ural guy

CruiseIreland- Looks like you had good weather for your sail through the castle area. Can you get lunch and dinner in the small lounge at the rear of the ship? The grill guy use to set up just outside, had some great meals there. Not being foodies, it was perfect for us.

Glad you got to stop in Pilsen. We stayed 3 nights there before our November cruise, a block from the main square shown in your picture. There was a festival going on for the patron saint, and had a great atmosphere, and tons of gluhwein to sample. A nice brewing city, the brewery tour took you into the fermentation caves and was a fun visit. We missed out first stop also and boarded in Passau, what you experienced happens unfortunately, and sounds like you'll make the most of the change and relax a bit. How many people are on your cruise?

Correct, merely by us being here, we've put more due diligence into this vacation than many. People book a river cruise so they don't have to plan much of anything, and they take the commercials at face value. Over on the Vantage Bankruptcy Facebook, there are still stories from nieces/sons/etc, writing in as their granny was supposed to be on a cruise sailing Thursday, and Tuesday when they went in to check in for flights, they get their fist clue that Vantage is no more. Many find overseas travel daunting, so they go 'set it and forget it' mode. When it goes south, they take the time to find various web forums to make their first post and the rant begins. For the record, we had lived overseas for a few years, and taken 5-6 independent trips at the time when we booked our first cruise of any type, one month prior to sailing. I researched out independent trips, not this cruise (AMS-BUD). Took two 20's daughter. They really missed that upper deck, lots of pent up energy. We somehow survived and had a blast. Docking: Viking does seem to double/triple raft more then other lines, at least from what I noticed. Vantage not owning their docking spots seemed to help, in our three trips with them we rafted infrequently. We did late season sailings that might have given us a different experience.... Yorkshireoldlad- good points, and you bringing them up, maybe somebody new notices them.

Yes, she was the River Voyager, and I see she is heading upstream from Vienna. We liked our FB cabins, not huge but well laid out. We sailed the older sister ship of the Voyager last November, and it didn't have the second staircase back by the Captains Club/second dining venue. Made a long hike to get to the coffee machine. If you are into history, with your three days in Prague, you may want to check out St Cyril's Church/Museum for a sobering experience. Well done exhibits. Looking forward to hearing about your cruise, thanks for posting and taking us along.

CruiseIreland- Have a great trip, we enjoyed our Prague stay last November. We sailed twice on your ship when she was with Vantage. We really enjoyed our time on board, and I think some refurbishments were done during Covid. Are you in aquarium class or French Balcony?

We were on a 2016 cruise that was supposed to go to Constanta, but low water prevented it. The good part was that when we left the ship to drive to Bucharest, we had to take a back route that really highlighted what bad shape the countryside was in. All the young people had left, only older people on pensions remained in the small villages. Vukovar was still recovering, and to me that made it more interesting. This was history that was only 20+ years old. Visited a family who had been removed from their home so that Bosnians could live there. They returned 7 years later, and were happy that their photos had been preserved by the residents. So I agree with RobinMN, it's definitely not a Castles on the Rhine cruise but to us, it was still interesting, maybe more so as we had been stationed in Germany back in the 80's, when we thought this region was part of the evil empire. We were able to head up to Brasov for 5 days on our own, and Transylvania was really interesting...but not for you if you're ending in Passau. Have a great time, Passau is also a great spot to spend some extra time if you can.

Only thing I haven't seen mentioned is that 'lounging on the sun deck'...on certain cruises, the sun deck can be off limits due to low bridges quite a bit. That came as a surprise to me on our first cruise, which was AMS-BUD.

I canceled one of those deals a few months ago, I only lost the $25/person. They did not ask for extra money.

Received notice last week of our flights for our 23 December cruise. They had missed our deviation request, which I was able to fix with a phone call and $100/person. Our airfare was part of a Viking promotion and $600/person. Today received our flights, SYR-Dulles-AMS, and return of Basel-LHR-BOS-SYR. Outbound on United, Return on American. Decent flights and connection times. Checking google flights, I couldn't have done better, especially if I booked myself it would be either United or American flights, not a combination. Able to pick all seats except one leg, which I'll try and line up. I was surprised as I wasn't supposed to get flights until 90 days prior to sailing. So we got them 2 mths ahead of schedule.

bundtkate- Great review, you stated what you liked and didn't and why, thanks. I often break away, or don't start the included tour. I've used the onboard bikes (defunct Vantage), or taken the train to a nearby town that interests you. My spouse would typically take the tour. Having the options was great. Some of the German lines offer the tours as add ons, Rad Reisen Eurocycle has cruises where you can rent a bike, or bring your own. Following the Red Lolipop, even with the QuietVox setup, is always going to feel like sheep being herded. I've also noticed that guides are sometimes stuck on 18th/19th Century history, and shy away from more recent events as they may be controversial. I'm more interested in recent events than Sisi mania it seems that we always hear about on the upper Danube cruises. We eat about 80% of our meals in the Aquavit (or Captains Club, Vantage), not a fan of long meals, and typically get to 'know' the wait staff there pretty well. Nice and relaxed to us. So I agree with you 100% here, I hope they are full staffed for our Christmas sailing. You could hop a train up the Rhine from Basel, stopping at various spots and take a day cruise of the castle section. Take a left at Koblenz, maybe rent a car at this point, and head up the Mosel. The vineyards on the slopes along the river were gorgeous when we were there one November. Good luck no matter where you choose to go, and via what means.

Syracuse and Watertown are 'home' airport. We've driven to NYC, Toronto and Montreal to get direct flights. I envy your options. Years ago, in San Francisco for a St Patrick's Day parade, they had floats advertising the direct San-Fran to Dublin flights you could book. Spouse and I couldn't believe that.

I think it comes down to if the non-stop costs more then the offered two connection flight, I believe that you are correct in that there in no mandatory fee for a non-stop flight. Somewhere I saw that Viking is the largest purchaser of airfare in the US. They have good deals in place for what they pay for airfare, and I don't there is a lot of relevance to the price you may see on google flights and what they offer you.

CDNPolar- On Vantage last November they had thin plastic gloves that were mandatory to use going through the buffet area. Maybe 75% complied. You could bring a small ziplock bag of those, for other times when handwashing isn't available. Happy sailing.

This is nice, a question that got positively resolved in 5 hours. Yeah team, good work!

Yep, in my mid 50's, and on Vantage, I was on the very young end. That teasing I'll take all day long!

Notamermaid- I'm sure Viking will figure Christmas out nicely. Just an odd note, we were in Washington DC for Christmas a few years back. Mount Vernon, George Washington's home in Virginia, was open on Christmas day. It's owned by a private foundation, so no government restriction, just the drive to make $. Netherlands is not as religious as Germany, or at least doesn't have 'Blue Laws', so a better chance for Viking, then if we were in Colonge. My daughters were so disappointed years back when we were in Wurzburg on a Sunday. Shops were all closed.

Dianng- Sounds good! Spouse and I will be with our youngest (25) daughter and her boyfriend, so we'll be easy to spot. Should be a great trip. I think your being from Montana, and us 30 miles south of Canada, the weather won't phase us as much. Just bring the grippiest boots you have. Cobblestones may prove interesting.

Hello- we're on this cruise. Haqdeluxe is probably correct in that markets won't be open after the 24th. Are you able to fly in a few days early? We're going to stay in The Hague for a few days pre-cruise, they are supposed to have a nice market. The Hague is just a 30 minute train ride from Schipol airport, the train station is in the airport. I'm wondering what Viking will do on Christmas day. We're in Arnhem, which has tons to do: zoo, open air museum, Operation Market Garden museum...all great places we've visited and I would like to see again. Pretty sure they'll all be closed.

Notamermaid- The Donaushiffart link may be perfect for the OP. They have a variety of options where you can cruise from Passua to Linz or Vienna, stay overnight, return by bike or train...I noticed them when we were in Passua and went down a rabbit hole. There are a few sailing options that don't show up in American web searches unless you are very specific in your query. So very good of you locals to help out. I always see ships on the river I've never heard of. Thanks.

I just want to add that the Douro river valley is not only gorgeous, but easily done on your own. This is from 2 months back, we stayed at a Quinta, $110 usd a night. Quinta da Guimaraes (about an hour from the city of Guimaraes) is part of a 4 vineyard group that bottles their wine together. gorgeous property and grounds. The building is from 1722 and had it's own chapel. Our room opened onto boxwood gardens, with this amazing view on the far side of the pool. The Douro is zig zagging below us. We saw Viking and other ships during our drives along the river. Pretty amazing, 4 visits to Portugal and I always want to see more. Jazz- I'm sure you know about the history of the Knights Templar and their Tomar connection. So I'm guessing you'll visit the Convento de Cristo. If you have the time/knees, and don't mind heights, the aqueduct outside of town provides good views of the valleys, and is pretty typical or Portuguese tourism. They let you climb up and over/around everything. The history of Portugal, the influence of the Moors and their presence bringing about the Knights Templar, and all the castles they built along the 'frontier', that you can now visit (and be one of the few people there when we traveled), pretty sweet. Listening to podcasts about the Knights history added to the vibe. Then running into a site from the TV show 'Sharp', that follows the Peninsula campaign in Portugal...the history runs deep. (btw, Sharp stars a young Sean Bean, and tons of British actors before they were big, Elizabeth Hurley, Mark Strong...a good historical fiction with Russian horesmen standing in for the French/Spanish). Enjoy your trip.

I booked a Viking cruise last month on line, for a 'special' cruise/flight deal. Pretty easy. A week later, decided to bring daughter and her boyfriend. I told her the deal with the referrals, gave her our customer #, and told her that she could go on-line and book it herself. It was 3 days before the 'special' expired. She wound up calling, and got everything booked in 10 minutes. They instantly gave her the $100/person off. I had been holding off paying the balance of our cruise until I had her booking number. This was delayed until she completed the passenger info section. I think two chat sessions later, with her booking #, the referral $200 had come off my invoice. So our experience went pretty smooth, it might have been karma payback for our Vantage headaches? Funny/odd thing, this is a Christmas present, and I gave my daughter my credit card info. Viking wanted her balance paid immediately as she booked so close to 'special' ended. They took payment no problem, even with card not being in her name. Concombre- Glad to hear you could work out a fair enough swap. I hope you have a great time. We sailed with Viking in 2014, looking forward to bringing another young person into cruising.

Notamermaid- Yes, we did get to Quedlinburg, with it's many half timbered homes to ogle. And we did find all the people enjoying their 4 day Ascension Holiday. It was a nice atmosphere. Wernigerode was about 12kms west of us, and was another nice town to explore. No idea we'd get lucky with the line dancing competition. Nice to watch from the side with a bowl of Gulasch soup. And this is the view from 'my' balcony. $450 for 3 nights, 3 bedroom apartment, two of the bedrooms were 18' x 20'. It would have been double in one of the better known towns. We just didn't have as many bakeries, and the houses still had the duller paint colors. Just as neat architecturally. Daughters brought back loads of Haribo gummies and Ritter chocolate, all (kinda weirdo) flavors not available in states. They were in heaven, and luggage had to be reshuffled for weight. I was happy with the gulasch, so all good. Great trip. Hopefully Weimar and Erfurt next.

Hopefully fires don't start in Hartz region. A borer beetle has been devastating some of the pines, we saw dead forests throughout the region last month. A lot of the trees have been felled but remain on the hillsides. A very sad scene. The villages we stayed in and visited were nice, the coutryside looked rough. We stayed 3 nights in Blankenburg, which is 10kms from Quedlinburg. We had a 3 bedroom apartment, my room had a small balcony looking at the 16th century Rathaus. A quieter town, half timbered homes that hadn't been given the fancy coats of paint and had all the plaster repaired yet. We were above a Bulgarian restaurant (they owned the bldg, and had migrated in 2007), where we had an amazing meal. Very nice people, my girls gave me high praise for this lucky find.

First, I can't believe Vantage is still able to sell cruises. That is awful. I'm not sure what value they could offer a new owner, their name has minimal good will. Our November 2022 sailing had a large number of repeat customers saying never again, they were only on this cruise to use up a credit. We were the lucky ones, and had a great time. Kinda to your question, Yes, Vantage was ideal. You asked before why people choose Vantage over other lines, and speculated that maybe people stayed with the first line they sailed on. We sailed Viking once, then three times with Vantage. We liked Vantage in that their cruises were typically longer; 9 nights versus 7 for Tulip cruise, Basel-Ams was 14 nights, with 4 nights on the Mosele, Christmas cruise of 8 nights versus 7. The $ jump from aquarium to French Balcony was half of other lines. They had a second dining venue similar to the Aquavit lounge we liked so much on our first Viking cruise. About 18 fewer passengers than VIking on the same sized ship. E-bikes whenever you want to use them (Viking is charging $120 for a 3.5 hour optional bike tour on the Ams-Bud cruise). Lastly, the level of service we want, which is pretty basic. We're not fancy people. I think the tours are pretty similar, some lines are better for the number of options offered. We set out on our own sometimes, so included tours aren't a huge factor. I would cruise on a line that hit those marks, without Pullman beds. We're on a Viking cruise in December, and their admin team has responded to any question or change we've had right away. When my 25 year old daughter decided to come along, she called in, and had her reservation completed and linked to mine for referral credits in about 10 minutes. Vantage, yeah, that wouldn't have been nearly that smooth, even pre-covid. Down the road, maybe bike and barge for us (once spouse learned she can stay on board, knitting or reading, while others sweat).

We won't be so lonely now, youngest (25) daughter and her bf will now join us.