dolllover

Just make sure to go when the tulips are in bloom. Really loved seeing Keukenhof in all it's glory. I agree the Delta works is amazing. 

I'm in the minority here lol. I loved both but if you want less crowds and an equal to Prague IMO I would pick Budapest. I absolutely loved Budapest.

TA's are very valuable IMO. I had issues with my Avalon cruise and my TA was able to get me a refund.

Plumie, thanks for you review. Quality of tours are at the top for me and it seems your experience with Gat 1 tours were mediocre. I would rather pay a bit more and choose a line with excellent tours like Avalon or Viking. Never felt rushed on any of the tours and had plenty of free time. I was thinking of booking a Gate 1 trip but not at the expense of quality tours. 

On our Danube cruise we only had one day in Vienna but 3 days in Budapest. One day in Vienna was not enough! had a great time walking around and visiting the Belvedere. In the future we will spend at least 3 days in Vienna.

Budapest was fantastic. 3 days were fine but if work didn't get in the way more days would have been better.

I've been on both one time. On Avalon we were on the Luminary and had some issues with the boat and the CD. Also the crew seemed overworked. Busses were ok but not as nice as the Mercedes busses that Viking uses. I would still use Avalon again but on a newer boat. Now with Viking everything was perfect right from the go including the flights. 

Better food as well. We had a French chef so that might have been it lol. Guides were great with both.

I would choose Viking over Avalon. I have two more cruises booked with Viking so hopefully they will be as good as the first. 

I may do this trip in the future. My question since it's inevitable one will get sick on this trip how are the busses? I would hope there is a toilet on the bus.

This is why a good TA is invaluable. I had a refund due to me from Avalon and only after my TA contacted them would they refund me. One of the reasons I probably won't ever use Vantage since they don't use TA's. I get more mail from them than any other company lol.

You are at a much greater risk of low water in Sept and Oct. This year was just terrible for many people if one doesn't like bus rides. We sailed with Viking last year in Oct. and got lucky but came close to not seeing the beautiful Wachau Valley due to low water. It's a crap shoot with low or high water depending on the month you go. I love river cruising so I'll take my chances!

3 hours ago, jrkstl said:

Yes, you may skip the included city tour. In our Paris extension, we did half of the tour, then left the group so that we could continue on to Ste Chapelle, etc. 

Simply inform the Viking staff of your intentions. 

FYI - Viking also offers a guided trip to Versailles that you might want to look into. 

 

Jeff

Thank you Jeff. From a review I read about the Versailles excursion with Viking is that it was really good but too short and since there is so much to see including the gardens I might take a separate tour. Have to figure this out. Thanks for the suggestion on taking the bus tour and leaving early from that.

DH and I will be going with Viking on the Rhone with the Paris and Nice extension in Oct. Question I have instead of doing the included city tour of Paris would it be possible to hire a guide or just do Versailles on our own for the day since that would give us more time to see Versailles. Open to suggestions since I'm not too excited on doing the city tour having been to Paris already. 

Having a great TA helps with negotiating final payment. I book very early for cruises and final payment for my Oct Rhone cruise is 6 months before sailing. Not a big deal to me. Now final payment on the RA for Egypt is another story. Have to pay a year out but still not a big deal to me. Viking wanted payment much earlier but my TA got them to move it to a year out. Again not a big deal to me for such a special trip. I've only had one trip with Viking but love their product.

58 minutes ago, acwmom said:

Here's a picture of the church mentioned above, along with his painting. We weren't familiar with his individual works or his life, and still found the tour to be very interesting. (We did this as a half-day tour with Uniworld, but my guess is the guides are pretty similar across lines)

 

Robin

Wow! I'm a big Van Gogh fan so this tour is up my alley. 

1 minute ago, Peregrina651 said:

 

😭😭☹️  Not being offered on our sailing (March 19 FF, March 26 Normandy) ☹️😭😭

 

In other words, if this tour is high on your must do list, don't plan on going at this time of the year.

 I'm so sorry to hear that! We're doing the Rhone cruise in October 2019 and it's offered now on the website. The problem is it includes a painting class which is fine for me but not DH. 

32 minutes ago, OneSixtyToOne said:

 

We took this tour in 2016. We enjoyed it a lot. The tour guide was excellent. To get the most out of it you need to be familiar with some of Van Gogh's works and his life, as it takes you to the places he painted and where he died. The town is marked with signage depicting his works at the vantage he painted it, such as the Church at Auvers and The Wheatfield with Crows. You also visit his grave site where he is buried alongside his brother Theo. The day we went it rained most of the day, but just when we arrived at the grave, the sun finally came out. It was a magical moment as the grave site is strewn with sunflowers that visitors have left.

 

As far as logistics are concerned, everyone aboard does the included Monet's Garden tour in the morning. Since you break for lunch at a picturesque old mill and continue on the Van Gogh portion, you will have the same tour guide, bus and group of people for the entire day. This means your group should be much smaller for the Monet tour. 

 

Our coach arrived first at Monet's Garden and our tour guide hurried us in at the opening to the garden pond area so we were the only ones present for picture taking. About 15 minutes later the place was packed with tourists. Our guide really did a great job getting the most our time there. She was an art historian and passionate about Monet and Van Gogh and really brought the experience alive.

 

That being said you really need have an interest in the artist to enjoy this tour. It's not for everyone.

Thank you! That was very helpful.

Has anyone done the optional tour "In the Footsteps of Van Gogh?" Pretty pricey but it's an all day tour including lunch.

Glad to see the 2019 tours are up on the website. 

On 12/11/2018 at 1:35 PM, sjde said:

A travel agent told me Viking is thought of as the Carnival of river cruises. But the prices aren't like Carnival's!

Very interesting. Maybe that TA was paid to promote another line. I've only been on one Viking cruise and it was fantastic in every way. I've booked 2 more Viking river cruises and we'll see if I feel the same way after those trips.

Wow that does not sound like a fun trip at all! I feel for you. I would have been pissed not having much time to tour the sites. Hopefully Ama will come thru with fair compensation.

56 minutes ago, Jcat2010 said:

two weeks to our embarkation date for Viking River Cruise, Romantic Danube.  On fact is clear, at least for the US arm of Viking.  Their marketing efforts far outstrip their customer service and support.  Between TV commercials and emails, I hear from Viking marketing at least 3 times a week.   In the last year since we booked the trip, we've maybe heard from viking about three times total.   When contacting viking regarding the danube river levels, the initial "handler" says "everything is fine, no changes", it usually takes at least three levels of transfer before you can get to someone who will at least confirm what's obvious from this board - that the river levels will have some impact on the cruise.  No definition of what that impact might be.  in fact, just received the "confirmed itinerary", shows no changes.   I've been told to expect a further communication "sometime" before we board the plane.

 

Perhaps Viking could learn that more information is better than less, in terms of customer satisfaction.  I really feel for those who have "trusted" Viking to keep them informed, as they will likely have no back-up plan.

Please go to the Viking website under My Trip. Viking has updated conditions for your river cruise. 

We were lucky on our first two river cruises. Almost had an issue with our Danube cruise with low water . Booked a couple of other river cruises. One in France on the Saone 2019 and in Egypt 2020. 

By the way bus tours can be as expensive as river cruises. Just look at Tauck's . 

We like both lines and had a great time on both of our Avalon and Viking cruises. We went on the Luminary with Avalon and did not like this river boat. It's an older boat and was very noisy. I will travel with Avalon again if I like the route but on a newer vessel. Now I love the clean lines of the Viking boats and the service was top notch as well as the food. To be honest I felt Viking was a step up from Avalon.  

That's news to me. I didn't think the Douro had a high water problem. Good to know! I've been lucky so far that my two river cruises didn't have a water issue. The Douro rive is on my radar.

Glad you enjoyed your trip. I plan on doing this trip in the future. We had a great first Viking trip on the Danube in 2017 that we booked two more trips with them!

I would do March or April. I'm looking to do that trip in the future as well.

That's great news. I'm sure they are having a great time!