How will ferry passengers be treated in St Petersburg?

[LucyH]

Can any Cruise Critics in Russia tell me how the new law on 72-hour visa-free visits by cruiseferry passengers is expected to work?

 

I've heard that it will "give ferries the privileges that cruise ships now enjoy". But cruise ships wait in port for their passengers whereas cruise ferries set off again as soon as possible. Ferry passengers usually take a different ferry back, possibly after staying a night or two in a hotel.

 

So does this mean that cruise ferry passengers won’t have to be supervised by licensed guides all the time they are ashore?

 

I realise that, at present, no cruiseferries call at St Petersburg. Perhaps services haven’t started because the shipping companies don’t know how their passengers will be treated.

[HeinBloed]

Reading the press here in Germany who had before a ferry line from Germany to Russia it sounds to me more that the ferry passengers might get the same privileges as the cruisers and not v. v.

 

i. e. you can make shore excursions if you pre-book your tours with local tour operators or a ship's tour (maybe incl. overnight-stay) and you return on the same way back to your origin.

 

They do not need to apply for a visa before they go to Russia but they cannot leave the ship if they do not book a tour.

 

The news which I read in German sounds too crazy for me: i. e. means Cruisers had all the time the privileges ferry passengers did not have: visa-free entry to Russia but this is not true.

 

Regards,

HeinBloed

[LucyH]

The news which I read in German sounds too crazy

 

Nothing written in Russian or English makes sense either. How can they apply the same rules to ferry and cruise passengers, if the ferry passengers don't stay in groups? And if they have to stay in groups, there won't be enough demand for a ferry line to St Petersburg.

 

I've been trying to get the answer to this since last year but it seems that no one knows, not even the Russian port authorities, which presumably is why there are still no western ferry companies serving St Petersburg.

[HeinBloed]

Nothing written in Russian or English makes sense either. How can they apply the same rules to ferry and cruise passengers, if the ferry passengers don't stay in groups? And if they have to stay in groups, there won't be enough demand for a ferry line to St Petersburg.

 

I've been trying to get the answer to this since last year but it seems that no one knows, not even the Russian port authorities, which presumably is why there are still no western ferry companies serving St Petersburg.

 

All ferry lines to St. Petersburg were closed down because they can only transport those passengers incl. vehicles who can go ashore with a visa.

 

It was not allowed like on ferry routes like

 

Lübeck-Travemünde - Helsinki

Kiel - Oslo

Tallinn - Helsinki

Stockholm - Helsinki

 

to do excursions and using the time of the unloading and loading for an shore excursion or staying one night in a hotel and returning back.

 

With this privelege it would mean that ferry lines can sell packages like

 

sightseeing tours

or tours incl. overnight stay in St. Petersburg

 

or

 

that you can do your own shore excursions if you booked them with Russian tour operators like discussed here in this forum who arrange a "visum-free" entry for you.

 

The difference is that you do not need to return with all passengers on one ship.

 

Regards,

HeinBloed

[LucyH]

It would mean ferry lines could sell packages like sightseeing tours

 

Between 2003 and 2005 Silja Line, one of the big Baltic ferry operators, had scheduled sailings between Helsinki and St Petersburg with the MS Silja Opera. Silja couldn't make money from this because

 

1. Scandinavian travellers don't like being shepherded around
   
2. and the Russian authorities kept on raising the price they charged Silja for a "group visa".
   

 

Silja is now owned by Tallink, which told me last week that it has "no active plans for a route to St Petersburg at present" so, for the time being, a cruise is still the only convenient way to visit Russia's finest city.

 

- Lucy