Den Rus Value Tours Refund Policy

[custompcsys]

Hi Folks,

 

I will be on the Star Princess this coming June, and based on several good recommendations on this board and what I read on their web site, I was going to book the Den Rus Complete St. Petersburg tour. The one thing that stopped me from booking until I got more information was the fact that DenRus charges your credit card up front, as opposed to Princess charging your Sign and Sail account for their excursions once you board the ship.

 

Does anyone who has had experience with DenRus know what their cancellation policy is if for some reason we are unable to go due to illness or some other complication? I have no problem paying up front, but would hate to put myself in a situation of throwing the money away if for some reason we are unable to make it. That would be bad enough by itself! :)

 

Thanks!

[Artemis]

Hi, custompcsys,

 

May I suggest you address this issue directly with DenRus so that you know exactly what contract terms and conditions apply to your touring agreement with them. Additionally, I am sure you will be purchasing third-party insurance to cover not only the cruise, but also your travel activities procured from non-cruise line vendors. That is the only way to protect your non-refundable deposits and pre-purchases in the event of unexpected illness or other covered occurrence within the travel vendor's penalty period.

 

We toured with DenRus in July 2005 and enjoyed two of the most incredible travel days we've ever experienced. You'll love discovering St. Petersburg!

[custompcsys]

Hi Artemis,

 

Thanks for your reply and relating your experience with DenRus. We did purchase travel insurance through Access America shortly after booking. I checked the policy and it does appear to cover 3rd party tour operator non-refunable deposits under the cancellation coverage, so you're right, that's our "out of last resort".

 

I did also send off an e-mail to DenRus and asked them. When I get a response I'll post it here in case others are interested.

 

Thanks again! :)

[rkdahl]

We haven't used DenRus yet. We are on the 06/14/06 Star Princess and I have reserved the tours for our family already. Here are a couple of quotes from their emails to me from several weeks ago. Terms could be changed at anytime of course, so I'd get the latest directly from DenRus.

 

Payment can be made either by prepayment to our USA parent company or cash on the spot (US Dollars are OK, you do not need rubles) or by credit cards on the spot.

We do not need any advance payments from our guests; the payment is usually made on the first day of their stay here. But maybe you decide that pre-payment to our USA reresentative company is more convenient to you, then you can do it in the following way:

By a check, Money Order, Cashier's Check or Bank Draft.

You may mail the payment for the equivalent amount to the below address of our USA parent company. Please note that personal checks can be accepted only if the payment is made at least 30 days prior to the actual arrival day in Russia.

[custompcsys]

Thanks for the info rkdahl! I have an e-mail out to DenRus and I'll post the response here so others can see it and have the latest info as well.

[MTemple212]

I asked Denrus about this and they said you can request to them when to charge to your card for payment. So when I reserved, I requested to them to charge to my card in June as our sail date isn't until July.

[custompcsys]

MTemple is correct. Denrus did indicate that they would charge your credit card at the time of your choosing. They also stated that if the tour is prepaid you can cancel up to 10 days prior to the scheduled tour date and receive a credit back to your credit card for the full payment. Seems pretty flexible and fair to me :)

 

Thanks to all those who responded! Happy Cruising!

[dbh62ark]

If you want to save time on the day of your tour, it's a really good idea to do credit card charge in advance. We had a passenger in our vans that paid by credit card, and the system was running slow that day. The result was a delay of about 20 minutes, and we were all ready to start the tour, so I would avoid that delay if possible.

 

Another tip that I may need to write on another board is regarding shopping with cash. Many of the stores were taking dollars for Euros, so that saves about 20-25% with current exchange rates. This discount was offered on top of the standard 10% discount for purchases over $100. We were able to obtain cash at the casino on our ship (Constellation), so be advised that U.S. cash is king if you want to save some extra dollars shopping.

 

Have a great trip,

Donna

[NancyIL]

I don't know what DenRus's cancellation policy is for their new value tours. However, last summer we booked a 2-day tour for my group of 6 family members. My mother-in-law broke her foot the day before she was to fly to London...but she still went on the cruise. She was in a wheelchair, and didn't know if she would be able to go on the 2-day tour in St. Petersburg, so I was e-mailing back and forth with DenRus from the incredibly slow and expensive internet connection on the ship! I was asking about such things as steps and wheelchair accessibility. I never thought to ask about their cancellation policy, because I had never given them a deposit.

 

It wasn't until 2 days before we arrived in St. P that my mother-in-law decided she definitely wasn't up to going on the tour at all. I e-mailed DenRus to that effect, asking what the new cost would be for 5 people, but didn't get a response from them before our arrival in St. Petersburg. I was expecting that the remaining people on the tour would pay a little more per person, as though we had started with 5 people originally. Unfortunately, we were expected to pay the whole amount (based on 6 people in our group), because the tickets had already been purchased the week before.

 

My father-in-law was quite upset about this, and the rest of us weren't happy, either. Then he got REALLY mad, because we felt that he should pay his wife's portion, even though she couldn't go. He felt we should've divided the total evenly among 5 people. As a compromise, I divided the first day's cost equally among the 5 of us, because I had been expecting to pay a little more per person any way. Since my FIL now knew that he was paying for his wife whether or not she went, I thought there was a chance he would see to it that she went on day #2! So - I divided the second day's cost among 6 people, and my FIL paid for himself and his wife (she still didn't go). Let's just say that my FIL didn't enjoy the rest of his time in St. Petersburg because he was so miffed! I'm glad this happened near the end of our cruise!

[Artemis]

Last-minute cancellations are unfortunate, but having done a custom tour with DenRus last summer, I can understand why the company was unable to absorb the charges for the cancelled guest. There is a final deadline before your arrival date, I believe it's a week, by which DenRus must secure the specialized cruise passenger government visas. Additionally, as Nancy indicated, DenRus secures all of your admission tickets to the various attractions in advance. DenRus plainly communicated terms and deadlines to us in our pre-arrival dealings with them. Again, I emphasize ours was a custom tour--as I think Nancy's must have been. I don't know how DenRus handles cancellations for the value and other group tours, although I have to believe that at some point very close to arrival date, there must be a "sorry, you're committed" point of no return because of the costs DenRus advances on your behalf.

 

For those of you who have yet to visit St. Petersburg, it may be difficult to appreciate the touring circumstances. I didn't really have a good idea of how our days would come off until we did it. Suffice it to say, you will be visiting sites scattered all over a vast geographic area during their high tourist season. Traffic is unbelievably bad, and there are large crowds at each site. We felt like pampered clients, indeed, when our expert driver was able to whip in and out and get us everywhere we needed to go as expediently as possible, and with pre-purchased tickets in hand, our guide was able to secure "front of the line" treatment for us at every stop (which sometime required some aggressive negotiations on her part in dealing with the rather gruff and rigid "bouncers" at the palaces and museums).

 

I do not mean to sound unsympathetic to Nancy's family's plight--I'm sure her MIL was very disappointed and it was obviously not a happy thing for the family to have to eat the cost of her tour participation. However, I can see DenRus' position as well. I do hope that Nancy's MIL/FIL had travel insurance. This demonstrates how important it is to fully insure all trip costs that are at risk. Note, many travel insurers will allow you to increase your coverage (for an additional premium, of course) to protect non-refundables added after you complete your pre-trip research and planning.

[dbh62ark]

Yeah, I'm with Artemis. I also am sympathetic to the situation that caused the cancellation but can't see how Denrus could be responsible for that and expected by the FIL to absorb the costs. I know from working with tour operators in other parts of the Europe that they also expect to be paid when a tour participant doesn't show up. And the ship's shore ex department also has a deadline for refunds, so the advice about travel insurance is also important.

 

Donna

[NancyIL]

Last-minute cancellations are unfortunate, but having done a custom tour with DenRus last summer, I can understand why the company was unable to absorb the charges for the cancelled guest. There is a final deadline before your arrival date, I believe it's a week, by which DenRus must secure the specialized cruise passenger government visas. Additionally, as Nancy indicated, DenRus secures all of your admission tickets to the various attractions in advance. DenRus plainly communicated terms and deadlines to us in our pre-arrival dealings with them. Again, I emphasize ours was a custom tour--as I think Nancy's must have been. I don't know how DenRus handles cancellations for the value and other group tours, although I have to believe that at some point very close to arrival date, there must be a "sorry, you're committed" point of no return because of the costs DenRus advances on your behalf.

 

For those of you who have yet to visit St. Petersburg, it may be difficult to appreciate the touring circumstances. I didn't really have a good idea of how our days would come off until we did it. Suffice it to say, you will be visiting sites scattered all over a vast geographic area during their high tourist season. Traffic is unbelievably bad, and there are large crowds at each site. We felt like pampered clients, indeed, when our expert driver was able to whip in and out and get us everywhere we needed to go as expediently as possible, and with pre-purchased tickets in hand, our guide was able to secure "front of the line" treatment for us at every stop (which sometime required some aggressive negotiations on her part in dealing with the rather gruff and rigid "bouncers" at the palaces and museums).

 

I do not mean to sound unsympathetic to Nancy's family's plight--I'm sure her MIL was very disappointed and it was obviously not a happy thing for the family to have to eat the cost of her tour participation. However, I can see DenRus' position as well. I do hope that Nancy's MIL/FIL had travel insurance. This demonstrates how important it is to fully insure all trip costs that are at risk. Note, many travel insurers will allow you to increase your coverage (for an additional premium, of course) to protect non-refundables added after you complete your pre-trip research and planning.

 

Yes, we had a custom tour, and I was the one dealing with Ilya at DenRus. The terms and conditions of cancelling were never mentioned to me in my e-mails with DenRus as I was finalizing our tour, and honestly - since no money had been put down as a deposit, I never thought about LOSING money. (I recall that Red October U.S. required a 10% deposit that was refundable until 2 weeks before sailing date...but that didn't register with me as I worked with DenRus.) I don't blame DenRus at all. I just wish Ilya had said something when I first e-mailed him about the possibility that my MIL might not be able to go on the tour, such as, "The tickets have already been purchased, so the price will remain the same." The in-laws had trip insurance that was purchased through the TA in an amount to cover the cruise and airfare...but they didn't try to recoup their money with the insurer. Next time we will know better!

 

Again, it was a fabulous tour, and our guide Yuri was excellent! It just would've been a whole lot more pleasant without my FIL's tantrum!

[NancyIL]

Yeah, I'm with Artemis. I also am sympathetic to the situation that caused the cancellation but can't see how Denrus could be responsible for that and expected by the FIL to absorb the costs. I know from working with tour operators in other parts of the Europe that they also expect to be paid when a tour participant doesn't show up. And the ship's shore ex department also has a deadline for refunds, so the advice about travel insurance is also important.

 

Donna

 

Your point about cancelling the ship's excursion was one we tried to make with my FIL. Had this excursion been booked through the ship, there would've been no refunds when they had to cancel at the last minute, and there would've been no way he could've asked US to share that cost! I had no bones to pick with DenRus, just aggravation with my FIL for expecting the rest of us to pay more. He even said that had he known that he was going to have to pay for my MIL, then HE wouldn't have shown up either! :eek: Nice...make the rest of the family pick up HIS costs as well! :rolleyes:

 

By the way, my MIL was in full agreement that the responsibility for paying her portion rested solely with herself and her husband.

[dbh62ark]

I had no bones to pick with DenRus, just aggravation with my FIL for expecting the rest of us to pay more. He even said that had he known that he was going to have to pay for my MIL, then HE wouldn't have shown up either! :eek: Nice...make the rest of the family pick up HIS costs as well! :rolleyes:

 

By the way, my MIL was in full agreement that the responsibility for paying her portion rested solely with herself and her husband.

Oh my. It may have been easier to work all that out with strangers rather than family. He was probably frustrated by the whole situation and just took his aggravation out on the wrong people. I'm sure it must be very disappointing to travel so far and then not be able to have his spouse join him. I'm glad you had a good tour despite the problems.

 

Donna

[Juliadlf]

I don't know what DenRus's cancellation policy is for their new value tours. However, last summer we booked a 2-day tour for my group of 6 family members. My mother-in-law broke her foot the day before she was to fly to London...but she still went on the cruise. She was in a wheelchair, and didn't know if she would be able to go on the 2-day tour in St. Petersburg, so I was e-mailing back and forth with DenRus from the incredibly slow and expensive internet connection on the ship! I was asking about such things as steps and wheelchair accessibility. I never thought to ask about their cancellation policy, because I had never given them a deposit.

 

It wasn't until 2 days before we arrived in St. P that my mother-in-law decided she definitely wasn't up to going on the tour at all. I e-mailed DenRus to that effect, asking what the new cost would be for 5 people, but didn't get a response from them before our arrival in St. Petersburg. I was expecting that the remaining people on the tour would pay a little more per person, as though we had started with 5 people originally. Unfortunately, we were expected to pay the whole amount (based on 6 people in our group), because the tickets had already been purchased the week before.

 

My father-in-law was quite upset about this, and the rest of us weren't happy, either. Then he got REALLY mad, because we felt that he should pay his wife's portion, even though she couldn't go. He felt we should've divided the total evenly among 5 people. As a compromise, I divided the first day's cost equally among the 5 of us, because I had been expecting to pay a little more per person any way. Since my FIL now knew that he was paying for his wife whether or not she went, I thought there was a chance he would see to it that she went on day #2! So - I divided the second day's cost among 6 people, and my FIL paid for himself and his wife (she still didn't go). Let's just say that my FIL didn't enjoy the rest of his time in St. Petersburg because he was so miffed! I'm glad this happened near the end of our cruise!

 

I see what you meant in your reply to my posting.

 

Julia

[spearmint]

If you want to save time on the day of your tour, it's a really good idea to do credit card charge in advance. We had a passenger in our vans that paid by credit card, and the system was running slow that day. The result was a delay of about 20 minutes, and we were all ready to start the tour, so I would avoid that delay if possible.

 

Another tip that I may need to write on another board is regarding shopping with cash. Many of the stores were taking dollars for Euros, so that saves about 20-25% with current exchange rates. This discount was offered on top of the standard 10% discount for purchases over $100. We were able to obtain cash at the casino on our ship (Constellation), so be advised that U.S. cash is king if you want to save some extra dollars shopping.

 

Have a great trip,

Donna

 

Great tips; thanks!

[spearmint]

There is a final deadline before your arrival date, I believe it's a week, by which DenRus must secure the specialized cruise passenger government visas. Additionally, as Nancy indicated, DenRus secures all of your admission tickets to the various attractions in advance.

For those of you who have yet to visit St. Petersburg, it may be difficult to appreciate the touring circumstances. I didn't really have a good idea of how our days would come off until we did it. Suffice it to say, you will be visiting sites scattered all over a vast geographic area during their high tourist season. Traffic is unbelievably bad, and there are large crowds at each site. We felt like pampered clients, indeed, when our expert driver was able to whip in and out and get us everywhere we needed to go as expediently as possible, and with pre-purchased tickets in hand, our guide was able to secure "front of the line" treatment for us at every stop (which sometime required some aggressive negotiations on her part in dealing with the rather gruff and rigid "bouncers" at the palaces and museums).

 

I do hope that Nancy's MIL/FIL had travel insurance. This demonstrates how important it is to fully insure all trip costs that are at risk. Note, many travel insurers will allow you to increase your coverage (for an additional premium, of course) to protect non-refundables added after you complete your pre-trip research and planning.

 

 

This information is invaluable. Thank you very much!

[gooselace]

I don't know what DenRus's cancellation policy is for their new value tours. However, last summer we booked a 2-day tour for my group of 6 family members. My mother-in-law broke her foot the day before she was to fly to London...but she still went on the cruise. She was in a wheelchair, and didn't know if she would be able to go on the 2-day tour in St. Petersburg, so I was e-mailing back and forth with DenRus from the incredibly slow and expensive internet connection on the ship! I was asking about such things as steps and wheelchair accessibility.....!

 

Nancy, do you remember any of what you found out about setps and wheelchairs? By cruise buddy has had one knee replacement and is in need of another, but meanwhile we set to go to the Baltics in Sept. I'm trying to figure out which tours would be best for her, even if we have to do day tours, with her taking one each day and me taking two. But it is hard to tell which would would be easiest for her. She walks without assistance, but gets tired on long walks, can manage a few stairs if not too steep, and really can't stand for longed periods. Usually requests a wheelchair at air and sea ports.

 

Any experience along these lines would be appreciated.

[NancyIL]

Nancy, do you remember any of what you found out about setps and wheelchairs? By cruise buddy has had one knee replacement and is in need of another, but meanwhile we set to go to the Baltics in Sept. I'm trying to figure out which tours would be best for her, even if we have to do day tours, with her taking one each day and me taking two. But it is hard to tell which would would be easiest for her. She walks without assistance, but gets tired on long walks, can manage a few stairs if not too steep, and really can't stand for longed periods. Usually requests a wheelchair at air and sea ports.

 

Any experience along these lines would be appreciated.

 

Put it this way - there are a lot of steps, and lots of people to maneuver around. My mother-in-law would've had a lot of difficulty in at least some of the venues visited because of stairs (thinking specifically of the stairs at the Catherine Palace) - so it was good that she didn't try to join us. Since your friend isn't normally in a wheelchair, she might do just fine. But stairs are hard on the knees, and the typical touring day in St. Petersburg is long.