Regent cruise/St Petersburg port

Private companies like Alla's Tours or Red October are hands down better than ships tours. There are some good news. I heard visa is no longer required for cruisers when you go on your own in SPB as Russian government signed a new law. And new port has been open close to downtown. However, it has limited capacity and depending on number of ships docking on your day, you may end up in the old cargo port.

Perhaps Regent's tours are better than the average cruise line tours I don't know anyone who has done them. However the private tour companies are excellent and we speak from experience with Alla. You do not need a visa if you are going with them or the other tour companies spurs mentioned. They get a blanket visa for everyone in their tour but you cannot go off on your own. They will fill the days for you with everything you want to see. You should really sign up if you haven't already with cruisecritic.com and go to the boards then roll calls and find Regent and your ship and then I am sure you will find someone who is planning a private tour. It is an excellent way to share information and I am sure there will be someone who has done one or the other of the tours. That is definitely the best place to get the information you want.

Thank you both. I have been corresponding with Red October and they have been most helpful. A private tour seems to be the better route. We just have to pick one and they are all well recommended.
Any suggestions in st petersburg other than the main tourists attractions?

Thanks

Hi Cherine,
We are booked on Regent's Baltic cruise. What is your advice on the shore excursions, particularly in St Petersburgh?

Actually if you use a Russian tour co. such as Alla or Red Oct. I think that suffices for the VISA. At least it used to.

We were just in St. Petersburg in July on a cruise. There is so much to see in the "main tourist sites" that we didn't have a whole lot of time left over. We were docked for 2 nights in the pier that was closest to downtown. We toured with DenRus and their blanket visa covered the 6 of us. One thing DH and I did that no one else from our group (and there was only us and one other couple for a total of 4 from our entire ship) did was book through DenRus for an evening Folklore shore. Everybody else I spoke to said they chose not to because the ship was also sponsoring one on board. I have to tell you that the one we saw was 10 times better than what was on the ship (we saw that one too) and so we were glad we did the evening show.

I also highly encourage you to go to Cruise Critic and see if there is already a "Roll Call" thread for your sailing. In addition, there is a "Europe" thread that has a subfolder for "Baltic and Northern Europe" where you can run a search for your question and also get lots of ideas.

You're welcome to e-mail me with questions too. Just click on my user i.d. and it will give you my e-mail address.

I would recommend yo to take ship tour because you have already paid for it. The quality of ship tour is always good one, the thing people don't like in them is their price, but having booked SevenSeas Voyager, you have already paid for them

We took a Regent Baltics cruise in August. It was terrific. We took 8 excursions, 5 of which were in St. Petersburg. Friends took even more in St. Petersburg, going back to Catherine's Palace for an evening excursion or going to the ballet. In St. Petersburg, we took the (1) Classical St. Petersburg tour (all day, including Catherine's Palace), (2) Peter the Great's Grand Palace--Peterhof, (3) Yusupov Palace and Canal Cruise, (4) Hermitage and Gold Room, and the (5) Metro Ride and Shopping excursion. Regent had excellent guides, and while I'm sure private tours have their advantages, personally, we wouldn't waste the money. This was our first Regent cruise with "free" excursions, and they were every bit as good as the paid excursions we've done on other Regent cruises. We can't wait until our 30-day S. American cruise in January.

I guess I'm not understanding why you'd pay extra (and not a little but rather a lot) for something you have already paid for with Regent. Since the ship docks for so long and is a relatively small ship, the number of tours is rather extensive, and almost everyone on board goes on more than one, especially since they are included.

Doug, I would pay extra if it is worth extra only because I have heard complaints (not on Regent) that people spend hours on line getting into the Hermitage while private guides whisk you in. I am hoping this is not ther case with Regent. Dreps- were you wisked or waiting? Also, Dreps, was the full day tour too tiring or a good idea? twistergirl- This all-inclusive shore excursions concept with Regent is relatively new and the cruise price was comperable to their major competiors...so maybe they are really "free".

We were not kept waiting in long lines anywhere. There was some wait a few times over the three days in St. Petersburg, but it was never a major issue. The three days in St. Petersburg were jam-packed because that's the way we wanted them. I don't know exactly how to answer about whether the full-day tour was "too tiring." It involved a bus ride to and from Catherine's Palace, so there was time to snooze and regain one's energy. Also, the lunch was fairly leisurly. As I mentioned, some of our friends still had the energy to do evening excursions.