St. Petersburg on your own after excursion

[jellybungsters]

In St. Petersburg, are you allowed to do your own exploration after your excursion ends? Or are you supposed to board the ship after your tour drives you back to the terminal?

 

If your excursion ends in the center of the city, can you arrange your own transportation back to the ship?

 

A member of our group was originally born in St. Petersburg and he wants to meet up with some family friends still living there.

[hallasm]

As I understand the rules, the Tour Ticket operates in place of a Visa for cruise ship passengers when you are on the tour - If you are not on an organized tour you will need a visa.

Most cruise lines do offer a 'on your own' tour where you can visit SBP on your own.

Check with your cruise line or you can also try to contact a local SPB tour organizer.

[aquilegia]

No, you cannot do as you suggest. There are apparently a few tours which allow a short time for shopping within the tour, but you cannot return to the ship on your own and you have to board the ship once you have been taken back to the cruise port. However, if the member of your group is willing to go to the trouble (and expense) of obtaining an individual visa before the cruise, he will be free to spend time with his friends.

[Giantfan13]

the tour does not simply end and you are free to do as you please. They pick you up at the ship and drop you off at the ship when the tour is over. I'm sure if you hid in the bathroom (LOL) you could probably sneak back into the city. but the cruise terminal is not anywhere near the hub of St Petersburg. You would need some sort of transportation to get anywhere. AND, if you did get caught, say goodbye to the rest of your cruise. By the time the Russian authorities were thru with you, illegal alien status now, your cruise would be long gone.

You want time with your friends, spend the money and obtain a Russian visa, then you can do as you please.

 

Cheers

 

Len

[John Bull]

Tour operators do seem to bend the rules a little, here & there.

They know how far they can bend them, so it might be an idea to ask them.

 

Probably what you're asking isn't possible - that sounds like breaking rules, not bending them.

But mebbe, for instance, that person could arrange to meet up with family friends (at home or at a bar or restaurant) at the end of the tour and be taken there - and collected later - by the tour operator. It's effectively what happens with visa-free evening trips organised by the tour operators to the folklore show or ballet. And those trips cost about half the price of a visa - including tickets to the show!!

I've also heard of such arrangements for folk to have dinner in a St P restaurant. Doesn't have to be in a group.

Costs nothing to e-mail Alla or SPB or whoever, asking something along those lines . :)

 

JB :)

[emmaretta]

The tour ticket is valid for the tour only and the tour is for seeing things not for exploring them on your own. If one wants to see the city the way one wants, there are visas for this kind of passengers or they can organize a private tour - both, the ship and the private companies can easily book one for you. Staying in the city after the tour is considered breaking the Russian immigration law.

[Nitemare]

As I understand the rules, the Tour Ticket operates in place of a Visa for cruise ship passengers when you are on the tour - If you are not on an organized tour you will need a visa.

Most cruise lines do offer a 'on your own' tour where you can visit SBP on your own.

Check with your cruise line or you can also try to contact a local SPB tour organizer.

 

I have yet to see one of these tours offered. There are tours that allow some "shopping time", but you are far from on your own. If you do know of a cruiseline that offers on your own time, please post here as that kind of freedom is highly requested!

 

 

the tour does not simply end and you are free to do as you please. They pick you up at the ship and drop you off at the ship when the tour is over. I'm sure if you hid in the bathroom (LOL) you could probably sneak back into the city. but the cruise terminal is not anywhere near the hub of St Petersburg. You would need some sort of transportation to get anywhere. AND, if you did get caught, say goodbye to the rest of your cruise. By the time the Russian authorities were thru with you, illegal alien status now, your cruise would be long gone.

You want time with your friends, spend the money and obtain a Russian visa, then you can do as you please.

 

Cheers

 

Len

 

Some cruise ships do dock near the hub of St. Petersburg -- Azamara and Seabourne, for two, but those are smaller ships. Being able to see the Hermitage from your ship is awesome.

[onlyonetrevorfrancis]

We are off in June 2014 and I'm currently reading a lot of reviews and this same situation has cropped up a couple of times from what I've read.

 

The first occasion the guide accompanied the couple to the restaurant they were visiting at the end of the tour and left them their all night with the driver parked outside to take them back to the ship. The second instance the tour company driver waited at the ship after dropping off the tour for the two individuals concerned to change etc and then took them back out to SPB, again he waited.

 

I'm guessing its at the discretion of the tour company and it will cost. I don't think you will be left entirely on your own though to do as you please.

[Got2Cruise]

The biggest problem would be getting back to the ship independently. We spoke to some Canadians from our cruise who DIY. The problem was getting a cab back to the ship. They ended up flagging down a NCL van that was transporting employees and begged a lift back to the ship. I do believe that the Canadian and UK visa is much less expensive than the USA. I couldn't imagine trying to find a cab in the middle of the night especially if you don't have a visa. The SPB port is not like your average cruise port with cabs and tourist things to sign up for waiting for you. jmo

[sitraveler]

I believe you need a visa to travel on your own in St Pete. Visas for US citizens appear now to be available on line and would afford the visitor to travel on their own.

[Editrix]

. . . I'm currently reading a lot of reviews and this same situation has cropped up a couple of times from what I've read.

 

The first occasion the guide accompanied the couple to the restaurant they were visiting at the end of the tour and left them their all night with the driver parked outside to take them back to the ship.

 

You may be referring to us, so I pulled out my trip binder to make sure I reported my experience accurately. Here goes.

 

The tickets my husband and I received for our private excursion with TJ Travel showed the tour date (day/month/year) with beginning time (7:30 a.m.) through ending time (11:00 p.m.). From the moment we cleared immigration to about 5:30 p.m., we visited all of the sights on our pre-arranged itinerary, always in the company of our guide. At 6:00 p.m., she took us to the restaurant where Olga at TJ Travel had booked a reservation (at my request).

 

Our guide led us to the hostess station, walked us to our table to make sure we were given a nice one with a view, reiterated the instructions she had provided on the ride to the restaurant, and then thanked us for the tip and said goodbye.

 

These were her instructions.

 

1. Do not leave the restaurant until you finish your meal.

2. The driver will park somewhere in the area. You may not be able to see him, but he will be positioned so as to see you. Do not go looking.

3. He will drive you to the meeting spot for your evening canal ride, where you will join a larger group led by another TJ Travel guide.

4. That guide and a different driver will return you to the ship.

 

My husband and I were able to enjoy a nice dinner, alone, but our driver was always nearby. Honestly, we would not have felt comfortable otherwise.

 

Bending the rules in Russia would be ill-advised, and breaking them even worse. Maybe you have to travel there to understand. It’s not like other countries.

[John Bull]

Tour operators do seem to bend the rules a little, here & there.

They know how far they can bend them, so it might be an idea to ask them.

 

Probably what you're asking isn't possible - that sounds like breaking rules, not bending them.

But mebbe, for instance, that person could arrange to meet up with family friends (at home or at a bar or restaurant) at the end of the tour and be taken there - and collected later - by the tour operator. It's effectively what happens with visa-free evening trips organised by the tour operators to the folklore show or ballet. And those trips cost about half the price of a visa - including tickets to the show!!

I've also heard of such arrangements for folk to have dinner in a St P restaurant. Doesn't have to be in a group.

Costs nothing to e-mail Alla or SPB or whoever, asking something along those lines . :)

 

JB :)

 

 

Bending the rules in Russia would be ill-advised, and breaking them even worse. Maybe you have to travel there to understand. It’s not like other countries.

 

 

Seems I'm getting out-voted here ;)

 

I've agreed with everyone that you don't break the rules.

 

But there's a big difference between a cruiser bending the rules & a tour operator bending the rules.

 

And quite possibly what I've suggested isn't even bending the rules.

We all know that the rules don't require you to be handcuffed to the guide and we all know that the guide can't just wave you off on a local bus.

But where's the break-point between those extremes?

You don't know and I don't know, the local operators do know.

 

So instead of folk guessing & speculating and even advising buying an expensive & possibly unnecessary visa they should be suggesting that the OP ask the operators for advice, as I've done.

 

Our own cruise?

We'd booked the folk show with Alla for after our tour. At the end of the tour our guide dropped us at a bar, made sure we were comfortable & sorted, told us someone would collect us in an hour or so, then left to take the others on our tour back to the ship. About an hour later we were collected by another guide & walked to the theatre. She left us at the door & said a driver would be waiting at the end of the show. After the show we found the driver very easily & were taken back to the ship.

 

So for two long periods we were on our own.

Breaking the rules? Bending the rules? Totally within the rules?

I've got no idea.

But we were perfectly at ease with the arrangements and I can't imagine Alla wanting to risk licence or reputation by chancing her luck.

If that can be done for us, something similar can be done for the OP.

 

Which is why the OP should get advice from the tour operators.

They know their stuff - none of us do.

 

JB :)

[jellybungsters]

Actually, Princess has an excursion that allows 3 hours of free time on Nevsky Prospect. This will allow him to meet with his family friend.

 

http://www.princess.com/find/excursion/exDetails.do?tourCode=LED-280&t=R&exType=S

 

This is what he's decided to take instead of bending/breaking the rules.

[Editrix]

At the end of the tour our guide dropped us at a bar, made sure we were comfortable & sorted, told us someone would collect us in an hour or so, then left to take the others on our tour back to the ship. About an hour later we were collected by another guide & walked to the theatre. She left us at the door & said a driver would be waiting at the end of the show. After the show we found the driver very easily & were taken back to the ship.

 

So for two long periods we were on our own.

Breaking the rules? Bending the rules? Totally within the rules?

I've got no idea.

 

I guess I don’t consider our respective experiences to be “bending the rules,” at least by us. In both cases, we were taken somewhere by our guides and given a protocol to follow. We may have been left alone, but we most definitely were not on our own, as in free to wander about unaccompanied. If you and your wife had left the bar where your guide dropped you off, and gone to another one next door, then IMHO that would have been bending the rules. If the tour operator bends the rules, that’s one thing (because presumably he or she knows how far to bend), but it is not advisable (again IMHO) for a tourist to do so.

 

That’s all I intended to say.

[John Bull]

If you and your wife had left the bar where your guide dropped you off, and gone to another one next door, then IMHO that would have been bending the rules.

 

Hi Editrix,

 

Sorry, my post referred to yours but was more directed at those who bluntly say "can't be done". ;)

 

Yes, I didn't mention that we too were asked to stay in the bar, or just outside. Which we did.

But I imagine the OP's friend could perhaps arrange much the same thing through the tour operator. :)

 

JB :)

[blonde1981]

 

A member of our group was originally born in St. Petersburg and he wants to meet up with some family friends still living there.

Does that member still have a Russian passport? I would assume things would be different if he had a current passport.

[jellybungsters]

No, he doesn't have a Russian passport anymore. Yes, it would be much easier if he had.

[barante]

Having worked in the former Soviet Union and still speaking the lingo, my wife and I toyed with the idea of getting individual visas for our May cruise to St. Petersburg on the MSC Magnifica. In the end we decided against it and were glad we did.

 

We had recently gone through the China visa roulette in neighboring Washington and realized that getting our Russian visas would be costly and irksome, requiring a minimum of two visits to Washington. No longer the consular office, though, because Russia has outsourced visa applications to a private firm. The U.S. government apparently has farmed out the routine processing of paper work in Moscow as well. Only the final decision presumably now takes place in the two countries' embassies.

 

Anyway, calculating the costs and our limited two-day stay, we decided that since we really didn't see that much Leningrad on our repeat work visits there, we would be regular tourists. We compared various two-day packages, which came very close to the cost of just a visa, and went with TJ travel. They were excellent. For example, we were able to tour the Hermitage before its official opening, when the mobs arrived.

 

Hardier souls in our group also went to ballet that first night. TJ charged about $100, IRRC, for a performance of Tshaikovsky's Swan Lake. Well, I have seen some Swan Lakes in my life, including by the Kirghistan ballet, and I privately pooh-poohed the idea. My atttitude changed the next day when I heard the survivors' stories. The performance was deemed to have been outstanding and took place inside the Hermitage in a theater that we saw next day during our tour. Well done.

 

From what I see on these boards, all of the St. Petersburg agencies are excellent.

 

If you go this route, you are wedded to your group. And you are so regimented that we did not exchange any money at all. One day's lunch was included, the second day's I paid with a credit card.

 

It is important to note that big cruise ships tie up in an isolated port area in the outskirts. In a few years, the expanded city will reach the passenger port area, but not now. So if you are on own -- particularly without any language -- you are bound to have transportation problems. At the time we visited, one of the three bridges across the Neva was closed for reconstruction -- it has since reopened -- and the traffic was a mess.

 

What we did was the lazy one-time Moscow residents' solution that gave us sightseeing without headaches. We wanted no souvenirs because we had plenty at home. For us this was an ideal solution. For others it may not be.

[Editrix]

But there's a big difference between a cruiser bending the rules & a tour operator bending the rules.

 

One last comment. I personally don’t believe that private tour operators and guides bend the rules. I think they know the rules and follow them. They have too much to lose otherwise. When TJ Travel issued our tickets, we also received a detailed itinerary showing every place we would visit within a specific time frame. For example, for the 8:00 to 10:00 a.m. time frame, the itinerary called for a driving tour of 17 different sights, with photo stops at three of them, each sight listed in precise detail. The rest of the itinerary was spelled out in similar detail.

 

At one point in the afternoon, because our driver was such a ninja at dodging traffic jams, we had a little extra time to make some unscheduled drive-bys (the harmless kind) on our way to the restaurant. In response to my request to make a photo stop at one, our guide said, “No. It isn’t on the list.”

 

She grew up in Russia before Perestroika, and to this day does not take anything for granted (her stories were hair-raising), so in her case at least, I don’t believe she would by any measure bend the rules.

[OnVacation11]

In St. Petersburg, are you allowed to do your own exploration after your excursion ends? Or are you supposed to board the ship after your tour drives you back to the terminal?

 

If your excursion ends in the center of the city, can you arrange your own transportation back to the ship?

 

A member of our group was originally born in St. Petersburg and he wants to meet up with some family friends still living there.

 

We just returned from cruise on the Ocean Princess. In St. Petersburg we docked right in town. When the tour ended, we were dropped of near the ship and if you wanted to, you could walk along the Embankment and back into town rather than walk onto the ship. No one was making sure you were going back to the ship.

 

If you are on a large ship and dock outside of the city, you will need transportation to get back into the center of St. Petersburg.

[OnVacation11]

In St. Petersburg, are you allowed to do your own exploration after your excursion ends? Or are you supposed to board the ship after your tour drives you back to the terminal?

 

If your excursion ends in the center of the city, can you arrange your own transportation back to the ship?

 

A member of our group was originally born in St. Petersburg and he wants to meet up with some family friends still living there.

 

We just returned from cruise on the Ocean Princess. In St. Petersburg we docked right in town. When the tour ended, we were dropped of near the ship and if you wanted to, you could walk along the Embankment and back into town rather than walk onto the ship. No one was making sure you were going back to the ship.

 

If you are on a large ship and dock outside of the city, you will need transportation to get back into the center of St. Petersburg.

[2ashevillesailors]

In St. Petersburg, are you allowed to do your own exploration after your excursion ends? Or are you supposed to board the ship after your tour drives you back to the terminal?

 

If your excursion ends in the center of the city, can you arrange your own transportation back to the ship?

 

A member of our group was originally born in St. Petersburg and he wants to meet up with some family friends still living there.

 

Where is the port in St Pete.? Are there more than one for cruise ships? My husband does geocaching and wants to set up some caches for there.

[2ashevillesailors]

In St. Petersburg, are you allowed to do your own exploration after your excursion ends? Or are you supposed to board the ship after your tour drives you back to the terminal?

 

If your excursion ends in the center of the city, can you arrange your own transportation back to the ship?

 

A member of our group was originally born in St. Petersburg and he wants to meet up with some family friends still living there.

 

//what is the name of the port that we dock at in St. Pete.?

[emmaretta]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marine_Facade

 

http://www.portspb.ru/en

[CoralReef]

Where is the port in St Pete.? Are there more than one for cruise ships? My husband does geocaching and wants to set up some caches for there.

 

I enjoy geocaching myself... but are you sure this is a wise thing for a foreigner to do in Russia? They tend to be a little overreactive about anything that can be perceived as a security threat. Even in the US, geocachers are occasionally questioned by law enforcement. Not sure I'd want to try this, myself.