Gala Evening at Yusupov Palace

[Pettifogger]

I tried the search function, but found no report by anyone who had personally tried the HAL excursion for the gala evening at Yusupov Palace. In my experience such things are either wonderful or a waste of time and money and I have no way of guessing which it is more likely to be. An opinion from someone, especially a woman, since my wife will like it even more than I do if it manages to create the illusion of visiting a palace when it was alive, would be greatly appreciated.

[Kingsbridge]

Hi. I am going on a Eurodam cruise that offers this excursion and I have signed up for it. I haven't taken this tour before, but I know several people who took it on earlier HAL cruises and really enjoyed it. I have visited the palace which is very interesting. The 180 seat theatre inside the house is gorgeous. I wavered between this evening excursion and the much cheaper folkloric one and decided on this because of the atmosphere of the house and the opportunity to hear music in the lovely theatre. I haven't seen the Rasputin exhibit in the basement and am looking forward to that too.

[teach2travel]

I am so glad to hear good things about the show there. We scheduled tours with SPB for Berlin and St. Petersburg, and Viktoria set up an evening optional activity for this, the "Feel Yourself Russian" show. I am sure that after a long day of touring I will not be in mood to go anywhere else, but this sounds like it will be totally worth it!

[Pettifogger]

One incidental question: is the formal attire required the same as on the ship?Having to rent evening dress would raise the cost considerably.

[Kingsbridge]

I'm sure it's just the same formal attire that you'll have for the ship. I'm not planning to bring or rent anything extra for this event. I doubt that the venue requires the formal dress; it's probably just HAL putting us in the gala mood of an evening at a prince's house circa 1900. It's not a bad deal because you get to see the house plus the concert. The Yusupov Palace is unusual because it wasn't bombed in the war. It's been used for different purposes and the great art that the Yusupovs owned is now in the Hermitage, but the house is really a grand house with some very interesting details, and the theatre was built for Zenaida Yusupova, and is not a latter day add-on. I think it will be a successful fantasy evening.

[Pettifogger]

kingsbridge: We're going on the August 7 cruise. That's pretty late in the season, but if you're going later I'll report to you, unless "she who must be obeyed" changes her mind about which tour we're going to take. Would you mind doing the same if your cruise is earlier?

[Kingsbridge]

Hi. My cruise is in June. We'll be going to the Yusupov Gala on Saturday, June 6. I'll be happy to post my impressions and my opinion of the excursion on this forum. You'll have plenty of time to change your mind without penalty.

[Pettifogger]

Thank you.

[banditoo]

Hi. My cruise is in June. We'll be going to the Yusupov Gala on Saturday, June 6. I'll be happy to post my impressions and my opinion of the excursion on this forum. You'll have plenty of time to change your mind without penalty.

 

Is this Yusapov gala only available for specific cruise excursions or can it be purchased privately? We are on the Emerald Princess and I don't see that they offer it; instead they do the Catherine Palace gala but as we are going there during the day, we would prefer somewhere different in the evening.

[Kingsbridge]

I think that different cruise lines book these venues and they may be exclusive to that cruise line on a particular night. I haven't seen any listings of the Yusupov Palace Gala being offered by Alla, Red October, Anastasia, etc., but you could email them and ask.

 

The Catherine's Palace Gala is offered by Crystal and Regent as well as Princess. The Yusupov gala has been offered by other cruise lines and high end tour companies as well. The number of people who can go to an event at the Yusupov is limited by the number of people who can fit in the very small theatre.

 

The Catherine's Palace evening event involves a champagne reception and a show of the Imperial Guards. You get to see the principal rooms such as the Amber room and there's a dinner afterwards at a local restaurant. The size of the restaurant might limit the number of people there, but since the palace is so big, it might be possible for more than one cruise line to bring passengers there and then take them to a different restaurant.

 

If I were going to tour either of these palaces during the day, I wouldn't go back at night to the same place for the Evening Gala.