kiwigirl

Our cruise was July/Aug (our birthdays and anniversary) and it was wonderful. There were some hot days, a day or two of rain but mostly warm sunny weather. We purchased "cool towels" to take with us and they were a god send! When everyone else was hot and sweaty.....we were "chilling" with our towels. All you had to do was wet them and wave them in the air.

LOL - I just bought a couple of those towels because we went to Disneyland last week, just happened to be during a heat wave!! The towels were perfect. I will definitely pack them.

I will check them out. In what way could the weather be poor during July? It's our anniversary so that's why we're looking at that time.

I am going to put a plug in for AmaWaterways. We have been on two river cruises with them, and have a third planned for 2019. The excursions, food and service are top notch. Unless you are locked in to the July date, you might consider, late May, early June or September. The weather would be a little more agreeable at this time.

Another question....

Does it matter where the cabin is located, as far as mid-section vs. front/back? I know for ocean cruises this can be important for people. I would think that you really don't get the movement on the river as you do on the ocean, but maybe for docking purposes? I know that this was true on our Hurtigruten cruise last year.

Thank you! We would be traveling in July so I assume it will be warmer weather.

River cruise dinner dress for men is slacks & a collared shirt. Informal. Shorts & T shirts during warm weather day tours.

Been on Viking River several times & on Uniworld. Both fine cruise lines with quite different decor. Uniworld includes all booze 24/7. Viking beer & all you can drink wine at meals. Inexpensive cocktails. Have friends who like Tauck. Chrystal, AMA and a couple others get raves from friends. Pick when & where you want to go and the style of the ship/cabin you like best. Many good choices.

Yes, thank you. I was able to view it. I'm going to check out the cruise you mentioned.

Not sure if you can see this...but it's a video on my facebook:

 

 

Avalon usually had one included excursion per day. There were optional excursions that you could choose from/pay for. We added a full week in Prague and an extra week in Paris. Both land portions we did on our own. Avalon was very relaxed, no one bothered anyone over clothing. One guy was always in shorts and t-shirts and no one cared...yes, even at dinner.

Thank you lackcreativity.

We have done a few ocean cruises and I'm very aware of how different they will be. Last year we did a cruise up the coast of Norway on Hurtigruten. They are definitely a no frills type of line as they were originally a working ferry system, and still is. The cruise was beautiful and we were able to spend hours sitting in the lounge watching the landscape. After doing this, I think the river cruise will be fine as we didn't miss the entertainment from the big ships.

The "ship swap" is one of my big questions. I understand that there could be a time that the water levels are low and the ship won't be able to continue. Does this usually happen only one day or could it be the remaining of a trip? If it's multiple days then, I assume, Viking arranges hotel accommodations? Also, if this happens, we are usually given enough notice for packing. If we do have to change ships, I'm assuming (hoping) we would get the same room choices?

The cruise we are considering is the Grand European Tour.

Thank you for your input.

Have you ever done ocean cruises? I ask, because they are really quite different. We have only sailed twice, one river and one ocean, both with Viking. From what I understand, most large ocean cruise ships have lots of onboard attractions and entertainment. River cruising is much more low key. Generally you will be on shore exploring for most of the day, and in the evening there is a port talk regarding the next day, dinner, and maybe a musician in the lounge after dinner.

 

Just like with ocean cruises and rough seas which can impact a cruise, river cruises have a few potential pitfalls as well. They can sometimes be impacted by high water (can't get under the bridges) and low water which can interrupt a trip. Viking generally handles those issues with a "ship swap", where you may be required to relocate to a sister ship up/down stream. I'm not trying to warn you off a river cruise (not at all!), but I think it is better to be forewarned and avoid disappointment.

 

We loved both our Viking cruises, and have one planned for this fall and another next spring. I know there are multiple companies that have excellent products as well. Good luck.

Thank you JKLC123. Yes, I have been reading through some of her posts. Sometimes the more I read, the more questions I have. :D We're still undecided on whether or not to do the river cruise or land only. I'll be meeting with our travel agent in a couple of weeks so I'm just trying to learn as much as I can.

Welcome to river cruising! From what I've read on this forum, you can have a great time with any line.

 

If you haven't yet done so, I suggest you look at Host Jazzbeau's stickies at the top of this forum, especially "What to expect from a river cruise" and "New to River cruising?"

 

I only have experience with Uniworld but most lines have casual dress codes, even for dinner. My DH has not taken a sports jacket and tie with him since our first cruise. Collared shirts for men and a nice blouse with pants or skirt for women seems to be the norm on all lines . A few people might dress up a bit more for the captain's and farewell dinners, but not everyone.

 

As for scenery, although on most itineraries most sailing is at night, there is often at least a morning or afternoon designed for sailing through particularly scenic areas, such as castles on the Rhine and the Wachau Valley on the Danube. We also saw lovely scenery on the other rivers we've sailed -- the Seine, Rhone, Volga and Nile. The only industrial area we passed in daytime was on the Rhine between Cologne and Amsterdam, but that was actually rather interesting.

 

Some lines, such as Uniworld, have more included excursions than others, but I even "all inclusive" Uniworld offers a few excursions for an extra charge. We rarely felt the need to add an optional tour but appreciated the option a few times.

 

Happy researching! I imagine you will receive lots of advice from other river cruise lovers!

Hello All -

I have (many) questions about picking the right River Cruise. My husband & I (both early 50s) are looking at taking a river cruise for the first time. We are looking for something in July. I know there are a number of companies that do river cruises and so far, I've been doing a lot of reading on Viking.

It appears that they are on the more casual side, as neither of us want to bring dress clothes. I also like that soft drinks/waters are included during the meals as I don't drink alcohol (it gives me migraines).

Are there other companies that I should look at? We are considering some land options at both or either end and have no more than 3 weeks.

One question comes from my FIL, he didn't think a river cruise would offer much scenery as we make our way from port to port. His comment was that it's all been built up with commercial buildings. Have you found this to be true?

How do the excursions work? If I understand correctly, on Viking, there is one set excursion included per port plus there may be optional ones for additional cost? Is this true on all lines?

I'm sure I'll have many more questions as this goes along but I appreciate any insight you can give.

Thanks!!!

Again, my apologies for the late response.

So I live in Southern California and have lived here all my life. I am definitely not a cold weather person. I tried to make sure that I did the layering thing. So glad I did. I found that the buses were very warm for me. I had to be able to get down to short sleeves (or tanks) while on the bus and have a light jacket or other long sleeve to throw on when we got off the bus.

I found the same to be true on the ship. I saw many people in long sleeve fleece or heavy jackets. I stayed with my short sleeves and a light sweater or jacket and would bring my windbreaker with me if I wanted to go outside. I do wish I had brought a better hat to wear outside. It definitely would get windy out there. We got extremely lucky and only had rain the last two days of the trip going back to Bergen.

There are washer/dryers on board. On Deck 4 behind the reception area. You need to get a token from reception. Different people had different situations. My husband got a couple of tokens on the first day (this included the detergent pod). When my MIL went to get hers, they wouldn't give them to her until she had her laundry ready to go. I believe there are 4 washer/dryer combos.

This report and the questions and answers are so helpful, thank you! I have booked the Finnmarken Bergen-Kirkenes for early July 2018. I am trying to figure out about clothes, limiting myself to a rolling carry-on bag. This will be tbe first part of a 3 week trip, continuing to Finnish Lapland and then Helsinki and Copenhagen that I expect will be warmer. I know to prepare for rain, and I have trusty lightweight hiking shoes. So in August it was tank tops/t shirts even north of the Arctic Circle? Would a fleece suffice when windier on deck or for excursions? Thank you for your advice! I understand there are laundry machines on this ship. Any other packing tips for a solo traveler? Many thanks!

We are looking into the Hurtigruten and are wondering whether to do the 12 day or the 7 day? Was the 12 days to long? Also how was the south bound part of the cruise.

Thanks

My apologies. For some reason I didn't get a notification that there was a post here.

It may be to late, but we really enjoyed the 12 day. It never felt like time was dragging. We had an excursion almost each day (I think we only skipped one or two days). I was surprised that I enjoyed just sitting in the lounge each day. I think one thing that made it enjoyable was that we had a room on Deck 6 with a window. If we were in the cabin, we were able to look out and if we saw something of interest, we were able to get outside quickly.

hmmm.....I have to figure out how to resize the pictures before I can post them.

We did this tour in August 2017. We went with my in-laws. There wasn't really to much to it. The souvenir shop is very small. The border itself wasn't anything impressive. You really only know because you were told. I will look and see if I can find my pictures.

The bomb shelter is on the way to the border. You walk a short distance into the shelter and watch a movie (about 15-20 minutes) and then back to the bus. I think I have some pictures of this also.

Does anyone have first hand reports of the trip to the Russian border?

 

Is there anything to "see"? A sign? Border crossing (I think not)? Or?

I thought I read somewhere about a souvenir shop, but everything else I've seen makes that seem quite unlikely.

 

Even if there's not much there, it may be our only chance to see a Russian border, given that I don't think we'll be doing other Russian cruises/trips.

 

(And for us, "of a certain age", things with Russia were quite different back in the day...)

 

Also, there are some bomb shelters or something like that in Kirkenes? Does the tour by any chance do both?

 

We'll be there in mid-March, if the time of year makes a big difference.

 

It's time for us to start narrowing these choices.

 

Thanks!

 

GC

We will be on the Spitsbergen in a basic inside cabin. Are there hairdryers in the bathrooms?

 

Also, we won't know if we have early or late seating until we board the ship. We definitely want early dining so if we need to change, do we do that when we check in or after we board? At the front desk or in the dining room?

On the Trollfjord there were hairdryers in the bathrooms. I confirmed with Hurtigruten and was told if there wasn't one there to ask at reception.

We had the early dinner at 6:30. The second seating was at 8:30. We were able to request early dinner when we made our reservation. As mentioned, there were a couple of nights that it was open seating.

Such a good report thanks. We are on Sept 9 on Polaryls. Looking forward to it but maybe not the reindeer steak. Did you have someone on board that conducted hikes?

They do put the menu out each morning so you can look at it when you have breakfast. I had heard that you can request something else but we never did. I'm thinking that you'd be able to get a vegetarian dish. My FIL does not eat any type of fowl. One evening the appetizer was Hen Soup. There were 3 colored squares on our table and that was to tell them who got a special meal. For some reason my SIL and I were also listed as not having the Hen Soup. I went ahead and had the replacement soup which was Carrot Soup. This was the only time they had something that was fowl. His travel agent let Hurtigruten know of his meal request at the time of booking.

We did not have anyone conducting special hikes that I'm aware of.

Hi,

 

Thank for all the info, we'll be on the Finnmarken in October and looking forward to the cruise. So far we've booked the North Cape without breakfast as our agent says we have breakfast on the ship, so why do it. Someone posted a pic of seeing the NL recently, did you see some? Hoping for NL sightings when we go. Maybe I'll ask for 2 glasses of water, if they don't return for refills....

:D

I'm not sure the North Cape was offered without the breakfast. We were off the ship at 5:30am and didn't return until just before lunch.

They bring a slim pitcher of water at dinner. A single pitcher was enough to fill 6 wine glasses about half full. If you're not having anything else to drink, definitely ask for 2 pitchers.

Note that most of these excursions are not available in winter, as the excursions will change from season to season.

 

 

 

Thank you kiwigirl for reporting. Can I get from your message that you had a positive experience? Could you share what were your likes/dislikes about the ship and the journey?

Yes, I would say that, overall, it was a positive experience.

A few things that I noted:

- wait staff attitudes varied. Because there were 5 of us, we had our own table at dinner. I noticed that rarely were the women served first. They usually just put the plates to whoever they were closest to first. This obviously didn't impact my experience but it was just something I noticed. They also rarely came back with more water for the table. Also, it was very inconsistent as to when we'd be served. Some nights it was earlier and others it was very late. Again, not a big deal, just couldn't figure it out.

- it was to warm inside the public areas of the ship for me. This surprised me as I live in Southern California and have never lived in cold climate. I wished I had brought more short sleeve, or even tank tops, with me. I was able to turn the thermostat in the cabin down so at least it was cool while sleeping.

- I'd say my biggest dislike is that dinner is a set meal. I wasn't looking for all of the food options available on mainstream cruising but it would have been nice to have a choice of two entrees, especially on the night with the reindeer steak. Saying that, I definitely did not starve.

- I was very unimpressed with the city tour we did in Bergen at the end of the trip. It was an hour driving in a large circle before getting to the hotel. I don't remember if the cost was $50 per person or $25.

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We're thinking of doing this same cruise next March in hopes of seeing the Aurora. We'll pack for cold weather. How long were you in ports that had excursions? Did the ship do a lot short dockings to take on or let off cars and passengers?

Depending on the day, there were anywhere from 2 to 8 stops in a 24 hour period. A lot of these stops are only 15 minutes....just long enough to load/unload people/cars and other freight. We weren't even aware of most of the stops.

I think the longest stop was about 3-4 hours. With many of the excursions you start in one port and then meet the ship in another at the end of the excursion. When this happens, you don't have any time to see the port. The bus will arrive at the ship just in time to board and the ship usually leaves a few minutes later.

There were a few stops that were 30 minutes and we got off and did a quick loop into town.

Something that I didn't expect....the weather was much warmer than I expected it to be. I live in San Diego so I'm a bit of a cold weather wimp. 60 degrees in Norway is warmer than 60 degrees here. I also always have the fan/ac on in the car. They do not. I found it to be very stuffy and warm in the buses. I finally made sure that I wore short sleeves on days we had excursions, with another shirt over. I would take the outer shirt off as soon as we got in the bus. When we made a stop, I would have to put the shirt and jacket on. I wore my regular tennis shoes most days and only my waterproof shoes a couple of times. I also found it to be very warm on the ship as long as we were inside.

Did you book your excursions before or after you boarded? What was some of your favorite excursions or were there any that you wouldn't bother to do? Also, any other tips for first time Hurtigruten sailers would be great!

 

We are booked on the Polarys next March and are looking forward to a cold but exciting trip.

We did book all of excursions prior to the cruise. We were traveling with my in-laws. We did the Geiranger with Trollstigen Pass. This was about a 7.5 bus ride that included a couple of stops, with one being a little snack and then a dinner in Molde just before getting back on the ship. This was an impressive drive along the mountainside. Beautiful views of waterfalls and landscape.

My husband did the river kayak in Trondheim. He said it was marked as a level 4 but said it was more like a 2 at the most. I don't know if this changes based on the time of year.

He and his sister did the SAMI Culture in Kjollefjord. They enjoyed it. This one was in the late afternoon and was during our dinner. People who had the early dining time (6:30) were able to go to the second seating when they got back from the excursion.

We all did the Russian Border in Kirkenes. The gentleman we had as the guide was very good, but spoke fast. He did the whole tour in English and German (I believe), so it was hard to keep track some times. In all honesty, I wasn't that impressed with the border. It's a drive through the town, stop at a bunker to see a short video and then to the border. There isn't a lot to see and just a very small souvenir hut.

We did the Breakfast at the North Cape. This is very early (5:30am) but we were very lucky and had clear skies with no rain or fog. It was very windy once we got there but no rain. If you do this, I would go right to the breakfast and eat first. Everyone from the buses went right outside. The breakfast area is very small. We ate first while it was empty and watched everyone outside. By the time they all came inside, we were done and went outside and it was empty....no fighting the crowds in either area. Also, be aware that the breakfast isn't anything special (at least in my opinion). It was the same as what was served in our hotel in Oslo.

My husband and in-laws did the Midnight Concert in Tromso. They said the music was beautiful but you are not allowed to take photographs inside the cathedral.

We also did the Bronnoysund Village Walk. This was about an hour and it was a nice, leisurely stroll through the town.

We did the Atlantic Road but unfortunately this was the only day that we had rain. This excursion is done during dinner so you won't be in the dining room. Dinner is served in a small restaurant about half way through. It's Bacalao (salt cod) stew. You will also have an opportunity to have this on board the ship.

My sister in law did the Trondheim & Nidaros Cathedral in Trondheim. She enjoyed it but again, no pictures allowed inside.

We just returned from our Norwegian Coastal cruise on the Trollfjord. We had great weather....only rain we had was the last 2 days of the cruise.

If anyone has any questions, I would be happy to try and answer them. We did excursions almost every day except 2 maybe.

Just returned from our Hurtigruten cruise. Thank you for the information on Oslo. We had 3 days before we took the train to Bergen. Beautiful weather the whole time.

We just returned from this trip. We did the Breakfast at North Cape and were extremely lucky with the weather. It was clear blue skies and sunshine the whole time but very windy. The breakfast is the basic buffet breakfast like we had at our hotel in Oslo. Much smaller selection than the ship. One tip....have breakfast first as almost everyone else will go right outside. The breakfast area is pretty small and will get crowded quickly. We were able to have our breakfast while everyone was outside. By the time we finished, the buffet area was crowded and the outside area was empty.

I did not do the Midnight concert but the rest of my group did. They said it was beautiful music but I believe no pictures are allowed inside.

We didn't do the Sea Eagle excursion but did see them from the ship.

Hi,

As posted in another thread, we are booked for the Hurtigruten Southbound (Kirkenes-Bergen) on the MS Polarlys in September. I am also interested in anyones opinion on the Excursions. We are leaning towards 'The Breakfast at North Cape & The Sea Eagle Safari'. However being quite pricey it would be good to know if they offer value for money. Are they such fantastic experiences? Is the Cathedral Concert in Tromso a must also?

Many thanks.

 

Cheers

T.

Heartfelttraveler: thank you for sharing the excellent videos.

Also the tip for flying Icelandair with a stop over i Iceland.

Be aware that you will need to purchase your meals on Icelandair, even on the long haul between Iceland and the States. Might not be a big deal but it's nice to know ahead of time. My in-laws just flew them from JFK and they weren't aware.

You can also purchase wi-fi packages once on board. We had it included so I did not pay to close attention to the cost....maybe 400 Kroner for the 11 day RT but not 100%.

'Basic' does not include Wi-Fi - You need a 'Select Package'. You can drink tap waters in your cabin.

If Wi-Fi included you will also see 'Complimentary Wi-fi for 2 passaners' in your order confirmation.

Yes, the trains to Bergen depart from the same station, Oslo S.

Thank you!

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If excursions are booked prior to cruising, how is payment handled? Is up front payment required, or is it part of final payment? Also, if you cancelled an excursion, is it refundable?

 

Thanks for any experience.

We did our booking through our travel agent and payment was made at that time. I'm not sure about refunds if you cancel. I know that if Hurtigruten cancels an excursion, you will receive a refund.

Hope this helps.