K9pal

My advice is to avoid CDG (Paris) if at all possible.  Very large, very confusing, English not widely spoken.  One hour is definitely not enough.  But if you do have to go through CDG, be as familiar with it as possible before arriving.  Know your arriving and departing gates, and where they are located.  There's a good website called 'Easy CDG' with a lot of good advice on navigating the airport.  Good luck!

Viking river and Viking ocean are apples and oranges, IMO.  LOVED both, but for different reasons.  I am social and love to meet others, and the river cruises seem more geared towards that simply because of the smaller number of people, and the dining together at the same time.  But I also enjoyed having a choice of dining venue.  And I thought the food was better on the ocean cruise.  I hate lines, so it's nice on the river to be able to walk on and off the boat.  On and off the ship (ocean) requires security checks, which are a real drag.  That being said, the only other line we ever encountered was the line for gelato every day on the World Cafe 🙂 .  I like the compactness of the river boats.  I love the free spa facilities on the ship.  But I love the Viking experience overall, no matter whether it's river or ocean!

19 hours ago, miami mama said:

The cruise looks to be the one K9Pal took (Med Odyssey) and during just about the same time. Sounds like it will be just fine. What kind of excursions did you take? The cruise heads in the Barcelona to Venice direction. We've been to Barcelona and the cities in Italy and know what we would like to do in those cities. However, Monte Carlo, Marseille, Corfu, and the two cities in Croatia are new to us. If you enjoyed any particular excursions either from Viking or privately we would be most interested. Thanks. 

We took the cruise because Italy was on our bucket list.  Marseille - I'd skip it if I had to do over.  We just weren't all that impressed with what we saw, and we didn't have a great guide.   However, we were quite impressed with Monte Carlo.  Corfu and Croatia weren't even on our radar, but they were all stunningly beautiful!  We just did the included tours, but we are booked on another Med cruise in 2021 that also includes Dubrovnik and Split, and we are anxious to visit again and do something different.  Would have loved to walk the walls in Dubrovnik, but we were tired and it was about $30usd each - money we didn't want to spend to ruin our knees for the rest of the cruise 😉.   We talked to some others who did the Krka waterfall excursion and said it was gorgeous.

5 hours ago, lackcreativity said:

I am also considering an eastern Mediterranean  cruise with a start date of March 25. I love the idea of smaller crowds, I understand about the uncertainty of the weather, but I have another question. Here in the Mid-Atlantic region of the US, at that time things still look so dreary. Still no leaves on the trees, no flowers, grass isn't really green yet, and we are just starting with the barest hints of spring. Are the countries around the Mediterranean usually a little ahead of us in that regard? I don't want to sound too demanding, but I'm just wondering.

We saw gorgeous blue skies almost every day, lots of green everywhere.  And of course, palm trees!  

We just returned from the Med Odyssey, 3/14-3/26, Barcelona to Venice.  Weather was just beautiful, gorgeous blue skies and in the upper 50's to mid/high 60's.  We did have gusty winds on the night we sailed out of Barcelona, which made things a bit rough during the night.  There was a storm another night, and some high winds for a couple of hours.  Otherwise very smooth sailing.  I would highly recommend going during this time as the tourist season is just starting, so the crowds are much lower.  Rome was still quite crowded, but school was out for a holiday on the day we were there.

2 minutes ago, Luv2cruz1000 said:

You didn't mention the Vatican, any of the Italy tours we hear of spend a lot of time at the Vatican. How long were you there?

 

The Vatican would have been included, but it was closed on the day we were there.  So they substituted other sites instead.

Just returned from our Mediterranean Odyssey on the Viking Star, have to say our tour of Rome with Italy Tours was one of the highlights of our cruise!  We had 8 people in our group (one full van).  The driver picked us up at the port at the specified time in a Mercedes van and we were off to the Colossuem.  There we were met by a fantastic local guide who gave us an in depth tour of the Colosseum and surrounding sites.  She had a large notebook full of illustrations that helped give us an idea of life in ancient Rome.  Afterwards we were met once again by the driver, who took us to several other points of interest around the city in addition to a bit of free time.  It was a fascinating and full day, and we got more than our money's worth in my opinion.  I'm so glad we decided to do this instead of the shore excursion offered by the cruise line, and would not hesitate to book them again.  Plus when we got home, I had a 'thank you' email with a request for feedback.  Great company!

On 3/17/2019 at 10:11 PM, Travel To Be Free said:

Does anyone know if they do tours of Cinque Terre from La Spezia?

Email them - they are very responsive.

Zitsky, several of our MO optional excursions sold out quickly - Evening gondola ride (Venice), Historic Religious sites (Marseilles), and Krka National Park.  If any of those are 'must do's' for you, I'd consider setting your alarm to get up and be ready to book when your booking window opens.  

5 hours ago, zitsky said:

I don't recall having to ask for a top sheet on river.

 

I am in Raleigh, NC.

On our November river cruise, we had only the duvet - no top sheet.  Never saw our steward (actually, stewardS, as we were on 3 different boats due to swapping).

All the different experiences mentioned are interesting.  We were on our second river cruise in November, received an invitation in our cabin for the Explorer gathering.  It was very nice - open bar, appetizers, intro to the staff and captain, thank you speeches, and a shot of Aquavit for toasting.  Got back to the room and had 2 logo shot glasses as a gift!  Also got to select a free gift from a mailing shortly before we left.

I just looked at our shore excursion details, and there is no mention of a tasting.  However, I can't imagine that you would go to a winery and not get a tasting.  And it does indicate this tour includes a 'snack' 

6 hours ago, zitsky said:

Thank you for that detailed review.  We might do a private tour to get off the bus.

Dauntless gave you the same info on the ItalyTours that I have.  On the day we are there the Vatican is closed, so we have been told they will fill the extra time in however we want.  They will meet us at the ship with an 8 person tour van.  The cost is $99 euros plus the Colosseum tour which is an add'l $24 Euros (skip the line tickets).  The ship tour for the full day is $199 USD, so we are still saving $$, and have a much smaller group (no more than 16 people per guide).  We can cancel with a full refund right up to 24 hrs in advance I believe, and they are VERY responsive to all questions.  While I haven't been on any tours with them yet, I can say that so far I am very impressed.  They also get high ratings on Tripadvisor.

Yes, the ship actually docks in Civitavecchia, not Rome.  According to our shore excursion offerings for our March cruise, the HIghlights of Rome tour leaves at 7:45am and returns at 6:15pm.  Only one time is offered.  We are choosing to do the Rome tour with ItalyTours instead.  It also leaves at 7:45am and is an 8 hour tour, but a smaller group, more sights included and less $$.  Is that the tour group you were looking at?  They also offer private tours at a higher cost, but we are doing one with others from the ship (8).

We are thinking of ordering this hanging organizer for our upcoming cruise, due to lack of drawer space.  Anyone think it would be worth it?

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001QMPK1K/ref=ox_sc_saved_title_1?smid=A2RH9U3QZZ2Q1Y&psc=1

We have only been on Viking River (VO coming up in March!), but we've noticed a great mix of ages and interests.  On our November VRC cruise we had young (20's), old (fellow celebrating his 90th birthday), gay, several races and nationalities.  All had a great time and felt accepted, and made for a great cruise with many interesting people.

1 hour ago, philw1776 said:

Just to clarify,  VO onboard currency is dollars while VR uses euros, for example bar drinks.  BOTH VO & VR within the euro zone will make change from large euro bills into smaller bills & coins if they have them.  They won't change currency between dollars, euros or whatever.
 

Thanks for the clarification, philw1776!  I just assumed VO used Euro currency onboard, since VR did.  In that case I see no advantage to prepaying,  unless it's just for convenience.

4 minutes ago, SM77 said:

On our Baltic Viking Ocean cruise the gratuities were done in dollars.  I don't see any advantage to pre-paying gratuities.    

If done is USD on board, there isn't any advantage in my opinion.  On the river cruises, they were done in Euros.  Thanks!

I noticed that on My Viking Journey, we have the option to prepay gratuities before our upcoming cruise.  I'm assuming Viking Ocean uses the Euro currency on board, like Viking River.  Is that correct?  If so, it makes sense financially to prepay.  Just wondering what others have done, or what the thoughts are regarding prepaying gratuities.

6 hours ago, Dauntless said:

I have been on this cruise in a V cabin.  I did not get up early as in dark thirty but I did get to it in the morning.  If you have paid excursions you are interested in, go to those first and pay for them after you make the reservations.  Then go back and see where you can fit the included excursions in.  Nothing is yours until it is paid for.  Being in your cart is not enough if someone else pays first.  Being in the last group, there are only about 40 cabins booking for the first time that day.  There won't be that onslaught like the DV group.  If you don't get the paid excursion you want, check back about once a week or about a month out, book an alternative.  I know you have looked into that.  If another paid excursion opens at a different time when you have an included, see if you can't switch the included to another time and book what you wanted.  I've done that.  It may all work out just fine.  Just know there are still options if you don't get everything you wanted at the time you want.  It might still work and then if not, check when you board the ship.  I wanted 2 excursions at the same port but there wasn't enough buffer time between the two  but upon speaking with the ship people we did work a way to make it work if everything else off the ship was on time.  None of us left the ship at designated time in the morning due to some issue with the port so that little window we had closed, but the ship did what they could. 

Thank you!  You've been a big help with answers to many of our questions so far 🙂

We are in a V for our upcoming cruise in March, and we can book at 60 days.  Is the DV also on 60 days?  Just wondering how much competition I'll have (and if I should set my alarm that morning when our booking window opens).

I got the survey also, and it seems we are all in agreement that $10K for 2 weeks is exorbitant!  My two main issues that I mentioned on the survey were that 2 weeks is too long, and $10K is too much.

On 11/11/2018 at 3:01 PM, K9pal said:

We were told that Viking would contact us with details concerning compensation.  Unfortunately, the program director had no further details other than we could expect some sort of compensation.  I'm sure it will be in the form of a discount on a future cruise 

UPDATE:  Just received notification that a voucher for $500/pp towards a future cruise is on the way.  Happy with that!

2 hours ago, G.M.T. said:

As far as I know all boats this summer (still continuing) between Passau and Vienna have gone round the bend and up the Wachau. Also many who have been bussed to Budapesta have had a dinner cruise to see the illuminations.

 

 

We were able to sail through the Wachau bend, however (due to the morning's bus ride) it was at night - so no one could see it.  Very disappointing.

5 hours ago, Jcat2010 said:

K9 pal,   did Viking offer any adjustment for the second swap?   Since bussing to Budapest misses a large part of the promised cruise itinerary ?

 

 

We were told that Viking would contact us with details concerning compensation.  Unfortunately, the program director had no further details other than we could expect some sort of compensation.  I'm sure it will be in the form of a discount on a future cruise