My seventh cruise with Viking cruises was the “Elegant Elbe” between August 26 and September 10, 2015 with a pre-extension in Krakow prior to the normal itinerary from Prague to Berlin as well as a few extra days in Berlin as a post extension. I took the Elegant Elbe from Prague to Berlin in 2011 and enjoyed the experience enough that I wanted to repeat it in 2015.

This encore cruise was quite different from the first experience aside from the very enjoyable pre-extension in Krakow. Due to low water level in the Elbe, it was not possible to cruise from port to port. Instead, the ships Beyla and Astrild served as hotel/restaurants from which buses provided transportation to the several itinerary locations. Personally, I felt that this experience was much more rewarding than the previous voyage. Although the Beyla and Astrild were newer and nicer ships than the previous Clara Schumann, the itinerary changes forced by low water made the real difference.

Although the bus rides to various sites were a bit lengthier than with the normal itinerary, they provided much more time ashore because they arrived at the points of interest much more quickly than the leisurely cruising on the river. I saw much more than with the normal itinerary and had much more free time to explore on our own. The normal cruise itinerary often had sailing departure times leaving us wishing we had just a few more hours on shore for exploring. Read more