Roll call MARCH 28 Southern France on Viking Neptune

[RoupMom]

I posted earlier but inadvertently typed in a "5" instead of a "3" in the date. Oh duh. We're actually looking forward to a river cruise beginning on MARCH 28 and look forward to meeting others.

[morgme]

:) Don't know if you saw my post under your other thread, but we will be on this cruise also. It will be our first river cruise, and we are looking forward to the smaller ship experience. I just hope the weather cooperates! Will you be doing post-cruise also?

[RoupMom]

Yes, I did see your previous response, which is what prompted me to realize that I had made the mistake. :) Thanks for pointing it out!

We sort of are doing a post cruise, but more or less on our own. We are using Viking transportation for this trip, since it is easier and added up to the same or less than if we did the parts. We'll be able to fly non-stop to Paris on Air France from Seattle, which is quite nice. Viking will transport us to Lyon and fly us to CDG at the end of our cruise. We're staying in Paris for 5 days, leaving the following Friday. We've rented an apartment in Paris, which while slightly more than a hotel, is much nicer and quite a bit less than the Viking accommodations. We want to follow our own pace in Paris, rather than being programmed.

I can hardly wait! How about you?

Kathie

[morgme]

Your post cruise plans sound great. As it is our first trip to France (other than the Cote d'Azur on our Med cruise), we decided not to be so adventurous first time around in Paris and stuck to the post cruise option there with Viking. I didn't realize that we will be arriving in Paris on Easter Sunday when we booked. On Easter Monday stores and some restaurants may be closed, but everything else is open. We still plan on doing mostly our own thing while there, but time is limited for us as hubby is still working (just a few more years!) Your flight sounds good. In talking with our travel agent, price of flights with transfers was better than booking on our own. We are flying out of Boston, and it will be interesting to see where we end up changing planes as it could be Amsterdam, Paris or Frankfurt to Marseilles with the airlines they use. Direct flight would be nice, but I'm not anticipating it. All part of the adventure! One good point about living on the east coast....it's closer and cheaper to get to Europe! :)

[RoupMom]

Anyone else on this cruise and reading this board? It's getting closer now!

[morgme]

Hi, Kathie,

Are you getting as excited as we are yet? I saw your post, but noticed there aren't any replies. Makes me wonder where all our fellow passengers might be from! We are anxiously awaiting our flight information (hope they are kind ;)), which should be coming later this month. Noticed the changes in offers from Viking and glad we decided to book when we did. Can't remember if you mentioned whether this was your first river cruise or not, but here's hoping the weather warms up and the euro goes down (at least a little bit!)

Terry

[RoupMom]

Hi, Terry. Perhaps the others on this cruise are not participants on the board. Too bad, as I always enjoy folks' input. Yes, the time is getting closer, and I'm getting excited. It is our first river cruise, so will be very different for us. Some of my excitement got briefly deterred while we planned a cruise to Alaska in June with our son, his wife, and the 2 grandsons. But now I have the French lessons programmed into my iPod Touch and am hoping that will be an incentive to get out and walk some even with the winter weather. You folks "back East" are really getting it this year! The dollar seems to be improving a little against the euro, and I hope that trend continues! Who knows what airline security will be like by the end of March! My knee replacements always lead to increased scrutiny anyway, so I may be in for quite an experience!

Kathie

[morgme]

Hi, Kathie. If you have to have a distraction, planning a second trip is the way to go! What line are you cruising to Alaska on? Inside passage? Hubby has the yen for the Alaska cruise, so sure one day we will be doing it. Well, according to many of the posts on the boards in here, we should have a lousy time on Viking. :D Thank goodness, hubby and I do not really pay much attention to negative postings as people and expectations are all different. We had a wonderful time on our Med Cruise on NCL, but I know from observation that if you asked a few of the people on our tours, they would have complained! Let your own experience be your guide is my motto. ;)

Terry

[RoupMom]

Terry, yes I can hardly wait for France and for Alaska! I feel very blessed to be able to do both. We have friends who have done this same Viking cruise and say it is their favorite of all time, and it was their 6th on Viking. They have traveled quite a bit and prefer Viking to any other type of transport, so that's all I needed to hear. I'm not sure what people's expectations are, but I'm certain we'll have a wonderful time.

Ultimately we decided to travel 3 hours north to Vancouver, BC, and take the Inside Passage cruise on Holland America. It's Inside Passage the whole way, instead of going west of Vancouver Island, as the Seattle cruises do. It has the itinerary I want, and we were just on this particular ship (Volendam) last Christmas in New Zealand, so we're very familiar with it. Plus it was the least expensive by quite a bit due to "past passenger" status. It would have been nice to go to one of the 14-day cruises out of Seattle, or a cruise/land package, but we felt we couldn't afford it with all 6 of us, plus France. If you've never been, Alaska is quite an experience. The weather is unpredictable, but if you have clear weather (we did last time) the scenery is magnificent. It can get spendy, though, because a lot of the excursions that are once-in-a-lifetime experiences are quite dear. We can tell you more at dinner some evening if you're interested!

Kathie

[morgme]

Hi, Kathie. So glad to hear some positive comments about Viking from someone, although in reading some of the other threads, there seems to be more postings in support of Viking than before. It seems like you don't base your decisions on the opinions of people you don't know either, but rather trust the experiences of those you do. Much more fun to find out ourselves and roll with the punches! ;) Your trip to Alaska sounds wonderful, and it would be great to hear about your past ventures over dinner. Looking forward to meeting you. :) If you don't mind my asking, how did you come about finding the apartment in Paris? On your own or recommendation of friend? We should be hearing soon about flights and hotel. We usually always book all our own, but not this time. Will be interesting! Terry

[RoupMom]

So many people have been helpful to me over the years when planning trips that I never mind sharing about our "findings" or experiences. When we decided we wanted to do Paris on our own, I started looking at various web sites under "Vacation rentals in Paris". Thousands (seemingly) of apartments appeared, though it became clear that several were on more than one board. I found vrbo.com (Vacation rentals by owners) to be the best suited for our needs, though there are other good ones, and I've had friends who used it before satisfactorily, including on my previous trip to France. We wanted something not too expensive, close to a Metro stop, and either on the ground floor or with an elevator. After literally hours combing through listings, I added being able to pay with a credit card, or PayPal or something, to the list, instead of paying in cash on arrival. The place I found met all our criteria and had many recent "reviews"; the pictures were good, too. So I contacted them, and the owner, who lives in Texas, responded with VERY helpful info. I have a couple of hotels in mind in case of some snafu, but I really don't expect any problems. I'm thinking it will be great! I'm happy to be "meeting" someone who has a positive attitude for our cruise, too. There are always minor things on any trip, but I'm guessing the air trip home will actually be the biggest hassle at this point. : -(

[morgme]

Hi, Kathie. It's getting closer, and we are more than ready. The apartment in Paris sounds wonderful. You'll have to post and let us know how it worked out after you return. I have checked into a few of those apartment and home rental sites also, but have never done it, so will be interested to hear. I got curious on our flights and contacted our TA, and we are pretty happy. Booked on Lufthansa, connections in Frankfurt on way and Munich on return with very good departure and arrival times, so phew! :) Now to find out what hotel we will staying in Paris (not really concerned about his one). Glad to see the Euro is cooperating (1.386 at this writing). Hoping the weather follows suit! Yes, a positive attitude is a must when traveling. Any snafu's only make the trip more memorable! Figured out what you are taking yet? Trying to keep the luggage light this go around.

Terry