Just off the Viking Danube Waltz - Ask Away

[KBs mum]

@Cruizn MamaVaccines started being used in England in 1796, we were the first to give someone a covid 19 vaccine.

 

Try to keep up😀

Edited April 26, 2022 by KBs mum

[Cruizn Mama]

To those of you who it seems I may have offended, I should have worded my comments better.  I am aware that Europe has very good medicine, techniques, physicians, etc.  I was concerned more about Eastern Europe.  Having watched my husband recently be deathly ill (not just with Covid), it has made me question a lot of things regarding issues with health care.  So I was asking, but I should have asked better.  A friend of mine had a very bad medical situation with an accident on an island off Italy a few years back.  No one spoke English and the care was often not sterile where it should have been (she's a nurse practitioner).  She had a compound fracture of her ankle and many surgeries later, she still can't walk right.  With our insurance and guidance on this trip, I would hope that wouldn't be an issue.

[Cruizn Mama]

Piginmud, are any cruisers on the Viking longships eating on the upstairs level which is more open air and outdoors-like?  Or is everyone ok with eating inside?  Thanks!

 

[piginmud]

On 4/25/2022 at 10:22 AM, Bill Y said:

As Austria has different entry requirements at least on paper to other European countries, what happened when the ship crossed into Austria were there any inspections of vaccine certification and test results? Or did Austrian officials at ports do these inspections in order to allow passengers to go ashore? Or were the only checks done at embarkation?

I'm sure there was inspections of the test results, but we weren't involved.  We just had to do the daily covid testing and then if there were any positive people, they were taken off the ship.  The only check for vaccination records and negative covid tests (done by us) were done when we boarded the ship.

[piginmud]

On 4/21/2022 at 8:38 AM, travelingman said:

Hi.  thanks for willingness to answer questions.  And, glad you enjoyed your cruise.

Where was the ship docked at in Budapest please?

Also, on your panoramic Budapest tour were you able to get off the bus at Buda Castle  and the Fisherman's Bastion and tour any of the area and buildings?

 

Thanks.

Stan

The ship was docked about a 5 minute walk to the Great Market Hall.  I forget the exact Dock # but it was very close to the Elizabeth Bridge.  Hope that helps.  Yes, we were able to get off the bus at Buda Castle but honestly there was no tour or walking the grounds of the castle itself.  We toured the Matthias church and then had some free time (not very much) of the area.  Our tour guide suggested we not pay to walk through Fisherman's Bastion because you got just as good of a view from the grounds as you did walking through the gate area.  I don't believe there were any other buildings to view or walk through.  There were shops but we literally only had about 30-45 minutes and it wasn't enough time.

[piginmud]

On 4/21/2022 at 9:21 AM, 2017newcruiser said:

Thanks for all the info - 

 

I have a question regarding the ship dock in Budapest.  Is it situated in a area that is walkable if we wanted to go from the ship to explore interesting areas  out on our own?

Would you recommend a few extra days in Budapest prior to getting on our boat?

Yes it was definitely walkable to certain areas.  We were about 5 minutes to the Great Market Hall. And Vaci Utca (a nice pedestrian street with shops)  My sister and I walked from the Dohany Street Synagogue (we did the 2 night pre-cruise extension & walked from our hotel to various places - St. Stephen's Church & the synagogue) to the dock which was a 25 minute walk.  I definitely would recommend a few days in Budapest before the cruise!  Budapest was so nice and there were so many things to see.  If you do the pre-cruise extension with Viking, there's tours you can book with them, but it's very easy to navigate the city on your own.  Everyone speaks english very well.  Feel free to ask away if you need more information.

[piginmud]

On 4/21/2022 at 1:01 PM, meg1021 said:

Thanks for your kind offer to provide info.  We just booked a 14 night Amsterdam to Budapest river cruise, and are first time river cruisers, and first time cruising with Viking.  You mentioned gratuities.  Does Viking allow you to put gratuities on your onboard account?  Or are you required to pay in Euros?  What about Covid testing protocols?  As of now, we will be required to provide a negative PCR test, done within 72 hours of boarding.  We are planning on arriving in Amsterdam one day before boarding, and planning on getting a PCR test in the airport, after we go through security.  I'm concerned that if we use a service like MedExpress, our PCR results will not be back in a timely manner.  (On our January Royal Caribbean cruise, a negative antigen test was required 48 hours before boarding, and many local CVS and Walgreens had testing appointments, and results back within one hour, making the process somewhat simpler.  Our MedExpress sends out PCR tests to LabCorp, therefore test results take longer.)  What would be your testing recommendation?  Do you know of anyone who took the Klimt Workshop tour in Vienna?  If  so, what was their assessment?  In Passau, did anyone take the full day Saltzberg tour?

 

Thanks once again for you help.

You can put the gratuities on your onboard account.  It comes off your credit card in euros, but of course the banks do the conversion.  We did daily covid tests on the ship!  Since we did the Budapest pre-cruise extension, we just had to do our own covid tests 72 hours prior to boarding our flight - that might be different for you are doing it on your own and if you didn't book your pre-cruise vacation with Viking, I'm not sure.  My sister and I both did our pre-covid testing at a CVS pharmacy in NJ and we had our results back in 1 day.  No, sorry I don't know anyone who did that Klimt tour and I don't think it was even offered on our cruise?  Also, the Saltzberg tour wasn't offered on our cruise either.  Maybe because you are doing a different one, a 14 day tour vs our 7 day cruise?  Any more questions, please feel free to ask away!

[piginmud]

On 4/22/2022 at 2:00 PM, notamermaid said:

One simple question. Passau did not used to be an embarkation port for Viking. Did you do this as a standard itinerary or was there a change, i.e. Vilshofen and possibly Regensburg/Nuremberg cut out?

 

notamermaid

 

It was the standard itinerary on our cruise.  Even when we originally booked it for March 2020, Passau was the final destination.  We did the 7 day Danube Waltz and it was always on the itinerary?

[piginmud]

On 4/23/2022 at 9:55 AM, Viking2020 said:

We are doing a pre cruise in Budapest. Any thing you really liked? We are doing the Highlights tour but will have more time to see more. 

We did the highlights tour and it was very good - although a lot of walking!  My sister and I took a cab from the hotel (Intercontinental) on the first day we arrived to the Great Market Hall.  Then we walked back on Vaci Utca (street) to the hotel.  It was about a 25 minute walk (if you didn't stop at all the shops).  The city is very easy to navigate, everyone speaks english, and you can get to a lot of the attractions on your own. St. Stephen's Basilica was a highlight for us (we bought the tickets ourselves at the ticket office - it was like $4-5 person for the church and the tower at the top).  Then we walked to Dohany Street Synagogue (I bought the tickets online).  We never made it to the ruin bars, but I've heard they are really fun.  Andrassy Avenue is basically a street filled with high end shops like Michael Kors, Gucci, etc.  So if you are into that go, otherwise avoid it.  Go to Hero's Square if you can, it looked neat.  We saw it from the bus on the included tour, but it's not the same.  Some people went to Buda Castle District on their own, but that's also part of the included tour.  Budapest is a very reasonably priced city and you can get a nice meal for about $20/person!

[notamermaid]

3 minutes ago, piginmud said:

It was the standard itinerary on our cruise.  Even when we originally booked it for March 2020, Passau was the final destination.  We did the 7 day Danube Waltz and it was always on the itinerary?

Thanks. It could be, at least for a few years that is. I assume I was mistaken and perhaps thought of a different itinerary.

 

notamermaid

 

[piginmud]

On 4/23/2022 at 3:55 PM, Cruizn Mama said:

We are slated for the June 22 sailing from Budapest to Passau, with a pre-trip extensions in Budapest and post-trip in Prague.  We have many concerns including how does it feel to be traveling during Covid times, specifically:  on the airplanes, on the boat, in the hotels and during tours?  What is the climate in each of these countries?  Are people masking, percentage wise?  Did you feel safe?  (Maybe that's a silly question.)  I would love to really hear these sorts of questions addressed.  We are 2 couples traveling and so far, we are all boosted, but 1 spouse in 1 couple had the misfortune to catch Covid at the end of December and 1 spouse in the other managed to be hospitalized with the latest variant just last month, despite having a booster dose and being very careful!  No one wants to start a trip and be quarantined in the beginning or middle of it, or worse, end up in a hospital where the caregivers are not speaking English or up to date with American medicine.  This is the 3rd try for this trip and we have these worries, but will travel ever be back to a normal state?  And to those of you who think this is a common cold, I'm sorry for your misunderstanding of what it means to be older and less immune to disease.

I personally am not worried about the whole covid thing, so if you are really worried about it, you might want to delay your cruise.  We did daily covid tests on the ship and we did notice several suitcases being taken off the ship at various ports because people obviously tested positive and had to be taken off the ship.  There is not a lot of people masking.  On our cruise it was mandatory to mask the first couple days, and then Viking made it a rule that as of April 1st, masks were not mandatory.  But after a few people on the cruise tested positive, they were highly recommending everyone to wear the masks.  Everyone was masked on our flight, but as I read now, it's not mandatory on a number of the bigger airlines.  I felt safe, but your mileage may vary 🙂  Even though everyone who boarded the ship was supposed to be fully vaccinated *and* boosted, there were still people who caught it on the trip 😞  The hard part is that when you do test positive, they take you off the ship to a local hotel and you can't even quarantine in your cabin.  It was also our 3rd try on this trip and we took it and loved it.  But I could see how if you tested positive and had to be taken off the ship that this would be a terrible experience.  I guess it's for you to decide if it's worth it.  Maybe they will eventually stop the daily covid testing and then at least that aspect of the trip won't be so worrisome 😞

[piginmud]

On 4/27/2022 at 9:58 PM, Cruizn Mama said:

Piginmud, are any cruisers on the Viking longships eating on the upstairs level which is more open air and outdoors-like?  Or is everyone ok with eating inside?  Thanks!

 

Well eating outside was an option  outside the Aquavit but... during our particular week on the cruise it was VERY cold!  On 2 days we even had snow! (March 30-April 6).  Several people (including ourselves) ate in the Aquavit for lunch and sometimes dinner.  Hardly no one was outside on the sun deck except for when we did the scenic Budapest night cruise (which was gorgeous!) and when we sailed through the Wachau Valley.

[piginmud]

10 minutes ago, notamermaid said:

Thanks. It could be, at least for a few years that is. I assume I was mistaken and perhaps thought of a different itinerary.

 

notamermaid

 

No worries - I think someone else posted as well that maybe you were thinking of a different itinerary.  I'm a newbie to Viking (this being my first cruise with them), so I didn't know if it was ever different.  Oh BTW, it won't be my last cruise with them 😉 

[notamermaid]

Someone before had kindly pointed that out about Passau. Correct.

 

10 minutes ago, piginmud said:

Oh BTW, it won't be my last cruise with them 😉 

A very please customer then. Good.

 

notamermaid

 

[M&Rsquared]

Would you be so kind as to post the Viking Daily Newsletters with the "hourly" information page.  I'd like to see what time the tours start and what other activities there are.  thank you