Viking: “Gentle (slow) Walker Tour Option?

[mlbcruiser]

I recently saw mention somewhere about Viking having “gentle walkers” tour options. Can anyone verify that they indeed do offer this?  (My husband did one on our only other river cruise, with Emerald. Kind of funny because I did the regular tour, and his tour finished before mine due to his having a better guide!) Thanks for any info.

[gnome12]

7 hours ago, mlbcruiser said:

I recently saw mention somewhere about Viking having “gentle walkers” tour options. Can anyone verify that they indeed do offer this?  (My husband did one on our only other river cruise, with Emerald. Kind of funny because I did the regular tour, and his tour finished before mine due to his having a better guide!) Thanks for any info.

A gentle walkers group sometimes skips certain places that are more difficult to navigate, so they aren't necessarily longer, even if they move more slowly.

[QueenofEverything]

They should have a slow walkers group.  Sometimes it doesn't make any difference, it all depends on the local guide leading the group.  In Vienna, our guide walked so fast I thought we were in a race.  

[Daisi]

2 hours ago, gnome12 said:

A gentle walkers group sometimes skips certain places that are more difficult to navigate, so they aren't necessarily longer, even if they move more slowly.

Sometimes the slow walkers group sees more.  Our group (I was in because I would be able to take lots of pics) were the only ones on our ship that saw the rolling eyes in Koblenz...all other guides took them there, but didn't stop or time the stops to see it in action. We found the slow walker guides to be amazing, they walked and talked, so if you saw something on route, you could ask them easily about it, whereas when we were with regular guides (about 3 tours) we found they marched you to a spot, talked for a bit, then on to the next. We may not have had the same spare time at the end of the tour, but I'm not a shopper anyway.

[Canal archive]

If your a photographer take the slow, sorry gentle walking group loads of time to get just that shot.

[mlbcruiser]

Thanks for this information. I agree that sometimes the slow walkers tours can be better. My husband’s group saw everything that we saw that day. Besides that, his group’s guide was energetic, funny, good-natured, and informative. I know because everyone on my husband’s tour was talking about him and I did get a chance to hear him speak before the groups split up. Would much rather have had him for a guide myself! On another day, the guide we both had in a regular walking group went so fast that many people were left behind. I can whistle very, very loudly and had to at one point to get her attention . She had crossed a major intersection and got way ahead of almost everyone, leaving about 2/3 of the group trying to catch up! She did this type of thing throughout the whole tour. Once I spoke up and told her she Needed to pay attention to the group following behind her, others also spoke up. Even then, it barely helped. So I guess it just always depends on the guide that you get on any given tour.
 

Glad to hear Viking has the slower tours, however. Even if sometimes the participants have to miss something here or there, it beats not getting to do the tour at all!
 

 Thanks again everyone.

[mj_holiday]

When offered, I will take a slow walkers tour.  One main reason on regular walking tours while walking I am always looking down for that cobblestone that will get me.  While looking down, I do not see if the guide turns to head someplace that I don't see.  Another reason I will take the slow walkers tour is to have plenty of time to take pictures.

 

I would check in first thing with the reception desk to let  them know you are interested in a slow walkers tour, they may not offer one if they don't think anyone is interested.

[mapsd]

1 hour ago, mj_holiday said:

.... One main reason on regular walking tours while walking I am always looking down for that cobblestone that will get me....

Reminds me of a sad tale:

I know an older gentleman who was stationed in Germany and dreamed of returning, but didn't until he was in his late 70's.  1st day of his tour, he stepped off the bus, and within a block, tripped on the cobblestones & broke his hip!  8 days in a Belgium hospital, then flew home.☹️

 

I asked if he was going to return?  He said, "No, I had my chance & blew it!  Don't wait until you're old to start your bucket list!"

                          I listened!

 

 

[dogs4fun]

8 minutes ago, mapsd said:

Reminds me of a sad tale:

I know an older gentleman who was stationed in Germany and dreamed of returning, but didn't until he was in his late 70's.  1st day of his tour, he stepped off the bus, and within a block, tripped on the cobblestones & broke his hip!  8 days in a Belgium hospital, then flew home.

Geez - that is just tragic. I have tripped several times over the years - usually too busy gawking at the sights to pay attention to my feet. About a decade ago, I actually sprained my wrist in Florence in a futile attempt to break a fall. Note to self - must exercise more caution. 😐

 

[Daisi]

3 hours ago, mapsd said:

Reminds me of a sad tale:

I know an older gentleman who was stationed in Germany and dreamed of returning, but didn't until he was in his late 70's.  1st day of his tour, he stepped off the bus, and within a block, tripped on the cobblestones & broke his hip!  8 days in a Belgium hospital, then flew home.☹️

 

 

 

 

We had one elderly gentleman on our cruise who gave us a scare.  He tripped on the cobbles and smacked his head.  Fortunately, it was right in front of the ship, and the Captain saw it.  He had two crew members come out to help him onboard and make sure he was ok (he was helped up by fellow passengers as we were all together).  I didn't see if he went for medical treatment, but everyone was checking that he was ok at dinner.  He went out on the rest of the tours, so I guess he was. Found out on the last night, they were there celebrating a special anniversary, they ordered cakes for the whole ship so we could all celebrate with them.  Nice couple.

 

[mlbcruiser]

maps, you hit the nail on the head! My very favorite quote is actually a piece of advice from Mark Twain:  “20 years from now not you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do.” I’ve left off a sentence or two but you get the idea.  
 

my DH insists he can walk well enough that he will not need the scooter on this trip.🙄 up until a year ago, for two years he was having problems falling. And yes he was injured a couple of times. However I took him to the emergency room of a top medical center where we live and a neurologist quickly determined a huge part of the problem. He greatly reduced 2 medications and totally got rid of one. The difference has been remarkable in both returning him to normal alertness and avoiding crazy drops in blood pressure causing dizziness and sudden loss of physicality. Just the same, accidents are called accidents for a reason.They aren’t planned! DH must focus on walking and cannot be distracted or focused on chitchat as he walks along. And like I mentioned above, it is easy to trip on uneven surfaces. Especially when one of your legs doesn’t operate as well as the other. On the other hand, I am the one that asked to tackle the handling of the luggage and the scooter in and out of cars, hotels, and airports, etc. It’s a big weight off me not to have to mess with it. He can go up and down steps and in general gets around pretty well. It’s rambling around for long periods of time without a place to sit that worries me the most.  
 

I think someone mentioned in this thread or another that we need to check with the river cruise line to make sure they allow scooters. I have done this and Viking does allow the type he has. He just won’t be using it on the boat and he won’t need to anyway. He doesn’t really use it all that much as a rule. For the most part just on large cruise ships and in large major sports venues.

 

So happy for the great responses to my questions on here!

[sharkster77]

We did the optional excursion to Colmar with Viking, and when we got off the bus in the square near the Unterlinden Museum, there was a tram-type thing waiting for us.  Anyone who felt like the walking tour was beyond their capabilities could tour by tram.  It turns out none of us chose to ride.

[mlbcruiser]

I’d probably want to ride just for the fun of it, lol! I can’t recall if it was when we were in Cologne or Strasbourg on our Emerald cruise that we saw a tram sitting near where we were by a large square. Several of us wish we could get on it but it wasn’t part of our tour.

[Squawkman]

We did the optional Viking Herculaneum tour when we were docked in Naples. My wife was still on a cane from surgery, so we took the gentle route which meant we missed one short leg that involved steep steps down and up. Guide was terrific a d we had a good explanation of what we missed.