новый год в вене new year in vienna

We were in Vienna for the third time. Twice (February, August - 2011) we stayed at the Kaiserhoff Hotel - we liked it very much: excellent service, amazing cuisine with champagne and strawberries for breakfast, excellent rooms. It was not possible to book this hotel for the New Year, the airfare prices were exorbitant as always - they took a convenient package with an imposed New Year's dinner (29.12. 11. to 05.01. 12). We flew with Austrian Airlines - very modestly and not friendly. Some woman during the "feeding" tried to take an extra piece of bread, so the steward pulled it back (NINE is not allowed, everything is counted). Upon arrival, they put us on a bus (with an hour delay - everyone was waiting for someone. . they distributed whom where to take them) and began to take them to hotels for a long time. We booked the Schoenbrunn hotel because of its convenient location in one of the best districts of Vienna Hietzing, near the zoo and the palace with the Schoenbrunn park - the hotel is beautiful with chic halls, panoramic walls in the restaurant, crystal chandeliers in the toilets, but all this is on the ground floor. . . Further, Russian tourists are settled on "special" 4th and 5th floors. Here is a different story - the rooms are stuffy and dirty, the furniture is dead, there are no tea or bath accessories except a tub of liquid soap, in some rooms the TVs did not work, in some the tiles were broken, in our bathroom it often stank of smoking, apparently pulled from the hood, Room cleaning was limited to cleaning the bed. Breakfast - a lot of cheeses, cold cuts, fish, muffins, juices, there were not many fruits and vegetables and they were not always fresh, only hot eggs and scrambled eggs, even the notorious sausages were not. The New Year's Eve dinner was beautifully decorated with candles on the tables and musicians on stage. The celebration was so-so: they gave out a glass of champagne at the entrance and not much wine in the glass already at the table, fed haute cuisine: salmon tartare, a bowl of broth, sorbet in champagne, a piece of roast beef with vegetables, a mini pie. We sat. . . sat. . . and dispersed - all this "joy" was paid in Moscow at 140 euros per person. Excursions were not taken, those who paid for them on the tour were not happy in the end. We moved on our own and it was cheaper at a convenient time for ourselves and wherever we want (especially since we were not the first time in Vienna and we always have Cook's Guide with us). We can advise everyone, including ourselves, to avoid package tours if possible.