Problem getting off the Emerald Princess in St. Pete.

[mk0520]

I'm going to send a letter to Princess regarding this problem. Maybe if they received a lot of complaint letters we will get their attention & they will start treating independent travelers with more respect.

[gdayhoff]

We just retuned from our July 4 Jewell of the Sea Baltic of the Sea cruise and would like comment on our experience with getting off the ship in St.Petersburg.

Two nights before arriving in St Petersburg we received a notice from the ship which in essence said that as of July 5 the Russian authorities issue a directive which outline the order for guests to past Russian Immigration control. That is as follows:

1 Ship tours

2 Independent tours

3 Passengers having indivdual Visa

Independent could expect to leave the ship about 9:30 and Indivdual Visa people after 9:30

It also said that"This process has only just been set in place by Russian Authorities and the ship has no control over making any changes or requests to change this.This is a strict order for all cruise ships." Also it added that" if you wanted to contact your travel agent in Russia and inform them of the change of time,please contact the Guess Relations desk for a complimentary phone call or internet minutes"

Finally,"We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may cause,however this is beyond the control of the ship's management"

I hate to use the word liar but this is about as close to it as you can get.

I went down to Guest Relations and asked to see the Russian directive and was told it was confidential and could not see it.I then call Viktoria[sTB-Tours] and she was not aware of this directive or any changes to existing policies.A English couple called their travel agent in Russia{Alla] and was told the same.

We decided to leave the ship after the Moscow group had left,about 7:15.After a slight discussion my son and I were allow to leave the ship but my wife,daughter-in-law and granddaughter were stop.After about 5 minutes they were allow to leave.There were no lines at the Russian Control point and we had no problem clearing them.

If RCCL continues this practice it can only created an unhealthly situation because people were extremely upset.The popularity of independent tours in St Petersburg is growing and RCCL is having a hard time coping with it.Six years ago when we visited St Petersburg there were only a handfull of Independent tours.Now look at it.

Overall, we had a great time in St Petersburg.Wonderful place.We had an outstanding Travel agency in Viktoria[sTB-Tours] and excellent guide in Elena Skidan who amazed me with her knowledge on the indivdual Art pieces in the Hermitage Museum.She was very good

[DebbieS732]

I'm going to send a letter to Princess regarding this problem. Maybe if they received a lot of complaint letters we will get their attention & they will start treating independent travelers with more respect.

 

This is a great idea for anyone who has experienced issues in St. Petersburg, regardless of the ship you were on. If companies like HAL, Princess or their parent company, Carnival, were made aware that individual tour managers were treating some of their passengers like second class citizens, I think some of this would stop. They are really putting their whole Baltic Sea business at risk by treating certain passengers like this. There should really be a consistent policy across all ships. It's easy enough to send these companies an email.

[sbhdmh]

I have also been following this thread with great interest and growing alarm. We are sailing in 3 weeks on MSC and am just hoping that all these issues are resolved by then.

 

I am not an attorney but this sounds an awful lot like false imprisonment to me. If previous posters are correct that the ships do not have the right to keep you on board against your will and the Russian government is denying that they are requiring you to be held this is indeed a scary situation. Perhaps complaints need to be filed with the home governments of individual passengers who experienced this problem.

[alidor]

It is interesting. We are doing this cruise on Friday, not on Princess, so this has been interesting to me as well but as Regent has free tours, we are using their tours. We are also doing an Asian cruise in early January and I've seen similar posts about Princess about situations over there. Seems more like a Princess problem than anything.

[Fafos]

This is a note from Russian tour office who make the tours for ship.. if the ship's doors open, nobody has the right stop you...

the same problem we have with some Greek cruises but I just smile and keep walking... nobody stop me.. if someone of crew trying to tell me something just drop a "don't speak English" and keep walking:p

 

enjoy your cruise and use the letter to fold your souvenir gift...

[Dragster13]

Maybe if the Cruise lines were not trying to rip off their customers with their prices then more people would use them and not indepentant tours.

 

Try pricing out a private tour and a similar ships tour. then ask why would I use a ship tour in St. Petes.

 

We used a couple of ship tours in other ports and I have never seen such disorganization in all my life. You would think they would have got it worked out by now.

 

Case in point RCCL Jewel of the Seas, they have all groups meet in theater before you go. You are handed a number for your group and told to wait. No problem except for this if you are in group 1 they have you seat closes to the stage and if you are in group number 25 you sit farthest away from the stage. Since there are more people going then they have seats, all the rest gather near the door ways.

 

So now they have handed out all the numbers and they call group number one. That group gets up and starts to move to the doors to get out. You guessed it no one moves anywhere as the doors are blocked by the other groups who have no seats.

 

Now here is the common sence way of doing it call the passengers in two groups. We will say that there is 20 groups, so you call groups 1-10 and seat them like this group one sits at closes to the doors and group 10 sit farthest away from the doors. That way when groups are called by number they can leave right away without fighting their way out. Simple right.

 

Simple is not in RCCL's vocabulary I saw this happen in every port. I guess everybody shouting at once works.

 

I have already mentioned our experience inn St. Petes. and it falls on the ship board tour staff. As I mentioned to two other RCCL staff if the head ship tour guy had asked us to please wait until his group to Moscow got off there would have been no problem, but when someone tells me I can't get off until the ship groups get off and says it in a matter that would get anybody mad, then the hairs on the back of my neck get up and I say no you don't.

 

As soon as this person and his helper left the ship without his group the crew members running the exit told us to go and apologized to us. there was no problem the next day as he was in Moscow.

[source]

I was on the Emerald Princess in St. Petersburg on July 9 and 10. I was in a group of six scheduled to start at 8:30 am on a tour with Anastasia. We waited on the Promenade deck until we saw the first passengers disembarking. There were other small groups of independent tour passengers also waiting on the deck. Some of them then tried to leave, but I have no idea whether or not they were successful. After a while, we tried to also leave, merging in with a group of Princess tour passengers. One thing we didn't know until then is that all the Princess tour groups were given red stickers to wear on their shirts and this allowed the Princess employees to easily distinguish them from the non-Princess tours. One of the employees was standing near the staircase making sure that everyone leaving had a red sticker on. Two people in our group managed to evade her and made it to the next lower level, but the employee stopped the rest of us. The two people in our group who had made it past her then returned and our whole group then went to the Explorers Lounge to wait.

 

There were many other independent tour passengers also waiting in the Explorers Lounge. After waiting about an hour, some of the other groups waiting there got up and started to proceed downstairs. We also joined them although we heard no announcements that we were allowed to leave. This time, somehow we made it past the Princess employee checking for the stickers. After this point, nobody else asked us if we were on a Princess tour or not, and nobody cared. The Russian immigration officers had all eight booths open and there was a short line on each of them. There was no attempt (as I had heard happened on some earlier Princess cruises) to direct us to a different line than the Princess tours. It took us about 10 minutes waiting in the line before our turn came. The Russian officer did not even look at the Anastasia-provided tour tickets that we showed him. He shoved away both the tour tickets and the passport copies that we had brought with us. Clearly the Russians did not care which tour you were on.

 

In the end, we were about an hour late reaching our tour guide who was patiently waiting for us. This was not too bad, given that the ship was 45 minutes late getting into port and all the official Princess tours had been delayed 45 minutes. We did not miss anything on our itinerary and we returned back to the ship on the first day about 30-45 minutes later than originally scheduled. The second day was very smooth and we were off the ship in less than 5 minutes.

 

Thus the advice I have is: Don't be afraid of taking an independent tour and don't get too intimidated by the disembarkation process. Ideally, if possible, ask your tour agency to have a later start time for the first day, so you can be more relaxed. If you do need to disembark early, then try and merge in with the Princess tour groups. Try to be in the middle of a crowd and you may also try to wear a jacket or carry a folder near your chest so it appears that you have a sticker which is being hidden. The Russians don't care, and even the Princess employees who monitor the machine where you swipe your card don't care.

 

 

We are traveling on the Emerald Princess on 9/3/09 and have booked with Anastasia also for a two day tour. Just out of curiosity what size were the "red stickers"?? Were they the standard 1" round stickers availble at Office Depot?? Thanks..................Marian

[lovecruisingtoo]

I do not believe it is the cruise lines that are intentionally passing out bad information. They received the false information from their TOUR COMPANY.

 

It is the tour company that has lied to the cruise line. In trying to protect the passengers and the cruise line, they are relying on the information from their tour operator.

 

When we are in the St. Pete in about 3 weeks, our plan is to just walk off the ship at our planned time. If they try to stop us, I will just keep on walking. As someone else said, "No speak English".

[Embracedbylife]

I honestly do not believe that it is Princess' fault. We sailed on the 6/15 sailing from copenhagen. It was one of the first cruises this year to the Baltics on the Emerald. There was no information given to us regarding non-princess tours, however I have to tell you that Immigration in russia was very bad. The lines were enormous. In preparation for this we booked our tour with Anastasia at 10am. We waited till all the other people got off. Those with 8am ship tours didn't get off till close to 10am, and it had nothing to do with Princess but rather the Russian immigration. They went on coffee break, took their sweet time, did it all manually as the do, and could care less how long anyone had to wait. It's beyond Princess' control honestly. I believe that the Russian immigration may have asked them to have private tours go later as they took more time reviewing our paperwork than those on the princess tours. I say relax in your room, have a late breakfast and get your tour at 10am like we did. It sounds like the russian immigration is making the tour companies wait until after 10am to even meet you on the otehr side - not something that suprises me honestly! our tour ticket said 7am on it and our guide met us at 10am and they had a big problem with that and it took 20 min's for them to let us out on day 2 becuase of this, so anything is possible with the russian immigration/customs. Once we were out at 10:30am we had a blast! There were people up at 4am - imagine it! and they didn't get off till 10am and they were with ship's tours. I'd say each stop there will be different depending on who is at the customs desk also!

[tally10]

I do not believe it is the cruise lines that are intentionally passing out bad information. They received the false information from their TOUR COMPANY.

 

It is the tour company that has lied to the cruise line. In trying to protect the passengers and the cruise line, they are relying on the information from their tour operator.

 

When we are in the St. Pete in about 3 weeks, our plan is to just walk off the ship at our planned time. If they try to stop us, I will just keep on walking. As someone else said, "No speak English".

 

Amen to that! We are there in May of 2010 and already have a private tour booked. This will be our third Baltic cruise so we have seen most of the standard stuff and that is why we booked a private one. We have never encountered this in the past, probably because we always took the cruise line tours. I like your advice about the "no speak english." I also like the sticker idea but did not know how to get them as we aren't taking any other cruise line tours this time. Been there and done that. Some were good and some were not so good. Anyway, we will have to look at Staples (no Office Depot here) for them. Thanks for the advice and it pays to be prepared!

[KnoxvilleSam]

We were on the Azamara Journey, docked in St. Petersburg at Lt. Schmidt Embankment, June 22-24. The ship said nothing about ship excursions having priority over independent excursions. The line the first day to get through Russian immigration did take perhaps 20 minutes (only 2 booths open), but absolutely no waiting the second or third day. I really don't think we can blame Russian immigration for this. And since Azamara didn't impede our departure from the ship at all, I can't blame the ship. Perhaps Azamara's excursion contractor in St. Petersburg simply didn't try to influence our exit from the ship to take independent excursions, or Azamara told the contractor not to even try. Who knows?

 

Sorry this has been a problem for some of you.

 

Sam

[capriccio]

I honestly do not believe that it is Princess' fault. We sailed on the 6/15 sailing from copenhagen. It was one of the first cruises this year to the Baltics on the Emerald. There was no information given to us regarding non-princess tours, however I have to tell you that Immigration in russia was very bad. The lines were enormous. In preparation for this we booked our tour with Anastasia at 10am. We waited till all the other people got off. Those with 8am ship tours didn't get off till close to 10am, and it had nothing to do with Princess but rather the Russian immigration. They went on coffee break, took their sweet time, did it all manually as the do, and could care less how long anyone had to wait. It's beyond Princess' control honestly. I believe that the Russian immigration may have asked them to have private tours go later as they took more time reviewing our paperwork than those on the princess tours. I say relax in your room, have a late breakfast and get your tour at 10am like we did. It sounds like the russian immigration is making the tour companies wait until after 10am to even meet you on the otehr side - not something that suprises me honestly! our tour ticket said 7am on it and our guide met us at 10am and they had a big problem with that and it took 20 min's for them to let us out on day 2 becuase of this, so anything is possible with the russian immigration/customs. Once we were out at 10:30am we had a blast! There were people up at 4am - imagine it! and they didn't get off till 10am and they were with ship's tours. I'd say each stop there will be different depending on who is at the customs desk also!

 

We too were on this cruise and had a Complete St. Petersbury tour arranged with Alla Tours. At that time Princess didn't direct private tours to disembark at a specific time - I even went back to my Princess Patters to confirm that. There entire 'Important Notice' reads:

 

Passengers going ashore independently: Local Immigration advises that only passengers with Russian visas will be permitted to go ashore independently, or alternately, if you are booked on an independent tour. Please note that the Immigration processing time varies by nationality and you should be prepared for delays. Due to the local Immigration inspection it is common to experience long lines when leaving the ship and agin due to Security Control screening, long wines will develop dock side for re-boarding the ship. In both cases you should be prepared in case of inclement weather. We operate as efficiently as possible, therefore if you are not in any particular rush to go ashore, maybe take advantage of a slightly later breakfast and enjoy the comfort and facilities of Emerald Princess. All other passengers who have not purchased a Russian Visa are advised to purchase a dour during our call, as your tour ticke will also act a your visa to disembark.

 

Alla's correspondence had emphasized that our tour ticket was our visa. We followed Alla's instructions and were ready to disembark as soon as the okay was given (close to 7 am) -- Princess security made no effort to distinguish independent tours nor did they (or the Russians) direct us to a particular line. At that hour we didn't see any Princess tours leaving - I think they were still assembling. We were at the old container port and there were only half as many lines as at the new port and the authorities were very methodical (i.e. slow).

 

Since our tour was assembled by Alla we didn't know our fellow passengers but 6 of the 7 couples were off the ship before 7:30. We were delayed a half an hour because one passenger's ship pass didn't register when she was leaving the ship - she had to get it replaced at the purser's desk but was able to go back to the head of the line (I presume) because they made it to the van by 8 am.

 

We did hear the next day that the lines had gotten longer and slower and that senior officers had met with the Russians to lodge a complaint because some of the tours were between one and two hours late.

[UPr123]

We are traveling on the Emerald Princess on 9/3/09 and have booked with Anastasia also for a two day tour. Just out of curiosity what size were the "red stickers"?? Were they the standard 1" round stickers availble at Office Depot?? Thanks..................Marian

 

I think 1" would be about right, but they also had the tour numbers on them, such as L1 or D2 etc.

[source]

I think 1" would be about right, but they also had the tour numbers on them, such as L1 or D2 etc.

Do you happen to remember what color the letters & numbers were?? Were they just standard print also??? If we all stick together we can beat them at their own game!!! Thanks for your help...............Marian;)

[UPr123]

Do you happen to remember what color the letters & numbers were?? Were they just standard print also??? If we all stick together we can beat them at their own game!!! Thanks for your help...............Marian;)

 

No, sorry, not quite sure. I think they were black and quite bold and large, but I am not positive. They were printed and not handwritten. They use the same type of stickers for all their tours, so if you go on another tour before St. Petersburg or know someone who does, maybe you can re-use their stickers?

[source]

No, sorry, not quite sure. I think they were black and quite bold and large, but I am not positive. They were printed and not handwritten. They use the same type of stickers for all their tours, so if you go on another tour before St. Petersburg or know someone who does, maybe you can re-use their stickers?

 

Thanks for your help. We'll give it a shot and buy some red stickers and bring them with us. Prior to St. Petersburg we'll try to observe how the stickers are marked. We'll make sure to bring a Sharpie! :)

[tequilatamm]

That is a FANTASTIC POST and really great information that I plan to pass on as often as necessary so that people feel comfortable booking their tours... whether WITH the cruise line or WITH an independent.

 

It has been interesting to read everyone's experiences and to see how varied they have been. I do agree with the poster that one does not have to be rude or aggressive, but I also think that you have to also be willing to stand your ground (politely) and not allow yourself to be treated like cattle.

 

I do not understand the behavior of the cruise lines, other than perhaps (and I am totally guessing here) that the on board tour staff earn commission when cruise passengers book their tours so have decided to make it as unpleasant as possible for those who do not. It is only speculation, but I can't really find any other explanation.

 

I am sure that none of you need a dissertation about how unhelpful and counter productive that behavior can be, but I really think that WE cruise passengers need to make our voices heard at the individual cruise lines and make them understand that they need to work with ALL passengers regardless of who they book a tour with. After all, when we choose to cruise we do it because we want to be on a ship and for the OVERALL experience, not because of who runs their tours (at least in general).

 

I have my own philosophy regarding any type of interaction with people that I think cruise lines would do well to follow... in the overall scheme of things there are several types of cruise passengers... some that only book cruise tours, some that like to go alone, some that like to book independent tours and some that stay on the ship. However, they ALL talk and they ALL like to share their experiences and they ALL deserve to be treated with respect and kindness. If you put the person first and your own needs second, in the end you will win because you made a customer happy. Maybe you won't earn a direct cash profit today, but good will and being nice to people is its own reward. Someone who does not take a tour today, may recommend you tomorrow. Someone who you are kind to today, will feel good about your interaction and remember you. Isn't that what customer service is all about? Forget the immediate cash benefit and think of the human reward! With so many ships and such a competitive travel atmosphere, getting back to basics might prove successful.

QUOTE]

 

Very well put indeed!

[lovecruisingtoo]

I do not understand the behavior of the cruise lines, other than perhaps (and I am totally guessing here) that the on board tour staff earn commission when cruise passengers book their tours so have decided to make it as unpleasant as possible for those who do not. It is only speculation, but I can't really find any other explanation.

 

 

I think it could be as simple as the cruise personnel on the ship have been told in the past to follow the guidelines of the "experts" (i.e. the tour company). Just think what would happen if the cruise ignored the "direction" of the tour company and then there was a problem?

 

Remember, the employees on the cruise ships are minimum wage (or less) personnel. Would you want them contacting Embassy officials to get clarification on any policy?

[tally10]

I think it could be as simple as the cruise personnel on the ship have been told in the past to follow the guidelines of the "experts" (i.e. the tour company). Just think what would happen if the cruise ignored the "direction" of the tour company and then there was a problem?

 

Remember, the employees on the cruise ships are minimum wage (or less) personnel. Would you want them contacting Embassy officials to get clarification on any policy?

 

I don't think the minimum wage applies to the staff working the explorations/shore excursion desk. They fall under the purser's realm and are officers. I would imagine that their boss(es) must get some direction from the home office who put together these excursions.

I would not expect a minimum wage staff member (i.e. room steward, waiter, etc.) to have any input to this problem.

[cruisemom42]

I don't think the minimum wage applies to the staff working the explorations/shore excursion desk. They fall under the purser's realm and are officers. I would imagine that their boss(es) must get some direction from the home office who put together these excursions.

I would not expect a minimum wage staff member (i.e. room steward, waiter, etc.) to have any input to this problem.

 

I agree; and I also agree that if a cruise line gets some directive, such as the one mentioned in this thread, that radically changes their current SOP, they should verify it with someone in authority in the country in question. Not just blindly take it on faith.

[JIMDSB2]

It happens on ALL Cruise ships. We were on the Jewel of the Seas, and the day before St Petersberg, we were left a sheet stating that we would not be allowed off the ship until ALL cruise tours have left. The date of the NEW regulation was July 05, surprisingly the day after we left Harwich. We had been warned that they would pull something like this by Anastasia and did not believe it and went down when our tour was supposed to leave. They told us we would be sent back because of the new LAW. We persisted and the agent at the gang way pretended to call security. When we repeated we were supposed to leave, in fact some of our group already did leave, he showed me his nametag and told me to remember it. I told him I definately would remember it and did so in our final questionaire. Anyway I digress, about 5 minutes later, he directed us to disembark which we did.

I understand that the Cruise company is losing a lot of money to these private tours, and this was handled very clumsily on their part, but they are not allowed to keep you on board unless they are asking for a ransom. Go when you are supposed to go, and do not allow yourself to be bullied into staying onboard, but do not become a bully yourself.

[gdayhoff]

We were on the same cruise as JIMDSB2[see my earlier posting this tread].RCCL did not handle the situation very well.Mass confusion.As stated in my earlier posting my son and I were allowed to leave the ship but my wife,daughter in law and granddaughter were stop.After about 5 minutes of heated discussion they were allowed to leave.No problems at the Russian Control Point and there were no lines there.

Before this cruise it has been over 30 years since I had sailed RCCL.Now I know why

[tally10]

I guess this is what we have to look forward to in May on Celebrity. Thanks for the warning. We will have to think of something as people have suggested various plans, and we will try to incorporate all of this. At least we will be forwarned! Thanks to all of the posters for alerting future Baltic cruisers to this problem!

[mikedge]

We had exactly the same experience with Jewel of the Seas on 10th and 11th July. we had booked with Denrus who told us that no-one on the ship could legally stop us from leaving the ship and to make sure that we were ready to disembark 15 minutes after the boat had been cleared by the Russian authorities.

 

We did as we were told and after a bit of aggro on the way off the boat we kept walking and got through immigration without any problem The Russian authorities couldn't care less whose excursion you were on or whether you were on your first or second day's tour.

 

My advice to anyone booking independently is to ignore any letters from the boat and get off BEFORE the ship's tours are called.

 

It is all an unnecessary ruse but I think that many of the major operators try this trick in order to get their own tours on the move before anyone else's.

 

Be brave and go for it. Denrus, Alla, Red October aand Anastasia all provide an excellent tour at a much reduced price compared to the boats.