pontac

Viking Ukraine cruise ships had a doctor, but that's academic now. The European cruises Viking are now operating (i.e. not Ukraine or Russia) do not have medical staff on board, but I couldn't say if ALL the many river cruise companies, operating in many countries, are the same.

Can't help on the flights questions, but when you land in Basel airport make certain you take the correct exit from arrivals hall. The airport is physically in France and the arrivals hall has exits to France and to Switzerland. you need to take the Swiss exit, here you'll pass Swiss customs (a mere formality) and you'll meet the Viking reps outside the arrivals exit, they'll be wearing red tops, and will direct you to the correct coach. (there may be more than one coach as sometimes there are more than one Viking boat starting cruises from Basel.)

Pardon me.

I'm assuming @CDNPolar isn't concerned about about washing his/her hands but other peoples. (People can wash their own hands in their cabin before meals.) Lunch & dinner on Viking are waiter served, so there's no touching by other passengers.

No. I have been on two Viking river cruises since the pandemic and eleven Viking river cruises in total and all of them had sanitiser dispensers at the entrance to the restaurant, but none had soap and water (and towels?).

Yes, we've taken two, but from Basel to Amsterdam both times, and neither at Christmas. If it's of any interest, my review of our April 2022 cruise is here Viking Tialfi Cruise Ship: Review, Photos & Departure Ports on Cruise Critic

Final payment on UK bookings is due 11 weeks before departure. It's probable all the paperwork will go to your mum's email address, so unless you've paid the full amount now, I suggest you put a reminder in your calendar for 12 weeks before departure to pay the balance. Thanks for updating us on your success. I'm sure @*Miss G* who first suggested using a VPN is as delighted as I am. Enjoy the cruise - all of you 🙂

The OP days the aunt will have a cabin to herself. So is storage of a wheelchair that difficult? Cant it go, collapsed, by the side of the bed? That's an issue with Scenic Spaceships (and I'd have thought their narrow steep gangway was a non-no) but not with Viking, the OPs first choice.

Great, thanks for the feedback. Now you can relax and enjoy your cruise - in your upgraded cabin. 😁

There have been wheelchair bound customers on Viking cruises I have been on. The Danube cruises are on Viking Longships. Information on Longship floor plans may be seen on the website. You need a cabin on either the upper or middle deck as they are connected by a lift, and one has the restaurant, the other has the lounge, bar and Aquavit terrace. There is no lift on the lowest floor and that and the sun deck are only accessible via stairs. I'm assuming your aunt can manage the few steps needed to board a coach and to cross the short gangway - a couple of feet - that bridges the gap between boat and the rest of the gangway which is wheelchair usable. If the Viking boat is rafted on the outer side of a boat that doesn't have a reception on the same level then she may not be able to get off the boat - as in such a case one has to go upstairs to cross to the other boat via the sub deck and go down its staircase. Whether such rafting will happen is not known in advance. Have you seen 'What are your wheelchair accommodations? Do the ships have elevators?' in Viking River Cruises FAQs? That has wheelchair size limits

Very thoughtful and true. Viking markets different boats to different markets, so if one were to book a cruise with Viking USA the boat used may be full of US passengers. That's not necessarily true of boats marketed in other countries. (unsold places may be offered to other countries near cruise time. It happened to me, I went on a boat not listed on the Viking UK site and we found ourselves one of 6 Brits on a boat of Americans. Lovely people, I'm not complaining, just saying.) As your first para goes, this is a personal choice. I took a Viking and a Scenic cruise last year and I thought the Viking was more upscale. Depends on measurement criteria, and cabin booked. And cost!

Easy. You were young. 😉

Veranda rooms are 205 sq ft, and they're obviously larger than French balcony. But the thread is titled Comparing Viking Standard & French balcony cabin sizes I didn't include veranda rooms. Unfortunately storage on the shelf (actually a window sill) blocks light from the window, and the lack of light, compared with the French balcony room, does not give a feeling of extra space IMO. (In fact booking the standard room does the opposite with your wallet 😁) .

Quite understandable, you're coming a long way. These destinations are a lot closer to us, also we've sailed many of the routes before, and been on the excursions.

I agree. One spends so little time in the cabin.

I realise the diagrams are not architects drawings, and as the boats are designed and built in Europe the measurements used would be metric and thus the space converted to square feet is an approximation. Yes, the cabins on the middle deck are off set, but the French window cabins have the extra space afforded by going to the edge of the boat. Standard cabins on the lower deck have a wide bulkhead. I contend the floor space is the same, and people who book the standard cabin to get more space may have a cabin measured as 150 sq ft, but 15 sq ft of that space is unusable - or a small amount may be used as a shelf but one cannot stand there. Again its a diagram but it seems that the standard and French balcony cabins have the same width. I've drawn a vertical red line down from the front French balcony cabin (200) to the lower deck diagram. There are 9 cabins on each deck between the line and the crew staircase

But its nice and quiet on t boat for those remaining on board who skip to excursion. 😁

Now, that looks like a real car!

Yes, but the upper decks don't have the wide bulk head of the lower deck. I'm not comparing French balcony with Veranda rooms, but French balcony with Standard (lower deck) rooms.

The downside of upgrades is you get a taste for the more expensive 😁. As Mrs Pontac (not Pontiac - don't give her ideas!) couldn't see out the window she found the room gloomy, not something one finds in a French balcony where the river facing wall is glass

This difference has been mentioned before, and so I looked at the cabin diagrams and I cannot see an additional 15 sq ft of floor space in the Standard cabin. I've started a new thread about it, have a look and tell me where I've gone wrong.

It's been often said on this forum that one gets less space by booking a French Balcony cabin than a standard cabin. I have cruised in both and I didn't notice any difference. Viking's website says the Standard cabin is 150 sq ft whereas the French balcony cabin is 135 sq ft. The difference in space was mentioned again today, causing me to go to Viking's website and compare the two layout diagrams. This is the French balcony cabin and this is the Standard cabin All cabins have a Queen sized Viking Explorer bed. Strenuous research (i.e. a quick glance at Wikipedia) shows there is no standard size for a Queen size bed, but I assume all the beds on Viking are the same. I do not see an extra 15sq ft of floor space on the Standard room. Looking at the right side of the diagrams, between the shower room and bed is a small bedside unit, and on the other side of the bed is a larger unit. between the bed and wall. I think the length of the Standard cabin is measured from the window, and thus the Standard has no more floor space than the French balcony. Perhaps someone cleverer than me can find those 15 sq ft.

We've cruised in three Viking Longship cabin types so far, the cheapest ones on the lowest deck, french balcony and veranda. I'm quite happy in the cheapest, but Mrs Pontac is shorter than me and she can't see out the window, and she insisted on booking other decks. I honestly didn't notice the lower deck rooms are larger or the french balcony is smaller. We spend little time in the room when we are not asleep.

No worries. Leave it to Viking. Your bags will be taken from the coach when it stops at the boat and taken to the room. You could cross out the room number on the tag and write in the new one, or just tell boat reception when you check in. There's not many cabins on a river boat, it's not a big deal.* Congrats on the upgrade! You'll have a great trip (Does not matter where the cruise is going, you'll have a great time). *If you hadn't checked MVJ then the first you'll have known of the upgrade was when you checked in, and they'd have taken care of getting your bags to the new cabin. So, don't worry.

The problem with the Reviews section is that it is primarily a review of the boat, not the itinerary. And if you travel on a line that has multiple boats of identical design then there's nothing to say about the boat on subsequent cruises Some cruise companies have multiple boats on the same itinerary, so there might be a review of the itinerary you are going on posted under a different boat to the one you are going on. I did post in the reviews section on a trip, but now I post a detailed review on this forum (click on the Trip Report links in my signature below). Why not say what itinerary and cruise line you want to know about? Someone here might have done it. I don't understand most of this this, but if you were asked for 2998 last week and only 399 this then it sound like you got a bargain, and the kids have an extra 2599 to look forward to..