My wife and I saved and planned for a couple of years to take a 14 day romantic river cruise through Europe, our dream vacation. It turned out to be the worst trip we have ever taken. To summarize; 36.45 hours on a bus, 14.25 hours of free time to explore the towns visited, 10 hours of daylight cruise, includes 3 hours of Rhine valley cruise during 2 hr lunch on lower level of rented tourist day boat, changed boats after bus transfer, upper deck closed most of trip, unpack/pack 3 times, optional tours a great disappointment. Viking knew about river issues for weeks, yet no communication, rescheduling or cancelation allowed We did not board the boat until the 4th day, after docking at a gravel pit. Due to hotel stay for 1st two nights, all the busing and lunches serving 200 people at once in local restaurants, not on the boat, as advertised, we did not get full use of the "Silver Drink Package". We had to change boats 1/2 way through the trip, thus another long bus ride and lost time cruising. Most cruising at night. Ships were docked 3 deep thus we had to walk through other ship lobbies or across their upper deck and could not use our balcony as the next boat was 6 inches away. We passed through 69 locks BUYER BE AWARE, 2 weeks later, still no call from Customer Service as promised. Read Less

We were on the 2nd Gefjon cruise from Basel to Paris; due to heavy rains river level of Rhine was high. We left Basil earlier than planned to clear a bridge, then were bussed back to Basel to keep our itinerary. We then sailed overnight to Strasbourg across from Kehl. We were then bussed to Strasbourg for a planned tour. This was the last move we made on Gefjon. While we don't blame Viking for the condition of the river, we do blame them for poor decision process and extremely muddled communication. The ship staff, chefs, housekeeping, waiters, concierge were superb, trying to keep the passengers happy. However, management decisions,those on board as well as from HQ did not appear to be well coordinated and constantly in flux. The net effect was they bussed us to and from Gefjon to most of our destinations until they had to put us up in a hotel in Mainz. We did not know with certainty until that morning that we would have to disembark. We were then bussed to Trier for an abbreviated version of the itinerary, then bussed to Paris where we finally got to relax. We were on a bus tour of Italy last year which was why we chose a river cruise, to avoid busses, at least so we thought. This was our first Viking cruise and may be the last. By the way, the ship captain was 27 years old. While age is not the only indicator of competence, I have wondered if this situation would have benefitted from a more seasoned captain. Lastly nothing from Viking about any compensation for our abbreviated cruise. Read Less

We were on the second trip of the Viking Gefjon, and also had room 205. Our trip was totally different than Ralphster. Due to high water, the ship was stuck at Kehl/Strasbourg for 5 nights. Each day, we would gather at 7 pm to hear what was going to happen the next day. Some days it was close to what the itinerary promised. Most of the time it wasn't. Each day there was a 20 minute walk to get on a bus to go somewhere with a church and a market square. No other options. There were problems with the bus tours, as buses were late, got lost, and had tour guides who couldn't work headsets. We even had a bus driver who was texting while driving on the Autobahn. The last night, we got our hopes up, as we were told the ship would be leaving at 10 pm and we would at least get to cruise one time. 10 pm came and went and the ship didn't move. The next day, we were bused to the middle Rhein where we had an hour and a half boatride. The worst part of the ride was that 2 other Viking Longships passed us - taking the cruise vacation we were supposed to have. I'm not blaming the ship's crew. But they were very new and inexperienced, and did not know how to calm people down, much less try to lighten a very disappointing vacation. Dinner service took over 2 hours each night, not that we had anything else to do. Being handed warm mineral water as we left the ship each day didn't improve peoples moods. We observed another ship who was in the same predicament as we were, docked a little down from us. Their crew was outside greeting them whenever they returned from a bus trip. The sad part is, I could have really enjoyed this trip. We took it to celebrate our 30th wedding anniversary and we were eagerly looking forward to a nice vacation. We enjoyed ( for the most part) the open seating and getting to know other passengers. The room was nice, even though only one person could cross the foot of the bed at a time. I appreciated the night light in the bathroom. The much talked about heated bathroom floor didn't work. The movie selection was adequate, but not long enough. The balcony would have been lovely if the ship moved at all. I understand that flooding occurs often on the rivers that these ships travel. By now, management should have devised alternatives for their guests that didn't involve continually waiting to see what the next day would bring. If the ship had been proactive, it could have gone much further downstream when the flooding started and thus not gotten stuck at a point of no movement. Alternate tours and options should have been provided. On board entertainment could have been upgraded from accordion players. More than one free drink would have helped. When we returned, there was a 25% credit towards a future cruise emailed to us, as if 75% of the trip went well and 25% didn't. I don't know if I am going to use it. I'm not recommending this cruiseline. I think the company has grown too fast and not given enough thought to the problems that will occur. They have concentrated on expansion and not on customer relations. Even the customer service rep I talked to sounded tired of it all. Read Less