2 day Tour with Celebrity in St. Petersburg, Russia

[clbkatz]

Has anyone done this tour with Celebrity? They offer it in a regular group on a motor coach bus and then in a small group on a van. I was wondering if the difference between doing it on a van versus a bus is worth paying the extra money?. Any help is appreciated. Thanks!

[ipeeinthepool]

Don't get involved with the Celebrity Tours in St Petersburg.  There are several good tour companies, SPB, Alla, TJ, that offer very good tours with small groups that are cheaper than Celebrity.  Go to your Roll call and there may already be some people there organizing the groups.  If you mention Cruise Critic with any of these companies and they'll likely give you a discount.  We used SPB and they were excellent.  The buses were 15 -18 people and we often seemed to get cuts in most attractions and seldom waited in lines.  Several times we walked past Celebrity tours waiting in lines.  We also used SPB in a couple of other cities.  Enjoy the trip.

[CAT58]

We used TJ travel while in St Petersburg.  They were excellent, knowledgable guide, good driver and fantastic places for lunch.  Cheaper than Celebrity and guaranteed to get you back to the ship on time.  Will use them again.

 

[Orator]

Unless you have lots of OBC that is non refundable take the advice to book a private tour. I took the Celebrity 2 day bus tour since I had lots of OBC, but encountered large, large crowds at The Hermitage. People on private tours reported little or no crowds. One couple told me they had access when the Museum was closed to visitors. That alone is worth the extra expense!

[Bruin Steve]

I've now done four Baltic cruises.  Took the cruise line shorexes the first time...and never again.  Last two visits, including just a few weeks ago, we used SPB...

We arranged our own group with other posters on our Cruise Critic Roll Call...limited it to EIGHT people.  SPB put together a tour for us that visited far more places than the shorexes ever could...included everything--including sit-down lunch both days, all admission charges and all visas.  And, yes, we visited the Hermitage while it was closed to the public and virtually empty!)  We were able to adjust the itinerary to include our own special requests.  With eight, the total cost per person for the two-day tour was only $320.  We had a wonderful, knowledgeable guide.  SPB was right at the gangplank to greet us promptly each day...with the comfortable van waiting...and brought us back to the ship promptly each day.  They also have optional evening tours...We took one last time--a canal boat/vodka trip, but we passed on it this time in order to just go back to the ship and relax after a full day...

I highly recommend them.

Edited August 16, 2019 by Bruin Steve

[MCazer]

We used GUIDE-GURU and I can’t say enough about them.  We had a private Mercedes van for the four of us.  They picked us up, took us everywhere.  We had a driver and a tour guide, who spoke perfect English and took us into places before they even opened.  We were in the Hermitage before everyone.  When we walked out, the line of people to enter was hours long.

we rode the subway and the driver was there to get us at the next stop.  We were able to shop if we saw something and not feel that we were holding anyone up. 

 

We saw the big cruise groups with their headsets and long bathroom breaks and they looked miserable.

 

We were able to decide that we were done seeing paintings and gold rooms 😊, and were able to move quickly.  But we also learned so much with the one on one and able to get a better feel for life in Russia.

 

the two days we spent was half the price of the cruise lines price and included everything!

[ghstudio]

I'll join the others recommending that you book your own tour through one of the large agencies....we used TJ but there are a few others.  You can book a private tour, a small group tour, etc...you will save money and see more....you won't have any visa hassle (the larger tour companies take care of visas).  Do not try to save money by using a small tour company....you may run into visa issues, you may find that you can't use the special entrances reserved for tours, etc.  Stick to the big tour companies and you'll be fine.

[bigbenboys]

We did a Celebrity 2 day tour in St Petersburg. Ours was Peterhof Palace, Hermitage and Yusupov Palace. We rarely do private tours. If your docked for 3 days then I would do a 2 day private tour. We did enjoy our tour. It is my understanding the smaller the group the more you will see. Less waiting for people to return. Russia is not a country I would want to be left on the docks. The grounds of Peterhof Palace are beautiful. I really liked Yusupov Palace. The home of Felix Yusupov. The Palace was the site of Grigori Rasputin's murder in the early morning of December 17, 1916. There is so much to see in and around St Petersburg.

[GeorgesGal]

When we were in St Petersburg about 5 years ago on Oceania, we used Alla Tours and were extremely happy with what they offered.  Beat the lines at Hermitage, etc, and a canal boat ride to the other side of the city, a subway ride, and on and on.  Our tour was with a group of eight other persons in a mini bus and included lunch, and our guide spoke excellent English!

 

If I had my druthers I'd do the same thing again.

 

[4774Papa]

4 minutes ago, bigbenboys said:

We did a Celebrity 2 day tour in St Petersburg. Ours was Peterhof Palace, Hermitage and Yusupov Palace. We rarely do private tours. If your docked for 3 days then I would do a 2 day private tour. We did enjoy our tour. It is my understanding the smaller the group the more you will see. Less waiting for people to return. Russia is not a country I would want to be left on the docks. The grounds of Peterhof Palace are beautiful. I really liked Yusupov Palace. The home of Felix Yusupov. The Palace was the site of Grigori Rasputin's murder in the early morning of December 17, 1916. There is so much to see in and around St Petersburg.

We did St. Petersburg while on a land tour and river cruise.  We had four days in St. Pete.

I highly recommend visiting the following places

1)Peterhof

2) Catherine's Palace

3) Hermitage

4) City tour including Then Peter and Paul Fortress (where many of the later Czars are buried)

5) Church of Spilled Blood

6) St. Isaac's Cathedral

There is more==

 

My Son did the Baltic cruise and used Red October Tours and said they were great.

 

 

[Cruiseskier]

We used Alla Tours last Summer and they were great.  The only negative was that Celebrity would not let any private tour passengers off the ship until all the Celebrity tours were off the ship.  

[BobbyD]

We just returned from an awesome cruise to the Baltic on the Celebrity Reflection.  We used SPB tours in St. Petersburg and they were awesome.  We had 16 people on our 2-day tour.  Can't recommend them enough and the cost was half of the Celebrity tour.  Maria was our guide and she was outstanding!  Their customer service is excellent.

[varoo]

55 minutes ago, BobbyD said:

We just returned from an awesome cruise to the Baltic on the Celebrity Reflection.  We used SPB tours in St. Petersburg and they were awesome.  We had 16 people on our 2-day tour.  Can't recommend them enough and the cost was half of the Celebrity tour.  Maria was our guide and she was outstanding!  Their customer service is excellent.

 

We also used SPB and they were excellent.

You can't go wrong with any of the major private tour companies.  They have been running these tours for years and know exactly what they are doing. 

All the people here on Cruise Critic who have used them have reported being very pleased.

 

I would suggest contacting a few of the recommended tour companies in advance by email, describe your situation and what you want, and see what kind of response you get before deciding which company to choose. 

You can look at their websites to see the various tour descriptions and itineraries they offer.

We picked SPB because Viktoria was the most responsive and helpful, able to provide exactly what we wanted. 

(Just one example, we wanted to have a typical sit down lunch each day in a small restaurant where the local people eat, not a tourist restaurant or a box lunch.)

 

There is absolutely no need to worry about missing the ship.  They schedule the sites that are closest to the ship for the last day and get you back with plenty of time to spare.

 

Edited August 16, 2019 by varoo

[clbkatz]

Thanks to you all for the wonderful replies. I think I will check into doing a private tour now.  Now that I see they will handle the Visa's. Do the large tour companies mail the Visa 's to me?  Do they take payment for the tour prior to getting there or once we finish the tour? Let's just use SPB tours as an example. I am kind of leaning towards them at the moment. 

[Bruin Steve]

10 minutes ago, clbkatz said:

Thanks to you all for the wonderful replies. I think I will check into doing a private tour now.  Now that I see they will handle the Visa's. Do the large tour companies mail the Visa 's to me?  Do they take payment for the tour prior to getting there or once we finish the tour? Let's just use SPB tours as an example. I am kind of leaning towards them at the moment. 

For the visas, you input your passport info onto their website--they set up a page just for our private tour group...Then, you print out a "tour ticket" from the website..When you disembark the first day in St. Petersburg, you go through "Passport Control"...They will ask to see your tour ticket and passport...THAT is all you need....After that, there is nothing you have to do...It's absolutely seamless...

 

For payment, you need to either pay by credit card in US Dollars 30 days prior via their website (what everyone in our group did) or in cash, in Russian Rubles, on the first day of the tour...We also gave our guide and driver tips in US Dollars, in cash, at the end of the tour.

[clbkatz]

Thanks Steve, that was very helpful. I feel much better about this now. thanks everyone!!

[late2cruisin]

2 hours ago, Bruin Steve said:

 

 

For payment, you need to either pay by credit card in US Dollars 30 days prior via their website (what everyone in our group did) or in cash, in Russian Rubles, on the first day of the tour...We also gave our guide and driver tips in US Dollars, in cash, at the end of the tour.

 

We used Alla last summer. We paid cash, in US dollars, at the end of the first day of our 2-day tour.

[bigbenboys]

Here are a few times things when cruising just did not go right.

1) We were booked on the Reflection 14 night cruise. As this was not a Panama canal cruise. Friends from Germany booked a all day tour with Celebrity for Panama. The tour took them to the Pacific Ocean and back to the ship. Something happen and their bus missed the ferry. We were invited to a sail-away on the H-pad. We were told  that we would be leaving late, because a bus is getting back late. It was their bus.

2) We were on a cruise in Japan. Talk was spreading through the ship that we had left 2 people behind. We had left the dock, but was still in the bay. Our ship stopped and we watched a pilot ship came ship side and the 2 cruise passengers came on board.

3) We were on a cruise in Asia on Millie. It all started with fog at Inchon South Korea Cruise Port. We were delayed docking because of fog. They had canceled the demilitarized zone tours and the tours to Seoul you saw things late day or evening. We left late the next day because of the fog. Our next stop was Beijing for 2 nights 3 days, but because of the fog we lost one day in Beijing. We had only booked a 2 day tour with a private tour company. We had seen the Great Wall a number of years ago, so 2 days in Beijing was enough us. We had used the same tour company the year before in Shanghai. So I emailed my contact for our tour and slid our 2 day tour with overnight one day. They asked if this was just us or the whole ship. I told them that the ship was docking 1 day late. Our cruise was ending in Shanghai. The year before everything had gone very smooth leaving Millie. I had planned on flying out that day. We had a email from Celebrity that they might do finger printing at customs. They did not do that the year before. So I booked our nonstop to Seattle for the next day. Guest what.....fog. The cruise ship was not allowed to enter the bay. Our ship did not dock until 3pm. Things happen that are out of your control.

[Bruin Steve]

9 minutes ago, late2cruisin said:

 

We used Alla last summer. We paid cash, in US dollars, at the end of the first day of our 2-day tour.

The prior time we went with SPB, we were able to pay in US cash at the end of the first day...But, this summer, that changed...I think it’s something to do with Russian government crackdown on “black market” cash...

[rossco_p]

We did the Baltic on the Silhouette in July and we used Alla Tours for St Petersburg. They were excellent. Our tour guide Alex was knowledgeable and funny. We could pay in US dollars or EFTPOS. We did the 2 day tour which included all the usual places listed above as well as a canal boat ride and lunches.

[Fogfog]

On 8/16/2019 at 10:48 AM, clbkatz said:

Has anyone done this tour with Celebrity? They offer it in a regular group on a motor coach bus and then in a small group on a van. I was wondering if the difference between doing it on a van versus a bus is worth paying the extra money?. Any help is appreciated. Thanks!

We saw these tours and they were HUGE groups ..HUGE

I can say we did a small private in STP for 2 days and walked past the large groups for entry everywhere

The tour guide walked us past literally hundreds to enter every palace, museum etc

We had tickets for everything and saw far more of the palaces, churches etc and had 2 great lunches.

We used Dancing Bear... worth every penny.

 

[Atwell]

Use SPB Tours or one of the other private tour companies as previously mentioned.  You will pay less and see more during your two days.  Do not worry about getting back to the ship on time.  The private tour companies depend on their reputation and will not jeopardize it by missing the ship's departure.   I cannot think of a good reason to use the Celebrity tour of St. Petersburg.

[HelenREMfan]

I couldn't agree more. I used SPB and organised 8 of us...2 couples from USA and 2 British. We had some with mobility issues so all was arranged with that in mind. We personalised the entire 2 days. Our guide was excellent and like others we sailed past any queues and even our guide said we were very lucky to be almost alone in the gallery with the da Vinci paintings! She guided and chose the galleries for us as it is impossible to see all in the allotted time - and wise choices they were too. We saw all the 'must see' sites but what I can really recommend is that our guide offered us a trip on the  Metro! It was amazing. Only 5 of us braved it and our guide timed the main escalator for us - 3 minutes it took!!! The corridors and stations put the London Undergound to shame as they were bright, very clean and had wonderful mosaics to marvel at! Not to be missed! I could not have done it on my own with all the guides etc in Russian script so was great to be escorted! 

We weren't held up getting off the ship at all and passport control was fine. SPB organised the necessary visas - all was simplicity itself. The van was a very comfy Mercedes and .... had free wi fi all the time we were on it ! 

[TeeRick]

We did the Alla 2 day "comfort tour" which was in a smaller van with only 8 people.  We saw everything we wanted but at a slightly slower pace.  It was excellent.

[karli_ratte]

We used SPB the week before last for our 2-day tour. For my partner, DD and myself it cost about the same as the Celebrity tour on a bus would have cost. We had our own guide and driver and paid in €, if that makes a difference depending where you come from (it saved us a bit on conversion rates to US$, which was the original quote when we booked). 

The tour was tailor made for us, included all highlights and was adjusted whenever necessary to fit in everything we wanted (we had the "relaxed tour package" due to having our DD with us. It was NOT one of the special children tours offered, but a regular tour). 

Our tour guide, Fatyma, was amazing. Great knowledge and very interesting to listen to without the sensational story telling you sometimes get from other tour guides to keep people interested. 

And yes, I can confirm what someone said further up. We entered the Hermitage before opening hours and were completely alone (!!!!) in most rooms for hours before the big groups started filtering in. What an amazing experience!!!! So stay away from the ship tours and treat yourself, it will be really worth it! 

Also, all the tour guides work together and have a very elaborate silent communication system in place to keep the crowds moving smoothly. 

 

For those with children: We booked a child seat and had one waiting for us when we started the tour. Unfortunately it was too big for our DD (she's a light weight). SPB organised a new seat while we were at the Hermitage and had it ready for us when we returned to the car. THE BEST SERVICE EVER!!! Absolutely amazing!!!!! 

 

Little fun fact: The tour booked a few days before ours with our driver Olek and our car had been with German band Rammstein and he was very excited to tell us about it. Made us feel like real celebrities 😂