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Viking Waterways of the Czars 7/15 Surkov

Tennessee Traveler

By Tennessee Traveler,
in River Cruising

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Host Kat Holiday Sharing Rare

Host Kat

Posted
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Howdy Alan!

 

Welcome to the Need Help Using The Boards? Ask Here! Forum!

 

Thank you so very much for your post. However, your thread is on the forum where members find the "How to ... " type of information for using Cruise Critic's software such as avatars, signatures, countdown clocks and tickers, attaching pictures, etc. It is not the place for your type of thread and is off topic. 05.gif

 

Per Guidelines and to help you out, I am moving your thread to the River Cruises Forum. I am also merging it with the thread started by nothome since the two share the same topic.

 

I hope you do not mind a friendly suggestion 05.gif, but it would be best for you read Guidelines and FAQ in the blue bar above. Especially the "Getting Started" section in FAQ. That's where you will see how a new topic should be consistent with the specific forum you choose. It also gives a brief summary of the topics covered in the different forum sections. Click here http://boards.cruisecritic.com/index.php for the list of all the Cruise Critic forums and be sure to read all Announcement and Sticky threads at the top of the various forums for additional information too.

 

I sincerely hope this will be satisfactory and glad to have you aboard Cruise Critic!!

 

042202_1319_92_prv.gif Happy trails to you... 042202_1319_92_prv.gif

 

Kat 50.gif

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Tennessee Traveler

Tennessee Traveler

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Pam In MA,

For Russia cruise on the Surkov, do you know what kind of electical adaptor is needed to use electricity aboard? If you know what kind of plug is needed, do you know where one can purchase it? I have an old adaptor kit from 30 years ago which I've always been able to use, but I've never been on a Russian ship before either. Thanks!

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Pam in CA

Pam in CA

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Pam In MA,

For Russia cruise on the Surkov, do you know what kind of electical adaptor is needed to use electricity aboard? If you know what kind of plug is needed, do you know where one can purchase it? I have an old adaptor kit from 30 years ago which I've always been able to use, but I've never been on a Russian ship before either. Thanks!

Alan, below is a photo of the electrical plug with my things plugged in. I brought a 1>3 outlet adapter that I bought at my local supermarket for maybe $2. As for the actual adapter, I don't think they've changed. I don't remember exactly which one worked but I'd brought two that each had two round prongs with one adapter's prongs larger than the other.

 

adapter.jpg

 

I just went to the original photo and cropped just the adapter. I'll post it later since the FTP site isn't available right now and I have to go.

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Coral "Live from...." Rare

Coral

Posted
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I don't remember exactly which one worked but I'd brought two that each had two round prongs with one adapter's prongs larger than the other.

 

Pam - I just dealt with this this past weekend. The smaller (narrower) prongs is Europe. The (slightly) larger ones are Korea.

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Pam in CA

Pam in CA

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Pam - I just dealt with this this past weekend. The smaller (narrower) prongs is Europe. The (slightly) larger ones are Korea.
For some reason, I can't get to my FTP site so I'm attaching the close-up photo of the adapter (plugged in) directly.

Adapter1.jpg.c4b99c81b14c475b74da3d87889a3afb.jpg

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Tennessee Traveler

Tennessee Traveler

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Finally home from Russia after a wonderful 10 days on the Surkov sailing from St. Petersburg to Moscow. Overall, we enjoyed our trip. We visited many interesting & exciting places - in cities & towns, both large & small.

Highlights were visiting the marvelous sights in St. Petersburg: Catherine's Palace, Peter & Paul Fortress, St. Peter & St. Paul Cathedral, the marvelously opulent Peterhof Palce with its fabulous fountains, as well as seeing Swan Lake performed in all its grace & beauty. The Hermitage was a dream come true. It was awe-inspiring to say the least.

 

Other memorable highlights were the monastery at Goritzy, the Church of Elijah at Yaroslavl, and the churches of Uglich. The Church of the Transfiguration on Kizhi was an inspiring site, never to be forgotten on the little island in the middle of Lake Onega.

 

Moscow was the last port, and what a grand city it is.The highlight of our trip may have been the Moscow Circus, where we were all transported to an earlier time of our childhood as we marveled and oohed & aahed at the incredible spectacles we saw in the ring before us. It was grand to visit Red Square and soak in its grandeur. Everywhere the eye turned, there was another breathtaking sight, especially St. Basil's Cathedral & the over-the-top GUM department store. The last day was a gem as we visited the Kremlin, the magnificent Armory Museum, strolled the Arbat, and ended with a night tour of Moscow.

 

The time aboard the Surkov passed all too quickly as we met many wonderful fellow cruisers from all over the world. We enjoyed their company as we shared this grand voyage through Russia. It was so enjoyable to sit on the deck to watch the Russian countryside slip peacefully by. Not to mention all the photo ops I saw as we glided through the marvelous countryside.

 

The Surkov is an older ship scheduled for a major overhaul and refurbishment. I would have liked to see it reborn before I sailed, but since I sailed on one of its last voyages before its rebirth, it was not to be. I will say it was well cared for, but still a bit rough around the edges unlike other Viking ships I have sailed on previously (Viking Burgundy & Viking Century Sun).

The small cabin was an adventure as I slept on a small bed below the shelves on the wall. Luckily I never hit my head on them even once. I hope my shipmates fared as well. The bathroom was small and functional. Since I was prepared by reading comments from previous Cruise Critic Cruisers, I knew exactly what to expect while showering. I even mastered the shower transfer on my first try!

 

The restaurant was not up to the standard of any other cruise I have taken. The food was only OK. Sometimes there were two good choices of either appetizer, soup, entree, and dessert and sometimes no greatly appealing choices. I found the service by the young Russian staff to be puzzling at first. The young women seemed to be ill at ease often and even unfriendly at times. To ask for a small change in a dish they were serving seemed to be beyond their capability. An example was it took 3 days for me to have them serve me a dish of plain vanilla ice cream for dessert when vanilla was being served to others in the dining room with a strawberry sauce. I will say that when I spoke with the restaurant manager, service improved dramatically throughout the dining room during the rest of the cruise. By the end of the cruise, the young servers were much more friendly, and I saw smiles which were rarely, if ever seen earlier in the cruise. And the service improved, too. I don't know why the dining room staff wasn't trained as well as I have found on two other Viking ships. This wasn't early in the season, and they must have been already familiar with passenger requests by the time of my sailing in mid July.

 

The itinerary I mentioned above was great. It was informative and spectacular in its breadth. The guides were excellent throughout. They provided much information about the country we were visiting. They shared so much of their own personal experiences about this newly evolving country of Russia. We learned so much about Russia in lectures aboard, which I really enjoyed. We learned about Russia's glorious, and not so glorious past, as well as its move into a brighter future for all its people.

 

I found something quite disturbing on my last night aboard when we settled our bill. The amount was quite a bit more than my wife and I had expected. The reason being was that the ship uses units which they say are based on the Euro. Your bill was figured in these units and the total was converted into rubles at an inflated rate. Then there was a second conversion from units to Euros when we charged the amount of the final bill. While we expected to pay about 10% more, the actual bill was closer to 30% by our calculation. I would advise paying things like tips in cash to minimize this since all charges on ship are in these units.

 

Overall, I'm glad to say that the trip was wonderful, and we are so glad to have enjoyed this trip. As with most trips, there were pros & cons. Unlike our two previous Viking trips, to China & France, I would say that Viking should work diligently to upgrade this sailing or at least make the staff more responsive. It's a marvelous opportunity for travelers to enjoy Russia, but with the competition for travelers among all the other cruise lines, Viking can do more to improve their Russian sailings to make it the best possible cruising experience.

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CincyAL

CincyAL

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Thanks for the timely info on the final bill. Do you think a complaint to home office is warranted? How did you settle final bill, credit card? You mentioned tips in cash, euros or rubles?

 

Future travelers to Russia have much to learn from your advice!

 

I for one do not think the planned overhaul will be completed on schedule.

 

Hope that we can be shipmates someday!!! You sound like a fun guy.

 

CincyAL

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land lover

land lover

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What a nice overview...brought me back to our River cruise just 3 weeks ago, however we went with GCT.

 

Sorry, to hear that you were surprised with your final ship bill, the same thing happened to us on the Viking Century Sun(last summer, you were on it in the summer too, weren't you?) I chose to pay in US cash rather than Yuan or credit card and the conversion rate was terrible. They charged me about 15% more, than I had figured. I did pay my tips in cash.

 

Glad you had a wonderful time and found Russia as mystical as I did...Your one comment referring to Russia as a newly evolving country is so true and those of us that have seen it recently with our own eyes, especially Moscow know why....it is just a feeling, as I said to one of my friends it is an old country that has been reborn and you can feel it in the air, see it on the streets and especially in the churches. Definately a place I want to return to and I thought one 15 day river crusie would be enough was I mistaken.......

 

Enjoy and again thats for bringing RUSSIA to life again for me with your descriptive writing.

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Tennessee Traveler

Tennessee Traveler

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Hi Land Lover,

I'm glad you enjoyed my thoughts about the Russia cruise. Now I'm hopelessly lost in the process of editing my 1,600 pictures & selecting the best 200-300 for a show I'm putting together.

I've been waiting for many years to take this trip. And we finally did it. The problems aboard the ship didn't detract from the great time we had sailing through and experiencing Russia.

And China on the Viking Century Sun last year was the greatest trip we've ever takem, and there have been many of them!

Let me know if you'd like a link to the pictures once I put them on line.

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land lover

land lover

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TT, you are so right I have never had a trip from hell, I am sure I could but not to date......a trip is really what you make it, and not allowing the negatives to get in the way. On our trip almost 20 people started without luggage...unfortunately

we had stops cut short and one missed altogether because of heavy fog in the night and our ship had to anchor, thus time had to be made up..we had one gentlemen have a serious fall and had to make an unscheduled stop, but all this was just life. As far as the ship it was BEAUTIFUL just refurbed in April, shower with sliding doors, twin beds made to a double, for a 130 square foot room designed very well. Food good - very good, service better than average.........smiles all around..Local guides Excellent, our main guide above average. Hotels we stayed in above average. RUSSIA the country EXCELLENT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Would love to have you give me the link to you photos.

 

Enjoy

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land lover

land lover

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P.S. Our trip on The Viking Century Sun was our first river cruise, it was very nice but China, the country can't hold a candle to Russia in my opinion. The ships were comparable with Viking getting the edge...much more elegant. But I thought the staff on GCT was more to my liking I couldn't get use to the high pitched voices of our Chinese servers and they seemed to remove my plates way to soon. In other words the service was to good. I would give the edge to GCT for food, and guides would be a tie.

 

Looking forward to seeing those photos.

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Tennessee Traveler

Tennessee Traveler

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Hi Land Lover,

I'll send you a link to the pictures when they're finished. It should take me several weeks to edit and delete them so I'm left with the best pctures among all of them. If you send me your e mail, I'll include you on the list so you can view them. Thanks for your comments. TT:)

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