Marco Polo / Alexandr Pushkin

Tamara · April 27, 2004

My first cruise was aboard the Alexandr Pushkin in 1967 from Montreal to Leningrad with my mother to visit family in the Soviet Union. I think the ship, refurbished and renamed the Marco Polo, is now owned by NCL. It wasn't really a cruise in the truest sense of the word, I guess, because we had a destination and, as I recall, the passage was a bit rough and I was very seasick. Has anyone sailed on this ship?

GottaCruz · April 28, 2004

Tamara, I hope I do this correctly, I'm not sure how to post a link , but I found a site that answers your question and has gorgeous pictures with info. My WebpagePlease let me know if this link works. Thank. Cheryl

Lisa63 · May 1, 2004

What a beautiful ship. She is owned by Orient, which in turn is owned by Star Cruises (NCL's parent company).

I know someone who sailed on her about a year ago -- he had a great time. MP does more exotic itineraries, such as South America and Africa.

Tamara, I'd love to hear recollections of your trip. Did you make any stops between Montreal and Leningrad? How was shipboard life different than today's?

Cheryl -- the link worked fine. That's one of my favorite sites, by the way.

GottaCruz · May 2, 2004

Lisa, Thank you for letting me know that the link worked. I never did a link before without my daughter's help so I'm glad to know that it worked. :grin:

Tamara · May 4, 2004

Gawd! I just wrote a huge reply and then wiped it out by accident! I'll start again.

I sailed on the Alexandr Pushkin when I was 12 years old. My memories of it are more of a sense of what it was like, with just a few details. It was quite stressful, because we were travelling back to Communist Russia to visit my mother's family that she hadn't seen in many years. They had all fled Russia during the revolution and had lived in Shanghai. All of the family went back to Russia except my mother, who emigrated to Canada and her twin sister, who had married a US Marine and moved to the States. So, my mother was really stressed about seeing her family and there was a lot of hassle about travelling behind the Iron Curtain. Anyway, I remember loving the food and eating lots of salami. On the last night of the trip, there was a prize for the table that had eaten the most food (must be a Slavic thing) and a parade of baked Alaskas with sparklers with the dining room lights turned off. It was quite spectacular. There were different classes of cabins (Communist politics never having been quite perfect) on board. There was a lot of fraternizing between the crew, everyone from the Captain to the bartenders, and the passengers. It could hardly be avoided. I remember there was a bartender named Roman who was very kind to me. The crossing was quite rough in places and I became very sick. This was before the days of seasickness bracelets, so the ship's doctor was called and came to our cabin with the biggest syringe I had ever seen in my life! I remember cowering in my bunk at the prospect of being stuck with this medieval looking item, but finally gave in (what choice does one have, at 12 years old?) and feeling much better after. No idea what they stuck me with!

There was a very lively nightlife on board. Cheap vodka perhaps having something to do with that. I remember doing the Bunny Hop dance because I was allowed in the bars but then I got sent to bed at a certain hour and my mother stayed out and partied a bit. Can't blame her, I would have done the same!

We stopped in Bremerhaven, Germany, but didn't spend any time there.

This has turned into a bit of an epic, but I've enjoyed thinking back to that little adventure. Thanks for asking, though I'm sure you're regretting it by now!