Trip Planning and DTW - AMS via Delta

Several friends have asked us about Viking River Cruises. Here are some notes:

After our first cruise on the Danube, we reconnected with some other long-time friends, Max and Rich Patterson, to find that Ms. Max (long-time travel planner at MaxPattersonTravel.com) had added a specialty in River Cruises to her travel experience over the last several years. (If you're thinking about it, contact her for info!) She helped us book this trip, discussed excursions, provided additional info on the itinerary, advised the best time of year to travel and monitored the ever-changing flight info.  

About that: Viking can include airfare with the cruises, or not. For both trips, it was definitely less expensive to book air through Viking. Viking has contracts with many airlines for discounted fares. Not surprisingly, they get guests from their home to the ship in the way that is most advantageous for Viking. It IS possible to discuss alternate airline and flight options, within some parameters. For the Danube trip, we could only fly Delta one way. This time we opted to pay a little extra to fly on Delta both ways, since Detroit is a Delta hub and that would contribute the most to our frequent flyer status. If we had found comparable airfare, we felt that managing everything through Viking would be the best way to ensure smooth transfers from the plane to the hotel in Brussels to the ship in Antwerp.

Once upon a time, travel was an experience in itself. Today, travel is what's necessary to get from home to the fun destination. In my experience post-Covid, airlines are committed to pleasing some of the people some of the time. Flights are cancelled, flight times change and equipment changes so that very carefully-selected seats disappear. In this case, Delta disappointed Dave and Deb both ways (!) with the seat thing. On the plus side, we’re all still in an upgraded section. (I know, First World problems….)

When we were younger we were more concerned about finding the least expensive way to travel. Now that we're older and have achy-breaky parts, "comfort" is higher on our priority list. We all chose to upgrade to Delta's Premium Select cabin, which we did for the Danube trip as well. For us, it is worth it. Here's what that looks like:

 And here are Deb and Scroggs distracted by a DIY still in the Amsterdam airport Duty Free…thinking about how to get it back to Mike and Lori Seeger.

It 

See you in Brussels!