my cousins and i are planning a girl%26#39;s trip on the viking river cruise next march, mostly because it includes the cities we haven%26#39;t seen before. (budapest, vienna, etc) has anyone used this line before and what did you think about your trip ane the quality of excursions they provide? thanks for any suggestions!!!
|||
A cruise along the danube is doubtless an exciting and smooth way to explore the beauty of the landscape. As I haven%26#39;t done this trip yet, I cannot really have an opinion, but I am convinced that it would be a great experience. Be only advised that the river vessels aren%26#39;t comparable to the ones shipping in the Carribean, and that mainly %26quot;life-experienced%26quot; people do this trip (I suppose).
|||
I work in an office with a view on the danube, and we also provide harbour-services to a few ship-lines, but unfortunatly not Viking, so there is not much I can contribute here. The Viking ships look fairly ok from the outside so far, not the absolute newest ones, these are mostly French and Swiss ships, but very well maintained. The most beautifull one on the river, in my opinion, but I am afraid also one of the most expensive one, is the River Cloud, both the I and the II modell, very nice.
I also support Mickey´s %26quot;warning%26quot;: First, please keep in mind that the average age on board will be somewhere in the late fifties, and second, be advised that due to the size of the locks you have to pass through, the ships size is limited, and with the lines beeing under pressure of putting more and more cabins into a limited space, be prepared that the cabins might be new and well equipped, but still way smaller then a hotel room, and that a river boat can never provide the same amenities then a big cruise-liner, so pls. don´t expect a theatre or a casino or big sports opportunities ...
Additionally, I recently dealt with a complaint by a cruise passenger about the noise level. Both in Vienna and Budapest, the moorings are along very busy main roads of the towns (with Budapest actually beeing worse, Vienna is not that bad in my opinion) and I would consult your travel agents first as on if there is any special soundproof windows on board, if you are normally used to a very quiet sleep. Or have a look at your cruise itinerary, you might be on the river during the night anyway, then the only thing that could wake you up is operations in a lock, and thatis actually interesting enough so I would suggesting getting up and seeing it !
Greets, Fritz
|||
-:- Message from TripAdvisor staff -:-
TripAdvisor staff removed this post either because the author requested it, or because it did not meet TripAdvisor's forum guidelines.
To review the TripAdvisor Forums Posting Guidelines, please follow this link: http://www.tripadvisor.com/pages/forums_posting_guidelines.html
We remove posts that do not follow our posting guidelines, and we reserve the right to remove any post for any reason.
Removed on: 3:54 am, December 04, 2007
|||
We live in South Carolina and are also interested in a river cruise, probably for the fall of 2009. We are interested in what you have found out and how your journey proceeds. We like the Viking cruises also, from their brochures, but they sound expensive. We cruise a lot in the Caribbean and think we would like a boat without the giltz. However, the issue of sound at night might be important. Thanks for any info you are able to share and we wish you Bon Voyage!
|||
recently returned from a viking cruise on the Danube and had a great time. The boats are informal with fantastic food and service and the excursions were good though you can usually do your own thing and get around most places easily if you don%26#39;t want to do the optional excursions. Watch out for discounts as the full price is high. The moorings were quiet though sailing at night sometimes noisy when passing through locks or mooring up. There were a few families with teenagers but most people were retired and American with services to suit them. The crew were fantastic but our only problem was with the transfer. We flew into Munich and were met by a limo but they were waiting for other passengers and we were told we would have to wait for nearly 3 hours for our transfer to Nuremberg. So book your own transfers!
|||
tell me more. I am planning Budepest to Amsterdam next summer and am looking at uniworld. How much comp wine did you get at dinner?
|||
Let me take lm4tvl%26#39;s question: We have been on 2 river cruises (plus several Cruise West small ship cruises), with two cruise lines: The Rhone cruise with Peter Dailmann, and the Duoro River (Portugal) Cruise with Uniworld. Both were very satisfactory. more luxurious than Cruise West and better service. That there can%26#39;t be any comparisn with ocean-going cruise ships has already been commented on.
The Peter Deilmann was more international, with mostly Brits, Germans, Americans,Canadians and couple of Frenchmen thrown in. Unlike the Uniworld trip, the ship%26#39;s official languages were English and German. On the Deilmann we had assigned dining room seats (by language), on Uniworld we could switch. The food on the Peter Deilmann cruise was bit more European. But, overall, UNIWORLD was a good experience and well worth the money.
Now, unless you are booked already and it doesn%26#39;t make any difference where you start your cruise, I would start in Amsterdam. Although you will be travelling the Rhein upstream, you will be a shorter time on the Rhein than on the Danube. On the stretch between Rhein and Danube (the Main river and the Rhein-Main Danube Canal) the direction of the water is not very important, because these are frequently dammed and slow moving waterways. But going up- stream on tbe Danube is much slower than downstream (from Vienna to Budapest).
We haven%26#39;t taken the Danube cruise, but driven from Frankfurt to Budapest.
|||
You may also wish to do a search for your Viking Ship on cruisecritic.com, where you can look at passenger reviews for specific ships and itineraries.
|||
Just returned from a Danube river cruise on Viking, Nuremburg to Budapest (Sept 09). Beware of low water level in the river. We lost two of seven days of cruising due to the low water and had to be bussed to our ports. The overall cruise was very nice, food and service excellent. The average age of the passengers would be around 60, with ages ranging from 30’s to 80’s. Passengers were American, Canadian, British and Australian. We were on the Viking Europe which has several sister ships and is very nice, remember this is a river cruise not an ocean cruise (entertainment NA). Cabin size is comparable to a ocean cruise ship. Do not take the cheap rooms unless you like upper and lower bunks. Our cabin was on the mid deck and was 154 sq ft with nice window and queen size bed. The issue of missing two days of cruising was brought to the attention of the ships management at a meeting with all passengers in attendance and the response was to email the Viking corporate office with our complaints. Needless to say this was not the right thing to say and it created some heated discussion. Eventually Viking paid for all passengers to attend a concert in Vienna, the price normally would have been 57 Euros per person. Considering the cost of the cruise, Viking got off cheap. I expect complaints will be filed. During this whole process the Captain never spoke to the passengers and nobody ever said they were sorry. We will do other river cruises; however, were quite disappointed with Vikings response to the problem and will not use their cruise line again.
|||
I have not been on a Viking cruise yet but do have one planned for November 2010. I appreciate your review but I think that from what you explained, Viking handled the low river problem to the best of their ability. Granted the captain probably should have explained the situation to you but no one can control the rivers or the weather. Even on large cruise ships sometimes the schedules have to be changed due to wind or storms. Having cruised on several Windjammer cruises(now out of business) you learned to go with the flow so to speak. everything was subject to change down to the last minute and I suspect the situation is similar on the river cruises.
