Soviet Far East to Accept First Shore Excursions

Shore excursions to Siberia and the Soviet Far East for the first time can be added to this summer’s Alaska cruises.

Holland America Westours is the first to announce these options for its Alaska-bound Rotterdam, Westerdam and Noordam.

Princess Cruises and its subsidiary Princess Tours, with six ships in Alaska this year, will also offer Soviet Far East excursions, as will Royal Caribbean Cruise Line’s Sun Viking and Alaska Sightseeing Tours, which operates the 82-passenger Spirit of Alaska out of Seattle.

While cruise ships for many years have been calling at the European port cities of the Soviet Union--Leningrad on the Baltic Sea and Yalta and Odessa on the Black Sea--the Soviet Far East has not been accessible.

Six cruise/land itineraries are detailed in a new color brochure from Holland America. Three include a rail journey between Khabarovsk and Irkutsk on the great Trans-Siberian Railroad, plus a visit to mile-deep Lake Baikal, largest freshwater basin in Eurasia.

Also, rail buffs can book a 21-day cruise and tour that incorporates three unique trains--the Trans-Siberian Railroad, the historic narrow-gauge White Pass & Yukon Railway out of Skagway and Holland America’s McKinley Explorer luxury rail cars between Fairbanks and Anchorage with an overnight stop at Denali National Park. Prices start at $4,495 per person, double occupancy.

Other tours visit the city of Magadan, built by laborers from Joseph Stalin’s notorious gulags, and Khabarovsk on the Manchurian border, where a day-cruise along the Amur River affords glimpses into China’s northernmost district. In Irkutsk, many 200-year-old painted Siberian log houses have been preserved along with an 18th-Century Russian Orthodox church.

The six-tour packages will be offered in June, July and August. Some include a seven-night cruise aboard the Rotterdam; others feature three- or four-night cruises aboard the Westerdam or Noordam. Soviet Far East tour options can also be added to other Alaska Holland America cruises, with the tours adding $1,295 to $1,795 extra per person.

Costs for the cruise-and-tour Soviet packages from Holland America begin at $3,195 per person, double occupancy, for a 14-day trip that sails from Vancouver on June 16 and 30, July 14 and 28, and Aug. 11. Port taxes are an additional $74 to $89 per person, depending on the cruise.

Passengers booking before Feb. 1 can save up to $600 a couple with an early booking discount, while those booking between Feb. 1 and April 1 can save up to $350 a couple.

Alaska Airlines, which begins direct service between Anchorage and the Soviet cities of Magadan and Khabarovsk on June 17, will be the air carrier for the tours.

A more expensive, but more adventuresome, way to cruise to Siberia in 1991 is aboard a Soviet nuclear-powered icebreaker called Sovetskiy Soyuz, which will make the first-ever passenger-carrying expedition through the Northeast Passage from Provideniya in the Soviet Union to Murmansk.

This 21-day voyage will sail around the top of Siberia and northern Russia, carrying an ice expert and two reconnaissance helicopters so passengers will be able to make shore landings or fly closely over the ice. The ship also carries inflatable rubber landing craft.

The voyage, scheduled from Provideniya on Aug. 18, is available through Salen Lindblad Cruising in conjunction with Quark Expeditions, and will be led by Mike McDowell, who made a preliminary expedition by Soviet icebreaker to the geographic North Pole in July, 1990.

Price is $26,000 to $32,000 per person, double occupancy. Some 96 passengers can be accommodated in suites or in outside, twin-bedded cabins with private baths and large windows. According to the cruise sponsors, chefs, hotel manager, service staff and food supplies will be brought in from Europe.

Last year, Seattle-based Society Expeditions announced a Soviet Far East air-and-sea program for its 140-passenger expedition ship World Discoverer, but subsequently postponed that series until 1992.

Society’s 100-passenger Society Explorer became the first Western passenger vessel to call at a Soviet Far East port when it made an impromptu visit to the port of Provideniya in August, 1988. The visit garnered international headlines for the vessel’s captain, Heinz Aye, who received permission to land from local officials, although passengers had no Russian visas. Provideniya is scheduled as a port of call on the 1992 itineraries.

Alaska is the closest U.S. air gateway to the Soviet Union. At one point in the Bering Strait, the Soviet Union and the United States are only three miles apart. The boundary falls between Little Diomede Island, Alaska, and Ostrov Ratmanova (also called Big Diomede Island), part of the Magadan Oblast region. Both Magadan and Siberia are part of the huge, sparsely-inhabited Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic.

Ask your travel agent for the brochure for Holland America’s Soviet Far East itineraries, or call Holland America at (800) 626-9900. Salen Lindblad Cruising can send information about the Northeast Passage sailing if you call (800) 223-5688. Society Expeditions’ revised brochure for 1991-92 is available by calling (800) 426-7794.