Tag: Viking

A Relentless Rising Tide

Every year in mid-October, my mailbox gets noticeably fuller with holiday catalogs. The adverts are bold and glossy with all sorts of gifting ideas. I enjoy leafing through their colorful pages. But then they keep coming to my mailbox. And coming. And coming some more.  If I saved every one of them I’d probably have a stack as high as my house by mid-December.  By my calculations that’s almost as high as the stack I’d have for luxury cruises.

Maybe you’re familiar with the term First-World problem.  It refers to “issues that are trivial, experienced by people in affluent, developed nations.”  It puts minor annoyances in perspective compared to the more legitimate problems of this world.  Good examples of First-World problems: 1) You can’t find the TV remote, 2) You have bad cell phone reception, or 3) Your favorite store only accepts cash.  Today’s example of a First-World problem: 4) Too much junk mail from cruise lines.

Yes, I’ve taken a cruise.  In fact I’ve taken four: one on the (Pacific) ocean with Carnival, one on the (Baltic) sea with Oceania, and two on the (Rhine, Danube) rivers with Viking.  So it’s fair to say I’m a worthy target when it comes to cruise lines pushing their upcoming adventures.  For some reason Carnival doesn’t pursue me (maybe I’m too old for their party boats?) but Oceania and Viking have gone – take your pick – full steam ahead or totally overboard.  They send countless postcards advertising their cruises, and thick catalogs advertising their entire season’s worth.  They love to push you to consider their “off-season, deeply discounted” options.  And they love to NOT leave you alone.

It’s safe to say I receive a promotion for a cruise two out of every three days.  Most days these adverts seem to give birth to a family.  Just yesterday I received six, and two of them – go figure – were identical twins.  I guess Viking really wants me to take that cruise.  One of those six came from Regent (kind of an orphan), which makes me think Viking and Oceania share their mailing lists.  Thanks a lot, guys.

So much wasted paper…

Would I take a luxury cruise right now?  Sounds nice, as long as it’s not through the Strait of Hormuz.  Sounds nice, as long as I don’t pick up a pandemic-potential virus onboard.  Sounds nice, as long as my ship doesn’t get torpedoed the way Cunard’s cruise ship Lusitania did in the early 1900s (read the remarkable story in Erik Larson’s Dead Wake).  Maybe I should reconsider my “sounds good”. I sense the gods of cruising are trying to tell me something.

Admittedly, it surprised me to learn the demand for luxury cruises is not down but markedly up right now.  You could point to the cost of fuel, the unrest in several parts of the world, or the thought of picking up a virus as reasons people wouldn’t want to cruise.  Doesn’t seem to matter.  Bookings are at record levels, especially those for “mega-ships” that look like floating water parks and the ones that take you to private islands.  When one of my postcards advertises “up to 45% Spring savings!” and another “up to 30% off with free international airfare!”, you just know their profit margins are more than healthy.

But I digress.  I need to address my First-World problem.  Rather, let’s let Catalog Choice (CC) address it.  With a quick online sign-up and a little info from one of my postcards, CC claims they’ll remove the cruise clutter from my mailbox, in the name of “fighting waste, preventing fraud, and simplifying life”.  Will they?  Time will tell.  Maybe I’ll get back to you a few months from now since it’s a matter of global concern.  Assuming I’m not on a luxury cruise at the time.

Some content sourced from the Travel and Tour World article, “U.S. Cruise Industry Faces Fuel Shock, Health Fears, and Mega Ship Boom…”, and Wikipedia, “the free encyclopedia”.

 

Go(ing) With the Flow

In the camping days of my youth, I’d get a kick out of dropping little sticks into the water and watching them float lazily downstream.  I’d imagine them as little boats, navigating uncharted waters on their way to some exotic destination.  I’d see how far those sticks could go, sometimes removing obstructions to create clear channels.  Perhaps it’s no surprise then, all these years later, I’m drawn to the adventure of Viking River Cruises.

Maybe you’ve seen their commercials.  Viking River Cruises advertise by showing you one of their elegant white ships cruising slowly down a pristine river, with dramatic terrain sloping up and away from the shorelines.  Viking “longships” are low, flat, and narrow; a  wholly refined version of my stick in the stream.  Take your pick: the Nile in Egypt, the Rhine in Germany, or the Mississippi in America, to name a few.  Viking has you covered when it comes to cruising the world’s rivers.

My wife and I just completed our second Viking cruise (well, “completed” doesn’t really cut it but I’ll get to that in a moment).  Our first, in 2019, down the Rhine River from the Netherlands through Germany to Switzerland, was so satisfying we were ready to sign up for another as soon as we were done.  Then the world went a little off the rails so we had to wait until the waters calmed again, so to speak.  A week ago then, we returned from Viking’s Danube River cruise; Hungary through Austria to Germany.

There are at least two reasons why Viking River Cruises don’t appeal to those who seek a vacation on the water.  First, you’ll find little more to do on the ship besides eat and sleep.  Yes, you’ll find live music in the lounge and an occasional cooking demonstration by the head chef, but for the most part a Viking ship is a floating hotel.  Second, the daily excursions off the boat are fast-paced guided looks at whatever is worth seeing, with only a little free time at the end for shopping and such.  Best to bring a comfortable pair of walking shoes to keep up.

Those same reasons are why Viking cruises do appeal to us.  We’ve been on one of those floating-city ocean cruises before (Carnival – ick), and everything from the buffet to the entertainment felt cheap and mass-produced.  A Viking river ship caters to only two hundred passengers, in rooms as nice as most anywhere we’ve stayed on shore.  As for the excursions, the tour guides are carefully chosen for their knowledge and personalities, adding so much more to the tour than if you were to go it alone.  Yes, you’re only getting a “taste” of each locale, but this means you see a lot in eight days of cruising, leaving you to choose if and where you might come back to for more in-depth looks.

Eight days is plenty of time to be on the river (at least in our book) but Viking offers several options twice as long, including a fifteen-day Grand European Tour covering the Rhine and the Danube.  You can also add “land-based” days to either end of a cruise, exploring the cities from where you embark and disembark.  Finally, Viking tailors its menus (and I do mean menus, not buffets) to the cuisine of the region you travel through.  From our experience, the food is excellent.

Passau, Germany (one of our destinations)

If this sounds like a ringing endorsement for a Viking River Cruise, let me silence that bell for just a moment.  Perhaps the only thing Viking can’t control is the water itself.  Unbeknownst to most Americans, the Danube River flooded its banks earlier this month, forcing the powers that be (and who exactly are those powers?) to “close” the river.  Residents in destinations downriver found themselves wading through four feet of water.  River ships couldn’t fit under low-flying bridges, let alone dock at the shores.  As a result, our cruise came to a premature halt in Vienna, Austria, with the remaining itinerary carried out with busses and hotels.

I’ll take the next several posts to dive deeper into our “Romantic Danube” Viking cruise.  We missed out on the time we expected on the river, but the destinations were no less impressive.  Budapest is a heck of an interesting city.  Gottweig Abbey (outside the Austrian town of Krems) is keeping apricots relevant.  So stick with me the next few weeks and you’ll find out more about what the Danube has to offer.  After all, river cruising is a whole lot more adventurous than floating a stick down a stream.