Viktoria SPB TOURS

[imkauai]

We have booked a tour August 8th and 9th with her in ST. Petersburg, have our tour tickets and have had good communication with her .

 

Myself and the other couple have been emailing her for a week with NO response.

 

Should we be concerned???

 

Anyone had a similar situation???

[bobkingdc]

We have booked a tour August 8th and 9th with her in ST. Petersburg, have our tour tickets and have had good communication with her .

 

Myself and the other couple have been emailing her for a week with NO response.

 

Should we be concerned???

 

Anyone had a similar situation???

 

Have you checked your Junk or SPam email folder? Sometimes emails from Russia get sent to your Spam email folder by your ISP or online email provider as a precaution. Some email programs and sites allow you to add email addresses of people you want to always receive. Try adding her email address to your allowed email addresses and see if this helps.

[imkauai]

Both myself and the other couple have tried her, no response ....

 

not in junk mail

 

We have had no problems in the past very quick response

[agnesd]

I heard from her on 6/1/09. Maybe busy with Tours.

[parker6]

I had the same problem and turns out that she had stopped getting my mail. There are 2 addresses on her website. When I started the other email address she got it and responded right away. Seems it is sometime hit and miss for email getting through to her. I'd try the other address.

[DebbieS732]

I've emailed her a few times in the last 2 weeks. She does respond but it's taking her awhile. She has apologized. Apparently, they are overwhelmed with last-minute tour requests.

 

The address she sends emails from is:

 

vika.rother@gmx.de

[JulyCruise]

What kind of prices are you talking about with SPB? (We have had a not replying to email problem with Optima.)

 

We are departing Harwich July 6, 2009 and will be in St Petersburg July 12, 13, and 14. We need more people to join our group. Check out...

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=991861

 

We have prices and itineraries from Alla, Denrus, and Optima.

[Giantfan13]

Viktoria's prices are about the same as most of the other agents in St Pete. We have bookd with her for our August cruise, and like most of the groups, the more people on the tour the cheaper it will be. We already have a decent group and we all booked the Baltic Pearl tour mainly because it included a boat tour and a hydofoil ride. All the groups do basically the same thing, but if you, or your group want to deviate from what the regualr tours are, it's usually no problem. Viktoria is very easy to work with, and she is extrememly busy right now. Usually she emails the very next day, but now, i can understand a bit of a delay. In all my dealings with her, I found her to be couteous, polite and seems she can't wait to help us see her country. I can't wait to meet her.

[gdayhoff]

I second the comments of Giantfan 13. Viktoria of SPB-Tours is a joy and a pleasure to work with.We started working with her last Nov.for our July 2009 cruise and had it finalized in Dec.

We first visited St. Petersburg 6 years ago and at that there were only two popular tours outfits[]Red October and Denrus].Both were highly regarded on this broad.We elected to go with Red October and have an outstanding guide and the itinerary was great.

This time I looked at Red October,Denrus,Alla,Anastasia,and SPB-Tours and we elected to go with SPB-Tours because I thought it was the best fit for my family.

I supprise at the number of people that are waiting to the last minute to finalize plans for a cruise that is only 2-3 months away.Waiting that long you will only get the left overs.I'm sure Viktoria is working her can off trying to accommodation these people.Just be patience as I'm sure she will get back to you.

[davejohn]

I emailed her with a question about our booked tour (which is not until August) about a week ago, and just got a reply. It was time stamped 1:40 AM her time, so it does sound like she's busy.

[DebbieS732]

I supprise at the number of people that are waiting to the last minute to finalize plans for a cruise that is only 2-3 months away.Waiting that long you will only get the left overs.I'm sure Viktoria is working her can off trying to accommodation these people.Just be patience as I'm sure she will get back to you.

 

This is an excellent point. We started contacting Viktoria a few months back before cruise 'season' began in the Baltics and she always was able to respond within 24 hours. As soon as the cruise ships started sailing, her response time got much slower. At one point, she apologized and said she was slammed with people trying to book last-minute tours. It pays to arrange these tours earlier. There was a ton of back and forth between our group and Viktoria trying to fine tune the tour. I's not a one email process unless you are just planning to join a large group tour.

[desertminky]

Hi, We toured with Viktoria last summer and as you noted, she was super speedy in her reply in the off season. Once the season starts, she is very busy both giving tours and arraging last minute details. There are a lot of details to work out with port authorities etc. Just give her time and email to both email addresses you have. Most of my last minute questions were moot anyway and she answered the questions before the tour began. She may have to triage responses! We completely loved our tour with her, and her other tour guides, it was the highlight of our trip! Have a great time!

[agnesd]

Just heard from V. She is very busy and told me that they just hired additional personnel. She receives upwards of 80 emails per day and they service at times 10 cruises in port. When the cruising season starts thing become hectic but she will take care of everyone. I haven't met her yet but she is extremely helpful and efficent. We are going June 15. Will post when we return.

[gprigmore]

Review of our SPB Tour – St Petersburg Russia:

Since Cruise Critic was so helpful for us determining logistics, we’d thought we’d give back to the forum and provide our review:

Tour Dates: May 30 & 31, 2009

Ship: Emerald Princess

Guide: Luba

Tour Company: SPB Tours (www.spb-tours.com)

Excursion: C Tour – Active

Group size: 14

We can’t recommend Viktoria & SPB tours enough. It was simply an awesome experience and a pleasure dealing with Viktoria from day one! I was originally working with Red October, and although I still hear good things about them, nor do I have anything really bad to say about them, their responses were lacking in details, and I was only getting back "generic" form responses back from them. I had logistic questions, but getting them answered adequately was like pulling teeth. Conversely, we had the opposite experience with Viktoria. And... considering we paid about $60-80 less pp than Red October, how can you go wrong!!

It was so refreshing to get “real” responses from a perceptive and fun person, who could answer your questions promptly and effectively, and make you feel that you were indeed in good hands. (**I am now reading here about slower responses, and I know Viktoria is swamped. Keep in mind, St. Petersburg season is very, very short, so you need to plan ahead for superior service. When I met up with Viktoria (on our first tour day), it was like meeting a long time friend. She mentioned she was only sleeping a few hours here and there trying to keep up, and I know she’s hiring more people. So be patient, and plan ahead!)

We did the Active-C Tour excursion, and everything went smoothly. The only problem we encountered was with Princess, not SPB tours. Although I read you can just get off the ship when you dock, Princess let their own tour groups go first, and they were adamant about it. Just make sure when you get up in the morning, get your passenger passes in the dining room for your entire group as early as possible, as they go in ascending order, 1-50, then 50-100, etc. In the end, it wasn’t a big deal.

Our tour guide was Luba, and she was also terrific. Highly recommended! (see last pic of Luba and our skilled driver). Knowledgeable, fun, friendly, unique humor and (like Viktoria) an absolute gem! She is very passionate about her beloved city, and it showed. We loved our Luba! (Luba is holding the flower in the first pic below). If this is your first visit to St. Petersburg, I recommend the Active-C tour. And, see if you add the canal tour to your first day as that made our day perfect. (2nd pic below). Luba even brought us champagne, and we had the entire boat to ourselves. An ideal way to end the day!

In the end, I’m so glad I put this group of 14 together (a perfect size). It was a bit more work I had imaged at first, but end the end we made new life-long friends, and it really added to our whole experience. I even arranged a “meet & greet” on our fist day at sea, and we all got along great from the start. In fact, we had dinner with many of them throughout, and it was fun seeing all of them again and again throughout the cruise. It was great. But don’t take my word for it…here are a couple responses I received the last couple of days:

"Greg, thanks again for your efforts on the trip to Russia. I’ll repeat myself, but after looking at the Princess Excursions and taking one ourselves, what a difference a private guide gives you in terms of access, volume and stress level.” Kevin & Mariann

“Hi Greg, Thanks for the great pictures. The photos definitely put a smile on my face. We had such a wonderful time and cannot thank you enough for your organizational skills” Pat & Rick

"It was wonderful meeting all of you. We had such a great time. A special thanks to Greg for all your hard work. Blessings to all" Scott and Nancy

 

 

So in summary, SPB Tours, Viktoria and Luba get 5+ Stars! Enjoy your trip, and I hope this helps you all make the right choice about picking a Russian Tour company. And make sure you tell Viktoria Greg sent you!

Sincerely,

Greg Prigmore & Steve Reegler

San Francisco, California