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Viking Kara 04/14/15 - Rhine Getaway - AMS to BSL Trip Report


rjeffler
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This is a play by play of my trip. We were 8 adults aged 42-67. We were 2 days prior in Amsterdam (on our own) and 4 days after in Augsburg, Germany (also on our own). I'll give you things that I would have like to have known as well since this was our first River Cruise.

 

We arrived in Amsterdam at 8:00am. We were supposed to train to Centraal Station but there was construction and we ended up in a taxi. $50 E~ for 6 people and luggage. We were staying at the Doubletree Centraal Station and it was fantastic. Unfortunately, no rooms available that time of the morning, but we gave the luggage over to the porters and ventured out into the city. The location of this hotel is great. It is right next door to the train station. The port for the river boats are right behind it and most of the canal boat tours start right in front of the train station.

 

The only definitive plan we had for this day was the Van Gogh Museum at 4:00. If you plan to visit any of the museums, make sure to buy your timed tickets online ahead of time. There were more than 100 people in line. We walked up to an employee and showed them our tickets and were ushered directly into the door. The museum is 3 floors and takes more than an hour to tour. There is an audio tour available for a few euro if you care to do that.

 

After the museum, we walked out back to take photos on the IAMSTERDAM sign. The Rijksmuseum is just behind the sign as well. By this time, we were so tired, we took the trolley/tram back to Centraal Station. Ate dinner in a bistro near the train station. Be prepared if you travel in a large group like we do....Finding a table for 8 is very hard AND they don't like to split tickets.

 

We toured Keukenhof Gardens the next day. Our concierge was able to sell us tickets at a discounted price. We had to train back to the airport ($4E/each way) and then catch a bus to the garden from there. It was about a 30 minute bus ride. The gardens were fantastic!! We spent about 4 hours wandering and looking at the exhibits. Note here...if you want to bring tulips back to the U.S., you need to buy them at Keukenhof. They have a booth that sells everything they grow and they will mail them directly back to the U.S. for you. Any other flowers will not be allowed back into the U.S. We did a one hour canal tour as well. You HAVE to do a canal trip while in Amsterdam. You have lots of options...one hour, booze cruise, hop-on/hop-off. The booze cruises were sold out a day ahead of time so purchase early if that is your choice. The one hour tour was quite informative. We had dinner at the Asian restaurant across from the Doubletree. Although it was good, it was extremely slow.

 

The last day we had tickets for the Anne Frank House. The timed tickets sell out WAY ahead of time. We had a group of 8 and booking 60 days out I could only get 4 tix at 10:00 and 4 tix at 11:00. We arrived 10:05 and they were nice enough to let our group go in together. Just for fun, we walked the line for those without tickets and there were more than 2000 people in it. BUY YOUR TICKETS AHEAD OF TIME!!! After our walk back to the hotel we were off to the boat.

 

4 in our party received an email that the boat was not docked at one of the 3 usual docks and was instead across town. We had the concierge arrange a taxi to get there and the taxi driver notified us that the boat WAS at the normal dock (walking distance from the hotel). This event was the first chance for Viking and they far exceeded our expectations. They took our names and cabin numbers and 2 days later returned our taxi money to us in cash because of the confusion.

 

Getting on this boat was easier than any I've ever done. We arrived at 1:45 and 2 of our 4 cabins were already clean and ready for us. The front desk person walked us to our rooms and showed us all the cabin amenities. We had lunch on the 3rd floor terrace and then spent the afternoon unpacking and relaxing. We had walked nearly 10 miles each of the days we spent in Amsterdam! There was an included walking tour of the city that afternoon but we asked the concierge about it and we had already seen all of the areas they were going to.

 

Here I should go over the dress code. I've been on 15 large ship cruises and I dressed as casually or more on this ENTIRE trip. I read lots of trip reports and most of them said that jeans was uncommon...NOT so. My group of 8 as well as more than half of the guests were in jeans every dinner. I brought black slacks and a skirt and 5 dressy shirts and only wore them one night. I ended up having dressy slacks and 4 shirts that I never wore. They do not have a dress up night. They had a Captains Cocktail party on the night before we finished, but no mention of dressing up.

 

There was no assigned seating on the boat. The window tables all seated 6 and then the inside tables sat 8 or 10. We chose a table the first night and really liked our server. We also have person with some food allergies so it was nice to tell one person and have it handled. We didn't want to rehash everything with a new server daily. They were so concerned about his allergies that they brought us the next day's menus each night so that he could choose an entree and make sure it could be made for him. They were very easy to work with. Nearly every meal we sat at the same table. Most people did. We weren't there when the door opened on day 5 and a group of 2 ladies sat at our table and we had to change locations. So, if you want the same table daily, make sure you are there immediately!!

 

This is a VERY active cruise. We walked an average of 6-8 miles daily. Be prepared. Have enough shoes to be able to wear a different pair each day. I'll give you a few minutes to digest this and then I'll try and scan the 'Daily's' and talk about each day on board.

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I just put up a link to the Daily's for the trip. The front page that I showed was the only information that you really needed for the day. The inside was a history or brief on a museum or the area that you would be in for the day. The back cover was things to see, restaurants, shopping, etc...

 

This boat was different from all other cruise lines as they NEVER asked for money. The only money we spent on board was for drinks not during meals. They GIVE you water as you get off the boat each day and call it 'Excursion Water'. They give you a snack/drink/warm cloth as you get back on the boat each day after your excursion. They even made sure to get everyone back to the boat for lunch daily so you didn't have to spend the money on shore if you didn't want to. Of course, if we were to stay docked, you could always go back out on your own.

 

Each day we had a briefing in the lounge to go over the next days events. You (or at least one person from your group) need to be there to find out the times to be off the boat, etc... They were very entertaining and short. This is also when they tell you about special tours. The first night we were told about the Wheelhouse Tour and needed to sign up for the following day. When they added an additional tour, this is where they told you about it.

 

Here is a brief synopsis of our trip and what we did while on board:

 

We left Amsterdam at 11pm on our way to Kinderdijk and the Windmills.

 

Kinderdijk: There was about a 30 min ride to the windmill village. The guided tour was quite informative and our guide was great. The tour finishes at the 2nd windmill that you can go up and look inside. Back on board and casted off for Cologne. Leisurely afternoon around the boat. There were a couple of events and the tour of the wheelhouse. They did the tour in groups of 10-15. Once the captain showed us everything he does we were able to ask questions. He also told us anytime we wanted to drop by, just knock and if they could, they would allow us in. Many of my friends did just that and spent time in the wheelhouse during different portions of the trip.

 

Cologne: The boat dropped us off to get on busses for the ride to Koln/Cologne. The walking tour started and finished at the cathedral. After the hour tour, we had the rest of the day/afternoon off. Part of our group visited a brew house and then the Lindt Chocolate Museum while the rest of our group did a couple of art museums. The boat arrived in Cologne while we were on our tour and we were able to photo it coming down the river. In Cologne there is a bridge over the Rhine that they put Love Lock's on. They have quite a few stores that sell the locks as well. A very neat thing to see if you haven't ever seen it. This day there were 2 extra tours available. I'll try to get a photo of the price list/options in soon. We left Cologne after 11:00pm.

 

Koblenz: Arrived early morning and had a tour of Marksburg Castle. This was one of my favorites. There was an additional tour added this day that was new...Ehrenbreitstein - Ride up a gondola to the hilltop fortress. I gather this one had a bit less walking than the normal tour. It was a free tour as well, just another option available. After we left for the tour, the boat left to meet us in Braubach. Then we sailed for the rest of the afternoon.

 

This was the day of the Castles!! My friends and I got a lounger on the top deck and settled in for hours of castles. It was still a bit cold, so we used the towels as blankets. The Program Director was also up on deck and narrated each castle as we passed it. Quite a bit of history and beautiful scenes. The chef/waiters even came by and gave us 'Happy Chocolate' which was hot chocolate with schnapps! Quite a nice surprise.

 

Rudescheim was a lovely town, but we arrived at 5:00 and nearly all of the stores close at 6:00. We did some shopping in town and then had dinner. They had an optional tour here with dinner, band, etc... We didn't take the tour and ended up in the restaurant next door with the same music. After dinner, the only stores open are on the road that parallels the river.

 

Heidelberg/Mannheim - we arrived in the morning and took a bus up to the castle. While the tour was nice, it was quite short and didn't show much of the grounds. If you didn't know better, you probably wouldn't mind. Our friends live in Germany and had just been there 2 months prior and showed us pictures of all of the things we missed. We could have easily spent 2 more hours there looking around. But, they bussed us back to town and we had some time to look around and shop. I truly don't remember Speyer. I haven't seen my pictures yet (my friend does us a large drive of everyone's photos) so as soon as I do, it may bring back my memories!!

 

I do remember that this was German Night in the restaurant. There were sausages/pretzels and bread on the table when we arrived and all of the staff were dressed in traditional garb. The meal was great EXCEPT no schnitzel. We expressed our disappointment to the waiter as well as on our comment cards. He didn't know why schnitzel had been removed as it was there in prior tours. Other than that, it was a great night!!

 

Strausborg- We arrived early am and took a bus over the bridge into France. My biggest memory from this day was the storks. The area is well known for them and they take you down a street where the storks have nests on the top of each tree. It is truly fascinating!! There is also a lovely cathedral here. They dropped us in the middle of town and we did a walking tour that ended at the cathedral. Since it was Sunday, we couldn't go in to look around. You had about 1 hour of free time and then back to the meeting point to go back to the boat. They did run a shuttle 3 more times that afternoon if you wanted to either stay in town or come back after lunch. It was about a 1/2 mile walk from the cathedral to the bus stop, though, so be prepared!

 

Breisach - We arrived and got on the bus for the Black Forest Tour. This was the only day that our bus was totally filled. About a 1 hour drive to get to the stop for the day. They did make one photo stop along the way. We had a local guide that was also a organic farmer and she brought wild garlic, carrots and apples for everyone on board to try. The stop in the Black Forest is mostly a tourist stop. There is the largest cuckoo clock in the world (side of a building), shop to buy cuckoo clocks, a glass blower and a restaurant where the do a demonstration of Black Forest Cake. If you are not into that, there was also a tour into the forest or you could walk on your own. We were back on the boat by 1:30 and off to Basel. We did stop once around 6:30 to pick up the people that had been on the Colmar/WWII tours.

 

We actually arrived in Basel by 9:00 that evening although they didn't seem to let anyone off the boat that night.

 

We took a cab to the train station (smaller one, only about 2 miles from the port) and took a train to Augsburg for our next 4 days. I'll go into that part of the trip later.

 

Please let me know if you have any questions!!

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Great review. We were on the Kara during Thanksgiving, had a great time. And if I am correct we had Rene on the Helvetia several years ago. Ciao for now!

 

Funny you should mention that...our group is still using that phrase, even in emails!! He was GREAT!!

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Great review. We were on the Kara during Thanksgiving, had a great time. And if I am correct we had Rene on the Helvetia several years ago. Ciao for now!

 

When we did this same cruise back in 2009, Rene was on the Helvetia then ran into him again in 2013 on the Odin!

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Thank you so much for taking the time to post!! This will be our first River Cruise

We are leaving June 1 for Paris, then to Amsterdam by train June 6th, then onto the Kara the 9th.

All reservations have been made and now it is time to sit back and read!!!

Loved your trip report for the AMS to BSL ports!!! The ship sounds GREAT!!!

We have been to Amsterdam and have been to the museums (including the Heineken :D ) So we are planning to just walk the city this time... I don't remember long lines to get tickets at the museums but the Ann Frank House line was long, however our tour guide had purchased those for us. (we went with go-ahead a few years ago)

We are planning on taking the train from the airport to Central Station, easy the last time we were there... Moevenpick is supposed to have a shuttle service from Central Station to the hotel But I have not contacted them yet. We made our own reservation at the Moevenpick several months ago , and have a really good rate.

Thanks for the posts, looking forward to read ing more!! I will post a review when we return!!!

 

Just a couple questions

How far was the Moevenpeck from the cruise terminal??? and

how was the wifi ????? (Sorry if someone already answered this)

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Great review! We were on Viking Eir with the same itinerary about the same time you were on Viking Kara. I still need to write a review but I could just copy and paste your review since what you've said is what I would say about the Eir :-) We did get to see the Notre Dame cathedral in Strasbourg but we didn't get to see the cathedral in Cologne since we were there on a Sunday.

 

wrk2cruz, the wifi on the Eir was a bit spotty but not bad. I had trouble getting wifi in our room on the 3rd deck but I could consistently get wifi in the library and lounge on the 3rd deck and in other public areas. It was inconvenient to have to go to the lounge to get wifi but not the end of the world.

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Finding a table for 8 is very hard AND they don't like to split tickets.

 

This is one of those little differences between the USA and Europe :)

 

It is still usually possible to split, but you must tell them when you are placing the orders. The default assumption is one table, one check.

 

Generally in Europe you will find it is more common to get one check and figure out your own split between you if you want to share the cost.

 

The other surprise for the typical American diner is that substitutions and variations are often not greeted with enthusiasm either :)

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Thanks so much for sharing! We hope to do the same itinerary in July, 2016 & are planning to book by tomorrow. A couple questions -- are there pros & cons to cruising one direction over the other? We'd like to begin or end our trip in Paris -- does anyone know if it would be easier/more economical to make connections to/from Paris via Basel or via Amsterdam?

 

Thanks for your help!

Bob & Judy

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Thanks so much for sharing! We hope to do the same itinerary in July, 2016 & are planning to book by tomorrow. A couple questions -- are there pros & cons to cruising one direction over the other? We'd like to begin or end our trip in Paris -- does anyone know if it would be easier/more economical to make connections to/from Paris via Basel or via Amsterdam?

 

Thanks for your help!

Bob & Judy

The Basel airport is partially in France so it might be easier or cheaper from there but I understand there are also good trains to Paris from Basel and probably from Amsterdam too.

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Great review! Thanks for sharing. Did the tour excursion info come in your precruise package or was it distributed on the boat? Looking forward to our turn end of August on Viking Idi, doing same direction you did AMS-BSL!

 

I think I could see some of the cruises ahead of time, but you will get a book from Viking about 3 weeks prior and it has all of the optional tours in it as well.

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Thanks so much for sharing! We hope to do the same itinerary in July, 2016 & are planning to book by tomorrow. A couple questions -- are there pros & cons to cruising one direction over the other? We'd like to begin or end our trip in Paris -- does anyone know if it would be easier/more economical to make connections to/from Paris via Basel or via Amsterdam?

 

We did it this way as we wanted to see the tulips at Keukenhoff and then go to a friends house in Augsburg. This direction just worked better for us. I would gather they are exactly the same...just depends on your schedule and train/air costs to your origin and then home.

 

I WILL say that we were tired after 3 days in Amsterdam and then 7 on the boat. There was a transportation strike starting the day we arrived in Augsburg and we were OK with it. We simply stayed in town rather than another day trip and were happy we did. We walked so much during the trip that a day to go leisurely was welcome. I would do the heavier parts of my trip prior to the cruise, but that is my opinion only!

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  • 2 weeks later...
The Basel airport is partially in France so it might be easier or cheaper from there but I understand there are also good trains to Paris from Basel and probably from Amsterdam too.

 

We have two couples doing the Kara, ending in Basel on 8/25. From there, we're taking the high speed train from Basel to Paris, a direct route that takes about 3 or 3 ½ hours as I recall, right into the heart of Paris, Gare de Lyon station. We're spending a few days in Paris before flying home from there.

 

Getting ready to buy our train tickets this week……once we decide whether we want the 10:34 or the 12:34 Basel departure time. If you buy the train tickets in advance, the prices are reasonable - right now, 78 euros for each couple, one way. Waiting closer to the departure date, the train tickets will cost more.

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Thank you so much for the review. This is so helpful; we're on the AMS-BSL cruise in August on the Kara.

 

I'm curious in learning more about the walking tour that Viking offers on the day of embarkation. We are spending a couple of days in Amsterdam before the cruise, but clearly not enough time to see it all. So I'm thinking it might be helpful to know what is included on the Viking walking tour, so we might focus on seeing other sights on our own before the day of embarkation. Do you know if there is a link somewhere where I can view the details of that walking tour?

 

Thanks!

Edited by jmbklj
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