ganski

We were on Viking's Portrait of Southern France last October, I wrote a review about this trip. It started of bad for me because my luggage was in London and i was river cruising in France, I did get my bag in a couple days. Our cruise was half bus, half river cruising, We departed Avignon for Arles and had a nice early morning sunrise cruise, that afternoon we had to take the bus back to Avignon, Viking gave us an open bar that night because of this first bus trip. The next day we were bussed to Viviers, and had a delightful day visiting Chateauneuf du Pape. This was supposed to be an optional excursion but Viking gave it to us for free because we were not able to river cruise. The next morning we had a nice day on the river and cruised to Tain l' Hermitage, this was the best river cruising of the whole trip, we cruised at night to Vienne and that was it for river cruising, we bussed it to Lyon and met our ship, we stayed in Lyon 2 nights, we had to take a bus to Beaune and by that time we we tired of bussing because this was a long trip, we missed Chalon-Sur-Saone completely. Viking gave us a voucher for our next river cruise and we are on the Viking Tor this December doing the Rhine Getaway, and next August we are going on Vikings Chateaux Rivers and Wine.

We are going on this trip this year, we live in CT so we will fly out from JFK on December 19th landing in Basel on the 20th, we extended the trip through Viking with the post cruise extension in Amsterdam, I have never been to Amsterdam but I do not mind walking to get around. I purchased tickets to the Anne Frank house online to avoid the long wait. I booked everything through Viking just for peace of mind and to have all the transfers taken care of in advance. This will be our 3rd Viking River cruise with another planned for next August.

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I have been on 2 Viking River cruises and we have purchased wine ashore and brought bottles aboard and drank it at dinner and on the upper deck while cruising. They do not have a corkage fee, on our last cruise the bartender would write our room number on the bottles of white wine and keep them chilled for us. I never brought beer aboard, I always drank local beer in the towns I visited, Viking has free beer during lunch and dinner, they had 2 different brands in bottles and one draft flavor. I noticed that a few passenger bring their own wine on board to drink at dinner.

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I am on the Viking Tor December 20th, the same itinerary with a post cruise extension in Amsterdam, Have fun on your trip and let us know how it went ! I hope you have a 5 star review when you come back.

On my last 2 river cruises I purchased Cuban cigars in the duty free shop at the airport when I landed, I bought a 5 pack of Romeo y Julieta's # 2 for about 28 euros. I had a difficult time finding good Cuban cigars at most of the destination stops along the river. Most duty free shops at the airports have a good selection of cigars.

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FotoPeg, Bon Voyage and have a fun trip ! I am anxiously waiting your 5 star review on this river cruise since I will be on the same one next year. Safe travels and enjoy !

On Viking Cruises beer and wine is included with lunch and dinner, they do not charge a corkage fee for wine. We would buy local wine and have it served at dinner, we would have a drink before and after dinner and we usually spent @80.00 to 100.00 Euros for a bar bill on our trips. I have too debated if I should buy the drink package but there is so much going on during the cruise and I found there is little time for sitting around and drinking.

When you are on this cruise you must order the "iced coffee" after dinner. I believe it is prepared on certain days by the pastry chef. We tried it last night (happened to see the table next to us with them) and it was to die for and I normally dislike iced coffee. We will be asking for it tonight, hoping it will be available

I am not a hot coffee drinker, only iced, last year we were on Viking's Portrait Of Southern France and I requested iced coffee for breakfast everyday. I sat in the same area and had the same waiter for breakfast and dinner, his name was Michael and is a tremendous asset to Viking, he made the iced coffee by using hot coffee and a scoop of vanilla ice cream in it to chill it down. I was not calorie counting on this trip. Not only was Michael good at making iced coffee, he made sure our wine glasses were always filled, the food was to our satisfaction and always came around with extra portions if we wanted it. My wife is gluten free so he was always extra careful serving her too. we named the iced coffee drink "The Michael" and he got a big kick out of it.

Thank you for posting all the pictures, reviews, menu's and details about this cruise. My wife and I are sailing on the Viking Tor on December 20th, we are going from Basel to Amsterdam and extending our trip for 2 more days in Amsterdam. Our cruise will be a cold, winter Christmas Market trip unlike your warm, and mostly sunny trip. Thanks again for sharing !

We took this cruise last October and had a wonderful time, I also posted a review on this cruise. I enclosed a link on some of the pictures i took on this cruise, the album goes in order of the cruise

Before booking a river cruise in Europe, you should read the CC forums, not every river cruise goes according to the itinerary. The cruise companies cannot determine the weather, high or low water, lock issues, strikes or river difficulties. Because you are on Viking you should not single them out, other cruse lines are probably having the same difficulties too. I doubt Avalon has a dome over their boat. Is Viking responsible for the broken lock on the Danube ? i have been on 3 river cruises and encountered both high and low water issues and the cruise lines did the best that they can do with alternative travel. Do you really think Viking wants to rent buses and have the passengers travel that way ? What a logistics nightmare. You are on vacation, make the best of it and enjoy that you are away. I was on an ocean cruise from NYC to Bermuda and coming back we encountered hurricane issues, most to the passengers were sick due to the weather but what can the cruise line do about that. Do your home work, summer river cruising is unpredictable due to water issues, plan for the worst. On the last note, is Viking responsible for the WW2 bombs they find in the Rhine and have to shut down river traffic ?

We were on the Viking Danube Waltz last November, most of the CM's were open, my favorite one was in Budapest. Fantastic food, many vendors with handmade items. You have to try Kürtőskalács, which is a cone pastry, cooked outdoors and I have only seen them made in Budapest.

We are going on this cruise 08-22-2015 on the Viking Forseti, yes it is over a year away. This year we are on the Viking Tor 12-20-2014 Basel to Amsterdam Christmas Market Cruise

Not made up to be ? We have been on 3 river cruises , another this December and one next August. Very seldom were are boats ever rafted, and who cares when docked in port. Most passengers are out and about. I purchase my cruises 2 years in advance, we buy the most inexpensive room available because we just generally just bath and sleep in the room. When we are traveling we sit in the lounge or on the upper deck and take in the scenery. Most cruises, i generally take over 1000 pictures, many from the upper deck. I find wether you have a 10K suite or a bottom level room, you get the same tours, drink the same wine and eat the same food. Would a bigger room be better ? Probably, but I would rather socialize on the upper deck, make new friends and be thrilled by traveling on the river than being upset by my boat rafted next to another.

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FotoPeg thank you, we are looking forward to a fun cruise , enjoying the Christmas markets and hoping to stay warm. Like you we are going on the Chateaux, River and Wine Cruise, but not sailing until August 22 2015, we are keeping our fingers crossed out that cruise, I have read many pros and cons about it. I am hoping Viking gets all the bugs out of the trip by then. We are on the Viking Forseti on that trip. Last year we went on Portraits of Southern France in October and experienced high water and we were on a bus for part of it, we only enjoyed 1 day of nice cruising. 2 years ago we did the Danube Waltz in late November, our Viking boat was unable to navigate to Budapest because of low water so the first 2 days we were bussed. This was an outstanding Christmas Market tour, Budapest was awesome and might have been my favorite stop on the whole cruise. There were flurries that day, the outdoor cooking and the assortment of food, home made crafts were exceptional.

Thank You ! We are on the Viking Tor December 20 - 27 , Basel to Amsterdam with 2 extended nights in Amsterdam, looking forward to a winter Christmas Market trip

We have taken 2 Viking cruises, going on the Rhine in December and France next August, what I enjoyed about Viking is their friendliness and service. We went on Portraits of Southern France last November and it was great. A few river glitches due to the high water but everything worked out. We bought wine everyday in the towns we visited and Viking does not have a corkage fee. We would bring our own wine and also drink Vikings wine at dinner, and it was always very good. We would order the cheese platter every night at dinner, have it brought to us after dessert and take it to the upper deck, sit and relax with a bottle of wine or two. The upper deck was also the spot to gather and enjoy a Cuban cigar with an after dinner drink too. We traveled with another couple and sat at the same table of 4 every night, we had the same waiter Michael every night and he took care of us and went out of his way to make sure we were satisfied, I highly recommend Viking and would not consider another river cruise company.

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