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My cousin and I are taking advantage of the no single supplement and $1000 discount for an Enchanting Danube cruise in April. Not quite as good as my deal on Viva last year but I felt it was reasonably priced.

ITA Flight Matrix, now owned by Google, is not a booking engine. It allows you to construct an itinerary that you can take to a travel agent to book because it will show you all the fare codes. Unfortunately, it also doesn’t seem to keep up with inventory. As for why you can’t match the cruise line or Expedia’s price with the airline directly is that they may have access to specific discount fares that the airline does not show on their website.

I like the Kempinski Corvinus in Budapest. It’s right along the pedestrian shopping street.

I took my first one last year at 55. I was the only non-German speaker on the boat and among the youngest and had a fantastic time. In fact, I’m redoing part of the route with a cousin in April and she’s looking forward to it as much as I am. Fortunately, I don’t need the club or casino that you find on an ocean cruise but enjoyed the relaxation of it much more than I ever thought I would.

For my cruise, the suggested minimum upgrade prices are $150 to Deluxe Balcony, $750 to Suite, and $1,700 to Grand Suite. As a Single, double my cost ($300/$1,500/$3,400). Uniworld has a no single supplement special going on now. The difference between the levels are $500/$2,300/$5,000. I may wait until a little closer to see how the cabins book out.

Mine starts April 9.

Thanks. I’m already in a French Balcony and was curious. I had a suite on a different cruise line last year and loved it.

Has anyone had any experience with Uniworld’s upgrade program? I’ve booked a trip and received the opportunity to upgrade but wonder if anyone has done it and their experience. The offers are typical for what I’ve seen with NCL where the upgrades are a full cabin price whether single or double occupancy.

I can tell you that there are lots of places to watch the scenery go by on Decks 6 & 8. At the front of Deck 6, the windows are higher but from the Excursion Desk/Shop back through the restaurant, they’re full windows. About the aurora borealis, it is gray to the naked eye. You get the green when you have a long exposure with your camera. Test it out at home so that you know what to do when you’re there. Biggest issue I had there was trying too keep steady, even for 3 seconds, with the cold wind blowing.

I did this last month with my mother on Havila. Had a fabulous time and we got a ridiculous deal. It was definitely interesting to be on a working boat but the excursions we took met our needs. A cousin hit me up just after I booked the Havila trip, a cousin hit me up about a Viking river cruise. I may suggest another line that’s cheaper as I had a fantastic time on my Viva cruises trip last year.

You walk through the cafe to get to the restaurant. If it is after your seating time, plus fifteen minutes or so, they won’t seat you. They alternate sides of the restaurant for each seating. They did have oatmeal/porridge and that did rotate every three days. The cafe doesn’t open until 8.

They did have the 30 drink non-alcoholic package. I don’t think either one of us reported the shower issue once we figured out how to resolve it. I didn’t hear anyone else complain.

I was originally booked on Polaris for the January 9 departure. On December 20, I got the cancellation notice and immediately rebooked for the January 7 Castor departure. Havila booked us in the same rooms at the same rate. Only difference in our booking was that they upgraded our 30 alcohol drinks package to the 50 for free because they don’t offer it any more. They also paid for our flight changes. I’ve been home for a week and off the cruise for 10 days. Had a great time with my mother. We fortunately had separate cabins. The cabins were good with our only issue being the shower temperature control. It was very difficult for us to get a consistent temperature and we both came very close to scalding ourselves. As for meals, the food was very tasty though we both found breakfast and lunch to be quite repetitive even with Havila Gold. My mother doesn’t like creamy scrambled eggs so the menu was limited and even I, who is used to it, got bored of the breakfasts. There was almost not fruit on offer besides juices which neither one of us drink. Lunch was even more repetitive especially since my mother eats no fish or shellfish. Fortunately, Havly Cafe is available at no cost and they had good food. It’s not exactly well known that you can eat there instead of the restaurant but we found out because I asked about lunch options since we were going to miss our scheduled seating at our first port due to an excursion. Dinner was much better as there are two dishes always available in all portions of the menu with four others that rotate (two for dessert) every three days. Hildring was also great at accommodating my mother’s dietary restrictions. One other thing to note is that you have to select a series of dining times. Ours were 7:00/11:30/18:00 which were the first seatings. There were five available a half hour apart. You can’t pick and choose. There were lots of places to sit on the boat and it never felt crowded. There’s no entertainment so bring your own. I was actually working half days and found the Wi-Fi to be quite good. Excursions were good but a bit pricy. We only had one cancelled so we walked through Kirkenes on our own instead. Saw some Northern Lights but not much. There were more than a few passengers from our cancelled cruise on the one we took. Total was about 150. It was much quieter southbound than northbound.

I booked mine online with Havila in November. Got back from my trip a week ago and had a fantastic time.

Havila has now cancelled all cruises on Polaris through the end of January 2023. Here’s the letter I received. Dear Guest, On behalf of Havila Voyages, we regret to inform you that due to circumstances beyond our control (see press release) we must cancel the sailings of Havila Polaris for the departures from Bergen: 29.12.22, 09.01.2023, 20.01.2023, 31.01.2023. This includes all ports on the stretches Bergen – Kirkenes – Bergen. We therefore offer the following options: Rebooking: We hope that you still want to travel with Havila Voyages, and we would like to give you the opportunity to rebook the original cabin grade at the same price as paid for the original planned sailing. We suggest the following sailings with departure date from Bergen: 07.01.2023, 12.01.2023, 18.01.2023, 23.01.2023, 29.01.2023. OR on an optional sailing with Havila Capella or Havila Castor departing in 2023 between 7th of January to 30th of April. Rebooking’s is based on availability in your cabin grade. If you have booked our half or full voyage you will also receive the benefits from our anniversary campaign offer* which includes: 5000 NOK on board credit per cabin for a round voyage / 2500 NOK on board credit for solo travelers 2500 NOK on board credit per cabin for a voyage north or voyage south *If your booking already had this included, it will follow the rebooking. If the journey is rebooked, Havila Voyages will cover change fees for flight tickets within reasonable limits. This must be documented and approved in advance by Havila Voyages. Refund: If you choose not to rebook now and get your refund, we will offer you an onboard credit for a future voyage. We will offer you an on-board credit of NOK 5000 per cabin for a full voyage and NOK 2500 for a half voyage. Please contact our customer service team once you have made a new booking with us, and they will make sure the on-board credit is on your account for your voyage with us. We are truly sorry for the inconvenience and hope that you will accept the benefits of a rebooking and to experience the world's most beautiful coastal voyage with us! Our customer service center will contact you regarding your trip. We will prioritize bookings by sail date. You can contact us by replying to this e-mail or by phone. Please see our contact page for opening hours: https://www.havilavoyages.com/about-havila/contact-us You can read more about the situation in our press release. Best regards Havila Voyages Havila Kystruten AS P.O.Box 215, N-6099 Fosnavåg Phone: + 47 70 00 70 70

This is the response I got from Havila this morning. “Thank you for contacting us. As of now we have not cancelled any departures with Havila Polaris as we are waiting and hoping the ship will arrive in time for its first scheduled sailing the 29th of december. We have however sent out information to customer that has a departure the 29th. Regarding the departure 09.01, we have no "news", but as soon as we have any updated information/ other information we will contact effected customers directly.”

Fortunately, we’re flying in on the 7th to Oslo and can make a connection to Bergen to make the departure that evening. I’m hoping I can convince Havila to allow us to do this at the same rate if they cancel our cruise.

So, I had thought that I might be on the maiden voyage on Polaris but looked again to see that there was a December sailing. That December sailing is now gone. I’ve got a message into Havila to see if my cruise is going to go (they’re still selling it) and what the options are if they’re not.

When I booked last month, they were offering onboard credit along with a solo cabin discount. I only see the solo cabin discount this month.

I’m headed out on what I believe is her maiden paid voyage on January 9 doing the full tour with my mother. We’re in our own cabins as I couldn’t pass up the solo cabin deal they have going on.

I’m booked on the Havila Polaris with my mother for the cruise departing January 9. Very much looking forward to it.

Disembarked this morning. Not much more to add. Hit up both Vienna and Krems. Traffic in Vienna near the piers was horrible. Overall, I’m happy I took the cruise. It was well worth the price I paid especially since I got my cabin for a steal. Single in a balcony suite cabin for €3795. Not a price you can beat. The staff were fantastic and very attentive without being overly so. They pretty much knew my preferences quickly. Would I recommend Viva to others? Well, that depends. I had at least some knowledge of German so it wasn’t too bad. The cruise director did tell me the previous cruise was more non-German than German. However, I don’t think I’d tell anyone that has no German speaking abilities to take Viva. It can be a little isolating as I only had a few people talk to me during the entire trip. Being an introvert, that didn’t bother me at all. I also have a pretty wide palate so food was never an issue. The fact that Viva’s excursions are not included also made me feel like I got good value as I only took one and it was mostly for the transportation.

Got off the MS Thomas Hardy this morning in Passau. Over the entire 11 days of the cruise, we had very little rain but also only one water level issue. We had to approach Esztergom slowly. When getting back on the ship, I did notice that the water was much lower at the dock than I expected.

Well, our arrival into Esztergom is delayed because we need to slow down due to low water on the river.

It’s been great from a service standpoint. Almost everyone knows my preferences not only because there aren’t a lot of people on board but I stick out like a sore thumb. The ship has never felt anywhere close to crowded and I’ve been able to do whatever I want whenever I want.