Viking Modi Review
Rating by category
Additional details
Our Rhine river cruise started in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, and ended in Basel, Switzerland where we continued to Zurich by train for an independent stay.
Since I had lived in Europe for a few years, we decided to travel independently to Amsterdam and made our own flight and hotel reservations; however, most people on the cruise used Viking's full travel services to book. We stayed at the Park Hotel, which was centrally located in the museum (Riks, Van Gogh) section of Amsterdam and within easy walking distance of all major city sights. The hotel is on a canal where you can pick up a canal cruise directly across the street or hop a tram two short blocks away.
One caution for departure -- if you stay in a hotel other than that selected by Viking, which in this case was the Movenpick, you need to obtain the phone number for the ship in Amsterdam so you can determine from which dock it will leave. The dock for this departure was directly behind the Movenpick; however, there are two other possible locations. Since the dock is not determined until a day or so before departure we had to rely on the concierge at the Park hotel to make calls to find where the ship was docked.
Cabin Review
The stateroom, which was located just off the main reception area, was a nice size given that it was a river boat. The room and furnishings were entirely new, as is the entire ship, since it was its fourth voyage. Suitcase storage and life vests were under the bed and out of the way. The room had several drawers, a closet with shelves and safe, and sufficient hanging space with hangers. The shower, while adequate, was rather small but it had swinging glass doors that made the bathroom look larger.
The room had a sliding glass door the full width of the room which made it light and airy. Since it was rather chilly and rainy for most of the trip, we did not use our veranda which accommodated two chairs and a table. It would have been a very nice addition in better weather -- but it was Europe in the Springtime and the weather was as expected.
The room was cleaned up immediately on our departure by the attentive house cleaning staff who were never intrusive but always available when needed.