Mike gets seasick pretty easily, so we have never taken an ocean cruise together. I've been on an Alaskan girls’ trip with my mom and sis, and a Caribbean cruise with my mom and brother's family. Mike and I discussed the situation of a "ship" experience and felt a river cruise might work well --no tide, no big surf, land in sight at all times.
Our original thought was a Mekong river cruise, as Mike had hoped to return to Viet Nam someday. That cruise also included stops in Cambodia and Angkor Wat. After looking into it further, the older ship was not the style we had in mind for a first-time cruise. The rooms faced out onto one big circle deck round the ship, so no private balconies; some days of land cruising in a bus; and some nights in hotels (packing and unpacking had no appeal).
So we swapped our destination to Russia and in July 2018 booked for a late May 2019 cruise with Lori at AAA-Portage. Here is our route starting in Moscow to St. Petersburg. But, oh, a 9-month wait!!!
Friend Jerolyn, invited us to the Kalamazoo Russian Cultural Festival. It was a great introduction to Russian life and included homemade Russian foods, a song and dance group in traditional dress, and meeting local folks of Russian descent.
Lots of friends offered books about Russia and the sites there, but somehow never found time to read, except one titled The Romanov Sisters. It is an excellent history of the "last tzar" era!
<- Got another from neighbors Tom and Lisa (the Kalamazoo T&L, not the California T&L). Will read soon, as a good review. As an aside, T&L are our wonderful cat sitters for Bella.
There are a lot of steps and decisions on this trip. First, do you want to buy extra insurance in case something goes wrong? There are several price levels. We got the whole package which includes cancelling for any valid reason (like can't get a visa). Another biggie included was evacuation in case of emergency or terrorist incidents.
Next was the air package. We started out in economy-plus, but had a little unexpected windfall, so moved up to Business One (essentially the old first class).
The last big decision was on land excursions. The 13-day package includes one tour in every port and about 30 other options to choose from for purchase. That was a tough one. There were so many interesting choices. We chose quite a few to fill every spare moment. I'm sure this will be our only trip to Russia and wanted to fit in every experience we could while there. We did opt out of the "Russian Banya" that includes a birch brush broom massage, sauna, and cold plunge. Didn't really want to tempt a heart attack while in-country.
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If you have visited any of these places, we would love to hear your comments. Or send us recommendations of places we should not miss.