Viking Hemming Review
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Viking River Cruises' River of Gold cruise was a wonderful experience. From beginning with a hotel stay in Lisbon, including city tour and coach trip to Porto for embarkation through the entire cruise, everything worked beautifully.
The staff was super -- friendly, efficient, helpful and fun. The food was as wonderful as usual. The beverages -- many local wines and ports included -- were delicious, too.
What was exceptional, however, was the scenery. The Douro, or Golden River in Portuguese, isn't your typical European cruise river. This was our sixth Viking cruise, and we were blown away by the wilderness aspect of it. Almost every excursion required a brief to medium-length coach trip to and from the bus, but that was not a problem as Viking owns their own coaches and the drivers stayed consistent throughout the trip. The spots we visited were unspoiled and beautiful -- quaint little villages without too much of the generic commerciality we often see these days.
Cabin Review
The friends we traveled with and we had the last two cabins available at this level. Theirs was on the back end of the ship by the crew stairs. Ours was at the very front, mere steps from the lobby, lounge and stairs to the restaurant. While the cabin itself was very comfortable -- and the housekeeping staff kept it spotless -- we had a bit of an issue with music from the lounge in the evenings. Fortunately for us, many of the passengers were older and so it didn't go too late. But a mid-ship cabin would have been a bit quieter.