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Russian River Cruise August 2015


Buck1949
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Yes - August 2015 :eek:

 

I have managed to get information and prices for the 2015 cruise via Uniworld for either August 7th or August 8th, 2015. The sail date is a bit uncertain until the actual itinerary is published sometime during the first couple of months of 2014. I have heard rumor that the overall pricing is rising possibly 5% in 2015 compared to 2014. :(

 

The cruise is a 13 day river cruise from St. Petersburg to Moscow Russia along the Volga River. While not truly sailing on the waters for the 13 day time period, the ship is being used for 3 days before and 3 days after sailing as a floating hotel. The last day is disembarkation in the early morning. I found that the cruise includes all lodging, food, wine/beer at dinner, as well as all (there are a few optional) excursions also listed. :) From what I have found, gratuities will not be included however.

 

I found the web site for information about this cruise listed as 2014 and hope that it will not vary much for 2015.

 

http://uniworld.com/boutique-river-cruises/russia/

 

I also noted that the Russian river cruise is NOT all inclusive like the other Europe river cruises are advertised starting in 2014.

 

My wife and I, and a few others from Cruise Critic or who we met on the Rhine River Cruise this year have mentioned being interested in a river cruise in Russia. Half the fun is the Planning.

 

Anyone else thinking about going on the Russian River Cruise in 2015?

 

Now if I could just find some decent priced Airfare !!!!

Edited by Buck1949
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Yes - August 2015 :eek:

 

I have managed to get information and prices for the 2015 cruise via Uniworld for either August 7th or August 8th, 2015. The sail date is a bit uncertain until the actual itinerary is published sometime during the first couple of months of 2014. I have heard rumor that the overall pricing is rising possibly 5% in 2015 compared to 2014. :(

 

The cruise is a 13 day river cruise from St. Petersburg to Moscow Russia along the Volga River. While not truly sailing on the waters for the 13 day time period, the ship is being used for 3 days before and 3 days after sailing as a floating hotel. The last day is disembarkation in the early morning. I found that the cruise includes all lodging, food, wine/beer at dinner, as well as all (there are a few optional) excursions also listed. :) From what I have found, gratuities will not be included however.

 

I found the web site for information about this cruise listed as 2014 and hope that it will not vary much for 2015.

 

http://uniworld.com/boutique-river-cruises/russia/

 

I also noted that the Russian river cruise is NOT all inclusive like the other Europe river cruises are advertised starting in 2014.

 

My wife and I, and a few others from Cruise Critic or who we met on the Rhine River Cruise this year have mentioned being interested in a river cruise in Russia. Half the fun is the Planning.

 

Anyone else thinking about going on the Russian River Cruise in 2015?

 

Now if I could just find some decent priced Airfare !!!!

 

Believe it or not, we have been talking to Vantage about this cruise in 2016 :eek:

Supposedly a new ship for them that year and they put you up in hotels at the beginning and end rather than bussing you from the ship those days. Reviews have said that the bus rides into St. Petersburg and Moscow are terrible because of the traffic and it is much better to be in hotels in the city rather than on the ship. But for 2015 we are doing the Elbe (check that off our bucket list) and NCL cruise that stops at two ports in Croatia, Turkey and Greece. So many places, so little time. ;)

B. Cole

Edited by cole
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Believe it or not, we have been talking to Vantage about this cruise in 2016 :eek:

Supposedly a new ship for them that year and they put you up in hotels at the beginning and end rather than bussing you from the ship those days. Reviews have said that the bus rides into St. Petersburg and Moscow are terrible because of the traffic and it is much better to be in hotels in the city rather than on the ship. But for 2015 we are doing the Elbe (check that off our bucket list) and NCL cruise that stops at two ports in Croatia, Turkey and Greece. So many places, so little time. ;)

B. Cole

 

Sounds like you are an advance planner also. This coming summer we are on NCL - Epic out of Rome for 7 days round trip. We are actually going to fly into Venice 4 days early...then take the train to port, and we are staying 2 days afterward in Rome to actually tour the city.

 

I have not gotten beyond 2015 to think of planning just yet, but we have lot's of places we would love to do. We have talked of Paris / Normandy, the Panama Canal, etc. My wife is more of a bus/land escorted traveler and I love the cruises....so the River Cruise has been pretty much of a compromise.

 

We actually were in port in St. Petersburg for 2 days in 2009 and traveled into the city via bus both days. I did not find it too bad at all... of course that was a few years ago, and I can't speak to the traffic in Moscow. I have read reviews that mention that the bus rides can be a pain, but I also noted that there are few river cruises that offer the hotels. We fell in love with Uniworld on our Rhine cruise this summer, and with a lot of things in life - you hate to change things that work well :)

 

Heck you have nothing planned for 2014? :)

Edited by Buck1949
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Sounds like you are an advance planner also. This coming summer we are on NCL - Epic out of Rome for 7 days round trip. We are actually going to fly into Venice 4 days early...then take the train to port, and we are staying 2 days afterward in Rome to actually tour the city.

 

I have not gotten beyond 2015 to think of planning just yet, but we have lot's of places we would love to do. We have talked of Paris / Normandy, the Panama Canal, etc. My wife is more of a bus/land escorted traveler and I love the cruises....so the River Cruise has been pretty much of a compromise.

 

We actually were in port in St. Petersburg for 2 days in 2009 and traveled into the city via bus both days. I did not find it too bad at all... of course that was a few years ago, and I can't speak to the traffic in Moscow. I have read reviews that mention that the bus rides can be a pain, but I also noted that there are few river cruises that offer the hotels. We fell in love with Uniworld on our Rhine cruise this summer, and with a lot of things in life - you hate to change things that work well :)

 

Heck you have nothing planned for 2014? :)

 

Absolutely have 2014 already booked! We are traveling with Uniworld on the Douro in April and Princess on a British Isles Cruise in August (7 nights) from Dover. We also love Uniworld. We were with them in South France and looking forward to traveling again with them on the Douro. We never felt more taken care of than with them. Nothing is in stone for 2016 yet as far as which company we will use.

B. Cole

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Absolutely have 2014 already booked! We are traveling with Uniworld on the Douro in April and Princess on a British Isles Cruise in August (7 nights) from Dover. We also love Uniworld. We were with them in South France and looking forward to traveling again with them on the Douro. We never felt more taken care of than with them. Nothing is in stone for 2016 yet as far as which company we will use.

B. Cole

 

Wow...busy traveler for sure !!!!!!!!!!

 

Enjoy ... sounds like fun !!

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Buck 1949: Bill, I tried to send an email to you via your signature and I got a message come across my computer asking if i wanted AOL to make a change on my hard drive :eek:. Never did connect your you. :confused:

 

Wow, that is weird...... I don't have any email address with AOL, or anything with AOL for that matter......will revisit it in my edit signature line here. In the mean time - buck AT Bestinaz DOT com

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Quote from Buck1949:

We actually were in port in St. Petersburg for 2 days in 2009 and traveled into the city via bus both days. I did not find it too bad at all... of course that was a few years ago, and I can't speak to the traffic in Moscow.

We just got back, and the traffic in both cities is horrendous! The main advantage to sailing with Vantage is they put you up in hotels in the center of both cities instead of busing you in from the ship every day.

We found some great restaurants in St. Petersburg next to our hotel.

Edited by Talisker92
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Hey Buck-- tried second time. hope it went thru. Still deliberating about the Russia river cruise. Take care and have a great New Year!!

 

otis

 

It worked Otis...thanks.... and think HARD about that Russian River Cruise.;)... Looking forward to having you and Joan along. It would be GREAT !!! :D

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Quote from Buck1949:

We actually were in port in St. Petersburg for 2 days in 2009 and traveled into the city via bus both days. I did not find it too bad at all... of course that was a few years ago, and I can't speak to the traffic in Moscow.

We just got back, and the traffic in both cities is horrendous! The main advantage to sailing with Vantage is they put you up in hotels in the center of both cities instead of busing you in from the ship every day.

We found some great restaurants in St. Petersburg next to our hotel.

 

Soviet Café? It's one of my favorite restaurants...we had the most wonderful, reasonably priced meals and a real interaction with a Russian couple sitting next to us who heard us speaking English and asked where we were from....discovered many things in common like careers, education and politics. We spent about 4 hours eating, drinking and solving the world's problems....now if we could only figure out how to get our respective governments to listen to our plans......:D

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I have heard that one of the cruise lines has decided not to do the Russian River cruise in 2015, opting to do a land tour between St Petersburg and Moscow instead. Not sure what cruise line.....but wonder why they would discontinue this popular cruise.

Edited by Buck1949
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Soviet Café? It's one of my favorite restaurants...we had the most wonderful, reasonably priced meals and a real interaction with a Russian couple sitting next to us who heard us speaking English and asked where we were from....discovered many things in common like careers, education and politics. We spent about 4 hours eating, drinking and solving the world's problems....now if we could only figure out how to get our respective governments to listen to our plans......:D

 

Absolutely!! We ate there every night! Plus there is a great Chinese restaurant across the street called nihao. In Cryllic it is spelled HNXAO but the N is backwards

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I have heard that one of the cruise lines has decided not to do the Russian River cruise in 2015, opting to do a land tour between St Petersburg and Moscow instead. Not sure what cruise line.....but wonder why they would discontinue this popular cruise.

 

Bill we are going on the Volga Dream on Aug 14th 2014...the price is around $3500 for 11 nights, incl 3 nights in St P and 2 nights in Moscow. we found this a much cheaper option than many other boats and this is a 5 star boat also

Rod and Barry, Australia

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Bill we are going on the Volga Dream on Aug 14th 2014...the price is around $3500 for 11 nights, incl 3 nights in St P and 2 nights in Moscow. we found this a much cheaper option than many other boats and this is a 5 star boat also

Rod and Barry, Australia

 

Rod and Barry,

I would love to hear how your cruise goes, especially since you are traveling at the same time of year that we are planning. There were some interesting reviews about your ship on Trip Advisor.

 

We opted to go on a cruise that gave us the extra day in Moscow. I noted that AMA waterways also had an 11 day cruise, but my wife and I really wanted to see more of Moscow thus finding a cruise that gave the extra day was important. We did spend 2 days in St. Petersburg in 2009. What a fascinating city/country. That trip gave us the desire to go back and spend more time.

 

Have you made arrangements for your visa yet? Just curious if the requirements for Australian citizens are similar to the US. That part for us seems to be a pain. I am for sure going to locate a visa service agency to help out with the process.

 

Safe Travels,

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Bill we are going on the Volga Dream on Aug 14th 2014...the price is around $3500 for 11 nights, incl 3 nights in St P and 2 nights in Moscow. we found this a much cheaper option than many other boats and this is a 5 star boat also

Rod and Barry, Australia

 

I looked up the ship ,and that price is for an "aquarium" cabin that is 100 square feet (10 foot by 10 foot)

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I have heard that one of the cruise lines has decided not to do the Russian River cruise in 2015, opting to do a land tour between St Petersburg and Moscow instead. Not sure what cruise line.....but wonder why they would discontinue this popular cruise.

 

Bill I read in a post that Vantage was changing it's Russian tour to a land tour but I just got the 2014 catalog and river cruise is still in it. All I can tell you is it was a wonderful trip. The Tolstoy was old but very comfortable. The food was not fantastic but more than adequate. And the land portion (2 nights in Moscow and 3 nights in St. Pete) was fantastic. We also did the pre-trip to Kiev and it was well worth the money and I would suggest it if you have the time to add 5 days to your trip. There were people on our trip who did both pre and post extensions but we couldn't be away that long so we opted for Kiev and will do Baltic Caps with Celebrity instead.

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Bill I read in a post that Vantage was changing it's Russian tour to a land tour but I just got the 2014 catalog and river cruise is still in it. All I can tell you is it was a wonderful trip. The Tolstoy was old but very comfortable. The food was not fantastic but more than adequate. And the land portion (2 nights in Moscow and 3 nights in St. Pete) was fantastic. We also did the pre-trip to Kiev and it was well worth the money and I would suggest it if you have the time to add 5 days to your trip. There were people on our trip who did both pre and post extensions but we couldn't be away that long so we opted for Kiev and will do Baltic Caps with Celebrity instead.

 

Hmmmm I heard that it was beginning in 2015.... but not sure either.

 

We did the Baltic's in 2009 with NCL - from Dover England r/t with St. Petersburg being the highlight of the entire cruise. We did stops at Copenhagen, Helsinki, Stockholm, Tallin, Estonia, St. Petersburg, Warnemunde in Germany, (not in that order) and all were unique in their own way. I am sure you will enjoy the Baltics.

 

Never considered pre/post stops for Russia. Not sure after 14 days or so...if I want to spend more time. Just got back from spending 18 days in Germany etc. and was ready for some R & R at home. :D

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Hmmmm I heard that it was beginning in 2015.... but not sure either.

 

We did the Baltic's in 2009 with NCL - from Dover England r/t with St. Petersburg being the highlight of the entire cruise. We did stops at Copenhagen, Helsinki, Stockholm, Tallin, Estonia, St. Petersburg, Warnemunde in Germany, (not in that order) and all were unique in their own way. I am sure you will enjoy the Baltics.

 

Never considered pre/post stops for Russia. Not sure after 14 days or so...if I want to spend more time. Just got back from spending 18 days in Germany etc. and was ready for some R & R at home. :D

 

Hey Bill, I just checked my catalogs and the one for 2014 still lists Russia with the river cruise. Maybe it is 2015, and if they're dropping the cruise that will be a real shame because while Moscow and St. Pete are truly wonderful, the cruise ports were marvelous, especially Kizshi. I know it's a long time to be away from home but since you've already done the Baltics, I can't push too hard to try and convince you to do Kiev! It was beyond my expectations in its beauty. I would say it was one of the best parts of the trip!! I have photos, if you want to see them, send me an e-mail and I'll send you the link. I haven't figured out how to transfer them from Shutterfly to CC yet:o

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Hey Bill, I just checked my catalogs and the one for 2014 still lists Russia with the river cruise. Maybe it is 2015, and if they're dropping the cruise that will be a real shame because while Moscow and St. Pete are truly wonderful, the cruise ports were marvelous, especially Kizshi. I know it's a long time to be away from home but since you've already done the Baltics, I can't push too hard to try and convince you to do Kiev! It was beyond my expectations in its beauty. I would say it was one of the best parts of the trip!! I have photos, if you want to see them, send me an e-mail and I'll send you the link. I haven't figured out how to transfer them from Shutterfly to CC yet:o

 

Please provide the link. My email link is below my signature line. Would love to see the photos. We can always consider the extra time......... IF I don't run out of money 1st !!! :eek:

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Please provide the link. My email link is below my signature line. Would love to see the photos. We can always consider the extra time......... IF I don't run out of money 1st !!! :eek:

 

Tried to e-mail you but all I got was a notice saying my AOl account (which I haven't used in years) needed updating before it could send message.

 

Judy

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Hmmmm

 

Did you click ON my name....or the line below? Should click on the line below.

 

anyway.... buck (at) bestinaz (dot) com

 

 

Thanks,

 

Same thing happened to me, but when I clicked on your link from my ipad your email address came up. Strange.......:)

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Hmmmm

 

Did you click ON my name....or the line below? Should click on the line below.

 

anyway.... buck (at) bestinaz (dot) com

 

 

Thanks,

 

I clicked on "click here" not your name. Sending the link now. Let me know if you get it. I've sorted pictures into categories so at least you'll know what you're looking at. The scenes of the police station were taken from our hotel room which was at right angle to the station and St. Michael's Square. Enjoy.

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Same thing happened to me, but when I clicked on your link from my ipad your email address came up. Strange.......:)

 

I just did that too and e-mail address came up. It must be an Aol thing. It's funny because I haven't had an Aol account for almost 10 years!

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