Pros & Cons
Pros –
For the 1 night prior and the 1 night following the cruise, instead of staying on the ship, which is docked one hour plus outside the city, you will stay at a hotel within Moscow and St. Petersburg. The hotels may not have the best or even in the best location, but it will be a lot closer than if you stayed at the dock.
The capacity of the ship is under 100 people, which was a positive for us
For the most part, the guides were very good, with one or 2 exceptions
Programs on the ship such as: speakers, cooking class, etc. were plentiful and excellent
The service in the dining room is excellent and the rest of the service is good
Cons –
The ship is not luxurious in any way
The cabins are minuscule and poorly appointed. The furnishings are bare bones and right out of IKEA. The ship is much more 2 stars than 5
The cabins are dark, depressing and poorly lit. We had to use our own flashlight to even find our clothes in the wardrobe
The curtains are so thin that they offer no privacy or any means of blocking out the daylight
The shower is so tiny, you can barely wash yourself
There are a few meals which are very good, but for the most part, they are mediocre at best. They were more quantity than quality and certainly not fine dining in any way
Except for the “Russian Night,” there are no Russian specialties on the menu or at the buffets. It is over cooked and dried out paella, bbq ribs and lasagna. Since lunch is a buffet, why couldn’t one of the choices be Russian?
In the evening there is No local or folk entertainment, except for games played by the staff
The hotels the utilize in Moscow and St. Petersburg are far down on the scale of 5 star hotels and the one in Moscow is 2 miles from Red Square
Of course no one can control the weather, but the following issues must be considered prior to booking -
You may think that taking a river cruise, it would be smooth sailing all the way, which was not the case. When crossing one of the large lakes, we were caught in a terrible storm and the ship was rocking and rolling. In fact, the water poured out of our shower and drenched the carpeting in the bedroom. Because of this we had to be temporarily relocated to another cabin.
Also because of the weather, we had to totally skip one of our ports and on the final morning, the ship could not reach St. Petersburg. We had to dock 4 hours outside the city, get up at 4:30 in the morning, in order to board buses for the 4 hour bus ride into the city. This was certainly not what we expected
If we had been on a larger ship would the situation have been different, I don’t know.
Reply from Volga Dream
Dear WeLuv2Travel,
Thank you for choosing Volga Dream for your river cruise from St. Petersburg to Moscow. We cannot agree more that staying at centrally located hotels pre and post your cruise enhances your overall travel experience as you have easy access to the most of famous sights, theatres and restaurants. Our records show that you booked with us only the 6-night cruise and picked your hotels independently. There is no hotel that can be booked in a Volga Dream programme that is 2 miles from Red Square.
We are very grateful for your recognition of the excellence of our on board programmes and standard of service in the dining room and elsewhere.When it comes to your “cons” we must confess to being somewhat puzzled, to the extent that we find it hard to believe you are actually talking about our ship!
Luxury is of course a subjective term but we do believe you are in a very small minority in suggesting that the adjective doesn’t apply to our vessel! In the course of 12 years we have sailed approximately 25,000 cruises with up to 100 passengers each time. Everyone is of course entitled to their own opinion but the weight of comments and reviews from so many guests over the years would suggest that the views you expressed do not reflect the overwhelming majority. When it comes to the furniture aboard, far from being self-assembly flat pack it was made by European craftsmen especially for the Volga Dream, as these pictures show, https://www.volgadream.com/gallery/photo/33/ our bespoke furniture is most assuredly not from Ikea, or anywhere like it!
We must thank you though for one particular observation that has been mentioned by others. It has come to our attention that the curtains could indeed be better and that is one issue we are addressing while the Volga Dream is docked for the winter season.
As all experienced cruise travellers will know, shower facilities on ships will seldom be as spacious as you might find in a premium hotel, but no one has ever before suggested that ours are tiny! As this pictures shows, https://www.volgadream.com/volga/dream/deluxe-stateroom/ we actually think, along with the many guests who keep coming back to us, that they’re a pretty standard size. We understand that you accommodated in a Deluxe Stateroom. All cabins in this category have two large picture windows, which allow plenty of day light into the cabin. At night cabins are sufficiently lit, so most passengers will find it unnecessary and impractical to have more light in the cabin for a comfortable stay.
In just a few moments of scanning through the many letters of commendation and other reviews, it becomes clear that fine dining is one of the many aspects of Volga Dream Cruises that attract consistent praise from guests. We regret that the meals were not to your individual taste.
Another point that puzzles us in your review is the question of entertainment, far from there being, “no local entertainment” we have a Russian language classes, Russian cooking classes, Russian tea ceremony, resident concert pianist plays Russian classics on a special night. Besides that our irreplaceable guest speaker Ludmilla gives at least 4 lectures about Russian history and traditions. It’s true our staff do sometimes organise games but that is far from the only Russian experience we offer!
One point you make is of course completely correct, no one can control the weather, not even us! There are strict maritime rules governing conditions in cruise ships may, and may not sail. Whilst there may be some rocking on the open lakes, our Captain will never expose passengers to danger. We are however puzzled by your shower experience. Our staff members have no recollection of anyone being relocated (temporarily or otherwise) due to carpeting getting wet.
It’s also true that once or twice a year, due to weather, we do have to bypass scheduled stops. This will always be a hard taken decision based on weather and exclusively to ensure the safety of all of our passengers. The law specifies a maximum navigable wave height; when weather induced waves exceed that height all ships, irrespective of size, are obliged to tie up and wait out the storm. Every passenger vessel on the river will have been subject to the same restriction.
Of course we always regret the enforced need to change an advertised programme and try our best to mitigate and limit any inconvenience and disappointment.
Sincerely
Volga Dream
