pilgrimduke

I'll be on the Star next year and am eager to hear about your experience.  If you do specialty dining, I'm interested in your opinion on what was worthwhile.  I'm also interested in how crowded various venues seem to you.

I'd load up the Kindle.  We were on the Island Princess in October.  My impression was that if I needed something to read, I could find something that would be OK, but it wouldn't have been my first choice.  My wife was less impressed than I was.  It depends on what your interests are, of course.  The selection seemed more geared to fiction and there were some more literary selections--as well as popular fiction.

1 hour ago, elliair said:

If that's the case, I would self disembark myself.  I don't believe they can hold you hostage at your own expense.  Pick your poison cruiseline.  A quarantined traveler at Travis AFB walked away and the authorities said they could not hold anyone against their will.

Do you have a link for the Travis AFB person walking away?  I'd like to forward it, but can't find anything after a quick search.  Thanks

We were on a Panama Canal cruise Sept/Oct, 2019.  I know that personnel change but overall we had a very positive experience.  On the plus side, we had no problem getting a table for two for Anytime Dining.  The longest we had to wait was when no table was available and the buzzer notifying us that something was available went off as I was sitting down in the atrium.  I'm not a foodie, so take that into account, but I thought that the MDR and Windjammer food was good.  I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the entertainment.  I didn't find the ship crowded.  We had an inside cabin, which was fine for our needs.  I thought that bedding was good.  

On the negative side, Internet could be slow and spotty.  We had an air conditioning problem in teh room that took a couple of days to resolve, but things moved quickly once we found the right person.  (Room steward not helpful, but guest services was.)  The auditorium for the nightly show does fill up quickly.  That was a bit of a pain, but it also probably speaks to the quality of the entertainment.  In the cabin there were no outlets by the bed which made things slightly awkward for plugging in my CPAP machine.  No big problem, but I had to be careful when I got up in the middle of the night so that I didn't trip over it.  It would have been nice if the Promenade deck wasn't truncated, but that wasn't a big deal to me.  

Overall a positive experience and I wouldn't hesitate to cruise on the ship again.  (I don't discount the negative experiences of others, but in our case the good outweighed the bad.).

Not being a technician, I can't say.  I can say that I ended a cruise on the Island Princess a week ago and we arrived timely at all 7 scheduled ports.  If there were any problems, I wasn't aware of them on this sailing (and I had been following the problems before then, so I was attuned to the issue.)

Holland America, due to a non-functioning toilet in the cabin for most of the cruise and the response (lack of one) to this issue.

This is common on many river cruise lines. The solution is to divide and conquer: one of your party has to cut out early from the pre-dinner talk and get in the scrum to grab a table. Then the rest of you can stroll down and make a grand entrance like Loretta Young! The "scout" duties should rotate, unless someone is mobility challenged ;)

Jazzbeau, I'd often do this, but I felt bad about it (equal parts of not wanting to be an ugly American, not wanting to tell people I'm waiting for three other, and not wanting to be a bully since I'm the biggest person on the cruise :)) It always worked out, but I still didn't like it, but that's me.

This post cleared up a lot for me. I never saw -- nor expected -- shrimp cocktail or lobster on my river cruises. This confirms that OP brought an ocean-cruising mentality to river cruising and has been unwilling to accept river cruising for what it is.

My thoughts exactly. It seems that there was disappointment because of a feeling that the experience wasn't commensurate with the price paid and then things that would normally be ignored get magnified, even when the gripes are contradictory (wanting local cuisine and being upset at the lack of yellow mustard and shrimp cocktail.)

We sailed on Viking in aquarium class and it was fine for the price we paid, but I was glad that we weren't in a higher priced cabin. We did speak to three other couples who were disappointed with the cruise and they were expecting something more higher-end based on the advertising. They had sailed on Crystal, Seabourn, and Oceana, and were expecting a similar experience. Not having sailed on those lines I can't definitively compare the experiences, but from what I've read I probably would have been disappointed too if I had booked a higher end cabin.

As to the food, my experience was the opposite. I thought that the chef was trying to be a little too cute and trendy, but I know I'm a philistine and wrote it off to that. It tasted fine but, again, it's all a matter of expectations. (My big objection to the dining experience was the scrum when the dining room opened and trying to make sure that all four of us who were traveling together could eat together.)

I forget the exact year, but it was in the early '80s and we were counseled by the RCCL waiter about the importance of a "5" on the cruise evaluation.

I mailed my passport for renewal on January 4 and I got it back yesterday, January 23. I mailed my wife's at the same time and it hasn't come back yet.

Dinner was our least favorite part of the Viking river cruise that we took last year with two of our friends. After having dinner on two different nights with people that claimed they had worked with the CIA and another night with a person who wanted to talk politcs and we didn't see eye to eye (but we kept quiet) we migrated to the Aquavit Lounge. (Nothing against those that work for the CIA, but I don't think they generally advertise who they work(ed) for.)

We're not foodies so the limited menu on offer was fine with us, but for those who food variety is more important, that would probably not be a great solution.

It was nice not having to go through the nightly scrum to get a table together. I felt sorry for the four who spoke Spanish and apparently wanted to dine together and only with themselves. They would line up half an hour before the dining room opened, apparently to make sure that they could get a fourtop. They also went to the Aquavit a few times we were there. (I'm not being critical--I think that I'd be in the same boat and want some time each day where I wasn't having to communicate in a second language.)

I'm the height of the original poster and I have a slight touch of claustrophobia. That being said, when I was on a Viking longship last summer, I didn't have any trouble with that aspect of the cruise. (I know this is a personal thing and I hope that my experience will be similar to yours.)

We have taken river cruises on Grand Circle, Vantage, and Viking when we were in our mid to late 50's. The demographics were fine for us even though we probably brought down the average age on the tour. I felt like I was traveling with older siblings for the most part with people my parent's age being there also.

I probably would not recommend the cruise to my 35 year old self since it would seem like cruising with my parents and grandparents.

purduemom1, Viking has said that they'll email me and based on an earlier posting, I believe that the Viking desk will be at the Marriott, which I was told was the case by Viking, though I'm not sure how correct that is. Fortunately, our hotel is nearby and I can easily stroll over.

Host Jazzbeau, thanks. I knew that I had seen something about the Viking Aegir being in Amsterdam at a date that would make it physically impossible (or at least very difficult) to be in Budapest when we're due to meet it.

I'm not worried about there being a ship--I'm just curious which one, especially since I will be traveling with others who have mistakenly placed some trust in me to figure things out. It's more of a game at this time, though if my interpretation of the marine traffic website is correct (and I do appreciate your validation) I'm scratching my head about the information not being available to the poor customer service folks, especially since they did publish the swap earlier.

I'm really confused now. I recieved a phone call from Viking concerning the location of the Aegir which, as I posted earlier, I tracked to the Rotterdam area, thus making it very unlikely that it would be in Budapest for the July 7 sailing. The Viking rep told me (and plus points for calling back) that my information was wrong and the ship was in the Regensburg area and would make it to Budapest in time for the July 7 cruise. From looking at the itinerary that would be possible if it was around Regensburg, but I from checking the marine traffic website it has just crossed into Germany. That seems to be a few days too long (6 days with the standard Grand European itinerary) to make it to Budapest by Monday, but I've been wrong before and perhaps there's something that I'm missing.

It's great news about the river boats running again. This forum has been a great source of information (much more so than Viking).

I called Viking this morning about what ship we would be on for our July 7 cruise from Budapest. I was told that it should still be the Aegir. I then checked one of the websites provided in this forum and discovered that ship is in the Rotterdam area and is due in Amsterdam tomorrow, so it's not very likely to show up in Budapest on July 7.

I recalled Viking with this news, which was news to the poor customer service person that I was dealing with. (She was pleasant, but obviously was not being given any information that Viking had to have if someone like me can figure it out.) She then guessed that we might be sailing on the Embla. I looked it up and it's destination is Budapest and it appears that it could make it to Budapest by the time we leave.

Since we're leaving early and are not using the Viking pre-cruise extension, knowing what ship we're on would be helpful information. I know that things are up in the air and subject to change, but Viking should let their people know when it's not possible for a ship to make a cruise, even if they haven't figured out what the replacement will be. I'm also not impressed with Viking management hanging their people out to dry and not giving them the information that they need to do their job.

We took one Vantage cruise, but it wasn't in France, so I can't help with that.

I know experiences vary, but I found the company easy to deal with by phone. I never was able to get an email response when I tried to communicate that way.

We opted to have them arrange flights and that worked out fine, with them booking us on the only non-stop available from our local airport.