Way to Russia Talk Lounge

jarman_ah

We are toying with the idea of arriving (by bus) into St Petersburg, and, after a day or two, joining a pre-booked river cruise to Moscow, arriving a couple of days before our plane departs for home. I expect the river cruise people can register our visas, but I am a little uneasy about this, because it would seem to mean surrendering our passports virtually as the ferry departed, in the expectation that, at some time in the following few days, the passports would magically reappear en-route and be returned to us. This seems a process inviting disaster.

Should we play safe by either forgetting the cruise and travelling between the two cities by train, or else arriving a couple of days early in St Petersburg so that the registration process can be all taken care of (by our hostel) before we actually set foot on the ferry?

Would registration by the hostel (where we'd anticipate only staying a single night anyway) take care of the following week when we'd be on the river, or would the registration process have to be carried out three times: St P, river, Moscow?

Thanks for your help (which, by the way, has been invaluable in a couple of earlier posts when I knew even less than I know now)!

Or are we just worrying over nothing?