Being on a budget, my sister and I took our dream vacation to Paris. The idea sprung into our heads after reading David McCullough's book entitled, "The Greater Journey, Americans in Paris. I had been on a Viking cruise previously and loved it so to remove the stress we agreed to go Viking.
The ship was the Viking Pride. I was concerned because I had cruised with my husband on the new ship, Viking Embla on the Danube & Rhine and that ship was spotless and very accomodating. We found our room on the Pride was also very clean and there was no need to worry. I did notice a faint smell of smoke in the bath which was quite odd. It disapated once we were underway. I don't know why. Our cabin stewardess was wonderful. My sister was frequently squirreling her money and such into and out of the safe. One day we returned to our cabin and she noticed she had left $700 on the counter!! It went untouched. Enough said.
Also our cabin was a "D" and was not below the water but was right at water level. We had no balcony. I noticed on the previous cruise there were so many locks and such that a balcony frequently goes unused.( Besides it was March.) I did like the huge window and shelf and there was plenty of viewing opportunity.