Excursion to St Petersburg from Regal

[angelacc19]

We did SPB tours in three other ports and were delighted with them.

 

Did it on our own in Stockholm with hop on/hop off and were sorry we didnt use SPB for that one as well

 

Thank you, I think I will use them in all ports. Great to hear good reviews about their excursions.

[stevenr597]

Very interesting reading in regards to the use of Private Tour Groups. I guess I am bit of "old-school," we do realize that we are in a foreign country, and we do like the security of the ship, especially Princess Tours, noting that if we are delayed for any reason, the ship will wait for us. Maybe it is a little bit extra to tour with Princess, but then again, we are spending a rather large sum of money to be there and to cruise in the first place.

 

We have always be quite satisfied with the quality of the tours by both Princess and Celebrity.

[caribill]

Very interesting reading in regards to the use of Private Tour Groups. I guess I am bit of "old-school," we do realize that we are in a foreign country, and we do like the security of the ship, especially Princess Tours, noting that if we are delayed for any reason, the ship will wait for us. Maybe it is a little bit extra to tour with Princess, but then again, we are spending a rather large sum of money to be there and to cruise in the first place.

 

We have always be quite satisfied with the quality of the tours by both Princess and Celebrity.

 

And nothing wrong with what you do.

 

However, although there are often posts about passengers not returning to the ship in time, it is usually because they were off on their own (not on a tour) and did not keep proper track of time.

 

Although I do not remember ever seeing a post about someone on an independent tour missing the ship, there might be some that I never managed to read. The independent tour operators know that if their passengers miss the ship, Internet publicity could mean they would soon be out of business.

[Micahs Grandad]

And nothing wrong with what you do.

 

However, although there are often posts about passengers not returning to the ship in time, it is usually because they were off on their own (not on a tour) and did not keep proper track of time.

 

Although I do not remember ever seeing a post about someone on an independent tour missing the ship, there might be some that I never managed to read. The independent tour operators know that if their passengers miss the ship, Internet publicity could mean they would soon be out of business.

 

Very true

[TAMU Dad]

Very interesting reading in regards to the use of Private Tour Groups. I guess I am bit of "old-school," we do realize that we are in a foreign country, and we do like the security of the ship, especially Princess Tours, noting that if we are delayed for any reason, the ship will wait for us. Maybe it is a little bit extra to tour with Princess, but then again, we are spending a rather large sum of money to be there and to cruise in the first place.

 

We have always be quite satisfied with the quality of the tours by both Princess and Celebrity.

 

Agree, and if you had a bad experience with say a tour guide with limited English idiot in Spain, Princess will refund the shore excursion total price when you share the experience with them.

[jagsfan]

Agree, and if you had a bad experience with say a tour guide with limited English idiot in Spain, Princess will refund the shore excursion total price when you share the experience with them.

 

 

 

Our first experience with private tours was in Kusadasi and Istanbul. It was so different from ship’s excursions it was like night and day. Air conditioned van with a driver and a guide for four passengers. The van was close by while we toured everything, and I mean everything. No waiting for stragglers, no waiting for the bus to come back to get us. We have done both ship and private since. Recently in the Caribbean we did ship’s excursions because they fit with what we wanted to do.

If I had to pick only one port on the planet to go private it would be St Petersburg. No waiting, no long lines, very comfortable mini bus with about 8 of us, and if we passed something interesting on our way to a palace, we stopped to look at it. We even rode the subway to see some of their beautiful stations, it was magnificent!

There are several very reputable tour companies to use and I would use one again in a heartbeat!

If you do your research, you should be happy with the results.

 

 

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[Tucker in Texas]

And nothing wrong with what you do.

 

However, although there are often posts about passengers not returning to the ship in time, it is usually because they were off on their own (not on a tour) and did not keep proper track of time.

 

Although I do not remember ever seeing a post about someone on an independent tour missing the ship, there might be some that I never managed to read. The independent tour operators know that if their passengers miss the ship, Internet publicity could mean they would soon be out of business.

 

Viator is so confident about getting you back on the ship in time they will pay your expenses to move on to the next port if need be. I have never heard of them having to pony up that guarantee.

 

We took a ship's tour at Le Harve since our stop was only 9 hours and all private tours we saw were 8 hours and would take us quite a distance from the port to view the Normandy beaches. We were worried the time window was too tight to chance a private tour.. Turned out, the ship's tours were late getting back and the ship had to wait an hour or more for them (lol). Same thing happened a couple of years later with the ship's tours. We did have a private tour on that sailing because it was different with a more favorable window.

 

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[BritinSoCal]

Very interesting reading in regards to the use of Private Tour Groups. I guess I am bit of "old-school," we do realize that we are in a foreign country, and we do like the security of the ship, especially Princess Tours, noting that if we are delayed for any reason, the ship will wait for us. Maybe it is a little bit extra to tour with Princess, but then again, we are spending a rather large sum of money to be there and to cruise in the first place.

 

We have always be quite satisfied with the quality of the tours by both Princess and Celebrity.

 

Sound advice and for some tours (such as Berlin on your own - we booked the DB charter train through Princess). However, for somewhere like St. Petersburg, if you go with one of the top-rated private tour groups on Trip Advisor they will ensure you are back on ship before departure time or to your next port at their expense. They have a reputation to uphold and if word got out that they were stranding passengers, word would soon get around. Besides would you rather be herded around by the 50-seater coach-load or in a smaller, more-relaxed group at a fraction of the price?

[ESStutts]

Hello, other question about Baltic Cruise.

How did you visited St Petersburg? With Princess excursion or using local guide?

 

We used Alla Tours and had a great experience - our tour guide was so friendly. My only caution is that the Hermitage is closed on Mondays (in case you happen to be there that day). We had to go on Sunday when it was PACKED. Afterwards, I found out that Princess had some sort of private tour that you could have done on Monday. Had I known that, I would've booked Princess.

[ESStutts]

Sound advice and for some tours (such as Berlin on your own - we booked the DB charter train through Princess). However, for somewhere like St. Petersburg, if you go with one of the top-rated private tour groups on Trip Advisor they will ensure you are back on ship before departure time or to your next port at their expense. They have a reputation to uphold and if word got out that they were stranding passengers, word would soon get around. Besides would you rather be herded around by the 50-seater coach-load or in a smaller, more-relaxed group at a fraction of the price?

 

I second that opinion - the reputable tour companies will guarantee that they will either get you back on time or pay to get you to your next stop. Obviously it is to their benefit to make sure you're back on time. When we did the Baltic cruise, we booked independent operators in all but 2 ports and had no problems whatsoever.