Back from AMAKatarina Moscow to St Petersburg

[Coral]

Small doesn't have to mean "Motel 6" by any means.

 

I will take small over big any day! IMO - small usually means $$$$ and better service.

[lkbside]

Sheila - I was thinking about your impression that there will be a charge for internet. First off, I don't think the AMA corporate staff really has any answers about Russia, but more importantly, I cannot begin to imagine that the boat has the technical systems to track and bill for internet.

 

They were not very organized at the reception desk and found it a challenge just to split people's bills between rubles and credit cards. Check out took forever. They didn't take a credit card imprint upon boarding so everybody had to go check out - it took me 45 minutes in line and there were maybe 5 people ahead of me and 2 or 3 staff working the desk, only one of whom could do the check outs. There is no way they could deal with billing incremental usage of internet. Plus the service is so spotty and off and on who knows how much time you might actually "use"

 

Leslie

[Hibiscus13]

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!:)

 

We have done this in Mexico, taken our iPhone 4 and put in a Telcel sim card without trouble. We are also planning to do this in Australia this coming winter. I haven't done any research about Russia, but we are hoping that it's as easy there as it has been in other places. Any feedback would also be appreciated!

[CC Help Jenn]

Hi There:

 

We would LOVE to have you submit a member review on this cruise. If you would like to submit a review you can do so here:

 

http://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreviewform.cfm?ShipID=635

 

If you have any questions or concerns please feel free to shoot me an email.

 

Thanks in advance !

[shoshona2]

Hi Leslie,

 

Really appreciate your posting here about the Katarina. In our docs was a note that there would be a charge for internet. Since no one has reported back that they were charged, I called AMA on Friday and asked to talk to someone who knew something about what is going on on the ship. I got a call back from a gal who said she would check out about the charge for internet and about Marina not being aboard your cruise. Yesterday, I received a call back from the same person who said they have been told to tell everyone that there would be a charge, but the internet use is complimentary. So, I said, "How can it be complimentary if there's a charge?" She said that they wanted us to be surprised with a gift of free internet. When we were in Europe in July, the hotels had codes on cards for one hour use. We were able to get on and it expired one hour after using. We ended up going to Starbucks for free Wi-fi with a minimum purchase since the hotels were over $40.00 per day. I was thinking about the ship and with the intermittent service how would they possibly work out charging. But, I wanted to hear it from AMA since no one on the previous cruises has been charged for service when they were able to get it. As to Marina not being on your cruise, she was on vacation and the young man was her son. I was assured she would be on our cruise. At this moment, I think the 10 of us on Cruise Critic will just grin and bear it. We all paid for something that cannot be delivered.

 

Sheila

[lkbside]

Best to have an open mind and roll with the punches. When all is said and done you will have a good trip - not what you thought you were signing up for, but you will have lots of stories to tell, see and learn a lot. Let me know if you have any questions or feel free to email me: lkbside at gmail dot com.

 

That is really interesting that Andrey, our cruise director, is Marina's son. I wonder if he works as her assistant when she is there?

 

Leslie

[shoshona2]

Hi Leslie,

 

I heard that he is her assistant when she is there. Thanks for your good wishes.

 

Sheila

[freddie]

The various reviews of the AmaKatarina (aka Mstislav Rostropovich) seem depressingly consistent in their reporting that the food offered is mediocre to bad. It has also been reported that much of this problem is a systemic one on all Russian riverboats. This alleged "fact" appears to be based in the main on statements made to unhappy passengers by staff on the AMA boat, who insist that such things as overcooked meat are due to Russian government regulations.

 

However, when one reads the CC Member Reviews posted this summer by passengers on the Viking boats on the Volga, one notes that the food is usually rated as good to excellent, with even an occasional "superb" or "incredible" tossed into the mix. Hardly the ratings that AMA has received this summer. Further, contrary to the AMA assertions that the boats have to make do with Russian chefs and staff, Viking appears to have on the Pakhomov an Austrian head chef and a wait staff of friendly and eager Indonesians. Gee, one reviewer (on the Viking Surkov) even described a "delicious medium rare steak", something which our friends who recently returned from a cruise on AmaKatarina have assured us did not exist on that boat.

 

So what is the deal, anyway??!! Perhaps, AMA simply struck a bad lease contract (5 years!!!) with Vodohod, while Viking has a much better lease arrangement with the owners of its boats, giving Viking much more freedom in the areas of food quality and service staff.

 

In any case, at the end of the day, it seems nonsensical for AMA to claim that all boats on the Volga provide poor cuisine because there is no other possibility. Viking is managing to provide good food, as perhaps is Uniworld.

[shoshona2]

To Freddie,

 

Thanks. I've been reading the Viking reviews and all the comments are that they have good food on their Volga River cruises. AMA will have a tough time booking next year's Russian cruises after all the bad press. When we read the first review, it was impossible to cancel without losing most of our money. So, we will go and have a good time -- there are 12 of us Cruise Critic people aboard the September 8th sailing. We will certainly write a review when we return.

 

Sheila

[Kellie Poodle]

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

 

Actually, the soups were pretty good. Especially the cream soups. Not salty, either.:)

[Kellie Poodle]

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

 

Just make sure its not a mixed drink. :D The bar can't handle the billing and you will pay a separate price for each element of the drink. Order off their menu card if you want a cocktail or just get your favorite poison on the rocks.

[Kellie Poodle]

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

 

My review pretty much echos yours, Leslie. There was no sign up for the small dining room. We were given an "invitation" for lunch and dinner for one time. Frankly, there was no appreciative difference in the dining rooms. Both had tables close together. Both had the exact same menu.

 

I found the food on the canal boat over-cooked, too, especially the fish. I thought the food in the restaurant in St. Petersburg could have spent less time in the oven, too.

 

We did have Anthony, the executive chef who was an AMA employee on board our cruise. Marina is also employed by AMA. We absolutely adored the kids who worked the dining room and the tours. The ones at the desk were also great. We had no communication problems with any staff that we had to deal with.

 

We did have some difficulty understanding the young man who worked with Marina when he used the PA system.

 

We had a great time. We did not over-eat but we did not starve, either. There were one or two meals where I found nothing I liked, but I'm like that in restaurants and cruise ships. I'm picky and I have "mechanical difficulties" with a lot of foods since I have only half of my tongue and side-effects of radiation that never go away.

 

I did not think the food was all that important because I was having such a great time seeing the sights, meeting people, enjoying the cultural presentations and relaxing on my balcony with my Nook when I had time.

 

I really think too much attention is being given to food. Eat bread, salad, soup and desert. Skip the main dish and have a second salad and a second soup. You can't starve that way and the salads and soups are really quite good.

[Kellie Poodle]

Best to have an open mind and roll with the punches. When all is said and done you will have a good trip - not what you thought you were signing up for, but you will have lots of stories to tell, see and learn a lot. Let me know if you have any questions or feel free to email me: lkbside at gmail dot com.

 

That is really interesting that Andrey, our cruise director, is Marina's son. I wonder if he works as her assistant when she is there?

 

Leslie

 

He does. He's the guy we had difficulty understanding on the PA.

[shoshona2]

Hi Kellie,

 

The only reason the food comes up in this discussion is the amount of money this river cruise is ending up costing. We could have passed on this one if we knew that there were going to be so many problems and taken another cruise on Crystal. I can't eat cream soup, so I am bringing my own packages of instant Lipton Noodle soup and will live on salads. I know the sights are wonderful and we will have a good time. We already have a comradery with the other 10 people from Cruise Critic. We are all upset because we all believed the hype from AMA!!

 

Will let you know after we return how everything went.

 

Best regards,

Sheila

[MotherP]

I'm sorry but food IS important to me. It is an important part of the enjoyment of the cruise. It is a time to meet new people, discuss the day, drink a pleasant glass of wine and enjoy a wonderful meal. I didn't expect the 5 star quality that is found on luxury cruise lines but I do expect the 4 star quality that is found on all AMA's other boats AND was promised me when I signed the contract. I was told there was an American chef doing the cooking on this boat! I specifically asked several times. It was one important reason when choosing this voyage and was promised they were the best cruise on the Volga. I guess I should have chosen Uniworld or Viking where there seems to be no problems AND people are happy with the entire experience. Will i starve? No. But, I didn't choose to spendd $$$$$ to eat bread, salad, cream soup and dessert. This is not unreasonable.

 

Secondly, remember to bring your own bathrobe as it is not supplied on this luxury cruise.

[Coral]

 

 

So what is the deal, anyway??!! Perhaps, AMA simply struck a bad lease contract (5 years!!!) with Vodohod, while Viking has a much better lease arrangement with the owners of its boats, giving Viking much more freedom in the areas of food quality and service staff.

 

In any case, at the end of the day, it seems nonsensical for AMA to claim that all boats on the Volga provide poor cuisine because there is no other possibility. Viking is managing to provide good food, as perhaps is Uniworld.

 

AMA's food on Tolstoy on my cruise a few years ago was also pretty bad. There just wasn't as many people sailing that ship as there are this year. My cruise was 4 years ago and was also with Vodohod.

 

I have a friend who I work with who went with Viking this year. She thought the food was delightful. We compared it to food at our cafeteria at work and I found AMA's food several steps below that and she found it several steps above that.

 

Having spent time in Russia previously - I had no problems with food at various restaurants. I thought the food was quite good on my previous trip.

 

I believe Viking actually owns their ships which could explain the difference.

[lkbside]

They will be accommodating for you Sheila - one of our friends just loves borscht and they would often bring her multiple bowls of it, even if it wasn't on the menu. They will bring you more salad, whatever you request.

 

There are a couple of real go-getters in the dining room, especially a guy named Eddie who was a real multi-tasker, anticipating any needs. Also a cute waitress with red hair, Anna?, was great too. And the young woman who works as a bartender and pours wine at dinner - she plans to come to the US to study business and eventually start her own touring business - she has the personality and attention to detail to be successful. Notice the sections they are working in and try to always eat at one of their tables and you will have a positive experience. Overall, we found the wait staff in the main dining room to be better than in the Symphony - maybe because they have to juggle more.

[Coral]

I did not think the food was all that important because I was having such a great time seeing the sights, meeting people, enjoying the cultural presentations and relaxing on my balcony with my Nook when I had time.

 

I really think too much attention is being given to food. Eat bread, salad, soup and desert. Skip the main dish and have a second salad and a second soup. You can't starve that way and the salads and soups are really quite good.

 

Having been to Russia previously - I was disappointed in the tours and found several short cuts that one who hadn't been previously to Russia would not have known.

 

For example - it is too bad that people couldn't go into Church of our Savior on Spilled Blood or St. Basil's Cathedral. My friends on another river cruise went inside both.

 

It is too bad that they AMA choose to go to Monplaisir Palace at Peterhof instead of the much superior Grand Palace (no competition). I was reading a review from another Russian River company and they went into Lenin's Mausoleum which I did on my previous trip (though it is only open on certain days) but didn't do on this trip. With all the changes to the schedules daily, it was too bad that Marina didn't change the "subway tour" with the next day when we were supposed to go to Red Square as Red Square we all knew would be closed the next day (but the subway wasn't). I read in a review from Viking that the CD tried 3x to get the group into Red Square and was finally successful. AMA didn't even try to rearrange things even though we were steps away during the subway tour (I knew it but others didn't). If I was a tour director - that would have been a priority to me realizing many of the passengers probably would not make it to Russia again. The group I took the night before (when we skipped the circus and went off on our own) thanked me over and over again as they said "I made their trip".

 

It is also sad that my St. Petersburg to Moscow trip was only 1.5 days even though it was advertised longer in all the brochures and it my conversations with AMA. Several conversations that I felt greatly mislead. I felt this was definitely due to docking costs as AMA didn't want to pay to dock in Russia another night even thought they are one of the most expensive Russian river cruises.

 

It is sad that my (inexpensive) high school trip to Russia saw far more then my very expensive AMA trip did. Again - because I had been there, I knew what we missed.

[lkbside]

There are a number of things to bring that will make your trip better - most were mentioned by KelliePoodle awhile ago.

 

extra hangers - there are maybe 8-10 provided

your own soap and shampoo - the soap they provide - one bar of "Cherry Pie" soap - smells horrible, like a candy store, although some people liked it

cotton balls, qtips etc. not provided either

a multi-outlet power strip

umbrella - none are available

alarm clock

enough cash for tips - you can't put them on your account

small bills for tipping local guides and bus drivers

a hanging toiletries bag will help you keep organized and from having to fill up the bathroom space with the open medicine cabinet.

headphones - if you don't like ear buds, you can plug your own into the vox system (I wear hearing aids and need an over the ear headphone - the buds would not have worked for me)

packing cubes to keep your small items organized on the wardrobe shelves

[shoshona2]

To Leslie,

 

Thanks for the tips!

 

Sheila

[Island Cruiser]

MotherP, amen ten times on the subject of food.

[nyfeds]

Make that 2 amens, MotherP! Dining is an integral part of the whole experience for us. Poor dining is a real deal-breaker. AMA's reasoning and substantiating cafeteria quality food is ridiculous.

 

Sheila, Leslie graciously provided a list of things to bring along. However, it's a very sad commentary that one has to schelp any or all of those items along to make the vessel experience more "livable and palatable."

 

I will be eager to read your review, Sheila. Safe and enjoyable travels to you and the group you are cruising with.

[shoshona2]

Thanks, nyfeds,

 

MotherP and I hope it will be a positive review! After reading Leslie's review, I packed some of my DH's favorite soap as well as my Neutrogena Rainbath and my favorite shampoo. MotherP and I have iPads and we hope we will have wi-fi service on the trip. I have the same cabin as Kellie Poodle had and she was able to get service from there.

 

Sheila

[KatnMom]

:mad: I find it totally unacceptable that we are being advised to bring packets of soup, crackers and other basics on a cruise costing more than $10,000. Mother P is spot on when she says that part of the allure of cruising is enjoying delicious meals and good service. Our little group from CC has now been bombarding AMA and our TAs for months about the various issues and have received nothing but conflicting answers and half-baked promises that the issues have been addressed. It is obvious to me that they have completely lost control of the situation in Russia.

 

Even with all of that, I am determined to make the best of the trip and to experience as much as I can of Russia. We don't really have other options at this late date.

 

Kathy

[Coral]

:mad: I find it totally unacceptable that we are being advised to bring packets of soup, crackers and other basics on a cruise costing more than $10,000. Mother P is spot on when she says that part of the allure of cruising is enjoying delicious meals and good service. Our little group from CC has now been bombarding AMA and our TAs for months about the various issues and have received nothing but conflicting answers and half-baked promises that the issues have been addressed. It is obvious to me that they have completely lost control of the situation in Russia.

 

Even with all of that, I am determined to make the best of the trip and to experience as much as I can of Russia. We don't really have other options at this late date.

 

Kathy

 

The sad thing is that this has been going on for years. My cruise with AMA (Amadeus) Tolstoy was in 2007. We had the same American Chef Consultant or whatever his title is and the same complaints that are coming up existed years ago also. The only difference was that we had an different ship but it was touted as the best ship in Russia at the time. I wrote a very long review hoping it would help others. AMA (except changing their name from Amadeus) hasn't changed a thing except the ship which is still run by Vodohod (huge mistake). When I got back, I wrote a very detailed/constructive letter to Amadeus (AMA) and they did not respond at all to my letter. It is sad that they didn't use comments like mine to improve on like most companies would do. It just goes to tell me the type of company that they are.

 

Russia is beautiful. AMA can't take that away from you. Don't hesitate to be pro-active - deviate from the group if there is something you want to do or so.