Visa for Russia

[workermom]

We are on a cruise in July that stops in St. Petersburg, Russia.  We will do a ship excursion.  Will we have to obtain a visa on our own in advance or will MSC facilitate this for us when we are onboard?  If MSC does this - is there a separate charge or is it included in the cost of the excursion?  Thank you

[Essiesmom]

It's buried in the cost of the excursion.  EM

[workermom]

Thank you!

[Preziosa]

Book thrue MSC and everything is in the price

[cruiser man 60]

All cruise lines sort out visas if you go on excursions, we were there in June and you have to take passport and get checked out individually by customs/passport control and then passport stamped for stay.

if you book independent excursions and many do with various companies recommended on TA they also sort out.

if you want to go off on your own then you will need a visa but the cost would be as much as a trip.

[workermom]

Thanks to all - good to know about the independent tours!

[CruisingFox27]

We visited St Petersburg last summer, a fabulous city. We booked an independent excursions and the visitors visa was included in the trip price, which was much less than the MSC excursions and in smaller groups. I'd read reports pre cruise that ships make passengers on independent excursions wait until the ship excursion passengers have disembarked. This was a concern as our tour started early. It wasn't the case on our trip. No queue to disembark at all. We didn't encounter queues at immigration either. 

[Captain-John]

1 hour ago, CruisingFox27 said:

We visited St Petersburg last summer, a fabulous city. We booked an independent excursions and the visitors visa was included in the trip price, which was much less than the MSC excursions and in smaller groups. I'd read reports pre cruise that ships make passengers on independent excursions wait until the ship excursion passengers have disembarked. This was a concern as our tour started early. It wasn't the case on our trip. No queue to disembark at all. We didn't encounter queues at immigration either. 

 

You were lucky CF. We were on NCL Breakaway and in one of the first debarkation groups starting at 8am. We were nearly an hour to get through immigration.

 

The queue to the Hermitage that day was a disgrace too and we were outside in 30 degree heat for 75 minutes before getting in. Totally put me off and ruined that experience. We went with SPB Tours.

 

However, we're going back to St Petersburg on Meraviglia in May - although definitely not back to the Hermitage! Hopefully we have your better luck with immigration queues this time.

[CruisingFox27]

That doesn't sound like fun Captain. We weren't in a debarkation group, we just walked off the ship at the exit. From our cabin to our excursion meeting point couldn't have been longer than 15 mins.

 

We went straight into the Hermitage too, our tour guide took us the opposite way to everyone else so we missed the crowds inside too. There was a slight wait, around 10 mins at St Catherines Palace as we were ambushed by another coach party.

 

Hope you have better luck in May! We were on Orchestra in your cabin for our trip to SPB, we're back on her in May but next door. 

[Bollinge]

Cruise ship passengers and those arriving on the St Peter ferry from Finland do not require visas for (I think) up to 72 hours stay.

 

We went with a private non-ship tour in our own minibus and skipped all the queues everywhere.

[nycfa]

Used TJ Travel last July and the Visa's were taken care of by the tour company......we were able to get early admitted to Hermitage thankfully cause the lines were SUPER long!

 

Also on the NCL Breakaway and they did let off Ship Tours first but TJ knew that so they adjusted our start/end times so we got off later.     Customs took about 30-40 minutes to clear once you were off.    

 

FYI your tour ticket serves as your Visa for customs.  

 

St. Petersburg is amazing and was one of the highlights of our trip!

[Captain-John]

19 hours ago, CruisingFox27 said:

Hope you have better luck in May! We were on Orchestra in your cabin for our trip to SPB, we're back on her in May but next door. 

 

Yes here's hoping. Still undecided as to which tour to do - may end up going with an MSC tour as we are only in port for 1 day. I also don't want it to be a repeat of the 'Deluxe' 2 day SPB tour from 2018. We didn't get a canal ride, or proper 'walk about town' with the SPB tour so I'd like to fill those gaps come May.

 

Ah, Orchestra! Glad your previous trip didn't put you off. Every time I think about Orchestra, I think about how mild I was in my thoughts about the food etc. compared to other reviewers at the time. In hindsight, my biggest complaint was the 'sameness' after 12 days on the ship - the menus got a bit dull after the 7 day mark as I recall. The Aurea suites are plenty spacious though and never had a fault with the service etc.

 

Are you doing Genoa/Barcelona to Hamburg or the Hamburg to UK tour in May?

[CruisingFox27]

We used Alla  Tours in SPB, I'd highly recommend. We did the 2 day deluxe 'see everything' tour and I left feeling we did.

 

Our Orchestra sailing was fabulous, no complaints on the food or service at all. I don't recall any repetition in the menu's either. I can't pretend I wasn't concerned going into that sailing after the review's from yourself and Bea! The Maitre'd on our recent Preziosa sailing was on Orchestra for our sailing, we discussed your experiences, he'd arrived just before us and did say he'd made quite a few changes as soon as he took over.

 

We're Hamburg to the Norwegian Fjords.

[napoxoguk]

It's relatively easy for them to "bury" the cost of the visa in the tour price, as it's technically free: as others have mentioned, all cruise passengers whose stay is under 72 hours enjoy a visa waiver, provided always that they join an "organized" tour (i.e. a tour with a company registered as a Russian tour operator).

 

Considering that the cost of the actual Russian visa for US citizens is between 200 and 500 dollars, it's a nice perk 🙂