BluebonnetTexan

27 minutes ago, OneSixtyToOne said:

 

With so many other itineraries available, the Mississippi seems to me to be one of the least desirable, especially at this price. 
I wonder who the target audience is? Americans without passports and/or the non-American market?

I’ve looked at these itineraries on other lines long before Viking entered the US market. They are all pricey, IMO. I just did a quick comparison of the NO to Memphis trip on Viking vs. American Queen for early Dec 2023. AQ has smaller cabins at the entry level than V, so a lower entry price for the lowest level cabins. To compare similar size cabins to Viking’s lowest priced cabin, the price is pretty close to the same. 
 

My understanding is that US labor laws require paying staff more than they’d make say on an EU River Cruise. Thus, the high prices relative to River cruises in the rest of the world. Probably some other factors, too! 
 

Market is probably what you indicated as well as those for whom $$$ don’t matter quite as much. 
 

3 minutes ago, Clay Clayton said:

Thanks!

Wonder if it includes the usual perks?  No mention and since it says Free Business Class UPGRADE, I'm thinking maybe not.  
 

Also interesting that they the ad says complimentary stateroom upgrade but only accommodations available on the "dates and pricing" page are Verandas and Suites.  When I click on the "price and build" I get a spinning wheel so can't find out what is really available.  
 

Oh well it's a pipe dream at the moment anyway. 

I didn't even try the "price and build" but did see it was very limited on what seemed to be available - as you'd expect at this late date. It is a pipe dream for me, too, at this point. I suspect all the early booking perks are gone though. 

Just got an email with promo code WCS23 on World Cruises. Here's the link for more info that was included: https://www.viking.com/promotions/us/ocean/WCS23/20230224.html 

Well, I'm interested in the Panama Canal cruise someday and have been tracking prices to see how they run. Interestingly, the Dec 2023 cruises which are part of the J4S deal have the same cabin pricing as they did in June, so the only deal here is the free airfare. We typically book our own, so not a deal for us. I checked the prices with EBD also and they are same as J4S, just that airfare is listed as from $799 for those dates. As always, YMMV, and it might be a good deal for some people, but I saw cabins disappearing as I was checking and many more categories are now sold out than just a month ago. 

On 6/23/2023 at 9:46 AM, gers said:

Thank you for your informative posts on the water level of the Danube. We are set to leave for Bucharest as our Viking cruise from Bucharest to Budapest on the Vidar is set to leave on June 28.   Hoping our cruise doesn’t turn into a bus trip!  Do you have any idea how the Danube is doing down at that end of the river?

I hope you will report back on how your cruise went. We are looking at this one for 2024 or 2025, but it might have to be late summer. Thus I’m curious how often this segment experiences low water levels as compared to the west of Budapest. Maybe you can ask the some of the staff about typical conditions? I’ll try to follow the info at the site helpfully posted by @notamermaid, too. 

5 hours ago, CharTrav said:

By the way -- I got thinking last night that some of you more geeky types might be interested in the hidden mechanics of this spreadsheet.  It would be a separate document I'd post to DropBox.  Would have to wait until after we get back from our cruise starting end of next week and getting back in mid-August,. If you're curious -- folks like @BluebonnetTexan for ex -- I'll do it.  Just say the word.

Word! 😉

Glad to see a good report on Skalanes excursion as we have booked that one for our cruise in September. Thanks for the tern warning, too!

Biggest question I have for @CCWineLover and any others on recent Iceland cruises is whether you’ve needed any ISK cash for bathrooms or anything else where a credit card wasn’t accepted? 

We did 4 days in Stockholm in 2019 before sail out and loved it. Would love to come back for a week and still wouldn’t be able to see and do everything! 

@CCWineLover thanks for live blogging your trip! We are doing the same NYC-Reykjavik route on the August 30th sailing. I really appreciate your posting the wine lists, although I recognize they could change by the time we go, but gives me (and others) a relative idea what to expect. I was hoping you (or someone else on the trip) might also be able to post the daily schedules - especially the sea days and any special events like lobster night or that type of thing. If not as you go due to slow wi-fi, then when you get back. I know the guest speakers will change, but I'm mostly looking for what all might be happening and relatively when. 

Glad to see that Viking was able to work out the stop and excursion in Louisbourg. Travel is always an adventure and the best travelers stay flexible, sounds like the current group on Saturn is doing just that!  

On 6/6/2023 at 6:58 AM, notamermaid said:

The Zasavica III has picked up the Gentleman II at Regensburg and is now headed to Kelheim where she will enter the Main Danube Canal. Here are some photos of the pushboat and previous hull transports. Notice the additional bow attached to the hull: https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/details/ships/shipid:4160846/mmsi:244730011/imo:0/vessel:ZASAVICAIII

 

The Gentleman II´s long journey through Europe brings me to a quiz question. Quite a few of you also embark or have embarked on long itineraries, a very popular one is Budapest to Amsterdam. That means you are on the Danube, the Canal, the Main and the Rhine/a bit more Canal/Waal/Nederrijn and the Canal towards Amsterdam. Correct, yes, but here is the nerdy, über correct question: which two other rivers do you also sail on?

 

notamermaid

 

We were on Viking’s Grand European in 2017, without cheating and looking at a map, I think the answer is The Inn River and The Moselle River. I know we did an excursion on Moselle, just can’t remember if the cruise vessel itself was on it. Am I close?

I remember back in my working days, it I was going to have to do something more than once, maybe twice, it was going to pay off in the long run to take the time to automate (or somehow make it easier) for the future! 

In case no one has mentioned it recently @CharTrav, you rock! 😀

Well, I think a lot of that 90 number are combinations of B2Bs. For example, there are 4 8-day cruises in the Mediterranean from Barcelona to Rome to Venice to Athens to Istanbul. Then Viking markets all the combinations of those which comes to 10 “different” cruises you can buy, but really it’s just 4! That’s the most extreme example I can think of off the top of my head, but I know there are some more combos that would add to the count. I do tend to agree that some new port combos need to be added and it looks like they are trying with the recently added Mediterranean cruise including Morocco, Malta, etc. 

I totally agree with @aungrl. Pretty much when we weren't sleeping, eating, or on excursions, we were in the Explorers' Bar and not always drinking, either!  We just liked the overall ambience there. Also, I described "my" drink to the bartender and he made a better version of it than my normal! If they have the ingredients, they can make it or suggest an alternative that's similar. 

Happy cruising, whichever line you ultimately go with!

Duh! I kept missing that line about the Group column in the ReadMe! I thought I'd remembered you had the multi-segment cruises covered. I never scrolled far enough right recently either, obviously! It might be a good idea to add the info to the ReadMe, since the info is so far back in the LogNotes now, and hidden by default. 

Also, there's a new group - the Greenland, Iceland, Norway & Beyond cruise, is actually comprised of the Iceland & Norway's Arctic Explorer and Iconic Iceland, Greenland & Canada. Might be some others, I'm just aware of this one because we are doing Iconic Iceland, Greenland & Canada later this year. 

Again - you do an awesome job on compiling this info for us! 

In case no one has expressed it lately - we really appreciate you doing this! 😍 

I do have two questions 1) shouldn't the Viking World Voyage I & Viking World Voyage II on the Sky be labelled as "World" cruises instead of "Grand" in the Region column? 2) Is there a way to denote the cruises that are actually comprised of shorter segments also sold separately? For example, the 29-day Mediterranean's Iconic Shores is actually 4 8-day segments. And, all the various 15-day and 22-day versions contained there-in. It seems lots of folks sign up for these longer versions not realizing it is really a series of B2Bs.

Just a thought! Thanks again so much for doing this! 

Nancy

As you have surmised, you can definitely do the Bergen-Oslo cheaper as a DIY than with the Viking extension. We were on Viking Homelands in 2019. We did our own air into Stockholm and out of Oslo (we live in Houston, so lots of options). We did Comfort Class train, three nights at the Comfort Grand Central, bought 2-day Oslo Pass, and Flytoget train to airport for what Viking charged for one person. 
The train from Bergen to Oslo is beautiful scenery for the most part as others indicated. We took a taxi from the ship to the train station, not very expensive. Then we walked from the train to our hotel which was inside the train station. Very convenient! We each had a large suitcase and backpack, no problem storing them on the train.
Friends that we made on the trip who took the extension later told us that they wished they’d done it DIY as they didn’t feel like the added cost was worth what Viking provided. 
Enjoy your trip!

The visitor limits being imposed in the various cruise ports is also not unlike the controls now in place at many US National Parks. 

Here’s another vote for spending as much time in Stockholm as possible. We had 3.5 days before our cruise departed and would have loved even more time. Vasa Museum should definitely be #1 on your list there. Lots there that I think I 12-year-old would enjoy.
We also loved Tallinn and Gdańsk. Helsinki was I think the least favorite port of all we experienced on our Baltic trip. But, I’m glad we went to see how it compared to Stockholm, Saint Petersburg, Oslo, and Copenhagen. 

Thanks to all for their many varied and detailed suggestions! I didn’t mean to imply in my original question that CC was my only source for research. It was more that I was puzzled about where the Iceland port info was located as I obviously overlooked it. I did do a general search and all I was seeing was Roll Calls with Iceland ports and didn’t really want to trawl through those. 
 

And, yes, more info is always better IMO, even if the OP may not need it, someone else reading this thread later may find it useful. 
 

We are definitely considering staying at least a couple of days after arriving in Reykjavik, thus this more generic phase of my research to determine what else we really need to see in that area (Golden Circle, etc.) and how long we should stretch our stay. 

9 hours ago, Turtles06 said:

 

It's in the Northern Europe sub-forum of the Europe ports of call forum.

 

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/116-northern-europe-amp-baltic-sea/

Thanks! I knew it was there somewhere. Thought I checked that one, but guess I overlooked it!

We are on the Viking Iconic Canada, Greenland and Iceland itinerary next August. I can’t seem to find Iceland in the Ports of Call forum here on CC for general research and feedback. Am I overlooking it or do I just need to read through all the roll calls for info? I know there was a lot of good info during the Welcome Back cruises, but those also had lots of restrictions which are now gone. I was also hoping to find info broader than the Viking forum. 

Which specific cruise or cruises are you doing? In general if the included tour states it is "panoramic" (for example Panoramic Athens & Archeological Museum), then generally that is a bus tour driving by the sites with maybe a photo stop or two. I will state in that example, we just returned from a 10-day trip to Greece (non-Viking) and spent 5 hours at the Archeological Museum on our own - however, there are a few seats around the museum to rest a minute as well as a cafe with chairs/tables. We observed a couple of ship excursions touring the museum while we were there and of course their guide just takes them to the highlights, while we were looking at everything! 😉 Viking has this included tour labeled as Moderate.

Since you mentioned Turkey, I expect you are likely going to Ephesus. I just checked the Viking Included tour and it is called "A Gentle Journey into the Ancient World" and keeps you on the lower part of the archeological site which is much easier walking than the upper part. We were just there Oct. 1 and I don't recall many places to take a rest. Viking has this tour labeled as Easy.

If it is a walking tour, such as at Rhodes (Rhodes Town Walk & Palace of the Grand Masters), it too is listed as Moderate activity. So, my advice is to carefully read the descriptions of the included tours and check the activity level mentioned. Let us know which specific cruise you are on and people may be able to give more specific info about the included tours. 

If you do decide to go, you might want to get a set of walking sticks to use on excursions instead of the cane. I recently purchased a pair on Amazon that are quite lightweight, sturdy, and collapse small enough to fit even in a carry-on for only about $30.

Looks like a great trip and I hope you are able to go and experience it to the fullest!     

Looks like they added Neptune to the Iconic Iceland, Greenland, & Canada itinerary instead. @CharTrav will need to update her spreadsheet! 😉

Anyone else notice that cabin availability on the website for all cruises is now saying “Call for details”? My guess is that since dropping the daily testing requirement, they can’t keep the website updated with all the new bookings!