St. Petersburg passport question

[isutru]

For those HAL cruisers who have been to St. Petersburg: Do we have our passport when we leave the ship and if so, when does HAL give it to you? I'm interested because we are not doing a ship's tour and are curious if they hold it back to let the ship's tour passengers leave the ship first. Thanks!

[CruiserBruce]

You must have your passport, and you must have a Russian visa. There is lots of info on the Northern Europe/Baltics board, here:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=192

 

Very few people go totally independently, for this reason. Most either use a cruise line excursion, or a private tour. In both cases, the visa will be provided by the tour provider. However, if you go on your own, you must acquire your own visa, a time consuming and expensive proposition.

[isutru]

Thank you CruiserBruce. We are doing a tour with SPB Tours and I am just curious if HAL somehow controls when we are going to get off the ship. I have read a bit about cruise lines telling people that they can't get off right away, that ship's tour passengers are allowed off first. The overwhelming opinion on that is that it is not true. I'm just curious when my passport will be in my hand.

[CruiserBruce]

Thank you CruiserBruce. We are doing a tour with SPB Tours and I am just curious if HAL somehow controls when we are going to get off the ship. I have read a bit about cruise lines telling people that they can't get off right away, that ship's tour passengers are allowed off first. The overwhelming opinion on that is that it is not true. I'm just curious when my passport will be in my hand.[/QUOT

 

HAL only rarely takes your passport. You may have it your possession from the time you get on board.

[Alberta Quilter]

When we went last June, we had our passports the entire time. We also used SPB and had no issues leaving the ship at the same time as the ship excursions.

[Mary Ellen]

HAL will just take passports to make the photocopies you need for the Russian Immigration officials. As we'd brought our own photocopies we never gave our passports over to HAL. Not to say say that The Front Desk didn't keep calling our cabin to say that they hadn't yet received our passports. Even though we told them we already had the required photocopies and that was the only reason they wanted them, they kept calling. Typical front desk. Make your own copies, keep your passports and don't let the Front Desk bully you on a Baltic cruise.

 

We have no problem leaving our passports with HAL when required by the officials of the countries visited, but we're not leaving them otherwise.

[bigjohn42]

We always had control of our passport, the only time HAL needed our passport was when we checked-in in Dover. Yes you will need to take your passport on shore with you as well as the information/ticket from SPB tours that you print out before you leave home, officials will need to see this in place of a visa. They are very serious in St. Petersburg, agents never once smiled, they just looked at you, your picture and then stamped you in. You will love SPB tours, we had a two day tour and our guide was Andrew. Nothing but great things to say about them. Have a Great time

[isutru]

Thank you Alberta Quilter. Your reply gives me confidence.

[Spinner2]

ISUTRU, I think you will be so very delighted with SPB Tours! We used them in May 2011 (Anna was our guide) and it will all go very smoothly. HAL will give you your passport in plenty of time and when the ship is cleared, go right on down. The passport people will want to see the passport with the slip that SPB sent you (electronic; print a copy) and they will look at the passport for longer than it's probably ever been looked at, comparing digit by digit the numbers, but they'll smile and release you when they're done. When you get out into the open area you'll see your SPB person with a big sign (your name on it) and he/she'll lead you to a lovely vehicle just outside the door (they pay to come into the terminal area so you won't have to walk out) where you'll meet your driver and you'll be off. You'll find bottles of water waiting for you as well. Our guide asked what wanted to do for lunch; we opted to skip it and see more; she was fine with that but would have fronted the cost and added it onto the bill if we'd wanted to eat.

 

We planned what we wanted with SPB long before we got there, many e-mails went back and forth, and our guide had a copy of what had been planned which she consulted frequently. She'd phone ahead as we approached the various tour spots and someone she knew would come down to meet us with the tickets; the lines you see are often tour groups waiting for their own guides who are in other lines to get the tickets--I think they can't exchange the vouchers until tour day. As you leave museums, etc the guide, if she's like ours, will phone the driver and the car will be right there as you're ready to leave. No time on those precious days was wasted waiting for cars, admissions, anything. Prepare to be exhausted; the guide will plan on your getting your money's worth! You will learn so much! Driving time is not wasted either; art history class is conducted during the entire ride. :)

 

Money wasn't discussed until the second day; we were doing a boat trip on the river that afternoon so an office person from SPB came down to the pier and sat down with us inside the warm eating area at the pier so we could pay her. The guide excused herself so it was private--guides are all independent contractors. We'd planned to tip the guide and driver as well, so we showed her our bills (US currency) and if she thought the bill itself wouldn't meet the local bank's standards (and very difficult they can be about that!) she exchanged it for one of hers that she knew would pass muster. Thus our guide could put the money into her bank without a hassle.

 

After the boat ride we'd arranged to have tea with a Russian family in their home and Anna assured us that she'd watch the time and make sure we'd be back at the cruise terminal in plenty of time to make sail-away. She knew we were worried about that, and one of the reasons for the tea being last was because it wasn't far from the terminal.

 

You are in for a wonderful experience! We would do it again in a minute. Feel free to ask me any questions you have (e-mail in the signature) but don't worry about anything. The second day the passport stuff goes faster and you can be sure the guide will be right there again, waiting for you. They have it all covered--the visa, the photo permit, the maps, everything. Just enjoy yourself and above all else wear comfortable shoes! Try to contain your outer clothes, umbrellas, scarves etc. as best as you can (loop on the umbrella, scarf goes in the pocket, etc. because you'll have to check them everywhere you go.

[isutru]

Wow!!! Thank you very much. Amazing post with the details I was looking for. I see from your website your experience is widespread and enviable. Likely I will email you with questions.

[Spinner2]

Please do! We thought that St. Petersburg 2 days were some of the best we've had, and were so glad we arranged what we did. That was our first-ever "splurge" on a private tour just for the 2 of us and we're not likely to do it again but we just wanted every minute to count in St. Petersburg and we thought that not another thing could have been squeezed in.

 

We just came back from a cruise so I still have a blog to finish but I appreciate your looking at what's there!

 

You may be able to use some of the other posts for that cruise; some of the other ports will be the same I'd think, and the links on the map are not likely to go stale since they aren't our links but links to websites in those various places and those people will keep them up to date.

[mlkitt3]

When we did our cruise we did a private tour for the 2 days in St Petersburg the ship took our passports the day before arriving in St Petersburg did 2 photocopies of our passports then gave them back to us later that night. We had our passports at all times except for those couples of hours that they photocopied them. We met our group of CC's for our private tour at 7:15 we all left the ship together and were on our tour by 7:40 am we had 8 in our group.

Had a great time and no problems getting off ship or through immigration on either day. St Petersburg was so interesting and the palaces beautiful.

You will have a wonderful time do the private tour in a small group. ;)