Viking River and Viking Oceans compared

[eaglewatchers]

I just posted this on the Viking Oceans forum. Am posting the link here in case you are interested:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?p=49671142#post49671142

[bellemere]

I enjoyed your post on comparing Viking River to Viking Ocean.

We have done several Viking River Cruises and enjoyed them.

Have investigated the ocean cruises but wish we did not have pay the whole amount so far in advance.

We leave in a few weeks on the Viking Tulips and Windmills.

I would like to hear more about your experience with this trip.

Thanks for your help.

[Host Jazzbeau]

One big difference, judging by their marketing, is that Viking Oceans is going after the premium-luxury segment of ocean cruising [their ships and included amenities put them up with Oceania, at a lower cost] while Viking Rivers is admittedly middle-of-the-pack [as stated by their President]. One thing I have noticed is that they are carrying over a lot of policies from rivers to oceans and also back again -- even though most of their competitors in each area have distinct policies suited to that arena. Examples: their oceans ships do the same itineraries over and over, which is not the norm for luxury lines [but is something that all river lines do]; they just started forcing passengers to pre-reserve shore excursions on their river cruises, which is not the norm for river lines [but is something ocean lines do].

Edited April 10, 2016 by Host Jazzbeau

[eaglewatchers]

they just started forcing passengers to pre-reserve shore excursions on their river cruises, which is not the norm for river lines [but is something ocean lines do].

 

Jazzbeau,

Actually, the River cruise we just completed allowed people to add and subtract excursions ONBOARD, not just through myvikingjourney. web site. They were quite accommodating about this. The daily briefings provided details and options a day or two in advance so you could change/add.

 

You are correct that the inclusions are very similar between VO and VR, though a few MORE in VO.

 

C

[eaglewatchers]

I enjoyed your post on comparing Viking River to Viking Ocean.

We have done several Viking River Cruises and enjoyed them.

Have investigated the ocean cruises but wish we did not have pay the whole amount so far in advance.

We leave in a few weeks on the Viking Tulips and Windmills.

I would like to hear more about your experience with this trip.

Thanks for your help.

 

Bellemere,

The itinerary is great. We especially liked the smaller towns that felt less "city-ish": Hoorn, Bruges, Veere (part of the Deltaworks day). Friends took the optional half day in Haarlem (final afternoon) and had a fabulous time. Wish we'd done it. We did only one paid trip, the open air museum in Arnhem. It really hit a lot of Dutch history/culture. The choice of a palace or Kroller-Mueller Museum as included tours in Arnhem might be tough, but we chose the museum and its beautiful-- extensive!-- sculpture gardens. Were glad we did. Palace is probably nice, but if you've seen a palace... If you have time in Amsterdam, get a one day tram pass and check out the Museum of the Resistance. We went to Amsterdam a day early and hit a bunch of places, including Van Gogh Museum and some other places written up in the "Three days in Amsterdam" article on Trip Advisor. The tourist info place across from station and iAmsterdam store inside the statin are both very helpful if you want to do things on your own.

 

Note: Our docking location was near Centraal Station at start of trip but a short shuttle bus ride outside town for our final full day... until the actual morning we left. We moved back to the "convenient" location at 5 am on disembarkation day! The harbor master decides all this, and I don't think Viking knows until the day before.

 

The Keukenhof is nothing short of amazing. The cooler March means you will likely see more tulips OPEN than we did. But we saw plenty! IMO, the half day there (return to ship at around 1:15) is plenty. It starts to get VERY crowded late morning. The Haarlem trip ($) combines Keukenhof with Haarlem, having lunch IN Haarlem.

 

Which ship are you on? THE PD on Bragi is wonderful... funny, bright, and very thorough.

 

Bon Voyage!

C

[Host Jazzbeau]

Jazzbeau,

Actually, the River cruise we just completed allowed people to add and subtract excursions ONBOARD, not just through myvikingjourney. web site. They were quite accommodating about this. The daily briefings provided details and options a day or two in advance so you could change/add.

 

You are correct that the inclusions are very similar between VO and VR, though a few MORE in VO.

 

C

 

Good to know. I was following the thread here where people were thinking they would get frozen out if they didn't reserve online. Hopefully that was just an early glitch that got sorted out.

[Roz]

Eagle,

 

Thank you for an evenhanded, realistic review. Glad you alerted us to the review on the other board. Sounds like you enjoyed both (albeit different) cruise experiences.

 

Roz

[bellemere]

Eaglewatchers,

Thank you for your reply.

We will be on the Viking Mimir.

Appreciated hearing about the palace and Kroller Muller Museum and how they worked the Keukenhof Gardens with Haarlem. Not sure what we will do. We have always enjoyed the daily presentations by the program director which helped us to decide if we want to do an optional tour. They have certainly added more optional tours since our first trip with them. Since my Hubbie is very interested in World War I and II history, we will probably op for the Market Garden tour.

The Resistance Museum is on our list of things to do in Amsterdam.

[Sparky333]

Eaglewatchers, I'm glad to hear Viking let passengers add or change excursions on the ship and you're not locked in by the pre-sailing choices you make online now. I really don't like their new way of booking excursions for river cruises but if it's able to be changed then it's not a big deal. I hope that flexibility isn't just while they're starting up that program and that next year when we sail it's more rigid.