St Petersburg Russia.. Questions...Can u help? :)

Hi!

Can anyone tell me if there is a secured area when u get off the ship, that you can shop in?

I fondly call this the "Disneyland area" Similar to what there is in Roatan Honduras, Grand Cayman, and Falmouth Jamaica... for cruise passengers only.

Thank u!

More questions to come.. trying hard to understand this port... Any info welcomed!!!! Thank u again.

There is a secure area where you can shop before going through Russian immigration. It consists of just two shops selling vodka, caviar a lot of other booze, chocolate a few typical tourist souvenirs and around 300 different types of Russian dolls.

You could easily view both shops in 15 to 20 minutes.

It is worth bearing in mind that in order to get past immigration you need to be booked on a tour either via the ship or privately. Happy, cheery (not) Immigration officials will want your passport and your ticket every time you wish to pass.

No pre booked trip, no entry.

There is a secure area where you can shop before going through Russian immigration. It consists of just two shops selling vodka, caviar a lot of other booze, chocolate a few typical tourist souvenirs and around 300 different types of Russian dolls.

 

You could easily view both shops in 15 to 20 minutes.

 

It is worth bearing in mind that in order to get past immigration you need to be booked on a tour either via the ship or privately. Happy, cheery (not) Immigration officials will want your passport and your ticket every time you wish to pass.

 

No pre booked trip, no entry.

Thank u for this info! When you say they want your "ticket" do you mean ticket from the tour operation that you picked?

How can anyone do any more shopping then this.. if the tour doesn't give much free time?

Also can you tell me which tour company you used or did you buy a tour from the ship. Thank you again!

Thank u for this info! When you say they want your "ticket" do you mean ticket from the tour operation that you picked?

How can anyone do any more shopping then this.. if the tour doesn't give much free time?

 

Also can you tell me which tour company you used or did you buy a tour from the ship. Thank you again!

Ship tours provide a ticket.

If you book a private tour they will email you tickets, so print these out and take them with you.

We used Alla tours for a three day tour of St Petersburg. This was considerably better value than anything the ship offered. They were very helpful and professional. If shopping is important to you simply email them and explain exactly what you want to see etc and they will make it happen.

Others will no doubt reply with other tour operators who they were happy with too but I'd have no reservations about using Alla tours again.

Ship tours provide a ticket.

 

If you book a private tour they will email you tickets, so print these out and take them with you.

 

We used Alla tours for a three day tour of St Petersburg. This was considerably better value than anything the ship offered. They were very helpful and professional. If shopping is important to you simply email them and explain exactly what you want to see etc and they will make it happen.

 

Others will no doubt reply with other tour operators who they were happy with too but I'd have no reservations about using Alla tours again.

Thank u! Alla is the company I am considering doing. I am interested in the Comfort and Leisure tour they are offering. It does include an hour to shop. LOL Which should be enough. Do you pre pay the tour with them? Thank u again!

We had ALLA tours. They are absolutely superb! We did a two day and nighttime in St. Petersburg. Had separate driver. Guide, Elena, was extremely fluent and knew slang as well. She was in the Young Pioneers (Communist Party) and had some stories to tell. We used them for St. P, Talin, Stockholm, and Helsinki. I would use them again in a heartbeat. Book the Russia tour and you don't pay until the second day. Dollars are good so is plastic. Book more and you get discounts. 12 passenger NEW Mercedes bus. For those two days and nighttime in St. P was $300 each and totally worth it. No big bus and 20 minutes to load and empty. She zipped us ahead of all the others and reorganized when we went to each event depending upon traffic. https://alla-tour.com/ They meet the visa requirement and you show the guards the paper you print from the email and all is good. They also take you to a warehouse of Russian junk souvenirs and they are extremely cheap compared to the normal junk shops. Lunch on a hovercraft to Peterhof. Evening folk show that was awesome. Catherine's Palace, Hermitage, Dinner in Rasputin's place, et al. Don't pass this one up. Definitely 5 stars.

Thank u! Alla is the company I am considering doing. I am interested in the Comfort and Leisure tour they are offering. It does include an hour to shop. LOL Which should be enough. Do you pre pay the tour with them? Thank u again!

From memory, we sailed last July, you pay a deposit and pay the rest on the actual tour. If you want additional shopping time they will arrange this for you.

St Petersburg is a wonderful city to visit with a lot of history. You could easily spend a week docked there and still have plenty to see. I'm sure you'll have a great time. :)

We had ALLA tours. They are absolutely superb! We did a two day and nighttime in St. Petersburg. Had separate driver. Guide, Elena, was extremely fluent and knew slang as well. She was in the Young Pioneers (Communist Party) and had some stories to tell. We used them for St. P, Talin, Stockholm, and Helsinki. I would use them again in a heartbeat. Book the Russia tour and you don't pay until the second day. Dollars are good so is plastic. Book more and you get discounts. 12 passenger NEW Mercedes bus. For those two days and nighttime in St. P was $300 each and totally worth it. No big bus and 20 minutes to load and empty. She zipped us ahead of all the others and reorganized when we went to each event depending upon traffic. https://alla-tour.com/ They meet the visa requirement and you show the guards the paper you print from the email and all is good. They also take you to a warehouse of Russian junk souvenirs and they are extremely cheap compared to the normal junk shops. Lunch on a hovercraft to Peterhof. Evening folk show that was awesome. Catherine's Palace, Hermitage, Dinner in Rasputin's place, et al. Don't pass this one up. Definitely 5 stars.

Very good info! Thank u! I might have to look at them for these other countries too. They take the USD?

Very good info! Thank u! I might have to look at them for these other countries too. They take the USD?

Yes indeed. Look at the website above. We convinced people with us on the ship to book it also and they did everything from the ship. Concierge printed off the required documents. Love the Internet.

Yes indeed. Look at the website above. We convinced people with us on the ship to book it also and they did everything from the ship. Concierge printed off the required documents. Love the Internet.

That's GREAT!! We have a Concierge Cabin also. Cant wait. Any other tips? Clothes to bring.. I heard like Alaska layers..

Let me post a slightly different perspectice on Alla. This is not meant to be a critcism of them as I have no idea how they compare to other operators i have not used.

If you check back on the boards i posted exactly what i am going to repeat now...along with others who were on the same cruise in June 2015. We did the 2 day intensive tour.

We were met very efficiently after passing through immigration, which probably took about 15 mins, and allocated to comfortable mini-buses. First stop was the Hermitage Meseum, after a random photo opportunity by the riverside where there was nothing to photo. The crowds to get in were enormous and not very well controlled...lots of pushing and shoving. Inside the museum the crush continued and we all shuffled past many great works of art that we could barely see.

After that the itinerary that we had all been sent in advance went completely out of the window. Although the guide had a reasonable level of English it was strongly accented and many struggled to understand. I have to say she was very knowledgeable about architecture and told us who had designed virtually every building we passed.

The first day continued as a mystery tour...we had know idea where we were going to next until we got there. The only thing for certain was it was not where we were supposed to be going. This frustrated a lot of people.

At the end of the first day, two of the men on our coach expressed their dissatisfaction to the guide and questioned whether it was possible to visit all of the remaining sites on Day 2. She was very flustered and suggested that all would be clear after our stop at Alla Tours HQ, (also known as a souvenier shop), where we all paid for our tour. Before getting off the coach one of Alla's "directors" boarded and tried to reassure everyone that we would see everything we had been promised. One on board was very unhappy and asked if we could be given a timed itineray for the second day...she flatly refused this request.

The bottom line is they did take us to everywhere they had promised....although the ride on the metro system became a walk from one station to another underneath the river. Again we had absolutely no idea where we were going to next until we got there.

It was very much like the old Morecombe and Wise sketch about all the right notes, but not necessarily in the right order.

It certainly was an experience, but i would recommend anybody to visiting St Petersburg not to have too high expectations whichever tour operator you choose to use.

One point of clarification, the souvenier shops at the port are after immigration when you leave the ship.

 

One point of clarification, the souvenier shops at the port are after immigration when you leave the ship.

This is misleading. There are souvenir shops after immigration but the OP was asking about shops in the "secure area". This is the area before you get to immigration. These are accessible to those who for whatever reason choose not to go through immigration. Apparently there are many that don't which is why they exist.

This is misleading. There are souvenir shops after immigration but the OP was asking about shops in the "secure area". This is the area before you get to immigration. These are accessible to those who for whatever reason choose not to go through immigration. Apparently there are many that don't which is why they exist.

All I can say is that if that is the case now it certainly was not in June 2015. Everyone getting off the ship was funnelled into Russian Imigration lines and there was no access to anything in Russia until you had been processed.

Things change, and I am happy to be corrected if anyone else can support your report.

We sailed on a DCL cruise to St. Petersburg in Jul/Aug 2015, and toured with Anastasia tours (have no complaints - both tours we took were excellent).

There are shops both before and after immigration, at least at the dock that our DCL ship was at. It would have been easy to miss the shop on the dock - but there was a huge line getting back on the ship one day, so we stood in front of it for a while! There was one store right on the dock, with doors before you even go into the building for immigration. Then, after customs, inside the terminal there was a series of small shops - selling mostly eggs and dolls.

We sailed on a DCL cruise to St. Petersburg in Jul/Aug 2015, and toured with Anastasia tours (have no complaints - both tours we took were excellent).

 

There are shops both before and after immigration, at least at the dock that our DCL ship was at. It would have been easy to miss the shop on the dock - but there was a huge line getting back on the ship one day, so we stood in front of it for a while! There was one store right on the dock, with doors before you even go into the building for immigration. Then, after customs, inside the terminal there was a series of small shops - selling mostly eggs and dolls.

That is a good point...there are two different docks.

We are on Eclipse this July for 3 days in St Pete.

Some tour operators are offering 2 days in St Pete and the 1 day (Day #2) option of Moscow, long day at 16 hours.

Has anybody here done this tour which includes Moscow/Red Square?

Stepping away from Alla, we used TJ Travel for our stop in 2015. Two full full days of touring customized for our group of 11. They had us into the Hermitage, Peterhof and other palaces without ever standing on lines. Yes, it was crowded but we were a smaller group and our guide really knew her stuff. Lunch was not included but she offered to take us to restaurants were the "real" working people would go. We went and had some great strudel both sweet and savory. It was an interesting experience. For shopping, various places we went had gift shops and when we went to TJ Travel's office to pay our balances, it just happened to be in a huge basement filled with shopping. Vodka, dolls, crafts and on and on. At the port there was also shopping, both inside the secure area and outside, past the nice immigration people. I have heard nothing but good things from friends about Alla and SPB tours too but we chose TJ because they were happy to tailor our tour for us.

We'll be in St. Petersburg this August. We selected our three day tour company, SPB, after reading all the reviews for the top three companies on TripAdvisor. They offered us a $20pp discount for our roll call off their web site price and said if we hit 16 people we would get one free tour which they agreed to split amongst all the participants which came to another $20pp discount.

You probably won't go wrong selecting one of the top three: SPB, Alla and TJ Travel.

We'll be in St. Petersburg this August. We selected our three day tour company, SPB, after reading all the reviews for the top three companies on TripAdvisor. They offered us a $20pp discount for our roll call off their web site price and said if we hit 16 people we would get one free tour which they agreed to split amongst all the participants which came to another $20pp discount.

 

You probably won't go wrong selecting one of the top three: SPB, Alla and TJ Travel.

We used SPB for both a 2-day in StP and a walking tour in Tallin. Both were excellent. By bundling the StP and Tallin tours, the incremental cost of the Tallin tour was almost negligible - at the time only another 15 USD pp.

For the StP tour, the schedule for the 2-days was in a different order than advertised but included all advertised items. The order was at the discretion of the tour guide who did his best to optimize our tour schedule around his knowledge of the then current traffic delays and least crowded times at different sites. Unlike the complaint in an earlier post, our tour guide kept us informed of where and when we would be touring throughout each day. He generally did a great job avoiding crowds, although there was nothing he could do about the crowds at the Hermitage :p

I believe you will enjoy a tour booked with any of the top rated tour agencies.

When we went on the Brilliance, the ship stores bring out loads of junk and cover them with cloths. They have a grand opening of the "Russian Bazaar" before we got to Russia (I think) and mayhem occurs. People grabbing all sorts of garbage and running for a register. Very comical. All the stuff is available off the ship for a fraction of the cost (at least at the warehouse we went to). Quality is about the same. Junk like flasks with USSR symbols, the dolls, fake fur hats with the hammer and sickle, et al. Grab a drink and watch the chaos. Hilarious.

When in Russia we also used Alla tours.We went in May and the 2 day tour was great.No problem with crowds and went to sites as described. Paid with c.c. on last day with no problems. We also used them in other towns and were very satisfied. Have read on this forum if you plan on using cash all bills must be in excellent shape, no wrinkles,tears,markings,etc,as the banks will not accept them. The 2 days in St. Pete were the highlight of the cruise.

OP - Forgot to mention, when you sail into Stockholm, make sure to get out of bed and up to the top deck very early 6 am if not earlier. The sailing up the archipelago is the most scenic part of the sailing IMHO. Those who sleep in that day definitely miss out.

That is a good point...there are two different docks.

It isn't if you're arriving on an S class ship. The second and third port are for smaller ships. I remember driving past and seeing Silver Cloud moored at one of them as we drove into the city. S class ships are simply far too big. The shops in the secure area may have been built between June 2015 and July 2016.

http://cruiseportwiki.com/StPetersburg

I have very vague memories of the tour guide advising that they were going to build (or extend) a new terminal so that it can accommodate Oasis class ships but don't know how true that is or when it will be complete. This was in July 2016.

Mynki, thank you for this great link to St. Petersburg! We will be there next June on Silhouette and I'm starting to do my research. Your posts on various topics seem to resonate with me.

It isn't if you're arriving on an S class ship. The second and third port are for smaller ships. I remember driving past and seeing Silver Cloud moored at one of them as we drove into the city. S class ships are simply far too big. The shops in the secure area may have been built between June 2015 and July 2016.

 

http://cruiseportwiki.com/StPetersburg

 

I have very vague memories of the tour guide advising that they were going to build (or extend) a new terminal so that it can accommodate Oasis class ships but don't know how true that is or when it will be complete. This was in July 2016.

Sorry I seem to have caused confusion by using the word dock instead of terminal. Your link clearly shows four seperate terminals I thought there were only two.

Eclipse was docked at Terminal 2 and that is what my comments from 2015 related to. Regal Princess was docked at Terminal 4. I have no idea if the facilities at each of the Terminals are the same or whether Eclipse always docks at the same one. We also saw another ship docked up river in the City Centre.

Which Terminal did you arrive at?