Norwegian Star - St. Petersburg Excursions

Hi, sailing next month on the Norwegian Star - Baltic cruise. Any feedback on taking the Church on Spilled Blood & Waterways tour vs. Double Decker bus tour. Which one would be more preferable? I do want to see the inside of at least one cathedral which I know the first tour above offers. However, can we visit the inside of a church on the Double Decker bus tour during the "free time" available?

Thanks, FairlyNewCruiser.

I would look at going with a private operator like Spb or alla for example...both company's organize visa for free and provide first class tours and reduced price than Ncl sponsored excursions.

We used a private guide for 2 days that was very reasonably priced and then she catered the tour to us. There's so much to see and all the cathedrals you will see are all so different, inside and out. Definitely get to church on spilt blood and definitely St. Isaacs. There's so much to see in 2 days, so we felt in best to have just us and a guide.

Been a few years since I did this but I took the time to do a write-up...

Day 7 and 8 – St Pete

This will be by far the most important section to read for someone doing this cruise (or any other line that does 2 or 3 days in St Pete). We took a private 2 day tour in St Pete with a group from our roll call. This is what I would recommend anyone do in St Pete. We saw more, in a smaller group, and for much less money than the ships excursions. The only reason I would accept from someone that this is not what you should do is if you are just incapable of enjoying yourself on a private tour anywhere because you could conceivably miss the ship. We used Anastasia tours and while I can highly recommend them I have read enough reviews to know that they are not unique. Alla, SPB, Denrus, Red October and others all provide similar tours/prices/quality. We chose this tour because it did a little more than the SPB tours a lot of the others from our roll call did. There is NO issue with getting a visa for doing a private tour in Russia. Yes, you have to have one, but YOU don’t have to do anything. The tour company you work with will get your details and they will have a blanket visa for the group when you arrive. They send you a tour ticket in advance and that is what you take to the customs/immigration booth in St Pete.

Here is the itinerary we did:

Time

Activity

First day

7.30 - 8.00

Passing the Passport control

8.00 - 9.00

Drive to the city of Pushkin

9.00 - 11.00

Tour around the Catherine’s Palace, including the visit of the Amber room. You will have special early entrance to the museum.

11.00 - 12.00

Drive back to the downtown

12.00 - 13.00

Lunch at the restaurant (included)

13.30 - 14.30

Peter and Paul’s Fortress visit

15.00 – 15.30

Visit of the Saviour on the Spilt Blood

16.00 - 16.30

St.Isaac’s Cathedral visit

17.00 - 18.00

Gala River and Canal tour. During the trip You will be served withh Blins, caviar, champagne and vodka

18.30

Return back to the ship

Second day

9.00

Passing the Passport control

9.30

Bus trip to Metro and Metro ride

10.00 – 10.45

Bus trip to Peterhoff

10.45 - 12.00

Peterhoff Park Tour

12.00 - 12.30

Hydrofoil trip to the downtown.

13.00 - 14.00

Lunch at the restaurant (included)

14.30 - 16.30

The Hermitage visit

17.00

Return back to the ship

The price for this tour was $295 per person. We were a group of 10 people, had the same driver and guide for 2 days, and a nice Mercedes van that would hold 18 people so we had plenty of room to get comfortable. We spoke to a couple that did 2 half day tours through the ship, did WAY less stuff and paid over $1,000. I would be interested in others who did ships tours to comment on our itinerary and how it compares in completeness and cost to what they did.

I won’t go into all the details of the places involved. Suffice it to say that St Pete is the highlight of this itinerary. It is a bit overwhelming even. Spectacle after spectacle.

Some comments/tips:

There is a lot of walking required to get through some of these huge places. I’m sure some tours are geared more than others towards how much walking, but to get through Catherine’s Palace, Peterhoff gardens, The Hermitage, etc takes a lot of walking period. Take comfy shoes.

When you get a chance at a bathroom ( Water Closet ) use it.

Peterhoff is a do not miss. It was all an outside tour of the gardens and fountains. Peter wanted a palace where he could have extensive outdoor fountains. At Peterhoff there are what I will just describe as an incredible display of outdoor fountains. There are no pumps involved. All the water is piped in from higher ground. We arrived shortly before 11am. At 11am music starts up and they turn on the fountains. The water starts coming out of the central fountain, then progressively works its way through the hundreds of other fountains and spigots. Quite a site. Touring the rest of the Peterhoff grounds you see many other impressive fountains in a setting that gives you an idea of what being outside was like for some of the folks that live in the kind of splendor of all the palaces you’ve already been touring.

We really enjoyed the canal tour. This isn’t just a tour in some small venice like canals, although part of it is that. It also gets out into the main river around which are many of the St Pete sites. We had vodka, champagne and Blihns (crepes with different filling. Each got 3. One Mushroom, one Chicken, one spiced potato. All good). The canal boats all have an outdoor viewing area and an indoor area. After the 10 of us killed a fifth of vodka (with orange and apple juice) and 2 bottles of champagne we were all in a jolly mood as we returned to the ship.

The Hermitage is an amazing place. Be prepared to get just a glimpse of many many cool things. Your alternative is to get a longer glimpse at fewer things. Our guide explained that if you spent just a minute at every item in the Hermitage and stayed there 24/7 it would take you over 7 years to see it all.

Our tour included lunch at 2 Russian restaurants. They were set menus and our group of ten had a nice area set up for us in each when we arrived. Got to try some Russian food and in general enjoyed things like Borsch and Stroganoff.

It isn’t on the itinerary but we spent 45 minutes in a really large souvenir shop. Got some Russian nesting dolls ( matrushka? dolls ). We got a set of 10 for ~$25 and also another set of 10 for ~$200. The high end ones were more like $1,500. Price goes up for more decoration ( gems, gold leaf ), more dolls, and better art work. There was an amazing selection and 45 minutes seemed almost not enough time to wade through the options.

Again, the main tip I have is avoid the ships tours. Whether you form a group from your roll call, join a group someone else is forming in your roll call, or simply join one the set tours from one of the Russian companies (these are likely to be 20-30 people, but with itineraries similar to the above), you will see more and pay less.

I did the Baltic Capitals tour a few weeks back and I agree with aussie cruiser's comment.

I booked with SPB Tours, because they had a much better price than NCL's ship based excursions, but also provided some fun evening options. I really loved the "Fun Vodka Tour" option (that was the tie breaker vs. Alla for me). I will admit I was exhausted after this stop, but it was a fantastic experience.

We booked all of our excursions through NCL and would do it again. I would, without hesitation, recommend visiting the Church on Spilled Blood as a scheduled stop as opposed to doing it on your own. We got a lot of time there and had fantastic narration by our tour guide. Just be on the lookout for street thieves -- one of our busmates had one of his camera lenses ripped right out of his hand as he was changing lenses.

I have not done the Waterways tour yet heard great reviews.

Have you checked your roll call to see if people need to fill seats on a private excursion? You will probably have a much better experience! SPB, Alla, and DenRus have all been highly rated here on C.C. Go check out the PORTS OF CALL boards for Europe.

Are you booking NCL because you are worried about the visa? Even if you book a private tour they will take care of the visas for you so there is no need to worry at all.

Like others, I recommend doing a private tour. We went with Alla with a group from our roll call. It was great being in a small group and our guide was fantastic. We had early entry to the Hermitage and we walked past hundreds of people in line who were on ships' tours and walked right in. St Petersburg was definitely a highlight of our Baltic cruise!

Have a great time!

Another recommendation here for Alla Tours. We joined a group from our Roll call and got an excellent tour. They even added an additional stop so that we could watch the opera at the Mariinsky Theater. Really an exceptional experience. Table mates in the dining room couldn't believe how much more we got to see and do vs. the ship tours.

Another recommendation here for Alla Tours. We joined a group from our Roll call and got an excellent tour. They even added an additional stop so that we could watch the opera at the Mariinsky Theater. Really an exceptional experience. Table mates in the dining room couldn't believe how much more we got to see and do vs. the ship tours.

Alla tours is the way to go fantastic company such full days and you can combine the tours with other cruise stops

Hello everyone, thanks for your replies and suggestions. I will look into these.

Hello everyone, thanks for your replies and suggestions. I will look into these.

as you've already discovered cruise critic is a mine of information over what the cruise line shore excursion desk will have you believe is on offer

if you choose ship excursions in the end for whatever reason at least you can do so as an informed choice

welcome to cruise critic-you will become addicted as to info on offer!

We took the two day standard tour with TJ Travel in St. Petersburg and found it to be excellent. Our guide, Maya, was friendly, informative and very organized. They used a small van (16) which was comfortable and the small size of the group insured that we got around efficiently and everyone's questions got answered.

We also used TJ for Berlin and Boris Coronado was an energetic and knowledgeable guide. We were dropped off in plenty of time for departure.

TJ Travel is highly recommended on TripAdvisor (#3) and is a little less expensive than SPB and Alla.

Sue