Happy Saturday friends! Today I am excited to share all about our transfer from the Marseille airport to the Viking Delling in Avignon! As our river cruise on the Rhone River started in Avignon the airport that most of the guests traveled from was the Marseille airport.
If you were following along on Instagram then you saw some of our adventures in Marseille prior to our cruise. We arrived on Monday the 21st, and met the Viking Transfer services group at the Marseille airport on Wednesday, the 23rd (the day the cruise started). Our scheduled time of meeting was at 12:45pm and we arrived at the airport extremely excited for our adventure!
When we arrived we found out that some of the plane arrivals we were to meet were unfortunately delayed by several hours. The kind thing was that Viking quickly transferred us to another departing group and we were on our way!
We were greeted and helped with our luggage and the entire process was incredibly easy. We got onto the van and were offered waters and a warm welcome and we were all excited to start our adventure!
Our driver pointed out this van above- it looked exactly like the van we were on taking us to Avignon!
The ride to Avignon from Marseille airport was about an hour and at the time that our transfer took place there was very little traffic!
Even through the bus windows the glimpses of seeing more of France in this region were absolutely beautiful.
As we rode the bus I was so humbled and grateful. To be in France...as many of you know this was simply a gift beyond words.
Our driver pointed out that we were getting closer to Avignon and we were so excited!
A few minutes later our driver pointed out that if we looked to the left we were seeing some of our first glimpses of the Rhone River!
Approaching Avignon where the Viking Delling was docked!
Seeing the old district of Avignon as we approached our ship was so neat. For our cruise we were embarking at Avignon and then would travel down to Arles for a day before coming back to Avignon on the third day (Friday).
Our first glimpse of the Viking Delling out the window!
We were dropped off right in front of the ship! I snapped a quick picture out the window before we got off the van and while we knew it was going to be wonderful, I had no idea how incredible the week before us was about to be.
After we got off the van we were immediately greeted with crew who were kindly already taking our suitcases to our rooms. Honestly the entire transfer was so smooth and you felt like you were greeted like royalty. Everyone on our van was so excited to be there and hurried to the ship. Mom and I took a bit longer, just slowly walking (not just because she had just hurt her knee the day before), but truly just taking the entire experience in.
We saw the welcome mat, awning and boat and our little hearts were so excited!
We had to grab a quick picture! Our amazing adventure was truly about to begin!
A couple of quick notes if you are interested in doing a transfer from the airport to the ship:
1. If you purchase airfare through Viking, then transfers are included with Viking Air purchase and all of our extension packages. If you do a pre-cruise trip with them then this is also included. If you do not purchase your airfare through Viking then you will need to talk with them regarding how to get to the ship.
2. I will say that the direction we took our cruise (from Avignon to Lyon) a transfer was truly priceless and extremely wonderful. Could it have been done by train and taxi? Yes. But as two women with our luggage (and then mom hurting her knee in Marseille) I was truly thankful that we had the transfer booked. For our Rhine River Cruise in 2017- starting in Basel we did take a taxi and it was easy to do that due the location of the airport and the ship. For this specific trip and cruise I can't recommend the transfer enough.
3. A note that is important to understand for transfers with Viking River Cruises on the Rhone River (possibly all rivers - I am not sure). Viking contracts with a group for these transfers so it they are not part of the crew and staff specifically of the ship you take on the Rhone River. If you have trouble with something I would highly encourage talking with Viking - not the ship crew. I did hear a couple of people complaining about something that had happened on their transfer, but don't think they realized this separation. To be honest, I didn't either until a conversation on the cruise happened.
For us it was perfect and wonderful and I can't recommend it enough! I hope that you enjoy these pictures and a little glimpse of what the transfer is like! Please let me know if you have any questions and I will be happy to answer them!
Happy Saturday friends! I hope you have a wonderful day!
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