Anyone ever cruised with Viking during Christmas Market season - but not on a Christmas Market cruise?

[Sundown59]

My wife and I are booked for a Viking Grand European tour cruise (15 days, November 25th to December 9th) this year.  We'll hit the Christmas Market hotspots like Cologne and Koblenz, etc.  But there are no Viking-sponsored Christmas Market excursions for this cruise.  Since many of the Christmas Markets will be open during this time, I'm wondering if anyone's ever experienced this situation and how easy it might be to get to the Markets on our own.  Frankly the cruise cost was WAY lower than even the next week on Viking's price list - so it'll be worth it if we can score some Markets. 

 

Thanks for any and all hints and tips.

[CDNPolar]

We are on Viking Edgir embarking November 27th to December 11th.  Same 15 day cruise.

 

There are no specific Christmas Market excursions in the line up, however I personally did not ask Viking this, but my brother did who was booking this cruise, and he was told that there would be added excursions to Christmas Markets, or that we would be able to visit on our own.

 

The bigger question is will the ship still be in port after dark to visit the markets at night.

 

Someone else with Christmas Market experience please chime in....

[Second seating]

Remember it can be dark around 4 p.m.

Second seating

[CDNPolar]

6 hours ago, Second seating said:

Remember it can be dark around 4 p.m.

Second seating

 

True... and we tend to stay in town after a walking tour and look around so as long as the ship is not leaving until 6pm or later, we can just hang out until dark.

[Sundown59]

Thanks to all for your input.  Much appreciated!

[swixpat]

Cologne has several Christmas markets. 

The largest is around the Dome and opens in time for lunch. 

Your docking site is less than 10 minutes walk from the Dome 😀

[leftyrn]

On 6/5/2024 at 7:48 AM, CDNPolar said:

We are on Viking Edgir embarking November 27th to December 11th.  Same 15 day cruise.

 

There are no specific Christmas Market excursions in the line up, however I personally did not ask Viking this, but my brother did who was booking this cruise, and he was told that there would be added excursions to Christmas Markets, or that we would be able to visit on our own.

 

The bigger question is will the ship still be in port after dark to visit the markets at night.

 

Someone else with Christmas Market experience please chime in....

We are on this cruise as well with a pre cruise in Amsterdam.... I did ask and Our agent said we could do on our own... Vienna is an overnight... Budapest is also 2 days... we figured we would get a couple of markets in...see you on the ship

[CDNPolar]

8 hours ago, leftyrn said:

We are on this cruise as well with a pre cruise in Amsterdam.... I did ask and Our agent said we could do on our own... Vienna is an overnight... Budapest is also 2 days... we figured we would get a couple of markets in...see you on the ship

 

The allure of Christmas markets is large for some.  After visiting a couple last year, I am not as crazy wild about spending my time trying to see every Christmas market this year.  I have the feeling that once you have seen one or two....  Kind of like how some folks feel about churches.

[marksind]

We are also on the Edgir, leaving Amsterdam on the 27th.  Main interest is the Christmas markets.  I called Viking and asked if there's any recognition of the season and markets, since this isn't sold as a Christmas markets cruise.  They said there'd be some activities and perhaps decorations on the boat, but it didn't sound like a major focus.  

 

We did an Ama Rhine cruise two years ago the same time of year, Basil to Amsterdam.  Not marketed as a Christmas markets cruise, just something like "Treasures of the Rhine."  But they decorated the boat so heavily I thought it would sink.  Really did everything up first class, inside and out.  The crew seemed to enjoy it.  We visited markets in several towns/cities, including Cologne.  If Ama had the same itinerary as Viking we'd be with them.  We've also done the Danube, Black Sea to Vilshofen, Germany last fall on Avalon.  So for us the only thing we haven't done is the canal connecting the two rivers, which has endless locks.  Both Avalon and Ama offer a wider range of included excursions, at various activity levels, than Viking.

 

As an earlier poster said, the Christmas markets can start to seem similar, but the surroundings and city decorations are always different and most markets have mugs you get your hot mulled wine in that you can buy for a Euro or two.  They are fun to collect, as each market has it's own unique design.  We're doing a flight deviation and flying into Brussels to visit Bruges for a few days before going to Amsterdam, and staying in Budapest for a couple of extra days at the end.  When we go to Europe we like to make the travel time and jet lag adaptation worth it!

[BobMartha]

I use one of my Christmas market mugs every morning for my double espresso! Brings back memories every morning. On my bucket list to return and do a Christmas market cruise once I retire in a few years. We sailed between Christmas and New Years so caught the very end of the markets pre cruise in Munich and a few small markets that remained open between the holidays but was sad to see the larger markets shuttered already (we knew this before sailing). We were in Munich the 23rd and 24th and the markets there were magical. We sailed AMA and all the markets we did go to were all walkable from the ship.

[Ukalady]

'Glad to see this and bringing this older comment to life, I just asked about "times" of port arrivals and departures on the Amsterdam to Budapest Grand European Tour (which I've already done once, back in 2014: https://rivercruisenewbie.wordpress.com) for 2024 because I wondered the same thing about being able to catch a few Christmas markets on this itinerary. I was given the attached information with shows the port times so you can figure out if you'll be somewhere at the right time to see the local Christmas market. 'Still trying to decide if we're going to book it! 

[Sundown59]

Thanks for that!  Very helpful!

[notamermaid]

Wow, that is a lot of coming and going! Several technical stops in that passengers are taken onto a coach from the ship and dropped off again somewhere else. Gorinchem, Zons, Braubach, Karlstadt, Zeil am Main, Roth and Kelheim.

 

notamermaid

 

[Ukalady]

3 hours ago, notamermaid said:

Wow, that is a lot of coming and going! Several technical stops in that passengers are taken onto a coach from the ship and dropped off again somewhere else. Gorinchem, Zons, Braubach, Karlstadt, Zeil am Main, Roth and Kelheim.

 

notamermaid

 

Thank you--I'm still not sure what those cities/ports with two lines means. Could you help me a bit more with your explanation? For Zons, for example, does that mean passengers get off in Zons at 8 am for a bus ride and then are dropped off in Cologne at some point later, with the boat's departure on that one at 11 pm? than k you for any help! When I last was with Viking on this itinerary it was 10 years ago and on every stop we got back on at the same place (unless we opted for the Rothenburg tour, then we bused to the "new" port which the ship had traveled to in our absence). I guess it's looking as if they don't do the a lot any longer?

[notamermaid]

7 hours ago, Ukalady said:

For Zons, for example, does that mean passengers get off in Zons at 8 am for a bus ride and then are dropped off in Cologne at some point later, with the boat's departure on that one at 11 pm?

That is a relatively new addition to Viking's regular ports and from what I have understood is only used to save time, that is shorten the sailing towards Cologne for the passengers and thereby lengthening the time they have in Cologne. Yes, it means that the ships stops at Zons at 8am, the passengers get off and onto the coach that will take them to the city. That procedure appears to be scheduled to take an hour. The ship sails on without the passengers (unless they opt to stay on board) to Cologne and then just docks there until 11pm. Using this procedure several times means they maximise times in ports and better manage the time frame for excursions. The ship has to cover a lot of miles in 14 days...

 

notamermaid