St Petersburg excursions with Marella?

[howmuch!]

We are on the Baltic Explorer cruise in July and would appreciate others cruisers experiences of the best places to visit in St Petersberg, and probably as important, how good the excursions provided by Marella are. The descriptions often lack enough detail to make accurate judgements of which are best

[cruisefanX2]

We were on a Thomson Baltic Cruise, with 2 days in St Petersburg, in July 2012. We totally loved it and went again in 2013! Both years we were blessed with excellent weather.

Your own specific interests will direct what you might wish to see. We are interested in history, art and architecture.

For us, the 2 'must see' attractions are the Peterhof Palace and the Hermitage. We saw both of these in 2012. The Peterhof Palace is stunning. The trip was very well organised. The Hermitage tour was rather lengthy, but there really is so much to see. The stunning display of Impressionist paintings came at the end, when some people were beginning to flag, but these rival anything you will see anywhere else. In 2013, we did the Gold Room Tour at the Hermitage, which also included time in the main galleries. This is restricted in numbers but I strongly recommend this, particularly if you are interested in Faberge and want to see some stunning works.

In 2013 we also went to St Catherine's Palace. The interiors are stunning but the exterior is not quite as good as the Peterhof.

You will need to decide on whether to do half day or full day trips. You can do 2 half day trips in the one day but this involves the double coach trip to the ship. Both worked fine for us.

We did have a tour of some of the main sites of St Petersburg. This included viewing the Church of the Spilled Blood from outside. This is one of the most stunning buildings you could imagine. Don't miss it. We had a canal tour (not that exciting) combined with the Yusupov Palace (where Rasputin met his end) which was very interesting. The final trip was a half day trip to 3 churches, the last of which was the Peter and Paul Cathedral where the Romanov's are buried.

We were not tempted by the evening ballet excursion, and reports from fellow passengers suggested this was not the fine performance that they anticipated (probably aimed at the tourist market).

We felt that Thomson's really provided what we wanted and I could not fault their organisation. Local guides were generally excellent. I thought the trips were good value for money. I believe that it is possible to organise trips yourself, but they must be through validated local tour companies. We are a bit risk averse and stuck with Thomson, and happy to do so at this location.

There was a bit of a delay going through security the first morning, but that was due to another ship disembarking at the same time and a shortage of officials, so not the fault of Thomsons.

Save your energy for St Petersburg. Long busy days, some early starts, but choose what suits you.

One other word of warning: Russia is 3 hours ahead of BST. We 'lost' 1 hour on 3 different nights (which I think were between Newcastle and Norway, between Stockholm and Riga, and between Riga and St Petersburg). 

Hope this helps. Also hope the sun shines - you will be impressed. Enjoy.

[howmuch!]

WOW cruisefanx2, thank you for a fantastic review of your previous experiences of St Petersburg excursions via Thomson, and also the warning about the time differences (as we usually don't see the cabin before 1am!). I have spent 2 days reading the TUi excursion blurb which in some areas is a bit sketchy, so you have re-assured me that all should be Ok. There are so many choices of visits, I can see why you did it more than once. Hopefully we can home in on specific tours eventually! Thanks again for taking the time to reply. Mike

Edited February 20, 2019 by howmuch!

[cruisefanX2]

If you are interested in the Hermitage Gold Room tour, I would recommend that you book this in advance as it will sell out and may not be available when you are on board. I do this for any limited availability tour on Tui or for any tour I especially want. 

A couple of things to note. You can cancel or exchange trips when on board, usually up to 24h ahead. Also, booking in advance usually saves you a small amount (possibly only £5 per head, but it adds up).

One thing that really annoys me about the trips is that no timing details are made available online. This can make it difficult to choose e.g. if you want to combine different trips (e.g. in St Petersburg) or if you want to combine an excursion with a walk around local ports.

I have not looked at your itinerary. It is possible that I have information on excursions at other ports (albeit, possibly a little bit out of date). Feel free to ask. Excursions at other ports were not always up to the same standard as in St Petersburg.

[howmuch!]

We have now booked the all day tour of Peterhof palace/gardens, lunch, then Hermitage (9h). Missus is diabetic+Coeliac so not sure lunch will be anything she will tackle.

Also, booked the Panoramic bus tour, to try and see as many of the other sights as possible. Hopefully there will be a few stops, (especillay half blood church) but the description is vague.

Fancied lots more, but we think that would finish us off!

[ormy]

Bit late now, but if you had read all the previous posts regarding St Petersburg you would have seen it was better to forget Marella and book with a private operator. We used Alla Tours - just fantastic and just a small party in mini bus. They are the best option on their 2 day tour , they arrange everything including lunch and of course your visa. Great guides and you get to see lots more than the ships excursion. Glad to help with any questions you may have.

[ollienbertsmum]

I used Alla tours and loved the service we got.  We were in St P for two days and it was great to have the same guide throughout the trip.   She was great with our kids and even encouraged them (they were old enough, I was watching, to try some of the vodka samples) 

 

The Hermitage was great, but (we were in a party of 16) some of the group could have done without so much art.  Our best photos are of them trying to find places to sleep instead of trying to look like they were interested in museums that they would not visit in a million years when at home.  

 

My party still laugh about the lunch on the first day - it was Russian!!!  but I think I was the only one of the 16 that enjoyed Borscht.   Arrange with your guide if you have fussy eaters.

 

I enjoyed the ballet.  Only me and my daughter had booked ahead.  Alla tickets were much cheaper than some of the others in the group who decided to go using the ship at the last minute.  We had our own car (same driver as during the day) and we were in the stalls rather than the circle.  

 

 

 

 

[angie7911922]

I agree with those talking about the private tour groups. If it's not too late for you to reconsider, I would take a look at those. We went with Anastasia's Travel. They were amazing!! First off, it was less expensive to use them then the ship, so that was a plus. Second, we were a small group, so we got to skip most of the line waiting that you get with the larger groups from the ship. That saved us a ton of time, so we were able to see so much more. Our guide was waiting for us at the port, and brought us right back to the ship, so their was no hassle there at all. And we got to see what we wanted to see. We were able to customize our tour to fit us, so there was none of that - but I want to see X, and I'm going to have to miss that one thing because it's not on the ship's itinerary. Anastasia's just fixed the itinerary so it was on there 🙂 Best thing we ever did! I haven't done a ship excursion since, on any cruise, because of our experience!

[ormy]

Yes angie has got it in one - private tour, which ever provider you use, is definitely the best option. Short queues everywhere and in some cases special entry is arranged, certainly was with Alla Tours it was.  Perhaps you have an option to cancel your ships excursion and re-book with one of the many private tour companies. Our thought was we would be unlikely to revisit St Petersburg so we wanted to see just about everything - something we did manage with Alla Tours. Whatever you do St Petersburg is just a magical experience

[Vitalsign]

You can cancel ships tours as long as you give 24 hours notice - so do it as soon as you embark

Nearly everyone on here recommends Alla Tours and my sister used them 2 years ago and was very impressed 

[zaffyfebe]

Do you have to get together with others on your ship before you can book a group tour or do you book with the operator and they fill it up? Not done this before so sorry for all the questions!

[ormy]

You book direct with, in our case Alla Tours, and they tell you if others have already booked, with us there were  two mini buses each with their own guide. 

[edinburgher]

We also did private touring.

 

Lots of info on tour companies on the N Europe Board:

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/116-northern-europe-amp-baltic-sea/

 

There are far fewer Roll Calls for British ships than for others, and they don't attract as many fellow passengers looking to book private tours in several ports, but as you have SPB on your itinerary you might find a RC for your sailing as there could be others already looking to make up private tours in SPB. It could mean that there  are several of you with the same company which reduces the cost.

 

Check there first. Just go to Marella Cruises Roll Calls, and look for your ship name and sail date.