Which cruise is best for a northern European cruise?

[angie7911922]

I think I've only looked at reviews, so I'll have to look deeper into the boards there. I think I'll wait to do the planning on the actual excursions until I've actually picked a cruise to go on. Knowing my luck I'll have picked out everything and then we end up on a Mediterranean cruise and I have to start from scratch. I enjoy planning so I don't mind doing it. It's just frustrating when I pick something my boyfriend doesn't like and he complains about it and it could have been avoided if he gave me any sort of input.

For the Russia excursions do you need to get a visa? I feel like I read something about needing one if you don't do a cruise excursion. Or you might need one regardless.

Hi for the Russian excursions, you will need a "visa" so to speak. If you use a travel company, they will take care of all of that paperwork for you - and it's well worth it. I saw someone mentioned Anastasia on here. We used her (Anastasia’s Travel) and her company was fantastic. Took care of all the "visa" paperwork for us, had our itinerary ready to go for us (after we talked with them to let them know what we wanted to see) and they were waiting at the ship when we got off! There are a lot of companies out there, so do your homework, and find one that others have used so you know you are getting what you want. Good Luck!!1

 

[Dug720]

Hi for the Russian excursions, you will need a "visa" so to speak. If you use a travel company, they will take care of all of that paperwork for you - and it's well worth it. I saw someone mentioned Anastasia on here. We used her (Anastasia’s Travel) and her company was fantastic. Took care of all the "visa" paperwork for us, had our itinerary ready to go for us (after we talked with them to let them know what we wanted to see) and they were waiting at the ship when we got off! There are a lot of companies out there, so do your homework, and find one that others have used so you know you are getting what you want. Good Luck!!1

Most of the time, everyone has to have the visa (what is is called, not a made-up term - the quotation marks are not necessary), not just those getting off the ship. It is part of the required documentation. I’ve seen numerous conversations on Cruise Critic from various lines where people were complaining that they had to pay for the visa even though they were willing to have a notarized letter stating they were not disembarking and even being willing to hand their keycard to guest services. I guess they want everyone covered in case they have to disembark you for an emergency reason.

 

[Geomom]

Most of the time, everyone has to have the visa (what is is called, not a made-up term - the quotation marks are not necessary), not just those getting off the ship. It is part of the required documentation. I’ve seen numerous conversations on Cruise Critic from various lines where people were complaining that they had to pay for the visa even though they were willing to have a notarized letter stating they were not disembarking and even being willing to hand their keycard to guest services. I guess they want everyone covered in case they have to disembark you for an emergency reason.

We did the Northern European cruise this past August. If you are cruising to Russia, you don't need to get a Visa if you are on a tour group excursion--either through Disney or one in Russia--the tour groups have 'group visas'. If you are not in a tour group, you need a Visa to disembark. We did a DCL excursion--the excursion ticket was our 'visa'--we had to show that with our passports and then we were each given a 'migration card' with our name/date of entry and needed to give that card back to passport control after our excursion in order to get back on the ship. I have no idea what would happen if you lost that piece of paper! We kept it with our passports.

 

[kiford]

For the Russia excursions do you need to get a visa? I feel like I read something about needing one if you don't do a cruise excursion. Or you might need one regardless.

You only need to get a visa yourself if you aren't using a tour company. Doesn't matter whether it was booked through the cruiseline or on your own. You will need one if you are going to be on your own at any time so tour companies don't give you time to just wander about at will doing shopping as in other ports. We looked into getting one just in case but IIRC it was over $250 for the two of us for two days and we were told that it could take up to 3 months to get it and we would have had to submit our passports for that time. No way was that happening. So we just went with the DCL tour group. Your tour guide effectively holds a visa for the group.

I have no clue what P&O stands for. That is what the line is called.

Used to stand for "Peninsular and Oriental" but it's just known as P&O now (originally the full name was Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Company). It's owned by the Carnival Corp now I believe. It's UK-based/focused and targets UK customers primarily.

 

[aggiedog]

The visa requirement is a bit different for cruise ship passengers than general travelers. If you are with a ship sponsored tour, there is no paperwork. If you are with a Russian tour agency, there is a visa, but the agency does it for you and the cost is covered in your fees. We had to enter our passport info into a secure website. The tour company then emailed us the visa document which we presented to passport control at the pier. Very easy. If someone wishes to travel independently from the ship, without a tour of any sort, then they are responsible for getting a Russian visa, via the Russian consulate in their home country or a visa service. In the US, this usually costs $100+ from what I've heard.

I've never heard of needing a visa simply to be in port in SPB. I suppose there could be a fee in your cruise cost for that, that some folks try to get waived by saying they're not getting off the ship.

 

[Intr3pid]

A cruise excursion into SPB will get you your visa. A travel agency (such as this: https://waytorussia.net/Travel/VisaSupport.html) or your hotel of stay can also arrange one (for a fee).

If you are staying overnight in SPB, your own visa will provide much more flexibility. You aren't tethered to an over-priced excursion. And you can choose to do things that the cruiseline doesn't offer.

DCL, for example, arranges seats at the Mikhailovsky Theater for a ballet or an evening performance. That's because the grander - and more famous - Mariinsky Theater sells out well in advance. So, if you want to get the Mariinsky experience, you will have to arrange a visa independently (and book early).

Northern Europe, like Alaska, is a premium destination because of the short season. DCL's 7-night cruise to SPB is actually pretty decent. It doesn't do an overnight in SPB, but it leaves very late. You can do your intensive SPB day tour and still catch the evening ballet performance.

 

[kiford]

It is part of the required documentation. I’ve seen numerous conversations on Cruise Critic from various lines where people were complaining that they had to pay for the visa even though they were willing to have a notarized letter stating they were not disembarking and even being willing to hand their keycard to guest services. I guess they want everyone covered in case they have to disembark you for an emergency reason.

I don't think that's the case. We did three separate tours so each tour guide had a visa for that tour that would cover us but only for that tour. If we had to disembark for an emergency, we would not have had a visa; no idea what happens then. It may be true that other cruise lines insist that you obtain one yourself, but DCL does not. None of our friends (we sailed with 6 others) got their own visa either. But it's a good point if you're not sailing DCL to check with the cruise line and see if they require one anyway.

 

[angie7911922]

Most of the time, everyone has to have the visa (what is is called, not a made-up term - the quotation marks are not necessary), not just those getting off the ship. It is part of the required documentation. I’ve seen numerous conversations on Cruise Critic from various lines where people were complaining that they had to pay for the visa even though they were willing to have a notarized letter stating they were not disembarking and even being willing to hand their keycard to guest services. I guess they want everyone covered in case they have to disembark you for an emergency reason.

I put it in quotes, because if you are using a local travel guide you don't need a true visa, as you would if you are visiting alone. There is still paperwork that will need to be done, and your local travel company should be able to take care of that - at least Anastasia's Travel did when we went. Here's what the St. Petersburg site said:

If I'm visiting St. Petersburg on a cruise, do I need a Russian visa?
Cruise ship passengers have the right to visit St. Petersburg for up to 72 hours without a Russian visa, but there are limitations on what they can do. You have to be accompanied on land at all times by a licensed tour guide (with a specific state license for accompanying cruise passengers without visas) and you have to sleep on the ship.
If you would like to have greater freedom to explore the city under your own steam, it is worth getting Russian visas before you set out on your cruise. In order to do this, you can either book accommodation in St. Petersburg or buy visa support documents from a local agency.

I wasn't trying to create confusion, sorry. I guess when I went back and read my post, I just didn't explain it very well.