Live Viking windmills & tulips 2019

[knoxclone]

Have been in board Viking Skirnir for last three days.  First cruise of the season for the crew of the Skirnir and so far a solid B  to B+. Staff is efficient and friendly. Still working kinks out especially in meals. Wine and cheese  party advertised from 5-7 was over and cleared by the time we arrived at 6:10. 

 

 I expect a leisurely dnner... however a the first night service took close to 3 hours.  Sat down at approx 720 and dessert arrived after 10pm.  seems like lots of repeat Viking cruises and most everyone is taking it all in stride  with a few exceptions.  Last night was better but still some service issues especially as clearing plates between courses and refilling water and non alcoholic beverages. .  Food has been excellent. And of course the wine  and beer is served generously. 

 

 Weather has been decent for March in the Netherlands. Sunny and or partly cloudy with temps in mid 50s. We have only done included excursions thus far.  Canal cruise was very nice and great way to see city  but if you sat outside you could not hear commentary from guide and the canned audio track did it match the route we were taking.  

 

Walking tour of Hoorn  was marginal due to guide   It’s a lovely small town but the included home visit was awkwardly done and they need to do more tweaking. For example one home had cats and there were several people who were allergic and by the end of the visit - they were were definitely affected.

 

Tonight is explorer cocktail party. Overall  minor quibbles and they are really trying to get it right as they start the 2019 season.  I will I’ll try to post more later in the week and answer any questions. 

[rundent]

Thanks Knoxclone,

I guess that is to be expected on a shake-down cruise. You get a fresh ship but also a green [or near green crew]. 

Is your cruise Amsterdam roundtrip? Please relate how the tulips were. I'm on a sister ship in exactly one month and hoping flowers haven't peaked. However, my weather should be warmer. 

Hope you continue to have a good cruise and hope it improves to an A+.

[puppycanducruise]

Looking forward to reading more.

Hope you have a wonderful cruise.

Thank you.

[knoxclone]

Day 4.  Food is still good but service  has notimproves and may actually declined. Wait staff seems confused and not working together as a team. 😞

 

Did kinderdik today weather still nice cool and partly sunny. Spring is starting to peek out w crocus and daffodils blooming.

 

I had a very good guide however my daughters guide was horrible. She was very disappointed he provided very little info simply read the signs and declared he was a volunteer.   

 

Had laundry sevice was efficient and very reasonable. Picked up last night and back after lunch. 

 

Tomorrow is brussels and Antwerp. 

[notamermaid]

Thank you knoxclone for your info. I hope things improve in the restaurant.

Brussels and Antwerp in one day is quite demanding. But great for making you crave for coming back to see more of the area. I recommend waffles or savoury crepes and of course pick up some fabulous chocolates while you are there.

Have a great day.

 

notamermaid

 

[gnome12]

1 hour ago, notamermaid said:

Brussels and Antwerp in one day is quite demanding. But great for making you crave for coming back to see more of the area. I recommend waffles or savoury crepes and of course pick up some fabulous chocolates while you are there.

Have a great day.

I had a chocolate Belgian waffle in a little spot just off the central square in Antwerp. It was wonderful!

[knoxclone]

Dinner service was much more polished this evening.  👍. Hope the trend continues.  After dinner cheese tasting w history of Dutch golden age. Probably would enjoyed more if it was not immediately after dinner!  

 

Most of Brussels will be closed tomorrow as it’s sunday so will do Antwerp only.  

[skiladyldp]

Loving this live thread.  We will be on this tour in 3 1/2 weeks on Viking Vali.  

[Turtles06]

Thanks for taking the time to do this!  We’ll be on this cruise in a little over a year on the Viking Vali, so I’m quite interested in your reports!  I would definitely appreciate your continuing comments on the tours, included or optional.  

 

I hope the dinner service keeps improving, and that the rest of your trip is wonderful! 

[knoxclone]

Just off the ship.  Had some connectivity issues doing the week which prevented me from doing this on a more timely basis.

As I mentioned early, it seemed as it was chaotic in the dining room and some of the excursions.  I did learn later in the week that they were short staffed in both kitchen and dining room -  due to both illness and staff not arriving (this was the first voyage of 2019 for the Skirnir.)

 

Overall, it was a lovely trip - there were somethings that Viking does SO well, and others, well they needed definitely improvement .

 

First - the meals - food was overall very good - presented well - and served in modest portions ( although you could always order more!)  and there was a nice variety in the wines. In the past I seem to remember that the offered house wines tended to be the same over and over, but on this trip , we had new selections almost every day. 

 

Meal service improved over the trip -and we noticed "new faces" in the dining room on the last few days the cruise, so they obviously were able to bring on additional crew. Only downside in my opinion is that the dining room staff needs to concentrate on clearing dishes between courses a bit quicker.

 

Cabin - having previously traveled w Viking I knew exactly what to expect w a balcony room. I travelled with my daughter so the rooms were configured w twin beds - we rearranged the furniture a bit and it was quite adequate - and the cabin staff as usual were efficient and invisible :)

 

Lounge activities were hit or miss. The first night there was a demonstration on making wooden shoes which began at 9pm. Unfortunately for the presenter,  the dinner entree was still waiting to be served at 9pm, so his presentation did not begin until close to 10:30 and I needed to sleep!  

 

There was a presentation on Belgium - which is probably one of the best presentations I've ever attended on Viking or elsewhere.  He was educational, informative and quite frankly, funny as hell as he skewered the traditional stereotypes of the European people.  Great Presentation.

 

 The cheese tasting was fun - but would have been better if not scheduled directly after dinner - late afternoon would have perfect :)  There was "tea time" on two afternoons, (which were not offered on my two previous cruises) which was held during the afternoon waffle making and silver making demonstrations.  Evenings were quiet - one night was music trivia and one night was captains talk  - which was quite interesting as many of the passengers were following the Viking Ocean cruise rescue.  They addressed it candidly and answered many questions about the procedures and crew training. 

 

Ship operations - had some beginning of the year glitches - they are trying to use new "easier" credit card system and it kept crashing at the beginning of week, , which was frustrating for those trying to register their credit card ( as was requested) as well as close out your ship board account.  The wifi was also intermittent, as well as the live television and internet on the viking computers - which  went down the day before departure causing some stress for those trying to print boarding passes. In the end, they got everything up and running and all was well. 

 

Excursions - The included excursions were what I have come to expect - a combination bus and walking tour of the city highlights. All were adequate. As this was the Tulips and Windmills tour - we visited both - and we got VERY Lucky at the Kuekenhof.  The gardens have only been open a week - and we did not really expect to see much - but they were glorious.  The tour guide said a combination of warm winter and early spring rains has pushed the peak date a bit earlier this year and it was simply lovely. 

 

Side note: I was in the gentle walkers group (due to wearing a "walking boot" due to a foot injury) and I was comfortable with the pace - with the exception of the day at Kinderdik.  Our very tall. long legged dutch guide took off like a shot and several us simply gave up and toured on our own.  Luckily kinderdijk is easy to both walk around and find the boat!  My daughter was very annoyed as she was with the "regular" tour group and there were several people who should have been gentle walkers and were not....which really slowed the group down.  IMHO If you need a cane/walker or something else for mobility - you are being incredibly inconsiderate to you fellow passengers bit not realizing your limitations. 

 

Hoorn was a lovely village, but we were there early in the morning and very little was open.  They had arranged a "home" visit which was very interesting, but needs a little tweaking - for example - the home we visited had cats, and  several guests were very allergic and began sneezing and running eyes etc. A  few inquires into guest allergies from tour guides could solve that issue. The discussions with the "hosts" was lively and it was very interesting to learn the history of many of these homes.  

 

Arnhem was nice and the museum while small was very interesting. Americans tend to forget the impact WWI had on the Netherlands, France etc... 

 

I took the optional Flanders Field WWI tour and was very, very disappointed. ( I had taken the Colmar WW2 tour several years before and it remains one of my favorite excursions)  Maybe its my own fault for not reading the fine print) but as there is so much WW history in that area -i was led to believe the majority of the day ( its listed as a 10.5 hour excursion) would be focused on WW1 - but in reality only a small portion (maybe 2.5 hours total) was dedicated - we visited Hill 60, Essex Farms and Tyne Cot cemetery and the Menin gate- and drove through Ypres and some other villages to new battlefields from the bus  - but did not visit a single museum - of which there are many, or the trenches.  We ate lunch at a nice cafe in Ypres but then we were shuttled to chateau Loppin outside Bruges which was basically a glorified bathroom stop with a 17 minute ( Yes I timed it as I was annoyed) tour of the artwork in the chateau) Utter waste of time  - we were the only ones there. and then back on bus to and driven to Bruges where we power walked for  an hour through the city to the square and were told " enjoy a chocolate or coffee and meet back in 45 minutes".  Most everyone in our group of 11 had previously visited Bruges and were surprised that a Flanders field tour would waste so much time in Bruges.  This entire tour needs to be scrubbed and revised - unless you specifically want to visit Menin, Gate Tyne cot or Essex Farms  its simply not worth the $S$ or your time. 

 

The other optional excursion I did was the oyster tasting which was a fun event.  there were about 16 of us - we learned about oyster and mussel farming, and enjoyed different types of oysters prepared a variety of ways - and learned how to shuck them ( without cutting a finger off!!).  We then did a tour of the small fishing village which was almost completely destroyed in a devastating  flood in the 50s when the dike burst. Our tour guide grew up in the village and several members of his family were killed. 

 

Sorry this is so long... Overall, it was a nice trip and hopefully the Skirnir  has worked out most of the kinks for the guests who are lucky to be aboard her this week! I do have the dailies if anyone is interested, or has any questions. 

[puppycanducruise]

Thank you for the update.

A nice overview of your cruise.

[Turtles06]

22 hours ago, knoxclone said:

Overall, it was a nice trip and hopefully the Skirnir  has worked out most of the kinks for the guests who are lucky to be aboard her this week! I do have the dailies if anyone is interested, or has any questions. 

 

Thanks so much for your detailed report!  I'm glad you enjoyed the trip, despite the negatives.   One question -- how far out were you able to book the included and optional excursions?   

 

Thanks again!

[knoxclone]

Because I was unsure of my stamina w/ the walking boot, and the weather, I did not prebook anything optional prior to boarding and had no problems joining both tours.  Both were groups of less than 20 (11 on Flanders Field & 16 I think on the Oyster tour). 

[mommamd]

Thank you for the updates! Looking forward to doing this on AMAWaterways in 3 weeks! Thanks for the tip on the oysters and mussels;  we will look for some oysters for sure - we enjoyed them last year on our Uniworld Bordeaux tour as well.