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St.Petersburg tour-Anastasia

pdz

By pdz,
in Northern Europe & Baltic Sea

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  • 2 months later...
cowtec

cowtec

Posted
Posted

We are booked with Anastasia for the end of June. There are six of us in our group. We added a canal tour and early admittance to several places, as well as a specific lunch location. Our cost is slightly over $300 per person. One thing about Anastasia is that your actual cost isn't set until about a month before your tour because of the exchange rate. We are seeing so much and the group is small enough to make changes in the schedule if we want.

Sue

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cowtec

cowtec

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GiantFan13, I would love to hear the itinerary for the $219 tour for 6 with Anastasia! In my communications with the tour companies in SP, the lowest price I received was $295 for a larger group. That amount makes me rethink the arrangements we have made! Thanks!

Sue

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cowtec

cowtec

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Thanks Frick2! It appears that there is a set rate charged for the tours and then that amount is divided among the people taking the tour. We come out about the same total amount so I feel much better! We will be with Anastasia about the same time - our tour is June 29th and 30th.

Sue

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Rickdabear

Rickdabear

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I'm sure Anastasia will be happy to work with you on the ballet. Our entire group opted out of the ballet. Too late for me and others had no interest. If I could stay up late, I think it would have been great to see these talented world renouned folks do their thing.

Da Bear

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  • 2 weeks later...
TLCOhio "Live from...." Rare

TLCOhio

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Any one have any problem using Anastasia- or any other private tour and getting off the ship?

 

Everything was smooth and easy as we passed through the Russian Customs point on both days. We had our "ticket" from Anastasia that had been printed out from the PDF that she had sent via e-mail prior to our departure. All was quick, simple and very well-organized! And then our actual tour was super great. Have posted previously on those details.

 

THANKS! Enjoy! Terry in Ohio

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Leejnd4

Leejnd4

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Any one have any problem using Anastasia- or any other private tour and getting off the ship?

 

Sagbalt, I'm planning our St. P tour with Anastasia for July. I have spent months research this, and I can assure you that in all of my research on this board and others, and in talking to innumberable people who have done private shore excursions in St. P, not ONE had a single problem getting off the ship.

 

Unfortunately, many of the cruise lines go to great lengths to disseminate misinformation, for the purpose of increasing sales of their own overpriced excursions. They will tell you that you won't be allowed off the ship without an expensive and hard-to-obtain tourist visa (NOT true if, as Terry explains above, you have a ticket with a registered tour op such as Anastasia). They will tell you that you will have to wait until all ship-excursion passengers are off the ship before you will be allowed off (NOT true - you can exit at the same time as everyone else). They will tell you all sorts of things to put the scare into you so you will buy the cruise line excursions.

 

Provided you have confirmed arrangements with a licensed tour op (there are many, but the ones most mentioned in Cruise Critic include Anastasia, Red October, Denrus, SPB and Alla), and as long as you have printed out whatever documents your tour op tells you to have with you, you will be fine.

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  • 5 months later...
  • 2 weeks later...
JIMDSB2

JIMDSB2

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I put together a tour using Anastasia (Irina & Edward) for 12 people, and it was the best tour I have EVER taken. They were waiting at the dock when we disembarked (after some problems with getting off the Jewel of the Seas (see other entries on this board)), and went through customs. They gave us a complete tour of STP and the outskirts. Whe saw things we will remember the rest of our lives. They even added some stuff that were not even listed on the tour because we were a little early getting back. I will be happy to answer any of your questions should you have any. But, if you use Anastasia, you will have no problems.

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  • 4 weeks later...
Manetamers

Manetamers

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I put together a tour using Anastasia (Irina & Edward) for 12 people, and it was the best tour I have EVER taken. They were waiting at the dock when we disembarked (after some problems with getting off the Jewel of the Seas (see other entries on this board)), and went through customs. They gave us a complete tour of STP and the outskirts. Whe saw things we will remember the rest of our lives. They even added some stuff that were not even listed on the tour because we were a little early getting back. I will be happy to answer any of your questions should you have any. But, if you use Anastasia, you will have no problems.

we are going to be in St. Petersburg in Sept. and would love any and all info about tours to take or things not on the list ...any sugestions about the whole experience....we are 4 right now and have looked into tours and still open to ideas... thanks :p

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fabnfortysomething Great Review Rare

fabnfortysomething

Posted
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Hi

 

Has anyone got together a group via cruise critic and how did you organise the blanket visa ?

Last cruise we "met" 2 other couples via cruise critic and organised tours in the Med.However there was no requirement for travel documents to be printed out before we left as will be the case for St Petersberg.

 

I am asking because another couple on our roll call was interested in sharing with us and she gave her email address so I could contact her directly-that post has now been deleted-possibly against the rules?

 

will anastasia or indeed any of the other tour operators facilitate communication on our behalf ? Otherwise if we don't meet until we're on the ship it's too late for everyone to get their passport details etc to the company and each member of the party to have their own copy of the travel documents

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bardstowntraveller

bardstowntraveller

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I have organized a tour with Anastasia via our roll call. Basically, I posted the tour I was planning to take on the roll call for my cruise and asked if there were others that wanted to join in. Together, we finalized our itinerary and I booked with Anastasia. At the time of booking, Anastasia requested passport info for all on the tour which I am collecting. Anastasia will obtain the blanket visa for the group and provide the necessary paperwork for disembarkation. Using the roll call as a means to gather a group has worked out well for us as we ensure that all in the group share the same interests. I'm not sure why your communication with another roll call member was deleted -- I'm not aware of any rule saying you can't communicate off line with another member

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  • 1 month later...
blyle

blyle

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We also used our roll call to set up our tour with Anastasia. I collected all the info and sent back the group visa app she sent to me. I've asked that she send tickets to each couple so everyone could print out their own tickets. As long as you do it on the roll call and not in the general thread you should be fine.

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gentlemancruiser

gentlemancruiser

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we are going to be in St. Petersburg in Sept. and would love any and all info about tours to take or things not on the list ...any sugestions about the whole experience....we are 4 right now and have looked into tours and still open to ideas... thanks :p

 

I would avoid using the cruise ship tours in St. Petersburg. Given the relatively short time you may be spending (1 or 2 days) in this great city you will want to maximize your time. We took a private tour with Red October (also very good). We frequently saw the long lines of passengers from our ship waiting to get into places like Catharine's Palace and the Peterhof, while we escorted to the front of EVERY line. We also did not spend a lot of time waiting for other people, since we were only 4 of us. This also meant we could shorten our shopping stops and add anything we wanted to our tours.

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Lvtocruize2

Lvtocruize2

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There will be only 2 of us (my husband and I) wanting to take advantage of personal tours in St. Pete. If I understand the posts I've been reading, the best way to add more folks to our group of 2 is by going to the Roll Call for our ship/date. There are very few signed up on the CC board for our particular cruise soooo what do you suggest I do because basically I'd love to lower the cost/person. I can't even imagine what a tour for only 2 people for 2 days would cost!! Do you think they might combine people who have the same interests even if they are from different ships in port? Any help appreciated!!

 

Thanks, Patty

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