Viking cruise, embarkation day questions

Someone on here probably has been on cruises and can answer, but you would get more information over at Cruise Critic, https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/115-river-cruising/

Off-hand, I think your plan sounds reasonable unless they have some type of mandatory meeting after 4:00

I went on a Viking cruise last September. If I recall correctly, the embarkation day port talk and safety drill were during the hour or so before dinner, like 5:00 or 5:30.
I recommend not missing the first day's port talk (or any of them, really). Otherwise you'll have a lot of questions about things that they cover in the port talk like logistics, what time excursions are leaving, any excursion changes/cancellations/additions, and so on. At the first talk they also cover how to use the Quiet Vox set you need for excursions.
You can also watch the port talks from the TV in your cabin; I can't rememer what the channel is called, but they live-stream the port talks and any presentations that go with them so if you're changing for dinner or whatever you can still listen to the port talk.

For your first day, I'd do the walking tour and skip the museum in order to be back on the ship for the talk & safety drill. If you ask at the service desk on the ship they'll tell you the same thing.

Also Viking will be offering a light lunch the day you embark so if you want to save a little money take advantage of that before you head out. Food is excellent especially their soups. We have taken several river cruises but never started in Amsterdam. Sometimes they do a free walking tour the day you embark.

It's been a long time since we did 2 VIking river trips. But your plan is an outlier. I do not recommend leaving the ship if you were told to check-in between 12 and 4. Extreme case, they might (unless the schedule says "overnight in Amsterdam") depart, even, early because the port requests the slip for another boat.

(Made that up. But we did have a Viking ship change sides of the river while we were on a private excursion ... READ ON) ARRANGED BY THE CRUISE DIRECTOR. (Yes, I know that the spirit of this board is that only losers buy tours from the cruise company!) Our assigned taxi driver was telephoned with the new ship location. Do you get my drift? It is perfectly true that you can be swashbucklingly independent in each town, but you have a printed schedule of "Last All Aboard" (note, NOT "Departure Time") Our own experience was that the included walking tour often left us at a good place for independent walking. Biggest minus, the large number of people unwilling to skip their paid lunch on the ship.

I am not telling you that you have to be a sheep, but this product is designed to be ... proprietary, or paternalistic ... about you. It's not just a bus with an anonymous driver and list of stops. Also note that necessary "Mooring Rafts" can make boarding and exiting quite cumbersome for independent buccaneers.

Thank you for the responses. I should have mentioned we are docked in Amsterdam 2 nights, so there is not a concern about getting back to the ship before they leave. I am just booking museum visits etc, in advance for that day we also board the riverboat, and I don't want to book a time and then find we are required to be present aboard for a safety check or something.

We are confident travelers and trip planners, we are only doing a Viking cruise because we are traveling with our elderly parents that have more mobility issues. The cruise gives our group flexibility- everyone can choose from boat excursions or plan their own day. We are doing a mix of both.

Tim- I wasn't aware that river cruises sometimes have to take a raft to get to shore, has anyone else experienced this?

Thanks, I appreciate hearing from anyone that has experience with this!

When Tim says the ships raft up, he means that the ships moor next to each other, so you may have to walk straight through the adjoining lobbies of other ships to reach the shore.
Not that you take another vessel (in the manner of a tender on an ocean ship) to reach the shore.

Irrespective of whether you depart that night or the next you are likely to have to do a safety drill on the first day ASAP after boarding under SOLAS regulations as an emergency situation could arise at any time even while you are berthed- unlikely but possible. So you need to be briefed, and recorded officially as having been briefed.

There are several river cruise docks at AMS (quite a long way away from each other)- you need to verify which your ship is using.

We cruise with a different company but with similar processes. The first afternoon/evening there is a orientation session which is especially essential for first time cruisers. It's both safety information as well as how the tour will work - detailed daily schedules, logistics, options, etc.

Rafting ships up side by side is very common at river cruise docks where space is at a premium. It's also very dynamic - you might wake up being the inbound ship (next to the dock) with others going thru your lobby then come back from excursions and they've repositioned so now your ship is outbound ready to head out to the next stop. A lot of shuffling. Rafting also means your view is completely blocked by another ship. Always a good idea before opening your curtains to check outside first and make sure you aren't about to flash someone. And finally while you can usually transverse another ship via their lobby, we have had occasions where you had to go up to the top deck, walk a gang plank over to another ship's sun deck and down to the dock. This has typically happened for security concerns.