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id4elizabeth - thanks for the great information!

screen-gem - thanks for the detailed information!! Looks like I'll still be checking every day until we get there, AND checking our tickets closely once there. :)

We're staying in a DV cabin which says that we get daily replenishment of drinks (non-alcoholic) and snacks. Can anyone tell me what kind of drinks and snacks come in the mini-bar? Water, juices or soda? Nuts, popcorn, chocolate?

Thanks!

I hope I'm not jinxing myself here but I haven't had any of my booked excursion times changed. I've been reading of the problems on this thread and I check MVJ every day just to be sure and it's all the same as when I booked. The cruise documents we just received also have all of our excursions scheduled the same as when we booked. We're scheduled to sail on the Viking Homelands cruise on May 29th.

Were the changes that have been made to your excursions done prior to 2 weeks out or after? I'll still probably check each day just to be sure but I'm hoping maybe the bugs have been worked out???!!!

gimp1956 - Our travel agent received our documents on May 5th for our cruise starting on May 29th. I'm not sure how they came to the TA but our TA sent them to us via FedEx and we got them the next day.

The documents are definitely not emailed. It's a whole packet of things, including a personalized cruise book that details all of the flights, times, ports, excursions you've selected, dining reservations - basically everything. There are other things in the packet - luggage tags, etc. You should get yours about 3 weeks prior to sailing.

We too have a 6:30 am departure from Stockholm. We expect to be shuttled to the airport around 3:30am. We had a similar departure time on one of our Viking River cruises, but had more reasonable departure times on the other four Viking River cruises. In order to be back home by early evening, this was really the only option we had.

No use stressing over it - it is what it is. Nothing much happens the morning of departure anyway and most guests are off the ship by 9:00 am so you're not missing anything. And, you'll sleep well on the way back to the US!! :)

gimp1956 - I think you were given incorrect information. The tips for the local guides are NOT included in the daily gratuity for Viking staff. Yes, the daily gratuity per person per day is added to your bill and you can pay it off by credit card on the last day of the cruise. But the local guides are not Viking employees and they are to be tipped in cash.

I actually should have waited to receive my cruise documents, as this question was answered by Viking in those documents. It said that local guide tips are usually given in Euros at the rate of 2 euros for a guide and 1 euro for the bus driver (of course these are guidelines - you can tip more for exceptional service or less or nothing if you want).

Hope this helps!

Thanks for the helpful advice!

On previous Viking River Cruises, we always tipped our local excursion guides in the local currency, which was usually the Euro. However on this cruise, in addition to the Euro, we will be dealing with the Swedish Krona, the Russian Ruble, the Polish Zloty, the Danish Krone and the Norwegian Krone.

What is the best way to tip the local excursion guides in these countries? Should we plan to take some cash from the ATM in each country? Or is there a better way to handle this.

Thanks!

Sorry you were disappointed with your cruise. I've cruised with Viking 5 times now and have never encountered some of the experiences described here. I have found that the pre-excursion hotels are usually very nice but I haven't stayed at the Moevenpick before. It certainly isn't in the best location for easy walking access to attractions.

Our transfers to/from the airport to the hotel/ship were made in decent sized vans with plenty of space for passengers and luggage. As most US flights get into Europe early in the morning, we are always prepared to be on our own and without luggage access until check-in which usually isn't until late afternoon. Yes, that makes for an exhausting first day but that's what happens. As for flying back so early in the morning, we had that happen to us too on our first cruise and after that, we made sure to use Viking Air Plus so we can get a later flight out.

It's the dining situation that I'm most confused about - our servers on all 5 cruises were absolutely the best. They were so helpful, attentive and friendly that it was difficult to say goodbye at the end of the cruise. From the moment we sat down there was someone filling our glass, whether it be wine, beer, soda, water, whatever. And they were constantly refilling without us having to ask. European meals usually take longer than American meals, but we were never just sitting there waiting for long periods of time. We found the food to be delicious and were excited about trying new dishes from the countries we visited. On one night, they had several local dishes on the menu that my mother has hesitant about trying so she wanted to order the steak. My response to her was "why would you want to order a steak you can get at home anytime...try something new..you might like it". She tried the schnitzel and loved it. I'm sure if she had not liked it, the servers would have brought her something else instead.

Never had a problem getting a cocktail during any cocktail hour, free or not. The service in the lounge was always wonderful.

If we had been in your position without food for 2 hours and no beer or wine for lunch or dinner I would have certainly brought it to the dining manger's attention so it could be fixed instead of complaining about it when you get back home. Not tipping the servers for a week's worth of work is unfair if you didn't tell them what they were doing wrong.

I'm not saying that everything on every cruise was 100% perfect but when there was a problem, it was promptly addressed which can't be done if you don't say anything. Overall, from my experiences with Viking is that their staff is the best on each and every ship we've been on. We truly hate saying goodbye to them.

I hope you have better luck on future cruises.

We did the Viking Romantic Danube cruise the last week of July a few years ago. The weather was great -not too hot at all. But the crowds in Vienna and at Schonbrunn Palace and some places in Budapest were awful! Nuremburg, Regensburg, Passau, and Melk weren't too crowded. The planes and airports were packed as well.

We went to Prague on Viking's Elegant Elbe cruise. We started in Berlin (in the Hilton Berlin) and caught the ship in Magdeburg (with a stop in Potsdam first). Cruised the Elbe through Eastern Germany into the Czech Republic and ended the cruise portion in Melnik which is less than 20 miles from Prague (short bus ride). Stayed at the Prague Hilton and extended an extra 2 nights. Prague is such a beautiful city that even 3 days there wasn't enough time to see everything.

We picked this cruise specifically because we had wanted to visit Prague, which was fabulous, but we enjoyed the cruise itself tremendously too. The scenery was gorgeous and the history was amazing. We thoroughly enjoyed the entire trip!

I turned off cellular data and data roaming on my iPhone and used the Wi-Fi on the ship which was surprisingly good on our last cruise on Viking's Elegant Elbe. Had great access in our room, in the lounge and on the sundeck. Didn't notice slow speed but I didn't try to upload photos to Facebook or email photos either.

To avoid purchasing an international plan for texting I used WhatsApp which works on Wi-Fi and is FREE!!! Worked great - just make sure the people you want to text also use WhatsApp.

We received our package about 3-4 weeks before our cruise which will start on April 25th. It came to our TA who forwarded it on to us.

If you want to see what is in the package without your specific cruise and flight information included, you can go to the Viking website and click on My Trip...then About My Cruise...then Itineraries at a Glance...then select your cruise. We did this so we would have an idea of what the optional excursions were ahead of time so we could research which ones we wanted to do. Of course your actual cruise package will have the most current info and your specific details but I like to get a general idea of what's going on ahead of time.

Enjoy!

You can't go wrong with either one. I've done both of them and absolutely loved them! Each had it's own plusses (no minuses for either) - it just depends on which part of the country you're most interested in seeing.

We did the Rhine River cruise on the Viking Helvetia in November 2010. The weather was a little chilly but not too bad. Since it wasn't peak season, there wasn't many other tourists around so we basically had the tour sites to ourselves, which was nice.

We did the Danube River cruise on the Viking Prestige in July 2011. I was worried that it would be too hot, but it was delightful - warm but not hot. However, some sites (such as Schonbrunn Palace in Vienna) were crowded with other tourists.

Good luck and happy sails!