We are seasoned ocean cruisers with 24 cruises under our belts and wanted to try River cruising. We’ve sailed on Celebrity, Royal Caribbean, Carnival, Norwegian, Costa, Princess and Holland America. Needless to say this was our first Viking River Cruise . . . we purchased it over a year in advance, paid in full, due to the special deal (it was a great deal) we decided on making it an, “all inclusive”, by purchasing air and so glad we did. We had great flights, Kansas City to Detroit, Detroit to Rome on Delta all on time. We did not upgrade to the Comfort Plus seats but considered it but by the time we got our air flight information the Comfort Plus seats were sold out. Not a big deal our seats were fine. Food was served and in flight movies made the time go by quickly. CDG airport is huge and we seemed to taxi for at least 30 minutes before we arrived at the gate. We got our steps in (fitbit cult members) from the gate to immigrations/passport stamped and on our way to baggage claim. Once we had our bags we located the Viking staff that had our names on their list and we were directed to a seating area to wait for others. Once everyone arrived (not long) we were walked to the bus and drove to the Viking Rinda River Boat docked in Le Pecq.

We arrived before cabins were available; bags were stored for delivery to the cabin. We explored the boat, were served a wonderful lunch, did a little more exploring and then our cabin was ready. Unlike any experience on our other cruises, we were escorted to our cabin (115) and explained every feature and how it worked. What a nice touch. We did find out that if the room was too hot you can only adjust the thermostat by 5 degrees. If you turn it down 6 degrees it just goes back to the original temperature. This is GOOD to know. We enjoyed the heated bathroom floor. While the room was small the storage was fine and we selected this cabin knowing the size. We were not in the cabin that much. Our friends had the room across the hall (116) which had a sewer odor but otherwise it was laid out the same as ours.

A quick walk to the front and up the stairs was the dining room on deck two. We had breakfast, lunch and dinner in the dining room. Breakfast and lunch were served buffet style with menu options. We normally just had the buffet but others at our table did try some menu options at breakfast and lunch and they enjoyed them with salads from the buffet. We also had regional French food served one day at lunch and it was very good. All meals are open seating and we met a couple from Florida the first evening at dinner and we had a nice table for 6 each evening at dinner. The dinners were fantastic the first 3 nights and after that they became just okay. Soda, beer and wine are included with lunch and dinner and flowed freely. Everyone we talked with enjoyed the included drinks. Read more