Has anyone used the Princess St Petersburg tours?

[yapmom]

Hi everyone! My DH is not very adventurous and would prefer to use a tour from the ship. I am concerned that we will not get as good of an experience as we would in a private tour. BUT this is OUR 30th anniversary trip and want him to be comfortable also. Has anyone been on one of these please and could share their experience? Thank you very much!

[GradUT]

I have not been on the Princess ship’s excursion in St.Petersburg, but I saw those groups when we were there and they were LARGE—about 2 1/2 times larger than any of the private excursions.  I appreciate your wanting to make your husband comfortable, but why should you have to be relegated to a sub-par experience because of his “preference”?   Unless he has a well-founded reason for choosing a LARGE ship’s excursion over a small private excursion, then book the private excursion and let him deal with it.  There are hundreds of threads on this forum about the reliability and excellence of the tours offered by companies such as Alla, SPB, and TJ Travel.  If he reads those threads, he should be convinced that a small excursion with a private company is the best way to tour St. Petersburg. 

[Aus Traveller]

33 minutes ago, GradUT said:

 If he reads those threads, he should be convinced that a small excursion with a private company is the best way to tour St. Petersburg. 

Agreed. .... and the least expensive.

[kitkat343]

We traveled with a 3 year old and always felt completely safe and comfortable with our private tour.  We were on a private tour for just our family and skipped the very long lines outside all the museums that were just for group tours to prevent bottlenecks from forming inside.  Maybe he would also feel more comfortable on a private tour for just your family?  That way he can control the itinerary and go back as early as he needs to feel safe.  It’s more expensive than a group private tour, but I’m not sure if it’s more expensive than a princess tour. 

 

The only downside to a private tour tour is that russian rules grant cruise lines the right to give their tours priority disembarkation (you can check here or on princess forum to see if they’re really doing that).  And customs lines can be long in St. Petersburg.    But you will lose a ton of time with a larger princess group.  And you can start later on day 1 and earlier on day 2 with a private tour to avoid lines.  

[mskaufman]

In St. Petersburg we used SPB and friends used the ship tour.  Both were two day tours. The ship tour was about 15% more expensive.  Our tour included a subway ride, canal boat ride and the hydrofoil to Peterhof.  Otherwise the tours covered the same ground.  Our friends had no complaints about the size of the group or the service provided.

[dogs4fun]

10 hours ago, yapmom said:

Hi everyone! My DH is not very adventurous and would prefer to use a tour from the ship. I am concerned that we will not get as good of an experience as we would in a private tour. BUT this is OUR 30th anniversary trip and want him to be comfortable also. Has anyone been on one of these please and could share their experience? Thank you very much!

Saint Petersburg is one of the few ports where the ship tours are also very good (although the groups are larger and prices higher than independent tour companies). Most of the members on this forum book with the independent tour operators (we have booked with Alla Tours on several visits) so I would recommend that you post your query on the Princess boards to garner more replies and accurate information about the Princess excursions.

Edited May 30, 2019 by dogs4fun

[yapmom]

6 minutes ago, dogs4fun said:

Saint Petersburg is one of the few ports where the ship tours are also very good (although the groups are larger and prices higher than independent tour companies). Most of the members on this forum book with the independent tour operators (we have booked with Alla Tours on several visits) so I would recommend that you post your query on the Princess boards to garner more replies and accurate information about the Princess excursions.

Thank you! I will do that. Alla Tours is who I have been looking at. Were you comfortable with and satisfied with them in St Petersburg? Do they guarantee that you won't miss your ship? That is one of his big concerns. Thank you!

 

[yapmom]

9 hours ago, GradUT said:

I have not been on the Princess ship’s excursion in St.Petersburg, but I saw those groups when we were there and they were LARGE—about 2 1/2 times larger than any of the private excursions.  I appreciate your wanting to make your husband comfortable, but why should you have to be relegated to a sub-par experience because of his “preference”?   Unless he has a well-founded reason for choosing a LARGE ship’s excursion over a small private excursion, then book the private excursion and let him deal with it.  There are hundreds of threads on this forum about the reliability and excellence of the tours offered by companies such as Alla, SPB, and TJ Travel.  If he reads those threads, he should be convinced that a small excursion with a private company is the best way to tour St. Petersburg. 

Thank you for the info. He does not come on this forum. I pass on information to him and will do so. Thank you for your help.

[yapmom]

8 hours ago, kitkat343 said:

We traveled with a 3 year old and always felt completely safe and comfortable with our private tour.  We were on a private tour for just our family and skipped the very long lines outside all the museums that were just for group tours to prevent bottlenecks from forming inside.  Maybe he would also feel more comfortable on a private tour for just your family?  That way he can control the itinerary and go back as early as he needs to feel safe.  It’s more expensive than a group private tour, but I’m not sure if it’s more expensive than a princess tour. 

 

The only downside to a private tour tour is that russian rules grant cruise lines the right to give their tours priority disembarkation (you can check here or on princess forum to see if they’re really doing that).  And customs lines can be long in St. Petersburg.    But you will lose a ton of time with a larger princess group.  And you can start later on day 1 and earlier on day 2 with a private tour to avoid lines.  

Yes, there will be a 90 minute delay for tours other than princess there. Thank you for the information.

[yapmom]

29 minutes ago, mskaufman said:

In St. Petersburg we used SPB and friends used the ship tour.  Both were two day tours. The ship tour was about 15% more expensive.  Our tour included a subway ride, canal boat ride and the hydrofoil to Peterhof.  Otherwise the tours covered the same ground.  Our friends had no complaints about the size of the group or the service provided.

Thank you very much for the information! I appreciate it.

[dogs4fun]

5 minutes ago, yapmom said:

Thank you! I will do that. Alla Tours is who I have been looking at. Were you comfortable with and satisfied with them in St Petersburg? Do they guarantee that you won't miss your ship? That is one of his big concerns. Thank you!

Yes, we absolutely loved our tours with Alla and were very satisfied (we have visited Russia multiple times and have taken several tours with Alla).  Alla guarantees that you will NOT miss your ship - you can read it in written form on her website under the FAQ. FYI : Alla is rated #1 on TripAdvisor and is highly regarded on these forums as well - her reputation would be destroyed is just once she missed getting her clients back to the ship in time for sailing. This is true for all of the top tier companies - if you check-out the top companies listed on TripAdvisor you will see that virtually none of them have ever missed getting back to the ship in time for departure.

[yapmom]

4 minutes ago, dogs4fun said:

Yes, we absolutely loved our tours with Alla and were very satisfied (we have visited Russia multiple times and have taken several tours with Alla).  Alla guarantees that you will NOT miss your ship - you can read it in written form on her website under the FAQ. FYI : Alla is rated #1 on TripAdvisor and is highly regarded on these forums as well - her reputation would be destroyed is just once she missed getting her clients back to the ship in time for sailing. This is true for all of the top tier companies - if you check-out the top companies listed on TripAdvisor you will see that virtually none of them have ever missed getting back to the ship in time for departure.

Thank you. I was just coming back here to amend my post as I found the FAQ page but had read the reviews about that company. I appreciate your help! Really looking forward to this trip and love hearing from people who have been.

Thank you again!

[GradUT]

And we also toured with Alla.  It was a fabulous experience!

[FLCruise7]

We just did the 2-Day St. Petersburg Grand Tour with Alla.  Yes, we had to wait to leave the ship until the Princess tours departed, but it was very easy once we were off.  We even left about 20 minutes early as all of our group (14 of us!) were there so we were ahead of some of the other small groups. Our guide was great & very knowledgeable.  We highly recommend doing this excursion with Alla - and it was about half the price of the same tour from Princess. 

[lois1112]

On 5/29/2019 at 9:24 PM, kitkat343 said:

We traveled with a 3 year old and always felt completely safe and comfortable with our private tour.  We were on a private tour for just our family and skipped the very long lines outside all the museums that were just for group tours to prevent bottlenecks from forming inside.  Maybe he would also feel more comfortable on a private tour for just your family?  That way he can control the itinerary and go back as early as he needs to feel safe.  It’s more expensive than a group private tour, but I’m not sure if it’s more expensive than a princess tour. 

 

The only downside to a private tour tour is that russian rules grant cruise lines the right to give their tours priority disembarkation (you can check here or on princess forum to see if they’re really doing that).  And customs lines can be long in St. Petersburg.    But you will lose a ton of time with a larger princess group.  And you can start later on day 1 and earlier on day 2 with a private tour to avoid lines.  

I'm going on a cruise in August and have already received word from Princess that private excursions would get off the ship about an hour after docking (the time was 930 , but I can't remember the time we pull into port)

[kitkat343]

2 hours ago, lois1112 said:

I'm going on a cruise in August and have already received word from Princess that private excursions would get off the ship about an hour after docking (the time was 930 , but I can't remember the time we pull into port)

I’m glad they are notifying everyone clearly ahead of time.  Prior to the change allowing cruise lines to let their passengers off first, the private tours would start earlier on day one and later on day 2.  Because we are going on a private tour of just our family with a 3 year old, one tour company recommended just starting later on day one and then earlier on day 2 to avoid all lines even before the disembarkment changes were made. So it’s possible to spend the exact same amount of time in St. Petersburg and avoid lines, you just need to rearrange your schedule.  

Edited June 3, 2019 by kitkat343

[RubyP1981]

We used Alla Tours for St. Petersburg and other Baltic ports and were very satisfied.  Prior to this, we had only taken cruise line tours and the smaller group makes  big difference.  The guide was wonderful.  The group size also enables the guide to personalize the experience somewhat.  One of our group members had a bad cold and the guide made sure that we stopped at an apothecary where she could obtain the appropriate medicines.  We were worried about getting back on time but the guide was aware of when we had to be back and planned the time accordingly.  Because of our good experience, I would go with an independent tour in the future (after checking recommendations, of course).  

[Kate P.C]

We booked through Anastasia Travel 4 years ago. A small group of 8 certainly got us where we wanted to and faster than we expected to. We also loved the organization of visa processing, having a knowledgeable tour guide and just well organized tour. The prices with Princess were much higher. This way we managed to get a discount since we booked Stockholm and Berlin with the same agency.