I originally wanted to do a Baltic ocean cruise, but when we received the Viking River Cruise literature, my wife was hooked. I wanted to go in April to see the tulips, but my wife does not like cold, so we settled on late May. Because we were coming from California, we decided to do Viking custom air, and pay the premium economy upgrade, which ended up being Lufthansa.

We also did the pre-cruise in Amsterdam. If I had to do it again I would have booked that part myself (I was less than impressed with location of the Movenpick), but it WAS nice to have a Viking rep meet us at the airport and handle all the transfer details. We did get to explore Amsterdam during the pre-cruise (Van Gogh, canal cruise), but left wanting to see more of the city.

This is our first cruise, so don't have anything to compare to. However we felt like we were treated incredibly well. Had no problems with embarkation - Viking picked up our luggage in the morning at the Movenpick, and then my wife and I walked around the central part of the city before walking through the train station and across the waterfront to board the ship. Read more