Your thoughts on a longer (23 day+) river cruise?

[Squawkman]

We're Viking people - both river and ocean. We're also fortunate to live near a major East Coast airport, so Viking's free/discounted economy air works for us. Having said that, we wouldn't book a river cruise longer than 2 weeks for reasons stated by cruiselvr04 above. We're also 10 years older than cruiselvr04 - that makes a big difference!

[Smokeyham]

Great feedback!  Lots to think about!

Thanks.

[jsn55]

On 1/13/2021 at 7:48 PM, Smokeyham said:

Hello,

 

Researching European river cruises and thinking that a longer cruise would be better especially if travelling from America.  I see that Viking offers a 23-day Amsterdam to Bucahrest (on the Rhine, Main and Danube) cruise that looks interesting.  

 

Here are a couple of questions.....

 

* Since there are no "sea days" does this get a bit exhausting, with a port of call each day?  Of course, you don't have to do an excursion every day, but if you just end up being sandwiched between two other ships in a port then being in your cabin or a public space if you choose not to go ashore does not sound like much fun either.

 

* Do the ships have laundry services for a journey of that length?

 

* Are there any other longer river cruises that you recommend?

 

Anything else we should be thinking about regarding a longer river cruise?

 

Thanks!

 

 

I would book this cruise in a heartbeat!   We've taken several river cruises, and I think only a couple of times we were tied up with other ships.  Except in Egypt, of course, where they float a dozen together ... and every ship blows its horn the whole time they're in port.  Sometimes we just don't want to get up for another 830am bus call.  That's the beauty of a river cruise.  You walk off the ship right in the middle of town (generally).   I try to research the ports and the itinerary to figure out which ports we would be happy just wandering around in and having a nice lunch somewhere if we chose to skip the excursion  We are easily amused.  Check websites for confirmation, but I think all ships have a laundry service. 

[BCHappyGal]

On 1/22/2021 at 4:32 PM, SM77 said:

Our first Viking river cruise was on the Danube from Passau to Budapest but started in Munich for two nights, then two nights in Salzburg, almost two weeks - it was wonderful, some folks stayed in Budapest for a few more days (which I would highly recommended).  We did Viking's France's Finest which is one week on the Seine, transfer from Paris to Lyon to do another week on the Rhone, we loved it!  Great itinerary combining both rivers.  

I would try to do at least two weeks and then maybe add an extension afterwards.  

We had created our own b2b river cruises by combining Viking's Elbe river cruise ending in Prague, spending an extra night in Prague, then doing the Cities of Lights from Prague to Paris w/ an extension in Paris.  Almost a month and yes, I was stressing over the laundry being done while being gone so long.  Unfortunately after all that planning, it was canceled this past April 2020 due to the pandemic.  In hindsight I think I was trying to do too much in one trip but I really hate flying and was trying to make it worth our while going to Europe for a longer period.

 

Viking is now offering river ocean cruise combinations - may be worthwhile to do a rive cruise first, lots of touring each day and then get on the ocean cruise for a more relaxed itinerary (and self-service laundry facilities!).

 

 

We are looking (seriously) at combining 2 river cruises on Scenic to create a Black Sea to North Sea cruise Bucharest to Amsterdam Oct 25/22 and then a short hop to Southampton to board the Silhouette tfor a Trans Atlantic cruise home - lots of time on the TA to rest and recharge our batteries...  We love LONG cruises -- however this will only be our 2nd river cruise as we have always done Ocean Cruises...  

Laundry is a concern for me too!

But I am told Scenic includes a limited amount of laundry complimentary and guess I will jsut pay for the rest,,,