Russian cruise lines for river cruising

[Toofarfromthesea]

I've been contemplating a river cruise in Russia - the basic 3-4 days in Moscow and St. Petersburg with cruising in between. Of course I'm looking at the well known lines like Viking, Uniworld, et al. But in doing my research I see that there are some Russian lines that do these river cruises as well.

 

Does anyone have experience with taking a river cruise in Russia with one of the Russian companies? I'm sure it would be a pretty different experience than a more typical river cruise but that is not a deterrent for us.

[Kamloops50]

I've been contemplating a river cruise in Russia - the basic 3-4 days in Moscow and St. Petersburg with cruising in between. Of course I'm looking at the well known lines like Viking, Uniworld, et al. But in doing my research I see that there are some Russian lines that do these river cruises as well.

 

Does anyone have experience with taking a river cruise in Russia with one of the Russian companies? I'm sure it would be a pretty different experience than a more typical river cruise but that is not a deterrent for us.

I would stick with the mainline river cruises. Russian companies will charge for a 5* cruise and supply a 3* or less. They don't have the same ethic of customer service the companies in Europe or North America .

[TravelerThom]

TooFarFromTheSea:

 

Not as specific as you want, but 2 threads that at least mention Russian organized cruises:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2512347

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2384050

 

Note the mention of one Russian company using a boat "Knyazhna Victoria" which is occasionally chartered by UniWorld.

 

I'll follow along this thread to see if you can get more answers.

 

Thom

[Toofarfromthesea]

TooFarFromTheSea:

 

Not as specific as you want, but 2 threads that at least mention Russian organized cruises:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2512347

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2384050

 

Note the mention of one Russian company using a boat "Knyazhna Victoria" which is occasionally chartered by UniWorld.

 

I'll follow along this thread to see if you can get more answers.

 

Thom

 

Thanks, I appreciate the pointer to these threads.

[steverhodes]

I've been contemplating a river cruise in Russia - the basic 3-4 days in Moscow and St. Petersburg with cruising in between. Of course I'm looking at the well known lines like Viking, Uniworld, et al. But in doing my research I see that there are some Russian lines that do these river cruises as well.

 

Does anyone have experience with taking a river cruise in Russia with one of the Russian companies? I'm sure it would be a pretty different experience than a more typical river cruise but that is not a deterrent for us.

 

I walked through several of them. Most had bad lighting and had a moldy smell.

[franski]

We did our Russian cruise with Uniworld a few years ago. Very happy with it. When we walked through other boats, you could tell the ones that were not attached to the "main stream" lines. Flooring was older linoleum. There was a TV in the main lobby that was black and white - everything was in cyrillic. The staff was pleasant - and would nod & smile - but not sure how easy it would be to converse unless you booked through an English speaking company (or speak Russian).

 

My cousin is currently on a cruise with a lesser known company (from Toronto) so am looking forward to hearing how her cruise was different (if it was....).

 

I can post here when they return if you would like.

 

Fran

[Toofarfromthesea]

We did our Russian cruise with Uniworld a few years ago. Very happy with it. When we walked through other boats, you could tell the ones that were not attached to the "main stream" lines. Flooring was older linoleum. There was a TV in the main lobby that was black and white - everything was in cyrillic. The staff was pleasant - and would nod & smile - but not sure how easy it would be to converse unless you booked through an English speaking company (or speak Russian).

 

My cousin is currently on a cruise with a lesser known company (from Toronto) so am looking forward to hearing how her cruise was different (if it was....).

 

I can post here when they return if you would like.

 

Fran

 

That would be great, I'd love to hear about her experience.

[napoxoguk]

Hi, Toofarfromthesea:

I've been thinking about writing up an extended overview of the key options available to river cruisers in Russia, but it turned out to be no small task and I just never got around to completing it.

So, in lieu of that, here's a couple of pointers for further research:

1.Moscow2SPb (or reverse) itinerary is the most popular route. That said, it is also one of the less exciting and picturesque river experiences available in Russia: the main draw is the time in St. Petersburg and, to an undeservedly lesser extent, Moscow, as well as a handful of smaller towns (Uglich, Yaroslavl, and Kizhi being probably the top three attractions). Anything else is pretty much transit in between.

With that in mind, unless you are completely sold on the idea of a cruise, i'd recommend considering a land trip to the two capitals - and taking ground transportation (or a weekend cruise) to the smaller destinations (Uglich and Yaroslavl from Moscow, Kizhi from St. Pete). Here's a review of my recent weekend cruise to Uglich (2 nights, 3 days, $300):http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2511584

 

 

 

2. All cruise lines and resellers offer a virtually identical itinerary, so your choice will likely be driven by a) ship amenities b) entertainment on board, and c) price.

 

 

3. Ship amenities.

As someone has already pointed out, only one major Western cruise company actually owns and operates a sizeable fleet of ships in Russia at this time. Everyone else charters, subcharters and bulk-purchases from the three key Russian players (Vodohod, Infoflot, and Mosturflot).

The river fleet in Russia is huge, but there is only a handful of ships that are available to foreign cruisers (and have been upgraded - more or less - to Western standards). They are all sister ships belonging to 2 major "families": proj. 301/302 and proj. "Q"

 

 

Proj. 301/302 (built in DDR in the eighties and early nineties):

Konstantin Fedin (301)Konstantin Korotkov (301)

Nikolay Chernyshevsky (301)

Russ (302)

Zosima Shashkov (302)

Knyazhna Viktoriya (aka Princess Viktoriya, aka Uniworld River Viktoria, ex- Griboedov) (301)

 

IIRC, all of Viking's köning series (Helgi, Rurik, Truvor, Ingvar) also belong to this family. Here's a thread that I had started trying to get additional photos of Viking and VolgaDream ships: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?p=53593232#post53593232

 

 

Q-series (built in Austria around the same time, arguably a better, more efficient and, at the time, luxurious design, but an apparent pain in the butt to refurbish to modern standards of comfort):

 

 

Lev Tolstoy (Q-056)

Alexander Grin (aka Scenic Czar or Tsar) q-065/rebuilt

Alexandr Pushkin (q-040)

Maxim Gorky (q-040)

 

 

There is also an oddball project 92-016, represented by Mstislav Rostropovich (aka AMAKatarina) - at one point arguably the most luxurious, and even today still the largest ship of the Russian riverine fleet.

 

 

All in all, a picture is worth a thousand words, and I encourage you to visit a wonderful Russian-language site that maintains an up-to-date gallery of interior and exterior photos of all the main ships available to cruisers in Russia (except Viking fleet). I know I've been somewhat obsessive in recommending that site recently, but rest assured a) I have nothing to do with it, and b) the site is a non-commercial forum maintained by a bunch of river enthusiasts, with no apparent affiliation with any market participants. Here's the link: https://riverforum.net/forumdisplay.php?f=33

Use Google translate if necessary, but it's pretty self-explanatory.

Once you start browsing, you will immediately see that some older ships seem to have been wormholed to our universe directly from the sixties and seventies. This explains occasional complaints about light fixtures not working, musty smells, and worn linoleum. Most of the ships listed above, on the other hand, are not all that different from one another, and are generally in a pretty good shape.

Gee, even this post is already getting way too long - so I'll just throw in some other things to consider.

1. If you book direct from a Russian company, the price shown will only cover the cruise proper - visas, hotels, flights are all extra. Essentially, that might be a blessing in disguise - if Viking, for instance, does get special discounts on flights and hotels, I am yet to see any of those savings trickle down to their customers.

2. The biggest area to research is entertainment on board (especially important given the nature of Moscow-Spb route)

3.Price-shopping is King :-)

4. If you end up booking with the Western lines or resellers, go with the ones that offer hotels, rather than on board stays in the capitals.

5. If you do end up staying on board, especially in Moscow, take public transportation (Metro) whenever possible. Traffic is pretty bad, and bussing back and forth eats up a lot of precious time.

Final disclaimer: I'm not in any way affiliated with any cruise company, I just spent several summers on the banks of the Volga as a child, watching all those snow-white beauties sail by, and retained that fascination with river ships to this day. So yeah, I'm kinda biased :-)

And, more importantly, it makes my blood boil when I see some aggregators purchase a ready-made cruise package (cruise, meals, excursions, and all) from one of the Russian companies, add a total of 5 staff members on board, and offer it for resale at three to four times the original price.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Cheers.

Edited August 29, 2017 by napoxoguk
Typos, verbal diarrhoea.

[napoxoguk]

Hello again,

Spent some time browsing those photo threads last night - and checked out the sites of a couple more or less reputable resellers, and I feel I have to retract my blanket statement that all ships available to foreigners are in the same shape.

 

It seems like Rostropovich, Grin, Knyazhna Viktoriya look a step above Pushkin, Tolstoy, Gorky, Korotkov, which, in turn, look a bit better than Russ, Yesenin, Zosima Shashkov, Fedin (which are more like Furmanov - i.e. overall nice and clean, but a little tired).

[Kamaaina II]

We did a Russian River Cruise in July 2015 and booked it through Gate 1 travel and they used one of the Vodohad boats: MS Nikolay Chernyshevsky.

It was one of the most amazing and memorable trips we've been on. Yes, the ship is older, and yes, it's not luxury. But we felt the quality of the tour guides and tours where outstanding as well as the crew onboard. Let me preface this by saying we also like backpacking and camping so a little roughing it for us is no big deal. In fact it can add to the authenticity of the experience.

We started in Moscow but arrived several days early so we could explore on our own. We found a website online that teaches the Cyrillic alphabet because my husbands idea of traveling is to do as much as possible on our own, which meant finding our way from the airport to hotel via train and metro would require us to be able to read the signs!

To be able to visit Russia on your own you have to get a visa and to get that you need a letter of introduction, which our hotel, Mercure Arbat Moscow was willing to supply. Meandering around Moscow on our own was wonderful, people are very friendly, and the whole experience was enlightening.

Come boarding time we found our way to the ship and I just can't say enough nice things about the people who work on it or about the tour guides. Their English was excellent and the tours amazing. Thanks to our tour guides there's no waiting in line for the Hermitage or Peterhof Palace. In Moscow we also opted for a Russian folk dance show, which was amazing! The stops at the various towns along the river where interesting and varied. There was a capello singing, ballroom dancing, and just plain amazing sights and architecture. Entertainment on board was of course Vodka tasting, nesting doll painting, Russian language classes, lectures, and more.

In St Petersburg we had also arranged to stay a few extra days on our own and there we saw a ballet which was jaw dropping!

If you're not going on a cruise for the pampering massages, manicures, etc, but for culture, then I would say you will love this experience!

[napoxoguk]

Hi Kamaaina,

Thanks you so much for your review!

Could you please comment on the on-board entertainment arrangements (doll painting, history classes, and the like) - as a Gate 1 customer, did you have a separate group, or were you mingling with other passengers? Were excursions organized by Gate 1? What other providers (like Gate 1) were also on board?

In other words, to kind of cautiously bring it back to the original topic, what parts of your experience would you attribute to Gate 1, and which to Vodohod?

 

Many thanks - and I'm glad you liked your time in Russia.

[Kamaaina II]

Hi Kamaaina,

Thanks you so much for your review!

Could you please comment on the on-board entertainment arrangements (doll painting, history classes, and the like) - as a Gate 1 customer, did you have a separate group, or were you mingling with other passengers? Were excursions organized by Gate 1? What other providers (like Gate 1) were also on board?

In other words, to kind of cautiously bring it back to the original topic, what parts of your experience would you attribute to Gate 1, and which to Vodohod?

 

Many thanks - and I'm glad you liked your time in Russia.

 

There where many small tour groups and each one had their own leader and tours and sat together at dinner, etc. There was an Italian group, a Chinese, and a French group, and there was probably more. Each one has their own leader that works directly with that particular tour company... ours was Anastasia and she was contracted by Gate 1, and she was in charge of our group which was English speaking and from the US, New Zealand, Australia and UK. We probably totaled around 20 people? She was our go to if we had any questions or problems. She was also with us on tours and coordinated everything. She was awesome! So I'd say that part was done by Gate 1.

The onboard entertainment, as I recall, was open to anyone and was probably organized by Vodohad.

I don't know the names of the other tour companies that where onboard. I did notice a difference between the French tour group and ours during dinner... theirs came with bottles of wine, ours came with one drink each! So each tour company seemed to offer their own perks.

Does that answer your question?

[Toofarfromthesea]

There where many small tour groups and each one had their own leader and tours and sat together at dinner, etc. There was an Italian group, a Chinese, and a French group, and there was probably more. Each one has their own leader that works directly with that particular tour company... ours was Anastasia and she was contracted by Gate 1, and she was in charge of our group which was English speaking and from the US, New Zealand, Australia and UK. We probably totaled around 20 people? She was our go to if we had any questions or problems. She was also with us on tours and coordinated everything. She was awesome! So I'd say that part was done by Gate 1.

The onboard entertainment, as I recall, was open to anyone and was probably organized by Vodohad.

I don't know the names of the other tour companies that where onboard. I did notice a difference between the French tour group and ours during dinner... theirs came with bottles of wine, ours came with one drink each! So each tour company seemed to offer their own perks.

Does that answer your question?

 

Thank you for your very informative response.

[Toofarfromthesea]

Hi Kamaaina,

Thanks you so much for your review!

Could you please comment on the on-board entertainment arrangements (doll painting, history classes, and the like) - as a Gate 1 customer, did you have a separate group, or were you mingling with other passengers? Were excursions organized by Gate 1? What other providers (like Gate 1) were also on board?

In other words, to kind of cautiously bring it back to the original topic, what parts of your experience would you attribute to Gate 1, and which to Vodohod?

 

Many thanks - and I'm glad you liked your time in Russia.

 

Thank you for your very responsive and informative posts.

[Coral]

I have done a land trip to Russia (Moscow and Leningrad - St. Petersburg now) and then a River cruise on the Tolstoy.

 

Honestly - I much preferred the land trip. I felt like many of the port stops on the Tolstoy between Moscow and St. Petersburg were wasted times. Many stops were just 2-3 hours. I wish I had just done a land trip again and taken the train between the 2 major cities. I would have loved to have more time in both of those cities as 3 days is really rushed in both cities.

[napoxoguk]

So each tour company seemed to offer their own perks.

Does that answer your question?

 

Absolutely, thanks for coming back to this topic, much appreciated!

 

As to Coral's comment - yes, I would agree that 3 days on each end of the trip is not enough to "properly" experience the two cities.

With that being said, it seems to me that one of the benefits of getting your cruise from a Russian provider is that you are pretty much free in your choice of post- and pre-cruise arrangements and can build your agenda without the "ooh, I probably should skip this excursion, but I would feel bad because I pre-paid for it" aspect to it.

Last time I checked, the difference between, say, Viking and any Russian provider is quite substantial - if anything, it would buy you a sweeeet extension.

 

But then again, I do stand by my advice - in my opinion, one would be better off doing a land trip to Moscow, St.Petersburg, and, say, Kazan - and just taking a weekend "cruise" from one of these locations (especially Kazan) if you want to experience time on the river in Russia.

[Kamaaina II]

I agree that doing cruise only is the way to go, regardless of whether it's a Russian cruise co or otherwise. That way you're free to stay as long or as short as you want on either end of the cruise. That is exactly what we did. We booked our own accommodations on each end, and got our letters of invitation through them.

I loved the cruise because of the history and culture that we got at the many stops along the way, each one being different. I don't think (in my opinion) you can get that with just a land tour out of Moscow or St Petersburg.