Share with me what happens in St. Petersburg

[Murphey]

So, of all the other ports in the world, I can imagine that St Petersburg is the port that 99% of the passengers have some sort of tour booked. How does Princess efficiently get everyone off and how long does it take? Thanks for your expert insight!!

[paul929207]

We we were there a few years ago. One for Princess excursions and one for private. Each led to Russian immigration where docs were checked. Both Princess and pre-arranged private tours provided required info for visa. If you are just going on your own, then you will need to obtain a visa prior to the cruise.

[skynight]

So, of all the other ports in the world, I can imagine that St Petersburg is the port that 99% of the passengers have some sort of tour booked. How does Princess efficiently get everyone off and how long does it take? Thanks for your expert insight!!

First Day: If you are on a Princess tour or a Private Tour with a licensed Russian tour company you do not require an individual entry visa, providing your tour stays in the St. Petersberg area. Your tour ticket is your entry visa and is provided in advance. If you are on a Princess tour you meet on board in the designated location, and are escorted to the immigration area. With passport and tour ticket in hand you go through immigration which takes about 30mins. There are many lines and the process is a little slow. If you are on a private tour when your entire tour group is ready you can exit the ship and go to immigration. You may get a little flack regarding timing from the Princess staff, but it can be done. When you return back to the ship you must again go through immigration, and when we did it there was another 30 min line.

Second Day: The process is way easier and quicker. The immigration agent looks in your passport for the visa stamp and sends you through. On return we walked right on to the ship, no wait.

[caribill]

First Day: If you are on a Princess tour or a Private Tour with a licensed Russian tour company you do not require an individual entry visa, providing your tour stays in the St. Petersberg area. Your tour ticket is your entry visa and is provided in advance. If you are on a Princess tour you meet on board in the designated location, and are escorted to the immigration area. With passport and tour ticket in hand you go through immigration which takes about 30mins. There are many lines and the process is a little slow.

 

The time for this can vary based on the number of passengers in the lines and the number of immigration booths open. When we did it, we were on line for less than 15 minutes.

 

If you are on a private tour when your entire tour group is ready you can exit the ship and go to immigration.

 

Your entire tour group does not have to be ready together. You leave the ship when you can, go through immigration and then meet your tour. Once all on that tour have made it to the transportaion (or an individual bus is full), your tour starts.

 

You may get a little flack regarding timing from the Princess staff, but it can be done. When you return back to the ship you must again go through immigration, and when we did it there was another 30 min line.

Second Day: The process is way easier and quicker. The immigration agent looks in your passport for the visa stamp and sends you through. On return we walked right on to the ship, no wait.

 

see my comments in red above

[Colo Cruiser]

I agree it was fairly painless. :)

[jagsfan]

My little group of 10 went down to the closed door leading to the gangway, because we read about private tours being told to wait till the Princess shore ex people disembarked.

We got down there first, and when a Princess staff member opened the doors, she said we'd have to let the shore ex go first. I just said no, and we walked off the ship. No problem the next morning. No consequences from our chutzpah, either.

St Petersburg exceeded anything I expected. Our Denrus tour was tailored to us, and fantastic. I've heard great things about all the private tour companies.

[PROCRUISE]

Although we were with HAL, just the two of us took a private tour, both days we were in St. Petersburg. We were off the ship immediately, after the ship was cleared, and through immigration in about 5 minutes per person. No trouble at all. We were warned by our private tour company that some cruise lines make it a little more difficult for private tour passengers to get off the ship and Princess was specifically named. As mentioned we had NO trouble on HAL and perhaps Princess has made it easier now for private tour passengers. Private tours are THE way to go in St. Petersburg: no crowed buses with 40 other passengers, no waiting in lines at all, itineraries are put together to see what you want to see, our tour guide even added places to see as we went along because he thought we'd enjoy them (we did), tour guide will stop anywhere you want along the way, knows the best places to shop where the ship tour buses don't go, didn't have to pay balance due until the very end of our 2 day tour and price was less than trying to put together ship tours. We used Red October - hope I can mention that without getting dinged. Enjoy your cruise.

[Murphey]

Thanks all, that was kind of the information I was looking for. We have indeed booked a private tour...very private just 4 of us. I am excited but also a little anxious due to medical reasons (in chemo) and hoping I'll have the energy to do this!!! This trip has been my "carrot"!!

[Colo Cruiser]

My little group of 10 went down to the closed door leading to the gangway, because we read about private tours being told to wait till the Princess shore ex people disembarked.

We got down there first, and when a Princess staff member opened the doors, she said we'd have to let the shore ex go first. I just said no, and we walked off the ship. No problem the next morning. No consequences from our chutzpah, either.

St Petersburg exceeded anything I expected. Our Denrus tour was tailored to us, and fantastic. I've heard great things about all the private tour companies.

 

 

This seems to happen quite a bit. :(

[Murphey]

I'm just trying to visualize the entire ship trying to disembark at once!! :eek:

[Tony1878]

Just returned from the Baltic cruise a couple of weeks ago, we were on Princess organised tours both days so i cannot comment regarding private tours.

1st day, we had to report to the theatre and were called off by coach number, all went smoothly until we hit the customs desks.

We had to queue for about 40 minutes, once at the booth our passports were scrutinised for about 5 minutes as well.

Coming back in, i had to wait for about 15-20 minutes before i got through the passport control.

The ship Captain was on our tour and didn't look at all happy, i'm not sure if he holds any sway at all because the 2nd day was completely different, we were through in about 5mins both ways.

 

The wait was well worth it by the way, what a fabulous city, absolutely amazing.

[Cindy]

We were in St. Petersburg last May on Celebrity, but I believe the immigration experience is the same for all cruise lines. We arranged a private tour ahead of time through our roll call. We waited in a public area for the ship to clear so we could disembark. We thought it was strange that it was taking so long, and we discovered Celebrity tried to give their tours a head start on the lines by failing to announce that the ship had cleared. When my husband peeked out a window he saw the ship's tours disembarking from the theater, so we gathered up our group and mixed in with the exiting passengers. We had no problem getting off the ship and the immigration wait was very short...about 5 minutes. There were plenty of lines open and there were no more than a handful of people in each.

 

Several other Cruise Critic groups had met on the ship ahead of time to disembark together. We saw one of the groups as we were leaving and told them what was going on. One of the people in the group bit my head off and said she didn't believe me -- that Celebrity would never try to let their tours off first.:rolleyes: About 10 minutes after we left they announced private tours were free to leave. I heard later there was an epic back-up getting off the ship, and what had taken us 15 minutes from start to finish took the people who waited for the announcement over an hour. By the time they got through immigration we were an hour into our first day in Russia.

Edited July 4, 2015 by Cindy

[IECalCruiser]

We were in St. Petersburg last May on Celebrity, but I believe the immigration experience is the same for all cruise lines. We arranged a private tour ahead of time through our roll call. We waited in a public area for the ship to clear so we could disembark. We thought it was strange that it was taking so long, and we discovered Celebrity tried to give their tours a head start on the lines by failing to announce that the ship had cleared. When my husband peeked out a window he saw the ship's tours disembarking from the theater, so we gathered up our group and mixed in with the exiting passengers. We had no problem getting off the ship and the immigration wait was very short...about 5 minutes. There were plenty of lines open and there were no more than a handful of people in each.

 

 

 

Several other Cruise Critic groups had met on the ship ahead of time to disembark together. We saw one of the groups as we were leaving and told them what was going on. One of the people in the group bit my head off and said she didn't believe me -- that Celebrity would never try to let their tours off first.:rolleyes: About 10 minutes after we left they announced private tours were free to leave. I heard later there was an epic back-up getting off the ship, and what had taken us 15 minutes from start to finish took the people who waited for the announcement over an hour. By the time they got through immigration we were an hour into our first day in Russia.

Our experience in 2013 on Princess was very different. They started allowing people with independent tours off about 5-10 minutes after the ship was cleared. It appeared that the first two groups of 50 were off before Princess tours started to leave. Russian immigration was a breeze on our cruise.

[Murphey]

So one last question....how long would you estimate it takes the authorities to clear the ship (on average)?