Russian River Cruise in May - Is it OK

Looking at river cruises from St Peterburg to Moscow, (or vice versa), in early May. Some good prices for that time of year, has anyone done it before? We realise it will not be particularly warm, so will need jackets, but wondering if there may be any other disadvantages. We need a good price, so are prepared to have some disadvantages, but would like to know what to expect.

Also, any suggestions of a good, reasonably priced, company to travel with would be greatly appreciated - do not want too cheap if it is a bad cruise experience. We would likely go for a standard outside cabin, rather than a veranda, for cost reasons, so any comments regards lower deck cabins would also be of use to us (e.g. would we be best booking the front of the ship to avoid engine noise). We have only done one river cruise so do not know much about the pitfalls of certain cabins or companies. We travelled with Viking on their Bucharest - Budapest route, in a lower deck cabin near the front, previously and found the cruise and cabin good.

I did StP to Moscow on late May 22 years ago and it was hot (upper 80s) but that was abnormal. Expect 40s to 60 in StP & Moscow, and 40 in Kizhi. Bring adequate layers and you be fine. Less rain than during the summer.

Thom

Looking at river cruises from St Peterburg to Moscow, (or vice versa), in early May. Some good prices for that time of year, has anyone done it before? We realise it will not be particularly warm, so will need jackets, but wondering if there may be any other disadvantages. We need a good price, so are prepared to have some disadvantages, but would like to know what to expect.

 

Also, any suggestions of a good, reasonably priced, company to travel with would be greatly appreciated - do not want too cheap if it is a bad cruise experience. We would likely go for a standard outside cabin, rather than a veranda, for cost reasons, so any comments regards lower deck cabins would also be of use to us (e.g. would we be best booking the front of the ship to avoid engine noise). We have only done one river cruise so do not know much about the pitfalls of certain cabins or companies. We travelled with Viking on their Bucharest - Budapest route, in a lower deck cabin near the front, previously and found the cruise and cabin good.

Keep your camera always at ready. Many great opportunities for people pictures in Russia. I took these on our Viking cruise there in 2016.

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Looking at river cruises from St Peterburg to Moscow, (or vice versa), in early May. Some good prices for that time of year, has anyone done it before? We realise it will not be particularly warm, so will need jackets, but wondering if there may be any other disadvantages. We need a good price, so are prepared to have some disadvantages, but would like to know what to expect.

 

Also, any suggestions of a good, reasonably priced, company to travel with would be greatly appreciated - do not want too cheap if it is a bad cruise experience. We would likely go for a standard outside cabin, rather than a veranda, for cost reasons, so any comments regards lower deck cabins would also be of use to us (e.g. would we be best booking the front of the ship to avoid engine noise). We have only done one river cruise so do not know much about the pitfalls of certain cabins or companies. We travelled with Viking on their Bucharest - Budapest route, in a lower deck cabin near the front, previously and found the cruise and cabin good.

Don't miss the tour of the Moscow subway station. You can see pictures here in my previous post on this forum. It's an included tour on the Viking extension.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2502214

And if you stay at the Radisson Royal on the Viking extension, eat dinner one night at the restaurant on top. Great food and ambiance. Also walk across the river after dark to get a great picture of hotel lit up.

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Thank you both for those replies, which are very useful - pics are very good too. Makes me more keen to go there.

We are thinking of spending some time in Moscow post cruise independently. We will have to get a visa anyway, so why not. I asked Viking if they can delay a return flight and they are prepared to do that and we could always arrange a private local guide for anything we think we would really need one for. Would take a bit more organisation than just doing the Viking add on, but it would likely be a lot cheaper and perhaps a bit more fun. We are pretty well travelled even in less developed countries, so that should be fine for us, though we will be careful as our son had his wallet stolen in Moscow when a a school exchange trip a good number of years ago.

Thanks again,

Barbara