St Petersburgh with Celebrity

[cocker2]

Have booked Eclipse for one of the Scandinavian/Russia cruises in 2017. Does anybody know if we have to organise our own visas for Russia, or does Celebrity do it for us? Thanks.

[lovescarborough]

This is a great cruise and I'm sure you will really enjoy it. As I recall you don't need a visa if you take a Celebrity excursion but you do need a tourist visa if you are going on your own tour ashore. You have to arrange this yourself before your trip. Although the ships excursions are a little expensive we did two of them, including the Hermitage museum with tickets to the Gold Room and a boat trip, visiting Yusopov palace. Both were excellent. The traffic in St Petersburg can be very heavy and at least you know you won't get left behind !

[rjrpar]

The more popular private tour companies do this for you. Check your roll call or the Ports board for SPG. We used Alla tours and they were great

[Iamthesea]

Our private tour guide arranged ours. ;)

[cruisestitch]

If you are on a Celebrity tour, you will be included in a Celebrity group visa.

 

If you take a private tour, that company will arrange for the visa.

 

It is not recommended to just "explore" St. Petersburg on your own, but if you choose to, you will need to arrange your own visa, which is quite expensive. St. Petersburg is a difficult city for independent exploration unless you speak Russian, so I have been told.

[carolat]

We got a group of six together and used TJ Travel. They give you a choice of what you want to see and we all had a very good day with them.

[mandream]

We used Anastasia - highly recommended.

 

Enjoy -

 

Mike

[diesel1973]

6 of us did the same cruise last May. One of the most interesting cruises ever. We used Alla for St, Pete.,Helsinki, and Warnemunde. Great tours,lunches, and worry-free reservations. They take care of all fees,paperwork, and payment is not due till after tours. They also discounted rates because of # of people and multiple cities. Would take a lot of work to match what they provided. We were very excited about going on this cruise and they certainly fulfilled our expectations!

[alcpa1]

If you wish to roam St. Petersburg on your own you will need a Russian Federation visa. I cannot address the application process for a citizen of the U. K. but if you have served in the government or the military you could face a more intrusive application.

The ease of booking an independent agent such as any of the highly recommended companies on the Ports of Call board or in your Roll Call will provide the best tour for the time you have ashore.

(I have been there on both a land trip with visa and off the ship with SPB tours.)

[cocker2]

Thank you so much everybody for your answers - looking forward to this trip tremendously and excited already!

 

 

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[villauk]

Thank you so much everybody for your answers - looking forward to this trip tremendously and excited already!

 

 

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We used Anastasia - highly recommended.

 

Enjoy -

 

Mike

 

Hi Jan,

 

We also used Anastasia and had a wonderful 2 days touring. She sorted all our necessary visas and we breezed through immigration, just showing our tour tickets. It's a wonderful itinerary :). Estonia was the surprise place for us; we would have loved more time to explore :).

 

Seems much longer than one year since we were touring together with Dora :). That was another super itinerary ;).

 

Jenny

[iandjm]

Hi. Which date have you booked?

[Tommy3putts]

This is good info. We sail the Baltics on the Silhouette in July 2017

[OhioDogLover]

If you are on a Celebrity tour, you will be included in a Celebrity group visa.

 

If you take a private tour, that company will arrange for the visa.

 

It is not recommended to just "explore" St. Petersburg on your own, but if you choose to, you will need to arrange your own visa, which is quite expensive. St. Petersburg is a difficult city for independent exploration unless you speak Russian, so I have been told.

 

We have also gone with an organized independent tour guide who arranged the visas for us. And DS, who speaks Russian and has studied in Russia, cautioned us to get a guide when we go in 2017.He says it is just a better idea.

 

Ohiodoglover

[diesel1973]

Thank you so much everybody for your answers - looking forward to this trip tremendously and excited already!

 

 

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You did not mention when you are going on this cruise. We went in May of 2015. If we did it again(which is a possibility) we would go in April and choose a cruise which stays 2 nts. in St. Pete. We missed the tulips in Holland and extra time in St. Pete. would have allowed us to do a tour to Moscow. You will definitely enjoy the 2 days in St, Pete(do 2 day tour) as it is a very interesting city. The cruise will be here before you know it! Enjoy!!!!!

[cocker2]

Hi Jenny! Agreed, Dora was fantastic and I think this cruise may even be better than the ports we enjoyed last year. I will look up Anastasia.

 

Landjm, we are on the 2nd of July cruise 2017.

 

We do have a dedicated thread but nobody posting at the moment and I needed a distraction!

 

Diesel1973, we have 3 nights in St Pete's and I hope we won't feel too exhausted after the 2 day tour to then do the Moscow one!

 

 

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Edited March 19, 2016 by cocker2

[eyelovcrusin]

We did the Baltic cruise on the Silhouette July 2015 and had a great time. We chose to use SPB Tours and arranged a small group of 8. I can't say enough great things about them. We, also, used them for other ports and they gave a discount for multiple tours.

[Lastdance]

We did the Baltic cruise on the Silhouette July 2015 and had a great time. We chose to use SPB Tours and arranged a small group of 8. I can't say enough great things about them. We, also, used them for other ports and they gave a discount for multiple tours.

 

We used SPB too and had such a wonderful tour that was totally first class. We never waited in line and got the royal treatment. We even ate in our own private restaurant! Since there were just two of us, we saw more and did more than any of the tours with all the people. It was truly a "private" tour! if you can, arrange one of these as you have so much more flexibility, time and memories, You get to know your driver and he tour guide quite well and learn a lot about them too!

Edited March 19, 2016 by Lastdance

[smtcan]

Another vote for SPB Tours. We had a really comprehensive tour for our family group of ten. Our guide was very flexible with the timing in different places. If you are only two people you can join a small group tour organized by them.

 

You do have to book your tour ahead of time, because they need your passport information to put on the paperwork you show when leaving the port, but no payment is required before departure. On our two day tour, we did not pay until the second day.

 

Sheila

[SPacificbound]

We will be in St. Petersburg in June and have two days of tours booked with SPB tours and they arrange the visas. I believe Alla tours does this also.

[PROCRUISE]

We used Red October for two day, fabulous private tour and they handled the visa situation. Only if you're planning on getting off the ship on your own using neither a Celebrity tour or a private tour would you need to secure your own visa and it's not recommended.

[cocker2]

Thank you all, I have all the information I need now. Enjoy your cruising!

 

 

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