One Heck of a Shore Excursion

Today, we were originally going to do an entry on the state of the Mona Lisa.  That was until we ran across this press release from Crystal Cruises.

Passengers on Crystal Symphony heading to St. Petersburg, Russia this summer are in for a treat: an overnight excursion to Star City, Russia's former top-secret cosmonaut training facility located in the secluded forests outside Moscow.  Crystal guests have the ability to participate in some of the same training that present-day Russian cosmonauts have to go through.

Crystal has gone one step farther, and divided the program into four separate excursions:

The Hydrospace "Final Challenge": participants in this excursion will have the opportunity to partcipate in what is considered to be the most advanced cosmonaut training.  Guests will have to install an antenna on a replica of the international space station - while outfitted with full space suit - and submerged in 54,000 square feet of water!

Centrifuge G-Force Experience: this gives guests the ability to experience the same forces astronauts experience on blast-off, orbit, and re-entry in a specially-reserved, 300-ton centrifuge.

 Zero Gravity Weightlessness Adventure: exactly like it sounds, this gives guests the opportunity to experience full weightlessness at least ten times as they embark on a flight aboard the world's largest parabola aircraft.  A similar aircraft was used during the filming of Apollo 13 to provide weightlessness to the actors and crew.

Russia's Quest Beyond the Earth: this allows guests to pull back the 'iron curtain' for a detailed look at the Russian Space Program during the 1950's and beyond.

All shore excursions include roundtrip airfare from St. Petersburg to Moscow, overnight hotel accomodation and a full-day Moscow city tour that includes the Kremlin and Red Square.

John Stoll, Crystal's Director of Land Programs, states that the excursions have been two years in the making, and reflect Crystal's desire to provide guests with unique and innovative experiences.

As you might have guessed, these are going to be a little more expensive than your average excursion.  Cosmonaut Training Excursion fares start at $4,395 and run all the way to $32,995 US per person for "The Final Challenge."

While that puts the excursion in the realm of pure fantasy for a lot of cruisers (and, let's face it, myself!), Crystal should be applauded for offering a truly unique experience to those guests with the cash to burn - or are simply eager for a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

For more information on these excursions, as well as Crystal Symphony's 2010 Baltic itineraries, visit the Crystal Cruises website.