Has anyone gone on this cruise with RCL -will be 6o in July and want to have good temperatures and less crowds ( like the mediterrean ones in July) How was St.Petersberg?

I usually avoid July travel because of the crowds.

We did the Baltic in June on the Star princess. St. Petes was the highlight of the trip. I assume you will be there 2 days as most cruises do. The sights are amazing though it takes two long days but its well worth it. For us we disembarked every port except St. Petes on our own so we did not have to wait in lines for a tour to assemble and begin. You practically have to do a tour with a group or some sort of guided tour in St. Petes for VISA reasons. At no time were we ever in weather I would call too warm. Typical temps for the Baltic during that time are the mid 60's though no one can predict the weather of course. It resulted in mild temps perfect for touring. was it crowded? This is peak time for tourism but honestly we never felt like we were jammed in or rushed like we were in Rome in July, esp. seeing the Vatican and the Sistene Chapel. The Baltic is a great cruise and is available in the summer only. Happy 60th.

We cruised the Baltic with Oceania and it was a fantastic experience. Smaller ships, no formal dinners, several restaurants and you can eat when and where you want. We went in June. Weather was perfect. We got our own visa's for St. Pete. and arranged our own car, driver and guide. We saw twice as much as those on the ships tour because we could move much faster. Our guide still got us to the head of the line, and we saw things we had read about in guide books that were not on the tours.

We were there in June as well and then its white nights. The sun sets at about 0200 and rises at 0400 or there abouts. You need a Russian VISA to disembark but getting a tour thrugh either the ship or an outside tour co. such as Red October or Alla tours just to name two will siffice for a VISA. BTW to get a VISA on your own costs about $75.00. Most folks who have taken a private tour rave about their experience. Do be aware they are quite costly however.

We did a cruise with Princess in Aug. of 2006 which was great. The weather was pretty warm but good, no rain. I would recommend checking out DenRus Tours which we took instead of the one offered by Princess. It cost us half the amount and was the highlight of our trip. We did the complete two day one and got to see everything. If you check out the brochure that RCL gives you with an explanation of their tour you can compare it with DenRus. Go on line and check them out. They get the Visa and you get picked up right off the ship. Good Luck

Baltic cruise last July with HAL - we loved Tailinn, biked in Visby, did our own trip from Helsinki to Saarinen's home - and were disappointed with St Pete's. If you've seen that architecture elsewhere, it's the same. The Hermitage, which we thought would be the highlight of the trip, is badly in need of TLC and its collection is excellent, but so are many other museums around the world. Peterhof and others are gorgeous. So are many other European places. We had the first days of sun in 3 weeks, so take a rain jacket.