Rare AllisonJames Posted July 8 #1 Share Posted July 8 This post was recognized by Host Jazzbeau! AllisonJames was awarded the badge '"Live from...."' Just about to embark on the Viking Hemming in Porto…I had a lot of questions (and still have some) so happy to help anyone out and do my best to answer! Please be patient if it takes me time to post…it’s a very full itinerary! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare JJK2008 Posted July 8 #2 Share Posted July 8 10 minutes ago, AllisonJames said: Just about to embark on the Viking Hemming in Porto…I had a lot of questions (and still have some) so happy to help anyone out and do my best to answer! Please be patient if it takes me time to post…it’s a very full itinerary! Enjoy your cruise. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Ritabob Posted July 9 #3 Share Posted July 9 Enjoy your cruise. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare AllisonJames Posted July 9 Author #4 Share Posted July 9 Good morning from the Douro! So far we have been through two locks which is very interesting. Woke up to some beautiful scenery and it is actually a little chilly up on the sundeck. Portugal is having very mild weather and since I live in Texas, I actually had to purchase a sweatshirt…everyone had told me how hot it might be so packed all light clothes. We are loving being away from the horrible heat in Texas! Embarkation took all of 30 seconds and dinner last evening was delicious with more choices on the menu that I expected. Yesterday was a long day of touring and travelling to Porto so it was very quiet last evening after dinner. We are in a veranda suite and it is nice to have the separate living area. We usually just get balcony cabins on our ocean cruises but thought we might appreciate some extra personal space since the boat is so small and public spaces are limited. Everyone is very friendly and we have met some lovely people this far! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare CDNPolar Posted July 9 #5 Share Posted July 9 Looking forward to more posts so that I can live my Douro experience again. In order of amazing, our favourite cruises are: 1) Antarctica 2) The Nile 3) The Douro River on Viking The first two are top of the list because of their uniqueness but if you took those away from me, the favourite cruise (ocean or river) thus far would be the Douro. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare twototravel Posted July 9 #6 Share Posted July 9 We did this cruise on the Demming several years ago. Loved all the excursions off the boat for wine and port tastings. Our sailing we had vendors come onboard to talk about olive oil and cork production. Both were selling products as well. Our cruise included a full day in Salamanca, Spain. Overall, great trip! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare pontac Posted July 9 #7 Share Posted July 9 (edited) I left Porto yesterday after an eleven day trip on Scenic (I have cruised the Douro before on Viking Hemming). Though Porto was sunny with clear skies it was chilly as there is a strong breeze off the Atlantic. When you pass the mountain ranges that provide a barrier to the winds and you enter the Douro demarcated wine region the temperature will be warm. It was 35-36C at Pinhao on Friday 5 July. Edited July 9 by pontac Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare CDNPolar Posted July 10 #8 Share Posted July 10 21 hours ago, pontac said: I left Porto yesterday after an eleven day trip on Scenic (I have cruised the Douro before on Viking Hemming). Though Porto was sunny with clear skies it was chilly as there is a strong breeze off the Atlantic. When you pass the mountain ranges that provide a barrier to the winds and you enter the Douro demarcated wine region the temperature will be warm. It was 35-36C at Pinhao on Friday 5 July. I miss the Douro and will return. You just gave me some great memories! How do you compare the experience of Scenic over Viking? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare pontac Posted July 10 #9 Share Posted July 10 6 hours ago, CDNPolar said: How do you compare the experience of Scenic over Viking? If you mean on the Douro route, the Viking cruise was a long time ago - 2014. I really enjoyed it, I recall the visit to the Sandeman Port Lodge and lunch at a winery surrounded by vines. And the mechanical feet for stomping grapes in one of the Port wineries. I remember visiting Salamanca with flamenco dancers at lunch, the visit to the bakery where one woman was kneading dough and baking bread in a wood fired oven. They demonstrated opening a crusted Port bottle by heating port tongs..... But that was then; there were barely any other hotel ships on the Douro and I don't think we were rafted once. Now the river is teeming with river cruise lines and rafting is usual. Viking no longer supply lunch with entertainment in Salamanca and I think they no longer have the lunch at the winery. I heard from the PM on Scenic they no longer do the crusted Port demonstration after an inattentive demonstrator let a cloth too near the gas hob and after it caught fire, attempted to extinguish it be putting another cloth on top which in turn burst into flames. All the river cruises I could find had 7 days on the Douro. Take off 2 days for embarkation at start and disembarkation and there's only 5 days - 2 days going to the Spanish border, one day moored there while passengers go to Salamanca and 2 days back. Scenic do a 7 day cruise, but they also do an 11 day cruise, the only one I am aware of, which is why I booked them. Viking have the better designed boat and include on-board gratuities and currently the Silver Spirits package. Scenic also include tips for guides and coach drivers as well as bar drinks and one small clothes wash per cabin. I think there's much of a muchness. One is better in one way, the other is better in a different way. No easy answer, especially as prices in UK will differ in Canada. However Scenic are having big discounts, our cruise was only 75% full. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare CDNPolar Posted July 11 #10 Share Posted July 11 20 hours ago, pontac said: If you mean on the Douro route, the Viking cruise was a long time ago - 2014. I really enjoyed it, I recall the visit to the Sandeman Port Lodge and lunch at a winery surrounded by vines. And the mechanical feet for stomping grapes in one of the Port wineries. I remember visiting Salamanca with flamenco dancers at lunch, the visit to the bakery where one woman was kneading dough and baking bread in a wood fired oven. They demonstrated opening a crusted Port bottle by heating port tongs..... But that was then; there were barely any other hotel ships on the Douro and I don't think we were rafted once. Now the river is teeming with river cruise lines and rafting is usual. Viking no longer supply lunch with entertainment in Salamanca and I think they no longer have the lunch at the winery. I heard from the PM on Scenic they no longer do the crusted Port demonstration after an inattentive demonstrator let a cloth too near the gas hob and after it caught fire, attempted to extinguish it be putting another cloth on top which in turn burst into flames. All the river cruises I could find had 7 days on the Douro. Take off 2 days for embarkation at start and disembarkation and there's only 5 days - 2 days going to the Spanish border, one day moored there while passengers go to Salamanca and 2 days back. Scenic do a 7 day cruise, but they also do an 11 day cruise, the only one I am aware of, which is why I booked them. Viking have the better designed boat and include on-board gratuities and currently the Silver Spirits package. Scenic also include tips for guides and coach drivers as well as bar drinks and one small clothes wash per cabin. I think there's much of a muchness. One is better in one way, the other is better in a different way. No easy answer, especially as prices in UK will differ in Canada. However Scenic are having big discounts, our cruise was only 75% full. Thanks... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare AllisonJames Posted July 11 Author #11 Share Posted July 11 So far quite impressed with the included shore excursions…we have found them interesting and very well-organized. Much better than our included ones on Viking Ocean in the Mediterranean…admittedly quite some time ago. First two days we toured from 2:00 until late afternoon/early evening…I guess this is dictated by the lock schedule. You do spend quite a lot of time on the coach but we were prepared for that. Service onboard has been wonderful. If Viking asked me a out improvements, I would discuss lunch and the lack of “grab and go” options. We cant eat a big breakfast at 9:30 and then eat a big sit-down lunch at 12:30! This could be easily improved by having some small sandwiches and a cheese tray available midday at the pantry in addition to the cookies. We also wish they had an alfresco dining option in the outside area in front of the lounge. I guess maybe the larger Longships do this??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare pontac Posted July 11 #12 Share Posted July 11 6 minutes ago, AllisonJames said: I guess maybe the larger Longships do this??? They do Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Novastar Posted July 11 #13 Share Posted July 11 Thanks for posting your journey. I will be on the same trip in November. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
holomoana Posted July 13 #14 Share Posted July 13 We've been looking into this cruise and appreciate your opinions. Thanks to you and those who contribute to this blog. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare pontac Posted July 15 #15 Share Posted July 15 On 7/11/2024 at 3:41 PM, AllisonJames said: We cant eat a big breakfast at 9:30 and then eat a big sit-down lunch at 12:30! Have a small breakfast then, toast, fruit, yoghurt 🙂 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare AllisonJames Posted July 16 Author #16 Share Posted July 16 Well, we are back home now and apologies for not posting quite as much “live” as I planned…connectivity wasn’t so great and the cruise was really jam-packed! I will post a review on that area of this site…so I will try to be somewhat brief here. Overall here are my grades for the trip: Service: A; Ship - aesthetics, design: A; The Douro: Scenery & beauty, overall experience, and the weather: A; Shore excursions: B (content and quality was great, coach was comfortable, our tour guide on the Douro, Jose — was from the area and was great, but I am marking down somewhat for length of time on coaches and overall length of all Shore excursions which would have been better if they were 30 - 90 minutes shorter, especially Salamanca and Favaios). Food - C+ (a few dishes were pretty good, especially the soups, but in general we found the food overall to be mediocre); Time spent in scenic sailing: D, and views from Veranda suite/ability to enjoy balcony: F. These last two were very important to us and were obviously a huge disappointment and also led us to rate the cruise value as “poor” on the Viking survey. And yes, I had done my research and understood about the rafting but even the crew admitted we got a terrible week for rafting on the port side (and the highest level/most expensive suites are only located only on port side so this resulted in many complaints since the guests who paid the most had the worst experience. We only had a river view from our suite on the first day and then after that we faced the dock (once) and had a ship rafted on our side all the rest of the time…and in Porto our ship was in the middle of two ships and that’s a 36 hour+ docking at the end of the cruise. It was terrible! I know it is somewhat luck of the draw but with the cost of this cruise it is too much money to spend and end up with this experience. And one of the most enjoyable aspects of a cruise on the Douro is the scenic sailing and there was just too little of this and some of it happened when we couldn’t enjoy it—when we were off the ship, when we were sleeping (at least one very early morning start) or when we were at meals and couldn’t be outside on deck. I am happy to answer questions…obviously we had a very mixed experience for us with some aspects we liked and some we hated. If we ever take another river cruise we’d choose one with more sailing time (if there is such a thing) and less time on the coach…friends we met told us the Douro river cruise experience was very different than other river cruises they had been on where you have more flexibility to explore directly off the ship. P.S. this wasn’t a matter of us choosing the “wrong” cruise for us we selected it specifically because my husband had a conference in Porto and it was a timely opportunity to see the Douro, but we would not recommend this as someone’s first river cruise experience…to us, it was more like a coach tour where you sleep and eat on the ship. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
loge23 Posted July 16 #17 Share Posted July 16 Interesting observations - we have been on five other river cruises, all with Viking and had the Duoro one on our minds for awhile now. Unfortunately your experience, and one from friends of ours, have not been encouraging to us to book this one. We think exploring Portugal independently by car would be a better option for us. We really don't care for bus tours at all. One thing we've learned from our past VR cruises is to always book the lowest priced room - we call it "Aquarium Class". You're just not in it enough to warrant the extra expense - and the issues you encountered with rafting make the veranda rooms fairly useless. Besides that, one wants to see both sides when scenic cruising. The deck or lounge makes for a better cruising vantage point. On our last river cruise (2022), we also noticed a bit of a drop-off in the dining room selections and quality. Thank you for your comments! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare AllisonJames Posted July 16 Author #18 Share Posted July 16 Loge 23…you are very correct on your stateroom comments…typically we book a basic balcony stateroom on ocean cruises because we are not in it enough to really justify higher categories. We went with the suite on our first river cruise for a few reasons…when we booked there wasn’t a huge cost differential and we also thought that since the ship was small and the public spaces were limited, we might appreciate a little extra private space. It was nice having the separate living area…and we did use it a bit because my husband was under the weather a bit and needed to rest (there seemed to be a lot of guests under the weather on this cruise) but ordinarily we wouldn’t spend the money, it is not worth it to us. I loved being on the sun deck for the great view! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare pontac Posted July 17 #19 Share Posted July 17 19 hours ago, AllisonJames said: better if they were 30 - 90 minutes shorter, especially Salamanca All the Douro river cruises offer the option of going to Salamanca, and unless they move this historic city nearer to the boat, there long coach trip there is the price to pay for visiting. I was cruising the Douro and finished on 8 July when you started. I first cruised the Douro ten years ago in Viking Hemming and we saw few other cruise boats but now there are so many. It's a short stretch of navigable river and there are only a limited number of moorings so I'm afraid rafting is the norm. This time we didn't go to Salamanca because of the long coach trip, and we avoided other excursions that had long coach rides. 20 hours ago, AllisonJames said: And one of the most enjoyable aspects of a cruise on the Douro is the scenic sailing and there was just too little of this and some of it happened when we couldn’t enjoy it—when we were off the ship, when we were sleeping (at least one very early morning start) or when we were at meals and couldn’t be outside on deck. That's a problem with a 7 day cruise. One day at the beginning and one day at the end for embarkation/disembarkation, one day moored at the limit to allow for the all day excursion to Salamanca. that's 3 days accounted for, leaving only two days to cruise the length up and two days back to Porto. 20 hours ago, AllisonJames said: If we ever take another river cruise we’d choose one with more sailing time (if there is such a thing) and less time on the coach well, you must carefully read the descriptions, but the Douro cruise is the only one where overnight cruising is not allowed. Other river cruises may cover a much greater distance but much cruising is done at night. Excursions are given importance. We've been on a lot of cruises and now we only go on excursions we want. We don't take those that require a long coach ride or an early start in the morning unless its something we really want to do. But for many people the excursions are the reason they book the cruise. I think you're of the same opinion as us. Next time - if there is one - remember that excursions are optional. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare AllisonJames Posted July 17 Author #20 Share Posted July 17 Pontac…you are so right! I am glad we did the excursions but if we ever went back, I would spend more time in Porto and Lisbon and then get on the ship and just be relaxed and enjoy the river! I am one of those people who enjoy sea days…but not many in a row…I love when it is several port days, then a sea day to relax, then repeat. I think I needed a full “river day” on this trip! The participation in the excursions definitely went down as the week progressed but we did want to see it all at least once. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare cbr663 Posted July 17 #21 Share Posted July 17 Thanks for your review of your cruise. Please let me know when your cruise review is published as I am eager to read more details. I've recently returned from an Avalon River cruise and noticed that your review shares many of the same experiences that we had. Rafting is a common occurrence (we were rafted 4 times) and it has occurred to me that it is most likely the result of over tourism on the rivers. Amsterdam has announced that in addition to its recent reduction in ocean cruise ships that it has plans to also reduce the number of river cruise ships also. Many seem to accept rafting as an acceptable normal part of the river cruise experience yet I doubt that it needs to be. Your last statement that the river cruise was more like a coach tour where you eat and sleep on the ship was uncanny as I expressed the same comment to my DW while on our cruise. It can be difficult to enjoy the actual cruise aspect of a river cruise. While on our Rhine cruise we often found ourselves cruising during dinner so much of the sailing of the river was missed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare gnome12 Posted July 17 #22 Share Posted July 17 51 minutes ago, cbr663 said: Your last statement that the river cruise was more like a coach tour where you eat and sleep on the ship was uncanny as I expressed the same comment to my DW while on our cruise. It can be difficult to enjoy the actual cruise aspect of a river cruise. While on our Rhine cruise we often found ourselves cruising during dinner so much of the sailing of the river was missed. This is exactly where river cruising was born. It is precisely a coach tour where you take your hotel with you. It was never an offshoot of ocean cruising. The actual sailing is not the point; the ports are. 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Roz Posted July 17 #23 Share Posted July 17 Well stated, @gnome12. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare cbr663 Posted July 18 #24 Share Posted July 18 5 hours ago, gnome12 said: This is exactly where river cruising was born. It is precisely a coach tour where you take your hotel with you. It was never an offshoot of ocean cruising. The actual sailing is not the point; the ports are. I spent a considerable amount of time researching different river cruise lines and different rivers and each river cruise line emphasized the rivers, their ships, their ship experiences, their food, and even their excursions they emphasized their bikes, their guided tours, and hands-on experiences. There was little, if any, emphasis on their coach styles, coach tours or coach amenities. I don't think many people view river cruising as an offshoot of ocean cruising. River cruising is cruising on a boat none the less and the emphasis that it is nothing more than a coach tour where you take your hotel with you is very disappointing and certainly not what the cruise lines promote. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Canal archive Posted July 18 #25 Share Posted July 18 If you research (see Archivist) the original background of many of the river cruise companies you realise are based on the original tour company - Thomas Cook although touring not by road but by river. A good idea that for once did not go to waste. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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