Red October Rates

[swdke]

What is cost of Red October tour? I was wondering about the actual cost of a Red October tour for two days. I had emailed Red October and they provided me with an itinerary and cost. The itinerary reports day one last 10.5 hours and cost $175 per person for a group of 4. Day two last 8 hours and cost $154 per person for a group of 4. According to this, for a group of 4, the total cost would be $329 per person. This seems very high and I am thinking I might be reading the itinerary wrong. Can someone please set me straight? Thank you.

[travelynn]

Hi swdke,

 

I have also requested Red October's itinerary and costs and noted that they have increased significantly over the costs for 2004. It does seem much more reasonable if you add 2 or 4 more people to get a group of 6-8. I think the prices you saw were correct. They include a Mercedes vehicle, private guide, driver and admission for inside visits to the major palaces, churches, and fortress. They also include a group visa, so you do not need to purchase your own visa. We were scheduled to go with RCI on the Jewel this past August and had to cancel at the last minute. The prices for the tour we had set up with Red October were quite a bit less than the amounts quoted for next summer. When I wrote to ask why, they indicated that last year many of the attractions raised their prices significantly right at the very end of December 2003 after Red October had already distributed their prices for the 2004 summer. They honored the prices they had quoted in spite of the increases which they did not pass on. It is clear that this year they are doing a catch-up. I suspect we will see the same type of price increase from the ship as well. When you look at the cost of the ship excursions, they are quite comparable. In 2004 an all day tour of palaces was $175; a city tour with visit to Hermitage was $162; city highlights with Catherine Palace was $152. Not too far different from what you were quoted but with the private tour you have the ability to move quickly from one place to another and to hear the guide at all times. The ship's all day tours do include lunch, however.

 

Lynn

[gbc]

I was on the Grand Princess August 2004 and used DenRus. We paid about $400 per person for a group of 4 (don't remember the exact number). We added all the bells and whistles (hydrofoil, Gold Room) To compare, the Princess 2 day tour ran about $300 per person for a tour bus of 40. We saw twice what the tour buses did and I willingly would have paid twice what Princess charged for the tour we had. St. P is an amazing city and I wouldn't do it other than by private tour.

[Team P]

We used RO this past summer on our trip to Russia. It was very frustrating to see the entrance prices and photo taking prices to be much less than RO was charging their customers. I understand they were providing a service to us.. but to charge so much more then the normal entrance fees seemed a bit fishy to me. My favorite part was when we shopping in the RO store and suggested dhow much we should tip..

I am not sure if we would use them again. We are budget travelers and they are nickel and dimming all of their customers as much as they can.

My suggestion is to look up the prices and call them on the carpet as to why they charge so much more. Especially when it comes to taking photos… We saw a sign in the Church of the Spilt Blood charging 2 US dollars to take photos and RO wanted 5 US dollars… a bit Absurd in out minds.

Just a thought....

Also I know we have all read how RO charges all of their customers their CC fees..Another instance in which they can make a profit off of us...

[juliejoe]

We're with gbc. It may cost you a bit more to go with Red October than it would for the 2 day Princess tour, but you will get so much more! We had two very full days and covered all we possibly could in that time period - seeing much more than we could have as part of a large Princess group. We formed a group of 8 and it cost us about $300 pp. We added the gold room, a canal tour, a subway visit and a stop at a super market to the 2 day tour they suggest. We brought our lunch from the ship both days.

 

Julie

[nny92825100]

In May of 2004 our prices with RO were as follows in USD ($):

Day one

117 per person for 4, 94 for 6, 89 for 8, 80 for 10

 

Day two

117 per person for 4, 97 for 6, 92 for 8 and 85 for 10

 

I believe the folk show at night was 39 per person

[amanda blake]

teamp...I hate to be ripped off..is there an alternative to RO?

[Andee]

We used RO in 2003, and found them to be a good value. The personalization of the tour to our interests, the wealth of information provided, and being able to go at the pace of just 4 people made for two great days. They charged us the posted prices for camera use.

 

We chose to eat in restaurants, but asked if it would be acceptable for 4 people to share 2 lunches, as we don't like large lunches. They were very agreeable, and there was plenty of delicious food.

[DON M.]

What is cost of Red October tour? I was wondering about the actual cost of a Red October tour for two days. I had emailed Red October and they provided me with an itinerary and cost. The itinerary reports day one last 10.5 hours and cost $175 per person for a group of 4. Day two last 8 hours and cost $154 per person for a group of 4. According to this, for a group of 4, the total cost would be $329 per person. This seems very high and I am thinking I might be reading the itinerary wrong. Can someone please set me straight? Thank you.

I am curently communicating with both Red October and Denrus for July. Your quote is about right, we ahve 6 people and will try and add 2 more to put the cost at about $500.00 per couple for the 2 days. I am leaning towards Denrus because of their timely e-mails, a little lower rates and some little things. ie. Red October whats to charge extra to go INSIDE St. Isaccs church ( the 4th largest in the world) while its included with Denrus, I also see as a possible waste of time visiting Red Octobers company store( i could be wrong)

I don't see alot of downside to trying to go with 8 people and by posting on this board and the RCL board it should not be a problem to increase your party.