Viking Pride Review

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Harrowing trip on the Viking Pride October 25-November 1, 2015.

Review for Europe River Cruise on Viking Pride
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Tvrajan
First Time Cruiser • Age 70s

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Sail Date: Oct 2015

My wife and I have never been on a river cruise before, even though we have taken a number of ocean cruises. Going to Giverny and seeing Monet’s garden has always been on my wife's bucket list, and after much discussion, we booked trips on a Viking cruise entitled “Paris and the heart of Normandy”. We flew Icelandic air and arrived at Charles de Gaulle airport, where we were promptly, efficiently and courteously picked up by a Viking representative and brought to the ship, which was anchored close to the Eiffel Tower. We arrived in Paris a little later than anticipated, so we thought we would be taken directly to the ship. Instead we were taking the Novotel hotel, where we were offered pastries and tea. We didn’t know anything about normal Viking procedures and so did not think that this was out of the ordinary. It was only later that we learned that the reason for the delay in allowing us to board the ship was that there had been an outbreak of Norovirus related gastrointestinal disease during the previous cruise.

Things seemed to be going very well the first day. The next day, the hotel manager told us that she was the bearer of bad news and that a few passengers had come down with gastrointestinal illness. During the remainder of the trip, as we continued to enjoy the trip, more and more passengers and crew members began to fall ill, at the rate of about 10 every day. The ship begin do resemble a hospital ward rather than a carefree vacation environment!

On Wednesday, we began to hear alarming rumors - that a passenger had died and that another had been taken to the hospital after having had a fall. We received very little information from Viking, other than that the outbreak was not contained and more passengers were falling ill. Over the next few days, we learned that both rumors were true. One of the passengers, a spritely, vivacious 70-year-old, who had been perfectly fit had fallen ill on Tuesday and died later. The rumor about the hospitalization was also true, except that it understated the problem rather than exaggerating it. As far as we know, at least 4 passengers had needed urgent care. One of them had become so dehydrated that he fell in the bathroom and had to be rushed to the hospital. Parenthetically, and to our surprise, at least two of the passengers were charged $1240 a piece for that urgent care.

Cabin Review

Port Reviews

Paris

Good walking tour.

Rouen

Great walking tour; excellent guide.

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