Viking Rhine Getaway - Our photo intensive review on the Viking Ingvi, Summer 2014

[cruisinskier]

ok, as i write this i am only at page 4 of your report….i skipped ahead to page 13 just to say thanks…and wow …such a great and informative report…my wife and i are doing this trip next March on Viking.

 

From Basel at disembarkation we are taking the train to Paris for our annual month of April in France, so i will be following your journey there too very carefully.

 

this afternoon i will crack a miller lite and toast you as i turn to page 5 of your essay.

 

Best regards, thanks again terry

 

Terry, glad you are finding at least some of this report useful. In the end, that is really my purpose for this. Enjoy your Miller Lite and you will see that I had the odd beverage myself along this journey ;)

 

I will include our post cruise adventure at the end as it may help those like you with plans in Switzerland or Paris. We did not use the Viking extensions, choosing to do our own thing instead.

 

We spent 3 weeks touring France last year including a week in Paris. If you are interested you can see the great time we had in this link: http://bondfamilytravel.com/france-2013.html

 

Happy planning and glad to answer questions along the way.

Jerry

[banditoo]

Terry (or any others doing this trip in 2015)

 

If you haven't already checked out our Viking Rhine Getaway 2015 All Sailings Roll Call, come join us and share the anticipation and planning http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1952390 Since river cruises have so few passengers, we have a roll call for the whole year! I have also posted the link to Jerry's review there as it is such a fabulous appetizer for our 2015 cruises!:)

[jimsohio]

Thank you for the explanation. I have heard of themed night eg. Dishes from certain regions but never all the food to include a certain ingredient. I suppose I noticed it because I am not a mushroom lover. I would have struggled to find much to eat that night. Certainly I would have gone without a starter.

 

It certainly wouldn't hurt my waistline to go without a starter anyway. :D

 

While there were theme nights, Viking also prides itself on using fresh, local ingredients. There were one or two days where we stopped for 10 minutes at a Viking dock to load dinner supplies and offload trash.

 

At the daily briefing that night, I believe the chef said that it was the peak of mushroom season and that all the dishes included them. Not necessarily a theme (like welcome dinner or taste of Germany) vs. using what was fresh.

 

Jerry -- where did you see the explanations of dinner items and the "manners" card. We never saw anything like that. I, too, took pictures of the menus, but never thought about the food!

[jimsohio]

StudentoftheWorld ~ you've gotten excellent answers - but will just add some thoughts!

 

Jerry's is fabulous posting the dallies- but just be aware that traveling in the other direction often means slight adjustments to the schedule. You'll basically see the same places but perhaps at different times. For example, we sailed Basel to Amsterdam and Kinderdijk was after lunch. Just small changes.

 

Another example... the Gullwieg -- sailing north/downstream -- stayed in Rudesheim overnight, while we left around midnight. Because we were going against the current, our only overnight port was Basel. We got in around 9 p.m. the night before (during dinner).

[StudentoftheWorld]

Thank you for the great responses to my questions travelfirst, cruisinskier, FotoPeg, and anyone I may have overlooked.

 

Cruisinskier, no need to go back to your photos regarding the USB port. While it’s useful, until all hotels & ships have them to I’ll continue to bring along my wall chargers.

 

Cormike1, I’m sorry that you got the dreaded (I shudder to say the name) Norovirus on your cruise (and during such an interesting part of the river). May the rest of us never get so lucky. :p

 

Thank you to banditoo (Betty) for sharing the Viking Rhine Getaway 2015 link. I’ll be over there soon to check it out.

 

 

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[Bet & Peg]

StudentoftheWorld ~ I never noticed a USB port - what we do is pack a small power strip - with all the devices + rechargeable batteries it comes in handy! The ship has at least 2 110v plugs but many hotels will not have any so an adapter + power strip can make life easier!! Lately I've also been taking a 1 to 3 plug for extra room!!

 

jimsohio ~ you are right on target - in Rudesheim we did stay overnight on our south to north cruise. Lovely town - and I really enjoyed seen it in the daylight through Jerry's photos!! In December we docked about 4:30pm as it was just getting dark! It was a "trade-off" - fabulous CM lights but very early sunsets!!

[cruisinskier]

Dinner this evening was a little different....it was all based on "A Taste of Germany". They set up two different buffet stations serving various German foods....one at the buffet station mid-restaurant and one where you went through the kitchen to get your food. Different drinks and wines were served this evening and the Riesling was fantastic! And we may have enjoyed the Kolsch as well...

 

 

 

The staff were dressed in German outfits as well which added to the ambiance. By now we had got to know the dining room staff very well, with us heading to the same section each evening. Cerasela and Irinel were both fantastic and worked great as a team.

 

 

 

Edited August 21, 2014 by cruisinskier

[cruisinskier]

We had done a couple of behind the scenes tours on the larger ships...going into the kitchen here you really saw how they had maximized the space they had available....

 

 

 

 

 

 

[cruisinskier]

The service at all of our meals was excellent...and food quality was very good.

 

Ceresela with the gang

 

 

And a Ceresela selfie

 

 

Irinel's turn with the group

 

 

And Sasha, the Maitre D'

 

 

As we left the dining room, we checked the weather for tomorrow. Finally a day with no rain in the forecast....we just might be in trouble!

 

Edited August 21, 2014 by cruisinskier

[cruisinskier]

 

 

 

 

 

Edited August 21, 2014 by cruisinskier

[cruisinskier]

And sure enough, given we finally had a forecast with no rain in it, we woke up to.....RAIN! It rained off on on all morning but a little water wasn't going to get in our way...We were off to Strasbourg and then the optional wine tasting today!

 

Talking about water, not sure what is normal but looking at water level on the middle support, there was not much of the sign still showing as far as clearance at the bridge where we were docked.

 

 

We did a drive around Strasbourg. Given the rain I didn't take many photos. The EU is based in Strasbourg

 

 

And then we started our walking tour of Strasbourg

 

 

 

 

[cruisinskier]

 

 

 

[cruisinskier]

And we made our way through town, arriving at the cathedral

 

 

 

 

 

 

[cruisinskier]

One of the highlights in this church is the astronomical clock. We headed over to be there for the top of the hour. Make sure you see this in action...

 

 

 

 

 

The cathedral is very similar to Notre Dame in Paris

 

Edited August 21, 2014 by cruisinskier

[cruisinskier]

As we wandered around town, we stumbled upon a market....

 

 

 

 

 

 

[cruisinskier]

We then headed back to the Ingvi for lunch

 

 

 

Coq au Vin (given we had spent the morning in France!)

 

 

[cruisinskier]

After lunch we set out on the optional Alsace Wine Tasting tour. If you are looking to visit a large vineyard, this is not going to happen on this tour (even though the brochure for the tour shows a photo of folks standing among grapes). Apparently in the Alsace, the vineyards are not where the wine is processed....it is mostly done right in the house of the owner. The basement was where the wine was made, stored and bottled. Upstairs was a tasting room.

 

 

The size of the group was almost too big. We barely fit in the basement area

 

 

Philippe, the owner, discussing his winery

 

 

 

 

[cruisinskier]

 

 

And then we made our way up to the tasting room!

 

 

 

We tried 4 different wines, with Philippe explaining the differences of each.

 

 

[cruisinskier]

The price list...yeah, we left with a couple of bottles :D

 

 

Some of the awards his wines had won....

 

 

Overall the wine tasting was good. If you are expecting the Napa experience (or in Canada the Okanagan or Niagara vineyards) where you walk through all the grapes etc, you will not get that here. It truly is a wine tasting experience.

Edited August 21, 2014 by cruisinskier

[cruisinskier]

As a continuation of this tour, we stopped in the town of Obernai where we had a 20 minute guided tour and 15 minutes of free time. It felt like they just need a place to kill 30 minutes. It was too short to really allow you t do anything but we did try to maximize our time. It was a scenic town.

 

 

 

Stork nest on the roof

 

 

 

 

[cruisinskier]

A decorative well...

 

 

 

 

 

And we were back on the bus and headed back for dinner

 

[cruisinskier]

Tonight's dinner menu

 

 

 

Enjoying the river view!

 

 

 

Apparently I only took photos of the appetizers tonight...

 

 

[cruisinskier]

After dinner we went for a quick walk around Kehl where we were docked. We wanted to venture out on an interesting bridge nearby....

 

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A peace memorial between the people of France & Germany

 

 

 

The river was misty...and very close to flooding the banks

 

Edited August 22, 2014 by cruisinskier

[cruisinskier]

More Kehl...

 

 

 

A German war memorial

 

 

The bridge all lit up

 

 

[cruisinskier]

For entertainment tonight, they brought an Edith Piaf type French singer on board. While it was not our type of music, she had a great presence and engaged the room. It went over well and was much better than our piano player...

 

 

 

Up on the sun deck, everything had been lowered as we started to sail