Moscow to Saint Petersburg -- follow up
 

I received some useful information from this newsgroup in
anticipation of my Viking River Cruise from Moscow to Saint Petersburg, so I
am sending along my evaluation of the trip in the hope that it may be useful
to someone else.

My wife and I sailed on the Pakhomov from June 30th to July
11th. Overall the trip was a good one and I would recommend it to most
people - with a few qualifications (see below). The professional staff:
Cruise Manager, Birgitt; Hotel Manager, Dieter; and Restaurant Manager,
André, were all excellent. The wait staff was very pleasant and the
cleanliness of the ship was first rate. Our guide, Valera, was very
knowledgeable and spoke excellent English. On a few occasions his burn-out
surfaced, but that is understandable.

Here are the negatives - but let me repeat that my overall
experience was positive and I do recommend the trip.

1) The ship has a plumbing problem. On occasion there was
an unpleasant odor of sewage in the cabins and hallways.

2) The food was undistinguished.

3) The airline reservations were made by Viking and were
clearly made to minimize the cost to them rather than to maximize the
convenience to us. On the way home we had a six hour layover in Frankfurt
(for a flight to JFK). If you go with them, insist on better arrangements.

4) There was almost no discussion by the guides of the
Soviet Period and its aftermath. There were four lectures by a young
graduate student which briefly covered some of this material, but they were
not of the highest quality. On tours the guides focused on Czarist times
and had little to say about the Communists or their dramatic decline.
Considering that the period from 1985 to the mid 90s was one of the most
important periods in Russian history (and, consequently, world history) I
found this a serious lack. If you are interested in this period I recommend
a trip with more and better lectures. And prepare yourself by reading David
Remnick's Pulitzer Prize winning book, "Lenin's Tomb".



I hope that this is helpful.

HS

Moscow to Saint Petersburg -- follow up
 

"HSwiller" wrote:

I received some useful information from this newsgroup in
anticipation of my Viking River Cruise from Moscow to Saint Petersburg,
so I am sending along my evaluation of the trip in the hope that it may be
useful
to someone else.


Yes, thank you very much! I appreciate learning about the less travelled
routes and ships. Much appreciated.

If you have posted any photographs to the Internet, could you give us the link?