sharkster77

On our river cruise, dear wife drank Diet Coke while someone we often dined with drank Coke Zero. A discussion ensued about what was the difference, if any. Waiter overheard us, and offered a taste test! He brought us a couple of bottles of each, and the 'connoisseurs' had at it------nobody could detect a difference between the two! I think it has to do with the choice of sweetener used. Also, after the first night, our waiter, whenever we sat in his section, remembered every one's drink of choice. The perks of less than 200 passengers, but still amazing.

Both Basel to Lucerne and Lucerne to Zurich Airport are easy 1 hr train rides. We just visited Lucerne for the second time. Lovely lovely small city. Extensive medieval old town along the river Reuss. Medieval town wall has 8 towers, at least 3 can be climbed. Walk along the lake is also delightful. Can't say enough good things about Lucerne!!

Your comment on meeting Australians is interesting. On our recent Swiss rail tour (with Trafalgar), out of 45 people, at least 10 or more were from Australia. We joked that half the group was either Australian or from Florida.

It would interesting to know how many of those almost-800 complaints were made in the past month, when the problems really became acute.

Ditto--just got back from a week in Switzerland, got the sniffles my last few days there, now testing positive---not feeling worse than a cold, but the isolating, etc., is annoying, since dear wife is negative. So much easier last year when be both tested positive, my case was mild and hers was asymptomatic.

I asked the board a couple of weeks ago about Swiss vs. EU plug adapters. Just got back home. The verdict: We stayed at 5 different hotels and our EU adapters worked just fine at 4/5.. Only at the last hotel (Radisson Blu Lucerne) did the adapters NOT fit. Our EU adapters have square-ish corners, the Swiss have rounded, so they just barely did not fit. Borrowed a couple from the front desk, no problems. Interestingly, looked at adapters at a Zurich electronics store, and they sold Swiss/EU adapters, but no exclusively Swiss ones. This ends this fascinating discussion of outlet adapters 😉

Thanks! We will only be using phone/tablet chargers, and a dual-voltage curling iron iron (nongrounded), so looks like we should be OK with our Type C's. Also our adapters are small, so they should fit into recessed outlets OK.

A question for the gang---- We are starting a rail tour of Switzerland next week. We spent a couple of days in Lucerne after our Rhine cruise 4 years ago, and the continental Europe plug adapters we had (2 round prongs) worked just fine. Our tour director contacted us today and one of her recommendations is that we get 'Switzerland plug adapters', as they are supposedly different from the European ones. Has something changed since 2019, or will our mainland European plug adapters still work? If anyone has an answer, it's this board! Thanks in advance

Thank you, @CPT Trips, I found it interesting that both were based in Boston, run by brothers, and wondered what the story was. We used to have, in a neighboring town, 2 farms across the street from each other, run by brothers. Apparently they inherited the family farm but couldn't work with each other, so they split the property each did their thing. One is still a farm while the other has had several reincarnations, including a paintball course--no longer farmed.

Oooops--I stand corrected! You are right.

Just a footnote to this story. I was very confused following all this, thinking that I had read that Hank Lewis of Vantage had died, but he has not. His BROTHER Alan Lewis, who ran Grand Circle Tours/GC Cruise Line did pass away a year or two ago. His wife Harriet Lewis now runs GCCL Apparently, from reading old stories in the Boston Globe archives, back about 10 years ago the two brothers had some sort of very public feud. I need to dig more to find out if they had one company that split into two (one for each brother), or if they have had competing companies all along. Perhaps someone on these boards has a better understanding of "the story behind the story" (for those who remember Paul Harvey).

I think what created the suspicions regarding the Vantage ship is that I believe the cruise normally sailed from Boston to Nova Scotia, not Gloucester. Did they bus passengers from Boston to Gloucester to begin the cruise? Who knows.

Yet another Globe reports states the company has lost $14 million in real estate deals as a result of bad advice. A total of 4 or 5 cruises cancelled.

There were many grumblings when Vantage, last year I believed, launched a new ship while very many were still waiting for refunds.

Oops, sorry about the paywall--some papers give you a set # of articles per month before you have to pay--guess the Globe doesn't do that. Latest report is that the ship has left Gloucester, but instead of heading to Boston to pick up its passengers, it is headed north, perhaps to Canadian waters to prevent it from being seized?? Quite a mess.

More Vantage problems, courtesy of this morning's Boston Globe: https://www.bostonglobe.com/2023/04/27/business/customers-suspect-issues-with-fifth-vantage-travel-cruise/?et_rid=1923428317&s_campaign=todaysheadlines:newsletter

????? Why would I call Vantage? I am NOT the people in the article I shared!!!

Story in today's Boston Globe (available online) a couple, using vouchers from past cancelled cruises, had a Vantage tulip cruise cancelled less than 2 days before departure, blaming it on a data breach. Nobody from Vantage contacted them---they say they learned of the cancellation on Facebook. They had scheduled several days in Belgium, the 10 day cruise, followed by several days in Paris. No where in the article (unless I missed it) is travel insurance mentioned.WHY, WHY, WHY NOT???? https://www.bostonglobe.com/2023/04/24/business/vantage-travel-abruptly-cancels-netherlands-trip/?p1=StaffPage

The ONLY difference between Viking longships are the painting of the Norse god for whom the ship is named at the top of the stairs, and the name printed on the life preservers lashed to the railings!

We used Viking Air Plus in 2019 (before the world changed, lol). My suggestion is do your homework and have flights you're OK with to suggest. We asked for what we wanted and got it. We have used this approach when buying air from land tour companies as well and have always gotten what we wanted. Example, we always ask for nonstops (easy from Boston) if they are available and have always gotten them (we've been to Europe 3 times and have gotten nonstops for our 4th trip there next month). If flying out of Basel is limiting your choices have you thought of Zurich instead? It's an easy train ride from Basel.

What's cool about Marksburg Castle is that it has never been destroyed and therefore needing to be rebuilt--it looks inside and out as it did in the 1400's (except for the gift shop, LOL). It was an included excursion on our Viking Rhine criuise in 2019 but I believe it is now an optional tour. We were sitting at breakfast and saw a castle in the distance, then realized we were docking right below it--it was Marksburg!

Great report!! We did a rijstafel (rice table) in Amsterdam during our pre-cruise visit and it was excellent, and not super expensive at all (2019, we had ~14 options for about 22 euro pp, for around 32 euro pp the selection was around 30 items, including fish, we were very happy with chicken and beef options, w/o fish). Oh, our restaurant was Desa, in the De Pijp neighborhood.

@bubbulz, we will be on our tulip cruise exactly one year from RIGHT NOW, so we are living vicariously through your reports and postings! Thank you, and more please!!!

We usually fly in a day early when going to Europe from east coast of US. However, for our tulip cruise next year we decided not to, because of the itinerary. The ship stays in Amsterdam for nights 1 and 2, not sailing until the morning of day 3. The first full day consists of an Amsterdam canal cruise and free time. This pretty much mimics the Viking pre-cruise program in Amsterdam. Also from the east coast of US we expect to be able to get a non-stop flight--no connections increases the odds of arriving somewhat on time (we hope........) For those who say when they arrive in Europe they need to sleep, most experts say the quickest way to get over jet lab is to put yourself on local time in terms of meals, sleep, etc., When we arrive we fight as best we can to stay awake, eat an normal times, and then go to bed as close to normal time for us as possible. Your body adapts fastest that way, according to these experts. Once when we arrived in Iceland very very early (6 AM) we powered through until mid afternoon, then took a 90 minute catnap just before dinner. It seemed to work out OK.

There is a railroad bridge crossing the Cape Cod Canal that similarly goes up and down. Most of the time I've seen in in the up position (for ships) so I assume it is lowered for trains, which pass less frequently than ships, I would think.