That sounds like a good deal. Does AAA give you a better deal than their website?
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I think the AAA advantage was mainly the $100 travel credit (though perhaps Viking does that too )… hmm, maybe that was a referral credit. And it was of course helpful to have the AA TA advise - she books a lot of Viking trips.
I think we got that good deal mainly based on fortunate timing (rooms available 6 months out, for folks like us who wanted the cheaper lower level rooms). And some discount codes - I had some from catalogs and friends, the agent had some… she just gave them all to her Viking rep to see which code(s) resulted in the best price.
Note - Although we suffered through with the freebie Economy airfare, our friends upgraded. $1000 more to get Economy Plus. I think $3400(?) more to get Business class.
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Do you know or recall how much smaller the swan room was compared to a veranda or French balcony room - I know the sq ft but was trying to figure out if it would feel too claustrophobic. I’m 5’2" so I think the waterline window would be more like sunroof to me!
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Well I’m 5’2” and thought swan room was fine. Shelf at window was nice. I think I recall it is 150 sq ft, slightly larger than the 140 sq ft smallest rooms above. But clearly having a window would make it feel much bigger.
Since we went with another couple, most of our waking hours were on shore or in the common areas.
My husband and I recently took a direct train from Paris to Reims and it was easy. You can get a taxi to your destination at the Reims train station (or call uber) or walk.
The one detail to note is that the direct train only goes so many times a day to and from Paris. Google the train schedule and buy your tickets ahead (if not traveling during the busy summer season get them the day of?)
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Our first cruise was a bargain in November of 2022.
$1999 person including air and the drink package. Paid $1000 for 2 nights in Basel and $1200 for 2 nights in Amsterdam. That included transfers. I spent $200 for Viking air plus to pick my own flights. Another $250 or so for gratuities. I’m around $6500 so far. Picked optional tours for maybe $1000. We ate all of our meals on the ship and maybe spent another $1000 on other food and misc. I budgeted $9000 and came a bit under. All in. In a French balcony. It was an amazing deal booked as we were coming out of pandemic restrictions.
My second cruise was November of 2023. $3400 person 10 days. 4 hotel nights and a 7 day cruise. Free economy air again which was fine. No viking air plus because I booked too close for that option. My flights were picked for us and were the ones I would have picked myself. Wine and soft drinks are included with meals. I bought one drink on board for $6.50. Was in a standard room with a small fixed window.
We did purchase 2 additional nights in Paris for $1200 and that included transfers fr the airport. We spent 3 additional days on our own in Prague, the list price for that through Viking was $1800 for 2 days and we did 3 on our own for less. Including transportation to the airport.
Again another $1000 for additional tours and $1000 for meals and misc.
I’m at just over $12,000 for 16 days if I’m counting correctly.
They were great vacations and we throughly enjoyed ourselves. I’m putting the prices out there. This was off off season and the cheapest time to travel right before Christmas.
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Sounds like we need another recession!
To add, be aware that things don’t always go as advertised. Things unexpectedly closed, broken, delayed….what should be easy can be a mess. Ah, the joys of traveling!
The reason why I mention this is because our “easy” train ride from Paris to Reims ended up as one of the worst experiences of many trips.
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True. I did read a horror story of broken AC on one Viking ship this summer. ALso learned a tidbit - Veranda rooms turn off he AC when door opened.
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This link shows deck plans. Click room type at left to see photos
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We did the Grand European 5 years ago, Amsterdam (added 2 days) to Budapest. It was fantastic. We spent the money because you can’t take it with you and we had never been to Europe then.
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This may be a silly question, and it may have been answered before. But when the water is low and they trade ships, I’m guessing everyone has to pack up and have their stuff moved to the other ship? (So you don’t get the unpack once experience?) How often does that actually happen? I could be way off here - I’ve not been on any cruise.
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I think that’s the idea.
It’s a good question. Actually I’ve been monitoring Viking Rhine FB group for more than an year, and I have been surprised how often there are high or low water conditions… sometimes in the same season high and low - crazy. It does not always result in ship change - often just an adjustment to where they dock / bus pickup.
If you do have to switch, you do need to pack up. Then they tote your stuff to same room on the other ship. But… lots better than the original stories I heard about years ago on other river cruises when it meant switching to a bus/land tour. We picked Viking because they send pairs of ships from each port, in case switch needed. Other lines may do the same.
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We only rafted once on our river cruise in Budapest. Maybe we were just lucky.
I volunteer with a woman who told me today they are going on Viking in September Paris to Normandy. She said it’s their 4th river cruise on Viking. They have also done several ocean cruises with Viking. I asked her what was her favorite and she said the river cruise through Portugal.
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We did a 14 day Amsterdam to Budapest river cruise on Scenic in 2019 and had to swap ships twice. The first one was because the ship we had booked had been delayed and wasn’t going to arrive in Amsterdam in time, so they started us on another ship. After a few days we were swapped onto the ship we had booked. But then about a week later, there was a broken lock, so we had to swap ships again to get past the broken lock. It was a little inconvenient to pack up twice, especially since I had definitely over packed! But otherwise it was pretty painless because we just had to have our luggage ready and then we got on our tour buses for the day’s tours, after which the tour buses dropped us off at the new ship where our luggage was waiting for us. So we didn’t really lose any touring time.
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I believe that when Viking does a ship swap some of the crew goes with you, like the folks who service your room, the hospitality division (waiters, etc). As mentioned, you get the same room, everything is the same except the painting of the Norse god for whom the ship is named at the top of the stairs. Maybe more, but at least those you interact with. I would think the engineering folks and wheelhouse crew stay with their ship???
And yes, at least on the Rhine and part of the Danube, there is a ship leaving in both directions every day. So you may see the other ship in the same port as you, heading in the other direction when it leaves.
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This is the main reason we selected Viking over other river cruises is the number of ships they have and the plan for swaps at high/low water points along the rivers. Not ideal, but less likely to turn into a bus trip.
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We’ve been lucky, 2 Viking river cruises, no problems either time. I read somewhere that most folks who had a positive experience with a river cruise company tend to stick with them for future cruises. As such, we have avoided ocean cruises because so much of their foolishness would drive me crazy, but we will try Viking ocean cruise next year, as their cruise model for rivers has been adapted to oceans.
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Might be an exception here - multiple ocean cruises and one river cruise. Even though we really enjoyed the river cruise, we like the infrastructure of ocean cruises better - more to do in evenings, more options in day, more dining options. Overall more autonomy. Less peoply- not tight dining spaces or being “tied up” just feet from another boat at dock. Also we know 8 couples on separate trips in the past year who caught Covid on river ships = same number of couples we know who have traveled that way.
We think we may do more river cruising when we are several years older.
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