Princess excursion - St. Petersburg

[Tigress1013]

hello ... i am going on the July 25 Baltic cruise on Emerald. i am looking for recommendations whether or not to take the "Imperial Evening" excursion at Catherine's Palace. Anyone's been on who can give me an idea? Do you get to take pictures at the palace park ? Is it already dark when you get there?

 

I am joining the 2 days grand tour of St. Petersburg tour and that does not cover Catherine Palace. Still debating on whether to

1) join the grand tour plus the imperial evening at catherine palace OR

2) join the 2 seperate days excursions covering Peterhof & catherine palace and the city but only get photo stops at the cathedrals & church of spilled blood and no canal cruise.

 

thanks in advance.

[jennifers490]

I really loved the two day grand tour but was soooo tired in the evening the first day-we chose the shorter folkdance show the first night and could barely keep our eyes open even though it was energetic--i'm sure it's a wonderful evening at the palace but just keep in mind they are very long days

[dance4fun]

hello ... i am going on the July 25 Baltic cruise on Emerald. i am looking for recommendations whether or not to take the "Imperial Evening" excursion at Catherine's Palace. Anyone's been on who can give me an idea? Do you get to take pictures at the palace park ? Is it already dark when you get there?

 

I am joining the 2 days grand tour of St. Petersburg tour and that does not cover Catherine Palace. Still debating on whether to

1) join the grand tour plus the imperial evening at catherine palace OR

2) join the 2 seperate days excursions covering Peterhof & catherine palace and the city but only get photo stops at the cathedrals & church of spilled blood and no canal cruise.

 

thanks in advance.

 

We faced the same questions.

 

In the end, we booked a DenRus private tour for day one for 12 hours to see the city, cathedrals, and do a canal cruise. Then on day two, the Princess tour to Peterhof and Catherine's palace. Plus we figure that on day two, Princess is responsible for seeing us back to the ship.

 

We have read that the grand tour and the imperial evening tour was wonderful, but just too much. You are on the go from 7 am to midnight and then out the next day at 7. Also, from our reading and other feedback, we were not sure that the Princess grand tour is at Peterhof when the fountains are working. The Princess Peterhof and Catherine tour does mention the Peterhof fountains.

[dance4fun]

Tigress - send us a friend request or post an email if you are interested in the itinerary we have booked with DenRus. We are on the July 15th sailing of the Emerald Princess

 

Jennifer - sorry, meant the friend request for Tigress to exchange the itinerary.

[jennifers490]

no problem--we did it late august and the fountains were on at peterhof on the grand tour...got some beautiful pics!

 

i'm sure you'll enjoy no matter what you choose :)

[Tigress1013]

Thank you for your advice Dancers 4 fun :)

 

Can you I ask you more questions?

1) How did you find the Day 2 Peterhof & Catherine Palace tours? Do you have enough time at the Peterhof fountains for photo taking? My travel agent told me the 2 palaces are very far apart and leaves one less time at the fountains. Do you go to Peterhof in the morning or afternoon?

2) I can't do the private tour. I read a lot about DenRus too but my parents prefer to go with the ship's excursions. Is the church of spilled blood, St. Issac's Cathedral & the canal cruise very worth going? I have the option of picking Day 1 Hermitage & City tour but only get to take photo outside the church of spilled blood and St. Issac's cathedral and no canal cruise.

3) If you were to pick between going in to see the church and cathedral vs Catherine Palace, what will you pick?

 

Thanks again for helping me. I am getting torned between how to pick my excursions. ;)

[Tigress1013]

no problem--we did it late august and the fountains were on at peterhof on the grand tour...got some beautiful pics!

 

i'm sure you'll enjoy no matter what you choose :)

 

Jennifer, thank you very much for your useful information too !!

I am a first time user of this blog and really helpful and people respond quickly !!

[j!m]

we are just back from a baltic cruise

 

we did a pvt tour in SP for our time there

 

we enoyed it and saw a lot more than the "bus" tours

 

you will love SP

 

hava great cruise

[NVCLVR]

Hi: Yes, my DD and I took the "Imperial Evening at the Catherine Palace" tour w/Princess. It was wonderful! Actually, we took the tour on our second visit, which was much more relaxed. Any tour combination in St.Petersburg is intensive and exhausting, but you do have a nice +/-hour (depending on traffic)drive out there (&back) in the evening. Yes, its still daylight. They encourage you to dress up (not formal, just dressy-casual) and we did...just don't wear high heels (or sneakers), wear comfortable shoes. You're given a tour of the carriage house first, then welcomed by a band on the front lawn as you enter the palace. You're given booties (to protect the floors...and help polish them,too:D).then given a tour. Unique to the pm tour is your opportunity to take photos of the Amber Room (not allowed during the day tours). There are musicians (flute, violin, harpsicord) in the different rooms. Then you go up to the grand ballroom, given champagne and you sit in chairs while entertained by "Catherine" (who gives a welcome speech) and musicians and dancers, all in period costumes. Then taken down to the parade yard/ground for more musical entertainment, dancing (the dancers enter riding in a horse-drawn carriage). Finally, you're taken to one of the old servants' quarters for a lovely dinner w/more wine and, of course, vodka and more entertainment (singing). Its a wonderful experience (especially when you get to see the setting sun shine on the gold spires on the palace), very relaxing & you're bussed back and arrive back at the ship at about midnight. We believe its a not-to-be-missed excursion! We're planning our 3rd Baltic trip for next year and plan to repeat the "Imperial Evening at Catherine Palace"...it was that good! It's costly, but well worth it. Yes..regardless of what tours you plan, you'll be exhausted with sensory overload, as well as physically. Just figure you might not get another chance so go for it!:)

[Tigress1013]

Hi: Yes, my DD and I took the "Imperial Evening at the Catherine Palace" tour w/Princess. It was wonderful! Actually, we took the tour on our second visit, which was much more relaxed. Any tour combination in St.Petersburg is intensive and exhausting, but you do have a nice +/-hour (depending on traffic)drive out there (&back) in the evening. Yes, its still daylight. They encourage you to dress up (not formal, just dressy-casual) and we did...just don't wear high heels (or sneakers), wear comfortable shoes. You're given a tour of the carriage house first, then welcomed by a band on the front lawn as you enter the palace. You're given booties (to protect the floors...and help polish them,too:D).then given a tour. Unique to the pm tour is your opportunity to take photos of the Amber Room (not allowed during the day tours). There are musicians (flute, violin, harpsicord) in the different rooms. Then you go up to the grand ballroom, given champagne and you sit in chairs while entertained by "Catherine" (who gives a welcome speech) and musicians and dancers, all in period costumes. Then taken down to the parade yard/ground for more musical entertainment, dancing (the dancers enter riding in a horse-drawn carriage). Finally, you're taken to one of the old servants' quarters for a lovely dinner w/more wine and, of course, vodka and more entertainment (singing). Its a wonderful experience (especially when you get to see the setting sun shine on the gold spires on the palace), very relaxing & you're bussed back and arrive back at the ship at about midnight. We believe its a not-to-be-missed excursion! We're planning our 3rd Baltic trip for next year and plan to repeat the "Imperial Evening at Catherine Palace"...it was that good! It's costly, but well worth it. Yes..regardless of what tours you plan, you'll be exhausted with sensory overload, as well as physically. Just figure you might not get another chance so go for it!:)

 

Thank you very much for your detailed description of the tour. Seems more worth it if the dinner is served at the palace ground !! Did you take photos of this tour? Would you be able to share?

[EddieCruzer]

I just returned from the Baltic Cruise on the Emerald. I had 4 excursions planned in SPB. When I boarded I decided to cancel my Hermitage trip the first morning in port. Phew.... good thing I did. We docked at some cargo port where there were only 4 immigration booths and no one seemed to know what they were doing. The lines were horrendous. People scheduled to disembark at 6:30am waited in lines in the cold and rain until about 10:30am. If you were unlucky enough to get behind crew members when disembarking you encounted an even worst fate. The list of over 1200 crew members was not in alphabetical order so it took forever for them to get through immigration. What was even worse was when crew members started cutting in front of passengers to get up closer with their friends.

 

When I looked outside at the lines and heard the horror stories I was so relieved. Folks returning from that trip said they rushed around the museum with about 10 seconds to look at any picture.

 

The first afternoon I went on the Venice of the North. It was a really nice trip and totally enjoyed it.

 

The second morning I went on the Hidden Scenes Walking Tour. I highly recommend this. We went to a Russian food market and took a ride on the subway. Not recommened for anyone with any difficulty in walking. The escalators in the subway are very steep and move at a pace twice that of those in the states. Not for the unsteady of foot.

 

The second afternoon was the Sparkling Fountains of Peterhoff. If we would have had more time there it would have been better. We spent 2 hours on a horriffic bus ride to get there. Nothing worth it in terms of scenery. Good thing I got friendly with the person who was a Princess escort while on the trip. Our guide left us at the dock for the hydrofoil ride back to town. She never bothered to count her group. Luckily we found another Princess group to travel back with. Why don't they send you to the Fountains on the hydrofoil, that ride is only 20 mins?

[NVCLVR]

Tigress: Yes, we do have some pictures...I'll have to dig them up (our tour was in 2007) & figure out how to post them here..so give me a couple of days (have to ask DD, as she's the tech-expert in the family)! The dinner was on the palace grounds...as I said, its in what was originally one of the servant's quarters..a group of 1-story (as I remember)buildings in a semi-circle around the Palace, with what I call the parade grounds/yard between. You'll enter the Palace on the side of the gardens (what I call the front) and exit on the opposite side. Really enjoyed the dinner; it was a several courses with plenty of wine and vodka, as well as the ever-present bottle of water.

Also, I felt the evening tour through the Catherine Palace was very relaxing (had plenty of time to thoroughly examine the amber room), not hurried, rushed or crowded. On our first Baltic trip, we visited the Palace on a tour during the day and it was packed & we were rushed through. Second trip, on the evening tour, we felt we were seeing everything fresh!

Will start looking for our disc w/the photos!

K

[traveler525]

Thank you! We were also wondering on whether to do the evening at Catherine's Palace as well as it sounds wonderful! But, we had the same concern, if we would be just too exhausted to enjoy it. Maybe a shorter first daytime tour, then the evening one.

[dance4fun]

Thank you for your advice Dancers 4 fun :)

 

Can you I ask you more questions?

1) How did you find the Day 2 Peterhof & Catherine Palace tours? Do you have enough time at the Peterhof fountains for photo taking? My travel agent told me the 2 palaces are very far apart and leaves one less time at the fountains. Do you go to Peterhof in the morning or afternoon?

2) I can't do the private tour. I read a lot about DenRus too but my parents prefer to go with the ship's excursions. Is the church of spilled blood, St. Issac's Cathedral & the canal cruise very worth going? I have the option of picking Day 1 Hermitage & City tour but only get to take photo outside the church of spilled blood and St. Issac's cathedral and no canal cruise.

3) If you were to pick between going in to see the church and cathedral vs Catherine Palace, what will you pick?

 

Thanks again for helping me. I am getting torned between how to pick my excursions. ;)

 

Since we have not gone on the trip yet (leaving soon!) we can not tell you how they went.

 

Our day2 trip is through Princess; it is one of their excursions.

 

Our traveling companions really want to see the insides of the cathedrals AND Catherine Palace and Peterhof insides and out. So we have planned our tours.

 

If your parents only let you choose from Princess tours, see how they feel about doing the 2 day grand tour and the evening tour. From the description posted above, it sounds quite nice.

[Tigress1013]

Tigress: Yes, we do have some pictures...I'll have to dig them up (our tour was in 2007) & figure out how to post them here..so give me a couple of days (have to ask DD, as she's the tech-expert in the family)! The dinner was on the palace grounds...as I said, its in what was originally one of the servant's quarters..a group of 1-story (as I remember)buildings in a semi-circle around the Palace, with what I call the parade grounds/yard between. You'll enter the Palace on the side of the gardens (what I call the front) and exit on the opposite side. Really enjoyed the dinner; it was a several courses with plenty of wine and vodka, as well as the ever-present bottle of water.

Also, I felt the evening tour through the Catherine Palace was very relaxing (had plenty of time to thoroughly examine the amber room), not hurried, rushed or crowded. On our first Baltic trip, we visited the Palace on a tour during the day and it was packed & we were rushed through. Second trip, on the evening tour, we felt we were seeing everything fresh!

Will start looking for our disc w/the photos!

K

 

Thanks K .... If it is too much trouble to find the photos, don't worry about it. You gave me lot's of info about this evening tour already. :)

[Tigress1013]

I just returned from the Baltic Cruise on the Emerald. I had 4 excursions planned in SPB. When I boarded I decided to cancel my Hermitage trip the first morning in port. Phew.... good thing I did. We docked at some cargo port where there were only 4 immigration booths and no one seemed to know what they were doing. The lines were horrendous. People scheduled to disembark at 6:30am waited in lines in the cold and rain until about 10:30am. If you were unlucky enough to get behind crew members when disembarking you encounted an even worst fate. The list of over 1200 crew members was not in alphabetical order so it took forever for them to get through immigration. What was even worse was when crew members started cutting in front of passengers to get up closer with their friends.

 

When I looked outside at the lines and heard the horror stories I was so relieved. Folks returning from that trip said they rushed around the museum with about 10 seconds to look at any picture.

 

The first afternoon I went on the Venice of the North. It was a really nice trip and totally enjoyed it.

 

The second morning I went on the Hidden Scenes Walking Tour. I highly recommend this. We went to a Russian food market and took a ride on the subway. Not recommened for anyone with any difficulty in walking. The escalators in the subway are very steep and move at a pace twice that of those in the states. Not for the unsteady of foot.

 

The second afternoon was the Sparkling Fountains of Peterhoff. If we would have had more time there it would have been better. We spent 2 hours on a horriffic bus ride to get there. Nothing worth it in terms of scenery. Good thing I got friendly with the person who was a Princess escort while on the trip. Our guide left us at the dock for the hydrofoil ride back to town. She never bothered to count her group. Luckily we found another Princess group to travel back with. Why don't they send you to the Fountains on the hydrofoil, that ride is only 20 mins?

 

Thanks Eddie for your input. I have to ask for more feedback from people who went on the grand tour. Getting nervous about what I hear from you :( Maybe have to consider the private van option by princess since I have 8 people travelling together.