Worried about enormous port load in St. Petersburg

We have recently booked the Celebrity Eclipse for our cruise to the Baltics next summer (2018). I've just discovered that the first of our two days in St. Petersburg -- August 23 -- will probably be the busiest of the summer, with 6 ships in port and a total port load of 16,165 passengers (reference: http://ports.cruisett.com/schedule/Russia/664-St_Petersburg/August_2018/)

So, that is roughly three times the typical amount of passengers that this port handles in a day. I am very concerned about this, for two reasons:

(1) We plan to book a private tour with a small company (one of those frequently recommended on this forum). I know there will be new rules in effect where the passengers on ship-sponsored tours will get to disembark before us and was already resigned to having to wait a bit before having to disembark. But now I am afraid it will be hours before we are ever able to clear passport control! We want to make it to Peterhof gardens by 11:00. We will be very disappointed if that doesn't work out, and more generally, if we are limited in the amount of things we can see because of having to get off to a very late start.

(2) I am also worried about crowd sizes everywhere. Is it going to be an absolute zoo at the major attractions?

I would really appreciate some insight and advice from those who have been through St. Petersburg on crowded port days. Apparently there has been only one port day more busy than 8/23/18 in all of 2017! I am seriously considering changing to the July 1 sailing, but it would be several hundred dollars more expensive, and the August dates are really much more to our liking. But then again, this is a once-in-a-lifetime trip, and I don't want it to be ruined by large crowds. Am I right to be concerned? Talk me off the ledge!

I have been on this cruise twice with NCL and based on my experience, Russian immigration is very slow and there was only our boat in the first time and two in the second time. We had priority because of suite travel and it was still slow. I can only speak to my experience...we used SPB both times and they were fabulous. I would communicate with which ever one you are using and relay your worries and see what they say! I think all the major companies are completely interested in making sure you have a great time!

By the way, it is a trip of a lifetime...enjoyed it so much we did it again!

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I would try to book a private tour with not more than 4 or 6 people. I would consider skipping Catherine's Palace and spending more leisurely time in Peterhof. I would discuss this with the tour company that you choose. We are looking at White Knight travel and they are being so supportive and willing to do whatever we want. You could do Peterhof the 2nd day which is usually easier depending on what day of the week that you are there as some things are closed.

I think that there are lots of options and you really need a company that is flexible and will work with you.

I would try to book a private tour with not more than 4 or 6 people. I would consider skipping Catherine's Palace and spending more leisurely time in Peterhof. I would discuss this with the tour company that you choose. We are looking at White Knight travel and they are being so supportive and willing to do whatever we want. You could do Peterhof the 2nd day which is usually easier depending on what day of the week that you are there as some things are closed.

I think that there are lots of options and you really need a company that is flexible and will work with you.[/quote

Not to disagree a bit, but I do. I would NOT skip Catherine's Palace at all. I have no idea what the itineraries are these days, but most tour companies for two day tours, usually like to do the far away places, like Peterhoff and Catherine's Palace the 1st day and keep people nearer the ship for the second day. As I said, itineraries may have changed but that was the preferred practice when we went.

Cheers

Len

Isn't it possible to do the Garden on the second day? As reports have said that the second day in port things move more quickly. Perhaps when booking your tour request to do it somewhat backwards so you are not inthe middle of the flow from all the other tourists.

I would certainly go in July. The only other ship in port will be Marina and it will be their second day. You will have the passport control to yourselves. More to follow my ipad is acting up

I'd contact the major tour companies (alla, spb, denrus) to get their advice on how they would recommend handling this situation. If you keep the original sail date, I would also second the consideration of getting a private tour for just your family, as this will give you maximum flexibility in St. Petersburg. You will be able to leave immediately when you clear customs, and you can also arrange to start day 1 as late as you like and then start day 2 as early as you like (customs is only a disaster on day 1 when they inspect everyone's paperwork.) We were able to skip all lines with our private tour (the 16 person tours may also and you should double check with the private tour operators to find out if they also are able to skip lines outside of musuems) and we were able to avoid the crowds because we were a small, easily moveable group.

I would keep Catherine's Palace. If you want, you can go quickly through some of the rooms in the middle - the beginning is great, and then there are a couple of rooms you don't need to spend a lot of time in unless you love them and then you get to the amazing amber room at the end.

Also, I don't think the ship/cruise line matters as much on this trip as one to the Caribbean so if you want to go in August, I'd look at other cruise lines. Some might even grant priority disembarkation for suite passengers (although this may end with the new rules and they might just limit early disembarkation to people on ship tours.)

I'm glad you discovered this so early and have the opportunity to change your plans if you decide to do that - I'm very impressed with your organization. It will be an amazing trip no matter what and I hope you have a wonderful time.

Regardless of how many ships there are in port St Petersburg will be very busy. Its a main tourist destination for the World. When we visited St Catherines there were hundreds of Chinese visitors and they didn't arrive by ship. The city also has a very short tourist season so everyone arrives June-August.

However don't imagine the port like an airport where there is one passport line for everyone. The port is 'U' shaped and each side of the U has an immigration building with passport control areas for each ship. We were on the same berth area as a Costa ship and there were three other ships in port.

Our passport control was in one half of the building, Costa was in the other, but there was no way of crossing between the two areas. Same on the return back from trips. We were directed into the Eclipse area, Costa had a different entrance.

The othe three ships were using completely different drop off areas and immigration areas.

The time is taken at immigration as everyone needs a temporary visa which takes time to prepare. 2-3 minutes is typical.

St Petersburg has about half a million cruise ship passengers each year; allowing for the short season, that's say 5,000 arriving each day in summer; and as most ships stay 2 days, that's 10,000 passengers in port each day. So 16,000 isn't wildly different.

The Hermitage, for example, had 4m visitors in 2016, that's 11,000 per day on average, which allowing for the summer season again means perhaps 20,000+. An extra 1,000 or 2,000 from the cruise ships doesn't make a vast difference.

I would certainly go in July. The only other ship in port will be Marina and it will be their second day. You will have the passport control to yourselves. More to follow my ipad is acting up[/

 

However in July 2018 the FIFA world cup is taking place to Russia ,the Russians are expecting 1M extra visitors, although only about 6 matches are scheduled for St Petersburgh,it is likely to be more busy than a normal July

Thank you everyone for all the good advice and information! We are planning to do a private tour just for our family of four -- so that definitely will improve our flexibility. I think we will need to do Peterhof on the first day so as to get early admission to the Hermitage on day 2 (can't count on early enough arrival there on day 1, with "non-preferred" debarkation time). Anyway, it sounds like the best thing to do is email with the tour providers before making a final decision. Very good to know about the World Cup in July -- that was not on my radar. I was also interested to learn that there are different immigration areas for each ship.Again -- so many helpful people here! I appreciate it very much.

I said I would continue. We were there on Marina in June. We had a tour with Ulko with 6 of us. I highly recommend both Ulko and Marina. Ulko were less expensive than a ship's tour and will do precisely what you want .

I don't believe it is necessary to tour the inside of both the Catherine palace and Peterhof. They are similar and eventually it all runs together. The Petrhof gardens are of course on everyone's list.. Bon Voyage.

We're on the July 1,2018 Eclipse sailing which will dock in SPG on 7/6 and 7/7/2018. We checked the FIFA schedule and there are no games in SPB on those days.

A friend of mine recommended to me a company called TJ Travel, so I obviously used them based on my friends' first hand experience and yes, it was a very very good recommendation. I have 2 kids (3 & 1 years old) so we decided to take a private tour so that it can work out with our time + not give them a miserable time rushing in our plans... The baby needed to have milk or change, so we had time to do so, the other wanted to run around the fountains a little longer, so we did that. It was wonderful, they recommended a day schedule for us as we were only there for the day, it worked out very well, the only delay we had was at the port (on arrival) where the system was apparently down so we waited for about 2 hours until we were able to leave, and once we did, the guide and the driver were still waiting outside although no payment was made until the whole tour was over... It's honestly rare to find a company that would treat you this way. The guide was great and his english was excellent, he often went out of his way and would even help us in taking the stroller up and down the stairs which he obviously didn't have to do... TJ Travel, Thank you for a great experience.

I wouldn't skip Catherine's palace either, it was beautiful. There were 3 ships in when we disembarked and it was busy.

Our private tour was with Insider Tour and Marina was brilliant.

Being new to cruising we obeyed the ships instructions and didn't attempt to disembark until they told us that we could - 8am. What we didn't realise was that the passengers going on the ships cruises had been disembarking since 7am and we found ourselves in a massive queue which took us an hour and 20 minutes to get through!

I managed to get an email to their office and they waited until we arrived, very kind of them. The other passengers on our tour were experienced in this kind of thing and had all got off at 7 to 7.30am.

A lesson learned for us!

I would highly recommend Insider Tour.

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Our recent (2 August) experience arriving in St. Petersburg was with Princess, not Celebrity. At least with Princess, the key thing for passengers using independent tour operators was for all members of the tour group (whether private or not) to start the disembarkation process early. Princess said they would begin handing out priority disembarkation numbers at 06:30. Those of us who arrived at the designated location around 06:15 received our priority numbers before 06:30, and were in the first group of 50 "independents" allowed off the ship, around 06:40 as I recall. The lines at Russian immigration were short then, and we were through immigration by about 06:50.

At least one representative of our tour company (SPB) arrived by about 07:00. Almost everyone on our "non-private" tour (approx. 12 people) had met on the ship a couple days earlier and agreed on the 06:15 starting time. Even so, there was still some delay in assembling on the dock and getting underway, but nonetheless our minibus was able to depart by about 08:10.

There were large crowds at some of the stops, but our SPB guide (Olga R.) was amazingly effective in moving us through the crowds without losing anyone and while at the same time conveying a great deal of interesting commentary and providing more opportunities for photos (and W/C visits) than we had expected. The audio headsets provided to all tour participants were critical in coordinating the group, as well as being essential to hear the guide's commentary despite the crowds. We were very favourably impressed with how well the whole process worked even without having a private tour.

John

Some great ideas. We will be on the Regal Princess in June 2018. We are just starting to figure out what we would like to do for excursions. Not sure if we will do a private tour or a Princess sponsored tour yet. I will have to go back and check how many ships in port.

Marty

Some great ideas. We will be on the Regal Princess in June 2018. We are just starting to figure out what we would like to do for excursions. Not sure if we will do a private tour or a Princess sponsored tour yet. I will have to go back and check how many ships in port.

 

Marty

My post #16 (above) concerned Regal Princess, and how Princess managed the arrival at St. Petersburg. At least for us, the disembarkation & Russian immigration process for those not on Princess tours did not seem to be any slower or more problematic than it was for those on Princess tours. The much-discussed advantages and cost savings available via well-regarded local tour operators are very real. At least for our recent arrival at St. Petersburg on Regal Princess, those advantages were not offset by any significant discrimination in how Princess managed the disembarkation of passengers on Princess tours vs. other tour operators.

John

My post #16 (above) concerned Regal Princess, and how Princess managed the arrival at St. Petersburg. At least for us, the disembarkation & Russian immigration process for those not on Princess tours did not seem to be any slower or more problematic than it was for those on Princess tours. The much-discussed advantages and cost savings available via well-regarded local tour operators are very real. At least for our recent arrival at St. Petersburg on Regal Princess, those advantages were not offset by any significant discrimination in how Princess managed the disembarkation of passengers on Princess tours vs. other tour operators.

 

John

Unfortunately, the rules for 2018 will be different. Passengers booked on ship tours will disembark first. The small independent tour companies will not even be allowed to access the pier to pick up their customers until an hour and a half after the ship arrives. This is a port rule, not a cruise ship policy. The new rule will be in effect at least on the "busiest days" of the summer (which August 23 definitely will be). This is why I am worried about waiting hours before we are ever able to get off, and maybe having to deal with super-long lines. Sigh.

See http://guidetopetersburg.com/new-disembarkation-rules-st-petersburg-cruise-port-for-2018-navigation/

Thanks for posting that article. That helps answer a question people have had - which is what happens to people who are normally granted priority disembarkations due to their status with the cruise ship line or by booking a suite. If the independents can't pick them up for an hour and a half, then they'd need to delay their tour despite their status. Again, I'd recommend sticking with a private tour but delaying your start time on day one (which honestly the companies will insist upon anyway if they aren't able to reach you).

The related "New disembarkation rules...2018" thread at

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2534350

has more information about this. The 2018 disembarkation rules seem to the latest round in an ongoing competition between the independent operators on one side vs. the cruise lines and their "preferred" Russian tour suppliers (with tacit help from the port authorities) on the other side.

It seems likely that, even under the new rules, the well-regarded independent tour operators will still be able to provide better tours at lower prices than the ship tours, probably at the expense of having to start a little later on the first day of 2 and 3 day port calls. Given how port-intensive and tiring the Baltic cruises tend to be, starting a little later on day 1 in St. Petersburg might not be a bad thing for many passengers.

The independents' flexibility in making last-minute changes in tour sequence and schedule, along with the smaller group sizes, should still allow them to provide better tours than can the ship tours. And there would still be the possibility that independent tours could be scheduled to continue a little later in the afternoon of day 1 to compensate, in large part, for a later start. At the high latitude of St. Petersburg, sunset would not be a limiting factor during the May-August period. However, extending a day 1 tour into the early evening might be problematic for those wanting to participate in evening activities ashore (ballet performances, etc.). Again, I suspect that the independent tour operators will be nimble enough to find ways to deal with that.

John

I would certainly go in July. The only other ship in port will be Marina and it will be their second day. You will have the passport control to yourselves. More to follow my ipad is acting up[/

 

However in July 2018 the FIFA world cup is taking place to Russia ,the Russians are expecting 1M extra visitors, although only about 6 matches are scheduled for St Petersburgh,it is likely to be more busy than a normal July

 

I'm not sure about July, but there are also matches in St Petersburg in late June. We will be there (for the second time) on 24/25 June and our guide has advised us to keep our tour to no more than 5 people. Apparently when the crowds get large that becomes the limit for line jumping by guides. When we were there last June we had 12 in our group and didn't wait in line anywhere.

Redacted...duplicate.

We used SPB and had an amazing time doing lots of off the beaten path things and they worked out an itinerary that was perfect. There is SO much to see and our first trip the Ships tours missed a lot.

Make sure to see the church of the spilled blood inside and out, the gold or treasure room in the Hermitage, the subways, a farmers market, Peterhof, perhaps a canal boat ride or hydrofoil? Also loved seeing yusopov palace where Rasputin was shot. These won't all be crowded and I am sure they can work out a great itinerary for you.

We have recently booked the Celebrity Eclipse for our cruise to the Baltics next summer (2018). I've just discovered that the first of our two days in St. Petersburg -- August 23 -- will probably be the busiest of the summer, with 6 ships in port and a total port load of 16,165 passengers (reference: http://ports.cruisett.com/schedule/Russia/664-St_Petersburg/August_2018/)......

Am I right to be concerned? Talk me off the ledge!

I will be in SPB Aug 14 & 15 2018 and am concerned about the same thing. The above link is not up to date. We are on the Viking Star and it's not even listed on that site. There is no Viking nor Azamara ship listed at all on that link. According to the link below there are only four ships in port on your day, but they are huge ships. Our Viking ship is only 900 pax but we're in port with 5 other ships! I'll be joining you on that ledge! :')

https://www.cruisetimetables.com/visitingstpetersburgrussia-23aug2018.html