Tauck? Regent Seven Seas? Seabourn? Baltic trip June 2020

Bubs47

Looking at all of the above options and we do love Tauck and have full confidence in them (would be our 3rd) but see that Regent and Seabourn are also options.
Anyone out there with an opinion, bring it on!!!?

Sealord

We did the Baltic and St. Petersburg with Tauck on Ponant’s Le Soleal. I think this is a much smaller ship than either Regent or Seabourn uses. I like small ships. And in St. Petersburg you must clear immigrations every time you depart or return to the ship. (Plan on having your passport in your pocket.) So I think maybe the fewer passengers the better. Someone here is asking questions about doing this on Le Dumont ... which is (going to be) even smaller.

AshvEd

We did this cruise with Seabourn from Stockholm to St. Petersburg to Copenhagen, with stops in several ports along the way. It was on their 220 passenger ships which they have sold to Windstar. The Seaabourn experience was wonderful however we do prefer smaller ships.

Dixie Chick

I also love Tauck (10 trips so far), but I would never do a small ship ocean/sea cruise with Tauck or anyone else, mainly because of the motion of the ship; and larger ships are just more stable. Mr. Dixie has some inner ear problems, and rolling ship motions bother him. For that reason among others, we chose Regent.
We went on Regent’s Copenhagen to Stockholm 10 day cruise in 2017, and it was fabulous. We were on the 750 passenger Explorer, only one year old at the time. She is a truly elegant ship. The service is over the top wonderful, great food in multiple dining areas, a nice choice of bars and lounges with various types of entertainment. Our concierge category cabin was spacious with a huge bathroom and closet. No matter where you are, nothing is crowded because there is a big amount of square feet of space to passenger ratio.
Regent is luxurious and crazy expensive up front, but it is totally inclusive, even business class air; and we think the experience is worth the price. We really like Regent, and we already have a cruise reserved in 2020 when Explorer’s brand new sister ship, Splendor, will begin her voyages.
Now the downside. This trip was port intensive, but we really did not get to see a lot in any one place. Regent says you can book as many excursions as you want, but in reality that is not possible. We only had time for one excursion per port except in St. Petersburg. We spent 3 days in St. Pete, and I worked really hard planning the excursions there to see what I wanted to see; and there still was not time. In many places, too much time is spent getting from the ship to the excursion coaches, then from the port to the excursion destination. This would be the same with any ship. Although excursions are included in the all-inclusive price, there are some that had extra fees, such as an evening at the ballet, an evening dinner at Catherine’s Palace, a Hermitage tour that included the Gold Room, and others.
I am not where I can see a brochure of Tauck’s Baltic cruise or the Seabourn cruises, but no matter which cruise option you choose, I would make sure of these things: 1) Spend at least 3 days in St. Pete. 2) Put St. Pete at the end of the cruise, not the beginning. It is the highlight of the trip, so you might as well look forward to it as long as possible. 3) In St. Pete make sure to see some of the magnificent churches as well as Peterhof and Catherine’s Palace. 4) Spend an extra day/night or more in Copenhagen and Stockholm, or what ever other cities are beginning and ending ports or else there will be absolutely no time to see anything but the airport.
All that being said, if I had it to do over again, I would go on Tauck’s 14 day Russian Glories, Baltic Treasures LAND tour.
It has 4 days in St.Pete and also 3 days in Moscow. I totally regret that I went all that way to Russia and did not see Moscow. No matter how you look at it, you will see and do more traveling on land than by taking excurions from a
cruise ship. Also, you will be staying on land, not in a port, and free time can be maximized.
So it comes down to deciding if you want to see and do a ton of things, then go on land with Tauck’s usual outstanding service. If you want an elegant cruise experience, go on Regent. The very small ships may be intimate, but they just do not offer as much as the somewhat larger ships do. If you want a really small cruising experience, go on a Tauck river cruise.
Whatever you do, have a wonderful time. Bon voyage!
Nancy

Sealord

You are correct. When small ship cruising, you never see people leave the dining room when the ship starts to ‘move’. If you have motion issues, small ships will not work for you. Small ship people do not have ‘motion’ issues. We on the other hand like being rocked to sleep. There are no extra fees for anything on the Tauck version of St. Petersburg.

Choc

We did the 12 nite Baltic cruise with Holland America. There was no problem or delay going ashore in St. Petersburg. The ship was about 1800 passengers.