Russian VISA, do you or don't you?

[crusinbanjo]

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Yes, if you take an independent tour you will need a visa. BUT, the tour operator will obtain the visa for you. You do not have to send your passport anywhere or do anything yourself. (At least this was the way it was when I was in St. Petersburg last summer, I doubt things have changed.)

 

You will only need to obtain a visa on your own if you are planning on going off the ship on your own (without a tour guide). Unless you are very familiar with St. Petersburg and can speak Russian, that is not recommended.

 

There is much more, and better info about this on the Northern Europe and Baltics board.

 

The above info is the correct information.

 

We are booked on the June 25 Prinsendam Departure for the Baltics and have booke an independant tour with a local tour opperator. THEY provide the visa for us. We were very clear on this. we nneded to fill out paperwork, of course, but the tour opperator stated that THEY provide a blanket visa for our stay.... .....as long as we are touring with them.

 

If you just want to get off the ship and roam on your own, you will need your own visa.

[celyvabeach]

We are booked with Alla for our 2 day St Petersburg excursion in August. The tour operator will be providing us a blanket visa which means they are in charge of us while we are in St Pete. You can read a lot more info on the Baltic boards.

[JesterPlaying]

One thing to keep in mind is the ship tours are buses with 40 people. When we went in 2008 one of the passengers on the ship tour said he had to ask the tour guide to slow down so the woman with a walker could keep up. As he said these weren't Olympic athletes she was dealing with.

 

We took a private tour and not only was it cheaper, but we kept walking past the cruise tourists standing in line. If there were any problems with the blanket visa it was transparent to us. Off the ship and into the Mercedes mini van. There were four of us on the tour and we went at our pace and got to see what we wanted, not what the guide was rushing through to meet her schedule.

[Pam in CA]

I apologize for the way my post was worded. When I said "..anything on your own.." I meant going ashore unaccompanied either by a ship's sponsored tour or by an accredited tour agency. By saying 'on your own' I meant simply that. By your self - solo - alone - nothing more.

You can probably get off the ship but you won't make it past Russian Immigration without a visa or tour ticket. When you book an independent tour, you provide the name on your passport, passport #, birth date, etc. for each person on the tour. The tour company then arranges the visa as part of their service. One way or the other, you need a visa.

 

We cruised on The Eurodam, Baltic Sea cruise in June 2009. We spent 2 days in St Petersburg with Red October Tour and did NOT need a Visa. This may have changed.

Yes you did. :) Red October got it for you. It was your tour ticket.

 

For those who are on an independent tour, just walk off the ship with one of the ship's tours. They probably won't challenge you. That's what we did. We even went through the line through Russian Immigration that said "Ship's Tours" because it was the shortest.

[JayS]

We got back in July, 2009 and if you are on your own, you DO need a Visa. Russian immigration is the toughest I have ever seen-took us two hours to get through the first day. It was like they were trying to catch you making an honest mistake. Do not take a chance, it is not worth it, especially in Russia-lots of rules and people watching you. It would be the biggest mistake of your cruise.

 

I took the last Eurodam Baltic cruise in 2009. This is a copy of the letter Denrus sent me.

 

http://www.denrus.ru/booklet/2008%20Cruise%20Passenger%20Briefing.pdf

 

The information on page 2 is exactly what happened.

 

I used SPB in Berlin and would recommend either one.

 

Interestingly it took me less time to get into Russia and through their agents then on my previous cruise to get into the USA in Long Beach.:rolleyes:

[cruiserannie]

We are doing the baltic cruise in june 2010 and have been dealing with a local trravel company. they told us we do not need a visa. They will get us what we need (we will send passport information on ahead) and they will meet us as soon as we get off the ship.

[PROCRUISE]

Since when is it correct that you must have a Russian visa if you aren't taking a HAL tour? At least as recently as 2008 you needed to be on a supervised tour, but HAL did not have to be doing the supervision.

If you booked through Red October, Alla, Denrus, or any of the other authorized tour providers you received a verification that got you through Immigration, then met the tour guide. You had to stay with your guide.

 

It's only if you wanted to tour on your own (not a great idea in St. Petersburg) that you needed an individual visa.

 

THIS IS CORRECT. Did The Baltic Sea cruise last June on The Eurodam. We booked a 2 day tour with Red October for St. Petersburg. We DID NOT need a visa because we were with Red October. We could not however just leave the ship and tour around on our own.

 

The next big issue if you book independent tours is being told that you cannot leave the ship until after all the HAL tours have disembarked. This is also NOT true. Have all your paperwork and passport in hand and simply walk off the ship as soon as the okay is given. We had NO problems at all.

[taxmantoo]

THIS IS CORRECT. Did The Baltic Sea cruise last June on The Eurodam. We booked a 2 day tour with Red October for St. Petersburg. We DID NOT need a visa because we were with Red October. We could not however just leave the ship and tour around on our own.

 

That is not quite correct. You DID in fact have a visa (everybody needs one...it's the law) but Red October was holding it for you. That's also the reason you could not leave the ship and tour on your own...you were not the holder of the visa.

[treasure4two]

We ran into the same thing on Azamara the first day went went to get off(three days there)-they told us that if those of us on private tours tried to get off before their tours, that the Russians could shut down all of us. Many people said that was not true, but no one was willing to test it. The Russian people we encountered there were not happy people and loved telling tourists we could not do things, so that is the last place I was about to show my independent nature-not worth it.

Those of you going on a private tour, as others have said, your tour company will have your visas but make sure you have the little daily paperwork your tour company gives you, as you will need it to make it past customs. I accidentally cut off the date and was questioned quite a bit the last day. Have fun-Russia has some beautiful history!