Breakaway Baltic Review from June 25 - July 4

[Pigeon 200]

Did you think it was worth going on the tour? or could you have just done it on your own?

Our cruise is on September 5. We have Alla for SPB and Berlin.

To do SPB on your own you will need to arrange your own visas for entry to Russia. If you book with the ship or a tour company they organise the visas for you

[nooreen]

For those that went on the private tours in SPB did anyone manage to get off the ship earlier? Our tour group mentioned that they are not allowed to keep you on the boat. It looks like the ships just give priority to their own tours. I am sailing in just over a week and am a bit stressed about the SPB disembarkation.

 

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[Captain-John]

We did the SPB tour on Tuesday & Wednesday this week - we left the ship (theater) about 8.30 and didn't meet up with the group until 9.30 - but SPB waited and they expected this.

 

 

HOWEVER we did return to the ship late (6PM instead of 5PM on our first day).

 

 

Second day there was less of a wait coming through passport control and our guide told us to leave the ship at 8.45 to meet up with the bus at 9.00.

[willma]

Re disembarkation in STP. It is totally untrue that Russian immigration requires ship’s tours to be let off first. Why on earth would they care? We had heard this rumour too. We did this port on a RCI ship and they had two lines, one for ship tours and one for independent passengers. Both were well controlled lines and everyone got off in a timely manner. We were onshore and processed in about 20 minutes.

[nooreen]

Thanks for the responses. Captain John, were you on an ncl cruise as well? Did you have to wait for the ships tours to disembark first? I wonder if we could insist to disembark with them. The private tours are aware of this process but it seems the ship is treating us poorly because we are using private tours even though we have paid for the cruise same as other passengers. If RCL is changing their policy to allow all passengers to get off simultaneously then NCL will lose alot of potential cruisers to the competition.

 

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[smwg]

During the cruise, were you offered a discount on bag of laundry?

 

 

Just got back from this cruise 7/13 -7/22. They did offer us a special laundry service. It was right at $20 for a bag. The bad thing for us was, it was on Monday of our Cruise and it said it would be returned by Friday evening. For us, that would not work, because we only packed a carry on bag and we needed our clothes during that week. We did a lot of handwashing in the sink. :-(

[the2006Junket]

Just got back from this cruise 7/13 -7/22. They did offer us a special laundry service. It was right at $20 for a bag. The bad thing for us was, it was on Monday of our Cruise and it said it would be returned by Friday evening. For us, that would not work, because we only packed a carry on bag and we needed our clothes during that week. We did a lot of handwashing in the sink. :-(

 

Hi, just thought I'd share that we did use the Bag O Laundry offer and sent it on Monday of our sailing and it was back on Weds. I think they tell you it will take 4 days as the worst case, but often is back sooner. We were in the Haven so maybe it comes back quicker for Haven guests, not sure. Was a very handy service!

 

Lynne

[the2006Junket]

Thanks for the responses. Captain John, were you on an ncl cruise as well? Did you have to wait for the ships tours to disembark first? I wonder if we could insist to disembark with them. The private tours are aware of this process but it seems the ship is treating us poorly because we are using private tours even though we have paid for the cruise same as other passengers. If RCL is changing their policy to allow all passengers to get off simultaneously then NCL will lose alot of potential cruisers to the competition.

 

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Hi Nooreen, we sailed on the Breakaway week of June 16 and I can confirm that there were no separate lines once off the ship for NCL tours or Private tours. Same immigration/border control lines for all. We toured with SPB and they had multiple vans/mini buses departing for tours and it seemed that once one filled up, they would take off. We were in the Haven, so we were escorted to a staff elevator and were off within 3 minutes (a key reason why we booked the Haven). We ended up waiting for our SPB group to fill up for about a half hour on the first day. Second day was much faster through immigration. If I were not in the Haven, I would just ignore whatever grouping and announcements that the Cruise Director is announcing and get in line and get off. Enjoy St. Petersburg! We loved our 2 days there! Lynne

[nooreen]

Hi Nooreen, we sailed on the Breakaway week of June 16 and I can confirm that there were no separate lines once off the ship for NCL tours or Private tours. Same immigration/border control lines for all. We toured with SPB and they had multiple vans/mini buses departing for tours and it seemed that once one filled up, they would take off. We were in the Haven, so we were escorted to a staff elevator and were off within 3 minutes (a key reason why we booked the Haven). We ended up waiting for our SPB group to fill up for about a half hour on the first day. Second day was much faster through immigration. If I were not in the Haven, I would just ignore whatever grouping and announcements that the Cruise Director is announcing and get in line and get off. Enjoy St. Petersburg! We loved our 2 days there! Lynne

Thanks so much Lynn. I am travelling with elderly ladies so I hope they dont force us to wait around too long. I was thinking of asking for wheelchair assistance for disembarkatikn at the SPB port as well for one of them which will hopefully not making disembarkation a nightmare. Luckily the tour operators are aware of these issues and wait for the group but we obviously wouldnt want to delay the tour for the rest of the group.

 

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[salzdt]

We have booked 15 day Baltic Cruise Aug 2019 on the Spirit, smaller ship. After reading some comments I'm a little reluctant to change to larger ship. Only concern is that Spirit leaves out of Stockholm and ends in Southampton. Will have to check on one way airfares. Any suggestions?