Viking Pride: Paris and the Heart of Normandy - Review

[swamp1sg]

I think that Vikings strengths are its guides and hotel staff. On all the tours the guides are extremely knowledgeable. When I was sick on the ship, Connie, the head of the hotel staff and the maitre d' brought me soup and bread to my room. We have been on 4 different lines so I have experienced a variety.

[Donray]

Hi War Eagle,

 

We liked your Paris pictures and were wondering if you tell us what camera was used and what lens?

 

Since it was cloudy out did you use any special settings?

[WarEagle76]

Donray, glad you liked the pictures. We travel with two cameras. One is a Nikon D80 DSLR and use it with a Nikkor 18-70mm, 70-300mm, and also a Nikkor 105mm macro lens, and have had the camera about 6 years. We are big fans of the "mode" button, especially the "sports" and "macro" modes. I've found that the sports mode button, in addition to taking action photos, is great for using in lowlight scenarios as well as when you cannot use a flash mode (i.e. churches). If I had to replace it today, I'd probably go for the Nikon D5200. The other camera we use is a Sony Cybershot DSC-HX1 with a 20X zoom lens. It is easy to carry and takes great pictures. The way we operate, we take lots of pictures, sometimes taking the same picture in different modes, then cull the bad pictures later after downloading to the PC.

[Rufusk]

Hi War Eagle,

Great review and pictures!

I wonder if you might try and answer some questions for me.

I'd posted them elsewhere, and although there have been 248 views, only one commented and the unfortunately they comments didn't address the questions.

Below is the posting, with background and the questions:

Last fall we did Viking's Grand European Tour from Budapest to Amsterdam (http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1932164). We had a wonderful time and are considering doing another Viking cruise, this time the Paris and Heart of Normandy one.

I have a mobility issue and when we went on the Grand European I took a small mobility scooter (TravelScoot). I was able to use it on all the planes and on most of the excursions on the Viking cruise (the only one I didn't was to Marksburg Castle; I sat it out). There was no issue with its use and since it's smaller and lighter than a manual wheelchair it was easily carried on the buses when we went on excursions.

 

 

Now to my questions. I'd like to bring the TravelScoot on this next cruise. On the Grand European they had various groups, including a slow walking group that tried to avoid hills, steps etc. Sometimes we joined this one.

• Do they offer the slow walking group on the Paris and the Heart of Normandy cruise?
  
• Are most of the excursions on relatively flat land or are they all up and down stairs?
  
• Were there big buses taken that had a cargo hold? (when I took the TravelScoot on the excursions we just popped it in the cargo hold - the scoot only weighs 30 lbs)
  
• Does anyone have any specifics on the excursions?
  
• Do you foresee any issues with using a small mobility scooter on this particular cruise?
  

Thanks very much, in advance for your responses.

If you get a chance, I'd appreciate any insight you might give

 

Thanks again,

Cheers

Rufus