We had wanted to take a river cruise for a long time. After talking with friends about their experience on Viking, we decided to take one. We were not disappointed. From the meeting at the airport by Viking staff to the trip to the airport after our extended stay in Amsterdam, we were wonderfully taken care of by Viking staff. We really enjoyed the personal contact with the guides. Our on board cruise director was great. She was very informative in her knowledge of the places we went. She was very personable and knew who you were. In fact, all the staff knew the quests by name. The waiters new our choice of drinks with meals and brought them to us without even asking.The food was delicious with local dishes representing the places we visited. A representative of the cruise line was sailing on our cruise. He was very personable and had some meals with us. We also liked the pace of the cruise. Some of the shore landings were in the afternoon. That gave us time to sleep in and relax in the morning and enjoy the view of the countryside. The only two things we were a little disappointed about were (1) the brochure literature led us to believe we would be docked right in the heart of each city/town. We were not at some destinations and had to take motorcoaches in. (2) We had a veranda. At some docking, we were stacked side by side with another Viking ship obscuring our view (unless we liked looking at the side of another river boat). However, this did not preclude us from enjoying the cruise. In fact, we have booked another Viking cruise next year.