A Baltic boating adventure TRIP REPORT COMPLETED 11/19 - Page 74 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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Too bad with the way you were treated by Russian immigration getting back on board. The rest of your day sounded good with some deserved spa time and a good dinner!
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October 6, 2017-Enjoying an amazing dinner at Victoria & Albert's with PP's Dot and Drew
My TR from my most recent trip is now underway. Includes: Universal Studios Florida, Disney World and Sea World Orlando Trifecta TR -Updated December 10th! TR is now COMPLETED!
That was quite the pickle with traffic, and I'm rather blown away at how calm and civil everyone remained. Just like you said, here there would be lots of honking and shouting. Sounds like your two were able to relax a bit when you were finally back on board.
Too bad with the way you were treated by Russian immigration getting back on board. The rest of your day sounded good with some deserved spa time and a good dinner!
That was quite the pickle with traffic, and I'm rather blown away at how calm and civil everyone remained. Just like you said, here there would be lots of honking and shouting.
I know... it was a bit like "whatever", I was so surprised by the laid back attitude.... I guess maybe it happens a lot and you just get used to it?
Sunday 12 June – part one: a man of not many words…
I had another bad night's sleep, and I couldn't tell you why. Perhaps I was still concerned about missing the wake-up call for our Moscow day trip or perhaps I was worrying about other things, like the train journey or losing our passports in Moscow or what we'd actually see in Moscow, given Elena had said yesterday if we couldn't see the Kremlin or Red Square, there was pretty much no point in going to Moscow. Whatever the reason, I don't think I slept properly for a good couple of hours, and woke at 4:20am, just before the alarm was set to go off on my phone.
We quickly got up and going, and headed upstairs to the Oceanview Cafe for breakfast and were there before it opened at 5:00am. I was expecting a limited selection of food, but when we arrived, they literally only had a pod open for fruit, cheese and cold meats, and that was it. Thankfully, they were putting more out, and not long afterwards, the pastry section opened, and we stocked up there, bringing some food back to the room as well to keep us going today.
We finished getting ready and headed down to guest relations to meet the others.
We'd already seen Jay, Stephanie and Ethan at breakfast upstairs, so we knew they were around, but it was Phylis who made it down to us first. Once we were all there, we headed off the ship and faced the torrent of complete misery from the immigration woman. We got shouted out for both coming through together and I did explain our tour tickets were both on one piece of paper, which I know she understood, as she wasn't worried about seeing them when Mark came through. I do wish they'd explain what they want from you though, so you can try and cooperate, as they're not really clear.
When we got into the terminal, it was still in darkness, and the shops weren't even open yet.
Our driver wasn't there yet, and there was literally one other small group of about three or four people, and that was it. However, we knew the Celebrity group going to Moscow weren't far behind us, as apparently passport control got very busy just after we went through.
Eventually, we saw an SPB Tour minibus turning up, and our driver came to collect us. Let's just say he was a man of not very many words, and I don't think his English was very good. He didn't fill me with much confidence, and even less when I later found out from the rest of the group that he'd cut a car up. I heard some honking, but Stephanie and I hadn't seen what had happened and had both assumed that the car wanted to get in front of us. apparently we cut him up!
It seemed to take forever to get to the station, and we saw some parts of St. Petersburg that we'd seen yesterday, and other parts that were new on the way. I think it took us about half an hour to get to the station.
What amazed me was how busy the city was. At the cruise terminal, we'd seen about seven or eight people coming back on board, and could only assume at that hour of the morning that perhaps they were crew with local families. I couldn't see why else they'd be coming back at this hour. They certainly couldn't be passengers, as there were no tours due back at this time. As we drove along, we saw more and more people on the streets. I don't know if they were finishing late nights or just getting started. I also had no idea whether it was only this busy because it was Russian Independence Day. Trust me, you would never see this many people out and about at 6:15am on a Sunday morning in London.
We parked up and were walked over to the station, which was a massive terminus building.
We'd all speculated that we could've left a bit later, given our train tickets said we'd be leaving at 7:10am, and so it proved to be, as our train was up on the departure board, but with no platform number:
We stood there waiting for it, and Phylis went to get some Russian rubles out. She said she wouldn't have got very far without our guide showing her what to do, and if it was all in Russian, I can imagine that!
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Hope things smooth out a bit. Immigration sounds a total nightmare! Why is it they think we are all mind readers or that every country does it the same way?
Hope things smooth out a bit. Immigration sounds a total nightmare! Why is it they think we are all mind readers or that every country does it the same way?
Oh boy. Nervous start, but it's still going well. Great photos on the way in - saw the Subway again!
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Tanya
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Not a great start to the day and hope things improve!
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October 6, 2017-Enjoying an amazing dinner at Victoria & Albert's with PP's Dot and Drew
My TR from my most recent trip is now underway. Includes: Universal Studios Florida, Disney World and Sea World Orlando Trifecta TR -Updated December 10th! TR is now COMPLETED!
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The rest of your day sounded good with some deserved spa time and a good dinner! 
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Whatever the reason, I don't think I slept properly for a good couple of hours, and woke at 4:20am, just before the alarm was set to go off on my phone. 
I heard some honking, but Stephanie and I hadn't seen what had happened and had both assumed that the car wanted to get in front of us. 
apparently we cut him up! 
I couldn't see why else they'd be coming back at this hour. They certainly couldn't be passengers, as there were no tours due back at this time. As we drove along, we saw more and more people on the streets. I don't know if they were finishing late nights or just getting started. I also had no idea whether it was only this busy because it was Russian Independence Day. Trust me, you would never see this many people out and about at 6:15am on a Sunday morning in London. 
I hope it gets smoother for you guys!! 
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