Overall, this Tulips and Windmills cruise in the Netherlands and Belgium --our first river cruise, after taking four ocean cruises, was a great experience. Crew was excellent, and food was very good too. Because we bought our flight through Viking, we were picked up at the airport, which is a wonderful service when entering an unfamiliar, foreign place. Fellow passengers on the Skirnir skewed a bit older in chronological age, but were overall still very active and interesting, making for good conversation in the dining room and in the lounge. weather, which was unusually cold, windy, rainy, sleety, and snowy at this time of the year for these low countries, or so the natives told us, was uncooperative.

Cabin was small, but well-appointed and well-maintained. Bathroom was cleaned spotless every day, and the heated floor was a big plus, especially given the unusually cold weather we experienced.. And the cabin size wasn't that big of a deal, because rarely were we in it -- mostly just to sleep at night. The selection of channels on the t.v. was surprisingly large.

High seas in an near-open channel prohibited us from going to Ghent, so we had an extra night in Antwerp, with a bus trip to Bruges ... all very satisfying even if we didn't make it to Ghent on this trip. Only on one afternoon was the weather good enough for passengers to be comfortable on the top deck and spend much time there. But still a great, memorable trip, and we made good friends among fellow passengers. We plan to take another Viking river cruise, and are also considering a Viking ocean cruise, based on this experience and reviews we've seen.