The ship normally arranges visas if required. However you will need to check whether the ship's visa covers you if you want to go ashore independently. I seem to remember that St Petersburg has this type of restriction, but not 100% certain as it was a while ago.

Will see what I can find.

ETA

http://petersburgcity.com/for-tourists/visa/cruises/

luci

nickmacuk wrote:

I have just booked a Baltic cruise with Thomsons and am a bit confused if I need to apply for visa for some destinations ie Russia/st Petersburg Estonia annd Latvia any advice please

You need a visa for Russia. If you book a tour it may include one. Check out the Baltic excursion thread for what we did in St petersberg.

You won't need one for Estonia, they are in the EU. Not sure about Latvia. Are they in the EU?

The only place you would need a visa on a Baltic cruise is St Petersburg, and only then if you wanted to go ashore independently.
If you book a tour with the ship, or if you book a tour with a private company in advance, you are covered by a group visa.
We did this trip in May on the Spirit (not Latvia but sure you don't need any visa there). In St P the customs officials would not allow anyone through into the terminal without a tour ticket. So people who did not book tours could not even go to the terminal shop.
We did three of the ship's tours-
panoramic tour - half day
river cruise- evening
St Catherine's palace- half day
If you are interested in any of these I'd be happy to go into more detail
kate

Hi Kate

You may like to update our Baltic excursions topic if you have some recent information.

http://www.holidaytruths.co.uk/forum/diy-shore-excursions-baltic-area-t67623.html

luci

will do, luci, though we didn't do much more than amble about in the other ports!
kate

Thanks for the replies everyone looks like definitely the organised tour in St P.