. They also have a light evening buffet, which is also free.