Why did Viking refund us $1,000? Lyon to Provence Viking Riverboat Cruise – October 2024

Chapters:
00:19 Day 0 Paris, France
03:29 Day 1 Paris to Lyon
05:50 Day 2 Lyon, Perouges and Vienne
11:13 Day 3 Vienne, France
18:26 Day 4 Vienne to Tournon
22:06 The Food Interlude
22:38 Day 5 Tournon to Chateauneuf de Pape
25:41 Day 6 Chateauneuf de Pape to Arles
28:44 Day 7 Arles back to Avignon
32:30 Day 8 Heading Home
33:03 Bonus 1: Game Night!
36:22 Bonus 2: A Tribute to the Heimdal Crew

Hi, Steve here. Thank you for joining me on the Panoramic Travels YouTube channel.

We’re got off of the Viking Riverboat Radgrid after our 80th anniversary of D-Day cruise, which was the subject of a previous Panoramic Travels video. We spent a day in Paris before starting the Lyon to Provence cruise with our friends Don and Kim. Stick around to the end of this video for two bonus sections: Game night on the riverboat and a tribute to the crew of the Heimdal.

Let’s talk about the food. It’s always high quality with excellent presentation. They offer a great selection of food throughout the cruise and are somehow able to get it to the table hot, in spite of the very small kitchen. If you want to see a tour of a Viking riverboat kitchen check out the bonus content at the end of my video entitled “What Happens on a Viking Riverboat” that I published in August 2024.

Day 5 high water talk by the captain … basically, the captain explained that it wouldn’t be safe to sail through the night. That resulted in us docking at a different location – outside of Avignon. Viking had to scramble to get coaches to take us on tomorrow’s tour into Avignon. Unfortunately, it also resulted in us missing the Pont du Gard Aqueduct tour; a tour we were really looking forward to. Viking, of course, refunded us for the cost of that tour. After we got home we got a letter from Viking apologizing for any inconvenience and they refunded each of us $500.

A Tribute to the Heimdal Crew
We’ve been on five Viking riverboat cruises and one Viking ocean cruise over the past five years. This is the first time we witnessed the grueling task of loading the boat for the next cruise. This was a very unfortunate dock to have to load from since the dock is so long.

This was all hands on deck! You can see the program director, the head of guest services, wait staff, hotel staff and many others of the 55 person crew; crew members from fourteen countries working together – and continuously – for around two hours to load the Heimdal. It’s a real testament to how hard Viking crew members work. So, this is my tribute to the crew of the Heimdal. I thank them for their hard work, whether it’s when we can see them or the work they do behind the scenes.

A couple of requests …

Please subscribe and click on the Notify button so you’ll know when new videos come out. We’ve already signed up for more Viking riverboat and ocean cruises in 2025 and 2026.

And, finally, think about leaving a comment. Are you thinking about taking this cruise? Did this video help you make a decision? Have you already taken this cruise? What were your most memorable tours? Or, do you have any questions for me about this cruise?

Ok, that’s all for now. Thanks for watching!

[Music] hi Steve here thanks for joining me on the panoramic travels YouTube channel we’re getting off the Viking Riverboat rad grid after our 80th anniversary of D-Day Cruise which was the subject of a previous panoramic travels video we spent a day in Paris before starting the Leon to provance cruise with our friends Dan and Kim please click the like subscribe and notify buttons it really helps the channel and stick around to the end of this video for two bonus sections game night on the riverbat and a tribute to the crew of the heimdal [Music] [Music] the speee [Music] [Music] all [Music] [Music] [Music] is you [Music] I miss you most [Music] [Music] [Music] that’s so cool [Music] watch I give my [Music] [Music] [Music] she just doesn’t see she does I hope all of you had a wonderful first full day here on board of the Viking Hout now we want to celebrate the start of our cruise and therefore we organized this get together here and I would like to invite some more people over here to the Louch ladies and gentlemen welcome to the lounge so happy to see you all here tonight my name is Christian I work I’m working with Viking since 2019 all on Bo desserts are calories free and wish to all of you a wonderful cruise and something yes small houses from from yeah 2 [Music] 3,000 we’re going to go to the top of the I here to have a talk about the Basilica and enjoy the best Viewpoint over the city I look to the front right that’s where we’re going at the top of a hill looking like fairy castle but it’s a basilica [Music] it’s a sort of fch and Judy type of puet it was invented created by a seal quer called Lo early 19th century the plays we created every day following the new but you know with the humor of a puppet you could talk about many things that we forbidden into newspapers at that time because of his censorship that’s why Laur became very famous with the sil wers because he was talking about political and social issues especially the condition of light of a seal wom the King Henry theth who got married in 1600 such a huge class IAL building that we call French classical architecture both of us we hope you have enjoyed the morning in our company and we’re going to wish you a very nice cruise and a very nice time in France as I know some of you already my name is Christian Christian I will be your guide you will go to per not Peri Peri we don’t know we go to perou for the first time appear appears a man uh and this man is important he will become the first King of the Franks his name was clis we are in the fifth century and it was the first French King first French King Christian and that’s that’s the beginning of the story with all the kings till with the 16s till the French Revolution French Revolution no more King no more que and it was a nightmare during 9s after the French Revolution there’s one man he arrived uh in the right time uh at the right place he had a special heart and his name was Napoleon he reorganized the society he became the umera in 1804 it was very good for the French he reorganized the society in France Bank of France University civil court Napoleon unfortunately he was also a man who wanted to become the new Caesar which didn’t work in the 1800 so we said goodbye to Napoleon 1815 no more leaders in France we call back the Kings we had with the agents it was super cool wanted to keep his head after we have the brothers Char the 10 he was not cool at home so we say goodbye 1830 we pH that’s the last king 1848 and of the monarchy in France we had the second Republic because the first was the French Revolution the president of the second Republic was R Napoleon bonapart when your last name is bonapart President not enough he became the new umor so that’s the second Empire till 1870 then we have the Franco Prussian War we say goodbye to Napoleon the third then we have the third Republic the Fourth Republic the fifth Republic that’s a French history so it’s really busy so you don’t need to go to university so it’s it’s easy that you have an idea of how complex is of course the history when the sunmmer arrives [Music] this problem [Music] from the par I [Music] he the societ [Music] [Music] I like to [Music] see with you [Music] me yeah [Music] the countryside we’re going to be a very nice J and we got the sun with us today it’s going to be very nice what is exactly the wine region of the B well we got here something like 15,000 aces of vines in the B so that’s not a lot in fact because if you do comparisons if you compare that to other wine regions for instance in France well the wine region around B is six times bigger than you only have a few berries left here they have been left uh by the people working during the Harvest uh of course one advantage if you do everything by hand if that this is that you can choose uh and you can let the berries that are not very nice look here this is not very nice huh uh that’s not the good color on the Skins you have something bad so they can choose so to be sure that everything is in good order the aristocrats in France the noble families used to build H their places this is from the mid 18th century and then the rest the platform here all The Vineyards and all these installations there H where we going to go uh everything has been added in the 19th century when the place was transformed turned into a wine estate the Harvest is done by hand and you remember I said there is a reason why the reason is that we want work here with the old bunches meaning we don’t distend you know normally the people they this is why you can use machine to do the Harvest because what you need at the end of the Harvest are the berries most of the wine makers they want to start with the berries H they check the berries and then they start to work with the berries but no not here here we want to work with the old bunches and we want to have big and nice bunches so that means that you you have to do it by hand this is the reason why not tradition this is is not the real fermentation this is the step before and something very specific to the boo then you wait four five up sometimes to 18 days you do a short or a long mation this is a decision the wine makers has to make whether you want a long or a short mation and during these mation well just because of the gravity of the weight the bottom thir here get crushed H by the way you can also try to open the roof h one out one and to toss to mix and during this mation while just the berries explode you have a lot of dioxide this is why we say Carbonic mation everything is closed H so and because of that you have a process that starts an intracellular process that transforms the cells of the berries and then the juice well when you decide that it’s okay that it is long enough you open here and you take the first juice what comes very easily first is what we call the first juice of course you have a lot of must because of all the Skins but also the stems and everything because you put the buch inside so then you remove the must and you use that machine there the yellow machine this is a press don’t imagine people doing this with their feet well this is not the moment you ask yourself what kind of f guy do we have this morning he’s talking only about red wine red wine and the first of course is the white wine yes we always start with white anding a tting that means G grave sword mation fermentation everything made in Salmon tanks now you know about the process and now you have to begin with the classic taste of that [Music] [Music] spee [Music] spee spech [Music] much for joining us actually we were supposed to join you in the city of Leon but has changed so we traveled a little bit this afternoon to join you in Ven and as you can see the texture of the colors that she’s using is very thick it’s Visos do on purpose so once two colors are in she’ll have she will have to grab a spatula and mix it together so he does this back and forth movement making sure that the black color doesn’t change its intensity and once it’s done once the color is stretched out now both of them that’s why they are two of them in the process they will both lift the screen very softly and you will see the black paint underneath so that’s going to be the result of the suen so the third car would be the uh the little Violet details of the citycape so we’re going to be working with the city part part first and we still have to create two more Navy variations and there you go that’s going to be the final result in the final process of printing this reproduction in nine different colors I hope you will enjoy the rest of your cryp thank you how is everybody doing we started this morning with a wonderful Excursion to the bour beautiful weather today as well I hope you enjoyed that and I do hope that you also enjoyed our Excursion exploring the conference side in bour and the wine tasting as well some of you even went a full day to the bour so I hope you all had a great time everybody wake up and do you need c I need c and chicken and chicken [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] oh [Music] Saturday morning is the day of the market we go to the market and we make all the shopping for the week and yeah we go back home for little carriage I don’t know if I can use Carriage I don’t have any other better words [Music] e [Music] [Music] first I would like to say thank you because if you are here with us in the lounge it’s most likely because you are invited to our viting society explor cocktail party ladies and gentlemen thank you so much a few weeks ago we got some news ladies and gentlemen that I would like also to share with you we are so proud of this we were named number one in river in Ocean and on the Expeditions by you ladies and gentlemen we just got the news like two weeks ago and this brings an immens amount of proud thank you so much for TR good dessert deserves a good coffee did you see how quick I was so to catch [Music] [Music] before we continue on to day five let’s talk about the food it’s always high quality with excellent presentation they offer a great selection of food throughout the cruise and are somehow able to get it to the table hot in spite of the very small kitchen if you want to see a tour of a Viking Riverboat kitchen check out the bonus cont content at the end of my video entitled what happens on a Viking riverbat that I published in August of 2024 okay now on to day five so we’re going to be 10 minutes on the bus to get to the train station and when we get to the train station we’ll be going on the steam train and it’s number Carriage number 33 up [Music] [Music] these [Applause] [Music] I will invite our captain to explain to you a little bit what is going on and why we have those schedule changes so ladies and gentlemen here is your captain Lola everybody so uh I will explain a little bit what happened as you perhaps uh noticed the level of the water is uh very high basically the captain explained that it wouldn’t be safe to sail through the night that resulted in and US stocking in a different location outside of aong Viking had to scramble to get coaches to take us on tomorrow’s tour into aagn unfortunately it also resulted in us missing the Pont Dugard Aqueduct tour a tour we really looking forward to Viking of course refunded us for the cost of that tour and after we got home we got a letter from Viking apologizing for any inconvenience and they refunded each of us $500 [Music] [Music] far tomorrow we still have a full day of excursions together but the day after that on Wednesday morning that is the time that you will disembark from the Viking and we want to already answer the possible questions you might have about the procedure of this embarcation and I’ll be your guide this afternoon to discover a and the pops pal we are tring Ro River uh your sheep is living byebye [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] m [Music] spee [Music] hey hey [Music] [Music] hwww [Music] [Music] this here the envelop he walk to the district and you will offer this present with her with girlfriend her name is Rachel and he told Rachel you take care of this precious present you keep it forever and she left can imagine Rachel she opened the tissue she found the piece of ear she almost faint right was very happy the day after the morning she would go to the police they go to the yellow house and they find V unconscious dig it was transported here exactly there on what for that he painted with that have painting it is part of a private collection now [Music] for [Music] your C your man and [Applause] all cheers I just want to say thank you have a wonderful evening if you’re C curious we are Sailing by the fortification of taras so that is the the teras castle that we are passing by my last piece of information uh I wish you all Wonder evening a happy tea and see you on the rivers see you next time thank you very much [Music] this concludes the main part of the video but I hope you’ll stick around for the two bonus sections game night on the riverbat and a tribute to the Heim doll crew if you’ve enjoyed the video please give it a like and consider subscribing and click the notify button so you’ll know when new videos come out thanks for watching we have the Atlanta sound machine okay you were quick with coming up with a name and it’s a very long name yeah was okay here we go Ziggy Stardust and the spiders from Mars we are ready for the game tonight yes we did okay head in for our [Music] first for every correct answer you get 10 points wow those 10 points so it can be 40s per song we will find out already Who is the top three of this evening but they will have to answer one extra question you add up the three hes of our Lovely Hotel manager annaa wow this be hard our housekeeper manager can you tell us and our wonderful Dell third place this evening with the combined age of um 136 just a tiny bit too much is for the Atlanta sound machine third PL wonderful then for our second and first place it was again very close because the amount of years that you were off is the same uhoh but the ones that went a little bit higher get the second place and the ones that went a little bit lower will deserve the first place so second place 100 uh 133 years old Good Day USA you hard a second place this evening and you with a beautiful bottle ofo and some cookies well delivered by our housekeeper chria and then we of course know who is the winner the only winner this evening on the Viking Heim D 13th of October 2024 s [Music] Stardust with 11 years old so thank you very much for this one more prize to hand out and I would like to ask for the team south of Canada where are you oh no no no no most honest I don’t know yeah probably very well done 50 points ladies and [Music] gentlemen we’ve been on five Viking Riverboat Cruises and one Viking ocean cruise over the past 5 years this is the first time we witnessed the grueling task of loading the boat for the next cruise this was all hands on deck you can see the program director the head of guest services weight staff Hotel staff and many others of the 55 person crew very impressive this was a very unfortunate dck you have to load from since the dock is so long they’ve been doing this for an hour and a half I know it’s crazy and now they’re just tossed around bottles of wine like it’s nothing I’m like oh no no no crew members from 14 countries working together and continuously for around 2 hours to load the heimall it’s a real Testament to how hard Viking crew members work so this is my tribute to the crew of the Heim doll I thank them for their hard work whether it’s when we can see them or when the work they do is behind the scenes okay yeah yeah yeah yeah [Music] [Music] W one more [Music]