I am from TX and have never taken a cruise before. In fact I always said if I couldn't walk home I wasn't going. Let me also say my job requires travel and I have worked in 42 of the 50 states in the USA. With that being said I decided to go on this trip with 10 other couples. My wife was telling me about the low water and how we might have to be bused to some of the ports, that did not sound like fun having to pack and unpack. However it started to rain just days before or arrival and the water level came up which was great but there was one spot in the river with to much current an for safety we had to get on a bus and ride 45 minutes to the next town. The buses were great clean and the ride pleasant.

Viking bought our lunch at a great restaurant for our trouble. All I can say is the people were fantastic and attentive to our needs on and off the ship. Our room was perfect and the condition of the ship was also great. The food outstanding. We got to know our servers very well and they treated us better than family. All of the tour guides we had were great and yes we could understand them and hear them.

Our only disappointment was most of the Christmas markets did not open until after our trip was over. But that is not Vikings doing. We are already planning another trip with Viking from Paris to Normandy in November 2016.