I have sailed with Uniworld twice before and with Viking a few times. I chose this sailing because of the beauty of Portugal and the friendliness of its people.
Although the scenery was lovely, people do need to understand that the regulations on the Douro only allow for sailing during daylight hours. This means very limited time in port and a lot of time on the ship. Also, except for Porto, ...
The breakfast choices were not as expansive as other river cruises and coffee was poor. Lunch choices as well were limited. Dinner choices were limited and some menus were good but small portions with protein. Deserts were average in taste. If you don’t upgrade to silver spirits your wine will be poor. The ship service was good with the exception of dinner. The staff was slim for this ...
This was a wonderful small-boat cruise on the Duoro river. We thoroughly enjoyed it. We were expecting some walking tours of the ports where we docked each day, but were almost always met by Viking buses that took us to other interesting sites in Portugal. It was a combination riverboat and bus tour. The buses were nice, but it seemed we spent a lot of time on them.
One of the highlights was ...
This was our fourth Viking River Cruise, ( plus one ocean vcruise), and our first that included a tour before the boat. The hotel in Lisbon was elegant, one of the best we’ve stayed at. The included excursions were great, as almost all Viking included excursions are. On the third morning we bussed to Vila Nova de Gaia, across the Douro from Porto, with a stop in the university town of Coimbra. ...
We had traveled with Scenic once before. It was a delightful and memorable experience. We were entertained, wined and dined to our hearts' delight. What more could anybody ask for? The crew was capable, informed and personable. The food was exquisite and varied and the wines paired with the food very well. The breads, desserts and pastries were baked on the ship so were as fresh as possible and ...
The cruise and staff overall were great with efficient transfers and well organised tours. The staff did their best to provide support and information when necessary. The supply of special dietary need could have been better organised and there was significant waiting for special types of food, which sometimes never turned up.
The cabin was well positioned, spacious and well maintained ...
Cabin had sewer gas coming out of the shower drain. Made a terrible odor. Ship personnel knew about the situation but continued to book this and several others with the same issue. Apparently the sewer pipes gather under these cabins for the entire ship and the gases and odor rise up through the shower drains is several cabins on several decks. Ship was completely booked so no where to move ...
Friends had recommended the Douro cruise and we had enjoyed our 2 previous Viking cruises so we embarked on this holiday. We flew from London to Lisbon for a couple of lovely days and then took the coach to Porto for another couple of days. The outing to Guimares was wonderful. The cruise itself started the next day. The river is not long so 2.5 days to the Spanish border and 2.5 days back. The ...
I had no expectation of the cruise before departure. Embarkation and disembarkation were very well processed. The entire cruise went like clock-work.
The ship was very clean and cabins, restaurants, lounge are well configured. The cabin was meticulously set out. There was nothing that was missing. All facilities were catered for.
Dining areas were well equipped and dining staff were ...
Having already river cruised before with viking and knowing this itinerary was exactly what we wanted we had no hesitation in booking this holiday.
We opted to do the pre cruise extension in Madrid and this proved to be another good choice as we got to know our small group of 16 other travelers well and they turned out to be our core group of friends for the rest of the trip.
On transferring ...