Baltic Cruise

This is my 1st time looking for info on anyplace other than St. Maarten. The folks on that site have always been very informative so I'm hoping I have the same results here. My husband and I are planning an 11 day Baltic cruise on Royal Caribbean's Vision of the Seas at the end of July. The cruise begins in Stockholm, Sweden and ends in Copenhagn, Denmark. We have extended our cruise on both ends to have time to explore these 2 locations. As part of the cruise the ships docks in St. Peterburg, Russia for 3 days - the high light of the trip for us. Has anyone taken this trip? I'd like to know your views. Any opinions on the ship? Can anyone suggests tours or must sees in those 3 cities? Finally, are there any must buy items? Looking forward to hearing from TTOL readers. Thanks for any information you can provide.

We took a similar cruise last June on the Norwegian Sun out of Copenhagen. The highlight of the cruise was St. Petersburg. I highly recommend booking a 2-day tour package from www.spb-tours.com. I read about this tour site on several web sites and it received positive comments.

FYI: The photo of the attractive woman on the web site is the owner, Viktoria. She met all the tours at the cruise terminal and personally introduced each group to the guide. At the conclusion of the 2-day tour, she again met with each group for feedback. Some of the folks on our ship had already met her in Berlin where she also has tours.

There were 4 of us who booked a driver and tour guide. We booked via the web site and had a few adjustments that we wanted with the tours. It was no problem to personalize some of the stops. We were surprised that we were never asked for a deposit for the tour. We paid on the second day.

Some of the benefits of going with SPb Tours:
- personalized itinerary
- early entry into the Hermitage
- excellent guides
- it turned out to be cheaper than taking the ship's excursions
- small groups: you can join a group that is being formed (ask how to do it) as there is a web site for that type of "roll call."
- SPb Tours also has tours for Berlin, and other ports

Any questions, just let me know.

Karen

Thanks for that informtion on the tours. It looks terrific -just what we are looing for. I'm sure I'll have more questions.