Visa for St. Petersburg

[RC Pup]

We're taking Holland America's Baltic cruise in June. It has an overnight in St. Petersburg, and it indicates that we will need a visa for that stop. What is the best way to get a visa for that Russian port?

[RuthC]

You won't need to get an individual visa if you are going on a HAL tour. The ship gets a blanket visa to cover everyone on their tours.

You won't need to get an individual visa if you are going with a private tour company such as Red October, Denrus, or Alla (there may be others, too, that I'm not aware of). They, too, get a blanket visa to cover their guests. You must stay with your guide.

You will need to get an individual visa if you plan to tour strictly independantly. This is not advisable, though. The port is distant from the city, and difficult to leave. Then, there's really no place to go.

Hope this helps.

[RC Pup]

Thank you for the important info on visas!

[Pettifogger]

Anastasia is another private tour company that will get the visa for you.

[bbwex]

Sadly some of the cruise lines are trying to tell their passengers that they have to use the ship's tours or you will not be able to leave until later in the morning. They claim that this is out of their control but rather is due to new Russian regulations. This is not true, and on most ships, passengers who ignore these "warnings" are not stopped from getting off when they want. Why the industry is doing this, nobody seems to know. The Russians deny that they have made any changes at all. When we were there on Oceania they did not try this, but I have heard that other lines are doing it.

 

The other replies are right that an individual visa is only needed if you plan to walk around on your own, whoever does your tours will get your visa. If you get your own, it will cost about $150 - $200 per person.

 

By the way, you can use shoretrips.com as well -- they have excellent tours in St. P.

[baggal]

Was on the Eurodam in St. P. this past June. There was absolutely no problem in getting off the ship to meet our privately arranged (non-HAL) tour guide. As I recall we were told to meet the guide very early (7 a.m.!). We joined the line about 6:30 a.m. No one segregated HAL vs. non-HAL excursions. As soon as the ship was cleared, we moved quickly to go through Russian customs, which also moved very quickly.

 

At the time, and all through the Baltic summer season, there were numerous posts about St. P. It seems as though the biggest offender was Princess.

 

Kudos to HAL.

[fann1sh]

Tour provider Denrus discusses the "visa ruse" bbwex mentions here:

 

http://www.denrus.ru/disembarking.html

 

I suggest you go to the Northern Europe and Baltics Ports of Call board as well to get more info on this frequent problem:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=192

 

Sadly, I *have* heard of the problem cropping up on HAL.

 

If you book privately with any company you should discuss this issue in advance, and have a "plan B".