peasmith

23 hours ago, Peregrina651 said:

Future cruise vouchers cannot be purchased on board ocean ship. For whatever reason, Viking decided not to make them available.  However, you can book a future river or ocean cruise on board the ocean ships, with additional booking benefits including a final payment date of 6 months prior to departure, which you can't do on a river cruise. 

I don't really want to have to pay the balance for a cruise 6 months in advance when we only have to pay our balances in the UK ten weeks before departure.  I was told (by a Viking agent in the UK) that the whole booking system on board is totally different and that to speak to someone regarding your booking afterwards is a bit of a job?

Has any one checked the temperatures for this week for the Northern Lights cruise - it's more like summer in the UK temperatures! Just checking as we are doing it for January 2020

2 hours ago, yoshi said:

Hi Peasmith,

Did your TA get the credit for you beforehand? We asked before the cruise started and the Viking help line said we would get the credit once on board, then it didn't happen.

We always book direct with Viking and the credit was on our account shortly after we received the notification e-mail about not stopping at St Tropez - we were advised that any unused credit prior to our sailing would be added to our onboard account on embarkation.  We also had some onboard credit for booking the cruise early and the leftover from the missed port credit was added to that.  As you will see we are in the UK and know that the operations in the USA are different to those here i.e. we only need to pay our remaining balance approximately ten weeks before departure. 

And you can only purchase them on the river cruises having been told on the Sky recently that they don't issue them!

On our recent xmas cruise on the Sky a single lady on her own and on her first cruise had been upgraded to a cabin with a bath - the only cabins I can find with baths are the explorer suites - bit silly if you ask me - no upgrade for us and we were on our eleventh and twelfth cruise for myself and OH - where is the logic in that?

We got our credit and used it beforehand to purchase the drinks package and a couple of DIY trips to Nice and Lucca and then what was left was added to our onboard account on our Christmas cruise last week

Ignore my last post - modern technology accidentally quoted and posted!

Sorry to hear about the shooting in Strasbourg and feel for the family of the person who has died and for the injured. We will be there next week now on the Idi rather than the Mani for our cruise on Friday - hope they catch the gunman soon

31 minutes ago, Peregrina651 said:

 

We did St. Tropez last year and it was our least favorite of all the ports. Since you are there on Christmas Day, they probably decided to make it a sea day because most everything would be closed, the guides and drivers want the day off and, if they open at all, the bars and restaurants would be opening late.

 

 

While I can't give you the name of a specific hotel in either city, my suggestion is to start by deciding what the places are that you want to see and then look for hotels that are convenient to them, so that you don't spend a lot of time/money getting to the places you want to see. In Barcelona, most of the fun stuff is somewhat close together while in Rome, things are rather spread out.

This was a section of the e-mail received from Viking:-

"In our time operating this itinerary, we have learnt that the unpredictable nature of the seas near St. Tropez has affected our ability to visit the port more frequently than we would like. Because of how our ships anchor in the bay of St. Tropez, guests must be transported ashore by the ship's tender vessels. When seas are rough, we are unable to transport guests, resulting in a missed port of call.

Therefore, in order to ensure the best cruise experience possible, instead of visiting St. Tropez during the holiday as originally planned, we will now cruise the Mediterranean Sea on Day 3 of your itinerary and proceed to Marseille on Day 4"

We are doing the Iconic Med Holiday on the 23rd December this year so will post when we get back - St Tropez was originally on our itinerary when we booked it as 'Iconic Western Med' holiday but due to tendering at that time of year Viking dropped it from the itinerary and we now have a day at sea on Christmas Day. 

We were in 3077 on the Sky at end of October and we could hear next door's TV or radio and it vibrated on the wall - also problems with slamming doors. In cabin 3022 on our Xmas cruise so will see if it is any quieter up the front end! Had quite rough seas and sliding wardrobe door and hangars were a bit bothersome too

14 minutes ago, ganski said:

Have noticed this morning that the Mani is in Niehl - may be going to stay a while so that it doesn't get to Amsterdam too early.  I don't think it is carrying passengers at the moment as it has only just started to move since the 9th November if my investigations have been correct.

 

We departed the Mani in Basel on November 9th, from what we were told the Mani was being sent away for repairs, the shaft was bent, something happened when the water was low. We started on the EIR and ship swapped to the MANI and in Basel everything on the MANI was transferred to the IDI, we had a departing lunch on that ship.

I thought something was up as it hadn't moved - thanks for the info!

Have noticed this morning that the Mani is in Niehl - may be going to stay a while so that it doesn't get to Amsterdam too early.  I don't think it is carrying passengers at the moment as it has only just started to move since the 9th November if my investigations have been correct.  There is no time for it to get to Amsterdam and Basel and back again before our cruise on the 14th December.  I am, therefore, hoping that when we arrive early in Amsterdam on the morning of the 14th December we will be able to get in our cabins and leave our valuables whilst we go exploring Amsterdam.  I have not known Viking River to store hand luggage before if we have been unable to get into our cabins and don't fancy carrying our passports and all our euros around with us in such a busy city. 

Let's just hope we don't have the reverse problem - all this rain may cause the rivers to swell and the ships won't be able to get under the bridges due to high levels lol!

1 hour ago, nstarrenburg said:

 

To notamermaid.

 

Amen to the above.  You have been a true help to all of us - both for your detail and updates but also for the personal care in your posts and local knowledge.

 

Thank you!

Ditto!

34 minutes ago, Crusin Kelly said:

SUPER SUPER news... We are supposed to be on Mani on a B to E on the 7th... she is one of the northbound Viking ships...   We hope she makes it...   HOWEVER... if she does, she will be in Amsterdam instead of Basel on the 7th.... hmmm...  seems our ship swap will occur before our trip even starts... Hope there is a Viking longship in Basel on Friday....

 

 

Good luck! Hope she stays in Amsterdam for our 14th Dec departure!

39 minutes ago, Bentwaters said:

Just received word less than an hour ago that the Viking Alruna is going all the way from Basel to Amsterdam.  We left Basel on Dec 1st.  It rained heavily while we were at Strasbourg.  Our cruise director called it a "Christmas miracle" and it does seem to be one.  The day before we left we were told there was an 80% chance we would change boats.  Now we can completely unpack our suitcases.

Doug

Miracles do happen! A friend was in Strasbourg last week whilst visiting family in Mannheim and I asked her to do a rain dance whilst she was there and looks like it worked!

52 minutes ago, vivivi said:

First post so hope it works!

Many thanks for this ever-so-informative thread. I have learnt so much. We are on Viking on the 14th December and I see, as posted by Bww00, that Viking is on the move with three of their longships following each other northwards towards the Rhine gorges. Watching with anticipation to see how far they get.

 

Vivivi

Are you on the Mani too on the 14th? We have been watching all the comments on here and must say that it's looking promising for a successful trip with more rain forecast over the next few days.  We have been on the Rhine and Danube many times during November and December including Xmas and have been so lucky with no ship swaps.

14 hours ago, Jimmy_Buffett said:

Our two days of deviation on Viking this week.

Hi we are on this in reverse on the 14th December and supposed to be on the Mani - is it my understanding that it's going to be Heidelberg or Strasbourg but not both as originally planned? The excursion to Heidelberg is an awful long one and would rather get shuttle into Strasbourg and wander at our leisure. You never know by the time we join whatever boat the rain may have eased it. 

Does anyone happen to have the Sky's e-mail address as I would like to contact them before our cruise on the 23rd December?

I think the reference to dinner cruise is may be a lunch time one as you wouldn't do the marksburg castle excursion in the evening and hopefully for dinner we will be on the new ship anyway.  Time will tell and let's hope the rains come and we will have an uneventful sail

Sturmin - when you arrived on the Tialfi in Cologne and then "the following day,  a 2 hr ride back to take a dinner cruise through the Rhine gorge, an hour ride to Marksburg Castle followed with a 2 hr ride back to Cologne"  If you didn't want to do Marksburg Castle, dinner cruise through rhine gorge and then the two hour bus ride back to Cologne - is it possible to just spend the day in Cologne itself.  We have done the itinerary before so not that bothered about seeing the castles up and down the rhine gorge as we have seen them before and would rather not have to spend too much time being bussed about.  We are doing the reverse Amsterdam to Basel on the 14th December.  

May be there's hope for us yet then splashing out on a PJS on a northern lights 2020 cruise! Normally only book a V1 cabin on ocean ones and lowest grade on a river one

2 hours ago, TrachTraveler said:

Have no idea how the magic gets invoked...this is my 2nd Viking cruise, although my first Viking Ocean cruise.  Just happy to be the recipient of her benevolence!

You're lucky we are doing our tenth and eleventh Viking cruise respectively for myself and other half on the 14th December and then again on the 23rd December and nothing for us!

How does the fairy work?  Is it based on amount of previous cruises done, travel agents booked through or just the luck of the draw?

40 minutes ago, notamermaid said:

Sounds like the Viking Tialfi will be your ship to swap to. Whichever it will be a swap does not sound to bad.

 

Jimmy_Buffett is pleased with the way it was handled:

 

Sounds really nice, better than I thought it would be. Well, catering differs a little from one boat to another. This is the Rhein Star: https://roesslerlinie.de/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/RheinStar-Ansichten.pdf

 

notamermaid

I don't think the Mani has moved since the 9th November according to cruisemapper but may be mistaken? It will all be a new experience for us - perhaps I should send the rain we have here in Cambridge today over!

The Rhein Star looks ok - dining area looks very regimental though! Does anyone know how long we are on this boat for and where it takes us from or to?