Urgent advise please re visa ukraine

[Misty1937]

We fly out of Australia in 3 days and I had this awful thought this morning of "do we need a visa" as we have booked private tours in Yalta & Odessa. I rang my TA who checked and just rang back to say "yes we do" To say I am furious is an understatement as my TA knew we were planning our own port activities. It is too late now to obtain a visa and our only hope is if the ship can help us. Has anyone had experience with this, I feel terrible for the tour company we have booked with as they will lose the business if we are forced to do the ships excursion. Apart from that we teamed up with 6 others (UK & USA) to do the tour so I will need to contact them too.

I would really appreciate any first hand knowledge of this situation

Thank you, Misty

[6rugrats]

It's a shame this wasn't checked earlier. There have been other threads about Visas and TA's have posted, stating it was not their job to inform their clients about Visas, as most of them tell you it's your responsibility to have the correct travel documents.

 

I hope you can get your money back from this tour operator. I don't believe US or UK citizens need a Visa for Odessa. I believe for Yalta, you would all need Visas or you must take the ship's tours.

 

I have absolutely no idea if the ship will help you obtain visas. I would think not, but have you tried calling them?

[Misty1937]

It's a shame this wasn't checked earlier. There have been other threads about Visas and TA's have posted, stating it was not their job to inform their clients about Visas, as most of them tell you it's your responsibility to have the correct travel documents.

 

I hope you can get your money back from this tour operator. I don't believe US or UK citizens need a Visa for Odessa. I believe for Yalta, you would all need Visas or you must take the ship's tours.

 

I have absolutely no idea if the ship will help you obtain visas. I would think not, but have you tried calling them?

Thank you so much Rugrats for replying. I had checked this earlier with TA which made me even crosser. She has admitted it is her fault entirely. The up side is I have heard from Sergo who posts on CC a lot and is organising our tour and he said Ukraine restrictions have been lifted and no visa is necessary for either Yalta or Odessa. To have all this needless worry 3 days before we fly out is something I could well have done without but thankfully it has been resolved. Just shows how efficient my TA is when she checked it all out yesterday and rang me back with the news we need a visa. She was also going to contact MSC but never phoned me back. Here in Australia our TA always advise and procure visas for us if necessary. I actually did a search yesterday before I posted but could find very little regarding visa's in Ukraine.

 

Again, thanks for taking the time to try and help me, it was very much appreciated.

 

Cheers, Misty

[6rugrats]

I happen to think part of a TA's job is to inform the client about any necessary visas, so your TA really dropped the ball here. So glad this seems to be working out; it's awful to have such worries right before a vacation.

 

I hope is all works out and you have a great cruise!

[Misty1937]

Thank you both sincerely for you answers. After the first shock :eek: when I really went into panic mode I have been reassured by people like yourselves and for this I am really grateful. I emailed our tour organiser, something I should have done first up, and he also has reassured me we do not need a visa just our passports. I guess I will look back on this and laugh but it was far from funny at first, oh well the joys of travelling:rolleyes:. Now to do battle with the suitcase as I fly out tomorrow.

Again many heartfelt thanks, Judy

[Super Terrier]

Hi Misty.

 

Please help! We are off on a black sea cruise next year and are looking for info on private tours rather than ship's excursions. Can you recommend your tour company and could you tell us who they are and how we might contact them?

 

Many thanks!

[freddie]

Super Terrier - I just a few minutes ago posted a reply on this thread on this forum, "Black Sea Cruise help for a newbie", giving contact info for the excellent guide service we used last year in Odessa and Yalta. They'd been recommended previously here on CC and turned out to absolutely marvelous, both in terms of advance communication and in the tours themselves. In fact, to illustrate how organized the agency is, there was a last minute (literally 12-hour notice) change of which days we would be in each port, due to a Ukrainian naval operation. When I got in touch with Lilia Ivanova at Intourist to tell her we would have to switch the dates and duration of tours in each city, she'd already made the changes, as she monitors all ship arrivals carefullly. All eight of us who shared the private tours in those cities were quite impressed by the quality of the operation. Cheers, Fred

[cruza]

We fly out of Australia in 3 days and I had this awful thought this morning of "do we need a visa" as we have booked private tours in Yalta & Odessa. I rang my TA who checked and just rang back to say "yes we do" To say I am furious is an understatement as my TA knew we were planning our own port activities. It is too late now to obtain a visa and our only hope is if the ship can help us. Has anyone had experience with this, I feel terrible for the tour company we have booked with as they will lose the business if we are forced to do the ships excursion. Apart from that we teamed up with 6 others (UK & USA) to do the tour so I will need to contact them too.

 

I would really appreciate any first hand knowledge of this situation

 

Thank you, Misty

 

Misty,

Please check the link:

http://www.ukrconsul.org/visa/index9.htm

European Union and USA citizens don't need visa.

 

Mike

[6rugrats]

Misty,

Please check the link:

http://www.ukrconsul.org/visa/index9.htm

European Union and USA citizens don't need visa.

 

Mike

 

Misty left on her cruise almost a week ago. She also lives in Australia, so this does not apply to her.