I am back from the Amadeus Tolstoy....

[Coral]

Hi,

 

Just a short note to let you know I was back from the Tolstoy.

 

If anyone has any questions - post them here and I will try to answer them this weekend.

 

I will write a full review but it will be a few weeks. It is not going to be an easy review to write - there were highs and lows to this trip, things I really liked and things I did not like at all. I really enjoyed the other passengers on the trip - it was a great mix of people and they were delightful to travel with.

 

I have mixed comments on river cruising and based on this trip - it will be awhile before I attempt another one.

 

We did have excellent weather on this trip.

 

Food - I will elaborate later on this but it fell way below my expectations and Amadeus will be receiving a letter from me concerning this.

 

If anyone is leaving soon for Russia (any line) and has specific questions - please email me or post here. I will try to get those answered soon.

 

Theresa

[unberwoob]

Theresa,

Although we have done a river cruise in Russia, I will be looking forward to your review. I hope you had a good overall expierence.

 

Please do not compare a Russian river cruise to one in Europe. There is a huge difference. The ships and the food on a European river cruise are much more upscale, and a river cruise is quite different than an ocean cruise. I hope you will consider a cruise on the Rhine or Danube to expierence the best in river cruising.

 

Dennis

[land lover]

Theresa Welcome home!

 

Glad the weather and people mix was good, sorry to hear that there were some lows regarding the river cruise experience.

 

So what was your impression of Russia, not seeing it for 15+ years?

 

I'll be e-mailing you,

[seapine]

So glad you are back, Theresa. Will be anxiously waiting for your comments after you catch your breath. Glad you had good weather. I hope your "highs" outweighed your "lows". Welcome back.

Evie

[DougH]

Welcome home Theresa. Looking forward to talking to you about the trip later this week and hear all the details good & bad. How many photos did you end up taking? I assume the girls were glad to see you arriuve back home safely :)

 

Doug

[2travelers]

Hi Theresa: Yep..we will be leaving for the same trip on July 17th. I posted to you before you left. I am interested in finding out how much you needed in Rubles. Did you have a problem getting them in Russia through the ATMs at the airport? What is the rate now - when I last checked it was 25 Rubles to 1 USD. How expensive were things? I remember buying beautiful shawls outside the Hermitage for just a few US dollars...can't wait to hear what you have to say about the trip overall. Although we are not picky eaters, hearing about the food and service will really interest me. This will be our first River Cruise and we can't wait to leave. Welcome home.....

Ronnie

[Coral]

I am interested in finding out how much you needed in Rubles. Did you have a problem getting them in Russia through the ATMs at the airport? What is the rate now - when I last checked it was 25 Rubles to 1 USD. How expensive were things? I remember buying beautiful shawls outside the Hermitage for just a few US dollars...can't wait to hear what you have to say about the trip overall.

Ronnie

 

I went with $225 US dollars converted to Rubles. That is all I needed.

 

After we landed in St. Petersburg, we met our Amadeus guides at the airport. While waiting for the other passengers to land, the guide showed people where the ATM was. Several people went and I didn't hear of any problems using the ATM.

 

There was an ATM near where the ship docked in St. Petersburg. There were many ATMs in Moscow and St. Petersburg. I did hear an Australian couple who were only able to withdraw 8,000 rubles in Moscow. They were trying to withdrawal 10,000 rubles and a local told them 8,000 was the limitation. When they switched to 8,000 - they didn't have any problems.

 

In Moscow - the CD said there was an ATM near where we docked. A couple went looking for it and couldn't find it. The CD was surprised because one had been there the previous 5 years but she hadn't used it this year. She indicated there was another one within a 10 minute walk. We went on the Moscow by night tour that night and there was an ATM in one of the buildings we went to that night so that ended up working for them.

 

The exchange rate seemed to be around 24 rubles to the dollar.

 

There didn't seem to be that many vendors near the Hermitage (compared to the other sites). Many were at the Church of Spilled Blood, St. Issaacs Cathedral, etc. . Most things were realitvely inexpensive but seemed of cheap quality from the street vendors. On the other hand, they were quoting high amounts ($400 or so) for a black lacquer box and I couldn't imagine buying this large ticket item at a street vendor.

 

Be extremely careful of the street vendors in St. Petersburg - a few people had their wallets stolen in this area.

 

If purchasing from street vendors, it didn't matter if you paid in dollars or rubles.

 

I will write more this weekend.

 

-tl

[mii]

Welcome home Theresa. I was thinking of you the other day and was wondering if you were back home. Obviously you are and looking forward to your review.

 

Marilyn

[land lover]

Where was the better shopping St. Pete's or Moscow?

[2travelers]

Thanks Theresa: I know that you have to be very careful in St. Petersburg. One of the woman on our tour several years ago found a little girl about 8 years-old with her hand in her straw bag. Fortunately we were well warned and she had nothing except her sunglasses and some tissues in her bag. Would you believe the girl's father was at the hotel across the street pick-pocketing some other tourists? Unbelieveable. I try and wear a travlers vest and I only take one credit card with me and some single dollars. Can't wait to hear more about the trip. I may try and get some Rubles from the Amex office if they don't charge and arm and a leg....I think I will exchange the same $250 as you did..that should ggive me 6000 Rubles. If we need more, it seems that there are enough places to access it. Did you buy much in the small towns you hit, or was it mostly in Moscow and St. Peterburg? I think that there we used credit card with no problems. I expect that we will need the Rubles in the small towns. Am I correct? Keep the info coming!

Ronnie

[Benita]

We went on this cruise last September. I pulled out the equivalent of $300 in rubles at the ATM at the St. Petersburg airport. The next day, on the city tour, the guide pointed out an ATM machine for use while we explored the square in front of St. Isaacs Church. There were several opportunities for an ATM in Moscow - in the GUM department store, I saw several. Our friends were having trouble with their ATM card - they had not notified their bank that they were going to Russia, so they were not able to pull out cash. We did it for them in Moscow, at the Tretiakov museum - I especially liked that machine as you had a choice of US dollars of rubles.

US dollars were accepted everywhere we went and several places took credit cards. Capital One cards are the best for travel, as they do not charge a foreign bank or foreign conversion fee.

Shopping in Russia is not very exciting - we bought a beautiful laquer box in Kostroma - they have a great shop there with boxes from all the Russian schools. Not cheap, but lovely and great selection.

[Fleuve51]

You are totally wrong.

We also just did a 14 day Amsterdam to Budapest on the Amadagio.

The food was very disappointing, as was the service & attitude of the staff.

We will not cruise this line again.

We have done over 45 ocean cruises.

It was the worst food of all!

[Coral]

Where was the better shopping St. Pete's or Moscow?

 

This actually is a difficult question for me to answer (given my situation is going to be different than yours).

 

There seems to be a ton more "street vendors" in St. Petersburg probably for the sole fact that there are more cruise passengers/tourists who stop here (large cruise ships who go on Baltic cruises). Though - it seemed to me, all the street vendors seemed to carry almost the same items and there was very little difference between them. Of course there were probably differences but it sure didn't seem like it after seeing tons of these vendors. As far as street vendors go, near the Church of the Spilled Blood seemed to have quite a good collection of them right next to each other.

 

Everything seemed "cheap" to me. Maybe after seeing so many Matroyoshka dolls, they all looked the same. The street vendors also sold expensive black lacquer boxes and I remember asking the price of one and being told $400. There is no way I would spend that much money from a street vendor. They also sell cheap imitation boxes at these stands.

 

We really were not given any shopping time in St. Petersburg. Our days were pretty packed. Of course people fit them in when we stopped at sites for 15 minutes - they seemed to look at the sites for a few minutes and get some shopping done in the spare time. I only purchased post cards at these places.

 

In St Petersburg - the only places that we had time to do some nicer shopping was at places such as the Hermitage, Catherine's Palace and St. Issac's Cathedral (Museum type places). People bought some very nice items here (Amber, jewelery, black lacquer boxes) and these were the only places where we had some extra time in St. Petersburg.

 

Staying at hotels - you will probably have more time to shop and can probably venture past the street vendors in St. Petersburg.

 

In Moscow - we had significantly more time to shop there (even though we had less time there). We were given an hour at Arbat Street which had some nicer stores (I bought a few items here) and we also had a lot of time at GUM because Red Square was closed. Though - GUM is mostly filled with stores we have in the US (Calvin Klein, Burberry, Levi) but there are a few stores in here with Russian items.

 

I seemed to have more fun shopping the last time I was in Russia compared to this time.

 

As Benita mentioned - we were brought to a place in Kostroma which gave a good explanation of the 4 styles/schools of boxes and had a large selection from each school. I have no idea how the prices here compared to elsewhere as lacquer boxes are pretty expensive.

 

I had planned to buy quite a bit and ended up not buying that much at all. Of the small towns, I thought Uglich had one of the larger sections of street vendors (who were quite pleasant and not pushy) but again, we were not given that much time to shop. After we were done with the tour, we were told we were sailing in 20 minutes and had just enough time to walk back to the ship and quickly do some shopping (shopping was all along the walk back to the ship). Obviously people are able to spend a lot of money quickly but there really wasn't that much time to leisurely go through the vendors.

 

Many people on our trip bought a lot of religious icons at churches during our tours. And it was easy to leave the tours in the many churches and check out there selections for shopping.

 

I wouldn't count on using credit cards in the small towns. Mandrogi accepted credit cards and had many shops but the place came across as a Pioneer Village type tourist trap. The black lacquer box place at Kostroma also accepted credit cards. If you went to a store - they usually took credit cards but street vendors - you need cash.

 

I used a "under the shirt" type money holder. I carried about $100 worth of both US dollars and Russian Rubles and one credit card with me most of the time and never had a problem with payment (I did forget my credit card the day we were in Kostroma and it is probably good as I would have bought a black lacquer box). I would carry both currencies.

 

Theresa

[Coral]

Welcome home Theresa. I was thinking of you the other day and was wondering if you were back home. Obviously you are and looking forward to your review.

 

Marilyn

 

Thanks - I hope to have a review done in the next few weeks. I am struggling with jet lag since I have been home. I didn't have any problems over there but coming home is difficult. My goal is for the review to be done around the 4th of July. Some of the ports are already blending together (probably due to tiredness).

[Coral]

Welcome home Theresa. Looking forward to talking to you about the trip later this week and hear all the details good & bad. How many photos did you end up taking? I assume the girls were glad to see you arriuve back home safely :)

 

Doug

 

Thanks :) I haven't counted the pictures. I used a new card each day in case my camera got ripped off - I didn't want to lose several days of pictures. My night pictures turned out poorly but the rest look ok.

[Coral]

You are totally wrong.

We also just did a 14 day Amsterdam to Budapest on the Amadagio.

The food was very disappointing, as was the service & attitude of the staff.

....

It was the worst food of all!

 

I personally would have to think twice about going on Amadeus again. 12 days was a very long time with inferior food (eating every meal onboard as there wasn't time/opportunity to eat elsewhere most of the time). Amadeus was one of the more expensive lines for Russia - this was an expensive cruise IMO and I am not sure if I will risk spending this much money again and risk similiar food.

 

The ship (Tolstoy) did not disappoint me. It actually was exactly how I expected it. The ship was extremely clean and the public rooms were exactly how they were described (in the brochure, from people on this forum, from the Clint Denn video).

 

In our situation - there were only 3 Amadeus employees on the Tolstoy (CD, Asst. CD and Chef). The rest were Vodohod (Russian company) employees. I will try to elaborate more on this soon.

[letsgo39]

You are totally wrong.

We also just did a 14 day Amsterdam to Budapest on the Amadagio.

The food was very disappointing, as was the service & attitude of the staff.

We will not cruise this line again.

We have done over 45 ocean cruises.

It was the worst food of all!

 

 

Fleuve,

Just because you were not happy with Amadeus does NOT mean there is a problem with other cruise lines. Why don't you just speak for yourself and not for others.:( It is obvious that Amadeus has a problem with the food service this year but those that have cruised on other river cruise lines have had very positive things to say about the food.

[Benita]

I wonder what changed this year with the food on the Tolstoy. We found it pretty good last September. Certainly not gourmet, and not up to the level of the ocean liners, but we liked almost every meal. Maybe they changed chefs or food suppliers this year.

[letsgo39]

There were several post earlier on another thread after the first cruise that indicated that the food service company had been changed from last year. I sure hope that all that are unhappy with the food have contacted Amadeus to express their complaints.

[Coral]

As Benita mentioned - we were brought to a place in Kostroma which gave a good explanation of the 4 styles/schools of boxes and had a large selection from each school. I have no idea how the prices here compared to elsewhere as lacquer boxes are pretty expensive.

 

I am going to have to check my notes - I am wondering if this was in Yaroslavl.

[Coral]

There were several post earlier on another thread after the first cruise that indicated that the food service company had been changed from last year. I sure hope that all that are unhappy with the food have contacted Amadeus to express their complaints.

 

I plan on doing so. Our head chef was of either Spanish/Mexican nationality (as reported by someone else) but had spent quite a bit of time in LA. Someone had spoken to him and he said that he is aware people are unhappy with his food and that he can prepare better food but his hands are tied. I assumed that meant Vodohod but am not sure now.

 

As soon as I get caught up with life, I will write Amadeus.

[tban]

We did the Russian Waterways cruise on the Tolstoy last September and liked it. We also have been on European cruises with Amadeus and liked it. the food on the Tolstoy was not as "sophisticated" as for example on the Amadagio - Christmas Time cruise, but still not bad at all. We found the crew on the Tolstoy exceptionally friendly and helpful. The itinerary was just what we wanted and we saw and visited everything as planned. Moscow was Ok, however, we could have spent more time in St. Petersburg. The lectures on board were very interesting and helped a lot to understand the culture and mentality of Russia. I did not think shopping was very exiting in Russia and we did not do much. We changed $ 300 into Rubels and this was actually more then enough.

[land lover]

Thanks for the detailed response Theresa.

 

??????????????????Matryoshka dolls and Boxes???????????????????????

 

Theresa, Benita and tban

 

Seeing we have a curio cabinet shelf dedicated to Russian items, I was not planning to add much to it from this trip...but I got a surprise yesterday when my DM asked me to bring her back a couple of dolls...I mentioned we could just get them over the internet or buy them at the local mall and you should have heard her........:) she already has several from a trip she took but I guess she wants to add to her collection and thinks I should add to mine...anyway what should I expect to pay for a five nesting doll set and the school boxes of nice quality?

 

Thanks,

[land lover]

Oh another quick question on clothing/dress..........what was your take on the fashion in the cities and river towns?...would muted colors be more appropriate...or can I get by with some bold colors? Since we will be in hotels and on our own more don't want to stick out totally:D

[Coral]

Oh another quick question on clothing/dress..........what was your take on the fashion in the cities and river towns?...would muted colors be more appropriate...or can I get by with some bold colors? Since we will be in hotels and on our own more don't want to stick out totally:D

 

I wore jeans and tshirts most days. Our onboard guides wore jeans and burgandy jackets each day. When not wearing the burgandy jackets, they wore colorful shirts with blue fleece vests.

 

Bring a hat/scarf or jacket with a hood. There was one day where women had to cover their heads to enter the churches that day (I think it was Kostroma but I have to look at my paperwork for sure).

 

In Moscow and St. Pete - everything seemed to be fine. We were commenting on how diverse Russians look/dress, etc.. Very similiar to the US. In the smaller towns - you will probably stand out as a tourist no matter what you do.

 

I would focus more on dressing comfortably as you will be walking quite a bit. On a side note, many young Russian women were wearing high heels and we saw several dressed like Paris Hilton. Go figure.