Viking Sky - Cities of Lights - October 2012

[Dr_and_Mrs_P]

Hello!

 

My history professor husband and I booked the Viking Sky "Cities of Lights" river cruise today for October 2012. Our cruise begins in Prague and ends in Paris. Has anyone taken this ship and tour? This will be our first river cruise. My only other cruise was a Carnival Cruise from Galveston to Cozumel and I hated it. These river cruises seem like a whole different universe. I'm terribly excited since this will be my first time in Europe, other than London last March 2011.

 

I would love to hear from anyone who has feedback on (1) Viking Cruise line, (2) Viking Sky ship, (3) "Cities of Lights" tour.

 

Thank you in advance!

 

Dr_and_Mrs_P

[CasaM]

Dr and Mrs P,

 

We are scheduled on Viking Sky in Nov so we have not done this particular ship or itinerary. That being said, I'm going to go out on a limb and predict you will love your cruise. We love going to Europe and it is so different than your cruise to Cozumel. We also did Galveston to Cozumel once and we also did not like it.

 

But we've also done about 7 cruises to Europe and loved every one. Mostly the Mediterranean on Royal Caribbean, Celebrity, and Carnival, but last year we did the Danube on Viking. Walking around the towns/cities in Europe just imparts such a sense of history.

 

We did Prague on our own before our Viking trip last year. It's a wonderful city and this year, will do Paris on our own before sailing. The research before is half the fun! Ask away if you have any questions.

[molymoo]

We did the cruise portion of the Cities of Light tour in April 2011 ... it is called Vinyards and Vistas ... no Paris of Prague ... we had to fit it in during Spring Break. At any rate we loved the cruise. It was our first river cruise and we are hooked. I loved the laid back feel on the ship and thoroughly enjoyed not having to dress up for dinner! Our fellow passengers were a diverse group but there were a lot of retired teachers and professors (retired and active). We had done a few ocean cruises on the big ships but this was so much more intimate and relaxed. There is always scenery to enjoy from the ship and we got to see lots of lovely little towns that we wouldn't have visited by any other means.

 

We loved the experience so much that we did another (Romantic Danube) during the Winter Break and will be doing our third (Waterways of the Czars) in July.

 

We chose Viking as they were the ones sending us brochures at the time. We have continued with Viking as they have continued to please us with their great service, organization, and they do have incentives for repeat cruisers.

[woodfly]

Hello!

 

My history professor husband and I booked the Viking Sky "Cities of Lights" river cruise today for October 2012. Our cruise begins in Prague and ends in Paris. Has anyone taken this ship and tour? This will be our first river cruise. My only other cruise was a Carnival Cruise from Galveston to Cozumel and I hated it. These river cruises seem like a whole different universe. I'm terribly excited since this will be my first time in Europe, other than London last March 2011.

 

I would love to hear from anyone who has feedback on (1) Viking Cruise line, (2) Viking Sky ship, (3) "Cities of Lights" tour.

 

Thank you in advance!

 

Dr_and_Mrs_P

We just returned from this cruise on Sky. The itinerary was wonderful, as wants the staff. The boat was without air conditioning for the first five days (as they struggled to fix a freon leak) and was oppressively hot in the middle of a German heat wave. But, they finally got it fixed and all went well from that point.

 

The program director Stephanie and her assistants Vickie and Nicole were with us every step of the way and I cannot imagine anyone working so hard to accommodate their guests. The food was as good as you would find on any ocean-going cruise line.

 

The best thing about the cruise were the intimate atmosphere of 145 cruisers who you could get to know over the eight cruising days. All but three of the shore excursions were included in the price. Those that were not we're two wine tastings and a day trip to Rothenberg (which was not to be missed). The excursions were all guided by locals who were excellent and amazingly knowledgable about their cities - be prepared for LOTS of walking and get inshale before you go.

 

Everything about te cruise (with the exception of the air conditioning problem) was organized with typically efficient German accumen.

[CasaM]

Woodfly, which day was the Rothenberg excursion? Were you missing a scheduled guided tour to do the whole day Rothenberg tour? I don't see this on my itinerary.

[OkieCruiser49]

We leave on the CoL cruise on Wednesday. We received our packet with detailed itinerary last week with a detailed itinerary. If you'd like, I can send you the itinerary as a word document. I've sent you a friend request so that we can exchange email addresses if you're interested.

[CasaM]

Okie, I'd like to see the itinerary. You can email me at clarann65 at gmail.com. Thanks so much and have a great trip!

[OkieCruiser49]

Sent itinerary yesterday. Let me know if you didn't get it.

[woodfly]

Woodfly, which day was the Rothenberg excursion? Were you missing a scheduled guided tour to do the whole day Rothenberg tour? I don't see this on my itinerary.

 

We did Rothenberg as an optional excursion on the day we were in Wurzburg. Residence in the morning and then on to Rothrnberg for lunch and tour with plenty of free time.

[CasaM]

Thanks Okie....it's great to have the whole itinerary and thanks woodfly for your response too.