id est

... We were told that all the ship staff except for two work for the Ukranian gov't. ...

If so it explains why the service is so low on these cruises. Most likely Viking just leases the ship and the crew from them.

In our cruise there was literally no entertainment on board and no live music after 9.30 - 10 pm. even though we and other guests were still in the Sky Bar.

In truth, I am a little disappointed in the food.

I am sorry but have to disagree: food was delicious on our July cruise. Thanks to chef Elena. There were other issues though but not related to the food.

Sorry there is no way to toast your own bread, as there was on the long ships last year.

There is a toaster on the left side in Kiev restorant. Is it still there?

As you see we always sail with Viking and the TA we use has a standard $500 off (prob the same TA Cary Cruiser uses :D) the Viking cruise price which is on top of all other discounts you can get from Viking. There is also a $200 per cruise discount if you use a referral which is combinable with the TA discount.

However booking with any TA requires more time and interaction from your side: e.g. you can't make any changes or check something just calling to Viking. Need to call TA first, ask them to call and check it out for you and wait for their call back...

Viking Air could be very inexpensive. For this Christmas they are even offering it for free from certain cities: NYC, PHL, BOS, EWR...

Too bad all the cruises don't adopt what the Freya did on the Danube/Rhine. Each off-ship tour had both regular tours and "leisurely tours," for those who couldn't keep up the pace on the regular tour. We took the leisurely tour at the last stop and I was sorry I had not done it all along, since it covers the same ground, but at a much slower pace.

They did. We always had a "leisury" tour too. Not sure but I beleive it was group "1F"

Reading some of these reviews I'm beginning to wonder if this is even a good idea? It seems like a lot of people complain that there cruise became a bus trip. Is that common? This trip is sort of once in a lifetime (or at least in the foreseeable future!) because my husband and I almost never get time off at the same time and my parents have offered to watch our school aged children so we can go on a trip just the two of us after he returns from deployment to the Middle East. Is a river cruise in December a bad idea?

Not a bad idea at all. We did a New Year Rhine cruise in Dec 2011 with Viking and it was great. The chance it becomes a 100% bus trip are very low. But anyway it can happen and it also happens on an ocean trip when ports are missed/itinerary changed due to the weather conditions.

... a river cruise in Europe to see the Christmas Markets in Dec of 2014 ...

Viking recently had a free air promo for Christmas Markets cruises. Not sure if it is still valid and it is for this 2013 year. Another ways to save: book with a TA, use a referral... For example our TA gives us $500 off the cruise price on top of all other discounts.

The Lomonosov is retiring from Viking service at the end of this season and will be replaced with a newer, refurbished ship starting in 2014. You should be able to read about the new ship on the Viking website.

They are going totally refurbish and rename Lomonosov as Sineus in Cherson during the winter. Pretty much the same was already done in Russia.

Planning on doing this in 2014. Wonderful advice: euro-prong extensions for transformers, bug spray and watch out for bugs when you open your windows, TP (if you want the soft stuff), there are hair dryers in all the desks, and watch out for yatch showers (unless that is your thing).

 

My wife and I really like to do walking tours of cities and travel independently from the cruise lines as much as we can. When we do want to do a tour or excursion, we usually try to find one independent of the cruise line as they are usually much less expensive. This has worked out well for us in Alaska, Germany, St. Petersburg, and a bunch of other places. Sometimes we find private tour operators, sometimes walking tour companies, sometimes hop on hop off buses to orient us and then we do our own thing, and sometimes negotiate for a taxi where the driver will show us around for a fixed price.

It really does not make sense in Ukraine for 2 reasons:

1. Tours are already included in the cruise price

2. The most important: you just can't find a good tour guide with an adequate english knowledge. There are a lot of people who speak very good English but they just pretent to be a tour giudes.

I doubt it even about Kiev not to mention other cities.

Part of my desire for this trip is to visit where two of my grandparents and their parents, etc. were born. It is a small village about 15 miles from Odessa. Probably spend much less than half a day there (walk around go to the old church, school, cemetary, walk past the old homestead, etc.). But the question is how to get to Novohradkivka, Ukraine (Neuburg when it was part of Imperial Russia). I am wondering if anyone has experience with private tour operators in Odessa, or since it is only about 15 miles each way (as the crow flies) if trying to find a taxi with a driver that speaks english, might be an alternative? Any thoughts would be appreciated.

That's easy. As Peregrina651 already mentioned: ask at the reception. They will arrange a taxi for the day and the price for you. The driver will just wait for you in Novohradrivka. As I said before taxi rates in Odessa are very low.

By the way tickets to the Opera can also be bought at the box office there: http://opera.odessa.ua/en/tickets/

Price varies from 40 to 300 UAH ($5 - $37).

The Jewish Heritage in Kiev tour does include a visit to Babi Yar, which is outside of town.

It is not in the center of the city but still in town and actually in only 15-20 minutes drive by subway from "Dnipro" station where Lomonosov is docked. You'll need to change train at "Zoloti Vorota" and exit at "Dorogozhychi". Babi Yar memorial is in a park right next to the subway station.

Thank you for the information. Do you happen to know the cost of the optional tours? :)

It is between 35 and 50 euros. You'll get the booklet from Viking by mail with all itinerary info. Just keep in mind all optional tours unless it is an Opera/Black Sea Band are done by the same tour guides.

On our trip, there was no changing buses. The passengers broke down into three groups--English-speaking passengers, German-speaking passengers and a large tour group-- and that is how the buses were assigned. It was not possible to change buses if you didn't like your guide. The German-speaking escort did not speak English and the tour group pretty much filled their bus.

 

In other words, yes, sometimes there is the ability to change buses but not always. It just depends on the passenger mix on your particular cruise.

I assume you were on the "international departure" cruise. There are 2 such cruises left this year: August 20th and September 11th. All others are 100% english speaking.

The first morning you choose a bus...number of buses directly proportional to the number of passengers which equates to around 30 people per guide. The guide on that bus is the one you will have for the duration of your trip so pick wisely.;)

 

On some of the optional excursions more than one group may be combined with a guide. Learn some Russian which is useful in the Ukraine as well, not only to be polite but to read signs as well.

They had all of us already assigned to certain buses at the first day. However it is not a problem to change bus later. Tours are pretty much avarage quality, kind of wikipedia information. Unfortunately not even comparable to the european guides. By the way if I am not mistaken all of the tour guides are from Sevastopol. So expect to get the best tour in there :)

Almost forgot: if you order something in the Sky or Panorama Bar try thoroughly explain to the bartender (Victoria or another girl) exactly what you need. My wife asked Margarita and got martini 2 times. :D

Apparently they do not make it or maybe do it differently even though it is listed in the drinks menu.

Do I see pickled herring there??? If so I'M IN!!

Yes and you can always ask extra. I love it too :)

How is the breakfast at the Radisson Blu--pre-cruise, enough to last us to dinner? How is Austrian air? Horrid seats? Is there some booze included to compensate? Also Ukrainian air from Odessa to Vienna??

Unfortunately I do not know since we did not book pre/post cruise extensions and did our own air. The taxi in Odessa is very affordable: we only paid 42 hryvnas (~5$) from seaport to the airport.

Let me add a few notes from our July cruise experience:

1. For sauna lovers: unfortunately it is closed for the entire season

2. Viking now sells cruise vouchers with an open date onboard. It is pretty much the same feature Royal Caribbean and other ocean cruise lines do. Basically you just pay $100 pp. less if you book the next cruise onboard. The onboard credit can be used to cover any expenses including cruise voucher.

3. No sense to use debit/credit cards and ATMs. Cash $$ or euro can be exchanged almost everywhere with much better rate. Just do not forget to show the passport or any id.

4. And do not miss vodka tasting! :D It is real fun, delicious appetizers and actually beneficial experience.

If there are any questions: just ask. I’ll try to respond as soon as I can.

Almost all lines include at least wine/bear at dinner. Not sure but I think only BTR Reizen does not include alcohol: http://www.btrreizen.nl/default.asp?cntCat=1&cntId=404

They charge around 489 euro for 8 day cruise.

I am still puzzled how to spend Viking’s $200 onboard credit? Btw, do they calculate it in hryvnias?

Black sea concsrt was 485 uah mom went it is a concert just for the cruise ship she liked it the danci g and singing it was exactly 1 hour. The next morni g the si gers were at the prior singing to another ship that was docked singing in english anda couple polkas . Odessa opera ballett was 485 uah. If you are in kiev the kiev opera house is 200 uah and perform in afternoon and 7 pm

Wine tour is 410. Chersonese was 295 bakaklava sub tour was 370 open are market in kiev was 50 americsn. I had the tour brochure but lost it sorry but they were close to the prices others have quoted. The kiev jewish tour was excellent from what people have said but they were disappointed with the odessa tour

Thanks for this valuable info. I crossed out “Black Sea Band concert” from my list: seems to be overpriced for 1 hour performance only. Just curious if anyone tried “Akkerman fortress” tour in Odessa?

..cost of tour 50 american...

poolplayer, could you list all optional tours prices, please? Have attended "Black sea fleet band" performance?

of $4,200. Yes we paid $4,200 for a extremely small hotel room ...

Let me mention our room - we paid extra to have a nice balcony

Why can't I find any sign of this payment policy in the official Viking Terms & Conditions that they post on the websites?

 

The earliest I can find is 120 days before departure and the latest seems to be about 10 weeks. It varies between countries it seems, but nowhere can I find anything documented that would support paying as much as a year in advance?

Right. You can always pay later up to 120 days before departure. The trick is in this case final price is not locked and may eventually go up. However the group guide states the group rate is valid till 12/19/2013. So my guess is it is pretty safe to wait till that date.

Why use a TA for a river cruise? if they don't add anything except someone to do finger pointing. If a tour operator such as Grand Circle will do air, transfers, hotels and cruise under one umbrella, why use a TA, which they do not use? I got screwed up by a TA that went out of business 20 years ago. It took forever to get our money back. I have not used a TA since.

Unfortunately cruise companies make us use TA’s by providing all kinds of discounts, group policies and other promo’s available only if you book a cruise using a TA.

Otherwise I'd never ever use it.

?? What do you mean, that Viking trusts TA more than their customers. Viking wrote that they felt the TA messed up and they are trying to get to the bottom of it, waiting on the OP to contact them to get a conference call going. What else should Viking do?

Have you ever tried to call Viking and ask about anything if you booked a cruise using a TA? Just try it… Nobody will talk to you: the standard response is “contact your TA”. :mad:

I understand as somebody mentioned it is a common practice in the travel industry etc… But it is just wrong! If Nan-L received a clarification from Viking the case'd resolve much faster and even without cruise critic forum.

Sadly that Viking trusts travel agents more than their customers. :( If instead of a standard reply (“contact your TA”) they responded to the customers enquiries and explained everything there were no such complaints whatsoever.