Some disappointments on tour

I took a trip with Grand Circle Travel (GCT), Oct. 6-29, 2007. Along with a “Russian Waterways” cruise-tour I booked two optional extensions: the 5-night “Baltic Capitals: Tallinn, Estonia, and Helsinki, Finland” ($645) and the 3-night “Kiev, Ukraine” ($445).

The total price — including all air transportation from and back to Denver, Colorado; all internal transportation; the main cruise-tour and several optional day tours; the pre- and post-tour extensions, and recommended tips — was $5,100.

The trip went essentially as advertised. We visited most of the places we were told we would visit when we booked the tour.

The hotels and the GCT ship M/S Tikhi Don were very good. The buses we were hauled around in were very clean and comfortable. Our guides were knowledgeable. The group I was with was a great and fun bunch of travelers. The pace of the tour was satisfactory.

The weather, as expected in October, was “Seattle-like,” i.e., many overcast and light- to heavy-rain days.

But I do have some remarks relating to where GCT “dropped the ball.”

For some of the included meals. I feel GCT or the hotels “went on the cheap” several times in quality, selection and portions. I am not a food freak, as I consider myself fairly reasonable in accepting what is served to me, so it takes a really poor incident to make me disappointed.

In Helsinki, the breakfast buffet at the Scandic Hotel Simonkentta was satisfactory; however, the one evening meal while we were there consisted of a very small slice of turkey, a rice patty and a half glass of wine — a terrible and tasteless meal.

Two meals on the Russian riverboat Tikhi Don “stick out” in my mind as being very poor. In one, my serving of lamb was just plain raw. In the other, the main entrée of beef was totally unchewable — very tough. I also recall sillily decorated desserts not worth serving.

I did find that, on this trip, most of the breakfast buffets were quite acceptable.

Regarding the optional tours, as soon as we boarded the bus to St. Petersburg we were told that the tour to Peterhof had been canceled. I was very upset because I had really studied up on that historical site.

The reason given was “The fountains have been turned off.” So what? I wanted to see the structure itself, even if I couldn’t go inside. I feel a good analogy would be if I were planning to visit the White House in Washington, D.C., and then was told, “The roses in the famous rose garden are not in bloom, so we have canceled the tour.

GCT's thick 2007 “Small Ship Travel” brochure did not contain any notes about the Peterhof tour not being available on the last tours of the season because of the fountains being turned off for the winter.*

Next, some of the local tour guides we had I would rate just fair. The one in Kiev took us out to the Open Air Museum of folk life and traditions in Pirogovo and just dropped us off at the “Easter egg decorating” booth to watch women and eggs. We had to just wander around ourselves, looking at rural farm buildings without any clue what they were.

I will say the local guide in Tallinn was excellent! He took us around the Open Air Museum (Rocca al Mare), and he and museum guides explained everything about the buildings and other exhibits.

The most serious “peeve” I have is that on the day we were to travel to Kiev by air, we wasted an entire day in Moscow. We had to be out of the hotel by 9 a.m., but our flight to Kiev wouldn’t leave until 4:30! We spent most of that day strolling around Arbat Street, with some of us buying more “garage sale” stuff at the various tourist shops. We arrived in Kiev after dark.

When I returned home, I checked with the Ukraine airline that provides service to and from Kiev and Moscow and they told me they have two morning flights from Moscow to Kiev. There was no excuse for our not being on one of the morning flights. The local GCT office in Moscow knew well ahead of time how many were going on to Kiev.

I would gladly pay an extra $100 or so to have more time at an optional tour destination.

THOMAS D. ROBERTS

Centennial, CO

*Grand Circle’s website www.gct. com currently states, “Please note: The Peterhof optional tour may not be available on certain late September or October departures due to the seasonal operation of the fountains at Peterhof.”

ITN sent a copy of Mr. Roberts’ letter to Grand Circle Travel and received the following reply.

Many thanks for offering us an opportunity to respond to Mr. Roberts’ issue concerning his trip to Russia with us last year. We appreciate his having traveled with us five times in the past and regret that he was not entirely pleased with this most recent trip.

The tour to Peterhof, Peter the Great’s summer residence, was not an included tour on our itinerary but an optional tour. The tour does not go inside the main palace; its primary attraction is the residence’s “trick” fountains. We regret that we had to cancel the optional tour, but we did so because the fountains, or the main attraction, were closed.

We also regret that Mr. Roberts was upset about his flight schedule from Moscow, Russia, to Kiev, Ukraine, as he would have preferred an earlier flight to a late-afternoon departure.

As a tour operator, we contract rates with airlines about a year in advance of departures, and these rates help us to offer travelers some very good values, such as three nights in Kiev, including airfare, accommodations, sightseeing, some meals, a guide and all transfers, for less than $185 a day.

However, our contracted space is limited, and in this case we did not have space on either of the earlier flights.

We work hard to deliver an excellent experience to all of our travelers and regret that we failed to do that in the case of Mr. Roberts, one of our Inner Circle members. We hope that he might consider traveling with us again.

PRISCILLA O’REILLY, Director, Public Relations, Grand Circle Corporation, 347 Congress St., Boston, MA 02210