The crew was awesome and provided exceptional professional service. The tour director scheduled and supervised exceptional day trips that provided an introductory experience to Germany, France, Norway, and Switzerland on a very abbreviated schedule (10-days). The cruising experience afforded us the opportunity experience a comprehensive cultural sampling of all the visited countries and helped us to understand and appreciate what areas we would like to return to on a future date to experience the culture in more detail. The cruising experience was very "family like" allowing us to make many new friends from all areas of the United States. Destination focused cuisine was expertly prepare and provided a sampling of the area we were currently visiting. American classics were also available if we were "homesick" for a more customary fare. Evening entertainment was exceptional, by cruise completion we were in need of a follow-on vacation to relax. For us this cruise was not relaxing as we wanted to experience everything the cruise had to offer. That said many of the more senior passengers opted for a more leisurely schedule which was perfectly coordinated and executed by the Viking staff. Extensions and flexibility in scheduling to both the "front-end" and "back-end" of the cruise offered "cruisers" to experience either Amsterdam or Basel (we went to Lake Lucerne for 10-days at the onset) in more detail.