Ship: Viking Herja
Dates: March 28-April 8, 2020
itinerary:
| 03/27/20 Friday | Depart Washington IAD |
| 03/28/20 Saturday | Arrive Paris |
| 03/29/2020 Sunday | Paris |
| 03/30/2020 Monday | Paris |
| 03/30/2020 Monday | Bus to Trier |
| 03/31/20 Tuesday | Trier & Bernkastel |
| 04/01/20 Wednesday | Cochem |
| 04/02/20 Thursday | Koblentz/Scenic Cruise |
| 04/03/20 Friday | Maintz |
| 04/04/20 Saturday | Speyer |
| 04/05/20 Sunday | Strasbourg |
| 04/06/20 Monday | Basel – Bus |
| 04/07/20 Tuesday | Zurich |
| 04/08/20 Wednesday | Zurich |
Planning Status – July, 2019
We are about 8 months out as I begin this post. We have our Viking River cruise paid in full. Our non-stop air to Paris and return from Zurich is booked. Now it’s a waiting game until the Shore Excursions get posted. We are looking at current excursions and hope that most of them will be available to us. Many of the included tours are walking tours. We may or may not participate. It will all depend on my mobility at the time. Many river cruise walking tours offer a tour for those of us who cannot keep up with the faster walkers. Another variable is that we are going in March, so certain excursions definitely won’t be available due to weather. But, we are planners and planners start planning months in advance!
Planning Status – September, 2019
True to many past experiences with Viking, we found, once again, disappointment with their guest services, from their AirPlus division. We called to inquire about a possible business class upgrade, but upon finding out that Viking wanted to charge several hundred dollars more than the airlines, we declined. Unknown to us, a charge for the business class ticket was placed on our ship account. When we noticed this charge, to our previously zero balance, we called Viking. The agent we spoke to removed the charge and also removed our round-trip non-stop flights! Unbelievable! Luckily, we were able to, once again, contact Viking and re-establish our original flights. WHEW! It just seems that we are always experiencing a more than small difficulty with this company. A letter has been written to corporate about this latest snafu. Hopefully, we will get a favorable response.
UPDATE: We finally received a written response, as we requested, to our inquiry. We were given 24 hours to have them change our flights to business class. HAH! After all the time we waited for a response?! I think not. Besides it was more expensive that what it would have been had we’d booked it when we originally inquired. This is the type of guest services that we have come to expect and not care for from Viking. We were granted $100 OBC/pp for our inconvenience and to regain our trust in Viking.
Planning Status – October 2019
Our excursion options have finally been posted! It’s time to get serious about what we want to see and do while on this great river cruise! As I usually do with our trips, I started a spreadsheet for all the details – itinerary, excursions, misc information, etc.
Planning Status – December 2019
You know when the trip is getting closer and you can begin to get even more excited when the countdown calendar changes from months to days then from days to hours! Karen has been researching each port city to help determine what is feasible and what isn’t this time around. Lots of good suggestions from her efforts! Definitely looking forward to this calm water trip!
Planning Status – February 2020
Our documents have arrived! It just keeps getting more real every day! We are definitely looking forward to this cruise after moving out of state for Karen’s job. The stickler at this point? United Airlines will not combine our two tickets to create a seamless trip. Since moving, we have had to add on a connecting flight for us to reach our original embarkation point of IAD (Dulles). Viking couldn’t assist us even though we have AirPlus. United said they wish us luck and maybe a nice gate agent will check our bags all the way through to CDG (Paris), but not to hold our breath! So that means, we have to deplane in IAD, claim our luggage, check back in at the United counter, surrender our luggage again and pass a few hours waiting to get on our non-stop overnight flight to Paris. Not sure why it has to be this difficult? But, we will use the time wisely and head to Global Entry to initiate our address change and have a ‘decent’ airport dinner before our next flight.
Planning Status – March 2020
We are ready and raring to go on this much awaited vacation! BUT! With the current coronavirus, will our river cruise be impacted? It’s all the buzz on social media and the news. Cruise industry and tourism in general are suffering as a result. Daily, more people are stricken with the virus and many are dying. While we don’t wish to sound the panic alarm, we are seriously hoping that we do not come in contact with anyone who is carrying the virus. I’ve been watching my Viking Journey page religiously, but no cancellations or missing ports reported yet. Just 26 more days to go before we embark on this journey! Viking has just made an incredible offer to fully refund our trip with a voucher good for 24 months for future travel. We have decided to wait until 1 week before our travel date to make a final decision on whether to go or cancel.
UPDATE March 12, 2020
Viking has canceled our cruise due to CoVid-19. I guess that saves us from having to make that decision ourselves. If we had canceled earlier, we would have lost out on a much better offer for future travel. Now, we just hope that United Airlines will be kind and refund our flight from Orlando to Washington, D.C.
And that ends this blog post about our river cruise! Another cruise…another time! When the world is healthier!
Now, Voyager, sail thou forth to seek and find”
– Walt Whitman
Twenty Steps at a Time 