LucilleMS

1 hour ago, meg1021 said:

I'm glad that Viking finally sorted out your air reservations.  Did you get your first choice of flights?  Did you get any explanation of why this matter was in Quality Control for such a long period of time?  Have a great cruise, and post your impressions, if you can.  As I mentioned, we are first time river cruisers, and first time Viking cruisers, so this would be of interest to me.

No explanation on the delay. Our flights are ok. We live in a small market (not a hub) so we knew we would have 2 stops flying to Basel.  Departure times and layover times are workable. Our assigned seats were not great (for us) -- the 2 of us were placed in a 3 person row instead of a the 2 person row across the aisle and on the overnight flight we were given 2 seats surrounded by bathrooms (expect a lot of congregating). But those were relatively easy to change. 

Update: we called Viking Air again this weekend and told the rep that we would like to finalize our air reservation if at all possible.  She took care of it over the phone. The itinerary posted to My Viking was incomplete (no seat assignments) but we were able to use the reservation number to access the booking on the carrier's website and finalize seat choices.  (Our TA emailed us the next day: "Your airline portion is booked!" 😂) I don't understand why it took this phone call, but if someone else is facing a similar issue -- I wanted to post our update here.

Thank you @greydog @bethellen71 @Roz @meg1021 for your feedback/suggestions.  I've called Viking Air and my travel agent has called Viking Air and we are still being told it is booked but the details will not be released until after quality control.  Very frustrating. I just keep refreshing MyViking. I appreciate the tips to act quickly (once received) if the itinerary is inconvenient.  

We are 55 days from our Rhine cruise, actually 53 days from departing flight (based on a day early arrival). We opted for air through Viking and have not received our flight itinerary yet.  Anyone have a similar experience? I've been told it has been with Quality Control for 13 days.

@pontac Thank you for all of your suggestions, tips, menus, photos, etc.  I keep coming back to the post to see what you have added.  Excellent resource. Cheers! 🍷

First time cruisers. I think we would enjoy exploring the cities on our own a bit, rather than packing each day with group excursions. (We look forward to meeting our fellow passengers, but also want some time on our own. And we prefer walking to motor coach/bus.) Are there particular stops that are better suited for this? In terms of access to a city center from the boat? Conversely, are there stops that we just need to bite the bullet and board the bus?