philw1776

Viking used to dock at Chalon-sur-Saone for their Southern France cruises. Instead for the last several years they dock in Lyon spending several days dockside stationary instead of river cruising. The cruise from Chalon-sur-Saone to Lyon was wonderful and docking there meant WAY less bus time than from Lyon to and fro from Beaune and the vineyards. I believe that other cruise lines, e.g. Uniworld do dock at Chalon-sur-Saone.  Admittedly it is an industrialized un-attractive port  but the single night there on boarding day with Beaune & vineyard tours the following morning minimizes time there and provides much quicker tour access plus a nice river cruise experience to Lyon.

Before Viking went on a jihad against families with children we did a 3 generations Viking river cruise Paris to Normandy.  My 14 & 16 year old granddaughters loved it as did families with similar aged offspring on our cruise and the one before us. "Kids" are now 18 & 21 and in college.

Excellent comparison. Traveled on both lines myself. I greatly prefer the open floor to ceiling windows and light look on Viking.  Food is indeed subjective and I don't need included cocktails although I did enjoy a martini several evenings on Uniworld. My Viking martini costs ~$9.  I love my refrigerator on Viking and their Veranda cabin.
I usually book Viking but would gladly book Uniworld again.

29 minutes ago, Peregrina651 said:

 

Once upon a time, the target seemed to be 120 days, about two weeks before booking opened for the owner's suite. Still, there was a lot of variation in when things actually occurred.

So true! 

Beware of purchasing a segment cruise in the mid/later weeks. Unknowingly, I picked a 2 weeks cruise in the middle of a 6 weeks segmented cruise and despite being in a PV could never get Manfredi's reservations, even while aboard. (8:30PM does not count as a viable seating to me). Several optional excursions were SOLD OUT when it came time to select.

Gonna have my TA research this for me from now on.

Sliversea
Ship holds ~600. Larger bathrooms, tub & shower. All inclusive with cocktails. Very good restaurants. Similar tours. 

The downsides:

Not as light and open as Viking. Charge $$ for 2 specialty restaurants. Require dinner jackets for men.

Elon Musk is POed he's not there.

No, I am not.

Affixing Viking Logos to our foreheads as I type. Flying today and taking no chances Viking misses us.

Reminds me of trips to backcountry Maine, "Nope. Can't get theyah from heah"

11 minutes ago, lackcreativity said:

I admit that I have never needed to use either the tellus@vikingcruises.com or the chat feature. From what I have read here over the years, I would suspect that the chat feature could work well for routine questions, but if something is complex or out of the ordinary, I would use the email. The email has the additional benefit of easily providing you with a record of the response if that is needed. Other with actual experience can correct me if they have better advice.

You get to keep a copy of your chat text

Chat as mentioned above has worked well for me.

On our Transatlantic from Bergen to Montreal In the Wake of the Vikings we did reach one Greenland port, Nanortalik. We took a Viking excursion on a RIB to tour the Icebergs around the outside of the harbor. One of the best ever.  "In search of Icebergs"

I travel to Greenland from Stratham several times per week.

              THIS ^^^^

TMI Follows...
I sweat like a lawn sprinkler so I need to carry several outfits and don't wish to spend expensive cruise time doing laundry. I do sometimes wash T shirts in the shower with me.

Awful news.

Prayers for him, his family and crew mates. Casts a pall.

Remember folks that your tip deducted at cruise end is also distributed to all these behind the scenes crew members you may never encounter, deck crew, engine crew, dishwashers, laundry room, etc.

You will identify your bags before they're loaded onto the bus. A brief window of opportunity for you.
You will also then take possession of your bags as they are offloaded from the bus at the airport. Another window,
I prefer simply to shove any nightclothes into the carry on in the morning in our cabin and avoid the stress of opening bags in the hectic rush of loading & unloading onto the bus.

1 hour ago, janetcbl said:

When you reach “a certain age”, the Viking insurance is the only one with a reasonable price. Now, for the cost of ones we have used in our younger years, we could pay for another trip! If anyone knows of a better one for the older generation, please let me know. Thanks!

THIS ^^^^
The other packages are much more expensive for old coots. Need insurance in case of accident or health emergency during trip.

Only on my recent "Into the Midnight Sun" cruise was I totally unable to get Chef's Table reservations onboard for ANY night (that were not at unacceptable to me 8:30PM seatings). I was in a PV.

That was not really a problem on this great cruise but now worried about fall cruise where when I went to book Manfreidi's, the 1st 5 nights were totally unavailable and subsequent nights were all @8:30PM or later. I hope that something significant has not changed. Again in a PV.

Bathrobe phenomena around the ship is new to me. Saw several on our June Into the Midnight Sun cruise. NOT talking about someone going to/from Spa but in the common areas like Living Room.

dmoser  "The Edinburgh included excursion was basically a minimally informative bus transfer into town... in heavy traffic, that dumps you off near the castle (which was sold out of tickets) for 45 min of on-your-own touristy shopping before returning.  No walking tour component, very little info about Edinburgh.  In Leknes (Lofoten), the included tour was totally different than (and way way worse than) the tour described pre-cruise on the My Viking Journey site, and described on-board on the Viking Voyager app.  One of the 3 stops on the tour was literally a highway rest stop where the only activity was using the toilets, for 30 minutes.  It was just to kill time."

Agree with both criticisms of these included tours. Good recommendation on the tram. Worse yet our Lofoten tour guide was one of the worst ever. Could not finish a thought. At tour's end, we were running late she decided to stop the bus, stand up and face us delivering a 15 minute monolog that was instantly forgettable.

Otherwise we enjoyed our 24 June cruise very much.

DANGER WILL ROBINSON!
Weird thing happened to me yesterday. Had used Viking Air Plus via my TA to book business class seat for September and change/select our VA assigned seats to one behind each other in single seat aisle by the window. Plane has 1-2-1 config. After months, I noticed yesterday that my seat was moved to across the aisle from wife. My TA called Viking and got it changed back in 2 hours.

Would have fixed it myself as I originally had moved my Viking Air assigned seat but for some strange reason Swiss Air claimed my password was bogus and when I try change password they claim my email is bogus. Am I on some Lufthansa/Swiss persona non grata list?

Just flew BA and did not have to pay to change & reserve a seat. World Traveler Plus.

52 minutes ago, formernuke said:

Thanks for the info! Yes, we've been to London before and love the waterfront attractions and views. Did you by any chance try their afternoon tea service?

No we did not. Cabbie told me it is not what it once was. Bet we would have still enjoyed it though.