Passport info for private St. Petersburg tour - is this safe?

[Brett209]

Hi.

 

We're getting ready for our Celebrity cruise and will likely do a private tour with Red October in St. Petersburg. My travelling companion is concerned about giving out the required passport information to a foreign agency.

 

Is this safe? Can someone shed light on whether or not there is any reason to be concerned about giving this information to Red October?

 

How have previous travellers dealt with this situation? Is there a "safe" way to get this info to them? Has anyone had any problems regarding this?

 

Thanks,

 

Brett

[lamwnfa]

Brett,

 

I believe that they need your passport information so they you can be covered under their group visa.

 

When I provided the information to DenRus, I chose to fax it to them.

[JodiBB]

Brett...

 

We are taking the RO tour on Aug 14/15 and the reason they need your passport information is to submit it to the Consolate to inform them that they are acting as a tour guide for you. It is very safe and without all the information on your passport (like a photo, etc.) the information is worthless as US has all your information (photo included) on file. Without providing this information, RO cannot provide you with the needed documentation to get off the ship once in St. Petersburg.

 

We emailed this information to Olga directly (we used the Russian RO, not the US site) and had no problems whatsoever...

 

HTH!

[pungo3]

I e-mailed my passport information to DenRus. Without my photo, it's pretty useless to them, other than obtaining a group visa. I don't think you should worry at all about giving out this information.

[Gr8Cruisin']

You have to give passport info in order to get a tour in St. Petersburg, Russia. I do not like to send any personnal information over the Internet (too many ways for someone to intercept) so I asked DenRus (our selected tour guides) if I could send a letter (snail mail) with the information. They said "affirmative" and gave me an address in Helsinki, Finland, where I did send the required info by mail. DenRus e-mailed me receipt of my info in about ten days. I also asked if there was a means for me to prepay so I would not have to carry cash or take the credit card percentage loss (we had a personal tour for two and it was expensive). They gave me an address in Florida where I mailed a cashiers check and aagain I was notified of payment receipt in about ten days. These two actions were my choice and they worked very well. I would think RO would be as obliging, but you would have to ask. Anyone can intercept the Internet, but snail mail is considerably less vulnerable.

[Host Anne]

I faxed our information to DenRus prior to our visit (we just got back last weekend). Had no problems whatsoever. And remember, you can get off the ship as early as you'd like, regardless of what the ship tells you or writes in their daily newsletter (and you do NOT need to register with the ship if you have an independent tour). Russian immigration has an Independent Visitor line set up for those on independent tour and it was open at 7:20 AM when we disembarked on the first day. Just an FYI.

 

ENJOY!