Show~ Men In Coats (did not see this, heard it was a poor mans Blue Man Group, Eric loved them)
Listed on website, Navigator and other places:
Important Notice
Please be advised that you will be unable to proceed ashore without being on an organized tour or having a valid Russian visa.
One of the main selling points of this cruise was that
DCL was going to Russia.
It would be somewhere we would never choose to go on our own, ever. Disney was going to Russia and we trust Disney and they would be using reputable tours because they would not risk an incident or their name.
Nothing happened and this is why we chose Disney. We also chose Disney tours altho alot of people did take private tours, that just not us.
Ok, having said that, on with the day!
We docked in ST Pete about 11am. It was neat watching from our verandah all of the docking procedures and just down from us was where the captain and officers were so you could make out their concern and seriousness.
Very interesting, also since they had to have a Russian officer there and this was the first time. I always had the feeling getting to watch Cpt John several times, he did not like releasing control of his ship, ever.
Our tour left from the Walt Disney Studio, there were that many people.
The first day we took a tour called
Canal Cruise and Spilt Blood Catherdral.
Again a coach ride through the city and our guide pointed out certain higlights and then she took us to a little gift shop. There were how many DCL people in there at one time? This was not very planned out but I got an ornament and some postcards. Lauren wanted one of those lacquered boxes but in USD it was 600.00! Uh, no!
Then we went over to the the dock and boarded a smaller ferry type boat with a really bad sound system and could not understand our guide at all. We were given waters or soda and I had a coke and kept the bottle because its all in Russian. Thats actually something I really wanted.
So since I couldnt understand what our guide was saying I really dont know what alot of the photos are of but they are beautiful and where I thought Berlin would have had more color, it was ST Pete. The buildins are all in a rainbow of colors and vibrant, just lovely and surprising!
The Story of "Johnny"
On the Rive Neva (canal) that goes through STP, there is a series of bridges in various sizes and architecture, some we could actually reach up and touch the bottoms of.
We start our cruise, weather was pleasnt, nice breeze, all good.
We come to our first bridge. There's a kid about 13-14 years old. As we get closer he starts waving at us and some of us wave back
As soon as this happens he takes off. We get to the next bridge, he's there. We all wave again, one of us makes the comment about wondering if he will be at the next bridge.Kids there, waves and takes off. At this time, we, the four ofus, start calling him Johnny.
Now these bridges are spread out, some our closer but some are obviously maybe a mile sometimes two apart. He's there. at every bridge. Have no idea how the kid does this, must know some short cuts or something .
We go into a big basin typr area and see the ship that fired the shot that started the Revolutonary war, that was neat.
Spend some time cruising in that area and as we start to leave that area, there's Johnny!
He follows us all the way back down and he stopped at an area that we were not docking at so Lauren and I start pointing at where we can tell we were going to be, so he moved down.
We have to get off our boat, walk across a plank, onto another ship, through a convert ship that is now a fancy resturant to get out to get to our coaches!
So Johnny is there waiting and Chris and a couple of other people tip this kid and he smiles at Lauren and then I raise my hand in a high 5 and we h5 each other.
The kid was amazing, kept my kids amused and what a way to earn money!
Its something like that that my kids will remember!
Then we went to the Cathedral of the Spilt Blood. Absolutely beautiful church. Most of the art in the church was all mosaic. I think anyone who can do mosaics must have OCD because its all so intricate and I dont know how anyone would have the patience!
This is where the Czar was assassinated and they have the spot enshrined od where the " blood was spilt".
On the outside the rooftop ia all Onion Domed. It was just awesome!
We could tell Eric was staring to get a bit over-cultured and even though we had a folklore show booked, we decided to give the kids a choice to go or not. Eric did not go and Lauren wanted to go.
We have to meet our shore excursion at 645pm. We get back to the ship at 530. DCL has officers waiting to tell everyone to still come to dinner. We explained our situation. No problem they say.
We go into AP and see our head server, Cedomir the saint!, and explain what happening. No problem. Tells Jozsef and another guy named Charlie. We're on it they say. We had menus, drinks and appys within 10. Chris ran to the room and dinner was on the table when he got back with drink refills. While we were eating dinner they took dessert orders almost as soon as we were done with dinner they brough dessert! We were out of there within 40 with time to go to our room, potty and grab sweaters!
Go Disney!!
We go to our next shore excursion, a folklore concert and dance put on by the Russian military.
When we arrive at the converted castle, each royal child recieved their own "castle", I think at birth, so they've taken all of these castles and made them into performing art centers and museums and the like.
When we arrive ther is a musician playing a trumpet outside, a street performer, and he's playing the "Star Spangled Banner" and his tip bos says will accept US dollars. We just had to tip him! To come to Russia and hear that!
You are allowed to take photos but they have to give you a little paper that gives you permission to take photos. Ok.
We find our seats which are I would say plywood covered in material. We have no idea how pampered we are. Cup holders? Havnt been invented yet! Not over there. There was just no way to be comfortable in these seats and we just laughed at them. I should have taken a photo of the seats.
The concert and dancing were very good, bright colorful, and the conductor was great! Im sure he knew that there could have been 20 different languages in the theater, he used his face and hands and body language very well to get what he wanted across. When he wanted us to clap along he taught the rythms, when we stopped clapping if it wasnt time he would make a face, and so on.
We had an intermission where they haf juice and champagne. We drank the champagne because there was nothing else to drink.
Lauren was looking at the gift shop tables and found little mystroka doll shaped magnets for 2euros each which was the cheapest item we found there but they were hand pained and a great buy and I bought 5 and wished I had bought more.
Because of the surgery, alcohol goes straight to my head and I had to drink it sort of quickly and the slower I drink the better off I am.
Im looking at these magnets and Chris asked me how many I wanted and I said 5 and was picking them out and Im expecting Laurens hand to reach down and take the ones Im picking because they are on a magnet board leaning up against the table, when this hand comes down its a mans hand and it for the briefest moment did not register as Chris's hand.
Rita and Russian champagne do not mix!
We watched the rest of the concert and as we were leaving Mr Trumpeter was playing " Laura's Theme, also known as the Theme to Dr Zhivago!"
Spilt Blood Cathedral, spot where the assasinatipn took place, military museaum (did not get a photo of the missle!), Subway! and Johnny and Mystroka dolls (if you ask the shopkeepers they will let you photogragh them.)
The destroyer that fired the shot that started the revolution!