Viking Cruises

This page, left to right: Portuguese Azulejos tiles; the Douro River Opposite: Budapest, Hungary MARGARET C. | TAS First travelled with Viking: 2010 (or earlier!) First cruise: Rhine Getaway Travelled on: Both ocean and river ships. Favourite memory: Doing the official inaugural cruise on the Viking Star on the Into the Midnight Sun cruise and being greeted by fire boats cascading us with water at each new port. Q: You did your first cruise with Viking over 10 years ago, what made you decide to book your first river cruise? A: Everything!!! What attracted us (we've always travelled together as that's an easy twin-share. Both literally and figuratively: we're twins!) was the fact that we were over the shortcomings of land tours. Over the need to be up early each day to have the bags out; the restrictions of coach travel – lesser opportunity to see places as needing to get from place to place often on a motorway; and the abc (another bl***dy castle/cathedral) of it all. And the hotels were often out of town so you missed that experience of staying centrally. Being able to have a relaxing, immersive holiday through multiple countries – seeing and experiencing everything – scenery, tastes, sights, languages and people – was bliss. And having everything basically included was a bonus. Q: From your experience, what's the best part about travelling by river? A: The scenery everywhere – you look out in any direction and there's something different to see, there's no barriers – you're actually there to see and feel it all. The staff are a great part of the experience as you can get to know them because you have the time and opportunity to do so. And going through locks is fascinating every time – they're something you don't see or do in Australia. Q: Onto the oceans – what do you love most about our ocean voyages? A: It's not just one thing: Smaller numbers mean you get to know people (staff and other travellers) better; having everything included means you don't have to budget for speciality restaurants or the included tours - or even the water taken on that tour; going to places the bigger ships can't go to, and being more able to berth at the ports, not just being tendered in and often sailing in sight of land on most sea-days. Our first ocean trip was doing the Into the Midnight Sun cruise and it was even great to do the British customs process on board the ship with two customs officers from Lerwick, it was very relaxed – best customs experience ever. Q: You have a couple of trips booked for this year and next - what destination are you most looking forward to? A: All of them! Every trip is different and are separate experiences. The first one is to New Zealand and it'll be great to have a new viewpoint of a familiar destination - we've toured NZ via land, it's going to be awesome to see it from the sea. And next year we're doing three river cruises back to back — two through different areas of France and one to see the Christmas Markets in wider Europe. We're just eager to see/feel/experience everywhere again - we've missed seeing them for so long! It's been a long 3 years without cruising/ travelling. And maybe we'll have snow on the Christmas Market cruise (wishful thinking?). viking.com 79

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