St. Pete's visa question

[spearmint]

When we cruised the Baltic in 2006, our travel company for Saint Petersburg, DenRus, among others took care of procuring our visa. We have friends who are doing the Baltic and have signed up for ship's tour of S.P. Their travel agent told them that if they did not use ship's tour, they would have to get their needed visas themselves.

 

Have things changed in that regard over the years? Seems odd, to me.

 

Bill

[dogs4fun]

When we cruised the Baltic in 2006, our travel company for Saint Petersburg, DenRus, among others took care of procuring our visa. We have friends who are doing the Baltic and have signed up for ship's tour of S.P. Their travel agent told them that if they did not use ship's tour, they would have to get their needed visas themselves.

 

Have things changed in that regard over the years? Seems odd, to me.

 

Bill

Things have not changed in regard to visa free shore excursions provided that you book with a licensed tour company (and there are many). You absolutely do not have to book with the ship. The travel agent is wrong.

[LondonTowner]

It's just a tactic used by the cruise ships so you buy their overpriced excursions. We booked with Alla Tours, but there are a number of local tour operators who get glowing reports.

 

They ensure they have the relevant paper work for you. If you do a search there is lots of information on this subject.

[HELENPSL]

We used a company called SPB. We booked several of their tours throughout the Baltics. In St. Petersburg we went in under the tour company visa. Your friends were given incorrect information.

 

 

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[wheezedr]

Your friends need a new TA . One who is able to independently find and confirm information. Their current one is parroting cruise line misinformation.

[Pet Nit Noy]

Your friends need a new TA . One who is able to independently find and confirm information. Their current one is parroting cruise line misinformation.

 

Ditto.

 

Since your friends' TA is so badly mistaken on this subject, I shudder to think what else he/she does not know yet think he/she knows.

 

I hope your friends are running every detail of their TA's instructions past you so you can save your friends some grief.

[John Bull]

I'm just confirming - as if you needed it ;) - that nothing's changed.

The T/A is wrong, probably misled by the cruise line.

And their T/A won't be the first, or last, to give that incorrect information.

 

Tours with DenRus, Alla, SPB and a dozen others have the same visa-free status as ship's tours, which are actually run by one or more of those local tour operators.

 

One thing that changed very recently. The Russian govt now requires that tour operators accept payment in roubles only, not USD or other currencies. Payment by credit or debit card is still accepted (and likely now to be used by pretty-well all cruise visitors) but your card will be charged in roubles and your card supplier will convert to the currency of the card.

 

As you know, those tours do have to be booked in advance, since the e-mailed confirmation gets you through immigration without a visa. But most tour operators don't require payment (or even card details) with booking. They trust you, you pay during the tour.

 

JB :)

[fabnfortysomething]

we actually corrected our TA who tried to tell us we needed to book through the ship to avoid a visa that this was not the case as we knew otherwise via cruise critic

 

the response was well that's what we have been told

 

nothing will change if its not in the TA benefit to provide correct info

[Pet Nit Noy]

we actually corrected our TA who tried to tell us we needed to book through the ship to avoid a visa that this was not the case as we knew otherwise via cruise critic

 

the response was well that's what we have been told

 

nothing will change if its not in the TA benefit to provide correct info

 

It's easy to identify an incentive to the TA to make sure their information is accurate. Tell them that you'll be taking your business elsewhere since you want to hire a professional who has accurate information. See what happens and be prepared to follow through. Depending on what stage you're at in the booking process, leaving your current TA may not be possible, but there are future cruises.

[spearmint]

Thank you all for your prompt replies. It is as I suspected, but wanted to verify. We, in fact, did book all our Baltic tours except Saint Petersburg through the ship, and we actually were not disappointed. But, at the time, thanks to wonderful folks on these boards, we listened to advice regarding the superiority of land tours companies over the ship's tours for St. Pete's, and booked with DenRus and could not have done better, I believe. But we also believe that there are others like Alla and Red October who offered a good product, as we met people who had taken some and were just as enthusiastic as we.

 

I have passed all this information to our friends ( even spending lots of time researching what I could find about Saint Petersburg on the boards about the most recent opinions, as well as tour company sites that were recommended) but they booked all tours ... including Saint Petersburg .... already through the TS/ship's tours anyway.

 

Bill

[GradUT]

Thank you all for your prompt replies. It is as I suspected, but wanted to verify. We, in fact, did book all our Baltic tours except Saint Petersburg through the ship, and we actually were not disappointed. But, at the time, thanks to wonderful folks on these boards, we listened to advice regarding the superiority of land tours companies over the ship's tours for St. Pete's, and booked with DenRus and could not have done better, I believe. But we also believe that there are others like Alla and Red October who offered a good product, as we met people who had taken some and were just as enthusiastic as we.

 

I have passed all this information to our friends ( even spending lots of time researching what I could find about Saint Petersburg on the boards about the most recent opinions, as well as tour company sites that were recommended) but they booked all tours ... including Saint Petersburg .... already through the TS/ship's tours anyway.

 

Bill

 

Well, it's their money, but you can always recommend that they at least cancel the ship's excursion in St. Petersburg. They are going to be stuck on a bus with a LOT more people than if they booked an independent tour. And this large tour is unlikely to include some of the fun "little" things that the independent tours offer such as subway rides and/or canal boat rides and/or hydrofoil rides to Peterhof. They will get a lot more "bang for the buck" with an independent tour company in SPB.

[John Bull]

 

........................... but they booked all tours ... including Saint Petersburg .... already through the TS/ship's tours anyway.

 

Bill

 

To be fair, folk who've taken ships' tours in St Pete's have been generally very happy with their tours, I don't hear the grumbles that I do from those who've taken ship's tours elsewhere in the world.

 

So although IMHO they'd be a great deal more impressed if they took an independent tour (see GratUT's post), I don't think your friends will be disappointed with a ship's tour.

Even though that'll only be because they won't know what they missed.:rolleyes:

 

JB :)

[Seashoregal]

We booked a private tour for 2 days and we saw so much more then everyone on the ships tour.

Had both a guide and a driver.

We figured we would probably not get to St. Petersburg again.

 

 

 

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[Seashoregal]

We used TJ travel.

We liked what we read about then on TripAdvisor, but a lot of others seemed good too!

 

 

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[Pushka]

You cant really compare something you havent been on. Which is why ship tour people may not know what they are missing and I guess in fairness, vice versa. The thing with ship tours are those passengers who run their own timetable and dont care if they leave people waiting but maybe StP is different due to strict visa issues. But the queue for bathroom breaks, food and even getting off the bus all detract for me. I think StPB will blow everyone's mind regardless of how you do the trip but think that private tours have so much more to offer. We have booked through StPB tours through personal recommendations from friends.

[Pet Nit Noy]

The thing with ship tours are those passengers who run their own timetable and dont care if they leave people waiting but maybe StP is different due to strict visa issues... t think that private tours have so much more to offer.

 

I think It's harder to act in that me! me! me! way when you're touring with a small group. Even small groups made up of strangers work better because the bad apple's behavior is more visible to everyone. Small groups made up of strangers who become friends via roll work really well. After all people want to continue to meet one another for drinks or meals and there's likely more upcoming excursions on the rest of the itinerary.

[Seashoregal]

A gentleman in a power wheel chair was on his dream trip to see St. Petersburg and the Hermitage.

It was all he talked about on the cruise to St. Petersburg. They took ships tour. Bus got stuck in terrible traffic jams. (There were detours all over the city because dignitaries were visiting). Our driver was able to back up and find ways for us to see everything. His group was so delayed he only had a short visit to Hermitage and nothing else.

He was so sad and disappointed that

I wish he had been with us.

 

 

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[dixieagle]

We figure that this is likely our only trip to St. Petersburg, and want to see things that are of particular interest to us (WWII history, Soviet history, Orthodox churches, good ballet.) Therefore, we splurged and will be doing a two-day custom tour for just the two of us with Best Guides - another of the tour operators that come highly recommended. They were also able to obtain fairly reasonable tickets to see the Mariinsky (formerly Kirov) Ballet; some other operators don't deal with Mariinsky tickets. The driver will bring us to the theatre, pick us up after the ballet and bring us back to the ship.

 

There are a number of outstanding tour operators in St Petersburg, and it seems they are uniformly excellent, with some variation in itinerary. We can't wait to see SPB.

[Seashoregal]

We figure that this is likely our only trip to St. Petersburg, and want to see things that are of particular interest to us (WWII history, Soviet history, Orthodox churches, good ballet.) Therefore, we splurged and will be doing a two-day custom tour for just the two of us with Best Guides - another of the tour operators that come highly recommended. They were also able to obtain fairly reasonable tickets to see the Mariinsky (formerly Kirov) Ballet; some other operators don't deal with Mariinsky tickets. The driver will bring us to the theatre, pick us up after the ballet and bring us back to the ship.

 

 

 

There are a number of outstanding tour operators in St Petersburg, and it seems they are uniformly excellent, with some variation in itinerary. We can't wait to see SPB.

 

 

So happy you decided to splurge on your own tour.

 

It was one of the most beautiful cities for us.

 

Our tour company took us to everything we really wanted to see.

 

It was amazing how they fit it all in.

It is amazing and a once in a lifetime experience!

 

Traveling other places over years, if you in St. Petersburg, this is definitely the place to splurge !

 

 

 

 

 

 

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