St. Petersburg - Anastasia - how long to disembark ship?

[Embracedbylife]

We have a 10am tour scheduled with Anastasia tours. Anyone know what time we should leave the ship to get through customs and be there to meet the guide? Is 1/2 hour enough time?

[GuideDiva]

We have a 10am tour scheduled with Anastasia tours. Anyone know what time we should leave the ship to get through customs and be there to meet the guide? Is 1/2 hour enough time?

It used to be enough time but the new passport control processing time that was introduced May 1 has messed everything up. The recent Norwegian Jewel visit this weekend, just as an example, had tours delayed as late at 12:10 before the line was exhausted. Some of those people who were in line for 4 hours were on 1/2 day tours that were scheduled to be back to the port at 1pm. The private tours were also delayed but not much is the passengers ignored the ship announcements and came off when instructed by the tour company.

This is a case where booking with the ship tours not only resulted in higher costs but also a ruined day. The ship blamed the delays on a independent tourists, ones with visas clogging the system which is another lie. Of the dozen or so of visa holders, almost all were off before 8am.

 

Everyone is screaming about the extreme slow down this year, if it continues some ships might bypass St Petersburg entirely in the future.

[LHT28]

It will depend on when you dock, how many people are getting off at the same time, how the cruise lines handle disembarkation.

I would plan on at least 30-45 minutes on the first day

 

Everyone wants to be the first off;)

 

The guide will wait not to worry

[RachelG]

The first day in St Petersburg, there was a HUGE line to get through customs (and this was on Regent which docks near downtown and only holds 700 pax). We stood in line for about 45 min as they were just processing people very slowly.

After the first day, there were no lines.

[GuideDiva]

It will depend on when you dock, how many people are getting off at the same time, how the cruise lines handle disembarkation.

I would plan on at least 30-45 minutes on the first day

 

Everyone wants to be the first off;)

 

The guide will wait not to worry

 

The new policy is for all 6 ports of entry in st Petersburg and since each ship now has its own immigration staff assigned to it, when the ship docks is of little importance in how much delay there is going through passport control.

 

Yes the guide will wait but the probability of missing some desired destinations is high.

[auburngirl]

RachelG,

 

We are going on this cruise on Friday, May 22, can you please give any advice?

 

thanks!

[LHT28]

The new policy is for all 6 ports of entry in st Petersburg and since each ship now has its own immigration staff assigned to it, when the ship docks is of little importance in how much delay there is going through passport control.

 

When we went a few years ago the process was slow due to the officials having to have breakfast on the ship first ;)

The crew told us if they feed them well they process the ship faster...seemed to work

[Leejnd4]

I must admit I'm a little concerned about this myself. We'll be in St. P on July 3-5, and we're also using Anastasia. We have a pretty tight itinerary - we want to see as much as possible - and if we get delayed by hours, something will have to fall off the list.

 

The cruise lines often try to scare people into booking their tours by saying that anyone not on a ship tour has to leave after the ship tour folks. THIS IS FALSE! If you are booked on a private tour, you have every right to leave the ship as soon as they begin allowing passengers off. I intend to be up early and waiting at the front of the line...at least, as close to the front of the line as possible. And I will not allow the cruise line to tell me that I have to wait for their tours to go first.

 

As for how long the Russian officials take...well, the ship can't do anything about that, so we can only hope they are moving quickly that day.

[Embracedbylife]

we booked our tour to start at 10am to try to avoid the hugh princess tour lines that will be there at 8am. So, i am thinking now we'll be stuck behind all of them who will be standing there since 8am to get though at 10am...yikes! This is starting to concern me even more now!

[Leejnd4]

we booked our tour to start at 10am to try to avoid the hugh princess tour lines that will be there at 8am. So, i am thinking now we'll be stuck behind all of them who will be standing there since 8am to get though at 10am...yikes! This is starting to concern me even more now!

 

It's completely up to you, but I personally booked my tour to start at 9:00. Our ship arrives at 8:00 (according to the itinerary). I plan on getting up early to get in line as early as possible.

 

I'd rather do that, then start it later just so I won't have to wait in line. It will take however long it takes, but I'm doing whatever I can to get off the ship as quickly as possible.

[Embracedbylife]

I did a check online at the princess-organized shore excursions and they are scheduled from 7am to 8:30am. Most of them for 8am and 8:30 am. I just wrote Anastasia - hopefully she can keep an eye on it for us too as I really prefer not to have to be up so early! We are losing 1 hour with the time change and I want to enjoy my vacation too, just not rushing around all the time. Perhaps as people come back from their May cruises they'll post their experiences?

[RachelG]

In retrospect, we should have planned on getting an earlier start the first day. Anastasia's guide was to meet us at 9 am, so we were in no hurry. We finally got through customs at about 9:30. We were able to see everything we had planned, but we had to hurry at Peter and Paul Fortress in order to make our hydrofoil to go to Peterhof.

[mrspaper]

if you use a private tour, do you have to get a special visa? please advise

[LHT28]

if you use a private tour, do you have to get a special visa? please advise

 

Not if you use a licensed guide like Denrus, Red October,etc...

They will send you a group visa.

[mrspaper]

Not if you use a licensed guide like Denrus, Red October,etc...

They will send you a group visa.

thanks

the ship is saying they won't let us off unless we show a visa

[LHT28]

thanks

the ship is saying they won't let us off unless we show a visa

You have to show them the group visa paper the guide sends you

It is just scare tactics they of course want you to book the ship's tours

[mrspaper]

You have to show them the group visa paper the guide sends you

It is just scare tactics they of course want you to book the ship's tours

i appreciate the feedback. any other advice.

i wrote and called denrus many times in march and never heard from them

there's no one on the thread and i have to rely on what tour companies have set up

[LHT28]

i appreciate the feedback. any other advice.

i wrote and called denrus many times in march and never heard from them

there's no one on the thread and i have to rely on what tour companies have set up

 

Do you mean no one on your roll Call?

 

Sometimes the mail from some of the tour guides ends up in the trash or the spam folder.

 

You can arrange a custom tour with most guides

You could check SPB tours roll call section to see if anyone from you ship is looking to share then join that group

http://www.spb-tours.com/Formular/index.php?c=spb

Or contact Viktoria and she will match you with a group

[one spring chick]

Just back from the Baltic on the Constellation and we had no problem getting off the ship and through immigrations in St. Petersburg. As long as you are with a private tour group all you need is your passport, your tour ticket, a copy of your passport and the immigration form they give you on the ship. Do not wait to try to get off after the ship tours start to leave. It will take you longer. It is best to start your tour first before the ships tours. We got off as soon as the ship cleared which was about 7:20AM and it only took about 10 min. getting past immigrations. If you wait until after the large ship tours start to leave it will take you a very long time and you will waste time standing in line. The ship will let you off. Most of our Roll Call used Alla tours and she was excellent.

[Sarabur]

Just back from the Baltic on the Constellation and we had no problem getting off the ship and through immigrations in St. Petersburg. As long as you are with a private tour group all you need is your passport, your tour ticket, a copy of your passport and the immigration form they give you on the ship. Do not wait to try to get off after the ship tours start to leave. It will take you longer. It is best to start your tour first before the ships tours. We got off as soon as the ship cleared which was about 7:20AM and it only took about 10 min. getting past immigrations. If you wait until after the large ship tours start to leave it will take you a very long time and you will waste time standing in line. The ship will let you off. Most of our Roll Call used Alla tours and she was excellent.

 

Did you need to photocopy every page of your passport? If not which ones did they need? Any help is greatly appreciated.

[LHT28]

Did you need to photocopy every page of your passport? If not which ones did they need? Any help is greatly appreciated.

Just the photo/i.d. page

[Helabama]

Did you need to photocopy every page of your passport? If not which ones did they need? Any help is greatly appreciated.

 

You need to copy only the inside cover and first page -- the photo and info pages. We just returned from our NCL Jewel cruise which sailed on 5/10. Our passports were copied by the ship's personnel when we were checking in to board the ship in Dover. They made the copy and gave it to each passenger.

 

Another great idea re passports: Scan your passport and email the image to your web-based email account (like hotmail or gmail). If you ever lose your passport, you can retrieve the copy on line.

 

As for getting off the ship for a private tour in St. Petersburg, on the Jewel we were told that the ship had not been cleared and we could not leave the ship. We could see people from our ship outside going through immigration. These were people booked on NCL shore excursions. People who had private tours were being made to wait until all the NCL tours had gotten off the ship. Some folks on private tours walked down the stairs with the NCL tour people (like they were part of that group) and got off the ship early. For the rest of us the situation got sort of ugly with a couple of the crew members being rude and pushy with us. Combine that with the fact that there were only 4 immigration officials to process everyone caused an unpleasant scene.

 

Once we got through that ordeal it was soon forgotten when we started the tour. We toured with SPB Tours and highly recommend them.

[Rickdabear]

thanks

the ship is saying they won't let us off unless we show a visa

 

The ship is lying like a dog on a rug. Show them a confirmation with your tour company and that IS your visa. They are just trying to sell you their tour.

 

Terry help me out on this one.

Da Bear