Our first day of included tours - Part 1 at the Portsmouth D-Day Museum

Our first full day in the hotel had us hit the ground running with a full day of included touring. Or running as best as you can with a cane, jet lag, time zone changes, and sore bodies in the windy chill that comes with visiting London in November. It's always a good idea to double check your tour times as they can often change from when you've booked them. Today's tour plans, called the Golden Lion Pub, Gunwharf Quays & the D-Day Museum, was listed as starting at 8AM and lasting 12 hours when we booked the included tour. According to the paper schedule we were given upon check-in, our Bus #1 tour time was 7:15AM to 5:45PM for a total of 10 and a half hours. The remaining buses were staggered with tour times starting at 7:30AM, 8:15AM, and 8:30AM with corresponding later return times. Viking did provide "included" access to the hotel buffet breakfast, held in the Park Corner Brasserie restaurant on site, arranging with the hotel to open breakfast 30 minutes early for us. Tour Director Dee did warn us that after those 30 minutes, everyone else staying at the hotel was allowed to come for breakfast (at their own cost) so it was best to show up early to avoid the line. Thankfully, Dee also saw the line getting long with just Viking people and started calling for Bus #1 people to skip the line.

After breakfast we boarded the bus and were on our way. Our Quiet Vox was needed for every tour even on the land portions but for the most part we were close enough when stopped to hear the guide's commentary directly. Our first stop of the day after a two hour drive was to the D-Day Museum in Portsmouth, England. The individual adult ticket rate costs £17.55 and £14.00 for Seniors aged 60+. Veterans of World War II get in for free while current serving members and other veterans get a reduced ticket price of £14.00. Our admission was included by Viking.

Our guide led us first onto the LCT (Landing Craft Tank) 7074 displayed outside the museum. It is the last surviving Landing Craft Tank used during D-Day to transport men and supplies across the English Channel. After the LCT 7074 was retired, it was turned into a nightclub but eventually fell into disrepair and sank. The National Museum of the Royal Navy worked to restore the vessel. 

The tank is under an overhang but still exposed to the wind and cold. There are steps leading up to the vessel on one side and an inclined ramp on the other.

The "head" onboard was a very primitive setup to do one's business just off the deck before getting back to the real business at hand.

The museum's official website describes how you can tour all over the LCT seeing officer's quarters, a galley, and then climb the ladder to the bridge. The path to walk on the deck portion is mostly flat with raised edges and rivets to walk carefully around. The website mentions that while there is no handicapped access to the upper parts of the tank, there is a video available to be watched. We were led up the ramp at the bow, given commentary as we walked along the open deck, and given the chance to see a few displays and signs on this open section. After hearing the entire history of this vessel standing out in the freezing wind, our group started walking toward the doors thinking we would be next heading inside to view the rest. The guide stopped us and insisted that those were just offices and we'd actually be heading into the museum itself next.

The main portion of the D-Day Museum inside is dedicated to the Overlord Embroidery display. The Overlord Embroidery was a project commissioned in 1968 by Lord Dulverton. The embroidery design was created by a young British artist named Sandra Lawrence. Sandra's colored paintings that match the size of the embroidery panels now hang in the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. Lights in this area are kept low to preserve the historic work and flash photography is prohibited. The panels are numbered with an optional numbered audio guide and an explanation to read below each glass enclosed panel.

Our guide talked throughout the entire time leading us through the 34 panels explaining the progression of the story and how much work was put in to make sure that all of the details down to the buttons on the uniforms were correct. 

Once back out of the Overlord Embroidery section, you can pick up a bottle of Landfall Ale in the gift shop for £3.50. This beer, described as a classic ruby malty ale with happy overtones, was named after the nightclub that the LCT was turned into after the war. Purchases of the beer, also found in many other gift shops and venues in the area, go toward the upkeep and preservation of the tanker.

With our remaining free time, we toured the rest of the museum. There is also a cafe area to purchase drinks, food, or just take a minute to sit and rest. Some of the group chose to walk down by the waterfront. 

Most of the exhibits were only for viewing and reading but a few featured interactive options like rolling the dice to learn what role you might have had during the war.

While I didn't purchase any of the beer, I did make a contribution at the giftshop by purchasing this magnet showcasing the history of Betty White's jacket. Like many of the children in the area, she would ask the passing soldiers for badges or buttons off their uniforms as they marched through the town of Gosport. Betty's mother sewed the 89 badges and buttons she had collected onto a jacket. The jacket can be seen on display in the D-Day Museum.

Next up - our stops at Gunwharf Quays and the Golden Lion Pub.

Arrival into London and our first night at the hotel

The Viking Cruises included hotel for the first few days of this itinerary in London was the London Hilton on Park Lane. The hotel was fairly swanky with multiple on site eateries. Our flight, having traveled overnight, got into London around 8AM. We had requested an early check in pre-trip by contacting the hotel directly and was basically told the old parental response "We'll see." After waiting in line to check in, we were given the standard answer of check in not being until mid afternoon but they would let us know if rooms were ready sooner. We found a lounge area to hang out after leaving our number with the front desk to be texted. While we waited through the morning and almost all the afternoon, we got back in line a couple more times to ask questions about the hotel that we couldn't find online. By late afternoon, an hour or so after check in time, we got a message from the front desk asking us to come see them. Turns out it was just to tell us that they are still working on the rooms but it would be about another 20 minutes. Supposedly, the room we were originally assigned wasn't ready but a different room would be ready in 20 minutes. 

That 20 minutes turned into another hour when finally a manager started going around to the large amount of people waiting in the lobby to ask what is going on. We told him about how we've been waiting since 8AM and he went off to ask about it. He had the same "ready in 20 minutes" answer but was merely apologetic when we told him we'd just heard that answer an hour ago. At some point, the Director of Rooms became aware of the situation and she tried to call housekeeping in front of us to see if the room was ready yet. The housekeeping department never answered her call. To make it right, she got us a room on the hotel's Executive Rooms level so we could use the Executive Lounge for drinks, evening snacks, and a light breakfast versus joining the masses at one of the hotel's restaurants for the Viking included breakfast buffet. Despite the nicer room, I had the most trouble using a tub/shower combo that didn't seem to drain. Had to leave the dirty water sitting in the bathtub as we had to leave for the included tour with Viking. Came back at the end of the day to a room that was almost entirely cleaned by housekeeping except that they left the bathtub as I left it. We were exhausted and had no desire to wait most likely hours for someone to come fix it. Thankfully we could wait to shower again once we were on the ship a couple days later. 

As per our past Viking included hotel stays, there was a desk set up in the lobby and manned during certain hours for you to check in and ask questions. At check in on arrival day (which thankfully had no tours scheduled), the desk was open from 7:30AM to 7:00PM. On the other days, it was open for 1-2 hours in the early morning and then again in the late afternoon/early evening as our Tour Director, Dee Taylor, would go out with one of the buses during the tours and then spend time behind the desk before and after. Upon check-in we received Vox boxes to use on the land tours, new earbuds, and a schedule with our bus' meeting times highlighted. Times were staggered by 10 or 15 minute intervals to keep the crowds four buses can bring from being in the same spot all at once. Buses 1 & 2 had their Welcome Briefing this first night at 5PM. During the briefing, the schedule for the land tours was gone over as well as the process for getting everyone on to the Eurostar for the included trip to meet the ship in Paris. An optional walking tour was announced and Dee had everyone who wanted to sign up for that or had food allergies come see her after she took questions from the group as a whole. 

We had dinner in the Revery Bar the first night around 9PM once we finally had the chance to drop our luggage in the room and freshen up. I had the Revery Burger with a side of Triple-Cooked Chips while Dad had the Chicken Club Sandwich that came with an order of the Triple-Cooked Chips. 

A side note: Sickness when you're in a group of the same people for days on end is easy to spread. To keep things organized from a logistics and operations perspective, Viking assigned us and about 45 others to travel on Bus #1 for the duration of our time in London. All buses and all passengers went to the same locations and the same tours but to keep counts organized, they had us report to the same bus numbers each day. Works great from the perspective of meeting, chatting, and getting to know the same people. However, we had someone who got sick with a horrible cold/respiratory infection on day 1. They showed up for the first tour after getting some medicine from a chemist the day before. They took over the front seat and proceeded to cough repeatedly and severely. We all had to use the railing in front of their seat to get on and off the bus so it wasn't long until multiple people including myself caught their infection. A lot of people felt very miserable on such a busy port extensive cruise with long all day tours. Definitely come prepared with your own supply of OTC meds and take the time to skip a tour and rest if you're feeling sick. In this instance, sharing is not caring!

Explorer's Suite on the Viking Radgrid Cabin Tour Part 2

 Welcome back readers! Let's continue walking through the cabin. 

Continuing the theme of sliding pocket doors, the bedroom is between the bathroom and the living room space. We knew it would be a tight squeeze either way with our need for two twin beds but this design is really only meant to fit the size of the bed and a sideways shimmy to get from the hallway to the bed.

I wouldn't put much stock in being able to close this bedroom door if you stay in this cabin. It takes small nimble fingers and the patience to slide it out a little at a time.

Each zone of the cabin had this setup where you could adjust the announcement volume and alter the lights in the cabin. We had this light system explained to us by the hotel manager and our steward and we still kept messing it up. Then some of the buttons didn't react right away depending on which zone you used so you'd press something else right as it finally reacted from the first press. Spent many a day just living by the all on or all off method.

Getting in and out of this bedroom, especially when you had the far bed like me, was like an odd dance routine. Especially in the dark when you had to go by feel to tell when you had reached the right bed. I'd like to apologize now to the wall where the television is mounted for how much up close and personal potentially inappropriate contact I was giving to that wall while trying to shimmy across the floor. 

The beds were designed to be together more often than not. The room is designed as one headboard with the ability to move one nightstand to the center versus both being on the outside. Each side of the bed has a light control panel, a light sconce, and a small tap reading light. There are also plugs on each side. 

While I can't speak personally to how it felt to sleep on these beds when they are pushed together, I can say that apart, sleeping was like getting a core workout. If you tried to move around and get in a better sleeping position while already in bed, then the mattress would slide off the base. There was no pushing off the mattress with your body to turn over. We would have to stand back up, throw ourselves onto the bed, and hope we landed in a decent position to fall asleep.

Each zone also had its own touch button controlled thermostat

The nightstands had a small cubby on the bottom. Each night our steward would stuff the extra decorative bed pillows in there so I wouldn't rely on it for your own cabin storage needs. What looks like it should be a drawer that opens actually opens up as a tray extension of the top. Good for when you want to momentarily place a book or tablet but not helpful for routine storage.

Looking back toward the bedroom door with my back to the French Balcony doors.

Just on the bedroom side of the cabin, the balcony is solely big enough for you to open the door and touch a railing. Existing mostly just for views and fresh air. Or in the case of the moment before this first picture was taken, existing for a large spider to hang out in front of and try to take advantage of open access into our cabin. Thankfully I shut it in time and that National Geographic nature special star wasn't able to come in for a visit.

For those of you who need complete darkness to sleep, all of the balcony draperies featured a sheer curtain and a thick blackout curtain.

Looking out at the living room from the bedroom doorway:

Between the couch and balcony doors sat an end table with a smaller end table nestled underneath it. Left for our use on the end table was magazines and this set of binoculars.

The little end table could be moved anywhere else in the room. It wasn't attached at all like the bedroom pull out trays,

Looking back toward the desk and second TV. The desk has some shallow drawers and cabinets with shelves on the bottom. A small insert in the desktop opens to reveal a vanity mirror.

Our Vox boxes were kept in this charging bay that took up one of the main plugs at the desk. We had to get one box exchanged on day one because it wasn't charging in the dock, Earbuds are provided in the cabin. We were told on the land portion to keep our earbuds to use with the onboard boxes but new ones were left in the cabin. In the disembark talk by Cruise Director Mia, she told everyone to leave the earbuds as well because they have some company that comes onboard to collect them and prepare them somehow. 

Suites onboard Viking River cruises get the inclusion of room service breakfast. Here is the door tag that is left in the cabins. We never used it.

When your Vox Boxes are charging correctly, the yellow light should turn green within a couple hours. If you find that it still shows yellow later in the day, take it down to Guest Services to be switched out. Also handy to pick up at Guest Services for each port is small business cards explaining where the ship is docked and printed maps of the town in case you wish to explore on your own. The little business cards come in handy when you need to use a taxi to bring you back to the ship in a city where English is not the driver's first language. They do have a Viking Voyager app for looking at dining room menus, excursion information, and the daily schedule but it's not always up to date. For 2-3 days straight, our apps displayed a message that said the Viking Daily schedule had not been published yet for that day whereas the paper copy was readily delivered to our cabin each evening for the following day. 

Excursion tickets will be delivered to your cabin the night before each day's port visit. Make sure you check the time on the ticket for meeting time and departure time as some do and have changed between us booking them and when we got onboard. One thing we learned on this trip is that only the included excursions bother to have a leisure group (and not even all of them) so if you're someone who needs a slower pace and/or accommodations made to participate, don't count on being able to do any of the excursions that are an extra cost. Also please make sure you double check with Viking as one included tour we booked did not have a leisure group because of the main historic site being inaccessible. Cruise Director Mia was kind enough to meet with anyone before the port day to break down what any excursion would be like as far as terrain and amount of steps/length of walking so you can make an informed decision whether to attend. We lost out on one paid excursion because we were told by Guest Services that "all" excursions would have the leisure group. Any paid excursions have a requirement of 48 hours prior to be cancelled in order to get your money back. I would advise that Viking revisit such a policy when it's an issue of trips like ours with hotel stays beforehand and the fact that Viking closed access to My Viking Journey several days beforehand. Any tour within the first couple days of being onboard can not be cancelled since they are within 48 hours. 

On the other side of the desk is another set of plugs but one is used by the phone jack and the other holds a desk lamp. In the desk lamp, there are a couple USB ports. 

With the vanity mirror raised up and our phone chargers making good use out of the lamp's USB ports.

While the desk chair was okay for sitting at the desk for brief periods, it was more comfortable to swap out the chair with one of the living room chairs for longer periods of work at the computer. There was ample space on the desk to set up my small laptop and external mouse but I would stow it all away when not in use. 

The furniture was relaxing for short periods. The couch was just long enough to lay on for me. It was good for those moments when I just wanted to put my feet up and play a game on my tablet. I spent most of the cruise bumping my toes and shins because I thought that coffee table couldn't move. Turns out it was just super heavy.

The doors on each side of the living room leading to the balcony also featured dual levels of curtains so you could choose fully open, sheer closed for light, or completely closed with the blackout curtain. One of the things that surprised us was how on day one when we were being shown around our cabin, the hotel director cautioned that at any moment we were docked, we needed to keep the balcony doors closed. If we were all inside the cabin, we were to keep them closed and locked. The reason was that they needed to prevent strangers with ill intent from being able to get into the ship if/when they jumped down from the dock onto your balcony. We'd never been warned about that when doing river cruises in American ports but I guess in Europe it is as much of a concern as pickpockets. 

Moving on to the balcony area - if you accessed the wraparound balcony through either of the living room doors, then you would find yourself on the balcony section that is actually wide enough to stand on. There is a solid partition blocking you from going any further toward the bedroom where the French balcony section starts. If you hadn't looked out from the bedroom side, you wouldn't believe there was any more "balcony" to the cabin. 

While this first picture isn't clear, or perhaps too clear, there is waist high glass in place where the solid white railing ends. The switches controlling the balcony lights are tucked in the back right corner of the below photo. We had several instances as can be common in European river cruises where we were docked sidled up next to another river cruise ship that required walking through the open areas of the decks. We'd reach the end of the cabin corridor to run smack into the parade of people from the other ship crossing through our ship on their way to the gangway. At the end of one long exhausting tour, we stopped for a rest in some chairs and appreciated finding more of a variety of pastries stocked at the coffee stations. We were all set to stay out for a while before bothering to drop our stuff back in the cabin until we realized we were actually hanging out in the Viking ship that was docked alongside us. We still needed to continue on the walk to get back on our ship. Viking crew/officers talk all the time about how they have cameras everywhere but there was no one making sure Viking Radgrid passengers were not staying onboard the sister ship or vice versa. Thanks for the better snacks though Viking Kari!

The flip side though is that having a cabin location at the level of these suites meant that we'd butt up right against the other ship's Explorer Suites. If either of us un-frosted that bathroom window glass, it would be a different kind of onboard entertainment. At one point, I slid back the bedroom curtains and was able to see into the neighboring ship's bedroom as the gentleman took a nap with the lights on. I kept thinking our balcony lights were left on when docked together because their exterior deck lights would illuminate into our living room windows if we didn't keep the curtains closed. 

There is a bit of a height difference and a ledge to step over when going out onto the balcony. Take care to hold on to something when you step back and forth.

This is the balcony area off the aft facing living room doors. Here you can better see the glass panels enclosing the balcony. Our outdoor furniture consisted of two upright wicker chairs and two small tables in between. Big enough to take out some coffee cups and a single plate of food at a time if you wish to have fresh air with your room service breakfast. 

Adjacent to our balcony is the winch used to lower the small rescue boat should they need to transfer someone who needs medical assistance back to a waiting boat. I inadvertently opened the curtains one day in the middle of their drill and watched them cast off the boat. 

The below picture also highlights how covered the balcony is so you can enjoy river watching in the shade.

The ceiling cover does not obstruct any of the view:

Looking back into the cabin from the balcony, depending on the angle, you can get both a reflective view of the outside and a peek inside the cabin. Be wary of keeping the curtains closed while getting ready unless you fancy a different sort of Paris exhibition.

A decorative plant stand makes for a tight corner as you move around the side but not enough to make you go back inside and use the other doors. 

After you turn the corner and have that plant at your back:

The balcony is still completely covered and the view out is unobstructed:

While we didn't get any priority or early boarding due to the entire ship arriving at the same time from the Eurostar terminal, we did get a Silver Spirits beverage package included in the cost of the suite. We also had an included private car transfer from the airport to the hotel and would have had one at the end of the cruise to whatever transportation venue or hotel we requested in the area. We ended up changing our debark plans mid-cruise and used a car service of our own booking to travel from where this cruise ended in Paris to return to Southampton. The one downside of that ride to the hotel from Heathrow is the fact that our driver saw us arrive at baggage claim with mobility assistance, yanked away our luggage from the airport employee who'd assisted us, and then took off speed walking to his car in the parking garage leaving us to desperately rush while hobbling along to keep him in sight. He drove to the hotel like he was running late for his own plane to catch. We were thankful to make it to the hotel safely and chalked it all up to the joys and stresses of traveling.

Thank you for joining me on this cabin tour. I hope it helps inform and entertain any reader who may be planning a Viking river cruise. Tour experiences and everyone's favorite food photos and reviews to be posted in the coming weeks so stay tuned!