cheeruson

For those who have done this trip, comments, please, on which of the months still available for 2024 (June, Aug, and Sep) would have the best weather and best chance to make most of the port stops?

On a previous cruise (river, not ocean) we missed our transatlantic flight because we listened to a travel agent wanna-be.  The best the airline could do was get us to Prague 30 hours late, so we completely missed our first days in Prague.  Viking assured us, no worries, they would meet us at the airport and get us to the ship, already at its first stop. Sure enough, Viking agents at the exit from baggage claim, our names on a sign, and a private car to get us to the ship.  At the first sign of the car nearing the dock, a gang of officers and crew descended on the car and scooped up all the luggage, including our carryons.  The last office, looking a little forlorn with nothing to carry, looked over at me, and offered me his arm.  My DH later said he expected me to have been scooped up, too.

We are just beginning to look at Iceland's Majestic Landscapes, and are wondering if air connections would be easier in one direction over the other, considering the cities we are dealing with.  Flying from a major US airport, although not on the east coast.  Are there any other issues with the itinerary in one direction vs. the other? 

On our Viking trip from Paris to Trier this past summer, I was prepared to drag myself through the long day of a coach trip. But I found the trip very comfortable and surprisingly interesting.  When crossing the borders, the guide on our bus raised the issue of using the color of the road signs to see what country we were in.  The tour in Luxembourg (the capital city of the country of Luxembourg, who knew?) was nicely done and full of interesting asides, such as citizens are required to vote and fined if they do not.  Most moving, and completely unexpected, to me, at least, the American from an American centric world, was the American cemetery.  I would not want to have missed that.

I had the exact same question for our late June trip with connections in Zurich.  Only ours were more in the neighborhood of an hour instead of 90 minutes.  Others on this board assured me that Zurich airport isn't huge and is quite efficient.  And they were correct. Going to Europe we had no issues whatsoever, plenty of time.  Coming home, there was a delay on the tram, so a little closer but still time to make boarding.

As far as the food issue, for the one night that we spend in a hotel in Dresden on our Elbe cruise during 2013, the year of the flood, we had a banquet room at the hotel turned into our dining room.  Similarly for breakfast the next morning.  Super excellent accommodations, food, and service.  We really could not have asked for anything better.  The staff on the ship was teasing us that they were the ones who taught the hotel staff everything that they knew.  

JPalbny, the views were gorgeous!  And everyone stopping for pictures here and there helped manage the heat effects, so although we all looked pretty rough on reaching the fortress, no one seemed to be in any danger.  Also, thankfully, no one who was not physically able attempted the trip, so we didn't have to worry about alternate arrangements.  There was a horse cooling trough next to the fountain in the fortress, empty sadly, that we all could have used.

On our recent Viking Cities of Light trip from Paris to Prague, one of the extra excursions was Hike the Wurzburg Hills.  A coach took us to the top of the hill above the Kappele, a short walk down to see it, more walking down some nicely maintained paths, to town for a short walk to the paths up to the Marienberg Fortress.  Up through the vineyards onto the fortress and a much steeper but shorter walk down to town, where we had time to wander the town a bit or head back to the docking area to await the ship, which was a bit delayed due to locking.  Would have been a perfect excursion except for the heat and sunshine.  But a great opportunity to get a bit more exercise than a mosey through town.

Wondering if some friends who have already booked with Viking can add our ID number as their referral?  Or must this be done at initial booking?

That ? icon looks to me to be "L", probably low-cal or low-fat, based on the items it has marked.  

Also thanks much for the wonderful review.

We will be traveling the day before our international flight and I am wondering if, instead of worrying about the best way to accomplish on-line or whatever check-in once it opens, we can just present ourselves at the counter in plenty of time before the flight, check our bags, and get our boarding passes there?  We have air from O'Hare through a cruise line and have assigned seats.

We are connecting in Zurich from a Swiss Air flight from Chicago, to a Swiss Air flight to Paris.  The connection time seems a bit short to me, about an hour.  But considering that we stay with the same airline and I have read that Zurich is an efficient and not too huge airport, would this be okay, do you think?  The flights are through the cruise line so I am sure they will say they are fine.  :)

I think at that point they were trying to lemonade out of lemons. They had just invested a bundle in gutting the interior completely to make the cabins larger and to add balconies when there was a sudden political shift (i.e., Russia invaded Ukraine in order to re-possess the Crimea) making it impossible to continue the "Footsteps of the Cossacks"itinerary. Viking could no longer call at either Sevastopol or Yalta as they were now Russian territory. Kiev was a mess and no place to take visitors. They quickly put together a substitute itinerary for the Sineus and then for the next few seasons, there was nothing offered in the region. No idea what happened to the Sineus during the hiatus.

That is exactly what I was thinking, and the Viking people freely admitted that this was a trial balloon, to let them know any and all comments. In fact, our very nice rep at booking actually called me about 2 weeks post-cruise when I hadn't gotten around to calling him with our comments as I promised I would.

We sailed on the Sineus on what I think was its first trip post-refurbishment. It was a Black Sea cruise in 2014, from Istanbul (boarding the ship in Bulgaria) to Bucharest. There were only two trips of this itinerary scheduled, one each way, and my thought was that it was a trial run to check feasibility. I never saw this scheduled again.

The mostly Ukrainian crew, at least in the dining room, had somewhat limited English, but they were all sweet as can be. They quickly learned which of them had the best command of English, and tag teamed when necessary to get an understanding of a more complicated request or question. I was so glad we took this trip, especially since Istanbul was removed from cruise schedules somewhat shortly afterward, and we got to see it.