hateleavingthecats

thank you for the thorough review. my husband has trouble walking great distances as well. we took a viking river cruise and he essentially stayed on board for most days because the distance to get to the bus/charter for excursions was too far to walk. we don't have a wheelchair or transfer chair or scooter. can you tell me what it was like when you got off the ship - was the bus or transportation nearby or a fair walk? we are thinking of just hiring our own excursions versus the viking offerings. thanks for any insight you can offer!

thank you all for your quick and honest responses. it's greatly appreciated. we aren't experienced cruisers...and being able to gather information from those well traveled is priceless. i can't thank you enough!!

My husband has mobility issues which don't allow him to walk long distances under pressure of time. We took a viking river cruise last year and found that he had to walk great distances at almost each port to gain access to the charter buses or other supplied transportation to shore excursions. He frequently had to leave 30+ minutes before other passengers to get to the bus on time - if he lasted the distance.

Anyone have any insight on the viking ocean cruises and docking as far as distance to either the charter bus or whatever form of transportation is provided for the excursions? we were told by numerous people at viking that the ocean cruises were much better suited for us due to my husbands bad hip. we are interested in the iconic western mediterranean cruise which includes barcelona, marseille, monte carlo, florence and rome.

any advice is greatly appreciated. well, except snarky responses. keep those to yourself :p;)

My husband and I took the Rhine River Christmas market cruise from Basel Switzerland to Amsterdam in December 2016. My husband has limited mobility - in his case, he can walk unassisted but needs moments to stop and rest (hip replacement one year ago).

The cruise itself was as expected from how Viking sells itself (high end luxury type cruise). We were assured that there were off-vessel excursions for my husband to participate in that involved very little walking. We found this to be totally untrue. The easy excursions still required a person to walk sometimes distances of half a mile or more to a bus. I wish someone had forewarned us of this prior to making our reservation. While i thoroughly enjoyed the cruise, my poor husband paid $5,000 to essentially sit on the vessel at each port since they don't make any accommodations for those with handicaps or limited mobility.

Yes, i read the disclaimer but was assured by the booking agent AND the employees on the vessel that the distances were short enough for even those who couldn't walk far and that they would help us - which was not true. We hired a taxi in one location. The one excursion that my husband did participate in, required him to leave 40 minutes prior to the scheduled time just so he could make it to the bus as the rest of us arrived.

The cities that you visit are amazing but you need more time than what is allotted for each stop over to experience the life. This is a great, albeit expensive, way to get a feel for the places you may want to visit in more depth in the future.

In summary, the accommodations on the vessel Viking Vidar were wonderful. The food was overabundant and delicious. The employees did what they could and did it well in most cases. The tipping mentality during the daily briefings on the ship was obnoxious. The program director got more and more 'insistent' about tipping as the cruise progressed.

If you have any particular questions, please feel free to contact me directly. We had 4 people on our vessel who either walked with a cane, had bad knees or other limited mobility who all wished they had been told the truth about the distances when they inquired with specific questions during their reservation process.

I really wanted to focus this review on the mobility issue more than anything else. I wish someone had told me while I was still in the planning stage of our trip. I would have opted for something else before we spent all that money on a trip only I could fully enjoy.