The itinerary appealed and I wanted to see what others found special about Viking. It was nice but no better than others that are far less expensive. The ship was pleasant, and the food was good. There was not enough space for clothing in our deluxe veranda cabin. The entertainment was lacking and mostly consisted of the same group of vocalists every night. Daytime programming was practically nonexistent. The included shore excursions were limited in scope and variety, and were scheduled to preclude participation at all if more interesting excursions were purchased. There was far too much “free time” on excursions, which translates to being unexpectedly abandoned in a foreign city without even a map. There was such poor advance communication on what to expect that it was impossible to know how to prepare. Example: the full day excursion to Rome was described as a motor coach tour but we were taken to St. Peter’s square and left for five hours. We were not even informed of the existence of hop on-hop off buses but were simply pointed in the general direction of taxi stands some blocks away. I might try a river cruise with Viking but will probably use a different line for our next ocean cruise.