dolllover

7 hours ago, Lois R said:

Same cruise as I am doing.....I see you are sailing in 2020? I sail in 3 months

Have a great trip ! I have a Rhône cruise in a few months but my Uniworld one is the one that starts in Milan . 

I’ll be following this as I’m booked on my first Uniworld cruise to Venice . 

20 hours ago, MURPHY27 said:

I’ve brought family to Versailles on the 9am train, did a complete tour & even some had time for the garden.  Was back in Paris by 2pm train, but it does take a big block of time.

Since short on time, stick to basics & forget rest.  The Musee d’Orsay is a few blocks from Louvre- easy walk. There’s no way you can see everything, so walk through the statues to the back and take elevator to 5th floor & see the famous Impressionists.  Then go back down & go to Van Gogh, skip everything else.

Directly across the Seine is L’Orangerie. Go directly to the Monet Water Lilies & then leave.  You will have see the best of both!

 

Sainte Chapelle is great if sunny, the stained glass is then beyond lovely!  Next door, is the Concergerie (where political prisoners were kept during the French Revolution, many on way to guillotine).  Marie Antoinette cell has been converted to a chapel but an adjoining room is set up as her cell.  Interesting, less than perfect, but the history is there.

 

The Paris Museum Pass makes it easy to just pop in and not feel compelled to see everything.

When you brought your family to Versailles on the 9am train did you buy entrance tickets ahead of time? My dh insists on spending the day in Versailles. I've been to Paris numerous times and have never been to Sainte Chapelle. It's a must see now. 

I've taken two river cruises so far with two more booked. I love river cruising. So much so I have two more booked. Our first was with Avalon. We had a great time but if I had to do it over again with Avalon make sure it's one of their newer boats. We went with the Luminary and wasn't crazy about this boat. The other one we did on the Danube was with Viking. We loved everything about that trip. Food and service was fantastic. I love the clean lines with Viking as well. Along with another Viking cruise I'm trying Uniworld for the first time. 

I would love to do this cruise one day. It will either be with Croisi Europe or Viking. If it turns into a bus trip so be it. The country side can be as beautiful as the rivers and sometimes more so. I would want to go in early spring to better my chances of sailing on the Elbe. 

2 hours ago, Got2Cruise said:

🙀 and he was allowed to be the Captain of the brand new ship?? Speaks volumes. And I don’t want to hear from any Viking cheerleaders about there are more Viking ships so the odds are greater. 

 

Well someone has to balance the anti Viking crowd on this board especially the ones that have never been on a Viking boat! Maybe the real problem on the rivers are that it's getting more crowded. I'm sure Viking purposely hires incompetent people to steer their ships cause we know they love accidents! Great for business!

I did both pre and post cruise stays in Prague and Budapest. Totally worth it. We were within walking distance to everything and had great views. Budapest is such an amazing city that the extra days were worth it. 

Looks like in Tournon the steam train excursion is at the same time as the optional excursion Charming Ardeche.

I'm really more interested in the Ardeche one but it is pretty pricey. If it's worth the cost I'll sign up for it . I know Peregrina you went on it but did you find it a good value for the cost?

Love this thread. Thanks to everyone who's been so helpful.

So we will be in Arles on a Sunday. Concerned a lot will be closed. We're scheduled to take the included morning walking tour but was wondering if there is enough to do in Arles in the afternoon on our own with the stores and attractions potentially closed or would our time be of better use signing up for an optional tour.

We didn't sign up for the Chateau de Flecheres excursion. Going on the Beaujolais and Truffles tour instead. Has anyone heard back about this tour? If it sounds like a bust I can change it.

6 hours ago, Peregrina651 said:

Found the visit to Perouges to be comme si comme sa. It is not a four hour excursion it is more of a 3.5 hour excursion. The ride is almost an hour each way. I found walking the streets to be stressful and hard on the joints. I felt rushed. We were in the town for only an hour and 40 minutes, most of it guided. We should have skipped the tour and gone off on our own. Adorable shops; saw two of them.  This is a popular local destination, especially on a Sunday as pleasant and sunny as this one.  

Thanks for blogging live and sharing some valuable info. I'm booked on this optional tour of Perouges. Should I keep it but just not use the guide when we get there? I think that's what you mean but not sure. Glad your trip is going well so far.

4 hours ago, Peregrina651 said:

At breakfast. Pulling into Lyon and have a busy two days planned. Once again, the sun is shining and come afternoon, it will be warm again. 

 

Beginning to think that we should have allowed some free time here in Lyon rather than planning  two tours per day each day. Time will tell. 

I may have overbooked our stay in Lyon. We have the morning planned with Viking doing their panorama tour of the city and the afternoon the optional excursion to the medieval city of Perouges. I may cancel the morning one so we have time to do our own thing.

Love following this live blog. Lots of great info. Regarding Versailles did you book a tour or see it on your own? We leave for our Rhone cruise next October. Staying in Paris for a few days before our cruise and Versailles is a must.

We had a wonderful time on our Romantic Danube cruise with Viking and did the pre cruise to Prague and post to Budapest. Our only regret was not having enough time in Vienna but that gives us an excuse to visit that great city on another trip. One day was not enough in Vienna.

I know I'm in the minority here but I think it's a cool concept. Will be interesting if it takes off.

We are going on the Rhone with Viking this October with pre and post land trips in Paris and Nice. Looking forward to this part of France.

5 hours ago, cqtiger said:

I believe when things go wrong this is where a company shows its true colors especially if it costs them money.

Having said that during the last drought when no cruise line could get through Avalon went above and beyond to make the trip just as good by bus and hotels for the 5 days we could not travel by boat and gave us a refund for the 5 days as well.(win win)

The cabin design is perfect with bed facing window and the angled bathroom. I would easily chose Avalon.

On the older boats the beds don't face the windows so if that's important to you book a newer one and make sure it does. We sailed with the Luminary and we were not crazy about that boat. Our bed did not face the window. We still had a very nice time.

1 hour ago, Texas Tillie said:

 

BUT - there are some tangible intangibles with the luxury lines (my river cruise experience is with Crystal) - including, the quality of the food, the quality of the alcohol, the size and finish of the cabins, the space on the boat (how many passengers on what size boat), the quality and number of included excursions. I could go on. Just pointing out that with Viking and Crystal, there is no way to compare apples to apples.

I've never been on Crystal. It's on my radar. Seems like a really nice line. I do have to say food is subjective. Our food on our one Viking cruise was fantastic. We had a french chef. The quality of our excursions were great as well with very knowlegable and entertaining tour guides. Viking is known to have great tour guides on the river. We don't drink much so whatever was included in the price was fine with us. Also better itineraries on the river. 

If Viking has a slow walker group you should be fine. The regular tours I went on were pretty intense with alot of walking and would not suit someone with mobility issues. On Avalon we saw the crew help someone off in a wheel chair and they also had a slow walker group. 

Loved our Viking cruise. We sailed with my in laws that are used to luxury travel and staying at 5 star hotels and they were really impressed. Especially with the tours and food. We had a french chef on our cruise and the food was excellent. If our cruise wasn't up to par believe me I would have heard about it from my in laws. Viking is a well oiled machine with excellent training of their staff. I would recommend staying a few days in Prague and Budapest before and after the cruise. After our first cruise with Viking I booked two more trips with them. Viking has a loyal following for good reason.

1 hour ago, Valley Girl of VA said:

 

I found the same thing with my cruise in December regarding the size of the Viking tour groups - they were, in some instances, more than twice the size of ours.

 

Regarding my earlier comment about more cruise accidents on Viking, I agree that they have more boats on the river but when I was sailing on AMA a few years ago, the captains bridge was not lowered when they encountered a bridge and the two inside the bridge were killed - that is negligence and not from a fact of having more boats on the river.  Follow this link   Here is another bridge accident coupled with water issues.  Here are some reviews from Vikings own site

 

 

We can agree to disagree but I've been on a Viking river boat and you haven't. In regards to the size of the tour groups I've had small and large with both Avalon and Viking but with the wireless ear pieces it didn't matter the size because you can hear the tour guides. The quality of the tour guides on Avalon were equal to Vikings. Both were excellent.

I'm sure every boat you've been on has had good and bad reviews. 

If the captain was negligent don't you think he was fired? Do you think Viking goes out of their way to hire negligent people?

1 hour ago, Valley Girl of VA said:

Avalon without question.  When things do go wrong, other cruise lines appear to do a better job.  Viking has also had more river accidents than Avalon

I don't agree with this. They were good this year with the low water issue and had enough boats to do ship swaps with minimal disruption. In regards to more accidents Viking has a lot more river boats on the rivers so that may increase the odds some what. I've sailed with both Avalon and Viking and Viking was superior. We were  on an older boat called the Luminary so that may have something to do with it. Regardless this particular sailing was understaffed and stressed and regarding food it was obvious they used leftovers for the next meal. I saw in the back of the lounge area where they serve orange juice sitting out with out ice and when it got low the staff just added new juice to the pitcher. We still had a very good time seeing the tulips but if I had to choose I would choose Viking in a heart beat. In fact I booked two other river cruises with them.

I'm looking forward to it. I leave in May on Celebrity Expedition. 

Wow you would think Celebrity could at least put comfortable chairs on the balcony!