Something to be very aware of.
The cruise lines make a LOT of money on excursions like the ones in St.
Petersburg. And they don't like sharing. As such... they will make things
much more difficult for those passengers who book privately.
They may try to hold up your exit from the ship for several hours, until all
the cruise tours have gone.
And it's easy to do since you can't simply walk off the ship and go into
town there. You must clear through Russian Border Access. They even keep a
paper copy of your passport at passport check.
When they tried to detain our group from leaving the ship (Red October asked
us to meet at like 9:00 and told us the ship may try to detain us)... we
kind of made a mini commotion with the cruise director. We even showed him
a fax from Red October stating how they might try to delay us, even though
they weren't supposed to. Finally he gave in and let us go on our way.
Otherwise we'd have sat several more hours.
"sheree" wrote in message
news:4c%6i.226$Tu4.63@newsfe12.lga...
>I sent a question to all 3. alla was last to respond!! since it's too
>early to know if i can make it a 8-10 person trip i'm looking at their
>small group tours. a few variations on what they see, i'm not real sure of
>the differences. none do the synagogue and that i want to do.
> so far only denrus gave me a price, $264 each for the 2 days
>
> sheree
> this is for next summer so it'll be interesting to read what you have to
> say since i know both diana and tom and their opinions!!
> "Jeff Gersten" wrote in message
> news:20509-465BF5FE-1065@storefull-3255.bay.webtv.net...
>> shereenospam@optonline.net (sheree) wrote:
>>
>>>i juust started researching
>>>alla tours, denrus and red october.
>>>there's a few differences between each of the
>>>"tours" after bermuda, i'll really start in and will
>>>need to pick your brain! sheree
>>
>> Someone over in the Baltic section of cruise critic asked for those
>> comparisons. Someone else answered that no one seemed to have used more
>> than one of those services. This is a function of the fact that this is
>> often a once in a lifetime trip and that people seem to find whichever
>> tour service they use excellent, so if they do go back, they use the
>> same one.
>>
>> All three get uniformly glowing reviews over at cruise critic. In this
>> thread Diana seems to have been very happy with DenRus and Brian with
>> Red October. We have not been on our tour yet, but I can say that Alla
>> has been very easy to work with. Her response time is very good. She
>> answers all questions. She has been very accommodating to the
>> customizing we have asked for. I have a feeling that because hers is a
>> smaller organization, her responses are quicker and more personal.
>>
>> I don't think you can go wrong with any of the three major tour
>> services.
>>
>
>
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