St. Petersburg - Private tour company + Cruise excursion together?

Hi,

I am wondering if anyone has taken a tour with a private tour company AND through their cruise? For example, has anyone taken a 2 day tour with a private tour company and then took the evening ballet or folk show through their cruise? If so, how was your visa handled? Do both the ship and the private company issue you the visa waiver?

Haven't done that, both our day and evening trips were thro Alla.

But yes, each trip requires its own ticket to get you thro immigration without a visa.

No visa worries whether you use ship-sponsored or approved local operator.

Or the combination that you're considering. But not the other way round - local operators won't want to provide only the evening trip.

JB :)

Our tour company (SPB) provided a blanket waiver for the entire 48 hour period our ship was in port. This way, if people decide at the last minute they'd like to add an evening tour the company will be able to accommodate you if they have space.

As John Bull noted, the ship will let you schedule tours through them in any combination. I believe - but can't remember exactly - that you should look through your documents to find out what the cut off date is for registering for a ship tour in St. Petersburg. Due to the visa issue, I don't think you can add a ship tour last minute (or couldn't 2 years ago when I sailed the Baltics). The private companies will hopefully give you the blanket waiver so you have more flexibility about adding tours at the last minute.

Thanks for the replies. I did talk to the private company and also called the ship's excursion department. It was fine to schedule the day tours with the outside operator while taking the ship's evening tour. The ship's evening tour only allows us to stay out with them for that time only.

We did our tours in SPB with Alla. We weren't interested in the evening trips, so obviously didn't book any. However, when arriving back to ur ship after our day out there were lots of passengers disembarking for their evening tours.

Therefore. I would ensure that the trips don't overlap.