RBachmann

Last year we cruised from San Juan Puerto Rico up the Amazon to Manaus. I initially went with Viking Air because they had a great deal on airfare. Didn’t like the flights they gave me so switched to AirPlus to choose other flights but they couldn’t make it work with their contracts so they refunded my AirPlus fee and I booked my own flights. After I had booked them, Viking ended up chartering their own flight from Manaus to Miami for a pretty big group leaving the ship that day.

I hadn’t had a Grimbergen since we lived in Europe and was delighted to see them unloading cases of it at the pool bar on my last cruise! It was even better than I remembered.

Yes

I posted my question there thanks

She gets around really well and had a great time. We would love to do a Nile cruise, but unsure as to how accessible the excursions would be for her.

Speaking for Viking Ocean. They provide them on DV cabins and are quite small. They hide them inside the desk vanity. Better than nothing but I recommend you bring better ones.

Sure. Here’s us up on the observation deck at Isles du Salut.

I can’t confirm that the guest laundry actually closed or when it reopened. I packed enough clothes for more than half the trip, and did laundry on the second sea day, more than a day prior to the published closure, so I had plenty of clean clothes to finish the trip.

I did the trip with my 85 year old mom. She has trouble with her knees so walking long distances, uneven surfaces and big steps were hard but she was able to do it. We brought a folding transport chair which worked well in several places.

These are the shuttle boats that took us to the Manaus pier and a pic of the carryons being sniffed

Getting onto the shuttle boat to travel from the ship to the pier in Manaus was awkward for folks with luggage - the gangway was narrow, slippery and steep, and there was a big step down onto the shuttle boat. Once you get to the pier at Manaus, you have to pass your luggage forward and they line them all up on the pier to let the drug dogs sniff them while the passengers remain on the boat. if you are only doing carryon for luggage, I hope they are small and manageable or you may find this part of the trip challenging.

I was on the front end of that cruise (San Juan to Manaus). They asked us to conserve water while we were on the Amazon because their desalinator had to be turned off while in the muddy river. Based on that, I would expect the request to be careful with water to continue until the ship is back out in the ocean. Other than the guest laundry being turned off, I didn't notice any change during this time - the water pressure was the same, servers still delivered water vigorously. The fantail pool and hot tub were drained because they attract bugs, but the main pool, hot but and spa were all unchanged. I don't know if they were able to take on any fresh water at any of the ports on the Amazon, but I doubt it - that would have required replenishment by a boat alongside and we didn't see anything like that happening. Water may get tighter on the trip back down the Amazon.

For me, the planning and learning about all aspects of the upcoming trip are almost as much fun as the trip itself, and allows me to enjoy a 2 week trip for many months beforehand.

The Manaus airport was unremarkable - not in the least bit scary. We were fortunate that the GOL flight flew to Miami on our debarkation day but I knew there weren’t many choices before I booked the cruise because I had looked at Google Flights so was not surprised. Viking arranged for a charter flight out of Manaus but that didn’t happen until after I pulled the trigger on the GOL flight. In retrospect I’m glad it worked out that way there were some issues with the charter flight communications and it got into Miami so late that it would have required an overnight there before continuing on. The GOL flight itself was better than many domestic US flights I’ve taken recently. It departed and arrived earlier than scheduled, was a brand new 737 Max 8 and they fed us a pretty good lunch and a snack. Their website did not work for me at all and their code share with AA didn’t do anything for the GOL flight. I booked and paid for it on the AA website but it had its own separate confirmation number. The baggage issues at Manaus were Vikings fault. The bag drop problem after clearing customs in Miami would have been nice to know about.

I linked my credit card to my reservation for use on board pretty far in advance but they didn’t seem to care at check in they wanted to scan the card anyway.