Cruise-line excursion or spb

[willma]

OP, why not email a few of the tour companies in St Petersburg- there are quite a few of them, and tell them what you want to do, then let them quote you the cost? You can then choose which one suits your budget. SPB are only one company. We used Best Guides as they were the only company who were prepared to accommodate our slightly unusual itinerary. They were excellent.

[upwarduk]

We used Best Guides as they were the only company who were prepared to accommodate our slightly unusual itinerary. They were excellent.

 

 

Thanks for the heads up. I will have a look at Best Guides.

[4774Papa]

I vote for the private tour. Also, Red October has good private tours as well.

[ECM]

We just returned from the Baltic on the Silhouette and had a great cruise! We opted for the ships two day excursion in Russia and it was wonderful! The two tour guides on our bus broke us up into two groups. We had about 17 people in our group and we were very happy with the guide and our two day tour in this amazing port!

[upwarduk]

We just returned from the Baltic on the Silhouette and had a great cruise! We opted for the ships two day excursion in Russia and it was wonderful! The two tour guides on our bus broke us up into two groups. We had about 17 people in our group and we were very happy with the guide and our two day tour in this amazing port!

 

Thank you so much for this. At the moment I am favouring the ship's tours:

a) they have an inside tour of the Palaces at Peterhof, which so far I cannot find elsewhere. We didn't do this on our SPB Deluxe tour in 2015.

b) I have been reading reviews where some passengers took 2 hrs to get off the ship on the first day. Hopefully Celebrity will take their tours off first.

[WesternTrader]

OP & UpwardUK - the following may be of interest.

We travelled to Saint Petersburg on Serenade this June (3 day stop) and I spent some time researching the city and what we wanted to see. Then I mailed SPB, Alla, TJ Travel and Best Guides with a list of my specific "extra" visits including the interior of Peterhof, a local food market, the Grand Choral Synagogue, the Fabergé Museum etc. The first 3 came back with their standard packages, but Best Guides actually read my list and responded with an itinerary that met my wish-list and we booked a private tour for my wife and I with them. I acknowledge that, being a private tour, it was more expensive than going on a ship tour or one of the small group tours offered, but the current model MB E Class, the driver that wouldn't let my wife open her own door (ever) and a guide who was genuinely interested in giving us a premium experience made our 3 days exceptional. With just the 2 of us in the car Irina (our guide) was able to adapt our schedule on the hoof as circumstances dictated and even offered us extra sites - but we were exhausted and declined. Additionally, there was no waiting for stragglers to return and the car was always outside the door when we exited - no long walks to coach parks!

 

Now a note on exiting the ship on the first day. We had heard horror stories about the queues for Russian immigration taking hours. Our scheduled arrival time was 7am, so we started queuing at 6:30 and were numbers 9 & 10 in the queue - shout out to Royal Caribbean for marshalling the queue throughout our wait to prevent people queue-jumping! At 7:15 we were allowed off and made our way to the immigration point. There were NO queues and we both walked up to desks for immediate attention and were through and outside by 7:20 - 40 minutes before our guide! But I acknowledge that your experience may be different and will largely depend on the number of ships using your immigration hall and whether they have just arrived, or already been through the process. It seems that some lines handle this part better than others.

 

To sum up, I suggest contacting a number of companies with your requirements and see who actually reads your list and offers you the best fit.

 

Good luck!

WT

[Happy Cruiser 6143]

We are on Silhouette leaving Southampton 23.06.18 and our stop over in St Petersburg is for 2 days!

We did a similar Baltic sailing on Eclipse in 2015 and used SPB. We had Luba as our tour guide, she taught the other guides in the winter. The service was excellent and I can highly recommend them.

However, this time I want to see something different, so am actually wondering about doing the ship's tour as they go inside the palace at Peterhof.

It's a way off, so I intend reading the reviews on here on C.C and wait to see if other options are added before I make my decision.

 

It's your tour and you can tell them where you want to go. Our guide from Alla told us that there was no point in viewing the interior at Peterhof AND the interior at Catherine's Palace. Both similar. The gardens and the fountains are the thing at Peterhof. But if you've already seen the interior of Catherine's Palace and want to see the interior of Peterhof, they can make that happen.

[upwarduk]

Thank you Happy cruiser.

[ChucktownSteve]

Perhaps your roll call can form it's own private excursion.

 

Our roll call on a sister cruise line has a CC group for the three day deluxe St Petersburg tour with SPB next week. Just for forming a CC group we received a $30pp US$ discount. We have two 16 & 15 person groups formed and they lowered the price by two free tours spread between the participants. Their tours also include lunch each day. Our end price was $333pp US$ which represented a $52 pp savings from the web site price.

[upwarduk]

Our roll call is only 2 pages at the moment!!!

[ChucktownSteve]

Our roll call is only 2 pages at the moment!!!

Ours was too but that changed once people started joining and saw the post about the tours.

[Wansbrough]

Hi, my wife and I are stopping in St Petersburg for 3 days with Celebrity Silhouette in June 2018 and wish to do a 3 day tour.

On several sites people say save money and go with SPB rather than the official cruise tour.

Celebrity are charging £300.30 for the 3 day package, which has almost identical itinerary to SPB.

However SPB charge £309.48, so more expensive than cruise ship's own package. Add to that the suggested gratuities of 10% for the guide and 5% for the driver and the cost with SPB soars to£355.90. (Plus photo or video pass for Yusopov Palace are extra).

 

Am I missing something here?

 

Hello EnigmAd from Herne Bay

 

 

Did you not get the answer you wanted when you posted the same question on another forum on 5 July?

 

 

Am I missing something here? ;)