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It has taken nearly 3 years due to Covid delays but we are FINALLY on our way to Prague!
I booked a Viking cruise in May of 2019 for a vacation starting in June 2020 on our favorite web site Vacationstogo.com. We were to begin in Prague and end in Paris . Then COVID happened. We were all paid up and ready to go when in April of 2020 the trip was cancelled due to COVID issues. On the positive front, Viking offered us a 25% discount if we kept our booking and continued our plans in 2021 rather than get a refund in 2020. Sure, for 25% why not!
So we took our 25% and upgraded our cabin to a veranda suite. Vacationstogo added another $250 each so we prepaid our drink packages and bought trip cancellation insurance. Then COVID happened again!. The cruise was cancelled in December of 2020. Viking stepped up with another 25% discount so we kept our plans and moved them to June 2022. We paid for several shore excursions with the added funds. Vacationstogo stepped up again with another $400 each which we used to add some days to our trip making this a full 16 day vacation. Hopefully, with less than 5 days from departure, we will not get another cancellation notice!
So what will we be doing you ask. Our itinerary is amazing: We fly from Detroit to Austria, then on to Prague. Cathy and I have two days on our own to explore this wonderful city. We plan on a Ghost Tour, thanks to another favorite booking site VIATOR.com. We also booked a Gypsy Dinner show and A Folklore dinner show with music and dancing all via VIATOR. Low cost, excellent service and one of the best guide services available. We will be staying at the Iron Gate Hotel in Old Town Prague.
On June 15 we join the Viking Tour and move to the Marriott Hotel, where we reside for another 2 nights. We will be treated to a panoramic tour of Prague where we will visit some of the city's finest sights and learn some of the history of this amazing city.
On June 17 we board our vessel The Viking IDI for a cruise on the Main River through Germany. We start in Nuremburg and travel through Bamberg, Wurzburg, Heidelberg, Mainz, Middle Rhine Valley, Cochem, Bernkastel, Trier, and finally Paris. We will spend 4 days in this city of light before we head back home. We will stay at the Paris Hyatt across the street from the Eiffel Tower.
Our plans include drinking, dining, sightseeing both from a historical and cultural perspective and of course shopping for some unusual local items. It should be GREAT and I plan to blog each day so feel free to follow along and make any comments you feel appropriate and I will try to respond.
For those of you interested in Viking River cruises I suggest the following website: Vacationstogo.com Hit the river cruise tab and search out Viking.
If you are looking for local guides on your next trip check out VIATOR.com They have a myriad of tour options, local transportation and are highly regarded, safe, low cost and professional. We use them exclusively.
Please feel free to tell family and friends who enjoy travel to follow along, I hope this blog will be helpful, informative and just plain fun.
Stay well and keep on traveling!
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Dancing Dave
David Hooper
Thanks for the Viking thumbs up
Very encouraging news how Viking helped you maintain bookings over Covid with 25% discounts instead of total refunds, Phil...twice. Also that Vacationstogo.com also chipped in to encourage you to postpone your booking rather than cancel. There are several Europe river cruise operators so it is great to see your tips for others. We travelled St Petersburg to Moscow in late 2019 with Viking and the cruise and itinerary could not have been better. Booking hiccups but glad we persisted. We are not cruise people but have been considering some Rhine and Danube cruises because the Russian one was so good. We had been considering other operators but sounds like Viking should remain foremost in our plans thanks to their 'customer first' attitude you refer to in your blog. I'll check out your following blogs to see how you went.