Has Anyone Sailed Viking's Elegant Elbe with the Krakow/Warsaw Extension? Opinions?

[Bagbabe53]

Hi, Has anyone here sailed Viking's Elegant Elbe cruise?

We've had limited cruising experience--- a great Alaska cruise and tour on HAL and a small boat cruise to the Greek islands and Turkey on Variety, a small Greek line.

 

We are new to river cruising and considering combining one with a family heritage trip to Poland in October, 2018. Viking offers an Elegant Elbe itinerary focusing on East Germany, and has an extension to Krakow and Warsaw by land that sounds good. Friends (who are VERY discriminating) have raved about Uniworld too, so my husband asked me to check into river cruising with Viking and Uniworld. Comments/advice would be appreciated! This is a special trip since this year both of us have recovered from cancer, and are turning 65 next year. TIA!

[cole]

Hi, Has anyone here sailed Viking's Elegant Elbe cruise?

We've had limited cruising experience--- a great Alaska cruise and tour on HAL and a small boat cruise to the Greek islands and Turkey on Variety, a small Greek line.

 

We are new to river cruising and considering combining one with a family heritage trip to Poland in October, 2018. Viking offers an Elegant Elbe itinerary focusing on East Germany, and has an extension to Krakow and Warsaw by land that sounds good. Friends (who are VERY discriminating) have raved about Uniworld too, so my husband asked me to check into river cruising with Viking and Uniworld. Comments/advice would be appreciated! This is a special trip since this year both of us have recovered from cancer, and are turning 65 next year. TIA!

 

We did this itinerary with Vantage and loved it. You might want to check them out. If Uniworld offers it, you won't be disappointed. We were not offered the extension to Poland and would have loved to have had it.

Cole

[gnome12]

The Elbe has been notorious for low water levels, and Viking seems to have the most problems because of the size of their ships.

[TravelerThom]

I did the Elbe with Viking back in 2010. A nice trip since I was in the minority who did NOT have water issues. As much as I love River cruises (over 20) I might recommend this river be done by land (Dresden, Saxon Switzerland, etc are worth the trip). From Prague (do spend some extra days there!) I had snagged advanced purchase direct train tickets to Warsaw for 19€ (!!). Had a very nice stay in Warsaw (which to my surprise was more expensive than Berlin), but unfortunately did not have time for Krakow. I do NOT speak German, Czech or Polish, but had zero problems getting by on my own (no guides at any point) with English.

 

What ever you do, have a wonderful celebratory trip!

 

Thom

Edited August 4, 2017 by TravelerThom

[Amtico]

We did this cruise with Viking this July on the Astrild with the most wonderful cruise director, Devin.

 

We added a Viking Berlin extension at the beginning and a Prague extension at the end. Krakow/Warsaw was not offered to us.

 

Thoroughly enjoyed the cruise and the shore excursions.

We had to stop about ten miles short of our final destination due to low water levels but this didn't really make any difference to anything.

 

Happy to answer any questions you may have OP.

[Amtico]

It was actually May this year - its late here, brain fog!

[Solent Richard]

Hi, Has anyone here sailed Viking's Elegant Elbe cruise?

We've had limited cruising experience--- a great Alaska cruise and tour on HAL and a small boat cruise to the Greek islands and Turkey on Variety, a small Greek line.

 

We are new to river cruising and considering combining one with a family heritage trip to Poland in October, 2018. Viking offers an Elegant Elbe itinerary focusing on East Germany, and has an extension to Krakow and Warsaw by land that sounds good. Friends (who are VERY discriminating) have raved about Uniworld too, so my husband asked me to check into river cruising with Viking and Uniworld. Comments/advice would be appreciated! This is a special trip since this year both of us have recovered from cancer, and are turning 65 next year. TIA!

 

Good morning Bagbabe.

 

I have done both a Viking Elbe cruise and a Krakow visit but on separate occasions.

 

I always write a review and am happy to share the links with you which I hope you will find useful.

 

Viking Elbe:

 

https://solentrichardscruiseblog.com/2013/07/26/viking-clara-schumann-prague-to-berlin/

 

 

 

Krakow:

 

https://www.silvertraveladvisor.com/forums/travel-places/4694-remembrance-day-in-krakow?page=2