BillS-
Thanks for posting your awesome pictures!!
You managed to take the same pics as I did in the Baltic, but I like yours better...a new career path possibly????
(Think of the travel deductions!! )
Thanks for the comments! Glad you all enjoyed the pictures--I really enjoyed taking them. Europe is such a treasure trove for photography. I have almost 400 more that I didn't post!!! Be thankful!
Alisa: the river cruise is much different than a sea cruise, but we really did enjoy cruising with Viking-they impressed us. The main differences are the smaller cabins, less choices on the menus, having a "one-man" band for entertainment and a very intimate ship. These are not bad at all, but just different. A real plus, was that the excursions are built in to your cruise fare-nothing extra for them. The food was very good, too. We would definitely sail with Viking again!
Bill, you make me so excited to go to Europe! I can't wait to take tons of photos while I'm there.
When you say that a river cruise has less food choices on the menu, does it make it difficult to find something to eat? Did you get regional cuisine? How many passengers were on the river cruise?
I've heard about the fact that shore excursions are included in the price before, but how does that work? Do you get excursions to choose from, or is there just the one excursion and everyone does it?
For breakfast we had a buffet and/or could order off the menu---lots of choices for breakfast, including one of my favorites: muesli!
Lunch had a choice of ordering off the menu or a pre-made sandwich or pizza, burrito, etc. Off the menu, it was a 3 or 4 courses, typically with 2 choices of entrees.
Dinner was off the menu with two choices of main entrees, usually one was a fish entree. If neither entree or salad/soup was inviting, you could always get a Caesar Salad and baked chicken or minute steak as the main entree. Dinner was always four courses.
I found the cuisine to be very good to excellent. Consistently excellent were the appetizers, soups and desserts. We were with 5 other couples and the night we were served goose liver pate', everyone raved that is was the best they ever tasted. Our Chef was German and the cuisine was pretty much continental.
The Viking Sky has a 150-passenger capacity. We had only 68 people on the cruise, so service across-the-board was unrushed and excellent. The crew and staff were all European, predominately from Eastern Europe.
There was only one choice of excursion each day, but they were all very good with good guides. With one exception, each excursion allowed for a lot of free-time, on your own, typically 2- 4 hours, to explore the city/town on our own. We were provided with maps for each "port", including those places where we had to use a bus to and from the ship, e.g., Brussels and Bruges (the ship was docked at Antwerp).
We were at Arnhem on Easter Sunday, our only rainy day, and the excursion was a morning trip to the Palais de Loo. Viking offered two optional excursions for the afternoon, both related to the famous WW II battle there, (re-created in the movie " A Bridge Too Far"),but not enough folks signed up for either one, so several of us in our group took a city bus out to the museum on our own and had great visit there. The movie as shown on the closed circuit tv system on the ship the night before.
There was laundry service available, but no room service and no verandahs. We managed just fine! Also, the ship had 220v, so we had to use a converter, again, no problem.
Bill that sounds like an amazing experience. I am assuming that this was the first time for you on a river cruise?
Would you recommend it to others. With not so many other passengers, then I am assuming that it really forced you to get to know your fellow passenger?
Can you tell me what the age range of the guests on board was? Were the guests mainly European or American or a mix?
Stand by, Alisa. In about two months I'll have a report on a European River Cruise of a slightly different sort. We just got our documents today, including a Tour Member List. There are 134 passengers listed for the 140-passenger ship. All are from the USA, with 24 states represented. The largest representation is from Florida (26) but there are also 17 from California. The First Mate and I and the couple with whom we are traveling are four of the 9 Pennsylvanians on the list. Along with Michigan (also with 9) we are the third largest contingent.
Unlike Bill's experience, we have a number of optional (extra cost) tours from which to choose. We will probably take a lot (most) of them, but we are told that the mooring points are "right downtown" in most of the ports, so that independent touring while the ship is in port is always a possibility. We'll let you know when we get back.
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Also, the ship had 220v, so we had to use a converter, again, no problem.
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