viking cruisers

[Shopinpat]

We are taking a river cruise in 2011 on Viking Sun and have a few questions for past cruisers.

If you pay by credit card on the boat do they also charge you a conversion fee on your card due to them using a swiss bank? Does the

boat use euros?

Can anyone suggest hotels in Amsterdam and/or Basel ?

Any site that one can go to to find out where the boats are going to be docked prior to leavening or do you just have to wait until you get to the

country?

Any recent passengers, has the food improved at all? It seems like most think the food is mediocre at best is it better to eat off ship when docked?

thanks!

[jacksonnh]

Pat - we took a 15 day cruise on the Sun last year. The only drawback for me was after cruising the Elbe with 90 passangers, having 198 on the Sun seemed crowded to me. I much prefer a smaller ship. There is a post on currency conversion fees that discuss this issue. If you use a Captal One card you won't be charged. There is also a explaination from a Viking rep about the charge and what to do if the processor charges you for one.

Any charges you incur on the ship will be charged to your room and you will settle the bill as you disembark using a cc, US $ or Euros.

As for docking - many times the harbor master or regional port master will change locations based on a number of factors and the ship's captain may be told at the last moment.

Food is subjective and I felt the meals served were very good and far from mediocre.

Can't help you with hotels.

Happy sailing!

Dave

[Big Al B.]

I found this on the Viking website. It may be of some use:

http://www.vikingrivercruises.com/pdfs/docking_locations.pdf

[Shopinpat]

Thanks for the info, the ports were exactly what I was looking for.

 

Dave, as to the ship itself, when you charge to the room if you do use a credit card will the additional charges appear unless u use a capital one card?

 

thanks again.

[jacksonnh]

Pat - I' ve only used a capital one card but in the other post about this subject there was a response from a viking rep -

"While, some credit card companies impose a foreign transaction fee for Viking charges, others do not and their criterion varies. This is why we cannot forewarn our guests about the potential fee. However, we want to assure you that Viking does not benefit from these charges, and when it does occur we reimburse the foreign transaction amount"

Hope this helps.

[Big Al B.]

Pat, it might be easier to get a Cap One card. Viking will reimburse the fee, but you have to go through the process of copying your statement showing the fee and sending it in to them first.

[Shopinpat]

Thanks, yes I orderdered a Cap one card seems to be the one that is used

for traveling these days!

[pacmom]

Pat,

We took a cruise on the Sun from Antwerp-Pasel in the Spring of 2009. I also feel the boat to have too many passengers, especially after being on the Clara Schumann. All the rooms are the same except for location and size of windows. The bottom deck is very noisy from plumbing noises--could hear every toilet flush and the shower gurgled continuously. Those on the other decks did not have this problem. There is no elevator--lounge on the topdeck and dining on the main deck. We had a woman wind up in a cast after a fall in Delft. She was on the lounge deck and ate her meals in her cabin--couldn't get to the dining room. An elevator would have been a big help. Hopefully the young female cruise director has matured in her job by now. The people on this trip were very nice a mix of Americans and Brits. Pat

[roothy123]

We just got back from the Fontane on the Mosel, Rhine and Main. I found the food to be fairly good, although there were a few things that were definite misses. I tried very hard to determine docking locations before we left, but there was one port (Wurzburg) that turned out to be a big surprise. As a previous poster stated, the ship and cruise company don't always have control over docking locations.

[roothy123]

I meant to add that if you are looking for possible docking locations on the Mosel, Rhine or Main (Trier, Wurzburg, Rudesheim, Nurnberg, etc.) I can tell you where we docked.