Questions - Viking Rhine Getaway

[GypsyDreamer]

Hi! I am very glad to have found this Roll Call, especially with so many experienced travelers!

 

My husband and I are going on the Rhine Getaway, Basel to Amsterdam, May 30 - June 6, 2015. Coming from CA, we're going to get over a bit of jetlag in NY for a few days before flying to Basel, then we're going to Lucerne (on our own) May 28 & 29. My concern is how to best get to Lucerne and then back to Basel on May 30 for the ship's departure. I checked into a driver but the cost would be close to $1,000 round trip. I'd love to share the cost with another couple who was doing the same thing and am hoping there might be someone on this roll call who is staying in Lucerne for a couple of days beforehand, too, who would be interested in sharing a private car.

 

Barring that, I will look into (a) renting a car and/or (b) going by train.

I'd love advice from anyone else on this forum with information on that little conundrum! I know we'll be tired after being on the plane all night and want to make the transfer as easy as possible.

 

Also, someone else on this thread said that they booked their own cruise, hotels, etc and then used a travel agent, which saved them $$. I've booked everything myself, too (staying in Lucerne at Renaissance Lucerne, and post trip booked The Toren in Amsterdam) and am curious how to save money once everything is booked?? Thanks!!!

[banditoo]

Hi! I am very glad to have found this Roll Call, especially with so many experienced travelers!

 

My husband and I are going on the Rhine Getaway, Basel to Amsterdam, May 30 - June 6, 2015. Coming from CA, we're going to get over a bit of jetlag in NY for a few days before flying to Basel, then we're going to Lucerne (on our own) May 28 & 29. My concern is how to best get to Lucerne and then back to Basel on May 30 for the ship's departure. I checked into a driver but the cost would be close to $1,000 round trip. I'd love to share the cost with another couple who was doing the same thing and am hoping there might be someone on this roll call who is staying in Lucerne for a couple of days beforehand, too, who would be interested in sharing a private car.

 

Barring that, I will look into (a) renting a car and/or (b) going by train.

I'd love advice from anyone else on this forum with information on that little conundrum! I know we'll be tired after being on the plane all night and want to make the transfer as easy as possible.

 

Also, someone else on this thread said that they booked their own cruise, hotels, etc and then used a travel agent, which saved them $$. I've booked everything myself, too (staying in Lucerne at Renaissance Lucerne, and post trip booked The Toren in Amsterdam) and am curious how to save money once everything is booked?? Thanks!!!

Hi GypsyDreamer and welcome to cruise critic; I see you are new to posting here. CC is one of my favourite travel forums and so helpful! This thread is actually not the roll call. It is here. http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?p=45773704#post45773704 I have added your May 30 sailing to the list. Let me know what boat you are on and I will add that. Doesn't look like anyone else on the roll call is May 30 yet. Most of us on the roll call don't have common dates which is why we have a shared roll call for all 2015 Rhine Getaway sailings.

As for your question about getting between Basel and Lucerne. Hubby and I are doing it by train at the end of our trip. We finish in Basel and will go to Lucerne for a day trip and then back to Basel. The train is quick and probably the cheapest and most reasonable way to go unless you want to have a rental car while in Lucerne since you are staying a few days. I have not priced out car rental so have no idea what that would cost.

[shipster60]

We went on two Viking trips this year.....not the specific cruise you are looking at, but we did the China cruise in April and the Romantic Danube in September. For all my travels I do all the planning and research. I then book with the cruise line directly. After I have everything booked I let my travel agent take over the booking so I get a HUGE discount on the cruise. We prefer to make our own hotel reservations pre and post cruise and we also prefer to book our air with mileage, but you can certainly use Viking for everything if you wish. One of the things we noticed when on the cruise was that those who booked their air with Viking (and they were the majority)....some of the people had odd flight times and some had to get off the ship really early in the morning to make those flights. When you choose your own flights you can get the flight times you want. Another thing we did was stayed in Prague (on our own) after our cruise, rather than book the Viking extension. The people who booked the extension with Viking went on a bus from Nuremberg to Prague and stayed in a hotel that was outside of the city....which was not very convenient for sightseeing in Prague. We booked our own transportation from Nuremberg to Prague (a driver, which we shared with another couple) and stayed in a hotel that was close to everything. The drive was much shorter than taking a slow bus. I think in the end the way we did it cost us less or around the same as had we booked the extension through Viking, and it was also more convenient.

 

Feel free to email me for more details.

 

How do you have your TA take over the reservation after you have already made it? I've seen others post this, and I'm not sure how to do that. I've made reservations with Viking for the Rhine River Getaway for April 2016, and have made the deposit. Can a TA still take over my reservation. Thanks!

[pflorio994]

Hi! I am very glad to have found this Roll Call, especially with so many experienced travelers!

 

My husband and I are going on the Rhine Getaway, Basel to Amsterdam, May 30 - June 6, 2015. Coming from CA, we're going to get over a bit of jetlag in NY for a few days before flying to Basel, then we're going to Lucerne (on our own) May 28 & 29. My concern is how to best get to Lucerne and then back to Basel on May 30 for the ship's departure.

 

Barring that, I will look into (a) renting a car and/or (b) going by train.

I'd love advice from anyone else on this forum with information on that little conundrum! I know we'll be tired after being on the plane all night and want to make the transfer as easy as possible.

 

/QUOTE]

 

Have you checked out the pricing with Viking for transfers to the ship. I know you can purchase them separately.

[GypsyDreamer]

Thanks for the good information! We will take the train from Basel to Lucerne. Hopefully there are some cabs that can take us to the train station once we get our luggage off the carousel. Pat, I checked with Viking, and unfortunately they don't have transfers that we can purchase. We made our own land arrangements pre-cruise ~ I was hoping we could purchase the transfer to Lucerne separately and was disappointed to find we couldn't :( I was happy to learn that we will be on a relatively new longship, the Idi, though. I'm getting excited!!