Viking Atla Review
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We just completed a 7 night cruise on the Viking Atla one of the new long ships. This was our 3rd booked river cruise with Viking. We also booked both the pre and post cruise extension. We began with 2 nights in Budapest. Our hotel did have a Viking representative to give advise but they also offered excursions for Budapest before the cruise began. We researched both Budapest and Prague, the post cruise extension so we did not go with their optional excursions. They were helpful though in providing specific information that helped us do our own thing. After 2 & 1/2 wonderful days in Budapest we made our way to the cruise ship. The transfer to the boat was not very convenient as we had to check out 2 & 1/2 hours before they would pick us up. We had several places still to see so we made our way to the ship ourselves. Viking did take our luggage though.
Our cabins weren't ready when we arrived but they had a very nice buffet lunch available on the lounge. The ship did a night cruise on the Danube in Budapest. The city is all lit up at night so this was real nice. We started with a city tour of Budapest the next morning. We met up with the boat a little outside of Budapest. We ran into some bad weather the next couple of days. Lots of rain and much cooler than expected. I realize that Viking can't control the weather. I just feel they weren't exactly honest with us. Up River between Passau and Regensburg is Deggensdorf. The water was much higher than normal and there was a bridge there the boat couldn't pass under. Instead of docking the the medieval city of Regensburg we were taken by bus. We lost most of our free time.
Finally we had some dry days and we were told we would be back on schedule. We still didn't make it even as far as Regensburg and the next day there was an even longer bus ride to Nuremberg. Our boat we thought would meet up with us in Nuremberg but that didn't happen. We had another bus ride back to the boat. Our trip ended a bit short of Nuremberg. We were taken to Prague and our post cruise extension was absolutely wonderful. It did include a city tour or Prague which was very nice.
Cabin Review
Port Reviews
Budapest
Budapest was beautiful and so full of a rich history and culture and excellent restaurants. Do a little research and you can easily see the sights yourself.
Regensburg
Our guide for the walking tour was a dapper older gentleman. He was very knowledgeable about the city. He also was very good at telling stories which really made the tour much more enjoyable. After the tour was over we took a quick look inside the cathedral dedicated to St. Peter. Next came lunch at the Ratskellar. They prepared a typical German meal of pork with gravy along with potatoes and carrots. Then served a local beer which I enjoyed. We also had apple strudel for dessert. Overall lunch was good.
Nuremberg
Our city tour was quite extensive. We started in the in the old town market where we had some free time. We walked around a bit and decided to break away from the group lunch thing and find another place to eat. Afterwards our city tour continued. We saw the Nuremberg castle, then the zeplin fields and finally the document storage facility.