pontac

Female waiter? - the word is waitress I'm a frequent traveller to South Africa where waitron is the term for both waiter and waitress and I think it makes a lot of sense, and waitron is certainly shorter to write than waiter or waitress and male or female waiter.

Being under-age for buying drinks is sadly long long behind me. I'd suggest phoning Viking and saying that as the other person in the cabin is not allowed to drink can you just buy the silver spirits for one. The drinking age in France is not as ridiculous as in the USA, you can legally buy & consume alcohol in France at 18 (and from16 years with a meal in a restaurant with an adult). While in France you are subject to French law, not US (I'm assuming you are in USA). Of course Viking can apply any rules they want, but I wonder if the staff on board are aware of the restriction and would stop you purchasing the Silver Spirits Package when you get on board? Anyway, I'll bet the waitrons don't ask your sisters age when they're pouring the house wines Re Bon Voyage: the wine prices seem jolly expensive and there's little info about what they mean. Red Wine could be anything - likely a bottle of the house red served free with meals. Viking Sparkling Wine is €20 a bottle on board, less than half the Bon Voyage price. I'd suggest asking your friend to get a special bottle before the cruise and wrap it, and for you to take it in your case. You can enjoy it with lunch or dinner, the waitron will gladly open it and there's no corkage.

Hold on - you need a carry on for your plane trip: you don't want to pack essentials (medicines, chargers, e-readers, cameras and valuables in checked in cases, if for no other reason than the bag might not arrive with you.

A good reason to fly home from Budapest: (from a press release - edited somewhat to take out excess floweriness ...) ‘Prosecco Bar’ has opened in a new spacious venue at Budapest Airport in a location easily accessible for passengers waiting to board flights. ‘Prosecco Bar’ has the philosophy of the Venetian bacaro, that is, of an informal osteria, where food is presented both as 'cicheti', or appetisers to be eaten at the counter, and as more structured dishes to be served at the tables. The combination with Prosecco, favoured for its versatility, and with other Italian wines closes the circle and contributes to making every short or long moment spent in a bacaro a pleasant experience that enriches the spirit and refreshes the soul. The range of wines includes Prosecco, prestigious reds (Amarone, Brunello di Montalcino, Ripasso), dessert wines, a selection of white and barrique grappas, together with the wide range of fruit and cream-based liqueurs, plus signature cocktails, created ad hoc by expert bartenders, organic wines and liqueurs and alcohol-free sparkling drinks.

@robertmartha Hi Bob, if Emerald wanted to restrict baggage to one item they'd have said so. One suitcase means what it says, hand baggage is OK. Usually we are collected from the airport by the cruise line, and our cases go in the coach hold while we keep our hand baggage with us. When we get to boat we get out, go to boat reception to get cabin keys and go to cabin. The cases are collected from the coach and delivered to cabins by boat staff. You'll get tags with your cabin number you attach to your case so the crew know where to take them. At the end of the tour, cases are collected from outside the cabin and loaded on the coach. You don't need to carry your cases from time you get to transport on way there to getting to the airport on way back. If you make your own way to/from the boat, your cases will be taken from/to your taxi. You'll get baggage tags that indicate what time you're leaving and how. If there are 180 people on your boat, the crew have to carry 180 cases up a gangplank and get them to cabins; if people were allowed two cases each then crew could be taking 360 cases. It's as @Roz says. One time I made my own way (I didn't fancy an early morning flight, so I came day before and stayed in hotel near mooring spot) the boat crew saw us walking along quayside and came running towards us to take our cases.

I saw that in 2022. Parts of paintings I didn't know by artists I've never heard of slowly moving across walls and floors to a background of muzac was interesting for about 10 minutes. Then it was 'how much longer?' Too much longer..... Tip:- at first you're invited to sit on large concrete steps facing a basin; some are part cushioned. Grab a cushioned seat, your bottom can thank me later. You can get up and move around, other pens have bits of other pictures projected. There's also information boards about the pens; they're difficult to read in the gloom of the show but more interesting, I thought. I won't be going back.

You would have done if you'd been on the previous sailing.... 😁

I'm with @CDNPolar , really great review and great pics. I did this cruise on Viking Delling in August 2023 and it was interesting to see the differences. Our Tournon train ride was in open carriages and the river below was dry, just a few pools left, so it was most interesting for me to see it in flood in your pictures. And we made it all way. But we didn't get to Vienne. The boat was delayed and the included tour cancelled. We visited different wineries, and I thought the optional Chateau Neuf du Pape was poor - and it caused me to write the only letter of complaint to Viking in 13 cruises with them, on the other hand the included tour to Beaujolais was first rate. A couple of points. Your description mentions the coffee station "just before you enter the lounge on the port side" which reads like there is only one coffee station, but there's an identical one in the same position in the starboard side. The description "a unisex bathroom with two stalls. Men and women could be in there at the same time, which was a bit different." caused me a double take but I think it's a matter of interpretation. Just a shared washbasin. On the upper deck the stalls each have a washbasin and there's no shared door. My briefer review our our trip is here

For the past few years booking made in the UK have had the drinks package included at no extra cost, and so we chose from the wine list. Mrs P chose one day, I chose the next. We had a white at lunch and a red with dinner. We also had a glass of Jacquard Champagne as aperitif before dinner. I was happy with all the wines we had, but had I not then we would have changed to another. That's the beauty of the drinks package. (We did have one white wine on the Rhone trip we didn't like - not that it was faulty or a bad wine - but it was not really dry so the waiter gave us new glasses and we chose another wine.) The quality of wines on Viking's list was better than the hyped wines on Scenic's list, but Scenic lets every guest choose from the list whereas Viking charges per bottle or charges (most guests) for the drinks package. However most Scenic guests didn't choose from the list and accepted the red and white poured by waitrons. The standard wines -i.e. the wines poured for everyone- were Heinrich Vollmer Riesling (white) and Heinrich Vollmer Cuvee H.V. (red) both from the Pfalz, Germany. We had the Riesling on the day we arrived with the embarkation lunch and I enjoyed it. It was crisp and fresh, with a bit of citrus acidity and without the petrol tones I dislike in Riesling (except in a blind tasting competition). A large proportion of guests didn't drink any wine. Some drank beer but I was surprised at the number of guests drinking fizzy soft drinks. The included wines were listed on the 'always available' dinner menu I show on my Day 1 post. I can't say if the included wines ever changed as we never looked at that menu or even the sommeliers recommendations for wines to buy from the list because we had already chosen our wine before the meal.

😁Seems I was reading and replying to it same time as you were posting here. Glad you had better weather than we did.

Well spotted, I didn't notice. I just saw that Arnhem shows as an overnight stop and that had been swapped with Nijmegen on our tour. I have found a map showing the 2024 route with stops in Hoorn & Ghent but I think it's too small to display here. The itinerary we were given when we booked in June 2023 was so it does seem the itinerary was later changed - and probably moving the overnight stop from Arnhem to Nijmegen is only temporary. I see Hoorn is a stop on their Holland & Belgium cruise, but I can't see a visit to Ghent. Shame software prevents me from editing earlier posts to make corrections.

@notamermaid as a resident of Germany you probably have a different perspective than the intended audience. Me too. As someone who lives in a city with a history going back more that 2,000 years, a mediaeval centre, a cathedral dating from 900, Roman and ancient British tribal ruins all within 20 minutes walk of my house, I am less impressed by visiting old towns than many of the New Worlders on cruises with me who live in towns where buildings more than 100 years old are to be remarked on. Also, as you are aware, practically most excursions must be to places that can be travelled to, guided around and travelled back from in the space between mealtimes.

Ah, I was a trifle confused, mostly tho' because I thought you were the OP, your handle being May B which my memory thought was the OPs, though going back to the top I see it is @Maybelline True Shucks, I sensed the faint possibility of a future stay with you in Florida.

Viking now require you to register for all excursions, both the (free) included ones and the (additional cost) optional ones. You can register as soon as you book using a website - MyVikingJourney dot com (you'll have seen referenced on this forum as MVJ). Before that you heard the loudspeaker announcement, made your way to reception, were given a group number and left the boat. Unfortunately the chefs didn't seem to know it's supposed to be cooked. I couldn't face the limp rashers with white fat; I expect the fat to be browned and crispy

The only buffet lunches were the embarkation/disembarkation lunch and the Taste of Holland. I remarked on the change to Aquavit lounge lunches in my report of our 2023 Rhine & Mosel cruise and as we cruised with Viking in 2022 I think the change happened with the 2023 seaon. Other changes I remarked on in that 2023 report were: - There is a Viking app which has menus for each day, details of excursions and the ability to book them. - There were tickets for excursions, both included and optional. Tickets were placed in the cabin the evening before to be given to the guide. The ticket has your name, cabin number and tour-guide group number. - British style back bacon joined American style crispy streaky bacon on the breakfast buffet. A change this year is no loudspeaker announcements for excursions 15 minutes before they are due to depart. You have your departure time on your ticket and it's your responsibility to be there on time.

Hiya Daisi I don't understand the question. I have never had a Viking meal which I didn't eat sitting at a table.

Please note this report is of the cruise we took in 2024 which deviated from the brochure and web-site description. I could not get a clear answer as to why. I was told that all cruise boats were banned from Arnhem from 2024 onwards, another were because the moorings were being repaired. When I was at Arnhem I saw workings happening along the shores by the bridge, so the deviation may be temporary. No matter, we still had the excursion to Arnhem and we enjoyed the cruise. All timings in my report are in 24hour format, thus 07:00 is 7am in the morning and 19:00 is 7pm in the evening. I am happy to answer questions.

Day 10 - Friday 5 April 2024 Our bags must be outside the cabin at 06:30 and the coach leaves for the airport at 07:45. We have time for breakfast, and have our only cooked one. The egg chef cooked brilliant easy-over fried eggs. Our flight is not scheduled to depart until 11:40 and as the journey takes less than 20 minutes there is plenty of time. Two Viking staff meet the coach and take two groups to the respective check-ins. Check-in is quick, and although security in this terminal is closed and we must walk to another terminal to pass security it is relatively painless. So we hunt for the business lounge partner, take a lift and it all goes wrong. There are about 50 people waiting to get in, it's at capacity they say, and when there is a space they give priority to members of their own. They say we must clear the area or they'll call security. So we go down to the main public lounge. We're no longer in Viking's World. A 65 minute flight delay shrinks to 10 minutes and at last we are in the air with a glass of Champagne. Good views of London as we descend and Andy whisks us home from Heathrow. Comfort food is needed, so Mrs P drives to a chippie to get fish, chips and mushy peas which we have with a bottle of Villa Maria NZ Savvie. Now we have to wait patiently for the next cruise in June.

Day 9 - Thursday 4 April 2024 The last full day of the cruise, with a well anticipated included excursion at 08:30 to Keukenhof Gardens and its tulip display. But when we awake it's pouring. The rain is coming down in a fury, and it doesn't let up. We decide not to join the excursion. About 30 minutes after coaches depart the rain stops and the sun shines, but ten minutes later the rain in all its fury returns. The rain stops at lunchtime. I enjoyed the Fettucine Bolognaise with a green salad and dry Wiener Gemischter Satz, Nussberg, 2020. So many excursions had taken place on mornings while it was raining while the afternoons had been sunny. Today was no different. After lunch we set off for the Tulip Museum, passing the war memorial in Dam Square (above). The museum entrance is at the rear of a shop that appear to be the main purpose of the venture and there's a long queue of people buying bulbs and tulip related paraphernalia. One thing I took away is the word 'tulip' come from the Turkish word for a turban, because of the similarity of their shape. We might not have seen Keukenhof but we saw plenty of tulips. These were in one of many large pots on bridges. In all my many stays in Amsterdam I never saw use being made of the hoist at the top of buildings, but today I saw two being used. This chap is lowering wood panels out the window to another on the pavement. Our last dinner of the cruise was accompanied by this rather pleasant Chianti Classico

Day 8 - Wednesday 3 April 2024 The morning included excursion started with a walk through the attractive small city of Zierikzee. Access to the old town and harbour was via pull-up bridges and a gatehouse. Four coaches had set off from the boat, but to avoid crowding only two visited the same site at the same time. We drove first to the Delta Works. Local fishermen objected to the enclosing of the Zuiderzee as the enclosed water would become salt-free and wouldn't support the fish they caught and oysters they farmed. So either side of a man-made island were constructed a line of gates which would let sea tides ebb and flow, but be shut during exceptional high tides to protect land and dikes. All week we'd been hearing about land reclaimed from the sea and how much of the Netherlands is below sea level protected by dikes. Our last visit was to Watersnood (Flood) Museum. This is at the site of a dike break on 1 February 1953. A storm surge and gale caused wide spread flooding and drowned 2,500 people in Netherlands, Belgium, England, and Scotland. Netherlands suffered the most because it had so much land under sea level. Engineers repaired breached dikes but all attempts at closing the dike at Ouwerkerk were washed away by the force of the currents. On the night of 6/7 November 1953 they carefully manoeuvred a line of four huge floating concrete caissons into the breach, filling then with boulders and sand to sink them. Even so, the currents moved one out of line but the engineers were able to fill gaps and repair the dike. The caissons - codenamed Phoenix - had been constructed to make the artificial 'Mulberry' harbours and breakwaters of the Normandy coast after D-Day in 1944 but these were surplus to requirements then and were towed by tug to Netherlands in 1953. They stick up above the earthen dike and now house the museum. The caissons are gigantic, 62.5x19x19 metres (205x62.3x62.3 feet), and the museum is housed in the upper part, above the rock and sand filling. And back to the boat for lunch. The boat cast off heading for Rotterdam. There was on 'Open Wheelhouse' session and then 'Teatime'. Plates of dainty sandwiches and cakes were on lounge tables, with jam and cream for scones. We were supposed to enjoy a selection of specialist loose-leaf black and green teas with them, but actuality was the same wooden box of tea-bags we had a breakfast was brought around by waitrons. Dunking a tea bag into a cup of hot water doesn't make tea as any fule kno. And where were the scones? The restaurant manger said they'd run out, but perhaps because I took him to task the previous day for running out of the diet cokes our lunch companions wanted, he rustled up one each for those at our table. They were stale, more like small biscuits. We had the misfortune to sit through the Programme Director's disembarkation talk in which, with the aid of a projector, he droned on into minute detail about every aspect even explaining what each column of the Departure Information sheet meant, perhaps because a column headed 'time to place your luggage outside your stateroom door' would cause of confusion. We arrived in Rotterdam during dinner. A pre-dinner glass of Champagne and a bottle of dry red restored equilibrium. We left Rotterdam for Amsterdam at 22:00. Tomorrow would be the last full day of our cruise, and highlighted by the included excursion to Keukenhof Gardens.

Day 7 - Tuesday 2 April 2024 Viking Ve moored in Middleburg during breakfast, and we joined a 09:00 walking tour in drizzle. And back for lunch The boat left Middleburg at midday so we sailed towards Veere as we ate. When we arrived at 14:00 there was an included walking tour of 'Historic Veere'. And back for dinner But first, a pre-dinner glass of Champagne Jacquart. Celeste Crianza Ribera de Duero went well with the braised lamb shoulder roast.

Day 6 - Monday 1 April 2024 We arrived at Antwerp during breakfast and went on the included excursion, a walking tour of Antwerp. But first we had to get on the quay. Another boat, which refused to move, was in our space so we moored alongside The Elegant Lady, a boat in Plantours fleet. Elegant she was not. The steps down from her sundeck were metal, narrow and steep. Covered in water from the rain they were dangerously slippery. Only one person could descend at a time, and it was safest to descend backward. There was only one handrail. Thus it took ages for everyone to get down and we set off late. First was the impressive remains of the old city wall. I thought the building on the left was a church, but the guide said it was the Butchers Guild building and the steps next to it were known as the 'bloody steps' because blood & innards flowed down the steps like a waterfall from the abattoir above. In a square is a statue of Nello, a young orphan boy, and his dog Patrasche frozen to death in their sleep. The adventures of Nello and Patrasche is very famous in Japan, Korea, and Philippines because of an anime TV series. Hordes of tourists from those countries came to Antwerp and were puzzled that no-one had heard of Nello and Patrasche. Which wasn't surprising as the origin was a book A Dog of Flanders written by a British author and not published in Netherlands. The city had the statue made in the 80s, and when I was there 20-30 Japanese were taking pictures of each other by it. Then we entered Antwerp Cathedral of Our Lady which houses three huge Rubens' triptychs and another painting by Rubens. There were many tourists there, including groups following guides' flags and paddles. After an exhaustive description of the first triptych the guide led our group o the next, but we found a seat and sat down. The programme director was in the cathedral so I asked him if the tour continued after the cathedral, because otherwise we'd head back to the boat. He assured me it did, so we sat in the cold and eventually the guide completed her commentary on the fourth Rubens and said that was the end of the tour. That was the third time I'd got duff info from the programme director so I bother him again. So back to the boat for lunch. Fish'n'chips today. Last time I'd had this on Viking was the previous year on the Mosel, and then we were sitting outside on the prow enjoying the sun. We didn't go for a self-discovery walk of Antwerp in the afternoon because we were still moored alongside Elegant Lady and I didn't want to risk their dangerous steps. The afternoon talk about life in Belgium was amusing and well presented by a young lady.

Day 5 - Sunday 31 March 2024 Easter Sunday and breakfast tables were decorated. And when we returned to our cabin we found a large Lindt chocolate bunny. We arrived at Kinderdijk at lunchtime. I had the Pulled Pork BBQ Sandwich. The menu said it came on a Kaiser Roll, which is did on the 2023 Rhine-Mosel cruise but they were either out of them or the chef had no idea what a Kaiser Roll was and used two small bread rolls. It's not the first time we've been to Kinderdijk; last time we just went for a walk along the waterfront, and this time Mrs P stayed on the boat. But it wasn't raining so I joined an excursion in the afternoon. The windmills built in the early 1700s are pumps to keep the reclaimed land dry. We can go in one from 1738 and while I am there I see the miller, wearing clogs, turn the mill with the large wheel so it faces the new wind direction and anchor it in the position with chains. We have a talk about the windmills from the guide and a quick visit to a steam pump room that also houses a gift shop, then it's back to the boat as it leaves for Rotterdam at 15:30. An hour later we moor in Rotterdam. There's an optional walking tour but, unusually, no included excursion. And as we ate dinner the Viking Ve cruised on to Antwerp.

Day 4 - Saturday 30 March 2024 We moored in Nijmegen. At 09:00 we boarded our coach for the brief drive to Arnhem for our included excursion Operation Market Garden which first stopped at Arnhem bridge - the 'Bridge too Far'. This is a post-war rebuild to exactly the same style as the bridge destroyed in October 1944. Some of the bases survived, including the concrete stairs and supports on the north bank. The new bridge is named after John Frost, British Forces commander. We went to the Airborne Cemetery at Oosterbeek where some 18,000 allied soldiers are buried. Guide David had written two books about the battle and was in a group of archaeologists that uncovered remains of missing soldiers. He took us to some graves of those he'd found and told us their stories. He also told us that after the war local school children 'adopted' each grave, and they'd contact the families. Soon other war cemeteries were also adopted by school children and when they grow-up and leave school another younger child takes over. Each year, on the same day, each grave has a lit candle to show the soldiers that they are not forgotten. This unofficial tradition continues to this day. I don't think anyone there didn't have tears. Next stop was the nearby Airborne Museum. During the Arnhem Battle as the British troops were defending a decreasing area while facing increasing German forces Hotel Hartenstein was taken over as HQ and now houses the museum. Then a drive around the area where the guide pointed out terrain features that affected the battle and Kate ter Hors' house in which she nursed wounded and dying soldiers. A quiet coach returned to the boat for lunch. We had a short walk in the afternoon and caught up on reading. Before dinner was an enthralling talk on the Liberation of the Netherlands by historian Edwin Popken. The Dutch thought the war was over when the allies arrived in Market Garden. The German troops had left, for Germany it was thought, and crowds were blocking the streets to cheer on the troops.