Getting off the ship at St. Petersburg

[Fox Island]

I'm on the Aug 13th sailing on Star Princess with my wife and 10 year old son. Will I have trouble getting off the ship to use one of the private tour companys. I was on Princess web site, and they stress that there tours will go first.

Fox Island

[Jane110]

Our Baltic cruise was on the Grand princess 1.5 years ago and used Red Oct. We had no trouble walking off the ship as soon as the doors opened.

[swdke]

I'm on the Aug 13th sailing on Star Princess with my wife and 10 year old son. Will I have trouble getting off the ship to use one of the private tour companys. I was on Princess web site, and they stress that there tours will go first.

Fox Island

 

There was a lot of discussion about this last season. We were able to depart the ship early, and you do want to depart early to begin your tour. You will be very busy and there's a lot to see. Therefore, getting off the ship at the time the tour company states is necessary. But, as for departing after the tour groups, this is not the case. Yes, the cruise line may encourage you to wait until after the tours depart, but for us, we ignored this and had no diffuculty. The personnel in the Russian passport booth could care less if you're with a cruise tour or private tour. So, based on my personal experience, ignore what Princess warns, and get off when you need to get off. Although this was a common topic on this message board, no one ever reported having had diffuculty getting off the ship for a private tour. If someone did have diffuculty, then they didn't report it, and I think they would have as this board is well posted.

[cruisemom42]

Ditto what the other cruisers said. We were on Star Princess last year and did a tour with Den Rus. We were within the first 10 passengers off the ship that morning. There was no problem at all -- other than the early wakeup call, that is...:)

[JodiBB]

The ships use this as a scare tactic to allow their excursion-based passengers the opportunity to get off the ship first. Just go to the gangway at 7:00 am...as soon as they clear the gangway, you can walk right off...in fact, because you are taking a private tour, you'll be able to got through a different line, which is shorter because the majority of the passengers are taking ship-arranged excursions...

 

Honestly, you have nothing to worry about! ;)

[SaylorGirl]

We were on the Star Princess in September and we were told the same thing. We had our own visa's and we just walked off the ship with everyone else.

[gointostpete]

We were just on the May 15 Star Princess sailing and had a tour booked with Denrus. We lined up at the gangway before the ship was even cleared, which I strongly recommend doing. Once the Princess tours start coming down, you'll be caught behind them. The good thing is that they have to go to one of the lounges first to get their tour stickers, so you'll have time to get down there first. We heard horror stories later from people on tours that were caught in lines for more than 2 hours!

[grabbit97]

I am on the ship now. We were in St. Pete 2 days ago. We took a private tour with ALLA, and walked right off the ship about 8:45 AM. No problem at all. Go down to DECK 4, and walk off.

ALLA's tour was unbelievable... WOW is all I can say.

I am on the STAR PRINCESS typing this..

Natalie

[fern]

Just go to the deck of disembarkation and walk off. You won't have a problem. The ships do try to scare you.

[mmmmm]

Grabbit, we have a tour scheduled with Alla in July. Any suggestions about how you tweaked the itinerary that worked out well? What did you do for dinner and in the evening? Thanks!

[dileep]

I'm on the Aug 13th sailing on Star Princess with my wife and 10 year old son. Will I have trouble getting off the ship to use one of the private tour companys. I was on Princess web site, and they stress that there tours will go first.

Fox Island

 

Do you live on Fox Island, WA? We lived there for 2 years May 1997 to July 1999.

[Fox Island]

Do you live on Fox Island, WA? We lived there for 2 years May 1997 to July 1999.

 

Yes we do. We moved there in 2000 and love it

[sallycruiser]

Juat got off Star Princess on June 4th.. Had no problem getting off in St Petersburg we had a private tour with Denrus... They had all the Princess tours use another gangway than independents. We were off the ship and with our guide by 7:45am.

 

Had a fantastic time in St Petersburg

[easy22]

we were upset with Princess for trying to frighten everyone as they did and obviously are still doing. there is NO issue at all about getting off in any port ahead of the tours. you just need to be down there ahead of the tours. in each port we went down 30 minutes before they said we could get off except St Petersburg and due to nerves, went down an hour early. anyway, there was NO problem. just walked right off and into passport control and were in our van by 7:15am.

 

same deal at Stockholm where you really want to be in the first tender out of there before the tours come down. then you can catch the 8:05 train and be in Stockholm an hour ahead of them. you have so little time in each port, you want to be early off, last on. our goal at each port was to beat the tour buses by at least an hour and we did it, no problem. getting around these ports is EASY.

[Guest newhampshire]

We were on May 15th Star Princess and booked with Red October. Princess now realizes that passengers are booking private tours and all passengers received a notice about visas etc. and that if independent bookings, we were to use the forward gangway on Deck 4. We docked at 6.30 and clearance was given just before 7 and we were amongst the first 10 to get off this ship and immigration was very easy and Red October reps. were waiting for outside of Immigration.

[grabbit97]

Grabbit, we have a tour scheduled with Alla in July. Any suggestions about how you tweaked the itinerary that worked out well? What did you do for dinner and in the evening? Thanks!

 

 

Sorry I didn't answer sooner. We did tweak our tour with ALLA. We wanted to go to a Local Grocery store, she took us. We wanted to see the METRO and RIDE a few stops.. we went, but the place we went, the metro doors were closed, so we opted to skip it. We wanted to go SHOPPING at a local place where others go, not a canned souvenir place.. she took us to the "NORTHWAY" store, great place for Laquer boxes and stacking dolls for yourself and gifts.

We ate at a Russian Restaurant, which we requested, and it was no good.

The PANCAKES Alla got us to eat IN THE VAN to save time were very good, CHICKEN one was better than the beef one... We saw ALOT in 2 days, and the driver was great..

Any other ??????

 

Nat