Weekend Cruise from Moscow to Uglich on MS Dmitry Furmanov

This is a review (or rather an overview) of a weekend cruise from Moscow to Uglich on Infoflot's Dmitry Furmanov (project 302, also known as Furmanov-class) river boat.

As far as Russian river cruises go, a typical weekend cruise is a 3d/2n affair designed primarily, if not exclusively, for locals as a short outing from one of the bigger ports (Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Kazan, Nizhny Novgorod, Samara, Volgograd) with two or three excursion stops in smaller towns or points of interest along the way.

The three major operators in the general Moscow area are Vodohod, Mosturflot, and Infoflot. These three also own and operate all Russian River cruise ships marketed to the Western river cruise crowd for Moscow-SPb or Volga cruises (with the notable exception of Viking and VolgaDream, which run their own fleet).

Weekend cruise options from Moscow

This particular cruise, run by Infoflot's budget line (Sozvezdie Infoflota), departed Moscow river port on a Friday night, took us via a 100-kilometer stretch of Moskva-Volga canal to the Volga river and then to Uglich reservoir, with a 2-hour stop at Kalyazin and a 3-hour stop at Uglich on Saturday, and returned to Moscow Sunday evening.

Other options include a similar route to Tver and a somewhat longer one to Myshkin.

We picked this route for two reasons - we've never been to Uglich (and heard it was one of the better stops on Moscow-SPb route), and I wanted to see what the original project 302 looked like before it was redesigned and refurbished by operators.

The ship

For a vessel that was commissioned in 1983, the ship, surprisingly, seems to be in a pretty good shape. The only departure from the original design I noticed are the two "semi-luxury" staterooms, equipped with proper shower cabin and a balcony. These are the only two rooms with a balcony, so on the three other decks you could walk around the whole deck without any obstructions (which I think is what the original designers of the ship intended). That said, the weekend we sailed the weather was just awful (at one point in between thunderstorm :( and hail :mad: I thought I saw some snowflakes :eek: - in early June :eek::eek:), so we really tried to stay inside as much as possible.

Common areas seem to have been updated in the past decade or so - not quite state of the art, but quite passable.

It looks like the ship has been recently used for foreign patrons - most of the signs are in both Russian and English.

The rooms

With the exception of the "semi-luxury" staterooms and the "luxury" suite (which, incidentally, seems to be a worse value than the balcony rooms), the cabins are tiny. I had a single cabin that could barely accommodate me and my two suitcases. The overall level of comfort is not stellar, but quite OK - similar to that on a long-distance train, but with a TV and a weird bathroom/sink/shower combo.

The food

Food was plentiful and actually quite good. Usually there were three options for soup, three for main course, and two for a basic dessert.

The crowd

There were some families with children, but overall this particular cruise unmistakably fell into the "booze cruise" category - alcohol was available on board and reasonably priced, plus there were no visible restrictions on bringing your own.

Somebody from the Furmanov crew told us that they also sometimes run "family weekend cruises", explicitely advertised as such, with different entertainment options, food choices, and lower tolerance for public intoxication. That said, I was quite happy with the whole booze cruise setup - makes it real easy to meet nee people and talk to strangers.

The sights

We spent roughly the same time in Kalyazin and Uglich, which is a bit of a downer, given that Uglich is a charming historical town (and we definitely didn't see all that it had to offer), while Kalyazin might have at one point been a charming historical town, but it went pretty much all underwater, Atlantis-style, when the Uglich reservoir was constructed.

The system of locks on the Canal is impressive, but most of them are passed overnight.

The canal itself is generally less than picturesque - the banks are raised and overgrown, with little to see. It gets better once you go past Dubna, though.

The price

Here comes the clincher - with single-room accommodation, the cruise set me back 20k roubles, or about 350 dollars. "Luxury" rooms go for about 500, while admittedly spartan bunk bed rooms housing four cost about 200 per person.

The "too long - did not read"

At that price point, I would not hesitate recommending this trip to anyone and everyone who happens to be in Moscow over summer and has run out of ideas for sightseeing in the city proper.

As a follow-up, I have just come across a pretty comprehensive photo-walk-thru of MS Furmanov, done earlier this year during one of their Open-House events. The bulk of the photos is on pages 2 thru 4: https://riverforum.net/showthread.php?t=3505&page=3

Just out of pure curiosity, you can compare it to MS Zosima Shashkov, a newer sister ship catering primarily to American, European, and Aussie crowd: https://riverforum.net/showthread.php?t=3910

Here's a fun one: some photos of the places regular cruisers don't get to see often (the engine room, control room, etc.):

http://cruiseinform.ru/story/rechnye-kruizy/2016-teplokhod-dmitriy-furmanov-to-chto-ne-vidyat-turisty/?PAGEN_1=5

I did a Russian River cruise awhile ago (but after 9-11) on a Vodohod ship. They actually did take us on tours of places (engine room, etc...) that cruise ships no longer take us to. It was one of the activities on one one of the short port days.