Viking Var Review

Great trip in spite of low water in Danube

Review for Europe River Cruise on Viking Var
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marimike
2-5 Cruises • Age 70s

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Sail Date: Aug 2015
Cabin: French Balcony

We enjoyed our cruise, even though we had to start on the TOR and take a bus trip in the middle of the cruise to get to the VAR. We were only give a couple of days notice that this would happen but we were told that whoever controls river traffic had not decided whether or not there was enough water near Passau until just before our sailing date. The people on Viking Cruises worked extra hard to make the transfer happen smoothly for the passengers.

The service onboard both ships was fabulous. The maitre d's on the two ships communicated so that I only had to give them my long list of food allergies once. I liked how they grow fresh herbs on the roof deck and include them in meals.

In Budapest we would have liked to get out at Heroes Square. We could have spent less time at the top of the hill in Buda. In Vienna there was a choice of shore excursions. We appreciated that since we had taken the standard city tour on a previous vacation. We also enjoyed the excursion where we saw a short version of the Marriage of Figaro that was produced just for Viking guests. We took the Nuremberg extension at the end of the cruise. Viking continued to take good care of us, both at the hotel and at the Nuremberg airport.

Cabin Review

French Balcony

Cabin D

The cabin was small but nice and contained plenty of storage space for our belongings. We liked being able to open the sliding door even though you couldn't go outside there.

Port Reviews

Vienna

The guide was an art history major and very knowledgeable. We really enjoyed this tour.

Melk

Melk Abbey was impressive but we thought the tour was boring. We enjoyed the gardens and the walk back through town to return to the ship.

Passau

Passau was interesting. We went on the standard city tour and then visited the glass museum.

Budapest

During the city tour, we wanted to get off the city tour at Heroes Square so we could take pictures. But we only passed by on the bus. We enjoyed being able to go to the Freedom Statue. After that we went to the part of Buda where Matthias Church is. We could have spent less time there. While we didn't take the official extension, we spent a couple of extra days in Budapest on our own.

Regensburg

Nice walking tour of a beautiful town.

Nuremberg

We took the World War II tour instead of the standard city tour. It was worth seeing the Nazi locations and the site of the Nuremberg trials. Court was not in session so we were able to see the courtroom.

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