Viking Legend

Just back tonight. I will write a larger description after I get things back to normal

A few of the highlights or lowlights as you will see

The ship has problems. The Legend is now a legend with Viking Cruises. Just after we passed the Loreley (sp) passage, the ship blew a piston on its main engine. The other engine operating shut down. The third engine would not start up and the emergency engine would not work. Here was the ship in the most narrow part of the river drifting backwards and there was a huge rush to drop the anchor. It is the first time in the history of Viking that they have had to drop an anchor.

Air quality problems exist particularly in the hallways on the first and second deck. Diesel fuel smells are quite strong when they start up the engine. The air circulation causes the smoke from crew quarters to come into passenger cabins during the night particularly the cabins closest to the crew quarters.

There are no emergency lights on the ship if the engines fail.

Watch out when using the front deck by the lounge. They have an opening in the deck that leads down to the galley and if you do not watch your step you could fall down the steps and hurt yourself badly. They have not put any railings around this opening.

Deck space when you are on the Main river is very limited. If you are a non smoker you cannot go outside while the upper sun deck is not available without having to put up with the stench from the cigars and cigarettes.

Count on dinner taking at least two hours. They have limited staff, who are excellent by the way and it takes a long time to complete dinner. Do the galley tour. It is quite interesting.

Air conditioning was hit and miss. Hopefully they will get the bugs out of the system

The rugs on the stairs already look well used. They should have put a better quality carpet in the ship.

We christened the towels, so you should no longer be covered in white fluff when using them.

If you do the Prague add on at the end please remember that it is a 7 hour bus ride from Budapest to Prague. You have one coffee stop and a lunch break on your way there.

A short review but I will add more in a couple of days.

Thanks for this first review!

That incident near the Loreley bluff could have been worse. This is the narrowest part of the Rhine river and there´s even a traffic light for the ships.

Do you know anything about an incident near Nuremberg? There were news articles about a passenger cruise ship blocking the canal for a short time because of a technical problem which was solved soon by an engineer coming aboard. As there were only 18 passengers aboard we assumed that the rest was on a tour. The article didn´t mention the ships name but there was only one other ship in Nuremberg that day and only the Legend did show some scratches in the bow section.

The Legend is a completely new designed ship with a new technique for propulsion. Bugs are pretty normal in this situation. And passengers on the first few trips are acting as guinea pigs.

steamboats

Yes, that probably was the Legend. It was late picking us up in Nuremburg and they let us off the ship quite a bit ahead of the city so that we would not totally miss the city.

The scrapes were from the ship entering the various locks. We started making jokes about things that go bump in the night, as you were every single night woken up when the ship entered the locks. There was one night when we were on the Main river that a horrible screeching took place while we were being lowered in a lock. There was quite a scratch on the ship after that. After the first lock the ship had scratches on it. Several of the bumpers were almost totaled. They actually needed more bumpers than they put on the ship.

Yes, we know that there are bugs with the maiden voyage, but the main thing was that the ship should have been tested thoroughly before it was put into use. We were sharing a table with a gentleman that works for Lloyds and he stated that the safety features missing on the ship should not have allowed the ship to sail until they were corrected. What irritated all of the passengers was that the crew dismissed it and said that nothing was wrong. They would not tell us what was wrong or how long it would take to fix. There was a decided lack of communication between the staff and the passengers. I had sailed on Viking before in China, and I would rate that cruise (the ship) a 10 whereas I would have rated this ship a 3. There was too many safety issues that should have been addressed before they sailed with passengers. They should have had a dry run through all of the locks before they sailed with passengers as well. They also should have had all the equipment on board as well. Each time we stopped there was more equipment being delivered. There was a lack of signage which meant that passengers did not realize that certain areas were crew areas. The crew left tools on the stairways that if you had not been looking down, and avoided them you would have taken a nasty fall.

Now to put a positive spin on, the food was good. The lounge staff was really good about giving you clean wine glasses so that you could open your own bottles of wine bought on shore and enjoy it. Much more reasonable than the wine they sold aboard. The chef is a bit of a character and would bend over backwards for people with allergies.

The tours were good and the tour guides were excellent. There was only one tour guide that I did not like and that is because he had to spend 10 minutes per window in the Cologne cathedral going on about the stained glass windows. I would rather have just appreciated them and not had each piece of stained glass explained in detail. When we came out of the cathedral, we had to make a run for it as hundreds of youth had gathered in the square to have a water fight. It was something else to see.

I would strongly suggest that one brings a sweater for sitting in the lounge. That was the one room that was cold. Sometimes the dining room was as well. The lounge staff was attentive, but not intrusive. They did not go out of their way to make sure that you were drinking all the time.

The ship has a female maitre d" Quite a few of the passengers commented on this and everyone was very positive about it. She did a super job.

Would I sail Viking again in Europe? Probably not. I think I will be looking at Avalon or Uniworld instead or Tauck.

I think Viking would have been better to have built a smaller ship than the Legend. It was very difficult for the captain and crew to maneuver. If we had got stuck in the channel at Lorely, I think from what the gentleman from Lloyds said, they have safety issues to deal with and in this case if they had not got the anchor down when they did, and the ship had gone sideways, it could have tipped over. I did have a good trip though despite the ship problems and enjoyed it.

The Legend is not wider than any of the other river cruise ships (standard width is 11.4 m which is the maximum width for the locks on the Canal). But she´s a bit longer with 134.8 m (standard is 110 m). But also all of Premicon´s Twin Cruiser like the Premicon Queen, the Avalon Tranquility, the Avalon Imaginery and others are 135 m of length. So I´m pretty sure that size is not the problem.

But the Legend has a brand new propulsion system (diesel electric, meaning a diesel generator is producing the electricity which is used for propelling the screws - it´s a common technique for ocean going vessels). And I assume that there are the main problems.

I totally agree that it would be much better to have several weeks of try outs like with ocean going vessels. But it is obviously not required by law (which countries´ law whatever as the Legend is cruising in various countries and - I think - is registered in Malta). And obviously time tables are pretty tight and the company wants to make money out of the new ship as soon as possible. So they take the risk and make the trials with "live" passengers ;). That´s one of the main reasons why I never would book an inaugural cruise (unless someone is paying me for it). It´s the same with the crew. Those people might have previous experiences on river cruise ships but most of them never have worked together. And all of them don´t know the ship. It takes some weeks until they are a good working team.

steamboats

I must admit that I was wary of taking an initial cruise on the Avalon Affinity ... but the price was too good to pass up.

We had a few glitches but overall things went well. The one glitch was that the large lock at Rotterdam was down for repair and they weren't sure that we could fit in the little one ... they finally agreed to try .. and we made it by several inches ... we were able to sit in the lounge at the windows and watch.

The other glitch was that the ship ran aground, but the pilot was able to work his way out of it ... we had to stop at the next town for an inspection, but nothing was damaged.

All in all, it was a fantastic cruise ... and it gave us something to talk about!!!

But the Legend has a brand new propulsion system (diesel electric, meaning a diesel generator is producing the electricity which is used for propelling the screws - it´s a common technique for ocean going vessels). And I assume that there are the main problems.

I totally agree that it would be much better to have several weeks of try outs like with ocean going vessels. But it is obviously not required by law (which countries´ law whatever as the Legend is cruising in various countries and - I think - is registered in Malta). And obviously time tables are pretty tight and the company wants to make money out of the new ship as soon as possible. So they take the risk and make the trials with "live" passengers ;). That´s one of the main reasons why I never would book an inaugural cruise (unless someone is paying me for it). It´s the same with the crew. Those people might have previous experiences on river cruise ships but most of them never have worked together. And all of them don´t know the ship. It takes some weeks until they are a good working team.

We didn't book the maiden cruise but ended up on the maiden cruise. We thought they had 2 months to work out the bugs before we sailed. I imagine the people that are on the ship right now are still having to deal with problems. By the end of the first two nights. the dining room staff was working like a team. They did an incredible job, but I felt for them as everyone felt that the ship was understaffed. There was a total of 43 staff, including the Captain and other officers to look after 180 passengers. In the kitchen there was 5 cooks, 2 dishwashers and in the dining room 6 servers, which included those serving drinks. I believe there was 5 housekeeping staff. Considering the staff had to work with partial equipment, they did a marvelous job. Every port that we stopped at, they kept getting more of their supplies.

The engine was the main problem on the Rhine, but they had problems with the air filtration system as well as the air condition system. I honestly feel if they had communicated to the passengers more honestly, people would not have been as upset. People did not appreciate being told that the ship crew did not know what was wrong and that it was fixed.

Nofuss,

All I can say is OH BOY!!!!!!!!!! very sorry about your experience!! The crew should have been more direct with passengers, common sense!!

This issue of working the kinks out was a concern to me! However, i would never have guessed the extent of said "kinks"!

I only hope that by Aug. 16 some of the issues are worked out!

Once you have 'recovered' hope to read your review. Thanks for posting..one c.c. member has a tag line that goes like this...'the worse day on a cruise is better than the best day on land'........

Dean

Nofuss,

All I can say is OH BOY!!!!!!!!!! very sorry about your experience!! The crew should have been more direct with passengers, common sense!!

This issue of working the kinks out was a concern to me! However, i would never have guessed the extent of said "kinks"!

I only hope that by Aug. 16 some of the issues are worked out!

Once you have 'recovered' hope to read your review. Thanks for posting..one c.c. member has a tag line that goes like this...'the worse day on a cruise is better than the best day on land'........

Dean

Dean, the kinks should be worked out hopefully by the time you sail. They were starting to put up signs on all the doors that passengers were not not supposed to use just at the end of our cruise. They were repairing the rugs so that they were permanently attached and the equipment should all be on board before you sail.

We enjoyed the cruise despite the kinks. We met some wonderful people and saw some fabulous sites. Our favourite part was Germany. The small towns are incredible especially the ones that were not destroyed during WW II. The land tour guides were excellent. For your information we found that the whisper system worked best with box number 4. They had less technical glitches. Our game plan of watching which group the large group went with and avoiding that group worked very well. We had several large group of friends traveling together on board and found that if you formed a group that was not attached to a bunch of other people, it was more friendly. We had quite a mixture of nationalities, English, American, Canadian, German, Norwegian, and Thai. Viking is actively promoting their cruise line in England and the English are getting excellent deals so they are trying the Viking cruises.

For those of you who paid the fuel surcharge prior to November 2008, make sure your travel agent gets you the rebate before you go. Viking will not give you the rebate unless your travel agent asks for it. We found out about it while on the cruise and our travel agent managed to get us the rebate while we were on the ship. They do not automatically give it to you. It can be used for shipboard purchases including the optional tours. It cannot be used for tips and if you do not use the credit, you lose it.

Have a wonderful cruise Dean and the one optional I would not miss is the concert in Vienna. It was fantastic.

No Fuss.

-i m glad you were happy with the food

-did they have the 3 options for excursions? (short, med., long)

-what options did you have in Vienna (after noon and night)?

-did viking do the romantic road and lunch at local pub?

-what cultural lectures did you experience?

-how was your cabin?

lolllllll...you did say you would post an in depth review. sorry. did not mean to be pushy!

I am very happy that you were able to over come challenges and enjoy your trip!!!!!

Dean

No Fuss.

-i m glad you were happy with the food

-did they have the 3 options for excursions? (short, med., long)

-what options did you have in Vienna (after noon and night)?

-did viking do the romantic road and lunch at local pub?

-what cultural lectures did you experience?

-how was your cabin?

lolllllll...you did say you would post an in depth review. sorry. did not mean to be pushy!

 

I am very happy that you were able to over come challenges and enjoy your trip!!!!!

Dean

Options for excursions: In Cologne, they had a short version and the regular. The short version spent less time at the cathedral, which if you have been there before is good.

In Nuremburg, they offered an optional to see the Documentation Centre on top of the city tour. We enjoyed the optional tour but felt the time given for the Documentation Centre was too short and could have done with another hour. The court room where the trials were held is closed due to renovation. The part that annoyed me was that we did not get the full city tour and missed what the rest of the passengers who did not do the optional saw.

There was one other city in Germany, the name has escaped me that offered a longer tour that showed you around the Jewish quarter. That extra tour was fascinating and we were glad that we took it. The lady that does the tour is a Gentile who has studied Jewish history and the Jewish community asked her to do the tour. She was excellent and I would highly recommend this tour.

Vienna

Option for the afternoon: Schonbrunn Palace. If you have been before, don't bother. My husband felt that this palace was not as good as other abbeys that we had seen previously. I had been before and found that they have shortened the tour from what I saw previously many moons ago.

Option for night: Concert. Fabulous. They moved dinner up earlier for those going to the concert and when we returned had Goulash soup waiting for us to sample before we headed off to bed.

We did part of the romantic road and we had lunch at a restaurant, not a pub. It was really nice and we throughougly enjoyed Regansburg. Do do the Christmas store, it was an eye opening experience just to see their decorations and they have a lovely display as you walk into the store. We also took time to walk part of the old city wall and got some very interesting pictures. We lucked out and an American student band was playing a concert in the town centre that was well worth listening to. They were on tour in Germany.

I skipped the cultural lectures for the most part as I found that they tended to put me to sleep. Marin the tour director read from the power point slides and ....,,zzzzzzzz. Agnes, another member of the tour director department does a presentation on Hungary, and it was excellent. My best memory of the cruise is sailing into Budapest at night. It was incredible seeing all of the lights.

Cabin: A word of advice for everyone. Do not book cabin 100 or 101. As a matter of fact from talking to people who had cabins on the bottom deck, do not book any of the cabins on this floor. At night you could hear the engines from the other ships passing by as your cabin is mainly below the water line. If you are short, less than 5 foot 6 inches, you will not be able to see out the window at all unless you stand on the bed or the chair. Cabin 100 was beside the crew door which closed with a huge bang which woke you up each time someone went through it. Also all of the fumes from the ship ended up in those two cabins. They are working on the air quality issues, but .............. Our friends who were on the second floor were quite happy with their cabins except for the noises that go bang in the middle of the night. (For some reason, it was always when we were entering a lock) lol.

Pat,

While the Avalon Affinity is a copy of an existing boat the Legend is a complete new construction. It´s easier to make copies of a well proved design. Those ships usually don´t have many problems in their first weeks.

No fuss travel,

I totally agree on the communication thing. I too think that giving out information is much better for any company than trying to keep anything as a secret!

steamboats

Thanks for the first review of the LEGEND. Sorry about some of the things you had to put up with.

We go on the Aug 2 cruise. Hopefully, it will go more smoothly. Regardless, having done a lot of cruising on my own boat... well, I know to expect anything.

I do have some unusual questions. First, we are trying to meet up with some German friends in Mainz. They request to know where the LEGEND docks in Mainz. Do you happen to know? Also, they sent to me information that the Legend docks in the morning in Mainz on day 5 and departs sometime around lunch. Do you happen to know when those times were approximately?

We have a similar question from friends in Passau about where and when.

Also, we have some dutch friends who want to meet up with us on day 1 in Amsterdam. We arrive early in the morning much before we could take luggage to our cabin. Do you know if passengers can drop off luggage early and maybe show up finally late at night or even the next day before departure?

Concerning clothes: We usually pack light. Did the legend have working/reasonable laundry or did you do yours in the sink.. or did you bring a lot. Any suggestions on what to bring/wear? (You already mentioned a few things... could you expand?).

How about internet on board? Was it functioning? What did you do about phones. We like to communicate with our kids who are remaining at home back in Mexico and with friends in Europe that we might meet up with along the way.

I take it from your review that if we bring wine on board, there is no fee if we open it ourselves? What is available to drink there without additional fees?

Also... any suggestions for the trip to Prague and/or in Prague?

We much appreciate any information.

Thanks for the first review of the LEGEND. Sorry about some of the things you had to put up with.

 

We go on the Aug 2 cruise. Hopefully, it will go more smoothly. Regardless, having done a lot of cruising on my own boat... well, I know to expect anything.

 

I do have some unusual questions. First, we are trying to meet up with some German friends in Mainz. They request to know where the LEGEND docks in Mainz. Do you happen to know? Also, they sent to me information that the Legend docks in the morning in Mainz on day 5 and departs sometime around lunch. Do you happen to know when those times were approximately?

 

Now you have caught me with not quite remembering everything about the cruise. According to the daily program we arrived in Mainz at 12:30 am. Due to engine problems, we found that we did not quite arrive when we should have arrived so hopefully the next batch of passengers can give you a better answer. I do remember that we docked very close to town centre and had a fair amount of time to wander about on our own. There was a wall in front of where the ship docked and the steps lead up to a a pedestrian shopping mall. That description should probably help your friends. We were bussed to our ship after our time in Mainz as the ship was still trying to catch up to be on schedule, so I can't really tell you what time time the ship should have left. On the daily schedule it says Anchors away at approx. 2:30 pm.

 

We have a similar question from friends in Passau about where and when.

 

Again because of engine trouble, we were taken off the bus at an earlier stop and bussed to Passau. We were also bussed back to the ship later in the day so I am not sure where the ship should have docked here. According to the daily program, we should have arrived approx at 8 am and left at 1:30 pm.

 

Also, we have some dutch friends who want to meet up with us on day 1 in Amsterdam. We arrive early in the morning much before we could take luggage to our cabin. Do you know if passengers can drop off luggage early and maybe show up finally late at night or even the next day before departure?

 

Yes, people left their luggage off early in the morning and then went and explored Amsterdam. The ship left Amsterdam at 1:00 pm on Day 2, so you had to be back at that time. If you show up late at night on the first night you might have problems as they do lock the doors but there is night staff that could let you in.

 

Concerning clothes: We usually pack light. Did the legend have working/reasonable laundry or did you do yours in the sink.. or did you bring a lot. Any suggestions on what to bring/wear? (You already mentioned a few things... could you expand?).

 

We did some of our laundry in the sink, but sent off shirts and tops to be done. 3E per shirt was what they charged. I looked at their prices for socks and undies and decided that my Scottish blood was too thick to pay those prices.

 

How about internet on board? Was it functioning? What did you do about phones. We like to communicate with our kids who are remaining at home back in Mexico and with friends in Europe that we might meet up with along the way.

 

In the big cities, it worked like a charm. When you are going through the locks, forget it. It was spotty and very slow. It worked really well in Cologne, Vienna and Budapest.

 

I take it from your review that if we bring wine on board, there is no fee if we open it ourselves? What is available to drink there without additional fees?

 

Ice tea and water, plus hot tea and coffee. There is a dispensing machine just outside the lounge where you can make yourself different types of coffee. It was very popular with passengers and staff.

 

Also... any suggestions for the trip to Prague and/or in Prague?

 

Make sure you have some Hungarian money for the toilet stop on the way to Prague. It costs 100 florins (hope I have the correct currency term, but I know it was 100) It is a coin, that you must insert into a machine before the entrance will open up to let you into the WC. You will receive a piece of paper as a receipt which you can then apply to a purchase in the store at the rest stop. There was a good selection of food there and the lunch stop in Brno is quite late. We ended up stopping at around 2 pm for lunch. You need CHZ kroner to pay here for food, but at some restaurants you can use your Visa or Mastercard. We could only find one ATM that would work there and the maximum it would dispense was 3,000 kroner at a time. We arrived in Prague at 5:30 pm, so you have a long travel day from Budapest to Prague. The guide they sent with us from Budapest was useless (George) and you will not be given any description of what you are seeing as you travel along. You do drive by Bratislava and see a different view than you did while aboard the ship.

 

Avalon cruises should probably have a booth set up in the Prague Hilton as well. We found that the information that they gave to their passengers was far superior to what Viking supplied us with. They give currency converters so that you know exactly how much you are spending in your own money. We found that we could eat dinner for approx 600 kroners for two and that included a large beer for my husband and a glass of wine for me. Lunch was around 400 to 450 kroner. Don't eat right in the centre of the tourist area. Go off a couple of blocks and the price drops considerably. A beer in city centre was double what you would pay 2 blocks away. We did not eat meals at the hotel as they were quite expensive. One person cost more than what we paid for two, outside at a local pub/restaurant. There is a Palladium shopping centre nearby that has good restaurants and fairly reasonable. We found after all the food aboard ship, that we were eating much lighter when we got to Prague as we had eaten too much while aboard. We would look for pubs, restaurants that the locals were eating in and eat there. Food was good and reasonable. Everyone we encountered in the restaurants spoke English If you go to the imitation Eiffel Tower, the lift is broken and there is over 300 steps to walk up if you want to see the view at the top. From what we were told, the lift is not soon to be repaired. We climbed the tower at Charles Bridge, and the view was fabulous. It was a good thing there was two rests on the way up where you could look at the displays they had. Watch out for the last step though as it is a very high one. You have to hold a door open and make the step at the same time and unfortunately I took a bit of a fall as the door started to shut on me. My shin is still quite colourful. The other towers are quite narrow and steps quite steep. One of the towers, I just dreaded going down as the stairs were quite narrow and there was no handrail. You had people going up and down at the same time and there was not much space to pass each other. The one suggestion I would make is bring a magnifying glass to read the map that Viking supplies you with. The print is so small, even with glasses I was having problems reading it. I was disappointed with the castle in Prague as I felt that we had seen better ones in Germany. We used the underground and felt perfectly safe. It is crowded during rush hour and they do not run as many trains after 7 pm so you may have to wait a while and the train will be quite crowded. The trams move very quickly and were well worth riding on. We never rode a bus. There are free tours that can take from the city square where the Astronomical clock is located. Some of the guides are quite entertaining and they give a general introduction to the city. If you have any other questions, please ask and I will see if I can answer them for you.

 

We much appreciate any information.

I have put my answers into your body text to make it easier to answer.

Wow... Great and useful information! Thank you soooo much!

We have a long trip, leaving our home in Mexico ultra early in the morning on Aug 1 and arriving in Amsterdam on the morning of Aug 2. (because of a layover in Houston, TX). That brings to mind long trips... such as the ride from Budapest to Prague.

First did you have any time that morning to walk around Budapest.. or wake up and load the bus/van. Was it a bus or van? How were the seats? Plenty of Leg room, say for someone 6'2"? The UNO bus here between Merida and Cancun, for example, with 3-captain chairs across (including leg rests and ample room between seats) is better than a first class plane seat. How would you rate seating for that 7 hour trip? How many stops? How was the scenery? I do have a GPS loaded with Europe maps, so I will take that with me on the cruise and Prague trip.

During the cruise, we were thinking of skipping some lunches to just roam some of the port cities.. and/or perhaps getting the flavor of local pubs/restuarants. Did you do any of that? It seems that the dinners on the Viking ships is when the really good food is served and that lunch is easily missed without regrets. Is that your take? .. or am I reading it wrong?

... oh, does the entire crew speak English? Do any speak German? (wondering about practicing my German on board before making too big of a fool of myself on land!). Is German and/or English useful in Budapest and/or Prague. Any language problems there? I know no Hungarian or Czech!

Again, thanks so much!!!!

Wow... Great and useful information! Thank you soooo much!

 

We have a long trip, leaving our home in Mexico ultra early in the morning on Aug 1 and arriving in Amsterdam on the morning of Aug 2. (because of a layover in Houston, TX). That brings to mind long trips... such as the ride from Budapest to Prague.

 

First did you have any time that morning to walk around Budapest.. or wake up and load the bus/van. Was it a bus or van? How were the seats? Plenty of Leg room, say for someone 6'2"? The UNO bus here between Merida and Cancun, for example, with 3-captain chairs across (including leg rests and ample room between seats) is better than a first class plane seat. How would you rate seating for that 7 hour trip? How many stops? How was the scenery? I do have a GPS loaded with Europe maps, so I will take that with me on the cruise and Prague trip.

 

It was a bus. The leg room was not that great. Worse than flying economy, but because not all that many people took the extension, each one of us had a seat to ourselves which meant that we had more leg room. We had two stops on the trip, one in Hungary, which was a bathroom stop and grab a bite to eat, approx. 20 - 30 minutes. The exchange of money ate up most of the time, so make sure you have money on you before you leave on the bus. Lunch was 1 and half hours. Scenery was lovely. Huge fields of sunflowers blooming. Lots of very lush farm scenery. The GPS will come in very handy., My husband took one and it stopped us from being lost several times. This way also we know where each one of our pictures was snapped and are able to label them correctly. Now all he has to do is find the time to do that.

 

During the cruise, we were thinking of skipping some lunches to just roam some of the port cities.. and/or perhaps getting the flavor of local pubs/restuarants. Did you do any of that? It seems that the dinners on the Viking ships is when the really good food is served and that lunch is easily missed without regrets. Is that your take? .. or am I reading it wrong?

 

The lunches were not bad on board. Several people did that but by the time we did the tours we were ready to head back to the ship and put our feet up. Some of the desserts at lunch were particularly good. We went to a Viennese coffee house, and yum that was good.

 

 

... oh, does the entire crew speak English? Do any speak German? (wondering about practicing my German on board before making too big of a fool of myself on land!). Is German and/or English useful in Budapest and/or Prague. Any language problems there? I know no Hungarian or Czech!

 

The Captain says he does not speak English, but he certainly seems to understand most of it. He would only speak in German. The deck hands spoke German but I think they had some English. The kitchen staff, waiters , cleaning people, and tour directors all spoke English. Sometimes there was a miscommunication, but most of the time you had no problems what so ever. My German was very rusty but I found that I did not have to use it as most people in Europe speak English. The fact that I said please, thank you and Good morning, etc meant that they bent over backwards to help me. I found a smile went a long way, when I mispronounced the German word. Just learn how to say "Mien schiff ist weg" and you will have no problems. Most people in Hungary and Czech spoke English.

Again, thanks so much!!!!

Again it was easier to answer your questions inside the quote.

Vielen Dank! Was große Antworten!

What great answers. Thanks!

You are welcome. Your German is better than mine.

Your story about the Hungarian bathroom payment.... brings us some bathroom questions.

In Amsterdam, the German ports, the Austrian ports, Budapest, and Prague... what was the bathroom situation in the port cities. (For example, when I visit the states, there are usually public bathrooms.. or if not, there are fast-food restuarants such as MacDonalds where one can go in emergency situations. In some non-walking cities, the bathroom situation is a bit difficult in some center cities.) Are bathrooms abundant, free or pay, non-existant... problems in some places but not others. Any info in that department?

Bill.

Please post if you can!

In some of the towns, the WC was free. In quite a few there was a lady standing there waiting for 50 cents. Some actually cost 1 Euro. The museum visits generally were free. We learned to make sure that we had some toilet paper with us because sometimes there was not any. McDonalds in some cities, you needed a code which you received when you purchased something which would allow you to use their WC. Viking staff did try to let you know when the WC was free or where you could find one.

No fuss, thanks!

ddean52... You get on the boat in Budapest as we get off. However, we will try to post onboard.

We were on the Viking Sun in the spring. It is about 5 years old and at that time was the longest boat on the river. The bottom deck was very noisey. The door to crew quatres really couldn't be heard over the plunbing noises. We could hear every flush and running water--even had water gurgling in the shower. In the hallway, water often rushed overhead. In the rear of the boat on decks 2 and 3, there was still a desiel smell. The worst thing about boats this length for us was the limited availability of docking facilities. We were many times out in industrial areas. Some of the joys of river cruising are smaller groups of people and docking within a reasonable distance from the town. Hope the Legend is able to overcome her difficulties. Pat

which I am following with great interest and some trepidation, as I am booked for Tulips & Windmills on Viking Legend next spring. This will be my first river cruise in Europe; to date my only river cruise was on Empress of the North out of Portland OR.

I have been thrilled with my booking: a favorable price for a single stateroom on the top deck (my husband dislikes flying and prefers not to go), an itinerary that interests me greatly, 10 day/9 night roundtrip Amsterdam which I prefer to other choices.

Up to July 31 I can cancel this booking with only a minor penalty. Should I seek a smaller ship that is not so new? I'll guess most of the glitches listed here will be corrected by spring 2010, but if the size/length of the ship means we will be docking at less desirable locations, that is worth considering.

Any advice you experienced Europe river cruisers have for me will be appreciated. Thank you!

which I am following with great interest and some trepidation, as I am booked for Tulips & Windmills on Viking Legend next spring. This will be my first river cruise in Europe; to date my only river cruise was on Empress of the North out of Portland OR.

 

I have been thrilled with my booking: a favorable price for a single stateroom on the top deck (my husband dislikes flying and prefers not to go), an itinerary that interests me greatly, 10 day/9 night roundtrip Amsterdam which I prefer to other choices.

 

Up to July 31 I can cancel this booking with only a minor penalty. Should I seek a smaller ship that is not so new? I'll guess most of the glitches listed here will be corrected by spring 2010, but if the size/length of the ship means we will be docking at less desirable locations, that is worth considering.

 

Any advice you experienced Europe river cruisers have for me will be appreciated. Thank you!

A friend of mine did this cruise with Viking a couple of years ago and loved it. By the time you will be departing, all the bugs should be ironed out. Enjoy your cruise.

By the way, the people on our cruise with the single cabins, said they were great.

No Fuss Travel, for your reassurances.

I just did some checking on other lines/ships doing this itinerary next spring, and my cost would be much higher, both because I would need to book a 2-person room with a hefty single supplement, and because Viking's 2-for-1 Early Booking offer results in a 50% reduction for their single staterooms. The Legend's trip is exactly what I want, both in length and itinerary, and with my early booking package, I will even have wine included with dinner each evening! (One glass for me, one to give away, since I am a wimpy drinker.)

I'm glad to hear reports that those in single staterooms liked them. With my worries now soothed into the background, I'll resume being excited about the trip and enjoying pre-trip reading, even trying to learn a few more words of Dutch.