Wednesday, 27 April, Planning ahead

Written 27 April 2022

I scarcely dare write about this trip for fear of jinxing it. Back in the spring of 2020, we were supposed to go on a Viking cruise from Bucharest to Amsterdam, but then the sky fell (in the form of the COVID-19 pandemic), and the cruise was cancelled. Viking offered us a choice—a 100% refund or 125% vouchers for a future cruise or cruises. We knew we wanted to try again when conditions permitted, so we opted for the vouchers.

When Viking started advertising the cruise again, they were so desperate to tempt their customers back that they made special offers, like free airfare. Yes, please! The result is that when we signed up to try again for this coming fall, our vouchers covered the cruise and its "included" shore excursions, all the "optional" (i.e., not included) excursions we had chosen, and (because Viking picked up the basic airfare) the difference between basic and first-class airfare. We will therefore get the cruise we originally planned, plus flying first class both ways! We even have ca. $300 left over to spend on shipboard extras, like laundry service and better wine with dinner.

To top it off, we've managed to talk both David's sister Janet Fox (of Houston, TX) and our neighbors Sallie and Ron McQuaid (here at Westminster Oaks) into joining us for the second half of the cruise. They'll join the ship in Budapest. This is going to be fun!

Here's the overview map of the trip, which first follows the Danube, then the Main-Danube Canal, then the Main, and finally the Rhine.

Anyway, here's what I said about the cruise back in February of 2020:

"Not a lot of planning ahead involved in this trip. We'd been eyeing this itinerary for a while in the Viking catalog, and once the Sinnetts made clear that they weren't interested in doing it, we just decided to go ahead. Viking, of course, falls all over itself to make booking easy. Once you've booked the cruise (we got the last two cabins available on our sailing date), you can go on line at leisure to book your included and optional excursions.

"Once again, Viking provided way too many choices of optional excursions, so David and I sat down for an entire evening and worked out which ones we wanted to do. Mostly we'll do the same ones, but on a couple of the days, we go off in different directions—e.g., I do a cooking demonstration while he does WWII history.

"The cruise description doesn't say explicitly, but I suspect we'll be on our own for dinner on the night of our arrival, which we'll spend in the Radisson Blu in Bucharest before joining the ship on the following day. I poked around a little in Google maps and spotted Le Bistrot Français just a few blocks away, so I may make reservations there. It's a "Relais et Châteaux" establishment, and we've had very good luck with them in the past. The restaurant's website provides a nice, English-language reservaton app.

"After that, Viking covers all the meals, mostly on the ship but sometimes out and about on excursions."

Written July 2022

Viking generally plans to have each passenger's air itinerary in final form by 100 days before sailing, but in this day and age, they're having trouble. We're way closer than that, and although Viking claims the itinerary is final, some problems persist: First, on the third leg of our outbound trip, they've placed David and me in adjacent seats but on separate flights. A single-digit goof in one of the flight numbers means David will fly from Amsterdam to Bucharest four hours before I do. Both flights are now booked solid, so they can't change it. We can live with that—Viking will still meet each of us and take us to the hotel. Second, although Delta Air Lines, which operates four of our five travel legs, knows about my itinerary, they are completely ignorant of David's—it shows up in fragmentary and incorrect form on his Delta account. Our Viking agent assures us that's not a problem, but we're not so sure.

The other problem is the heat wave and drought in Europe. All three rivers we're scheduled to cruise on are so low that many cruise ships cannot pass. We may wind up being bussed from ship to ship down the river, each ship, stranded in whatever reach it was in when the water fell too low, serving as a floating hotel. Except for the art on the walls, Viking "longships" are pretty much identical, but it means we'll have to pack and unpack more than I like.

Written 6 September 2022

And we were right to be concerned. Just to be sure, I contacted Delta, and they assured me that there definitely was a problem—David would not be able to board the first leg of his flights until it was straightened out! After hours and days of arguing with Delta, who swore it was Viking's problem, and Viking, who swore (a) there was no problem; (b) if there was a problem, it was Delta's; and (c) all the flights showed up fine on KLM's website, so Delta couldn't refuse to let him board.

After many, many frustrating phone calls and emails, hours on hold, and untold loss of sleep over it, I finally drove out to the airport; collared a real, live Delta agent, who then summoned her supervisor; and showed them Viking's responses and my computer screen showing David's itinerary on Delta's site, which was crazy wrong, not to say wacko!

They assured me that yes, they could, and would, bar him from boarding if Viking didn't clean up after itself on the Delta website. It didn't even show David's trip originating in Tallahassee! I finally called Viking Air, explained the problem once again, and passed the phone to the Delta supervisor. After a long, free, and frank discussion between them, in airline-speak, the phone was passed back to me, and I stood there at the counter, on hold for 20 min, while Viking tried to fix things. Finally, they took my number and promised to call me back—they now understood the problem and it would just take them a little while to fix it.

Sure enough, they called me back after about an hour, and when I checked Delta's website, logged in as David, I found that, yes, the problem had disappeared. There were his flights, all present and correct (except for the separate-planes thing, but that's a minor glitch). Whew!

Written 11 September 2022

Our "Final Cruise Documents" have arrived by email, and our zippered pouches with luggage tags and paper badges have come in the mail.

One thing has changed—Viking now uses a different hotel in Bucharest, the JW Marriott Grand Hotel, which is nowhere near Le Bistrot Français or anything else very promising. The hotel's five restaurants look pretty good, though, so we'll probably just eat there.

I'm beginning to believe this trip might actually happen!

Here's what they sent each of us: A fuzzy brown zippered pouch, two preprinted paper luggage tags that will ensure the routing of our bags within the Viking organization, a genuine leather luggage tag, and a round red peel-and-stick badge to wear as we emerge from security at the airport, so that the Viking folks can spot us easily (plus a sheet listing all these items). The booklet is actually the one they sent in April of 2020, when we were supposed to sail on the Vidar—they didn't send a new one, so apparently that information hasn't changed.

Written 17 September 2022

Got an update from Viking last night (which, at this point, strikes fear in my heart the moment I see the email appear in my in box, but it was okay). The news is that the ship cannot reach Giurgiu, the port 1.25 hours south of Bucharest where we were supposed to board the Viking Lif after our one-night stay in the Bucharest hotel. Instead, after our tour of Bucharest and the Village Museum, we'll continue on ca. 1.75 hours to Turnu Măgurele (farther west along the Danube) to board her identical sister ship, the Viking Vidar, coincidentally the same ship we were supposed to be on back in April of 2020! Then, the next day, rather than cruising the short distance to Ruse, Bulgaria, for our bus excursion to Veliko Tarnovo, we'll go there straight from Turnu Măgurele. So about an extra half hour of bus time on each of the first two days, but otherwise, the same itnerary. I can live with that.

Meanwhile, Ron McQuaid has been diligently checking the weather in the ports between Budapest and Amsterdam, and his message is "Bring an umbrella; it's raining everywhere!" Good news, indeed. Now, if David can just make his tight flight connection in Amsterdam . . .