easyboy Posted October 22, 2017 #26 Share Posted October 22, 2017 Enjoying your review! Sent from my iPhone using Forums Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beanpittsburgh Posted October 22, 2017 Author #27 Share Posted October 22, 2017 Sunday Morning Today we left the ship at 9 for a day trip to Favaios. It is a small town which specializes in 2 things. Small loaves of bread and Moscatel de Favaios. The Moscatel is similar to Port in that it is sweet and fortified. However, it is capped at 17% alcohol. It is made from the Muscat grape and is sweeter than Port. The other differences are that in is an aperitif and a lot cheaper in cost. Another difference is the town of Faviaios has 500 wine growers which combine all their grapes to make the one style wine at a co-op. The wine so far has been grown along the Douro on steep terraces. The wine here in Favaios is grown in comparatively flat fields.The regular which we tasted was 5 euros while a 10 year old special was 11 euros. We were divided in 3 groups that in turn visited a bakery, wine museum, and the wine co-op. After the 3 stops of about 30 minutes each, we went to a huge winery/restaurant for lunch. We were treated to music, humorous stories, great Portuguese food, and endless glasses of the regular table wine that is made also in the area. The white was made with the Muscat grape while the red was from a few miles away and made in the traditional Portuguese way(stomped on by foot). This place was definitely the highlight of the trip so far. We arrived back at the ship by 330 for a much needed nap. The ship is docked for the night in Pinhao. It is a charming little town with the best opportunity to explore on ones own since leaving Porto. Too bad we had so much wine in Favaios. There was a captains toast tonight at 6:30. Even though we have one more day of sailing, we did the captains toast tonight since mostly we will be sailing most of the day tomorrow and the captain won’t have the opportunity to have a toast with the passengers tomorrow. They discussed the departure procedures and gave us our departure times for Tuesday morning during the PD talk. Tonight after dinner, we had a Portuguese University musical group called Tuna or at least that’s how it sounds, I’m not sure how it’s spelled. There were eight members in the band. They had a mix of different guitars and instruments. Very interesting music. I would have to say today and yesterday in Salamanca were the two most interesting excursions that we did. So if you decide to stay on the boat a day, don’t eliminate either one of these tours. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beanpittsburgh Posted October 23, 2017 Author #28 Share Posted October 23, 2017 Monday Final day of Cruise. Bittersweet. Great trip but ready to go home. Today was mostly spent cruising back to Porto. There was a 3 hour excursion to see a small town and cathedral but we stayed aboard ship and relaxed instead. Viking did nothing special today. While cruising on the Rhine past the castles, we had beer and sausage. Kind of thought Viking would do something similar on the Douro. We made it back to Porto just in time for a beautiful sunset. Dinner tonite was our favorite one so far. Again, no formal farewell from the crew, just Cruise Director. We enjoyed the crew and I would have liked to have some pictures taken with them all. Passengers are disembarking as early as 230am. We leave at 845 for a long day of travel home to Pittsburgh. This was our 3rd Cruise with Viking. The Rhine had the best ports and chance for independent sightseeing. The stretch in Germany with castles is fantastic. Everyone spoke English. Our Bordeaux Cruise had the best food and wine. Not a great Cruise for sightseeing. I would recommend it only for wine lovers. The Douro definitely had the prettiest and most scenery. The local Portuguese food was okay. I thought the locals were very friendly. Spain and Portugal had more of the old world feel to them which was a nice change from our everyday lives. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Host Jazzbeau Posted October 24, 2017 #29 Share Posted October 24, 2017 Thanks for your review. When you mention local Portuguese food, I assume this is meals off the ship -- provided by Viking or on your own? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FuelScience Posted October 24, 2017 #30 Share Posted October 24, 2017 Thanks again for taking us along on your trip! I'm glad that you didn't get the 2:30 a.m. departure time. Safe travels and I hope all your flights are on time and everything goes smoothly! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beanpittsburgh Posted October 24, 2017 Author #31 Share Posted October 24, 2017 The “local” Portuguese food I mentioned in my review was basically any food we had, whether on board ship or not. The cuisine is heavy on fish & seafood of which we are not fans. Also I prefer more spice in my foods. That is not to say others would be very happy with the food. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HokiePoq Posted October 28, 2017 #32 Share Posted October 28, 2017 Thanks so much for this great detailed review. The Douro is on my bucket list and this is so helpful. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cruisegal#116 Posted November 2, 2017 #33 Share Posted November 2, 2017 Thank you for taking the time to post live. I really enjoyed reading your day by day. My husband and I had toyed with the idea of a Douro River Cruise in 2018 but after reading several reviews did not think that this itinerary would appeal to us due ti so much time on a bus and not enough time on the water. However your review has me rethinking our plan -- perhaps for 2019. We have already done the Rhine, Danube, Seine, German Christmas Markets and Imperial Jewels of China and loved them all. Now I am thinking Douro again! Many thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beanpittsburgh Posted November 3, 2017 Author #34 Share Posted November 3, 2017 I guess its all a matter of preference. My wife and I didn't think the bus rides were too bad. The longest day on the bus from Lisbon to Porto was about 8 hours. That was broken up with a rest stop and also 4 hours in Coimbra. Same with Salamanca, rest stop, 5 hours in Salamanca, and back to the ship. Granted, bus rides sometimes make me nod off for short periods of time. That can make the rides seem shorter too. I honestly didn't hear anyone complain about the bus rides. As I said before, I thought the Douro had more spectacular scenery than the Rhine. The Rhine had better ports with more independent time to explore. The included excursions in Porto and Castelo Rodrigo I could have done without but the day in Salamanca and Favaios were highlights of the cruise for us. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carolinians Posted November 12, 2017 #35 Share Posted November 12, 2017 Really enjoyed your review, BeanPittsburgh. Thanks for taking all the time necessary to do this. Say hello to Iron City for us. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paulchili Posted November 14, 2017 #36 Share Posted November 14, 2017 Enjoyed your review - thank you. We are thinking of taking this cruise in Sept 2019. I noticed your remark about Bordeaux tour mostly for wine lovers (understandable). We do not drink - would we still enjoy this cruise? Are there other excursions for sightseeing rather than mostly wine tasting? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beanpittsburgh Posted November 14, 2017 Author #37 Share Posted November 14, 2017 Paulchili There were people on the Bordeaux cruise who were not big wine drinkers. In my opinion, if you don't like wine then do not do this cruise. The scenery was not very spectacular and the boat was basically a floating hotel -- only traveled maybe 150 kilometers for the week (Least it seemed that way). The ports were just okay for independent exploration (the city of Bordeaux itself and St Emilion were worthwhile with lots of possibilities). The optional excursions were fun and not all wine related. We did the Truffle tour and Bordeaux Market tour as extras. Viking did a great job as usual with food and hospitality. We had 4 first time cruise friends along and we all had a great time. I just feel that this particular cruise lends itself best to wine lovers. Others may disagree with me Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paulchili Posted November 15, 2017 #38 Share Posted November 15, 2017 PaulchiliThere were people on the Bordeaux cruise who were not big wine drinkers. In my opinion, if you don't like wine then do not do this cruise. The scenery was not very spectacular and the boat was basically a floating hotel -- only traveled maybe 150 kilometers for the week (Least it seemed that way). The ports were just okay for independent exploration (the city of Bordeaux itself and St Emilion were worthwhile with lots of possibilities). The optional excursions were fun and not all wine related. We did the Truffle tour and Bordeaux Market tour as extras. Viking did a great job as usual with food and hospitality. We had 4 first time cruise friends along and we all had a great time. I just feel that this particular cruise lends itself best to wine lovers. Others may disagree with me Thank you for the reply but I didn’t express myself clearly - my bad. We are interested in taking the Douro cruise, not the Bordeaux. But the Douro cruise also seems to have a fair number of wine inspired tours - maybe not as many as the Bordeaux one. Are there tours on Douro cruise that are not wine centered? TIA Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beanpittsburgh Posted November 15, 2017 Author #39 Share Posted November 15, 2017 I think there was more wine poured on this trip than the Bordeaux cruise. The basic cruise theme, I think, was to highlight the Douro region and empathize the Port and local wines. The meals in Coimbra and Favaios had bottomless wine poured. There were a total of 4 wine stops on the trip - 2 Port houses, 1 winery, and the Favaios wine co-op. With that being said, I think a non-wine drinker would still have a wonderful time on this cruise. We met a great couple from Philly who did not drink on the cruise and I know they had a great time. The Douro river and scenery was fantastic as was the trip to Salamanca. There are not as many optional excursions on this trip but there are a few that don't deal with wine. There are a few in Lisbon and a couple in Porto and the optional Fatima excursion. Once the ship left Porto, there were no optional excursions. Also, I might add, while there was a great deal of alcohol poured on this trip, I never saw anyone remotely drunk or intoxicated. I recommend this cruise to everyone - drinker or not. The Portuguese were very sincere and friendly and of course I loved the scenery. Viking has a good product and met our every expectation. Was everything perfect? No, but we got more than our money's worth. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paulchili Posted November 15, 2017 #40 Share Posted November 15, 2017 Thank you beanpittsburgh. We booked the cruise today and are looking forward to it. We’ve been to some of these places before but we like them well enough to revisit and see something new as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beanpittsburgh Posted November 15, 2017 Author #41 Share Posted November 15, 2017 Paulchili Can't wait to read your review. I hope you have as much fun as we did. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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