We booked passage for a “Romantic Cruise of the Danube” aboard the Viking Freya from November 7 – 14, 2015. In the event, however, there was little cruising or romance to be had. Rather than a cruise our vacation turned out to be mainly a bus excursion during which we stayed aboard ships. Water levels forced us to disembark and travel to other ships by land transportation twice during the week. We did not receive from Viking what we paid well for and we are very dissatisfied by the way the company communicated, or rather failed to communicate, with us. Clearly conditions for cruising on the river had been deteriorating for months and yet they did nothing to alert us in advance to the probable and serious disruptions, let alone offer us the option of canceling or postponing.

We appreciate that Viking has no control over the weather or river conditions. It does, however, have control over the information it provides and it communicated badly with its passengers. Caveat emptor? Perhaps we were naïve in expecting more from the Viking Line.

The distance from Nuremburg to Budapest is about 755 km. That is a road measurement but the river distances should be at least proportionately similar. We sailed about 112 km from Nuremburg to Regensburg and about 87 km from Melk to Vienna during our trip for an approximate total cruising distance of 199 km, or only about 26% of the total distance we expected to sail. The other 74% was traveled by bus. Having to change boats twice during the week deprived us of one of the most attractive advantages of cruising, not having to pack and unpack repeatedly. Read more