My sister and her husband had taken a couple of River Cruises and loved them. I didn't take our differences into account when deciding on what side trips to sign up for; she likes to shop and I don't. That set me up for some disappointments. We also had motor trouble which lowered how much time we spent in ports and we spent more time on buses getting to ports and catching up with the boat which chugged on ahead. Also the top deck was closed for a significant part of the trip because of the low bridges which we didn't expect. That meant we lost the view and space for the travelers to spread out for too much of the trip . So our high expectations were not quite met.

Taking that into account, the staff overall was great. The food was good-don't expect a 5 star restaurant, maybe a 3+ . We really enjoyed the towns, the tour guides in the cities , the city tours and got a good overview of the territory we traveled through.

We did the extended stay at both Budapest and Amsterdam which enriched those cities. Unfortunately my husband sustained a severe injury in Amsterdam the night before we returned. The Viking Staff in the hotel was a life saver, arranging for Vikings staff who was waiting for us at the airport, taking us through the levels of security and having the airport staff lined up to help us get to the airplane. I can't imagine doing that without their help. They were excellent!