anyone done an Alla SPB tour very recently - VISA

[DCguys]

We booked a two-day tour with Alla for June 23/24. Someone I know who works in cruise industry just told me it was not a good idea to do a private excursion in Russia due to the Visa issue. She said we wouldn't even be allowed to set foot off the boat onto the dock to meet our Alla guide in the port building. Has anyone done one of these tours very recently? Did you have a problem?

[Desdichado62]

We booked a two-day tour with Alla for June 23/24. Someone I know who works in cruise industry just told me it was not a good idea

to do a private excursion in Russia due to the Visa issue. She said we wouldn't even be allowed to set foot off the boat onto the dock to meet our Alla guide in

the port building. Has anyone done one of these tours very recently? Did you have a problem?

 

Don't listen to the friend. She is just trying to scare you into going with the ship tour. From what I've read on these boards it seems to be pretty common.

As long as you you book an organized tour with one of the authorized (?) tour companies you'll be alright.

 

See previous threads about it:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2039232

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2212129

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1775172

Edited June 9, 2015 by Desdichado62

[canuck13]

We just returned from our Baltics cruise and did a private tour in St. Petersburg with no problem. As long as you have your tour ticket from Alla you'll be fine.

[GradUT]

Of course your friend in the cruise industry would say that. Cruise lines want their passengers to pay for their overpriced excursions. Some cruise lines have even been known to tell passengers they will only be allowed off in SPB if they take a ship-sponsored excursion, which is a big, fat lie.

 

There are many reputable tour companies, like ALLA, in SPB that take hundreds of cruise passengers on guided tours everyday. If these passengers were denied entry to Russia upon arrival in SPB, don't you think we'd be reading about it here on CC?

 

As Canuck13 says, as long as you have the tour ticket that ALLA will email you when you make your reservation, then you will be allowed off the ship to join the ALLA tour. (I just got my email from ALLA a couple weeks ago and am so looking forward to our tour.)

[diesel1973]

We just returned from Baltic cruise(5/16-5/28) and used Alla tours in Warnemunde,Helsinki, and St. Pete for 2 days. Alla has their procedure down to a science and I believe you will not be dissapointed with them. St. Pete was wonderful as were the other ports. By arranging it on your own you save quite a bit of money. In fact there were 6 of us so we got additional discounts.Also the group you are with is 16-20 people instead o 100+ with the ship tour. Good luck with your decision.Would surely use them again!!!

Edited June 9, 2015 by diesel1973

[Tiggertastic]

You send all your passport details to them and they email you the visa, make sure you have it in hand with your passport as you disembark to get through to the passport control and check the date is right before you sail. That's all you need

[cityguy300]

We used Alla last month in St. Pete -- only 12 people in our van. The entry process was painless -- the immigration officer seemed more interested in checking my passport photo than my ticket. I'm sure they see the same tour operator logos day after day, and don't give them a second thought now. On day two they barely even checked, as they knew we were off the same ship docked from the day before.

 

Alla will create an account for you on their website and do all the paperwork. You just need to log into said account and print the tickets (one pair per person) before arrival -- they barely take half a page together. Our tour guide wanted to see our day one ticket when we met, and reclaimed it when we back to the ship, but did nothing with the second ticket.

[DCguys]

Thanks so much everyone, I just needed my fears put to rest. Looking forward to Alla in less than two weeks.

[John Bull]

I'm sure your friend in the cruise industry wasn't trying to deliberately mislead you - unfortunately some cruise employees believe what their employers tell them. ;)

 

No worries.

 

JB :)

[Donna_In_India]

Whether your cruise industry friend was trying to push you into a cruise line excursion or not no one should EVER listen to anyone from the cruise line (airline, etc.) when it comes to visas for any country. They do not know all the conditions for all nationals and will most likely not give you the correct information. When in doubt, contact the appropriate consulate!

[John Bull]

When in doubt, contact the appropriate consulate!

 

Sadly a lot of consulates and embassies are as ill-informed as the cruise lines.

In particular, a lack of awareness about the dispensations for cruise passengers, which often don't even show on the countries' websites. :

 

Advice from recent visitors on these forums tends to be the best bet, as long as the poster 's nationality is the same.

 

JB :)

[Donna_In_India]

My husband needs a visa to go around the corner. :) Fortunately all the consulates we've dealt with have always given us the correct info. I'm sure there are some who are not so helpful...

[CPALong]

We booked a two-day tour with Alla for June 23/24. Someone I know who works in cruise industry just told me it was not a good idea to do a private excursion in Russia due to the Visa issue. She said we wouldn't even be allowed to set foot off the boat onto the dock to meet our Alla guide in the port building. Has anyone done one of these tours very recently? Did you have a problem?

 

We just arrived home from our Baltic cruise. We used SPB in St. Petersburg and had a great tour. They made everything easy. No problems at all. Don't hesitate. SPB did a terrific job.

[Thescribs]

We just returned from our cruise-I can confirm the ease of the visa process with Alla! I am so glad we went with Alla tours!

Their service was excellent! Julia was the best guide, warm and informative. She was constantly on the lookout for our comfort and ways to make the experience as good as possible for all people! The headsets we were given to use in the subway, churches,and museums were perfect! I could hear every word she as saying clearly without any trouble. It made following her through the crowds a breeze! (we did run into the huge groups traveling with the ships' tours and I felt so sorry for them....we did so much more in much less time without fighting to get good looks at the sights and having 40 other people in the background of every single photo we shot). The packed lunch gave us even more time for seeing all the sights! I really had no regrets about going with this company. The only note I might add is that you can get cheaper souvenirs on the street outside of the Church on Spilled Blood or maybe other sites than the store we stopped at last. But it was truly an excellent tour! Hope you can make use of this info!

 

😀

 

 

We used Alla last month in St. Pete -- only 12 people in our van. The entry process was painless -- the immigration officer seemed more interested in checking my passport photo than my ticket. I'm sure they see the same tour operator logos day after day, and don't give them a second thought now. On day two they barely even checked, as they knew we were off the same ship docked from the day before.

 

Alla will create an account for you on their website and do all the paperwork. You just need to log into said account and print the tickets (one pair per person) before arrival -- they barely take half a page together. Our tour guide wanted to see our day one ticket when we met, and reclaimed it when we back to the ship, but did nothing with the second ticket.

[dreamcruiser53]

I think all the guides at Alla must be very good, but my experience is with Alex. He was the very best guide we have ever had in any county we have visited! He is well educated and his English is clear. He will engage in any topic you can think of and is friendly to boot. Alla tours is top notch, they have the 2 day grand tour down to a science. We stayed in town prior to the ballet which gave us about 1.5 hours of free time. Don't hesitate to book a tour with Alla, you willbe well taken care of.

[surebeatssailing]

So glad to hear so many good things about ALLA TOURS, We are joining the Imperial Splendors & Faberge Tour in August 2015.

[Carolla5501]

I do think the cruise lines just put out disinformation on purpose so the OPs friend is probably just repeating what he/she is told at work.

 

When I asked my TA to check on letting me stay overnight in ST. Petersburg on my cruise they told her that I could not do that because "there is no way an American can get a Visa to tour without an escort" REALLY? LOL! Wonder what that is in my passport!

[naras15]

What are people comments about going to Berlin vs staying nearby in Rostock and other closer cities. Is the distance worth the trip. We are contemplating using SPB for Berlin.

[Tiggertastic]

We're in the UK, we can fly to Berlin, stay 2 nights in a hotel for less than the ship charges for a day trip so we've passed both times we've done the baltics. The bad news is I've still never been. We loved warnemunde but we hired a car dockside instead and drove to Lubeck and a couple of other places, giving us enough time to also visit Rostock

[nybumpkin]

What are people comments about going to Berlin vs staying nearby in Rostock and other closer cities. Is the distance worth the trip. We are contemplating using SPB for Berlin.

Our ship docked at Rostock port instead of Warnemunde, so a number of local excursions weren't available to us. Before the cruise we went back and forth about whether to do a local tour or try for Berlin - and ultimately, after reading reviews about how rushed the Berlin tour was, we opted to stay local. Alla had a Warnemunde/Rostock tour planned specifically for our ship and Oceania's Marina, also docked at Rostock. It was great - and mostly done with local transportation. We took a bus from the port to a train station, then into Warnemunde for a walking tour. It's a really lovely town and I would have liked to spent more time there. Then we took the train and tram into Rostock, had some free time, met for lunch (really good wiener schnitzel), then toured St. Mary's Church and its amazing astronomical clock. We were back at our ship in time for dinner. Since we were sailing late (to accommodate the Berlin tours), a German band came aboard to perform and I'm glad we were able to see their concert. It was a much less rushed day than if we had tried to go to Berlin.

 

Video of our arrival at Rostock: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_AYfBiwMXU. Cruise review is at http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1890510&highlight=baltic.

[Thescribs]

I know there is great debate over this issue....since this is our first time in Germany we agonized over the decision. Ultimately, based on the recommendation of THREE German locals/friends, we decided that the distance and timing made this the wrong place to start a visit to Berlin. Instead, from Warnemunde we went off to local towns.....

 

We made a reservation for a rental car and that was definitely the way to go. Be aware that since MSC comes into port on Sunday, the regular port check in stand is closed.

 

We, along with other passengers from Princess cruises, found it very difficult to locate the Sixt employee, and there were others who had similar difficulty with their Car-O rental. We finally did by asking the local port authority personnel (with a walkie talkie) who could communicate with others to determine his whereabouts.

 

The second thing to note is that he does not carry maps with him. We had the exact addresses for the sites we wanted to visit and he assisted us in entering those into the GPS unit (remember to request one in English!) so we had directions that were super helpful. Print out some maps for the places you want to visit! There were far fewer English speakers in this seaside area of Germany and even when we got to Schwerin, the grounds and shop workers frequently didn't speak English to ask for assistance.

 

Thirdly, remember that most vehicles are manual transmission. If driving around in a foreign country (though with windfall roadways) is intimidating already, that might be the one thing to prevent some from going this route.

 

All that being said, for the cost of one or two of us to go on the ships excursion to only one place, 5 of us got to see the below. It was fantastic.

 

Schwerin castle was our first stop. It was a lovely castle. Having paid the entrance fee to enter the interior, I would say that I might have skipped that next time for more time in the exterior of the gardens and grounds. (You will have the chance to see so many more opulent and wonderfully narrated castles, particularly in SPB, that this one is far less impressive) As you exit the castle, remember to make a photo stop at the framed photo spot of the lake. That is always fun....my friends back home thought we photoshopped ourselves into the painting until they saw our son leaping out of the frame.

 

Wismar was our second stop and where we decided to have lunch. The restaurant we chose (Café Schwedenwache) was good, a bit pricey, but had the Schnitzel that our 11 year old was determined to have on this trip. It was nice to sit on the town square and people watch while resting up and enjoying a meal. You can grab a guide from the information center that gives you a bit of detail on some of the sites in the city, or just wander around enjoying this town. The water tower was interesting and the scandalous bronze sculptures are fun. The bombed out red brick gothic St. Mary's church was interesting as well and we had some fun photo moments with the sculptures there.

 

Rostock was on our way back to the ship and we stopped only to take a peek into St. Marien's church, containing the amazing astrological clock from 1472!!

 

All in all, we had a great day! Dropped the keys off in the lock box to the very far right as you re-enter the port security building, stopped for the free wifi and jumped back aboard.

 

 

 

What are people comments about going to Berlin vs staying nearby in Rostock and other closer cities. Is the distance worth the trip. We are contemplating using SPB for Berlin.