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Viking Kara Review - April 1-8, 2018 - Rhine Getaway


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My husband and I were on the April 1, 2018 sailing of the Rhine Getaway onboard the Viking Kara from Basel to Amsterdam. We also booked the 2-day pre-cruise extensionin Lucerne.

 

We have done many, many ocean cruises (on Carnival, HollandAmerica and Royal Caribbean) but, this was our first river cruise and our first trip to Europe. I will be spacing out my review as time allows and I will answer what questions I can but, please understand that I am not on my computer very much during the day. This will be a VERY long review – hopefully not boring – and I will try to post lots of photos - if I can figure out how to do that!

 

We booked our cruise in May, 2017 so we had almost a year to make plans and be excited about our first trip to Europe. We were traveling in a group of 4 couples ranging in age from 57 to 69. We are 4 lifelong childhood friends and our spouses.

 

We paid extra through Viking to be sure we were all on the same airplane and we also chose the time of our flights and our airline (Delta).

 

We all live within a couple of hours of Atlanta’s Hartsfield Jackson International Airport – the largest airport in the world – but there was no direct flight to Zurich. So, we flew out of Atlanta on Thursday, March 29th just after 1:00 pm. We arrived at JFK in New York after a short smooth flight. Since the next leg of our trip was an international flight when we arrived we were bussed to a separate area of the airport where we had to walk what felt like miles to reach our gate. We had a long layover so we got burgers at Shake Shack. They were great so, if you are ever in JFK airport be sure to check them out. We boarded our next flight about 8:30 pm and started our taxi. No joke we taxied around and around the airport for over an hour before finally taking off. The flight was smooth and Delta offers a great selection of movies, games and music at each seat. Makes the flight seem shorter. We arrived in Zurich around 10:00 am local time on Friday morning. It had been a long trip!

 

Zurich is a clearly marked airport so we had no trouble getting our luggage and heading out to find our Viking driver. We did have problems finding an ATM but finally located one just inside the exit door. The driver was holding a red Viking sign so he was easy to spot. He loaded our luggage and after we settled into a seat on the bus, offered each of us a bottled water. The bus was large and very nice. There were only 8 of us on that huge bus! The driver was super nice and told us about the area as we made our drive to Lucerne – took about an hour. Lots of lovely scenery.

 

When we arrived in Lucerne at the Radisson Blu Hotel our Viking Concierge, Beatta, boarded the bus to welcome us. She said the hotel would take our luggage inside and for us to come on in so she could go over some things with us. The Radisson Blu is a beautiful hotel with a really modern quirky vibe. Once seated Beatta gave us info on Lucerne, told us about our included breakfasts, gave us a time for our walking tour scheduled for the next day and told us about more optional excursions we could book. (None in our group booked any of the extra excursions.) She also told us we got complimentary bus passes for the duration of our stay. All of the hotels in Lucerne do that and it really makes getting around much easier. At that point she told us our rooms were ready and we could check in. We did so and our luggage was in our rooms waiting for us. The rooms were recently remodeled and I think we were the first in them. They were super nice. Comfortable beds, heated bathroom floors, either a soaking tub or a large walk in shower (depending on which room you got) and they provided toiletries, robes and slippers. We checked out our rooms, freshened up a bit and headed out into Lucerne. The Radisson Blu is located right across from Lake Lucerne and is within walking distance of everything. It was Good Friday so no stores were open. We wandered over to the train station where shops and restaurants were all open. We just headed toward Burger King and grabbed a quick burger for lunch. We got our first taste of sticker shock as a whopper combo was $13.90 – compared to $5.79 at home! We browsed through the chocolate shop, got afew pastries at the bakery, walked along the edge of the lake and then headed back to the hotel for some rest. We just skipped dinner since we had quite a long trip to get there. The hotel was great and even opened a conference type room for us so we could play some cards that evening.

More tomorrow -

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How do I post my photos? I tried to attach them but got an error message telling me the file was too big. It said to make the file smaller and try again. How do I do that?

 

You will have to download them to a photo sharing service like Flickr, then copy the image address, if you're doing it from your desktop or laptop. If you're doing it from the app on a phone or tablet, it's much easier, you just click on the photo icon and add (max 6/post, IIRC)

 

Robin

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You will have to download them to a photo sharing service like Flickr, then copy the image address, if you're doing it from your desktop or laptop. If you're doing it from the app on a phone or tablet, it's much easier, you just click on the photo icon and add (max 6/post, IIRC)

 

Robin

 

Hi Robin, I am completely inept when it comes to this type thing. I tried downloading a few of my photos to Flickr but still can't figure out how to move them to my review. In fact, now I can't even open them on Flikr. I am working off a laptop.

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Hi Robin, I am completely inept when it comes to this type thing. I tried downloading a few of my photos to Flickr but still can't figure out how to move them to my review. In fact, now I can't even open them on Flikr. I am working off a laptop.

 

Make sure you are in the "camera roll" tab. Right click on the picture and "copy image address" (I have a Mac, so not sure what a PC might say). Then, come to CC, click on the picture icon in the toolbar at the top. Delete the http, and paste your image address.

 

You will also need to make sure your pictures are marked "public" on the flickr site.

 

Robin

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I have tried several of the suggestions today and I just can not get my photos to load so, I will continue without photos. I will add them later if I find a way to do so.

 

 

 

Our walking tour was scheduled for 10 on Saturday morning. Most of our group went down and had a good breakfast but hubby and I overslept and did not even wake up until 9:30. No breakfast for us! We hurried on down to the lobby and met up with the rest of the tour. Lots more people had checked into the hotel with Viking and were all a part of the walking tour. It was cold and rainy on Saturday but everything goes on as planned no matter what the weather. We were offered Viking umbrellas but, our group had researched normal weather for that time of the year so we were prepared with rainproof jackets and hoods or hats of some kind.

 

 

Beatta gave us a great tour of town hitting all of the highlights. The stores were open on Saturday so when she turned us loose we headed into old town. We grabbed Starbucks coffee and did lots ofwalking, shopping and taking photos. There were tents set up on both sides of the river selling cheeses, produce, flowers and Easter items. By this time we were hungry so we wandered into Mr. Pickwick Pub. It was full of locals so we knew we were in a good place. Some of us had burgers and some fish and chips and everything was delicious. After eating our fill we headed back out for more shopping and sightseeing. Both the Chapel Bridge andSpeyer Bridge are incredible! A couple of us are fans of Rick Steves and we located some of the sites he had shown on his television show. We found Casa Grande and it had a really good selection of souvenir items for us. We all collect Christmas Ornaments from each place we visit on our travels and they were available here. Beatta had mentioned a wonderful hot chocolate we could get in town so mid-afternoon we headed toward Café deVille. We ordered the Max Chocolate as she suggested and it was one of our favorite experiences of our trip. You are served a plate with a cup of hot milk, a chocolate and a tube of sugar. You unwrap the chocolate and drop it into the milk. Stir as it melts and add sugar to taste. It was DELICIOUS!

 

 

On the way back to the hotel we grabbed a few pastries and some large pretzels and took them back to the hotel. Once again the hotel opened a room for us to play cards so we just took our goodies and ate them for dinner while we played cards.

 

 

Our plan had been to go on our own to Mt. Pilatus. We checked both mornings we were in Lucerne and the mountain was cloud covered so we did not make it to Mt. Pilatus.

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I have tried several of the suggestions today and I just can not get my photos to load so, I will continue without photos. I will add them later if I find a way to do so.

 

 

 

Our walking tour was scheduled for 10 on Saturday morning. Most of our group went down and had a good breakfast but hubby and I overslept and did not even wake up until 9:30. No breakfast for us! We hurried on down to the lobby and met up with the rest of the tour. Lots more people had checked into the hotel with Viking and were all a part of the walking tour. It was cold and rainy on Saturday but everything goes on as planned no matter what the weather. We were offered Viking umbrellas but, our group had researched normal weather for that time of the year so we were prepared with rainproof jackets and hoods or hats of some kind.

 

 

Beatta gave us a great tour of town hitting all of the highlights. The stores were open on Saturday so when she turned us loose we headed into old town. We grabbed Starbucks coffee and did lots ofwalking, shopping and taking photos. There were tents set up on both sides of the river selling cheeses, produce, flowers and Easter items. By this time we were hungry so we wandered into Mr. Pickwick Pub. It was full of locals so we knew we were in a good place. Some of us had burgers and some fish and chips and everything was delicious. After eating our fill we headed back out for more shopping and sightseeing. Both the Chapel Bridge andSpeyer Bridge are incredible! A couple of us are fans of Rick Steves and we located some of the sites he had shown on his television show. We found Casa Grande and it had a really good selection of souvenir items for us. We all collect Christmas Ornaments from each place we visit on our travels and they were available here. Beatta had mentioned a wonderful hot chocolate we could get in town so mid-afternoon we headed toward Café deVille. We ordered the Max Chocolate as she suggested and it was one of our favorite experiences of our trip. You are served a plate with a cup of hot milk, a chocolate and a tube of sugar. You unwrap the chocolate and drop it into the milk. Stir as it melts and add sugar to taste. It was DELICIOUS!

 

 

On the way back to the hotel we grabbed a few pastries and some large pretzels and took them back to the hotel. Once again the hotel opened a room for us to play cards so we just took our goodies and ate them for dinner while we played cards.

 

 

Our plan had been to go on our own to Mt. Pilatus. We checked both mornings we were in Lucerne and the mountain was cloud covered so we did not make it to Mt. Pilatus.

 

So sorry the weather wasn't good for a trip to Mt. Pilatus. It was one of the highlights of our trip. (and was very easy to DIY)

 

And sorry the picture process is frustrating. I know there are instructions out there, somewhere, but I think they are outdated, because it seems to be much easier to do now.

 

Robin

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So sorry the weather wasn't good for a trip to Mt. Pilatus. It was one of the highlights of our trip. (and was very easy to DIY)

 

And sorry the picture process is frustrating. I know there are instructions out there, somewhere, but I think they are outdated, because it seems to be much easier to do now.

 

Robin

 

I tried loading my photos onto Flickr and they would not load. Then I tried shutterfly and that failed also. It tells me the file it too large. I tried to find a way to make it smaller but was unsuccessful.

 

We were disappointed about Mt. Pilatus but, it just wasn't meant to be.

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Easter Morning! All of our group made it to breakfast and it was a great buffet with omelets cooked to order. The food was good and the coffee strong. Lots of fresh breads. Beatta, our Viking concierge, even had Easter chocolates for us.

 

Hotel check out was at noon and our shuttle to Basel was not until 4:00 pm so we packed our bags and took them down into the lobby where the hotel stored them safely for us while we went back into town. We did a bit more sightseeing and then hopped on a bus that took us on a drive around the outskirts of Lucerne. Took about 30 minutes to make a loop back to where we started and it gave us a good view of sights we would not have seen otherwise. We then hopped onto another bus that took us to the base of the Gutsch castle. Our bus passes were also good for their incline railway so we rode up to the castle. The castle is now a hotel and restaurant and has a terrace all the way around it with incredible views of Lucerne. We took lots of photos! We rode the incline back down and then caught a bus back into the center of town.

 

Several of us wanted to try Swiss Fondue so we set out in search of a restaurant. We found a restaurant and all ordered fondue. They only serve cheese fondue and it is served with bread, potatoes and mixed pickles. Most of us thought it was AWFUL but we enjoyed the experience!

 

We returned to the Radisson Blu about 3:00 and it was a good thing we got back early as our departure time had been moved up to 3:30. The Viking bus arrived, loaded all of us and our luggage, and off we headed toward Basel. It is a 1½ hour trip and our guide gave us lots of good information along the route.

 

Our one complaint is that we did not have an earlier transferto Basel. We would have loved to get into Basel in time to do Vikings walking tour.

 

We were taken direct to our ship and we got our first look atthe Viking Kara. It looked just as we expected although it seemed quite small after some of the ocean cruise ships on which we have traveled. The ship is very beautiful. Spotlessly clean and very well laid out.

 

Once we boarded ship it was a super quick check in and we were escorted to our cabins. We had booked a balcony cabin on deck 2. Our cabin stewardess stopped by to introduce herself. She took great care of us during the week.

 

The cabins are well appointed. The beds are very comfortable. There were full size toiletries and super huge plush towels. The water pressure was better than any cruise or hotel I have stayed in. There are plenty of closets and drawers, a safe, a small refrigerator, a small desk/vanity area with a stool and a chair. The balcony has a small table and 2 chairs.

 

We arrived much too late to go into Basel so we just settled into our cabin and headed to the lounge at 6:15 for our Welcome Briefing. We met George our cruise director and were introduced to our Captain, the Hotel Manager, the Executive Chef and the MaîtreD’. At 7:00 we headed to the dining room.

 

There is only one seating for dinner and it is from 7:00-9:00. The Aquavit Terrace has changed and now does a 6 course Italian meal for dinner called “A Selection of Manfredi’s” and they serve at 7:15. There is no charge for this but, they can only seat 20 people an evening so you have to make a reservation. No other options for dinner. Our group found the dining room menus to be very limited.

 

After dinner there is music and dancing in the lounge. Some in our group went up to the lounge for a while but we were tired and headed back to our cabin. It was Easter Sunday and when our bed was turned down our cabin stewardess had left each of us a Lindt chocolate bunny.

 

We set sail at 9:00 pm. A short time later we went through our first lock. We went out on our balcony and found this very interesting. We went through 8 locks during the week of our cruise but this is the only one we watched. Some were during the night and we knew nothing about them.

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I enjoyed your review. I am taking Uniworld for a similar cruise. Amsterdam to Basel

About your pictures, try the app Googlephotos.

Elyce

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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I enjoyed your review. I am taking Uniworld for a similar cruise. Amsterdam to Basel

About your pictures, try the app Googlephotos.

Elyce

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Lots more review to come! I tried Googlephotos. No problem adding the photos to that site but can't get them to move from there to my review.

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On Monday morning we woke in Breisach, Germany.

Breakfast is served in the dining room from 7:00-9:00 so we joined our friends in the dining room for a hearty breakfast before going ashore. The included excursion was “The Black Forest” and we met in the lobby at 8:15 to pick up our boarding pass and our cards showing which bus we were to board. We headed to our bus and it left at 8:30. We had a delightful guide and she entertained us for the trip through the countryside. We made one stop for photos and then were taken to an area where we could watch a glassblower, watch a cuckoo clock being made or watch a Black Forest Cake being made. I believe you would have had time to watch all 3. Since neither particularly interested us we chose to just walk around the area. We also did a bit of shopping. Then we boarded the bus and headed back to the ship. We got back about 12:30 and lunch was served at 12:45. We had time to drop off our coats and our purchases before eating.

 

The men in our group had booked the optional excursion “Colmar World War II – Museum & Memorial” and they met again in the lobby at 1:30for the 1:45 departure. The women in our group had booked the optional excursion “Medival Village of Colmar” and we met in the lobby at 2:00 for our 2:15 departure. The ladies were transported over the river into France and to the village of Colmar. We were given the option of a walking tour or a tour in a small train. We chose the train and we saw the beautiful village including the ‘Little Venice’ area. We also saw a nesting stork. We were then given a short amount of free time for shopping before boarding the bus for our return to the ship. Europe shops close not only on Good Friday and Easter Sunday but also Easter Monday so there were not many shops open but, we did enjoy our time.

We got back to the ship and the men had not yet returned. They came in about 15minutes after we did. I asked my husband how the tour was and he teared up. He was so moved he could not even tell me about his excursion for 3 days. He still says it is the best tour he has ever done. He said the tour guide told the story in a way that made you feel that you were actually there.

 

That night in the lounge they offered ‘Just the Two of Us’ a musical journey through Germany and France. We were tired after two excursions so after dinner we just returned to our cabin, watched a movie and relaxed. We set sail at 10:00 pm.

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On Tuesday morning, after a good breakfast, we left at 8:30 for our “Strasbourg Highlights” tour. This was a good tour but, our least favorite guide. The guide did tell us a good bit about the politics and the languages of Strasbourg.

 

If you are a Viking tour sit on the same side as the bus driver and sit next to the window. On one stretch of road there was tree after tree with nesting storks! We were on the opposite side and saw only one nest.

 

We traveled to Strasbourg, seeing many interesting sights along the way, and then were led on a walking tour through town. The town is charming with lots of interesting shops. We stopped in front of one bakery and the shop keeper came out with samples of coconut macaroons. (We went back to that shop and bought some to take home!) We ended up at Notre Dame Cathedral. We thoroughly enjoyed the tour of this beautiful cathedral.

 

Afterwards we were given the option of going back to the ship or staying in town and catching a shuttle back. We opted to stay in town. We re-walked much of the town doing a bit of shopping and snacked a bit in lieu oflunch. We are in the antiques business so we made sure we checked out a local antique shop. We also went to a couple of bakeries including one of only gingerbread, a Christmas shop and other souvenir shops. Shuttles run from 2:00-5:30 so you have lots of time. I will say the walk back is a long way. We were told 10 minutes of easy walking. It was actually 20 minutes of hard walking. We met the 2:00 shuttle and headed back to the ship.

 

Dinner in the dining room and then to the lounge for the ship’s version of ‘Family Feud’. It was a lot of fun! That was followed by music and dancing.

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On Wednesday morning we were docked in Mannheim.

After a good breakfast we headed out at 8:30 for the included excursion “Panoramic Heidelberg”. We had another delightful guide telling us about the area as we drove into Heidelberg. We were taken to the ruins of the castle and were given a very good tour. It is still beautiful and the views of the town and the river below are breath taking. We then drove through the forest and back into town. We parked close to the river and continued our tour by foot. Once again, a beautiful town. We were then given free time for shopping or more sightseeing.

 

 

We headed to the Kathe Wohlfahrt Christmas Shop. What a sight. We then stopped by a bakery for strudel and it was delicious!

 

 

 

We headed back and met the ship in Gernsheim as it had moved while we were on our tour. After setting sail we enjoyed a good lunch and time on the ship. Wheelhouse tours were given beginning at 2:30 and a Rudesheim Coffee demonstration at 3:30. Our port talk was at 4:30 as we were docking in Rudesheim at 5:00.

 

We chose to get off ship and head for town. It was a short walk along a lovely park. We stopped in many souvenir shops and the prices were much lower than anywhere else on the entire cruise. But, many shops were already closing up for the day. One in our group had missed the Kathe Wohlfahrt Christmas shop in Heidelberg so she wanted to go to the one in Rudesheim. When we located it we found it closed.

 

We had not booked any of the optional excursions so we headedback to ship for our dinner.

 

At 9:00 there was a local glassblower who had boarded our ship to give a demonstration. We were rafted with another Viking ship so those passengers came over to our ship for the demonstration. Rolph did an excellent job and it was a most interesting demonstration. He made a couple of items as he spoke and gave them to audience members. I was lucky enough to be given the Christmas ornament he made. A treasured memory of our trip!

 

We overnighted in Rudesheim.

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Thursday, we had breakfast as usual from 7:00-9:00. Then, at 8:15 we set sail from Rudesheim.

 

We sailed along through small villages along the Rhine and at 9:00 we came into the area with castles. We had been given a map to keep handy and it identified the castles for us. George, our cruise director, spoke from 9:00-11:00 identifying all of the castles and giving history on them. It was a cold and rainy morning but, it was beautiful. This is a gorgeous area ofthe river and the castles are amazing. We got some great photos – even with the rain!

 

We had lunch at Noon and arrived in Koblenz at 1:00. We docked right in the city next to German Corner.

 

During our port talk the previous evening George had told us about the included excursion to Marksburg Castle. He said it was a long walk from the bus parking to the entrance of the castle. It was a series of switchbacks – all on an uphill grade. He said we would be walking about 7/10 of a mile uphill. Then there would be lots of uneven and rough cobblestones and lots of steep staircases. He also said that once inside the castle you could not leave the tour for any reason. After this description 3 out of 4 couples of our group decided not to do this excursion. We felt we could not make the climb. The one couple doing the excursion said the walk was really not as bad as expected and that we all probably would have been fine.

 

Instead the rest of us just chose to walk around town. We started at German Corner. They also have 3 sections of the Berlin wall. Town is very nice and had lots of interesting statues and buildings.

 

Two of the couples purchased tickets for the gondola that would take them above the city to the Ehrenbreitstein Fortress. They did not tour the fortress but got great views of the city.

 

Dinner that night was “A Taste of Germany”. The dining room was decorated very brightly, the waiters were in blue and white checked shirts and dinner was a buffet. There were a couple of different kinds of brats, wiener schnitzel, a beef dish and a chicken. There was german potato salad, red cabbage and spätzle. On the table was a variety of cheese and large pretzels. This was the best food of the entire trip and a ton of fun! We could have done this same meal every night and our group would have been very happy.

 

There were 2 musicians who switched out during the meal. One played an accordion and the other had some type of cranking musical instrument. Both were singing German folk music and it was very good.

 

After dinner that was a ‘MusicQuiz’ game in the lounge followed by music and dancing. We were overnight in Koblenz.

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On Friday morning we set sail from Koblenz at 3:00 am.

 

We enjoyed our breakfast and then the ship docked at 9:00 in Cologne. Once again we docked right in town.

 

Our included excursion ‘Cologne Walking Tour’ left at 9:15. We had an excellent guide. He was one of the most informative on the cruise. We enjoyed the walk along the river and then headed to Cologne’s famous cathedral. We enjoyed this cathedral tour even more than we did in Strasbourg. It is beautiful and we got some wonderful photos. We walked outside to find chalk artists creating masterpieces on the walkways. They do this daily and the rain washes it away.

 

After the tour we had a quick lunch onboard ship and headed back into town. We got a closer look at several sights around town, shopped a little bit, bought some original ‘Eau deCologne’ and took lots of photos.

 

My husband and I purchased a lock and headed to the ‘Locks of Love’. We closed our lock on the bridge and tossed the keys into the river. Kinda romantic for an old married couple!

 

Cologne was one of our favorite cities.

 

We returned to the ship with time to relax before dinner at 7:00.

 

After dinner there was an evening of classical music in the lounge. We did not attend but instead went to the sun deck and took photos of Cologne at night. There was also a colorful carnival set up across the river.

 

We set sail at 11:00 pm.

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Saturday morning we enjoyed our usual breakfast and then, at 10:00, we went to the lounge for our disembarkation talk. They ask that one person from each cabin attend.

 

At 11:00 am there was a presentation on ‘Dutch Water Management’. We chose not to attend.

 

During our lunch we docked at the city of Gorinchem. It was a stop only to let people off ship that had purchased the optional excursion “Kinderdijk Windmills & Cheese Making”. The small city looked very interesting and we asked if we could get off ship and walk around. We were told sure – as long as we were back by a certain time. We only had about 45 minutes to explore this small town but it was one of the prettiest ports we had seen! Wish we had been able to stay ashore even longer.

 

At 4:00 we docked at Kinderdijk. We docked across the street from the windmills so it was a short walk. We began our tour at 4:30. Our guide was a bit boring and his microphone was not working properly so a lot of the people could not hear him at all. We toured the windmill and then we decided to leave the group and venture out on our own. I had heard about the house slippers made to look like wooden shoes and wanted to get some for our daughter and granddaughters. We headed to the gift shop and found what we were looking for.

 

At 6:45 there was a Captain’s Cocktail Party. We chose not to attend.

 

We set sail at 7:00 as we were at dinner. Evening entertainment was music and dancing.

 

We just went back to our cabin and finished up our packing. Then we enjoyed the evening sailing. We also went through another lock.

We were not scheduled to disembark until 9:30 so we were able to have a nice breakfast on Sunday morning. We had to put our luggage out at 8:30 and had to be out of our cabin by 9:00. We were not docked in town but, instead were in an industrial area. So, we did not leave the ship at all in Amsterdam until time to get on the bus for the airport.

The trip took about 30 minutes from the ship to the airport. We arrived about 3 hours before our flight time and it took every minute of that to get through all of the security at the airport. We had to go through 2 different security checkpoints and then 3 out of our group of 8 were pulled from the line at the gate to be checked again!

We finally were able to board the airplane and had a smooth uneventful 9+ hour flight back to Atlanta

 

General observations – Our Opinions ONLY – Good and Bad:

The 2-day pre-cruise extension in Lucerne was worth every penny. We LOVED Lucerne. Our only bad comment is the time of the bus transfer to Basel. We would have loved to see Basel.

The ships are small but very efficient and beautiful. The staff is very nice and very accommodating.

The included excursions are excellent and most of the guides are very good.

If it interests you at all we HIGHLY recommend the optional Colmar WWII Museum tour.

Our group all found the menus to have very limited choices and the food was not very good on several evenings. My husband had steak 5 out of 7 nights. Many times it was bland and tough. We did tell the staff. It did not change. This being said – none of us went hungry!

Dining room service was VERY slow and there seemed no reason for it. We got coffee after dinner only the first 2 nights. Were not offered it after that. We had to ask for coffee in the mornings!

Never got water refills unless we got the waiters attention and asked for them - and that was our drink with dinner.

Our waiters never did remember our preferences as we are used to them doing on ocean cruises. Not a necessity but it seemed odd that on a much smaller ship they did not do this.

We loved the bottles of water handed out to everyone as they left for a tour. Very thoughtful.

Umbrellas were also offered but we had come prepared with our own.

My husband has food allergies. The staff was informed and a menu for the next day was brought to him each evening so he could mark his choices. He still received meals with items to which he was allergic. Luckily it was very clear as soon as the plate was set before him and not cooked intothe meal.

There are movies and music on the televisions in each cabin. However, they had to come 3 different times to fix ours because it was not working.

The headsets were very good for tours and easy to recharge each evening.

We did send laundry out. It returned to us very quickly and they did a great job. Worth the money!

The cookies available at the coffee station during the day are delicious – especially the oatmeal raisin cookies!

All of Vikings buses are very comfortable and very clean and each has a restroom.

While not perfect – nothing is –we would do this cruise again without a moment’s hesitation.

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"Our one complaint is that we did not have an earlier transferto Basel. We would have loved to get into Basel in time to do Vikings walking tour."

Don't fret. Basel was the least interesting tour & town ever visited on our Viking tours. A business town, nothing at all like Lucerne.

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