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Ford BlueCruise 146  

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Ford BlueCruise 146  is a hands-free highway driving assistance feature designed to help make driving easier, more enjoyable, and less stressful.

Take the stress out of driving – not the fun.

Connect with your passengers

Top-Rated Technology

How Does BlueCruise Work?

Step 1 welcome to the blue zone.

When you enter a pre-qualified section of a divided highway — a Blue Zone — you’ll see a prompt on the instrument cluster letting you know BlueCruise is available and ready to assist.

Step 2 Let BlueCruise Assist

Simply tap the Adaptive Cruise Control button on your steering wheel and let BlueCruise assist, while keeping your eyes on the road. The system helps handle steering, keeps you centered in your lane, and adjusts your speed as needed — all without you ever touching the wheel. Designed with driver collaboration in mind, you can always take over and steer manually within the lane without BlueCruise disengaging.

Step 3 Feel the Magic of Letting Go

Driver facing camera, 360° perception, connected maps.

Get BlueCruise access that fits your needs.

• At Vehicle Order
• Post-Trial Options

Subscribe When You Order Your Vehicle

Customers have the option to add a BlueCruise subscription at time of vehicle order at a discounted annual rate. Ask your local dealer for details when placing your order.

Pricing * options (available on select 2024/2025 model year vehicles):

$2,750 for 3 years (taxes extra)

$900 for 1 year (taxes extra)

Subscribe After Your Trial

2024 and 2025 model year vehicles equipped with BlueCruise come with a 90-day complimentary trial period , starting with your vehicle's warranty start date. After the trial, you can choose to purchase BlueCruise monthly or annually based on your needs.

Pricing * post-complimentary trial:

$1,050 per year (taxes extra)

$100 per month (taxes extra)

The BlueCruise hands-free Blue Zone operates on 97% of controlled access highways across North America.

Bluecruise is available on select 2023+ vehicles..

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2024 Ford F-150 Lightning

Car and Driver

• Quicker than the 700-hp F-150 Raptor R to 60 mph, spacious cabin with loads of storage, retains familiar design of the trusty gas-powered F-150.
• A starting price jump of over $10,000 in under a year, Platinum's interior doesn't deliver on the lofty price tag, managed just 100 miles in our towing-range in our test.
• Fully-electric full-size pickups have mighty shoes to fill, but the F-150 Lightning is put together by the folks who built the decades-long bestselling truck—and it shows.

240–320 Miles

All Wheel Drive

3 Years/36,000 Miles

Where This Vehicle Ranks

Ford F-150 Lightning

Tesla Cybertruck

Chevrolet Silverado EV

GMC Hummer EV Pickup

What's new for 2024.

The F-150 Lightning, which just debuted two model years back, isn't dramatically different for 2024, but it does get some new equipment. New for 2024 is the Platinum Black special edition, which drapes the Lightning in a matte-black wrap, with dark 22-inch wheels, a dark grille, and dark badging in an effort to go full Batman. Its starting price is $93,290, and only 2000 are to be built. A new Flash trim has been added to the lineup. The Flash features all of the Lightning's best tech bundled in a relatively affordable package that includes the larger 15.5-inch infotainment screen, the biggest battery pack, and Ford's Blue Cruise hands-free driving mode. The rest of the F-150 Lightning lineup gets keyless entry and updated BlueCruise 1.2 hands-free driver assistance. The ProPower onboard generator now powers up when you unlock the truck, no longer requiring the truck to be powered completely on. These changes are also given to 2022 and 2023 F-150 Lightnings as over-the-air software updates.

Pricing and Which One to Buy

The price of the 2024 Ford F-150 Lightning starts at $57,090 and goes up to $95,090 depending on the trim and options.

We'd recommend the new Flash trim level. This mid-range model combines most of the F-150 Lightning's coolest features into one relatively affordable package. It automatically includes the extended-range battery pack and comes standard with the larger 15.5-inch infotainment touchscreen. Flash models come with Ford's Blue Cruise hands-free driving system as well.

EV Motor, Power, and Performance

All F-150 Lightning models come standard with two electric motors and all-wheel drive. With the Standard-Range battery, the motors combine to make 452 horsepower but with the Extended-Range battery the horsepower rating rises to 580; peak torque is an impressive 775 pound-feet with either setup. Performance is impressive for a truck this heavy. The Lightning Platinum we tested reached 60 mph in a scant 4.0 seconds and covered a quarter-mile in 12.7 seconds at 107 mph. Not only were we pleased with the Lightning's, ahem, lightning-quick acceleration but we were also pleasantly surprised that it managed to maintain the normal F-150's refined road manners. If anything, the Lightning's ride-and-handling are slightly more agreeable, thanks to a lower center of gravity that helps keep body roll in check and independent rear suspension in place of the gas model's less sophisticated solid rear axle.

2024 Ford F-150 Lightning Towing and Payload Capacity

The maximum towing capacity of the 2024 Ford F-150 Lightning is 10,000 pounds, but only trucks with the optional Extended-Range battery are capable of such feats. Standard-Range battery models are limited to a 7700-pound capacity. Payload capacity is as high as 2000 pounds for the Standard-Range model and as low as 1800 pounds for the Extended-Range. During our tow test pulling a 6100-pound double-axle camping trailer, the range of our Lightning Platinum dropped to just 100 miles at 70 mph, which was 200 miles short of its unladen EPA estimate.

Range, Charging, and Battery Life

With the smaller 98.0-kWh battery, Ford claims a driving range of 230 miles per charge; upgrading to the larger 131.0-kWh pack boosts the driving range to 320 miles. During our 75-mph highway range test, the Lightning Platinum managed 230 miles of range. Buyers will be able to charge their F-150 Lightnings at home via 110- and 220-volt outlets but the truck is also capable of juicing at public DC fast-charging stations, and Ford says it can charge from 15 percent to 80 percent of battery capacity in 44 minutes. Ford also engineered the F-150 Lightning to serve as a backup generator and says a fully-charged truck can supply up to three days of electricity for the average household in the event of a power outage.

Fuel Economy and Real-World MPGe

The EPA has rated the F-150 Lightning Extended-Range for up to 78 MPGe city and 63 MPGe highway; the Standard-Range models are slightly less efficient at 76 MPGe city and 61 MPGe highway. During our time with the Lightning Platinum, we observed just 54 MPGe. For more information about the F-150 Lightning's fuel economy, visit the EPA's website .

Interior, Comfort, and Cargo

Like the truck's exterior, the F-150 Lightning's cabin is much the same as the gasoline-powered F-150 with a few key differences such as an extra-large infotainment display and a voluminous front-trunk cargo bay. The F-150 Lightning is offered only as a crew cab with a 5.5-foot bed. Speaking of roomy, the F-150 Lightning offers a large front trunk (frunk) that utilizes the space where the normal F-150's engine would sit to carry additional cargo weighing up to 400 pounds.

Infotainment and Connectivity

A 12.0-inch touchscreen infotainment system with Ford's latest Sync 4 software is standard, but Lariat and Platinum models come with an even larger 15.5-inch display. Apple CarPlay, Android Auto, in-dash navigation, and a Wi-Fi hotspot, are all standard. Ford will leverage its partnership with Bang & Olufsen to deliver two different optional premium stereo systems, one with eight speakers in the Lariat and one with 18 speakers in the Platinum.

Safety and Driver-Assistance Features

Overall safety rating (nhtsa).

A host of driver-assistance features are standard, with Ford's new BlueCruise semi-autonomous driving mode offered as an option. For more information about the F-150 Lightning's crash-test results, visit the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration ( NHTSA ) and Insurance Institute for Highway Safety ( IIHS ) websites. Key safety features include:

• Standard automated emergency braking with pedestrian detection
• Standard lane-departure warning with lane-keeping assist
• Available adaptive cruise control with hands-free driving mode

Warranty and Maintenance Coverage

The F-150 Lightning is protected by Ford's basic warranty package but also includes an eight-year/100,000-mile policy for electric vehicle components. This additional warranty matches that of other EV rivals.

• Limited warranty covers 3 years or 36,000 miles
• Powertrain warranty covers 5 years or 60,000 miles
• Battery components warranty covers 8 years or 100,000 miles
• No complimentary scheduled maintenance

Specifications

2022 Ford F-150 Lightning Platinum Vehicle Type: front- and mid-motor, all-wheel-drive, 5-passenger, 4-door pickup

PRICE Base/As Tested: $92,669/$93,609 Options: spray-in bedliner, $595; max recline front seats, $345

POWERTRAIN Front Motor: permanent-magnet synchronous AC Mid Motor: permanent-magnet synchronous AC Combined Power: 580 hp Combined Torque: 775 lb-ft Battery Pack: liquid-cooled lithium-ion, 131.0 kWh Onboard Charger: 19.2 kW Transmissions: direct-drives

CHASSIS Suspension, F/R: control arms/semi-trailing arm Brakes, F/R: 14.0-in vented disc/13.8-in vented disc Tires: General Grabber HTS 60 275/50R-22 111T M+S

DIMENSIONS Wheelbase: 145.5 in Length: 232.7 in Width: 80.0 in Height: 78.3 in Passenger Volume: 124 ft 3 Cargo Volume: 14 ft 3 Curb Weight: 6855 lb

C/D TEST RESULTS 60 mph: 4.0 sec 100 mph: 10.6 sec 1/4-Mile: 12.7 sec @107 mph Results above omit 1-ft rollout of 0.3 sec. Rolling Start, 5–60 mph: 4.2 sec Top Gear, 30–50 mph: 1.6 sec Top Gear, 50–70 mph: 2.2 sec Top Speed (gov ltd): 110 mph Braking, 70–0 mph: 180 ft Roadholding, 300-ft Skidpad: 0.77 g

C/D FUEL ECONOMY Observed: 54 MPGe 75-mph Highway Range: 230 mi

EPA FUEL ECONOMY Combined/City/Highway: 66/73/60 MPGe Range: 300 mi

C/D TESTING EXPLAINED

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• F-150 Lightning News

Ford BlueCruise Review in F-150 Lightning | Easy truckin'

Trying out the latest iteration of ford's hands-free highway driving tech.

SAN ANTONIO — During our first drive of the 2022 Ford F-150 Lightning , we had the opportunity to test out its BlueCruise advanced driver assistance feature. Like GM ’s Super Cruise, Ford BlueCruise allows you to take your hands off the wheel on certain, preordained stretches of limited-access, divided highway.

So far, BlueCruise is only available on select models, namely the Ford Mustang Mach-E and 2022 F-150 . (The Lincoln version, called ActiveGlide, is also available in the 2022 Navigator ). Now the F-150 Lightning — the brand’s high-tech but otherwise familiar foray into the nascent electric pickup market — also offers BlueCruise. For this truck , BlueCruise comes as standard equipment in the range-topping Platinum trim, and is also available as an option in the Lariat.

From a technical perspective, BlueCruise uses the vehicle’s GPS and navigation data to know where it can be activated. It uses adaptive cruise control, lane-centering and road sign recognition software — as well as the forward-facing camera and radar hardware that powers them, to steer, accelerate and brake the vehicle, keeping it in its lane and a safe following distance behind any other vehicles ahead. Inside the vehicle, cameras on the driver’s side A-pillar and just to the left of the infotainment screen on the dash monitor your gaze to make sure you’re paying attention to the road and remain ready to retake control of the steering.

Here’s how it works from a practical standpoint: First, you need to activate adaptive cruise control. When you’re on a predetermined, geofenced part of the highway where the system is allowed to activate (Ford dubs these “Blue Zones,” of which there are 130,000 miles in North America so far), a message on the left side of the instrument panel will let you know you can take your hands off the wheel.

BlueCruise worked well during our drive of the F-150 Lightning, keeping us in our lane while we relaxed with our hands in our lap. The truck would gently wander in the wide lane a bit, but kept a safe berth from the lane markers, and we didn’t find ourselves intervening unless another car began encroaching upon our lane. Just like when you use hands-on adaptive cruise control, BlueCruise will maintain the speed and following distance.

Unlike GM’s Super Cruise, though, there is no lighting system on the top of the wheel to brightly indicate the system’s status. It was not always visually obvious when it would be at the ready or need you to take over, especially when our eyes were focused some distance down the road, far above and beyond the instrument panel. There was a message on the dash, and a vague audio chime. That can especially take one off guard when the system cuts out and reverts to adaptive cruise contrl mode without a consistent reason as to why the required BlueCruise criteria were no longer met. We prefer the more obvious cues of Super Cruise, as they help prevent any confusion, and allow us to better take advantage of the system when it’s ready.

There are some other limitations, of course. There are the many roads where it is simply not allowed to work, for one, and we found it asking us to take over when we were near certain interchanges or exit ramps. That problem will improve over time. So far, BlueCruise is unable to perform automatic lane changes the way systems like GM’s Super Cruise and Hyundai / Kia ’s hands-on Highway Driving Assist II do. It is able to resume quickly after you manually change lanes, however. Finally, the system ceases to operate at 82 miles per hour.

As all automakers do, Ford will constantly improve its driver assist tech over time, and we doubt it will be long before more Blue Zone miles are added, and features like auto lane change are implemented. Many vehicles nowadays, the Lightning included, are capable of over-the-air updates, so you won’t have to buy the newest models to enjoy some of those future upgrades.

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Ford’s hands-free BlueCruise feature is now available as a monthly or annual subscription

Ford owners can decide to activate the level 2 driver-assist feature after buying their car as a $75 a month or $800 a year subscription..

By Andrew J. Hawkins , transportation editor with 10+ years of experience who covers EVs, public transportation, and aviation. His work has appeared in The New York Daily News and City & State.

Share this story

Ford is changing how it sells its hands-free BlueCruise driver-assist feature to its customers.

Previously, customers had to decide at the dealership whether they wanted to purchase a new Ford vehicle with BlueCruise hardware installed — and they couldn’t go back and change their minds if they opted not to include it. Now, the hardware will come standard on many new vehicles, and customers can decide at any time whether they want to activate it. Most notably, they can choose to pay for it as a monthly or annual subscription.

Most notably, they can choose to pay for it as a monthly or annual subscription

The news comes as the broader auto industry is shifting to subscription products as a major new source of revenue. Everything from driver-assistance features to heated seats is on the table — with customers growing increasingly nervous about having to pay more often for services they previously only had to purchase once.

BlueCruise is a Level 2 system, meaning the vehicle controls major functions like acceleration and braking as well as lane centering and automatic lane changing. And it only works on divided highways in the US and Canada. But while drivers can take their hands off the steering wheel and their feet off the pedals, they need to keep their eyes on the road and be ready to take control at a moment’s notice. Ford said that BlueCruise-equipped vehicles have already traveled over 100 million miles.

Ford says, at present, 225,000 vehicles are equipped with BlueCruise. And it projects that an additional 500,000 vehicles will have it by the end of 2024. The company also says the feature works on 97 percent of controlled access highways in the US and Canada — which translates to around 130,000 miles of road.

Now, customers will have several new ways in which they can get access to the feature. They can pay for it when they order their vehicle online or from a dealership, with a three-year commitment costing $2,100. If a customer doesn’t choose this option, they can also activate a $75 a month or $800 a year subscription — with a 90-day complimentary bonus.

The new payment structure will first come to all trims of the Ford Mustang Mach-E and will soon be available to all 2024 model-year vehicles where BlueCruise is available, like the F-150 Lightning, Ford F-150, and Ford Expedition.

The news also comes on the heels of Ford’s announcement of the hiring of former Apple executive Peter Stern to oversee the automaker’s software services.

Ford is not the only company shifting to subscription payments for its advanced driver-assist products. Tesla started offering its Full Self-Driving feature as a $199 a month subscription in 2021. GM’s Super Cruise costs $2,500 to install upfront as well as a monthly rate to keep it active.

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Featured Article

Ford picks up the pace on hands-off driving with BlueCruise 1.3 release

Ford autonomous driving boss sammy omari explains the shift from argo ai to latitude ai.

Ford is on a quest to ensure that its drivers keep their hands off the wheel for as long as possible. Drivers who own BlueCruise-equipped cars, anyway.

Today, the company is announcing BlueCruise 1.3, dropping just a few months after the 1.2 release, which added niceties like automatic lane changes.

For 1.3, BlueCruise will stay more engaged through tighter corners than before. It will also position the vehicle more accurately in narrow lanes.

No, these are not radical changes to the way BlueCruise operates, nor will they revolutionize the lives of the people who pay up to $800 per year for access to the service. But, being evolutionary and iterating quickly is exactly the point.

When Sammy Omari joined Ford a year ago, Ford’s software teams would issue internal releases of software on a quarterly basis. “Now we have an internal release every week,” he said.

Omari is Ford’s executive director of advanced driver assist technologies, and CEO of Ford’s new autonomy subsidiary, Latitude AI. Omari joined from Motional , the $4 billion Aptiv-Hyundai joint venture.

“Going from a quarterly release to a weekly release is obviously a lot of tooling, and also a lot of mindset changes,” Omari said. Today, Ford’s focus is less on gathering requirements and more about addressing customer feedback.

It’s feedback that largely comes in automatically. “If you opt in, you share data every time, for example, during hands-free you take over and you control the vehicle yourself, or if the vehicle kicks you out and says ‘Please take over again,’” Omari said.

His team looks at those interventions on a daily basis, grouped by factors like geography, vehicle, and road type. By focusing on those moments, Ford engineers have massively expanded the operating window of its most sophisticated advanced driver assistance system (ADAS), allowing more drivers to spend more time with hands off the wheel.

“We’ve basically improved that 3x,” Omari says of the latest release. For anyone coming from BlueCruise 1.0, Ford says it’s closer to a 5x improvement.

That’s part of how Ford is hoping to continue to improve the appeal of BlueCruise and part of its continued evolution to be less of a car company and more of a services company.

“It’s the same way that Netflix needs to continue providing content. […] We think about this the same way. If someone is on BlueCruise, they will continuously get updates the same way,” Omari said.

But Netflix isn’t the only company that Ford is emulating. Perhaps in a nod to Doug Field, Ford’s chief advanced product development and technology officer, hired from Apple in 2022 , Omari says that Ford is also looking to Cupertino for inspiration.

“This is about ADAS, but it’s also about a lot more than ADAS. It’s basically about the ability for Ford to now have an installed base of hardware on a lot of our vehicles,” Omari said. “The same way that Apple has iPhones, [regardless] of iPhone 10, 11, all the way up to 14, and they can roll out iOS updates regularly. We think about this the exact same way.”

In other words, like with Tesla, model year distinctions are becoming irrelevant.

While Omari declined to specifically list what features and functions are next for BlueCruise, he didn’t rule out Ford’s hands-off technology eventually being able to navigate drivers off of protected highways and into rural and even urban streets.

“It’s basically understanding where our customers largely [are] using the vehicles, and then expanding in those areas,” he said.

However, there is one frontier where BlueCruise, at least in its current guise, will not go: eyes-off driving. So-called Level 3 driving, where the car can fully take care of itself in some situations but may hand control back to the driver, is not possible on the current hardware found on the Mach-E and F-150 Lightning.

“We do need new hardware, and the reason for that is largely redundancy,” Omari said. This includes both sensing redundancy, so that multiple sensors are covering the vehicle in 360 degrees, and also redundancy when it comes to control features like power steering.

Hardware redundancy is not something that can be added via OTA update to Ford’s current lineup of cars.

Instead, true eyes-off driver assistance, of the sort that Mercedes-Benz has recently been granted approval to sell , will only come on Ford’s next generation of EVs, expected in 2025 and at least partly built at the $5.6 billion BlueOval City complex .

That functionality will require not only new levels of hardware to enable, but also a more refined, more thoroughly integrated software stack, too.

Right now, the “perception” piece of BlueCruise — that is, the first level of processing information from the car’s various sensors — is handled in part by software licensed from Mobileye.

That may change for Ford’s next-gen, eyes-off solution: “We haven’t talked specifically about to what extent we will continue to use Mobileye moving forward. But we did just bring in the Latitude team earlier this year, which does have a very large number of very experienced perception engineers,” Omari said.

What that means for Mobileye remains to be seen. What it means for Ford is that many of the displaced workers from the Argo AI project have new jobs — and a new purpose.

Omari says somewhere north of 550 employees, largely former Argo staff, are now working with Latitude, Ford’s new autonomous driving division that, in many ways, is picking up the pieces from the abrupt termination of the Argo AI project in October of 2022.

On the surface, it’s a confusing move to spin up a new autonomy division so quickly after axing the last, but Omari says the purpose is very different.

“Argo was all about level four robotaxis,” he said, which, in terms of technical and commercial viability, still have “a very long way to go.”

“At the same time, with L3, we have a product that we know our customers love, and we have a very clear path towards how we can build this from a technology standpoint,” Omari said, adding that the path to commercial viability is much shorter: “The moment where people can get their eyes off the road, this is a massive game-changer…People will be willing to pay for that — quite a substantial amount.”

Latitude’s goal, then, isn’t to create fully autonomous driverless shuttles of the sort that Waymo and Cruise have been developing for years. Instead, the shift is back to technologies that can be deployed to passenger vehicles more quickly and more profitably.

The Argo AI sensor package, mounted to the roof of its test vehicles, costs more than the cars themselves. For an options package on a near-future Ford consumer vehicle, affordability will be key.

What exactly that future, Latitude-powered, eyes-off system looks like and how much it will cost remains to be seen. For now, though, the 1.3 release of BlueCruise will land on all compatible Ford Mustang Mach-E SUVs sometime this summer.

F-150 Lightning owners with BlueCruise will have to wait a little longer, but Omari promises they’ll have it by the end of the year.

And he’ll be testing every new version every step along the way: “Every week on Friday I get in the vehicle, I get the newest release, I go test drive.”

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• River Cruising

GCT M/S Tikhi Don - St. Petersburg to Moscow

By usnavyguy , June 24, 2012 in River Cruising

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This is a review of a St. Petersburg to Moscow river cruise from 5/31/2012 - 6/14/2012 with Grand Circle Travel. I'll divide the review into sections starting with the ship so folks can jump to those sections of interest & ignore what isn't pertinent to them. For an excellent discussion on pre-trip planning, visa issues, comments on various cruise lines, this link:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1559518

will give you all the details you need. I'll not repeat it here.

So, let's get to the specifics:

Ship : Tikhi Don is owned by Grand Circle Travel (GCT) and is one of two ships, the other being M/V Rossia they operate between Moscow & St. Petersburg. All the cabins are identical: 146 square feet with one window that opens, situated on 3 decks. The only difference is location on the ship. The cabins were clean as were the attached bathrooms. Storage space was adequate for two weeks. There is one 120V and one 220V electrical outlet in the cabin as well as a 115V electrical outlet in the bathroom. I purchased a 4 outlet power strip specifically for this trip to plug in rechargeable digital camera batteries as well as a cell phone. The ship has an elevator near the reception desk forward that services Decks 1, 2, and 3. There is a double stairway in the after end of the ship that runs from the Main Deck to Decks 2, 3, and 4. All other stairways are external and serve all 4 decks. We had about 206 passengers embarked and about 100 staff, so the ratio of staff to cruisers was pretty high. It seems that all river ships operating in Russia carry about 200 or so customers which make them quite a bit larger than the average European waterways river ship. Since they have far fewer bridges to deal with in terms of height, and water depths are somewhat deeper than European rivers, they can and do take advantage of that to leverage a larger number of customers. That doesn't make it bad; it just makes it different. Tikhi Don draws about 9 feet of water which I suspect is about average for a Russian river cruiser. The ship has two bars, one on the 3rd deck forward (Tsar Bar) and one on the 4th deck aft (Presidents Bar). The restaurant is located on the 2nd deck aft and is used for the breakfast buffet and the sit down daily lunches & dinners. One disadvantage to my way of thinking was the sit down lunch. When we've cruised on Viking, they offered a light buffet lunch in the bar/lounge and a sit down lunch in the restaurant. That gave one some options which weren't available with GCT. Again, not necessarily bad; just different. Each cabin is equipped with a flat panel LCD TV with various satellite channels available depending upon the location of the ship at the time. There also were 3 different movie channels showing a different movie each day. Since we didn’t watch TV, I can only surmise it must have worked okay as we did not hear any complaints. While each cabin has individual air conditioning controls, they didn’t appear to function very effectively and the cabin remained around 68-70 degrees Fahrenheit at all times. There is a separate heating unit mounted beneath the window on the outside bulkhead which proved very useful on some of the colder mornings we experienced during the cruise. The cruise covers 829 miles between St. Petersburg and Moscow, and consists of several lakes, rivers and canals including the transit of 16 locks.

Travelers: One significant difference I noted was the average age of the passengers was somewhat older than we had previously experienced with Viking in Europe. I would guess that average age was around mid-70s; some younger, and some a good bit older. We had several veterans of WW2 embarked and I can only hope I'm as spry as they were when I'm that age. They also are very loyal to GCT. Those folks who had previously traveled 3 or more times with GCT or their companion company, Overseas Adventure Travel were identified with a gold name badge. I'd estimate that at least 50% of the embarked travelers fell into this category. This was a very seasoned group of world travelers. Few on the trip were making their 1st river cruise and even fewer were traveling with GCT for the 1st time (we fell into that category). The tours generally involved quite a bit of walking and a not so slow pace, but most everyone managed to keep at it, and few opted out of the walking tours. I'll discuss those in more detail later in this post.

Ship Staff: The staff was quite young (mid to late 20s mostly), inexperienced, but always willing to help. Their command of English was generally very limited although I expect that will improve as the season wears on. Their English was way better than my Cyrillic so they get an A+ for effort. The cruise is managed by a Cruise Director who spoke idiomatic English. The ship's Captain was the most personable Captain I have ever sailed with on a cruise ship. He spoke good English, greeted all the travelers as they debarked for each tour, met each traveler at the gangplank when they returned, and along with the Cruise Director and Hospitality Manager stood on the pier and waved goodbye to every bus that departed. I'm used to the Captain putting in a brief appearance at the Welcome & Farewell Cocktail parties, then disappearing for rest of the cruise. This was a novel & most welcome change.

We were divided into 6 groups of about 32-35 people, assigned a Tour Director who worked exclusively with that group for the entire cruise. Very occasionally for an optional tour, the groups would be combined to keep the numbers about the same, but basically, you functioned within your assigned group. The Tour Directors all had majored in foreign languages at the University and had anywhere from two to as many as eight years with GCT. They all spoke idiomatic English and did a great job of keeping track of their charges. I liken managing U.S. tour groups to herding cats and these folks were always cheerful, ready to answer any question, and resolve any problem. The wait staff in the dining room had limited English, but knew enough to converse with the passengers with regard to the menu & was a hustling young group of Russians. They were extremely pleasant to deal with.

Food on Board: In general the meals were quite good. Breakfast was served buffet style and one always had the opportunity to order an omelet or eggs of any style. There also was a special breakfast order each day. They also included the European breakfast meats and other items common on European river cruise ships. Service was quick and efficient. Restaurant seating included tables for 2, 4, 6 or 10 passengers so there was a wide variety of seating. Lunches & dinners would be best described as Russian modified for American taste. As I remarked previously, all lunches were sit down, formal service with soup, entre (including a vegetarian selection). Salad bar and dessert. Dinners consisted of an appetizer, followed by a soup course, entre (again including a vegetarian choice), and dessert. At dinner, there was always available salmon or chicken breast with a baked potato and steamed vegetables for those who did not fancy the main course. Food was served hot when appropriate and cold when in order. Service was friendly and efficient. Even with 200 people sitting down to eat, there was no sense of “steam table” cooking. With the exception of two meals ashore, all meals were served onboard. In the event of an evening tour such as the Moscow circus or the St. Petersburg ballet, an early dinner was served to those attending the event, followed by a late night heavy snack following return onboard. While I did not eat very many lunches, my wife tried most of them and said the food was very good. We found the dinners to be tasty and a nice introduction to Russian cooking, including the famous Russian stroganoff which is not served over noodles as it is in the U.S., but over spaetzle or mashed potatoes which we were told is common in Russia. Early bird coffee was available from 6:00-7:00AM and also throughout the day at the coffee station on the main deck. Lunch was served at either noon or 1:00PM depending on the tour schedule, with dinner at 7:00PM.

Onboard Activities: There was never a shortage of things to do onboard, but all were voluntary so you could participate in as few or as many as you wished. They featured the usual port talks, introduction to the Russian language, lectures on Russian handicrafts, vodka tastings, blini parties, pelmeni (dumpling) cooking class, and hand painting of Russian Matryoshka (nesting) dolls. We also noted several spontaneous bridge, cribbage, and canasta card games in progress at various times.

There is a large, well stocked gift store on the ship, operated as a separate concession. My wife found the prices for souvenirs of all types were generally better than souvenir shops ashore. They accept major credit cards or roubles. You cannot charge items from the store to your shipboard account.

Tours: There were a limited number of optional (extra cost) tours available. In St. Petersburg, that included:

Rivers & Canals of St. Petersburg

Yusopov Palace

St. Petersburg Ballet

Peterhof Gardens

In Petrozavodosk: Karelian Folk Show

Zlatoust Singers

Jewish Heritage of Moscow

Tretyakov Gallery

You can view the details of these optional tours on the GCT website: http://www.gct.com

under the Russian river cruise itinerary.

All passengers are provided with a pair of head phones & a battery powered receiver to provide the ability to listen to the tour guide while still wandering about the particular venue. The system works perfectly and depending upon location & interference such as walls, floors, and the like is crystal clear up to 100 feet from the tour guide. I have used these systems on other tours and would never consider a tour/cruise that did not employ this technology.

We took the Rivers & Canals of St. Petersburg tour which entailed taking a canal boat up & down the various rivers & canals running through St. Petersburg. It lasted approximately 90 minutes with a well informed local guide who commented on what we were seeing. It was interesting and informative and gives you another whole perspective on St. Petersburg than from a city bus tour.

We also went on the Peterhof gardens tour which unfortunately, did not go as well. The morning tour for that day was Peter & Paul Fortress which was really not that interesting and turned out to be just another church tour. However, because of the distance from where the boat moored to the fortress, then into St. Petersburg for lunch, the morning and part of the afternoon was pretty well shot by the time we departed for Peterhof. Peterhof is a good 45 minute drive from St. Petersburg; so consequently, it was well after 2:00PM when we arrived at the gardens. I’d like to say the local guide tried to cram what could easily have been a 4 hour tour into something less than two hours. So, we consequently were trying to set land speed records for walking tours as she was determined to show us as many of the Peterhof fountains as possible, and there are more than a few. My wife is a bit slow of foot as she has limited walking capacity so she was hard pressed to keep up. I, on the other hand, wanted more time to take pictures of the fountains and didn’t appreciate being rushed from spot to spot. Fortunately, our tour director Alex was particularly solicitous of my wife and made sure we could cut some corners and get ahead of the tour where necessary. Unfortunately, the local tour guide was annoyed when told to slow down and became somewhat hostile. The tour ends at the Peterhof palace which has a very large number of very beautiful fountains, all in gold leaf and is a photographer’s dream. It easily could have been worth an hour or more of picture taking opportunities. While I do understand some folks just want to check the block of having seen it and move on, there are, I think, a larger number of us who don’t expect to see those things again and want to take full advantage of the picture taking opportunities.

St. Petersburg: We spent 4 days in St. Petersburg not counting the day of arrival. The 1st full day, we had a city bus tour which included a stop & tour of St. Isaac’s Cathedral, and an approximately two hour visit to the famed Hermitage Art Museum with an option to stay for an additional 90 minutes, On Day 2, we had Catherine’s Palace & Park Tour, an offsite lunch paid for by GCT followed by the optional Rivers & Canals Tour, Day 4 was the Peter & Paul Fortress, again followed by lunch (this time on your own) followed by the optional Peterhof Gardens tour. On Day 3 of the visit, there were optional tours available of Yusopov Palace and the St. Petersburg ballet (evening). The boat was moored about 1 hour from downtown, depending on traffic, as the city authorities do not allow the riverboats to moor downtown. This caused some angst among those taking their 1st river cruise as they assumed this was standard. Of course, it’s not, and in fact, almost all European river cruises including Paris moor almost in the heart of the city. However, for those with free time and a little bit of adventurism, the subway took you downtown in less than 40 minutes. There is a bus from the head of the pier which costs 30 roubles (in early June 2012, roubles were 32.5 to 1 USD). That dropped you at the nearest metro entrance where 25 roubles and 5 stops later, landed you in the heart of Nevsky Prospekt, St. Petersburg’s equivalent to Times Square in NY or Michigan Avenue in Chicago. The metro is clean, no graffiti in the stations or on the cars, efficiently run and very safe. To return to the ship, just reverse the process. Once downtown, there are many attractions within easy walking distance such as the statue of the Bronze Horseman, a tribute from Catherine the Great to Peter the Great and the Church of our Savior on the Spilled Blood on which site, Tsar Alexander II was murdered by an assassin on 1 March 1881.

This was our 2nd time in St. Petersburg as we were there on an ocean cruise of the Baltics in 2003 when the city celebrated its 300th anniversary. It is to my mind, much more European than Russian with the latest fashions on display, many, many outdoor restaurant cafes and a mostly young, apparently well off population (at least during a business day).

We had previously been to Catherine’s Palace and the Hermitage and enjoyed returning to both places. St. Isaac’s is very impressive, but unfortunately, it is crowded and pickpockets are afoot. Several men & at least 1 woman had wallets stolen in the crowds so for them, not so much fun. Peter and Paul Fortress from a historical perspective is important, but rather unimpressive.

We visited St. Petersburg during the period of the summer referred to as “White Nights” which are quite famous. Sunrise occurs about 4:30AM and sunset at 11:15PM. Since winters are long, cold, and sometimes very harsh, the many hours of sunlight are greatly appreciated and folks go out to stroll, especially on Nevsky Prospekt well into the evening hours enjoying the many parks and recreation areas throughout the city.

Svir Stroi: This is a small village of about 600 people located on the Svir River. They have the requisite souvenir shops, but the highlight of the stop was the visit to the home of a Russian villager. Our opportunity came to visit the wife of a local employee of the hydro electric plant. We visited her home and were served tea & pirozhki’s (Russian tea cakes). With the able help of our tour director, Tanya who translated, the lady explained her daily life in the village and the challenges ordinary people now face compared to the days of the Soviet Union. This is also where we first encountered the fierce Russian mosquitoes or as the tour directors called them, the KGB mosquitoes. They’re big, they bite and they fly around over the 3 months of summer. Mosquito repellent does, however, work when liberally applied.

Petrozavodsk: This port city on Lake Onega which is the second largest lake in Europe, only surpassed by Lake Ladoga, included a bus tour as well as a visit to the memorial to Russian’s Unknown Soldier from World War II, and a tour of the local market. It is the industrial, cultural, and scientific center of the Republic of Karelia. The visit also included an optional tour to a Karelian folk show which we opted not to attend.

Kizhi (Kee-shee) Island: This small island in the center of Lake Onega is home to the oldest known wooden church in Russia, the Church of Transfiguration which features 22 timbered onion shaped domes. The church was assembled without the use of a single metal nail and is currently undergoing extensive renovation. The stop also featured a “Fishing with the Ship’s Captain & Staff” for those who are ardent anglers. Fishing apparently wasn’t so successful as we did not have fish on the menu that evening!

Goritzy/Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery: Goritsky is just another tiny town, but the monastery was built in 1397 and had close connections with Ivan the Terrible. At one time, over 200 monks lived in the monastery, but with the Russian revolution and the harsh suppression of religion in Russia, it deteriorated significantly and now houses only 6 monks. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, restoration efforts have begun and the museum features an impressive collection of Russian Orthodox icons.

Uglich: The last city we visited prior to Moscow is located on the Volga River. Cruising on the river as you come onto Uglich is very impressive. The Kremlin (or fortress) has no exterior walls so the many colored churches and domes make great picture opportunities. The very large Cathedral of Transfiguration looms over the town while the Church of St. Dmitry on the Blood with its rich red walls and blue onion domes offer a sharp contrast. Souvenir and shops selling all sorts of goods line the route from the ship’s berth to the main street of Uglich. We were told by the local guide that as many as 7 to 8 river cruise ships a day visit Uglich during the summer. They also were having a display of lacquer and paper Mache’ boxes for sale at very Western prices. Enameled watches are also a specialty of Uglich. We were treated to a short concert by a group of male classically trained singers who rendered several Russian songs a capella during our visit.

Moscow: We arrived in Moscow about 3 hours late because of heavy fog the previous evening while transiting the Moscow Canal. The river authorities do not allow movement in the canal during heavy fog, so we waited out the down time in one of the locks. The ship moored a good ways from downtown as the city authorities do not allow river cruise ships downtown, the same rule as St. Petersburg. Moscow is a city of 11.5 million people and traffic can be a nightmare. However, we were fortunate to arrive on a Monday before a national holiday (Day of Russia) on Tuesday and Moscovites are like people everywhere; they angle to take the day before a big holiday off. So, the traffic to downtown was pretty light and we made up some time on the city tour which started in the famous Red Square outside the Kremlin walls. The tour included a walk around Saint Basil’s Cathedral which is actually a museum, then on to the GUM department store which resembles a U.S. mall. We also walked past a “Historic Toilet” located in Gum’s that I believe was the 1st indoor lavatory in a Moscow department store. (Use of the WC was 84 roubles for those interested; I took a pass). We also went for a ride on the famed Moscow metro where many of the stations are elaborately decorated in frescoes, busts representing the struggle of the common man, and other adornments of the Russian revolution. As in St. Petersburg, the metro is clean (no graffiti in the stations or on the cars) and very safe.

The next day was the national holiday so our tours steered us quite far from Red Square (where demonstrations were purported to occur against the Presidential election recently completed) and out to Sparrow Hills which is a high priced area of the city. We also toured the New Maiden cemetery where various Russian notables such as Boris Yeltsin and Nikita Khrushchev are buried. The evening tour involved a visit to the Moscow circus which has been in continuous operation since 1980. A fun time of clowns, jugglers, trained poodles, bears, a lion taming act and culminated with a trapeze performance by 5 daring men & 1 woman.

The following day was a tour inside the Kremlin walls and to one of the 5 churches located inside the walls. I found it ironic that 5 churches would be allowed to exist following the revolution, but many things in Russia are strange, this only being one example. We also toured the Kremlin armory which contains the Tsar’s Crown Jewels, armor and armaments of the 16th- 18th century, many Tsarina coronation and wedding dresses as well as a very extensive display of Faberge eggs. The tour concluded with lunch at Moscow’s Hard Rock Café and time to tour Arbat Street which is a pedestrian only street in the heart of Moscow.

We had family obligations that required us to cut the last full day off the cruise and return home via direct flight from Moscow to Dulles International.

Final Observations: It was a very interesting and different river cruise for us. Because the distances are so vast, there is a lot more down time on this cruise than one in European waters, but Grand Circle can make it as busy or as relaxed as you like. The meals were comparable to those served on our other river cruises for quantity and quality. There are slightly more optional tours than with some other companies, but on the other hand, some of the included tours were excellent. St. Petersburg is a great city and one I’d be pleased to visit again; Moscow, not so much. Grand Circle is certainly worth your consideration as a cruise line as the prices are competitive with all other Russian river cruises. We did book our air through Grand Circle which I’m normally reluctant to do, but the routing was the same that I would have chosen had I done my own booking and the pricing was better than I could do on my own, especially considering what GCT would have charged for transfers to and from the ship. We did not purchase travel insurance through GCT as I found we could do better by shopping around over the Internet.

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beverlyjack

We did this trip in 2004, aboard the chartered Nicholay Chernychevski, before Grand Circle had put the Tikhi Don into service. This was an excellent review and brings back memories. Please post it under Travelers Reviews on http://www.gct.com on this trip.

Thank you for the informative review. I am taking this tour in mid August. I will print what you wrote so that I can refer to it as I do some of my planning.

How many people were in your "group" ? Did you take the pretrip to Helsinki and Tallinn?

We had about 32 people in our group. I don't know what, if any criteria, other than numbers were used to make up the groups. We did not take any pre or post trips with this cruise.

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