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Russian port on Japan cruise


Floridiana
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Yes, you will be covered by a group visa while on a ship's tour. Petropavlosk (I assume the port you refer) is pretty bleak and cold....

 

We were there in April 2012 and in the end didn't disembark (our choice). My research had said that visas were not required for one day stops in Petropavlosk because you can't get anywhere from there. But when the ship anchored, they required ship or private tour to get off. All tours were delayed several hours by the immigration process. We also took on fuel in Petropavlosk and this caused a several hour delay in departure.

 

In the end we did a spa day.

 

Joe

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Thank you for the information. Princess stops in Petropavlosk on one cruise and in Vladivostok on the other. I saw pictures of the first while following a blog, and indeed, it is bleak. Vladivostok is not much better. Taking on fuel seems to be the real reason for the stop.

 

You say the excursions had to get off. Do I understand correctly that you didn't have to get off if you didn't book an excursion?

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Thank you for the information. Princess stops in Petropavlosk on one cruise and in Vladivostok on the other. I saw pictures of the first while following a blog, and indeed, it is bleak. Vladivostok is not much better. Taking on fuel seems to be the real reason for the stop.

 

You say the excursions had to get off. Do I understand correctly that you didn't have to get off if you didn't book an excursion?

 

Sorry for the confusion, my response was not really clear. In order to get off in Petropavlosk you had to have a pre-booked ship or private excursion. If you didn't immigration would not stamp your passport. In our case we didn't have an excursion booked, so we just stayed on board the ship and spent a few hours (and a few $$$) in the spa. :-)

 

Joe

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Sorry for the confusion, my response was not really clear. In order to get off in Petropavlosk you had to have a pre-booked ship or private excursion. If you didn't immigration would not stamp your passport. In our case we didn't have an excursion booked, so we just stayed on board the ship and spent a few hours (and a few $$$) in the spa. :-)

 

Joe

 

Thanks very much for this information. (y)

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Thank you for the information. Princess stops in Petropavlosk on one cruise and in Vladivostok on the other. I saw pictures of the first while following a blog, and indeed, it is bleak. Vladivostok is not much better. Taking on fuel seems to be the real reason for the stop.

 

You say the excursions had to get off. Do I understand correctly that you didn't have to get off if you didn't book an excursion?

Vladivostok, if you are on a ship excursion they organise your visa. No delays getting on or off ship. The city is quite interesting, beautiful churches, eagles nest lookout, an inspiring bridge, square with lots of statues, lots of flowers, and the submarine you can walk through.

It is surprisingly hilly, traffic is chaotic, mix of Asian and Russian. When we returned from our tour there was a market at the port with traditional souvenirs and we could walk up to the trans Siberian railway station. Definitely worth a look beautiful building, our guides were lovely, very helpful and friendly, we enjoyed our time there.

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Vladivostok, if you are on a ship excursion they organise your visa. No delays getting on or off ship. The city is quite interesting, beautiful churches, eagles nest lookout, an inspiring bridge, square with lots of statues, lots of flowers, and the submarine you can walk through.

It is surprisingly hilly, traffic is chaotic, mix of Asian and Russian. When we returned from our tour there was a market at the port with traditional souvenirs and we could walk up to the trans Siberian railway station. Definitely worth a look beautiful building, our guides were lovely, very helpful and friendly, we enjoyed our time there.

 

I can tell you from personal experience visiting Vladivostok numerous time over the past 8 years that, unlike St. Petersburg, for example, you do not have to go on a ship tour or arrange your own visa privately to go ashore. You can walk right off the ship to explore on your own. Furthermore, it is easy to do on your own as the cruise terminal is quite centrally located. Many sights are within a 15-minute walk. Parts can be quite hilly, though.

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Has anyone actually visited Petropavlosk? We are thinking of doing a Regent Tokyo to Vancouver cruise in April 2019, with stops on Kamchatka and the Aleutian Islands before the Inside Passage. We love visiting unusual (sometimes remote) places. Would you recommend this cruise route?

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I follow blogs of people who travel to or live in unusual and remote places. Your planned cruise route sounds interesting from a 'remote and unusual' point of view. It also sounds like I would need lots of motion sickness prevention on this northerly route. As to Petropavlosk, the bike rider I am following was there. It was not one of the highlights of her ride from the perspective of landscape and people. She is an eaxcellent photographer.

http://www.pushbikegirl.com/blog-in-english/no-47-russia-june-2015-wilderness-bears-island-sakhalin

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  • 3 weeks later...

My wife and I did a Silversea Cruise from Vancouver to Tokyo about 4 years ago. We stopped at Petropavlovsk. It was to us the most interesting stop of our trip --nice city--the peninsula is full of snow covered volcanos which make a great shore excursion by a specially built all terrain vehicles. The Peninsula also has a very large brown bear population and is noted for having some of the best fly fishing in the world. The city itself is nice and interesting with an excellent small fish market. The people in the city were very nice and very friendly since they do not see many foreigners.

Also, the cruise from Kodiak Island across the Bering Sea was very smooth except for 1 day of mild discomfort.

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My wife and I did a Silversea Cruise from Vancouver to Tokyo about 4 years ago. We stopped at Petropavlovsk. It was to us the most interesting stop of our trip --nice city--the peninsula is full of snow covered volcanos which make a great shore excursion by a specially built all terrain vehicles. The Peninsula also has a very large brown bear population and is noted for having some of the best fly fishing in the world. The city itself is nice and interesting with an excellent small fish market. The people in the city were very nice and very friendly since they do not see many foreigners.

Also, the cruise from Kodiak Island across the Bering Sea was very smooth except for 1 day of mild discomfort.

 

 

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we will be arriving at Petropaviovsk, Russia May 14th, 2017 from Celebrity Millennium ship for 1-day (7am-7pm). Your review sounds so exciting!!! Was your excursion via your cruise ship or was it on your own? If other than cruise ship, can you please share your source information? Thank you so much,

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Does anyone know of local tour guide for Petropaviovsk, Russia port that you would recommend? We will be leaving from US (Washington, DC) to Japan and will be at Petropaviovsk port on 5/14/2017 from 7am - 7pm. Thank you,

 

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-------------------------------

we will be arriving at Petropaviovsk, Russia May 14th, 2017 from Celebrity Millennium ship for 1-day (7am-7pm). Your review sounds so exciting!!! Was your excursion via your cruise ship or was it on your own? If other than cruise ship, can you please share your source information? Thank you so much,

 

It was a Silversea tour by all terrain vehicles. If I remember correctly--There were only about 3 tor 4 tour options and this was the only one by all terrain vehicle to drive up near several of the snow covered volcanos. About 50 or 60 of us did the tour. It was great!! Since not many cruise ships stop here, I am not sure how good local private tours would be--this is a a very very remote area of Russia. Near the fish market is a gun shop which was interesting to see---its in the same small mall--You could arm a small army there.

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I should also mention that the trip by all terrain vehicle starts on highways but then goes up trails and dry snow drainage areas to reach the foot of 2 or 3 nearby volcanoes. It is a rough ride but worth it.

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-------------------------------

we will be arriving at Petropaviovsk, Russia May 14th, 2017. If other than cruise ship, can you please share your source information? Thank you so much,

 

I am on the same cruise and started researching private tour companies in Petropavlovsk 12-18 months out. I finally settled on KAMCHATINTOUR http://www.kamchatintour.ru

 

We have selected our itinerary and they have answered all of our questions promptly (in English). We now have a tour ticket for the four of us, which is also called a blanket visa or booking confirmation. This should allow us to disembark the ship without delay or any bureaucratic delays with the customs officials.

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We have been to both cities. I prefer Vladivostok, but the day we were there, it rained so hard that our day was cut short. No Visa was required. We just walked off the ship. That was in May. Petropaviovsk was not that great. We took a ships tour. Next time I would stay on the ship. This port was in July, and the weather was fairly nice.

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I am on the same cruise and started researching private tour companies in Petropavlovsk 12-18 months out. I finally settled on KAMCHATINTOUR http://www.kamchatintour.ru

 

We have selected our itinerary and they have answered all of our questions promptly (in English). We now have a tour ticket for the four of us, which is also called a blanket visa or booking confirmation. This should allow us to disembark the ship without delay or any bureaucratic delays with the customs officials.

We did the equivalent of the winter Fairy Tale Tour--this was in late September so there was no snow at the level we were touring. The weather at the volcano site was probaly mid 40's F.

Every one has different expectations of cities--but this city is "surrounded by remarkable scenery"--per Wikipedia. It can easily be seen. I highly concur. There are no roads here from the peninsula to other parts of Russia.

I have not been to Vladivostok--but I am sure I would enjoy it there also.

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  • 3 months later...
Sorry for the confusion, my response was not really clear. In order to get off in Petropavlosk you had to have a pre-booked ship or private excursion. If you didn't immigration would not stamp your passport. In our case we didn't have an excursion booked, so we just stayed on board the ship and spent a few hours (and a few $$$) in the spa. :-)

 

Not true! At least it wasn't in May of this year.

No visa is required for visits up to 72 hours. http://www.russiavisa.com/visafreeentry.htm

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  • 3 weeks later...
I can tell you from personal experience visiting Vladivostok numerous time over the past 8 years that, unlike St. Petersburg, for example, you do not have to go on a ship tour or arrange your own visa privately to go ashore. You can walk right off the ship to explore on your own. Furthermore, it is easy to do on your own as the cruise terminal is quite centrally located. Many sights are within a 15-minute walk. Parts can be quite hilly, though.

 

Heather-

In October Princess is stopping at Korsakov, Sakhalin, Russia rather than either of the 2 ports mentioned in this thread. Do you know whether you can walk off the ship in Korsakov without a visa?

Carol

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Heather-

In October Princess is stopping at Korsakov, Sakhalin, Russia rather than either of the 2 ports mentioned in this thread. Do you know whether you can walk off the ship in Korsakov without a visa?

Carol

 

Thanks Carol. I was just about to post this very same question to Heather myself. We are also on the Diamond visiting Korsakov this October and have tentatively booked a ship's tour but would really like to just walk off and wander on our own. We definitely did this in Vladivostok last year.

 

Carol, hope to meet you on board.

 

Heather we hope you can help us with this enquiry.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I was on a Princess cruise that stopped in Korsakov. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but....

 

1) It's a tender port, not docked. So there's a big production to even get off the ship.

2) AFAIK, you had to book a "tour" even to just walk around Korsakov.

3) There is absolutely nothing to see in Korsakov, unless you want to see what the wrong end of the Soviet Union looked like, in a town that time forgot.

4) The "big city", Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, is marginally better. Their big attraction is a giant Lenin statue. :) That requires an hour bus or train ride, though.

5) This port is clearly scheduled for legal reasons to make it an international cruise, not for any intrinsic appeal to the destination.

6) The majority of the cruisers simply stayed on board and treated it as a sea day. They must have gotten the memo that I missed.

 

2/10 would not recommend.

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