Berlin Bear

A good meeting place would be in front of the Museum of Liverpool about five minutes walk from where the ship docks. You can’t miss it - it’s a large white modern building right on the waterfront between the ship and the Albert Dock. No big roads to cross. There are a number of car parks around the Albert Dock area: https://en.parkopedia.co.uk/parking/carpark/albert_dock_c/l3/liverpool/?arriving=202304241700&leaving=202304241900

Re Liverpool - my hometown - I’d like to mention that art lovers shouldn’t miss the Tate Liverpool (Albert Dock area) and the Walker Art Gallery (opposite St George’s Hall). In fact, I would suggest that when docking in Liverpool, it’s really worth spending the day there and not rushing off to Wales or elsewhere, even if you’re not a Beatles fan. There is so much to see. For example, a walk along Hope Street https://theguideliverpool.com/can-we-talk-about-hope-street/ from the Catholic cathedral to the Anglican cathedral is really interesting. Beautiful Georgian architecture, a pub (the Philharmonic Dining Halls) with a renowned men’s bathroom, the Philharmonic Hall itself and you even pass my old school, Blackburne House, which I attended in the 1960s! There’s also a great view from the bell tower of the Anglican Cathedral. And good restaurants for lunch. The Maritime Museum (also Albert Dock) is also definitely worth a visit and is home to the International Slavery Museum. Don’t forget, Liverpool was once the main slave trading port of Britain and many of its grand buildings stem from this period. Just some suggestions…

Munich airport is quite a long way from the city centre. The train takes about 40 minutes. Perhaps you are referring to the frequency: apparently trains run every 10 minutes.

And at least you won’t have to worry about your luggage making the connecting flight 😉

I agree with this. Munich has the reputation of being the most pleasant airport in Germany, so rather a longer wait than a stressful connection.

Really like both lines, although I’m judging Celebrity on their Aqua class. We have mainly sailed with the German line TUI Cruises which is a very similar experience to sailing Celebrity - except for the casino. But, in my opinion, you can’t beat Viking for the smaller ship, calmer, laid-back experience which, as oldies, we now prefer 😉.

On the Jupiter for 3 weeks in March/April 2022. I’m pretty sure that we could hear the announcements via the appropriate channel on the TV. We were in quarantine for ten days and couldn’t (didn’t) just run out into the corridor to hear what was going on. It was very frustrating to hear about things happening on board and not be able to take part 😅. We we’re also quite impressed by the crew that we encountered. Their reactions to a couple just suddenly appearing from nowhere in the middle of the Atlantic were quite amusing. Most were slightly embarrassed that they’d „forgotten“ our cabin number and names. Not to mention the excellent and friendly treatment we were given during quarantine.

Thanks for this information. We’re also looking at this itinerary. Could you please give some details regarding this promotion code?

I have never received post, emails, messages of any sort from Viking, despite having done a few cruises and having specifically requested that they send me „unsolicited“ information 😅. But I’m not writing this to complain, as I think this thread is really good, so I probably don’t need Viking to keep me informed personally. However, I’d be more than happy if some UK based cruisers could also share their promotional material. US promotions often include air fare - not much use to us 😉.

Off topic - interesting to hear that Viking is „very much a European cruise line“ and purchases certain (many?) articles in Germany. I just wish they would also make it easier for EU-based customers to purchase their cruises! We live in Berlin and have done two Viking ocean cruises, both booked in the UK - I also grew up there. Thanks to Brexit, that’s no longer possible. So for us, it certainly doesn’t feel very European😉