We chose this cruise for the itinerary and reputation of the cruise line. Once we landed in Rome everything was flawless. However, dealing with Viking in the U.S. was very frustrating. We had originally booked a cruise to Cuba and cancelled it after they made several port changes. We wanted to use the "cancel for any reason" Viking insurance to cover some of the cost of this trip. It took 4 months to get the voucher approved, submitted and our money refunded, only after my agent did a manual override. The insurance is expensive and worthless. We were also given no information about the post cruise as it wasn't available so we booked our own tour in Barcelona. We were told in the U.S. that the shore team would transport our luggage to the hotel so we could go on our excursion. NOT TRUE! Once onboard we were given no help with this and told we would need to arrange for and pay to have our bags shipped once we docked and get ourselves to Barcelona. Since we paid for transfers and were told stateside it wouldn't be a problem that hardly seemed fair and not consistent with their image of customer service. Finally, Viking Air....it is very hit and miss. Our airlines changed our connecting flights and I had to fight with Viking to arrange another way to fly since it was clear I would miss our connection. When we finally got the flights arranged and I checked a day before we were to leave our seats had disappeared on one portion of the flight. I finally called the airlines myself to fix it. Some of the Viking Air people are helpful and others misinformed and indifferent. Again, it was the most amazing cruise ever (room, service, food, ports, embarkation), and the ship experience was flawless. Regarding the whole arrangement experience I have had much better and less stressful experiences on Holland America and Carnival.