belmont32

James, do you knowif you can pay by credit card on the Emelie ferry or do you need Swedish kroner, thank you.:)

Just to update, we were at Catherine's Palace today. Yes there were queues but nothing that we wouldn't expect anywhere with so many visitors. We were lucky that we were a group of 4 with an excellent guide who knew how to play the system.

 

I do find it very hard to believe that SPB tours are pulling such an amazing place.

Our SPB tour on 6th and 7th August is still going to St. Catherine's Palace. They are just warning us to expect delays.:)

We received a similar email fromSPB tours today. They said the waiting time on pre booked tours was 50 to 60 minutes and that all tour operaters were affected. They suggested it would be best not to book evening tours with Celebrity just in case the SPB tour returned to the ship late.

This is a copy of the email:

St. Petersburg is seeing the most visitors it ever has this Summer. This is great news on many fronts, and we are certainly happy more and more people are interested in coming to our beautiful and historical city.That said, we are obligated to inform you of one problem that has resulted. This Summer, for the first time ever,*the long queues and waiting times at Catherine’s Palace are becoming a problem, not only for us, but for all the tour operators and the groups that are brought to the palace, whether by other independent operators like SPB-Tours, or whether by the large groups organized by the cruise ships. While normally we could enter the palace within 20 minutes of arriving, the waiting time has now been approaching more like 45-60 minutes. Understandably, this has left many visitors frustrated.SPB-Tours always books special tickets to all venues with specific entrance times, so your waiting time is minimal or non-existent. However, in the case of Catherine’s Palace, this doesn’t matter. The Catherine’s Palace management has not organized themselves in a way that can accommodate the number of visitors it is receiving. *Due to the high demand, they are overbooking time slots.In a few cases, this has resulted in returning to the cruise ship a bit later than the scheduled time on day 1 (never on the day of your ship’s departure!). Our suggestion is not to book an evening option with the cruise ship that requires you to be back to the cruise ship too early. If you book an evening option with SPB-Tours, we can take you directly to the evening option venue after the day tour.I am sorry for the situation, but I feel obligated to tell you in advance rather than leave it as an unpleasant surprise on the day of the tour.Despite the situation, I am confident your time in St. Petersburg with us will be the highlight of your cruise[/font]

We're booked on Silhouette in August for a Baltic cruise. We've already scheduled a 2-day tour with a highly-rated company in St. Petersburg. Today we got an e-mail from them warning that visitors to Catherine's Palace are having to wait much longer than usual in line. They claim that St. Petersburg is seeing a record number of tourists this summer, and although the tour company has tickets for specific entry times, the Palace management has overbooked time slots. As a result, the tour might return later than scheduled to the ship on the first night, and they recommend that you not book an outside tour for that evening.

 

Has anyone on Eclipse or Silhouette this summer had an experience with long queues at St. Catherine's in St. Petersburg?

We received a similar email fromSPB tours today. They said the waiting time on pre booked tours was 50 to 60 minutes and that all tour operaters were affected. They suggested it would be best not to book evening tours with Celebrity just in case the SPB tour returned to the ship late.

I think the doors are on the side marked with the black diagonal line. :)

I tried booking with Avis through Costco and it says "This is a non-participating location.":confused:

I got the same message when i tried to book.:confused:

Thanks for the advice everyone. I think we will risk buying tickets on the day or as suggested, at a different port of call. We are travelling with MSC and they are charging around £85 for a child's tickets, when I've checked the rail website children under 3 are free!

We found this websitehttp://www.flambooking.com/booking.aspx useful for checking how many seats are still available on each train. you just click on the date you will be there.

Unfortunately on our date Celebrity had pre booked all the suitable times so we have had to book their tour.

Hopefully you will have more luck.