Amazon River Cruise

[Iloveketo]

Hi,

Just wondering if anyone has done the Amazon River cruise with Viking. Any thoughts or advice would be appreciated. We haven’t booked it yet.
Thanks

[deec]

The Viking Amazon River Cruise we did was round trip from San Juan a few years ago..  We enjoyed the cruise BUT it lacked the real WOW that we were expecting from the Amazon.  Perhaps the itinerary is different now.  We had previously done a small boat River Cruise on the Peruvian Amazon and it was amazing!!!  Lots of wild life and fauna!   I think to appreciate the area you need a small ship experience.   I am sorry I did not explore the options before we went. 

 

[Iloveketo]

10 hours ago, deec said:

The Viking Amazon River Cruise we did was round trip from San Juan a few years ago..  We enjoyed the cruise BUT it lacked the real WOW that we were expecting from the Amazon.  Perhaps the itinerary is different now.  We had previously done a small boat River Cruise on the Peruvian Amazon and it was amazing!!!  Lots of wild life and fauna!   I think to appreciate the area you need a small ship experience.   I am sorry I did not explore the options before we went. 

 

May I ask what month you went with Viking?

[TayanaLorna]

We are doing Vikings Amazon (and Caribbean) cruise beginning February 19, 2023.  After we disembark in Manaus we are boarding a much smaller cruise ship to go further up the Amazon for 4 days.  It sails up the Rio Solimoes, a much more narrow river, and excursions are done in smaller launches from it.  I did my research after we booked Viking and realized we did want to get more into the thick of it.  

[Twitchly]

I believe there’s a river cruise forum here on CruiseCritic. Maybe ask there?

[deec]

3 hours ago, TayanaLorna said:

We are doing Vikings Amazon (and Caribbean) cruise beginning February 19, 2023.  After we disembark in Manaus we are boarding a much smaller cruise ship to go further up the Amazon for 4 days.  It sails up the Rio Solimoes, a much more narrow river, and excursions are done in smaller launches from it.  I did my research after we booked Viking and realized we did want to get more into the thick of it.  

Sounds perfect best of both worlds.   We went in October!

[SJD117]

17 hours ago, deec said:

The Viking Amazon River Cruise we did was round trip from San Juan a few years ago..  We enjoyed the cruise BUT it lacked the real WOW that we were expecting from the Amazon.  Perhaps the itinerary is different now.  We had previously done a small boat River Cruise on the Peruvian Amazon and it was amazing!!!  Lots of wild life and fauna!   I think to appreciate the area you need a small ship experience.   I am sorry I did not explore the options before we went. 

 

I second your comment! Many years ago, I did a small boat cruise in Ecuador on the Rio Napo (one of the Amazon’s major tributaries). The jungle flora and fauna were outstanding. I’m sure the experience in the Peruvian Amazon is much the same.

[Iloveketo]

6 hours ago, Twitchly said:

I believe there’s a river cruise forum here on CruiseCritic. Maybe ask there?

I figured that would be for Viking River cruises… We are interested in one of their Ocean cruises. I did try to do a search and check the roll calls before posting this request for information, because I didn’t get the results that I was looking for. 

[montythecat]

I generally agree with Deec. We were on the same cruise. Flora and fauna weren’t 

significant features of the cruise and the ports on The Amazon were ok but not

particularly memorable. However, we did enjoy the experience of gently pootling 

up a river of this magnitude on a lovely cruise ship. Just being on Viking Sea a thousand

miles from the ocean was somewhat mind blowing but keep your expectations under

control. I doubt very much whether you will see any jaguars or sloths. We certainly 

didn’t.

[H2Otstr]

We are taking this cruise at the beginning of January 2023. We also did a river cruise with Vantage in 2016 and that was phenomenal. I don't expect this cruise to be anything like the river cruise, but still look forward to visiting areas that I have not been to before, and I also enjoy being on the Viking ocean ships. 

[Jim Avery]

We sailed up the Amazon on Viking Sun during part of the first half of the Ultimate WC.  I agree that there is little "wow" factor.  Day after day of low tree lines on a wide muddy river.  There were several highlights such as the Boibumba show and the trips on the smaller boats but the Rhine it aint. Still, being at sea on a Viking ship beats most every job I ever had...🍸

[deec]

57 minutes ago, H2Otstr said:

We are taking this cruise at the beginning of January 2023. We also did a river cruise with Vantage in 2016 and that was phenomenal. I don't expect this cruise to be anything like the river cruise, but still look forward to visiting areas that I have not been to before, and I also enjoy being on the Viking ocean ships. 

We were on Vantage as well...the cruise also did Machu Picchu and the Sacred Valley....GREAT TRIP!!!  We also did the Irrawaddy and Mekong Rivers on VAntage.  They were great trips.  Vantage unfortunately did not seem to have great customer service during the Covid challenge.  Hoping they can prove their reliability again.  Their new "expedition" type ship looks awesome!!!

[H2Otstr]

13 minutes ago, deec said:

We were on Vantage as well...the cruise also did Machu Picchu and the Sacred Valley....GREAT TRIP!!!  We also did the Irrawaddy and Mekong Rivers on VAntage.  They were great trips.  Vantage unfortunately did not seem to have great customer service during the Covid challenge.  Hoping they can prove their reliability again.  Their new "expedition" type ship looks awesome!!!

 

We did the Machu Picchu trip, too. We did the Irrawaddy with Grand Circle. I saw the new expedition ship... WOW. 

[Essiesmom]

To really see the Amazon you need to take an excursion upriver…one of the.  We did the Amazon to Manaus in 1999 on the original Royal Princess.  My sister and niece did a rainforest excursion.  I went shopping.  But I had been to Manaus twice before, once on a professional educational trip, and once on an Earthwatch expedition studying the tropical fishing industry.  On the latter trip we went three days up the Rio Negro to Barcelona and stayed a week.  EM

[H2Otstr]

I read on MVJ that we have to complete a special form to enter Puerto Rico. I haven't gone through the whole application yet, but just wanted to alert everyone in case one doesn't know about this. I found it under Before You Go. We also have to complete the VeriFly form to enter Brazil. 

[surfcitygirl]

1 hour ago, H2Otstr said:

I read on MVJ that we have to complete a special form to enter Puerto Rico. I haven't gone through the whole application yet, but just wanted to alert everyone in case one doesn't know about this. I found it under Before You Go. We also have to complete the VeriFly form to enter Brazil. 

Barbados also requires a form.

[dcl999]

We did the San Juan rt Amazon cruise several years ago over Christmas, anniversary, New Years and a birthday. We really enjoyed the lazy pace. Some of the shore excursions were good but many areas did not have the assets to provide the type of tours available in other areas. We went prior to the rainy season. The Amazon gets much wider and there is a lot of flooding during rainy season. Emergency transportation off the ship is limited.  

[deec]

Plan ahead with your washing too...while in the River we were not allowed to use the washers or driers.  Not big deal if you are aware!  Passengers are asked to "conserve" water but it did impact the cruise.

 

The insects are amazing.......hundreds on the the decks in the morning before the crew cleans.  I found them interesting but others not so much!!

[Iloveketo]

On 11/24/2022 at 3:56 AM, montythecat said:

I generally agree with Deec. We were on the same cruise. Flora and fauna weren’t 

significant features of the cruise and the ports on The Amazon were ok but not

particularly memorable. However, we did enjoy the experience of gently pootling 

up a river of this magnitude on a lovely cruise ship. Just being on Viking Sea a thousand

miles from the ocean was somewhat mind blowing but keep your expectations under

control. I doubt very much whether you will see any jaguars or sloths. We certainly 

didn’t.

We just got back from Viking’s Panama and Central American cruise and saw sloths, caiman, lizards, beautiful birds and so much lush vegetation, especially in Costa Rica. Your comment about “Just being on Viking Sea a thousand miles from the ocean was somewhat mind blowing” is something I hadn’t considered. Thanks for this prospective. 
 

[Iloveketo]

On 12/1/2022 at 12:23 PM, deec said:

Plan ahead with your washing too...while in the River we were not allowed to use the washers or driers.  Not big deal if you are aware!  Passengers are asked to "conserve" water but it did impact the cruise.

 

The insects are amazing.......hundreds on the the decks in the morning before the crew cleans.  I found them interesting but others not so much!!

So… did the insects force guests to stay inside? Were they mainly an issue at night or all the time? For excursions did you need mosquito clothing or just insect repellent? Thanks for any advice. 

[H2Otstr]

15 hours ago, Iloveketo said:

So… did the insects force guests to stay inside? Were they mainly an issue at night or all the time? For excursions did you need mosquito clothing or just insect repellent? Thanks for any advice. 

I didn’t think the insects were that bad. We did see several on one of our morning walks around the outside deck. We weren’t batting them away but we did spray before our excursions. Lots of small flies. 

[deec]

19 hours ago, Iloveketo said:

the insects were fun to see.  they did not force us off the deck just had to be careful.  Insect spray was enough