Just returned from Viking Skaga, Paris & the Heart of Normandy, 05/05/2022-05/15/2022, with a post-extension to the Loire Valley, through Viking. Overall, it was a great trip, as I will discuss some of the highlights, as well as a few lowlights.
To start, I just want to say how great it was to be traveling internationally again. We have canceled or had canceled several Viking trips during the pandemic, including Antarctica this past January/February. So it was great to be able to go to France again.
Viking, as did their usual terrific job of getting us to the various ports, feeding us, and providing very interesting and informative shore excursions. We had some really great Viking personnel on our cruise, but two I would like to specifically mention were our Program Director, Filiz Temur, and Maitre D’, Petar Kostov. Both are excellent at their jobs and went out of their way to make sure all of our needs and wants were taken care of. Filiz’s discussion of the Normandy beach landings in WWII and the impact they had on ending the war was emotional and educational. Made for real anticipation of the key component of the cruise.
We arrived in Paris early around 6:30 am Paris time. We were met by a Viking representative and introduced to our driver for the ride to our ship. As it was so early, and having had limited sleep, we were apprehensive about arriving so early with no where to go on the ship. Fortunately, our room on the Skaga was ready for us upon arrival, and we were able to unpack and catch up on some much-needed rest. For the first time, we had booked a 100-level cabin (Standard F), to decide if we were comfortable in a smaller room than usual. We normally have booked the Veranda level rooms. The veranda level rooms have 55 more square footage and include a balcony. That difference in price is about 12% more per sq foot, but I think the extra space is worth it and we will be booking the veranda level rooms in the future. The main space difference is from the foot of the bed to the cabinetry along the wall. Very tight in the 100 level rooms. Of course, deciding what room to book is a personal preference. We did just fine in the smaller room and would stay in that level again in the future.
Covid: We had taken our Covid tests at Walgreens on the Sunday and Monday before our flight out on Wednesday. I didn’t realize until we had taken the test on Sunday that Viking requires your test be conducted 72 hours before your 1st international flight. As Walgreens is only testing until 4:30 pm and since our flight from JFK to Paris was for 10:05 am on Wednesday, we were able to retest on Monday morning to meet the 72-hour requirement. The 72-hour requirement is a problem since the flights leave usually on Wednesday, requiring the test be performed on Sunday. Currently in the New Orleans area, testing on Sundays is limited. As Walgreens will not guarantee a specific time to receive the test results, by Tuesday morning, with no results, I was in somewhat of a panic mode. So, we bit the bullet and found a lab that would test us and provide results within 45 minutes, we paid the $600 to make sure we had the results in time to fly out Wednesday morning. Of course, I woke up Wednesday morning with emails from Walgreens with our test results being negative. Never fails. But at least we were good to go related to Covid.
When we arrived at the boat, we were sent to a room on the 300 level for our Covid tests. It was done quickly, and we were told to wait in our room for an hour. If we didn’t hear from anyone, we were good to go and could leave the boat or use the various parts of the boat. We didn’t hear from anyone, so round 2 of Covid testing was good. For the next 3 mornings, we did a saliva sample in a collection tube, which we placed in a provided envelope and left at the front desk on the boat. Again, you only hear from someone if you test positive. We never heard from anyone, and after the third saliva test, we did no other testing on the trip until we returned to Paris the night before our flight back to New Orleans. We stayed at the Paid Hyatt Regency for Saturday night. It is a really nice hotel in a very good location. After arriving there, we were given our room keys and sent to our rooms, with the instructions to show up at a lab in the hotel in ½ hour. There we were given a throat swab test and told to hang around the hotel until the results were available. About ½ hour later, we had the test results both negative and were ready for our flights home and able to go out for one last time in Paris.
The way the tests going home works is that the test must be administered the day before you leave, which makes the results acceptable the next day. It is a US requirement, not Viking.
As far as Covid on the cruise, we only had one couple test positive for it, and they and their traveling companions, (another couple) were taken off the ship after we had left Paris and taken back to a hotel in Paris. As we were worried about contracting Covid once we got to France, we seriously considered taking advantage of Vikings cancellation guarantee 14 days before leaving. Fortunately, our Covid experience was about as good as you could hope for, as just about all of the folks who started out completed the entire cruise.
There were only 100 guests on our trip, which normally would have 150. Not sure why there were fewer guests than normal. Not sure if that is Viking limiting numbers or people not booking or canceling pre-cruise. It did make for a very uncrowded cruise this time, not that a full boat is ever really crowded.
Masks: They were not required on any of our flights to or from Paris. On the boat and on the shore excursions, we were not forced to wear them. All Viking staff wore them always, including the tour guides. I would say mask wearing by the quests was about 50/50. I only wore mine when we went to Monet’s Garden, as our tour guide said it would be very crowded, with tight quarters, which it was. Viking seems to be going out of their way to eliminate the spread of Covid as much as possible. They are constantly cleaning, providing hand sanitizers in numerous locations, masks in your stateroom, and reminders of how to keep from spreading it.
The ports and towns we went to were great. I love the French countryside and was not disappointed. Weather turned out great, just not what we expected. We packed for cool and damp weather and we got hot and dry. Fortunately I threw a pair of shorts in my luggage at the last minute and ended up wearing them most of the time.
As I said, the trip to Omaha beach in Normandy was the highlight of the trip. We had been to Omaha beach before on a Viking Ocean cruise in October 2019, just before the pandemic shut down everything. Viking provided a wreath laying ceremony, utilizing, several veterans that were on our cruise, to lay the wreath. It was very emotional and inspiring. We did not have that on the Ocean cruise, so I hope Viking is now doing the wreath laying ceremony on all of their trips to Normandy. I recommend every American make the trip to the American Cemetery at Omaha beach. It really gives you the perspective of the sacrifices so many young people made to free Europe and ensure our freedom continued.
The post-extension to the Loire Valley was nice also. We had an excellent tour guide, Pascal, who was very knowledgeable and fun to be with. We saw many Chateaux’s (Castles) and Cathedrals (Churches), all spectacular and amazing to see. Overall, we had really good tour guides as Viking usually provides. They are still using the voice boxes for the tours which allow you to wonder off from the group, but still able to listen to the guide from some distance away.
Overall it was a great trip. Viking continues to provide excellent value for the money on the trips they provide. We are currently booked on an Ocean cruise to see the Northern Lights next February and another River Cruise down the Nile in September 2023.
If you have any questions or were confused by anything I wrote, I will be happy to answer or clarify them.
Thanks Polar. Very helpful.
