St Petersburg ballet question

[Sleepydormouse]

Disney offers an excursion to the malinsky ballet. The excursion leaves at 5:30 and the ballet starts at 7.

I already have a non-Disney tour guide for the day. If we use Disney we will have no time for dinner. The tour guide says she can arrange but I worry about getting back to the shop before 11. Does anyone know what time the ballet ends?

 

[aggiedog]

When we were looking at SPB, the ballet ended fairly late and we were looking at getting back to the ship with under 60 minutes before the ship left. That made dh too nervous. Dd dances and really wanted to see the ballet, but we decided to pass on it in the end. I'd heard that summer is "off season" for the ballet, so performances are more for tourists. We saw the Paris Opera Ballet while in Copenhagen instead, on our pre-cruise days. We were one of the first ones off the ship and did an all day tour with TJ in SPB, including dinner. By the end of that day, we were too tired to have really enjoyed the ballet anyways.

So I can't really answer your question, but I can tell you I enjoyed SPB w/o the ballet. Looking back, the only thing I might have added was a night time canal tour.

 

[Dug720]

If it goes that late, I would ONLY use Disney - just eat on deck beforehand. I would not trust a private guide to get me back in time. If there is a delay, Disney will hold the ship as long as possible for their group, but once their group is on, that's it. They're outta there.