Viking Lif Review

Grand European "Bus Trip"

Review for Europe River Cruise on Viking Lif
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Jsteinb2
2-5 Cruises • Age 70s

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Sail Date: Oct 2018
Cabin: Veranda Superior

We've had done 4 European river cruises over the years - 2 with Viking and 2 with other companies and we wanted to do the 2-week Grand European River Cruise as part of a relaxing October vacation. This trip, however, turned out to be a total disaster from start to finish - anything but relaxing! Viking has yet to offer us adequate compensation for our ruined vacation. and until they make things right, I cannot recommend this once-leading company any more.

On the Grand European River Cruise, buyers need to prepared for itinerary changes, canceled side trips, ship swaps, and many segments of the trip done by bus rather than on the water. There is also high likelihood that even when you do arrive at a city by ship, you will not be docked "in the heart of the city", but out by some oil storage depot where you cannot come and go on foot but need to be bused in and out on a particular schedule. Most of the cruising is done at night when you can't see anything Two of the three Viking river cruises that we've taken have had shortened itineraries and bus trips substituted for river cruising. and the few times that we've docked in or near a city, we've been double- or triple- docked with other boats so our pricey balcony was useless. This latest "cruise" had 65% of the itinerary covered by bus, and 35% by water, and was only a thin piece of what was advertised. . .

Our troubles on this cruise began the day before we were arriving in Budapest to meet the ship. I was emailed to say that the ship wouldn't make it to Budapest due to low water, and that we'd be put up in a hotel for the first night - but the Viking management didn't know which hotel it would be - and then we would be transferred by bus up to to Vienna, skipping the river cruising. Not knowing where to go in Budapest, we stopped by the Sofitel, (which Viking had used in the past), and fortunately we found a rep there who said we should go to the Marriott. We did, but nobody there knew where the Viking people were, and we didn't see a rep until the following morning (the second day of our supposed cruise) when a bus came to pick us up. We spent day 2 of the cruise sitting a bus to Vienna, where we actually did get to board a ship. Despite assurances that our luggage would be in our stateroom when we got there, I found I was missing one critical suitcase with my medications, (which staff eventually found in another stateroom).I

Response from VikingS, Community Team

Thank you, Jsteinb2, for taking the time to share your recent Viking experience with the cruising community. We recognize that you are one of the many affected by the itinerary changes...

Cabin Review

Veranda Superior

Viking cabins are very nice,relative to some river cruise ships. I specifically wanted the upper floor balcony rooms with the thought that we would be doing some daytime cruising where I could use it. Unfortunately, most of the time we were either on a bus during the day, or cruising at night, or docked up against another ship so the veranda was pretty useless.

Port Reviews

Bamberg

Ship docked out of town, but we walked a mile or so in to town to taste Rauchbier at a brewery that we were interested in seeing. Then we joined the walking tour, which was average,

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