The trip was splendid. Two years ago, we took a marvelous Viking river cruise up the Danube that covered the eastern side of the former Yugoslavia (now Serbia & Croatia), so we chose to go down the western side (Croatia and Montenegro) when we saw that the Orion was going to make the trip. Having lived in Europe for about 10 years, and having been to Venice and Athens 3 and 4 times, we found visiting them again was splendid as we got the opportunities to observe change as well as explore other locations within those cities. We found our shore excursion guides in Split, Dubrovnik, Kotor, and especially Olympia, to be superb. The visit to Corfu, while not "awful", was not up to the standards set by the other visits.

The service by the crew was especially good, be it for the cabin, dining, activities. The "entertainment", particularly its academic side (be it astronomical or historical reviews of destinations) was first rate--not too much and not too little. We especially liked the libraries. The gym and the bars were first rate.

Viking, by holding its passenger size down to less than a thousand, has made the trips reasonable. I travel to the Caribbean islands about once a year (but not by ship) and am astounded by several vessels coming in, each carrying multiples of thousands. The same goes for visiting cities like Venice and Athens. I fear that too many people at one time may ruin a good thing. Read more