Best Company For Russia

[YoungDubFan]

I'm starting research for a trip to Russia in 2014. I'm debating between a Baltic Capitals ocean cruise (Copenhagen, Helsinki, Stockholm, Berlin Tallin, St. Petersburg) or a Russian River Cruise.

 

I have read quite a few of the Russian River cruise threads and am trying to figure out, if I do the river cruise, which is the best company to go with. I know that Russia owns the boats used and from what I've been able to figure out, controls the employees and food, and that the river cruise companies only place the program director and maybe 1 or 2 other staff on board.

 

I think that I would want to stay in hotels in Moscow to avoid the traffic delays in getting from the ship to the city center every day. I know that I want to spend at least 2 days in St. Petersburg to be able to see everything. I would really appreciate any guidance / advice / help in my research. I took an Avalon Rhine cruise earlier this year and loved everything about it.

[Talisker92]

I know that both Viking and Vantage have Russian River cruises. We are booked on a Vantage cruise next September. We will be staying in hotels in both Moscow and St. Petersburg.

You will have to check the Viking website to see if they are putting people up in hotels. I agree that staying on the ship is a real time waster.

[jacksonnh]

DubFan - I thought that I read some time back that Viking owns their own ships in Russia. Not sure if that makes a difference as I've not read any post comparing company owned to Russia owned ships but it might be worth checking out. It seems Viking has refurbished their ships in Russia over this past year. I wonder if a country owns a ship how easy would it be for a cruise line, that leases the ship, to get it refurbished and do they pay a portion of the costs?

[franski]

We also looked at a Baltic cruise - but couldn't get to Moscow that way...(one stop that DH was really wanting....). So, river cruise it was.

 

We went with Uniworld - and it was a great trip. The ship was spotless, the crew amazing - and the food much better than expected.

 

I absolutely understand the issue of wanting to stay in hotels in Moscow - as the traffic is horrible. (Not much better in St. Petersburg.... :eek:) But - the metro in Moscow is very easy to manage - and an easy walk from the the dock where the ships dock. Perhaps you could spend an extra day or two at the beginning or end of the cruise??

 

Fran

[didicruiser]

I used Vantage 2 months ago. It was an awesome trip. I loved staying in hotels in St Petersburg and Moscow. I walked around a lot by myself and enjoyed the sites of the cities. The 7 day river cruise portion seems similar with all companies. The boat cabin was small but immaculate and the staff was great. I will be happy to answer any questions!

[4774Papa]

I'm starting research for a trip to Russia in 2014. I'm debating between a Baltic Capitals ocean cruise (Copenhagen, Helsinki, Stockholm, Berlin Tallin, St. Petersburg) or a Russian River Cruise.

 

I have read quite a few of the Russian River cruise threads and am trying to figure out, if I do the river cruise, which is the best company to go with. I know that Russia owns the boats used and from what I've been able to figure out, controls the employees and food, and that the river cruise companies only place the program director and maybe 1 or 2 other staff on board.

 

I think that I would want to stay in hotels in Moscow to avoid the traffic delays in getting from the ship to the city center every day. I know that I want to spend at least 2 days in St. Petersburg to be able to see everything. I would really appreciate any guidance / advice / help in my research. I took an Avalon Rhine cruise earlier this year and loved everything about it.

We did Vantage Russia in 2011. It was great. I compared Viking, GCT and others with Vantage.'

Here is why I picked Vantage.

1) first rate hotels in Moscow and St. Petersburg, others stayed on the boat.

2) great pre and post extensions for Kiev, Ukraine and the Baltics.

3) Viking had poor cc trip reports for its Russian River cruises.

4) Prices were reasonable, and we spent more time in Moscow and some of the others.

 

Our guides and PMs were super. The home hosted meals were great.

[Hydrokitty]

We did Vantage Russia in 2011. It was great. I compared Viking, GCT and others with Vantage.'

Here is why I picked Vantage.

1) first rate hotels in Moscow and St. Petersburg, others stayed on the boat.

2) great pre and post extensions for Kiev, Ukraine and the Baltics.

3) Viking had poor cc trip reports for its Russian River cruises.

4) Prices were reasonable, and we spent more time in Moscow and some of the others.

 

Our guides and PMs were super. The home hosted meals were great.

 

What he said!! Vantage is one of the very few, if not only, company that has you stay in hotels in both Moscow and St. Petersburg and the reason for this is the traffic! It can take 1-2 hours to get from the dock to places in St. Petersburg and in fact, took us 45 minutes to go from our hotel to the ship in Moscow, which was only a few miles! Ship was Russian owned and while it was old, it was super clean, food was not five star but certainly adequate, staff was fantastic and the trip was great. :D

[Coral]

Viking does own their boats.

 

I would definitely recommend staying in hotels in Moscow and St. Petersburg and if possible, extend your stays in these fabulous cities.

 

I was not impressed with AMA and would avoid them. Having done both a land trip and river boat trip in Russia, I much preferred the land trip! I saw so much more that way.

[Hydrokitty]

I used Vantage 2 months ago. It was an awesome trip. I loved staying in hotels in St Petersburg and Moscow. I walked around a lot by myself and enjoyed the sites of the cities. The 7 day river cruise portion seems similar with all companies. The boat cabin was small but immaculate and the staff was great. I will be happy to answer any questions!

 

Could we have been on the same cruise? We left JFK on 8/17 for Kiev pre-trip and actually arrived in Moscow on 8/21 and came home on 9/6....we got caught up in the Lufthansa strike so had a free night in Frankfort.:)

[WarEagle76]

We've done both. The Baltic cruise on Crown Princess (2008) and the Russian River cruise with Viking (2006). If you are really interested in Russia, then the River Cruise will give you the best way of seeing both the large cities as well as some of the smaller towns along the river between the two.

 

We enjoyed both cruises very much and thought Viking did a great job, even on one of their older vessels (at the time). The fact that we stayed on the boat vs. in hotels did not bother us (in fact we like that we only had to unpack once) and we only had one bad traffic situation in Moscow and it was at the end of one day headed back to the ship.

 

The Baltic cruise was also excellent and we visited some places in St. Petersburg that we did not see the first time there. We were in St. Petersburg overnight and met one couple that did go to Moscow during that time, but said in hindsight they would not do it again as spent a great deal of time getting there and back and didn't get to see much. Here is a link to a slide show for the Baltic cruise:

 

http://smengelt.shutterfly.com/1018

[ednotmilkman]

hi, not sure if this is a good place to ask, vs. starting a new thread -

 

Has anyone researched the 2 week cruise on the Volga from Moscow (or 3 weeks if starting from St. Petersburg) south all the way past Volgograd to the Caspian Sea?

 

I have not taken any river cruises at all, but was interested in this one as I like seeeing the coutnryside and small towns more than the whole "museum, cathedral, palace" stuff of the long dead nobility and orthodox church.

 

Edwin

[4774Papa]

hi, not sure if this is a good place to ask, vs. starting a new thread -

 

Has anyone researched the 2 week cruise on the Volga from Moscow (or 3 weeks if starting from St. Petersburg) south all the way past Volgograd to the Caspian Sea?

 

I have not taken any river cruises at all, but was interested in this one as I like seeeing the coutnryside and small towns more than the whole "museum, cathedral, palace" stuff of the long dead nobility and orthodox church.

 

Edwin

I did some research on this cruise. I think it is called Footsteps of the Cossacks.

Feedback on cc for this cruise was that it covered a lot of river, but the places it visited were not that remarkable.

 

We are doing a Black Sea and E. Med cruise with Celebrity in September that stops in three ports in Ukraine and one in Bulgaria.

[YoungDubFan]

Thanks for all the feedback. I think I'm leaning more towards the Baltic capitals cruise, due mostly to length of the cruise. I am still working and 13 - 15 days gets to be a bit much to take time off from work. I really prefer to be gone a total of 11-12 days.

[beverlyjack]

Grand Circle (GCT) has their own owned and operated ships. They have 2 ships, the Tikhi Don and the Rossia. Both were built in East Germany and were in service with Russian cruise lines until Grand Circle bought them and refitted them to be closer to western European standards, enlarging the cabins, upgrading the bathrooms and adding an elevator, and, I assume, upgrading the menu. At one point they had 2 versions of the St. Petersburg to Moscow itinerary, one using the ship for lodging in St. Petersburg and Moscow and the other using hotels in those 2 cities. The hotel version is no longer offered, probably for low demand. I assume that the problem was that Grand Circle could not control the quality of the lodgings or the meals.

 

These ships are not typical of western European river boats , as they must be much more seaworthy, due to a couple of large lakes that they must traverse.

 

We took the trip with them in 2004, the year before GCT introduced its the Tikhi Don. We were aboard the Nikolai Chernyshevski operated by Volgaflot and chartered by Grand Circle. This was and identical ship to the Tikhi Don, before upgrading. The cabins were very basic, and the food mediocre, but it was a wonderful trip. To really experience Russia, you should take this itinerary. To be able to wander around Red Square and the Kremlin was an amazing experience, and to visit the smaller cities along the way let you experience the real Russia.

 

We would be happy to answer any questions on the trip and to dredge up our memories of the trip.

[didicruiser]

Could we have been on the same cruise? We left JFK on 8/17 for Kiev pre-trip and actually arrived in Moscow on 8/21 and came home on 9/6....we got caught up in the Lufthansa strike so had a free night in Frankfort.:)

 

No, I started at St Petersburg 9/10.....what a great trip :)

[Tom47]

We did Vantage Russia in 2011. It was great. I compared Viking, GCT and others with Vantage.'

Here is why I picked Vantage.

1) first rate hotels in Moscow and St. Petersburg, others stayed on the boat.

2) great pre and post extensions for Kiev, Ukraine and the Baltics.

3) Viking had poor cc trip reports for its Russian River cruises.

4) Prices were reasonable, and we spent more time in Moscow and some of the others.

 

Our guides and PMs were super. The home hosted meals were great.

Hi

We did Vantage trip 6-26 to 7-17-12. Our PM commented that Viking no longer pays anything to their PMs--only compensation is tips. Several experienced Viking PMs quit. We picked Vantage because of the hotels in Moscow and SPB also.

Tom:)

Tom

[Hydrokitty]

No, I started at St Petersburg 9/10.....what a great trip :)

 

It was a great trip! My two favorite places were St. Petersburg and Kizhi. What about you?

[Talisker92]

Thanks for all the feedback. I think I'm leaning more towards the Baltic capitals cruise, due mostly to length of the cruise. I am still working and 13 - 15 days gets to be a bit much to take time off from work. I really prefer to be gone a total of 11-12 days.

We are booked on a Russian River cruise next year. Last year we did a Baltic cruise with Princess and enjoyed it. Please make sure that the cruise you select goes to Oslo. Frogner Park is NOT to be missed!!!

The story and pictures of our cruise is on our website. We are happy to answer any questions.

[JohnCH]

YoungDubFan,

We took an Oceania Baltic sea cruise in 2006 that included three days/two nights in St. Petersburg. There was so much to see we felt like we needed all of the time and did not take an optional excursion to Moscow. We were on private tours arranged with other Cruise Critic members. It was by far the best of the ocean cruises we have taken.

 

I can't comment on Russian river cruises. Like you, we took a Basel to Amsterdam cruise on the Avalon Infinity a few months ago. I appreciated your accurate and detailed reports and found them to be very helpful. We enjoyed

the cruise so much we are planning Nuremburg to Budapest in September.

 

Good luck on your choice of the Baltic Sea or the Russian rivers.

[Eggy13]

I was on the Tiki Don in August of 2010. It was a great trip. The cabin was fine. The food was delicious. GCT makes everything easy. The staff is great.

[pacmom]

If I were to do another Russia cruise, I'd pick a company that uses hotels in Moscow and St.Pete. Traffic is horrendous getting from the dock to town. Good luck. Pat

[Coral]

If I were to do another Russia cruise, I'd pick a company that uses hotels in Moscow and St.Pete. Traffic is horrendous getting from the dock to town. Good luck. Pat

 

If I was to go to Russia again, I would just do a land trip (like my first time there). The ports along the Volga really weren't that great. I would rather have more time in St. Petersburg and Moscow.

[WarEagle76]

If I was to go to Russia again, I would just do a land trip (like my first time there). The ports along the Volga really weren't that great. I would rather have more time in St. Petersburg and Moscow.

 

While we thoroughly enjoyed Moscow and St. Petersburg, we couldn't disagree more. We found the cities along the Volga (with the exception of Mandrogy) an interesting contrast to the larger cities of St. Petersburg and Moscow. Kizhi, a Unesco World Heritage Site with its hundreds-year-old wooden structures was breathtaking. Yaroslavl provided us the opportunity to visit a very good store for Russian Laquer boxes which we collect. Uglich was a very picturesque town with an interesting history. We also found the locals in the smaller towns to be much friendlier than those in the larger cities, and after the cruise felt like we had a better overall view of Russia than we would have, had we only visited Moscow and St. Petersburg.

[beverlyjack]

We strongly agree with Wareagle76. Although we loved both St. Petersburg and Moscow and their wonderful sites, it was the smaller cities along the rivers that let us see the true character of the country and the people. Would visiting New York and Washington DC be representative of the US. Petrozavodsk (Peter's Factory) was one of our favorites, a city of about a quarter of a million. We were docked there from about 8 AM to 7 PM, allowing plenty of time to explore the city. After a morning orientation walk, we were able to wander around this easily navigable city which has a has a beautiful park, friendly residents and low key vendors at the dock. We were there with Grand Circle in the fall of 2004. Kizhi Island was also a favorite, but it poured throughout our visit.

[4774Papa]

If I were to do another Russia cruise, I'd pick a company that uses hotels in Moscow and St.Pete. Traffic is horrendous getting from the dock to town. Good luck. Pat

Then go with Vantage. We were one mile from Red Square and one mile from the Hermitage.