My wife and I just got off our first Viking River Cruise in Nuremberg from Budapest. Just want to preface this with the cost paid months in advance was about $5000 per person, 10M a couple.

We flew on our own to Budapest 3 days in advance to see the city ourselves. It was a great city with lots to see. The hop on hop off bus was less that $70 dollars for two days. (I mention this as we received almost as much scenic value than any day on the Viking Cruise). Wow. When it came time to get on the boat we were informed we would be bused to the boat as the water of the river was not deep enough to make it to Budapest. So we were taken to a small town where 5 viking ships waited for their cattle. That's no joke. We were dragging suit cases across dusty gravel to get on the ship like it was a cow pasture. Meanwhile the trash was offloaded from the previous cruise in dumpsters on a hill in front of the ship.

The ship was nice and the crew was knowledgeable and friendly so we still looked forward to that beautiful scene advertised on TV. The first day was spent being bused back to Budapest for a tour. (Notice no cruising). The next day we cruised to Passau, Germany. It was all that Viking had promised and I was optimistic for the rest of the trip. Then we were informed we would be taking a bus to the next port, Regensberg. (notice no cruising). The water was too low....but then the next day it was OK. Bottom line is we paid for a cruise and got a bus tour with a floating hotel. We ended up leaving a day early as we had arranged our own schedule to Cologne and then Amsterdam and did not want to leave at 5:30 in the morning to be bused to our train. Read more