Alla Tours - New 2016 St Petersburg Comfort Tour

[fair weather golfer]

I have just booked the New Comfort tour with Alla Tours (http://www.alla-tour.com )

I just clicked the contact button said what I was looking for and within 24hrs Anna had contacted me and set up my account.

 

2016 St. Petersburg New 2 day Comfort group tour

Day 1

8.30 Meet at the ship

Peterhof summer estate

Grand Peterhof palace.

Tour of the Lower Fountain Park and Upper gardens.

Lunch in a local restaurant

½ drive tour of the City highlights

Visit to Kazan Cathedral

Walking/shopping on Nevsky prospect

17.00 Onboard

19:00 Optional evening program

Day 2

8:30 Meet at the ship

½ drive tour of the City highlights through the historical downtown etc

Hermitage museum (early entry)

Lunch in a Stolle pie shop

Church on the Blood

Boat ride: City tour from the water angle

Payment for the tour

17:00 Onboard

 

Cost of the Tour is USD 240 per person. (includes all entry fees, cost of lunch, photo permission in museums, electronic headsets and a bottle stilled water each day. Also in included are all taxes and Visa waivers – Waiver is in the ticket that is emailed to you – just print off before you leave home.

 

Max. group size is 16 pax

[TERRIER1]

We were on the Alla Comfort Tour this past July. Our guide was Marina and she was great. Incredibly organized, knowledgeable and punctual. It was a great tour and there was only 8 of us.

[roothy123]

We did Alla's comfort tour 4 years ago with Alexandra (guide) and Alex (driver). We loved it, but it IS a bit tiring! I see the tour has been changed a little, but the parts I liked the best are still there. We were on Oceania Marina at the time, which carries 1250 passengers. Be prepared for a LOT of people going off the ship early. You won't be able to just walk off the ship in a matter of a few minutes like you can at most ports. Unless things have changed, there will also be lines to go through an immigration screening by Russian authorities. Bottom line is that it would be best to get an early breakfast and get in line early to get off the ship. St. Petersburg is a bit of an unusual port.

[id4elizabeth]

Our experience was a bit different this past May. We got to the disembarkation gangplank early and we're able to just walk right off as soon as the ship was cleared - no one else there. Walked a few hundred feet to the brand new terminal building where there were 4 to 5 immigration agents with absolutely no one else there. Handed our papers to the agent (do NOT smile) and were out the door within minutes. Our private guide, driver and Mercedes were waiting and away we went (through TJ Travel). There was a Costa ship next to us and they had different immigration agents and from what we could see there were lines there.

 

At the end of the day, the same thing - the Viking line-up only had a few folks. The Costa lines were out the door and looked to be HOURS long.

 

Here I must say, Viking excelled in 'getting it right'! Would be interesting to hear the experience of later Star cruisers in St Pete? Did you have a smooth disembarkation in St Pete?

[roothy123]

Our experience was a bit different this past May. We got to the disembarkation gangplank early and we're able to just walk right off as soon as the ship was cleared - no one else there. Walked a few hundred feet to the brand new terminal building where there were 4 to 5 immigration agents with absolutely no one else there. Handed our papers to the agent (do NOT smile) and were out the door within minutes. Our private guide, driver and Mercedes were waiting and away we went (through TJ Travel). There was a Costa ship next to us and they had different immigration agents and from what we could see there were lines there.

 

At the end of the day, the same thing - the Viking line-up only had a few folks. The Costa lines were out the door and looked to be HOURS long.

 

Here I must say, Viking excelled in 'getting it right'! Would be interesting to hear the experience of later Star cruisers in St Pete? Did you have a smooth disembarkation in St Pete?

 

Wow, that sounds wonderful, Elizabeth! Do you know if the Viking tours had gone off the ship yet? It sounds like they hadn't. All I can think of is that you wisely had your plan in place to be first off, rolled with it, and beat all the Viking tour people off the ship. As to Costa, their ships are almost all really large ones (2 to 3 thousand people or more, I think), so I bet it was a real mess, especially when the tours went off. (I assume the people on tours have to go through the immigration check as well, but I never asked or knew for sure.)

 

We probably were only in lines on the ship and in the terminal for about 20 minutes, and had no trouble meeting the Alla guide on time. However, we then waited a while for one couple that wasn't there. After maybe 5 minutes past the meeting time, our group of 13 left in the van, which made a short stop on the way to one of the major stops, allowing the late couple to be found and driven to where we were. The line coming back at the end of the day was short, and the lines on the ship and in the terminal the second day were shorter than those on the first day.

 

In any case, it sounds like Viking passengers might have a fairly easy time of it. If nothing else, being on a smaller ship does make a difference in many ports. It's one reason I love the smaller ones......

[id4elizabeth]

Yes Roothy - we were ahead of the Viking tours.

 

Yes, the Viking tour people have to go through Russian immigration as well as independent travelers.

 

We found that on all the ports we stopped, with the exception of ports where we had to tender, we could beat the Viking tour people if we just went to the disembarkation gangplank ahead of when they announced we were cleared. As soon as they announced it, we could get off. Meanwhile the tour groups are assembled in the Star Theater or Torshavn's and have to come down the stairs yet. So in that 5 minutes or so, it was clear sailing. The trick was in finding where they would be disembarking from because that would sometimes change from port to port.

[roothy123]

Yes Roothy - we were ahead of the Viking tours.

 

As soon as they announced it, we could get off. Meanwhile the tour groups are assembled in the Star Theater or Torshavn's and have to come down the stairs yet. So in that 5 minutes or so, it was clear sailing. The trick was in finding where they would be disembarking from because that would sometimes change from port to port.

 

That was easy on our cruise, as the only deck used for getting on and off the ship was A! But we were only on a 10 day cruise with 8 ports, and I guess there weren't any unusual docking situations like you get in some cities!

[Bigred84]

Why did you choose the comfort tour and not the grand tour?

[roothy123]

In our case, we chose the comfort tour because my spouse has trouble walking for a long time, and we wanted to minimize the exertion involved. Even with the comfort tour, there was quite a bit of walking in the venues, plus through the park to get to where the hyrdofoil boat left to return to the city center. Even being able to walk pretty much without tiring, I found the comfort tour a little tiring for me. (I was early 60s at time; decent health). I know I wasn't alone. A couple people signed up for the extra ballet program at night and were almost regretting it by the end of that day. I felt we saw plenty on the comfort tour, and definitely saw the must-sees. I forget what we missed by not taking the grand tour, but at the time I didn't feel it was worth it to do the grand tour, even if my husband had been up for as much walking as me. Of course, the tours may be changed by now. We went in the summer of 2012. My pictures are here if you want to see what our tour consisted of in 2012: http://www.pbase.com/roothy123/baltic_cruise_&page=all

 

I think there are other St. Petersburg pictures in the next "gallery" on my site (just go back until you find more galleries) but the best are in the first gallery, toward end of gallery.

 

I think we may have had a box lunch one day instead of a sit-down lunch, but other than that, I don't remember much about the difference between the comfort and grand tours. The sit down lunch was really so-so; no big deal. Then again, maybe I would find all Russian food kind of so-so. I'm really not sure. I only mention this to let you that, in my opinion, the lunch situation should not be considered in choosing between the two tours.

 

My favorites were the outside of Catherine's Palace (beautiful for photographs), the gardens of the Peterhof, and the Church of Our Savior on Spilled Blood. My least favorites were the Hermitage (not an art fan, even though Hermitage is justifiably famous) and the church at the St. Peter and Paul Fortress. Hyrdrofoil was fun and a good way to get back to city center. Subway ride was worth a short ride. Cruise down river gave some nice views of beautiful buildings on the embankment.

[TERRIER1]

Why did you choose the comfort tour and not the grand tour?

 

We choose the Comfort Tour because it was somewhat less hectic than the other tour. However, we did a lot of walking and it was a long day. We hit all the highlights and had lunch in restaurants on both days. We never took a hydrofoil so I am surmising that the Comfort Tour may be different for for each group. Our agenda was slightly modified to get around some rain and traffic. Our guide Marina was great and very flexible.

[GLENLARA]

My wishes to know if there are shopping opportunities on either of the tours.

 

Thanks

[roothy123]

There weren't many opportunities to shop, but about your best bet would be waiting until near the end of the second day when we were taken to a store to pay for the tour. (We could charge it.) The store was a large shop packed with a pretty good variety of souvenirs - fairly nice quality for most, some less so, prices to suit everyone. You could use a credit card, so Russian money wasn't needed. We had about a half hour or so to pay for our tour and shop. There was some clothing (woolen things) but mostly it was Russian souvenirs. Our favorite display was this one:

 

http://www.pbase.com/roothy123/image/145725170

 

At a few other places, there were some opportunities to shop a little, as there were some vendors around. I think we were taken to a square where there were a few, plus the restaurant at which we had lunch had a few. I think the vendors took euros; not sure about US or Canadian dollars. I would probably just wait until you go to the store.

[TERRIER1]

My wishes to know if there are shopping opportunities on either of the tours.

 

Thanks

 

Our guide ask the group our 8 if we wanted to shop and what type (high end,souvenirs, jewelry etc). None of us were shoppers but several wanted some small things to bring back to the grand kids such as nesting dolls and Christmas tree ornaments. We stopped for a 1/2 hour at a nice shop at the end of the second day. On our visit to the St Pete's main avenue we were let out to wander on our own for about 30 to 45 minutes and there was large shops and a department store there. St Pete's in two full days is a whirlwind tour jammed packed with sights so shopping is an afterthought and difficult to fit into the schedule.