mbw220

Just discovered that we will be eating in the smaller dining room due to our cabin location. Would it be worth paying more to eat in the larger dining room? Also can anyone give me an idea about the size of the bathroom and the cabin. The cabin is only 90 sq feet. We are category E. Thanks MBW

Giovanna

We had a Category C stateroom on the Pakhomov in July 2007 and it didn't seem to me one dining room was superior to the other. Our dining room was quite large and the other for the upper category cabins wasn't that much different. In fact it seemed to me to be smaller, which makes sense because it served fewer passengers. I certainly wouldn't pay more to eat in one over the other.

Our cabin was small, with twin beds, nightstand between them, lots of shelving, a small refrigerator, good sized closet, and was actually very efficient. No smaller than we have had on cruise liners.

The bathroom was yacht style which I wasn't thrilled about, but soon learned it worked just fine. There was a curtain between the toilet and sink/shower which was pulled while showering, and the mat on the floor allowed the water to drain quite quickly. The whole bathroom dried very fast.

We had a large picture window over the beds which to me was very important, so that we could view the area we were passing through even while in our room. The cabin was not fancy and not as nice as some we have had on cruise liners, but it was comfortable enough and we got along fine on our 12-day trip from Moscow to St. Petersburg, one of the best trips we've taken!

mbw220

Thanks for your informative reply. Have a couple more questions. Read somewhere the the audience on this cruise likes to dress for dinner. Was planning on bringing a couple of nice slacks or skirts to pair up with a few nice tops. Nothing more formal than that. Would that do?

How was the food and wine? We have cruised extensively on the rivers of Europe and wondered if the food was comparable to other river cruises.

Your window...is there a promenade deck, so are people walking past your window? We are category E so our cabin is a on the floor with the reception desk.

Any other insight you can give me would be very helpful.

Thanks,

MBW

Giovanna

The only time we dressed up a bit was for welcome aboard and farewell festivities. Since there are lots of ports and tours at all of them, you return a bit tired and not anxious to dress up. We also went to a circus one night in Moscow and the ballet one night in St Petersbutg. As best I recall most passengers were dressed casually at dinnertime.

This is the only river cruise we've done so I can't compare food and wine to other cruises. We are pretty easy to please and thought our meals was mostly good. We love wine, but didn't have it with all meals and what we did have was fine. I particularly liked lunches. Large buffet assortment to make great salads and good sandwiches. Breakfast also had a pretty good selection and eggs were cooked to order.

Yes people could walk past our window so we had to draw the curtains when dressing or undressing.

There is a nice lounge aft and we went there often to have a drink and sometimes visit with friends we'd made. All meals are open seating, so we got acquainted with lots of people.

The staff was very pleasant and helpful, and we had three favorite young women servers in the dining room. We always tried to sit in their section because we liked them so much.

Our guide on the ship was wonderful, as were all the guides we had in each city.

From what I understand the Pakhomov is not as fancy as the boats on the Danube, Rhine, etc., and is to undergo a complete renovation soon. In spite of that we liked her and were comfortable in our cabin, as well as elsewhre on the boat. As I said above, this was a favorite trip.

If I can help further, let me know.

southeastern

The other posters did a fine job of painting an accurate picture of the ship.We did the same trip on the same boat and had the least expensive cabin. It was basic but fine. The restaurant where we ate was larger than the "better" cabins restaurant. The food was not as good as other riverboats. We found it very salty. Nothing to write home about but nothing to complain about. It was an older group of people and we found that most folks "cleaned up" before dinner. They offered excellent lectures concerning the history,etc. and found them to be especially helpful. You stay with the same guide and same people on the bus for the entire trip so you get to know your fellow bus people. We ended up with a great group and enjoyed their company. Had lots of laughs with them. Our guide told us where to buy our vodka. We learned that Imperial Silver label was the kind to buy. Not cheap( I think it was around 25.00) but went down like smooth oil. We did the extra vodka tasting and I recommend it.Lots of fun! Passed on the caviar tasting but I understand it was also good. We were told that the Russian boat was not going to be as fancy as others before hand. I would also recommend the extra museum of art trip in Moscow. Overall it was a very enjoyable time. Happy travels!

southeastern

The timing of the visit to the Hermitage (sp!!!) was bad. It was packed shoulder to shoulder. Folks were very unhappy! We had been before so it didn't upset us as much. Hopefully they have ironed that out.

mbw220

Thanks to everyone for their input. Feeling very good about our upcoming trip. After reading the posts, and reading elsewhere on the internet, sounds like your choice of a tour guide is very important, as you have the same guide for the entire trip. Thought of asking the wait staff if they had any feedback from other passengers on the prior cruises. Can anyone give us any other ideas? Thanks again!

southeastern

The way they do it is have the buses lined up and you just go out and get on one. You don't know which guide you will get. You might ask ahead of time if the wait staff knows which guide go with which bus.I doubt they will know since I think they are contracted differently than the boat people. Give it a try. I don't recall anyone complaining about their guide. I believe strongly a trip is what you choose to make it.

Giovanna

As southeastrn said, it's luck of the draw. We were on Bus #3 I think and that was our bus number in each port. We did have a guide in each port in addiiton to our bus/boat guide. Our guide was from St. Petersburg so she was our guide there. Agree that we heard no complaints from any passengers about their guides.

Giovanna

mbw: Just happened to remember that someone suggested we buy a little booklet "Russia by River" before we left on our trip. We did and it was very helpful. If you're interested, you can find it at www.russiabyriver.com

mbw220

Again, thanks for all your suggestions.