boyd_san_diego

Download the smartphone TripIt app, or the same website (that I can't quote due to CC rules)! It's designed for upcoming and current excursions to keep track of every step of the journey, including flights, lodging, cruise ports, excursions, hotels, and anything else you can cream up. Send all journey email invoices to plans@{that website) and it will automatically build your itinerary (in most cases unless the email is ambiguous).  I used it last year on our Viking River cruise, and I'm building it for next month's Viking Ocean cruise.

I was hoping to find current river conditions, but this thread seems to have deviated a lot from the subject.

We leave a week from today for our Viking "Paris to the Swiss Alps" excursion.  We're cruising from Basel to Trier on the Rhine and Moselle.  Hopefully, the water will be decent.  We cruised Viking's Grand European in 2019 and the water levels were very high.  We barely got through the bridges with the sun deck down almost the entire trip.

I'm also concerned about a Germany transit strike, for any coach trips, but it looks like it was just yesterday. https://nypost.com/2023/03/27/strike-over-pay-paralyzes-rail-air-travel-in-germany/

I started looking through the forums for this but didn't find it in an obvious place, so sorry if it's a FAQ.

So few people on each ship seem to even be aware of CruiseCritic, especially on river cruises like we're doing in May.  If more people were on the boards it would increase the communication, experiences, suggestions and ideas for everyone.

I've been wondering for a long time why there isn't a CruiseCritic logo and website 8x10 page we could print and put on our door.  It would help people you've befriended through the forum meet you on board.  It would also advertise CC to everyone else on your deck at least, and increase the board participation in future cruises.  If there is such a thing, please let me know.  We haven't actually cruised in 10 years, after we had to cancel our last cruise, and I'm sure I could have missed it.

I'm just getting back on CruiseCritic after not visiting it for a few years. My wife and I are planning our May 9 Avalon cruise from Budapest to Amsterdam with pre-cruise in Prague and post-cruise and our 30th anniversary in Paris. It will be our first river cruise.

We picked Avalon mainly because of the full cabin-width french balconies, plus we hear the food is a little better. But with all the Viking ads we initially were planning that, and it would have been cheaper.

A few months back there wasn't a roll-call yet for it here, but I'll check now. With only something like 135 passengers I'm sure the roll-calls will be small.

We have only done independent tours, but with included tours we'll probably do many of them to use what we are paying for. I just emailed our TA today for flights and hotel reservations.

Boyd

Lori, would you please add me to your travel blogs? We're planning a Danube, Main, Rhine cruise next spring. boyd_san_diego@yahoo.com

SfromATX, thank you so much for the great responses to my questions! It really helps me to get a better picture of what to expect. The past few days we did some more CC reading and cruise company websites and we're waiting for a quote for the Avalon May 9 cruise of the same itinerary, mainly because of the panorama windows and generally better perception of Avalon food and excursions. Depending on the day we start and finish we'll probably be spending a pre-cruise in Prague or post-cruise in Paris (my wife's choice). We did big cruises for our 20th and 25th anniversaries (see .sig) and this will be for our 30th anniversary. Thanks again!

We are planning to do the Viking Alsvin from Budapest to Amsterdam May 10, 2014. After seeing very active ocean cruise roll calls I've been disappointed to see very little on river cruises, obviously because of so fewer travelers. I'm thrilled to see this long thread and plan to peruse it more. We've been on ocean cruises but this will be our first river cruise, so I have some questions maybe some of you could please help answer.

1: I was thinking on a westward cruise we should be on the starboard side so we don't have the sun streaming in all day both blinding us and heating up the cabin. Are my concerns valid? The Alsvin has the French balconies all on the port side and Verandas on starboard side.

2: How much cruising is during the day and how much at night? I guess it's a trade-off between getting daylight port time and seeing sights along the shoreline.

3: It looks like the wine is so-so. How about the beer? Do they just have lager or do they have any ales, IPA, porter, stout, etc?

4: I see people thrilled with their cruise and horror stories. Part of it is probably personal viewpoint, but what percentage of cruises are great?

5: I'm an avid amateur photography and want to get great pictures, but not pictures of a tour group's backs. Do I need to go off on my own instead of taking the excursions to get the pictures I want?

6: One review I saw was from someone in their 60's that said they were the youngest people on the cruise. Don't young people do this cruise?

7: Some people have said cabin upgrades aren't worth it. Is it almost as good to get a deck 1 window cabin?

I'm starting to ramble, so I'll stop here. I'd appreciate any hints. If I don't get much response here due to the cruise wind-down I'll probably post to a more general board.

Thanks in advance!

Boyd