We grabbed the "whispers," what they called our personal listening devices. We used these on all the tours and re-charged them each evening. They were volume adjustable and worked very well. If you didn't hear the guide, you knew you were too far behind and had to spot them fast, so not to become lost.
The red paddle was on a stick and was called a "lollipop." It had our particular tour number on it, like 3B, etc. The guides held these up so we could easily follow them. It came in very handy as there were sooooo many tour groups, it would have been hard to keep up without it.
There were various tours, depending on what you had individually booked, leaving the ship at the same time. As we disembarked the boat we got an ID card to use in case we got lost. This would help us get back to the ship. We also got a bus number, again like 3B. This told us which bus to board for our particular tour.
Buses were clean and new. There were two doors for quick loading and unloading. Each passenger had a seat belt, which we wore after experiencing the crazy traffic. There was one restroom on-board, but we had ample opportunity to use public restrooms during the tour. These were all modern and clean. Tour time was built in for the long bus rides and potty stops. All the bus drivers were careful and safe, although we did have one minor traffic incident (more on that later).
As traffic was a mess in Moscow, the bus ride to almost every venue took about an hour. Every hour seemed to be rush hour there. Guides filled in the time with information about the day's destination and in general about the history and area.
An aside: My friend Ina just sent this article from Condé Nast Traveler magazine rating Moscow as the city with the worst traffic congestion in the world. I knew I was not imagining things. Read the article here:
https://www.cntraveler.com/story/15-cities-with-the-worst-rush-hour-traffic-in-the-world?utm_source=nl&utm_brand=cnt&utm_mailing=CNT_Daily_AM_062419&utm_campaign=aud-dev&utm_medium=email&bxid=5c33ac7b24c17c321cea865e&cndid=49274691&hasha=cccaf9038d10988446a740b2178cec85&hashb=3c513587963c22948b98135a001b3faba6739caf&hashc=85699353faa2d87467312c9e3ef909f32d8a50fb695ee8e67b31ea12b53ae896&esrc=PureWow_SWPS_2017&utm_content=Final&utm_term=CNT_Daily
One confusing thing was the tour tipping arrangement. Through our cruise literature it was suggested we give bus drivers (they were different each tour) $1 USD pp per day and each tour guide $2 USD pp. We had set aside an envelope with a bunch of $2 bills just for that use. But it was not clear at first that there were two types of tour guides. Some were locals and they should get their $2, but others were Viking personnel dressed in red polo shirts.
We had prepaid the lump sum of $300 pp or $600 for the two of us suggested by Viking. That assured all Viking personnel of food servers, hospitality, room service, front desk, security, etc. would automatically get their fair share. But we did not realize at first that the Viking guides were included in the prepaid arrangement. So for about 5 days they got additional tips, until we caught on to the situation. Oh, well. They got a little extra, but did a great job!
Oh, one other thing. Not just anyone can be a tour guide in Russia. There is a 2-year education process. They spend 30 days studying in each museum or tourist venue and are tested at various points throughout the program. Several guides said it was a tough process, but well worth it.
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