St Petersburg excursions on Homelands Cruise

At the risk of being redundant, could prior cruisers on the Viking Homelands trip please share their experiences with success or lack of success in securing the optional Canal Cruise and the Church of our Savior on Spilled Blood. And if you didn't go with a Viking excursion please share what company you used and whether you had to get your own visa. Thanks in advance

Sent from my iPad using Forums

At the risk of being redundant, could prior cruisers on the Viking Homelands trip please share their experiences with success or lack of success in securing the optional Canal Cruise and the Church of our Savior on Spilled Blood. And if you didn't go with a Viking excursion please share what company you used and whether you had to get your own visa. Thanks in advance

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

IOf you take a ship's or private tour the visa will included in the price. If you want to go out on your own. You'll have get your own visa.

Had SPB Tours and their tour voucher served as "visa" presented at immigration.

Sent from my iPad using Forums

I used Insider Tours for a private, 2 day tour. Visa taken care of by Insider Tours. We customized our tour and they were very easy to work with. We did add the evening canal tour and I do recommend it. Great way to see the city from a different perspective.

On our Viking river cruise last October, two of the passengers went to St. Petersburg but I think with Silverseas(?). Anyway, they raved about Alla tours. They understood Viking because they have done many. When we said, well what if they have included tours done by Viking, they encouraged us to do the small 16 people tour, especially since we are only there two days. They picked the ship they did because it was in St. Petersburg longer. They also assured us that we DID NOT NEED OUR OWN VISA. That is what we found out from Alla too. Alla gives you tour documents and that serves as your visa. The fact that we are spending the night on the ship has something to do with it too.

We will be there June 6 and 7 on Viking Ocean's Homeland cruise so we will find out then if the info we got was correct!

We are touring with Alla in about a week. Everything has been smooth to date with the booking. They are excellent with correspondence. As others have stated, they take care of the visa. Upon booking you give them all your info.

Great experiencee with Alla two years ago. We highly recommend them. Incredible two days. Our guide was so knowledgeable......we really learned so much. One of the highlights of our trip. Yes, they take care of your visa - you supply information ahead of your trip. No issues with anything whatsoever. Have a great time.

We assembled a group of 16 and also used Alla tour in St Petersburg. They were outstanding.

We toured with Alla last week. Booked a private tour for 6 of us which was the perfect number and not that much more than the tour for 16. It was great!!

Stretchcruiz - I have to agree on the smaller number. We had 8.....and it was really good. I didn't care that it was a few dollars more than 16. We had plenty of room in the vehicle and we moved as a group much more easily. I highly recommend it!!

We had four and the tour was arranged by http://esperancetravel.com/. 2 days of perfection!!! Of course the sunny skies were an added bonus. I highly encourage a private small tour. We were so fortunate that our guide was a an art history professor...you can only imagine what we learned, experienced, and enjoyed in beautiful St. Petersburg!

We used Alla on our Viking cruise in 2015 and they were great. We opted for the 2 day "slower" tour and everything was taken care of by Alla including Visa's. They were only 8 of us on the tour.

Thanks so much for all the helpful information. Alla gets great reviews and the price for two days is really great. We will book with them. Have to say after 2 prior Viking river cruises where booking for the optional excursions was easy I am approaching this ocean trip with quite a lot of anxiety. Will just have to chill and hope things work out with the Viking optional we want to do.

Sent from my iPad using Forums

drrnarg, you sound like me. I did a lot of research for the river cruise and it seemed so easy. The ocean cruise seemed quite daunting. We leave in the morning. I've told myself that we will be fine with what I've chosen.

jimmyC_fan

imagine the angst when trying to plan for 120 days....... it is the time after that "included" tour that is difficult to plan . The shuttles that Viking provides in most of the non-walkable ports were terrific for exploring after the tours. Hoping they will have them on our world cruise.

Thanks so much for all the helpful information. Alla gets great reviews and the price for two days is really great. We will book with them. Have to say after 2 prior Viking river cruises where booking for the optional excursions was easy I am approaching this ocean trip with quite a lot of anxiety. Will just have to chill and hope things work out with the Viking optional we want to do.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

Maybe it's just me but the prices for Ocean optional tours seem far pricier than River cruise optionals.

Others with more experience may weigh in but ocean optionals appear to be considerably more expensive than the optionals on the river cruises.

Sent from my iPad using Forums

Thanks so much for all the helpful information. Alla gets great reviews and the price for two days is really great. We will book with them. Have to say after 2 prior Viking river cruises where booking for the optional excursions was easy I am approaching this ocean trip with quite a lot of anxiety. Will just have to chill and hope things work out with the Viking optional we want to do.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

We have booked with Alla too. I'm excited about touring St. Petersburg with them. The river cruise excursions were much easier to book, and I never missed an excursion I wanted to do. Not true for the ocean. 6 excursions were sold out a week before I had the opportunity to sign up and one I really want to do! Most people want the first included tour time so we were only able to get the 2nd or 3rd tours of the day. I hope we have a great time anyway. We'll try to roll with it!

We are on the Homelands cruise now. Alla Tours was the best decision that we have made so far. Outstanding guide. We are extremely sad that we did not book with them for Berlin. The small group of 6 was wonderful. It made it much easier to see and do things unlike the bigger groups with Viking.

We are on the Homelands cruise now. Alla Tours was the best decision that we have made so far. Outstanding guide. We are extremely sad that we did not book with them for Berlin. The small group of 6 was wonderful. It made it much easier to see and do things unlike the bigger groups with Viking.

Holding you personally responsible for leaving that ship in good condition. We board Homies cruise tomorrow.

We get to keep the Star one more week but I will do my best. It has been a fabulous cruise so far. Enjoy your trip!

OK, I get it. You're going the other way. Let's hope we don't "meet" at sea.

We are on the Homelands cruise now. Alla Tours was the best decision that we have made so far. Outstanding guide. We are extremely sad that we did not book with them for Berlin. The small group of 6 was wonderful. It made it much easier to see and do things unlike the bigger groups with Viking.

Which tour did you take with Alla in St. Petersburg? Did you take an evening excursion?

Thanks jiminyC_fan for the update. Are you doing any of the Viking optionals and if so, how easy or difficult was it to get the ones you wanted? Have decided will just have to roll with this lottery and as others have commented, have a plan B if we're unable to get our preferred optionals.

Sent from my iPad using Forums