St. Petersburg question

[midwestchick]

I know many of you have done tours in St.Petersburg.  For those of you who did private excursions, which tour company did you use and we’re you happy?  I’ve checked in ports of call and our roll call is very slow.  I’m trying to plan a small group tour or a private excursion I can customize to be a more moderate activity level.  The ship’s excursions that I’m seeing are listed as strenuous. 

[nordski]

15 minutes ago, midwestchick said:

I know many of you have done tours in St.Petersburg.  For those of you who did private excursions, which tour company did you use and we’re you happy?  I’ve checked in ports of call and our roll call is very slow.  I’m trying to plan a small group tour or a private excursion I can customize to be a more moderate activity level.  The ship’s excursions that I’m seeing are listed as strenuous. 

 

 

We used SPB Tours and were very pleased with the pre-tour process and the 2 day tour itself.

 

They were very good at customizing the tour to our rather relaxed approach.

 

Don’t know if Azamara is offering it again, but we also took their evening canals/waterways tour. Obviously it was mild in terms of effort and provided a wonderful perspective on a city with beautiful streetscapes.

[midwestchick]

Thank you Nordski. I haven’t seen all the tours that Azamara is offering. I’ve been having an issue logging into myAzamara for some reason.  I do try to avoid “rushed” ship tours when I can. I’ve had some not so stellar experiences. 

Was your tour a private tour?

[crazyman3]

Sorry, we've never taken a private tour in SP. However, I would like to mention the Gold Room in the Hermitage. It costs extra but is well worth it! I'm not into jewellery etc. big time but I was impressed! Seriously impressed!

Also, the canal tour was fabulous ----SP being designed to be seen by water!

Last time we were there it was Putin's birthday and the streets were heaving with joyful Russians.

A word of warning: traffic can be extremely slow if the sP soccer team are playing at home!  

[Grandma Cruising]

6 hours ago, midwestchick said:

Thank you Nordski. I haven’t seen all the tours that Azamara is offering. I’ve been having an issue logging into myAzamara for some reason.  I do try to avoid “rushed” ship tours when I can. I’ve had some not so stellar experiences. 

Was your tour a private tour?

Have you tried logging into your Voyage Planner instead of through My Azamara (you can find the link at the very bottom of the Azamara webpage)?

[nordski]

7 hours ago, midwestchick said:

Thank you Nordski. I haven’t seen all the tours that Azamara is offering. I’ve been having an issue logging into myAzamara for some reason.  I do try to avoid “rushed” ship tours when I can. I’ve had some not so stellar experiences. 

Was your tour a private tour?

 

In this case, it was indeed an Azamara tour. No rush since it was on a boat. There were light refreshments and some musicians on board.

 

I agree with crazyman3’s comment above about SP providing impressive views from the water courses running around and through it.

 

it is great you are on Azamara as I aaaume the ship will dock right downtown as opposed to using the larger cruise ship port some distance away.

[Shawnino]

5 hours ago, crazyman3 said:

Sorry, we've never taken a private tour in SP. However, I would like to mention the Gold Room in the Hermitage. It costs extra but is well worth it! I'm not into jewellery etc. big time but I was impressed! Seriously impressed!

Also, the canal tour was fabulous ----SP being designed to be seen by water!

Last time we were there it was Putin's birthday and the streets were heaving with joyful Russians.

A word of warning: traffic can be extremely slow if the sP soccer team are playing at home!  

 

This.

There is a ton of security out-and-about. 

You don't want to be on-your-own if there is no Russian speaker in the group.

[Rabo]

Not on an Azamara cruise, but a few years ago (on sister company Celebrity) we used Red October for our group of 10.  All of us were very pleased with our tour itinerary (very flexible) and our tour leader.  The US office is based in New York.

[uktog]

1 hour ago, Shawnino said:

 

This.

There is a ton of security out-and-about. 

You don't want to be on-your-own if there is no Russian speaker in the group.

You can’t be on your own unless you have a visa. Ships tours or confirmation papers for private tours like SPB or you can’t disembark 

[dabear]

Last summer we used Alla Tours for a 2 day grand tour. We arranged for a group of 16 persons, got some discounts and were very pleased with both the arrangements and our outstanding tour guide. 

 

[Mr. Click]

A few years ago we visited St Petersburg on Celebrity and booked our 2 day tour with TJ Travel.  We formed our own small group and had a great two days. Very intensive and very exhausting with lots and lots of walking and tons of steps to climb.  We are not fans of big group tours so we almost always book private tours.  With a small group and great service and planning by TJ Tours we never waited on lines.  

[midwestchick]

10 hours ago, crazyman3 said:

Sorry, we've never taken a private tour in SP. However, I would like to mention the Gold Room in the Hermitage. It costs extra but is well worth it! I'm not into jewellery etc. big time but I was impressed! Seriously impressed!

Also, the canal tour was fabulous ----SP being designed to be seen by water!

Last time we were there it was Putin's birthday and the streets were heaving with joyful Russians.

A word of warning: traffic can be extremely slow if the sP soccer team are playing at home!  

Not sure when soccer season is.  We’re going in June. 

Thanks to everyone else for responses.  We know we can’t be on our own in SP.  Fhat’s why we want to use a tour company. I have some issues at times with steps and inclines so I want a moderate/ leisurely type tour.  Happy to be sailing with Captain Johannes again. 

[midwestchick]

8 hours ago, Host Grandma Cruising said:

Have you tried logging into your Voyage Planner instead of through My Azamara (you can find the link at the very bottom of the Azamara webpage)?

No, I haven’t tried that.  Thank you.  I’ll give it a try.

[the mice]

We were on the Journey this past August and used Alla Tours for our 3 days in St. Petersburg.  Everyone in our group was very pleased with the excursion and our excellent guide.   While I would not call the excursion strenuous, I believe that is how Alla lists it.   I think that is due to the fact that there is a lot of walking involved in the museums and also staircases, as I remember. 

 

FYI - While the ship docks in town, one of the biggest issues we had was getting off the ship on day 1.   Based on things we read here on CC, we assembled as a group and tried to get off early, but we were thwarted a bit in that attempt.   We did manage to get off after the first couple of ship's tours so we weren't too delayed.   I did hear from some fellow passengers using another company that they managed to get off among the first groups.   But I also heard from others that they didn't get off until 10 am or so.    The instructions we were giving by the ship regarding disembarkation indicated that all ships tours were going to depart first, but that obviously didn't happen as there were a lot of passengers on private excursions.  YMMV.

[midwestchick]

19 minutes ago, the mice said:

We were on the Journey this past August and used Alla Tours for our 3 days in St. Petersburg.  Everyone in our group was very pleased with the excursion and our excellent guide.   While I would not call the excursion strenuous, I believe that is how Alla lists it.   I think that is due to the fact that there is a lot of walking involved in the museums and also staircases, as I remember. 

 

FYI - While the ship docks in town, one of the biggest issues we had was getting off the ship on day 1.   Based on things we read here on CC, we assembled as a group and tried to get off early, but we were thwarted a bit in that attempt.   We did manage to get off after the first couple of ship's tours so we weren't too delayed.   I did hear from some fellow passengers using another company that they managed to get off among the first groups.   But I also heard from others that they didn't get off until 10 am or so.    The instructions we were giving by the ship regarding disembarkation indicated that all ships tours were going to depart first, but that obviously didn't happen as there were a lot of passengers on private excursions.  YMMV.

As far as disembarkation, the ship tours always get priority disembarkation.  I always book my own tours and do some DIY activities.  It has been my experience that Azamara disembarkation runs pretty quickly but I will definitely keep your comments in mind when I schedule things, so I appreciate your comments. I’ve had some horrendous experiences on another cruise line and it’s not pleasant when it happens.

[uktog]

Ships tours do not always get priority.  I have often been on at ports where they were held back.

Part of the problem in Russia is that the immigration people have the paperwork for the ships tours and all the guest needs to do is show their ticket and they are let through with little checking.  The private tours, everyones emails of confirmation have to be checked carefully.  I am not saying the cruise line is giving priority to their tours, more they are trying to get groups that they know will progress quickly off together.  If the ships tour gets held up by small groups of independent cruisers it leads to a bottle neck very quickly.  Its nothing to do with which company you use how quickly you will get through despite what they tell you.  All independents get extra scrutiny  which is slower than the ships tours but this should not put you off travelling independently

Edited January 9, 2019 by uktog

[Shawnino]

7 hours ago, uktog said:

You can’t be on your own unless you have a visa. Ships tours or confirmation papers for private tours like SPB or you can’t disembark 

 

Depends on your nationality.

[audobon_tx]

Cruised to St. Petersburg three times.   Always use SPB, including once to Moscow.  Recommended.  

 

Strenuous?  Stairs in Hermitage, Yusopov palace, Peterhof grounds/fountains, a few at churches and boarding in canals.  Lots of walking, particularly in Moscow.

 

Ps. You will dock at English Embankment adjacent to the Hermitage.

[uktog]

11 hours ago, Shawnino said:

 

Depends on your nationality.

The OP and the vast majority of people reading these boards do require visas to tour alone.  The countries that are visa free are very few and 99.9% cruise passengers are not from there. The only large exception is if you are traveling on a diplomatic passport- details below 

 

http://ru.vfsglobal.co.uk/visa_free_regime.html

 

The 72 hour visa free programme for St Petersburg does not apply to guests arriving by cruise ship, it is only commercial ferry passengers. 

 

There are different arrangements for crew on production of their Seaman’s Book. 

 

Last summer we had had a Visa as part of the FIFA arrangements as we held tickets for the World Cup game in St Petersburg. We did one ships tour, one independent and one on our own.

 

Our experience going through immigration on our own was a nightmare, we waited until mid morning and joined some crew members going ashore. It was the first day.  Most of the crew gave up losing their precious two hours ashore. Initially despite having 100% valid documents they refused us entry and worryingly disappeared with our passports for 45 minutes.  The port agents don’t help, they have to just let this happen. Eventually our passports are returned and we are waved through. However despite leaving the ship with tour documents the next times we went through this pantomime though the delays were less (but we did hold up our tour groups, sorry). 

 

The ship kindly took this up with the agent and they discovered the following.  What seemed to be the problem was the staff at English embankment had not been trained to deal with persons holding visas and their default (face saver) was to decline entry and refer it to a central place hence the delay. Once they’d marked our record as “having an issue” this stayed with us for the three days even when joining official tours. 

 

We did enjoy our our walk around on our own but to be honest, we had as much walk around and interacting with locals on our independent (Alla) tour. Given our experiences even if you can get a visa or visa free entry, if your arriving at English embankment as Azamara does, do not enter the country that way use a tour and a tour ticket.  If you really want to do it, do it the final day of your trip but be prepared for mega hassle. 

[midwestchick]

Whatever we do, it will be with a company that we do not have to have our own visa.  

Are there other Baltic countries that require visas,more just Russia?

[uktog]

Currently for US, Canada and UK citizens, no but that can change

[midwestchick]

6 minutes ago, uktog said:

Currently for US, Canada and UK citizens, no but that can change

I’m not clear about your answer.  I was asking if other Baltic countries besides Russia require visas, such as Finland, Sweden, and Estonia.  I did read that Amsterdam is now charging a rate to visit.

[uktog]

The Baltic countries do not require visas currently, the position on visas can change at any time

There is a difference between visas and visitor taxes which are usually charged as an additional fee for hotel rooms per night. I am not aware of any city tax that is extended to cruise ships

[midwestchick]

11 minutes ago, uktog said:

The Baltic countries do not require visas currently, the position on visas can change at any time

There is a difference between visas and visitor taxes which are usually charged as an additional fee for hotel rooms per night. I am not aware of any city tax that is extended to cruise ships

Thank you.

I read about the fee for visitors on social media.  I also read Venice will also be charging a city fee to visit.  It did not specify if cruise passengers were included or not. 

[nordski]

1 hour ago, midwestchick said:

Whatever we do, it will be with a company that we do not have to have our own visa.  

Are there other Baltic countries that require visas,more just Russia?

 

I should have mentioned that some of the companies providing tours of St. Petersburg also may have a combination or package offerings for other Baltic ports.

 

Or, at least they used to do so.