Dukefan

We are hoping to take the "Scenic Flam Railway" Tour in September of this year when we can book excursions in another few weeks.  It is currently priced at $229 per person.

I agree with bfgood2's comments.   I will look forward to hearing their comments on their return since we are booked with them in September.  For the record, there are many comments related to SPB Tour that I support considering SPAM.  However, I discount Marselpo40's comments since he just joined Cruise Critic a couple of days ago, has only had 17 posts, the first two of which were "humping" a company called "bienvenidospb tours" which has only been mentioned on Cruise Critic two times (both by him) and only rated on TripAdvisor by six travelers.  He has spent most of his other posts "dumping" on SPB Tours.  As a point of reference, SPB Tours has been mentioned numerous times on  Cruise Critic (almost all favorably as it relates to the quality of their tours) and on TripAdvisor 5,544 times (87+% with a TripAdvisor's highest rating of Excellent).   They have also been awarded  TripAdvisor's "Certificate of Excellence".  I, like bfgood, feel very comfortable going forward with them.  To date my interface with SPB Tours has been extremely professional and of excellent quality.

10 hours ago, lois1112 said:

I booked (and have made payment) SPB after reading good reviews here on cruise critic. I leave in August , anyone use them lately. I'm getting nervous and leary now 

We are also booked on SPB Tours in September.   I worked with all the major SPB Tours companies for this trip.    I selected SPB Tours for the following reasons:

1)     They did the best job of matching the times we wanted to spend at each site

2)     They had very good comments on both Cruise Critic and Trip Adviser (In fact when we booked they had  5,356 reviews on Trip Adviser and were rated excellent (Trip Adviser’s Highest Rating) by 91% of them)

3) They allowed box lunches each day (the boxed lunches will take in to account any diet restrictions anyone has).   The box lunch allow more time for touring and less time wasted with a hour or sometimes more for lunch.

To date, I have been impressed with SPB Tours reservation and booking process.   Of course, the tour itself is where the "rubber meets the road".

I have been to SPB before and used other tour companies.  Every one of them were great.  Because of our past trips, we had some very specific requirements for this trip on where we went and how long we visited certain sites.   Also we are there on a Sunday and Monday which causes some tour challenges because of closings.   SPB Tours did the best job of working with us in dealing with all this.   

I would feel comfortable with any of the major companies.   If past experience is any indication they are all good.   Of course, the guide that you end up with for your tour is the major factor on how will it goes.

While I have no problem with SPB Tours and others asking you to post a review on Social Media, I do have a problem with offering gifts for doing so and would include that fact in my review.   Several of the reviews that gave them 4 stars instead of 5, stated that while the tour was 5 star that they docked them a star because they were offered a gift for a high rating.   Also I never rate any travel service provider until I return home from the trip and have a chance to reflect on the experience.

5 minutes ago, KeithJenner said:

Certainly some companies mention TripAdvisor to us and ask that we leave a review. Sometimes we have been given a card or something with details of TripAdvisor. I would say that it is far from being almost every one, especially when it comes to things like hotels (in fact I barely remember ever being asked to review a hotel and I stay at 20+ hotels every year).

 

What has certainly never happened to me is being offered any sort of incentive to do so. If anyone did then I would certainly mention the fact in any review I wrote.

 

What I have seen more often lately is individual staff members asking that, if we do write a TripAdvisor review, we mention them by name. I believe this is because some companies offer bonuses to their staff based on the reviews. I only mention individual staff members if they have done something specifically to warrant it, and I largely ignore any mention of specific staff members by name when reading reviews. I am certainly not going to turn up somewhere and "make sure I ask for Chuck to be my driver".

I like small boutique  hotels and get ask probably more than 50% of the time to make a comment on social media.   My guess is that you stay in larger chain hotels where I admit this is less common. Probably because they have a sizable advertising budget. Smaller hotels have to reply on word of mouth as their major form of advertising.  It is interesting though that you stay in 20+ hotels a year and have never been ask to post a favorable rating on Social Media.   As an individual with 10,000+ posts on Cruise Critic, I would think you would get asked often.  I have stayed in over 40+ nights in hotels for over 50 years and the biggest change that I have noticed in the past 10 years is the promotion of Social Media.  For the first 35 years of my travel it was all done through a travel agent, now I find myself doing more and more of my bookings myself because of the information available on sites like Cruise Critic, TripAdvisor and other Social Media.   Also I guess because I am retired I have more time to do it myself.

Almost every travel company (hotels, airlines, VRBO, airbnb, Tour Companies) have ask me, and I guess everyone else on this site, to post a favorable review on Facebook. Twitter. Cruise Critic, TripAdvisor, or another social media site at one time or another, and yes a few offer a perk or some other small thing for doing so.  It is one of the main reasons we all need to take on-line praise with a grain of salt.   If a company has thousands of favorable posts and only a few negative ones, I will still read the few negative ones and based on I read then I might feel very comfortable with the company.   One of the downsides of all social media is that each posting contains a degree of bias (unfortunately some even more than a degree).

I agree with KeithJenner posts questioning single posters.   From past visits to SPB I know several of the Major Tour Companies try to get you to put a favorable post on Cruise Critic and TripAdvisor often times providing you with a free token gift for doing so.  That probably accounts for many of these type posts.   Even the Marelpol90 above never posted on Cruise Critic until this past Tuesday at 6:23 AM for the first time when he posted how great his SBP tour company was.  

Cruise Critic is a great spot to review other people's  personal experience with a particular tour company.  It allows you to work with them either on Cruise Critic or via email and get more information on their experience.   I question folks that post second or third hand comments about a particular experience.

The Hermitage is one of the greatest art museums in the world.  If you have any love of art and don't visit the Hermitage you are cheating yourself on a visit to SBP.   The Hermitage has a great website and I recommend visiting it before you go.  Pick the art or artists that you most want to see.  Then tell your tour guide in advance your selections.   Almost all of the guides from the major tourist companies (TJ, Best Guides, Alla, SPB Tours, Denru, Red October) know the Hermitage well enough to get you to your favorites.  While one could spend a month at the Hermitage, you can experience a lot of your favorite type of art in only a few hours.  On my previous tours of SPB, the Hermitage ranks among the most memorable with the Gardens at Peterof, Catherine Palace and the Church on Spilled Blood. Regardless of what else you do, these sites should not be missed!

This is from SPB Tours web-site: https://www.spb-tours.com/index.php?plugin=tour_details&action=inrussia&tId=3

"Additional Notes:

Tour price does not include the following services: Gratuities for the guide (10%) and driver (5%) to be given separately"

Their suggest Gratuities are not 15% Guide and 10% Driver as suggested above.   It is 10% Guide and 5% Drive on both their web-site and my St. Petersburg Tour confirmation.

Try this site:  http://crew-center.com/cruise-ships-ports-schedules-2019

We still have room for one more couple on this 6 person private tour.

Thanks Heidi13

Gary

Heidi13,

I agree with your comment.  I started a Roll Call for this cruise over three months ago.   We have had posts by two other folks on this cruise in this three month period.   Last year when I cruised on Viking, I noticed that their Roll Calls are not as active as a lot of other Cruise Lines.    A therefore believe that many of their cruisers are new to Cruise Critic.   I know I had cruised several times basically just  visiting the Cruise Critic Detestation Sites and the Cruise Lines Sites before I discovered the great value of the Roll Call. Since I discovered the Roll Call about 15 years ago it is now the first site that I visit when planning cruise.  By the way I have posted this same information on the Roll Call site.  I posted it here to reach the greater Viking audience that my be unaware of the value of the Roll Call as I was for my first ten years or so of cruising.

Gary  

We are traveling on the Viking Ocean “Viking Homelands” August 29, 2019 Cruise.  For the two-day visit to St. Petersburg  “Eyevea”  (Bette & Paul) and “Dukefan” (Karen & Gary) have arranged a two-day private tour for 6 people.  We therefore have an opening for on other couple.   This is our second trip to St. Petersburg with a private two-day tour.  We found on our first visit that with a guide and a driver six people on a tour is an efficient way to visit this city and allowing you to see more with less waiting around. In the Hermitage for example everyone has time to see the art they want to guide to show them.  We also requested box lunches to maximize the limited time we have in this beautiful city to visit the major sites. The tour schedule is as follows:.   

Sunday, September 1, 2019

8:30 Meeting at the ship

8:30 -10:00 City Tour until Hermitage early admission

10:00 – 12:30 Hermitage Museum early admission

12:45 - 13:45 Impressionists in the Main Staff Building

14:00 – 14:30 Hydrofoil to Peterhof with Boxed Lunch

14:30 – 15:30 Tour of Peterof  Fountain Park & Gardens

15:30 - 16:30 Drive to Pushkin

16:30 – 18:00 Tour of Catherine’s Palace with the famous Amber Room

18;00 – 19:00 Drive back to ship

Monday, September 2

8:00 Meeting at the ship

8:30 - 9:30 Canal Boat Ride

9:30 -11:00 Tours of Peter and Paul Fortress/Cathedral

11:00 – 12:00 Tour of St. Issac’s Cathedral and Boxed Lunch

12:00 – 13:30 Tour of Church of Spilled Blood Cathedral

14:00 - 15:30 Tour of Yusupov Palace

16:30  Back to the ship

This price includes the following services:

1)     All port fees for two days and all local Russian taxes

2)     Professional and personable English-speaking guide for two days

3)     A/C vehicle for two days

4)     Admission Tickets to all Museums shown on the above itinerary

5)     Photo passes to all Museums

6)     Subway Ride (not shown on schedule nut will be worked in when appropriate)

7)     One bottle of water per person per day

8)     Ponchos in case of rain

9)     Boxed lunches for both days

10) Canal boat ride

 Tour price does not include:

1)     Gratuities for the guide (10%) and the driver (5%) to be given separately.

Email me at gchilders@nc.rr.com if you are interested and I can provide more details.

Gary

Viking Sky is docked at Terminal J this Sunday for this week's cruise - hope it is at these same dock next Sunday.

One way to improve reception might be to allocate every cabin a certain amount of data either per day or per cruise. That may reduce the uploading hundreds of pictures on Photostream or downloading lots of movies or videos and slowing down the system.