Russian Visa - Mariner 5/7/09

[lkakers]

While doing research on my upcoming cruise, I stumbled upon some info regarding the need for a Russian visa if one wants to disembark in Russia without doing one of the ship's excursions.

 

I don't remember reading in Regent's materials that one HAD to have either a Russian visa OR be participating in a cruise-organized excursion in order to go on Russian land. (That info might have been there; maybe I just missed it... thought I should post this info in case others missed it,too.)

 

Anybody out there have different info? (I really try not to believe everything I read on the internet!) :p

 

Here's what www.visitrussia.com reports:

 

Visas for Cruise Passengers

 

Cruise ship passengers can currently visit Russia on visa-waiver scheme provided that the stop in the port of call doesn't exceed 72 hours and tourists stay overnight on board of the cruise ship. This rule doesn't apply to passengers of Finnish and some other cruise companies. This rule doesn't apply either if there is only one port of call during a voyage.

 

Cruise passengers may disembark from the ship without a tourist visa if they participate in tours organized by cruise companies. Passengers, who are not participating in tours and wishing to disembark will need to obtain a Russia tourist visa. Passengers won't be permitted ashore if they don't present a valid passpost, a Russian visa and a voucher issued by a Russian travel company or another athorized organization.

 

Cruise passengers cannot obtain a visa in Russia. Visas are issued in the country of residence before departure.

 

We recommend that you check information on organized cruise tours and visas with your cruise company in advance.

[jhp]

lkakers: While I'm sure your link is a good source, here is the one to the US State Department which explains the visa process.

 

http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/cis/cis_1006.html Might possibly be that this is a better source for the final "word".

 

Right off, if anyone has personal experience otherwise, please post. This was my experience when I was a first time cruiser to Russia. As for your first paragraph, there is only one port stop for the Mariner in Russia, therefore the need for a visa if you want to get off the ship on your own.

 

1. All excursions booked with Regent, this will be taken care of

2. There are many private companies booking private excursions that will take care of it as well, as they are "sanctioned" much like a cruise line. Red October and Denrus come to mind, I'm sure there are others.

 

Short story, if you want to get off the ship all by yourself, you are going to need a visa. You can either pay a company to do this for you for an extra charge, or you can do it yourself. When I was there in 2002, I had a private guide (not "sanctioned" like the ones I mentioned above), young man just starting out, and I got my own visa, no Z..... or whatever service, I dealt with the Russian embassy myself. Rules today seem the same as when I was there before.

 

Regent always has a local contact (tour company), I either called or emailed them and that is where I got my "sponsor" letter, (hard copy) straight from Regent, sent it in as directed, paid the government fee, and got the visa. Not sure I would trust myself to do that today! But I was naive, like to do things on my own, and it worked! Only thing I saved was maybe the $100 fee or more that the visa "services" charge. I walked off the ship (Navigator) each day on my own, went through the check point, and met my guide on the other side. On the third day, I walked off, caught a cab, and for about $10 fare was taken to the Church on Spilled Blood in a nice little Mercedes taxi. I was able to travel freely through the city.

 

I doubt anyone does this anymore!

[lkakers]

Thanks, jhp! Very helpful!

[jhp]

Glad to help, and if others have more current information, that would be welcome to me as well as you! I hope to go back one of these days, and would love to just get off the ship and wander next time!

[Travelcat2]

In short, take a private excursion with one of the the many wonderful companies avialable in St. Petersburg. You may want to check out the "Ports" section of CC in St. Petersburg. Utilizing private tours can be a bit more expensive (unless you have others to share the cost). . . but they are worth every penny. You won't have to wait in L O N G lines if you are with a private tour!

 

Enjoy the Baltics!

[Hambagahle]

We had a private guide (Galina Tours) in St Petersburg and therefore needed to get a visa. She could have provided "visa support" but said she didn't like doing all the paper work, so I asked our travel agent in Zurich who got the visas for us through the Russian Embassy in Bern. Took about a week and cost about USD100 each.

When we first got off the ship we presented our passports, with visa, to Immigration. The woman stamped them. Throughout the rest of the stay we came and went as we liked, simply waving the visa at whomever manned the Immigration desk.

[diebroke]

We are utilizing tours all 3 days we are in St. Petersburg, so we don't need visas to get off the ship to see the sites. I don't know where Regent ships dock. Is it worth getting a visa for just a casual walk about near the ship in our free time after tours?

[freddie]

Ikakers - From the many recent posts concerning this issue, the Russian policy does not appear to have changed since we were in St. P. in 2003. It is as Olivia (JHP) describes above; that is, if you are with a ship's tour or a tour with one of the large tour companies (Red October or Denrus), you will be covered by their blanket visa. If, however, you want either to go off on your own and tour with a smaller agency or individual guide, you must obtain a personal tourist visa.

 

The personal visa is not difficult to obtain. You simply do it through the nearest Russian consulate, which in your case is the one in Seattle, the same one we used. When we did it, the forms were available on-line. I think the whole thing can be done by mail, although we submitted ours in person and picked them up in person to make it faster. In any event, the instructions are on the Seattle consulate website: http://seattle.rusembassy.org/

 

You will need to obtain a Tourist Invitation, which we got from RSSC, as part of the visa application process.

 

If you have the time in St. Petersburg and are fairly adventurous, it is great fun to wander about on your own. In our case, we spent one day on a group tour, one day with a private guide and driver, and one day on our own in the city. On that day, we spent lots of time walking, visiting St. Isaac's and the Church of the Spilled Blood for a longer period than the group tour allowed, having a delightful lunch of Russian specialities at a restaurant across the canal from the Church of the Spilled Blood, taking a river and canal cruise, and bargaining for laquer boxes and matrioshky (nested dolls) at the craft market next to the Church of the Spilled Blood. Hmm, if there is a theme here, it is that the area around the Church of the Spilled Blood has a number of attractions if you're on your own.

 

Diebroke - If you are planning to use tours for the 3 days, it is unlikely that getting a personal visa would be worth the bother. Except in those very rare occasions when the ship is allowed to dock on the Neva River in the city, you will be docked at the port, which is not convenient to anything. It is emphatically not a neighborhood for "a casual walk". The area around the port is industrial and pretty much drab at best and unpleasant in most respects. Even though I speak Russian, we would not have felt comfortable strolling about near the port.

 

Cheers, Fred

[diebroke]

Many thanks Fred.

Is there any way of knowing in advance where the ship will dock?

[freddie]

Diebroke - As far as I can tell from the many posts on the boards, I don't think there is any way to know in advance where the ship will dock. We were very fortunate to have docked right at the customs building; but the Voyager cruise before us docked a mile or so farther away. It appears that it is not known until the day of docking where the ship will actually dock, as it depends on which other ships are in port that day. Cheers, Fred

[lkakers]

Thanks, all!

My cruise will actually NOT be going to St. Petersburg -- ours is a Transpacific cruise and will be stopping in Petropavlovsk. Since we will be there for less than a day, I think we will go ahead with one (or more) of the ship's excursions and not bother with the visa. I'm happy to hear that that does indeed seem to be an option!

:)

[jhp]

Good gosh, had you said that before, we would not have bored you with all the nonsense! Another cc friend of mine did that panpacific cruise last year or the year before on Regent, from Seward AK as I remember. They did enjoy their stop there, I think it is a Navy base or something? I seem to remember them running into sailors!

[lkakers]

No worries! I do hope to get to St. Petersburg someday... It just won't be this year!

 

Thanks again!

[jhp]

lkakers, go here for some comments about that port in Russia you will visit.

These are the friends I was telling about who were on the cruise last year, and fortunately I was able to find the thread. Hope it works! Unfortunately, they had a difficult crossing weather-wise, but loved the stop in P, as you will see. Make sure you are on page 2, that's where the pertinent info is. Doesn't sound like you need a visa, as one of the couples just got off the ship and walked around. I hope and pray this won't get deleted!

 

http://www.****************.com/cgi-bin/ubbcgi/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=19;t=000202

 

Editing to say it won't work. Can't refer here to another cruise board. If you go to luxury cruise talk you can do a search with your port, you will see their comments. Or PM me on that board and I will find it for you. Seems silly we can cross refer when it has to do with something like this.

[Hambagahle]

as to where the ship docks in St P -- I honestly think that no one at Regent knows until the morning she docks. We were told that we would be at the port, and when we started up the river we went on past the port and docked at the first bridge. Wonderful place to dock and by coincidence, the Navigator was docked across from us! But the problem was that our guide, Galina, had called the night before and also been told that we would be at the port. So she was very late in meeting us... later Captain Knut told me that he only found out where they were docking when the pilot camne on board!!

 

So - hope for the river, but be prepared for the port. I totally agree with a previous post that if you are in the port do not attempt to walk around. BUT when on the river, it is so great just to meander around the neighbourhood. Probably worth getting the visa just in case you can do this.

[lkakers]

If you go to luxury cruise talk you can do a search with your port, you will see their comments.

 

jhp, I could not find this... I must be searching wrong! If you can, maybe you could give me more detailed instructions (I tried searching for "Petropavlovsk" on the "ports" board, and the general "welcome" board, but got no results).

 

Or you could write me on yahoo email using my first name, underscore, my screen name here minus the LK (the five letters starting with A).

 

thanks!! Lani

[jhp]

I think I forgot the underscore, going to try again.

[lkakers]

Yes, got it! Thanks! :cool:

[englishlee]

I did a RSSC cruise on the Mariner from Seward to Osaka at the end of 2007. This was the cruise with the dreadful weather whilst crossing the Bering Sea.

 

We stopped at Petrapavlovsk. The backdrop is stunning but the city itself is nothing to write home about. There were problems with this stop in that no-one was allowed off of the ship until 1pm (if I recall correctly) even though it was scheduled for breakfast time, as the authorities took an age to check every single passport.

 

We took a ships tour (to the local orphanage) and then asked to be dropped off in the town centre to stroll around on our own for a couple of hours. They were letting people off the ship who were not on ships tours and also didn't have an individual visa which is a different policy to that experienced in St Petersburg.

 

Some of the tours were cancelled due to the late disembarkation and thus lack of time, many others were running late. And it was a tender port as well which also delays things a bit.

 

As I said great backdrop but not a pretty city. I've attached an image taken from the Mariner in case you're interested.

 

FYI There was a USCG vessel in port on a courtesy visit when we were there.

Lee