We chose Viking because we have cousins who reported very favorably on the River Cruises, but also because we wanted to go to Istanbul. So it was a big disappointment that we had to cross off both of the Turkish ports of call. But the stops along the Adriatic were little-known and excellent in their own way.

We did feel a bit let down at the embarkation process in Venice, where we arrived in pouring rain and were told to wait for a bus that never arrived. We also discovered too late that it was actually harder than necessary to get from our hotel in Venice to the Maritime Terminal, and that we therefore had to pay a lot for a water taxi that we could have avoided if we'd stayed in a better located hotel. But those turned out to be minor troubles.

The first thing that impressed us was the ship itself. We were astonished at the attention to detail and at the helpfulness of the staff. When baggage handlers broke the "foot" off my suitcase, the Viking Sea's carpenter picked it up at my stateroom and fixed it quickly and perfectly. We got great advice, too, from Guest Services on the ship. We had feared that in Athens we would get stuck with an expensive ride into Athens (where we were going to stay a couple of extra days), but both Jojo and Bruna were exceedingly helpful in advising us about how to get things done much more cheaply. The ship was also exceedingly quiet, with only the faintest throbbing from the engines rather than the louder and more dramatic pulsing that we were used to. Read more