All my other Regent (Radisson) cruises, our passports were collected at the beginning of the cruise and returned at the end. Everything I am reading about St. Petersburg leads me to believe that I will need my passport to get off the ship. So does Regent collect and return passports daily in St. Petersburg? not collect at all? Is there something I will need to be aware of, allow more time for?

I'm sure this is not the last of my questions so please bear with me and I promise a full report on our trip in August.

If you're only using Regent excursions you don't need a special visa and won't need to carry your passport (unless the local authorities decide to require it.) If you have your own visa to tour independently, you get your passport and keep it until final boarding the last day in St Petersburg. For any port that requires you to carry a passport you generally keep it until you depart.
Jim

Unless something has changed, if you want to get off the ship in St. Pete independently, you'll need a Russian visa which takes time and $$$. For an August cruise, you will be pressed to get a visa. See the State department site (http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/cis/cis_1006.html#entry_requirements) for all the painful details. The ship's visa covers you on all Regent excursions as Jim states.

We are taking a river cruise on the Volga this summer and needed a visa. The Russian visa is very thorough. You must list all schools you attended, all places of employment, all addresses & all countries you have been in for the last 10 years.

Jackie - I was so surprised by your post that I went onto the Russian Embassy's website to get a download of their visa application. It is quite remarkable to see how much more info they require now than they did when we got our personal visas in 2003 for the Voyager Baltics cruise. In 2003, the whole application form was only one page and had no questions about previous places of employment, 10-year travel history, military service, schools, or affiliations with charitable organizations.

My guess is that this is all in direct reciprocity for the info the U.S. now requires of Russians applying for visas to visit the U.S. It appears that Russian Motherland Security is having a good time pulling the beard of U.S. Homeland Security. I also noted that the Russians have raised the price of their tourist visa to match the price imposed by the U.S.

Yikes, since we're planning to take a Russian river cruise someday, we'll have to be sure we keep all sorts of "prior life" data readily available for the stupid visa application, no??

We're on a Baltic cruise - today doing the Kiel Canal.

In St. P - You must carry your passport.
We are on Oceania. They collected it for the first day, made copies of what we needed to debark and give the passport control a copy. Denrus was absolutely incredible. We had to show our passport to them as we left and returned to the ship each day. We did not need a visa - Denrus took care of the group tour visa. As long as we were with the guides we were fine. There were a few brave souls who went off on their own and returned to the ship within an hour of their tour without the visa. But there was not much to see near the port.

Touring with any licensed guide, Regent, Denrus, Red October or any independent guide an individual visa is not required. They do a group type visa and just need minimal information, Passport numbers etc.

It is complicated and expensive to get a visa. For most people not worth the trouble. If the ship parks way out often difficult to get to taxis outside the pier. If the ship offers a shuttle service to town then that really helps. Regent has been offering a shuttle service for those with visas.

It is really difficult to do any of the key sights like, Catherines Palace or Peterhoff independently. Here you REALLY need a guide. The public lines are LONG and all Russians it just does not work. Groups go in a separate entrance.
We did it once to check it out I do not recommend this at all.

However that said, I have had visas a few times before and I always enjoy having the freedom to do the city of St. Petersburg on my own. It is very easy to do the downtown sights individually and I always enjoy just walking the streets and shopping at the little stalls with no time clock telling me I have to be back at the bus at XXXX.
Getting a taxi is easy and cheap.

For a first time visitor I suggest the tour route and forget the visa. If you are a second time visitor, have an adventurous spirit you might think about it.

We're using Denrus for a private tour so I assume I will be able to get my passport from the ship and hang onto it for several days. Thanks for the info.