Question on Booking Excursion in St Petersburg Russia

[shakeyy]

Hi guys!

 

I have an upcoming cruise with Norwegian Breakaway that has a 2 day stop in St Petersburg Russia

 

I have checked the the excursions offered by Norwegian and they don't really offer the exact excursion I wanted.

 

I found the excursion I wanted with SPB Tours. Can I book an excursion instead outside NCL?

 

Can i still enter Russia visa free even though i wont book the cruise excursion with the cruise line?

 

My cruise confirmation says

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Visa Restrictions for Russia

U.S. and Canadian passport holders may only go ashore in St. Petersburg, Russia without a Russian visa if they have purchased a Norwegian Cruise Line Shore Excursion. To go ashore

independently in St. Petersburg, a Russian tourist visa must be obtained before the cruise.

 

------------------------------------------------

 

 

I am canadian and my husband is a US Citizen.

 

Thanks!

[LHT28]

Yes you can book with SPB & they will provide the tour ticket (group visa) so you can go ashore

this often discussed on the Baltic forum

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

[shakeyy]

Yes you can book with SPB & they will provide the tour ticket (group visa) so you can go ashore

this often discussed on the Baltic forum

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

 

 

Thank you so much for responding. I just got anxious because I thought that Norwegian won't let us out of the ship if we don't book with them...:D

[Ashland]

Thank you so much for responding. I just got anxious because I thought that Norwegian won't let us out of the ship if we don't book with them...:D

Very sad when certain cruise lines try to scare their customers into booking their overpriced, crowded excursions....Book with a private company we had an amazing 2 day tour with TJ Travel. Enjoy your time spent in St Petersburg...an amazing city.

[LHT28]

Thank you so much for responding. I just got anxious because I thought that Norwegian won't let us out of the ship if we don't book with them...:D

As long as you book with a licensed guide like SPB tours you will be fine

 

the tour company will tell you what to bring for the Officials

[John Bull]

 

My cruise confirmation says

-------------------------------------------

Visa Restrictions for Russia

U.S. and Canadian passport holders may only go ashore in St. Petersburg, Russia without a Russian visa if they have purchased a Norwegian Cruise Line Shore Excursion. To go ashore

independently in St. Petersburg, a Russian tourist visa must be obtained before the cruise.

 

 

Thanks!

 

Shades of the misleading info given out by HAL on this thread :rolleyes:

https://boards.cruisecritic.co.uk/showthread.php?t=2627263

Same applies to most cruise lines.

 

But be aware of changed disembarkation priorities mentioned by kitkat on this thread

https://boards.cruisecritic.co.uk/showthread.php?t=2628145

 

Both threads are on the Baltic ports-of-call forum, which has a lot of info about your ports

https://boards.cruisecritic.co.uk/forumdisplay.php?s=&daysprune=&f=192

 

JB :)

[ontheweb]

The cruise lines definitely try to mislead you on this. We were on a Princess ship in 2007, and got the same misinformation. We used Alla and it was truly enjoyable. Our guide then is now the owner of SPB, and was wonderful.

 

We put our tour together through our roll call. And if there is something that you specifically want the private tour companies allow you to personalize. For instance on our tour, one member specifically wanted to see a synagogue. When there were no objections from anyone on the group, it was added.

[DarkJedi]

While I agree that it is wrong for the cruise lines to mislead people, I can also understand the safety issue from them doing it.

 

Russia requires that people be on a tour from a registered tour group that is licensed and takes responsibility for them. If you go on sites like Viator you will find tours in Russia that are not licensed for foreigners but that are in English. Imagine if the cruise line simply said you had to be on a tour and have a travel voucher form the tour group? Someone might book a tour where they can't get in to Russia and think that their receipt was the voucher.

We are headed to Kamchatka and the situation gets even more confusing there as there are people saying that they did not need the voucher at all, and sites saying you can just walk off the ship and tour on your own. Plus there are 18 countries (not the US, Australia, NZ, or Canada) that can go visa free to that region.

Much safer for the cruise line to say you need a visa or to be with their tour, and then if you do enough of your own research let you off if you have everything right.

[sloopsailor]

We also booked with a private company and enjoyed a very interesting two days on our custom tour. We asked for a boat ride through the canals and when it was time to take the ride, we discovered that the tour company had reserved an entire boat for just the four of us. We boarded, went to the small open air seating area on top, and just as we pulled away from dock, Helen, our tour guide, pulled out a bottle of champagne, five glasses and a box of chocolates, which we thoroughly enjoyed while slowly cruising along the canals. It was a very nice surprise!

 

But, we also almost missed the ship!! On the second day we had finished touring the gardens and fountains at Peterhof Palace and needed to walk along the long path to the boat dock for our fast hydrofoil boat ride to St. Petersburg where our driver was already waiting. The tour guide didn't take into consideration that one of our party of four had difficulty walking for long distances and we were slowed considerably. Time was running out for the hydrofoil to leave and we were at risk of missing that ride. The tour guide ran ahead to try to hold the boat. Fortunately, the captain waited for us and we ended up leaving several minutes late.

 

If the captain had insisted on leaving on time, we would have missed the ship because driving from the palace to the ship would have taken much too long, especially since our driver was not near by but instead was waiting for us at the hydrofoil dock in St. Petersburg. The scheduled plan was to arrive at the ship less than an hour before the gangplank was removed and the ship departed, making the planned schedule too tight to recover from a missed boat ride back.

Edited April 26, 2018 by sloopsailor

[paul929207]

Just be sure you book in advance with the local tour company. You must get an email from them with the needed documentation to get you thru security in St. Petersburg. You can NOT get a visa or a tour by walking off the ship.

[Floridiana]

What Paul says.

 

Even if you had a valid visa from a previous land trip in Russia, the cruise port is far out of the city and no tour companies or taxis are waiting unless pre ordered.

[sloopsailor]

Another important note - St. Petersburg is one of the few ports where you are required to carry your passport at all times. In 2010 we went through passport control to get off the ship and again to get back on. We arrived back about 10:00 pm the first day and had to find a passport official to clear us to get back on the ship. That took at least 20 minutes of waiting until one finally showed up.

 

Today I would expect this to be the same, if not even more stringent, considering the strained relationships most western countries now have with Russia.

[SPacificbound]

We booked with SBP for private tours and they handled everything.

[shakeyy]

Thanks everyone. I ended up booking with SPB tours because they have better rates if I bundle it with other Baltic Cruises

[jdvmd]

Thanks everyone. I ended up booking with SPB tours because they have better rates if I bundle it with other Baltic Cruises

We did this with them a few years ago when we were on the NCL Sun. I have nothing but good things to say about SPB. We had a great experience with them.

[Ladyinflight]

My partner and I did not want to hinder other excursion participants because of walking difficulties so, we arranged a private SPB tour consisting of a driver and a guide. SPB was very efficient in communication, taking care of all the paperwork ( we were under their visa) and with our input, mapping out an itinerary for the two days. We never had to wait in any lines, elevators were used when necessary, bathroom breaks on our terms and if there was something we didn't want to see or do, we just moved on. We also toured different neighborhoods and had lunch at out of the way eateries making for interesting lunches. It was a bit expensive but well worth the money on this bucket list cruise.