id4elizabeth

We went on this tour this past spring and it was really great! You'll get to Montserrat well before the tour busses before it gets crowded. The scenery there and back is beautiful. Not being a wine drinker myself, I can't comment on that, but my DH sure enjoyed it. Our guide was a lovely ex-pat lady originally from Ireland who has made Barcelona her home for a while - she was very informative! Van was great and because of its smaller size was able to get us right at the entrance to Montserrat so no long walk from the bus parking lot.

Yes it is sad for the families of the tourists as well as any locals injured. And sad to for the people of Istanbul, many of whom depend on tourism for their livelihood. From the few pictures that have been released, we were exactly on that spot this past spring.

Prague - yes we are flying into Prague. We looked into renting a car to Budapest but it was going to cost $800 (automatic) plus cost of "permits" to cross each border. Between needing an automatic and the drop charge in Budapest, it was a killer. Way too much. Then we found a tour operator who offered transportation by car from Prague to Budapest with guided stops in two towns along the way for $600 for both of us, so we elected that option instead. There's also the option of flying. For some day trips out of Prague, we've signed up for 2 tours - one to visit Cremzy Kumlov (may not have this spelling correct) and the second to a castle. Rest of the time in Prague will be DIY with my handy Rick Steve's guidebook.

Transylvania - we were going to do the Viking extension but when I read the day to day itinerary, I found that although it's 4 days, 2 1/2 of those days are really spent in Bucharest. So we opted for private guide, upscale hotel in Brasov, private car instead of bus, and 3 full days in Transylvania - all for less than the Viking extension.

Fun planning, isn't it!

Avonglen - I would call them. This is dreadful! Something doesn't sound right. On the maiden 50-day cruise there were plenty of optional excursions available even for those who could not sign up until once onboard. Yes SOME (very few) of the limited space available tours were full - but very few - I'm talking about 3 or 4 for the entire 50 days. Got to be something wrong with their systems or something.

If you went through a TA and can't call Viking directly, perhaps get them to give Viking a call.

I feel your distress on this one big time!

We're going on the Budapest to Bucharest cruise with Viking in April. Like Uralguy, we are planning on 4 extra days at the end in Transylvania going to Brasov. We've hired a private guide that was cheaper than the Viking extension. On the front end, we're spending 5 days in Prague (one of which will be spent getting from Prague to Budapest). All together it comes to a little over three weeks gone from home.

Ural guy - any more details on your Transylvania extension - sounds like your going to take a train and DIY from Brasov. Where are you staying in Brasov?

I've tried to start a roll call for Eastern Europe -All Lines anytime in 2016, but so far there's been no response. I was beginning to think we were the only ones going there this year!

Sagrada Familia, Pompeii should be no problem with a camera bag, but lots of places, not just Museums, are averse these days to large backpacks. Most museums will not allow flash. Some places, but can't remember where, required us to purchase a photo permit, but they were not expensive.

I agree with Patrickmoran - the Medical / evac policies are WAY cheaper than full trip insurance. If Viking is covering the cancellations and you buy the Medical, then I would not do the full trip insurance just to cover trip delays, trip interruption and lost baggage. The cost/benefit just doesn't seem worthwhile.

On our trip to Eastern Europe, I cannot cancel and rebook as a large portion of our fare was covered by a future cruise credit from a prior Viking trip and found out that it's non-transferable so I'd loose that. Plus, since I already bought the trip insurance, I'd be out that too. Bummer! Wish I had another cruise I could take in 2016!

If the offer is as simple as "you can cancel up to the day before and get all your money back" then why would you buy trip insurance for the cruise at all? I could see buying separate trip insurance for the flights or hotel rooms pre- post-cruise, and maybe medical and evac insurance, but why buy the full blown trip insurance which is quite expensive?

I'm still confused as to why Viking is doing this at all. Seems they are inviting people to book with no penalty at all for deciding the day before sailing to forget the whole thing - for free. Then they're bound to have lots of last minute cancellations. With no ability for them to fill the cancellations. I'm just still not getting this.

Reading this thread with interest! We have an Eastern Europe cruise scheduled for April 2016 that I made and paid for about 6 months ago - before all the refugee issues. At the moment I could cancel my existing reservation and only pay a 15% penalty. Then rebook under this cancel-for-any-reason offer. Then if things got really bad in April, we could back out at the last minute. What i've been nervous about this trip is that things get really bad over there inbthe spring.

Certainly if you had an existing booking more than 121 days out it would behoove you to cancel that, pay $200 per couple, and rebook to get this cancellation benefit!

As stated above - this is so NOT the "Viking way" - mystfying. Seems like they are inviting a LOT of last minute cancellations. From my experience with Viking -- paying in full up to 18 months in advance, their Viking normal cancel-for-any-reason policy only giving you a voucher on future cruises - this seems so unlike them. Who would buy their trip insurance (like I did) if you have this cancellation waiver? Got to be a catch somewhere!

Another thing I might suggest to do with your now free afternoon after the included Viking tour is to take a stroll along Los Ramblas. You could walk up to the Market (Boquera (sp?)), which as I recall is only a few blocks up the street from the Columbus Monument and is on the left. Or to the right of Los Ramblas is the Baria Gothic area which had an old world atmosphere, a wonderful church and beautiful Cloisters. You only have to walk a short distance and then turn around and go back to the port shuttle stop to get back to the ship. Pick up a map from the Explorer's Desk before you get off for your included tour. We were in Barcelona for a few days on our trip and I think it was our favorite city - although we were on for the whole 50 days so it's hard to pick just one. But, I'd love to go back and see more of Barcelona! Have fun!

Re Barcelona - depends on the route your included tour takes. Our bus tour on the maiden cruise went by the Sagrada Familia towards the middle of the tour and only did a slow drive by - not sure it would have been possible to get off. Since then though, I think Viking has changed up this tour. But you'd have to be certain the order of the tour and know that the Sagrada Familia was last.

The other thing I'd want to point out is that the shuttle bus stop is at the Columbus Monument at the harbor end of Los Ramblas. That's a LONG way from Sagrada Familia. I certainly wouldn't want to walk it! I think you'd have to look into public transportation or plan on taking a cab or Uber. You could take that to Columbus Monument and then take the shuttle.

Your timing seems a bit tight to me in any case.

Your other option is to do the optional afternoon Viking Gaudi tour. We did this and quite enjoyed it. It took in the Sagrada Familia as well as Park Guell. That way you don't have to worry about logistics. I'd say we spent about 45 minutes to an hour at the church, so if you wanted more time there, then this wouldn't work.

Hope that helps.

Rjscott - yes I know what you mean - the bathroom outlet would not even keep my electric toothbrush charged. Had to keep that out on the desk too!

I wouldn't worry about Corfu at all. We were there this past spring and don't think there will be any issues there. We were also in Istanbul and I was a bit nervous going there, so we got a private guide for the day. All worked out fine, although the situation there has gotten worse since we were there. Istanbul might become an issue for Viking going forward - long before Corfu.

About hair dryers - unless they've changed things, the outlet in the bathroom is not powerful enough to run it. You have to use one of the power outlets in the room. I used one of the outlets at the desk as there was a mirror there. For the maiden cruise, the curly-ques on the cord were so tight I had to bend over to dry my hair - the hair dryer could only be held about 18 inches from the plug. But my guess is that by now the coils have loosened up enough so that you could sit up straight. I would say it was plenty powerful - definitely NOT worth bringing your own.

There's a lot to be said for private tours even of the same sight - usually much smaller groups, faster transportation, shorter potty breaks, seeing exactly what you want to see, spending as much time or as little time as you want at a particular place, no forced "shopping". Although it's a different itinerary on the Star than the one uou took, see my port reviews here:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2286418

You'll see a combination of included, optional, private and DIY tours. IMO, you see a lot more with private tours. Although they certainly do cost more....:D

Wonderful cruising to everyone. I'd like to add "new itineraries to explore" to the list!

Thanks Dave and Havoc - your info is most encouraging! I've started playing with my Jpegs in Lightroom and so far I've been pretty amazed with the results. Thanks again!

We went in October and the weather was great. Supposedly it rains a lot in the Spring, and the fall is supposed to be dryer. We did however encounter lots of smog, but I think you can get that any time of year. We did not go with Viking - the amount of time on the Yangtze was too long for us. I agree with Pudgesmom - our four days on the river was quite enough. Glad we saw it, but didn't need to see anymore. My blog of our trip is here: http://www.travelswithelizabeth.com

Lots of pictures as well as description of our tours.

It is possible to do both Herculaneum and Pompeii. See my review (link posted above), but a private tour would be better.

You can see my review of Pompeii and Herculaeum on this thread.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2286418

It is definitely a trade off in terms of what to do with your 7 hours in port. As I mention in the review, this is NOT one of those ports where you can easily walk to town from the ship.

Hope the review helps.

Thanks Dave - I'm going to have to study your reply some! There is so much to learn. I'm still figuring out what the difference is between a catalogue, a folder and a collection. Think I have that down now and have saved a few pis in Lightroom. But boy is this software complicated when you first get going.

I didn't realize when I bought this (what I consider to be an expensive) Sony camera, that I could only shoot JPEG. This little nugget is buried way deep in the fine print. Not even mentioned in the user manual that came with the camera. It should have been a bright red warning label IMO. I have the feeling I won't be able to do as much in Lightroom and Photoshop as I'd like to. But I'll keep persevering and for sure make sure the next camera shoots in Raw.

Thanks for your reply!

At the risk of jumping in here, I will start with telling you I'm a neophyte, "auto" setting, amateur travel photographer who is brand new to Lightroom. I'm starting to play around with settings on my camera though and doing a bit of "post processing." I have a Sony camera DSX HX 300 (fixed lens) which is only 6 months old, and I've just found out it ONLY takes Jpegs, so I'm stuck with Jpegs. When I go into Lightroom, can you tell me how (or if) I can set the camera/lens specific settings? What are my limitations in Lightroom? Any limitations in Photoshop? (I also just paid for a year's subscription to Adobe Creative Cloud.) Any info would be great.

Keep in mind that the river cruise is only a part of the whole trip, whether Viking, Unworld, or any of the other river cruise companies. Just to make your life more complicated, there are US-based tour companies operating in China that include a Yangtze river cruise. Basically the same thing as Viking. We used China Spree for our trip to China based on a recommendation from a friend and the trip was fabulous. There were only 6 people in our tour. For details (and lots of photos) you can read my blog, http://www.travelswithelizabeth.com . I've also read good reviews of a company called China Focus. Have fun!

But the price difference basically is location. The idea is that the view is better the higher up you go. Another tip, avoid cabins next to exit doors, even though they may be the same price. We were next to a heavy exterior door and it constantly banged. It was the same price as others on our floor. Also, if you tend to get queasy in rough seas, if possible don't choose cabins in the front of the ship - it tends to rock more in heavy seas. Supposedly the middle of the ship is the most stable, but I find the rear of the ship was just as stable on the Star. But once you've settled on the DV category the price difference is purely location.

Yes.