Russian River Cruise August 2015

[Buck1949]

Forgot to mention the wi-fi. We got it to work while we were in St Pete and Moscow and Yaroslaval from our room 402, but couldn't get internet the rest of the time while we were cruising or in the small ports. The room location didn't seem to make a difference. While we were cruising, people in the internet room near your cabin couldn't get a signal then either.

 

We really enjoyed our balcony, but you can very easily go up onto the upper deck to see the scenery whenever you want.

 

Am hoping that the wi-fi works well when we are there. During our past Europe travels we have relied on text messaging to keep in touch. Our provider has charged 5 cents to receive a text message and 50 cents to send one while in Europe. BUT.... if i checked right...the rates for Russia are substantially more. While we did not use the phone itself for calls.... our Europe rates were to be $1.99 per minute...but understand in Russia the rates can be $3.99 per minute. :eek:

 

Oh well....we shall see.

[id4elizabeth]

Can't help you there Bill. We used the WiFi for e-mailing. We didn't try texting. Doesn't that use cellular? If so, you might have an easier connection experience. I think other people cell phones were working most of the time - just on the more isolated parts of the cruise between ports they didn't work.

[Buck1949]

Can't help you there Bill. We used the WiFi for e-mailing. We didn't try texting. Doesn't that use cellular? If so, you might have an easier connection experience. I think other people cell phones were working most of the time - just on the more isolated parts of the cruise between ports they didn't work.

 

Actually, I went back and checked. Texting as of now is the same - 5 cents to receive and 50 cents to send. So barring any changes texting will be our main mode of communicating. Cell phone calls ARE expensive - either $3.99 or $4.99 per minute dependent on which plan you take. :eek:

[ChiliChild]

We took this cruise from Moscow to St. Petersburg in September 2013 on the Rurik. Highly recommend Moscow to St. Pete trip over opposite direction. Moscow, though fascinating, is not pretty and the boat dock is an hour bus ride or more to anywhere the tours go. It's nice to end in St. Petersburg, a true jewel and much smaller and easier to navigate. Sort of like ending with a sweet taste. Plus, the St. Petersburg airport is really close as opposed to Moscow's, which can be, depending on traffic, from 1 1/2 to 3 1/2 hours. That way, when the trip is over, you don't have a long bus ride to a huge airport.

 

You can book the airfare through the company, as well. Or you can use a travel agent. We also paid for the "white glove" service on getting our visas. Do not sign up for the Silver Spirits package unless you plan to consume a huge amount of hard liquor in the bars. Wine and Baltica beer are served at lunch and dinner at no charge. Also, make sure your cabin is not at the rear of the boat. The vibration and noise at times can be teeth-grindingly infuriating when trying to sleep.

 

If you have seasickness, bring medication. We missed one stop entirely and were delayed getting into St. Petersburg by 12 hours due to 3-meter waves forcing us to anchor. A lot of green-faced people that day.

 

It's a fascinating trip. You'll have a great time.

[Buck1949]

............If you have seasickness, bring medication. We missed one stop entirely and were delayed getting into St. Petersburg by 12 hours due to 3-meter waves forcing us to anchor. A lot of green-faced people that day.

 

It's a fascinating trip. You'll have a great time

 

Oh oh.......it was great reading your message until this last statement!!!!! :D

My wife said - and I quote "I thought we were on a river and lakes?" She is a bit prone to sea sickness :eek: so guess she will have to pack her sea bands and motion pills. I had heard that it can get a bit bumpy at times......but it is a bit surprising for a river cruise.

 

We had given some consideration to doing Moscow 1st ourselves, but in our case we had been to St Petersburg once before, and decided if we wanted more time that we might want it in Moscow so chose that city last. Not sure we are staying over at all but kind of wanted that option.

 

Great hearing that you liked the trip overall......and we look forward to it to. Just wish it wasn't a year and 1/2 away!

[Hydrokitty]

Oh oh.......it was great reading your message until this last statement!!!!! :D

My wife said - and I quote "I thought we were on a river and lakes?" She is a bit prone to sea sickness :eek: so guess she will have to pack her sea bands and motion pills. I had heard that it can get a bit bumpy at times......but it is a bit surprising for a river cruise.

 

We had given some consideration to doing Moscow 1st ourselves, but in our case we had been to St Petersburg once before, and decided if we wanted more time that we might want it in Moscow so chose that city last. Not sure we are staying over at all but kind of wanted that option.

 

Great hearing that you liked the trip overall......and we look forward to it to. Just wish it wasn't a year and 1/2 away!

 

Hey Bill: Greetings from the frozen North!! I think pp might have been talking about cruising Lake Ladoga, which is second in size only to Lake Baikal and because of it's size it can get rough. When we went it was fine and according to the captain it usually is. If DH gets seasick easily then have her bring the bands and put them on before you enter the lake. The rest of the trip should be fine because you are on rivers and they're usually pretty calm. Tell her not to worry!

[Buck1949]

Hey Bill: Greetings from the frozen North!! I think pp might have been talking about cruising Lake Ladoga, which is second in size only to Lake Baikal and because of it's size it can get rough. When we went it was fine and according to the captain it usually is. If DH gets seasick easily then have her bring the bands and put them on before you enter the lake. The rest of the trip should be fine because you are on rivers and they're usually pretty calm. Tell her not to worry!

 

Sorry to hear that the cold just will not let up for you guys. That is one reason I am glad we moved to the West a long time ago.... even the Midwest - where I am from, is getting blasted. Of course as warm as it is right now...we will probably have a miserable summer, and terrible fire danger!

 

I am sure the potential for a bit of rough seas will not stop her from doing this cruise. We did the Baltics in 2009 and one night it got rough... (enough to have the ship shut down all the doors on the port side of the ship to keep passengers off the main deck). She did fine that evening....while 2 of our friends had to retreat to their rooms because they felt queasy. So I'm sure she will do fine.

Edited February 6, 2014 by Buck1949
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[WallabyGal]

Hi Bill & Everyone on this amazing cruise!

 

I just wanted to chime in - I booked it & will be with you guys, yay!! My daughter Kimberly will be coming with me too - she's 25 now, & will have her 27th birthday while we're in Russia, woo hoo!

 

It seems so far away, but I know it will be here quicker than I know. Looking forward to getting to know you all!

 

Cheers,

Carol (WallabyGal, due to my love of those amazing critters. My mom grew up in Australia & I've been lucky enough to go there several times).

[Buck1949]

Now to get some others to sign up along with us. :) !!!

 

Remember: August 7th, 2015 - Uniworld "River Victoria"

[Buck1949]

Now that Cruise Critic is back up and running maybe we will get more posters here!!! :D

[tidwood]

Don't know if you've had the warm weather we've had out here, Bill, but I've been outside enjoying it so much that I didn't notice CC had been down. But also glad it's back up. Great place, along with trip advisor, to get information and first hand experienced advice.

[Buck1949]

Don't know if you've had the warm weather we've had out here, Bill, but I've been outside enjoying it so much that I didn't notice CC had been down. But also glad it's back up. Great place, along with trip advisor, to get information and first hand experienced advice.

 

Hi Tidwood

It's been very warm for this time of year.....Mid to upper 80's this week. While we are enjoying it now, we know this is a recipe for forest fires and infestation of tree destroying bark Beetles possibly. Just last night one of the local - well respected farmers was on TV telling how his normally huge Peach crop may be a large loss due to the lack of water to irrigate with. Hopefully we get some moisture soon to offset the dry conditions.

 

And you are right....CC and Trip Advisor are great resources. They especially helped our group of 6 - decide which private tours to book for our upcoming Med Cruise.

 

Hope your River Cruise is a great one..... Would love to hear your thoughts of the trip when you return - especially since we are doing the Volga River cruise next year at almost the same time (August 7th)

Edited February 14, 2014 by Buck1949
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[Buck1949]

Hey Hydrokitty......

Are you making any plans to travel? I have a couple of friends that are ready to get out of the snow. In fact she and her hubby decided to go to Key West this weekend. And here in Az, we have had our a/c come on a couple of times in the last few days :eek:

[WallabyGal]

Well you can laugh now, Bill...but come summer, we New Englanders will be doing the laughing :-). That said, I'm in Austin TX now, visiting Kimberly. Supposed to be 75 here today, yay. It's been relentless in the Northeast! I don't know how there can be so much water in the atmosphere! Someone's getting robbed! California? BTW, I'm going to Calif briefly 3/2-3/5. My return flight has a stop in Phoenix, but only 1 hr. Maybe next time.

 

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[Buck1949]

Well you can laugh now, Bill...but come summer, we New Englanders will be doing the laughing :-). That said, I'm in Austin TX now, visiting Kimberly. Supposed to be 75 here today, yay. It's been relentless in the Northeast! I don't know how there can be so much water in the atmosphere! Someone's getting robbed! California? BTW, I'm going to Calif briefly 3/2-3/5. My return flight has a stop in Phoenix, but only 1 hr. Maybe next time.

 

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk

 

You are so right on the weather. Summer here is going to be scary for sure!

 

To bad on the short stop here....we live w/i 15 minutes of the airport. Look to the right when you land at the base of So. Mountain - we can almost wave at you!!

[Buck1949]

I realize that this trip is well over a year away, but I am a bit surprised how quiet ALL of the Cruise Critic boards have been in the last couple of months. I subscribe to 4 different forums/roll calls/boards and there is little activity on any. What is surprising is that we are sailing on the 4000+ ship NCL Epic in three months and there are only a couple of 'kinda' regular posters - one of which is me. Oh well.....hopefully things will pick up as summer approaches. I really want to hear of other peoples thoughts and ideas, here as well as on all the threads.

 

 

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[Buck1949]

I just noted in a Cruise Critic article that there are becoming increasing concerns for various cruises that would be going along the Black Sea, and possibly into the Ukraine territories. There was some talk also about a slight concern about cruises in Russia....but nothing of specific concern at present.

 

Let's hope that things settle down over in that part of the world soon.

[WallabyGal]

I agree. Aug '15 is a long way away, but let's hope things have settled down by then-soon!

 

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[tidwood]

I asked Vantage if the troubles in the Ukraine, Crimea and Russia were affecting their cruises and was told that the Kiev/Ukraine pre and post cruise extentions had been canceled, but the Baltic and Russian portions were still ok. If there were any more cancellations, that we would be notified. Hopefully all this "chest thumping" will pass!

[Buck1949]

I asked Vantage if the troubles in the Ukraine, Crimea and Russia were affecting their cruises and was told that the Kiev/Ukraine pre and post cruise extentions had been canceled, but the Baltic and Russian portions were still ok. If there were any more cancellations, that we would be notified. Hopefully all this "chest thumping" will pass!

 

.........with an August sail date, I bet you really ARE just a bit anxious! Let's hope all is well by then!!!

[franski]

HI -

 

I just wanted to add a few more thoughts... (triggered by reading the thread from the beginning...). We actually were on the same sailing as id4elizabeth... and concur that Uniworld is a great choice for Russia.

 

1) Seasickness should only occur (if it is *going* to occur) if you have a rough crossing on Lake Ladoga. We had significant waves, and my tummy was a bit unsettled, but just spent a bit of time laying down in our cabin, and things settled.

 

2) Wifi is spotty - with no rhyme nor reason. They do have an internet corner on the River Victoria, and it seemed to be OK quite a bit of the time. But, we tend to use the computers late at night (ie: after most have gone to bed). Our friends brought an i-pad, and had good luck with connections.

 

3) My suggestion is to take a picture of the River Victoria as the name is not recognizable in Cyrillic. I have attached a pic that shows the name...

 

4) We went SP to Moscow... and were glad we did. It was great to have the extra day in Moscow at the end. We hired a guide to take us out to Ishmaylova (the Flea Market) - and it was a fun day. He met us at the boat, took us on the subway and translated for us. We had lunch there (sashlik bbq --great food) and chatted about the Russian way of life.

 

It was an AMAZING trip... so glad we went. I am sure you will enjoy.

 

Fran

[Buck1949]

HI -

 

I just wanted to add a few more thoughts... (triggered by reading the thread from the beginning...). We actually were on the same sailing as id4elizabeth... and concur that Uniworld is a great choice for Russia.

 

1) Seasickness should only occur (if it is *going* to occur) if you have a rough crossing on Lake Ladoga. We had significant waves, and my tummy was a bit unsettled, but just spent a bit of time laying down in our cabin, and things settled.

 

2) Wifi is spotty - with no rhyme nor reason. They do have an internet corner on the River Victoria, and it seemed to be OK quite a bit of the time. But, we tend to use the computers late at night (ie: after most have gone to bed). Our friends brought an i-pad, and had good luck with connections.

 

3) My suggestion is to take a picture of the River Victoria as the name is not recognizable in Cyrillic. I have attached a pic that shows the name...

 

4) We went SP to Moscow... and were glad we did. It was great to have the extra day in Moscow at the end. We hired a guide to take us out to Ishmaylova (the Flea Market) - and it was a fun day. He met us at the boat, took us on the subway and translated for us. We had lunch there (sashlik bbq --great food) and chatted about the Russian way of life.

 

It was an AMAZING trip... so glad we went. I am sure you will enjoy.

 

Fran

 

Hi Fran....

 

Thanks for the input...... Sounds like a great trip, both for you...and hopefully for us when we take it. And as you probably read...we were very happy with Uniworld on the Rhine River Cruise, thus the reason for choosing them for Russia.

 

We were in St. Petersburg in 2009 for 2 days and got to see a lot of the city (not the Hermitage though) so with that in mind....we decided to end in Moscow for the exact reason...to get to see a bit more of that city. Not sure if we will stay any extra, as we have not gotten that far yet in our planning.

 

Did you use a company/guide for your flea market trip, and if so..do you recall what /who it was? You never know we may want to do a similar thing. We rode the subway while in St. Petersburg and I found it to be a great experience. I bet Moscow is probably similar.

 

My wife and I both have ipads....and we hopefully will be able to check a bit on emails etc. Also.......my phone will work in Russia (no intention to use the PHONE portion @ $3.99 per minute except for emergency) but if the rates stay the same...texting is 50 cents to send and 5 cents to receive. We communicate with family that way most of the time while in Europe. We try to coordinate times to 'check in' with each other so that we are not waking them up or vice versus... ;)

 

Again thanks for the input.....and if you happen to have any additional thoughts or suggestions, please feel free to pass them along :). While this trip is well over a year away, it is one of the most anticipated that my wife and I have planned thus far.

 

Take care,

[id4elizabeth]

Subways in Moscow are great, and the stations are very ornate, worth lingering in and of themselves, most built during the Soviet era. Getting around Moscow is very easy, and to me there were more stations and the stations were closer together than those in St Pete. That means you can get where you want to go without a whole lot of walking. Get a good subway map and you're set. We spent an extra 3 days in Moscow and saw much of the city. After the guides on the Uniworld tour took us around, we had our bearings and didn't feel the need for a guide. The only drawback to Moscow is that there is not as much English signage. There is usually a transliteration of the Cryillic alphabet into the Latin (our) alphabet, but it's not translated into Engllish per se. So you just have to pay attention to which subway station you want to get off. Of course, by the end of your trip, I'm sure you'll be reading and speaking excellent Russian.

 

One thing I would suggest in Moscow is to go INSIDE St Basil's. I know you will be "churched out" by the time you get to Moscow, but the inside of St Basil's is unlike any other church we were in on the trip. The Uniworld trip will take you to the outsdie of St Basil's but the tour does not include the inside (at least if nothing has changed since last year). There was a charge to get inside, but I remember it being modest.

[Buck1949]

id4elizabeth,

 

One thing that we were told (very specifically by our tour guide) while in the St. Petersburg subway system was that we could not take any photographs. Was that an issue in Moscow?

 

I did manage to find a very nice power point presentation about St. Petersburg that had some great photos that I was able to use.

 

Thanks to everyone for any and all suggestions...... I am making notes and putting them in my Cruise file for later.

[Hydrokitty]

Hey Hydrokitty......

Are you making any plans to travel? I have a couple of friends that are ready to get out of the snow. In fact she and her hubby decided to go to Key West this weekend. And here in Az, we have had our a/c come on a couple of times in the last few days :eek:

 

Hi Bill sorry it took so long but I've been out of touch for awhile due to some health issues. Right now I'm not planning on any travel and have already had to cancel one trip to WDW and my China trip for 2015. I am still hoping to make Black Sea trip in June, but we'll have to wait and see. We're still thawing out here on LI....but most of snow is gone and last storm fizzled out so we didn't get any more. You'll be singing a different tune in August when we're cooled by the ocean breeze and you're sweltering in the AZ oven!!! :D

I am heartbroken over Kiev.....it was such a beautiful city and to see Independence Square where we had so much fun all torn up and destroyed is very depressing. I read that Vantage is cancelling it's Kiev pre-trip and I would imagine most other companies are as well. The hotel we stayed in in Kiev is on St. Michael's Square and across from the main police station. I have seen it too many times in news coverage....I think it will be a long time before anyone goes to Ukraine and I'm watching demonstrations in Moscow closely. I'm beginning to take this personally....we went to Egypt and soon after we left the Arab Spring began....then we went to Ukraine and Russia and now that is erupting....I think I should stay home, I'd hate to be blamed for WW3!