Viking New 2 days in Vienna

[Nightingaile]

Hello all! I am new here and was looking for some advice. My husband and I are going on our first cruise - the Grand European with Viking - and I am trying to figure out our time in Vienna. We are starting in Budapest and it has day 3 and 4 in Vienna, but no excursion until the evening on day 3. Does that mean we do not dock until late afternoon? I would like to plan out some sites, but am thinking we will not have time. TIA

[CDNPolar]

Was hoping to help but we are going the opposite direction but it should be the same amount of  time in each city???

 

Both of our days in Vienna we have shore excursions - included or optional - that start in the morning and or afternoon.

 

Have you gone to MVJ and looked at the available excursions?

 

We have excursions starting both days at 8:45am.

[Nightingaile]

I did check MVJ and the first and only excursion on Day 3 is at 7:30 pm, then 5 are offered on Day 4. It doesn't seem like it should take that long for the ship to sail from Budapest to Vienna. We would like to do both Schonbrunn Palace and the Lipizzaner Stallion excursions but they are scheduled at the same time on Day 4. If we get into port early enough on Day 3, we could do the palace on our own.

[Canal archive]

The Palace is huge and depending on what’s happening with those beautiful Lipizzaners it may be a bit of a stretch for one day. So one a day would be more achievable. Both are worth it but don’t forget the Sachertorte and the Viennese coffee. Vienna is one of the worlds most beautiful cities and one of the easiest to get around, enjoy.

[CDNPolar]

5 hours ago, Nightingaile said:

I did check MVJ and the first and only excursion on Day 3 is at 7:30 pm, then 5 are offered on Day 4. It doesn't seem like it should take that long for the ship to sail from Budapest to Vienna. We would like to do both Schonbrunn Palace and the Lipizzaner Stallion excursions but they are scheduled at the same time on Day 4. If we get into port early enough on Day 3, we could do the palace on our own.

 

I think that you have to go with your gut and MVJ excursions offered.  I would think that because you don't have an excursion offered the first day until late in the day that you cannot count on being in port in the morning.

 

You don't know if the ship is sailing at night from Budapest to Vienna, that is one thing, but it also may be sailing in the morning and during daylight hours.

 

I was trying to piece together how your timing would look against ours, but that is not realistic because we are sailing the opposite direction.  Clearly for us we have two full days in Vienna going the direction we are going.

 

Email tellus@vikingcruises.com and ask them.  This may be better than calling the reservations department.

[pontac]

15 hours ago, CDNPolar said:

Was hoping to help but we are going the opposite direction but it should be the same amount of  time in each city??

 

Not necessarily. Not only is one boat going along with the flow of the river and the other is going against it, but there are locks to go through that may affect timings.

 

Hopefully someone who has recently been on that cruise can give times from Viking Daily - it may be worth checking the roll call forum for recent cruisers and asking them.

Edited May 23 by pontac

[rcaruso]

15 hours ago, Nightingaile said:

I did check MVJ and the first and only excursion on Day 3 is at 7:30 pm, then 5 are offered on Day 4. It doesn't seem like it should take that long for the ship to sail from Budapest to Vienna. We would like to do both Schonbrunn Palace and the Lipizzaner Stallion excursions but they are scheduled at the same time on Day 4. If we get into port early enough on Day 3, we could do the palace on our own.

Go to the morning exercises of the Lipizzaner Stallions then you can go to Schonbrunn Palace in the afternoon.  Go to the Spanish Riding School Website and check if the exercises are scheduled and it is under 20 Euro for two hours, they change horses and riders every 1/2 hour.

[Nightingaile]

Thank you CDNPolar for the email address for Viking. I sent a message and received a call. We do not dock in Vienna until 7 pm on day 3. 

[CDNPolar]

9 hours ago, Nightingaile said:

Thank you CDNPolar for the email address for Viking. I sent a message and received a call. We do not dock in Vienna until 7 pm on day 3. 

 

Wow... so that does kill one day completely!  

 

You will find that for this kind of question, often the reservations number will not have an answer.  When you use the "tellus" email address, you often get a much more detailed and correct response.

 

Glad this worked for you.

[ScubaKat]

This is the port schedule for Vienna on our cruise, the Grand European, Budapest to Amsterdam. You arrive in Vienna at 7pm on day 3 and depart on day 4 at 11:55pm.   For verification you can use the Viking chat feature and ask for a port schedule for your itinerary.