huntersyaya

$4-$6.00

There is duty-free available when you arrive in Bergen!

We stayed in Warnemaude and LOVED IT. Quaint seaside town with tons of restaurants, bars, and shops. We went back and forth from the ship 3 different times. It was about a two block walk. Loved it and loved having the ship to ourselves (along with probably a couple hundred of our best friends!)

The ship really is NOT small and it did very well everywhere we went. Movement was not an issue on our trip.

I think we were right above the theater and we heard nothing/nada/zero. It was a great trip and the boat is wonderful!

We stayed at the Sheraton and took a cab from the ship there. It was walkable but not with our luggage. We were able to check into our room and walk to the VASA and be the first ones there. Highly recommend seeing the VASA but do try to get there when it opens. It gets very busy. We also were able to join the first English speaking tour at the VASA. It was free and worth our time.

We were able to get off the ship very early and there were plenty of cabs available. Have fun. We loved the cruise and really loved Stockholm.

By the way we stayed on the Executive Level at the Sheraton and it came with food and drinks served most all of the day. We thought it was a great value.

Great....It is a beautiful ride. They stop at a large waterfall on the way up. Everyone gets off the train to take a look. You are so close, you will get splashed. Just beautiful! The entire cruise is wonderful. You will love it.

I doubt it. You can easily book the Flam RR trip on your own. You literally step off the ship and walk less than a block to the train. We reserved our seats and got our tickets prior to sailing. We were able to do that in the morning (I think we left around 8:30 and were back by 11 or so). We had lunch on the ship and then did the included excursion in the afternoon. Loved FLAM.....very pretty as you might expect.

We were in just a regular veranda cabin (not deluxe) and were among the last to get to pick our excursions. We were able to book every free excursion; but some of the earliest time slots were not available. I always wanted to do excursions first thing BUT I found that there was plenty to do before our afternoon excursion (like leisurely eat breakfast) and then hop of the ship on our own....explore a little and then come back and take our tour. I was pleasantly surprised at how much I actually enjoyed NOT being rushed. They would normally stagger the departure times for each excursion by about 15/20 mins so if we didn't get the first time slot, we almost always left within an hour of the first one and again, we weren't rushed at all. We loved our cruise!!!!!

We actually did this cruise last summer and we enjoyed the included tour in Alborg. I actually like Alborg better than Copenhagen....not the tours, I enjoyed both, but Alborg was very quaint and fun to walk around. Viking even had some kind of medieval enactment or something at the end of our tour and we were given some samples of local food and drink. The weather was beautiful and the town was really pretty!

All I can say is that we did the Viking Homelands last July and it was one of the best trips we have ever been on in our life. The ship, the staff, the food, and oh my, the gelato were fabulous and we really enjoyed our fellow passengers.

We were on the July 11 Homelands cruise from Bergen to Stockholm. We did the included tours everywhere except Berlin and St. Petersburg. We did not want to ride 3 hours each way to spend a couple of hours in Berlin so we stayed in Warnemaude for the day. It was a great little resort town and we walked back and forth from there multiple times and had the ship almost all to ourselves when we would "return home". All of the included tours on our trip were adequate and some were really good. We got to see the highlights of most all the places we went and Viking furnished free shuttles back and forth to the ship when the center of town was more than just a few blocks away from where we ported. Some tours were mainly bus tours seeing and hearing about the highlights and some were walking tours. We usually had time to explore on our own after or before our included tour. That is when the shuttles really came in handy. We chose to do a private tour in St. Pete because we viewed it as a once in a lifetime port and wanted to be able to see as much as we could there. We were glad we made that choice.

I hope you won't be discouraged by any of the negativity you read here. The ship is so pretty and the rooms are very comfortable. The shower glass incident was so unfortunate with it coming on the heels of the ship breaking down. I think any new ship is going to have some issues and any new company is going to have more. You cannot expect Viking to enter the ocean game and be able to take away the very best guides from all the other players. I think they did a very good job for being so new. We would not hesitate to sale with them again. The gelato alone is worth the trip....seriously it was fabulous. Relax and enjoy planning your trip. It is going to be wonderful!!

We used SPB tours and did the deluxe two day. It was fabulous!!!!!

Once we boarded we were able to book Manfredi's 3 times. It was no problem at all and I think we could have booked the other one most any night....the demand for it was not that great!

We were on the July 11th Bergen to Stockholm cruise. So sorry those after us had problems but we had a wonderful trip. Nothing to complain about. The ship was beautiful and comfortable....food was very good- loved the gelato bar and Manfredi's and the World Cafe and the Restaurant. Our excursions were good...some better than others but all took us to see things we might have otherwised missed. We past on going to Berlin and stayed in Warnemaude instead and absolutley loved that place. It was such a surprise to walk a block from where the ship docked and be in a summer resort town. Loved everything about it. Hope all the problems are behind Viking now and that everyone else will enjoy their future cruises as much as we enjoyed ours. And no....I am not a Viking "plant" just want to help releave people's fears and offer some encouragement before they embark on their trips. We have booked a British Isles cruises with Azamara in 2017 not because we didn't like Viking but they just weren't doing the trip we wanted so we chose Azamara. Again, we hope everyone has wonderful trips from now on out! One last thing....we booked a private two day tour in St. Pete with10 other people on the Star. We went with SPB tours and really enjoy those two days. No problems at all with Visa issues....SPB took care of everything and Viking let us off the ship first so we could get an early start to our tour.

There is an airport bus that takes you into Basel for free if you have a hotel reservation and they are very used to having lots of luggage on the bus. I would think most any hotel would let you leave your luggage with them for a few days while you tour Switzerland.Schweizerhof Basel Hotel

4.5 of 5 stars358 Reviews

#10 of 50 Hotels in Basel

Certificate of Excellence

3.5 of 5011 41 61 560 85 85 Hotel website E-mail hotel Centralbahnplatz 1, Basel 4002, Switzerland

We stayed at this hotel. The airport bus takes you directly there. It was VERY nice and very reasonable. The train station is within a block so you can do day trips to Lucerne, etc. if you want.

There is a really nice make-up mirror and drawer under the top of the desk where you can keep jewelry, make-up, etc. Great place for one female to be primping while the other is showering. I have never felt more organized than I did with that lift up top/drawer in the desk. It was great!

We did the Rhine two years ago and loved it. We spent a week on our own in Rome and then flew to Basel. Stayed two nights there before the cruise and did a day-trip to Lucerne on the train on our own. It was one of the best days we have ever had. We enjoyed all of the Rhine cruise....even the Black Forest and the cuckoo clock....we thought the drive to get there and back was beautiful. And the Black Forest cake we had was delicious.

3 washers and 3 dryers in each laundry. Soap is automatic so you don't have to bring it. Permanent press cycle takes longer than regular so just use regular cycle. The wash took 40 minutes for the load. If you pick a popular time (like your only sea day....there will probably be a wait). I was able to use the machines pretty much whenever i wanted but picked times I thought would be uncrowded. There are no dryer sheets so you have to bring those if you use them. There are two ironing boards and irons.

Most people just left there wash in the machine for the 40 minutes. If they weren't back when it finished, people waiting put it on the ironing board and used the washing machine for themselves. Reminds me of the dorms in college-no problem with that at all though!

We have done the Danube from Budapest to Neurenberg and the Rhine from Basel to Amsterdam. We enjoyed them both. We had "aquarium level" cabins on both ships. If you plan on getting the least expensive cabin to use up most of your voucher, I would recommend that you look at an older ship. The new longboats only have portholes.....the older boat we were on had fairly large windows. We had no problems being in the lower level.....the people down there were a very friendly bunch. As for water levels, we sailed around mid-May both trips and we had no issues but some people who sailed a little before or after us did. That is totally beyond Viking's control obviously and just a risk you take when you go on a river cruise. We really enjoyed getting to know the other people on both of those cruises- with less than 200, you interact a lot! We extended both of our 7 day cruises by doing a week in Paris and then flying to Budapest for the Danube and then we did a week in Rome and flew to Basel for the Danube. We really enjoyed doing those side trips on our own.

We sailed on the Viking Homelands July 11 Bergen to Stockholm cruise. We had a wonderful time and hated to hear that less than a wk after we got off, the bottom fell out. This must have been a logistical nightmare for everyone involved. Truly hope that the rest of your cruise is fabulous and that it makes up for what you have gone through.

We got off the cruise last Saturday in Stockholm and had a wonderful trip. We decided in advance to skip Berlin and stay in Warnemaude. We loved the decision we made. This was one of our favorite ports of all. We rode a small tourist tram/train around warnemaude and then explored it by foot. There were dozens of cafes/stands cooking fish/shrimp/etc that had just been pulled out of the water. There were some nice upscale shops and some touristy shops. This is a beachside resort town and it was full of Europeans on holiday. We found it fascinating to watch all the activity and to see the boardwalk and their beach. We went back and forth to the ship 3 different times during the day. It was about a 5 minute walk to "the action". Loved our time there and the ship was pretty empty during the day so it was almost like being on a private yacht.

Hi.has anybody got any feedback from viking ocean cruises. Smaller boats appeals to me ..never been on a cruise before..

M

 

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We just got off the Viking Ocean Star homeland cruise. Loved it! Beautiful ship and wonderful itenary. :)

Just got off the star today. We were in 3015....no noise problems at all!!!!!! Loved the location of our stateroom. Actually loved the entire cruise.

We just left St Pete yesterday after doing the two day deluxe tour with SPB with 12 other people from our ship. Our guide, our driver, and our lunches were ALL excellent! They knew all the ins and outs so that we were able to make excellent use of our two days there.

You can't see everything in two days but I really felt like we hit the highlights...money well spent,