summerclouds

Husband and I will be on L'Austral at the end of May (From Malta to the Adriatic Coast) Though we booked it specifically for the itinerary, the cruise is themed as a Gastronomy & Wine cruise.  It is an 8 night cruise so our travel book tells us we will have 2 gala nights and 1 White night. 

Does the Grill Restaurant remain open for dinner on these nights or would Room Service be our only option if we decided to forgo one or more of these nights in the Gastronomic restaurant?

Thanks, as always, for any insights/advice.

If you are only interested in the medical and are willing to absorb the costs of the few non-refundable charges that you seem to have, then you might take a look at GeoBlue.  They are solely for travel health insurance and many of their policies include coverage for pre-existing conditions and do so for insurance purchases pretty close to the departure date.  I purchased GeoBlue coverage for trips when I was a few years younger and only wanted medical coverage.  I purchased through tripinsurancestore.com which many Cruise Critic members use.

jpalbny,  thanks for the reassurance we won't be tossed overboard for wearing jeans.  (I like to swim, but more at a time/place of my own choosing)  "Usefulness per unit of space" is an interesting metric.  I may consider replacing my "how often do I really think I will wear this" with it.

Having received very helpful answers to my earlier questions on various topics, I venture one more question about attire. 

DH and I are booked on the Malta to the Adriatric Coast cruise on L'QAustral (May 29 - June 6)  We booked very early because of the overall itinerary and the small ship size allowing the ship to end its cruise by sailing into and docking in the Venice lagoon. After our booking, the cruise was given a Gastronomy and Wine theme which we thought might provide some interesting lectures and activities.   We've now received our pre-cruise documents and notice in the travel book how very nicely dressed everyone looks in all the pictures, including walking on beaches and in various on-board photos. 

We definitely expect to dress "smart casual" in the evenings for dinner in the restaurants and the replies to Gentleman's Dress Code query have been helpful in that regard, especially for my husband.  However, the pictures in the travel book have given us pause about how to dress otherwise.  Will we be out of place if we wear blue jeans (no holes/ratty looking) to breakfast and lunch, to tea or events on ship during the day, and on primarily walking excursions?  

Thanks for any advice folks can share.

Will do!

Thanks, AussieBoyTX for your reply.  Most helpful.  

I have not written a cruise review before, having somewhat limited experience (two Holland America cruises) but I will give it a try when we return!

My husband and I will be on our 1^st Ponant cruise,  “From Malta to the Adriatric Coast starting May 29^th   As first timers we have a few questions regarding how excursions work on Ponant (our only previous cruising experience has been with Holland America (HAL))  We are English speakers and I understand Ponant provides an English version of the tour either with a separate group or with an English guide accompanying the combined language group.

Our 1^st port will be Syracuse, Sicily.  Our itinerary shows us as arriving “early morning” and departing “late afternoon”   I understand we will only be given times the evening before the port, though our Ponant consultant has indicated that it will probably be something like an 8:30 arrival and 5:30 departure (but emphasized that this could change)   

We are considering whether to book a Ponant excursion to the Archaeological Site & Ortygia which is listed as lasting 4 hours, but again with no actual time of day.  At the conclusion of the excursion, according to the Ponant description, we return to the port and ship.   Our questions are:

1.      Assuming the excursion ends a few hours before the announced on-board time, can we opt to not return to the ship, but continue to explore on our own, have coffee or eat lunch off-ship and find our own way back to the ship?

2.      This will be a tender port. 

         A. Does Ponant run the tenders continuously throughout the day?  Are they run on a specific schedule (for example, every half hour)?

        B. How far in advance of the on-board time would you advise we return to the tender pick-up point?

3. With the somewhat vague descriptions of arrival and departure times, how do folks handle booking 3^rd party local excursions outside of Ponant?  We would do this on HAL when there would be points of interest to us not covered by a HAL excursion.  Is this feasible with Ponant?

4. Are there things I should be aware of regarding Ponant excursions that I’m not thinking of? 

Sorry for so many questions and appreciative of any insight you can provide us Ponant newbies.

One other thing that may distinguish a cruiseline policy from a 3rd party is what you get if you have to cancel.  Some cruiseline policies will only reimburse you with vouchers/credits to use on a future cruise with them within some specified period of time whereas 3rd party insurers will reimburse you with cash.  

Thanks to everyone for their sharing of experiences. Very helpful.   We have decided to go with the B Level Veranda Stateroom.  Looking forward to our first river cruise!

DH and I are booking the Rhine Getaway cruise (Basel to Amsterdam) 

In looking at the Veranda Staterooms, we see that they are categorized as A (Upper Deck rooms) and B (Middle Deck rooms)   We have 2 questions about the A staterooms:

1.  Do the A (Upper Deck rooms) get noise from the Sun deck and other things on the top deck above the A rooms?

2.  What benefits do people see in being one floor higher than the B Verandah staterooms?

We have read the pros/cons of having a Verandah vs French Balcony vs the Standard rooms (all very helpful in us learning what to expect) and have decided that for us the Verandah is our choice, just not sure about the A vs B.

Thanks for helping first time river cruisers.

My husband and I have found our perfect itinerary,  “From Malta to the Adriatic Coast”  on Ponant.   As potential first-timers, I’ve tried to do some research and reading, so I think I understand some of what to expect as English speakers on Ponant, but wonder if English-language stations and movies are available on the tv system in the room?

Also, we are trying to get a handle on ship-board etiquette/culture.  We understand that at dinner we should plan on dressing up, but are blue jeans acceptable at breakfast and lunch and in the bars and around ship during the day?

At dinner in the Grill, would my husband be ok with dockers and a collared shirt, or would a jacket be needed?

What about dinner in the Gastronomic Restaurant?  

Thank you, (and thank you JazzBeau for the answer to my earlier question on our tentative room)

We currently have an option on the “From Malta to the Adriatic Coast” cruise (May 29, 2024 to June 6, 2024) sailing on L’Austral.    We have been assigned Prestige Stateroom 425 on Prestige deck 4.

This stateroom appears to meet all our usual requirements (mid-ship with cabins above and below and around us; and with no connecting doors)  This will be our first Ponant cruise.  We are prepared for the cabin to be a bit smaller than what we have had on other lines.  Is there anything  else, as a first timer, about this cabin that we should be aware of, especially regarding noise levels? 

Thank you, experienced Ponant cruisers, for any advice or reassurance.

18 hours ago, kickboxrca said:

I would definitely recommend doing the Yukon portion of the land tour.  We did 2 days in Dawson, and 2 days in Denali - a third day would have been nice for sure - we would have done some hikes on the other day.

 

The only negative that we discovered when we were at Denali and talking to other groups that were touring (and didn't do the Yukon) was that they never had to get up early every day ... we definitely covered a lot of ground, and hence the early days.

 

We had only the three days on the ship - so stopped in Juneau, a sea day, and off in Skagway.  I believe if we had done the land portion first, we would have gone to Glacier Bay.

Sounds as if you did the exact same CruiseTour version we did back in 2015.  We also did the cruise portion first. It is the only choice from our trip that I regret.  You are correct that doing the land portion first would have gotten us Glacier Bay.  Don't know if that difference still holds today, but I would definitely recommend to the original poster that going to Glacier Bay would make it worth doing the land portion first if that's what it takes.

We did Denali and Yukon on our cruise tour and were very happy with our choice.  Only caveat is to pick one that gives you two or three nights in Dawson City.  When we were in Dawson City on the two night version, I felt really sorry for those on the one night version who arrived in the afternoon of one day and left the next day.  Not enough time to enjoy the area for the amount of time it takes to get there.

Are all the beers bottled or are there any locations on ship with draft beer?

We are doing Basel to Amsterdam in September 2022.  We booked last October and paid the extra for Viking Air Plus.  If you do air with Viking, the Air Plus can let you request the booking of your flights much sooner than Viking will book if you don't do Air Plus.  This can let you choose your seat assignment much earlier, increasing the odds of getting the seats you want.  Air Plus also lets you have much more input into the flights you get.  We researched and presented our TA with 3 possible flights in order of preference and got our first choice.  

35 minutes ago, pontac said:

 

I don't see that listed on Viking Daily; did you mean 'Top of Colgone' an afternoon excursion to the top of Cologne Cathedral which was highly rated by those with a head for heights that went on it.

I believe The Top of Strasbourg excursion was added as an optional excursion for the Strasbourg port on the Rhine Getaway last week (at least that's when I noticed it show up in My Viking Journey.)   Though we booked our upcoming September Rhine Getaway cruise several months ago and selected excursions then, I try to check My Viking Journey once a week as additional excursions have become available in several ports since our initial booking.   The Top of Cologne wasn't initially available when we booked, but we added it when it popped into My Viking Journey a couple of months ago.  We're probably going to add the Top of Strasbourg as well.  

To Eguiney, we haven't yet done the Top of Cologne excursion, so unfortunately, I can't answer your question.  Our cruise is next September.

To TDL60 -- In addition to asking whether there have been cancellations for the Marksburg Castle excursion once you get on the ship, you should check your MyVikingJourney account at least once a week before your cruise.  If there have been cancellations, the excursion will once again show as being available and you should be able to book it then.   

You will also be able to see if any new excursions have been added that might be of interest.  The Top of Cologne excursion wasn't listed when we first booked our excursions, but it popped in a few weeks ago and we got it, much to my delight!

My husband and I are doing Viking’s Basel to Amsterdam Rhine cruise in September.  This will be our first Viking experience.  We are using Vikings air service.

We paid $50  extra per person for the Viking Air Plus/Custom Air which allows us input into our flights rather than having to accept what Viking would choose for us.  We were also able request that Viking make our airline reservations as soon as flights opened for reservations as opposed to waiting till when Viking would choose on its own to make the reservations.  This can give you an advantage in seat selection as Viking on its own seems to wait much closer to your travel date to book your reservations.

We researched flights and gave our travel agent a list of four flights in order of our preference.  She contacted Viking and we got our first choice flights.  We did not have to pay anything extra for these flights.

We are arriving 3 days early in Basel and staying 3 days after in Amsterdam on our own.   This required us to pay a “deviation” fee of $100 per person since we are “deviating” from flying on the embarkation/disembarkation days.  If you are deviating on only one end, you fee might be $50 per person; I’m not sure about that.   If you deviate on your own rather than doing a Viking pre or post extension, they do not provide transfers, so you would have to get to the ship on your own and to the airport or a hotel on your own at the other end.  We feel comfortable with that.

That’s our experience so far!

Thanks for the replies and information.  I think we'll be able to do this!

Hello, Everyone,

My husband and I are booked for Basel to Amsterdam with Viking for Sept. 11 – 18, 2022.  Done 2 ocean cruises with Holland America, but this is our 1^st river cruise and 1^st Viking experience.  We are really excited for this.

 We are planning to come into Basel a few days early using the Viking Air service (have paid for custom air and for deviation) and are debating  whether  to use Viking’s  pre-extension for Basel or do it ourselves.  We feel quite comfortable booking our own hotel, getting from airport to hotel, and exploring on our own.   We’ve been told by our travel agent that if we don’t do the Viking pre-extension, Viking won’t sell us stand-alone transfers.  This has me concerned in two areas:

1.        I understand that there are several possible embarkation docks in Basel and that sometimes the ship doesn’t learn its actual location until the day of embarkation.  How will we know where to go and how will we learn of any last minute changes if we are doing Basel on our own?

2.       Once we reach the embarkation dock, will Viking take our luggage from us and get it on the ship and to our cabin, or will we be responsible for getting it onboard since we don’t have their transfer service?  We are 71 and 75 and while pretty healthy overall, I have some not so pretty pictures in my mind of us having to haul our luggage up gangplanks or ladders and possibly  through several ships if we are rafted and our ship is not the 1st ship in the rafting. 

Thanks so much!

Summerclouds

DH and I are booking our first Southeast Asia cruise, the Far East Discovery Cruise for Jan. 2021.  We are trying to decide if one side of the ship is preferable to the other for viewing land while at sea.  For those who have cruised Southeast Asia, is land visible while at sea, or does the ship sail so far out that it doesn't matter which side one's cabin is on?  Thanks!

My husband and I climbed the Leaning Tower 2 years ago and the Acropolis last May.  We are in our 60s.  For us, the Acropolis was an easier climb in terms of the steps and you can rest along the way.  There are several "flights of stairs" with sloping pathways between.  In climbing the Tower I also had to stop and rest along the way.  I was concerned about the Acropolis climb, but the climb itself was easier than I anticipated.  What can make the Acropolis climb difficult is that you are outdoors in the sun as opposed to inside a tower sheltered from the sun and depending on the time of year, that can be a big factor.  There is also no shade within the Acropolis itself, so have water, sunscreen and hats.  Have shoes with good traction as the marble can be slippery.   Depending on time of year and time of day you go, the Acropolis may be much more crowded than the Leaning Tower as there is a limit to the number of people at each time slot at the Tower.  Having said all this, we found the Acropolis to be awe inspiring.

May should give you more daylight time since it is 1 month from the longest day in June while October is 4 months from the longest day.