St.Peter Line announces the opening of a new Visa-Free
ferry route “Stockholm - St. Petersburg”

Dec 3, 2010

Starting from April 2011 St. Peter Line expands its route network to include Stockholm. It does so with it’s newly acquired additional cruise ferry “Princess Anastasia”. The ship will be deployed on the Stockholm – St Petersburg route on a twice weekly schedule.

The legendary ship, “Olympia”, originally built for Slite Viking Line, was recently acquired from Irish Ferries as the “Pride of Bilbao”. The ship will be renamed as “Princess Anastasia” and extensively renovated before operating the route to maximise passenger comfort and to meet the requirements of international conventions for safety and environment protection. St Peter Line’s “Princess Anastasia” is a modern passenger ferry with gross tonnage of 38,000; she can accommodate up to 2,215 passengers in 789 cabins of different types and price categories. The car deck can accommodate up to 580 vehicles. Estimated travel time is 25 hours. The new ferry will depart from Stockholm twice weekly.

St. Peter Line presents for first time in history Visa Free cruises from Sweden to Russia. As the schedule is made for the comfort of tourists, the new ferry route will be the most convenient and affordable way of traveling to Russia. Weekend trips are scheduled to make stops in Tallinn in Estonia on the way from Stockholm to St. Petersburg. Passengers from all over the world will be able to enjoy marvelous treasures of Russia’s North Capital Saint-Petersburg for 72 hours without the need to obtain a Russian visa.

The passengers will have the opportunity to stay in St. Petersburg from 1 to 3 days using hotel packages and both ships of the St.Peter Line fleet. The new ferry will offer excellent facilities for Baltic Sea cruises: beautifully appointed suites and cabins for both the Luxury as well as the budget travelers, a spacious SPA, Russian and European cuisine restaurants, authentic Russian shows with Music Hall style cabaret, bars, discotheques and a casino for onboard entertainment. Multilingual services for our guests are available throughout the ship. The new ferry route is expected to carry approximately 400,000 passengers in 2011. The “Stockholm – St. Petersburg” route will become the second route operated by the company: the “Princess Maria” ferry has already been successfully operating between Helsinki and St. Petersburg since April and has carried over 150,000 passengers in 2010. According to estimates, both routes of St. Peter Line are expected to carry 1 million+ passengers in 2011 and further strong growth is forecast and expected.

St. Peter Line, press release