Viking Jarl Review

4.0 / 5.0
173 reviews

Viking River Cruises - They Just Don't Care

Review for Europe River Cruise on Viking Jarl
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vectorfunction15
First Time Cruiser • Age 60s

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Sail Date: Sep 2016

Let me begin with my overall feeling about Viking, in case you do not read through the entire review: I will never go near Viking again. We did not get anywhere near value for our money; plus, the company has a real attitude about dealing with issues (they are very nice during the sales process). We decided on this trip very last minute and were “lucky” to get our cabin, due to a cancellation, so our research ahead of time was limited. We discovered, after the fact, that there are plenty of other choices and have heard some very good things regarding other brands.

We had put off taking a cruise for fear of seasickness and thought that a river cruise would be calmer and a good way to "get our sea legs." We were right. The cruise (what there was of it) was calm. However, the long river boats (similar for all brands) are much smaller than ocean cruise ships, so if you are looking for all the bells and whistles of an ocean cruiser, such as a swimming pool, these much smaller boats may not be for you.

The issues: We had to switch ships midstream and a lot of our time was spent on buses, getting from one port to another, rather than on the boat. We were told that there were dry river issues and various lock problems, which required us to switch ships. However, we found out that was not the case. A Viking crew member told me that the midstream change had nothing to do with river conditions – it had to do with logistics only. Viking needed to reshuffle the positioning of their fleet of river boats. In fact, we met a couple from another Viking ship that was traveling the same route during the same period of time who told us that they did not have to switch.

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