Back from AMAKatarina Moscow to St Petersburg

**

There were good and bad elements to the experience. We lowered our expectations as suggested. I*don't think AMA found any new clients based on this trip, but you will learn and see a lot of Russia.

The food remains overcooked and not very good, but edible. I uniformly ordered the vegetarian entry - I cannot recommend ordering meat, chicken, fish etc. You won't starve, but you won't be overeating! There were a few logistical problems, such as dinners for half the table arriving 20 minutes apart, but they only happened a couple of times. The same wine is poured every night - a Russian Chardonnay that tastes more like Sauvignon Blanc and Merlot. The Chilean Chardonnay available in the bar is OK (180 rubles), but it is not poured at dinner. Every day you could sign up in the morning to eat dinner in the Symphony restaurant. Same menu, same food, just a smaller dining room. You can sign up a whole table if you are traveling with friends.*

The young restaurant staff worked very hard and we thought they were a bright spot, along with the young college students who accompany the tours, hand out headsets, make sure all are accounted for etc. The tours and guides everywhere were uniformly excellent as was the onboard lecturer, Lara. We did not have Marina as our cruise director, but a young man and woman, who tried but they but obviously weren't seasoned in their jobs - quite a few communication and other issues arose, but nothing major or a big deal. Overall I observed a lack of customer service mentality and orientation from most, but not all of the staff.

Accommodations are not great. My friend described them as "Motel 6". The bathroom especially is pretty bad (small, tiny shower with plastic curtain, no counter space, vanity opens the wrong way taking up most of the bathroom, faucets reversed, towels thin and not replaced at night, institutional hair dryer placed not in the bathroom but next to the bed) but you can probably fit all of your stuff into the vanity. Storage in our cabin was fine (we were in a Marinsky suite but the wardrobe looked the same in all cabins on our deck (3). We*could fit everything into the wardrobe and on the shelves, but I would bring some of your own hangers and those packing cubes to keep socks, undies, etc in on the shelves. There is a separate space that will hold your luggage.*

Tips must be paid in cash and cannot be added to your account, but can be paid in rubles, dollars or euros. At the end of the cruise you can get rid of your remaining rubles and put the balance on your credit card.

Internet was sporadic; mostly off. We had no internet at all while in St Petersburg. But it was free, such as it was.

Moscow traffic for us was not too bad. We arrived 2 days before the cruise, arriving around 8 PM on a Thursday night. The airport passport control was a nightmare. It took 1 1/2 hours just to get thru passport control, but only 45 minutes to get to our hotel near Red Square. Friends who arrived in mid afternoon, however, did not have a wait at passport control and it also took them around 45 minutes to get to the hotel. *Our first day touring with AMA was Sunday so there was no issue with traffic. Monday morning it was slow but not gridlock and returning to the ship after 5 the traffic was moving.*

I am happy to answer any further questions.

Hi lkbside,

Wow!! Which date was your river cruise? We are leaving September 6th and on Friday AMA assured me that Marina was aboard and that someone from corporate was also. Was someone from corporate aboard your date. I just read the worst possible review of the ship which was posted on August 18th by sailj133 on CC's member review of the Katarina. Would you read the review and post back here your thoughts or just email me at scorpiosheila at yahoo dot com. There are 10 of us on Cruise Critic on this September 6th sailing and we are all very concerned since it is too late to cancel. I certainly don't want money off a future cruise with AMA as I heard the people who sailed on the first couple of sailings received.

Thanks.

Sheila

Interesting to hear that the food did not get any better on your cruise. Sheila had pointed me to a site that stated that the Russian chef was being replaced. My guess is the Russian food temperature regulations make the meat so dry and overcooked. Though, when I think about it, My Dad, whose parents were Russian, didn't know that meat did not have to be cooked to charcoal. Perhaps well done is a cultural thing?

Perhaps Marina was on vacation?

We found that the crew were quite fluent in English and very, very attentive to our needs. When after the first day our towels were not being replaced properly, we went to the desk and politely asked that we get two bath towels, two hand towels, one bath mat and two wash cloths each day. After that it was never a problem.

I think the OP might have mixed up the barbecue at one stop with the locally hosted lunch at Yaroslavl. Everyone on our cruise had soup and salad and dessert at the host home. It was prepared by the host. Not everyone went to the same home. We have a lovely lunch and a delightful hostess.

The barbecue was cooked over hot coals by the company running the big pavilion where the meal was served. Neither place got food from the ship. I do know that Anthony, the chef consultant from AMAwaterways was present and supervising the cooking of the meats at the barbecue.

Unfortunately, I'm on the road in my little motorhome so I don't have my photos with me, but I'll be home later next week (Sheila, I'll send the journals then) and I would be happy to email anyone the photos of our hostess and her garden and home

Hi Kellie,

Hope you are having a good time in your motor home. AMA wants to charge us $8.00 per hour for the internet service on our own laptops or iPads. That was the "straw that broke my back"!! Everyone so far has reported that internet was intermittent and FREE. I called yesterday and someone is supposed to get back to me. I have the feeling that everyone at AMA just wants the Katarina to sink somewhere (without passengers and crew) since they have a five year contract with the Russian Corp that owns her. There better be no big problems when we sail or I will certainly tell ALL my TA and friends all over the World to never book a cruise with them. I am bringing lots of packages of dry soup with me for dinner. I'll just bring extra blood pressure pills for the water rentention.

Best regards,

your friend, Sheila

Hi lkbside,

 

Wow!! Which date was your river cruise? We are leaving September 6th and on Friday AMA assured me that Marina was aboard and that someone from corporate was also. Was someone from corporate aboard your date. I just read the worst possible review of the ship which was posted on August 18th by sailj133 on CC's member review of the Katarina.

 

Sheila

I just read his review and another one. I had to laugh at one of the comments on one of the reviews that said that through out the cruise, there was more space in the dining room as people must have stopped eating there. That is exactly what I did a few years ago. I ate a lot in the morning (yogert, fruit, etc...) and skipped lunch and dinner.

You know my thoughts about AMA. I don't think they are a first class organization and can't recommend them. I saw your posts about bringing snacks from home - that is very wise and I am so glad I did that.

On the other hand - you will see Russia. I thought AMA could have done a better job of showing us Russia (as I had been previously and they had done a much better job) but you will see Russia. You may need to be adventurous on your own to maximize your time where you want it. Just be pro-active and don't hesitate to leave the group, do your own thing, etc...

So if AMA is not what you had expected - you can still make the most of your time in Russia. You will be in Russia - it will be amazing and years from now your memories will be of what you saw in Russia and you can laugh at the negatives. I still laugh at the day they did bilini tasting (which were good) and they also had dill pickles that day with them. I ate a ton as I knew they were far better then what was being served at dinner. Others were eating caviar and I took all the pickles. Go figure.

While I wished I had gone with a different company or traveled differently (hotels), I don't regret going.

Go and make the best of it!

Interesting to hear that the food did not get any better on your cruise. Sheila had pointed me to a site that stated that the Russian chef was being replaced. My guess is the Russian food temperature regulations make the meat so dry and overcooked. Though, when I think about it, My Dad, whose parents were Russian, didn't know that meat did not have to be cooked to charcoal. Perhaps well done is a cultural thing?

 

I doubt it is a cultural thing. I had been to Russia previously and had fabulous food.

On my cruise - the food wasn't just overcooked, it was a matter of AMA buying very low quality meat products and not caring how it is cooked. My friends who had been on other lines did not have the same complaint - they felt the food was similar to their river cruises in Europe. This seems to be a repeat complaint (food) with AMA and Russia from reading posts/reviews (not just my opinion).

Thanks for your good thoughts, Coral. We will make the best of it and enjoy the sights of Russia. My DH and I are history buffs and very ardent travelers. Next year is India and the Taj (the 8th modern Wonder of the World for us) and a river boat trip from Bucharest to Budapest both on Tauck. Glad we did Egypt and Jordan two years ago. I was just greatly disappointed because I believed AMA's press releases. We will NOT be back on that line again.

Sheila

Excellent, well-balanced review.

Sheila, I wish you a great Russian experience, despite the potential falterings of AMA. You sound like a very well seasoned traveler, and I bet you will get the most out of touring and making the best of the situation, good, bad or otherwise. I know from your numerous posts that you are a huge fan of Tauck, as I am. Tauck never compromises with quality and I suspect the reason they have avoided Russian river cruising has to do with possible inability to maintain quality control on their part. How grand it would be for Tauck to tour this part of the world and show how a class company would do all the right things!

My AMA findings echo Coral's. Having been on 1 European river cruise with AMA, we were tremendously disappointed with the quality and preparation of the food and overall dining room experience. That being said, we shall never cruise AMA again. I would find it completely unacceptable to be toting along food for this or any cruise, to supplement low quality/poor preparation meals.

Complaints of ill-prepared, low quality food have been a constant complaint of many AMA cruisers. Why this problem hasn't been/isn't fully addressed and rectified continues to be a puzzlement.

Sheila, have a great time. Safe and very enjoyable travels to you.

Thanks for your good thoughts, Coral. We will make the best of it and enjoy the sights of Russia. My DH and I are history buffs and very ardent travelers. Next year is India and the Taj (the 8th modern Wonder of the World for us) and a river boat trip from Bucharest to Budapest both on Tauck. Glad we did Egypt and Jordan two years ago. I was just greatly disappointed because I believed AMA's press releases. We will NOT be back on that line again.

 

Sheila

One day - I hope to be as well traveled as you are!

You will enjoy Russia (I think this is your 2nd time - I believe you hit St. Petersburg previously). It is a beautiful country with incredible art, architecture, history and wonderful people. I am also a big history buff and am still in amazement at the history Russia provides. I hope to return for a 3rd trip in the next few years (will be doing a hotel and take a train between Moscow and St. Petersburg).

India sounds fabulous! The Taj is definitely on my list and so is Egypt!

Hi nyfeds,

Thank you for your post. You are absolutely correct. We asked one of our recent guides and she said that Russia River Boat cruises are a tough market to maintain quality control. I can't see Tauck doing a river boat trip there if they couldn't control the product.

Will let everyone know how it goes. We have about 10 Cruise Critic members going on this September 8th river cruise. We're all going to get together for a BIG drink after boarding.

Sheila

You've got great future travel plans, Sheila.

Without question, you will find the best out of this cruise in your overall touring experiences.

You had asked how recently the OP got off the vessel. This individual is a friend of mine. She got off the vessel about a week ago. Her comments are to be valued and trusted completely. She is as seasoned a traveler as yourself.

As an aside, Sheila, could you please email me as I have a couple of Tauck questions for you. I had corresponded with you some time ago and hadn't retained your email address. Thanks

dgf1550@gmail.com

It appears the OP was on the August 6th trip (from looking at their previous posts).

Hi again Coral,

Have you read Kristin Hannah's book, "Winter Garden", or Debra Dean's, "The Madonnas of Leningrad"? They are both about the Siege of Leningrad and just heart breaking!! I will have a new understanding of the artwork in the Hermitage after reading those books. What the people did to save the artwork was amazing while they were starving during the siege.

Sheila

Hi all,

This is like dating a bad boy. Just when you get your hopes up........I could not find the Aug 6 trip posting.....Sheila, thanks for the forward.

Hope I can learn to love vodka. Bringing an extra suitcase with food and matruyshka dolls, pillows, towels and fur hats to sell on board. I could get rich in 11 days! Also bringing cards, a complete pharmacy and a plastic raincoat to sleep and have dinner in.

Well, I never thought Russia would be like going to France.....and I'll try anything once (except fish stewed in milk)

Mutiny on the Volga, anyone?

Hi Dee,

Needed to laugh today and you just made me do so. We are all stuck and now have to make the best of this situation. After your Visa fiasco, this must be all too much! Did you find the review by sailj133 which is on the Member Review's section (date of publication -- 8/18/11) for a June cruise? The best part which rings true to me is the remark about the lack of pictures provided of the ship. I remember calling AMA a week before the innaugural sailing to ask why their website did NOT have a photo of the AMAKatarina on their website. I was told by a gentlemen at AMA that AMA does everything top notch and wanted to wait to take photos of the ship during that first sailing.

Wish you, your DH and friends a safe journey to St. Petersburg. See you then.

Sheila

We were on the August 6th sailing.

My TA had 2 clients on the sailing before ours and they told her Marina was scheduled to stay on, so maybe she became ill or needed some time off for personal reasons. The season is short so I doubt anyone would take a vacation. Hopefully she will be back for your trip as so many have raved about her.

I am traveling home today from Berlin and will try to post again after I read the other review.

Leslie

Read the review. A few comments from our experience.

There were no issues with lack of water or hot water and as far as I know no leaking water anywhere. The water pressure in the shower was very good. The A/C worked all the time, but they did say either the A/C is in or the heat is on. There did not seem to be any way to really individually control the temp in the room, but I thought it was comfortable. One day it rained and was quite chilly in the Panorama lounge, but otherwise public rooms were OK.

We did not do an arrival transfer so can't speak to that, but we did a departure transfer from ST Petersburg. The ship's crew loaded our bags in the bus and it took about 20 minutes to get to the airport at 4:30 AM. It will take longer later in the day, but the ship docks outside the center in the way to the airport. Once we got to the airport we were on our own and needed to unload our own luggage and then proceed through security at the entrance. AMA sent one young woman along to answer questions but did nit have anyone to help people who might need assistance luggage wise.

You can smell diesel fumes in the lower back in the hallway leading to the room where they present the lectures. I don't know about any cabins on that level. The boat vibrates a bit at the back, but not badly. our cabin was on deck 3 in the middle and we did not experience any problems. We did not spend any time on the sun deck with it's array of plastic chairs, but you could smell diesel fumes up there.

I disagree with the reviewers summation of the tours. We thought they were all very good and we learned a lot about history and life in present day Russia. All of our local guides were great, although 4 of us did private tours in St Petersburg since we had been before and seen the main sights so I can't speak to the ship tours there. The group of 8 of us on my sailing thought the food on the boat trip on the Moscow River was the best of the trip and logistically it was not a problem.

It poured the day we were in Sviristroy so the barbecue outside did not happen, instead they served it inside. Overdone chicken, pork and vegetable kebabs.

The dinner in a home in Uglich was delightful. I believe every house served the same thing- cabbage soup, salad, vegetables. We all thought it was one of the highlights of the trip.

The dining room is crowded and tables too close together. This is only a problem at breakfast since it is buffet, at lunch and dinner it is mainly a problem for the wait staff. Pretty much all the tables in the main dining room are round 6 tops with a few rectangular. There were four tables for two upstairs in the Symphony dining room, available for sign up every morning at 7. We did not experience a thinning out of passengers as the cruise went on, but there wasn't a big line up for the dining room either.

We thought most of the staff spoke very good English and did nit find that to be an issue. Many are university students and happy to have this as their summer job.

As far as I know there was no corporate AMA employee on board, nor an executive chef. Maybe this was the case earlier in the season.

Leslie

Hi Leslie,

Thanks for your quick reply. The member cruise reviews have been awful and there are about ten of us from CC on the September 8th sailing. We all appreciate your posts to this board.

Sheila

Hi again Coral,

 

Have you read Kristin Hannah's book, "Winter Garden", or Debra Dean's, "The Madonnas of Leningrad"? They are both about the Siege of Leningrad and just heart breaking!! I will have a new understanding of the artwork in the Hermitage after reading those books. What the people did to save the artwork was amazing while they were starving during the siege.

 

Sheila

I don't think I have read either of those. I have a history major with an emphasis in Russian History so a lot of my readings were from college and those 2 don't ring a bell. Before I left to go to Russia this last time, I read more current items which surprised the heck out of me on how much things had changed (the wealth in Moscow, the clash/division of classes, etc...). I will put those on my list of books to read.

The weird thing is that if I had not previously been to Russia - I probably would have thought AMA's tours were good. The fact that I had been there previously - I realized how much we didn't see. For example - at Peterhof, we saw Monplasisir as opposed to the Grand Palace. No comparison. They could have sprung the $$$ to visit the better palace.

Someone mentioned about AMA's misleading brochure. I can't complain too much about the Tolstoy (except for food) as I knew exactly what I was getting and wasn't disappointed in the ship. It too was hyped as the best ship in Russia at the time and there were very few pics in the gallery for it. The weird thing that caught me was they were boasting that they were the only riverboat line that attended a show at the Bolshoi with an astrick that said "when available". Well - it turns out that the year I went (2007) it had been closed already for 2 years (2005) for renovation and wasn't scheduled to open until 2009 at the earliest (it had been delayed and is now scheduled to open at the end of this year). They had to know when they printed the brochures that there was no way in heck that we were going to go.

Sheila, I do hope you and your CC friends will post a thorough review of your September experiences.

We've followed this thread with considerable interest and have decided NOT to do Russia on the basis of what we've read. Part of this decision is based on the fact we've already been to SP for three magnificent days on a Regent cruise and my partner has also been to Moscow twice. But "Motel 6" accommodations don't do the trick for us. And the food descriptions and photographs we have received via email are pathetic. One passenger wrote "It's amazing what you are willing to eat when you are really hungry."

We are currently booked on AMA this November on the Mekong River and we fully expect our AMA experience will be excellent. Our take on all this, and it may be wishful thinking, is the AMA made a huge mistake signing on for five years with the Russian company who owns and runs Amakatarina. The company doesn't even recognize the name Amakatarina. And then they compounded the mistake by overhyping this trip. Uniworld adds a qualifier in their marketing literature warning clients not to expect Europeans standard on their Russian riverboat.

We have, however, switched from AMA to Tauck for our Budapest to Amsterdam trip in 2012. Your review, Sheila, was a great motivator.

Do our esteemed travelers have any advice on this topic? I am told that the best solution is to buy a sim card when we get to Russia, that my number will be different but that I will avoid the roaming charges otherwise incurred. ($5 a minute)

There's a Welcome Aboard cocktail party? Woo Hoo!:)

Hi Island Cruiser,

The ten of us will have to get together on the ship and write one review of our river cruise for publication on this wonderful board.

By the way, I can't take credit for the review of the Danube River Cruise on Tauck. It goes to Host Sheila of Cruise Critic. We did compare notes about the good job Tauck does since this was her first tour with them. We've been on their other small ships and they are just as good. We've taken the small yacht Le Ponant to the Med (60 passengers), a small ship Le Levant (90 passengers) to Croatia and a small boat in the Galapogos, the Isabella 2.

Just wanted to draw your attention to a press release on Ralph Grizzle's little email publication which arrived in my mailbox today. AMA is now separating the river cruises to Russia, Vietnam and Cambodia to a separate part of their organization, called AMA Voyages. I hope they will find a competent person to run it. I did hear good things about their tours to Vietnam. I know you will enjoy your experiences there. We've been there twice and loved it. November is a good time to go.

Sheila

Oops, different Sheila. Sorry about that.

To Island Cruiser,

Don't worry, I'm sure Host Sheila won't mind. She's very nice.

Sheila M.

I'd love to take several of the Tauck small ship cruises some day. They look great. We were on the Celebrety Xpedition in the Galapagos Islands for seven days. The ship was small and the cabins small but five star IMO. Small doesn't have to mean "Motel 6" by any means.