Having just completed my first Viking River Cruise from Bucharest to Amsterdam I can only say it was an awesome trip. The Viking organization did a tremendous job. Their service and attention to passenger needs went far beyond what I expected. I dont know what to say about the food other than I now have to lose several pounds which tells you it was pretty good.

We decided to go with a full balcony and though it was nice I cant say we actually used it very much as we spent more time up on the top deck. The other thing is that when you are in port you may be tied up to one or more ships and you never know whether your ship will be on the inside, middle or outside and so your view may be blocked. On our next trip I might just go with the French balcony.

Another positive for Viking is the fact that they have a lot of ships. After reaching Vienna we were told that there wasn't enough water in the river to proceed for a short stretch but it proved not to be a problem as we simply switched ships with one going the other direction. The day of the switch we proceeded as normal with our tour of Melk and then took a bus to Regensberg. While this was happening the crew moved all our baggage and installed us in the same room number on the other side so it was pretty painless. The next day they took us back to Passau so we wouldnt miss any ports or tours and actually gave us a credit of 25 euros per person for lunch since we couldnt get lunch on the ship. There is not much you can do about Mother Nature but Viking really handled it well. Read more