Disembarking in St. Petersburg - NCL Getaway

HI,

I'm not sure if this the proper forum, but I want to give a heads up to any passengers who may be docking in St. Petersburg with NCL.

NCL will not allow you to disembark on time in St. Petersburg if you booked a private tour (SPB, TJ, Alla, etc). NCL gives priority to passengers who booked an excursion with them and allows these passengers off the ship first. Anyone who booked a private tour is placed at the end of the line. My party of 8 was ready to get off the ship at 7am when the boat docked but we were physically turned away by the assistant cruise director Jojo when we tried to disembark. He told us to wait in a separate area until all the NCL excursion passengers had finished disembarking. As a result we didn't leave the boat until 750 and didn't get through customs until 850, and there were still hundreds of passengers behind us waiting to clear customs.

I don't think what NCL did was right, but I don't have much cruise experience so we just followed the rules. Looking back, I think I should have been more forceful to see if he would have actually tackled me to prevent me from getting off the boat instead of just pushing me away. Anyway, our tour started late and we couldn't see everything because of our late start.

This is just a heads up to anyone who docking in SPB with NCL. Hopefully this issue will be rectified by the time you sail.

These things can be quite random. When we were in St Petersburg last year a similar thing was reported from the cruise directly before ours, whilst we walked off as soon as the ship had clearance and at the same time as the excursions.

It seems to differ from cruise to cruise.

According to our TA and tour co. in SPB, this is illegal and NCL should be rzeported to the Russian port authorities. I will try to find a link. you probably should have been more forceful.on Marina we had 2 separate lines of about equal numbers.1 for ship's tours, 1 for private and given equal priority.

I did a little more work. Apparently on June 7 there were 17000 cruis passengers in SPB causing a Snafu.

As a result ,on busy days, ships tours ARE going to be given priority for the limited facilities available.

what's the solution? Go on a smaller ship. Go,when few other ships will be in port. be prepared to start 90 minutes late on your first day. As a last resort, book a ship's tour. http://guidetopetersburg.com/new-disembarkation-rules-st-petersburg-cruise-port-for-2018-navigation/

Thank you Wangws88 and Earl for posting your experience and the article! Very interesting! We're sailing on September 1st and it looks like there are four ships in port that day but really hope we don't have the same issues as we are on a non-ship excursion... this is something the 2018 passengers would want to be aware of for sure.

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Thank you Wangws88 and Earl for posting your experience and the article! Very interesting! We're sailing on September 1st and it looks like there are four ships in port that day but really hope we don't have the same issues as we are on a non-ship excursion... this is something the 2018 passengers would want to be aware of for sure.

The better private companies will figure out how to deal with this. we used Ulko. They were very responsive to any e-mailed concerns.

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I would imagine the major local tour operators are accustomed to this and will adjust their itinerary accordingly. At the end of the day they are running a business and want to keep their good reputation.

When we went to SPB we didn't

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Sorry, didn't finish my post. I was going to say we did a trip with Alla Tours and had no difficulty disembarking from the ship, but we were on a small ship.

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I'm so sorry you experienced this. I hadn't heard of this happening for a few years. Please also post it on the NCL board so people have all the information they need prior to selecting a cruise.

I wrote a review of my July Getaway cruise, which you might be interested to read, and I mention that I got left behind on the first day in St Petersburg, because I was stuck in the immigration queue and by the time I had got through, the NCL tour I had booked had gone without me.

Since I followed all the instructions: Assemble at location shown on ticket, get number sticker, attach to front in prominent position, when called, disembark and get in any queue for an immigration kiosk, I was not impressed.

Fortunately, a half day tour was about to leave, which covered the morning itinerary of my tour, and so I was able to travel with their bus, then join my own tour at the church on Spilled Blood. I happened to be lucky, but I did raise the matter later with the excursions desk. They said they were very sorry, but since I was the last one for my bus and they were ready to set off, they could not wait any longer. I requested they look into changing how passengers disembark at St Petersburg, since the issue with long immigration queues is not new.

I wrote a review of my July Getaway cruise, which you might be interested to read, and I mention that I got left behind on the first day in St Petersburg, because I was stuck in the immigration queue and by the time I had got through, the NCL tour I had booked had gone without me.

 

Since I followed all the instructions: Assemble at location shown on ticket, get number sticker, attach to front in prominent position, when called, disembark and get in any queue for an immigration kiosk, I was not impressed.

 

Fortunately, a half day tour was about to leave, which covered the morning itinerary of my tour, and so I was able to travel with their bus, then join my own tour at the church on Spilled Blood. I happened to be lucky, but I did raise the matter later with the excursions desk. They said they were very sorry, but since I was the last one for my bus and they were ready to set off, they could not wait any longer. I requested they look into changing how passengers disembark at St Petersburg, since the issue with long immigration queues is not new.

Yikes! I know that the immigration lines are LONG this year but I was under the impression that tours booked through the ship would wait for you. Heck - what would be the benefit of booking through your ship if they don't even wait for you. AFAIK, this is the reason that most mention when booking through the ship rather than through a private operator.

I am glad that you were able to make it work by joining the half day & meeting up with your original tour.

There is a thread here that states what one must do if the cruise line puts you in a separate line outside of the ship sponsored excursions.

This is not allowed, and being forceful with the cruise staff will usually resolve the situation.

You will find that information in this thread:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2505565

There is a thread here that states what one must do if the cruise line puts you in a separate line outside of the ship sponsored excursions.

This is not allowed, and being forceful with the cruise staff will usually resolve the situation.

 

You will find that information in this thread:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2505565

A poster upthread linked this article:

http://guidetopetersburg.com/new-disembarkation-rules-st-petersburg-cruise-port-for-2018-navigation/

I am unfamiliar with this site, and cannot guarantee its reliability. But if the information posted is true, then it appears the cruise ships will be allowed to give priority to passengers only on ship tours.

I don't think you will necessarily need to lose time overall. We booked a private tour for just our family, and one company offered to let us start at 10 am on day one to avoid the lines and start earlier on day two. Passengers on independent tours may need to do this if the cruise lines start denying early disembarkation for independent passengers.

HI,

 

I'm not sure if this the proper forum, but I want to give a heads up to any passengers who may be docking in St. Petersburg with NCL.

 

NCL will not allow you to disembark on time in St. Petersburg if you booked a private tour (SPB, TJ, Alla, etc). NCL gives priority to passengers who booked an excursion with them and allows these passengers off the ship first. Anyone who booked a private tour is placed at the end of the line. My party of 8 was ready to get off the ship at 7am when the boat docked but we were physically turned away by the assistant cruise director Jojo when we tried to disembark. He told us to wait in a separate area until all the NCL excursion passengers had finished disembarking. As a result we didn't leave the boat until 750 and didn't get through customs until 850, and there were still hundreds of passengers behind us waiting to clear customs.

 

I don't think what NCL did was right, but I don't have much cruise experience so we just followed the rules. Looking back, I think I should have been more forceful to see if he would have actually tackled me to prevent me from getting off the boat instead of just pushing me away. Anyway, our tour started late and we couldn't see everything because of our late start.

 

 

This is just a heads up to anyone who docking in SPB with NCL. Hopefully this issue will be rectified by the time you sail.

Were you on the July 27th sailing? We were and this was our same experience in SPB. The whole disembarking process was a chaotic mess especially for those on independent tours. VERY disappointed with NCL's handling of this.

We had to wait 45 minutes in the atrium while all the NCL tours got off to ship and went to passport control. We were told by the head of NCL guest services that independent cruisers had to wait due to "immigration issues" which was a total BS answer. Then we had to wait in passport control for about another hour. We finally met up with our tour group around 8:45 AM.

That bring said, we toured with Alla and did the 2 day Imperial tour with a visit to Fabregé. Elena was our guide and was awesome! I highly recommend her or Julia.

Tip for Passport Control:

Bathrooms are located in the far left and far right hand sides of the hall against the building walls. You won't be able to to access the bathrooms from the center lines. Thought I'd share since it can be a long wait.

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A poster upthread linked this article:

 

http://guidetopetersburg.com/new-disembarkation-rules-st-petersburg-cruise-port-for-2018-navigation/

 

I am unfamiliar with this site, and cannot guarantee its reliability. But if the information posted is true, then it appears the cruise ships will be allowed to give priority to passengers only on ship tours.

 

I don't think you will necessarily need to lose time overall. We booked a private tour for just our family, and one company offered to let us start at 10 am on day one to avoid the lines and start earlier on day two. Passengers on independent tours may need to do this if the cruise lines start denying early disembarkation for independent passengers.

Interesting read. I contacted Anya at Alla Tours and these are, indeed, the new rules for 2018. Applies to all independent tours regardless of the tour provider. Hmmmm ... looks like the cruise lines have some muscle (or Arctur tours has some influence with immigration - they are the company that provides most of the ship sponsored shore excursions in St. Pete). It is my understanding that, just recently, the port has already implemented their trial run of the new rules. The cruise lines must be losing a fair amount of tours to the independents & I assume that this is their new scheme to encourage booking shore excursions through them rather than through independents.

I agree, you will not lose time overall - your tour will just begin and end a little later.

We were also not allowed to get off the ship on Princess until those on ship's excursion are done. We were however still able to make it on time with SPB Tours.

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Interesting read. I contacted Anya at Alla Tours and these are, indeed, the new rules for 2018. Applies to all independent tours regardless of the tour provider. Hmmmm ... looks like the cruise lines have some muscle (or Arctur tours has some influence with immigration - they are the company that provides most of the ship sponsored shore excursions in St. Pete). It is my understanding that, just recently, the port has already implemented their trial run of the new rules. The cruise lines must be losing a fair amount of tours to the independents & I assume that this is their new scheme to encourage booking shore excursions through them rather than through independents.

I agree, you will not lose time overall - your tour will just begin and end a little later.

Are you saying the new rules are already being implemented? So that means all non ship tours will/probably have to start later? Leaving on the NCL getaway in Sept, trying to figure out if this will affect the independent tour I've booked.

Are you saying the new rules are already being implemented? So that means all non ship tours will/probably have to start later? Leaving on the NCL getaway in Sept, trying to figure out if this will affect the independent tour I've booked.

No, I am only saying that they have completed a trial run (I think it was last week). It is my understanding that the new rules will begin in 2018. You can check with your tour operator to be certain but I was told that the new disembarkation rules will begin in 2018.

As we were waiting in the atrium with other independents, we wished that we had saved our NCL excursion sticker from Germany and used it to get off the ship with the NCL groups.

(Each sticker has a number on it that corresponds to the NCL excursion number. You report to the theater at your appointed time and one member of your group goes up to the stage, shows them your NCL excursion tickets, and then they give you stickers for everyone in your group.)

They weren't checking the excursion numbers on the stickers as people walked en mass down the stairs to deck 4--they just looked for the sticker. Theoretically, you could put on any excursion sticker, get in line with the NCL groups and make your way over to passport control. Once you clear passport control and reach the terminal shops, you can take off your sticker (or cover it up with a jacket) and meet your independent tour group.

For our 3 NCL excursions, we only had to show our tickets in order to get the sticker and then tickets were never looked at again.

Anyone know how NCL handled getting off the ship at St Petersburg for Haven guests with private tours? Thing it will be the same in 2018?

We are with SPB in St. Petersburg on September, 2017. 14. We were going to assemble on the ship at 7:00 and walk off together. Sounds too early now. What time do you think we should assemble? There are only two ships in port that day.

It was my bright idea to assemble on board, so I don't want everyone upset with me if we have to stand there and wait, while they could still be drinking coffee...

Thanks.

Lynn

Anyone know how NCL handled getting off the ship at St Petersburg for Haven guests with private tours??

My question as well. Kind of defeats the "first off" perk in Haven if they make you wait for passengers going on NCL tours.

We were in SPB in late August. Our private tour started at 9AM. We left our room around 7:50 and was cleared through exactly 1 hour later so it took about 50 min to clear customs. If you have an earlier tour, you may encounter longer lines.