jrkstl

Does anyone know if Viking uses Delta or KLM?

 

 

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Yes. On all 4 of our Viking river cruises traveled so far, all have been a combination of Delta, Air France and KLM.

We've been fortunate with our flights that Viking has chosen for us, and haven't had the need to pay the extra $50 for Viking Air Plus. It also helps have a good TA that can work with Viking once the arrangements are made in order to get the flights ticketed, etc.

Jeff

Thank you for the link to the dailies. You already started a thread about them and I shared the link to it in the 2019 roll call. I have a list of older posts that I have been using the roll call to keep track of and will be sharing here soon.

Yeah, I originally posted them in the roll call section, but thought I'd put them here as well for those that didn't see them there :)

We are planning on arriving early in Marseille and at this point are deciding between staying in Marseille or staying in Avignon (and renting a car to see the surrounding area before we board the ship). You mentioned Chateauneuf du Pape as a highlight. Did you do the optional tour with Viking? How was it? Did you have enough time at the various stops? Can you tell us what you saw and what grabbed your attention as something you might like to explore in depth? Did you visit any of the wineries and if so which one? Anything else that should be on our list to look into as a possible stops on our driving tour of the area?

Thanks in advance for your answer and please stayed tuned over the next days and weeks for more questions.

Okay, I shall take a stab :)

If it were me, I'd probably stay in Marseille vs. Avignon. I felt the one day we had there was enough. Lovely town, but other than the Pope's Palace, there wasn't that much else to see and do. I would have loved more time in Arles as well. The day we were there was the annual bull fight thingy and the town was very crowded. It was absolutely lovely, and there was good shopping, sight-seeing, etc. Will probably go back to Arles next year so that we can see things better.

Yes, we did the Viking tour of Chanteauneuf du Pape, which took us for tasting at the Famile Perrin winery in CNdP. Nice experience, but didn't give us much time in the town. We were hoping to purchase some wine to have them ship home, but due to the limited time, we couldn't find a place with decent shipping prices to the US (the places we tried were like $250 per case just to ship - unlike when we were in Bordeaux and paid $75 per case) This would be a great place for a day visit, and I'd recommend that you research some of the places that offer tastings. Some of them require an appointment, and our friends just came back and found a place that shipped to them at a reasonable cost. Also, if you visit CNdP on your own, you can then go on the optional excursion to the Aqueduct. I really wanted to do that tour as well, but it was offered at the same time.

It's a little bit of a drive from Marseille, but I highly recommend the charming town of Antibes if you're looking for things to do in the area. We visited in 2013 and I fell completely in love.

Please continue to ask away!

Jeff

Greetings!

We sailed the Rhone this year with Viking in Late March, early April from Lyon to Avignon with the Paris pre-cruise stay.

It was a wonderful time, with the exception of both of us getting flu/fever while on the cruise. We survived, of course :)

I'd be happy to answer any questions!

For those curious, here is a link to our Viking Dailies:

Highlights:

Paris! Our second visit, and no regrets about doing this through Viking. Yes, we could have saved a couple bucks doing this on our own, but it was so very nice to not have to plan out any details - other than our free time. Loved every minute of it

Chateau des Flecheres optional excursion - Amazing!

Scenic Rhone cruising - this part of the cruise took place on one of the warmer days, so we were able to enjoy the sights from the upper deck. Not quite as thrilling as the Middle Rhine, but lovely nonetheless.

Steam Train in the Ardeche - way more scenic that I had imagined!

Night tour through Viviers - bring your cameras!

Alres, France and the Van Gogh sights

Chateauneuf du Pape and the surrounding countryside.

Jeff

Regarding the pre-flight interview when leaving Europe for the US - this must be a fairly recent policy. We first experienced this when leaving MXP (Milan, Italy) in 2017. It was strange to us and seemed a bit out of place as the interviewer was a Delta employee and the questions happened as we were in the queue for check in/baggage drop. Obviously we had nothing to worry about, but after passing the guards with machine guns, etc in the airport it was a bit strange. When flying home this year out of AMS (Amsterdam) Delta has a gate “D1” set up, which is a bank of desks that you go to for the interview. Once finished here they sticker your passport and give you your actual gate number.

We did not experience the interview when leaving Paris in 2016, or any trips prior.

Jeff

Thanks Jeff, we are going to take a tour there.. and a stop in Kolin. the Bone Church seems pretty interesting.. did you go to the silver mine too?

The silver mine was closed the day we were there.

Jeff

Did anyone take an excursion to Kutna Hora? Do you think it is worth giving up an afternoon in Prague to do this? We will be in Prague for a post excursion and have limited time there.

We did the excursion to Kutna Hora during our post cruise extension in 2015 and loved it. I had seen the Rick Steves episode about the bone church and did a bit of research on getting there on our own. Was very happy once in Prague to see this offered. This was just before the myvikingjourney.com page, so it was a nice surprise.

Kutna Hora is a very charming town that reminded me of a combination of Germany and Italy, and the bone church alone was worth the trip.

Jeff

I am very excited I just got my final papers and such in today. One thing that did surprise me was our Viking Pre Stay Paper luggage tags. These will be used to transfer our luggage from the hotel to the boat and we won't be present for that. The tags are just paper, flimsy and no stick to them. I am afraid they are going to fall off.

 

 

 

Does anyone have any recommendations how to secure them better? I see online that they sell these plastic sleeves to slip the cruise paper tags. However, can't seem to find one that says it fits Viking.

Do not worry. We’ve used these several times and they are stronger than you think!

Jeff

Jeff,

Are your friends Beth and David? If so we have met them and had dinner together.

you will like this cruise. The staff on the Osfrid are amazing and sooo funny.

Why yes, that would be them :)

Can't wait to hear all about it!

Jeff

Despite cool and rainy weather, we are enjoying our trip. The staff on Osfrid is bending over backwards to provide whatever they can.

Good friends of ours are currently on the Osfrid as well, and they seem to be having a fantastic time - weather be damned!

Really want to do this cruise soon :)

Jeff

I learned a very valuable lesson from these boards years ago. Many trip insurance providers allow you to simply insure your deposit and then give you until 14 days after your final payment to add the rest of the trip total. If you insure your deposit within 14 days of making it, you will (in most cases) qualify for the pre-existing waiver. We have now done this for years. We use InsureMyTrip for quotes. They are just agents for the insurance companies but they are all licensed and VERY knowledgeable. Their website is excellent and explains everything, but they are wonderful to talk with. BTW- I told our TA about this when we declined their insurance. He did some research and told me he can do the same thing through his insurance company. Another great benefit was that when I dealt with InsureMyTrip for a cruise in April of 2020, they told me that the rate for the entire trip cost would be the same rate as if I paid for the entire trip today and all I had to do was insure the deposit. That makes a difference as the rates are based on age and we will all be older in two years! [emoji16] Hope this helps some of you as it has helped us. We would have never known about this if we hadn’t read the CC Boards!

 

Yes!

When we booked our 2019 Viking cruise this past April, our TA simply insured our $1K deposit. The balance will be insured when we pay the balance, which we were able to get extended until Aug 31 of this year. Makes a big difference!

Jeff

Don't forget to check here:

https://www.vikingrivercruises.com/my-trip/current-sailings/index.html

Jeff

Hi River Cruisers!

 

My parents are doing their first river cruise next year and are trying to decide between these two Viking trips -

 

Romantic Danube - https://www.vikingrivercruises.com/cruise-destinations/europe/romantic-danube/2019-budapest-nuremberg/index.html

 

Danube Waltz - https://www.vikingrivercruises.com/cruise-destinations/europe/danube-waltz/2019-passau-budapest/index.html

 

All of the cities are new to both of them. Any thoughts?

 

Thanks!

Our first river cruise (or cruise of any kind) was Viking’s Romantic Danube. Needless to say if you look at my signature, we are kinda hooked ;p

Just wanted to add that I’d love to come back and do the Danube Waltz as I haven’t yet seen Bratislava or Cesky Krumlov, and wish to spend more time in Vienna, etc.

Your parents will be happy with either, I’m sure! We added the Prague extension on our Romantic Danube, and it was a major highlight of the trip. Maybe pre and post cruise extension options will help make the decision?

Jeff

I'm trying to book a private tour in Lyon for the first day that we arrive on the Delling. Can someone please tell me the time the ship gets in. I cannot locate any arrival times in my packet.

 

Thanks

Which direction of the cruise are you taking? Is it Avignon to Lyon? We just did this cruise on the Delling in the opposite direction.

Jeff

We are doing this cruise on Viking Hlin in late June--booked only in February in response to a 5-day promotion with free air. Viking's pre-cruise extension in Amsterdam was sold out, so we booked the post-cruise extension in Lucerne. We will arrive in Amsterdam around 8:45 a.m. on the day of departure. Apparently Viking is not offering a walking tour of Amsterdam on the day of embarkation, so we're on our own. My apologies if you answered this on another thread, but can you tell me when the ship usually departs Amsterdam? We have booked tickets for the Anne Frank House online for 2:45 p.m., hoping that this will give us enough time to freshen up, get a bite to eat, visit the house, do a little more sightseeing, and get back to the ship in time for departure.

Greetings.

Last year, the ship left Amsterdam at around 11:30 PM. Probably leaving around the same time this year as well. You should have plenty of time.

Enjoy!

Jeff

We're doing a pre-cruise to Prague. The price seemed outrageously expensive, especially since I looked up the cost of the hotel. However, if we did it on our own we would have had to add $100 pp air deviation and the price includes the transfer to the hotel, the trip from Prague to Nuremberg, a Prague tour and the Viking concierge. So, it wasn't as bad as I first thought.

Exactly.

Out of curiosity, I added up what the cost to us would have been on our Paris pre-cruise last month:

Three nights hotel at the Hyatt Regency Etoile with breakfast $1100.00 with tax

Private car transfer from CDG to Hyatt - I would guesstimate a minimum of $50

Panoramic Paris tour - maybe $50 each

Transfer to Gare de Lyon $30 ish?

First Class TGV tickets to Lyon approximately $100 each (marked $86 each before tax)

Trip deviation $100 each

Adding the above, it would be $1,680

Our cost was about $100 less! Of course, we could find much less-expensive accommodations, take the RER, etc. but again it was really nice to have to think of nothing :D

Jeff

If you use Viking for your air travel, don’t forget to factor in the $100.00 pp trip deviation fee. We have used Viking pre and post cruise, and while I know we could save a bit of money doing the trips on our own, it has always been *really* nice not having to worry about anything.

We wouldn’t hesitate to do it again :)

Jeff

Does anyone have a estimated time you get into Rusesheim?

 

 

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If you’re going from A-B, about 5-5:30 PM

Jeff

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I thought house wine was included with lunch & dinner. Is this charge because it was ordered other than at meals? Or am I mistaken? Thanks.

 

 

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They are included with meals. This was a charge for an extra glass later in the evening.

Jeff

This may not be what you’re after, but having just paid my Viking bar bill a couple weeks ago, a house red wine was € 4.50 and Maker’s Mark on the rocks was € 7.00 :D

Jeff

FYI, we’re just back from Viking’s “Lyon & Provence” cruise on the Rhône. The Manfredi’s option was offered on our cruise as well. We didn’t try it, however.

Jeff

Just thought that I’d add that we are back this week from Paris and Provence. Once again, we found both Parisians and non-Parisians to be warm and lovely people. Just remember one word - Bonjour, and you’ll be fine

Ready to go back!

Jeff

WOW! Was that $3300 per person? I’m willing to price shop and I don’t think I’ve ever paid over $1000 pp R/T from Washington DC to Europe. Last June GCT/OAT had a great last minute (3 weeks out) deal on a small ship (48 passengers) from Nice to Livorno. We found tickets on SAS to Nice and return on Turkish from Venice (private extension) for $900 pp total for both flights. I spent less than 10 minutes to come up with those; it pays to shop around.

 

I do agree that most of Viking price variance is through low cost Air.

No, that was $3300 for both of us :)

Jeff

Regarding Viking sales...

In our experience, they don’t change the cruise price that much (the 2 for 1 is always offered), but the price on Viking Air is where you can potentially save some money. For example, they had a sale last November on the Lyon & Provence cruise that we grabbed that was free airfare (maybe a large booking canceled?) for March-April dates. I checked with Delta and the flights would cost us about $3,300.00 if we booked on our own.

In the past, we’ve booked with $495 air, and last year we booked the Rhine Getaway for $100 RT.

Jeff

On our Rhine Getaway cruise with Viking last April, the ship docked in Koblenz and we traveled to Marksburg via coach from there. The optional Ehrenbreitstein excursion would have left from there, but was canceled since the cable car system was down. I gather that this is an optional offering for those that are concerned with being able to navigate Marksburg.

FYI, we reboarded the ship in Braubach after the Marksburg tour.

Jeff

TY! We are starting in WPB Florida, my TA thinks it will direct from Washington DC....

You might go through ATL as well. We leave this Saturday for Paris, and it’s Air France from ATL to CDG. Delta through Detroit on the way home (coming home from Marseille to Amsterdam, then Detroit)

Oh, and you’re welcome :)

Jeff