Daisi

Our first cruise was just after bad water levels....I swore I was going to have a good time even if it killed me. 🙂 We did!

Some of the cruises will still do the evening tour of the lights, but I found our our Avalon one leaves around 6:30. That is OK, as I have planned on doing a local tour the night before as we have 2 nights in Budapest included in our tour. I figured I would do that and if we got surprised by the ship doing it, it's a win win situation.

I agree, I think I would have told them that I didn't want to catch anything and politely move away. Some people just don't care, so if they didn't care about possibly infecting other passengers, they probably wouldn't notice. Sorry you got sick, not how you want to do a cruise. I was more worried about the troubles in Paris that were going on while you were there, I hope they didn't interfere with your trip.

@braemar12, if you don't mind me making a suggestion, copy & paste your post into a new post. You will probably get a better response, as things can get buried in this thread. Most cruisers checking in here stop in Budapest. Good luck with your cruise, it sounds interesting.

We download the maps to use offline, so they are usually OK. We use them a lot for touring by car as well as wandering around when travelling.

Special booking for 2 Cdn chefs, I'm guessing you will be on one of the few cruises where Canadians are a majority! Enjoy, and have fun.

Ahh.. I think I understand... you were wandering without a map and got a little "lost" (we never get lost, just discover new things to see 🙂). One of our favourite things to do is drop a pin on our map for where we wish to go, and just wander, so yeah, you can discover a lot of interesting things on your way back.

The ships can only carry so many bikes, most will hire out for tours. If you wish to bike, speak to the CD when you board, they will let you know the procedure of booking one if needed.

Interesting...we grew up near this place : https://www.maritimesmaven.com/new-blog-1/3/31/2021/the-pei-bottle-houses We went there a lot, as all "visitors" wanted to see it.

My S-i-L wouldn't believe me when I mentioned Viking's payment policy, as they are also big fans. They also usually book the year they are travelling, so never really noticed much. Last year, they decided to book for a cruise this fall, and were surprised that yes, they did have to pay well in advance. Like you, they enjoy Viking's product, so decided to go ahead.

I keep checking the weather app, looks like Nuremburg is expecting rain next week...hopefully enough!

I think you'll have to contact them. I looked all over their site as well, couldn't find anything. Good luck.

It's raining in Nuremburg! Weather app says warnings for strong to severe t-storms and they are calling for 11.4mm of rain tonight, with a chance of another 5 mm tomorrow. Now if only it would cool down (35C right now), it may help.

Just checked Marine Traffic, the Viking Egdir looks like it's heading from Nuremburg to Regensburg, and the Gymir is in Nuremburg. 2 Avalon ships docked at Regensburg (the View and Illumination), but could be parked for tours. Cross our fingers guys......

Just checked our invoice for Sept - Budapest to Nuremburg. Our gratuities are $368.00 for the two of us. This also includes the guide & driver for all our tours, not just the crew and CD. To me, it's worth it just so we don't have to sit there on the last night trying to figure out what we owe. We do our air with Avalon as well. My TA and I look at available flights, and we know when Avalon sends us the selected flights what is available for booking - I'm fussy about what airline and route I want. This year we are doing KLM from Montreal to Amsterdam to Bud, and home Prague to Amsterdam to Mtl. These weren't the flights Avalon first sent us, but they arranged them for us. We also chose a later departure in Prague (didn't want to fly out at 5:00 in the morning then sit in Amsterdam until the afternoon to fly home). No problem, and the cost was better than what we had found online. I then went online with KLM and choose our seats, upgraded from economy to premium economy for a bit more. Everything was done seamlessly, once they were given the flights we wanted, they sent us the booking # so I could do so. You may wish to have your TA look into this. We did the same with our air last time, but with no transfers as the hotel we were staying in provided transfers. Good luck, Avalon is a great line to sail with, and are really great at handling water issues... which I hope we don't have to do this year. 🙂

@3CanadianBears yes, you can pre-pay your gratuities. Either your TA will do it for you, or if booking on your own, you can do so on the first page where you fill in how many rooms are required etc. They have some deals on for 2024 if you choose the right cruise - air at $699 (which sounds good until you add the air taxes and everything else on, but at least you are guaranteed that flight cost), and also single supplement is waived. Gratuities are waived on 2023 cruises, however you have to have a new booking.

We buy something small (drink, snack) at the airport, they take Euro's and give back local currency. You may need it for restrooms or small purchases.

Thanks @notamermaid, really appreciate it!

Is it possible to get a link to that map? It will be very helpful for our cruise to keep an eye out. Thanks, and I understand if you can't post the link.

This was a 48, but a Canadian one. There are some differences. We were also sorry to see it go, but we got rid of all our old cars a couple of years ago as we had been looking at selling the house and wouldn't have room for them. We also found we weren't getting the joy of driving them as much, to hot now up here to enjoy the convertible & T-Roof, and the older ones just weren't easy to drive.

"Are Pontiacs even a thing anymore?" @pontac, I will also apologise, as I'm always keying in Pontiac as well....but then, when I think of Pontiacs, I'm thinking of the one we had :

Looking at the left side of your diagrams, the table (dresser?) goes to the edge of the windows on both cabins......however, the french balcony "window" is at the edge of the ship, the full balcony window has the balcony beyond. Would you not be getting the difference in the actual balcony, as they are flush with the edge of the ship? Therefor, although the "indoor" space may be the same, the balcony (which is included in all room sizes) is your extra space. So yeah, technically, there isn't much difference between the actual "indoor" space, but this is why I think Viking was clever in it's design by moving the corridor over - if it was centre, then the actual balcony space would be deleted from the "indoor" space and make it (indoor at least) actually smaller than the one across the hall, which is quite a bit less. That's how I see it anyway, maybe I'm wrong.

@bundtkate, I'm sure you'll have a great time. I agree the fresh air is nice. Enjoy your cruise.

You are correct, that is not a common tour. I just went looking, and don't even see it listed on the Uniworld site anymore, only ones for the Venice lagoon. I guess it is unique even with them! Thanks for the info for Delta, as a Canadian, it's not an airline we usually fly with.

Congratulations on receiving an upgrade, but just wanting to let you know that the french balcony rooms are 135 sq. ft., and the lower ones are 150 sq. ft. Because balconies on river cruise ships are flush with the wall of the ship, Viking moved their corridor over so those paying extra to have a "real" balcony vs a french balcony actually do get more room. Hope you enjoy your trip, and really, don't worry about the difference. What you gain in possibly more light, any scenery to see is best viewed on the top deck where you can see both sides of the river.