Scandinavia/Russia - Princess vs external tour operator?

[LondonTowner]

When we took our Baltics cruise, we used Princess for St. Petersburg and Alla for many of the other ports.

 

One small advantage for Princess is that their tours usually have the busses come right up to the ship. Often for Alla, we had to walk out of the port gate before finding our tour bus.

 

A big factor for us was comfort and security. Possibly unfounded, but we were in Russia and felt safer taking a Princess excursion. The Princess excursion generally gets you through immigration/visa processing faster. Also a big plus for Princess was that we went on a tour of the Hermitage on a day they were closed. No crowds. We were able to watch some students making copies of the masterpieces.

 

Pricing - SPB or Alla have an edge being less expensive than Princess.

 

Princess tours often include a meal. The meals we ate in Russia were no big deal.

When we did our tour with Alla in SPB I don't think the driver could have parked nearer, otherwise he'd have been inside the terminal building. We also got through immigration straight away.

 

The bus was a small, modern, minibus and certainly not uncomfortable, but as I have said on my previous post, there were only four of us on a group tour.

 

The question of safety never crossed our minds. I never felt any more unsafe in SPB than anywhere else.

 

SPB is a port I'd never consider a ship's excursion as the local tour operators are much better and of course, cheaper.

[billyg3]

SPB is a port I'd never consider a ship's excursion as the local tour operators are much better and of course, cheaper.

 

I second that. We used SPB and enjoyed everything about it.

[upwarduk]

We used SPB tours in St Petersburg, Tallinn, and Helsinki in 2011. And we had them booked for Berlin as well, but unfortunately we were unable to dock because of bad weather. I have nothing but good things to say about SPB tours; a wonderful company. And the two day St Petersburg tour was the absolute highlight of our cruise!

 

We used SPB in July 2015, from Celebrity Eclipse.

There were 16 in our 'van,' which parked right up to the terminal building.

Our tour guide, Luba, taught the other tour guides during the winter. She was brilliant. She asked us to check our sailing time, so she could make sure we arrived back with at least an hour to spare on the last day.

Our 2 day tour cost $600 in total, but when converted, each day cost less than £95 p.p. We paid at the end of the first day and were given our receipt on the last day.

When you book, you have to give your passport number and 2 weeks before you sail you are sent a link, so that you can print out your tour tickets. These need to be shown, together with your passport at immmigration when you get off the ship. They have the record of your tour ticket, as this acts as your visa.