Viking Odin Prague to Paris Dec 1-12, 2016 Review

[Pirateskigirl]

Prague to Paris Tour-Dec 1-12, 2016

 

Four of us embarked on this Viking Cities of Light Tour from Prague to Paris or the Christmas Market River Tour of Central Europe.

We flew from IAD to Prague through Amsterdam. Viking representatives met us and got us organized to the bus to the hotel. We stayed at the Hilton Prague. Viking has a special desk for you to check into the hotel. They had a 20 minute Prague walking tour scheduled for 5pm. Our Program Director Radim guided us on a quick tour of the area around the hotel and took us up to a small Christmas market (the first of many on this tour). He showed us places to eat & shop and told us when to meet in the morning for the Prague City tour.

 

We ate at a local place called La Republica it boasts the largest bar in Prague not seating wise but floor to ceiling. We had a delicious meal and they have live music nightly.

 

City Tour of Prague-We started off at the Prague Castle. You now have to go through a security check before entering the Prague Castle complex. We had a great tour of the Castle complex. We could not go into the St. Vitus Cathedral because Mass was in progress. They had a lovely straw Navaitiy setup out side the church in the plaza. There was a small Christmas market at the Palace Complex.

 

We took the bus to Kampa Park and the rest of the tour was a walking tour from the park and across the Charles Bridge to the Old Town Square and the Jewish quarter. Excellent tour with an excellent guide. We found a nice table outside with blankets & heat lamps across from the Astrological clock and enjoyed a hot beverage while waiting for the clock show at the top of the hour.

 

We walked back to our hotel after enjoying the Prague Christmas market and stopped at the Cafe Imperial for a yummy desert and another hot beverage. It was cold in Prague during our visit. We went back for dinner to the La Republica because it was so good the night before.

 

We bused from Prague to Nuremberg, Germany roughly 4.5 hours. We did make a 30 minute pit stop half way there. The bus dropped us off at the Nuremberg hauptmarkt where the famous and oldest Christ kindle market in Germany was going on. It was crowded. We spent about hour & half at the market. Then we boarded a bus to tour the rest of Nuremberg and out to the Zeppelin field and the **** Party grounds.

 

We arrived at the boat in Bamberg, Germany. We were on the Viking Odin. The Odin is a long boat. It holds roughly 188 people and 35 crew. It has regular cabins, French balcony cabins, full balcony cabins and suites. The boat has a library, 2 computer terminals that you can use, a tiny Viking gift shop and a 24 hour coffee/tea bar. They have a main dining room and a very nice lounge with access to the bow of the boat. The boat has an upper deck with shuffle board, walking track and putting greens. However, it was a bit cold on our journey, so use of the upper deck was limited by low bridges and freezing frosty conditions. We sailed on Main, Rhine and Moselle Rivers going through 72 locks total on our journey. Did I mention they have free WiFi on the boat that works everywhere on the boat? Of course, they had every season of Downton Abbey on TV system plus movies and music.

 

Our trip included stops in the following Cites:

Bamberg, Germany

Wurzberg, Germany

Heildberg, Germany

Scenic Cruising on the Main River, Spessart

Miltenberg, Germany

Mainz, Germany

Rudesheim, Germany

Middle Rhine Scenic Cruising

Cochem, Germany

Bernkastel, Germany

Trier, Germany

We had included tours in every city. I would say overall the tours were excellent. We had local guides in each city and 80% of the tours were walking tours. You had plenty of time to shop, eat and tour on your own. They give every passenger a quiet box for hearing the guide and each group has their own frequency.

 

None of my group did any of the optional tours, so I can’t say how they were. The boat had a delay activity on board. We had a daily briefing about the next days activities. We had local musicians entertain us on evening, we decorated the Viking lounge Christmas tree one night and decorated Ginger bread cookies while cruising on the Rhine. They had nightly entertainment with dancing but honestly most folks went to bed by 9:30pm because of the long days.

 

The nice thing is you do have the option of just staying on the boat and skipping ports if you want too. The boat would sometimes reposition while we were out touring, so those folks got more river touring in.

 

We travelled by bus from Trier to Luxembourg to the American Cemetery where Gen. George S. Patton is buried and we had a tour of the City of Luxembourg including a stop at the Christmas market.

We travelled for another 3 hours to Paris, France for our 2 day stay in the original City of Lights. We stayed at the Le Meridien Etoile Hotel near the Arc de Triumph.

Included was a 4 hour City Tour of Paris which included stops at the Eiffel Tower and the cathedral of Notre Dame. Since it was Sunday, we were able to go in the Notre Dame and enjoy the Sunday Mass while looking at the famous Rose windows. It was a pretty special morning for this Catholic girl.

We had plenty of time to walk around Paris, take a boat tour on the Seine, ride the Ferris Wheel and check the Champs Ulysses Christmas market which was in my opinion the most commercial and unappealing of the whole trip. It was mobbed with people.

 

Viking made sure everyone got to the airport on time and checked in properly before sending us on our merry way back to reality.

We got so lucky with the weather on this trip. It was cold but it didn’t rain nor snow the whole time we were in Europe and that is not normal. I can not say enough nice things about Radim and the crew of the Viking Odin. Every need was met and my friend who had food allergies was consulted daily about the meals being served and what she should stay away from and they allowed her to pre-order her selections. I would definitely book another trip with Viking River Cruises.

 

I’m happy to answer any questions, so let me know.

Cheers Stacy

[mimmy52]

Thanks for posting your review. I'm a warm weather fan, but I enjoy reading about the Christmas market cruises.

[StrongCoffee]

Thanks so much for the review! We're doing the reverse itinerary--Paris to Prague--this summer, and I haven't read many reviews of the tours yet.

[Rosethorn40]

Enjoyed reading your review. Our first Viking cruise was on the Odin (Danube-Christmas Markets 2014) and we were very pleased with the Viking product. We took another last year, and I just made final payment yesterday on our third.

 

Glad you had an enjoyable trip.