Actually our trip was longer, we did the Castles & Legends tour which adds two nights in Munich, two nights in Salzburg before taking you to Passau to board the ship. My rating for the cruise portion is definitely five stars - I had a couple of issues w/ the land portion which I attribute to rainy weather(no fault of Viking), the newness of the land portion and logistics, and the Munich hotel that we stayed at. The service was impeccable on the Legend, from Program Director David Morgan (who was absolutely the best organizer & communicator) to our cabin housekeeper, Timea. Viking runs a very organized program and ship which made for a stress-free vacation. All we had to do was show up, they brought our bags in, and we unpacked, and we just let Viking organize our lives for the next eight days. Food was excellent, interesting entrees and starter courses; nice variety at breakfast(including sparkling wine @ 7:00 AM!), bounty of salad at lunch as well as interesting small plates of appetizers, a variety of main entrees for lunch or you could have a casual buffet lunch up in the lounge. In fact one day I wasn't interested in the luncheon entrees so I went up to get a burger from the casual buffet and brought it back down to the restaurant. River cruises don't overfeed you (though you can overeat) like big ocean cruises, but we always had cookies available all afternoon w/ the coffee & tea service. I did mention the sparkling wine at breakfast, beer, wine, soft drinks are included w/ lunch & dinner and they served very nice wines(local to the region) - not some box wines. Almost all excursions are included, there are a few that are optional and cost extra. Program director David would do a briefing each evening to discuss the plans for the next day's excursions and any needed changes. With regards to ports, I wish we had arrived at the ship earlier to see Passau, we only did the walking tour & organ concert and then sailed by 1:00 PM to get to our next destination. We only have a few hours in Bratislava - for some reason I thought we had a much longer period - it would have been nice to have spent some more time there. Coming into Budapest at night was stunning - Viking had really thought through this itinerary for the most visual impact. We were very busy every day going on excursions in our various ports. Going to Cesky Krumlov was an absolutely delightful day trip. There was some entertainment each night, but quite frankly we were beat by the end of the day so we were not interested in staying up. Viking would provide bottled water in your cabin and also provided bottled water as you left the ship for your excursion. For disembarkation, some had very early flights & had to leave before breakfast was available, Viking provided wrapped sandwiches in addition to pastries for those folks to take with them, a very nice touch. We appreciated the lack of formalness for dinner - made it much easier for packing clothes. If you book your flights w/ Viking, they handle all transportation to and from the airport. We went to Budapest airport via bus depending on our scheduled flights. There were two Viking reps at the airport but they were useless; on a Sunday AM, there were hundreds of passengers for Lufthansa and the queues were unbelievably long - the departure terminal just cannot handle the volume of passengers. Probably would have been better to stay a couple of extra days in Budapest and leave midweek. Other reviews were critical of the age of the Legend - it was fine, maybe the curtains are bleached from the very hot sun and the carpet is well walked on but the ship was very clean. I had heard that it was being taken out of service.

With regards to the land portion of Castle & Legends, my first poor impression was checking into the Westin Grand Munich - we had arrived on an early AM flight, picked up by the Viking rep, bussed to the hotel and then proceeded to sit for several hours before we were provided a room, Viking should consider making arrangements w/ the hotel for arriving guests to have a room even if check-in is not suppose to be until 3:00 PM - front desk was unfriendly and curt when checking about availability and while we were waiting, another group of tourists arrived and they were given their rooms right away. The Neuschwanstein Castle is high up on a road that is at least a steep mile climb up. Either Viking needs to make special arrangements w/ the shuttle company to bus everyone up or include in the literature that it is a strenuous walk up. As part of our Munich City tour we stopped at the BMW building - not sure why - and got into Salzburg about 5:00 PM at the height of rush hour. Traffic on the interstate was extremely crowded late Friday PM - would have been better to leave Munich earlier and miss all the interstate traffic on a Friday afternoon. Sheraton Salzburg was an excellent hotel, conveniently located by Mirabell Gardens and close to the Old Town - Salzburg was very worthwhile to visit. On Sunday, we did the Sound of Music tour(including Mondsee) & Sankt Gilgen which is near Mondsee; we seemed to be spending time in these villages (for lunch) when we could have gone ahead, traveled to Passau, get settled on the ship where there was a light lunch being served and have a chance to see Passau. Especially since it was raining heavily all AM which made it unpleasant for touring sights. We were extremely pleased w/ the cruise & ports - so glad that we chose Viking and the Danube for our first river cruise. We have already booked a two week river cruise on the Seine & Rhone for 2017 with Viking!