hawkeye65

Oh, I hate autocorrect. That's "flying buttresses" not "falling buttresses."

Just now, hawkeye65 said:

falling

flying

We took the 14-day Rhine/Main/Danube cruise (Grand European?) in 2017. We were very impressed by the quality of the guides of the included excursions. Mostly graduate students and university professors. Way above our expectations.

Anecdote: we had a university professor for our Cologne tour. (Outstanding. If we could, we would have packed him up and taken him with us for the rest of the cruise.)  We were walking around the cathedral. When were rounding the back to the far side, I said, "Oh, they have falling buttresses!" The prof looked at me with that proud teacher expression, and said, "Yes, they do!" I guess I got my gold star for the day. 😊

On 8/29/2019 at 9:44 AM, hehny said:

You spend almost no time in Salzburg it is basically a long bus trip.  If you are a huge Sound of Music fan it’s worth it visit on a land based trip.  Passau is beautiful! 

 

Viking seems to be the only river cruise line not doing evening sails again in Budapest.  You can try this company. https://legenda.hu/en just be aware you generally need reservations in advance for dinner, as they do sell out.

We took this cruise in 2017. Those who took the Salzburg excursion said the same thing: too long, too little Salzburg. They regretted taking that excursion.

Made a decision: we're going to do the river cruise: France's Finest with Viking, Sept 2020. (Can't believe we're booking 13 months In advance!) Thanks for everyone's comments.

... But any thoughts are welcome ... and relevant.

I'm the OP.  I was prrimarily inquiring about the itinerary, not the ship. If anyone has done either/both particular cruise, I'd be interested in your opinion.

We are close to booking France's Finest river cruise for Sept 2020. We have done a river cruise with Viking before so know what the ship/service/amentities are.

Our other option is Viking Homeland on Viking Ocean cruise. Cost is not very different. We've heard good things about VOC but have never done one.

Does anyone have any opinion that might help our decision? TIAl

This is our first cruise on HAL, and I'm having problems getting my info off the Already Booked/Check In website. My problem is complicated by my TA having quit and working with a new TA in the same agency. Took me 20+ min to find out what transfers we've paid for. My printer is ignoring my commands to print boarding pass and luggage tags. Now I'm on the search for other details.

We got a promotion that included pre-paid gratuities. Can't find any mention at all. We're also supposed to have OBC. Can't find that either. We're being comped to 2 specialty restaurants. No mention.

Are we supposed to take all this on faith before we  board the ship? If we don't have all this settled, I'd like to know while I can still call my TA for help.

Does anyone know? TIA.

My knees are just fine, but I am functionally blind in one eye so have zero depth perception. I managed the steps with no problem. Just seeing the Colosseum was a thrill. 

Thanks. There's a chance we won't be able to print out color luggage tags at all. Better to have black and white tags or none at all?

Admittedly, our experience was on another line (Celebrity) and 10 yrs ago so none of this may be relevant now. For several reasons we were unable to get luggage tags prior to embarkation day. On advice from the CC board we just showed up at the pier, Celbrity had generic luggage tags available. Filled out our cabin, and away we went. Does HAL operate similarly for pax w/o tags?

We're booked on an Oosterdam Alaska cruise. The Ketchikan stop is only 5 or 6 hrs long. We're debating whether to bk an excursion or just spend our time walking around. The excursion would be a lumberjack show. Sounds very touristy, but--hey!--we thoroughly enjoyed a Liberace show once. Tacky and touristy doesn't necessarily mean bad. Any opinions?

Is there a way to figure our from the HAL website how many cabins are bk'd for a particular cruise?

We're new to HAL, taking an Alaska cruise in Sept. The final payment is coming up soon. We requested early dining, MDR, large table. (We always meet the most interesting people at the dinner table.) We were waitlisted but a recent posting made me wonder if table assignments wait until final payment.. Can someone give me the HAL routine for assigned tables? What's the largest table? Do we need to wait until final payment is paid? Once on Celebrity we were in the same situation; after boarding we went to MDR to meet with maitre'd who arranged it right there. Same on HAL? Any advice is appreciated. TIA.

I should probably add we're 5 adults, first time on HAL.

We're a party of 5 booked on the very last 2019 Alaska cruise out of Seattle on Oosterdam. (There were scheduling conflicts that made an earlier cruise impossible.) Can someone(s) tell me how diminished the shore offerings are that late? For example: We did an Alaska cruise in mid-August on Celebrity in 2004. Lots and lots of shore excursion opportunities right on the dock. Will they all be gone the end of Sept? Will Creek Street in Ketchikan be shut down for the winter? That kind of info.

TIA.

We have sailed on Celebrity (the most), Carnival, and Princess (never again). We're new to HAL. The Celebrity board has a thread about the secret best cabins on each ship. Is there a similar thread on HAL? 

We're debating between a Eurodam and a Oosterdam cruise in late Sept out of Seattle. Does anyone have some advice that might help our decision?

TIA.

Same question on Gate1. We're a party of three. Has anyone tried to get a single cabin on Gate1?

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We're a party of three. Has anyone tried to get a single cabin on Viking?

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I'm acting as info gatherer for a family vacation next June. I went on the X website to request brochures to be sent to the various parties. One of the items was about expected date of our cruise vacation with a pull-down menu with 0-3 mos as the default ... only it wouldn't pull down. Does this mean I'll be getting brochures for cruises this fall instead of next June?

If someone from X is reading this, pls be aware that the sudden rush on brochures with planned cruises in 0-3 mos is probably a computer glitch, not what people are really hoping to get.

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We took a Viking 2 wk Amsterdam to Budapest river cruise and loved it. We raved about it to family members and they're interested. Now we're contemplating a river cruise on Gate1. How do they compare? Will we feel we've taken a major step down?

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We did not do it, but our fellow pax who did raved about it. We had non-buyers remorse and wished we had. If we're ever there again, we'll definitely do it.

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Has anyone heard if Tropical Storm (soon to be hurricane) Franklin has affected cruises on the Pacific Coast of Mexico?

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We were on Viking's Amsterdam to Budapest. The concert was at the Vienna Residence Orchestra. Both vocal and instrumental performances. It was an optional excursion. Very well attended, the ship must have been nearly deserted. BTW, I checked the Vienna Opera to see if there was a performance that evening. I've forgotten which opera, but Placido Domingo was the headliner ... at $400 for the cheapest tickets! We went to the VRO concert. It was the highlight of our trip.

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