My mother and I had our Grand European Tour split between two ships. We were originally supposed to be on the Kvasir from Budapest to Amsterdam, but right before we were leaving our pre-cruise in Prague we got an email from Viking stating that we were going to board the Idi instead when we got to Budapest. Unfortunately none of the Viking staff in Prague were aware of the change.The reason we were given once we were on board was that because earlier in the summer, high water prevented the ships from going the full length of the cruise so passengers changed ships and the ships went back. Our cruise was when they were going to revert back to the original schedules in order to be able to go on their winter cruises correctly. As other reviewers have said, if you have the same cabin on a ship that is the same age and identical in every way, there should be no problem. We finally exchanged ships in Nuremberg and it was as seamless as promised. We left our baggage on the Idi, went on our tour of Nuremberg and returned to the same cabin on the Kvasir. Yes, there was packing and unpacking involved, but that was OK in the end. And, just like what happens to other people we got the free Vienna concert. Viking has their own section at the concert venue so they can easily accommodate more than one entire cruise ship load of passengers at one concert. Personally, the venue is a converted ballroom which does not have the greatest accoustics and the concert itself is programmed for tourists. My mother and I had not opted to pay for this concert but because it was free, we went. For the price of 70 Euros you can attend a nice performance at the Opera House. One thing I would recommend if it is available as an optional excursion, is the Vienna Boys Choir tour and concert. You tour their school and attend a concert at their new concert hall.

I do not want to repeat what other reviewers have said but I thought it was interesting to be on two different ships because what changes is not the accommodations but the crew and staff. For our particular cruise we had a parachuted-in Program Director who was sublime and flawless. He knew how to handle discontent and he did it with hard work and humor. His concierge was as great as they come. All the stuff of going beyond the call of duty applied to both of them and luckily they were with us on both the Idi and the Kvasir. But the differences in the rest of the staff were interesting to observe. The captain on the Kvasir was personable and approachable and made himself available to talk to people. I know nothing about the captain of the Idi, never saw him. The dining room staff on the Kvasir were not as well managed as the staff on the Idi. The Idi waiters and waitresses knew your habits almost immediately after they served you the first time, on the Kvasir, the learning curve was the length of the 7 days. The Kvasir staff divided duties weirdly so that you could not order wine from the waiter who served your food, whereas on the Idi, they just took care of you, got you what you needed and you could concentrate on your dining experience and your conversations. All in all, the waitstaff on the Idi deserve more than 5 stars, whereas on the Kvasir a 3+ would be more than generous. The other major difference we found was in the room attendants. On the Idi we had a woman who should be given a sainthood. This woman was up at the crack of dawn and the moment we left for breakfast in the morning (we're early risers so we would be out of the room between 6 and 7:00 am on any given morning), she would go in and clean our room. By the time we would get back from breakfast, it would be prepared for the day and the bathroom totally done. During the day, she would come in when we would be gone and tidy up, change towels, add more bottled water. We would never lack anything and at any time of the day, our room would be perfect. We actually thought there was some sort of monitor where the room attendants could see whether passengers were in their room or not because even if we were out for 20 minutes, she would have thrown out our garbage, or added more shampoo. That was not the case on the Kvasir. We had a room attendant whose name we did not initially know but when we got to our cabin there were dirty linens from the previous passengers under our beds, there was debris on the floor that needed to be vacuumed and the bathroom was not what I would call100% clean. We finally ran into her chatting in the hall and asked her to finish cleaning. We also threw the dirty laundry in the corridor for someone to pick up. This young woman was seen only once or twice afterwards and our room was cleaned once a day but never tidied up. Occasionally we would return to the ship after an excursion and our room was still not cleaned from the previous day. Again, the Idi room attendant rated a 5+++ and the Kvasir's was a 2 at best. She cleaned the room but if you feel you have to change your schedule to accommodate housekeeping, that's a management issue that is not addressed correctly. The Kvasir staff were not trained and managed the way the Idi staff were. I found the discrepancy to be quite vivid.