I would have suspected it was EU standardization that would make it better wherever in the EU we went, but the Baltics were a nightmare.
It’s one thing to label and warn … much appreciated, and yes, all of that was pretty clear most places we went. The issue was options. In many places in the wrong places, they don’t even grab for the low hanging fruit. Soy sauce, for example. It absolutely does not need to contain gluten … I live in an area with robust Asian food options, and there is no telling the gluten from the non-gluten option. Or just meal prep. I think the EU regs tell the providers that they have to warn against cross-contamination, not that they have to offer g-free options prepared with generally accepted processes. So, again in the Baltics, while there was never a real risk of an accident, it got super frustrating when they would just repeatedly shake their heads over whether the simplest of items could be prepared g-free. Like, don’t put the f’ing crutons on the salad and let’s go with vinegar and oil for Christ’s sake! In London, by the sharpest of contrasts, every restaurant was “can do” and you had full confidence they’d make it clean. And that’s how it was in Italy over 10 years ago.
There are pros and cons to a river cruise.I’ve not been on any other type of cruise so no point of comparison.
Pros-no transition from hotel to hotel. Unpack once and you can relax.
They do all the tour planning for you. Pick what one you like for that day and go with the flow. If one day you want a city tour great, the next maybe a hike to a castle.
No wandering aimlessly looking for a restaurant.
If you are with a large group no discussions each day on what to do and where to eat and at what time.
Nice overview of each stop. It can give you ideas for places you might want to go back to and explore more in depth.
Cons-you can’t see everything at each stop. I see it as an introduction to a city, a brief overview. Vienna can’t all be seen in one day.
We went early to Prague plus did the add on for Prague. Stayed a few days in a hotel in Budapest post cruise. Some of us took a train back to Vienna and stayed a few extra days.
Wow, I was looking at the Viking cruises. Saw one going for $5K in Jun, and saw they have a deal going that you only have to put down a $25 deposit. Sounds great, right? Pretty much no commitment. When I contacted them, well, not so much. Turns out that advertised 5K deal is not available, now it’s over 7K per person. And final payment is due on Sept 30th, for a cruise 8 1/2 months later. And so many of their cruises during this timeframe are already sold out. So far ahead of time, it is crazy!!
So now I’m thinking about a cruise on the Amazon River. Has anyone here done this? It sounds very interesting.
Yikes. My wife and I can do a lot of damage on our own for $14k, which I assume does not include airfare.
Super interested in doing this, but there will be a break point after which it will start to make more sense to just fly over and do it the old fashioned way. Having people make my plans and unpacking once isn’t quite that important to me.
Definitely doesn’t include airfare. I can see spending that kind of money on more exotic River cruises, that include inter-country airfare, but the one I was looking at was an 8 day European Nordic cruise. Yeah, it includes excursions and many other things, but wow. People out there with a lot of money to spend.
Now I’m starting to look at different options, seeing that everything is crazy expensive, why not take a look at all of it?
Looking at maybe a February timeframe. A river cruise in a rather exotic place. Hawaii is getting a little mundane as we’ve gone there so many times. I’m thinking the Amazon in Peru, maybe with Machu Picchu? Or maybe the MeKong River, Cambodia and Vietnam (we cancelled a Vietnam trip last Feb, so we’re all vaxxed up, no typhoid here), or maybe Patagonia (though that would be an ocean cruise), maybe the Nile?
Has anyone done any of these or checked it out and have an opinion?
In my mind, river cruises typically attract the retiree crowd. Many of them do have a lot of money to spend.
Travel costs in general seem to have skyrocketed post-Covid. At first they were saying it was because they had to recoup losses during the shutdown but we’re several years past it and the prices are still high for a lot of things. There’s no shortage of people traveling these days so it appears that many are just accepting the new price levels.
I haven’t been, but this itinerary sounds amazing (and bonus that you’re already vaxed for it!)
Yes, pay in full 18/16 mos in advance or immediately…they sell out the veranda cabins pretty quick. If we like the river cruising, and we check out the lower level cabins, we may decide to select a less costly cabin next time since most of your waking hours are in the common areas/on deck or on tour. Why waste money in a sleeping/showering only room? My understanding is you get a discount on future cruises if you make your reservation while on cruise plus they drop the payment deadline to 12 mos. or something similar. They seem to get people to do it.
On a river cruise, there is no capability to book another cruise. They had vouchers you could purchase, for $100 it would be $200 off a future cruise. We didn’t think this was a great incentive. And I’m not even sure they still offer even this, I had heard the vouchers were being phased out.
If you have a Viking cruise booked, and book another cruise, the payment schedule can be reduced to 6 months before the next trip.
The ocean cruises do have an option to book another while on board. The rivers do not.
Our first river cruise we booked a French balcony, which is a big window, no balcony. The second was what is called a swan room. It’s a window and the room is half under water. It was fine and much cheaper. You don’t spend much time in the room. It gets dark in Europe around 4 pm in the winter so it was dark most of the time we would be in the room.
As recently as this past April, Viking still offered the vouchers. We bought 2, since we are committed Viking travelers. Paying 6 months out does not bother us, and we love the product.
With river cruises, generally, whatever company you pick for your first cruise, if you like it, you tend to stick with that company. Viking, Amawaterways, Avalon, all have good products. Tauck and Scenic are much more expensive, considered to be deluxe.
We stay in the lowest level, nicknamed aquarium class, with the high windows. You are literally only in your room to sleep or change clothing. For any scenic cruising you want to be either on the top deck outside, or in the lounge, with tall windows on either side.
Due to rafting (tying up to another ship in port, often those with French or conventional balconies are rewarded with a view into a cabin on the other ship—they are docked inches apart!
That’s what I was thinking! If we like our first river cruise, we may book a swan room the next time…but, with this being our first time, we wanted the veranda. That doesn’t make that much of a difference in the price of the entire 2 week cruise with post pre and post extensions. However, the air fare does, but I just couldn’t handle not having a direct flight and having a bunch of connections and possible stuck on less than desireable airlines so we paid for the high price flights, not the free or low cost flights. I probably should have just done our own air since we are doing a pre-extension, the worst that happens is you miss a day of sightseeing but don’t miss the boat. Someone mentioned on another thread (maybe cruise critic) even if you miss the boat, you can always just walk to the next town and pick it up there! Will undoubtedly learn some from more from my own cruising.
IMO, this is worth it. We had family that did the free flights and ended up missing their entire pre-ship city tour (two full days) because of missed connections. And they didn’t book the pre-trip tours through Viking so they lost all of that money too.
Payment options for the Rick Steves tour are $400 down, and the rest of the payment is due 60 days prior. They will let you wait list for tours, and even move your booked tour to a different date or tour, they are very flexible. I think the most expensive one I saw for next year was a 21 day tour for $6445, but most of them seem to be in the $3-5K range, depending upon length and location. And of course, everyone pays the same price, there’s no room upgrade, plus the price never changes as time goes on (unless they cut a couple hundred dollars off it for a sale). So definitely a different model, but sounds like the prices could be similar to the more reasonable river cruises.
Hopefully they had travel insurance that covered it. But not everyone buys that. Not sure if it would cover excursions for flight delay, but you’d think it would.
I think we got just about as good a deal as possible last year for Viking Rhine Geteway (7nights). I suspect if we did future trips it would cost a lot more.
The following costs are per person, using AAA travel agent. About $3200 for lowest level (“swan room”) incl free air and $100? trip credit plus we had discount code for free silver spirits package. Booked in Apr2023 for a late Sept cruise, I think $500 deposit. Paid the rest in June (and bought Allianz insurance - medical and cancellation for the full 2 week europe trip). Leveraged the free air by adding AAA-planned 2 nights prior in Amsterdam, train, 5 nights in Italy.
You don’t want to know what I paid for 2 weeks, geeeesh. But, I’ll spread my wings a little next time and do more on my own. I would like to do one of their Ocean cruises - 900 +/- folks, so enough to still be small ship but less stuffy.
