pontac

Re hotel Parisi Udva, that was the hotel Viking used at the start of our Budapest to Bucharest cruise in June 2019. I wrote at the time: Parisi Udvar had opened only two weeks before we got there after a massive renovation. The entrance hall is magnificent, the rooms are spacious and well equipped but the restaurant was luxury priced for inexperienced, slow, inefficient non-luxury service. I assume my last comments were a result of teething problems which are now solved. The hotel isn't like standard modern hotels, rooms differ in layout and there are little public sitting rooms hidden away of upstairs floors. The hotel is a very short easily walkable distance from the boat mooring. Two articles about the building that show something of the architecture: Budapest’s historic Párisi Udvar will reopen renewed by 2018 - English - WeloveBudapest Interior of Budapest’s new Párisi Udvar Hotel is revealed - English - WeloveBudapest The restaurant and a contented Pontac

Gross. Always available for me if I was faced with that.

That last photo: if I remember correctly the flower market lines the canal the other side of that tower. On your canal photos 6 & 7 from the top there is a low rail at the waters edge. Our guide told us that they had been paid for by insurance companies who realised just how much money they were paying out for cars that ended up in the canal.

Be aware that Viking like to ensure guests are at airport check-in for international flights at least 3 hours before flight departure, plus they allow extra time for the journey. For our 11:40 flight from Amsterdam, a journey that took 20 minutes to the airport, we had to put our bags outside the room at 06:30 and the coach was scheduled to leave at 07:45. So, they'll probably allow 2.5hrs for the journey to Munich airport, so if you had a midday flight your coach would leave at 06:00 or 06:30

I've done that cruise twice. If you don't fancy something on the daily menu pick from the 'always available' menu, that's the same on all cruises. Menus are posted outside the restaurant so you have advance notice. Notify any allergies to the Restaurant Manager. I'm a picky eater and I've not starved. Relax and go with the flow.

I did the Douro on Viking in 2014. At that time all the river boats, no matter which line or the costumes the staff wore, were operated by a Portuguese company. I was surprised, on such a short 7 night trip, how many meals were off boat. We had dinner one night in the cellar of a monastery -(urgh - potato soup), an indifferent barbecue dinner another night, lunch at a winery and in Salamanca. That's what I remember from ten years ago, but I also remember the stunning scenery cruising. We're going back in June, but with Scenic this time because they spend longer on the river. I also understand the monopoly the Portuguese company enjoyed then is now ended and the boats are operated by the cruise line whose name is on the boats. I hope so.

A thread enquiring about Viking menus had me thinking..... On our Tulips & Windmill cruise this month we had a Singaporean Chef on a Swiss flagged Norwegian owned boat cruising in Netherlands and Belgium cooking meals for a mostly American clientele and served by waiters from Romania, Serbia, Slovenia etc Truly international 🙂

It's not often that I find myself disagreeing with @CDNPolar But it's par for this board that when someone asks a question they rarely get answers that agree. It's my understanding that the menus are decided by Viking HQ centrally and each boat in Europe has the same. The head chef is responsible for producing those meals, but may have some leeway especially on cruises that feature an excursion where guests can accompany the chef to a local market. Ingredients are ordered centrally (levering the number of Viking boats to get value) and delivered to each boat at certain stops, usually when guests are away from the boat on an excursion because all the ships crew are involved in unloading the truck and making a human chain, passing boxes to each other through reception to the storage spaces. I've just returned from a Viking Tulips and Windmills cruise and many of the dishes on the menu were the same that were on menus on previous years. For amusement compare this years Pulled Pork BBQ Sandwich on the lunchtime menu with one on our 2023 Rhine & Moselle cruise. The description was Pulled Pork BBQ Sandwich Pork & coleslaw on kaiser roll, french fries That's 2023 on the Rhine, here's the same menu item in Holland in 2024 Same dish, different interpretation. This chef didn't have kaiser rolls - or didn't know what they were. (I've only encountered kaiser rolls in the USA, I have never heard the term outside the USA -and Viking). You'll have a different menu every day, both lunch and dinner, plus the 'always available' dishes. The dinner menu will have 3 local dishes, then a choice of international starters, mains and desserts. You can pick from each menu as you like and make substitutions - for instance I loathe mashed potato so I swapped that with fries from the 'always available' menu. Some people have two starters instead of a starter and main. Some people have two mains and quite a few have two desserts. Now to answer your question, you'll find copies of Viking menus and some pix of their realisation in my trip reports. Trip Report - Rhine and Mosel Discovery - Viking Hild 25 April - 1 May 2023 - River Cruising - Cruise Critic Community Trip Report - Lyon & Provence - Viking Denning 15 - 21 August 2023 - River Cruising - Cruise Critic Community Report on our 2024 cruise being written now.

Have you tried the roll calls to see if there's a review? The 2024 roll call is here If not found there, have a look at the 2023 Roll Call

On the Web Site scroll down to find FAQ link under Company Information In FAQ scroll down to find section headed Life On Board Under that heading is Can I upgrade the complimentary beverages? That has all the details. @CDNPolar has, as usual, thoroughly gone into details. I'd just add that everyone in the cabin has to buy the package even if your partner doesn't drink. Also, as well as the unlimited complimentary beer/wine at lunch & dinner there are other occasions drinks are served, including cocktails at the Viking Explorers function. This used to be restricted to people who'd cruised before but now there's so many it's open to everyone. And they'll be pouring Aquavit, and as you're cruising down the Middle Rhine they'll be serving coffee with rum in it, and there's the Captains farewell cocktail party at cruise end. So no shortage of booze. I'd suggest waiting till you get on board and look at wine and bar list before deciding if you want to buy the package. Drinks not covered by the package are marked with an asterisk. Every time I've been on a cruise departing Basel we've flown into Basel Airport. Those on a pre-cruise extension may fly into another airport. Note Basel airport is not in Switzerland and it has two exits from the baggage hall. Make certain you take the Swiss exit or you'll be in France.

Welcome to the site, we don't bite so ask any questions you like. The way to find other cruisers is to post in Roll Calls, but be aware that there are few people on the boat (max capacity 190 guests thus at most 95 couples but there's likely to be some singles). So the chances of one of those guests reading this site AND having your interests are not good but nothing ventured......... Here's the roll call for this cruise

I returned from Amsterdam on Friday. Only passport control was e-gates after security and it took moments. I remember they accepted US passports with chips but I cannot recall the other acceptable countries.

This is the flyer for Viking vouchers that are placed in cabins in case the T&Cs at the foot are not clear, here they are If you can negotiate their use on a trip that' already booked, then good luck but it says it's only applicable to new bookings. (I understand cruise directors have a financial interest in selling these vouchers so I'd be wary of promises that don't match the T&Cs)

None were on the included or optional tours. I suggest you do your own research for universities and libraries in towns where you spend all day, I should imagine you'll find some in Lyon and probably Avignon. Then email them to ask if they'll take visitors and if so can recommend a local travel company. If in those cities you can probably walk to them - use Google Maps - so you may be bale to do it on your own. Arrival times at ports on river cruises can not be precise; so much depends on the day on time spent negotiating locks, other river traffic, water levels and so on. As you'll have read on my trip report, we arrived later than planned at Vienne and the included excursion was not possible. So you don't want to tie yourself down to pick-up and drop-off times in advance unless the boat over-nights at a place and remains there the following day. You don't mention what direction you'll be travelling; if you're going Lyon to Avignon direction times will be different from those I had. Also the report I gave was for a 2023 cruise: timings, ports of call and excursions may be different in 2024. I recall included visits to really impressive libraries at Coimbra University (Portugal) one the Lisbon - Porto Douro cruise, and Melk Abbey (Austria) on the Grand European Tour. You can visit Heidelberg University (Germany) on Rhine cruises that have excursions to Heidelberg. Enjoy the cruise, and the wine.....

Scenic have metal bottle in their cabins which you can fill with water. I don't know if they become yours to take when the cruise is over or whether you're supposed to leave them. Viking give out commercial sealed disposable plastic water bottles for excursions. There's sealed glass bottles in the room filled with drinking water which are replaced. There is a fridge in cabins in which you can keep drinks cool, and an ice-machine in corridors. Also an ice bucket in the cabins. We've never taken water on excursions.

Just returned from our cruise. We were intending spending our OBC on wines excluded from the package We especially wanted the classed growth Chateau d'Armailhacq but were told they didn't have any left, so we bought two £100 cruise vouchers with our OBC, giving us £400 off a future cruise.

Viking were encouraging us to buy vouchers as at 4 April 2024. No mention of them being phased out.

I got back from Amsterdam yesterday after a Viking cruise to many of the same places you are going to. Weather - very cold vary strong winds an lots of rain, but clearing in the afternoon. Thursday afternoon in Amsterdam was pleasant - sunny and not cold. Are you actually mooring at Arnhem? Viking sent an update before our cruise substituting Nijmegen for Arnhem. They are quite close and the excursions to Arnhem went ahead, The mooring area at Arnhem is being developed.

There are multiple factors in why wine has higher abv (alcohol by volume) than before, without going into technical details here are the main reasons, but first: Alcohol is produced by the fermentation by yeast of sugar. The more sugar in the grape, the higher the potential alcohol. If fermentation is stopped before all the sugar is converted then the wine is sweet. A totally dry wine is made by converting all the sugar into alcohol. Without sugar to feed on, the yeast dies. The riper the grape, the more sugar it contains. So, today’s wines are more alcoholic because the grapes are picked riper and because the yeast used produces more alcohol from the same sugar than before. In the old days – say up to 50 years ago – grape farmers tested a sample of grapes to measure sugar levels, and then it was an easy calculation to determine what alcohol level their wine would have. As soon as they reached the minimum level they picked the grapes and made wine as to leave them longer was risky (mildew etc). But the grapes were not ripe and wines made from unripe grapes were tannic. Customers had to age them in the hope the tannins would fade faster than the fruit flavours. (To encourage using riper grapes Bordeaux gave ‘Bordeaux Superior’ appellation to wines which had a half-percent abv higher then the minimum 12% which was needed for basic ‘Bordeaux’ appellation. Today’s wines are higher because of what happens in the vineyard and winery. In the vineyard grapes are not picked until they are physiologically rape – their stalks and pips are brown. Techniques including removing leaves to let the sun shine on grapes are used. In the winery they use commercial dried yeasts. In the old days wines were fermented by natural yeasts found on grapes and in the air. These were less efficient at converting sugar to alcohol. Modern commercial yeasts produce more alcohol – this was a demand from wineries in northern climates which struggled in the old days at reaching acceptable abv levels. Lastly, climate change: higher temperatures make for riper grapes but climate change is not the main reason, without the other changes it would just mean harvest happened sooner. Not uncommon for California Zinfandel. Ridge 2021 Benito Dusi Zinfandel has 15.3% ABV* Yeast dies when there is no sugar left for it to feed on OR when the alcohol level gets too high for it. Natural yeasts died at lower alcohol levels, modern commercial yeasts can survive at higher levels. Ridge, my favourite Zinfandel producer, says on its labels when it has added water to lower abv levels. Adding water is illegal in the old world but it's not unknown for winery 'accidents' with water hoses when cleaning. * EU wine law forbids abv to be expressed as anything other than ending in decimal point zero or decimal point five, so @Host Jazzbeau wine would probably be sold in the EU as 15.0% abv

That's my recollection also Not always. Sometimes there's no alternative way to access part of the excursion, so the gentle walkers don't go there.

I think what it means is that Viking have privileged access to the place to the place being visited. All guests on the boat can go on the excursion - it's not restricted to a few privileged guests.

Viking is fine for solo travellers. There have been solos on all 13 Viking river cruises we've taken, and yes there's no problem joining others at mealtimes, the opposite in fact. We've met and chatted with some fascinating people - and some bores, but its free seating which means you don't sit with them again. As for light lunches, I've put photos of menus on the my trip reports* and you can see what's offered. You don't have to have a starter, main & sweet you can have just one, or two starters, or whatever. Breakfast is a buffet, just help yourself to what you want- fruit, yoghurt, bread rolls, sliced bread, loaves to slice, cold meats, nuts etc, or eggs cooked anyway by an egg chef, bacon etc *See Trip Report - Lyon & Provence - Viking Denning 15 - 21 August 2023 - River Cruising - Cruise Critic Community and Trip Report - Rhine and Mosel Discovery - Viking Hild 25 April - 1 May 2023 - River Cruising - Cruise Critic Community

A Keukenhof guide told me that they plant several bulbs under each other each with a different blooming time so they can guarantee a show all through the short time they are open. Also was told that they have undersoil heating. But we didn't go to Keukenhof - it was raining so heavily Mrs P decided she didn't want to wander around in pouring rain and the cold, so we stayed on boat*. In afternoon the rain had stopped, the sun came out and it was very pleasant so we walked to The Tulip Museum in Amsterdam. *This is the Mrs P who decided on this cruise in order to visit the Keukenhof Gardens.

I must tell you that 14% abv is not at all unusual, and 14.5% abv is common also. I can tell you the reasons why if you're interested. PS: Yorkshire pudding with lamb??

Viking have a crew member at the ship's exit handing out bottles of water to people going on excursions. That's on all cruises, even the one I got back from today where it was cold and most of the time it rained in the morning when excursions departed. I think you'll have enough to pack without adding a water flask but should you do so you can refill it from the bottled water in your cabin or the fountains next to coffee machines. But the bottles handed out when you leave the boat should suffice and you can ask for more than one should you feel the need.