Poulsbo Cruisers

It’s a great way for Viking to help finance all those new ships. They are borrowing from the cruisers interest free. 🤔🤔 Pretty smart since all of us cruising on Viking allow them to do so.

We did a river cruise with Vantage from Budapest to Amsterdam. It was wonderful. Next month we are doing a Rhine River cruise from Amsterdam to Basel with Avalon. Many love Viking and they may offer a great experience. Be prepared for their payment up front policy. We also found that many of their itineraries included less time on the boat and more time in hotels. (I’m not anti-Viking. After all, we have an ocean cruise booked with them.) As others have said, pick your itinerary then see which lines do that itinerary. It’s important to see which cities/towns they visit and for how long. Also how many daylight hours are spent cruising (important if you want to watch the scenery pass by). River boats all have a maximum length determined by the shortest locks you will pass through and a maximum height determined by the lowest bridges you will travel under. Therefore, passenger capacity will be based on the size of the cabins and how many cabins to common space on the boat. The experience will be quite different from an ocean cruise. You won’t find all day buffets and very little entertainment. You will get free Wifi and excursions with most lines.

Will the Viking forum still be allowed on “Cruise” Critic? 🤔🤔

We will be doing our first Viking voyage in September. We stop in Porto from 8am to 6pm. There is an included walking tour that lasts several hours. My question deals with this port as well as others. If we do the included tour are we obligated to stay with the group until it returns to the ship? Or may we leave the group at the end of the walk and make our way back to the ship on our own? It would seem like a waste to spend so little time in the city.

On another site, it was posted that in Australia Viking requires a $500 deposit with balance due 100 days before the cruise while in the UK a 25% deposit is required with balance due 10 weeks prior to the cruise. If this is true I wonder why Americans are treated differently.

We are taking our first Viking Ocean cruise in September. We are looking forward to it. No, I don’t like Viking’s early payment policy, but we were well aware of it when we booked. I wouldn’t rate them of lower quality because of it. This early payment policy may keep us from sailing Viking in the future, only time will tell. We did take advantage of the echeck discount and would hope that other cruise lines begin offering this same perk. Regardless of what sales are occurring with other cruise lines, they have to pay a fee when we use a credit card. I’d love it if they would offer a further discount for cash.

We are booked on an Avalon cruise from Amsterdam next month. They require proof of vaccination, but not a negative test.

I believe the policy of every cruise line is to quarantine passengers who test positive. I don’t see that changing.

https://www.vikingrivercruises.com/why-viking/health-and-safety/health-and-safety-program.html?_ga=2.254377419.259112913.1654881556-290090106.1654881556&_gl=1*10rty20*_ga*MjkwMDkwMTA2LjE2NTQ4ODE1NTY.*_ga_24KNYDH1S6*MTY1NDk3NTUxMi4zLjEuMTY1NDk3NTUzNy4w A pre cruise test is no longer required either.

Another FB poster just posted this: “Just boarded the Mars in Bergen! They asked for our preboard Covid test and then we were told we are no longer spitting and masks are optional. About 95% maskless….it’s nice to not have to spit!”

This was posted on Facebook. A letter given to passengers on the Sea last night

Saw this posted on Facebook. A letter given to passengers on the Sea yesterday

We are taking our first Viking Ocean cruise in September. The daily testing has been a well known fact with Viking ever since they resumed sailing. How did you not know this when you booked your cruise? I feel it is unnecessary and an inconvenience, but we knew it upfront and accepted it has part of our cruise.