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#11
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Roll Call
Thanks so much guys.
The one tour we arranged through Oceania was to visit Peter The Great's Palace. With the history of Russia and Westerners, I am a bit frightened to step very far from the ship with out someone from the ship near by. Maybe there are some gift shops right near the port where we could buy some souvenirs. Or maybe there will be things on board the ship we could do. Having lived through the 50s and 60s, I am still a bit frightened of just being in Russia. Sandy "Tom K" wrote in message ... On 7/21/12 6:18 PM, Jeff Gersten wrote: I am not on face book, a little afraid of using that, but I do check in here often and like the rest of you who have commented, I miss the old crowd as well. Same here. We are planning aBaltic cruise in June-July of 2013 on Oceania and have lots of questions we would like to ask you guys. Such as with the three days we will be in St. Petersburg, we only have scheduled one Tour, what is there to do near the port for the other two days, and will we need any documents when we are on our own besides our passports. I sure miss all the posts. St. Petersburg is not set up to do on your own. It's not a port where you will find public transportation. Plus Russian law is that you need a visa anywhere in Russia except for St. Petersburg for 72 hours or less AND you use either a ship's tour or a tour with a licensed tour guide. We used Alla 5 years ago, and were very pleased with her service. If I were you, I'd look at the Baltic port section of cruisecritic to see what folks are saying about guides these days. Once you have a roll call, you could see if others wanted to share tours. We are going to St. Petersburg on Constellation this August. Having been there before, one of my disappointments the first time was not having nearly enough time in the Hermitage. We were there like 2-3 hours which wasn't nearly enough. To me that is one of the treasures of the world. I wanted more time there and was willing to give up time we would have spent at churches or temples. Charles read about TJ Travel tours in St. Petersburg. After looking at various options that range from expensive tours with your own guide to the standard tours, I contacted a rep from TJ. I explained my wishes and they came up with a great middle option. We will be with a group the first day going to Catherine's Palace and Peterhof Palace. The second day we will be with the group for a boat ride in the morning, but then when the group is taken to the Hermitage, we will get our own guide for the Hermitage that we can keep for the rest of the day until going back to the ship. And the increased price wasn't that much more than for the standard tour. I was very impressed with their flexibility and willingness to work with my wishes at a fair price. Hopefully their tour matches their great service so far. We will know in a few weeks. Tom |
#12
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Roll Call
On 7/22/2012 3:15 PM, Sandy wrote:
Thanks so much guys. The one tour we arranged through Oceania was to visit Peter The Great's Palace. With the history of Russia and Westerners, I am a bit frightened to step very far from the ship with out someone from the ship near by. Maybe there are some gift shops right near the port where we could buy some souvenirs. Or maybe there will be things on board the ship we could do. Having lived through the 50s and 60s, I am still a bit frightened of just being in Russia. Sandy, Don't be afraid. The Russian people are friendly. Just smile. Do be aware that many of the public rest rooms charge so keep some Roubles in your pocket. We called it "potty cash". Before you pay for the visit to Peterhof, make sure that it's the entire palace. Our tour last summer from the river cruise only went through the gardens. They are magnificent and rather startling and a lot of fun especially if you are there on a week end in hot weather and the local families are there with the children, but we did not get to see the interior of the palace. That's one place we will visit with Alla next summer on our private tour. You need to visit Catherine's Palace. It's amazing. It makes Versailles look like a dump. Other places to see are the Peter and Paul Fortress, St. Isaac's Cathedral and, of course, The Hermitage. The huge collection of Western art at the Hermitage had me in tears. I was so overwhelmed by so much great art in one place. Blew my mind! If you go to St. Isaacs, pay the fee and climb up into the rotunda. The vistas of all of the city can be photographed. I was so glad I did as some of my best photos were taken from up there. -- Janet Wilder Way-the-heck-south Texas Spelling doesn't count. Cooking does. |
#13
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Roll Call
On Sat, 21 Jul 2012 23:00:51 -0500, Janet Wilder
wrote: On 7/21/2012 5:18 PM, Jeff Gersten wrote: I am not on face book, a little afraid of using that, but I do check in here often and like the rest of you who have commented, I miss the old crowd as well. Same here. We are planning aBaltic cruise in June-July of 2013 on Oceania and have lots of questions we would like to ask you guys. Such as with the three days we will be in St. Petersburg, we only have scheduled one Tour, what is there to do near the port for the other two days, and will we need any documents when we are on our own besides our passports. I sure miss all the posts. St. Petersburg is not set up to do on your own. It's not a port where you will find public transportation. Plus Russian law is that you need a visa anywhere in Russia except for St. Petersburg for 72 hours or less AND you use either a ship's tour or a tour with a licensed tour guide. We used Alla 5 years ago, and were very pleased with her service. If I were you, I'd look at the Baltic port section of cruisecritic to see what folks are saying about guides these days. Once you have a roll call, you could see if others wanted to share tours. We are doing a Baltic next August. We were in St. Petersburg last summer on a river cruise, but felt we didn't have enough time to see everything we wanted so we contracted with Alla for a private tour for just the two of us to see the places we want to go and a few others she suggested. By contracting with her for St. Petersburg, she sill discount tours you book with her in three other Baltic ports. I found her extremely personable and easy to work with. You don't pay her until the second day of the tour and, unlike some other companies, does not add an upcharge to your credit card. We did a tour with Alla in St. Pete in 2009 (but we paid on the first day). We did the easy tour for two days. On the second day, they got us early admission to the Hermitage before the rest of the crowds are admitted, and we had two or more hours there with our guide. My granddaughter was interested in Van Gogh and they had eight of them, and our guide took us to see all of them. I could take photos of the rooms (she got us a camera pass too) before there were so many people that you couldn't see the floors. The only problem I had was that the cruise director tried to make us think that we could not get off unless we were on a ship's tour and to block anyone with an in dependant tour from leaving the ship. |
#14
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Roll Call
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#15
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Roll Call
The only way to see St Petersburg is with a private guide.
I had been there many times and wasted valuable hours on lines with thousands of other cruise passengers. Finally I hired a guide and got to see everything in two days non-stop. Palaces-all of them! River cruises. Restaurants, night clubs, ballet, Hotels. With all the ships over in Europe in the summer it's a very competitive game when you get off the ship in any port in the med, or Northern Europe. The only civilized ports are the ports between the north and the south, in German, Holland, Belgium, France and Portugal. As for the med , you might as well save the money and go to Coney Island. |
#16
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Roll Call
On 7/20/2012 12:12 PM, Brian K wrote:
It's been a while since I checked this NG. Who's still here or has everybody migrated to the other Facebook Group? I still check in. -linnie |
#17
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Roll Call
"Brian K" wrote in message
... It's been a while since I checked this NG. Who's still here or has everybody migrated to the other Facebook Group? Jo I am on both places. We did Oceania Cruises Baltic last summer. We used TJ in St. Petersburg and they were beyond great...we saw everything we wanted and the tour guide was excellent...also on Oceania you get off when you like and meet your private guide...you do not have to wait for other tours to depart. I never once felt scared or nervous but do not goof around with the Russian passport control folks...they are very rigid. Tom K. you will enjoy working with TJ Tours. Personally I wish we had gotten our own VISA so we could have had more freedom...but we had three very full days and one night out with the tour group. I wish we had seen more of the public side of St.P not just the tourist areas. We loved the Baltic region. JO |
#18
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Roll Call
On 7/24/12 5:25 PM, Jo Tambornino Chayer wrote:
"Brian K" wrote in message ... It's been a while since I checked this NG. Who's still here or has everybody migrated to the other Facebook Group? Jo I am on both places. We did Oceania Cruises Baltic last summer. We used TJ in St. Petersburg and they were beyond great...we saw everything we wanted and the tour guide was excellent...also on Oceania you get off when you like and meet your private guide...you do not have to wait for other tours to depart. I never once felt scared or nervous but do not goof around with the Russian passport control folks...they are very rigid. Tom K. you will enjoy working with TJ Tours. Great to hear. Thanks. --Tom |
#19
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Roll Call
On 7/20/2012 12:12 PM, Brian K wrote:
It's been a while since I checked this NG. Who's still here or has everybody migrated to the other Facebook Group? I do go to Facebook but, while free from troll posts, it is also free from spirited conversations between members. I keep coming here in hopes that the old TAs that helped here would come back and help again. I think the drama here made it all that more fun. -- Ray +++++++++++++++++++++++ www.CompressorStuff.com |
#20
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Roll Call
On 7/20/2012 3:12 PM, Brian K wrote:
It's been a while since I checked this NG. Who's still here or has everybody migrated to the other Facebook Group? I still check in here once in a while. I'm in the facebook group but I don't go there all that often either. I like the newsgroup format a lot better. Too bad newsgroups are sort of fading away. Steve |
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