So, we are starting to prepare for our Baltic Sea cruise on Crystal Cruise's Serenity ship. The first hurdle was to determine if we need a Russian Visa. We found out through much research that if you are taking a scheduled shore excursion or tour with your cruise company, you do not need a Russian Visa. Those of you who know us know that we usually like to avoid the ship's tours and explore on our own.
Our first stop for anything like this is the US Department of State travel page, which gives a lot of helpful advice for travelers like us who like to do things on their own. Begin by registering with the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program (STEP) Registering with this program will inform the embassy of your intended visit, and will enroll you for security and other updates.
After researching this site, we found out that trying to obtain a Russian Visa would be complicated and expensive. We looked at the shore excursions and tours offered by the cruise company, and determined that we would spend less by going through with obtaining the visa.
Our cruise company has a travel agency that they referred us to for help. We filled out the appropriate documents, including much background information, and sent off our applications along with our passports. Three weeks later we had our passports returned with the successful Russian Visas included.
We are now looking at booking hotels for our stays before and after the cruise. We will arrive in Stockholm on June 1. We are retired airline employees, so we always fly stand-by, knowing that in itself is an adventure. We are attempting to fly on SAS Airlines nonstop from Chicago to Stockholm, but have a back-up plan of a change of planes in Frankfurt, Germany.
I will update more as we progress. We are getting very excited for this adventure!
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