Viva MS Thomas Hardy Danube Cataracts Trip Report 23.08.2022

[UDChE89]

Thought I’d go ahead and create a thread for a trip report for my Danube Cataracts cruise on Viva’s MS Thomas Hardy.

 

We’re on the boat after departing 15 minutes after the time on the website (posted when we got on the boat).  Checkin was easy and quick.  It’s pretty evident that I’m the only English only passenger.  There are 63 passengers on the cruise (I’m a single passenger so I’m probably the one that makes it an odd number) with 40 crew.

 

I booked a suite cabin and got a great deal.  It’s very nice and spacious with a Nespresso machine so I feel at home.  Toiletries are Crabtree & Evelyn.  The only negative, for me, is the bedding.  I don’t really like the double duvet for a large bed since I tend to roll when I sleep.  We’ll see how this goes.

 

Wi-Fi seems a little wonky but that’s probably based on the location.  This might be a problem as I’m working part of the time.  Had to go to the reception desk to have them log my devices onto the network.

 

They did just inform me that there might be issues with guides on some of the city tours.  Good thing is that it’s probably not really a worry since I’ve been to Bratislava, Budapest, and Vienna before so I may do them independently.

 

The only change so far is changing out Krems for Melk.  Otherwise, everything else looks good.

[CPT Trips]

1 hour ago, UDChE89 said:

The only change so far is changing out Krems for Melk.  Otherwise, everything else looks good.

I’m a bit confused. Which will you visit?

 

Are there other English as an additional language speakers among pax and crew? What is the primary language(s) of the ship?
 

As you probably know, English language tours of many sites along that route will be available . . . particularly with advance ticketing.

[Daisi]

I think primary language is German? I hope UDChE89 can understand the basis of whatever language is onboard, just for social encounters.

[notamermaid]

Viva Cruises is bilingual, I have no worries about our lone English speaker having problems. Okay, port talks may be awkward, but I am sure the cruise director is always on hand to help.

 

I also got a bit confused,

1 hour ago, UDChE89 said:

They did just inform me that there might be issues with guides on some of the city tours.

do you mean they may not be able to find a guide who can throw in an English explanation, or have they not been able to get enough guides to cover the whole passengers?

 

I gather you booked the excursions on top of the basic product, as this is standard with the company I believe? Then hopefully there will be no problem to reimburse you. I think Viva Cruises will be fair on that, they better be if they want a repeat customer...

 

1 hour ago, UDChE89 said:

I booked a suite cabin and got a great deal.  It’s very nice and spacious with a Nespresso machine so I feel at home.  Toiletries are Crabtree & Evelyn.

Nice. Good to read you feel comfortable in the cabin. Hope the bedding will give you better sleep than you are anticipating.

1 hour ago, UDChE89 said:

Wi-Fi seems a little wonky but that’s probably based on the location.  This might be a problem as I’m working part of the time.

This I must admit I thought may turn out to be the biggest worry on your cruise, rather than language or anything else (apart from the low water which for now we may assume has resolved itself), as past Budapest infrastructure can be not as developped as you may need. It may not affect the ship, but I think you may want to get some work in early on in the river cruise - or talk to the cruise director again to see what they think.

 

Thank you for planning to take us along on your journey and be possibly the first North-American to report on Viva Cruises, definitely a highly unusual constellation of language set-up, company, ship and itinerary.

 

Have a great cruise.

 

notamermaid

 

 

[Queen of my Heart]

Thomas Hardy is often contracted to Riviera Travel which is a UK company catering primarily to the British/Irish traveller, although some other nationalities are in evidence from time to time. As such, English is the language used on board at such times.

I've done a few Riviera crusies and find the cabins and general facilities very acceptable, and the prices very competitive although I have noticed some steep increases recently. I suppose they are trying to recoup losses due to covid. I'm due to sail with them next week on the George Eliot.

[Host Jazzbeau]

15 minutes ago, Queen of my Heart said:

Thomas Hardy is often contracted to Riviera Travel which is a UK company catering primarily to the British/Irish traveller, although some other nationalities are in evidence from time to time. As such, English is the language used on board at such times.

I've done a few Riviera crusies and find the cabins and general facilities very acceptable, and the prices very competitive although I have noticed some steep increases recently. I suppose they are trying to recoup losses due to covid. I'm due to sail with them next week on the George Eliot.

They do seem much more appropriate ship names for a British company than a German one...

[notamermaid]

18 minutes ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

They do seem much more appropriate ship names for a British company than a German one...

Riviera UK went for the names of writers. The ships are mostly Scylla ships, Riviera UK charters them long term and they are built in cooperation. Viva Cruises is the brainchild and river cruise operating company of Scylla.  We actually call this mother (company/association) and daughter (company/association), in English you say that Scylla is the parent company of Viva Cruises.

 

42 minutes ago, Queen of my Heart said:

I'm due to sail with them next week on the George Eliot.

Perhaps you could leave a short message in our thread on Riviera to say how it went? Would be nice to read.

 

Have a great cruise.

 

notamermaid

 

 

[UDChE89]

Tried to post an update before heading to bed last night but the Wi-Fi was wonky so I gave up.  This could potentially be an issue as I have two meetings to host.

 

Talked to the cruise director after the welcome and let him know that I had planned to do independent travel in Bratislava, Budapest, and Vienna.  Belgrade and the tour between Donji Milanosevic and Golubac would be in German but it shouldn’t be too much of an issue since I’m using the tour for transportation.  I actually didn’t book anything in advance so no refunds are due.  There’s a port talk for Bratislava this morning.  Not sure I’ll attend but there are other folks who speak rudimentary German so he’s still giving all pertinent information in English.

As for the itinerary change, we were supposed to stop at Melk and will now be stopping at Krems instead.  They also changed one of the Belgrade excursions.

 

Dinner was a delicious four course meal with nice portion sizes.  Didn’t feel hungry and didn’t feel overly full.  Service is very attentive but not intrusive.  Food also came out rather quickly.  They’re now setting up a table with a single place setting for me at every meal.  Crew also speaks English well and they’re printing me my own menu though I told them they didn’t need to.  They told me that they need to do it for the head chef as well.

 

Cabin was very comfortable and I did make it through the night with the double duvet thing.  The trick was they tucked it in at the bottom so I couldn’t do my usual pull the covers off.  Cabin was relatively quiet.  Woke up to being in a lock.

 

As for the ship itself, there’s some Riviera and Scylla markings but all the printed information inside the ship has the Viva logo.

 

Fortunately, I’m a pretty independent traveler and more than a bit of an introvert.  I won’t need a lot of hand holding and I’m okay with being alone.  I’ve done it a lot during my visits to over 90 countries.

[Queen of my Heart]

11 hours ago, notamermaid said:

Riviera UK went for the names of writers. The ships are mostly Scylla ships, Riviera UK charters them long term and they are built in cooperation. Viva Cruises is the brainchild and river cruise operating company of Scylla.  We actually call this mother (company/association) and daughter (company/association), in English you say that Scylla is the parent company of Viva Cruises.

 

Perhaps you could leave a short message in our thread on Riviera to say how it went? Would be nice to read.

 

Have a great cruise.

 

notamermaid

 

 

Of course. I would attach photos except that every time I try to do it they can't be viewed.

[notamermaid]

1 hour ago, Queen of my Heart said:

Of course. I would attach photos except that every time I try to do it they can't be viewed.

Thank you. Photos can be tricky, not sure what goes wrong in your case. I have had stubborn ones that stayed upside down so I flipped them upside down on the computer (made a copy first) and they came onto CC the right way up!

 

Please do not go to too much trouble, was really thinking just a couple of notes for future cruisers and a thumps up if you enjoyed it.

 

@UDChE89 sounds as if the experience on the MS Thomas Hardy should be rather pleasant, things seem to be well organized so far. Hope the internet will be as good as you need to have it and perhaps we can look forward to another upload from you some time. My tip, as photos can be tricky with the connections (as you will probably know), it may be favourable for you to stay to text only for us here.

 

notamermaid

 

[CPT Trips]

4 hours ago, Queen of my Heart said:

Of course. I would attach photos except that every time I try to do it they can't be viewed.

Somewhere on this board I posted instructions on how to post a photo . . . Anyone remember where?

[UDChE89]

I wasn’t planning on posting photos until the end of the cruise anyway.  Internet has been good today while we were in port in Bratislava.  We’ve just departed.  Didn’t see many people take the excursion today but we were only in port for four hours.  I took the chance to get off and see Bratislava Castle as I didn’t see it last time I was there.

 

Breakfast was a buffet with other items available by order.  What was available was sufficient for me.  Lunch started with a salad buffet and three additional courses. The potato soup was delicious as were the Singapore noodles.  Dessert was advertised as Apple fritters but these weren’t Apple fritters as they’re known in the US.  The were more like thick slices of apple dipped in batter and fried.

 

They’ve started setting a specific table with a single place setting and an English menu for me.  I had a nice “conversation” with the German couple seated next to me in both broken English and broken German.  I took German 40+ years ago when I started taking foreign languages and amazingly some actually stuck.

[UDChE89]

We’ve just departed Mohacs on our way to Novi Sad.  There was a short stop in Kalocsa to drop off passengers that were going on a bus tour.  Mohacs is a cute little town that I took some time to wander about in.  Unfortunately, I was also THAT passenger being the last one to board though I was only a few minutes late.

 

Food has been good on the trip and I’ve enjoyed myself.  The internet has been variable but fortunately we were docked or close to it when I had to hold my meeting this morning.  Most folks back home don’t know I’m in Europe.

[UDChE89]

Yesterday’s major stop was Novi Sad and country 94 for me.  One of our crew members was able to visit home for awhile so I got some local suggestions.  The older part of town is very nice and easily walkable.  Sat and had a coffee at a nice cafe.  People were out and about.  Got to pass through the local market as well.  Was a bit warm so that slowed me down a bit.  Feet started to hurt so I passed on the castle.

 

We left for Belgrade and arrived about 10.  There was one other ship in port (now there are five).  Most folks stayed on the boat.  The music was loud enough from the bars lining the river that we didn’t need to go out to hear them.  I even recognized them playing Serbia’s 2021 Eurovision entry.  In fact, I think the music was playing until 4 AM.

 

Woke up this morning and heard a lot of commotion outside.  Decided to peek through my drapes to make sure that another boat hadn’t docked next to us.  Good thing I did because if I hadn’t then the folks eating their breakfast would have gotten a show when I would have taken my Nespresso on my balcony.
 

Went and walked around Belgrade with it being mostly the fortress and the zoo.  Since it’s Saturday, there were lots of families out and about.  It was a nice time but it was also hot.  Came back for lunch and a dip in the “pool” to cool off.  We leave tonight for the Iron Gates.

[UDChE89]

Today, the ship docked in Donji Milanovac to let off a tour group.  This is the one tour I decided to do.  Fortunately, excursions are add ons on Viva.  The tour stopped at the Lepenski Vir historical park and Golubac fortress where our boat picked us up.  As I’m the only non-German speaker, the only value to me was the transportation.  The guide only spoke in German so I missed a lot of information.  In fact, I was the first one back to the bus at Lepenski Vir and the boat at Golubac.  It was another sweltering day (35C when we got off the boat) so that made it a bit less enjoyable since there was no shade.

 

Tomorrow is essentially a day at sea.  I’m contemplating scheduling a massage.

[UDChE89]

Monday was entirely on board and the first time I started to get bored.  Did work when I was able, ate and slept, then went to bed early.

 

Yesterday was Budapest.  Saw about a dozen other ships, including 4 Viking ships, when we arrived.  Did an independent tour since I had been to Budapest before but it had been 20 years ago and I wanted to experience some of those places again.  It was also the first night where I felt like an outsider as I was sitting alone in the lounge while there was a large table of Germans on the sun deck.  Didn’t find that out until I went up to get pictures after dark.  It’s okay as I expected this at some point.

 

We’re on our way to Esztergom.  I’ll independently walk through the town before getting back on board to work.  Fortunately, this is the “quieter” time of the month for me as work is concerned so it’s not been bad.

[notamermaid]

1 hour ago, UDChE89 said:

We’re on our way to Esztergom.

I enjoyed Esztergom. The basilica is fabulous. We had a good guide there. The town was also quite interesting.

 

notamermaid

 

[UDChE89]

Disembarked this morning.  Not much more to add.  Hit up both Vienna and Krems.  Traffic in Vienna near the piers was horrible.

 

Overall, I’m happy I took the cruise.  It was well worth the price I paid especially since I got my cabin for a steal.  Single in a balcony suite cabin for €3795.  Not a price you can beat.  The staff were fantastic and very attentive without being overly so.  They pretty much knew my preferences quickly.

 

Would I recommend Viva to others?  Well, that depends.  I had at least some knowledge of German so it wasn’t too bad.  The cruise director did tell me the previous cruise was more non-German than German.  However, I don’t think I’d tell anyone that has no German speaking abilities to take Viva.  It can be a little isolating as I only had a few people talk to me during the entire trip.  Being an introvert, that didn’t bother me at all.  I also have a pretty wide palate so food was never an issue.  The fact that Viva’s excursions are not included also made me feel like I got good value as I only took one and it was mostly for the transportation.