We chose a river cruise because we have been on at least 20 ocean cruises and we wanted something different. For the most part we really had a nice time, notice I am not saying "GREAT" time.

The ship was beautiful, our cabin was clean and comfortable and the crew was wonderful. We enjoyed the smaller passenger count, we had 181 and only having two decks to really have to navigate was quite nice. On the flip side....we were the youngest passengers by 15-20 years and many of these people are quite slow. We had many walking tours, even though we were divided up in 4 groups, many of the "older" passengers could not keep up, hence it slowed the rest of us down. I really think they need to put the passengers in groups by giving them a walking test of some sort. The average age is 70-80, yes they are all well traveled people BUT they are in denial of their limitations. I wish Viking would market to younger people that are more active. We could have used some bikes on the boat to just take out at our leisure, as I know other river cruise lines do this. We missed not having a fitness center even though we walked everyday.

Everyday was so structured, you get up, eat breakfast, go to the buses, do the tour, come back and eat lunch and the afternoon may or may not be at your leisure. The best day was when we were actually cruising during the day to see the castles along the Rhine, it was so much more leisurely and we didn't feel rushed in the morning. The headset idea for hearing the guide is wonderful (if they work). That way if you lagged behind to take pictures, you could still hear what they were saying. Read more