I am off.... Amadeus Tolstoy

[Coral]

I am all packed - I leave Wednesday morning for Amadeus Tolstoy. This is my first river cruise.

 

I want to thank everyone from this board for answering my countless questions - especially Benita and Shari who did this cruise last year. They were a tremendous help.

 

I had planned to bring my laptop with me and write a review on my long flight back. Due to my over packing - the laptop is staying at home. I will definitely do a review but it will probably be over the 4th of July weekend.

 

Again, thanks everyone for all your help! Pray to the sun gods for me as there appears to be a little bit of rain in the forecast.

 

Theresa

[2travelers]

Hi Coral: I hope you read this before you leave. I am looking foward to your reports as we leave for the same trip on July 17th. Please let me know how many rubles you needed to get through the trip. I expect that we will charge what we can and tip in USD, but I know that ATMs are not in the smaller towns and that the ship doesn't exchange money. I believe that the last time I checked it was 25 rubles to 1 USD - so I was thinking about cashing $50 at the airport when we land. On the other hand I don't know how expensive things will be. The last time we were there everything was fairily inexpensive. I don't expect to do to much on the ship that will require rubles (bar tabs, spa) but I am sure to find things to buy in the smaller towns. Any advice you can give me will be greatly appreciated. Have a safe and happy trip...will be waiting to hear from you.

Ronnie

[Coral]

Will do.

 

I have converted $225 US dollars to Rubles here in the US. The rate you mentioned is about right. I need to get some more $20's tomorrow (US). I was sort of lost on how much US currency to bring (I am not used to having a lot of cash with me). I have tons of fives and ones.

 

I will be able to answer questions right away when I return - I just won't have my review ready until around the 4th of July.

 

I may have some laundry done on the ship though I am bringing tons of clothes!!!! It is in the 90s today in St. Petersburg but will be 70s when I am there.

 

-Theresa

[2travelers]

Thanks a bunch, Coral. Maybe I should have my bank buy Rubles for me. Last year I had them get us Euros and were able to get New Turkish Lira from a friend. I only did that because we were doing a pre-cruise in Istanbul and I didn't know if I would be able to get Euros easily...I paid a king's ransome to have the bank do it, but the Euro was (and stil is) high against to the dollar. I will check my bank's rates and make a decision...the dollar is strong in Russia. I expect to take $100 in singles because it is easy to bargain using dollar bills. We also found ourselves giving dollars to the elderly in St. Petersburg. They are the folks who suffered the most when Communism fell..they worked for the state all their lives expecting to be taken care of in later years and now they have nothing. Dollar bills are the way to go. I will check with my bank tomorrow - I stopped trusting the ATMs in foreign countries when we couldn't get them to work in China. I alway make my husband take $100 where ever we are just to see if we can access money!!! You are in for a real treat - you will love St. Petersburg...the rest is all new to me, so I can't wait. Happy sails!

[Coral]

Surprisingly - the ruble has been gaining on the dollar the past few months. I kept watching it hoping it would turn directions.

 

It has been 18 years since I did a land trip in highschool to Moscow and Leningrad (St. Petersburg). I can't wait to see the changes from Soviet time to now.