darlu

Thanks Sue.  Will definitely check it out!  Do you still recommend a Christmas market cruise if we are not “into” Christmas.  Thanks again Sue!

Hi All:

Would like your help.  We are going to book our first AMA river cruise (7 nights) in Europe for sometime in November or December of 2020.  Our previous river cruise was Viking in Bordeaux.  We are in our early 50s.  Which AMA Europe 7 night cruise for that time of year do you recommend and why?  Please do not include Bordeaux or Douro or one on the Magna.  Thanks for any feedback in advance.  Darin and Lucie

This forum has been so incredibly helpful in planning our first Azamara cruise (starting this Saturday out of Barcelona) - thanks.  We land in Barcelona at 7:45am and were going to drop off our luggage at the ship early in the morning - we assumed this would be fine.  Just spoke with Azamara to check this out and were told no - the luggage needs to stay with you until you board.  Can anyone share their past experiences as I still assume this will be ok even though I was just told it is not ok?  Thanks for your input.

Has anyone tried this Azamara shore excursion out of Livorno before?  We will likely explore Florence that day and get tickets to see the David, but this seems like a nice less busy and touristy option for the beginning of August!

Thanks for your valuable input we will take a taxi first thing, drop our bags, and walk to Las Ramblas!

Coming into Barcelona for our first Azamara cruise on July 27.  We land at 7:45 in the morning.  We figure we would go to the port to drop off our bags.  First question:  should we just take a cab to the port for about 39 euros (and maybe 3 more to get to the ship at the pier, or just pay $30 each for Azamara transfers, or take a shared mini van from the airport?  We’ve got a noon time to board the ship so we hope they will just take our bags.  Last question:  what would you do with your morning in Barcelona?  We figure we will just walk around Las Ramblas (without the bags) and grab a bite and explore and then return at some point to board the Pursuit.  Obviously we’ve never been to Barcelona and welcome any pointers.

I've ready many, many posts, but haven't yet seen an answer to my question - if your food choices are somewhat limited, such as no seafood (not an allergy), then can you attend Chef's table and request that a seafood course be substituted with something else (ie., another protein)?  Or is it best to pass on the Chef's table experience?

Enjoyed your post and pictures.   We are going on a very similar itinerary this coming July 27 called gems of the Mediterranean and I are really looking forward to it having just reviewed your trip report. Thanks!  Darin and Lucie

After you get upgraded is there a way to seek a new upgrade?

Adventurer status

Bid on May 28 for 7 night July 27 trip on the Pursuit.  We were ocean view and bid for club veranda.  Minimum was $200pp and I think max was $500?  We bid $240pp for a weak bid and was successful today with 48 days to go.

So we’ve done many other cruises and trips but just a single Viking river previously (Bordeaux) which sold us on this first Viking Ocean.  Crete today.  Honestly we would skip the included tour in the future because the museum tour was not our speed.  Our first meet and mingle was great tonight.  24 signed up but I would say only about 8 or so showed.  So enjoyed hanging with the captain and his wife and the cruise director and the other forum members.  Enjoyed some post dinner time with other cruise critic friends.  Just switched out of included tour for Olympia into another tour tomorrow.  This brand new ship is quite beautiful and the staff is quite anxious to please.

On the ship now.  Was completely unaware of this as it happened before we arrived yesterday.  Haven’t heard a word about it and see no reason to spread it.  Everything has been quite splendid and the ship is beautiful.  Meet and mingle is at 6pm tomorrow in the Wintergarden!

We will have a day before and the day after our cruise to spend in Bordeaux. Does anyone have suggestions on where to eat do tastings etc. We are really interested if anyone is familiar with the excursions we will take on this cruise so they can recommend other excursions to do when not on the cruise? We would love to take a day or half day excursion but don’t want to do the same exact vineyards that Viking will take us to on our cruise . Anyone going on this cruise that we can meet up with? Really looking forward to our first river cruise experience. Darin and Lucie