Our cruise along the Douro River on the beautiful new Viking Hemming departed from Porto, Portugal, but Cruise Critic does not list it as an available port. Lisbon isn't too far off, since all passengers spend the first two nights in Lisbon at the Tivoli Hotel and are then bussed to Porto. The Tivoli Hotel is along a wide tree-lined boulevard and is about a 10 minute walk to the pedestrian area of the old city. A Viking River Cruises hostess has a desk in the lobby and helped with any cruise or bus related needs. Our tour guide for both Lisbon and the drive up to Porto was very knowledgeable about her country and her commentary was as good as it gets. The bus to Porto stops in Coimbra, where we get to visit the University and its magnificent centuries old library. We also have a chance to speak with a few of the students. Our lunch in Coimbra included a Fado concert by three very talented musicians.

We arrived in Porto right on time and were greeted during embarkation by the entire crew. This new ship is just gorgeous with a very creative use of space. There are two main public rooms: the dining room and a lounge that is really a multipurpose room. It serves as a bar, theater, lecture hall and an inside observation deck. The cabins, though smaller than on a traditional cruise ship, are well laid out with plenty of drawer and closet space. There are several European and North American style outlets with both 220 and 110 voltage throughout the stateroom. The top deck, including the wheel house, actually folds down to just inches when passing under low bridges. One night we had a barbecue on this open deck watching a beautiful sunset on the border of Portugal and Spain.

Viking's program director Patricia is a cross between a cruise director, chief guide and a cultural lecturer. She was intimately involved with itinerary planning and arrangements. The entire crew had to be very flexible due river and lock related problems resulting in some changes to the port scheduling and itineraries. There are three buses that accompany the ship from port to port. The buses are modern, clean and comfortable with lots of legroom. All the drivers inspired confidence and drove carefully and safely. The buses are basically used to take passengers on the included shore excursions. As a river lock broke on our last day, we terminated the cruise upriver on the scheduled disembarkation day and the buses took us back to Porto to either a hotel, the airport or train station. Read more