We sailed on the Viking Magni (the newest of the long ships) from Budapest to Amsterdam on it's second voyage. This was our second river cruise, but I cannot compare it to the one I took 20 years ago. We have cruised on Holland America, Cunard, and our last two were on Regent 7 Seas. Comparing a Viking river ship to Regent is not a fair comparison. Viking does not claim to be a 5 star line, and it is not one. The new long ships are very nice, and larger than previous Viking ships. We paid for one of the suites which gives you a larger bathroom, and a sitting room with a couch, larger second TV, and is double the width, so you have a walkout, and a French balcony. For the significantly higher price, we did not see the value in the suite after looking inside the regular rooms. We also upgraded to the silver spirits package which is 598 euros for the two of you. It is not worth it. You can drink what you what whenever you want when you want it. Liquor selection is good, and you have about 5 beers instead of one to drink. The wines were a big disappointment. The ad says you are upgraded to premium wines from around the world instead of just wines from Hungary, and Germany. We tasted the complimentary wines that everyone can have at lunch, and dinner, but would rate them as one buck Chuck, yes lower than the Charles Shaw you get at Trader Joe's. The premium wines were in the $7-9 dollar price you find in a store. Their highest rated one (only California wine) was 2011 Hacienda Cab - check out it's price online $7.99 - $8.99. You have the option of buying wine in each city on your stops and bringing it on board with no corkage fees. For 11-12 Euros we found wines that would have been far superior to the German, and Hungarian offerings. If we cruise with Viking again I would buy my wines at each port city, and not get the silver spirits package. BTW two others told me they bribed a bartender for free drinks.

Breakfast and lunch offerings were fine and as expected. Dinners were an issues on numerous evenings. The first and third nights fish offerings were way overcooked. They gladly would bring you a different selection from the menu. Again we were spoiled by the quality of the food on Regent 7 Seas, but the dinners were way below what even had on Holland America. A lot of the older passengers felt the food was fine, but to those of us under age 65 the quality was not very good. This was the opinion of 10 people in our age bracket.

The first 10 days were great, but starting with four nights to go the electrical issues started in the middle of the night. Room lights came on for about 10 seconds, five minutes later the TV in the bedroom came on displaying a computer reboot screen, and you could not turn it off. It went off after a few minutes, followed by the second TV coming on. This cycle repeated a second time. The climate system shut down for about 2 hours. Only emergency lights were in in the hallways. NO ANNOUNCEMENT WAS MADE. Read more