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Viking Rhine Getaway - Our photo intensive review on the Viking Ingvi, Summer 2014

cruisinskier

By cruisinskier,
in River Cruising

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jpalbny "Live from...." Rare

jpalbny

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Those crepes are killing me! And now I am in diet mode after 10 days on Silver Cloud...

 

Thanks for the great Paris pix! Your trip looked fantastic and it was fun to share with you. Looking forward to the next one! ;)

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banditoo

banditoo

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Jerry, as your review is drawing to an end, I am having a post trip let down feeling, just as if I was on the actual trip! Your review has been so enjoyable to follow...I have eagerly anticipated each installment and don't want it to end!:( I have to keep reminding myself that I will get to do this all just a year from now. I will keep looking back at this review and undoubtedly will have more questions to post. Thank you again for such a fabulous job on the review! :D

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cruisinskier

cruisinskier

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Those crepes are killing me! And now I am in diet mode after 10 days on Silver Cloud...

 

Thanks for the great Paris pix! Your trip looked fantastic and it was fun to share with you. Looking forward to the next one! ;)

 

JP & Chris, hope you had a great trip on the Silver Cloud! Paris is always fun and I have to say the second time in Paris was more relaxing as we didn't feel we had to see "everything"! We have a couple of Celebrity cruises booked and seriously looking at Azamara for the Greek Islands....

Happy Travels.

Jerry

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cruisinskier

cruisinskier

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Jerry, as your review is drawing to an end, I am having a post trip let down feeling, just as if I was on the actual trip! Your review has been so enjoyable to follow...I have eagerly anticipated each installment and don't want it to end!:( I have to keep reminding myself that I will get to do this all just a year from now. I will keep looking back at this review and undoubtedly will have more questions to post. Thank you again for such a fabulous job on the review! :D

 

Betty, thanks again for your kind comments. I am glad to do my little bit to help all those future river cruisers such as yourself. Glad to answer any other questions as your trip gets closer. I hope to add a little info tonight about our final day in Brussels and wrap this review up. Thanks for sticking with e through this journey...it has been fun to re-live it!

 

Happy planning, safe travels, and I am sure we will be chatting more :D

Jerry

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cruisinskier

cruisinskier

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Thank you Jerry for the Paris pics! We never had the time to see Rodin's The Thinker. Wonderful shot.

 

Thanks Got2Cruise! We did not set out to even visit the Rodin museum originally this trip. However we had a few rainy days which meant doing some indoor activities. We really wanted to do the d'Orsay museum again but did not have a Museum Pass this trip so we would have had to stand in long lines....instead we waited maybe 5 minutes at the Rodin Museum, got to see it, and got the combo ticket that lets you jump the queue at d'Orsay same as if you had the Museum pass. All for only 1 euro more than the d'Orsay price.

 

Hope you get back to Paris and get to this museum. Happy travels!

Jerry

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cruisinskier

cruisinskier

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Well, after 5 fun days in Paris (even with 3 days of rain!), we were back on the train one final time and on our way back to Brussels where we had originally landed 3 weeks earlier. In essence we did a big circle through Europe, touring 5 countries in total.

 

The departure board in Gare de Nord

 

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Our train was ready for boarding

 

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And just like that, we have arrived in Brussels (it was about an hour from Paris)

 

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cruisinskier

cruisinskier

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We were hungry and ready for lunch. We ended up at the Arcadi Cafe, just up the street from our hotel. The restaurant had a good mix of tourists and locals. The food was good, they had great desserts (which we said we would return later for....and did!), and the service was fantastic! They even reserved a table for us for our return that evening! http://www.tripadvisor.ca/Restaurant_Review-g188644-d740569-Reviews-Arcadi-Brussels.html

 

Arcadi Cafe

 

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And another new beer to try....:D

 

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cruisinskier

cruisinskier

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We wandered around Brussels some more, did a bit of shopping for some last minute gifts, returned to the Arcadi Cafe for dinner, and then headed back to the hotel for the night and one final pack up of all of our stuff.

 

DSC01138.jpg

 

I ordered a lemon meringue pie and the waiter asked if I wanted a beer....i didn't think a beer would go well with it but he convinced me to try a cherry beer. It was fantastic! In Europe they have a beer for everything!!

 

DSC01146.jpg

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cruisinskier

cruisinskier

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Well folks, this brings us to the end of my review. On Sunday August 10, we took our private shuttle to the Brussels airport and had an uneventful trip back home (those are the best type of flights!).

 

For those of you who have followed along through this long-winded and rambling review, thanks for sticking with me. I think it has taken almost as long to do this review as it did to do the actual trip! :rolleyes:

 

I do hope there was some info here that folks planning future river cruise (with Viking or any other river cruise company) found of use, that it showed some of what a typical river cruise is all about, and also gives you the confidence to see what is possible for you to do on your own, with just a bit of planning and an adventurous spirit, to enjoy additional pre and post cruise adventures!

 

I wish you all well as you plan for your upcoming travels. Happy planning and safe travels!

Thanks

Jerry

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jpalbny "Live from...." Rare

jpalbny

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Thank you, cruisinskier/Jerry, for taking us along with you. Have never been to Brussels but your pictures make it look like it belongs on our to-do list.

 

And yes, Belgian lambic beer is fantastic with dessert... yum!

 

Hope you have as much fun with your next cruise.

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cruisinskier

cruisinskier

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Thank you, cruisinskier/Jerry, for taking us along with you. Have never been to Brussels but your pictures make it look like it belongs on our to-do list.

 

And yes, Belgian lambic beer is fantastic with dessert... yum!

 

Hope you have as much fun with your next cruise.

 

Thanks JP & Chris. Brussels was well worth visiting and I am sure our 24 hours only gave us a small taste of the options available. Enjoy your upcoming med cruise!

Jerry

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cruisinskier

cruisinskier

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Thanks for your review, Jerry, which I found neither long-winded nor rambling. You have a terrific eye for the camera.

 

Thanks Mimmy. For every photo posted here, there are another 25 or so that didn't make the cut :D. I do tend to take excessive photos when I go on vacation. :rolleyes:

 

I will be following along with your photo review and it gives us all another chance to re-live the great trip down the Rhine.

Jerry

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jimsohio

jimsohio

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Jerry --

 

Just catching up after a few days off the board. I am annoyed because it looks like we were table neighbors for the Captain's Dinner as well. UI am not in any of those pictures as it looks like we were in the same relative seat, but you have pics of our tablemates.

 

I wanted to add some thoughts to your synopsis, but overall I agree with you.

 

PRO's

 

The Ingvi - it was a new boat, well laid out and had sufficient public areas (the sundeck could have been used for some sort of social activity)

 

Cabin - space was good for 2 of us, lots of storage, we used our balcony enough to warrant the cost, 3 plugs for chargers, etc (3 each of 110 & 220 so with adapters you could have 6 items plugged in without a power bar) I tend to agree. We were a little tight in our french balcony room, but nothing unexpected. Solo movement was good, but often one of us had to yield to the other.

 

Staff - Every staff member we had interaction with was professional and we felt very well taken care of. I was a little worried going in given Viking has increased their fleet so quickly but the staff was fantastic.

 

Food - We enjoyed all meals, there was a good variety, and meals were well presented, food was hot, and not overly salted, etc. No complaints from any of the 6 of us at any meal. I was a little surprised how good the food was given that I had heard that was a weakness. Good portions... I was never hungry, but felt satisfied.

 

Itinerary - We enjoyed the ports, the overall flow of the cruise and the time in ports was sufficient to see the highlights in each port. It is a busy week but was what we expected. There were no ports that I would change as each added something new.

 

Age Group - Overall I think the varying age group adds to a cruise. At 50 / 51, we were probably still on the lower side of the ages on this cruise. Having said that, there were some in their mid 30's and others into their 80's. Everyone we spoke with was friendly and most were well traveled. The majority of the guests were from North America which is typical with Viking.

I was a bit surprised about the age range, but I think this type of cruise lends itself to big family "reunions".

 

CONS

 

From our perspective there were a few items that we felt could have been better. Remember, this is just our personal thoughts and others may think differently.

 

Speed of Tours - The tour guides were knowledgeable and the Quietvox units made the excursions easy to follow and interact. Overall we felt that the walking tours moved at too slow of a pace for us. We would have liked to cover more ground than we did. We are fairly active, independent and usually book our own shore excursions on the larger ships. Maybe we really just want more control to maximize our time. They had a "slower" group option for tours, had there been a "faster" group, we would have signed up. I never thought of this, but we too could have done a faster group. While not on the exact topic, I thought the guides were inconsistent and often tried to be comedians vs. being tour guides.

 

Dining Room & Shorts - We knew going in that Viking was relaxed ("evening casual" as they put it) but, even after lots of time on these boards I did not expect that men would be wearing shorts to dinner each night. I know it was summer but personally I felt it took away from the ambiance of the dining room. So for those fretting about what to pack, apparently anything goes so don't worry about it. Maybe I just need to relax and go with the flow.... I tend to agree with you, although I think I wore shorts one night because of scheduling. I think Viking should be more specific about dress -- slacks and a polo are a nice compromise.

 

Space for Evening Updates - There is not enough room in the lounge when all of the guests are there at the same time. There are a large portion who end up standing as there just were not enough seats. About half way through the week we stopped going to the updates as we typically could not get a seat unless you were there well in advance.Agree, but I think there is such an emphasis on going to these, there just isn' the room for everyone. Also, I am sure they try to up-sell the cocktail hour aspect of this. Remember that they also show this on the television channel.

 

Entertainment - Again, we knew going in that entertainment was limited given the size of the boat. I do think our piano player was sub-par and possibly a last minute fill-in as another name showed in the dailies a few times. Other than a couple of trivia nights, and the one night with the French signer, the lounge was very quiet after 9:00 pm. Even something as simple as playing some music on the sundeck would help but it was always quiet. I had the chance to talk to the piano player many nights when the bar was empty and he was a nice guy. The problem was he was from Romania or Hungary and sang with a very thick accent. He was on a one-year contract and not a replacement. The nightly entertainment was local and had to be off the ship by sailing time. One night, entertainment was cancelled because we had to sail early.

 

So, would we do another River Cruise??? Absolutely! But probably not for a few years...more because of other items on our bucket list than any other factor. We also did miss the variety that a larger ship offers more than we thought we would....the casino, the gym, the shows, etc. Overall, we had a great cruise, we enjoyed all the ports, we met some new friends, and we were pampered for a week. So for all of you with future cruises, you will have a great time!! Happy travels!

Jerry

 

We would definitely take another river cruise, though I am not sure which one excites any. It would definitely Viking and may be wine country of France. I might be tempted to do the Viking Ocean Cruise through Scandinavia before something the body of Europe.

Edited by jimsohio
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jimsohio

jimsohio

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The earphone piece on the Quietvox did hook over the ear and hang against your ear so you should be fine.

 

I would add this to my con, and included it on my comment card to Viking. The earpiece did fit over the ear, but it was hard plastic and was very uncomfortable. I have seen much softer, rubber pieces that could be used.

 

At the end of a two-hour tour, my ear was sore and I would not have wanted to wear it longer or for many more days.

Edited by jimsohio
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