MZiegler

Thank you kfrodo & hallasm!  I was pretty sure that was the case.  🙂

Thank you flyer talker! It is my fault  for not clarifying that I only take a “nonstop” flight.  I do know the difference between the nonstop and direct flights;  (I am embarrassed I did not write my question properly) many many moons ago, when I was younger, I was a travel agent. (That is why I always also check the different ways to book flights for cheaper fares, your other recommendation 👏) I appreciate the clarification, and you are right about checking in on different airlines directly instead of booking with one. It is something that I do. I was just trying to find out if I did book on one ticket if I had to pick up my bags In Germany before going onto Newark.  I know if I book the tickets separately , Budapest to Germany, then Germany to Newark I will have to pick up my bags and check them in again. I am trying if possible to avoid this.   As I said before, LOL, I will drive to an airport that has a nonstop flight round trip instead of taking any connections. So therefore I have not connected from a European airport, through a European  airport to a final destination in The USA. Thank you again!  😁

This is a general question.  I usually make sure that all my flights are direct, however, I am scheduled for a River cruise in August 2021 (I hope 🙂 ) and there are no direct flights back from Budapest to Newark.  Can anyone tell me if I have to collect my luggage when I get to a Germany airport (Not sure which one will have the better flight), and then recheck it, or will the luggage be booked straight through to the USA-  This is will tell me how long of a layover I need.  I am most likely booking through United- but it looks like a Lufthansa flight, the whole ticket will book through United.  I am sure that there is a chance the whole flight will be operated by Lufthansa, or it could be Lufthansa to Germany and United to USA.  I hope I didn't confuse anyone :).    Thanks for the help!  I hope everyone stays safe and we all can travel again very soon! 

Oh, also, I am thinking of taking a KLM flight from Florence to Amsterdam, never flew them, does anyone have any opinions on this?  On time, service, etc.  Thanks again

There's nothing wrong with your research lol. I have done the same! If you could see my file that I am bringing- I just might need an additional suitcase just for that :). I also used the Rick Steves Cruise Ports book, earmarked all the pages.

Also, if you go to Viking's website and click on the Viking Sun, you will be able to see each port as it Docks, this will give you an idea of where the ship is docking at. Sun has a webcam. Next to the actual webcam picture you can also have the map pop up so you can see exactly where the the ship is, it helps tremendously. There are also archived footage to see previous trips. We leaving for the HL cruise July 28- Stockholm to Bergen, so you can follow the ship definitely then. I think Sun is doing a different itinerary in between now and our cruise. However, they did do the HL cruise throughout May, and I followed it back and forth. Enjoy your trip!

Thank you everyone for all your comments and reviews, they are extremely helpful and I can't wait to go. One last question, lol. Does Viking have pictures taken throughout the cruise and "portraits" such as the other cruise lines , eg Celebrity, Princess etc ?

Yes, just a few short blocks apart.

 

Another data point: our tour guide said that the Grand Hotel is where they put the Nobel Peace Prize winners. [emoji4] My sense is that the Grand is more, well, grand, and that the Bristol is more Agatha Christie.

Twitchly, thank you for the information. I do have to say that reading this gave me quite a laugh, as well as helped my decision. I think I may go with the Agatha Christie. I like more of the friendliness, down to earth vibe, relaxed. The Grand may be more formal....

With that being said, however, I did enjoy the long ago cruises that had formal night with the Captains dinner, I like to get dressed up and go to dinner at times, but it seems that lately there are less opportunities for it. I read that on the Viking cruise it was more "regular" dresses, no gowns or formal wear. Can you advise on the typical "packing" needed for the Homelands cruise. - What was the typical passenger wearing men and women, daytime and evening. My normal packing may be "over dressy". Also, does Viking have formal picture night as the other cruise lines do. As I mentioned, we are by no means new to cruising, but this is our first Viking. Thanks!

We were just at the Hotel Bristol a couple of days ago. We did the Bergen-to-Oslo extension and booked an extra night so we could see more of Oslo.

 

We loved the hotel, though we had one of those interior rooms that looks at a featureless courtyard. The lobby felt like a large gentleman’s library, complete with shelves of books. There were nooks and crannies throughout. Beds were comfy, room was quiet, staff was great. We didn’t see any construction going on, though I heard a drill a couple of times. Location is good. Breakfast was outstanding, dinner was good.

 

We also ate lunch at the Grand Hotel’s excellent outdoor cafe, and that location is fantastic. Right on the major street, mostly pedestrian. We didn’t go inside. If we stayed there, I would ask for an exterior-facing room.

Twitchly, Thank you! From looking at the map it seems both hotels are in a good location, only a few blocks apart? Glad to hear about the construction as a non issue. When I had contacted the hotel for the reservation back in November 2017, (They had shown sold out online, so I emailed them), they were the ones that told me they had renovations going on thru this summer 2018. They only had a standard room available and so I booked that one for now. But your comment about the Grand again makes me still second guess which hotel...... I'm going to have to pick one at some point, I appreciate everyone's input.

hello MZiegler ... we stayed at Thon Hotel Opera in Oslo last year and did the reverse (Oslo to Bergen by train, own arrangements). The hotel is right at the main train station, but is also well located for walking to the most popular tourist sites. We were happy with our hotel choice and suggest you might want to consider it as an option. To save dragging our bags all day (on 3 trains, a bus, and a boat) we used the porter transfer service - perfect. Luggage picked up at the hotel before we boarded the train, and was waiting for us in the room when we arrived in Bergen. We just carried a small shoulder bag for the day http://www.porterservice.no

Thank you for this information. I did look at Thon Hotel Opera, and was going to book that, however, I had decided that I wanted a more historic hotel, rather than new modern. I will look at the porter service, that is great info. Thanks

Hi MZiegler, we stayed at the Hotel Bristol in Oslo. It was booked through Viking. We did enjoy it. We were DV4 and had zero issues booking our excursions and dining. We got everything we wanted and times.

JiminyC-fan, thank you again. This is very helpful, we are in the same Category so I feel a little more at ease. Also, for the Hotel Bristol, were they doing renovations/construction at the time you were there, and if so did it interfere? I was told they have been doing construction for the past year and it is still ongoing, various parts of the hotel. I am looking for a "historic hotel" and are going between Bristol and the Grand.

We just returned from our cruise on the Viking Star. I asked so many questions so I thought that maybe I could start a thread that might be helpful to others.

 

First off, I was worried about our DV category being too small and not having enough storage. I was pleasantly surprised. We are over packers but still found plenty of room. I did ask that the coffee maker be removed for the extra storage. I have read that some would like to see the bathroom smaller for more storage but honestly I wouldn't. It, too, has lots of storage. The shower and heated floors are the best part. I thought the bed and nightstand right next to the closet that I had seen in pictures was going to make it tight but it isn't at all and that happened to be "my" side of the bed. Loved the USB ports at bedside. We did bring a converter from home that had 3 outlets and 4 USB ports. I found it on Amazon. We mainly used it and plugged it in at the desk.

 

Get familiarized with the TV and all the offerings it has. Take advantage of the port talks on the TV. Check your account. Find those hidden movies that I found on the last night. I saw the movies listings but didn't realize that there are many to choose from. Enough for men and women.

 

The included tours ended up being pretty good. I did hear some grumbling from other cruisers on our ship about how boring Stockholm included tour was so we decided to skip it.

 

Alla Tours in St Petersburg was definitely the best decision we made in tours. It worked out that there were only 3 couples. We were kicking ourselves for not booking them in the other ports as the Viking tours are somewhat large at around 26 people. I highly recommend anyone to consider using them.

 

We took the train to Berlin and then the Historic tour of Berlin with Viking. Enjoyed it very much. I did hear people saying that the included tour left them alone too many hours in Berlin so if you can't keep yourself entertained then you might want to consider a different tour.

 

One of our favorite stops was Eidfjord. We did it on our own. Someone here recommended stopping at the tourist office and pick up a map that shows two different walks. To that person I want to say THANK YOU. The yellow walk is more of a nature hike that they say takes 90 minutes. It took us 3 hours. We stopped along the way and soaked it all up. We took so many pictures. We loved not being on a bus. We loved doing something on our own, with no crowds. We loved the fresh air. It was an easy walk for the most part but it did have a steep climb in the middle. The blue walk is more of an in town walk which we did not take since it took us so long on the yellow walk, haha. There is very little shopping there. Viking suggests that you get up early and watch the sail in to Eidfjord. We got up at 5am and it was worth it to us. Few people did it so it was easy to sit inside or stand outside for the full view. It was very, very pretty. Sailing out they go fast so you don't really get the same affect.

 

Some of you know that we decided not to go through Viking to get to Pulpit Rock in Stavanger. We ended up using the company Norled instead of Rodne because of their better time. It was fantastic. We even had enough time to explore Stavanger afterwards. Both Norled and Rodne are easy to find right at the port. I was looking for some sort of a kiosk or something big with their names on it but all they had was a little table and an umbrella. Both are right next to each other. We had bad weather so we didn't get to see the top of Pulpit Rock but it was still worth it. We were fully prepared for rain so we stayed outside on their deck most of that cruise and the 360 view was worth it It costs considerably less than Viking's tour to Pulpit Rock. The only difference between Viking's tour and Norled's was that Viking stops at a beach for a waffle. We actually saw them on land getting their waffle in the rain.

 

We were disappointed in our post stay. When we first booked we thought we would have more time in Oslo. We did find out differently before we left so we were prepared but it still left us disappointed. It was a 7 hour train journey which was beautiful. Our guide that we had in Bergen for our first day of the post stay stayed with us on the train where we were handed over to a different guide at the train station in Oslo. We arrived around 3 or 3:30 and then had a bus tour around the City, visited the Viking Ship museum (which was fantastic) and Statue Park. We were to see a Ski jump area but the low clouds prohibited it so we went to Statue Park which everyone loved. We arrived at our hotel at 6pm. It left us pretty much no time to explore on our own. We ate dinner and then went back to the room to prepare for our flight home the following morning.

 

Viking was EXTREMELY organized on our pre and post stays. We were impressed.

 

All of the Viking staff were attentive and professional. All the tour guides were excellent.

 

Food.....very subjective but we found it excellent. We loved Chef's Table the most. Make sure to try and get in all menu rotations. At the end of the meal they encourage you to make a reservation for the next menu. It was easy to get a reservation. Manfredi's was good but way too much food for our liking. My advice is to check the interactive menu outside of the restaurants to see what is on the menu for that day and make your decision from there where to eat for lunch and dinner. We never called room service so I can't address it. If you like shrimp salad, go to the pool side restaurant and have their shrimp salad sandwich. I am already craving it.

 

Viking on all of their paperwork and on their website suggests to tip the drivers and guides on the tours. We saw very little tipping going on. It did make me sad.

 

I found the ship chilly in the common areas so ladies bring a sweater just in case.

 

Stop by the Explorers Desk every night after dinner and pick up a map of the port for the following day. It is not very detailed and got us frustrated often but at least we had something. Some ports have maps right by the ship or on the bus. Those maps are by far better than Viking's.

 

Just in case anyone is wondering, the guides do a great job of bathroom breaks. They always point out where they are and when the next break will be.

 

Viking offers a shuttle bus in most of the ports which was fantastic. My advice is to make sure you are getting on the RIGHT cruise line's shuttle bus even if there is a Viking representative standing right next to the bus. Otherwise you will find yourself at the wrong ship and need to take a 15.00 taxi ride to get to the right ship. Don't ask me how I know.

 

I'm sure I am leaving out a few things but I hope someone finds some of this helpful.

We are going on this cruise in July 2018, and we have booked our own post to Oslo. I was wondering for those of you whom stayed in Oslo, which Hotel did you stay in, did you like it? Was it on your own booking or through Viking.

Also, how was your experience about availability of the tours/dining when it was your turn to actually book, we too are in a DV category. We are by no means "new" cruisers, and long ago I was a travel agent whom specialized in cruises, however, we are new to Viking and their way of cruising.

Thank you in advance

I just visited the State Department’s Travel Advisory Page. There is a Level 3 Advisory “Reconsider Travel” re Russia due to both terrorism and harassment of US citizens by government officials. It’s a bit sobering to read.

I agree, and I am a bit concerned for our cruise July 2018....

All of you have given such wonderful information! We are going on this cruise in July 2018, and we have booked our own post to Oslo. I was wondering for those of you whom stayed in Oslo, which Hotel did you stay in, did you like it? Was it on your own booking or through Viking.

Also, how was your experience about availability of the tours/dining when it was your turn to actually book, we too are in a DV category. We are by no means "new" cruisers, and long ago I was a travel agent whom specialized in cruises, however, we are new to Viking and their way of cruising.

Thank you in advance