St. Petersburg Tours

[Earl Rosebery]

We were just there on Marina. NCL was the other ship in port. (separate terminals). On Marina they used 2 separate gangways and lines. One for ships tours and one for independent tours. (about half the guests in each line). We were independent with Ulko tours and had a e-ticket from them. No other Visa required. The person who phoned you is simply wrong. Russian visas are expensive and take time to acquire.

Why does this keep coming up?

[shekon]

I know that this info does not make any sense especially given that I spoke to their representative on Monday, June 26th and their website was still selling holidays starting on June 30th. Believe me I was very clear about the terms Visa and passport. We travel all the time with our passports.

I took the advice of the first responder on this post and reposted my concern on the NCL forum. I have received a few responses from Getaway cruisers who have toured with a Russian tour group this year. No one had a problem boarding or getting off in St. Petersburg. What a way to start a holiday!

[spbstan]

I am doing the Baltic this summer, September 1st on the Norwegian Getaway, with my husband. I did the same cruise here 3 years ago with a friend. We toured St Petersburg with TJ and can't say enough about them. We had no problems entering Russia with our tour tickets which provided a blanket visa. The fly in the ointment is that Norwegian has informed me, by phone, that we must have a Visa, not tickets, to board the ship in Copenhagen. I have asked them to put that in writing however, after a week, have no response from them. TJ tells me this is the first time they have heard of this twist. Has anyone else encountered this problem?

The sales departments often make that claim but ships don't. But it is all likely to change next year since the company that handles the ship contracts has recently been given the passenger port and they announced they are going to do away with the Pirate operators. As federally registered tour operator Arktur can't prevent them from hosting visa free tours but they can prevent the tour operators access to the port as needed to received guests. You are safe this year but if they go through with the plan, you will be limited to getting a visa or buy expensive 50 passenger bus tours from the ship.

The ships want you to have no choice either. The ships more and more are being booked by people living in countries that need no visas so they will only increase. The visitors seeking Spanish, Italian and Mandarin language guides has increased by a factor of 20x over the last 5 years.

Another problem for next year is an expected price increase of all the museums and sites, the World Cup will bring millions more visitors and tickets will be big demand. They already increased about 50-80% from 3 years. There is far more demand for tickets than there are entry totals available. It is more important than ever to choose a cruise and line carefully, smaller ships and off days will make it much less crowded. It took 3.5 hours to disembark from Norwegian Getaway this morning! That is average this year for all their port calls. 4300 passengers plus about 1500 crew disembarked. They docked at 7:00, cleared customs at 7:20 and there was a steady stream until only private tours were left, at 10:45. Pick a smaller ship if your want easier and earlier access. to your tours. 263 port calls this summer, mostly concentrated on Tuesdays and Saturday arrivals. That is a heck of a lot of people who are going to be in the same exact rooms of the Hermitage or Catherine Palace.

 

So in summery, no, you do not need a visa to leave the ship, but you must be received by an authorized tour operator.

[John Bull]

I am doing the Baltic this summer, September 1st on the Norwegian Getaway, with my husband. I did the same cruise here 3 years ago with a friend. We toured St Petersburg with TJ and can't say enough about them. We had no problems entering Russia with our tour tickets which provided a blanket visa. The fly in the ointment is that Norwegian has informed me, by phone, that we must have a Visa, not tickets, to board the ship in Copenhagen. I have asked them to put that in writing however, after a week, have no response from them. TJ tells me this is the first time they have heard of this twist. Has anyone else encountered this problem?

 

I hate to sound cynical, but this may be a new hard-ball tactic from a cruise line to drive people to buy ship-sponsored excursions. If TJ -- which depends on knowing the most current law has never heard of this requirement -- then it must be a made-up regulation by the cruise line itself. After all, who would benefit from this non-existent regulation?

 

Have you posted this situation on the NCL board? As you learn more, you may want to come back and start a new thread with a more specific title to draw other cruisers to this issue.

 

Worrying that I've just seen a similar comment on another thread on this forum.

And again it's NCL.

 

I already regard NCL as the worst of the nickel-and-dimers, so I do wonder whether there's credence in this being a new policy.

Or am I being cynical ???

 

I'll wager it's certainly not a Russian Govt ruling.

And I've even heard of folk taking a Baltic cruise & deciding not to go ashore in SPB, so no need for a visa or for a pre-booked visa-free tour.

 

So either it's someone being fooled by deliberately misleading information - it wouldn't be the first time.

Or NCL hitting rock-bottom by requiring that folk buy a visa, or a NCL St Petersburg tour, or get denied boarding.

The latter would certainly see the manure hitting the fan.

 

JB :)

[florida flamingo]

We are so pleased to recommend TJTravel. Did St. Petersburg tour last week. Our amazing guide Tatiana was a world of knowledge. Her expertise got us through side entrances, early entries, and avoided the crowds everywhere we went. I felt like a VIP being one of the first people to enter Hermitage, and other palaces. She would also arrange with the van driver to pick us up at convenient locations. He was an excellent driver and got us through all the traffic jams. In addition to all the palaces and churches Tatiana took us on a subway ride, hydrofoil boat ride, market place. We ate a traditional lunch of borscht, beef stroganoff and had Russian vodka.

Everything was perfect. I highly recommend TJ Travel for everyone looking for a tour.

[juliabrett]

TJ Travel came through with flying colors with their 6 Baltic Capital tours during our Baltic cruise aboard the Celebrity Silhouette. The guides were terrific, the standouts were Sinn Louise in Copenhagen, Maria Luisa in Helsinki, Helen in St. Petersburg and Maria in Tallinn. The groups were relatively small between 11 to 17 people. The guides imparted information about the particularly cities effectively and made their presentation very interesting that really caught our interest. We came out of those tours knowing more facts, figures and anecdotes about these places. TJ Travel really put it all together perfectly for us. We will definitely seek the services of TJ Travel again in the part of the world they offer travel and tour services.

Just got back from Celebrity Eclipse had a wonderful 2 day trip at St Petersburg with T J Travel

[rchild727]

We used TJ Tours in Berlin and St. Petersburg and were extremely happy with the price and quality of the tours. I would highly recommend them.

In Berlin our concern was getting back on time, but they delivered us 90 minutes before all aboard.

In St. Petersburg our concern was the whole Visa process, but TJ sent everything we needed and it was all very easy.

[knippsel]

We are so pleased to recommend TJTravel. Did St. Petersburg tour last week. Our amazing guide Tatiana was a world of knowledge. Her expertise got us through side entrances, early entries, and avoided the crowds everywhere we went. I felt like a VIP being one of the first people to enter Hermitage, and other palaces. She would also arrange with the van driver to pick us up at convenient locations. He was an excellent driver and got us through all the traffic jams. In addition to all the palaces and churches Tatiana took us on a subway ride, hydrofoil boat ride, market place. We ate a traditional lunch of borscht, beef stroganoff and had Russian vodka.

Everything was perfect. I highly recommend TJ Travel for everyone looking for a tour.

Sounds like you had a great experience. Do you happen to remember which of their tours you booked? Their website lists: Standard, All Highlights and Exclusive (with Faberge). Or did you book a private tour?

[philw1776]

Sounds like the All Highlights group tour we took 1st week of June. That one has 2 (fun) lunches and the

• Yusupov Palace
  

[florida flamingo]

Knippsel--

It was the 2 day STANDARD tour with 12 others.

 

 

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[Touey]

We just returned from a Baltic cruise and used TJ Tours for St. Petersburg. TJ Tours were top notch. Michael our guide was very informative. The bonus to our 2 day tour was that we saw the Hermitage museum on a Monday when the museum is normally closed to the public.Other cruisers who were there on Sunday had major crowds. It was open for a few of the TJ tour groups which made our experience so much more enjoyable. This tour took us to all the major highlights such as Church of the Spilled Blood, St. Catherines Palace, hydrofoil ride, a look at the subway system and much more. The lunches we had were great, especially the stolle. I would highly recommend TJ Tours for St. Petersburg. We were on the standard tour.

Edited July 6, 2017 by Touey

[philw1776]

If it's the same Michael we had for TJ tours early June, he works at the Hermitage as a PhD grad student. Excellent, informative guide who gave insights into all things Russian. Envious of your Monday admission although we did get early admission to the Hermitage before the big cruise group tours.

[FOXCO]

We just returned from the Viking Sky from Stockholm to Bergen in June 2017 and booked the Baltic Capitals Package with T J Travel. I can not say enough good things about the service and guides that we had with T J. My wife and I ended up being the only 2 on all of the tours with the exception of St. Petersburg and there were only 6 of us on this 2 day tour and just the 2 of us for the evening tour. Our guide in St. Petersburg, Victoria, was amazing. She knew all the right places at the right times and we zipped through and saw/learned so much with our small group by avoiding all the crowds. It could not have possibly been better. All the guides in all the cities were extremely knowledgeable, spoke extremely good English, and very personable. We have usually always booked local tour companies when cruising and not that the ships don't do a good job, but there is no comparison to the smaller, less expensive, way less crowded, local companies as long as you do your due diligence. T J Travel met and EXCEEDED all expectations at an remarkably affordable price!!!

[Heartgrove]

We were in St. Petersburg last month aboard the Zuiderdam. Our Roll-Call organizer was nice enough to get us in touch with SPB. We had a two-day tour with them that was outstanding. A lot does depend on the guide and driver and Svetlana, with ten years experience, really did an excellent job. Our group was only 14 people and on the second day they had us start about fifteen minutes early so that we could be first to the canal boat tour. As an example of Svetlana being a seasoned guide, she protected our flank in museums (Hermitage especially) and didn't allow other tourists to intrude into our group. That is also a way that pickpockets work so beware! Also she was on the lookout for opportunities to move us where other tourists were not and then backtrack to the parts we missed. It really maximised our experience.

 

There is competition among the independent tour operators as well. Prior to our cruise there was discussion on the Roll-Call about payment in USD vs RUB (new government requirement) and certain venues being disrupted so may not be available. Through one Roll-Call member Alla implied that SPB wasn't being upfront with us. SPB was truthful (paid in USD) and all that was advertised was delivered! SPB is really a top-notch company.

[philw1776]

As an example of Svetlana being a seasoned guide, she protected our flank in museums (Hermitage especially) and didn't allow other tourists to intrude into our group. That is also a way that pickpockets work so beware! Also she was on the lookout for opportunities to move us where other tourists were not and then backtrack to the parts we missed. It really maximised our experience.

 

I'm glad you made that observation. The seasoned tour guides are very crowd aware and savvy "herding" their guests to max out the quality of the experience. I noticed this several times on our tour.

[Heartgrove]

I'm glad you made that observation. The seasoned tour guides are very crowd aware and savvy "herding" their guests to max out the quality of the experience. I noticed this several times on our tour.

 

I agree!

[ad id]

Hi, as many here we also tour with TJ in SP. during our June regal princes cruise.

Pre tour communication was very good, the CC special price was also very reasonable.

TJ also provided 2 folding chairs at no extra cost for my parents to rest during few long ques.

We were small group of 13 in a van and that is much much much better than a ship flock of 40 in a bus. Olga our guide was very good.

One small critic, paying was done at the end of the second day (I thought it would be in the morning ) and it was rather crowded with the two lovely ladies that collected the dosh (from other TJ groups). We all decided to skip the last attraction dew to heavy rain and traffic so we had plenty of time for that. But if we didn't we could face last minute run for the ship.

[judijmn]

We are touring with SPB in St Petersberg at the end of July. Is there time to hit an ATM for some rubles or did you get some ahead of time? thanks!

[Pet Nit Noy]

We are touring with SPB in St Petersberg at the end of July. Is there time to hit an ATM for some rubles or did you get some ahead of time? thanks!

 

Any guide will be able to take you to a convenient ATM during your time together. Just make your needs known when you first meet your guide after Passport Control.

[dogs4fun]

We are touring with SPB in St Petersberg at the end of July. Is there time to hit an ATM for some rubles or did you get some ahead of time? thanks!

There is an ATM in the cruise terminal.

[florida flamingo]

I never needed rubles. Credit cards are taken everywhere.

 

 

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[judijmn]

thanks for the quick replies!