we are considering booking this tour with viking for summer 2009. Have any of you taken the Russian Rhapsody tour? Would love some input. So far everything I read about Viking looks positive.
Thanks for any comments,

A friend of mine did Russian Viking cruise. Don't remember the ship's name but cruise was called "the waterways of tzars". He loved it. Just don't book directly with Viking as you'd have to pay a full price vs. discounted one with travel agent. If you need a good TA, e-mail my agent Alex at [email protected]. Tell him spur sent you.

thanks so much. that is interesting about not booking with viking directly - it is just the opposite for Holland america, where we get much better prices and discounts when we book directly rather than with an agent.

many thanks!

Actually, it shouldn't be the opposite with Holland America. They allow travel agents to discount. The thing is HAL as well as other cruise lines always offer different rates: general public rate, past guests rate, residents rates, seniors, flash sale, SWAT, etc. TA has an access to all HAL promotions and it is his/her job to find the best one you qualify for. Plus, a good TA will give you an agency discount or some perks. Bottom line: TA price is always either lower or equals cruise line price. Otherwise, travel agencies would be useless for us and would go out of business. One of the agencies that I know doesn't discount and adds a fee to cruise line prices is Orbitz. I don't think it is going to last long with that practice.

Agents are allowed to discount HAL. If your agent doesn't, find one that does. Agents can always beat what HAL is offering price wise.

I've been on several HAL cruises and have never found any travel agent that could beat their direct prices. I get all kinds of discounts when booking direct with HAL, and nearly always get upgraded 2 or 3 categories on my cabins. I just use my personal cruise consultant with HAL. If that isn't the way to go, should I book with with some online company or something?

Get a quote from HAL, then submit it to several TA to see what they can do for you. You can even transfer already booked cruise to TA and get additional perks, but you need to be outside the final payment timeline. Cruise lines never discount their current rate; TA can do it by passing part of their commissions to you.

Very cool. Thanks for this suggestion. We are booked on a March cruise and we are considering another transatlantic for Oct. Thanks for this suggestion!

Getting back to the original question.....

I did a land trip in Russia many years ago and did a river cruise in Russia this past summer with Amadeus.

My land trip was so much better than my river cruise. The river cruise was so restrictive and there was no extra time to do anything on your own or spend more time at fabulous places such as the Hermitage or Red Square.

So while you will see the small(er) places on the river cruise, I really wish I would have booked a land trip and just spent time in Moscow and St. Petersburg.

If you go over to the Europe board of Fodors - there are a lot of comments on river cruises in Russia and most are very complimentary. IMO - many of these people didn't have a land trip to compare their river cruise with.

Did a viking river cruise last August, St. Pete to Moscow. Was a nice cruise. This sounds picky,but the food was very average. So if you are a "food" person be prepared for ok dinners.

We did the Viking "Waterways of the Czars" Moscow to St. Petersburg.

We were very pleased with Viking and thought the food was excellent. We had an amazing Chef.