Master thread of St. Petersburg advice and recommendations from cruisers who've been!

[devlin5]

Hello. We have a 2 day stop in St Petersburg Aug of 22, if all goes well. I have read most of this thread and haven't seen the topic of staying in a hotel overnight vs returning to the ship. From what I am reading we would need a Visa for this, correct? 

Edited July 23, 2021 by devlin5

[ontheweb]

On 7/23/2021 at 6:53 PM, devlin5 said:

Hello. We have a 2 day stop in St Petersburg Aug of 22, if all goes well. I have read most of this thread and haven't seen the topic of staying in a hotel overnight vs returning to the ship. From what I am reading we would need a Visa for this, correct? 

I believe so. You could not do that with a ship's excursion that provides an alternative to a visa. And on private tours that also provide that alternative to a visa, the guide is supposed to stay with you at all times. So, the only way I could envision you doing that is with a visa.

[John Bull]

On 7/23/2021 at 11:53 PM, devlin5 said:

Hello. We have a 2 day stop in St Petersburg Aug of 22, if all goes well. I have read most of this thread and haven't seen the topic of staying in a hotel overnight vs returning to the ship. From what I am reading we would need a Visa for this, correct? 

 Correct. 

To qualify for a visa-free visit  you must be accompanied ashore by a licensed guide (ship's excursion or an accredited local tour operator such as those mentioned on this thread), and you must overnite on the ship. Hotels will need to see a proper Tourist Visa.

 

JB 🙂

[K922]

On 7/19/2021 at 5:10 PM, ontheweb said:

We had a group of 10 put together from our roll call. One couple wanted to see a synagogue that was not on the tour; it was ok with Alla as long as there were no objections, which there were not. My DW is an art teacher and wanted to skip lunch entirely and put the extra time into the Hermitage. That did have objections of course, but there was a compromise to take some of the lunch time away and add it to the Hermitage.

 

When the tour started our guide (who has since opened her own agency SPB tours) asked if there was anything not on the tour that anyone wanted to see. I replied that I had read that the subway stops were interesting. She took us to a few subway stops having our driver meet us.

 

Hi

 

We would like to add the faberge museum there is one place  the second day we are willing to switch out and skip the restaurant lunch.  

 

Do you email them before to discuss changes you would like or do you just do it when they pick you up for the tour?

 

[ontheweb]

2 hours ago, K922 said:

 

Hi

 

We would like to add the faberge museum there is one place  the second day we are willing to switch out and skip the restaurant lunch.  

 

Do you email them before to discuss changes you would like or do you just do it when they pick you up for the tour?

 

You e-mail them before to discuss changes.

 

We worked with Alla.

[K922]

Thanks 

 

that is who we are looking at using. 

[ontheweb]

On 7/29/2021 at 2:22 PM, K922 said:

Thanks 

 

that is who we are looking at using. 

I'm sure you will be happy with Alla's service.

 

Let me add to my previous answer to your question about changes. We were asked as we started if there was anything else we wanted to see that was not on the tour. I replied that I had read that the subways were interesting. And our guide took us to a few stops having the driver meet us. But, that is different than an attraction that they would need to get tickets for.

 

Also if you have a group (ours was 10 from our roll call) it will be asked if the changes are ok with the entire group. So when something is asked like my DW did of skipping lunch entirely for more Hermitage time, that did not go over well with the rest of the group. A compromise was made shortening the lunch time and adding to the Hermitage as opposed to entirely skipping lunch.

[bostonphil]

The Hermitage Museum was very important to me. I originally booked the evening shore excursion lasting about three hours but then decided I wanted more time and booked the shore excursion lasting about five hours during normal business hours.

 

For me, this turned out to be a big mistake. It was chaos inside the museum. It was mass insanity. It was so intense that I fell down on stairs trying to keep up with my group.

 

I was also visiting during the shoulder season, the end of September 2019.  I can not imagine what it would be like in season.

 

I later read reviews of guests who took the evening tour and there was almost no one in the museum but for the cruise guests.

 

If The Hermitage Museum is at the top of your list and most important to you, I suggest that you book the evening shore excursion.

 

 

 

 

[isnowman]

I was wondering if anyone on a 2 night St Petersburg has chosen to go to Moscow. Our currently booked cruise in September 2022 has us in St Petersburg for 2 nights, and although it is expensive, the ship itinerary looks appealing. Can anyone provide any comments.

Thank you

[sjhanksaz]

Has anyone heard for sure if Russia is going to allow cruisers this summer for 2022?

[bluecakes]

I'm also curious on if there is any word about 2022... we are supposed to go in October 2022 (originally May 2020)

[tring]

We are due there late May/early June, so would appreciate any update regards the chances of ship's visiting SPB this year.  I will post if our cruise is changed and hopefully others will as well.

 

[sjhanksaz]

16 hours ago, tring said:

We are due there late May/early June, so would appreciate any update regards the chances of ship's visiting SPB this year.  I will post if our cruise is changed and hopefully others will as well.

 

I have heard Russia is currently accepting tourists so I am pretty hopeful with the current declines in Covid that our chances of going are going to be good.   Denmark pretty much just announced that Covid is over for them.  Hope this trend keeps going all over and numbers drop.

[tring]

7 hours ago, sjhanksaz said:

I have heard Russia is currently accepting tourists so I am pretty hopeful with the current declines in Covid that our chances of going are going to be good.   Denmark pretty much just announced that Covid is over for them.  Hope this trend keeps going all over and numbers drop.

 

Let's hope so, but the Danish position sounds very confusing to me as the latest update I saw on international numbers showed Denmark way out at the top and still rising.  It seems most of their cases are the newer Omicron version (?BA 2), which is starting to be reported on elsewhere, though apparently no big rise in hospitalisations, so hopefully not all bad news. 

 

There does come a time when life has to return to some sort of normality - even though we are.potentially in a vulnerable age group, there is no point spending the rest of our lives hibernating.  We do not have any real health issues though and are fully vaxed/boosted, but can see our potentially active years diminishing as this goes on..

 

[sjhanksaz]

13 hours ago, tring said:

 

Let's hope so, but the Danish position sounds very confusing to me as the latest update I saw on international numbers showed Denmark way out at the top and still rising.  It seems most of their cases are the newer Omicron version (?BA 2), which is starting to be reported on elsewhere, though apparently no big rise in hospitalisations, so hopefully not all bad news. 

 

There does come a time when life has to return to some sort of normality - even though we are.potentially in a vulnerable age group, there is no point spending the rest of our lives hibernating.  We do not have any real health issues though and are fully vaxed/boosted, but can see our potentially active years diminishing as this goes on..

 

I just saw this headline.  Looks like Denmark is done with the pandemic?

 

Denmark becomes first EU country to scrap all COVID-19 restrictions

 

"Denmark is to lift all remaining COVID-19 restrictions, with Omicron hospital admissions and deaths remaining stable and high rates of vaccination. 

“Tonight we can ... find the smile again. We have incredibly good news, we can now remove the last coronavirus restrictions in Denmark,” Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said at a press conference, following recommendations from the Epidemic Commission and with all the main political parties’ support. The last restrictions will be dropped on February 1."

 

With the USA starting to drop quickly too lets all cross our fingers!

Edited January 31, 2022 by sjhanksaz

[tring]

5 hours ago, sjhanksaz said:

I just saw this headline.  Looks like Denmark is done with the pandemic?

 

Denmark becomes first EU country to scrap all COVID-19 restrictions

 

"Denmark is to lift all remaining COVID-19 restrictions, with Omicron hospital admissions and deaths remaining stable and high rates of vaccination. 

“Tonight we can ... find the smile again. We have incredibly good news, we can now remove the last coronavirus restrictions in Denmark,” Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said at a press conference, following recommendations from the Epidemic Commission and with all the main political parties’ support. The last restrictions will be dropped on February 1."

 

With the USA starting to drop quickly too lets all cross our fingers!

 

Thanks for that.  UK has dropped restrictions as well.  Not much to do with having COVID under control though, but more to do with wanting to get the economy on some sort of track and hospitalisations seem to be going down as the newer variants seem to be causing less serious illness, partly because most of the population are vaccinated.

 

The problem remains that cruise ships are still quarantining and off loading people and places like the Caribbean Islands are not accepting ships with more than 1% covid cases, so can still be disruption on a cruise.  I do feel the world has got to live with it though, and at our age, we will have no more active life left if we do not get on with it now, so some risks worth taking.  Finger crossed things continue to go forward.

 

Just sad for the poorer parts of the world were vaccines are not easily available.

  

Edited January 31, 2022 by tring

[GoTrulyBlue]

On 1/29/2022 at 7:43 PM, sjhanksaz said:

I have heard Russia is currently accepting tourists so I am pretty hopeful with the current declines in Covid that our chances of going are going to be good.   Denmark pretty much just announced that Covid is over for them.  Hope this trend keeps going all over and numbers drop.

Would American cruise lines decline to make port in St. Petersburg if Putin ends up attacking Ukraine however?  Am anticipating this is likely.

[milolii]

I think the main issue would be sanctions related to finance.  Sanctions would make porting at St. Petersburg difficult. Paying for the port fees is an example. Not sure US credit cards would work either. 

 

These cruises will have a good number of European travelers, so the same sanctions should/could apply. 

The specifics of the sanctions haven’t been formally announced, however.  
 

Presently, as far as risk for porting or cancelling SPB in 2022,  the Ukraine/Russian situation outweighs the CoVID risk. 


 

 

 

 

[itsnotjustme]

On 2/14/2022 at 4:03 PM, GoTrulyBlue said:

Would American cruise lines decline to make port in St. Petersburg if Putin ends up attacking Ukraine however?  Am anticipating this is likely.

Soon any cruise line that wants to operate in US and most European ports will likely be prohibited from making stops in Russia.  And unfortunately, those Black Sea trips to Odessa are likely going to be off as well.

[sjhanksaz]

I wonder if a different stop will be added it Russia is not going to be viable?

 

[ontheweb]

On 2/21/2022 at 11:33 PM, sjhanksaz said:

I wonder if a different stop will be added it Russia is not going to be viable?

 

Since St. Petersburg is usually a 2 day stop and sometimes even a 3 day stop, it would seem that they would have to add at least 1 extra stop just to not have so many sea days.

[sjhanksaz]

13 hours ago, ontheweb said:

Since St. Petersburg is usually a 2 day stop and sometimes even a 3 day stop, it would seem that they would have to add at least 1 extra stop just to not have so many sea days.

I would hope they could add two instead of one.  After all there are two sea days in a row, maybe a stop in the middle of those.  Maybe room if they don't need to travel up and back to Russia.  Would probably mean some of the scheduled port days may get mixed up a bit.

 

[ontheweb]

10 hours ago, sjhanksaz said:

I would hope they could add two instead of one.  After all there are two sea days in a row, maybe a stop in the middle of those.  Maybe room if they don't need to travel up and back to Russia.  Would probably mean some of the scheduled port days may get mixed up a bit.

 

I would think the question would be what ports could they add. I hope they are working on that.

[tring]

7 minutes ago, ontheweb said:

I would think the question would be what ports could they add. I hope they are working on that.

 

I am sure they would have been making a tentative plan B and as of this morning it must only be time before that is actioned.  In the UK that would have to be triggered if our FCO advise against travel to Russia.  I can quite see that changing very soon now.  It will take a while for cruise lines to make firm itinerary changes though, so we will have to wait for that info. and may take a while.  We have been in that situation previously with other ports.  The wait was frustrating, but with the FCO advice changed, we knew we would not be going. If FCO advice changes, our travel insurance is invalidated, so we cannot travel against that advice and holiday companies cannot take us there.

 

[ontheweb]

10 minutes ago, tring said:

 

I am sure they would have been making a tentative plan B and as of this morning it must only be time before that is actioned.  In the UK that would have to be triggered if our FCO advise against travel to Russia.  I can quite see that changing very soon now.  It will take a while for cruise lines to make firm itinerary changes though, so we will have to wait for that info. and may take a while.  We have been in that situation previously with other ports.  The wait was frustrating, but with the FCO advice changed, we knew we would not be going. If FCO advice changes, our travel insurance is invalidated, so we cannot travel against that advice and holiday companies cannot take us there.

 

For someone who is not a citizen of the UK, what is FCO?

 

Also, what are the other ports that you refer to as having been in this previous situation?