id4elizabeth

Glad you enjoyed it. And yes, I plan on keeping it up with a blog on Eastern Europe once we get back.

Our Prague guide is http://www.ninapragueguide.com . She arranged our airport pickup in Prague for $31 USD. She's also arranged several days of private guiding in Prague, as well as a private guide and car to Cesky Krumlov for a day trip out of Prague, and a guide and car transport to Budapest where our cruise starts, with several stops along the way in some small towns. We haven't taken this trip yet, so can't give a 100% recommendation, but Nina has been totally great to work with pre-trip.

Sandy Dandy - contrary to everyone else who can fit in a back-pack, I'm like you - 2 suitcases, but neither are over about 40 lbs, plus a very small carry-on. My DH takes 1 suitcase plus a very small carry-on.

We're both a bit on the senior side, so we fly Business and are allowed 2 bags. We know we may have to pay porters, bellmen, etc to help us with luggage, and just expect that. We've have no problem on ocean or river cruises - the bags fit inside each other and fit under the bed. I highly doubt any river cruise would turn you away over the 2nd suitcase. I tend to not over pack my suitcases so that I have a bit of room to bring back some "stuff."

Budapest hotel question - we're on a Viking Eastern European cruise leaving on May 3 from Budapest to Bucharest. But for the first 2 nights they have us staying at the Sofitel. If the boat dock is that close in town, does anyone know why they put us up in a hotel for 2 nights? Hate having to move! Thanks!

Cole - we are using transylvania-discovery-tours.ro for our tour, specifically a fellow named Bodgan. He's been great to work with so far. His initial tour had us staying at a local pension type place, but we asked the cost for upgrading to the Kronwell Hotel in Brasov, and we happily paid the extra. I was told by Viking that this is the hotel they use in Brasov. Our cost was still lower than Viking and we're staying a full extra day. I'll let you know when we return (late May) how it went.

The "free" airfare is not always there though. We booked over a year ago for a Viking cruise this Spring and got the 2 for 1 plus an early booking discount of $300, but had to pay our own air and had to pay big time for trip insurance instead of the "cancel for any reason up to 3 days in advance" offer that Viking is offering now. I wish we would have waited to book in hindsight, but of course you never know.

HarleyYogi - regarding what happens if there's flight delays or you miss a connexion - I think you're stuck with dealing with whatever airline carrier you're on. I don't think Viking gives you any support in that case. Basically, they just book the flights

As Cyber Kat says - from these boards you get some good experiences related, but I'd say many more negative experiences than positive with Viking Air. We've never used them, as we book our own flights, but also have never been offered "free air" before either.

Karen - we're on the same cruise this spring but in the opposite direction. We're thinking we're OK with Viking's tours for this particular cruise, except in Budapest and Bucharest we'll be doing a bit more on our own. Since many of the towns along the river seem to be small, the included walking tours will probably be sufficient, and allow us to veer off on our own (except for the one where we go see the horse-back riding - kinda trapped there). We're doing the Transylvania extension, but not with Viking. We're hiring a private guide, car, staying in the same hotel and staying an extra day - all for slightly less than the Viking price. We've found Viking's extensions to be generally overpriced.

In our experience, the tour groups can vary from 20 to 40 people. If a walking tour, they seem to be smaller in size, but if a bus is involved, they tend to fill up the bus, which means 40. But occasionally, you'll luck out and the group is only 15, but that's rare. As Jazz Beau says though, because of the Quiet Vox system, the "herd" can spread out though. My pet piece is when the group is supposed to be back at a certain spot at a certain time, there's always a couple who consistently is late, wasting time.

We always prefer private tours if we can, but as we travel as a couple, and it's hard to find other travelers on our exact cruise, it's often not economically viable. If it's 4 of you though, it might make sense economically.

Lucky Granny - answer to question #2: the same in our opinion. The optional tours are a bit better (in general) than the included tours. Some of the guides we had that we chatted to talked about how they work for different cruise lines and land tours and the tours are basically the same, regardless of who hires them. Also, upon ocassion, the tours don't turn out to be exactly as advertized, ie an intimate lunch at a charming restaurant turns out to be in a huge banquet hall with many hundreds of people, only about half of which were on Viking - the rest were from an MSC cruise (St Petersburg). Not saying the tours are bad, just that there's nothing "special" about them either.

But how can you resist not taking at least one photo of the "squatty potties" while in China?

We were on the inaugural whole 50 day cruise this past spring, along with several gay couples that we got to know who were also onboard for the whole trip. Although we are not gay, they however did not express any concerns. We got to know them through sitting with them at various meals and sharing shore excursions. I don't think you'll have any trouble at all - anymore than you'd have at home. Most passengers are American, Canadian, British, or Austrailian so your experience is going to be pretty much what you'd expect. The staff are very nice and friendly. The Mediterranean is beautiful and the ship is lovely. My advice - go for it and have a great time!

There should not be a problem with the included tours by waiting. They really have to accommodate everyone as they advertise these as included. It's only the Optional ones that might be an issue, and even then, it would only be the "limited availability" ones that I'd worry about, like the private performances in the Hermitage in St Petersburg, or the Cognac tour in Bordeaux. If you booked your optional tours the first day when you board, I'd think they'd accommodate you. After all, Viking is in the business of making money off the optional tours. Having said that though, if there's something you REALLY want to do, I'd book it ahead just to be sure.

I doubt it. Apparently the bookings for Viking River Cruises are off 58% for 2016, but the Oceans cruises have been sold out for most of 2016 and 2017. No reason for them to offer it on Oceans, unless they start getting massive cancellations.

Clay - yes, same thing with us. Although our cruise is 60 days away, there are no included or optional tours available for about 2/3 of our ports. Yet, the description on the regular Viking website talks about where they will be taking us. So, my guess is the website is not quite up to snuff yet.

As a Viking Ocean previous cruiser for the 50-day maiden cruise, I don't know why they thought MyVikingJourney "worked so well." It was a disaster on our cruise. Tours we had signed up for online, we were not registered for once onboard, or the times were off so that we could not do the included morning tour and our afternoon optional tour as they had us down for the morning optional tour, even though there was one for the afternoon. Took me HOURS at the Explorer's Desk to straighten out. Almost everyone we talked to onboard had their schedules totally messed up. It might have gotten better as time went on, but it certainly was messed up for us.

And the real clincher here is that Viking is making OBCs virtually worthless on river cruises, as most of them don't have any spa treatments available and how much overpriced Viking gear do you want? And using OBCs for tips are forbidden. With free wine and beer at meals, the only other option is to drink heavily if you have a large OBC. I guess there's laundry too, but for an 8 to 12 day cruise, spending a $500 OBC would be tough.

Just my thoughts...

Inborn traveler - don't know how close you are to getting to 10, but we used Spain Day Tours (affiliated with Barcelona Day Tours) in Cadiz to take us to Seville (another fabulous trip). We needed 10 there too but only had 8. All the tour company really cares about is that they get paid for 10. So the 8 of us agreed to split the cost of the extra 2 and we entered 2 extra people on the website and paid for them before we left. Of course these 2 people were no shows, but we all chipped in to pay for the 10. Hope that makes sense. Of course, this wouldn't work if you only had 4 people, but if you're close to 10 and willing to pay a bit more, it's better than nothing.

This is information from last April, so things may have changed. Viking offers NO tours on "turn around" day. This was true in Venice, Barcelona, and Bergen. So if you're sailing on from Barcelona, you'll have to make arrangements for yourselves on the middle day. Viking did spend 2 nights in Barcelona (2 1/2 days).

If you want to go to Sagrada Familia, there were a couple Viking tours on the first and third days that did go there. One was the Gaudi Architectural tour, but you also go to several other Gaudi sites as well as the church. It's an optional tour (pay extra) but we enjoyed it.

I can highly recommend Barcelona Day Tours. We used them on our "turn around" day to go to Montserrat. They picked us up at the ship's terminal and dropped us back there at the end of the day. The trip was fabulousx and they were easy to work with.

Monaco - The Gardens along the coast up near the Palace were beautiful! We booked tickets for the Monaco Palace ahead of time on-line before we left home. Last year anyway they were good all day - not for a specific time which was great. We found the changing of the guard not all that impressive but really enjoyed the Palace and audioguide. The Cathedral was very cool, particularly if you are a fan of Grace Kelly. We took the double-decker bus which takes you all over both Monaco and MonteCarlo, but be aware that it stopped at 5:00. We went to the old iconic casino, but it does actually cost to get in - not worth it in my opinion. We found the city quite beautiful and spic-and-span clean. The people we found a bit aloof.

Never had a problem getting extra real pillows from Viking.

Heading there rapidly...

I have the Sony HX 300 and it only shoots Jpeg, not Raw. Also, in Auto mode, it won't let you select where you want it to focus. Two big drawbacks which are leading me to the new a6300. Don't know if Sony has corrected the deficits with the HX 400 - they might have - but read the specs carefully. I had no idea when I bought the HX 300 that I could not shoot Raw. It's buried in the tiny-print in the operator's manual (which BTW is aweful).

Viking will hand out maps for the towns and cities they visit on the cruise. These maps are not the best in the world, but generally adequate. I always take a zerox copy of maps out of guide books - they're better. Many of the port towns are walkable from the port, but when not, either we've taken a taxi or Viking has provided a shuttle.

Dauntless is correct with the even/odd verandas' view in Stockholm.

We did Cluny and I thought it was great. Yes, it's some ruins, some reconstruction, a charming little town, museums and an equestrian center, although the tour did not include that. We just walked past the ring where the horses and riders were practicing. I thought the ruins were very evocative.

We did not have to choose between these two optional tours however, and having been to both places, I would rate Les Baux slightly higher. However, that would depend on the time of year. It's my understanding that Les Baux can be horribly crowded in the summer, and that would definitely take away from the charm of that unique hilltop town. I would not think Cluny would be as crowded. We went to both in early May.

There's a coffee/tea station that's open very early in the morning. At this staion there's a spigot that dispenses very hot water, without going through the coffee parts. So, no coffee over-flavor to your tea! :D

They have a nice selection of high quality tea bags: English Breakfast, Earl Grey, Dargeling, Green etc. If you want tea leaves instead of tea bags, you'd have to bring your own. There are smallish teapots you can ask for at dinner the first night. I've been on 3 Viking River Cruises (and 1 Viking Ocean) and never had a problem with getting a teapot.

Not sure about bringing an electric tea kettle due to fire hazards. They do request that you not bring irons, but curling irons are OK, so can't believe they'd take it away. It would take up a lot of luggage space though. I use the hot water out of the tea station into the teapot from the dining room. The key is to place this teapot somewhere where the cabin steward doesn't (helpfully) take it away.

Don't know the names of the ports, but can tell you roughly where in relation to the towns based on our experience last spring.

Stockholm - right near town, within walking distance of the bridge and Old Town. Right next door to the "Viking" ferry stop. (No relation to Viking Ocean - but you can see this ferry spot on some maps.) Not in the port that's way out of town in an industrial area.

Helsinki - involved a bus ride. We went on a tour, but shuttle buses were provided during the day which would take you near the Market Square. It wasn't a long bus ride, but would not want to walk it.

Aalborg - within sight of the Old Town. Easy walking distance.

Bergen - we were docked in the nearest large ship berth in the central part of town. Easy walking distance to the iconic picture postcard of the old wharf houses. However, there were no other large ships in the harbor at the time due to the Star's Christening, so this might not have been the cases for the summer itineraries. I read that there was an official investigation of the preference shown to Viking for the Christening. But it could be that she berths in this first slot all the time due to her smaller size.

Hope that was helpful.