Any word on the new Viking Longboats?

[huntersyaya]

Burmma- We booked our own air and were very happy with our flights. We booked Premiere Voyageur class of Air France and paid a couple of hundred extra dollars to board first, have more space, and even have entrance to the AF lounge in CDG when we were flying from there to Budapest. We did a week in Paris first and then headed for Budapest. I loved the fact that we flew at night from Atlanta to Paris and then back from Paris to Atlanta....we left on a 4:45 flight and slept about 5 hours...got home and went right back to bed. NO JET LAG at all and that is a first for us!!!!!

 

About tips....they suggested 12 Euros per person per day....so 24 per cabin and we just put them in an envelope with no indication as to which cabin it was coming from. I guess if you didn't want to tip at all they would never know who had failed to tip but we found everything wonderful and the service excellent so we put in the recommended amount and then gave a little extra in person to a few of our favorites.

 

People will say that it is horrible to fly in and out of CDG in Paris. We allowed plenty of time between flights and have no complaints at all. We really enjoyed spending time in the lounges there and they have wonderful shopping in Terminal 2E....we really enjoyed everything about our flights. We had friends who let Viking do their air and they were up at 3:30 AM to catch their 6AM flight....Not good!:(

[burrma]

Sincere thanks huntersyaya. That was so kind of you to email such details; Really appreciate it. WE plan to book our own flights as well; that way we are sure of only one conenction and a short one. Thanks for info on tips; could not find that anywhere. More than regular cruises but from I've read; they deserve it. Sad that some people won't tip what they ask but that's the same as here at home. Happy Cruising on many more great trips.

[huntersyaya]

You don't need to buy transfers either...we paid 24 euros to get from Budapest airport to hotel for Pre-cruise and then 25 euros to get from ship to airport in Nuremberg...the ship called for us and reserved our taxi! No problems at all!

[burrma]

Thanks; you are wonderful to share so much info.

[Sittib11]

Just returned from 2 week grand European on the Idun, Budapest to Amsterdam , cannot say enough about Viking, their service, the itinerary, wait staff, stewards. Our program director , Mikkie Bakkar, was incredible, friendly, witty, brilliant in knowledge, so pleased with her input to our experience in each port, great guides for land tours, knowledgable and well spoken, audiobooks were great to enjoy fully the walking tours. Was good to have free time to stay in ports if you wished, a couple of ports not enough time, but guess scheduling creates that need. Food was very good, ample portions, choices, wait staff very attentive, ample wine , beer, etc at meals, and daily drink specials for other times of day...our cabin was lovely, had sitting room on one side of bed, veranda was a plus, so glad we chose that rather than French balcony, enjoyed sitting on it as we went down the river as sun deck is closed as we go through locks often, public areas to sit and enjoy sights, other great travelers, are plentiful with great views everywhere , dining room a bit noisy only complaint, and I am sure they will figure that out shortly, learned early one of us to always go down early to grab a window 6 top table, Viking lounge on board was fun with bar, special events of towns people for music, demonstrations, lecture series, discussion of next days events and important information. Viking has not missed anything in making sure your experience is special, and it was. I would not book my air through Viking again bc we cannot use our mileage points to upgrade to business or first class, even though the Viking fares were very reasonable, we think it would be worth the extra to have that comfort. The post stay in amsterdam was great, lovely hotel, great guided tour in amsterdam, viking guide then gave us great maps and suggestions as we wanted to explore ourselves. Would defiantly do pre or post next time as well, the transfers to hotel and airport were great to not worry about. This was our first river cruise, but certainly will not be our last, and it will be with Viking again..

[burrma]

Thanks Sittib11 for posting. We are doing our first river cruise next year on Viking and your information was well received and appreciated.

[Caroldoll]

Tuesday and will stay in Amsterdam a couple of days before the River Boat. It is nice to hear nice things like this! Again, many thanks for taking your time to enlighten us.

[gonesailingnc]

Our trusted TA is gently promoting AMA Waterways over all the other companies. We like the look of the new longboats...especially the interior spaces. We know it will be very COLD in late December, so we feel we will need a particularly nice lounge. I'm a bit concerned about the noise levels several posters have mentioned.

 

Have others sailed at Christmas time? Fun? Too many markets? A bit boring? Too cold? Rainy? A nice mix of passengers in terms of ages and nationalities? How about children? We are planning to go before the actual Christmas trip.

 

Would those of you who have sailed both on other boats during Christmas market season, and also on the new Viking Longboats have advice for us? We are longtime Silversea ocean cruisers, so we do like a high quality product. We are also very flexible...if I weren't so hippy, I'd wear jeans night and day!

 

Thanks for ANY and all feedback. We really appreciate advice from people who have first hand experience!

 

We were on a Viking cruise last year on the Danube from Budapest to Nurenburg. It was the week after Thanksgiving. We had a wonderful time. In fact, we had so much fun, we are doing Basel to Amsterdam the first of December this year. The weather was great. Temperature was in the 50s during the day and no rain. The Danube was very low and that created a few changes in plans, but not anythng that was unmanageable. And, Viking was so helpful in making the changes uneventful. The Christmas markets in all the towns were delightful. The spirit of Christmas was everywhere both on and off the boat!

 

Mollie

[burrma]

Thanks for posting those encouraging words. We are going Oct. 2013.

[Sittib11]

Thanks for posting those encouraging words. We are going Oct. 2013.

 

Th lounge area is open and large with views all around to enjoy, inside and outside, and when they close the Aquavit terrace doors it practically doubles for additional seating, only real noise issue is in the dining room, but we became used to it, and tried to be over next to windows anyway , which was less noise too. Enjoy....