Aboard the MS Tolstoy

By Keith Baker May 2006

 
First off, and this is very important.  There are several reviews of theTolstoy on the Internet.  Ignore them. The ship changed owners and was completely remodeled for the 2006 season,and what we experienced in May, 2006, was nothing like what those earlier reviews reported.  It is misleading waste of time to even read them.  A couple examples:  earlier passengers complied that breakfast was too skimpy.  Now, breakfast is a buffet.  Earlier reviews complained about the fairly typical Russian stip bathroom where the shower head is located above the toilet and you have to sit on the pot to take a shower.  Not so on the 2006 Tolstoy.  There is separate shower, but, like most advanced river ships, the bathroom is cramped.

 We decided on the Tolstoy because we were satisfied with our previous cruise on the Danube which was operated by the same company (Amadeus Waterways), the ship was refurbished during the winter 2005-2006, Amadeus cruises include wine with diner (only one glass on the Tolstoy) and the early booking discount from Riverdiscounts.com 800-640-4899 made the price right.

 More than 70 ships operate the river cruise between Moscow and St Petersburg , and, up until 2006, the Tolstoy was the cream of the crop.  It was built in 1982 as  the Soviet leadership’s cruise ship­  Brezhnev’s Suite was three doors down the hall from our cabin­  and, as such, is a level of comfort above the competition (a newly built ship which may rival or exceed the Tolstoy came on line in the spring of 2006).  AS only some of these ships provide cruises in English, keep in mind that all my subsequent comments on ship comparisons are limited to the English speaking trips and ships.

The Tolstoy is the only ship with a swimming pool, but it is very small.

There is a bar on the deck of the poll with usually comfortable chairs for a cruise ship.  The maximum passenger load of 140 is less than any other ship.  The typical ship carries 200-240.  Even with its smaller passenger load, the Tolstoy has a lot of public space.  Public areas are: the sun deck­ forget it in bad weather; the bars/lounges; theater/concert hall; and library.

 
Good ship: plenty of room inside for everyone to sit in one of the public areas.  Bad ship: not enough seats.  Good ship: comfortable chairs.  Bad ship: uncomfortable.  I’ve yet to find a good ship in this category, but the Tolstoy was better than our two previous experiences.

 We were tied up in St Petersburg between two of the 240 passenger ships, and the Tolstoy’s sun deck was clearly larger than  the  others. Why a library?  If you want to read, it is the only quite place.  Tolstoy’s library was quite attractive, and larger than any others we have seen.  Dining room. Good ship: all tables are window tables.  Bad ship: lots of interior tables.  The Tolstoy had only three interior tables (12 seats).

 
There are two parts to the crew on a cruise ship­ those who make the ship go, and those who serve the passengers.  Since passengers rarely interact with the ship operators, whenever I refer to the crew, I’m taking about the passenger care staff.  While the crews on our two previous cruises were fully competent, Tolstoy’s crew went above and beyond.  They were cheerful and friendly without being pretentious about it.  There were enough very good English speakers around that language was never a problem.  The following is a post- cruise  email from one of the staff.  Note how well this Russian native can write English, and note the attachment to the passengers, which was reciprocated by the passengers. 

 “We have new passengers aboard the Tolstoy now, and we miss you immensely. The new-comers seem to be strangers after the previous guests who have become so dear during our short period of acquaintance.

 Take care,

  P.S. Greetings from Sasha, Olga and our receptionists Lyuba and Vlada, as well as the rest of the cruise staff “

After what we had read on the Internet about the food on Russian river cruises, we were more than pleased with the food quality.  No doubt to give us taste of the country, the chef programed a number of Russian dishes, which tend toward the bland­ there is just so much that can be done with cabbage, beet soup, and boiled potatoes.  That aside, food was generally prepared very well, and include the best prepared pork and chicken I have ever eaten.  There was a tender and juicy pork cutlet, ½"thick, that was easily cut by fork. Try that at Denny’s.

Soups were uniformly outstanding. 

 There was also a sauna, a gift shop, a TV room, but only Russian TV although the brochure said some English language satellite stations would be available.  Deluxe rooms and suites had in room TV/DVDs with a small collection of DVD movies available at Reception.

Electricity was standard European 220v, but a hair dryer was in the cabin.  There is a safe for keepingvaluables.  Coffee,  three types of tea, and animal crackers were avilible free, 24-7.  All other drinks except one glass of wine at dinner were extra charge.  There are cabin controls for Heat and A/C, but the fan got really noisy above low speed.

 The crew included a Professor of Russian History who delivered a series of lectures on post Soviet Russia, a three person folk music group, and two musicians who entertained each evening in the main lounge.  There was also a doctor and masseuse on board.

Each evening the bed turndown ladies left a schedule of the next day’s events in every cabin.

 Standard cabins on Russian ships come at 88, 92, or 110 sq. ft.  Mark this off in your living room, and remember it includes the bathroom & closet.  Suits/deluxe cabins are generally larger.  On the Tolstoy, standard cabins are 110 sq ft, deluxe cabins, 220, and suites 330.  However, there is a wrinkle.  Some ships have standard cabins where one bed folds up against the wall during the day and the opposite bed converts into a couch, turning a very cramped  bedroom into a relatively roomy day room.  Standard cabins on the Tolstoy did not do this, making them petty much useless for anything but sleep.  Some passengers solved the space problem by alternating getting up time- wife stayed in bed until hubby showered & dressed & leftthe cabin.  In his type of cabin, you will spend almost all your waking hours outside your cabin, so   the Tolstoy extensive public areas are all to the good.

We opted for a deluxe cabin which was large enough to include a small desk, two bedside tables, a refrigerator, a TV, and two arm chairs that were more comfortable than most of the seats in the public areas.  Unfortunately, it had two windows with flimsy curtains instead of one, but I had two pieces of black plastic.

 Back to the cabin: the bathrooms on some Russian ships are so small that you have to sit on the toilet to take a shower.  Not so on the Tolstoy, but there is room for only one person at a time in the bathroom. Two can squeeze in if one is in the shower.

The bus that took over four hours to return form Peterhof, 15 miles away, missed lunch and was scheduled to go to the canal cruise after lunch.  The Cruise Director kept in touch by cell phone,  sent the bus directly to the canal tour dock, and dispatched box lunches to the canal dock so the passengers would not miss lunch.

The next day, traffic also delayed the daytime tours, and the whole ship was scheduled to go to the ballet that evening, which  never could have happened with the normal four course diner schedule.  The Cruise Director split dinner into two seatings.  Salad and the main course were served as soon as we got back to the ship.  Then, after the ballet, we went back to the Tolstoy’s dinning

Each bus tour was accompanied by a tour guide/lecturer and one of the ship’s English speaking staff who brought up the rear of the group to make sure everyone was there.  One morning in Moscow, I asked tour guide Masha if she had ever lost a tourist.  Emphatically, she said, “No!!”  So it happened about two hours later!  The missing person had established a reputation as a pain in the a__ within the first half hour of the Welcome Briefing, and was well known to members of the group of which he/she was traveling.  They all told the guide, “Don’t worry.  He/she is like that.  Went off on her own. He/she will get back to the ship.” Nevertheless, the tour guide was upset.  Lots of cell phone calls were made.   Two of the ship crew accompanying the touring groups were dispatched to search the neighborhood, and regularly reported by cell phone that they had no luck in finding the missing.  Eventually, a call came from the ship that the stray lamb had returned by taxi, to Masha’s obvious relief.  

Dinner frequently took 1½ - 2 hours on the two other cruises we went on.  The Tolstoy dining room crew was much more efficient.  I never timed it, but I never got ancey, which means it can’t have been much more than one hour at the worst.

The bottom line is that this was a very well run operation, and problems were seldom caused by anything the cruise people did.

 

2008 Group Rates