Viking was highly recommended to us by friends who have done several Viking cruises. We did like the river cruise and will most likely do another one but on a different line as we'd like to compare Viking's offerings. The rooms were cleaned daily. Food was wonderful. The hotel and restaurant managers went above and beyond to make our experience memorable. The laundry service was first rate.

Negatives included the fumes from the boat on the Moscow by Night tour. Some people got very nauseous. Many on our boat were unable to do so much walking so they remained on the boat. There was nothing for them to do. It would be wonderful if some activities could be done on board. Why not do the doll painting on board instead of making it a field trip? How about some dancers or musicians? More cooking demonstrations? Movies? The bus drivers did not get us very close to our destinations. We had to walk quite a way to get where we needed to be; not easy for some of us. Perhaps doing more two levels of walking (leisurely vs active) would have worked for more people. The folklore concert in Moscow one night was fantastic but we had to travel quite far to get there. We had been out all day, driven back to the boat for dinner, and then re-boarded the bus for the trip to the concert. We were told we'd have to walk over the bridge and several blocks to the concert hall. No one on the bus was happy about that so, after some discussion with the guide and driver, we were able to get a couple of blocks closer. Better but not great. The wait to get into the Hermitage in St. Pete was terrible. Raining; no cover. Because it was a holiday weekend (70th anniv. of the defeat of the Germans by the Russians), the town was overcrowded; lots of cruise ships in town. We thought Viking should have known that there would be an extraordinary number of people and rescheduled our Hermitage visit.

The onboard history lectures were much too long. I would much more enjoyed two hour-long lectures and then on other days have presentations on Russian culture, music, etc. As another reviewer wrote, the stairs between decks were not easy to navigate. Read more