Respbj

We follow Rick Steves advice and use money belts for our credit cards and large amounts of €,£,$ and what we think we need for the day in our front pocket of pants or cross over the shoulder hand bag.

We did Homelands in May and did TJ's tour for both Berlin and 2day St Petersburg, they use small 16 passenger mini busses and able to go where big busses can't. Once off the boat they are right there to get you. There tours are half the price of the Viking tours and we got a group together through Cruise Critic Roll Call page and TJ gave us all additional discount. Just know that it is 3 hours each way to get to Berlin, but if you only go once it's worth it.

We used the order form but put 5am for our time as we needed to get off the ship before 6:30 in Dt Petersburg and eggs were hot, toast fresh, coffee hot juice cold and came within 5 mins of our 5 am request

Thank you so much!

 

That is "eggsactly" what I was looking for! All I need is a couple of eggs any which way before a long day. I can last hours on it but anything that is just carbs will give me a hunger headache in less than two hours.

We used room service on Homelands for 5am as St Petersburg was early mornings both days, food cam within 5 minutes and was hot, we ordered eggs, toast, fruit, juice and coffee and all was to our order and tasty.

Other days we did the buffet and it was good for our breakfast needs.

What are some of the options for Room Service Breakfast? We have a couple of early days and I don't want to worry about getting held up at breakfast. I do have fresh fruit and a couple of eggs every day. I'm hoping we can get get them sent to our room those mornings. I've read about a hang tag to put on my door the night before. Does anyone have a picture or where I can find an image?

You can check the menu as I did the day we boarded as my husband is a picky eater. Go to the restaurant reservation desk and they will show you the menu

We love both, river cruises are more intimate as there are only about 190 people vs. 900 on an ocean. My husband enjoys the river cruise more as he likes the evenings in the lounge talking to interesting people. We actually are still friends with a couple from the U.K. And one from NC that we met on the Rhine in 2013 and have vacationed with them since.

We like the Viking Ocean as no kids, no casino, and smaller ships where they are not trying to sell everything from gold by the foot to art! But every person is different just know that the Danube is a very nice river cruise.

On our Homelands cruise last May everyone had swim suits on in pool, sauna, snow room and hot tub. As I did do a massage one day I wore my street clothes, the attendant was in the changing room to get slippers/robe and show how lockers worked. People changed after taking showers in locker room but in common areas everyone wore bathing suits in the spa area.

PS take advantage of the salt water pool in the spa area, it's wonderful.

We took the Rodne tour out to Pulpit Rock on our own as it was so much cheaper than the same tour offered by Viking and in fact one of their groups was on boat in front of ours and one was on boat behind ours and quite a few people from our boat were Viking passengers like us saving some $

And yes you can do the funicular on your own as Bergen is small and a walk down the harbor also brings you past nice shops

I'm not sues about waiver of fees but I paid for custom air and I told them the exact flights we wanted. Be persistent and you'll get your flights and you can tell them what seat you want too.

First do your research, get the flights you want then call Viking air pay $50 pp, tell them the flights you want and they will work with you, even tell them where you want to sit. We usually do our own air as we go early on our own and add days at the end but the one time we used them for Portugal we got the flights and seats we wanted. Enjoy

We did Viking Budapest to Nuremburg. We went early to Budapest on our own and were happy as it is a beautiful city, Viking does an overnight in Vienna and ends in Nuremburg but is docked far and shuttle buses are needed.Passua is a small, pretty city and the market and old town are right by the dock.

When we went on Christmas Market cruises we usually begin early ( spent 3 days in Munich and trained to Passau to start cruise) and ( Budapest 3 days before the Danube going up to Nuremburg) then another time spent time in Vienna before starting in Nuremburg. Since we enjoy spending lots of time at the markets we like going early on our own and then take the train to where the cruise starts.

For your Keens, what style do you recommend? They have soooo many options - I wouldn't think they'd ALL be as comfortable? :)

I have basic Keen Walking shoes, blue leather that lace up, but also use teva sandals when we were down in Florence as it was hot and they were great on cobble stones

We got to Budapest a few days earlier than our cruise and booked a taste Budapest Walking tour, tickets to the Nutcracker was a highlight and we are not ballet people, walking around the Christmas markets, going to Parliament building, walking around the Fishermans Bastion or taking in the baths, we even did a day out in wine country, also the Synagogue just so much to see.

Budapest was a surprise to us and we did the Nutcracker which was a highlight along with a Walking food tour, Vienna is beautiful, Melk and the shops coming down from the abbey tour were interesting, Passau was a favorite small town with nice little Christmas market, just walking around the towns and stopping for a drink and conversation with locals, and meeting interesting people on the ship some we still vacation with is part of the great experience of river cruising, enjoy!

We booked TJ' 2 day SP tour and it was great, small group on mini bus, your ticket has the special cruise visa, you can not just get off the boat in SP without a visa so everyone needs to be booked on a tour where you get the cruise visa. TJ' s was half the price of the Viking tour smaller group and TJ ' s will get you to the next port if you miss the boat but not to worry plenty of time, we also took them for a small tour of Berlin.

I purchased Keens for our 2 months in Europe last April-May as I have issues with Walking and loved them, walked England, Wales, Scotland, Homelands cruise, Belgium, Italy and back again in England and they were great.

I received The Kitchen Table in the mail from Viking yesterday, not sure why except that it's probably time to book another cruise!

I can't say enough about the TJ's 2 day St. P tour very efficient fretting us out of the port and into the city, best part for you r friends who are worried they will pay to get you to next port if you miss the boat on second day. But really everything was professional and conditions were wonderful in our small group. We also used TJ's for the Berlin tour which is a very long day but again very organized and the small group was able to get around much better.