St Petersburg disembarkation

[don'tleavewithoutme]

I booked Alla Tours in SPB and several other cities. We were told by Alla to get off the ship as soon as we docked in SPB, but I didn't read her instructions closely enough. :(

 

The Emerald Princess docked on time, and then the Princess people told us if we had independent tours we were to go to a dining room and wait "until the local authorities told Princess we could disembark."

 

When they finally called our group, the Alla people had been waiting for us quite awhile. We then learned that the local immigration people do not care who gets off the ship when - and that we should have not gone to the dining room but made our way directly to the gangway.

 

Apparently, the ship wanted folks taking their tours to have priority disembarkation......

[Ashland]

So sorry you weren't aware of the many posts about the subject of arriving at the port of St Petersburg, and how some cruiselines can give you very misleading info. The advice of your tour company was spot on as they have dealt with this issue many times.

 

Fortunately RCI made no issue of this at all (as I knew the procedures and was prepared thanks to many on these boards) we quickly and easily were some of the first off the ship, met up with our private guide from TJ Travel and were on our way to enjoy this amazing city and all it had to offer.

 

Hope your visit was as wonderful for you that it was for us !

[sippican]

Some cruiselines continue to try to prevent those venturing out on their own, or taking private tours, from disembarking ahead of or at the same time as ship's sponsored tours. It may happen in other ports on other itineraries as well. Sorry to hear that Princess practices this. We had no problem with NCL at all.

This is a great reminder to those who may have missed earlier posts about his.

[DebbieMacG]

Two years ago when we did a Baltic cruise on the Celebrity Eclipse we did a ST Petersburgh tour with a group from CC (I organised it)

 

Celebrity asked those people who were doing independent tours to inform them of the time they wished to disembark, we were then asked to gather in one of speciality restaurants 15 minutes before this time. (coffee juice and pastries were provided)

 

We waited no more than 5 minutes or so and were taken off the ship.

 

At no time were we discouraged, it was a lovely experience :)

[John Bull]

I booked Alla Tours in SPB and several other cities. We were told by Alla to get off the ship as soon as we docked in SPB' date=' but I didn't read her instructions closely enough. :(

 

The Emerald Princess docked on time, and then the Princess people told us if we had independent tours we were to go to a dining room and wait "until the local authorities told Princess we could disembark."

 

When they finally called our group, the Alla people had been waiting for us quite awhile. We then learned that the local immigration people do not care who gets off the ship when - and that we should have not gone to the dining room but made our way directly to the gangway.

 

Apparently, the ship wanted folks taking their tours to have priority disembarkation......[/quote']

 

 

That is a gross. :mad:

 

Any delay is at immigration, & Princess clearly engineered it so that their folk were the head of the immigration line, something which they have no right to do - arranging the line for immigration is not their prerogative.

 

Our cruiseline (P&O) made no such restriction, we were off and through immigration as soon as the ship was cleared for disembarkation, well before the time those on ships excursions were even due to meet in the ship's various lounges. So we were not delayed, and we did not delay those on excursions.

 

Sadly too late for you, and a letter of complaint will doubtless be filed in the trash.

But for those booked to visit SPB, I suggest you head for the gangway soonest, rather than follow any instruction to wait on the ship to be called, and politely ask - stamp your feet & demand only if you have to - that you be permitted to disembark as soon as the authorities have cleared the ship in order to meet your guide, who is waiting. Certainly don't move aside to allow a tour group through.

 

This isn't like using ship's tenders - Princess have no right to engineer the line at immigration once it has been cleared by the authorities.

Hopefully if they're given enough grief by enough people, they'll stop this crass & unfair treatment of their cruise customers.

 

Grrrrrrrrrr :mad:

 

JB :)

[dogs4fun]

So sorry to hear that Princess used these tactics. We also used Alla & got off the ship as soon as it cleared. Thanks to the excellent advice I received on the CC board, I knew what I should do when we docked in SPB & followed CC advice ... happy to report, no issues as all. :)

As John said, sure wish that the cruise lines would "stop this crass & unfair treatment of their cruise customers".

jill

[TLCOhio]

When they finally called our group' date=' the Alla people had been waiting for us quite awhile. We then learned that the local immigration people do not care who gets off the ship when - and that we should have not gone to the dining room but made our way directly to the gangway. Apparently, the ship wanted folks taking their tours to have priority disembarkation......[/quote']

 

Sadly, Princess seems to be among the WORST at playing these types of "games" against their passengers. Really bad and greedy treating their "customers" in this way.

 

THANKS! Enjoy! Terry in Ohio

 

Did a June 7-19, 2011, Solstice cruise from Barcelona that had stops in Villefranche, ports near Pisa and Rome, Naples, Kotor, Venice and Dubrovnik. Enjoyed great weather and a wonderful trip. Dozens of wonderful visuals with key highlights, tips, comments, etc., on these postings. We are now at 102,830 views for this live/blog re-cap on our first sailing with Celebrity and much on wonderful Barcelona. Check these postings and added info at:

http://www.boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1426474

[HawaiiUK]

So out of interest, if the ship docks at say, 8am, what time could one reasonably assume to be dockside to meet their private tour guide?

Thanks.

[dogs4fun]

So out of interest, if the ship docks at say, 8am, what time could one reasonably assume to be dockside to meet their private tour guide?

Thanks.

 

We were among the first off the ship. We were off & met our tour guide within one half hour of docking. :)

jill

[Coolcruise02]

So out of interest, if the ship docks at say, 8am, what time could one reasonably assume to be dockside to meet their private tour guide?

Thanks.

 

It really depends on how long the immigration line is and how many agents they have working. For us we were one of the first off the ship and it took less than 15 minutes.

[Genessa]

we sailed on Princess last year and had known from CC about the problems and misinformation Princess was giving out.

 

When I went to the Purser's desk to speak to someone about St. P, I was asked for a copy of my personal tour ticket, implying that I couldn't get off the ship if they didn't have it on file. I knew that wasn't so - it'd be Russian immigration that would stop me - and told him I didn't have a copy and didn't have the original on me

 

my dh & I did go to the dining room as asked, but were prepared to "kick up a storm" if not allowed to disembark shortly after 8. We did, however, go to the dining room early - something else we learned to do from CC. We were in the first group of passengers on private tours allowed to disembark and I think it was about 7:50.

 

It is a shame that instead of trying to sell people what they want, smaller, more personal tours, they try to trick you into thinking you'd better buy Princess' tour 'cos otherwise you might have no chance to see St.P.

[John Bull]

So out of interest, if the ship docks at say, 8am, what time could one reasonably assume to be dockside to meet their private tour guide?

Thanks.

 

Alla asked that we be in the terminal within 30 mins of the advertised arrival time. We were. In fact a little earlier. Because we disembarked the moment the authorities ok'd it, & weren't held up by tour groups. No line in front of us, no line behind. probably a line of tour parties 20 to 30 mins later.

BTW, Alla advised that it's quicker on the second day, not so much paperwork. Again we were off before the herd, but others reported the lines were indeed much much faster.

 

JB :)

[Anubi]

The great thing about reading these boards is this kind of information. :D:D

We are doing SPb's tour of St. Petersburg next summer and we're already talking about where we're going to meet before disembarking so that all of us get off at the same time as early as possible.

[guineapig]

We did St Petes in August this year with RCI on Jewel, I had read about the various ways people get off the ships for their private tours. We had booked with DenRus, there services were fine, they had said to us leave the ship as soon as gangway is open. We hung around on the same floor as the gangway and kept being told to go up one floor and wait, my husband told the man that as long as we weren't blocking any routes we could stay where we wished-I felt uncomfortable about this but we stayed-there was no announcement that we could disembark, suddenly people started to leave so we joined in, short queue at passport control for us although I know the queue was alot longer 10mins later! one couple on our tour waited for an annoucement, which never came, and were almost an hour late. Infact we were just leaving the dock area onour tour bus when the guide was called back to go get the passengers, this made us an hour later leaving on our tour the 1st day, we still saw everything but as we were up at 5am and on the bus at 7am but didn't leave till 8am it made the morning without food/toilet break a bit longer.

It seems all ships have there own way of disembarking in St Petes!

[Aorinka]

We were with Best Guides and as it was for the second time, we knew for sure we could go straight to the immigration as soon as we were ready to disembark. There was a line there already but none of the customes authorities were organising that line asking which company we were with or giving any privilage to those going with the ship tours. Our guide and driver were already there waiting for us, though we were out ahead of the time stated in our itinerary.

[Got2Cruise]

This is where CC becomes invaluable. Go to the meet and greet and talk to the officers about your concerns. The officers on the NCL Sun took our concerns seriously. Also read hints from recently past cruisers. On the Sun they figured out that the forward elevators were the ones that opened directly at the departure point. We did just as advised, and had no issue whatsoever.

[roothy123]

Shame on Princess. Our line (Oceania) didn't use this stupid tactic.

 

You will likely need to get in line to disembark no later than when the ship docks. We were on Oceania's Marina (1250 pax) and normally there's not much of a line to disembark. However, the first morning in SP, there was a huge line at 8AM. Just about everyone, it seems, gets off the ship there, whether on a tour like Alla's or a ship excursion. The tour operators get early admission at places like the Hermitage, and so most tours start out early. You will probably not be able to just stroll off the ship at 8:20 to meet your tour at 8:30. Going through the airport-like passport procedure alone took us at least 10-15 minutes at the Marine Facade terminal we docked at in August. On the second day, it took much less time. Coming back each day also took less time, especially on the second day.

[GuideDiva]

The situation with the cruise lines have gotten much better, with only a few stuburn cruise staff reverting the old ways. A 3-4 years ago it came to a head and the cruise lines, with 3-4 exceptions, all started using a letter supposedly from Immigration that "required" the ships to detain those not on ship but tours to until 9:30-11 depending on the ship's version it. It was a mess and completely fraudulent. The cruise lines probably were duped as well but eagerly went along with it. It caused such an uproar that it made international news, and videos on YouTube of screaming angry cruisers locked into corridores by security personnel, who did not work for the ship cruise line. The port agent was behind the whole thing and hired rough security men to intimidate passenters who dared get into the empty booth lines designated for the ship tour passengers only, by the same agent.

There was so much turmoil that the cruiselines were swapped with complaints and threats of law suits, but they still insisted the fake letter was from Immigration officials. The first time the real authorities discovered the strange situation where their manned booths were empty for hours with only 60% of passengers disembarking. Finally it got the attention of the Ministry of Transportation in Moscow who sent a high level investigative team to get to the truth. That is when they discovered the plot. Things went back to almost normal after the hearings but it left 100,000 or so without the tours they reserved.

So, just be happy that most of the cruise lines are trying to live that one down. It is interesting that the cruise lines who did not use that port agent, P&O and Cunard Lines and NCL never heard about it or saw the letter. Many people cancelling cruises and booked on those 3 cruise lines thinking the same thing might happen again. It hasn't.

[roothy123]

Wow, Guide Diva. That's pathetic! Glad it has changed. We had no problems, but then again, both Alla and Oceania gave us excellent instructions on the procedure. Kudos to both of them.