The purpose of our cruise was to celebrate our 50th wedding anniversary. This was our first Viking cruise and it fully met our expectations. The ship was comfortable and well designed to meet our needs. Our cabin was of first class hotel quality with a comfortable bed, excellent bath facilities, and a charming veranda. Dining was one of the high points of the cruise. Not only was the food excellent, but the staff went out of their way to make sure that the daily menus met our special dietary needs. Service was outstanding. For a week we felt almost like we being treated like royalty. The excursions were extremely well chosen and conducted by very knowledgable guides. Particularly memorable were the organ concert at Passau, the day trip to Pesky Krumlov, and the optional tours of Schoebrunn Palace in Vienna and the Jewish quarter in Budapest.

While the cruise itself was all that we could have wished for, the same cannot be said for our air travel, particularly the flight from Los Angeles to Europe. Because Viking's booking agent neglected to inform American Airlines that our itinerary had been revised, we were informed at LAX, when we tried to check in, that we had no tickets. The result was an agonizing hour on the phone while our travel agent, a Viking agent, and American Airlines counter personnel struggled, ultimately successfully, to reissue our tickets so we could board our plane.