Nippy Sweetie

It's a beast. It's so noisy you can't speak as it goes along. It's not very comfortable but OH loves it.

No royal wave possible from our Bentley. We're too busy not smiling in case we get flies in our teeth!

Pre war cars for me. I always fancied a Jaguar SS100. Meanwhile just have to put up with our Bentley special.

@Canal archive no bouncing required at that very smooth track. Hence even more boring! Bad day yesterday - not even a personal best time. He's trying again today. 

Of course if he sold the damn thing we could go on some more lovely cruises. Might not mention that tonight though!

OH is this very moment competing in a hill climb in his single seater Austin 7 special.  Very boring for spectators!

Good article. Nice to see the info from the various companies.

We're doing Basel to Amsterdam in September after the South of France cruise. Fingers crossed!

Oh @Ellen495 please don't expect everything to be perfect! There are always niggles or minor disappointments that all the pre planning in the world won't help.

Also, wonderful, unexpected things can suddenly happen that you could not have planned for in advance. I'm sure you'll have a great time. 

Why not just go with the flow? Take each day as it comes rather than set a busy agenda for yourselves. Otherwise you risk being so stressed that you won't enjoy the cruise.

Dress appropriately and you should be fine. As for places being empty - they won't be. Actual people live there! You'll see more of the real place with far fewer tourists crowding them.

We like to find a distinctive Christmas decoration from each country. It's lovely remembering the holidays we've had as we decorate the tree at Christmas. 

Also fridge magnets. We've got some lovely, unusual ones. Hand made and painted ceramic ones are my favourites.

I must say we thoroughly enjoyed the company of some Australians on board one of the cruises. Very refreshing people and such good fun. (The car salesmen not so much!!)

It's fine by me. I quite enjoy meeting a variety of Americans and hearing their different perspectives on life. It was just a surprise for us on our first river cruise.

On an Avalon cruise we were pretty annoyed to find that a large group of Australian car salesmen had been booked for the cruise. Some sort of reward scheme. Their organiser took over the best parts of the deck for private parties and made it very uncomfortable for other passengers who had equal rights to sit there. The men were all celebrating and hearty drinkers. It led to quite an unpleasant us and them situation. We never went with Avalon again after that.

Viking advertises a lot here in UK so I don't understand why there are so few of us. I had only posted about seeing so many Americans on board in case potential passengers were hoping to meet lots of Europeans.

On our first Viking cruise we were amazed to find ourselves surrounded by Americans. It just hadn't occurred to us that there might be so few of us Brits. 

We met up with a couple of Australians on the next cruise. 

I remember being very impressed by a lady who drew pen and ink sketches of the places she'd been. She had a little book for each holiday. I wished I had her talent. They were perfect mementos and so much better than hundreds of digital images that will never be printed out.

How ever did people manage to travel in the past without any of those devices?! A simple journal to write in I  suppose and some real books. Much more relaxing. 

On our Viking booking info it was made very clear that this was not the holiday for those with mobility issues. As to a scooter, the corridors are narrow and trying to drive along one would necessitate everyone else waiting while they went the length of it. I'd imagine there would be all sorts of fire evacuation issues. 

There is usually something on in the evening but you'll find that after the early starts and excursions you might not be up for much fun after dinner. We often enjoy the company of new dinner mates and carry on chatting upstairs in the lounge afterwards.

I expect good service on Viking as, bottom line, we've paid a lot for it. I expect staff to be well paid according to EU and UK standards. I don't expect to have to pay more towards the staff. 

Viking Grand France is very good. You see a lot of France in a relatively short trip (14 days). We've done it twice because we just liked it. No excuse!!

Of course. We always tell the guide when we're peeling off from the tour.

Us too. We'll often take the included tour but branch off on our own. Sometimes it's just too boring shuffling along at the pace of the slowest or we're simply not that interested in the next big church or dull monument. 

We like to wander about, have a coffee and watch the world go by. We're on holiday and just want to relax.

@pontac I know! However, crew don't necessarily know or just optimistically leave them anyway.

Viking may well leave an envelope for tips in our cabin but we'll not be filling it. Re early payment: that's always seemed strange to me. We pay a deposit on booking then full payment  about 8 weeks before the cruise.

It's interesting to see the difference in offerings between those companies that advertise in the UK market (and I think the Australian one) and the US one. Very different focuses related to different expectations I suppose. Fair enough. It's a business.

Business is business I suppose. Viking knows what customers expect and/or are used to and tailor their offering to that.