Portraits of Southern France Advice

[pinotlover]

Was on the 9/13 sailing of the Viking Heimdahl. The overall impression most people felt about the trip was "OK, not great. Heard many comments such as this is my seventh or fifth Viking cruise and the worst by far. My third, and easily their poorest performance. This ship is very nice. Goin through the locks with only inches to spare was fun to watch.

 

1. We were able to sail the entire route, barely. Only got to do sundeck on first portion of Chalon to Macon sail. After that, the sun deck was closed for the entire trip until last day (which we didn't sail, more on that later).

 

2. Food is a highly subjective matter, but it was overall fair at best. Not good or great, just OK. I could give multiple examples, but I'll leave it mostly at that. The best meal, imo, was the captain's Provence dinner which was a buffet. The food was very good that night overall. There was a lot of complaining by other cruisers that the meal was a buffet and not served to them, plus the food was spread out between the dining room, the kitchen, and the Aqualounge upstairs. So to get food, one had to go up and down the stairs to serve one self. I thought it was a fun evening, but many didn't share my feelings. See comments on demographics below.

 

Here I will give an opinion that was often repeated on the ship. Viking is struggling with the new Long Boats, particularly trying to feed 187 people, in our case, in one feeding. Most of the complaints came with the fish dishes that were often grossly overcooked. We never knew if Victor, the chef, was overcooking them, or whether they were sitting under the heat lamps to long.

 

Numerous of the crew members told us the ship was suffering from high crew turnover. We had multiple crew that was new to the ship. It's not that they were not working hard, they just weren't doing it efficiently. People had to beg for a refill of a glass of water multiple times, some of the food was served cold, etc.

 

The wine served was mostly phlonk. We were prepared and brought our own on board. By the third night, many of the tables had 1-3 bottles of passenger provided bottles sitting on them in lieu of the ship provided wines.

 

3. The tours were mostly good but Lyon was a disaster, and we missed Viviers because of a cruiser blunder.

 

a. Beaune was very good tour, but the wine cave we visited served horrible wines. Best note was a little old lady saying " I know little of wine, but that was crappy wine!". Calling it crappy was an understatement.

Most people going to Cluny wished they had skipped the tour.

 

b. Lyon - a Charlie Foxtrot. On most tours, the tour guides did a very good job of getting separation from other groups. On this tour, on multiple incidents, including both up at the cathedral on the hill (St. Mary's) and in the old town, the guides would be standing side by side talking to their groups. All 5 of the buses went up the hill together to the church and then back down to old town. This even occurred in the closed vacuoles (sp?) side streets. The result of having the guides together was that the listening devices started going bonzo. They would either be screeching loudly, or jumping in and out of search mode where you heard nothing. After a while many of us just followed along, with the machines turned off and picked up what we could by ear. The funniest part of the tour was when a Tauck tour walked by and many of our machines jumped over to their guide, who was giving out some very good info.

 

The Perouge optional trip was outstanding.

 

c. Tain - Ok tour with as one earlier posted said a trip to a third rate winery. People enjoyed the chocolate factory, and the walk around town was nice. Why they don't go to better wineries on this trip is a mystery to all.

 

As a side note here, many people that were planning on doing the Chat du Pape optional tour decided to not go, based on the pour quality of the two wineries earlier visited. From those that did go on that tour, the feeling was that those people skipping the tour made the proper decision, in that they were very disappointed in the winery they visited.

 

d. Viviers walking tour - Sad story. Walking tour cancelled We were nearly two hours late in arriving to Viviers, we got there around 10:30, and it was then raining with thunder and lightning. The reason we were late arriving is that at Tain we had a sister Viking ship rafted to us when we came back from our tour. During our scheduled departure, we unrafted and started to set sail. The we screwed around for 30-40 minutes re-rafting up. Seems one of our idiot cruisers decided to take a tour of the sister ship and didn't return on time and go stuck on the sister ship. The captain of the ship radioed over and told our captain of the problem. Instead of the sister ship putting her on a train or taxi to Viviers (they were re docking), we stopped and picked her up. So that delay, put up late, and missing our turn through the next to locks, which meant the 30-40 minute delay, became a 2 hour delay and missed tour because of the idiot.

 

e. Arles is a great city to visit. The brochures say we overnight in Arles, but we actually stay in Trascon, just upriver. The reason is that the new long boats are to big to dock in Arles. Arles is doing a major renovation to their docks to allow for the long ships, but it will be either 2015 or 16 before the work is complete, so you are bused in.

 

f. Avignon was a great tour and mostly very well done. The stairs at the Palace created problems. See below:

 

This was my first Fall Viking tour. The other two have been in the summer months. That said, the demographics of the ship was startling. As a side note, we had Gary Player, with his wife, daughter, and caddy with wife, on the cruise. Wonderful guy and great to talk with. Gary's daughter was I believe in her mid forties and the only person under 55 on the cruise. My wife and I being under 65 probably put us in 15-20% range of guests under 65. Definitely an older demographic than I have seen on other cruises. This affected the tours. The tours were set up with one tour for those needing extra time and 4 regular tours. Problem was a lot of the oldster thought that the one for those needing extra time was for wheel chair or canned cruisers. Wrong! Many of the tours were walk a block and wait, walk a block and wait. Most of the tours are on mostly flat ground, and people could not keep up. We had one situation were one in the group scolded an older lady, telling her that she should really consider getting in the leisurely group, that this was the second day she had held a group he was in up. This lead to a war on words where the lady started ranting about her rights and the guy was telling her about her obligations! Our tour guide cut short our Arles tour, so we could get back to the bus on time. We had so many that continually lagged behind, we couldn't complete the tour as planned. We did have the option of remaining in town for the day and catching the Viking provided bus to Avignon later in the afternoon, which we did. Arles is a very interesting town, and we passed on our last boat ride section of the cruise.

 

Our recommendation to Viking was to set up three (3) classes of tours, in lieu of two. One leisurely, one regular, and one fast paced.

 

An example of the problem; we heard one group of older ladies talking about how tired they were on the walking tour. One reported they had taken 4100 steps, per the device in her pocket. Problem was that they had only covered just over two blocks and back with those 4100 steps. Watching them, a step, on level ground, was rarely over six (6) inches in advancement!

 

We took the opportunity to eat dinner off ship in Lyon. Such a great food city. Quite of few of the passengers did likewise on the last night in Avignon, in which I wished we had done likewise. One of the poorer meals on board.

 

I could answer more questions on the cruise if you like. The post trip to Nice was wonderful, and perhaps the best part of the Viking portion of the trip.

 

We arranged our own air travel and were not affected by the Air France strike. However, many were. I only know a few of the many of the horror stories that came out of that affair!

[Viking Cruises]

Was on the 9/13 sailing of the Viking Heimdahl. The overall impression most people felt about the trip was "OK, not great. Heard many comments such as this is my seventh or fifth Viking cruise and the worst by far. My third, and easily their poorest performance. This ship is very nice. Goin through the locks with only inches to spare was fun to watch.

 

1. We were able to sail the entire route, barely. Only got to do sundeck on first portion of Chalon to Macon sail. After that, the sun deck was closed for the entire trip until last day (which we didn't sail, more on that later).

 

2. Food is a highly subjective matter, but it was overall fair at best. Not good or great, just OK. I could give multiple examples, but I'll leave it mostly at that. The best meal, imo, was the captain's Provence dinner which was a buffet. The food was very good that night overall. There was a lot of complaining by other cruisers that the meal was a buffet and not served to them, plus the food was spread out between the dining room, the kitchen, and the Aqualounge upstairs. So to get food, one had to go up and down the stairs to serve one self. I thought it was a fun evening, but many didn't share my feelings. See comments on demographics below.

 

Here I will give an opinion that was often repeated on the ship. Viking is struggling with the new Long Boats, particularly trying to feed 187 people, in our case, in one feeding. Most of the complaints came with the fish dishes that were often grossly overcooked. We never knew if Victor, the chef, was overcooking them, or whether they were sitting under the heat lamps to long.

 

Numerous of the crew members told us the ship was suffering from high crew turnover. We had multiple crew that was new to the ship. It's not that they were not working hard, they just weren't doing it efficiently. People had to beg for a refill of a glass of water multiple times, some of the food was served cold, etc.

 

The wine served was mostly phlonk. We were prepared and brought our own on board. By the third night, many of the tables had 1-3 bottles of passenger provided bottles sitting on them in lieu of the ship provided wines.

 

3. The tours were mostly good but Lyon was a disaster, and we missed Viviers because of a cruiser blunder.

 

a. Beaune was very good tour, but the wine cave we visited served horrible wines. Best note was a little old lady saying " I know little of wine, but that was crappy wine!". Calling it crappy was an understatement.

Most people going to Cluny wished they had skipped the tour.

 

b. Lyon - a Charlie Foxtrot. On most tours, the tour guides did a very good job of getting separation from other groups. On this tour, on multiple incidents, including both up at the cathedral on the hill (St. Mary's) and in the old town, the guides would be standing side by side talking to their groups. All 5 of the buses went up the hill together to the church and then back down to old town. This even occurred in the closed vacuoles (sp?) side streets. The result of having the guides together was that the listening devices started going bonzo. They would either be screeching loudly, or jumping in and out of search mode where you heard nothing. After a while many of us just followed along, with the machines turned off and picked up what we could by ear. The funniest part of the tour was when a Tauck tour walked by and many of our machines jumped over to their guide, who was giving out some very good info.

 

The Perouge optional trip was outstanding.

 

c. Tain - Ok tour with as one earlier posted said a trip to a third rate winery. People enjoyed the chocolate factory, and the walk around town was nice. Why they don't go to better wineries on this trip is a mystery to all.

 

As a side note here, many people that were planning on doing the Chat du Pape optional tour decided to not go, based on the pour quality of the two wineries earlier visited. From those that did go on that tour, the feeling was that those people skipping the tour made the proper decision, in that they were very disappointed in the winery they visited.

 

d. Viviers walking tour - Sad story. Walking tour cancelled We were nearly two hours late in arriving to Viviers, we got there around 10:30, and it was then raining with thunder and lightning. The reason we were late arriving is that at Tain we had a sister Viking ship rafted to us when we came back from our tour. During our scheduled departure, we unrafted and started to set sail. The we screwed around for 30-40 minutes re-rafting up. Seems one of our idiot cruisers decided to take a tour of the sister ship and didn't return on time and go stuck on the sister ship. The captain of the ship radioed over and told our captain of the problem. Instead of the sister ship putting her on a train or taxi to Viviers (they were re docking), we stopped and picked her up. So that delay, put up late, and missing our turn through the next to locks, which meant the 30-40 minute delay, became a 2 hour delay and missed tour because of the idiot.

 

e. Arles is a great city to visit. The brochures say we overnight in Arles, but we actually stay in Trascon, just upriver. The reason is that the new long boats are to big to dock in Arles. Arles is doing a major renovation to their docks to allow for the long ships, but it will be either 2015 or 16 before the work is complete, so you are bused in.

 

f. Avignon was a great tour and mostly very well done. The stairs at the Palace created problems. See below:

 

This was my first Fall Viking tour. The other two have been in the summer months. That said, the demographics of the ship was startling. As a side note, we had Gary Player, with his wife, daughter, and caddy with wife, on the cruise. Wonderful guy and great to talk with. Gary's daughter was I believe in her mid forties and the only person under 55 on the cruise. My wife and I being under 65 probably put us in 15-20% range of guests under 65. Definitely an older demographic than I have seen on other cruises. This affected the tours. The tours were set up with one tour for those needing extra time and 4 regular tours. Problem was a lot of the oldster thought that the one for those needing extra time was for wheel chair or canned cruisers. Wrong! Many of the tours were walk a block and wait, walk a block and wait. Most of the tours are on mostly flat ground, and people could not keep up. We had one situation were one in the group scolded an older lady, telling her that she should really consider getting in the leisurely group, that this was the second day she had held a group he was in up. This lead to a war on words where the lady started ranting about her rights and the guy was telling her about her obligations! Our tour guide cut short our Arles tour, so we could get back to the bus on time. We had so many that continually lagged behind, we couldn't complete the tour as planned. We did have the option of remaining in town for the day and catching the Viking provided bus to Avignon later in the afternoon, which we did. Arles is a very interesting town, and we passed on our last boat ride section of the cruise.

 

Our recommendation to Viking was to set up three (3) classes of tours, in lieu of two. One leisurely, one regular, and one fast paced.

 

An example of the problem; we heard one group of older ladies talking about how tired they were on the walking tour. One reported they had taken 4100 steps, per the device in her pocket. Problem was that they had only covered just over two blocks and back with those 4100 steps. Watching them, a step, on level ground, was rarely over six (6) inches in advancement!

 

We took the opportunity to eat dinner off ship in Lyon. Such a great food city. Quite of few of the passengers did likewise on the last night in Avignon, in which I wished we had done likewise. One of the poorer meals on board.

 

I could answer more questions on the cruise if you like. The post trip to Nice was wonderful, and perhaps the best part of the Viking portion of the trip.

 

We arranged our own air travel and were not affected by the Air France strike. However, many were. I only know a few of the many of the horror stories that came out of that affair!

 

Dear pinotlover,

 

First, thank you for taking the time to write such a detailed account of your experience with us in Southern France. This feedback – and the way in which you have laid it out – is incredibly helpful and we will be sure to share it with other teams within the organization.

 

Next, please accept our apologies for the ways in which you were disappointed with this, your third cruise with Viking. While we’re happy to hear that you found the ship to be nice, enjoyed some of the tours, and had a wonderful time on the post-trip extension in Nice, your overall summary of “Ok, not great” is of course not what we strive for.

 

Finally, please consider emailing us directly at TellUs@vikingcruises.com. We’d truly like to put you in touch with our Customer Relations team so that they can further dig in and understand your experience.

 

We hope to hear from you soon and hope that you will consider another Viking river cruise in the future – we would love the opportunity to show you that what you experienced on your third cruise was unusual and not of our standards.

 

Kindly,

Viking Cruises

[radbob48]

Just finished S of France tour on Buri and food was outstanding. No prob w various expeditions.

 

Food service for evening meal was excruciatingly long. 2 or 2 1/2 hrs long but great food

 

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[CasaM]

We'll be on the Buri for Southern France Nov 2015. Hope they keep the same chef!

[travelduo30]

We are going on Buri November 8th. When are you going?

[CasaM]

We are on Buri Nov. 1.

[ABQcruiser]

 

 

We took this cruise last October and had a wonderful time, I also posted a review on this cruise. I enclosed a link on some of the pictures i took on this cruise, the album goes in order of the cruise

Ganski--Really nice pictures with a different eye, great use of light/shadow, and a penchant for windows and gargoyles (like me). We head out on this cruise in a few weeks. Your photos make me eager to see it all. Thanks for the preview!

[Prdancer]

We're sailing on the Heimdal (north to south) on October 21st. We also have planned a pre-cruise in Paris for 3 nights and a post-cruise stay in Nice for 3 nights. If anyone is planning to do these extensions or the cruise itself we would like to hear from you.

[Alberta Quilter]

We're sailing on the Heimdal (north to south) on October 21st. We also have planned a pre-cruise in Paris for 3 nights and a post-cruise stay in Nice for 3 nights. If anyone is planning to do these extensions or the cruise itself we would like to hear from you.

 

We are, but in November. We're actually doing France's Finest, which includes the Paris to Normandy segment first. We do the pre cruise stay in Paris prior to the first segment and then the post cruise stay in Nice after the second segment.

[pontac]

Why they don't go to better wineries on this trip is a mystery to all.

 

Wine is of great interest to me and I will be on this tour in July.

 

Do you have the name of the winery on the optional Chateauneuf du Pape tour?

 

And the name of the wine cave in Beaune?

 

And what specifically did you dislike about them? As your handle is Pinotlover I'd assuem you'd be in Pinot heaven in Beaune.

 

We did the Bordeaux cruise last month and the included wineries we visited were great, classified growth Ch D'Arche in Sauternes, 3rd growth Ch Giscours and Ch Kirwan in Margaux.

 

The on-board wines changed every day and although not in classed growth territory they were good and enjoyable.

[sengsational]

We're sailing on the Heimdal (north to south) on October 21st. We also have planned a pre-cruise in Paris for 3 nights and a post-cruise stay in Nice for 3 nights. If anyone is planning to do these extensions or the cruise itself we would like to hear from you.

We are sailing the Heimdal (south to north) on August 5th. Going over with Viking's included airline ticket. Paid $200 each to fly back from Paris. Doing Paris on our own for four nights. My research indicates that our rivers are lower than normal...hopefully that won't be an excuse to mess stuff up for us, lol! The temps might be getting up in the high 90's (lowest is mid 60's at night) and looks like some days of 15 to 20 mph winds.

[roberts2005]

Just returned from the Delling. We had no water level issues. However due to low bridges we were seldom able to use sun deck. Those who wanted an outdoor view settled into seats by Aquavit lounge and never moved

 

Our weather was in 90's all week