Russia - St Petersburg?

[jeanlyon]

Do we think that cruises will now not stop anywhere in Russia?

[Harry Peterson]

A very good and timely question, Jean.  
 

No answer, though, I’m afraid - because there’s no way at this time of knowing what’s going to happen in Ukraine. Or what the sanctions might be on both sides if Russia invades. 
 

How very sad it is that things have changed so much for the worse under Putin. It all looked so promising for world peace in the late 80s.

[wowzz]

I thought there was already a ban in place regarding cruise ships visiting SP ?

[Denarius]

Unless Russia invades Ukraine, I cannot see there being any problems except those posed by covid. If Russia does invade Ukraine the fighting would be very unlikey to impinge on St Petersburg or the Baltic - they are a long way from Ukraine - but our FCO may advise against travel to Russia. In those circumstances I wouls envisage other ports in the vicinity such as Tallinn, Riga or Gdansk being substituted for St Petersburg.

[jeanlyon]

32 minutes ago, wowzz said:

I thought there was already a ban in place regarding cruise ships visiting SP ?

Don't think so.  There are plenty on offer.

[wowzz]

1 hour ago, jeanlyon said:

Don't think so.  There are plenty on offer.

Just because they are on offer,  that doesn't mean there is not a ban. The cruise lines are hoping that the ban will be lifted prior to the 2022 sailing season. 

[yorkshirephil]

2 minutes ago, wowzz said:

Just because they are on offer,  that doesn't mean there is not a ban. The cruise lines are hoping that the ban will be lifted prior to the 2022 sailing season. 

Correct, this happened to us with Istanbul, there had been several bombings and there was a ban on travelling to Istanbul when we booked but we did actually go which was over 12 months later. Ironically we were supposed to go to Istanbul on a subsequent cruise but actually went to Albania as Istanbul was banned. Things can change.

[Level six]

We have a Baltic cruise booked in Aug/Sept 22.  I am not sure if it will be a go or not.  We are really want to go to ST P, but we will just have to wait and see what happens.  I guess we will decide right before final payment.  

[majortom10]

We had a Baltic cruise booked for May which we transferred to next year for a cruise on Arvia only this last week we moved it because of covid concerns. We had the cruise booked from last year and was overnight in St P so cruises are not banned from there.

[Level six]

But a friend of mine who was supposed to sail in Sept of 21 had ST P cancelled.  So, I am not sure if any cruises have visited since covid, do you know? 

[Denarius]

Currently the FCO advises against travel in Russia in the area immediately bordering Ukraine and in the South in the area bordering Georgia. No restrictive advice for the St Petersburg area.

 

https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/russia

[wowzz]

45 minutes ago, majortom10 said:

We had a Baltic cruise booked for May which we transferred to next year for a cruise on Arvia only this last week we moved it because of covid concerns. We had the cruise booked from last year and was overnight in St P so cruises are not banned from there.

But the ban could have come into force after you booked it. Just because a visit was planned to SP means nothing.  

[Son of Anarchy]

Wizz Air have very cheap flights to St Petersburg at the moment.  Would like to visit St Petersburg again either this summer or next summer.  Didn't realise that cruise companies have stopped going there.  I wasn't particularly keen on going there on a cruise though as the things that would like to do there are somewhat off the tourist route.

 

Glad we managed to get to Odessa and Yalta on Azura about 10 years ago.

 

If Putin invades Ukraine I've got visions of Mum and me being sent to an internment camp on the Isle of Man 😲

[brian1]

10 hours ago, Son of Anarchy said:

Wizz Air have very cheap flights to St Petersburg at the moment.  Would like to visit St Petersburg again either this summer or next summer.  Didn't realise that cruise companies have stopped going there.  I wasn't particularly keen on going there on a cruise though as the things that would like to do there are somewhat off the tourist route.

 

Glad we managed to get to Odessa and Yalta on Azura about 10 years ago.

 

If Putin invades Ukraine I've got visions of Mum and me being sent to an internment camp on the Isle of Man 😲

You can't fool me.I know about those Wetherspoons sleeper cells.

[milolii]

 

This is interning…

 
I realize many of the posts on this thread are from the U.K. But here is some information from the US.  
 

 The US State Department has long  assigned Russia to a Category 4 - do not travel,  due to CoVID and limited ability to help US citizens in Russia.  However, on January 23, a Sunday, the department issued an update.  It basically states do not travel around or through the Ukrainian/Russian border, but also adds there is an increase risk of harassment  of foreigners.  Again adding there is limited ability to help US citizens, as the embassy is in Moscow.  
 

If(when) Putin does invade, it seems likely US citizens won’t be welcomed. 
 

https://ru.usembassy.gov/security-alert-update-to-travel-advisory-for-russia-january-23-2022/

 

@Level sixmy understanding is only a few smaller European ships have traveled to Russia with mostly European citizens. 

 

[gumshoe958]

Should the worst happen (and let’s pray it doesn’t), it’s the inevitable economic sanctions that would most likely prevent ships visiting St Petersburg. If the US and/or UK governments ban American or British companies from doing business with Russia, or vice versa, that would presumably be a big problem for cruise lines.

[Level six]

I wonder how likely it would be that other ports near Russia would also change if there is a conflict. 

[Denarius]

1 hour ago, Level six said:

I wonder how likely it would be that other ports near Russia would also change if there is a conflict. 

Of the other Baltic countries usually visited by cruise ships only Finland, Estonia and Latvia border Russia. All are sufficiently distant from Ukraine to be unaffected by any Russian invasion of Ukraine. Poland borders Ukraine but its Baltic coastline is some 500 miles from  its border with Ukraine. So as far as I can see there would be little need to avoid them.

 

Edited January 26, 2022 by Denarius
Correction.

[milolii]

12 hours ago, gumshoe958 said:

Should the worst happen (and let’s pray it doesn’t), it’s the inevitable economic sanctions that would most likely prevent ships visiting St Petersburg. If the US and/or UK governments ban American or British companies from doing business with Russia, or vice versa, that would presumably be a big problem for cruise lines.

Yes, that was my thought as well. Resending those sanctions,  once in place would take time.

Edited January 26, 2022 by milolii

[tring]

On 1/25/2022 at 10:19 PM, milolii said:

 

This is interning…

 
I realize many of the posts on this thread are from the U.K. But here is some information from the US.  
 

 The US State Department has long  assigned Russia to a Category 4 - do not travel,  due to CoVID and limited ability to help US citizens in Russia.  However, on January 23, a Sunday, the department issued an update.  It basically states do not travel around or through the Ukrainian/Russian border, but also adds there is an increase risk of harassment  of foreigners.  Again adding there is limited ability to help US citizens, as the embassy is in Moscow.  
 

If(when) Putin does invade, it seems likely US citizens won’t be welcomed. 
 

https://ru.usembassy.gov/security-alert-update-to-travel-advisory-for-russia-january-23-2022/

 

@Level sixmy understanding is only a few smaller European ships have traveled to Russia with mostly European citizens. 

 

 

Thank you for that information.

 

There are normally ferries which travel between Helsinki, SPB and Tallin, so may just be some of those that had been taking place last summer (seas freeze in winter), though I do not know - it is only speculation on my part.  If so, they may not have taken tourists, which would make sense as the covid numbers have been extremely high in Russia as I think there is a lot of resistance to the vaccines.

 

 I remember both the US and the UK losing their SPB embassies - it was some years ago during a tit for tat exchanges with Russia.  I am pretty sure, it was after the Crimea "event" happened.  Hence anyone losing a passport in SPB, has had to travel to the respective embassy in Moscow before they have been allowed to leave Russia and I do not think the embassies have re opened.  Cruise ships were still visiting SPB at that time.  

[tring]

We are due to sail from Southampton on Aurora for a 16 night Baltic, so will post somewhere on this board if it is altered.  Personally we would be quite happy if SPB is replaced with a couple of other ports as we did a hotel stay in SPB before a river cruise a few years ago, so have done the touristy things there.  There are lots of other interesting ports in the Baltic, though I realise there will be a number of passengers who specifically want to go to SPB, especially if travelling from N. America. 

[Denarius]

1 hour ago, tring said:

We are due to sail from Southampton on Aurora for a 16 night Baltic, so will post somewhere on this board if it is altered.  Personally we would be quite happy if SPB is replaced with a couple of other ports as we did a hotel stay in SPB before a river cruise a few years ago, so have done the touristy things there.  There are lots of other interesting ports in the Baltic, though I realise there will be a number of passengers who specifically want to go to SPB, especially if travelling from N. America. 

I went to St Petersburg on a cruise a number of years ago and whilst I enjoyed it, I would not particularly want to go again. I've seen what I want to see of the set piece sights and the simple pleasures of wandering around on your own are not available. Indeed, I am going on a Baltic cruise with Saga in July chosen precisely because it does not visit St Petersburg, visiting instead ports such as Riga, Gothenberg and Kemi not often found on Baltic cruise itineraries.

[tring]

58 minutes ago, Denarius said:

I went to St Petersburg on a cruise a number of years ago and whilst I enjoyed it, I would not particularly want to go again. I've seen what I want to see of the set piece sights and the simple pleasures of wandering around on your own are not available. Indeed, I am going on a Baltic cruise with Saga in July chosen precisely because it does not visit St Petersburg, visiting instead ports such as Riga, Gothenberg and Kemi not often found on Baltic cruise itineraries.

 

Good to find someone with the same opinion as us.  The land stay and independent travel was a good compliment to our tours arranged by Viking, though they had those to a tea.  They paid for early dorrs at St Catherine Palace, so we were the first visitors that day and our group from the river boat was the first to enter, so we were going into empty rooms.  Organisation of other tours was excellent as well.  I would greatly recommend the river cruise with hotel stays in both SPB and Moscow, if possible in the future.  SPB was actually pretty tourist friendly, not so easy in Moscow, but as we had been in Russia for a couple of weeks by then, we did great.  Got thrown out of Red Square at midnight when they were clearing it, presumably to set up for some event 🙂

 

The Aurora Baltic cruise is an excellent itinerary for P&O (though their Itineraries are not usually our preference by any means), with a couple of the ports you mention.  That also complements another itinerary being done by (I think) Arcadia this year - we did that other itinerary on Arcadia in 2019 and enjoyed it.  On both of those cruises we have booked a sort of "on your own" trip in SPB which covers a full day, (a P&O trip).  I think it  is called "SPB Explorer" and allows free time in each of three locations when there are no restrictions, other then be back when you are due back and there is a person on the coach who can advise (but is not a qualified guide).  Sadly P&O have more than doubled the price of that trip since 2019, so it has cost us £102 each for next May.  We thought about it hard, but decided it is still worth doing, so we can just go off on our own, since visa's would cost a lot more and would need double entry to go in both days.  Applying for the visas is a pain as well, but having done that before, it would have been doable for us.  As I say, SPB is very tourist friendly, so no probs going around on your own, but worth doing a bit of preparation beforehand (I suggest TA forums), to decide what/where you would want to go, though that prep is not essential by any means. 

 

 

 

Edited January 29, 2022 by tring

[Hezu]

6 hours ago, tring said:

There are normally ferries which travel between Helsinki, SPB and Tallin, so may just be some of those that had been taking place last summer (seas freeze in winter), though I do not know - it is only speculation on my part.  If so, they may not have taken tourists, which would make sense as the covid numbers have been extremely high in Russia as I think there is a lot of resistance to the vaccines.

The ferries between Helsinki and St.Petersburg have not been operating in the last couple years (due to pandemic and the related entry restrictions), but the ferries between Helsinki and Tallinn have been running almost normally (again, at times due to the entry restrictions there has been some reductions) and that includes winter time. Yes, there can be ice, but that rarely extends to the entire Finnish Gulf and even then ice breakers can assist ships to get thru the ice. And most ships operating regularly in the Baltic Sea has been built so that they can sail thru thin ice.

And perhaps worth a mention: the rail traffic between Helsinki and St.Petersburg restarted last December, however so far the Finnish entry restrictions have meant that only few Russians have been able to enter Finland and thus the trains have been quite empty. Russia has been slightly more accomodating for Finns entering Russia, although quite limited number of Finns have been interested in going to Russia lately, not least because the news have mentioned that the handling of the pandemic in Russia has been somewhat less efficient.

But if the pandemic eases and tensions between Russia and Ukraine (and other countries) don't take turn into a larger armed conflict, I guess there is chance that the traffic (including cruises) to/from Russia gets busier later this year.

[ontheweb]

On 1/29/2022 at 10:14 AM, Denarius said:

I went to St Petersburg on a cruise a number of years ago and whilst I enjoyed it, I would not particularly want to go again. I've seen what I want to see of the set piece sights and the simple pleasures of wandering around on your own are not available. Indeed, I am going on a Baltic cruise with Saga in July chosen precisely because it does not visit St Petersburg, visiting instead ports such as Riga, Gothenberg and Kemi not often found on Baltic cruise itineraries.

DW is an art teacher. I imagine if we ever get back to St. Petersburg, she will want to spend a very lot of time in the Hermitage. I'm not sure you could see it all unless you had a lifetime to spend there. As it was on our tour with Alla, she wanted to take out the lunch hour to spend extra time in the Hermitage. That was not approved by the rest of our group, but a compromise was reached where the lunch hour was cut in half. (I wonder if we only got that approval from the rest of our group of 10 because I was the one who set up the tour.)