Viking Pre-Cruise days in Basel on our own, some questions

[summerclouds]

Hello, Everyone,

 

My husband and I are booked for Basel to Amsterdam with Viking for Sept. 11 – 18, 2022.  Done 2 ocean cruises with Holland America, but this is our 1^st river cruise and 1^st Viking experience.  We are really excited for this.

 

 We are planning to come into Basel a few days early using the Viking Air service (have paid for custom air and for deviation) and are debating  whether  to use Viking’s  pre-extension for Basel or do it ourselves.  We feel quite comfortable booking our own hotel, getting from airport to hotel, and exploring on our own.   We’ve been told by our travel agent that if we don’t do the Viking pre-extension, Viking won’t sell us stand-alone transfers.  This has me concerned in two areas:

 

1.        I understand that there are several possible embarkation docks in Basel and that sometimes the ship doesn’t learn its actual location until the day of embarkation.  How will we know where to go and how will we learn of any last minute changes if we are doing Basel on our own?

 

2.       Once we reach the embarkation dock, will Viking take our luggage from us and get it on the ship and to our cabin, or will we be responsible for getting it onboard since we don’t have their transfer service?  We are 71 and 75 and while pretty healthy overall, I have some not so pretty pictures in my mind of us having to haul our luggage up gangplanks or ladders and possibly  through several ships if we are rafted and our ship is not the 1st ship in the rafting. 

 

Thanks so much!

 

Summerclouds

[need2travel1]

Hi Summerclouds,

We've never done a Viking river cruise but have done four with Uniworld.  We always come in a day or two early & tour around on our own. 

If Viking works like Uniworld you'll be given the ships phone number in with your final documents.  On Embarkation day we ask the front desk at our hotel to call the ship for us & doublecheck where exactly its docked.  We then have the bellman get us a cab & he tells the cab driver where the ship is.  Having them do it cuts down on any language barrier we'd face since unfortunately English is the only language we speak. 

Upon arrival at the dock crew members are there to take all the luggage.  All you have to do is relax & start enjoying your vacation.   

As I said, this is how Uniworld does it but I'm sure Viking does things somewhat along the same lines.

 

Hope this helps!  

 

[WisRiver]

We did the Basel to Amsterdam Rhine Getaway from October 13 to October 20, 2021.  We are independent travelers, and had been moving around Europe for several months before starting the  Viking River Cruise.  We made all our own travel arrangements.  We booked a room at the Hotel Basel near the Marketplatz.  The Hotel Basel is an excellent, centrally located hotel.    Basel is an interesting city, and very convenient to get around, since a tram pass is included in your hotel stay.  We had a great three days before starting our cruise.

 

Viking has a dedicated dock, but we called the ship's number on our morning of departure to verify the dock.  Our hotel called a taxi for us, and he took us directly to dock.  Viking staff met us on the street in front of the dock.  There were crew who took our bags and delivered them to our cabin.  We never touched our bags after leaving the hotel until we were in our cabin.  

[summerclouds]

Thanks for the replies and information.  I think we'll be able to do this!

[nocl]

We did a Viking river cruise from Basel, without transfers.  We emailed the ship the morning that we were supposed to board and they told us what specific dock they would be at.

 

When you are in Basel it is easy to do day trips to other locations such as Lucerne.  Trains are easy to use and very reliable.

[tfred]

Basel isn't the biggest city so finding your way around is pretty easy.  We stayed at Hotel Spalentor and its was great.  Walkable to most sights.  Certainly worthy of a day or two.

 

I think that Viking and Crystal (which we took) dock in the same area, just across from each other.  Too far of a walk but easy by cab.  BTW- cabs are expensive