barbara787

Thank you for the review. It had exactly the information I've been looking for on the tours and the Viking experience. I've dreamed of visiting the Netherlands since I was a child, and hope to go there next year after I retire. We are in our 50's and active, so your words of advice about the age and activity levels are a good caution. On the other hand, sometimes there is no better time than the present :-) Your review gave me specifics regarding the tours that I need.

Hi Love2Read,

I am so sorry to hear that the Bordeaux cruise has been such a disappointment with the drastically changed itinerary. Not what I would want from an expensive vacation. Hopefully Viking will get their act together on future cruises.

Thank you for the excellent feedback. Good to know about the lack of view when docking for your cruise when on the starboard side/midships--that is exactly the room location I would have picked hoping to get a nice view. I'm horrified that so much of the itinerary seems to have changed without notice when some of the obstacles should have been known beforehand.

I'm going to have to keep an eye on this Thread and see what the next set of cruisers say before I book for next year.

Thanks again for the excellent comments, and condolences for your experience,

Barbara

ps: Viking shows a picture of Chateau Pichone Longview on their website for this cruise--is there actually an opportunity to go there as part of a tour?

In response to IndianRider: Unfortunately, we are not on this cruise (yet), and hope to go next year. Yes, we love to drink the classified growths, too, my favorite is Pichon Longueville. I'm hoping you will give us lots of details about which Chateaux you are able to visit. The itinerary so far shows docking in the vicinity of the first growths, but I know you will need to make reservations, which is hard to do when the cruise line does not publish how much time you will be in "port". We looked into "The Wine Experience", who advertises they will get you into all 5 of the first growths, but they say Chateaux Margaux and one of the others (I can't remember which one right now), will be closed to visitors this year due to reservations. Have not confirmed that as fact. I do understand that many of these Chateaux are not taking visitors at all during the harvest in October.

Right now we are in the process of figuring out when/where we are on our own and looking at options. I will fill everyone in on what I find and if you could as well we will all be pretty smart before we go.

Hello, I'm very interested in this cruise, but Viking doesn't give a lot of specific information on which wineries or chateaux they will be visiting (either optional or included). Do you have any information?

Since hubby is a self-proclaimed wine snob, am also curious about the amount of time in the various ports if we end up contracting for our own tours. Pictures in the Viking website show a couple famous Chateaux, but I realize it doesn't mean they actually go inside for a tasting.

Thank you so much! I am so envious of your plans.

Barbara