FAM REPORT..Aug 22-30 2017. Viking River Cruises..Trip Avignon to Lyon

Some notes. Had a standard category E window cabin. Very small would not recommend that for clients. Food was excellent. Ship was beautiful. Very sleek and clean.  Staff very friendly mainly from Eastern Europe/Ukraine/Russia.   Touring and logistics of everything is very well organized.  No issues at all.   Weather was a bit warm..average of 92 degrees everyday.

Aug 22- Departed out of Boston on Delta via Amsterdam to Marseilles. Arrived on the 23^rd approximately at 11am.  Was met by Viking representatives in baggage claim and escorted to beautiful Mercedes coaches for the 1 hour ride to Avignon.  Boarded the Viking Longshop Delling.

Aug 24- Participated in the Viking included tour which was a walking tour of Arles. Guide was excellent.

Aug 25-Participated in a full day optional walking tour in Avignon that included tasting various culinary specialties.  Cheese, Olives, Biscuits.  Then participated in a cooking class in a private residence. There were only 10 people it was fantastic

Aug 26- Vivers. Participated in a full day optional tour going to a Lavender Farm, the Ardeche Gorge (which is known as the grand canyon of france) and a castle. Guide was excellent.

Aug 27- Tounon. Particpated in the the included walking tour of the town and then the included steam train ride in the mountains. Very enjoyable.

Aug 28- Lyon.  Included wine country tour to the Beaujolais region. Had a tasting at a local small vineyard. The vineyard was a family owned business passed down from generations.  4 hour excursion

Aug 29- Lyon. Walking tour of Lyon included excursion.  This included the Basilica and walking around the old town. 3 hour excursion

Aug 30- Departed Lyon for home.  Air France Lyon to Paris and then Paris to Boston. Would highly recommend at least a 2 hour layover in Paris. The connection would have been difficult with less than that amount of time.

Celebrity Silhouette

12 day Baltic Cruise

May 5-19, 2017

This was my first Celebrity Cruise and I am confident in saying that it was one of the best. The ship itself was absolutely beautiful, with a lot of attention to detail and a feeling of openness. All of the crew was outstanding, and always had a smile on their faces. We stayed in a balcony cabin and I have to say that it was very roomy and the balcony was larger than other ships that I have been on.

There are several specialty dining restaurants on board that are definitely worth the extra fee. We went to the Tuscan Grill, Lawn club, Qsine, and Murano’s where you can experience lobster that is prepared table side by your server.

There are a lot of things to do on board, you can play bocce ball on the Lawn at the Lawn Club, Celebrity ilounge, the Aqua Spa, or go to the Martini Bar like we did every night. Excellent shows, karaoke, bingo, silent disco, casino, a hideaway where you can just chill from the world and totally unplug. You can really be as busy as you want to be or hide out in the library.

The ports of call that we visited on this cruise were Warnemunde, Tallin, St. Petersburg, Helsinki, Stockholm, and Copenhagen and it was round trip from Amsterdam.

Amsterdam– We decided to go in a day early so that we could visit the Keukenhof Gardens because they are only open for 6 weeks and we happen to catch it in the middle. The gardens are so beautiful and they are a must see.

Warnemunde (Berlin)- Is actually a small port village where you can take a bus to Berlin which takes 3 hours each way. We decided not to go with the ships shore excursion and went with SPB Tour instead because the groups were a lot smaller and less expensive. We also used them for St. Petersburg for the same reason.

We had about 17 in our group and we had a wonderful tour guide Jim who was from Minnesota.

The sites that we visited were Olympic Stadium, victory column, Reichstag, Brandenburg Gate, Holocaust Memorial, Site of Hitlor’s Bunker, Berlin Wall, Potsdamer Platz (lunch German Sausages), Gendarmenmarkt, and Check Point Charlie.

All in all it was a long day but well worth it.

Tallin– This is a charming little city, with cobble stoned streets and unusual buildings. The ship docks about 20 minute walk from the city center or you can by a shuttle ticket from the ship. They had extensive array of souvenir stalls and hand made items that you could at a very good price. It’s good to make your way up toward the fort and the Russian Church for a wonderful view of the town.

St. Petersburg– Again we used SPB Tours and we had a wonderful and brilliant tour guide named Maria. We had 2 wonderful sunny days but windy, which is unusual because they only have 50 sunny days out of the year.

The sites that we visited were Peterhof’s Palace, Winter Palace, Hermitage, Isaac’s Cathedral, Church of Spilled Blood, Catherine’s Summer Palace, Winter Palace, and we also visited the subway, had 2 Russian lunches and 2 canal boat rides. It was a long 2 days but absolutely worth it!

Helsinki– We decided to use the ships shuttle into town and we were surprised how much we liked Helsinki. We just walked around near the main harbor area and park. We worked our way to the outdoor market and stopped for an ice cream at one of the outdoor food stalls… neat little city.

Stockholm– The approach to Stockholm, as the ship sails through hundreds of small islands for 4 hours, is spectacular, so make sure you’re up on the observations deck, or balcony at least an hour before the ship is due to dock. Again we decided to take the shuttle and walk around Old Town which was a great place to sightsee and people watch, we also went to the Royal Palace.

Copenhagen- We had a complimentary excursion with Distinctive Voyages by Travel Leaders for 3 hours. The tour consisted of the Little Mermaid and a Canal boat ride through the city. I wished that we had enough time to visit Tivoli Gardens but maybe next time.

All in all we had a wonderful time and I can’t wait to go on another Celebrity cruise again.

Kris Levy

East Greenwich

I was invited to do a Danube River Cruise on the Monarch Empress, a brand new Gate 1 vessel.

Truthfully, my expectations were not high because it was Gate I , but I was pleasantly surprised.

The Empress went into service in March of this year. The maximum capacity is 144 passengers, the vessel has 72

spacious outside cabins, 58 with a French Balcony. The bathrooms were a good size w/a large walk-in shower.

The food was very good; breakfast was a buffet, lunch and dinner were a la carte w/an optional buffet. Dinner

consisted of 4 or 5 courses, not huge courses, just enough to fill you comfortably. The servers were always willing

to accommodate you w/an add’l entrée should you want to sample something else.

It was smooth sailing all the way. The journey took us thru 16 locks, which was very interesting to experience.

We cruised from Regensburg, Germany to Budapest, Hungary, stopping at the ports of Passau,  Melk  and Vienna in Austria, and Bratislava in Slovakia.

Daily shore excursions were we conducted by conducted by very knowledgeable, English speaking guides. After the tours we were given ample time to explore the cities on our own.

The only city we could not access by foot from the vessel was Vienna. It was a good 20 minute ride from the river to the downtown area. I did find that disappointing.

We did experience high water levels at points, prompting the vessel to depart earlier than scheduled from one port. Fortunately it was not high enough to force us to do a cruise/bus tour as others have been had to do!

One thing I was not aware of before this cruise was the rafting of vessels. The rivers are so saturated w/vessels that they line them up very closely and passengers pass thru the other vessels lobbies to get to shore. The negative is the loss of light and privacy. You could reach out from your balcony and touch the vessel next to you.

All in all, it was a great trip! From feasting on bratwurst and beer in Germany’s oldest restaurant, to enjoying a concert featuring the world’s largest church organ (17,774 pipes!) to a classical Viennese concert,  to strolling along the cobblestone streets of beautiful Bratislava, ending in the fascinating city of  Budapest; it was a wonderful experience!