pontac

1 hour ago, Daisi said:

, I assume the "Amawaterways" was a slip of the finge

Yes, brain fog. First I was on the US site and then the UK site but it was Avalon in both cases.

1 hour ago, Daisi said:

Avalon's Rhine & Moselle for Wine Lovers is only available in 2024

Err, on the UK site  Rhine & Moselle for Wine Lovers is shown for 2025. It doesn't have Canals, Vineyards & Castles in the title but includes a canal cruise in Amsterdam and of course the castles of the Middle Rhine.

The site is frustrating, as I can't see any dates listed, it seems you have to ask via a form, and there are many pop-ups.

20 hours ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

Viking.  It was confirmed in a recent review on this forum (latecomers having to stand).

Just goes to show, you can't believe all you read on this forum! As you haven't been on a Viking River Cruise and I have been on fifteen, I can confirm there is seating for all if they want to sit. 

18 hours ago, Daisi said:

Moselle cruise in May until Feb.  There is lots of room on our ship still if you wish to join us

Tempted, but cruised Rhine/Mosel (Basel>Trier) in 2023 with Viking and due to cruise Rhine/Mosel (Amsterdam>Bernastel>Basel) with Scenic in August this year. Also we cruised the Rhine in 2012 and 2022: I think we are a bit Rhined out.

The Mosel is most attractive, but if we were to take the  Amawaterways cruise, the one that tempts me is "The Rhine & Moselle For Wine Lovers: Canals, Vineyards & Castles." and on the UK site there are same amazing discounts for cruises later this year

4 hours ago, Canal archive said:

Regardless I seriously doubt that I would receive a personalised 40 page brochure for French river cruising including private door to door transport, free flights with a saving of 35%. Even I’m not that influential! 

Funnily enough when I got back from lunch there was a(nother) Scenic brochure in the letter box.

This one offers chauffeur transfers to airports within 50 miles, but it differs in many ways from yours - in particular

1) it is for 2025 cruises, not cruises this year as you said

2) It is 36 pages including covers, not the 40 pages you got

3) It offered savings 'up to 20%', not the 35% you got

so maybe you are that influential!!

On 5/21/2024 at 5:40 PM, Daisi said:

The only thing that holds me back from Viking is I'm stuck with the payment policy that the Americans get.

From the Canada website https://www.vikingrivercruisescanada.com/

Join us this year  in Paris - 2024-09-05 Viking Skaga 'Paris & The Heart Of Normandy or next year 

2025-06-22 Viking Kadlin Capitals Of Eastern Europe🙂

13 hours ago, Canal archive said:

were looking to provide Chinese only cruises

Viking already had Long Ships cruising that catered to Chinese guests. We passed one and the Cruise Director told me it had a Chinese speaking staff, Chines food was served and tour guides spoke Chinese.

I know Viking advertise different boats and dates in the US to the UK, they may do in Australia, Canada and they do in China - but I don't know how regularly the Chinese boats cruise

@DougK Do (did) the daily Programmes remain accessible on the app when you get home?

I take the Viking Daily's home and scan them to keep and to post in my trip reports. The photo's I took of the Scenic Daily Programmes were poor quality; they were behind  plastic on the reception counter and I had to take the photo's at an angle because of the reflections on the plastic

17 hours ago, Canal archive said:

I also note that every invitation to book a cruise this year includes private door to door transfers

You get free transport to airport because of your high ranking in the Scenic loyalty scheme. It's not true for those who haven't reached that level.

Two years ago even first time cruisers got transport, not so this year.

18 hours ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

But there are enough chairs in the lounge for all passengers to sit during the port talks.  That's a luxury you don't get on some river cruise ships with too many passengers...

Oh, seats now count as luxury - or is that ultra-luxury? I don't know which cruise line doesn't have enough seats - it's not one I have cruised on.

12 hours ago, Chips401 said:

We are thinking about trying our first River cruise.  I have a question about dinner options.  Due to a medical condition I cannot eat in late evening and go to bed with a full stomach.

7pm is usual, maybe adjusted by 15 or 30 minutes either way to allow for excursions that day.

But is that early or late for you? It would be ridiculously early for people used to Spanish restaurants, maybe late for people from the USA. What time do you usually eat dinner?

You don't have to eat all the courses, you can have two starters and skip the main course, skip starter & dessert, whatever you fancy. That's on a sitdown, waiter served restaurant meal. Some lines serve dinner as a buffet, some have cafes where you can have a lighter meal.

I've cruised with Viking and Scenic. I never felt bloated after a 3 course lunch or dinner, neither did I feel hungry. Others, though, augmented the served meals with snacks bought off boat and/or cookies and cakes available on board.

So really, whether you'll feel bloated at bedtime depends on what you eat and what time you go to bed. There's on board entertainment after dinner but after a long day's sightseeing and lots of fresh air we rarely stayed up late.

12 minutes ago, DougK said:

Paper copies are available on request at reception, but that's not the default approach.

I've got it on my list of things to ask the 'butler' for. As @Host Jazzbeau says, after the end of the cruise one cannot access info on the app.

14 minutes ago, DougK said:

The cruise director told people to just bring it up on the TV, and take a picture of it on their phone to have it with them.

That 'do it yourself' is part of what make Scenic  'Ultra Luxury' 😁

Once again I am reminded of the different wants of guests.*

All I wanted was to hear the guide, I didn't use the rest of the app. So we would both be happy if they used the Quietvox for excursions and kept the Tailormade app.

Didn't they use the app for end of cruise questionnaires? 

Funnily enough, Viking have used Quietvox at least since I first cruised with them in 2012 and have recently introduced an app in addition.

*Considering all the many different wants and needs of cruisers, I think the cruise lines do a pretty good job of meeting them.

15 hours ago, CDNPolar said:

Was hoping to help but we are going the opposite direction but it should be the same amount of  time in each city??

Not necessarily. Not only is one boat going along with the flow of the river and the other is going against it, but there are locks to go through that may affect timings.

Hopefully someone who has recently been on that cruise can give times from Viking Daily - it may be worth checking the roll call forum for recent cruisers and asking them.

1 hour ago, CDNPolar said:

There will be close to zero to do on the ship other than read a book because most all leave the ship when in port.

That's what we did on our most recent cruise. We like reading.

As we are repeating cruises we are more frequently not taking excursions to places we've been before that involve a long coach ride or an early start

You probably won't be alone. We never were. Others also don't take excursions. If you don't take an excursion that leaves early you can enjoy a leisurely breakfast.

As to what to do on the boat when others have gone on an excursion, it depends on what the boat has, some have exercise rooms.

1 hour ago, CDNPolar said:

sometimes the ship moves while you are on excursion and in my experience that is not part of the itinerary - not with Viking anyway

It's detailed in the Viking Daily delivered to one's room the night before, e.g.

But it is always wise to check with reception before leaving boat.

On the above, if you want to do Speyer on your own - such as go to the amazing Technical museum - check with the guide when & where the coaches depart from and ensure you get to that point. (in this case it's the Technical museum car park)

Hooray!

The latest Quietvoxes are very good. Scenic's Tailormade, even when using Scenic's own smartphone, was an unreliable way to listen to a guide.

I wrote this in my trip report of my Scenic Bordeaux tour.

Tour guides had to carry a large box to transmit their talk, this was unreliable, often cut out, and the range was not as long as  Viking’s. Too often the device stopped working so part of the talk was missed, other times altogether and so the tour group had to stick closely to the guide to hear them.

I go on my next Scenic cruise in June. Hooray that Quietvox will be used. Perhaps its too much to hope Scenic will copy some other of Viking's offerings.

1 minute ago, cruisestitch said:

would avoid viking river cruise. On my one and only Viking cruise

It seems you did! 😁

The food on Viking suits me, though recently there has been too many dishes with cheese in them but you're obviously happy with AMA so why change?

17 minutes ago, Daisi said:

. A lot of people seem to not like it, but I guess it works!

We all have different tastes, luckily there are (now) many different cruise lines that can satisfy those tastes.

4 minutes ago, JordanF said:

I beg to differ just a bit.

Oh do!! I like a good discussion. And I do sometime get things wrong.😁

5 minutes ago, JordanF said:

The Long Ships are the same height and width as other ships (for bridges), but are a bit longer (or at least have more cabins)

According to Viking's website the Longships are 443 feet long, and have a max of 190 passengers, i.e. 95 couples. Scenic 'Space Ships' in Central Europe and Southern France are 135 metres long and have a max of 163/149 passengers. 135m = 443 ft.

So the boats are the same length but Scenic have fewer passenger, But standard cabins are the same size, the space freed up by not having passenger cabins is taken with a hair salon, gym, and Salt Therapy Room (?).

It gets complicated because both operate shorter boats on the Seine and Douro.

I haven't looked at dimensions of other cruise lines boats, but on a non-scientific look while rafting the major players are all the same size.

I have cruised with both Viking and Scenic and I am cruising twice more this year with Scenic, but my impression after one cruise with Scenic was that Viking's boats give more impression of room.

18 hours ago, martyap said:

way too many children (in May!) and more strollers than I could count.

Some river cruises welcome children, others don't, so check the rules of any cruise line you are considering. Viking has a minimum passenger age of 18.

What I like is flying to a country, being taken directly to the boat, unpacking once and at the end, packing and being taken directly to the airport for the journey home. I don't want a land element, and it sounds you are the same.

18 hours ago, JordanF said:

The "longboats" Viking operates carry a few more passengers than shorter boat

Viking call them Long Ships - a Viking Long Ship is their logo. The Vikings of old roamed the oceans in their long ships bringing rape & pillage (or if you're Scandinavian - culture). Boats from the major cruise lines have different names but tend to have the same sized boats on a river, made as large as will fit in a lock and go under bridges.

8 hours ago, PlatinumMan said:

Most cruise workers work almost entirely for the tip money and are paid little or nothing else.

You were cruising in Europe. What happens in the USA where people in service industries basically work for tips does not happen here.

And I am amazed that you thought you'd get better service than other passengers because you prepaid gratuities.

As @Host Jazzbeau says, once you have the river cruising bug then you'll discover there aren't enough rivers.

But, to answer your question, assuming the on-board experience is just what you want, then what do you want off the boat?

In other words, what is important to you that you want to see or experience? Is it historic sites, ancient towns, art, food, beer, wine? Or attractive scenery observed from the boat?

How long do you want to spend? Do you want to spend all the time on the cruise, or have hotel time at  before or/and after the cruise?

If you have no strong preferences, than pick any cruise as you'll enjoy it.

29 minutes ago, CDNPolar said:

We will often use an included tour - if walking through the city - to get bearings on the city and surroundings and then we inform the tour guide and break off on our own.

Same here, especially when they are heading into  a cathedral (ABC) and at the end when they announce 'free time' we'll head back to the boat (when in walking distance).

2 hours ago, Kristelle said:

Our Mekong river cruise is 11 days - 4 land days in Cambodia then 7 night cruise

Which cruise line?

It's a chore and takes much longer than expected, so I really appreciate your detailed report, @Australia08

3 hours ago, twototravel said:

@loriva What about the barge cruises in France or England?

If you're fit enough to get on and off a boat and turn a windlass you could rent a canal boat in England and drive yourself.

We used to do this in our younger days, but in 2022 we got our son and his partner to crew a longer narrow boat that would take four in some comfort. I've just reread my report and it bought back good memories.