Russian Around the Baltic on Silhouette

Introduction OR Is There Such A Thing As Too Much Planning?

We went to the Baltic in June 2016 (including Moscow) and these forums were so helpful in planning this trip that I wanted to provide a full review for those thinking about taking a trip like this. I will start with some of the pre-planning details that many people leave out and I will include some info about our flights too. If you want to skip to the cruise details, just wait a few days and check back. You won’t see too many food pics or ship-focused information here as frankly, we didn’t spend that much time on the ship. This was a fantastic trip that met all of our expectations and I look forward to sharing it with you all over the coming weeks.

Myself and J (wife), 40-something attorneys from Georgia, had thought about a Baltic cruise as far back as 2012. At the time, we decided to go to the Med instead and had a great time (review URL). Since then, we have taken our kids to the UK, Israel and Italy, but had not been back on a cruise ship.

By summer 2015, our kids had already made plans for summer 2016. Our older daughter (17) was headed to work at her sleepaway camp for the whole summer. Our younger daughter (14) had already decided she would return to Duke’s summer academic program after loving it in summer 2015. Once I figured out the dates for the Duke program, we were left with 3 weeks open with no kids at home in summer 2016. We immediately decided we would finally get to the Baltic.

Looking at the options, they were fairly limited for such a short window. We decided on the Celebrity Silhouette 12 day Baltic Capitals cruise because it offered overnights in Stockholm and Copenhagen, as well as 3 days/2 nights in St. Petersburg. We found a good deal through a travel agent and made a deposit on an AQ stateroom in July 2015. We didn’t love the main dining room food on our last Celebrity cruise so we thought this would give us a chance to try Blu instead.

Then it was a matter of looking at air options. After some further research and reading a great review on CC (link to Nick’s review), we decided that we would fly to Moscow first and spend a couple of days there. There were several good reasons for this:

1) Business class frequent flyer redemption flights seemed to be available at the lower rate (because who generally wants to go to Moscow instead of Paris, London, Amsterdam etc.?)

2) There was a scheduled Aeroflot flight from Moscow to Stockholm the day of embarkation that was well-timed and inexpensive.

3) We didn’t want to "waste" a day of St. Petersburg traveling back and forth to Moscow but we really wanted to see it since we were so close by.

4) As we would have to have a Russian visa, we could be more flexible in St. Petersburg and would not need an escort every minute.

Now we had our trip basically planned, I had almost a year to research ports, excursions, the ship, etc. It was a lot of information to digest, but I had so much time, I almost felt like I had the map and layout of each city memorized by the time we traveled.

Once we decided on the itinerary and pre-cruise destination, it was time to book the flights!

I think that makes a lot of sense- heading to Moscow first! This must have been a fascinating trip- thanks for sharing and looking forward to more!

Flight Planning OR You Want How Many Skymiles??

We were planning to use Delta Skymiles to hopefully fly both ways in business class (ATL-Moscow and Amsterdam-ATL). We even signed up for the 60k bonus on the credit card just to have enough miles. I checked availability as we approached the days where they opened up travel for our dates and it was good for the ATL-Moscow outbound, but sketchy for AMS-ATL, usually something with a connection was available. Checked again about a month before the AMS-ATL leg was available and it went nuts. Delta was now charging 375k miles for a one way trip in business class - that is not a typo! Apparently the Skymiles redemption amount went up for peak times starting in June 2016 - just in time for our cruise.

I remembered that I had a whole bunch of BA Avios left over from years ago when I used to get 2 for 1 transfers from the old Diners Club card at my job. I've never been able to use them because the availability to the UK is always iffy during peak travel seasons when I need them (usually closer to the dates of travel). Well, BA opens up for award booking 355 days out instead of 331 days like Delta. I put in the AMS-ATL leg for a one way booking on July 1st and lo and behold, I have enough miles for the 2 biz class seats available to book. So, we now had flights home from Amsterdam before we even had flights to Moscow and to Stockholm! Oh, and the taxes were not too bad (comparable to Delta's) as compared to flying to and from the UK as we are only connecting at Heathrow not stopping. After considering the cost and benefits (Concorde Room and much better seat/service), I upgraded this flight to First Class on BA instead (at no additional cost).

Eventually, I was able to book the Delta business class redemptions for ATL-Moscow on 6/15 at the lowest rate (62,500 Skymiles per person). We were scheduled to fly Virgin Atlantic Upper Class from ATL-LHR and then Aeroflot Business Class from LHR-SVO, arriving in the evening of June 16th. Then I booked a one way economy flight on Aeroflot from SVO-ARN, arriving in Stockholm at 11am on embarkation day (not sail away day, as we had an overnight first).

As I documented some of this planning in our roll call thread, some other folks on our cruise had also decided to go to Moscow, so we synced our plans, staying at the same hotel (Courtyard by Marriott Moscow City Center) and getting on the same flight to Stockholm. There were 5 of us in total and it was nice to have some folks to share costs of tours and transport with (more on this in the actual review coming up).

Love the title of your review, and of course, the review is starting out to be great! :)

We did a similar cruise on the Connie in 2014. We did skip Moscow, however. Instead, we opted to fly to Berlin for 2 nights, pre-cruise, and then flew back to Dusseldorf. We were with friends that lived 1.5 hours from Amsterdam, just over the border in Germany. After spending a couple of days with them in their hometown, they drove us to Amsterdam where we spent another night before our ship embarked.

Incidentally, we just returned from a British Isles cruise out of Amsterdam (where we spent 4 nights) and visited once again with our friends in Germany. We had planned to go to Brussels for a couple of nights, but decided it best to stay closer to Amsterdam.

Looking forward to reading more!

Hey there! Waiting to read how your trip was. Will bring back some memories.

I realized in my jetlagged state that I forgot to include the links to my Med review (Meet me on the Equinox and to Nick's Baltic/Russia review (12N Scandinavia $ Russia May 2015).

Back later with some more as I'm starting to sort through the pictures.

Excursion Planning OR Guide vs. No Guide

With so many cities to visit (Moscow, Stockholm, Helsinki, St. Petersburg, Tallin, Berlin (maybe) and Copenhagen) the question was: do we use a guide or go it alone? As you can probably tell if you read my previous reviews, we use private tours or DIY touring, never cruise ship shore excursions. We ultimately decided we would do the following:

Moscow – DIY (although this changed somewhat as we got closer to traveling)

Stockholm – DIY (public transit)

Helsinki – DIY (public transit)

Tallin – DIY

St. Petersburg – tour guide first day, DIY days 2 & 3

Berlin – Yes, we would go and we would use a private guide

Copenhagen – DIY

We eventually decided to go with a guide the first day in Moscow for the Kremlin and Metro tour. I found a guide on toursbylocals and with 5 of us deciding to band together for the tour, it was very reasonably priced (plus we could skip any lines at the Kremlin). As for St. Petersburg, I decided to get a guide for the first day to show us Catherine Palace and the Hermitage. After that, we would strike out on our own with our Russian visas.

We also decided to go to Berlin rather than stay near the port. We wanted to get a taste of the city even though it’s a long day from Warnemunde. I reached out to several guides and found that Jeremy Minsberg The Berlin Expert was very responsive. He encouraged me to find two other couples from our roll call and then he would arrange transport using a minivan from Warnemunde to/from Berlin.

There is so much information available, especially here at CC, that it's fairly easy to DIY most of these places. The Stockholm, Copenhagen, and Helsinki threads on the Northern Europe port of call board were particularly helpful in planning our time in these cities.

Final Planning Tweaks OR Hang in There, the Actual Review is Starting Soon

We were able to get two more couples to join us (also Jewish) so we would be able to have a Jewish-oriented tour of Berlin with Jeremy Minsberg. We planned to all meet for dinner at Qsine on the second night of the cruise so we could get to know each other before our tour.

We also found a guide for the first day in St. Petersburg who was willing to accept hourly payments in USD, Euro or Rubles. She would also arrange a taxi from the port and a taxi from Catherine Palace to the Hermitage.

Then, final payment day came and went. The Brussels attacks had just happened so it appears many folks cancelled and decided to skip Europe. Cabins opened up aplenty. Suite prices came down to the point where I had my TA check on the price difference for us. It was close enough that we decided to take the plunge. Two days later, the price of our Sky Suite came down another $700pp!! I checked with the TA, thinking there was nothing she could do, but lo and behold, she got us the lower price. We now had premium drink packages (upgraded from classic), unlimited internet x2, prepaid gratuities (already had this) and $600 in OBC (up from $300). Not to mention Luminae, Michael’s Club, and the butler.

The cost difference was minimal and the additional perks were actually worth much more than the additional cost. I posted about this on our roll call and several others also took advantage of the deals. We were able to snag an aft Sky Suite on Deck 11.

I did a lot of research on our ports and put everything in a spreadsheet (nerd alert). J prefers shopping for local arts and crafts to museums and palaces, but I told her this trip would include much of the latter so she knew in advance she would need her walking shoes and patience. I tried to work in some flea markets and shopping districts into our itinerary to keep her happy.

Russian Visa Process – OK, so we would need these to go to Moscow. As I mentioned earlier, some other folks on our roll call were also going to Moscow pre-cruise. One couple lived in the DC area and graciously volunteered to walk in our visa applications and passports to the company that processes these for the Russian consulate. It was a huge help as there were minor mistakes on the form that had to be fixed on the spot. We did eventually get our visas and it wasn’t too hard. We now have 3 year multi-entry visas if we want to return to Russia anytime soon. If anyone has specific questions about this, the TripAdvisor Russia forum is very helpful.

We also decided to book a Segway tour in Copenhagen just to try something different. I also researched free walking tours in Stockholm and Copenhagen.

A few weeks before we left, I bought a Russian SIM card for my cell phone as the Verizon overseas plan ($10/day to use your home service plan) does not work in Russia. I wanted to be able to keep up with the office email (I’m self-employed) and use maps, Uber, etc. while in Moscow and St. Petersburg. It was easy to set up the account and have it ready to pop into my phone before arrival.

OK we are just about ready to depart. Just had to get DD14 to Duke the weekend before we left and DD17 to camp on the Monday. Now it’s time to pack and head to the airport on Wednesday June 15th…

6/15 – Flight to London OR Sleeping in a Coffin

My suitcase weighed in at 48lbs and J’s was a little less. J also brought another smaller carryon suitcase and I threw my clothes in there just for the Moscow stay as well. Ordinarily, it would not have made much difference as we were traveling in business class, except we still had that economy leg from Moscow-Stockholm and we did not want to pay 50 Euros to Aeroflot for an overweight or extra bag.

We got to the airport around 5:15pm for our 8:40pm flight. Check-in with Virgin was quick and security was also quick (as it usually is in the separate international terminal at ATL). We headed to the Sky Club in the International terminal. It was fairly crowded but we found a table. I ordered (several) Moscow mules to get into the right mood for the trip 

The club was fairly nice, and the food selection was enough to keep us going. The Sky Deck was closed due to some stormy weather earlier and it was really hot that day as well.

Around T-60, we went to the gate, which took us all of 3 minutes. Our chariot awaited:

Then we waited about 15 minutes until Upper Class/Elite boarding. It was nice to turn left upon boarding. I haven’t done that on an international flight in about 13 years. We were sitting on the right side, both at the window as I had read that the middle aisle seats on the A330s were a little smaller and tighter than the window seats.

We received a Pre-departure beverage of champagne, along with amenity kits (pretty basic) and sleep suits. The Virgin Atlantic safety video is pretty funny with an Austin Powers-type theme. We also received menus.

Following takeoff, the seatbelt sign was turned off fairly quickly so I went and changed into my (supposedly) large sleep suit. It was pretty snug (and this was before my vacation!) I settled down and watched the movie Sisters (Tina Fey/Amy Poehler) as I like stupid comedies when traveling and this one fit the bill nicely. Dinner was then served. I started with the Raspberry Mojito which was very good. The ceviche was OK, but the chicken was drier than Arizona. Cheesecake for dessert was very good (as J will attest after I gave her a taste as well). J had the salad for her main course which she said was excellent. The Sauvignon Blanc was good with the food as well.

One of the nice features was that I could watch the in-flight entertainment and keep the moving map displayed on the handset controller, which had its own miniscreen. Here’s a puzzling fact about the moving map: It displayed shipwreck names as we passed over them, Titanic, Andrea Doria, Lusitania, etc. That seemed a little morbid for a transatlantic flight!

The bed was a little tight, but I managed to get a couple of hours sleep. J said it felt like a coffin. At least there were individual air controls for each seat though so it didn’t get too hot. The flight was pretty smooth with a few bumps over the midatlantic.

About 90 minutes before landing breakfast was served. My stomach was a little upset from all the booze and wine so I wanted a lighter option. I chose the crepes which were just OK. The croissant was very good though, probably the best thing I ate on Virgin. With breakfast I watched Zoolander 2, which was even dumber than Sisters and not as funny.

I did notice the restrooms were kept fairly clean throughout the flight. We took a strange approach, flying all the way down by Southampton and then back up towards London. We landed a few minutes late and taxied in to Terminal 3.

Overall impressions of Upper Class: Food was just OK. Service was very attentive. Seat was comfortable but rather narrow (and coffin-like). Would I pay out of pocket for this? No, but it was worth using miles (especially as the next segment to Moscow was also included for the same amount of miles as just flying to London). We did snag the cute salt & pepper shakers as an added bonus.

Next up: pre-Brexit visit to LHR, the Skyteam lounge and our first experience with Aeroflot.

6/16 – Flight to Moscow or Lost Scotch in Translation

We got in to Terminal 3 and followed the signs for transit passengers. It was a fairly long walk, but we had been cooped up for 8 hours so nice to stretch the legs. We then found the bus transfer area and waited for a Terminal 4 bus which took about 10-15 minutes. The bus ride was another 10 minutes or so across the tarmac and through the other terminals to Terminal 4. We headed upstairs and went through security. For some reason, they were being picky about liquids all fitting in one baggie so we had to rearrange a few things. I always find it odd that in Europe, shoes stay on but iPads come out of bags and are scanned separately.

We followed the signs to the Skyteam lounge and got there around 10:45am just as they were switching from breakfast to lunch. I grabbed some English papers (forgot to mention I was born in the UK and lived there until age 11) and I caught up on the Euro soccer tournament. I was a little annoyed that we were missing the England-Wales match that afternoon due to our flight. Wifi in the lounge was good and we checked in with the kids and my mother-in-law. J somehow also found time to go to her favorite British perfume store while we were there.

The food in the lounge was OK, nothing special but enough to keep us going. They did have a nice self-serve latte machine. J found the nap room with lounge chairs and took a nap for about an hour. Our flight was delayed about ½ hour due to the incoming aircraft being late because of the rainy weather around Heathrow.

When the boarding gate was announced, we headed downstairs. The boarding process was orderly. Our passports and visas were checked prior to boarding and we boarded through the Sky Priority lane. The seats were angle-flat in a 2x2x2 configuration in business class.

We were offered champagne or orange juice prior to departure and given menus and wine lists. Didn’t get a pic of the wine list – sorry.

An announcement was made that no electronics (even in flight mode) were allowed during taxi, takeoff and landing. I thought this was a little odd, but perhaps its due to the language barrier or something like that??

The flight attendants were all very friendly and attentive. After takeoff, meal service began. I ordered their special cocktail with whiskey and apple juice. I also ordered a glass of ice water, but the flight attendant apparently misunderstood and brought me both the cocktail and a separate glass of straight whiskey on ice. I didn’t want to hurt her feelings, so I drank both of course.

The food was actually very good. I got the ham appetizer and J got the salmon. We both had the cod main course and tiramisu dessert. The pretzel rolls were particularly good as well. The table was set nicely, but then the appetizer was served on a cheap-looking plastic tray.

I decided to watch a Russian movie (with subtitles) as when else would I get to see one? It was really good – The Battle for Sevastopol – about a female Soviet army sniper from WWII who was part of a delegation that met Eleanor Roosevelt in Washington when the Soviets were seeking assistance on the Eastern front. It must have been one of the biggest budget Russian movies ever due to the realistic battle scenes (probably financed by some oligarch).

After the meal, the cabin chief came around and asked us how we liked the service, which was a nice touch. He even leant me his name badge so I could use the pin to try and pop out my SIM card and switch to the Russian one, but of course the SIM was cut to the wrong size so I would have to get it fixed in Moscow.

We landed about 20 minutes late and had a long taxi to the gate. We got our luggage fairly quickly and saw our driver standing out in the arrivals area. That’s when we had our first screw up of the trip. We had booked Angel Taxi to drive us to the hotel. The driver, who spoke some English, said we had to wait for another passenger on our flight as the other driver for that passenger was late. We said fine, but no more than 10 minutes as we had ordered a private transfer for a reason. I took advantage of the wait to go get some money from an ATM and found a cell phone kiosk who fixed and installed my SIM card for 500 Rubles (about $7 but worth it as I wanted to be able to use the data I had already paid for). FYI – I was limited to 7500 Rubles per withdrawal and this happened throughout my time in Moscow (except for one machine that let me withdraw 10k Rubles).

After about 15 minutes, the driver said it would only be another 5 minutes. At this point, we had been traveling for 18 hours and were ready to get to our hotel. We told him we would go get another cab after 5 more minutes. Eventually, he said we could go, after yelling in Russian on the phone (I assume to his office). He didn’t offer to help with our bags and he didn’t offer to bring the car around so we had to walk to the back of the parking garage to get in the car. The guy even had the nerve to try and sell us a tour on the way into town. We got to the hotel in about 40 minutes as traffic was fairly light and then the street was blocked due to construction. He dropped us off about 50 yards from the hotel, so I paid him the exact amount I had agreed to in Rubles, grabbed our bags and walked to the hotel. Needless to say, Angel Taxi got a nasty email from me the next day in response to their request for feedback. We used a different company when we went back to the airport.

So, we were finally at our hotel the Courtyard City Center! It was a fairly similar Courtyard to those here in the States. The 7th floor room was nice and had a good view down to Red Square and of the Moscow skyline. The other CC members who were also with us in Moscow had already arrived and we met them for a drink in the hotel bar around 9:30pm. J and I then took a walk down to Red Square, but the gates were closed. We still got a couple of nice pictures though.

We turned in around 11 as we had a long day ahead of us. Up next: Kremlin, Metro, and Bear Meat.

Excellent start to the review. Those biz class seats sure look comfy. Great upgrade on the cruise as well. Waiting to check out the suite pics as well.

Cheers!

Nick

6/17 – Moscow Day 1 OR The History of Russia (Communists Not Really Included)

We woke up at 6, which wasn’t too bad considering the sun rose at 3am. I had researched a couple of interesting places to eat breakfast that were within walking distance of our hotel. Since we had plenty of time before our tour started at 9:30am, I decided we would go here:

Cook'kareku

The name means Cock-a-doodle-doo in Russian. The restaurant is a 24 hour breakfast restaurant (with a full bar – welcome to Russia) that specializes in breakfast from around the world. You get a discount for your breakfast if it is breakfast time (7-9am) in that time zone when you order. To J’s annoyance, I kept quoting the movie “Swingers” – “It says here breakfast any time; I’ll have pancakes from the Age of Enlightenment.”

We used Google walking maps to ensure we were going the right direction from the hotel. One great thing about Moscow’s busy streets is that most large intersections have a pedestrian underpass to avoid having to cross the street. Of course, they weren’t so busy at 6am.

At the restaurant, J ordered the Russian breakfast of salmon, eggs and caviar, while I ordered the Lebanese shakshouka (I had become a fan of this during our recent trip to Israel). The food was good and cheap. On the way there and back, we walked past several embassies and saw plenty of tourist-friendly signs in English.

We met our new CC friends in the lobby at 9:15 and our guide arrived right on time at 9:30. Brief aside: The original guide I booked through ToursByLocals emailed me the week before we left to tell me she had a family issue and could not be in Moscow on 6/17. She assured me that she had procured an experienced replacement to guide us and that we had nothing to worry about. We were a little concerned, but there was not much we could do about it at that point. As it turned out, we had nothing to worry about.

Svetlana arrived wearing her blue hat and promptly gave us a 20 minute overview of the history of Russia from the Mongol hordes to Putin and everything in between. We then walked out of the hotel and towards Red Square. We reached the Alexandrovsky Gardens and she explained the general layout of the Kremlin and Red Square.

We walked over to Red Square, stopping at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

We entered the square and the iconic St. Basil’s Cathedral was in front of us, the State Historical Museum was behind us, GUM was on our left and the Kremlin (and Lenin’s tomb) was on our right.

State Historical Museum

Lenin's Tomb

GUM

We walked down toward St. Basil’s and Svetlana gave us some insight into its building under Ivan the Terrible and subsequent protection from destruction under Stalin.

She also discussed Lenin’s tomb (but it was closed to visitors that day) and GUM, the former state department store, now high-end mall.

At our appointed time (10:45am), we walked back to the gardens and over the bridge into the Kremlin. We stored our backpacks at the cloakroom before we went over the bridge (but cameras and small purses were allowed).

Inside the Kremlin, Svetlana pointed out the Great Kremlin Palace (technically Putin’s residence, although he’s not usually there) and the State Kremlin Palace (former Soviet Congressional hall, now concert venue).

Great Kremlin Palace

State Kremlin Palace

We also passed by the Tsar’s Cannon & Tsar’s Bell, where Svetlana told us the history of each.

Tsar's Cannon (never fired)

Tsar's Bell (with Svetlana)

Then it was time to see the cathedrals. Thanks to Svetlana, we skipped the line at each and were able to enter and see the icons and mosaics as Svetlana provided the history and context of why there are 3 different cathedrals and what each was used for by the Tsars. No pictures allowed in the cathedrals.

At this point, it was time for our Armoury tour (12 noon). We walked over to the entrance (and again walked right in). We were unable to take pictures inside the Armoury and nobody wanted to test the resolve of the Russian museum staff to see if they could get away with it. The museum was great, especially with our guide to provide some context. Frankly, it was huge, and by the end, we were all getting a little tired and hungry. Of course, as is often the case in today’s Russia, everything in the museum stops at 1917.

It was now after 1:30pm and we were ready for lunch. Svetlana took us to a buffet-style restaurant near Red Square. It wasn’t great, but it was quick and gave everybody a chance to sit for 30 minutes and grab a beer with lunch.

Then it was off to the Metro. We entered at Arbatskaya and toured about 8-10 stations, mostly on the Brown (circle) line. Frankly, I didn’t keep track of all the stations, but I did take some good pictures.

Svetlana gave us some interesting insight into the stations’ design and Stalin’s motivations for building the Metro. We ended up at Smolenskaya station and Svetlana gave us a brief tour of the sites in and around Old Arbat Street, including the Pushkin statue:

At this point, it was time to bid farewell to our guide. She did an excellent job and I would recommend her to anyone visiting Moscow.

The other 3 in our group decided to stop for a drink on Old Arbat before continuing on to their dinner plans. J and I looked for a bar to grab a drink before our own dinner plans. We found a place, but it turned out to be a dud. The beer we ordered (on the recommendation of the waiter) was terrible. We walked down to our chosen dinner restaurant a little bit early but it was no problem accommodating us.

We ate here:

чемодан

The menu was very interesting. We started with stroganina, frozen sliced raw fish dipped in salt, pepper & a soy-based sauce. Then J ordered bear, yes BEAR.

It was somewhat disappointing as it was served as a chopped patty, like a burger. I ordered wild boar sausage and it was very good. The Siberian vodka was, of course, excellent.

After dinner, we walked all the way back to GUM to grab an ice cream. It took another 30+ minutes as even though the Kremlin was across the street, we had to go around it to get to Red Square. The ice cream was not great, which we should have guessed as it was really cheap (50 Rubles).

At that point, we had been on the go (mostly on foot) for almost 15 hours. We were ready for bed as we had another big day around Moscow (on our own) coming up. Up next: Dolls, Parks & More Raw Fish

Really enjoying your review! Will be doing a similar itinerary next month.

6/16 – Flight to Moscow or Lost Scotch in Translation

 

We got in to Terminal 3 and followed the signs for transit passengers. It was a fairly long walk, but we had been cooped up for 8 hours so nice to stretch the legs. We then found the bus transfer area and waited for a Terminal 4 bus which took about 10-15 minutes. The bus ride was another 10 minutes or so across the tarmac and through the other terminals to Terminal 4. We headed upstairs and went through security. For some reason, they were being picky about liquids all fitting in one baggie so we had to rearrange a few things. I always find it odd that in Europe, shoes stay on but iPads come out of bags and are scanned separately.

 

We followed the signs to the Skyteam lounge and got there around 10:45am just as they were switching from breakfast to lunch. I grabbed some English papers (forgot to mention I was born in the UK and lived there until age 11) and I caught up on the Euro soccer tournament. I was a little annoyed that we were missing the England-Wales match that afternoon due to our flight. Wifi in the lounge was good and we checked in with the kids and my mother-in-law. J somehow also found time to go to her favorite British perfume store while we were there.

 

The food in the lounge was OK, nothing special but enough to keep us going. They did have a nice self-serve latte machine. J found the nap room with lounge chairs and took a nap for about an hour. Our flight was delayed about ½ hour due to the incoming aircraft being late because of the rainy weather around Heathrow.

 

When the boarding gate was announced, we headed downstairs. The boarding process was orderly. Our passports and visas were checked prior to boarding and we boarded through the Sky Priority lane. The seats were angle-flat in a 2x2x2 configuration in business class.

 

 

We were offered champagne or orange juice prior to departure and given menus and wine lists. Didn’t get a pic of the wine list – sorry.

 

 

An announcement was made that no electronics (even in flight mode) were allowed during taxi, takeoff and landing. I thought this was a little odd, but perhaps its due to the language barrier or something like that??

 

The flight attendants were all very friendly and attentive. After takeoff, meal service began. I ordered their special cocktail with whiskey and apple juice. I also ordered a glass of ice water, but the flight attendant apparently misunderstood and brought me both the cocktail and a separate glass of straight whiskey on ice. I didn’t want to hurt her feelings, so I drank both of course.

 

The food was actually very good. I got the ham appetizer and J got the salmon. We both had the cod main course and tiramisu dessert. The pretzel rolls were particularly good as well. The table was set nicely, but then the appetizer was served on a cheap-looking plastic tray.

 

I decided to watch a Russian movie (with subtitles) as when else would I get to see one? It was really good – The Battle for Sevastopol – about a female Soviet army sniper from WWII who was part of a delegation that met Eleanor Roosevelt in Washington when the Soviets were seeking assistance on the Eastern front. It must have been one of the biggest budget Russian movies ever due to the realistic battle scenes (probably financed by some oligarch).

 

After the meal, the cabin chief came around and asked us how we liked the service, which was a nice touch. He even leant me his name badge so I could use the pin to try and pop out my SIM card and switch to the Russian one, but of course the SIM was cut to the wrong size so I would have to get it fixed in Moscow.

 

We landed about 20 minutes late and had a long taxi to the gate. We got our luggage fairly quickly and saw our driver standing out in the arrivals area. That’s when we had our first screw up of the trip. We had booked Angel Taxi to drive us to the hotel. The driver, who spoke some English, said we had to wait for another passenger on our flight as the other driver for that passenger was late. We said fine, but no more than 10 minutes as we had ordered a private transfer for a reason. I took advantage of the wait to go get some money from an ATM and found a cell phone kiosk who fixed and installed my SIM card for 500 Rubles (about $7 but worth it as I wanted to be able to use the data I had already paid for). FYI – I was limited to 7500 Rubles per withdrawal and this happened throughout my time in Moscow (except for one machine that let me withdraw 10k Rubles).

 

After about 15 minutes, the driver said it would only be another 5 minutes. At this point, we had been traveling for 18 hours and were ready to get to our hotel. We told him we would go get another cab after 5 more minutes. Eventually, he said we could go, after yelling in Russian on the phone (I assume to his office). He didn’t offer to help with our bags and he didn’t offer to bring the car around so we had to walk to the back of the parking garage to get in the car. The guy even had the nerve to try and sell us a tour on the way into town. We got to the hotel in about 40 minutes as traffic was fairly light and then the street was blocked due to construction. He dropped us off about 50 yards from the hotel, so I paid him the exact amount I had agreed to in Rubles, grabbed our bags and walked to the hotel. Needless to say, Angel Taxi got a nasty email from me the next day in response to their request for feedback. We used a different company when we went back to the airport.

 

So, we were finally at our hotel the Courtyard City Center! It was a fairly similar Courtyard to those here in the States. The 7th floor room was nice and had a good view down to Red Square and of the Moscow skyline. The other CC members who were also with us in Moscow had already arrived and we met them for a drink in the hotel bar around 9:30pm. J and I then took a walk down to Red Square, but the gates were closed. We still got a couple of nice pictures though.

 

 

We turned in around 11 as we had a long day ahead of us. Up next: Kremlin, Metro, and Bear Meat.

I'm American living in Moscow the past 6 years. If you have a bank debit card that has no foreign exchange fee (I use Schwab), go to any Citibank location in Moscow. You can get USD from their ATM only. Then exchange them into Roubles at a street kiosk exchange. The best rates are near Metro or train stations. It is legal and most preferred way to exchange.

There is a HOHO bus in Moscow too. You can combine a city and river boat tour.

6/16 – Flight to Moscow or Lost Scotch in Translation

 

We got in to Terminal 3 and followed the signs for transit passengers. It was a fairly long walk, but we had been cooped up for 8 hours so nice to stretch the legs. We then found the bus transfer area and waited for a Terminal 4 bus which took about 10-15 minutes. The bus ride was another 10 minutes or so across the tarmac and through the other terminals to Terminal 4. We headed upstairs and went through security. For some reason, they were being picky about liquids all fitting in one baggie so we had to rearrange a few things. I always find it odd that in Europe, shoes stay on but iPads come out of bags and are scanned separately.

 

We followed the signs to the Skyteam lounge and got there around 10:45am just as they were switching from breakfast to lunch. I grabbed some English papers (forgot to mention I was born in the UK and lived there until age 11) and I caught up on the Euro soccer tournament. I was a little annoyed that we were missing the England-Wales match that afternoon due to our flight. Wifi in the lounge was good and we checked in with the kids and my mother-in-law. J somehow also found time to go to her favorite British perfume store while we were there.

 

The food in the lounge was OK, nothing special but enough to keep us going. They did have a nice self-serve latte machine. J found the nap room with lounge chairs and took a nap for about an hour. Our flight was delayed about ½ hour due to the incoming aircraft being late because of the rainy weather around Heathrow.

 

When the boarding gate was announced, we headed downstairs. The boarding process was orderly. Our passports and visas were checked prior to boarding and we boarded through the Sky Priority lane. The seats were angle-flat in a 2x2x2 configuration in business class.

 

 

We were offered champagne or orange juice prior to departure and given menus and wine lists. Didn’t get a pic of the wine list – sorry.

 

 

An announcement was made that no electronics (even in flight mode) were allowed during taxi, takeoff and landing. I thought this was a little odd, but perhaps its due to the language barrier or something like that??

 

The flight attendants were all very friendly and attentive. After takeoff, meal service began. I ordered their special cocktail with whiskey and apple juice. I also ordered a glass of ice water, but the flight attendant apparently misunderstood and brought me both the cocktail and a separate glass of straight whiskey on ice. I didn’t want to hurt her feelings, so I drank both of course.

 

The food was actually very good. I got the ham appetizer and J got the salmon. We both had the cod main course and tiramisu dessert. The pretzel rolls were particularly good as well. The table was set nicely, but then the appetizer was served on a cheap-looking plastic tray.

 

I decided to watch a Russian movie (with subtitles) as when else would I get to see one? It was really good – The Battle for Sevastopol – about a female Soviet army sniper from WWII who was part of a delegation that met Eleanor Roosevelt in Washington when the Soviets were seeking assistance on the Eastern front. It must have been one of the biggest budget Russian movies ever due to the realistic battle scenes (probably financed by some oligarch).

 

After the meal, the cabin chief came around and asked us how we liked the service, which was a nice touch. He even leant me his name badge so I could use the pin to try and pop out my SIM card and switch to the Russian one, but of course the SIM was cut to the wrong size so I would have to get it fixed in Moscow.

 

We landed about 20 minutes late and had a long taxi to the gate. We got our luggage fairly quickly and saw our driver standing out in the arrivals area. That’s when we had our first screw up of the trip. We had booked Angel Taxi to drive us to the hotel. The driver, who spoke some English, said we had to wait for another passenger on our flight as the other driver for that passenger was late. We said fine, but no more than 10 minutes as we had ordered a private transfer for a reason. I took advantage of the wait to go get some money from an ATM and found a cell phone kiosk who fixed and installed my SIM card for 500 Rubles (about $7 but worth it as I wanted to be able to use the data I had already paid for). FYI – I was limited to 7500 Rubles per withdrawal and this happened throughout my time in Moscow (except for one machine that let me withdraw 10k Rubles).

 

After about 15 minutes, the driver said it would only be another 5 minutes. At this point, we had been traveling for 18 hours and were ready to get to our hotel. We told him we would go get another cab after 5 more minutes. Eventually, he said we could go, after yelling in Russian on the phone (I assume to his office). He didn’t offer to help with our bags and he didn’t offer to bring the car around so we had to walk to the back of the parking garage to get in the car. The guy even had the nerve to try and sell us a tour on the way into town. We got to the hotel in about 40 minutes as traffic was fairly light and then the street was blocked due to construction. He dropped us off about 50 yards from the hotel, so I paid him the exact amount I had agreed to in Rubles, grabbed our bags and walked to the hotel. Needless to say, Angel Taxi got a nasty email from me the next day in response to their request for feedback. We used a different company when we went back to the airport.

 

So, we were finally at our hotel the Courtyard City Center! It was a fairly similar Courtyard to those here in the States. The 7th floor room was nice and had a good view down to Red Square and of the Moscow skyline. The other CC members who were also with us in Moscow had already arrived and we met them for a drink in the hotel bar around 9:30pm. J and I then took a walk down to Red Square, but the gates were closed. We still got a couple of nice pictures though.

 

 

We turned in around 11 as we had a long day ahead of us. Up next: Kremlin, Metro, and Bear Meat.

I'm American living in Moscow the past 6 years. If you have a bank debit card that has no foreign exchange fee (I use Schwab), go to any Citibank location in Moscow. You can get USD from their ATM only. Then exchange them into Roubles at a street kiosk exchange. The best rates are near Metro or train stations. It is legal and most preferred way to exchange. Don't use a hotel ever and banks also give terrible rates.

There is a HOHO bus in Moscow too. You can combine a city and river boat tour.

I'm American living in Moscow the past 6 years. If you have a bank debit card that has no foreign exchange fee (I use Schwab), go to any Citibank location in Moscow. You can get USD from their ATM only. Then exchange them into Roubles at a street kiosk exchange. The best rates are near Metro or train stations. It is legal and most preferred way to exchange. Don't use a hotel ever and banks also give terrible rates.

 

There is a HOHO bus in Moscow too. You can combine a city and river boat tour.

Most preferred by whom? The people that own the street kiosk exchange?

Why wouldn't someone just bring USD from home if they were going to do this method? This seems very convoluted. It was much easier just to withdraw Rubles from an ATM.

I wouldn't recommend the HOHO bus either. The traffic can be awful. Walking or Metro is the way to go. I was disappointed we didn't have time to do the riverboat tour though.

Really enjoying your review! Will be doing a similar itinerary next month.

Thanks! It's a great itinerary.

6/18 – Moscow Day 2 OR Commerce is a Universal Language

Saturday morning we didn’t set an alarm as we figured the sunlight would have us up really early. Well, we were wrong. We woke up at 7:30am and we had planned to be on the Metro by that time to head to our first stop of the day, Izmailovsky Flea Market. It was another beautiful morning with a warm day ahead.

We quickly dressed and walked over to Arbatskaya metro station to get on the blue line. It took about 35-40 minutes to get to Partinzanskaya station and from there it was a straight 10 minute walk to the entrance of Izmailovsky Kremlin/Market.

There is a Disney-ish area in the front of the market, containing souvenir stores and various museums (vodka, bread, miniatures, etc.). It was empty at this hour. Walking through that cheesier section, you come to the actual flea market. There seemed to be few tourists there before 9am when we arrived.

I grabbed us some coffee and a pastry from a stall as we had not had breakfast. J found some good buys here and I just watched her bargain with no Russian language skills. I would bring up my calculator on my phone for vendors to type in their prices. I even found some good prices on American sports-themed Matryushka dolls to bring back as gifts. These were the lowest prices on souvenirs we found anywhere we went, including central Moscow, Arbat, and St. Petersburg.

J found her grandmother's doppelganger

Grandfather Lenin (as the Soviets were taught to call him in school)

Who would take wedding pictures at a flea market?

Actually, we saw lots of wedding couples taking pictures at famous sites all over Moscow and St. Petersburg. It's apparently a big thing in Russia.

We (or rather J) were done with the market around 11am and we walked back through the fake Kremlin (still fairly empty). We headed back to the Metro and took it to Park Kultury (we even changed lines!), one of the stops for Gorky Park. We walked over the Krimsky Bridge and first walked over to the Muzeon Sculpture Park. There was a big music festival being set up (any PJ Harvey fans?) and many of the sculptures had been moved, so we took a pic of the world’s ugliest statue and walked back under the bridge to Gorky Park.

By this time, J was hungry (and cranky) so we stopped briefly for some dumplings at one of the cafes in Gorky Park. It was more of a snack and we were still pretty hungry.

J did some research on the wifi and found a place called Stroganina Bar that served stroganina (the raw Siberian sliced fish we ate the night before). We called them and they said they were open for lunch. I figured out that we could walk through the park to the main entrance and then to the Oktabrskaya metro on the orange line. That would get us to Kitay-Gorod where the restaurant was located. It was around this time that J noticed her foot was bothering her and she was having some trouble walking.

We made it to the restaurant and she enjoyed her stroganina, while I sampled the beer snacks (including reindeer jerky among other things). Russians are big on their drinking snacks (so they can drink more).

We took the metro back to Arbatskaya and returned to the hotel. At this point, it was around 3pm and our dinner reservations were not until 8pm. J needed to rest her foot so she hung out at the hotel while I went to visit the State Historical Museum in Red Square.

Despite Red Square being very crowded on this Saturday afternoon, the museum had no line and was fairly empty. The museum had an English audioguide for rental so I bought that along with the ticket. It’s a chronological setup, from stone age through 1917 (again). There’s plenty of interesting artifacts for the history buff, with emphasis on the “greats,” Peter & Catherine. I noticed that some of the room numbers did not sync up with the audio guide, especially towards the end of the self-guided tour. I spent about 90 minutes there and then headed back to the hotel. Some pics from the museum (the lighting wasn't great and no flash was allowed):

For dinner that night, we had booked White Rabbit, supposedly one of the world’s top 50 restaurants. When I told our fellow CC travelers about it, they asked if they could join us, so we had a reservation for 5 people. Around 7pm, a massive thunderstorm moved in and the skies opened up. Luckily it stopped just as we needed to leave for dinner.

We took an Uber to the restaurant from the hotel and it was really inexpensive – 300 Rubles or <$5. The others took a cab and met us there. The views were great as it is on the 16th floor with huge windows and faces back toward Red Square, the Cathedral, etc. It's a little hard to see through the rainy window:

As it turned out, the food was really good, but the service was all over the place. Courses were coming out at different times for different people. One person got their main course before someone else got their appetizer, etc. It took about 4 hours to finish the meal, get the check and get out of there. I wouldn’t rank it in the top 50 in the world, top 50 in Moscow maybe. The thunder and lightning returned again while we ate, but eased up by the time we left.

We took cabs back because one of our group walked out to the main road and found 2 cabs waiting there. Big mistake – should have just waited for an Uber. The driver went to the wrong Marriott and then when he eventually found our hotel, tried to charge us 1000 Rubles. I said “no way, we only paid 300 Rubles the other way – I’ll give you 500 Rubles max.” He insisted, so I handed him 500 and we got out of the car and ran into the lobby. The other group had the same issue and did the same thing.

By this time it was midnight and we had a 7:15am airport service booked with Lingo Taxi for all 5 of us in a minivan. We packed up our things and crashed for the night, or so we thought. Up next: We board the Silhouette and then quickly disembark the Silhouette.

We packed up our things and crashed for the night, or so we thought.

Don't tell me the fire alarm went off in the hotel during your stay as well! That would be too freaky.